Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on June 29, 2006 by CyberNet.

Tutorial Thursday

It was just Monday that Digg v3 launched with a new breath of life. However, some people were not too fond of how Digg changed the layout. The most talked about change was the placement of the sidebar on the left-side.

There are several sites (like this, this, and this) that have come up with new CSS code that will overwrite the code that Digg already has in place. So how do you use this CSS code to redesign Digg?

It is actually amazingly simple for Firefox users (I haven’t tried this on other browsers). To make it as simple as possible you could just download the Stylish extension. You just need to copy the CSS code into the extension. You can then enable and disable different CSS styles as you please.

While Stylish makes it really easy I always try to minimize how many extensions I use to prevent memory leaks. So here is how you do it without using an extension:

1. Browse to your Firefox Profile. In Windows XP/2000 it should be located at C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\XXXXXX.default\. Here is some help on locating your Firefox Profile.
2. Open the chrome folder.
3. If you do not have a file called “userContent.css” then copy the file “userContent-example.css” and rename it to userContent.css.
4. Open up the userContent.css file in a text editor like WordPad.
5. Add your CSS code to the end of the file. You will find the code that I used below.
6. Save and close the file.
7. You will have to restart Firefox in order to see the changes on Digg.

That is it! You should now have a customized version of Digg. Feel free to tweak with any of the CSS code until you have it the way you like it. Here is the code that I ended up using:

@-moz-document domain(digg.com), domain(www.digg.com) {
.sub-menu .tool strong { font-size: 11px !important; font-weight: bold !important; padding: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; background-image: none !important;}
.news-summary { margin-bottom: 12px !important; margin-top: 12px !important; }
.digg-count { margin-top: 3px !important; }
h2 { font-size: 18px !important; }
h3 { font-size: 13px !important; font-weight: bold !important; letter-spacing: normal !important; }
.toggle a, .view-all a, .side-friends a, ul a { font-weight: normal !important; font-size: 11px !important;}
#top_ad, #item_ad, #footer, .copyright, .top_ad_image, .banner_ad, .comments_ad_image {display: none !important;}
.digg-count a strong {font-size: 14px !important; font-weight: bold !important; }
.sub-menu li .toplinep { width: 138px !important; }
.comment {width: 710px !important;}
.news-digg img { padding-top: 4px !important; padding-left: 1px !important; }
h3 a { border: none !important; background: none !important; font-weight: bold !important; font-size: 11px !important; letter-spacing: normal !important; text-decoration: underline !important; padding-left: 3px !important; }
.news-submitted { margin-left: 3px !important; padding-left: 0px !important; }
p { margin: 3px !important; }
#contents, #sidebar { float: left !important; border: none !important; background: none !important; font-size: 11px !important;}
#container {background: none !important; }
#sidebar {padding: 20px 0 1em 35px !important;background-position: 0 0; }
#footer {background: none !important;}
}


So now that you have Digg customized you start to think about how many other sites this technique might work for, right? This technique will work for many sites and userstyles.org already has hundreds of CSS styles that people have developed. These styles will take you to a whole new level of customization!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

Related Posts:

CyberNotes: Week In Review With Sunday’s Summary!Diggdot.us and Others Forced to Remove ‘Digg’ from AddressDigg Branches Out and Starts Digg DialoggHow Stuff Works Tells Us How Digg WorksPligg Starts Looking Even More Like Digg V3

This article was written on August 21, 2006 by CyberNet.

This is one story that I wasn’t expecting to see today. BetaNews is reporting that Microsoft has invited the Mozilla developers to come up to Redmond in hopes of making Firefox and Thunderbird fully compatible with Vista.

At first I had to sit and think about who would benefit the most…and it would be about equal in my opinion. Microsoft would obviously benefit because there are a lot of people who fear a lack of program compatibility in Vista. That isn’t really Microsoft’s fault because they are just trying to create a better operating system and a more friendly user experience. However, it does also cause a lot of stress for the developers who’s applications don’t work properly.

