AUGH

[cleolinda]

So I broke down and downloaded Firefox. Again. I'd tried it once before, when it was on the 1.0 version, I think, and just didn't like it. Don't remember why; just didn't. But quite frankly, this was the final straw for me, because my computer really had started acting up after... HEY! Sister Girl had me look at her friend's MySpace! DAMMIT. I rarely go to MySpace. So of course the one day I go, there's evil in the banner ads. Anyway, MusicMatch is my preferred mp3 player, and it's completely dead now. There's nothing in the library, and when you try to add files, it just shuts down. So I'm using Yahoo Music Engine, which is all right, but I've lost all my ratings and playlists from the other (unless there's a way to import them. Hmmm...). It wouldn't matter, except that I keep a playlist for each month, so that theoretically I can go back and see what I was listening to back in October, and it was kind of cool. And now it's gone, because of evil at MySpace.

Anyway, my point was going to be, I've just downloaded the newest version of Firefox, and I've set up my old toolbars (I would keel over and die without my Yahoo toolbar. Seriously), and I've added a couple of extensions. What I want to know is, what extensions would you recommend I download? Like, totally useful stuff I should know about? I've already gotten a download manager (even though I use DAP already, but hey) and a thing that'll download video from YouTube. Ideas?

(Also, how do you dump your cache on Firefox?)

Meanwhile, I am working on the next installment of writer advice, which is less "advice" and more "stuff I do, so maybe it'll work for you." I ended up having kind of a busy afternoon, and then we watch Treasure Hunt or whatever on Monday nights As a Family (so twee!), because my mother and I are lame like that. What I'm saying is, I've only been at the computer intermittently today, so you'll have to hang on until tomorrow for the next installment.

Meanwhile: The Fountain poster.

Comments

[caitiedid.livejournal.com]

The only extension that I ever bothered to download was Weatherbug, which is a nifty little thing that is visible on your status bar and shows the current temperature in your area, as well as the three-day forecast. It also displays weather alerts (thunderstorm warning, tornado watch, that sort of thing).

[purplkat.livejournal.com]

Last I heard, Weatherbug installs all kinds of adware on your computer, though. They may have changed it, but when I downloaded it a year or two ago, I had to run an antivirus program and two adware killers to get off all of the crud that Weatherbug installed.

[akathorne.livejournal.com]

(Also, how do you dump your cache on Firefox?)

Supa-dupa easy - tools - clear private data - check cashe - click the button. All done!

[the-firefly.livejournal.com]

Dumping cache = Tools --> Clear Private Data

A window pops up with all the things it will clear, check/uncheck options as needed and click 'Clear Private Data Now'

[linz-lou.livejournal.com]

I love Firefox. I don't think I could ever go back to IE.

Umm...as far as extensions go, right off the top of my head I can only think of a couple that I use -- FoxyTunes, which allows you to control your media player (iTunes, WMP, etc.) from the bottom of your browswer - very nifty. And I have some weather type thing on the same bar as FoxyTunes at the bottom of my browser. The Google search bar is a must-have, and you can add different search engines from a pull-down menu -- IMDB, Webster's dictionary, Amazon, ebay, wikipedia...and more. DownThemAll is pretty nifty, too.

[kilted.livejournal.com]

Well, I can't get my Firefox to run flash stuff right, so I got the IE plugin which I'll admit seems silly, but it's really helpful. I also love Foxy Tunes, which is a music player that's inbedded into the window. It's great... now I don't have to have another program open to play my music.

[scornedsaint.livejournal.com]

Anyway, MusicMatch is my preferred mp3 player

I hate MusicMatch. It always comes up when I put in a new CD and then starts playing the CD just after I bring up Windows Media so I'll get the music in something like a round. And it always freezes when I close it.

/today's rant.

I don't know how I feel about The Fountain poster. I can't wait for the movie, but the poster is leaving me feeling "blah"

[valancy-s.livejournal.com]

It shouldn't be hard to switch your preferred player to WMP, so MusicMatch won't pop up automatically anymore. Check the prefences in both programs.

[pygmymetal.livejournal.com]

Adblock - blocks those pesky ads. I loves it I do.'
NoScript and KillGoogleAds too.

[metonymy.livejournal.com]

Adblock and Flashblock are a godsend. They make the internets so much better.

[katytowell.livejournal.com]

My ESSENTIAL extensions:

Tabbrowser Preferences (them tabs is sexy)
Autofill (just what it sounds like, ma'am)
Adblock (block those ads! I said block 'em!)
Dictionary Tooltip (right-click a word and view the definition. Great for spellchecking)
ForecastFox Enhanced (weather)
IE View Lite (for those pesky IE-only sites)

These are essential if you do any web/graphic designin':
Colorzilla (an eyedropper tool for grabbing any color on a page you're lookin' at)
Web Developer (*cue angelic chorus*)

[maliekai.livejournal.com]

Tabbrowser and Colorzilla are true godsends.

