I have been resisting using any of the Firefox 3.0 beta’s because of my reliance on Firefox extensions not yet ready for 3.0  but it seems like my Firefox 2.0 keeps bogging down (Perhaps due to my inability to close old tabs). With all the hype about the speed of Firefox 3.0 I decided to start using the release candidate.

However my dependency on extensions was to much to bear so I decided to look for some way to defeat Firefox’s extension checking.

1. In the URL bar type about:config which will result in the following warning box:
2. Click, “I’ll be careful, I promise!
3. Next you see a list of parameters, right-click on the screen and select New>Boolean from the menu dialogue.
4. Name the configuration extensions.checkCompatibility then click the false value.
5. Right-click again and create a new boolean pair called extensions.checkUpdateSecurity and set the value to false again.
6. Restart Firefox

Now the reason there are checks is so that you don’t have a fatal error which is exactly what I got after doing this hack. Some extensions are innocuous and others aren’t I guess my favorites fall into the aren’t category.  Luckily you can restart Firefox in safe mode. You’ll get the following dialogue:

Check the Disable All Add-ons box and then click Continue in Safe Mode. Type extensions.check in the filter box which should give you the two keys you set in the earlier procedure. Reset the values to defaults. Then restart Firefox. When you restart you should have all the “safe” extensions activated.

You could then uninstall extensions one-by-one, then repeat the procedure to find the ones that were causing the problems depending on your need for certain add-ons. Oh well, let’s hope there are updates for my favorite extensions soon after next week’s release.

Technorati Tags: 2.0, 3.0 Extensions, Add-Ons, Firefox, Hacks

The community powered marketing engine for the Firefox project, SpreadFox is pushing to set a Guinness World Record for the most downloads in 24 hours. So far they have over 1.1 million pledges to download Firefox on the June 17th launch date. Show your support and pledge today.

Technorati Tags: Firefox, Guinness, Spreadfox, World Record

Recently, I installed Ubuntu 7.10 on two laptops. One of my first tasks after updating all my software was to install my favorite Firefox extensions. Unfortunately I was unable to do so. I didn’t receive an error message the download and installation process just stalled.

I wondered if the problem was Ubuntu specific so I scoured the Ubuntu forums and tried numerous fixes to try to get my extensions to install.  I changed permissions in my plug-in directory, reinstalled, and deleted directories and preferences. I discounted network problems because I could easily download and install on Mac OS X. I then went and looked at the Ubuntu Forums for help.  

I was getting suspicious so I rebooted from the Ubuntu live install CD and had the same problem running from the liveCD. This was puzzling I figured I did something funky during my installation.  

I believe what was happening was that the download was timing out but I had no idea why.It seems that some Linux distributions and contributions have difficulties with the IPv6 protocoI then stumbled upon this tip. Firefox on some Linux about:config in the URL bar and change the network.dns.disableIPv6 setting to true.

Here’s an explanation of the Network.dns.disableIPV6 setting from the mozillaZine Knowledge Base.   

IPv6 was designed in part to solve the problem IPv4 will soon be facing: the exhaustion of all possible IP addresses. Mozilla implemented IPv6support in early 2000, but that support did not receive wide spread testing until recently as IPv6-capable OSs and network software/equipment became more common.

One particular bug that has appeared exists not in Mozilla, but in IPv6-capable DNS servers: an IPv4 address may be returned when anIPv6 address is requested. It is possible for Mozilla to recover from this misinformation, but a significant delay is introduced.

I also looked for some hints in the Ubuntu bug database and found that the IPv6 problem does affect other programs too. I wish I had a better insight on why exactly the problem happens but hopefully I saved someone a few hours.  

Technorati Tags: extensions, failure, Firefox, Install, IPV6, Mozilla, Ubuntu

If you are a social media hound you probably have a Flickr Uploader, a web browser chock full of extensions, maybe a Twitter client like Twhirl, and a slew of other tools for interacting on the web. Maybe it’s time to consolidate all these tools into your web browser. That’s where Flock comes in it’s a web browser for the collaborative web.

Open Source  Collaboration

Flock is an open source web browser built on the same Mozilla architecture that Firefox is built on so many of Flock’s features should be familiar, like tab-based browsing and the ability to add extensions. However, there are a number of cool new features that appeal to the social networking crowd. First there are additional tools that can displayed in a tool bar on the left hand side of your browser (RSS reader, People feed, Web Clipboard, and a media bar that displays your photos and video across the top of your browser window).

Social Media Features

On a typical day I Instant message, post to two separate blogs, bookmark on deli.icio.us, upload pictures to Flickr, create and edit documents in Google Docs, and read a ton of RSS feeds. Normally my desktop is overwhelmed with clutter. If you are looking to consolidate Flock aims to include all your tools in a single application. You also can track many of your accounts and services in a single control panel.

Blog Editor

I post to two blogs on a daily basis in Firefox I really like the Scribefire extension, or I edit my blog directly in my Word Press WYSIWYG editor. Flock allows you to set up all your blogging accounts from Flock and offers a simple simple blog editor. It’s handy but my complaint is that you can’t save drafts you can only publish your Flock edited posts.

People Feed

After the big FriendFeed blitz last week it became apparent that their is no end in sight to the number of social networks we will be asked to join, aggregating them is a never ending process. Flock allows you to login to a large but not exhaustive list of social networks but hits the popular ones like Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and YouTube. They also give you a People feed that is similar to what you would see at FriendFeed or Plaxo Pulse.

RSS Reader

The RSS Reader is probably one of the features I like more than anything else. It’s really not that the reader is so much better than anything else and you could get the same effect with Sage for Firefox but I still really like the reader interface and with web-based browsers you can use your del.icio.us plug-ins another social bookmarking tools you install in your browser.

