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It’s kind of a lame name, but it’s something that shows at least someone in the US Government gets the internet. The Feds announced that they have been using a version of Wikipedia since April to gather intel on threats around the globe.

This is a fantastic use of the internet and Wikipedia is a fantastic collaboration tool. It allows a permanent record (or as permanent as the admins like) of all the intelligence gathered, whether dissenting or approving. It has allowed agencies to share intel like never before in real time.

There are apparently three levels of access depending upon security clearance. The US Government wants to open it up to friendly nations as well to share intelligence with them. There are also plans to start up non-classified versions for the CDC as well as other government agencies in order to share information that could help that agency do its job.

Sometimes the Feds don’t get enough kudos for their embrace and development of technologies. This is one instance where someone saw the light and they should definitely be acknowledged for doing so.

I installed two separate browser updates on Tuesday this week. One was Firefox 2.0 and the other was Internet Explorer 7.

First, I’d like to say thank you to Microsoft for finally updating their browser. It’s been some five years since Internet Explorer 6 was released. Since Netscape went under, Microsoft has had no reason to improve the browser and saw fit not to. Who says competition doesn’t make products better?

Anyway, I installed both updates knowing that I probably wouldn’t make the switch to IE anyway. I’ve used Firefox since its beta stages and have been extremely happy with the product. It’s 1.0 release was, I guess literally, years ahead of where Internet Explorer was. The plugins (now called addons by both browsers) were a Godsend and allowed me to install anti-phishing tools as well as ad blockers.

I installed Firefox 2.0 and not really much changed. The way that tabbed browsing changed a little, but I don’t really use it all that much. The spell checker is nice, but I’ve had the Google toolbar for that. Most of my addons continue to work and I know that those that don’t will in a matter of days. Overall, a nice update, but not one that necessarily was more than a point update (i.e. 1.6 instead of jumping to 2.0).

I installed IE7 next. Wow, what a change. In the true Microsoft tradition they completely ripped off Firefox. The look is the same and a lot of the features are the same. Some I knew were coming (tabbed browsing, rss feeds) some I didn’t (addons). It changed my homepage and default search to Microsoft products rather than Google (isn’t that a spyware tactic, Microsoft?). When I tried to change them back, I couldn’t find the menu. It’s completely gone. I’ve never seen a program with no menu before (psst, it’s under the small “tools” button).

Plus, my home page brings up errors and my Adsense doesn’t pull up. Great. I spent weeks getting the design right for IE and now it doesn’t work again.

Other than that, not a whole lot to knock my socks off and certainly not enough for me to make the switch. I’m glad that IE 7 is more secure (for now) but just playing catchup isn’t going to make me switch. It might be a nice upgrade for those not using Firefox already, but I don’t believe it will be enough to get anyone to switch.