Eventually complete program compatibility will come around but it is great to see Microsoft lending a hand. Sam Ramji (Director of the Open Source Software Lab at Microsoft) did a good job explaining their intentions:

In the past the company has only invited commercial software developers to these labs. I’m committed to evolving our thinking beyond commercial companies to include open source projects, so I went to the non-trivial effort of getting slots for non-commercial open source projects

I hope that Mozilla takes them up on their offer because it couldn’t hurt anything to get an insider’s view on possible compatibility issues.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Windows Vista Update Available to help Application CompatibilityCheck Vista Hardware Compatibility before you BuyWindows Vista Beta 2 Gets A PatchWhere Does Firefox 2 Stand on Vista CompatibilityMicrosoft Creates Vista Software Compatibility List

This article was written on April 25, 2007 by CyberNet.

Web Browser Wednesday

I do searches on sites all of the time, and Google has to be at the top of my list. According to my Google Search History I perform about 900 searches per month, which is about 30 per day. That may not seem like that many, but to me that is quite a bit.

Recently I began taking steps to increase my search productivity by trying to find things to optimize my experience. Below you’ll find a few things that should speed up how fast you can search your favorite sites!

—Streaming Search Results—

By default most search engines and websites will only display a limited number of results at a time. To display more results you’ll need to click the “Next” button located at the bottom which can become quite a tedious process.

Google tries to help people out by letting them choose how many results are displayed on the screen at any one given time which can be customized in the preferences. You can choose to have up to 100 results displayed which is what I have it set to by default. The only downside is that retrieving such a large number of results will take longer than requesting a smaller number, such as 10.

To get around this you can use some scripts for Firefox to request additional results as you get towards the bottom of the page where you would normally click the “Next” button. The new content is then appended onto the end of the current list of results, therefore making the transition seamless. The CustomizeGoogle extension for Firefox recently added this feature and put together a great video demonstrating how it works (it may help you to understand if you watch the scrollbar):

Yep! It just keeps going and going and going! The CustomizeGoogle extension is actually using a script that was first made as a Greasemonkey script called Google Auto Pager. Once you install the script it won’t actually work on a search results page until you double click anywhere on the Google site. That will activate the automatic loading of new search results.

This can go beyond just Google’s services though. The Pagerization script will actually work for a ton of popular services, but does require a little configuration. To make it a little easier I have compiled the Pagerization script to work with Google Search/Images/News/Groups/Video, Yahoo, Wikipedia, Digg, Del.icio.us, YouTube, and Twitter. Once you start using the script for those sites you’ll wonder how you ever made it without the streaming results.

Once you have Pagerization installed with Greasemonkey, you’ll know that the script is working because of a few different things. The first, and most obvious being that you’ll continuously see new results being added to the end of the site. The other way you’ll notice it working is because of the little box in the bottom-right corner that will either say “Standing” meaning that it isn’t doing anything right now, or it will say “Loading” which means it is pulling in the next set of results. Here is a screenshot that I took of it working on the Google Images site:

By using any of the solutions mentioned above, you would be able to start with the minimum number of search results (such as 10 in the case of Google) and it will automatically expand as you go. That means you will get the fastest initial load time as well as the benefit of not having to navigate away to another page just to see more results. This is also really great for Digg where it can normally be a hassle trying to go through pages and pages of the most recent news!

—Adding Wikipedia Results to Google—

The one last thing that I wanted to mention is adding Wikipedia results to the side of your Google results. For me there is always a ton of whitespace over on the side of the Google Search Results page which isn’t really being utilized for anything. To fill up some of the room you can use the Googlepedia extension which will pull up the most relevant Wikipedia page for the search that you’re performing.

The extension will also turn all of the internal Wikipedia links into Google search links so that clicking on them will actually do a search on Google for that given word or phrase. You can also make the Wikipedia article take up the entire width of the browser or you can hide it in just one click.

