Tag Archive for 'The browsers'

Problems with Firefox 1.5 extensions

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2005/12/19
in Uncategorized
. 2 Comments

Is anyone having any problems with installing extensios for Firefox 1.5?
… and don’t tell me to go to Tools > Options > Content > Warn me when… ‘cos even when I add “addons.mozilla.org” to the allowed exceptions list, it doesn’t seem to change anything…

Anyone?

Updater:
Turns out I had to create a new profile to get it to install extensions (thanks to Norman for the tip).

So, this is what I kinda did to keep it as smooth and painless as possible:
zipped up old profile
deleted old profile
edited ini file in “C:\Documents and Settings\Gareth\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox” to delete old profile
restarted Firefox to create new profile
closed firefox down to copy and paste old stuff accross
extracted zip file into “test” folder
one by one, went through each file with a text editor, to see what it was for.
ended up transferring bookmarks file and bookmarks.bak file
decided not to carry formhistory accross
left Pres as is…
carried accross cookies.txt and signons.txt
The final issue was that I had about 20 tabs loading as my home page when starting up Firefox, so I found them in the old prefs.js file (you’re looking for browser.startup.homepage), copied accross to a text file for safety’s sake, then opened up Firefox and pasted into the home page input under Options > General > Home page > Locations.
All done, then went to addons.mozilla.org and installed my favourite extensions ;-)

Retain multiple open tabs in Firefox

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2005/4/10
in Productivity
. 0 Comments

_ Firefox Tip: How to retain multiple open pages (tabbed) across operating system restart

I often end up havin a good many tabs open in Firefox at the end of the day, and often I just don’t have time, or want to, blog them all in one go. This little trick has been a great saver!!

Blake Ross on Firefox and Beyond

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2005/4/10
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

_ Blake Ross on Firefox and Beyond

Customising with GreaseMonkey

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2005/3/17
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

If you’re one of the enlightened that is using Firefox, and if like me you like to customise things to make them look nicer, or work better, then you may be pleased to know that there is help on the way…

Code Ninja Aaron, who has very good kung fu, has given us Greasemonkey.

From the horses mouth:
Greasemonkey is a Firefox extension which lets you to add bits of DHTML (”user scripts”) to any webpage to change it’s behavior. In much the same way that user CSS lets you take control of a webpage’s style, user scripts let you easily control any aspect of a webpage’s design or interaction.

_ There’s an article on customizing GMail here.
_ I’ve already tried persistent searches and think it’s great.
_ I know Nurm has been up to his usual tricks doing some funky stuff.
_ Simon talks about fixing MSDN here.

Edit:
_ All in only a few weeks - crazy stuff indeed!

Google Gmail and feeding your Inbox

Published
by
Gareth Knight
on 2004/12/10
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

If you’re a user of some kind of syndicated content (like RSS / Atom) then you’ll be glad to know that if you use Gmail, there is a feed from your Inbox…

And if you’re a Firefox user, then you’ll be even more happy, because when you go to your Gmail using Firefox, look at the bottom right of the browser window for a little orange square. Click on it, and you’ll get a little dialogue box which allows you to put that Atom feed into Firefox’s bookmarks as a “livemark” - hence the ability to use your bookmarks to navigate through your email messages…

Pretty neat eh??

Now, if you’re a technology enthusiast or an early adopter you’ll love this feature even more as it gives you a 3 second look at what’s in your Inbox, it means that if you don’t log off from the web based Gmail then you’ll always be able to get to your Inbox without logging in all the time. Of course, if you get your Gmail delivered to your email client of choice, then it’s kinda redundant isn’t it?

Why I like this:
Google has taken a new technology that doesn’t yet have widespread acceptance and (more importantly) usage, and essentially thrown a big, recognised brand behind it. Over time more people will use it, pushing it into the mainstream…

That said, Internet Explorer (with a slipping, but still dominant market share) doesn’t make it this easy to view feeds so I’m thinking that barriers at the moment are that unless someone knows about Feeds, uses Firefox (or a browser that offers something similiar) and also knows that Gmail offers a feed into their Inbox, they’re not going to be an early adopter.

Clearly the folks at Google are listening to what’s going on in the market - at a quick glance, neither Yahoo nor Hotmail are doing it.
Why?, I don’t know - perhaps their number of users is just too high to implement (but I think that’s a crap excuse) , perhaps they’ve got their heads in the proverbial sand, or perhaps they’re working on bigger and better stuff….
Who knows?

Go look:
Gmail
Firefox
Feedster search result that sent me some referrers…