The cone of silence came down on Maxwell Smart for good today… Don Adams Dies at 82.

Also in the general category of things I’ve stumbled upon online in the last two days, there is the tag line at Lost Empires Living Tribes which reads, “will the last one out of the church please switch off the lights.” Somehow it just kind of struck me.

While browsing Tim Samoff’s blog I noticed he runs Pivot as his blog engine, and he reports via email that he loves it — though he might be biased, being on the the development team and all. Looks like quite a nice system though. They report the fact that it’s a flat-file system rather than database-driven as a plus, though I prefer something with a database back end. If you don’t have MySQL available with your hosting plan, this could be a very good option — but MySQL support is coming, so keep an eye on this one.

“The old extend your web browser trick…” Tim also links Browse Happy, which is an excellent repository of information and testimonials centered around the common theme of not using Internet Explorer. A very worthy cause to promote, and recommended reading for all you IE users. Incidentally, a while ago Tim posted a nice list of Firefox extensions. In addition to this, here’s another tip. Grab this file (right-click, “save as”) then in Firefox, go to Bookmarks | Manage Bookmarks, then File | Import. Select “From File” and load the file you’ve just saved. Lots of handy and fun toys and tricks to play with.

You may as well make the effort to find a solid browser — as with any software, I recommend you look for one that’s extensible, which means you’ll probably end up with Firefox, an excellent choice. The importance of the browser is on the upswing… pretty soon it’ll be one of the very few tools you can’t live without on your home or business computer, as eventually software will all be web-based. We’ve said this for several years now, but the view is gaining popularity — and Will Samson pretty much nailed this in his post the other day. “The Web Is The Platform.”

Lastly (and this is a good note for me to quit on), there’s Bob Hyatt’s continuing crusade against inane church signs. Today he offers another classic example of a sign that’s just plain wrong. Yeah, we understand what he means by it, but…

In my best Don Adams voice, “Missed it… byyyy that much!”