ajb{log} » Firefox

Guinness World Record for Download Day – Mozilla Firefox 3

aj — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:03:27 +0000

Get your own certificate here

Firefox 3 Easter Egg: Robots

aj — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:48:20 +0000

Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!

Type “about:robots” on your address bar. This works on FF3 only.

Mozilla servers are burning as traffic for Firefox 3 download looms

aj — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 17:17:11 +0000

Mozilla is dog slow today. Why? Because they’re launching Firefox 3 any time now.

Be a part of history. Download Firefox 3 today.

UPDATE: I just received an email (below) to tell me to start downloading. However, the whole Mozilla site right now is apparently under heavy traffic.

IE7Pro 2.1 is going to bring back some love to Internet Explorer 7 (hopefully)

aj — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 04:18:57 +0000

We all know that a lot of (if not most) web developers love using Firefox for development. Mainly because of its simplicity, community support and functionality to extend the browser using add-ons.

It is also not a secret that we know that 60% or more* of our web users are still using IE. Most likely, half of those are IE7.

Now, to even the game of preferred development browser (sort of), there is a new update for IE7Pro (version 2.1).

IE7Pro is an app to extend your IE7 installation adding lots of Firefox-like features which you (web developer) need.

The app might get you to use IE7 more for development. Really. Why? It packs tons of improvements to IE7 and extend it like Firefox.

Some main features includes

Enhancement of IE’s Tabbed Browsing Capabilities
Super Drag and Drop
Mouse Gestures (ala Opera)
Crash Recovery (yeah! we need this!)
Save Page to Image
Quick Proxy Switcher
AD Blocker (finally!)
Greasy monkey alike User Script
Inline Search
Spell Check
And a lot more…

More screenshots after the jump.

So, do you want to give IE7 another shot? Or do you want to simply check out what IE7Pro can offer? If your answer is yes to any of those, then get the app directly here.

It might be worth your time.

–aj

*Based on sites I handle/d

Windows Live SkyDrive ups its free online storage to 5 GB

aj — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:01:41 +0000

Windows Live SkyDrive increased the free online storage from a measly 1GB to 5 GB. SkyDrive is also out of Beta. The free online storage from Microsoft is available for Windows or Macintosh computers with Firefox 1.5 or higher, or Internet Explorer 6 or higher.

Windows Live SkyDrive provides integration with Windows Live Spaces to allow users to add a module to their Spaces displaying their public shared folders. Windows Live SkyDrive also displays navigation links to different parts of Windows Live Spaces, including Windows Live Events for tighter integration.

The only thing is, there are still no desktop software tools (which I know of) that supports batch uploads to the online drive. And I bet you, it gonna suck uploading files one by one.

–aj

Remember The Milk rocks the Gmail world!

aj — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 19:30:54 +0000

Remember The Milk (RTM) launches a Firefox extension that allows you to manage your tasks in Gmail (complete, postpone, and edit tasks), add new tasks (and connect them with your emails, contacts, and Google Calendar events), automatically add tasks for starred messages or specific labels, and more…

To use it, you’ll need to use Firefox (isn’t mentioned above yet?). Who needs IE anyway?

The guys at RTM are on steriods rapid launching products such as MilkSync (for Windows Mobile), iPhone / iPod touch App, Google Calendar integration, Google Gears Offline access this year and now Gmail integration!

So, what’s next on RTM’s list? Mac Mail, Yahoo! Mail, Live Mail integration? Maybe in 2008.

Sign-up now (FREE) if you don’t have an account yet.

Kudos to the RTM team. You rock!

–aj

GMail 2.0 review, updates and screenshots

aj — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 02:08:42 +0000

I just logged on to my GMail and I thought there was something weird going on with my account. The red “Loading” status notification is gone. It was replaced with a plain black “Loading” and then the unexpected happened. I have the new GMail 2.0!

Some notable new features:

Chat window now features a way to adjust your chat list size on the options.

New UI for the contact info as you hover.

New “Add Contact” screen. It is sporting a 3-pane window for easier contact management.

Above is the 3-pane window for contacts management.

New compose message window. It now includes Google Calendars “Event Invitation” functionality built-in to the compose message window.

“More Actions” drop-down has a new style and I think (not sure) if the “Filter messages like these” selection is new.

