Firefox 3

It's finally here, and it's AWESOME.

Yes, Firefox 3 has now been officially released, and you can download it here.

Let's just face it, Firefox pWns IE. And now, Firefox 3 pWns it even harder. Right after installing I could tell it was faster. I've never bought into that whole faster thing. With FF2 and IE7, I couldn't tell the difference. But with FF3... it's discernibly faster, and that is awesome :D

But yeah, aside from that, there are some cosmetic changes, and it's now rendering the "dotted" border attribute as rounded dots, rather than square dots, and that's about all I really notice at the moment.

So go download it!

CDex Icon

So, remember how I was talking about that CDex icon? This one:

I mentioned I was going to make a new one, and well, I've done just that. Take a look:

So yeah, it pretty much looks nothing like the old one. I originally had the idea to do just do a CD with "ex" in small letters in the bottom corner or something. Then I saw this icon:

designed by Simon Cook, and I thought the X in the middle was great. So I made my own CD with the X in the middle, then put the "e" on the left. It didn't quite feel finished, so I put an upside down "e" on the other side. I thought about doing "e"s all the way around, but it wouldn't have been right.

Like the K-Meleon icon, it took quite a long time. Lots of masks. Lots of different colour choices, but that orange just got into my head.

Anyway, if you want to use it, click here to download it.

Karma K-Meleon

Geez, it's been about a month since I've posted in here. I haven't had much to post about, and I hate just regurgitating other information, so blah.

But anyway, I've found a new hobby (sure to last only a few days). That hobby is creating icons.

It started when I began trying to make my own PS3 theme. I scoured the net for icons to use on the XMB, and came across some really great icons. IconArchive.com, iconBase.com, and IconsPedia.com have some great selections (though you'll find plenty of overlap).

So I d/led some icons to replace various ones on my computer, and started noticing all the ugly icons I had left that I hadn't been able to find replacements for. Well, there was only about 4 or 5 that I thought needed changing, and now there are only 2.

The first icon I made was for Google Talk. The original icon: isn't necessarily ugly, I just wanted something a little more polished. Having searched for that icon up there, it came to my attention that there are quite a few custom icons for Google Talk, but never mind. Anyway, so this is what I came up with:

Note: The pink/green background isn't there on the actual icon.

My second icon was made for K-Meleon. A little known browser running off the same gecko engine as Mozilla, Firefox, etc. I've become a bit of a browser collector lately, using Firefox, Opera, K-Meleon and (only when necessary) IE. But anyway, this was the original icon for K-Meleon: Kind of cutesy, but very pixelated, and not transparent. I went searching for custom icons on Google, but there was nothing. Anyway, it was a VERY long process, but in the end I came up with this:

Much better if I do say so myself. And again, the pink/green background isn't a part of the actual icon.

The next couple I want to replace are the icons for Audacity and CDex. There are a few custom Audacity icons around, but only one of them is any good (to me, at least), and that is this one here. If you want to use the icon, just ask him (I did) and he'll send you the png which is awesome. So here's a plug to JohnLepinski.com. He is one heck of a graphic designer.

The current CDex icon is just plain horrible: I mean it's pixelated, it's not keeping in with the current trends. It's a very Win95 icon :D There's a couple out there for it, but they're not that great either, so I'll have to see what I can come up with.

Btw, if you want that Google Talk icon, it's available here ().

Savage -Swing (remix ft. Soulja Boy)

So we've heard lots of news around the blogs about Savage doing great on the US iTunes, and that his single "Swing" would be getting remixed, and someone would be jumping on the track with him. Well, turns out it was ultimate love-to-hate/hate-to-love artist today, Soulja Boy.

Here's the track:


Personally, I never really liked the original song in the first place, and Soulja Boy's presence doesn't make it any better. In fact his little intro thing completely puts me off from the beginning. And what's this "Oh na na?"

My final word on the track is if it's making a New Zealand artist some money, then I'm all for it. So go ahead Savage, and make your money.

MTV Australia Awards

First off, just wanted to say that the GTA: IV available in NZ is NOT the unedited version, it is infact the Aussie version. Stupid Take Two submitted the Aussie version to be classified. So it's not the NZ censor's fault, it's bloody Rockstar!

But anyway, the awards.

Absolutely horrible. We'll start with the beginning. That is Mischa Barton introducing the show and the host... "Wyclef Gene." [sic] From that moment on, it was destined to failure. Next came Wyclef's failed attempts at trying to connect with the Aussie audience. Then awards, and failed humor, performances, and more awards and everything all over again until it finished.

Highlights of the night:

• Scribe - It was pretty obvious Scribe would win, hell he was sitting right there with Sir-Vere. But the best part was his drunken speech. F***ing o-sum!
• The voiceover dude from Mythbusters - You know that voice that would come out of no where to announce a performer or a presenter? That's the dude that does the voiceovers on Mythbusters! The narrator. Robert Lee.
• Juliette Lewis and the Licks performance - No, I didn't put this as a highlight because it was great. It was okay... up until the extended, full-band drum solo, or whatever it was. I had to change the channel, then change back, then change away, and then back, many times. Finally it seemed over, until Juliette proclaimed that we thought we knew her. Then the madness went on for about another minute or so. So satisfyingly horrific, I wouldn't be surprised to find it on Youtube one day soon.
• Potbelleez performance - The only performance that seemed to really connect with the whole crowd.
• Swearing - 'Nuff said.
  

Lowlights of the night:

• The Veronicas having their mic's turned off - At the beginning of the performance, they had their mics turned on, but their voices kept on being drowned out, so the directors or whatever decided to turn down their mics and turn up the pre-recorded vocals. And the tell tale sign was when they came together and walked to the front of the stage. They were saying things in the mic, but nothing was coming out :D
• Wyclef hosting - Dude's a great performer, song writer, all that. I'll give him props. But dude can't host awards shows. Get someone who knows what they're doing.
  
• The whole freaking concept! - Sports, acting, and karma awards, etc.? What the hell happened to best R&B/Hip Hop? Best Rock? Album of the Year? Way to go MTV Australia, you devalued all of your artists by not giving them something to go up against, just themselves. And you devalued the NZ artists. You completely fail at awards.

It had it's moments, but mostly it was just a study into the depths of mediocrity. Let's hope next year they get their act together and do a proper awards ceremony.