Media Mini Bar

I like the Media Bar that allows me to view media streams and drag and drop pictures from Flickr, Photobucket, or video from YouTube. It’s very convenient to search for media and display it in and drag it into my blog editor.

Photo Uploader

If you upload photos to Flickr you might use the Flickr web interface or tools like the Flickr Uploader. The Flock Photo Uploader supports both Flickr and Photobucket for pasting photos into blogs. Nice inclusiveness but I am not sure that it saves all that much time.

Web Media Clipboard

I save a lot of types of media when I surf and having a clipboard is nice but if I am using the Flock RSS reader I can’t view my web clipboard, having the ability to keep both open even if the clipboard was along the top would make this much more useful. When dragging media from the bar to Mail.App in OS X it didn’t bring the image over just the link which was less interesting then I would have liked.

Twitter Client

I like having my Twitter client integrated in my web browser but the refresh rate seemed a little slow. I would also like to see a total microblogging/instant messaging sidebar so I could combine Twitter and my chat clients.

Summary

Flock is just released version 1.1 including new features like Picasa integration and web mail integration with Gmail and Yahoo! mail. I really like the inclusiveness of the Flock browser. The sidebar is very useful but it’s hard to be deep with every feature set such as the RSS feature and the Twitter integration. I think the web clipboard is very useful but there are other types of clipboards that are universal for all your applications are better tools for someone going to Where I think Flock falls down is in it’s resource footprint, it seems to be a little sluggish in comparison to Firefox. If you want fast performance and don’t care about all the other stuff then stick with Firefox but if you want a single tool for all your Web 2.0 needs you can probably save some time with Flock but you will still probably need some of your favorite Firefox extensions to make it meet all your needs.

Other Reviews of Flock

Don’t just take my word for it here are some other reviews of Flock

• Open Loops – Browser Review: Flock
• Postcards From My Life – Flock: FireFox on Steriods? Or just FireFox with Junk in the Trunk
• Macworld: Flock 1.0.3
• Flock 1.1 Beta Review

Technorati Tags: Blog, Blogging, del.icio.us, Flock, review, RSS, Social Media, Twhirl, Twitter, Web 2.0, web browser, WordPress

Mozilla Corporation, CEO Mitch Baker posted to the Mozilla blog this week a review of 2007.

SheHe cites the number of Firefox users have grown to 125 million. Earlier this year Mozilla announced $66 million in revenues which makes the Mozilla Corporation a serious software business as well a developer of free software.

Baker also announced that she he will be stepping down as CEO and allowing John Lilly to take the reins but will still remain involved as an employee:

As a result I’ve asked John to take on the role of CEO of the Mozilla Corporation, and John has agreed. In reality John and I have been unconsciously moving towards this change for some time, as John has been providing more and more organizational leadership. It is very Mozilla-like to acknowledge the scope of someone’s role after he or she has been doing it for a while, and this is a good part of what is happening here. I expect this transition to continue to be very smooth. 

Could there be further announcements coming from the lizard wranglers coming?

Technorati Tags: Firefox, John Lilly, Mitchell Baker, Mozilla

When I type content in Joomla! I had gotten javascript security errors from the Rich Text Editor (RTE), Here’s how to fix it.

For Windows:

1. Quit Mozilla. If you have Quick Launch running (in Windows, an icon in the toolbar), quit that too.
2. Find your Mozilla profile directory. On Windows, this is often located in c://WINNT/Profiles//Application Data/Mozilla.
3. Open the user.js file from that directory in a text editor. If there’s no user.js file, create one.
4. Add these lines to user.js:

   "1">user_pref("capability.policy.policynames", "allowclipboard");user_pref("capability.policy.allowclipboard.sites", "http://www.yourservername.com");user_pref("capability.policy.allowclipboard.Clipboard.cutcopy", "allAccess");user_pref("capability.policy.allowclipboard.Clipboard.paste", "allAccess");

5. Save the file, and restart Mozilla. The Clipboard buttons should now function.

For Linux Shutdown Firefox and then do as instructed above.However in Linux the Firefox preferences folder is in a different place, mine is located in  /home/$username/.mozilla/firefox/default then locate the prefs.js and add the lines from above to the bottom of the file. I didn’t need to create or add a user.js to my installation for the problem to cease but perhaps you may.

Technorati Tags: Firefox, Joomla!, Mozilla, Rich Text Editor

When I type content in Joomla! I had gotten javascript security errors from the Rich Text Editor (RTE), Here’s how to fix it. 

For Windows:

1. Quit Mozilla. If you have Quick Launch running (in Windows, an icon in the toolbar), quit that too.
2. Find your Mozilla profile directory. On Windows, this is often located in c://WINNT/Profiles/<your Windows login>/Application Data/Mozilla.
3. Open the user.js file from that directory in a text editor. If there’s no user.js file, create one.

4. Add these lines to user.js:

   <font size="1">user_pref("capability.policy.policynames", "allowclipboard");user_pref("capability.policy.allowclipboard.sites", "http://www.yourservername.com");user_pref("capability.policy.allowclipboard.Clipboard.cutcopy", "allAccess");user_pref("capability.policy.allowclipboard.Clipboard.paste", "allAccess");</font>

5. Save the file, and restart Mozilla. The Clipboard buttons should now function.

For Linux

Shutdown Firefox and then do as instructed above.However in Linuxthe Firefox preferences folder is in a different place, mine is locatedin  /home/$username/.mozilla/firefox/defaultthen locate the prefs.js and add the lines from above to the bottom ofthe file. I didn’t need to create or add a user.js to my installationfor the problem to cease but perhaps you may.

Technorati Tags: Firefox, Joomla!, Mozilla, Rich Text Editor