—Summary—

I’m sure you’ll find a few of those search tips to be helpful because they can really increase your productivity when trying to find exactly what you’re looking for. We all have our own ways of finding information, so what do you do to find things quickly?

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Your Week in Review with Sunday’s SummaryCyberNotes: Google Auto Pager (Pagerization)Google Finally Reaches Number 2 According To AlexaRunning Greasemonkey Scripts in Internet ExplorerCyberNotes: Using Keyword Searches In Firefox And Opera

Nano Vs. Shuffle. Photo: Luca Viscardi

Like a recovering alcoholic who wavers between drunkenness and sobriety, Apple just can’t seem to kick the iPod button habit completely. Today, a software update brings new functions to the sleep button on the square, touch-screen iPod Nano.

Remember how the tiny Shuffle lost all of its control buttons in one generation, and then had them restored the next year due to popular demand (or, more likely, flagging sales)? Well, the almost buttonless Nano didn’t even have to wait a full year for things to get fixed.

With today’s new 1.1 software update (around 100MB), You can double-tap the sleep button to play and pause music or radio. You can also choose to have the double-tap skip a track (this is the default — change it in the settings). This, along with the already present hardware volume buttons, means you can ditch those in-line controllers needed to use third-party headphones without going crazy. I have bought and lost a pocketful of these things already.

There’s more. Execute a long press on the same button and the Nano will switch off. Previously you could only sleep the little thing.

It’s a small thing, but great news. Now, Apple, about that iPhone. That has a sleep button too, right?

iPod nano (6th generation): Software update version 1.1 changes [Apple]

Photo: Luca Viscardi / Flickr

See Also:

• Inevitable Strap Turns iPod Nano into a Watch
• Apple's Newest Watch Is … Wait, What? It's an iPod Nano?
• Is Apple Finally Releasing an iPhone Nano?
• Sporty New iPods Tout Tiny Touchscreens, Retina Display

This article was written on April 29, 2008 by CyberNet.

Last week we posted some mirrors for the Windows XP SP3 download, and today was supposed to be the golden day that Microsoft delivered it to the public. That won’t be happening. Microsoft found a last minute show-stopper that they decided needs to be addressed before offering it to the public.

If you already installed it on your machine it’s not that big of a deal. The issue they found pertains to the Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS). Are you affected by it? If you’re just using the PC at home it’s very unlikely that you’ll notice any problems since you probably don’t use that software. The Retail Management System is a point-of-sale system that Microsoft puts out for small and mid-market retailers. It costs about $1,000 and therefore isn’t likely to be on your PC without you knowing about it.

There’s no word as to when Microsoft will actually release XP SP3 on their website. They have said that they want to get filtering in place first to ensure that systems running Microsoft RMS do not download the Service Pack:

In the last few days, we have uncovered a compatibility issue between Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS) and both Windows XP SP3 and Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1). In order to make sure customers have the best possible experience, we have decided to delay releasing Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) to the web.

To help protect customers, we plan to put filtering in place shortly to prevent Windows Update from offering both service packs to systems running Microsoft Dynamics RMS. Once filtering is in place, we expect to release Windows XP SP3 to the web.

We are also testing a fix, and will make it available once that process is complete. Once they have installed the fix, Microsoft Dynamics RMS customers should be able to run both service packs.

Until then, we advise Microsoft Dynamics RMS customers to not install either service pack. Microsoft Dynamics RMS customers running Windows XP SP3 or Windows Vista SP1 should contact Microsoft Customer Support Services for additional information.

Still want to download XP SP3? There are all kind of solutions available including a direct link to the file from Microsoft. Here are some of the different places that you can get it:

• From Microsoft – very fast, I’m getting 1.1MB/s on my download
• From MajorGeeks
• From Softpedia
• From BetaNews

[via SuperSite & All About Microsoft]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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