[redmapletree.livejournal.com]

CLEO.

Oh, my god. Thank you.

I was trying to write, and nearly screamed or cried or something because I was convinced everything I thought of was terrible, and then I took your advice and shut off my computer--I always write at the computer, I never write by hand--and sat down in the corner with unlined paper and a blue pen, and suddenly inspiration hit with a sledgehammer. I stopped being scared and intimidated and everything just started coming out.

I feel so much better now, hence the extraordinarily silly and rambling quality of this comment, but you have no idea--it was so simple, and I had never thought and wouldn't have thought to do it that way because clearly, I am wrong in the head--so thank you. So much.

*loves*

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Awww, yay!

[fiveforsilver]

Er. I didn't realize I had quite so many, actually. Here's my list of extensions:

CookieSafe lets you know when sites are installing (is that the right term in this context?) cookies.

NoScript lets you turn javascript off for certain pages (or even parts of pages).

FlashBlock replaces Flash applets with a button - click the button to run the applet, otherwise, no annoying Flash thingie.

Del.icio.us adds buttons to your toolbar to add links and to go to your del.icio.us site.

Livejournal Friends Checker lights up when someone on your friends page posts.

Gmail notifier lets you know when you have new gmail.

Undoclosetab should be pretty self explanatory.

Session Manager saves your tabbed browsing configuration on close, crash, whatever, so it's exactly the same when you open it.

GreaseMonkey extension allows a lot of cool scripts, one of which is the "LJ unfolder" which lets you "unfold" the hidden threads in livejournal comments.

[alexthedevil.livejournal.com]

oooh, nifty. Thanks for the list, there's a couple there that I'm gonna add :D

[distant-cord.livejournal.com]

I don't use too many extensions, but I love miniT. It lets you rearrange the browser tabs, and I can't live without it now.

I also love my StumbleUpon (http://www.stumbleupon.com) toolbar, thought it might not be for you as it's primary purpose is to show you random new sites other people have rated highly, and is thus a HUGE time sink.

[fortuna-juvat.livejournal.com]

Oh god. Stumble Upon is evil. Wonderful and fun, but eeeevil.

[unwoundfantasy.livejournal.com]

Echoing the praise for Foxy Tunes; also love the LJ Login tool, but it's mostly a plus if you have various accounts that you use. Colorzilla is great for design, and StumbleUpon is fabulous for those bored days. XD

[camisado.livejournal.com]

Awww, you guys aren't lame, that's sweet! I didn't like living with my family as a kid but one thing I do miss is when we'd gather together every evening and watch our shows -- The Pretender, X-Files, The Nanny, Alias, and The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., to name a few!

[the-lone-jen.livejournal.com]

OMG ICONLOVE!

[alpheratz.livejournal.com]

I second Session Manager. It's amazing. It restores crashed sessions, and you can also save browsing sessions to look at later, if you've got too much stuff open. I also use Tab Saver! for when I've accidentally closed a Firefox window and want to restore all the tabs in it quickly.

Scrapbook allows you to backup whole web pages -- very useful for any f_wer.

[eruvadhril.livejournal.com]

Drive-by icon squeeage!

[the-lone-jen.livejournal.com]

I use Email_Notifier Toolbar, because when you have multiple email addresses in yahoo/hotmail/gmail, you can be notified when any one of them gets a new message. If you are as pathetic as me (but I doubt it, you're the all-powerful CLEO) and wait around for people to email you, it is helpful, haha.

[shoukinkasegi.livejournal.com]

Why not just use Thunderbird, or even better yet: Portable Thunderbird? (With enigmail + gpg? Sweet!) (http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/email/portable_thunderbird) ()

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

Not a plug-in, but Firefox will show your RSS feeds right in the bookmarks bar, which is handy.

Cleo, speaking as someone who's read a lot of 19th century stuff, do you know anything about George H. Calvert? I'm wildly curious because I found this book (http://particle-person.livejournal.com/70258.html) of his called Comedies in my local bookstore, and it was inscribed to Julia Ward Howe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Ward_Howe) in the flyleaf some 150 years and two weeks ago (July 10, 1856). If anyone else knows anything about him, especially in relation to Howe, please chime in.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, Calvert... doesn't ring a bell offhand.

[the-wanlorn.livejournal.com]

ForcastFox. Uses up less memory than Weatherbug and is much more awesome.

[contre-culture.livejournal.com]

All the extensions I have for Firefox have already been named, but if you're looking for a way to keep track of what music you were listening to when, you might want to try last.fm, which tracks your weekly listening habits and archives your monthly listening.

