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Apr 17

Firefox 3 Download Day Starts NOW

Posted in: Firefox 3, Freeware, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on June 17, 2008 by CyberNet.

firefox download day.png About two weeks ago we wrote about how Mozilla was going after a Guinness World Record when Firefox 3 launched. Well, that day is today, and the official Firefox 3 Download Day started just minutes ago! It strolled in about an hour late, but at least it made it here safe and sound. The site is getting hammered pretty hard right now, so don’t be surprised if you can’t get through right away.

Mozilla is shooting for 5 million downloads within the first 24-hours, and to have your download count you’ll need to download the full installation of the browser. You’ve got until Wednesday, June 18th at 10AM PST (view in your timezone) to complete your download.

Before the launch there had already been well over 1.7 million people pledge to download the browser, which means they should have no troubles bypassing the 1.6 million downloads that they received for Firefox 2 when it was released. Italy, Poland, and Brazil all had over 100,000 pledges each, and the United States had over 275,000 pledges. That means those four countries alone will likely account for 40% of the total downloads.

In the event that Mozilla’s site starts to get bogged down (which is exactly what appears to be happening right now) I’ve put together a downloader for all of the different languages Firefox 3 is offered in. This will take you directly to the download page for your particular language, and should count in the “Download Day” total.

Be sure to keep an eye out for our CyberNotes tomorrow morning as we give Firefox 3 the full review it deserves.

Get Firefox 3
Thanks to Cody for the tip!

Download Firefox 1.5.0.2 Optimized For Mac G4 And G5

Download Firefox 1.5.0.4 Optimized For Mac G4 And G5

Mozilla Wants To Hear Your Opinion On The New Theme

Download Portable Firefox 1.5.0.5

Apr 11

WrapUp: SearchTabs Enhances Your Google Results, Find Source Images for Desktop Wallpapers, and More

Posted in: Features, Firefox 3, Google, Tips and Tricks, Today's Chili, verizon, WrapUp

This article was written on October 15, 2009 by CyberNet.

Welcome to the WrapUp by CyberNet. This is a collection of news stories, downloads, and tips that we have collected over the last few days, but never got around to writing about. Don’t forget to send in your own tips, or just leave a comment on this page if you think you’ve got something we should include.

–News–

Shared Folders Now on Google Docs
Google has added a feature to Google Docs that I’m sure collaborators will love. They now let you share an entire folder of documents with a group of people instead of having to specify permissions on a per-document basis. That means you can have a folder of docs for co-workers, another for family members, and so on. This just got a lot more useful for me!

Microsoft Ditches Works for Office 2010 Starter
Microsoft has decided to give the axe to MS Works, and replace it with Office 2010 Starter edition. This will included stripped-down ad-filled versions of both Word and Excel that will ship on many new PC’s… instead of the current 60-day trial solution that is getting included. I’m a bit torn as to whether this will be good or bad. In some ways I’m happy I won’t have to hear people say “why can’t I edit my documents in Office anymore?” I’m a bit concerned, however, as to what the quality of ads will be like, and what information Microsoft will be able to collect from users as a result of that.

Verizon Promises Android Phones with Google Voice Support
Verizon and Google made a joint announcement that they will be working together to serve up some Android-powered phones this year. They also said that they will be including support for Google Voice, which was obviously a jab at Apple/AT&T considering the lack of support for the service from those two companies. This should definitely shine some more light on the Android platform, which will hopefully give Google the push they need to continually innovate in the mobile area.

–News in Brief–

Walmart Offering $45 Unlimited Nationwide Cellphone Plan
The retail giant Walmart will begin offering a no-contract cellphone plan in the coming days that includes unlimited minutes, data, and messaging for a mere $45 per month.

Gmail Labs Introduces “Got the Wrong Bob?”
Google can analyze the recipients that you have selected in an email composition, and see if you’ve likely chosen the correct people based on past email habits.

YouTube Shows Video Info
By right-clicking on a YouTube video you can now get information like bitrate, frame rate, and other details.

Ten Teen Entrepreneurs to Watch
TechCrunch outlines 10 teens that you should keep an eye out for… because you’ll probably hear about them again in the future.

Google Sites Gets More Features
When using Google Sites you can add things like documents, spreadsheets, calendars, and more.

Google’s (Lack of) Acquisition Process
Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt admits that Larry and Sergey buy companies on a whim.

Quickly View Formatted PDF’s in your Google Search Results
Google now includes a “Quick View” option next to PDF search results to make reading PDF’s less painful.

MediaFire Pushes for a Firefox Extension to be Banned
MediaFire is urging Mozilla to remove a Firefox extension that is against their terms of service.

Meebo Hits 90 Million Users
Congrats to Meebo for inching even closer to the huge 100 million user milestone!