The “Loading…” message notifier looks different. Old GMail 1.0 has the light orange while GMail 2.0 has the slightly darker yellow (Yes, I can tell).

Delete notification now tells you how many you are about to delete.

Forward all under a conversation is new.

You can easily change to the “Older version” if you want. But why?

New notification “Still working…” when sending large emails.

Inline changing of hyperlinks on the compose window.

Other significant changes:

GMail 2.0 loads a lot faster than the old one
When something is being processed, GMail 2.0 loads the content seamlessly almost without page reloads
GMail 2.0 is a lot cleaner and has improved its frontend UI response

Some bugs:

GMail 2.0 seems to still have bugs like the one above. Can’t see it? Contacts is selected but the window is on the trash window. And clicking any link like Starred, Chats, All Mail does not work when you have encountered this. You will need to reload your browser again.

GMail 2.0 UI breaks on Safari 3.0.3 on Mac.

Inconsistency on different browsers. It’s “Event info” on Safari Mac and it’s “Add Event Invitation” on Firefox Mac.

Some other things to note:

Better GMail will not work. Update might be coming soon. I hope!
Google What’s New page is still not new. Still hasn’t announce these upgrades (still showing IMAP new feature). See screenshot below.
It’s also not yet on the Google Blog
If you are using Safari 3.0, you are still out of luck. It’s not yet fully supported. Arrgh!

Ok, those are the only things I saw quickly. I’ll try to update this page if I find more.

My overall impression on the new GMail 2.0 is that it simply rocks and it’s far cooler than the winter here in Canada!

–aj

Friday Madness: Early adopters roundup

aj — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 15:31:25 +0000

Microsoft Aquisition Plans: 20 Companies Per Year

“Not to be outdone by Murdoch and his slew of MySpace announcements, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has made some pretty big announcements today at the Web 2.0 Conference, speaking on Microsoft’s plans to acquire 20 companies per year for the next five years, ranging from $50 million to $1 billion, reports Venturebeat.”

Are you one of those companies?

Source

Windows Live SkyDrive: Upgraded to 1GB

“These past couple of months since our last release, we asked ourselves, “What can we do to make SkyDrive even better?” The most obvious answer is something that our users have asked us to do: give out more storage. We’re excited to announce that we’re doubling everyone’s storage to 1 GB!”

MozyHome Free has 2 GB of free backup space.

Source

Microsoft Live Search 411

“Live Search 411 enables you to do this for free, from any phone in the US. Just call 1-800-CALL-411 (1-800-225-5411) and say where you are and what you’re looking for. You can also get text messages, maps, traffic maps, and text-based driving directions sent to your mobile phone (with a service plan that supports text messages or data access, of course!).”

Source

Don’t be a iPirate arrr else…

“In a bold move, the UMass Office of Information Technologies makes a stand against violating intellectual property rights by….violating intellectual property rights?”

Source

Rich? Got some US$ 100,000 lying around? Get a Media Wall for your room.

Source

GPhone is coming

“Although rumors of a possible Google Phone have been making the rounds really hard lately, any such phone will have to be amazing to grab enough end-user and media attention. Expectations are high, but since we’re dreaming, here’s Gizmodo’s wishlist.”

Marissa Mayer didn’t comment nor deny on the question “Have you seen the GPhone?” by Om Malik .

Source

High resolution image hints at ‘Mona Lisa’s’ eyebrows

“One day I say, if I can find only one hair, only one hair of the eyebrow, I will have definitively the proof that originally Leonardo da Vinci had painted eyelash and eyebrow,” said Cotte.

Source

Robot Cannon Kills, Software/Hardware to blame?

“We’re not used to thinking of them this way. But many advanced military weapons are essentially robotic — picking targets out automatically, slewing into position, and waiting only for a human to pull the trigger. Most of the time. Once in a while, though, these machines start firing mysteriously on their own.”

Remember iRobot?

Sources here and here

Other shorts

–aj

Designer to Consumer 3D technology

aj — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 14:38:50 +0000

View this TV commercial demonstrating the creative and innovative power of 3D technology that will embrace the future soon.

Also, watch the secret of the construction of the pyramid of Khufu in Egypt in 3D. You’ll need the plugin to view this one.

