Jul 19

Spread Firefox 2 Preview – Way Better!

Posted in: Software, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on November 15, 2007 by CyberNet.

Spread Firefox 2 Asa Dotzler, Mozilla’s Quality Assurance leader, announced a preview of the Spread Firefox 2 site that will be the future home to all Firefox enthusiasts out there. The new site is still based on Drupal, which offers a powerful and secure platform for them to share and mange their content on.

If my memory serves me correctly the current Spread Firefox site hasn’t changed since it launched back in 2004. There’s no need to say that it is definitely starting to show its age, and the new site has numerous improvements that make it more pleasing on the eyes.

Mozilla decided to shift the focus a bit for the new Spread Firefox 2. Instead of making the site revolve around member blogs the new version puts more emphasis on the projects and contests that are currently going on. Naturally this makes more sense, and I’m glad they decided to make the adjustment.

And while you’re spreading Firefox don’t forget to tip people off on our very own Learn Firefox ( RSS Feed)! There have been hundreds of guides and extension reviews posted over there to help both new and experienced users alike.

Preview Spread Firefox 2

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Jul 19

Meebo Brings IM to Firefox Web Browser

Posted in: Firefox Extensions, Software, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on October 18, 2007 by CyberNet.

meebo messages Meebo has just launched a new Firefox extension so that you can instant message right from the sidebar of your browser. While this makes it convenient to have access to your favorite IM clients like AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, Google Talk, ICQ, and Jabber, there are a few things that could be improved to make this extension even better. Seeing as this is their first extension though, I think you’ll be impressed with what it offers.

Once you install the extension (download here), you’ll be able to select which chat client you’d like to sign into.  Once you sign-in, a new Meebo tab will automatically open in your browser. This is where all of your chat windows will be. When I mentioned that Meebo could certainly improve on a few things, this is one of them.  It would be nice if you could keep the chat window open in the sidebar, or maybe even have your conversations tabbed right along with your other opened tabs in the browser instead of having all your conversations opened in the one Meebo tab. The current setup is almost like just going to their site to chat, but you have the convenience of being able to view all of your contacts in the sidebar which is always open.

meebo extension

While there are some improvements that need to be made, it does have some great features, so lets take a look. Using the Meebo extension, you can chat with a group of people, send a file, view chat logs, and view a user’s profile. There’s also an automatic sign-on feature that will sign you in when you open the browser.  Meebo alerts will let you know when you have a new message if you’re viewing another tab. If you’re on a different tab and you receive a message, the tab will flash, but you’ll also see a red bubble next to the persons name in the sidebar displaying how many new messages you have from them.

Overall it’s a really great extension, and a nice addition from Meebo to make chatting easy no matter where you are.

Thanks for the tip Radu!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Jul 18

A Man Who’s Never Used a Computer in His Life Tries Internet Explorer

Posted in: Chrome, Internet Explorer, Today's Chili, top

Jennifer Boriss, a Firefox dev, went to the mall seeking test subjects to help improve the browser. She expected to meet people with a range of tech savvy, but she was’t expecting a man who’d never before touched a mouse. More »

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Jul 18

The Visual Identity of Firefox…What’s Right & What’s Wrong

Posted in: Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on January 02, 2007 by CyberNet.

Firefox logos are abundant on the Internet but how many of them are actually correct? Some of them are obvious that they are not trying to go along with the standard Firefox icon, but I think you might be surprised at the strict details that Mozilla has in place for distributing their logo. First lets look at what the correct logos look like:

Just the logo with both a white or black background:

Firefox logo

 

The logo with side text:

Firefox Logo with Side Text

 

Now lets look at some of the ones that are not correct and what’s wrong with them, actually, we should make a game out of it. I’ll list the different logos (numbered 1 to 9) and you make a list of what’s wrong with each. Come on, you have done things like this as a kid. ;)

To reveal what is wrong either hover your mouse over the image or scroll down to the bottom where I have listed the answers with the corresponding numbers.


  1.  

  2.  

  3.  

  4.  

  5.  

  6.  

  7.  

  8.  

 

Here are the answers for what’s wrong with each of the above images:

  1. Strong colored background (duh!)
  2. Incomplete logo (it’s gotta have a globe!)
  3. Non-standard orientation and sizing of logo/text
  4. Incorrect logo/text size ratio and position
  5. Missing the shadow (this one was a bit tricky)
  6. Incorrect font color
  7. Incorrect font face
  8. Strong pattered background (you should have learned your lessen from the first image)
  9. Incorrect colors

 

I hope you had some fun with that and even I’ll admit that I couldn’t figure out number 5 without looking at the answer. Be honest…did you figure them all out without cheating?