Pirate Bay Relocates to Nuclear Bunker
The Pirate Bay is protecting themselves from physical attacks by relocating to a nuclear warfare bunker.

–Tips, Tutorials, and Reviews–

SearchTabs Enhances Your Google Results
The SearchTabs Firefox extension is pretty cool because it leverages the data from Xmarks, which includes over one billion user bookmarks. SearchTabs looks at this data and displays stats next to the results letting you know how each one ranks in particular categories. This can definitely be helpful when trying to determine how reputable something is that you’re reading.

Create a Virtual Machine Image From Your Hard Drive
Interestingly enough the Microsoft-owned Sysinternals company has created a free application that lets you turn the OS on your hard drive into a virtual machine image. The image that is generated can then be used in one of numerous virtual machine applications, or when you’re in Windows 7/Vista you can actually mount and browse the contents of the image without actually needing to fire it up.

Create Dynamic Desktop Wallpapers
PhotoJoy is a free Windows app that lets you create dynamic wallpapers and screensavers from the photos you have stored on your computer. If you’re looking for a way to spice up your desktop this is an awesome way to do it. And, if you’re anything like me, you have plenty of photos on your computer for it to work with.

Find Source Images for Desktop Wallpapers
I’m sure it’s happened to you before where you’ve seen an image or screenshot of an image that you really want to use as your wallpaper, but you’re not sure where the original high-res version can be found. That’s where TinEye comes in. Just upload the image, and it will try to locate some higher quality versions of the same photo that will hopefully be good enough to grace your desktop.

–Tips in Brief–

Firefox 3.7 Starts Prepping for Windows 7
Firefox 3.7 is including Windows 7-specific features like jumplists and per-tab Taskbar thumbnails… it’s just disappointing that this final release won’t be available until next year.

DoubleTwist: Another Media Player
This is a decent media player that supports a wide range of devices, including Android-powered gadgets.

Where’s My Cell Phone Service Calls Your Phone
That’s right… you won’t have to ask one of your friends to call your phone the next time you can’t find it. Although that does require you to have it off of silent, and you have to be in the general vicinity if you want to hear it.

Join the Minimalist Google Homepage Prototype
Google is testing a truly minimalist homepage with not much more than a search box and a few buttons. Just run a quick script and you’ll be able to join in the fun.

Color Code Outlook for Easier Management
Make some of your emails stand out from the others by color coding them as they fly in.

Make a Portable Browser Your Default
If you prefer to use a browser that is self-contained (a.k.a. portable) on your machine this is what you need to do to make it the default one.

Windows Mobile 6.5 Review
Who would have thought… the reviews for Windows Mobile 6.5 aren’t looking too good. Gizmodo even goes as far as to say that the changes are barely noticeable.

Create Music Video Playlists with TubeRadio.fm
This website, which will remind you a lot of iTunes, lets you queue up a bunch of music videos that you want to watch.

–Downloads–

Get Your Widescreen Wallpapers For Your Computer

Show Your Love: Firefox 2 Wallpapers

Put the Photos in your Flickr Account to Good Use

Automatically Rotate Desktop Wallpapers

Apr 09

While We Were Gone…

Posted in: Firefox 3, Freeware, Laptops, Software, Today's Chili, Web Sites, Windows, Windows XP

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

digg ars olpc firefox logos icons.png Did ya miss us? We’ve been out of town since last Thursday, and since then there were some pretty big announcements that we wanted to be sure to cover. It appears as though the last few days before last weekend was the prime time for acquisitions.

–Firefox 3 RC1–

Mozilla released Firefox 3.0 RC1, which indicates that they are on the home stretch before releasing the final version. The Release Candidate doesn’t have many changes over the previous Beta, but as expected it’s a bit more polished:

Improvements to the user interface based on user feedback, including changes to the look and feel on Windows Vista, Windows XP, Mac OS X and Linux.
Changes and fixes for new features such as the location bar autocomplete, bookmark backup and restore, full page zoom, and others, based on feedback from our community.
Fixes and improvements to platform features to improve security, web compatibility and stability.
Continued performance improvements: changes to our JavaScript engine as well as profile guided optimization continues to improve performance over previous releases as measured by the popular SunSpider test from Apple, and in the speed of web applications like Google Mail and Zoho Office.

Thanks to “C” and “Cory” for the tips!

–Condé Nast/Wired Acquires Ars Technica–

Ars Technica has joined the likes of Wired and Reddit! That’s right, Condé Nast has acquired the news site that most geeks have come to love. They won’t disclose what was paid for the site, but TechCrunch says is in the $25 million range.