–aj

eBay spoofed URL, latest Opera browser doesn’t let you know by default

aj — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 15:30:14 +0000

These people just won’t stop. I just got another good looking, legit looking, well-crafted but spoofed eBay email (screenshot below).

So, I clicked on the link, opened up my Firefox and tada… popped out a web forgery warning. Again.

Had I been using IE6 or the latest Opera browser (see screenshot), it wouldn’t let me know initially that I am already falling for a trap. Ugnh!

Opera has been bragging that it’s “The coolest, fastest, and most secure free Web browser available”. Opera’s fraud detection isn’t enabled by default. You have to go to settings to enable it. How? Here watch this demo.

Shouldn’t you guys simply enable it by default?

Ok, if this happens to you, what do you do?
Report these kind of sites to Phishtank and if it’s an eBay related email, forward the spoof email to spoof[at]ebay.com.

Lastly, don’t use IE6 and a not-enabled fraud detection Opera browser. For your sake, use Firefox 2.x and be sure to always update it.

Better safe than sorry.

–aj

Mylivesearch beta launched, doesn’t support Firefox

aj — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 03:19:24 +0000

I was recently invited by the Beta Development Team of Mylivesearch and it turned out that they are not yet supporting Firefox or Safari. Turned out that you will need to download a plugin to use the service. A search engine that needs a plugin to work? What? I don’t get it.

Ok… Now what? Guess I’ll have to wait till they support other browsers and hopefully other OSs.

–aj

Pingdom: Offering 1 year free service (hurry!)

aj — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 23:20:51 +0000

Pingdom is offering 1 year of free monitoring service. Hurry, offer ends tomorrow!

What you get…

Notifications via SMS and e-mail
Uptime and response time reports
Multiple global check locations
High check resolution
Several check types
Monthly reports
Notification history
and more…

–aj

Phising attack: Don’t use IE6 and below

aj — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 19:17:35 +0000

I was in contact with Godaddy’s customer service regarding a domain issue yesterday. Also, I have been receiving lots of “legit” emails from their customer service department when I got an email (see below) asking me to complete some online form.

It didn’t look suspicious at that time. So, long story short – I clicked the link (good thing I was using Firefox). Guess what? Firefox popped a message that the site is a forgery (see below). It was! WTF?!

If I was using Internet Explorer 6 or below (yes I do have those installed. For testing sites), it would have not detected it. And it would have been a disaster!

Firefox saves the day for me from a common phising attack again.

Anyways, if you are still using IE6 or below, I strongly suggest you download and use Firefox from hereon. It is far more safer to browse the web.

Let me save you some time looking for it – here, download it now.

Take care.

–aj

Browsershots: Web design test in different browsers

aj — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 20:44:39 +0000

Browsershots released a new version where you can test how your website will look in different browsers. The only catch is that you have to wait in a… well… very long queue (the site is getting popular by web designers). What you can do is bookmark the site to check the results at a later time.

Check it out.

–aj

FEBE (Firefox Extension Backup Extension)

aj — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 00:27:56 +0000

This Firefox Extension is a tool to back up your profiles, extensions, themes, etc… Very useful if you use multiple browsers from multiple systems (work/office/home). You can even use FEBE to transfer your existing stuff from Netscape 9 to Firefox (vice-versa). Very helpful.

Remember this, you will only realize the importance of backup when it’s already too late. So, word from the wise (take it from me, i lost tons of stuff because of Windows’ crashes!) – backup your gazillion Firefox extensions now (before it’s too late).

Here’s a writeup from the Firefox site:

FEBE allows you to quickly and easily backup your Firefox extensions. In fact, it goes beyond just backing up — It will actually rebuild your extensions individually into installable .xpi files. Now you can easily synchronize your office and home browsers.

FEBE backs up your extensions, themes, and (optionally) your bookmarks, preferences, passwords, cookies and just about everything else Firefox offers (it can even backup/restore your entire profile).

Backups can be performed on demand or scheduled for daily, weekly, or monthly unattended runs.

A comprehensive debug mode allows for troubleshooting complex platforms.

Version 4.0 supports Windows XP and Linux/Unix.

Version 5.0 (in beta – available at http://customsoftwareconsult.com/extensions/febe/febe50.html) supports Mac OS X also. In addition, user-defined backups will allow for backing up most any data from most any application (including Thunderbird).

Ok, after you read this – download it here.

