As you may know, Internet Explorer 7 came out earlier this week and Firefox 2.0 comes out this afternoon. Currently I'm a Firefox user (I got hooked by extensions), but was willing to give IE another chance. I played around with Internet Explorer a bit and while I liked their new set of functionality I was dismayed by the slowness of the browser hopefully this will be something that can get fixed in an update, but at the moment it's a deal breaker for me.
However, two things about the IE7 strike me as really great steps forward and I thought I would mention them here.
The first is RSS support built into the browser. While this is only a matter of Microsoft catching up to their competitors in terms of browser functionality I think it is a huge step for RSS as a technology. Having this functionality built into the browser that ships with every PC out there will be great for its adoption among a less techy user base. And while I have some issues with how they implemented the display of RSS feeds I am thrilled with how simple they made the subscription process.
The second is that Microsoft is supporting Firefox-esque extensions. I think I would have some trouble expressing my shock over this, but suffice it to say that the idea of Microsoft openly promoting code for their programs that they did not write came as quite a surprise. While I suspect that this initiative will be more regulated than Firefox's extensions, and therefore less worthwhile overall, its a huge departure from Microsoft's usual ideology and it bodes well for future web apps that they do (such as web office).
While I was poking around I found a review by PC Magazine of IE7, Firefox 2.0, and Opera 9 from July. Some things are incorrect because the review was based on beta builds (load times seem faster to me on Firefox for example) but overall it gave a great comparison.
From Matt: The scriptwriters made quite a few changes from the book, but they were all for the best - and booklover though I am I have to admit that its better to see magic than to read about it.
From Mina: I adore this film. Monsieur Hulot’s very modern sister and brother-in-law don’t know what to do with Tati’s charmingly untidy and bungling protagonist, who inhabits a world where meaning is still more important than appearances.
From Carey: A must see Hayao Miyazaki’s anime is Laputa: Castle in the Sky, originally released in 1986. A fantasy film that explores the altruistic and compassionate nature of humans, aspects lost through repeated exposure to power, technology, and the complexities brought by the combination of the two. 
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