Feature-packing Firefox

One of the strongest features of Mozilla's Firefox browser, is the support for Add-ons extensions. This feature allows for an extensible feature rich .app that's tailored to your needs. Comparing Safari to Firefox (once again), I say this Add-on feature truly makes the 'fox stand above Apple's own Safari.

Here's a list of the extensions currently inhabiting within my Firefox:

• BugMeNot 1.3 - We all love BugMeNot's service. Having to register just to read a random newspaper article sucks. BugMeNot's site offers a list of usernames and passwords to use on a give site, thus relieving you of a registering process just to read an article. This extension adds auto-fill of log-in forms using BugMeNot's data. All you need to do is right-click on that Username input field and select "Login with BugMeNot" and you are done.
  
• Fission 0.8.6 - Using Safari for so long I grew accustomed to Safari's loading progress bar within the URL address bar. Well, this is just that with the possibility to customize the fill color to your fancy and some more.
• Greasemonkey 0.6.6.2006.. - Greasemonkey is a powerful site scripting utility. Downloading various Greasemonkey scripts you can add features to a web site. For example, I currently use a Technorati script to add a tag support input-field within Blogger.com's post creating page. The amount of userscripts available is amazing for a multiple array of sites, each adding different features.
• PDF Download 0.7.6 - Firefox's default way of dealing with .pdf files is lackluster at best. This extension adds some options to deal with pdf documents, when you click on them. From good ol' downloading to even viewing it as an html document.
• Stop-or-reload Button 0.2.2 - Another of those little Safari things that I can't let go. This makes your stop and reload button into one, just like it is in Safari. Not a whole to say really, but it's a nice little thing to have after using Safari for so long.
• Viamatic foXpose 0.6 - Should you be an OSX user since 10.3, you probably have come to love and cherish exposé, foXpose adds that lovable feature to your Firefox in one convenient extension. When activated foXpose presents to you an exposé-ish view of all your current tabs open . The extensions come with some customizable options, keyboard shortcut, thumbnail sizing, etc. Pretty nice and handy, although the live resizing of window effect is not present like it is in OSX's exposé version.

So that's the list of all my current Firefox extensions. From an usability standpoint I say all of these extensions add something to the web browsing experience. The best part is that most of these extensions are just some Kbs. to download. No huge download, yet a huge gain in usability. I say, give them a try, you won't be disappointed.

The Wiimote is killing TVs accross the nation!

At least that appears to be the case thus far. Not long after Engadget reported the first incident of the flying Wiimote hitting the TV screen, today we are greeted with yet another similar case. And this one even comes with a Flickr set for evidence sake.

It appears the culprit is the weak wrist strap that seems to break when people are playing Wii Sports' Bowling game. Deeply concentrated on perfecting that Bowling swing, you swing your arm like a maniac... and your Wiimote goes flying off crashing against your TV screen..

Nintendo has yet to contact the TV-less Wii owners, but who's at fault here? It could very well be the case that these people were using their Wiimote sans wrist strap on, it flew like an eagle to the sea (or TV), and now they are saying, "Oh look the wrist strap broke..Bad Nintendo Bad".

Perhaps that wasn't the case, and the big N really overlook the quality of the material been used for the wrist strap. They are already reports that build quality of (at least) the Nunchuck isn't that good to begin with.
If that's the case and Nintendo is at fault, then I believe a recall of the Wiimotes would be the logical thing to do. Revise the strap material, and then deal with these two people if they feel the need to do so, given of course that they are not trying to be sneaky and blame their oversights to the big N.

As long as they are no reports of the PS3 is eating the house's pet or kids. I think these Next-gen consoles are mostly harmless. Hopefully these are just isolated cases, and we will see what comes out of them. Just to be safe, keep the kids away from the PS3, and play the Wii with some medieval Knight gear on. Just in case..

PS3 goes for over $3,000 dollars

Ahhh yes the wonderful outrageous world of eBay. After spending a night over at their local Wal*Mart standing in line, most people placed their PS3s on eBay. After less than 8 hours of "hard work" standing in line. Some lucky guy made over 2,300 bucks in profit. Not bad at all. I bet he's' going to buy an XBOX 360 now ;).

Giving Firefox 2.0 a chance on the Mac

I have been an avid Safari user since the start. I have never really found the need to switch to another browser alternative full-time. That's not the same story over at the PC side of things with our buddy Internet Explorer but that's outside the scope of this post...

Having said that, as of late Safari has been acting very "naughty"..lots of beach balls here and there, and truth be told..feeling a bit sluggish.
Looking back inside the giant messy file cabinet that happens to be my mind, I remembered hearing about this site. BeatnikPad has been the host to Mac CPU-optimized builds of "the Fox" for some time now, so I downloaded a G5-optimized build and here I stand..

I imported all of the Safari stuff, bookmarks, history, cookies, etc. and I must say this thing is pretty nice. I have already installed some Greasemonkey scripts (Blogger Technorati tag support), some extensions (which are linked to from BeatnikPad's site), and all is peachy. Very responsive, fast browsing, what more can you ask for?

The RSS handling, is still for me, a bit lacking compare to Safari's, but hey that's a small complain..no biggie. Maybe I need to find the right extension for my RSS feeds needs.

Overall I am quite please with Firefox 2.0 or BonEcho as the Optimized version is called. Surely it has earned a place on my dock.

Still around..

Kickin' it ol' school style

Before people giggled at the "Wii" name, before you had to sell a kidney to get console/blu-ray player, before they were 2 different versions of the same console..we had the Super Nintendo..

Ahh yes..fond memories start floating in.. I remember getting a SNES for a Xmas many years back, man was that a great video game console.. I remember playing Super Mario All-Stars, and thinking how awesome it was to have all these great Mario games there to play with "updated" graphics and sound.
So this past weekend I was feeling a bit nostalgic, per say, and downloaded Snes9x - a SNES emulator for mac. After a quick hunt in the depths of that piracy infested Limewire land, I found what I ws looking for.. a ROM of Super Mario All-Stars! So i plugged my old and abused USB controller, and I started to bring back the golden days of video gaming (at least for me). I tell you, those SNES days were unmatched..F-Zero..Mario..Zelda..Street Fighter..Mortal Kombat 2..list goes on and on...
Sure it may not have been the most legal thing to do in this world, but c'mon now it's just like putting that old favorite CD of yours, the one you haven't listened to in years, and hitting play..you can't help but enjoy it.