May 12, 2008 (Computerworld) Mozilla Corp. announced that it has stopped making changes to the first release candidate of Firefox 3.0 and is working to get that build to users by the end of the month.
“We are code complete for Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1 (RC1),” said Mike Schroepfer, Mozilla’s vice president of engineering, in a post to the company’s development blog on Saturday. “If all goes well we should have the Release Candidate publicly available in late May.”
The release candidate — typically the last stage before software goes final — will be pushed to more than 1.2 million users when it launches, Schroepfer said.
It’s possible that RC1 will be the one and only release candidate. “The QA cycle for RC1 is more extensive than the betas since this may be our last milestone,” Schroepfer said in a message posted to the Mozilla.dev.planning message forum. However, if serious bugs are uncovered, “we will continue to release new Release Candidates until we are ready for final ship,” he added.
Mozilla developers quashed several bugs starting Friday morning to make the Saturday “code freeze” deadline, according to the Mozilla.dev.planning forum. Among the fixed flaws was a regression bug that made Firefox 3.0 incorrectly convert characters when loading URLs.
Mozilla issued three release candidates in the run-up to the final code of Firefox 2.0 in 2006; as recently as late March, Schroepfer said that he expected Firefox 3.0 to follow that same pattern.
The open-source developer last updated its under-construction Firefox 3.0 nearly six weeks ago, when it released Beta 5 to testers. Days before that, Schroepfer said Mozilla was shooting for an early-May RC1 but warned that that target might slip. “The release candidates will move a little slower than beta,” he said in late March, because of the need to account for more public feedback than with during earlier builds.

computerworld.com

Letters, All TV gets letters, and this week we have letters about the maybe not-so-inevitable winner of “American Idol,” literary parallels for “New Amsterdam” and more.
The kid stays in the picture
Dear Alan: Who would have thought that David Archuleta could have forgotten the lyrics and blown a Lennon/McCartney song after he had done such a great job on “Imagine”? Forgetting the lyrics is just one disastrous step short of the recurrence of the vocal cord paralysis you referenced. It’s a whole new ball game. There are now at least five potential winners. Makes for a more exciting season now.
Perhaps the producers came up with a Machiavellian strategy that you had not considered for your article: have David screw up so badly that he lets the others back into the contest, thus enhancing the quality of the contest and therefore viewership for the next 11 weeks.
-Peter Behrle, Little Falls
Alan says: Yours was one of the kinder letters I received the morning after Archuleta muffed the lyrics (three different times) during last week’s “We Can Work It Out” fiasco, shortly after the publishing of my article declaring him the presumptive winner. Most were in a more taunting vein: “Your prediction was about 24 hours too early,” “your story made you look very foolish for proclaiming his greatness,” etc.
And yet Archuleta didn’t make the bottom three for that catastrophe, and if we put any stock at all into DialIdol.com (admittedly, an iffy proposition), then he was still the top vote-getter by a huge margin. And Tuesday night, we got the predictable “David Archuleta is back! We got a hot one tonight!” moment when he did a note-perfect “The Long and Winding Road.”
The wisest thing ever said about “American Idol,” on “American Idol,” was guest mentor Peter Noone’s line last year about how the show isn’t a singing competition; it’s a voting competition. And Archuleta’s fanbase is so large and rabid that everyone else is competing for second, like it or not. I could contort myself into imagining a scenario where a Brooke White or David Cook lucks their way into a win, but it would take six or seven “We Can Work It Out”-level disasters in a row to discourage Archuleta’s fans from voting.

