I just rearranged our DVDs. Chronologically.
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Friday, December 30, 2005
Gmail Mobile
I was back home for a week, and since my parents don't have anything computer-like in their possession, I had to use my cell phone to go online. And, like I said, I have no problem with that. Well, except that the mobile version of Google Mail won't work entirely as it should.
It still doesn't, but at least I found out (by accident, no less) how to read mails, after all. I don't know why, but instead of selecting the link (i.e. subject line) automatically, I have to 'scroll' to the right first. Strange enough, this issue only effects the links to individual mails. Others (like 'Compose Mail' or 'Sign out') behave just fine.
I still can't write (and thus send) a new mail. On the respective page, I can enter recipients and a subject, but nothing more. No means to write the message body, no Send button.
Ah, well, at least I can read the Daily Wikipedia article on the bus now.
It still doesn't, but at least I found out (by accident, no less) how to read mails, after all. I don't know why, but instead of selecting the link (i.e. subject line) automatically, I have to 'scroll' to the right first. Strange enough, this issue only effects the links to individual mails. Others (like 'Compose Mail' or 'Sign out') behave just fine.
I still can't write (and thus send) a new mail. On the respective page, I can enter recipients and a subject, but nothing more. No means to write the message body, no Send button.
Ah, well, at least I can read the Daily Wikipedia article on the bus now.
Monday, December 19, 2005
Extending Firefox, Pt. 2: The War on Clicks
After using my re-installed version of Firefox for a few days now, I'm beginning to miss some extensions I had installed previously. And I'm not even talking about Abe Vigoda Status here. These are mostly little fixes for things that annoy me, so nothing essential, really. Just a way to make browsing the web more comfortable.
Disable Targets For Downloads could not have a more descriptive name. All it does is prevent an empty tab to open when you click on some links that prompt a download. That's one less thing to click on every now and then. Hooray!
Ever had to Restart Firefox? Maybe after installing a new extension? That's, like, what? Three clicks? You can do better with this extension! (Even more so when you disable the confirmation dialog box.)
And while we're cutting down on clicks, doesn't it bother you that when you use Google Image Search and click on a thumbnail, you don't just get the image you want but rather the whole damn website it's on, along with a frame sitting on top of it with another thumbnail you have to click on? Google Images Re-Linker to the rescue! This takes you from the search page straight to the image. Another victory in the war on clicks!
Last for now is something that most of you probably won't need but I find highly useful: Screen Grab! It can take screenshots of either the browser window, just the visible portion of the page, or, and that's the fun part, the entire website (like this). Think of the possibilities!
Useful fact: Did you know that when you have a URL copied into the clipboard and don't want to go through all that pasting into the adress bar and pressing Enter or clicking the Go-button hassle, you can just middle-click (or center-click, as I like to call it) on a tab and the site will load immediately? I just found that out by accident. Isn't that something? (Note that this obviously won't work if your Firefox is cafoobled to close a tab when it's center-clicked.)
Disable Targets For Downloads could not have a more descriptive name. All it does is prevent an empty tab to open when you click on some links that prompt a download. That's one less thing to click on every now and then. Hooray!
Ever had to Restart Firefox? Maybe after installing a new extension? That's, like, what? Three clicks? You can do better with this extension! (Even more so when you disable the confirmation dialog box.)
And while we're cutting down on clicks, doesn't it bother you that when you use Google Image Search and click on a thumbnail, you don't just get the image you want but rather the whole damn website it's on, along with a frame sitting on top of it with another thumbnail you have to click on? Google Images Re-Linker to the rescue! This takes you from the search page straight to the image. Another victory in the war on clicks!
Last for now is something that most of you probably won't need but I find highly useful: Screen Grab! It can take screenshots of either the browser window, just the visible portion of the page, or, and that's the fun part, the entire website (like this). Think of the possibilities!
Useful fact: Did you know that when you have a URL copied into the clipboard and don't want to go through all that pasting into the adress bar and pressing Enter or clicking the Go-button hassle, you can just middle-click (or center-click, as I like to call it) on a tab and the site will load immediately? I just found that out by accident. Isn't that something? (Note that this obviously won't work if your Firefox is cafoobled to close a tab when it's center-clicked.)
Saturday, December 17, 2005
Portable Life
I'm in Mainz for my father's birthday, so right now I'm using his laptop, running Portable Firefox and Portable Gaim. On the train I used my cell phone to browse Wikipedia, read my eMails* and google lyrics to songs that I was listening to on my (portable) mp3-Player.
