A Boat, a Browser and Throngs of Impatient New Yorkers

There is a 50 percent chance that if you’re reading this article, you are reading it from a web-based browser from your desktop. What browser are you using right now? Chrome? Internet Explorer? How fast is the experience, and to what extent are you concerned with privacy and cookie tracking?

At The Bold Italic, we work pretty selectively with sponsors and advertisers. We’ve had the pleasure of working with the Mozilla Firefox team for the past several months, and during that time, all of us have switched to Firefox — Mozilla’s iconic secure browser, which is about to go through a major upgrade. Firefox Quantum will be released on November 14th, and we could not be more excited to try it out.

There is also a 25 percent chance that if you’ve landed on this page, you are from New York City. As it turns out, TBI has a pretty national audience, and outside of San Francisco, our biggest viewing audience is from the greater New York City area. If you happen to be from NYC, Mozilla is offering free Firefox ferry rides from November 14th to November 16th to make your commute faster— and more fun (to celebrate the Firefox Quantum launch). Here are the details:

WHAT: Free Firefox ferry rides

WHEN: November 14–16. The boat runs every 30 minutes from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., and from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

WHERE: Greenpoint, Brooklyn, to Pier 15 in Lower Manhattan, New York City

If you happen to be visiting NYC, you don’t want to miss the free donuts, coffee and the faster commute (this boat happens to run 10 minutes faster than your alternatives).

Mozilla is also offering a series of other activities on the boat. On Tuesday morning they will have coding groups lead by Firefox head of engineering Selena Deckelmann on how the team rewired seven million lines of code to make the new Firefox. On the afternoon of the November 14th, Sah D’Simone will be giving stressed New Yorkers fast meditation coaching. And finally, on Thursday at 12pm., there will be self-defense coaching from a local Krav Maga studio — combining online-privacy-protection tips with real-world self-defense.

And if you’re not from NYC, you should prepare yourself for the Firefox launch and give the browser a download on the 14th. The Internet is a valuable public resource, and people should not feel stranded, frustrated or concerned about their privacy as they navigate their way around. Mozilla is building a better Internet, and not for profit. Seriously, the new Firefox security features are pretty amazing, so you won’t have to worry about being tracked wherever you go. In addition, the new browser has Pocket built into it, which is one of the Internet’s most beloved products for reading one’s favorite news.

If you’re in NYC, take a picture of yourself on the ferry, and we’ll tweet it, or post it on Instagram with #fastforgood. If you’re not and just want to share that you’ve downloaded the new Firefox on the 14th, we’ll retweet you.

Here’s to a faster—and safer—Internet.