Dear Reader,

The other day Princess downloaded Firefox 3.

Instantaneously, three quarters of my Add-ons stopped working.

That happens.

I really like my iFox skin, but it wasn't compatible, so i downloaded one that was nature-identical and that said it was compatible with Firefox 3.

So then Firefox stopped working.

It would launch, but then it would flash up on screen for a tenth of a second, and then minimise to the toolbar. Once there, no force on Earth would get it to maximise. Or close. Or anything.

So then i'd have to restart.

Firefox 3 had turned my online experience into a frustrating session of going through folders looking for things i could delete to return my browser to a functioning state.

I was going to just delete it and start again, but i didn't want to lose my bookmarks.

I have a thumb drive Firefox, but when i copied the Bookmarks file ver to there, it didn't work.

Grrr. Arrgh!

But anyway, this is getting nerdy and boring, and i wouldn't blame you for not reading any further, so i'll skip to what i think may be the good bit.

I reinstalled Firefox 3 and it got better.

Because it had been an Add-on that killed it the first time, the first thing i did when i got it working again was to download an unknown Add-on.

Cos i'm a trusting guy.

The Add-on is this clever thing that puts fruit loops into your search engine screens, to let you know how dangerous each of the links is.

Ace!

It even throws up a page to alert you that a website you are about to plunge into may be nefarious.

Ace-ca-base!

I've had it for fifteen minutes now, so i'm ready to recommend it.

It's called WOT, which stands for Web Of Trust, and it allows you to go around, rating websites on their nefariousness or lack thereof.

Again, i think you'll agree, this is ACE!

So, if you own a porn site, you need to immediately download this Add-on and start voting your site as peachy, instead of leechy.

Not that you, dear Reader, would have a porn site!

I'm just saying. Hypothetically.

Yours,
Gullybogan

I trust everyone had a great 4th of July. I'll have another post soon for those who's like to see the fireworks in Boston but either couldn't get down there or didn't see them on CBS last night.

• Mary Colvig: We're official! The Firefox community has been certified as setting a new Guinness World Record for the "largest number of software downloads in 24 hours." Asa Dotzler has answers to some of the questions people keep asking about the record.
• Markus Thielmann: Adobe updates Flash 10 Beta. a number of bugs got fixed in the newest Flash 10 Beta, including the pain in the arse windowless mode bug, and Markus has information on how to install it, complete with a PPA so Ubuntu users can get updates automatically.
• Eddie Martinez: Best Buy sucks at selling computers. Ok, now I know to never go to the Best Buy on W. Roosevelt in Chicago, especially if I want to buy a computer. I just hope the corporate office reads his post, because I seriously doubt it's an isolated incident.
• Frank Taylor: Google Teleases Street View for Tour de France in Google Earth/Maps. It's the time of year when people who otherwise don't care about competitive cycling go out of their way to keep up with a bicycle race. Thanks to Google we can get an even better look at the course in the first time they've posted Street View images for a country other than the US. He also has a nice article on using Google Earth for tracking storms, a very handy thing to know now that the new hurricane season is upon us. Just remember to use it carefully, as the storm tracking layers are designed to be used one or two at a time, not all at once.
• Wladimire Palant: Blocking malicious sites with Adbock Plus. There's yet another fantastic use for the software add-on that web site owners hate so much. And since there's security issues on Flash that are being exploited this news is out none too soon.
• BBC News: It's not the Gates, it's the bars. Sichard Stallman has a nice article about the retirement of Bill gates. Thanks to Xkutzy on the Ubuntu Forums for pointing this out to me.
• Christer Edwards: Printing Diectly to PDF in Ubuntu 8.04. I have my default printer set to create PDF documents rather than having to worry about killing trees and buying toner, but Christer wrote a great HowTo so you can do the same. Now I won't have to dig so hard when I have to find this info to set it up on another computer. ;)
• Ken Gurnick: Ethier leads Dodgers to 'lucky' win. Nomar and Andru were back in the lineup for the Dodgers after spending some time on the DL, and Joe Torre had to call a team meeting after the game. Yes, they won 10-7 more thanks to some Giants errors, but it was a pretty messy win, But hey, the Dodgers are now just a half game out of first place! Woot! We have some great highlights to enjoy, too.
• Kevin Smith: Curious George, the Shadow of the Bat, and Other Stuff. "Silent Bob" has some great pictures from working with George Carlin, as well a link to a great Newsweek piece he wrote about his friend. As  well as a picture from his newest movie, due out on Halloween.

Sorry about stuffing so many links in this post. I have one more post that Nanci said I had to write and then I plan on taking the rest of the weekend off. It is supposed to be a three day weekend here in the colonies, after all. :p

