Posts Tagged ‘browsers’

Posted on July 8, 2008 - by snipe

Firefox Add-On ErrorZilla breaks FF3 SSL error page

If you use the Firefox add-on ErrorZilla, which conveniently displays additional options (Try Again, Google Cache, Coralize, Wayback, Ping, Trace, and Whois buttons) when Firefox hits an error page, you may notice something frustrating happening in Firefox 3. (more…)

Posted on July 2, 2008 - by snipe

Sync Your Browsers Across Multiple Computers with Mozilla Weave

Those of you who have upgraded to Firefox 3 may be feeling the loss of Google Browser Sync, Google’s free Firefox addon that previously allowed you to sync bookmarks, stored password, cookies and more across multiple computers. For folks like me, who work on multiple computers throughout the course of the day, this was an invaluable tool for keeping track of passwords at the very least.

I was heartbroken to discover that Google had effectively abandoned the project around the time that Firefox 3 came out - so much so that I delayed upgrading Firefox for a while.  I was hoping they’d change their mind, or get around to updating it - but eventually I realized that Google Browser Sync has been discontinued, and the download has been replaced with the following text:

Google Browser Sync is no longer available for download. Instead, to get similar functionality, we suggest using Mozilla Weave, Google Toolbar for Firefox, or Foxmarks. Support for current Google Browser Sync users will continue through 2008. We’ve also posted the code to Google Code in hopes that someone will use it to develop something cool.

As such, it will not be updated for Firefox 3. However, the code has been made available to the public

Fortunately, the folks at Mozilla Labs came to the rescue, with their new project, Mozilla Weave. Mozilla Weave syncs forms, history, cookies, passwords, tabs and bookmarks - and even has support for Weave add-ins. Plus, you can mount your storage slot using WebDAV - although Mozilla strongly warns against using this space for general storage, as they may delete the contents at any time.

I’ve installed it so far on Win XP and Mac OSX (Leopard), and it’s working smashingly. Learn more about the Weave project, including the basics of how it works and the fundamental principles, at the Mozilla Labs Weave page, or try it out by downloading it today!

Posted on June 23, 2008 - by snipe

Hacking Firefox

Excellent (and long) article here that covers most of the frequently-asked-for tweaks and hacks to about:config in Firefox.

I had originally found it while trying to remember how to tweak my Firefox so that when I type in a keyword string into the address bar, it would send me to Google search results, instead of Google’s “I’m feeling lucky”. And sure enough, I found exactly what I was looking for - and tons more - in this article:

You may have noticed that if you type something into Firefox’s address bar that’s not an address (a “keyword”), Firefox typically passes it on to Google as an “I’m Feeling Lucky” search term. The exact search engine string to use is defined in the string preference keyword.URL; if you want to change it to something else, you can simply edit this string.

So I changed it to a normal Google search results string, and voila.

Even though this article was written in 2007, most of the info still applies, so its still a worthwhile article to check out. Computer World: Hacking Firefox: The Secrets of about:config

Posted on June 22, 2008 - by snipe

Tweak Firefox 3 to Display Richer Colors

If the digital photo you just uploaded looks more washed out in Flickr than it does in your desktop image editor, that’s because Firefox 3’s advanced color management capability isn’t turned on by default. To turn it on, type about:config in Firefox 3’s address bar, then click the “I’ll be careful, I promise!” button. Then, in the Filter field, type gfx.color_management.enabled and set that value to true (its default value is false). Restart Firefox. From there on in, your photo colors will be richer than they were. Why isn’t this value true by default? Well, according to Mozilla, you’ll see a 10-15% performance hit using this setting, but if you’ve got a reasonably fast machine, it’ll be worth the better-looking photos. Hit this link for an extended explanation of Firefox’s color profile support.

Posted on January 20, 2007 - by snipe

Multiple IEs

This is handy for when you need to test a website out in multiple versions of Internet Explorer. And its free! Windows only, but then again, IE for Mac is out of development, so its less of an issue. Installation is a breeze, and I’ve set it up on several systems without so much as a single glitch. No promises for Vista tho - I refuse to install it, so I can’t vouch for anything running on it.

Get it free at tredoft.com.