If you're using a beta release of Firefox 3, the 4th beta version was just recently released.  I've been using the beta 3 version for a couple of weeks now and I've been fairly happy with it, aside from a few little bugs here and there.  I just noticed that the beta 4 version had been released, so I downloaded and installed it a couple of days ago.  There were two immediately noticeable differences...

First, beta 4 is blazing fast compared to beta 3.  I use iGoogle as my homepage and it loads sooo much quicker with beta 4.

Second, they added this jumbo back button, which you can see here...

This is no bueno in my book.  It causes the entire address bar to expand, wasting valueable space.  Fortunately, I looked in the customize toolbar menu, and there's a checkbox for using small icons...

Once checked, the jumbo back button reverts to a more acceptable size, like so...

So, if you haven't already, go here and download the latest beta release... 

It's true...

As of March 14th, I'll be done at kajeet.  I'll be sad to go as I have kajeet to thank for many things in my life.  As a stepping-stone in my career, they entrusted me with numerous responsibilities (sometime more than I wanted) which helped boost my confidence and abilities.  They gave me my first exposure to the start-up lifestyle, of which I'm definitely a fan.  I made a bunch of create friends while I was there, one of whom I even started and sold a company with.

Unfortunately, I need to move on.  I liked my job, but the DC Metro area is a very expensive place to live, and to top it all off, I recently found out that my wife is pregnant again.  Given this news, there's just no way that I can afford to continue living in this area.

After a bit of searching, I managed to secure a position with Near-Time in Raleigh, North Carolina.  I'm really excited about this for several reasons.  Number one, its in Raleigh (Durham actually).  I've been trying to make my way down to that area for several years now, and its finally going to happen.  Number two, its a Rails developer postion, so I'll finally be transitioning over from Java to Rails.  And number three, its another start-up.  I've come to the conclusion that I just don't fit in the typical corporate environment, and that my personality is just better suited for a start-up.

So, between moving, a new job, and a new baby, I've got a lot going on right now.  

I ran across this post last night in which the writer was commenting on my friend Brendan's text messaging plugin, sms-fu.  He evidently had a problem with the typical plugin install method, so his workaround was basically to just move Brendan's code into his app. I was a little curious about this, so I thougt I'd give it a try...

First I created a new app to test with...

$ rails -d mysql smsapp

Then I installed sms-fu...

$ script/plugin install http://sms-fu.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/sms_fu

I generated a controller, model, and view...

$ script/generate scaffold sms number:string carrier:string message:string

Then all I had to do was update the create method in the controller like this..

def create
  sms = Sms.new(params[:sms])
  deliver_sms sms.number, sms.carrier, sms.message
  respond_to do |format|
    if sms.save
      flash[:notice] = 'Sms was successfully created.'
    end
  end
end

That was pretty much all I needed, except for one more thing.  I need to actually be able to send the message, so I decided to use Gmail via the action_mailer_tls plugin that I found here on Daniel Fischer's blog.

Once I had the mail server setup, I fired up Mongrel, hit localhost:3000/sms/new, entered my info and viola!  Next thing I know my phone is beeping and my Verizon bill just got 5 cents bigger...