Just caught this raw shot (be sure to click for the bigger version) of a dust devil taken by the Spirit rover. Right now, Spirit is roving around the hills above the floor of the Gusev Crater region it landed in. I don't know the scale of the shot but it easily looks as though the dust devil's diameter could easily be over 50'. Wee!

In late April, the Mozilla browser Firefox passed the 50 million download mark. To celebrate, the folks at the Mozilla Foundation wanted to give away some commerative coins to folks that helped spread Firefox around the 'Net. With a little in-browser counter called TickerFox I earned some recognition and was promised one of the fifty coins minted for the celebration. After it was promised, nothing came. I sent a few emails back and forth with Asa and, feeling bad, he upped the generous reward to a coin, T-shirt, and hat. More time passed and nothing came through in the good ol' USPS snail mail. Thinking it was probably a carrier issue I pretty much gave up hope and didn't want to bug Asa and company for something they were giving away for free anyway.

Upon parking in front of our house after work, Sarah noticed a thick envelope stuffed in our little mailbox near the front door. We approached and, once she pulled it out, read to me the sender: Mozilla. Sure enough, someone came though and my token of recognition from the kind folks at Mozilla has arrived. Looking at the ticker, Firefox is going strong with over 82.1 million downloads. I wonder what they'll do once it hits 100 million?

Oh, and if you haven't already, dump the big, blue "e" with its spyware and security holes and step into a faster and more secure web with Firefox. It's well worth the download.

Comments (7) | To Top

8/23/2005 @ 8:35am

Wow, what a haul! Don't take the coin out of the wrapper -- it could be your retirement money if you save it long enough.

by Kathy Freitas

8/23/2005 @ 10:10pm

That is so cool. They should hire you. You could go around the world saying, "can you hear me now?" Wait, that's somebody else. Oh well, I love my Mozilla and Firefox. You'll be known as, "Mozilla Man".

by Sherry

8/23/2005 @ 10:15pm

Hey, physics works on Mars too. Amazing, looks like New Mexico to me. I've seen dust devils in Texas that stayed in the same place and dug craters.

by Sherry

8/24/2005 @ 1:36pm

Wow, now that is some elite geek shwag. I'm thinking 10 years + ebay = Private Jet with Island Vacation Home

by J.D.

8/25/2005 @ 10:11am

http://www.kevinfreitas.net/journalPicView.php?date=2004-10-28&item=01

Can you give me the original source of this? Someone is accusing me of making it digitally--they can't believe that dear Born Again Christian Georgie would ever flip anyone the bird.

by Anna

8/25/2005 @ 10:13am

Hey, remember the picture you posted back in 2004 of GW flipping the bird? Can you give me a link to its original source or tell me where it came from so I can show the moron who's accusing me of digitally altering the Born Again Christian's picture that he ACTUALLY DID IT?

by Anna

8/25/2005 @ 10:14am

Oh, Thanks. :D

by Anna