• Stylish: complemento que por medio la página userstyles.org, podemos descargar modificaciones visuales para páginas web extremadamente usadas, como son digg, google, youtube y wikipedia wikimedia.
• Greasemonkey: también complemento para Firefox para instalar scripts que cambian el comportamiento de las páginas web. Aunque está más enfocado en agregar funcionalidades importantes a páginas web, muchos de los scripts de greasemonkey también son útiles para modificar la interfaz. Pueden encontrar los scripts en userscripts.org
• Adblock Plus: otro complemento que nos ayuda como usuarios (porque algunos administradores y otras compañías deben odiarlo) a bloquear automáticamente publicidad, mediante filtros, que bien, puede ser aluguno de los predeterminados u otro que tú prefieras. Aún así, si no bloquea algún elemento, puedes elegir bloquearlo manualmente. Muy útil para acelerar la carga de algunos sitios y quitar coloridos y molestos anuncios que no tienes que ser forzado a ver.
• Customize google: Nos proporciona interesantes preferencias para varias de lás páginas de google, como reader, mail o images. La mayoría solo te da la opción de forzar una conexión segura, pero tiene otras ventajas como redirigir los enlaces de imágenes (sin ver el sitio en donde está hosteada) o bien, mostrar resultados de otros servicios en las búsquedas, para ahorrar tiempo. Sí, también es un complemento.
• Flashblock: ¿El contenido en flash de ciertos sitios realmente te molesta? A veces es poco agradable tener una canción desde un elemento en flash que arranque automáticamente, pero esta extensión la bloquearía y la reproduciría con un click sólo si tú lo decides.

Por ahora son todas las que puedo recordar y a las que vale la pena darles una checada (por no decir que son must-have's). Algunas están más enfocadas al eye-candy, otras a la funcionalidad (aunque la idea es que ambos aspectos logren converger). Lo importante es sentirnos cómodos como usuarios. Si sienten que hay algo que se pueda agregar, por favor coméntenlo.

PicLens
Probably the coolest extension I've yet come across, PicLens allows you to view images on certain websites in full 3-D thumbnails. The PicLens interface takes over your screen and allows you to search for images on popular sites such as Google, Yahoo, Flickr and Photobucket and view the results in a totally awesome scrollable reel without having to go through page after page like you do on normal thumbnail searches. PicLens can also be used to scroll through videos on YouTube and your friends photo albums on Facebook. The only drawback I can see is the fact that you can't use it on every site, but with the coolness factor skyrocketing through the roof, I'd say that day isn't far off.

Autofill Forms
This one is pretty self explanatory. Much like the stock feature you get with Safari, it fills out online forms so you don't have to. When you first download it, you're asked to create a profile where you enter all of your info. Then find a site with a form, press the button and presto! It isn't automatic, and it sometimes fills in the wrong info in the wrong box, but it's pretty accurate for the most part, and if, like me, you're partial to Firefox over Safari, you can't beat it.

Download Statusbar
Ever get tired of having to click back and forth between windows to check the status of your downloads? Well, I did and this little accessory took care of that. It also is pretty self explanatory. It simply creates a status bar at the bottom of your browser which, well, shows the status of your downloads. It only shows up when you start downloading and goes away as soon as you either click on the finished download or clear it off by pressing clear on the right side of the bar or selecting clear from the pop-up menu on the left side. It's handy, neat, and out of the way.

Password Exporter
Another self explanatory app. This was a lifesaver when I dumped my PC in favor of my Mac. It's cross-platform compatible, obviously, and can store your passwords in a variety of different file types. You simply save the file on one computer by pressing the export button that shows up in your security menu after installing the extension, then transfer the created file to the new computer by whatever means you have, install the extension on that computer and press import. Viola!

Anyone have any cool extensions they'd like to share? Drop me a line or leave a comment. I love new neat things to play around with.

extensions.checkCompatibility

extensions.checkUpdateSecurity

I added them with Right-Click, New > Boolean and set both to "False". Now all my old extensions work and this is great!

For eg. You were working on outlook express and by mistake you have deleted folder containing your important emails.

First try n search your folder in deleted items, If the folder is exist move from deleted items and if the folder is not exist in deleted items, don't be panic, just follow the below mentioned steps.
Don't close your outlook express go to Tools > Options > Maintenance click on the Store Folder Button (this will show you the location where your messages are stored). Copy the location go to Start > Run and paste that location, click on ok. Here you will get the deleted folder dbx file. For eg. you have deleted the folder named as Important Mails so, you will get the file named as important mails.dbx. Copy that file into other location and close outlook express. (with this process you have created the backup of your deleted mails).

Now again open outlook express go to inbox and create a folder with the same name Important Mails. Close outlook express and go to location where your messages are stored. Here you will find a dbx named as important mails.dbx replace this file from the previously saved important mails.dbx file.

Now, start outlook express and your mails are recovered.

:: Important Tips ::
Once you deleted the folder don't close outlook express. If you close outlook express your session will remove and file will get deleted.
In the process of restoring make sure that you have copied the dbx file.

Web Browsing

Let’s face it, the only important word to say here is "Firefox". If you are still using internet explorer, I feel sorry for you. I stuck with internet explorer for way too long because I liked to be able to sync my 1000s of bookmarks (That’s right, I said 1000s) between all my computers. This was particularly useful for managing uni research between my laptop and desktop. But then I discovered Google Bookmarks Sync and made the switch. Now I have never looked back. This is because Firefox is so customisable. There are so many different add-ons available for Firefox that make it so much more of a superior browser. This is what this part of the blog is about. Not the security, speed or other similar (often technical) parts of Firefox that non-nerds find boring, but rather the various add-ons I have come to love and use often in Firefox making me such a fan of this lovely piece of software.

I will start with bookmark syncing. While Google Bookmark Sync is no longer supported by Google and doesn't function in Firefox 3, there is a new kid on the block. "Weave" is its name. It is currently in rapid development with version 0.2 being the latest. It lets you create an account and with the add-on on each Firefox install, sync things like bookmarks, saved passwords and all sorts of wonderful things. Be aware, it’s still early days and some features don't work. But if you just want to sync your lovely bookmarks, then it is a go.

