When I wrote about Mozilla’s Prism project a while ago, I was very excited for the possibility of bring web applications to the desktop. Since then, a new project called Fluid has popped up. It’s the same ideas as Prism, however is Mac only.

Fluid is a small application that is used to create stand alone applications for web apps. Think of going into your applications folder and seeing Facebook or MySpace. In the end, they are individual web browsers that are created specifically for one website.

Ever since I upgraded to Leopard, my Safari has had an odd font issue. I ignored it for a while and even once thought it was coded that way on websites. Now I’m just getting more annoyed.

Check out the screen shot I took from wordpress.org. >

See how bold words are showing up in a weird font? I checked my appearance settings in Safari’s preferences and that looks OK. I’ve also used OnyX to run all maintenance scripts and that didn’t help either.

Have you checked out Mozilla’s Prism project yet? It’s pretty sweet.

Prism is basically a version of Firefox with no address bar, no icons, no bookmarks, nothing. It’s just a browser that loads one pre-defined bookmark at a time. It sounds a little weird, but it’s really useful.

When you start up Prism, it asks you for a URL, a name, a few options and where you want to save your shortcut. Then, when you open the shortcut, it loads the website in the Prism browser and you get a clutter free, simple, web application that runs off the power of Firefox.

Firefox 3 Beta 1 is out and there are a few nice new features. I took a few minutes and played around with it and here are my findings.

The Install DMG still doesn’t include an alias to the Mac Applications folder. Come on Mozilla, get this one working please.

Once installed, the new Mac theme doesn’t take effect. You actually have to go download it. But once installed, it looks very nice. (Not sure about the Windows one.)

Bookmarks are integrated better. Simply star a page and it’s added, click the star again to rename it, add tags, put it in a folder or delete it.

It seems that almost every Google search shows Wikipedia in the top ten. Wikipedia is the best result for almost everything according to Google. Well now Apple’s jumped on the Wikipedia bandwagon too.

In the latest version of MacOSX, Wikipedia has it’s own tab in the dictionary. It’ll connect up to the internet and do your Wikipedia search for you.

I kind of have mixed feelings on this. Wikipedia is a good source for information, but is it really worthy of beign added into the OS? We never added any other type of encyclopedia service in the past. On the other hand, Wikipedia is very nice for researching topics. They seem to have all the facts and a good community driven site. So I guess it’s not a bad thing.

After reading Hawk Wings Five favourite time-saving Leopard Tips, I decided to write my own six cool Leopard items. These are small features, but nice none the less.

Smarter Renaming of Files

When changing a file name in Leopard, the OS selects just the file name and not the extension. Vary handy for those that want to keep the extension intact.

Spotlight Selects The Top Hit

In 10.4 Spotlight would suggest search results and then default to Show All. In 10.5, Spotlight by default selects the Top Hit. This is a very welcome feature and, with the new Spotlight search speed, I haven’t had to launch Quicksilver.

To my surprise today, I filled up my hard drive. I had less than 500MB left! Shocked, I quickly tried to find out why as it didn’t make any sense. Then I saw it. After installing Mac OS 10.5 Leopard, via an archive and install, it seems he left behind a ‘Previous Systems’ folder. That folder alone takes up over 4 gigs worth of space on my iMac!!

I tried burning it to a DVD and it yelled at me as I didn’t have enough permissions for some files. So I tried to compress it and again I was yelled at for not enough permissions. Umm… Apple, I own the computer and OS. How am I not allowed access?

I’m a big fan of open source, or alternative, software. I’m not a fan of paying hundreds of dollars for an application. Needless to say I’m not a big fan of Microsoft or Adobe.

So what’s a good open source graphic design application? I’ve tried a lot of programs and now I’m looking at GIMP. GIMP is the free alternative to Photoshop. But how well does it work?

A friend said that it’s hard to convert from Photoshop to GIMP. Since I’m a Fireworks fan, I guess I don’t have to worry about that one.

I stood in line last night like a good Apple geek to get Mac OSX 10.5 Leopard and a free t-shirt! I installed it this morning and it’s running great. I did the archive and install option and it’s all wonderful.

I love the new dock and the rounded corners on the menus. Small things I know, but Apple is known for the small details.

Safari 3 also rocks along with the folder quick view and stacks. I have a lot more features to go check out so I’m going to go play.

What’s the best way to convert a Windows user to a Mac? Give them something they are familiar with. With Mac OS 10.5, aka Leopard, Apple integrates the iTunes interface, that both Mac and Windows users are use to, into the Finder.

First off there is Coverflow, the handy little application that Apple bought from a Mac developer. It really showcases album artwork in iTunes and now does the same thing for documents and images in the Finder.

Second is the sidebar. With the same look and feel and functionality as iTunes, the Finder now replicates iTunes’ sidebar.