[shoukinkasegi.livejournal.com]

Before anything, back up everything in a separate location: a network drive, a flash drive, your desktop. Done? Ok good. Now upgrade to the latest stable release or if you're feeling adventurous? A nightly build. At home I use 2.0b1 RC3, it's pretty sweet. Home extensions (recommended) are as follows:

adblock
adblock filterset g
bookmark backup (do not bu to default!)
flashblock
gmailspace
minimise to tray
noscript
paste and go
single window
word count

Some or most of these may not be comp with a nightly, so roachfiend it. Or better yet, use Perl (http://roachfiend.com/archives/2005/12/02/update-your-extensions-maxversion-with-perl/#more-39). Halla me if you need help or want a simplified tutorial.

My work or portable 'fox is nifty and sleek like ninja. If you're concerned about privacy for privacy's sake, lemme know and I'll post what I have on it. Check out portable firefox (http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/browsers/portable_firefox) - very well-designed imo. If you've a USB2.0 drive that you don't care about much, dump pfox in it and run it from there. Fox is less bloated (for some unknown reason) this way. But if memory serves, isn't your computer fairly new? It should be zooming along, zoom zoom.

Portable Opera 9 (http://www.opera-usb.com/operausben.htm) is very fast. But O9 isn't as pretty as the fox. ;)

A word about cache: If you're on broadband, set cache = 0. Why even cache? (http://roachfiend.com/archives/2005/03/09/enabling-extension-updates/#more-20) ()

[elemmennope.livejournal.com]

LJ hook - embedded lj code with a right click. I use it all the time.

IE view - a couple things I use for school can only work in IE for some reason. So those pages open automatically in IE without me having to switch browsers.

FoxyTunes

AdBlocker

NukeAnything - Can right click disable a lot of banner ads (I hate flashy, blinky stuff... doesn't work on enough of them though.)

BugMeNot

Google Toolbar - I love, love, love. Has everything from google, to allrecipes, to a medical dictionary, to ebay, to amazon, to IMDB, to Craigslist all in one place. You can add whatever specific ones you want from lists of *thousands.* Like I have a directory for my university on it.

Tabbrowser Preferences - I'm actually not sure what this does, but it says I have it. I could be using it without knowing it...

And just being able to have my favorite pages as buttons on a toolbar is fantastic instead of scrolling through a bookmarks page to find them. (Or could you do this in IE too? I can't even remember now.)

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

You need BBCode (https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/128/). Adds HTML entities and customizable entries to context menus. Italics, URLs, even LJ-tags if you enter them in the custom menu. Just can't live without it.

WebDeveloper (http://chrispederick.com/work/webdeveloper/) is also made of awesome. Lots of awesome toys.

Adblock (http://adblock.mozdev.org/) is just a must-have, be it for ads or just annoying stuff you wanna filter out (like sites of known Evil).

DownThemAll! (http://www.downthemall.net/) lets you download tons of images in a blink. Pair this with the gallery-builder function of FlashGot (http://www.flashgot.net/whats) and you're set.

Those're the must-haves for me. Everything else is gravy. But then, I like gravy.

[squishysquidgy.livejournal.com]

I second BBCode!

[takekammuri.livejournal.com]

I have been a Firefox user for about a year now, maybe more. I love it because of the exact reasons listed above by countless others, but i should like to say that i am seriously contemplating switching to Opera. Why? Because Firefox memory-hogs. It grabs on to RAM and not all the king's men will make it relent. The result? You will wonder why your computer is running real simple stuff slower and slower - like WinAMP, for instance - until you Ctrl-Alt-Del and have a look at the sheer amount of memory each individual program is consuming. Have a look at firefox.exe and you'll see: it is teh huge. Opera sounds like a wonderful alternative to the alternative, especially if you've got a slower machine.

fox hogs mem

[shoukinkasegi.livejournal.com]

Dated articles, but have you seen this (http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/apps/story/0,10801,111065,00.html) and this (http://tech.cybernetnews.com/2006/04/04/reducing-your-memory-usage-in-firefox/)?

[spectralbovine.livejournal.com]

Tab Mix Plus is teh awesome. It is essential, I say!

[alysscarlet.livejournal.com]

I second this! Absolutely brilliant extension!

BBCode is also very useful, and Deepest Sender.

[bibliotech.livejournal.com]

Everything they said--and ColorZilla (https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?application=firefox&category=Popular&numpg=10&id=271), simply because I always need to know what colour something is, for some reason. (Too much time spent in Photoshop.)

I have a ton of extensions here (http://del.icio.us/aralinde/firefox), but most of them are for better use of tabs--mostly useful if you have a lot of tabs open at once.