The next add-on I love will be a double combo. "Adblock Plus" and "NoScript" when used together will not only save you a headache in terms of keeping the viruses at bay but also keeping most of the ads of your screen.  That means I don't see those stupid flash ads, pictures and what not that cover MySpace, Facebook and any other webpage I come across. Adblock Plus accomplishes this in a very simple fashion that requires no user intervention. Install and forget. NoScript is a little more technical so may require a little more technical knowledge. But basically it prevents webpage loading java, flash and other things that while often very useful, can also be a security risk. When you visit a page for the first time, you will have to whitelist the site which is very easy, but this allows only the site you want to visit to load, whilst keeping the code of non related stuff such as ads, tracking material, or even virus from loading. As I said, it's a bit more hands on, but well worth it.

The next one is "PicLens". This little wonder I only recently discovered but what it allows is viewing pictures of certain sites (Google image search, Facebook, MySpace etc) in a very cool sliding wall style in which they can be viewed at a much faster speed, and allows zooming into selected pictures. Google for it and check out the website for pictures as they will show you exactly how cool this add-on is in ways I can’t describe.

Finally, the last add-on that gets a lot of use is "Zotero". I'll be honest and say that I am still learning to fully use this one, but it is proving to be very helpful. If you’re a student and have ever had to look over lots of articles on journal databases and sites for research, then this add-on will help organise it all. You add pages that you’re looking at to Zotero, then can tag it, sort it and leave comments for each. Perfect for managing the large number of journal articles that I come across and need to store for later use when writing the assignment.

Socialising

With so many Messaging clients out there (MSN, Yahoo, AIM etc) and some users like myself using multiple of these, it is great to have them in one place. To be able to chat in one piece of software to all my contacts over the various networks and also have it sync with the actual servers. Now I know there are a few competitors in this area, but one also adds the ability to work with Facebook, MySpace, twitter and link in with any email address you have (hotmail, Gmail, pop3 etc). The software I am talking about is "Digsby" and is very still under constant development. But it is functioning well on my computer and has completely replaced all the other chat clients I used. Having the ability to draw so much together (time saving) is what the internet revolution is all about.

Media

Software for viewing and playing music files, videos and what not on your computer is a very saturated area. Most people use iTunes, but frankly I am not a fan of either iTunes or apple in general (issue for another day). I currently use windows media player for my extremely large collection of music files. The reasoning is based on performance with the library and searching, and it plays the wma files I have. While it may not be perfect, it does the job. However this is not a recommendation for WMP. One piece of software I am keeping a close eye on is "Songbird". This media player is being created to compete directly with iTunes. But where it differs is that it is linked to Mozilla, and is designed to allow for the exact same sort of add-on ability that I love in Firefox. It is also looking to integrate the web with the media player. Something that the competition in my opinion does not do well, if at all. The current version available has a few problems, but the developers are extremely active, and the coming version 0.7 in my opinion will have brought the software to the point that it can replace windows media player for my audio pleasure. Now for videos I use one piece of software. "VLC" is a fantastic piece of software that to date has played every video file I have put into it. DVDs and what not all get put through this software and it does the job in excellent picture quality.

Everyday

Now for everyday software, I thought I would touch on two things. Uni and communication/personal life organising. For any uni student, referencing can be a bitch. It is something that is required to a very high degree, and can take a lot of time to not only learn but get right every time you add a quote of paraphrase in an assignment. That is why I use "Endnote". Luckily my uni has this available to students free of charge, but it is an absolute life saver. I add any piece of material that I come across in research, and then when it comes time to cite it in word, a selection of the book or material in endnote, a quick shortcut combo and it adds it in perfect format. It will also add the end text citation if it isn't there already (again, in perfect formatting). While it does take some configuring, the end result is that referencing is done in the correct formatting every time and it speeds up the process considerably.

The last pieces of software I have come to rely on are "Thunderbird" and "Sunbird". Thunderbird is an email application equivalent (but better) to such software as outlook express, and sunbird is an application that serves as a calendar. With all my many email accounts in thunderbird, and many calendars for both work and pleasure in sunbird, it is easy and even pleasurable to manage my communication and schedule. The real advantage of these software is that they are from the guys that make Firefox, Mozilla, which means they have also been made to incorporate the add-ons. The only one I will mention is "Zindus" for thunderbird. This allows syncing your contacts to Gmail and in my case, allows me to have almost the same install of thunderbird on two computers complete with all emails for the same accounts being downloaded on both (thunderbird settings here) and contacts being updated across the board (Zindus here).

While I have gone over quite a few pieces of software with what in my view are many benefits for their use. The best part about all of them is they are all free (Except Endnote). In this day and age, free software is readily available and in many cases, far outperforms the competition that charge money. However I will get back to the core of what these pieces of software do for me. They all allow for a much richer and enjoyable web experience and they all integrate everything together much more nicely. Hopefully you have come across some new software that you may consider using, and feel free to leave comments as to any that you use.

