I have been using the Firefox 4 versions since it release and noticed quiet a few improvement to both performance and design. The one major issue I had were few crashes where the browser disappeared completely from Windows task bar. I didn’t notice the issue in most cases and I thought that I have closed the Window with it collection of tabs accidentally. Turns out, after minimizing the window, Firefox could crash in some cases. If you are not keeping “tabs” on your open windows, you could easily miss it. Since it doesn’t happen very often and I could easily get the sites/pages I was on, it was mainly an annoyance.

Beta 7 update was the big bummer for me. The Status Bar has disappeared from the it usually location (bottom of the window), where major browsers have it, and moved to elbow the address bar, here.

There are a few problems with this approach:

- Security. There are more bobby trapped websites with malicious content or copycat of genuine website that will easily benefit from the user not knowing what links are clicking on.
- Average user will not notice the change and some of them will end up living “without” status bar, reducing the effort of security awareness many are trying to convey.
- For those who have noticed the change: on long URLs, you either don’t see the full site address where you are going, or you loose track of what page/URL you are in before moving.

There are already scores of complains regarding this specific change on Firefox feedback page.

For now, there are a few add-ons that will plug this critical visibility feature, although I try to avoid as many as possible.

Fingers crossed for Beta 8. For now, I’m going back to Firefox 3.6 – the latest stable version.

I was trying to find directions and distance from a street in Folkestone to Eurotunnel when I realized that I have to cross the channel halfway to catch it.

Click to enlarge

Based on Google Maps, it takes 50mins to get from a street to Folkestone to Eurotunnel based on the same city. First, you will need to drive to Dover (to get Eurotunnel in Folkestone?!!), then get the ferry from Eastern Docks. Once halfway through the tunnel, get off at a place called “Boulougne-sur-Mer” which means Boulougne on sea, which is not on the sea, but around 22miles south from Calais.

If one survives the strip, I reckon it will take all day to do it!

The moral of this story is; don’t always trust Google Maps or your GPS navigation device, no matter how good manufactures claims they are. Go back to good old maps from time to time.

How to Reproduce:

Go to google maps and type:
Source: St. Michaels Street, Folkestone, Kent CT20, UK
Destination: Eurotunnel, Folkestone, UK