blog.nj.com

Hello, people. Korbi here to muse on genius…
The Wire: The critically acclaimed, passionately praised series went out relatively quietly last night, tying up loose ends without gimmicks or gratuitous drama. Instead the fifth and final season wound down with integrity and the quality storytelling that has made it so beloved by its ardent fans.
I came to the show rather late in the game and suspect that many of you are still yet to discover it. If so, get the DVDs. If you’re looking to watch the sort of television that changes your perspective on the world around you and opens your mind, The Wire is definitely worth your time and commitment.
Saturday Night Live: As much as I adore Project Runway winner Christian Siriano, Amy Poehler as Project Runway winner Christian Siriano is even better. Brilliant, woman. My God, you’re simply brilliant.
MONDAY QUICK PICK
October Road: The two-hour season finale raises many questions. Please watch tonight, my friends, ‘cause if you don’t, we may never learn if Nick is Sam’s daddy. 9 p.m., ABC
Also Worth Watching…
The Bachelor: Where Are They Now? …because you’re totally dying to get the updates, don’t lie. 8 p.m., ABC
Kyle XY …because Ally Sheedy’s back. 8 p.m., ABC Family
In Treatment …because it’s crazy Laura’s night. 9:30 p.m., HBO
Medium …because Allison’s mother-in-law is in town. 10 p.m., NBC

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(NaturalNews) This is an excerpt from Dr. Doug Graham’s interview for the Raw Summit, a complete interview encyclopedia of cutting edge living and raw food knowledge. You can find the complete transcripts and audios at (http://www.RawSummitArchives.com) and (www.RawSummitArchives.com) . In this excerpt, Dr. Doug Graham gives his take on empty calories and why we shouldn’t take supplements.
Raw Food World Summit Interview Excerpt with Dr. Doug Graham, creator of the 80-10-10 Diet
Kevin Gianni: Do you believe that all calories are the same? I hear a lot of people say that, “yes they are” and then I hear a lot of them say, “no they aren’t”?
Doug Graham: Well, this is a matter of perspective. It depends on the perspective you use. Certainly, carbohydrates are carbohydrates are carbohydrates and fats are fats are fats, if all we’re looking at is the carbohydrates themselves. But if we are looking at the source and we’re looking at the companion nutrient, then we start to see a big issue because it requires nutrients to utilize calories. And if we look at empty calories versus, of course, we don’t have a word for it, this word has to be created but if the opposite of empty is full, then we have empty calories and we have full calories and we have a complete continuum of everything in between. This gets into some scary information, though, that I’m not sure you want to hear. We’ve been trained to think of empty calories as being specific kinds of calories from specific kinds of food either white flour or white sugar.