Don't remember how to get there?  Visit our previous post

• To auto Complete URL while typing in the address Bar
  browser.urlbar.autoFill=True
• To set the number of auto complete URL in the address bar
  browser.urlbar.maxRichResults = #
  (# indicates the number of auto complete URLs shown. The default is 12)
• To disabler Browser Toolbar Tip
  browser.chrome.toolbar_tips = False
• To paste copied content by clicking the center button on the mouse
  middlemouse.paste = True
• To disable blinking text
  browser.blink_allowed = False
• To create a single close button to for all Firefox Opened Tabs
  browser.tabs.closeButtons = 3
• To increase number of recently closed tabs
  browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo=15
• Right click view source in your editor
  view_source.editor.external=True
  view_source.editor.path= Path of Editor
• To enable fast scrolling across tabs
  toolkit.scrollbox.scrollIncrement =75
• To stop displaying website icon in address bar and on the tabs
  browser.chrome.site_icons = False
• To enable spell check in text fields
  layout.spellcheckDefault = 2
• To speed up the browser
  network.http.max-connections 30 to 96
  network.http.max-connections-per-server 15 to 32
  network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server 6 to 8
  network.http.pipelining false to true
  network.http.proxy.pipelining false to true
  network.http.pipelining.maxrequests 30 to 8
  network.http.pipelining.ssl false to true
  network.http.proxy.pipelining false to true
• To disable annoying browser behavior
  Change the following values to 'false'
  dom.disable_window_open_feature.titlebar
  dom.disable_window_open_feature.menubar
  dom.disable_window_move_resize
  dom.disable_window_open_feature.toolbar
• To show more tabs on single window
  browser.tabs.tabMinWidth = 75

You can find more technical details about the about:config settings at Mozillazine

MUST HAVE FIREFOX ADD-ONS

Colorful Tabs
Makes Tab Viewing even simpler if that is possible.  Tabs will be displayed in different colors for your viewing pleasure.

Downthemall
One of the greatest download manager extensions available.

Better Gmail 2
Add useful extra features and skins to Gmail, like hierarchical labels, macros, signatures, file attachment icons, and more.

Fastdial
This is one of my favorite features ported over from Opera into Firefox with this great add-on.  Fast access to your favorite sites through thumbnails, like Opera Speed Dial.  Fast Dial replaces "about:blank" page with a panel of thumbnails of your favorite sites. Click on an empty cell, assign a site URL, click OK - a thumbnail will be generated for a site. You can also add sites opened in browser or existing bookmarks by right-clicking them and choosing "Add to Fast Dial" from context menu.

Flagfox
Flagfox shows a flag icon in the status bar indicating the current website's server location.  Provides quick access to information about the country of origin, as well as the ability to lookup the site's registrant via Whois.

Flashblock
Never be annoyed by a Flash animation again! Blocks Flash so it won't get in your way, but if you want to see it, just click on...

Foxmarks
If you use Firefox on more than one computer, you'll want Foxmarks. Install Foxmarks on each computer, and it will keep your bookmarks synchronized. You can also log in to my.foxmarks.com to manage your bookmarks from any computer.

FoxyTunes
FoxyTunes lets you control almost any media player and find lyrics, covers, videos, bios and much more with a click right from your browser.

ForcastFox
Highly customizable weather forecasts from AccuWeather.com, displayed in any toolbar or statusbar.

Google Toolbar
Gives you the ability to search Google from a toolbar, access gmail, auto fill forms and several other features.

Greasemonkey
Allows you to customize the way a webpage displays using small bits of JavaScript.
Hundreds of scripts, for a wide variety of popular sites, are already available at http://userscripts.org.

Gspace
This extension allows you to use your Gmail Space (4.1 GB and growing) for file storage. It acts as an online drive, so you can upload files from your hard drive and access them from the internet.  It's great for storing/sharing files with your friends. Also very good to backup photos and music files (as you can view/listen to them from Gspace).

PDF Download
PDF Download relieves the pain experienced when encountering PDF files on the Web. Whenever you click on a PDF file, PDF Download lets you know before trying to open it, and then offers you choices such as downloading, opening, or converting it straight to HTML.

Sxipper
Forget your passwords! Sxipper accurately fills in forms, manages passwords and your OpenIDs.

Webmail Notifier
WebMail Notifier checks your webmail accounts and notifies the number of unread emails...
Supports : gmail, yahoo, hotmail, daum, naver, empas, nate and mor

Grace Park....nuff said.

Our weekend was mucho-fun-o. It was full of laziness and games. I purchased the Guitar Hero DS on Thursday and by this morning had probably logged 20+ hours by Alix, Ashton and Meg. I played about an hour before the early onset of Carpal was cramping my style. I need to have tip top hands for not only my career but for clicking buttons on World of Warcraft, dammit. Still, it was an excellent purchase and now am looking to get the real version for our Wii this coming weekend. To me, the value you get for your entertainment buck is well worth the $29-$50.00 you pay for a game vs. going out to an Arcade or Movie or even going out to dinner. It was amazing Saturday night we all ended up in my sons room, he was playing "Black", Alix is was rockin out and Meg had bought Super Mario for her own DS-- Merlot (our Poodle) was taking turns on open laps. I was watching my son's ability to BOOMHEADSHOT from way distanced shots and wondered to myself if I should limit his gaming on shooters.....the boy CAN shoot (ingame), then I'd have to beat the boss on Super Mario Bauser to help out Megs. It was a nice feeling, family n gaming. Yeah, I know we should all get out and ride bikes, save the whales, plant trees and kill terrorists on the weekend but we had fun just the same. 

Guild News in General

AK is on a Midsummer Festival BONANZA run and ended up with 247 fire thingies for the event, just need over 100 then might go another 350 to get both Unique Items. I love to collect things ingame and real life...packrat am I. 

