I tried out the new Google Video Player. Nothing special, except for the uncommonly bad (pixelated) video. Wow, I was definitely not impressed.

We also uploaded some video to Google Video, and on our uploaded video (the source was a high quality WMV video, 640x480), Google Video actually downsized it and converted it into two different formats (GVP, the proprietary Google Video format), and to MP4 for Video iPods. At first, we thought - sweet!, but then we saw the quality degradation and the horrendous size differences.

The original WMV was only 19 MB, but the lower-quality MP4 was 45 MB! Ouch. The GVP doesn't actually let you download it, it only places a shortcut on your system then streams it when opened. In either case, however, the quality was pretty poor. Lame. Two thumbs down for Google Video.

Two minor, yet commonplace, annoyances I've found with Firefox (1.5):

1. The "End" button on the keyboard doesn't work like it should (in IE it takes you to the bottom of the page). UPDATE: it works on some computers, but not on others - on FF 1.5 at home it works just fine, but on FF 1.5 at work, it doesn't. Lame.
   
   
2. You can unfortunately have two things highlighted at the same time in Firefox. Thus, when you hit 'Ctrl+C', which one are you actually copying? See screenshot:

Today was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 250th birthday anniversary. Good stuff.

I finished listening to "Star Wars: Jedi Search" on abridged audiobook today, courtesy of the Caldwell Public Library. Very entertaining. It's fun to get the 'rest of the story'. (This book is about how Luke Skywalker starts to rebuild the Jedi Knight order.)