I hardly use my mobile phone for its primary purpose (that would be calling people, although watching the ads on tv suggests otherwise) anymore. Last month's bill showed under one Euro of telephone connections, so the biggest expense is the 5 Euro wap flatrate, but that is worth every cent. I read news on the bus, look for directions and train schedules on the road and look up just about anything that comes up in a given conversation that needs clarification. (Recent example: Upon hearing my name one of the French students remembered the word "Nebelstreif" from Erlkönig. We weren't sure about who had written that poem (yes, I know, that is sad) - my guess was Goethe, the others outvoted me, saying it was Schiller. Turns out I was right, but I really wasn't sure about it.)
* Well, at least looking at the subjects, since clicking on (and reading) them doesn't work.
I hardly use my mobile phone for its primary purpose (that would be calling people, although watching the ads on tv suggests otherwise) anymore. Last month's bill showed under one Euro of telephone connections, so the biggest expense is the 5 Euro wap flatrate, but that is worth every cent. I read news on the bus, look for directions and train schedules on the road and look up just about anything that comes up in a given conversation that needs clarification. (Recent example: Upon hearing my name one of the French students remembered the word "Nebelstreif" from Erlkönig. We weren't sure about who had written that poem (yes, I know, that is sad) - my guess was Goethe, the others outvoted me, saying it was Schiller. Turns out I was right, but I really wasn't sure about it.)
* Well, at least looking at the subjects, since clicking on (and reading) them doesn't work.
Friday, December 16, 2005
Firefox: Reinstalled
When I first got my own computer (a DM 2,000 laptop, later to be exchanged to a desktop pc) I would format my hard drive and re-install Windows every other month. Not because the old installation was broke (although sometimes it was) but because I just like a fresh start every now and then. Also I'm someone who tests out a lot of free- and shareware, and a clean Windows would require me to take only the good programs with me and lose all the junk. And you can accumulate a lot of junk in a month, believe me.
Nowadays I've gotten a bit lazy when it comes to re-installing Windows (and the XP installation process isn't nearly as fun as 95 and even 98 were) but with all its extensions and stuff to recafooble, Firefox is a good substitute. That, and for some reason my current installation crashes every time I do anything.
So I just de-installed Firefox, deleted the Firefox directory (why's there still so much stuff in there after I removed Firefox?) and started up the good old Opera (which I still have a hard time getting used to) so that I can document and comment on what's about to happen:
Installing Firefox.
The latest version is 1.5, wich I had running for a few weeks and basically was pretty happy with, although I noticed some compatibility issues with my extensions, and then there was the aforementioned crashing recently.
"It is strongly recommended that you exit all Windows programs before running this Setup program." Yeah, well, no. Opera and Winamp are existential right now and not to be shut down. Has anyone ever read a license agreement? I always scroll down to the bottom before clicking on "I accept", because I have the slightly paranoid feeling that somewhere in the program, some little flag will go up if I don't.
"Custom" setup, for the experienced user, it is. But all that gives me is the option to install "Developer Tools" and the "Quality Feedback Agent". I always used to do that in the past, thinking I might actually use them some day, but today I'll pass.
After some quick file copying and registry registering, Firefox is installed. That was the easy part. Now off to:
Recafoobling Firefox.
Starting Firefox for the first time immeadiately confronts me with something annoying: Google.de. In German. I'm running an English version of Windows, I have downloaded the English version of Firefox from the English Mozilla site. Just because I'm living in Germany doesn't mean I want my software to be speaking German to me. So let's see what we can do about that.
Tools, Options, General. First of all, I want my home page to be blank. I don't like my browser to be loading some page, no matter which one, right after I started it.
Privacy. Not much to change here. The highest risk to computer security sits in front of the keyboard.
Content. I shut off the warning that alerts me when "web sites try to install extensions". Let's face it, when I click on an .xpi-link, I want to install an extension. And it's not like malicious extensions can just self-install without me noticing.
Tabs. I'll install an advanced tab-extension later, but for now I don't want the tab bar to go away when only one (or less) tabs are open and I don't want to hear a warning when closing multiple tabs.
Downloads. This, too, will be advanced via various extensions, but I'd like to be asked where to save files instead of just dumping them in some folder and I don't want the Download Manager to appear. Ever.
Advanced. There's the no-good language configuration. I just remove whatever's in there, it doesn't seem to effect my browsing anyway. Well, maybe it does with ads, but I won't be seeing much of those when I'm finished here.
After quickly removing the Mozilla links from the Bookmarks Toolbar and adding a few new engines to the search bar (Flickr, IMDb and Wikipedia) it is time for:
Extending Firefox
I'm starting with the popular extensions. I am going to install one extension at a time, restarting Firefox and, if neccessary, configuring the extension, just to be on the safe side.
First up there's FlashGot, which works nicely with download managers such as GetRight. I disable things like "FlashGot selection" or "FlashGot all" from the context menu, because either they don't really work or (more likely) I don't really understand what they're supposed to be doing. But it's still a valuable extension for its integration with GetRight.