 Logtar did a wonderful fill in spot this weekend in Kara as Wootbeer as Off Tank and soon will be manning it himself as Logtar. We had a very good group Friday with Kara and got to Maiden and 3 shot her. No great drops but not bad for 3 hours of 50% guild rest pugs. Next night was another pug with only 3 OS and 1 from previous night and couldn't get past Little Red Riding hood due to some of the groups lack of experience and bad luck. Bad luck being when our tanks get to be LRRHood and can't run fast enough...but def. made for some entertainment.  We lost another member "Trahlys" lastnight didn't say why, such is life, but I think we'll be getting more members this week or next, I've been lax in recruiting as still a bit gun shy on making a push for new members. We'll see, plus I'd be happy if we slimmed down more and had 45-50 solid players. 

Please download all mods necc. for raiding- see the blog roll for links to the Threat Meter, Deadly Boss Mods and similar add-ons. Also get the Group Calendar as it is a great way to schedule events and track cooldowns and many other options. I use curse gaming wesbite as it seems to be the most stable and easy downloads, ALSO for those who are having issues with our Vent server or simply too lazy to download or skeeered of talking on the net, DON'T BE. Hell, you don't even have to talk but you MUST have the Vent on for Raids. Give in, do it. 

First off, uninstall the StumbleUpon extension. Don't just disable it, completely remove it. Then go to Edit > Preferences > Privacy > Show Cookies and delete any cookie from stumbleupon.com. Don't worry, you won't have to remember how you logged in all those months ago, that part of StumbleUpon's settings will be kept. Now close (not restart) Firefox.

Start Firefox again and install StumbleUpon (if you're using Firefox 3 you can just use the first tab in the Add-ons Manager and install it from there). Of course if you're an Ubuntu user StumbleUpon is in the Universe repository so it's even easier to install.

Restart Firefox again, and you should be able to once again stumble like you should be able to, seeing pages others have found and submitting new pages for others to enjoy.

If you haven't signed up for the thirty day challenge yet - please do.  The training really is given freely, there is no obligation to buy anything after you sign up - not ever - and I will continue to post my own version of notes and tips here.  But there is so much more available on the forums and within the thirty day challenge community, you're missing out on something if you're not a part of it.

For instance, this particular lesson has a downloadable PDF file that goes with it.  It's free to download if you're a Thirty Day Challenge member - it's not available if you're not signed up...

I would call this blog my own version of "Cliff Notes" for the 2008 Thirty Day Challenge.  I used Cliff Notes for certain subjects in high school and college - they served their purpose, I could get a passing grade on those tests.  But I know I missed out on the full experience when I took that shortcut - I cheated myself out of fully learning something by relying on the Cliff Notes alone.

Don't cheat YOURSELF out of the full Thirty Day Challenge experience - go sign up at this link (if you haven't already) Thirty Day Challenge - and then come back here for more of these notes...I'll get off my soap box now...onward to the Flock add-ons:

Pimping Out Flock For Fun And Profit - But Mostly For Profit

Here's Ed Dale's video from YouTube...

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And here's an easy to follow list of the add-ons, complete with links to go get 'em - so go get 'em...

Google Global

This extension allows you to view search results from other parts of the world - this will be something you can take advantage of later in the thirty day challenge.

Google Notebook

Allows you to research and make notes without leaving your browser - a brilliant way to help with niche research.  Having a Google account is something you'll need going forward - Ed will be showing us how pretty soon...

SEO for FireFox/Flock

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization - This is a pretty deep tool.  You're able to get a lot of interesting data by using this add-on.  Install it for now, but leave it off.  Ed mentions the red lines-no follow tags in the video.  For now, it's not a big deal - he'll show us how to use it when the time is right.

SearchStatus

Another tool that is helpful in niche research - SearchStatus.

StumbleUpon

This one is very helpful way to let people know about great sites - and to let people know about YOUR sites.  Ed will show us more about how to use it soon...

TwitterBar

This is a handy way to post to Twitter - with fewer clicks.  Instead of interrupting your work flow - you can type directly into your address bar and post that text to Twitter.  As a bonus, it shortens URL's for you too.

Thirty Day Challenge Toolbar

The 30DC Toolbar is a big time saver for Thirty Day Challenge Members - it's not critical that you install it - but it does give you access to a lot of well thought out tools specific to the Thirty Day Challenge.

That's it for now - feel free to leave us a comment below... Then, if you have kids - go give them a hug.  And if you are a kid - go hug your parents....Keep them guessing.

So here are four extensions I think are necessary on any browser installation.

1. Adblock Plus

It does exactly what its name suggests, blocking nearly every banner ad you can come across to on the today's webs. Let's just say that it makes the most questionable sites out there, much less questionable. There is a weird quirk with running this extension when viewing WordPress.com blogs that use the snap.com extra - in that it is blocked completely (so no pop-ups hovering those links). However the problem can be remedied by playing with the filtering options included.

2. IE Tab

With this extension, you wont have any reason to ever open Internet Explorer again. By clicking on the Mozilla icon on the corner of your browser's status bar, it transforms your current tab into IE. You can even set certain pages to open via an IE tab automatically. This extension is especially handy for accessing Microsoft downloads and updates, as well as web sites that require the much dreaded ActiveX.

