For months I've championed Mozilla's Firefox as my internet browser of choice. So you can imagine how excited I was when I read an article in USA Today touting Window Snyder's role in the release of Mozilla's Firefox 3 Web Browser. Read "Geek" girl helps keep Mozilla safe in scary times Snyder serves as Chief of Security for Mozilla, though her official title is chief security something-or-other which is displayed on her business card. Here are some highlights from the USA Today article: In setting out to elevate Firefox's basic security, Snyder is also compelling Microsoft and Apple, maker of the Safari browser, to follow her lead — or get out of the way. "The fun is in deconstructing where the security holes are," Snyder, 32, says with a wry smile and knowing laugh. But don't let her youthful facade fool you. Snyder's career path includes co-founding a security company and consultant work at At Stake, which was sold to Symantec for $49 million in 2004. Dave Goldsmith, who as president of Matasano Security has worked with Snyder in various capacities, calls her an "online security rock star." Adds Eva Chen, CEO and co-founder of security company Trend Micro: "It's gratifying to see other women ...

WHEN: Thursday July 3, 2008, 10:00 a.m. WHERE: Cornerstone Baptist Church; 5415 Matlock Road Arlington, TX (817) 468-0083 WHO: Michael Williams, Chairman, Texas Railroad Commission WHAT: "Williams Innovators" Summer Camp Graduation WHY: "William Innovators" is a summer camp that promotes young people's interest in math and science through the teaching of designing computer games. Sponsored by Friends of Michael Williams, Be The Game and The Institute of Urban Game Design, "Williams Innovators" learn how to design a video game with an energy exploration theme. There are 42 students participating in this inaugural summer camp. This innovative program started in Washington, D.C. and had fantastic results. Campers had fun, played games, and in the process, learned about math, science and technology. Williams hopes this will spur an interest in young people to go to college and study engineering, science and mathematics. More than half of Texas energy professionals are eligible to retire within the next ten years, many as early ...

This month Dallas South has again moved up in the black blog rankings, coming in at #79.  This months rankings compiled by Electronic Village tracked 1,237 sites.    Last month Dallas South ranked #86 of 1,173. June Black Blog Rankings Below are the Top 10 Black Blogs ranked by Villager as well as honorable mentions. Currently, Villager uses Technorati authority to compile the list.  Thanks Villager for all the work you put into this list. 1. Bossip.com Gossip for the Hardcore 2. Pam’s House Blend 3. Concrete Loop 4. Nah Right 5. Oliver Willis 6. Young, Black & Fabulous 7. SandraRose.com 8.  Crunk & Disorderly 9.  Jack and Jill Politics 10. Angry Black Woman La Shawn Barber's Corner, Real Talk NY Provides The Latest Hip Hop News, The Field Negro*, Love B. Scott, Afro Bella, What About Our Daughters*, How To Split An Atom, Entre mes Lignes, Angry Black Bitch, Keith Boykin, Ill Doctrine, Necole Bitchie, A Hot Mess! and Clutch Magazine

Though I'm on the web quite often, I'm far from where I want to be on the technology tip. It wasn't until a few months ago that I really understood the value of web feeds and how they could make my internet experience a lot more efficient. In the past when I wanted to surf the web, I'd hit my favorite websites like Electronic Village, or CNN Politics, or Dallas Progress, but I could never get to all of them in one sitting. Once I started using a feed reader, I was able to find out when ALL of my favorite websites update their content. This is much better than using bookmarks because you may or may not get new information when you go to a bookmarked page.  When you visit your feed reader, you don't have to worry about revisiting old data, unless you want to.  It also keeps you from missing anything if you don't get around to visiting your favorite site for a while. I use Bloglines to aggregate my feeds. That means Bloglines keeps a log of my favorite websites and tells me when they are updated. It's not just blogs, but mainstreams sites ...

 Click on the banner below to hear my appearance on NPR's News and Notes today.  Thanks to host Farai Chideya and producers Ernest Campbell and Devin Robbins, as well as the folks at Cakemix Studios for making things run so smoothly. I didn't really say all that I wanted to on the NAACP tip, but since the tone was set early for a Benjamin Jealous love fest, I let it ride (this time).   Props also go to fellow AfroSpear Blogger Amani Channel and Shaun King who were also on the Bloggers Roundtable with me today.