What I’m interested to see is whether the Digg button on Ars Technica will remain considering that their parent company are also the proud owners of Reddit. Ars Technica’s articles are constantly plastered all over the front page of Digg, and removing the button could cause them to drop in traffic. Maybe they’ll just add a Reddit button alongside it?

–Ask.com Acquires Dictionary.com–

When you need to lookup a meaning of a word there is a very good chance that you head straight to Dictionary.com. I know I do. That site has now been acquired by Ask.com, and they also get Thesaurus.com and Reference.com as part of the deal. By purchasing the rights to these sites Ask.com is looking to return to its roots a bit by being able to quickly answer basic questions.

Thanks for the tip Omar!

–CBS Acquires CNET–

CNET has got to be one of the top technology sites on the web, and they sure showed it with their price tag. CBS acquired them last Thursday for $1.8 billion, which includes all of the properties owned by CNET. Here’s a quick list of CNET’s more popular assets: ZDNet, GameSpot.com, TV.com, MP3.com, UrbanBaby, CHOW, Search.com, BNET, MySimon, Download.com, and TechRepublic.

–Digg Launches New Comment System–

Digg has finally decided to revise their comment system, and I think it’s much better than before. There’s just one problem… they didn’t test it in Opera. A formatting glitch would be one thing, but the new Digg comment system crashes the Opera browser anytime you try to visit an article. They admitted that they didn’t test the system in Opera, and tried to justify the glitch by saying that Opera users account for less than 1% of the visits to Digg. *sigh*

–Windows will be Available on the OLPC–

Looks like Windows is coming to the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) after all. These budget machines will run a $3 version of Windows XP and Office called the Student Innovation Suite. I have a feeling that these laptops will now be even more appealing to developing countries.

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Apr 07

Firefox 3 Gets “Real” Page Zoom with Image Scaling

Posted in: Firefox 3, Freeware, Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Opera, Pre-Release, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on July 30, 2007 by CyberNet.

Firefox 3 Zoom The Firefox development team has finally resolved what was probably the longest outstanding bug for the browser: full page zoom. Up until now Firefox has only been capable of increasing and decreasing the size of text to simulate zooming, but now it handles images as well! The funny part is that it only took 8-years for this bug to get fixed.

This is something that the Opera browser has had ever since I can remember, and it is something I’ve always longed for in Firefox. Heck, even Internet Explorer 7 has some sort of zoom capabilities that also scales images, but the results are typically not the best.

To get it in Firefox 3 you’ll need to be using the latest nightly build, along with this extension. The extension is just a temporary fix that lets you add buttons to the navigation bar for zooming, and without it there is no way to take advantage of the new zoom capabilities. Eventually the developers will get the feature integrated with the browser, but the extension is the best way to test it out for those that want to see what it is like.

The results are much better than what Internet Explorer 7 produces, but not quite as good as Opera’s. I noticed in Firefox 3 that it has problems scaling some Flash and JavaScript objects, and one example of this can be seen in the screenshot above where it didn’t actually scale the contents of the ad located at the top of the screen nor the one at the top of the sidebar. I’m sure that these are just some bugs that they will be working out, and I look forward to seeing this feature in full swing when Firefox 3 gets released!

Source: Mozilla Links

Google Maps Gets Zoom Enhancements

Firefox 3 Alpha 7 Inches a Little Closer

Rsizr – Online Image Scaling Done Right!

Wall Scaling Humvee From Sharper Image

Apr 05

Browsers Start to Take Notice of Acid3 Test

Posted in: Firefox 3, Opera, Software, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on March 18, 2008 by CyberNet.

Earlier this month the Acid3 test was released to give browsers the push they need to stay on top of the constantly evolving web standards. Almost all of the mainstream browsers now support the Acid2 test, and so it only makes sense that a new one would be released to give developers something to shoot for.

As we’ve seen all of the browsers out there need some work before they hit the perfect 100/100 score on the Acid3 test. The good news is that some developers are already stepping forward with new releases that are improving upon their initial score. Safari nightly builds are currently hitting a whopping 93/100 which is something that they deserve a round of applause for. Firefox 3 nightly builds have also seen a small increase from 67/100 to 71/100.

Opera has also released a new weekly build of Opera 9.5 with nearly a dozen Acid3-specific improvements that help give it a much better score on the test. Previously they received a 65/100, but now they are up to 77/100! Out of all the Windows browsers available this puts them in second place only behind Safari.

I did read that there were some minor changes made to the Acid3 test which may result in browsers getting a slightly better score, but it’s obvious that work is being done to pass the test. I do have to give Opera credit for already taking the initiative of making their browser compliant, and it will be interesting to see which browser passes the test first.

