Check it out at beta.lds.org

From the official announcement:

A major project to improve Church Web sites has been in process for the past few years to (1) provide a redesigned, user-friendly look with navigation and content in languages and the ability to search across all Church Web sites and (2) upgrade the software and infrastructure to allow us to build Church Web sites more efficiently and with greater flexibility.

We are pleased to announce a beta test of the redesigned LDS.org. We invite you to review it at beta.lds.org and provide your feedback. Please note the following new features:

• New home page with all content grouped into six major categories to make it easier to find. (As you navigate deeper into the site, you’ll see some old pages that will be gradually rebuilt over the next several months.)

• The ability to search content on all Church Web sites. (Previously, you could search only the Gospel Library.)

• A-Z index (a table of contents of all Church Web sites).

• A new Gospel Topics section that provides answers to questions about the Church and its teachings. (This section will be expanded over the next several months.)

• News and Events.

• Helps to prepare a lesson or talk.

• Expanded e-mail subscriptions (daily news, new categories for LDS Gems, and information about new Church products and offerings on Church Web sites).

• For more information on what’s new and what’s still to come, see www.lds.org/pdf/Whats_New_LDSORG.pdf

In the summer of 2006, we will replace LDS.org with this upgraded version. At that time, we will also release an enhanced Gospel Library with more content, more formats, and better search capabilities. We will also release more language editions of scriptures. Later in 2006, LDS.org will be available in the following nine additional languages: Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. We will continue to build the Gospel Library in these and more languages. In the meantime, you can use beta.lds.org in English or refer to the old LDS.org to see the existing language materials.

We invite your feedback about this test site. Just click Feedback at the top of any page.

(via More Good Foundation Blog)

When the Firefox 1.5.0.1 upgrade was released in February, I found that the spell check extension, Spellbound, was no longer compatible! During the last couple of months, I have visited the Spellbound website hoping for an upgrade that will work in the newest versions of Firefox, but it appears that the project has been dead since before the November release of Firefox.

Today, I am very happy to have found the Spellbound development version available on a different site. Even though it is not a release version, it appears to work great with Firefox 1.5.0.1, and it includes great new features.

This new version spell checks form inputs as you type, underlining misspelled words and offering correction suggestions if you hold down the ctrl key while clicking on the word.

Get the Spellbound development version at:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=351130

(And if you are still aren’t using Firefox as you primary web browser, download it today! http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/ )

A key mechanism for this involves circuits that ordinarily inhibit impulses for actions that would be rude or simply inappropriate — or outright dangerous.

In order for this regulatory mechanism to operate well, we depend on real-time, ongoing feedback from the other person. The Internet has no means to allow such realtime feedback (other than rarely used two-way audio/video streams). That puts our inhibitory circuitry at a loss — there is no signal to monitor from the other person. This results in disinhibition: impulse unleashed.

There have been several times that I have had the opportunity to meet and converse with individuals face to face with whom I had previously debated online. The difference in the conversation was apparent.

Dr. Goleman also worries that electronic communications may be having a negative effect on the natural development of the inhibitory systems in the brains of teenagers.

Something to keep in mind both in our own electronic communications and in raising our children.

Hat tip: Instapundit

The notification box is customizable so you can choose to display only one link at a time or multiple links. If you don’t want it popping up on every page you visit, you can hide it so that it only appears when you click on the small icon in the browser status bar and select “view comments.”

The plugin only starts searching for links once the page you are viewing has completed loading, and you can cancel the search before it finishes.

This sort of immediate feedback on any page you visit is really valuable, especially for bloggers.

Of course, Google is also using the tool to promote its own blogging platform, Blogger and blogspot.com. If you use Blogger, the Blogger Web Comments extension has a link that allows you to quickly add a post to your blog about the page you are currently viewing.

The blog search, however, is not limited to blogspot blogs.

Download the extension and try it out:
http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/webcomments/