Add-on competition goes well!

Well you must have heared about the competition:

Please visit Otto on squidoo or post your submission and votes
at our competion had-quarters…

Many entries already! And it is so easy to win… Hurry while you still can.

22nd of feb: 18+ entries.

4th of mar: 45+ entries!

Tabbrowser Preferences review

Name: Tabbrowser Preferences 1.3.1.1

Function: Enhanced control of tabbed browsing

One extension of personal preference which I always seem to install, and personal preference is what extensions are all about. Some extensions change feel (and look) of your browser, others add new functionality. I see Tabbrowser Preferences (or TBP) as the former, although it adds some small new features.

In the “old days” when Firefox was 0.9 and 1.0, I missed some handling of the tabs as were in the default settings, and when the tab-handling became more sophisticated in Firefox 1.5 and 2.0, I really thought I would delete TBP from my Firefox. But I did not. Why?

Options is the answer: if you like your tabs to open in the back ground, or tabs to open from the search or external links to open in the background, than that is possible after installing TBP.

As you can see from the image, you will find the options of the extension not were you usually find them (under [add-ons], <options>), but under [Tools], [Options], then select Tabbed browsing. All options of this extension are found in the same manner as Firefox 2 displays its option. So you see it is tightly anchored in the user interface (what we see as users).

Unfortunately, when you try to run Firefox in the safe mode (so without any extension active) TBP is still working as if we are not in the safe mode. This does not mean TBP is not safe, it is just not handy.

One feature I really like is one the tab-focus option: ‘select a tab when the mouse is moved over them’. It avoids clicking. Another feature I like I use on my linux site of my computer: in Ubuntu (Gnome as you might know), I have the tabs in Firefox at the bottom of the window. In both cases I like to load any new tab in the background. I guess I am just picky about my tabs…

Good: take control of you tabs, open them how you like, or how you focus them.

Bad: it could seem complicated at first with so many options! In safe mode TBP is not inactivated. Mmm, another computer with no TBP in your settings feels weird…

Tip: Install it, play around, and see what you like and dislike. Lets see if it survives Firefox 3 on my computer ;o)

Foxmarks review

Name: Foxmarks 0.84

Function: Synchronizing your bookmarks between two or more computers.

Using a dual boot computer, but you cannot keep track of you bookmarks? Well for some people a solution such as social-book marking, for example del.icio.us works nicely. You login to a website and all your bookmarks are there, and you can upload them to that site.

If you are ok with registering to a third party, and feel that uploading to another website is to much work, or like me, would like to have the my bookmarks on the Linux site and on my Windows site synchronized automatically, then you do have options.

When I visited the official add-on site to find a suitable extension, the rating system filtered Foxmarks to my attention.

First off the installation, a few easy steps created me a login and a password. I uploaded the bookmarks via the registry, and then I switched to my Linux side. Once again I installed Foxmarks, logged in this time, and was presented with the question to merge my bookmarks (between what I already uploaded), the take the bookmarks from my earlier upload and discard the bookmarks in this session, or delete my uploaded bookmarks and upload the bookmarks from this session. I decided to merge them, since I had some bookmarks I wanted to keep here, while keeping all my bookmarks from my windows side of the computer.

Now the synchronization, that is why I got this, is as easy as it gets: you do not do anything. Once in a while the bookmarks are checked and only the new ones added to your record. Then when you login to your other computer (or other boot configuration) the bookmarks get updated automatically. The result: I always have the same bookmarks on both Linux and Windows.

Of course Foxmarks can also be used to synchronise many computers (at home and in the office for example), it is all up to you.

Good things: automatic, can access my bookmarks also via the Foxmarks website, never any crashes or conflicts with other extensions (up till now), my bookmarks are backed-up.

Bad things: other than that my bookmarks being also in some database somewhere, I will let you know when bad things happen.

Hello world!

Well, I never imagined myself important enough to start a blog. Luckily blogs have caught up, and importance is no longer relevant.

The main reason however, was, to start publishing some reviews of Firefox-add-ons. As active member of spreadfirefox I could not refuse.

So there it is, hello world: lost in many blog posts, as chattering in space…

Me is marco btw ;o)