I have two features suggestions for mozilla:

1. make the google address bar search smarter
2. add an html validitor to the browser

A Smarter Mozilla Address Bar

I use the google address bar search feature a lot and sometimes I forget to press the “tab” or down arrow key before I hit enter. This generates an error:

<br />
The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded.<br />


When my query is obviously not a URL, Mozilla should send me to google, not bark error messages at me. #

Built-In HTML Validator

Sometimes when my pages don’t render correctly, I go to validator.w3.org to find out why. Usually the problem is an unclosed tag.

Mozilla could make more developer friends if it included built-in html validation. That way I don’t have to go validator.w3.org and I can catch html problems earlier in the development cycle.

Javascript debuggers already exist for IE and Mozilla, why not html? Who knows, the number of sites with valid html may even reach 1% one day. #

Update

• April 11, 2009: It took a few years, but Firebug and other Firefox plugs are all that I was asking for and more!

I like Edward Felton’s poposal for a electronic voting system.

I think it’s important that the system not be entirely electronic, but there are advantages to e-voting.

The most important point Felton raises is that the integrity of the voting system will not be achieved with a “technological solution,” but through a process that can be understood and executed by every pollworker.

It’s really snowing outside. They’re predicting 18-24 inches! I plan to shovel periodically and work on my weblog layout.

Last night I got perl and mysql set up on my server. I duplicated a posting I made last August about the way the city of Los Angeles is trying to use IP to influence television coverage of its police and fire departments. The style sheet isn’t working quite right but I hope to have figured it out by the end of the day.