I've been getting some complaints on how the site looks and there are two words for the problems I'm having:  Microsoft Explorer.  I suggest anyone who can read this message who can download the Firefox web browser to do so now.  Here's the link to the Mozilla Firefox download page.  It's a much better way to surf the web and my mom recently expressed to me how much faster her Firefox browser is compared to Explorer. Until then I'll try to see what I can do for those who are locked in to Explorer.

  This month Dallas South has made a move up the black blog rankings, coming in at #86.  This months rankings compiled by Electronic Village tracked 1,173 sites.    Last month Dallas South ranked #105 of 1,046. May Black Blog Rankings Below are the Top 10 Black Blogs ranked by Villager as well as honorable mentions. Currently, Villager uses Technorati authority to compile the list. The number in parenthesis is the authority or number of websites that refer to a given blog. Thanks Villager for all the work you put into this list. 1. Bossip.com: Gossip for the Hardcore (1153) 2. Pam’s House Blend (1098) 3. Concrete Loop (1009) 4. Nah Right (804) 5. Crunk & Disorderly (696) 6. Oliver Willis (617) 7. Young, Black & Fabulous (597) 8. Jack and Jill Politics* (460) 9.  La Shawn Barber’s Corner (428) 10. SandraRose.com (410) HONORABLE MENTION (11-25): Real Talk NY Provides The Latest Hip Hop News, What About Our Daughters*, The Field Negro*, Afro Bella, The Angry Black Woman, Entre mes Lignes, Angry Black Bitch, Keith Boykin, Ill Doctrine, How To Split An Atom, Love B. Scott, A Hot Mess!, Clutch Magazine, Kenyan Pundit and QuestLove MySpace Blog Some local blogs of note: 43.  Mrs. Grapevine 196.  Eddie G. Griffin 272. Dallas Progress 656. Bloggers ...

I wanted to share a couple of things that I came across at Electronic Village.  First, the 3rd Annual BlackWebAwards are now accepting nominations in over 100 categories.   You can click here to nominate your favorite blog (including this one) for a Black Web Award. Finalists will be announced July 14th. Villager also hipped me to Clutch Magazine's Summer Blog Academy.  This is from the Clutch site: The ladies behind Clutch are partnering with Black Web 2.0 and other social media experts to bring you the most current information on how to succeed online. Get ready for two months full of how-to’s and advice from the best. So vote to let us know what you want to learn more about. And…it’s free! It's going to be a hot summer for bloggers.

I've just switched my feed over to Feedburner! If you use popular web aggregators and feed readers like Bloglines, Netvibes, or Google Reader, please take a moment to add Dallas South to the mix. Subscribe in a reader Thanks! Shawn

Electronic Village has released the latest Black Blog Rankings for April 2008. Dallas South comes in ranked at #105 of the 1046 blogs tracked this month. That's up from 850 blogs last month. Below are the Top 10 Black Blogs ranked by Villager as well as honorable mentions. Currently, Villager uses Technorati authority to compile the list. The number in parenthesis is the authority or number of websites that refer to a given blog. Thanks Villager for all the work you put into this list. 1. Bossip.com: Gossip for the Hardcore (1194) 2. Pam's House Blend (1166) 3. Concrete Loop (1035) 4. Nah Right (788) 5. Oliver Willis (632) 6. Crunk & Disorderly (626) 7. Young, Black & Fabulous (603) 8. La Shawn Barber's Corner (499) 9. Jack and Jill Politics* (471) 10. The Field Negro* (380) HONORABLE MENTION (11-25): What About Our Daughters*, Afro Bella, Young, Black, and Fabulous (blogspot version), Real Talk NY Provides The Latest Hip Hop News, Entre mes Lignes, Keith Boykin, Ill Doctrine, Clutch Magazine, A Hot Mess!, Angry Black Bitch, How To Split An Atom, Love B. Scott, Kenyan Pundit, Rod 2.0:Beta and Mudd Up!