The start of the financial year has also seen the release of Firefox 3.5. Just like the 1.5 release all those years ago, this x.5 release sees a few relatively minor additions and improvements to the trusty fox.

Other than general speed increases, the main new features of the browser are a 'Private Browsing' mode similar to those already implemented in IE and Chrome, as well as tab 'tearing' similar to the behaviour in Chrome.

So all in all it is a solid step forward and keeps pace with the good new features that have made their way into the other big browsers. I seem to have survived the usual extension/add-on delayed update merry-go-round this time: all the main extensions I use have at the very least 'developmental' releases that seem fairly stable with the new version.

The one feature that didn't make this version that is present in Chrome is the 'sandboxing' of each tab in a separate process (so that a single tab crash won't bring down the whole browser etc). A Chrome-esque tab task-manager would also be pretty cool.

Firefox 3.5 overall is a solid step forward without being too revolutionary. Also one thing that has happened since 3.0 was released, is the very cool Firefox Personas. It's sort of a cool way to skin the browser without totally changing the theme too (which suits me perfectly). I have got the very cool 'Firefox B' persona on my browser (pictured).

Last night we went and saw Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and it was utterly and totally pure awesomeness.

After such a great entrance that was the previous Tranformers movie, I had long been sceptical about this sequel. As mentioned in that previous blog entry, so many times sequels of awesome first-time movies haven't gone right: in recent history I have previously voiced my opinions on X-Men 3, and more pointedly the horrendous 2nd and 3rd Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

The major failings of the latters were taken themselves way too seriously, having an average plot stretched out over an almost 3 hour movie (twice), but more importantly taking most of the fun and humour out of the movies and the characters, all of which made the first movie so damn good.

It was so wonderfully relieving to see that they missed all those traps with this Transformers sequel. This is a sequel done right for a change, and I can almost guarantee that if you loved the first movie, you will love this one too.

If you liked the humour there is more of it; if you liked the robots there are more of them; if you liked Megan Fox there is more of her; if you liked explosions and action, is a crapload more of that. This movie took what was great about the original, kept it, built on it, and took it to another level. If you're expecting character development, romance scenes and a strong message you're going to be disappointed. This movie is unashamedly action plus humour plus action to the power of explosions times a billion.

Don't get me wrong, it isn't perfect, the only minor negative points i could pick out: the length is a tad long at 147 minutes (but I can't say that it stagnated at all), the Mudflap and Skids characters are annoying at times, and the plot itself was just above average, but that is soon forgotten with all the awesome sequences and scenes in the movie.

I'll definitely be seeing this again at the movies, robot testicles and all.

(you'll have to watch the movie to see what I mean there... ).

Things have just been tumbling along lately. Either i've gotten lazy in my blogging or nothing much has happened. In truth, it's probably a bit of both.

It's hard to believe we're almost half-way through this year. In some of the end-of-financial-year sales i've picked up a few things. I got Madworld on the Wii for a very awesome $40. Quite a bargain that one. The game itself is pretty good, but not totally great.

The really graphic violence and the Sin City-esque styling is well balanced, and i'm actually a little surprised that they got it passed the classification board for a MA15+ rating (imo, this is one game that would have definitely been classified R18+ were that rating available).

Again, kudos must go to Sega for releasing some adult-focused games on the Wii that are actually half decent (see House of the Dead: Overkill from a few months back).

Another thing i've gotten recently, is that I imported a PlayTV for the PS3. It basically turns the PS3 into a PVR for a cheap price, and I imported it from the UK because goodness-knows-why they haven't released it here.

It's a cheap and decent solution for a PVR if you have a PS3 and don't want to spend much on buying a separate standalone PVR. As it's an imported product and not really designed for Australia, It does have it's flaws (nearly all of which are software related, and thus fixable): it can't tune SBS, and ABCHD is a bit dodgy on it. The Whirlpool wiki page on it is an awesome source of information for Australians using/importing it. Here's hoping that once it is released down here that a simple software update will solve most of the current issues with it.

The weather in Brisbane has been fantasticly gloriously cold. No, i'm not being sarcastic, I really actually do enjoy the cold as much as I hate and loath the heat. Temperatures in Brisbane have been going as low as 5 degrees in the past few days (I can here many nothern-hemisphere people laughing "yeah right that's cold?"), but for Brisbane that's almost as cold as it gets here, and I for one am grateful for it.

Anywho, enough talk of the weather. Friday night we saw Terminator: Salvation, and despite low expectations, I thought it was pretty good. Although it was good, i would say it's definitely not great. It was a very dark Terminator movie, almost totally devoid of brief comedic moments that peppered the last two Terminator movies.

I did feel kind of jipped that one of the big plot-twists of the movie (Sam Worthington's character being part-machine) was spoilt months previously by some over-exposing trailers. I was annoyed by that, as it wasn't revealed until half-way through the movie, so it killed part of the story for me. That and half of the plot and time-travel stuff doesn't make sense or logic, but you'd be crazy to try and analyse these kinds of movies for it anyway.

I really don't like Christian Bale, but I really can't imagine who else they could have cast in this movie in the John Connor role. He used his 'Batman' voice a little too much for my liking . Plus this is really funny.

Moving on, yesterday was the next chapter in the 'having no hair' saga: as alluded to in the entry from a while back when I first had it mostly cut off, there was always going to be a lot more maintenance of the short cut.

There was no way that I would be going to the hairdressers every few weeks to get it trimmed, so this week we bought some home hair-clippers, and today was our first run cutting it ourselves.

Des and Mum did a good job (#2 all over) despite me being an irritating customer. I'm confident that with a little practice i'll have some nice tracks and a cool rattail. Just kidding...

Ain't public holidays grand? Here we are on a Sunday night at almost midnight, and I can actually type out a blog entry instead of having to prepare for work tomorrow. Cheers Lizzy, and happy birthday!

Today we did something out of the ordinary. I'm not sure where I got the idea from, but today we went to the Brisbane Planetarium and saw a show, Passport to the Universe, narrated by Tom Hanks.

I'm a big 'space' fan, and I can't believe that I hadn't done this until now. Last time I was at the Planetarium would have to have been for a school excursion. Anywho, I've always been meaning to get a good telescope, but driving for hours to escape the lights of the city to actually see the stars has always turned me off.

Other news today also saw Australia qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which is awesome. It was a lot less difficult and tense qualification now that we're part of the Asian football Confederation, but still deserved nonetheless.