3. Download Statusbar

If I had one criticism about Firefox, it would be about its download manager. I just don't see the need for it to open up an entirely new window, and take away much needed screen real-estate. So with this extension, a download manager is added your status bar - visible on any of the tens of Firefox windows or tabs you currently have open. It is feature packed, allowing you to do the obvious - pause/stop a download, as well as a neat feature where your unfinished downloads can continue to do so even when your browser is closed.

4. NoScript

This final extension is a definite must have for the paranoid, and is probably a good add-on to have for those who often find themselves on the most random and sketchy areas of the Internets. NoScript basically blocks any JavaScript from running automatically on a page.  It makes browsing tedious at first, but after a bit of use, you should be able to toggle it easily to load the scripts that you deem safe. So if you're concerned about security, this is a no-brainer.

For a list of the most popular extensions, click here.

And if you haven't heard already, you should at least check this extension out as well. Super Nintendo on your browser? Enough said.

Untuk menambahkan add-ons TwitterFox ini bisa install di sini. Cara makenya sangat mudah bin gampang, jadi nggak perlu saya jelasin lagi ya heheee... Kita bisa mengetahui aktivitas following kita dengan melihat jendela TwitterFox yang letaknya di sudut kanan bawah browser Firefox (berupa status bar). Kalau ada update, maka akan muncul popup. Preview-nya bisa dilihat di bawah ini.

Gitu aja dulu, moga ada manfaatnya.

Gspace

Google nos ofrece un espacio más que considerable en nuestra cuenta de gmail, por lo que utilizarlo como un disco duro totalmente gratuito suena de maravilla. Esta extensión de Firefox multiplataforma nos asegura que por lo menos, los documentos de la escuela o del trabajo podrán estar accesibles, y así liberar espacio para nuestro disco duro de verdad.

Remember the Milk

Por su puesto, no necesita presentación, pero este sensacional servicio, sincronizable y accesible de varios modos nos permite administrar nuestros pendientes, sin temor de perder la agenda o la hojita en donde apuntamos el número de cuenta de banco que necesitábamos.

Del.icio.us

Nuestros favoritos, bookmarks, marcadores, o como les prefieran llamar, son sagrados, no importa si es por fines recreativos o laborales, siempre va a haber varias páginas que necesitemos y que por supuesto, no tenemos que memorizar la dirección. Este servicio nos ayuda a tener todo eso en línea, además de tener una excelente extensión para integrarlo a nuestro navegador.

Humyo

Nos da 30 Gb gratuitos, de los cuales 25 tienen que ser para media, lo cual es perfecto, pues les permitirá a muchos subir sus películas o parte de nuestra biblioteca musical (sin duda es lo que ocupa más espacio).

Por su puesto, hay muchos otros métodos, como editar y mantener nuestros documentos de trabajo en gdocs, nuestros historiales de conversación en meebo, nuestras preciadas fotos en flickr o picasa, entre muchas otras opciones, depende qué tanta información requieran guardar y qué tan seguros se sientan haciendo esto.

Pese a que el proceso de respaldar archivos en la red puede ser lento en México, por las limitadas velocidades de upload a los que estamos supeditados, vale la pena dedicarle un tiempo (aunque la mayoría del proceso es prácticamente automático) para proteger una parte importante de nuestra vida, ya sea el trabajo, los estudios, o bien, el resultado del ocio.

Update (gracias a Juan Ángel):

Box.net

Este servicio de hosting de archivos es de lo más web 2.0 que podamos encontrar, con un nada descartable gigabyte de espacio, además de integrarse excelentemente bien con servicios que nos recuerdan de que se trata el internet en estos días: compartir.

Then along came Firefox 3 beta. Then Firefox 3 RC1 and soon after, Firefox 3 RC2. And I was in love. Here was a browser with all the great stuff that comes with Firefox but that also was just as fast on my Mac as on my Vista computer at work. And no memory leaks! It was enough to make me think of leaving my wife (just kidding, Sweetie).

Seriously though, if you haven't tried Firefox 3 yet, do it. Do it right now. I'll wait .....

Did you install it? Isn't it great? Now try some Add-ons. Go to Tools > Add-ons, and click Get Add-ons. Search for some and click to install. Easy peazy. A few suggestions:

• Adblock Plus. This is a must with all the crappy ads out there on the Internets.

• FireNES. An original Nintendo emulator with all of the 8-bit games, built into your browser? Amazing, and a great time-waster. My favs? Bad Dudes, Double Dragon, Super Mario Brothers (of course) and Contra.

• FoxyTunes. Adds controls for iTunes to the bottom of your browser.

• PicLens. Browse photos with beautiful photo-gallery style. Think of it this way: It's a gorgeous way to search Google Images.

• Quartz PDF Plugin (Mac only). Allows inline PDF viewing on Macs.

• Shareaholic. Taps into many social networks to allow easy posting to Twitter, Facebook,. Digg, FriendFeed, etc.

• TwitterFox. A Twitter app so you don't have to keep refreshing the site all day.

• Twittytunes. Testing this one. It allows you to easily post to Twitter what you are listening to.

• Yoono. Testing this one, too. It's a different approach to linking you to your social networks. Not sure whether this one will stick around for me though since I'm really digging Shareaholic.

• RetailMeNot. Shows deals for things you are shopping for. Slick.

Got any good Add-ons I should know about. Drop a line in the comments. As one of my friends discovered, you have to have a WordPress account to comment. Sorry, everyone. I know it's a hassle, but the spam comments are a nightmare otherwise.