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These movies open Friday unless noted.
The Band's Visit In this comedy-
drama, members of an Egyptian police band who are in Israel to play at a ceremony find themselves lost in a small desert town. English, Arabic and Hebrew with subtitles.
Be Kind Rewind A junkyard worker (Jack Black) inadvertently destroys the videos in his friend's (Mos Def) store - so they start remaking the movies, with themselves as the stars. Directed by Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind).
Charlie Bartlett Comedy about a rich kid (Anton Yelchin) who tries to gain popularity at his new high school by becoming its unofficial psychiatrist and supplier of prescription drugs.
The Signal This horror film about a mysterious transmission that turns people into killers is shown in three parts, each with a different director.
Taxi to the Dark Side The use of torture as part of the Bush administration's war on terror is the focus of this documentary, which zeroes in on the 2002 death of an Afghan taxi driver.
Vantage Point An attempted assassination of the president is told from five perspectives. Starring Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, William Hurt, Forest Whitaker and Sigourney Weaver.
Witless Protection A small-town sheriff and crooked FBI agents battle over a witness in a federal case in this comedy starring Larry the Cable Guy and Jenny McCarthy.
Reviewed by critics Carrie Rickey (C.R.), Steven Rea (S.R.) and Tirdad Derakhshani (T.D.). W.S. denotes a wire-service review.
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days Winner of the grand prize at Cannes 2007, this haunting story set in Communist-era Romania follows a young pregnant woman securing an illegal abortion, and the lengths her friend must go to help. Not exactly a "fun" moviegoing experience, but one with images - and a performance by Anamaria Marinca - that might stay with you forever. 1 hr. 53 No MPAA rating (sexual violence, profanity, nudity, adult themes) - S.R.
Persepolis Marjane Satrapi's brilliant adaptation (with Vincent Paronnaud) of her graphic-novel memoir to animated film. Recounting her childhood and youth in Iran from the fall of the shah to the rise of the mullahs, Satrapi creates a universal coming-of-age story that's as unique as a fingerprint. 1 hr. 35 PG-13 (mature themes, war sequences, profanity, marijuana use) - C.R.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Julian Schnabel's impish and pitiless profile of Jean-Dominique Bauby, a Parisian rake who suffers a massive stroke that leaves him almost completely paralyzed. In French with English subtitles. 1 hr. 52 PG-13 (nudity, sexual content, profanity) - C.R.
Enchanted Supercalifragilistic. Amy Adams is a delight as the cartoon princess from Andalasia who falls down a well, climbs up a sewer and finds herself - a real live woman now - smack in the middle of Times Square, searching for true love's kiss. With Patrick Dempsey and James Marsden. 1 hr. 47 PG (innuendo, mild cartoon violence) - C.R.
Juno A 16-year-old girl (sensational Ellen Page) has an unplanned pregnancy and plans to give up the baby for adoption. Improbably endearing comedy about a decidedly unfunny situation. 1 hr. 31 PG-13 (sexual candor, procreative candor, mild profanity) - C.R.
The Kite Runner Moving adaptation of Khaled Hosseini's best-seller about the intertwined lives of Afghan boys whose friendship and lives are forever altered one day before Soviet tanks, and then Taliban fundamentalists, roll into Kabul. 2 hrs. 02 PG-13 (mature themes, sexual violence) - C.R.
Michael Clayton First-rate thriller about a second-rate guy. George Clooney gives a sterling performance as the morally tarnished title character, a fixer at a law firm where everything is coming apart. 2 hrs. R (profanity, sexual candor) - C.R.
No Country for Old Men The Coen brothers' taut, terrific adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel about a psycho killer, a Vietnam vet, a Lone Star sheriff, and the bag of money that brings them together in the stark borderlands of 1980 West Texas. With Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, and Javier Bardem. 2 hrs. 02 R (violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.
The Savages The superb Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman costar in Tamara Jenkins' mordant and poignant portrait of siblings caring for the ailing parent (Philip Bosco) who abandoned them in childhood. 1 hr. 53 R (profanity, sexual candor) - C.R.
There Will Be Blood Paul Thomas Anderson steers Daniel Day-Lewis through 30 years in the life of a prospector turned petro king in this turn-of-the-(20th)-century epic about obsession, greed, folly and madness. Day-Lewis delivers a performance that's astounding. 2 hrs. 38 R (violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.
Fool's Gold *1/2 Perennially shirtless Matthew McConaughey and untypically mirthless Kate Hudson as a couple whose marriage is in the doldrums and who get back on course when he finds traces of a long-buried treasure. 1 hr. 53 PG-13 (crude humor, action violence, discreet nudity, sexual candor) - C.R.
Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert **1/2 Singing sensation Miley Cyrus performs as herself and as Hannah Montana during her 2007 tour. Presented in 3D. 1 hr. 14 G - W.S.
