1 years ago, Mozilla Firefox 1.0 was released by The Mozilla Foundation, calling it “a fast, full-featured browser that makes browsing more efficient than ever before.” Even after the release of many browsers focused on power-users, Firefox continues to remain favorite of millions. 

Everybody has one favorite web browser that they love. However, in past one year, I haven’t been loyal to one particular browser. I've used Firefox and Chrome as my primary browsers, paid my allegiance to Microsoft’s Edge and Vivaldi for some time, and meanwhile tried out some other open source browsers.

Since its advent, I’ve used Firefox and loved it for its features, customization and speed. The browser was released eleven years ago as an alternative browser with the color of open source sprinkled all over its release note.

To promote the browser, in December 16th edition of the New York Times, the Mozilla Foundation published a two-page advertisement. The ad featured the names of people who participated in the Foundation’s fundraising campaign and made this open source web browser’s version 1.0 a success.

Mozilla believes in the open source philosophy and is very different from how bills are paid at Chrome, Opera and Microsoft’s offices. The Firefox community works hard to make a web that is more open.

In the recent years, Mozilla Firefox has incorporated many new modern features and stressed more on user privacy. I praise the Firefox team for bestowing us the browser that gave a fresh new outlook to the world of web browsers and is currently the proud possessor of millions of users across the world, becoming one of the most popular web browsers on the planet. We hope that the Firefox team will give us more reasons to celebrate in the upcoming time.

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Apple may be killing it in China with the iPhone, but the U.S. firm faces a pretty impressive young competitor in the smart watch space on Chinese soil. It isn't running Android, but there is a Google connection.

Mobvoi, a two-year-old Chinese startup founded by ex-Googlers, is shaping up to be a very credible smartwatch rival. The company specializes in language search technology, and it is that which forms the core of its own smartwatch operating system — Ticwear — and its self-made hardware: the Ticwatch.

An investment from Google, which partnered with the company to bring Android Wear to China, put Mobvoi in the international spotlight last month, but how does its tech fare?

The answer is pretty well.

On the sidelines of our Beijing event last week, Mobvoi Product Manager Yili Lin showed off the watch — in gold, no less — and walked us through its features.

The sad news for most DYK readers is that Ticwear and the Ticwatch are built for Chinese language users, but Lin hinted that an international version could be released in the future. We’ll keep you posted on that!

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If your dream is to land your feet on Mars then you may have a shot because NASA is recruiting would-be space explorers. NASA will start accepting applicants from December 14th till mid of February.

NASA is looking to increase their crew members which are currently only 47 whereas in the year 2000 there were 149 space explorers. According to NASA, “The selected candidates may fly on any of the four different U.S. vessels during their careers: The International Space Station, Two commercial crew spacecraft currently in development by U.S. companies, and NASA’s Orion deep-space exploration vehicle”.

Referring to the recruitment of astronauts , NASA administrator Charles Bolden stated : “This next group of American space explorers will inspire the Mars generation to reach for new heights, and help us realize the goal of putting boot prints on the Red Planet”.

As NASA tweeted 

Want to #BeAnAstronaut, but not sure you’re qualified? We’ve debunked a few myths for you: https://t.co/FV9QG7xuUF pic.twitter.com/ivqdZe1VNZ— NASA (@NASA) November 4, 2015

 Coming to the requirements of getting into NASA . First of all, you must be a US citizen with at least a bachelor’s degree in a science, technology, engineering or mathematics field. Secondly, three years of experience is a must. Thirdly, there would be a physical test which is similar to a tough armed forces physical exam or at least 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command time in jet aircraft. Lastly, the candidates must also pass the space-flight physical test.The successful candidates will be announced in mid-2017. The interested applicant can apply at this link

Astronauts will be launched on missions into deep space environment thanks to NASA’s two projects; NASA’s Space launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft.

“This is an exciting time to be a part of America’s human space flight program,” said Brian Kelly, director of Flight Operations at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “NASA has taken the next step in the evolution of our nation’s human spaceflight program – and our U.S. astronauts will be at the forefront of these new and challenging space flight missions. We encourage all qualified applicants to learn more about the opportunities for astronauts at NASA and apply to join our flight operations team.”

For detailed information about a career in NASA you can visit :

http://www.nasa.gov/astronauts

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It’s a well-known fact that even without any formal engineering training, Steve Jobs had an unteachable understanding of technology.

Many people avoid calling him a programmer or an engineer, but nobody would deny that he was a visionary. He said that it took a very unique combination of technology, talent, business, marketing, and luck to change what he called the “fastest-moving industry in the world.”

Here, I’d like to share with you an expert from a 1994 Rolling Stone interview, where Steve Jobs explains exactly what object-oriented software is. It’s one of the best explanations about object-oriented programming I’ve come across till date.

Give it a read:

Jeff Goodell: Would you explain, in simple terms, exactly what object-oriented software is?

Steve Jobs: Objects are like people. They’re living, breathing things that have knowledge inside them about how to do things and have memory inside them so they can remember things. And rather than interacting with them at a very low level, you interact with them at a very high level of abstraction, like we’re doing right here.Here’s an example: If I’m your laundry object, you can give me your dirty clothes and send me a message that says, “Can you get my clothes laundered, please.” I happen to know where the best laundry place in San Francisco is. And I speak English, and I have dollars in my pockets. So I go out and hail a taxicab and tell the driver to take me to this place in San Francisco. I go get your clothes laundered, I jump back in the cab, I get back here. I give you your clean clothes and say, “Here are your clean clothes.”You have no idea how I did that. You have no knowledge of the laundry place. Maybe you speak French, and you can’t even hail a taxi. You can’t pay for one, you don’t have dollars in your pocket. Yet, I knew how to do all of that. And you didn’t have to know any of it. All that complexity was hidden inside of me, and we were able to interact at a very high level of abstraction. That’s what objects are. They encapsulate complexity, and the interfaces to that complexity are high level.

Did you enjoy this real life example used by Steve Jobs to explain object-oriented programming and software? Tell us in the comments below.

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