]]> http://gekh.wordpress.com/2008/06/27/video-firefox-3-tweaks/ Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:22:45 +0000 gekh http://gekh.wordpress.com/2008/06/27/video-firefox-3-tweaks/

Hey guys, just a screen cast showing all the tweaks I have used in Firefox 3.

Reduce awesome bar, speed page load times, shrink the back button and change the awesome bar to the old bar.

The Two Strings you will need:

1.) Nglayout.initialpaint.delay
2.) Content.notify.interval

I wrote before that the horrible IE bug with message Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet site is unbeatable. Even Microsoft don't give a solution on their page.

I decided to make a last try to beat that error message. Because I like IE and don't want to change it whatever others people say.

Here are the steps:

There is an option in Internet Explorer which allow us to manage add-ons.

So, follow the pictures:

In Internet Explorer menu, click Tools, then find TAb PROGRAMS, then click on MANAGE ADD-ons.. button

Here is the new window opened. There are many addons IE use to open multimedia in webpages: /Skype, Flash,Java.../

Select one by one Skype addons and click DISABLE radiobutton.

I had SnagIt addons and decided to disable them too, but almost 99% sure the Skype is the problem here.

Then Click OK, OK again  and restart IE.

Voila !! No more Bad messages when surfing the net!!!

You may use Google mai link above to test the result.

It seems the problem is in Skype not in IE.

I saw many angry people blaming Microsoft and IE and speaking how good is Firefox. But who has no idea of how computer works, how difficult is to make a program to run, he has no right to speak about IT matters.

Please leave your feedback in case this helped to you.

Thank you for reading!

関連リンク

• Firefox3 - 個人設定メモ « Sun Flower～報告～
• TB企画*これがないと困る！Firefox 3 のアドオンリスト :: Love & Design ::

有効な拡張機能: [29]

• Better Gmail 2 0.5: 新しい Gmail に対応した Greasemonkey を Add-on 化したもの
• Clippings 3.0: コンテキストメニューに登録した定型文を簡易入力するようにする
• Compact Menu 2 2.1.0: ファイル、ツールなどのメニューを『メニュー』に集約する
• ConQuery(mod-3b9) 1.7.3: コンテキストメニューからドラッグ指定した文字列を検索する
• CustomizeGoogle 0.72: Google 関連のサービスをカスタマイズする
• Download Statusbar 0.9.6.3: ダウンロード最中にステータスバー上にダウンロード状況を表示する
• DownloadHelper 3.1: サイト内にあるフラッシュ情報などを保存する
• dragdropupload 1.6.7:『参照』ボタンがある場所にドロップ＆ドラッグでファイルを追加する
• functions for keyconfig 1.3.8: ショートカットキーを追加、変更する
• Gmail Manager 0.5.5: 複数の Gmail アカウントを管理、定期的にチェックする
• Greasemonkey 0.8.20080609.0: 様々なスクリプトが利用可能になる有名なアドオン
  • Fast look up JP and EN
  • Favicon with Google 3
  • Google Reader Preview
  • Greased Lightbox v0.17
  • Hatena Bookmark Google Cache
  • Hatena Bookmark TagAutoComp 0.1
  • Hatena Hide Preview
  • HatenaHotTag
  • Jasper's Google Reader subscribe
  • ldr_keyhack_v
  • LivedoorReaderUtilitiesPack (無効中)
  • Mixi_ExternalDiaryRedirector
  • mixi Color New Topics
  • mixi Comment Jumper
  • MixiCommlistPageDirectAccess
  • MixiDiaryDirectLink
  • miximix (無効中)
  • Mixi organizer
  • Mymixi Latest Diaries Pager (無効中)
  • New Tab on External Links for AutoPager
  • Pagerization
  • Protect Textarea
  • ShortenedLinkForMixi
  • Show Keybind In RMT (無効中)
  • Video Download Manager (無効中)
  • YouTube - Add Link to HD Video
  • YouTube MP4 Video Download Direct Linker
• IE Tab 1.5.20080618: Internet Explorer のみに対応しているサイトを IE 越しに開く
• keyconfig 20060828: ショートカットを追加、変更する
• Linkification 1.3.3: アンカー化していないアドレスをクリック可能にする
• Make Link 8.06: コンテキストメニューからページ情報を基に HTML タグをコピーする
• MR Tech Toolkit (formerly Local Install) 6.0.1: Firefox の情報を拡張させる
• No Squint 1.93.2.1: Firefox 3 から搭載されたページ毎の表示サイズを簡易変更できるようにする
• OpenSearchFox 0.1.5: 検索エンジンを簡易作成する
• Prism for Firefox 0.2: Prism を簡易利用する
• Resizeable Textarea 0.1d: テキストエリアの幅を故意に拡張・縮小する
• Resurrect Pages 2.0.2: キャッシュを基に表示不可になったページの表示を試みる
• ScrapBook 1.3.3.6: 様々な保存方法でページを保存・管理する
• Stylish 0.5.7: CSS を基盤としてサイトの表示方法を変更する
• SubmitToTab 0.3.5: OK や 承諾 ボタンなどのリンク先を新しいタブで開く様にする
• Tab Mix Plus 0.3.6.1.080416: タブの機能を拡張する
• Temporary Inbox 2.1.2: 短期間利用できるメールアドレスを作成する
• United States English Dictionary 3.0.3: 英語のスペルチェック辞書
• Update Notifier 0.1.5.4: アドオンの更新を定期的にチェック、更新をする
• セカンドサーチ 0.4.2008052301: 検索エンジンの機能を拡張する