Have a crash-free weekend.

–aj

Safari 3 on Windows, Apple.com redesign and iChat fun

aj — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 03:42:54 +0000

Browser wars in our midst again folks. First Mozilla announced Firefox version 3 (yes, it’s coming!), then Netscape 9 launched their social browser (added sharing so-so features) and finally, last month we heard about a rumor of IE8 (err, ok…).

Now, after watching the keynote and reading all the Apple rumors and tech previews last Sunday – this is the only one I didn’t expect. Apple’s Safari 3… on Windows XP and Vista!

The screenshot above is running on my… ehem… Windows XP (added it to my net apps on the desktop).

Steve Jobs demoed the new browser and it showed to be many times faster than IE7 and 1.5 faster than Firefox 2. Wow! Hello Opera… (Busy on Wii and other devices?), where are you?

Next. So, after how many years, Apple decided to re-design the look and feel of Apple.com. Apple.com is now matching the interface of Quicklook and iPhone (nothing new on the iPhone, sigh). I can say Apple.com is quite a re-design (from white to black) and I like it!

Lastly, I think the iChat presentation was funny. I don’t know about you but you’ve got to watch the WWDC keynote to appreciate it. Here’s a glimpse of iChat (they’re making fun of Steve Balmer and I was LMAO!). Fun and cool at the same time!

Ok, stop reading. Watch the keynote here now! I’m assuring you, you’ll have a lot of fun.

–aj

Multiple Internet Explorer for Quality Testing

aj — Wed, 23 May 2007 03:39:57 +0000

Most (if not all) of the eskwela.com team members uses either a Macbook/Powerbook/iBook or Ubuntu. They really don’t like using Windows unless it’s really necessary (like developing XackMail) and these guys weally (really) love OSX and Linux.

Yes, you are right. I use Windows XP (which was pre-loaded with the notebook I got, so what?). And don’t you try to belittle me, I love Macs too! Ha!

Actually, I’m saving for a MacBook Pro (I can also run Ubuntu and Windows here you know). But there are tons of other priorities than that so I leave it the way it is for now.

One of my job at eskwela.com is quality testing. I use different versions of IE (Internet Explorer) and a very good tool for this is MultipleIEs.

For those who doesn’t know, (yes) you can actually install all versions of IE3, IE4.01, IE5, IE5.5, and IE6 on one machine. It works fine (don’t crash now, please) on my machine together with the new (or old) IE7.

Why don’t you give it a try.

Disclaimer: Use at your own risk. hehehe… Good luck!

–aj

Unlimited Invites and Joost: A Killer App

aj — Tue, 15 May 2007 00:03:30 +0000

I gave out the next batch of emails that were requested here, here and here. Enough! haha… Just kidding. I think I have unlimited invites now. Me thinks that everyone I sent successfully registered and is using Joost. Way to go!

I don’t know about you, but I still think Joost is the future of (web)TV and in my own opinion, aside from Email, Instant Messaging (IM) and the Internet, Joost is going to be another killer app. I can see it now expanding it’s functionality to a variety of mobile devices… Imagine the possibilities!

Another thing is that I am quite sure of is that a lot of XUL developers are thinking of (might already even coding) Joost extensions (using XUL – same as Firefox extensions) as I write this. Sad thing though, the real-estate inside Joost is very limited and I still have to see how they will fit extensions unobtrusive to the GUI (graphical user interface).

Words on the web is spreading too that Joost is preparing to launch (so stay-tuned). You will have to expect a lot of TV ads at Joost in the next couple of days as a lot of advertisers as well as media companies are seeing the potential of the product. Google/YouTube acquisition soon? Hmm…

Lastly, to people who still doesn’t have invites. Sorry I’m a little bit swamped. Hehehe… But, you can still comment here. Don’t forget to leave me another message after getting the invite how Joost is working for you. Thanks.

–aj

Akamai Releases FoxTorrent 1.0 – Firefox BitTorrent Add-on

aj — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 01:19:13 +0000

The open source FoxTorrent Firefox extension that lets you stream torrents as they download, from your web browser, with zero configuration needed.

Firefox extension that Speeds up the use of Digg

aj — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 04:45:37 +0000

Are you a Digg and a Firefox user? Then this extension is for you! It speeds up the use of Digg on your Firefox.