Raised in south Switzerland, faithful to the International Style, I've been taught to approach a project by finding a visual concept and a grid before switching on a computer.

These days, most serious web sites are based around a platform generally called "CMS", or content management system. Thanks to this, it becomes easy to publish, unpublish and manage contents. Furthermore, each CMS has a template layer and tons of extensions. That means your web site can be expanded with new features in a matter of minutes. So easy, all is great. Do we still need a designer, then?
I love Mozilla Firefox so much that it's my main browser. I just can't live without its security measures and its add-ons. The Mac version has been improved a lot since version 3.x. Not only there are lots of extensions, but also the look & feel can be customized as well. Themes allow vast changes in the user interface (buttons, scroll bars, etc.).