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Jul 17

Firefox 2 Beta 2 Slips For A Second Time

Posted in: Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on August 10, 2006 by CyberNet.

Firefox 2 Beta 2 Slips For A Second TimeFirefox 2 Beta 2 has been pushed back another week because there are a lot of bugs that need to be fixed before they can release Beta 2. Some of the bugs have to do with the new visual refresh theme that was implemented last week and also with the new Preferences Window. So the new schedule means the code freeze for Beta 2 will be on August 16th and it will officially be released midday on August 23rd.

If you haven’t heard there is one really serious bug that will continue to push back the release if it cannot be fixed. Here is the description of the problem:

Firefox cannot handle eating 10 Taco Bell Burrito Supremes without vomiting.

Everything starts out rendering correctly, but as time progresses, the
rendering slows down… and then about 90 minutes in, Firefox just barfs.

This is the pre-crash image but it looks like they may have gotten the bug worked out in this image. If you want some really good laughs make sure you read the comments in the bug report. Don’t worry though, there really are legitimate bugs that are blocking Beta 2 from being released :D .

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Jul 16

Firefox 2.0 Gets Undo Close Tab & Scrolling Tabs

Posted in: Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on July 01, 2006 by CyberNet.

Firefox 2.0 Gets Undo Close Tab & Scrolling Tabs

After upgrading to the latest nightly build of Firefox 2.0 I noticed two features that I haven’t seen before. One of the features was an “Undo Close Tab” button when you right-click on the tab-bar or on a tab. This allows a user to recover a site that they may have just accidentally closed. This is great because ever since they put that little red “X” on each tab I have accidentally closed sites several times.

The other feature that I don’t like very much is a scrolling tab-bar. When you open too many tabs Firefox will put scroll buttons on each end of the tab-bar. On my 1280×800 laptop screen it only allows me to open 10 tabs before it displays the scroll buttons. Hopefully they will end up letting users choose the minimum size of the tabs before the scroll buttons appear, otherwise I am sure there will be an extension to cure this!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Jul 16

Firebug: The Most Useful Firefox Extension For Web Developers!

Posted in: Freeware, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on December 05, 2006 by CyberNet.

Firebug

Some Firefox extensions are known for the large array of features and usefulness that they add to the browser. I have been impressed by several Firefox extensions before but Firebug takes it to a whole new level. It doesn’t even seem like it could be an extension because it adds that much functionality to Firefox.

I always loved being able to highlight some text on a page, right-click and select “View Selection Source.” That would pull up the source code for what I just highlighted and Firebug has something very similar, but again, it is much better. You can right click on any element or text and select “Inspect Element.” Doing so would pull up a window similar to the one that I have pictured above. It puts that source code in a collapsible tree format so that it isn’t difficult to sift through it looking for a particular spot. Then on the right side it will show you the CSS style element related to what you have selected.

I haven’t even gotten to the coolest thing in Firebug yet! You can actually edit the HTML and CSS code inside of the Firebug window and it will show you the changes live on the page. No more having to edit the CSS and refresh the window to see how it will affect things. Besides just being useful it is fun to tinker around with sites. :)

How long does it take a page to load? Firebug will break down how long it takes individual elements on a page to load and then total it up (this is found on the “Net” tab). According to its calculations CyberNet takes 7.71 seconds to load which is pretty close to what I had measured before…so I would say it is accurate.

I am just starting to tip the iceberg with the features Firebug has so you can go check out the rest. As of right now Firebug is free for everyone to use but it is currently in the Beta stage. The developer is considering the possibility of charging for the extension so that it can continually be improved. As much as I would like to see this remain free there is no doubt that the developer deserves the $25 that he is thinking about charging. If it remains free I’ll probably donate the money anyways because it is so useful.

Update:
Looks like Firebug will remain free and open source!

Thanks to “natmaster” for the tip!

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Jul 15

Best Greasemonkey Scripts: Google Reader Preview

Posted in: Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on January 30, 2008 by CyberNet.

Lifehacker just released a new version of their Better GReader Firefox extension. It brings all of the best Greasemonkey scripts for Google Reader under one roof, and by installing the extension you can enable up to 8 of scripts that will all enhance either the look or usability of Google Reader.

One script in particular that they included really caught my eye. It’s called Google Reader Preview Enhanced, and what it does is give you the option to open a particular feed item’s website within a frame in Google Reader. This becomes the default behavior when you click on the title of the article, or on a specialized button located at the bottom of each feed item:

Google Reader Preview
Click to Enlarge

This is ideal for sites that don’t provide the full article content within the feeds, but one of the real reasons that I’ve found this especially useful for is commenting. The script removes the burden of having to open a new tab/window to leave a comment on a site. Heck, I have enough tabs open already and don’t need to add to them.

