Another minor upgrade to my LibraryLookup Greasemonkey script; a couple of tweaks seem to be necessary to get the script to work in Firefox 3. This fix should have it working in either version of the browser.

As usual, you can download the script here. You should delete the old version by hand before installing this one, because I’ve updated the namespace to reflect my own site instead of Jon Udell’s (finally!).

If you don’t understand what this is all about, check my earlier post on the subject. (And if you don’t live in San Francisco it probably won’t be much use to you anyway. Try a Google search for a similar script that works with libraries in your area.)

Over at PC World, my latest fun feature looks at some of the most important technologies you never think about.

Consider, for example, the humble battery. We all bemoan the fact that our portable devices don’t last long enough (or, occasionally, that they explode). But have you ever stopped to think how advances in battery technology have changed personal technology? Without modern lithium-ion batteries the iPod would hardly be possible, and your mobile phone would still look like a brick.

Among the other technologies given an airing are XML (it really is everywhere); managed code like Java and Microsoft .Net; and the mysterious world of digital signal processing, where incredibly complex mathematics gets packaged into chips to let you play your MP3s. Who knew?

Check it out and let know what you think.

Ubuntu 8.04, codenamed “Hardy Heron,” was released today. As usual, the download servers are experiencing heavy load due to high anticipation of this release. In the interest of doing my part, here are BitTorrent files for the server and desktop versions of the OS, in both the i386 and amd64 flavors.  More »

After a few technical glitches at the outset, my new InfoWorld blog is at last online. If you’re interested in the geekier aspects of computing, drop on by and take a gander at the first-ever installment of “Fatal Exception.”

Astute observers will recall that I’ve owned fatalexception.org for some time, so the choice of titles isn’t entirely a coincidence. But it also means something, which I’ve tried to explain in the first post.  More »

As you’ve no doubt noticed, even though I’m no longer an employee at InfoWorld, I still do a fair amount of work for them. Now it looks like my role there is due to expand even further. Recently I’ve been in contact with the InfoWorld editorial staff, and they’ve extended me the opportunity to launch a new blog on the InfoWorld site.

Expect a bit of a departure from my Neil on Software blog at PC World. Instead, this one will take me back to my roots, looking at news, trends, and issues for software developers, with a particular emphasis on the new generation of “Web 2.0″ technologies (hate that term).  More »

My GreaseMonkey script that links Amazon.com search results with the San Francisco Public Library catalog seems to have broken recently. I’ve now published an updated version with a couple of additional improvements. It now returns search results for all of the branches of the library, rather than just the first few; and the output is now a little nicer looking.

If you want to know more about this script and its history, you can check my earlier post on the subject.

If you just want to dive in and start searching for library books via Amazon, you can download the latest script here. (Note that you must have the GreaseMonkey extension for Firefox installed for this to work.)

InfoWorld is covering a bevvy of bizarre news stories today … I’m really not sure what to make of it all. First, two of my own recent stories were really unexpected. First, it turns out that Dell and Intel will be collaborating on a new project to compete with the OLPC. Then I found out that IBM is expanding its mainframe line with a new product specifically for IBM Global Services customers.

But that’s not all. A lot of other reporters have posted really unusual stories this morning. It’s so confounding that the InfoWorld editors have organized the more dubious items into a special report.

InfoWorld is running my write-up of the beta release next edition of Ubuntu this morning. I’ve covered desktop Linux distributions several times for a number of different publications, and it’s no secret the Ubuntu remains my favorite, though it is still rough around the edges in some important areas.

I’ve avoided criticizing this release too harshly, since it is still only in beta. More than anything, though, I was pleasantly surprised with how generally stable and functional it is, even in this prerelease form. The new installer is particularly interesting, as it allows you to install Ubuntu onto an existing Windows box without re-partitioning your drive. Click on over to InfoWorld to read my full account.

I’m thrilled with this book. Mark Evanier, onetime assistant to comics legend Jack Kirby, has written the definitive biography of the creator of such iconic characters as the Fantastic Four, Captain America, Thor, the Hulk, and the New Gods.

More than the text, however, the real treat of Kirby: King of Comics is the lavish presentation of Kirby’s art. Never before have I seen comic book art reproduced so faithfully (and if anyone deserves such treatment it surely is Kirby). In fact, when I first peeked inside the book’s covers, I literally gasped.  More »