This article at “Sign on San Diego” talks about the inevitable retirement of the iconic F-14 Tomcat fighter jet. In hindsight, the glamour-shots of the Tomcats were the only thing that made Top Gun watchable (I remember thinking this movie was awesome when I was younger). The official retirement is set to take place on September 22nd.

With Firefox 2.0 just around the corner, I thought it would be worthwhile to share some advanced Firefox tweaking tips.

My friend Jay (who writes a blog called Riposte, if you’re interested in sandwiches or New York City) made the switch from Internet Explorer after hearing me gab about Firefox and how much I like it. Being an unwitting Firefox evangelist, there’s somehow an unspoken understanding between the two of us where it’s my responsibility that his browsing experience be as comfortable as possible. So far this has been mostly limited to trading extensions and tips that are doable from the preferences menu. The huge and ever-expanding extensions catalog is one of my favorite parts about firefox, but there’s some cool stuff that can be done in other ways.

One such trick was posted by Colin Grady in his blog a few years ago, but it’s just as “nifty” today. This post discusses how to get a static icon on the desktop a-la Internet Explorer. All you need to do is download his registry keys and the icon will appear on your desktop. The context menu includes safe-mode and the profile manager, which some may find super-handy.

The about:config editor is a little more well-known. It lets you change a lot of settings that can’t be manipulated in the regular options menu. The Mozillazine has a pretty comprehensive list of the key/value pairs and what they do. My favorites are the ability to turn off sending referrers [link], and make bookmarked folders not overwrite your currently open tabs [link].

The third thing I’d like to draw attention to is the official Tips & Tricks page. It mostly covers userchrome.css hacks, but some of them are cool. A word of warning, though: some of what’s covered on that page is deprecated, and/or could screw up your profile (however unlikely). Check to see if somebody’s developed an extension that offers this functionality if you’re uncertain.

Oh, and yes; I realize that fine-tuning your browser in preparation for the next major version’s release is akin to dressing up as a Harry Potter character on opening night… I mean, at least in terms of geekiness, but lets not point that out to everybody.

William C. Maune at ToonZone has posted some new information about Samuel L. Jackson’s Afro Samurai from the San Diego Comic-Con. The article mentions the 5-episode, $1M-per-episode miniseries, which is planned to be aired uncut in Japan, and cut by 3 minutes per episode on Spike TV. The miniseries will be made by Gonzo animation in English, and dubbed into Japanese. The reverse-dubbing is a bit strange, but I’m not all too surprised, given Spike TV’s involvement. The article also mentions the planned DVD, Soundtrack and Live action movie releases.