Clicking on the title or preview button a second time will switch back to the actual feed item, or if you still want to open the site in a new tab/window just click the little arrow at the far right side of feed item bar (located next to the time).

Google Reader Preview Enhanced

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Jul 15

What do You Think of the Firefox 3 Themes?

Posted in: Firefox 3, Freeware, Linux, Mac, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on May 19, 2008 by CyberNet.

skitched-20080519-110406.jpgFirefox 3 is scheduled to be finished in the next month or two, and with it users will begin seeing a completely redesigned interface that is tailored to the operating system that they are using. This version of Firefox has already made significant advances in terms of performance, and it seems as though the only thing people have been criticizing in Firefox 3 are the new themes. When it comes down to it there is a different theme available for Vista, Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows XP.

Alex Faaborg, the user experience designer at Mozilla, put together a rather comprehensive review of how they visually tied Firefox 3 into the different operating systems. Personally the only thing that I really dislike in the themes is the “keyhole” design for the back/forward button. All of the themes, except for Linux, have this type of button. I find it to be gaudy and not flow well with the other aspects of the themes.

Luckily you can easily ditch the keyhole-styled button by enabling small icons. Just right-click on the navigation bar, choose Customize, and then check the Use Small Icons box. Notice how the oversized keyhole design is nowhere to be found?

I was really looking forward to Aero Glass integration in the Vista theme, but that won’t be happening this time around. For the time being we’ll have to rely on an extension to get that job done, that is until the next version of Firefox arrives:

On Vista we do a great job visually integrating with icons and with our set of secondary windows, although the main window is notably missing support for Aero glass. Users will hopefully be able to get this functionality using an extension during the life cycle of Firefox 3, and we will have glass support added to XUL for the next release of Firefox.

Faaborg even went as far as to say that “Safari 3.1 does a number of [visual] things wrong that we get right.” An example he gave was how the navigation buttons are not grayed out in Safari 3.1 when the window is not selected, which isn’t consistent with some other Apple applications. One commenter who goes by the name Superdotman called Faaborg out by saying:

Apple’s attention to detail is huge. If you see something that seems inconsistent, there’s usually a good reason.

Safari glyphs remain dark because when the window is deselected, they still accept click-through. Finder’s don’t.

Aqua controls are used for webclips because webclips are done with a modal dialog. Inline find uses the appropriate textured controls.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that you guys are trying to integrate more with OS X! Just tone down the ego a bit until you have some more knowledgeable Mac guys to back it up.

Mozilla definitely deserves some credit for being one of the first cross-platform browsers to developer OS-specific themes. I’m curious as to how many of you like the new themes, and how many of you will actually go hunting for a new one to use.

Thanks to “Change” for the tip!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Jul 09

Extension to Auto-hide the Firefox Tab Bar

Posted in: Firefox Extensions, Freeware, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on March 16, 2007 by CyberNet.

I just tried out a new extension and the purpose of it is to auto-hide my Firefox Tab Bar. After all, an entire toolbar takes up a good chunk of space and every little bit of room matters to a power user.

I read about this extension over at Mozilla Links who installed what looks like the latest stable version available on the Mozilla extensions site. However, I read through the description a little bit and saw a thing saying “Version 1.0 is coming soon” and then they said that testers are welcomed for pre-release versions. Seeing that I’m a big fan of unstable software (almost to the point that it is an addiction) I jumped over to the forum where the latest unstable version was posted.

Judging from the screenshot that Mozilla Links posted and the one I’ve posted below, I would say the latest pre-release version has a lot of great new features:

Auto-Hide Tab Bar

Auto-Hide Tab BarThe “Show pin button” option is actually quite nifty. It will add a little button at the end of the Tab Bar so that you can “pin” the Tab Bar to keep it open. A screenshot of the pin button can be seen to the right, but yours will look a little different since I’m not using the default Firefox theme. You can also use Ctrl+F11 to toggle the Tab Bar on or off.

At first I thought that I would want the Tab Bar to popup real quick when a new tab opens up (which is an optional setting), but it is quite nice having it nicely tucked away. There are several settings like this that you’ll just have to play with until you get everything how you want it.

I haven’t been using the extension for too long today, but I have the pre-release version installed on Firefox 3 nightlies. It seems to do pretty well, but every now and then it will look like it closes a tab even though it still shows up in the drop-down menu next to the pin button. I’m hoping this is only related to Firefox 3 and later on I hope to try it out on Firefox 2 to see if there are any issues.

Hide Tab Bar Homepage
Latest Pre-Release of Hide Tab Bar

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