無効な拡張機能: [13]

• Always Remember Password 0.6
• Annoyance Remover 2.0b3
• CLEO 3.3.1
• Favicon Picker 2 0.3.4.3
• FEBE 5.3.1
• IE View 1.3.7
• Java Console 6.0.05
• Menu Editor 1.2.6
• OpenDownload 1.0.0
• PicLens 1.7.0.3458
• Sidebar Mix 0.2.1
• Web Developer[日本語版] 1.1.2
• Yahoo Japan! Mail Notifier 1.0.0.6

Dari sekian lamanya, Mozilla Firefox versi 3 akhirnya diluncurkan. Walaupun saat versi beta baik 1 sampai dengan 3 mengalami berbagai bugs dimana-mana. Namun, dengan hadir yang final versi ini ternyata kecepatannya yang dijanjikan cukup luar biasa.

Setelah saya melakukan kroscek dengan "about:config" dari veris 3 tersebut ternyata banyak tambahan yang diberikan, sebelumnya saya sudah menggunakan versi overclock di versi 2.xx.

Ini adalah beberapa bagian yang mereka tambahkan untuk versi 3 ini, dengan pengaturan dan setting yang sangat jauh tinggi.
- gwanetwork.http.max-connections;204
- gwanetwork.http.max-connections-per-server;102
- gwanetwork.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy;10
- dan masih banyak lainnya

Untuk parameter sebelumnya bisa anda bandingan pada postingan saya dulu di "Overclocking Mozilla Firefox".

Tapi dengan hadir versi baru ini, tentu belum memberikan kepuasan juga bagi anda yang gemar dengan add-ons atawa plugins. Karena di versi baru ini ada beberapa plugin yang belum begitu support/compatible.

Jangan berkecil hati, karena seperti kita tahu bersama. Makin hari browser yang satu ini akan siap membenah diri untuk memberikan yang terbaik kepada penggunanya. Jadi, banyak-banyaklah memberikan dan mengirimkan komentar atau masukan anda ke pihak developer (http://developer.mozilla.org/).

Demikian ringkasan yang bisa saya bagi bersama pecinta sirubah api yang senantiasa mengelilingi bola dunia. Semoga bisa ada manfaat dan silakan anda mencobanya.

From top to bottom: Vista, Linux, Mac, XP:

CyberNet News put together the above collage of the four Firefox 3 themes as part of their Firefox 3 Review. Personally, I didn't care for the new Firefox 3 Vista Theme.  Just a bit plain with the blue back and forward buttons against the light blue background. Even the home page icon is a bit bland as well. The good news is you can use any of the four themes by clicking on the desired link below. A couple notes, first switching between the XP or Vista Themes only changes the button colors. I tried the Linux theme, but it didn't work very well. I noticed a significant slowness when Firefox started and the tabs were not outlined. I am now using the XP on Vista Theme.

• Firefox 3 Vista on XP Theme (Blue Buttons)
• Firefox 3 Linux Theme *
• Firefox 3 MacOSX Theme *
• Firefox 3 XP on Vista Theme (Green Buttons)

* These themes are currently marked as experimental, you will need to have an AMO login in order to download. Don't have an AMO login? You can use this one from CyberNet:

Username: firefox@cybernetnews.com
Password: cybernetnews

Okay, so what if you don't like any of the Firefox 3 themes? You can get the Firefox 2 Theme For Firefox 3.

News Source: CyberNet News

The latest incarnation is no different either. One of the most useful is AdBlock Plus, which is claimed to stop nearly all internet advertising.

How to use:
Right-click on a banner and choose Adblock from the context menu - the banner won't be downloaded again. Or click Adblock Plus icon in the toolbar to see all elements of the page and block the banners. You can use filters with wildcards or even regular expressions to block complete banner factories.

Notes:

Version 0.7.5.4 locales added Hebrew and Malay; improved Firefox 3 compatibility; changed default keyboard shortcuts to Ctrl+Shift+E (preferences) and Ctrl+Shift+V (blockable items); and removed Check banner links option.

CNET gives AdBlock Plus 4 stars out of 5. Users give it 4 1/2 stars out of 5 (based on 41 votes at time of writing).

Another of my favourite add-ons is FoxyTunes, which I use all the time to listen to my iTunes Library withut leaving my browser to pause or fast forward tracks. This has been updated for FF3 and introduces a few improvements. You can now turn any page into a playlist, as long as the site's page has music embedded into it. As well iTunes, FoxyTunes supports Pandora and Last.fm amongst others.

Anotehr very useful add-on is Gmail Space, at least if you have a Gmail account. With Gmail Space you can use your 6+ Gigabytes of space (free!) for something other than emails. You get to use an FTP-style interface and email notifications too of when your upload is complete.

For my money, these three must be at the top of everyone's list of add-ons. Without a doubt, Firefox 3 continues to offer the best all-round package as far as browsers go and I run it alongside my current favourite, Flock 2 most days.

Ampliar

Fonte: Mozilla Add-ons

Add-ons in uso sono: flashgot, Delicious, Download Statusbar, Google block notes, Split Browser, Video DownloadHelper.

Per rimpicciolire quel grosso bottone di back: destro sulla barra, personalizza, icone piccole!