Among my favourite extensions are Adblock and its companion, Adblock Filterset.G Updater. Together they eliminate an estimated 75% of all advertisment from the web, and it's easy to add most of the remaining 15% to the filter. This is one of the the things I miss most when going online with some other software or on another computer. How do people get anything done with all these annoying ads showing up all the time?
Hate Internet Explorer as much as you want, sometimes there's no way around it. (Like, when somebody is using \ instead of / when linking to images). But there's no need to start IE on its own when you can have it embedded in a Firefox tab with IE Tab! This extension is clearly built for developers and not the mainstream user, but if you know what you're doing, it can be very helpful.
Tabbrowser Preferences is one of these extensions I use since day one, and I'm not even sure what exactly it does anymore. I thought that Mozilla may have incorporated its features in Firefox 1.5, but it doesn't look like it, so this is a recommended install. Trust me, whatever it does, it does it good. A quick look at the preferences shows that it comes already-well-cafoobled, no need to change anything here, at least not for me.
If you're not already using del.icio.us you should definitely try it out, and either way, the del.icio.us Firefox extension is one I wouldn't want to miss. Tagging websites (and finding them again later) has never been so easy.
Time for some Google extensions. First of all, the essential Google Toolbar. This one has plenty of options, so it's worth looking into the configuration. The features I like (and have present on the toolbar) are the PageRank display, Search Site, I'm Feeling Lucky and Image Search, Highlight and Word find, BlogThis! (I haven't used it yet, but I know I will someday!) and the Up and Page Info buttons.
Is there any reason not to use Google Mail? I can't think of one, and the Gmail Notifier is a nice little extension that, you guessed it, notifies you whenever new eMails arrive. If you're using multiple Gmail accounts, Gmail Manager might be of interest for you.
Colorful Tabs is one of those things you don't really need, but once you're used to it, you don't want to be without it. All it does is give each tab a differen color, so that it's easier to distinguish them without all that boring reading and such.
I use GetRight to download large files, but for small things or documents I just need to open, not save, I like having the Download Statusbar around. I run it in Mini Mode and it's really much more pleasant than the built-in Download Manager.
Well, that have been ten (or nine-and-a-half) Firefox extensions, this should do it for now. I can think of some more I'd might install, but those are mostly for entertainment purposes, so you don't really need them.
Update: Extending Firefox, Pt. 2: The War on Clicks
Nowadays I've gotten a bit lazy when it comes to re-installing Windows (and the XP installation process isn't nearly as fun as 95 and even 98 were) but with all its extensions and stuff to recafooble, Firefox is a good substitute. That, and for some reason my current installation crashes every time I do anything.
So I just de-installed Firefox, deleted the Firefox directory (why's there still so much stuff in there after I removed Firefox?) and started up the good old Opera (which I still have a hard time getting used to) so that I can document and comment on what's about to happen:
Installing Firefox.
The latest version is 1.5, wich I had running for a few weeks and basically was pretty happy with, although I noticed some compatibility issues with my extensions, and then there was the aforementioned crashing recently.
"It is strongly recommended that you exit all Windows programs before running this Setup program." Yeah, well, no. Opera and Winamp are existential right now and not to be shut down. Has anyone ever read a license agreement? I always scroll down to the bottom before clicking on "I accept", because I have the slightly paranoid feeling that somewhere in the program, some little flag will go up if I don't.
"Custom" setup, for the experienced user, it is. But all that gives me is the option to install "Developer Tools" and the "Quality Feedback Agent". I always used to do that in the past, thinking I might actually use them some day, but today I'll pass.
After some quick file copying and registry registering, Firefox is installed. That was the easy part. Now off to:
Recafoobling Firefox.
Starting Firefox for the first time immeadiately confronts me with something annoying: Google.de. In German. I'm running an English version of Windows, I have downloaded the English version of Firefox from the English Mozilla site. Just because I'm living in Germany doesn't mean I want my software to be speaking German to me. So let's see what we can do about that.
Tools, Options, General. First of all, I want my home page to be blank. I don't like my browser to be loading some page, no matter which one, right after I started it.
Privacy. Not much to change here. The highest risk to computer security sits in front of the keyboard.
Content. I shut off the warning that alerts me when "web sites try to install extensions". Let's face it, when I click on an .xpi-link, I want to install an extension. And it's not like malicious extensions can just self-install without me noticing.
Tabs. I'll install an advanced tab-extension later, but for now I don't want the tab bar to go away when only one (or less) tabs are open and I don't want to hear a warning when closing multiple tabs.
Downloads. This, too, will be advanced via various extensions, but I'd like to be asked where to save files instead of just dumping them in some folder and I don't want the Download Manager to appear. Ever.