Jumper ** Fast is a good quality in an action/adventure. But there is lightning-paced and then there is warp-speed, like Doug Liman's Jumper. Based on the young-adult novel about a bookish teenager who teleports his way out of conflict, Jumper isn't a shot of adrenaline, but an overdose. With Hayden Christensen and Samuel L. Jackson. PG-13 (action violence, discreet sex) - C.R.
Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins ** Martin Lawrence as a self-help guru who is helpless on the occasion of his family reunion. Labors too hard to wring too-few chuckles. With Joy Bryant, Mo'Nique and Cedric the Entertainer. 1 hr. 53 PG-13 (crude and sexual humor, drug references) - C.R.
Mr. Bailey's Minder (Walnut Independence Studio) American premiere of an Australian play about a major artist who's a self-destructive drunk and his caring daughter. Previews Tuesday and Wednesday, opens Thursday.
"Oh, for the Love of Love!" (Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium at Belle Epoch, Sixth & Bainbridge) Three absurdist valentines by Beckett, Ionesco and Durang. Opens today.
Ying Tong: A Walk with the Goons (Wilma Theatre) U.S. premiere of this look at BBC Radio's Goon Show, the 1950s precursor to Monty Python and SNL. Previews Tuesday, opens Wednesday.
6221 (University of the Arts at the Arts Bank) Thomas Gibbons' political drama about the 1985 MOVE disaster, when Philadelphia's mayor bombed a house in West Philadelphia. Through Saturday.
Affluenza (Montgomery Theatre) An old-fashioned comedy of manners set in the present day, as a young wife threatens the heirs of a multimillionaire.
Baby (Villanova University) A musical about three couples having babies. Through next Sunday.
Black Gold (InterAct at the Adrienne) Artistic director Seth Rozin wrote and directed this cautionary tale about a black man in Detroit who finds oil in his backyard. There will definitely be blood. Through next Sunday. - W.R.
A Body of Water (Act II Playhouse) Fine acting enhances this production of Lee Blessing's mysterious, disorienting play about memory, its loss, and attempts to reconstruct the past from unreliable sources. Ends today. - H.S.
Crispin: The Cross of Lead (People's Light & Theatre) A new adaptation of the Newbery-winning novel about a boy exiled during the post-Black Plague Middle Ages is an interesting production. Through next Sunday. - W.R.
Ethel Waters: His Eye Is on the Sparrow (Hedgerow) Demetria Joyce Bailey is a tour de force in this one-woman bio musical, radiant on Hedgerow's stage. Extended through March 1. - H.S.
The Glass Menagerie (People's Light & Theatre) Laura will blow out her candles again in Tennessee Williams' memory play.Through March 22.
Grace (Luna Theatre at Walnut 5) Craig Wright's disturbing play is both murder mystery and theological debate. Theatre's gripping production features three terrific performances. Through Saturday. - T.Z.
Lend Me a Tenor (New Candlelight Theatre) Candlelight's first nonmusical is a raucously funny, whiz-bang telling of Ken Ludwig's farce.Through March 1. - H.S.
M. Butterfly (Philadelphia Theatre Company) David Henry Hwang's brilliant, complex drama is so good, it can survive this visually stunning but otherwise wobbly production. Through next Sunday. - T.Z.
The Master and Margarita (Mum Puppettheatre) Adaptation of the Russian novel by Mikhail Bulgakov. Through Saturday.
Me, Myself and I (McCarter Theatre) Tyne Daly stars in this Edward Albee premiere about identical twins locked in a bizarre struggle for identity. Ends today. - T.Z.
Memory House (Flashpoint Theatre at Adrienne) Mother and daughter drama. Through March 1.
The Price (Walnut Street Theatre) Arthur Miller's family drama premiered here in 1968. This production features Philly native Robert Prosky and sons Andy and John. Through March 2. - W.R.
Roosters (Theatre Exile at Christ Church Neighborhood House) Milcha Sanchez-Scott's drama of machismo combines cockfighting and magical realism in a too-tame but interesting production. Ends next Sunday. - T.Z.
Sara Felder's June Bride (Painted Bride) The remarkable Talmudic lesbian juggler, Sara Felder, is back in a new show (last year's was Out of Sight) about same-sex marriage. Ends today.
Skylight (Lantern Theatre at St. Stephen's Theater) Three fine actors in an intense, intimate production do justice to David Hare's play about a collision between a man and the woman who walked out on his life. Extended through March 2. - H.S.
Souvenir (Media Theatre) Florence Foster Jenkins couldn't sing a lick, but was blissfully unaware of her deficit. In this enjoyable production, featuring Ann Crumb, her story is told through the recollections of her accompanist. Ends today. - W.R.
Wittenberg (Arden Theatre) Luther, Hamlet and Faustus mix it up in 1517 Wittenberg in this world premiere that is as funny as it is clever. Through March 16. - H.S.
Lust, Caution ***1/2 Ang Lee's richly detailed espionage drama takes place in World War II Shanghai, where a Chinese collaborationist is seduced and betrayed by a young actress posing as a businessman's wife. Suspenseful and erotic, with terrific performances from Tony Leung and Tang Wei. 2 hrs. 37 NC-17 (sex, nudity, violence, adult themes) - S.R.

philly.com