random rumblings » Firefox

Thank you AP for the suggestion to downl…

Sun, 16 May 2010 21:27:49 +0000

Thank you AP for the suggestion to download and use portable applications run on an external hard drive or, in my case, a thumb drive. You may wonder why I’d want to run an application off an external hard drive. Well, this way I’m able to use applications I might normally use on a home computer without having to install them on the work computer. In this case I’m talking about Google Chrome and Firefox. The only question is… why didn’t I think of this before?!

Browser Wars

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 02:25:50 +0000

Over the past few days I’ve come across a few topics in the browser war category. To start, last night I downloaded the new version of Safari (for Mac). At first I was impressed with the new “Top Sites” functionality. It uses a similar concept to Cover Flow in iTunes to show the top sites the user visits. After that, there wasn’t much that it did beyond what I already get from Firefox. One thing I did notice was that it’s a memory hog. With 5 tabs open Safari was using just under 600 MB RAM. I quit Safari and opened Firefox, my usual web browser, opened the same 5 sites and noticed it was using less the 200 MB RAM. That’s a big difference. Safari still doesn’t have extension capability, which is another downfall. Although it’s installed on my Mac, it get’s about as much use from me as IE does when I’m using Windows.

And then, earlier today, I read this and got a good chuckle. Apparently Microsoft is proposing an option to the European Union to sell Windows 7 without Internet Explorer because of antitrust regulations there. This raises the question, how does one surf the net without a browser installed with the OS? Constumers would have to use a second computer, download a browser, transfer it to the new computer using a CD or flash drive, then install. Sounds backwards to me but, then again, it does seem the European Union is taking this a bit far. IE is no longer the lone browser and anyone that uses their computer even the slightest bit knows there are other browsers available that are better than IE. Even with Safari and IE installed during the default installation on my computer, I still use Firefox for both Windows and Mac.

A few side notes, WordPress v 2.8 was released last night and updated on this site today. If you follow me on Twitter or over on the right side of the blog, you probably knew that already. The best part was updating the site from the admin panel using my iPhone. It’s a luxery, I know, but still fun to talk about. Speaking of Twitter, it has recently moved ahead of Facebook on my online priority list, both are still way behing the website.

Firefox for Mac – Part II

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 04:32:10 +0000

A while back I posted some info regarding Firefox for Mac. All I can say is, if you’re not using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer, you’re missing out. As usual, lately, I’ve been messing around with the website. To start, I made the switch back to using the WordPress blogging system rather than Movable Type. It wasn’t that I had any problems with MT, but it’s easier to find upgrades and make changes to the WP core, which I like. WordPress has a large user community that codes themes and plug-ins for WP that make trying out new things as easy as possible for a non-techy. The past few days I’ve been messing around with a “rotate” function within the K2 theme that allows me to add numerous header images to a folder on the server and it rotates the pictures after each page load. It might not sound like much, but it does help to prevent a static page every time someone visits the site, not that I have a lot of visitors . But the most common visitor, me, does get bored of the seeing the same picture every time.

Ok, I’ve gotten a little off topic. Today, while spending countless hours on my computer during blizzard conditions here in Denver, I was looking at some Firefox Add-ons. One of them in particular, Firebug, adds a web developer toolbar to the top of the browser. This toolbar just blows my mind. I can visit any website I like, view the source, CSS, and all sorts of information about the website, and make changes to the code which is viewable real time in the browser. It’s just amazing how this works. Now, it’s not making a change to the actual web site that everyone else on the net can see, just within my browser window. The current theme on my blog, K2, is based solely on CSS. The past few days I’ve been making minor changes to the CSS code, saving the file, then uploading it to the server. This process requires a lot of patience. Well, turns out this Firebug Add-on allows me to make multiple changes to the CSS code in real time, find the settings that make me happy (at least for the time being), and save the changed CSS code to a file. Then I can just upload this file to the server. I can’t even explain how much time this is going to save me when I decide to make changes to the sites look and feel. Now, for those of you that know me, you can now tell me to find a new hobby .

Again, I’d like to reiterate, go download Firefox (it’s free!).

Firefox for Mac

Sat, 29 Jul 2006 00:34:10 +0000

I’ve had my Apple MacBook Pro for about 3 weeks now and still have no regrets. Actually, I’ve enjoyed working through the many “kinks” that come with owning a new computer and, in this case, a new operating system. Some of you might remember some of the positives and negatives I wrote about 2 weeks ago. One item I didn’t write about and didn’t know the extent of was Safari, which is the Mac web browser that comes with OS X. Safari is known for being compliant with all web standards and is a pleasure to use. Internet Explorer isn’t compliant with all web standards. However, with IE having a stranglehold on the internet most web sites are developed to support IE. In most cases, this isn’t a problem. However, I did notice the tool bar which includes bold, italics, bullets, etc which are located in the Write page of my blog wasn’t there. Research on the WordPress web site helped me determine that this is a known glitch. Today I did some additional research and found that there is a FireFox for Mac. I downloaded the application, installed it (which is extremely easy on a Mac), and went to the Write page on my blog. Wouldn’t you know it, there’s the tool bar.

This isn’t the first time I’ve used FireFox. A little over a year ago I installed FireFox on my other computer running on Windows XP. From what I remember, a lot of the functionality included in FireFox is similar to Safari, including tabbed browsing. If you’re not familiar with tabbed browsing, this is a function that allows you to open new web pages in the same window, called a tab. I’m sure a lot of you are familiar with IE opening window after window every time a link requested a new window to open. Tabbed browsing allows for a cleaner desktop experience. This is something I hear Windows Vista is going to include when it is sold sometime next year. But don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Microsoft is behind the times. Well, maybe I am.