Where do you turn during this long holiday break when you’re feeling like getting the most out of your open source web browser?

Why our pal, Mr. Tech of course.

Who is Mr. Tech?

Mr. Tech is a smart programmer named Mel who is doing all sorts of things with Firefox, Mozilla, and Thunderbird, as well as offering tech news and downloads. If you are an advanced user (Don’t call us if you break your browser –Bill) and you’re looking for some fun over the weekend that doesn’t involve turkey or football, then this is the place for you!

Tell Mel Alice and Bill said hello!

A new specialty search engine called “GoFish” has just launched with the aim of finding all things musical - songs, audio books, ringtones, etc. Why pay 99 cents for a song on iTunes when you can nab it from another source for less, or by looking at all your options at once, you may find it makes sense to go the monthly fee option and try snaring songs that way.

The founders expect to license the technology to major search engines rather than blow their start-up money on marketing a standalone niche competitor, but in the meantime, it’s a fun way to see what is going on out there in the world of music.

–Read About the Technology
–See a Sample Search Result

Look, up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s U2’s Best of 1980 - 1990. Unfortunately, the group only seems to have come up with 14 really good songs according to this CD’s content, but with Amazon selling it for $11.99, that’s just $0.86 per tune. Don’t stop there. “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb” works out to $1.00 per song and “Joshua Tree” gets lobbed in at $1.09 per. Average price for 36 U2 songs - $0.98 each.

Keep in mind that this price includes:
* Initial recording and mixing
* CD authoring and duplicating
* Packaging and shipping
* Marketing and distribution
* Retail markup
* Royalty to artist

No, I’m not touting Amazon’s pricing. How much are you paying for online downloads? $0.99? $0.90? You shouldn’t be paying for the cost of CD authoring, duplicating, packaging, and shipping for a download. They represent the highest component of the overall cost. So what’s you’re discount for going online? Nothing. Although you’re being led to believe that you’re getting a bargain, you’re paying a premium for the privilege of being able to not receive “B” songs. Maybe you should stop for a minute and reconsider just what’s being done to you.

TiVo reported Monday a net loss of $26.4 million, or 33 cents per share, on revenue of $38.3 million for the third quarter ended Oct. 31. Its subscriber base has more than doubled from a year ago to about 2.3 million, but roughly 61 percent of subscribers come through satellite operator DirecTV, which is expected to offer a competing DVR soon. TiVo is also fighting an onslaught of competitors, including cable operators, who now offer digital video recorder-equipped set-top boxes of their own. TiVo officials contend that the new (ad-oriented) features they’ll be installing in the set top boxes will not be any more intrusive than the “thumbs-up” icons that already appear during some commercials and shows. But to some customers, the impending advertising changes smack of betrayal from the innovators whose hard drive-based gizmo lets TV viewers record programs, fast-forward through ads and pause at will.

TiVi made itself a hit being an off-center “Apple” of sorts. Now we get to see if it becomes rotten to the corps.

As we start the hardcore shopping season, just a reminder: This is also the hardcore rip-you-off season for scam artists online. Don’t leave your credit card numbers at shopping sites, don’t give away your password, don’t fall for e-mail requesting that you confirm or update your user info. Just be smart.

Ok, to the technically inclined (like most of you), this is old news, but just in case you haven’t downloaded the open-source and beautifully done Firefox web browser, do yourself a favor and give this one a try this Thanksgiving break. 5.6 million copies have been downloaded since the official 1.0 release last week.

Microsoft’s IE has 89% of the browser market sewn up, but here we go again folks. And here’s a major Alice and Bill round of applause to the folks who never stopped fighting the browser wars.

Alice’s Rant of the Week: Major thumbs down to my old stomping ground CNET.com. back in the day we secured the URL browsers.com and always had the latest shoot-out, and the best newcomers front and center. Today the link takes you to a beyond-watered down page from download.com with no link to even a comparison of IE vs. Firefox or a news article about what is going on today in the world of browsers and the loss of Mircrosoft’s market share. Pull in a news feed or something. What a waste.

Download Firefox 1.0

And then tell us (below): what browser do you use?

Here’s a new photo trend for you: Super-megapixel stitching together of images to create exteremely high-res digital images. We call it (you heard it here first, folks) Gigapixel-ing, and it seems the craze is taking over people with a bit of time on their hands, some great high end images, and Adobe Photoshop. This one of Disneyland was made with 150 tiles all stiched together in Photoshop.

–Gigapixel Disneyland
–View Largest 2.5 Billion Pixel Image and How-To Create Your Own