Is Firefox 3 Beta 3 out yet?

[Added a link to an interesting page from the run up to Firefox 2. - Nanci]

BetaNews has posted a link that claims to be Firefox 3 Beta 3, but the official word from Mozilla is that it is NOT out yet. The BetaNews link points to the Release Candidate for Fx3B3 but it is not the official release of the third beta.

If you see an article online that says Firefox 3 Beta 3, or any form of a Mozilla program, has been released, look for a link to the release notes. Mozilla  posts those as about the last thing before they push a new version to their mirrors. If you follow a link to a program version that hasn’t been officially released yet you may not run into a problem on your computer but it could cause problems for Mozilla because the load isn’t being shared by the proper servers.

The bottom line is to always get your Mozilla products directly from Mozilla’s servers, or at least from a reputable repository after you see the official release notice from Mozilla. Getting it from anywhere else may not cause you a problem but it could cause problems for the severs making it available. But even more than that there have been instances where users got something they weren’t looking for because someone compiled the code with material that should not be in there, like extra toolbars or even malware.

The funny thing is that this kind of things seems to happen with every release from Mozilla. Some of you will remember this page from just before Firefox 2 came out.

I specifically said from Mozilla or from reputable repositories because if an OS’s repo adds something that shouldn’t be there they will hear about it from Mozilla. Although I personally feel that if a single feature that the devs put into a Mozilla program isn’t there when you get it from a repo, like some of the updating features missing from the Ubuntu repo version of Firefox 2, they shouldn’t call it a Mozilla product. But that’s just one user’s opinion.

Firefox 3 Beta 3 is now out, as James pointed out in the comments. Thanks, James.  Watch for a full post from Peng or I in the next couple days about our thoughts of Firefox 3 Beta 3 from when we were using it from the nightly builds.

The strike is over!

various media outlets are reporting that the members of teh Writer’s Guild of America have voted to end their strike against the producer’s guild (actually the major studios) that has shut down nearly all production in Los Angeles.

The story’s still developing, but I wanted to pass along the good news.  Hopefully we’ll be able to get some of our favorite shows back on the air in the next couple months.

For more infocheck Writers vote to end 3-month strike that crippled Hollywood from the Los Angeles Times and Hollywood writers vote to lift 14-week strike from Reuters, as well as any updated stories links from those articles.

It’s ironic that just as the news was breaking one of our favorite shows is finally back on the air after making us wait too damn long to get back on teh air.

Nuts, you say?

Last year CBS had an amazing show called Jericho, but when it didn’t appear on the fall 2007 schedule the fans took a line from the show’s season finale and inundated the network with over 20 pounds of nuts, showing The Powers That Be at the network that no matter what the numbers (ratings) said, the show had fans who were not happy with the cancellation.

The network announced that they would bring the show back as a mid-season replacement for seven episodes, and the wait is almost over. Jericho comes back with first run episodes tonight at 10 PM (Eastern Time).