A New Way of Accessing the Web 

Some organizations have a reputation for writing fun software, Apple and Google come to mind.  Admit it, if you hear about a new surprise coming out of Google don’t you think your going to have fun with whatever they have thought up?  (On the other hand don’t you feel a little guilty about feeding the beast?)  Well here is a chance to have some fun while not worrying about creating the next Microsoft.  Check out the good people over at Mozilla.  While everyone knows about the Firefox browser Mozilla is actually much more then that.  In fact they have just come out with a new slant on accessing web pages with an application called Prism.  Prism actually exists as both a Firefox extension and as a stand alone application which will turn any webpage into what looks and acts like a desktop application.  While you still need to be connected to the internet, your “application” will exist in it’s own window and will look like and behave somewhat like a traditional application.  This is useful because an application can be treated in a much more flexible manner then a “browser instance” (i.e. starting your web browser and going to a particular page).  Would you like your gmail account to open in its own window when you start up?  Just create the application and tell your computer to start it up every time you boot up.  Would you like a shortcut to Yahoo?  Simply create the application and put a shortcut on your desktop or in your dock.  These are much simpler and elegant solutions then scripting or hacking a web browser to get you to the same place.  Prism is simple to use, just enter the web address in the input box, answer a few simple questions any you will be on your way.  Defiantly worth checking out.