Advanced. There's the no-good language configuration. I just remove whatever's in there, it doesn't seem to effect my browsing anyway. Well, maybe it does with ads, but I won't be seeing much of those when I'm finished here.
After quickly removing the Mozilla links from the Bookmarks Toolbar and adding a few new engines to the search bar (Flickr, IMDb and Wikipedia) it is time for:
Extending Firefox
I'm starting with the popular extensions. I am going to install one extension at a time, restarting Firefox and, if neccessary, configuring the extension, just to be on the safe side.
First up there's FlashGot, which works nicely with download managers such as GetRight. I disable things like "FlashGot selection" or "FlashGot all" from the context menu, because either they don't really work or (more likely) I don't really understand what they're supposed to be doing. But it's still a valuable extension for its integration with GetRight.
Among my favourite extensions are Adblock and its companion, Adblock Filterset.G Updater. Together they eliminate an estimated 75% of all advertisment from the web, and it's easy to add most of the remaining 15% to the filter. This is one of the the things I miss most when going online with some other software or on another computer. How do people get anything done with all these annoying ads showing up all the time?
Hate Internet Explorer as much as you want, sometimes there's no way around it. (Like, when somebody is using \ instead of / when linking to images). But there's no need to start IE on its own when you can have it embedded in a Firefox tab with IE Tab! This extension is clearly built for developers and not the mainstream user, but if you know what you're doing, it can be very helpful.
Tabbrowser Preferences is one of these extensions I use since day one, and I'm not even sure what exactly it does anymore. I thought that Mozilla may have incorporated its features in Firefox 1.5, but it doesn't look like it, so this is a recommended install. Trust me, whatever it does, it does it good. A quick look at the preferences shows that it comes already-well-cafoobled, no need to change anything here, at least not for me.
If you're not already using del.icio.us you should definitely try it out, and either way, the del.icio.us Firefox extension is one I wouldn't want to miss. Tagging websites (and finding them again later) has never been so easy.
Time for some Google extensions. First of all, the essential Google Toolbar. This one has plenty of options, so it's worth looking into the configuration. The features I like (and have present on the toolbar) are the PageRank display, Search Site, I'm Feeling Lucky and Image Search, Highlight and Word find, BlogThis! (I haven't used it yet, but I know I will someday!) and the Up and Page Info buttons.
Is there any reason not to use Google Mail? I can't think of one, and the Gmail Notifier is a nice little extension that, you guessed it, notifies you whenever new eMails arrive. If you're using multiple Gmail accounts, Gmail Manager might be of interest for you.
Colorful Tabs is one of those things you don't really need, but once you're used to it, you don't want to be without it. All it does is give each tab a differen color, so that it's easier to distinguish them without all that boring reading and such.
I use GetRight to download large files, but for small things or documents I just need to open, not save, I like having the Download Statusbar around. I run it in Mini Mode and it's really much more pleasant than the built-in Download Manager.
Well, that have been ten (or nine-and-a-half) Firefox extensions, this should do it for now. I can think of some more I'd might install, but those are mostly for entertainment purposes, so you don't really need them.
Update: Extending Firefox, Pt. 2: The War on Clicks
Hate Week
I just spent way too long figuring out a name (address) for this blog. Of course such obvious choices as nebel.blogspot.com or clevertitle.blogspot.com were taken years ago, posted on for a few days and then abandoned.
So I turned to my amazing collection of classic and contemporary literature, full of works by names like Wells, Swift, Twain, Milton, Chaucer and Orwell. Well, okay, I only have about ten books, and I haven't read most of them, but these are some impressive names, right? Anyway, Orwell's "1984" I did read (and enjoy) and its first words are "It was a bright cold day in April", and a few rows below that "Hate Week" is mentioned, and now that's the name of the blog. Don't try to read anything into that, though.
Fun fact: The 762nd through 767th decimal places of Pi are all 9s. That's six times. One of the few people I actually own more than one book of, Richard Feynman, wanted to memorize all the digits leading up to this point, so that he could end reciting them with "... nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, and so on."
So I turned to my amazing collection of classic and contemporary literature, full of works by names like Wells, Swift, Twain, Milton, Chaucer and Orwell. Well, okay, I only have about ten books, and I haven't read most of them, but these are some impressive names, right? Anyway, Orwell's "1984" I did read (and enjoy) and its first words are "It was a bright cold day in April", and a few rows below that "Hate Week" is mentioned, and now that's the name of the blog. Don't try to read anything into that, though.
Fun fact: The 762nd through 767th decimal places of Pi are all 9s. That's six times. One of the few people I actually own more than one book of, Richard Feynman, wanted to memorize all the digits leading up to this point, so that he could end reciting them with "... nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, and so on."
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