[via Opera Watch]

Related Posts:

CyberNotes: Acid3 Browser Results

Mozilla’s Take on Acid3 Test

Apple’s WebKit Scores 100/100 on Acid3, too

Internal Opera Build Passes Acid3 Test

Congratulations: CSS Celebrates their 10-Year Anniversary

Mar 30

CyberNotes: Firefox Extensions cause Memory Leaks and Crashes

Posted in: CyberNotes, Firefox 3, Firefox Extensions, Freeware, Mozilla, performance, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on September 05, 2007 by CyberNet.

Web Browser Wednesday

One of the major reasons Firefox is approaching 400 million downloads is because of how customizable the browser is thanks to extensions. In a way Firefox extensions are bittersweet, because they can provide some unique and useful features, but at the same time they can cause some unwanted problems.

It’s been well over a year since I last took a look at the issues some popular Firefox extensions caused. Most of the extensions listed there caused crashes, memory leaks, and excessive CPU usage. Since then, a Leak Monitor extension has been created to notify users when a certain type of memory leak occurs. This has successfully helped dozens of developers eliminate memory leaks in their extensions.

Unfortunately not all of the problems have not been solved when it comes to the extensions. Some can still cause Firefox to crash, leak memory, or make your CPU usage skyrocket. Today I thought that I would revisit the current status of extensions to see which ones are still causing the problems.

Firefox Memory Leak To find the extensions that have problems, I turned to the Mozilla Knowledgebase as well as their bug tracker. I was able to uncover more than a dozen extensions that have performance related issues, and I’m assuming you’re using the most recent versions of the extensions as well as the latest version of Firefox. You’re sure to have even more problems if you’re using older versions of Firefox or extensions that are outdated.

Below is the list that I came up with, and along with each extension I mention the issue along with any known fixes.

Note: You may or may not experience the problems mentioned. If you haven’t had a problem with an extension there is no sense in removing it.

Adblock
Issue: Has been known to crash Firefox when trying to use Gmail Chat.
Fix: None available right now. It’s recommended that the extension be removed if you use Gmail Chat.
All-in-One Gestures
Issue: Can cause Firefox to crash, and conflicts with the inline spellchecker on Linux and OS X.
Fix: None available right now. It’s recommended that the extension be removed if you’re using Linux or OS X.
Fasterfox
Issue: Can interfere with website access, and problems may continue even if Fasterfox is removed.
Fix: Reset the defaults or start with a new profile in Firefox. Also make sure that you have prefetching disabled in the extension.
Firebug
Issue: Causes excessive CPU usage
Fix: Disable Firebug when it’s not being used, or create a separate profile to use it in.
ForecastFox
Issue: Memory leaks due to satellite imagery.
Fix: It’s recommended that the extension be removed, or you can install an older version without the satellite imagery.
Google Browser Sync
Issue: Causes excessive CPU usage with GIF animations.
Fix: None available right now. It’s recommended that the extension be removed.
Google Web Accelerator
Issue: Crashes Firefox when closing the browser.
Fix: None available right now. It’s recommended that the extension be removed.
IE Tab
Issue: Memory leaks
Fix: It’s recommended that the extension be removed, or you can install IE View Lite as an alternative.
Loki
Issue: Memory leaks
Fix: None available right now. It’s recommended that the extension be removed.
Media Player Connectivity
Issue: Causes Unresponsive Script Warnings
Fix: None available right now. It’s recommended that the extension be removed.
Mouseless Browsing
Issue: Causes excessive CPU usage
Fix: None available right now. It’s recommended that the extension be removed.
SessionSaver
Issue: Memory leaks
Fix: Use Session Manager instead.
Tabbrowser Extensions (TBE)
Issue: Slows down Firefox, conflicts with other extensions, and can stop Firefox from working.
Fix: It’s recommended that the extension be removed, or you can install Tab Mix Plus instead.

People running Firefox 3 right now should be careful if using the ForecastFox or FoxClocks extensions. Both of those are known to have memory leaks (ForecastFox report here and FoxClocks report here).

The extensions that I’ve listed above are all currently known to have some sort of problem. The bad news is that not all of the extensions have been as thoroughly tested as the ones mentioned here, and that’s because Mozilla relies on people like you to submit bug reports when you encounter an issue. If you frequently notice memory leaks, try a fresh Firefox profile, and then install the extensions one by one until you find the culprit. The odds are pretty good that the leak will be the result of one of your “more complex” extensions, and so you may want to start with those.

Additional resources from Mozilla include the Reducing Firefox Memory Usage page and the long list of Problematic Extensions.

Related Posts:

Firefox 3 Memory Leaks Status Update

Your Week in Review with Sunday’s Summary

Keeping Track Of Firefox Extensions That Leak Memory

CyberNotes: Firefox 2.0 Memory Leaks

CyberNotes: Minimizing Firefox Memory Leaks

Mar 09