Today I downloaded and installed Firefox 3.0.
It’s very exciting! Once again, the good folks at Mozilla have beat the pants off of Microsoft’s latest offering: IE 8 (still in Beta testing). Firefox 3 was released on… Tuesday, I believe. I downloaded it just a few days ago and I’m pretty impressed with it.

The design was polished up a little bit, and it runs a lot faster than it has in the past, which is nice. It probably runs even better on people with cutting-edge machines, but even on my little ol’ 2.8 ghz Pentium 4, it’s not terribly shabby. However, I had a few gripes that I wanted to tweak with it:

1.) Minimize to Tray Didn’t Work-
OK, so maybe I’m crazy. In fact, I’m fairly positive I’m nuts in my love (need?) of this tiny little extension. All it does is when you click the [X] box to close the window, instead of quitting the program, it goes to live in the little system tray with the clock!

See it there? Now it’s out of the task bar (the bit in the middle where minimized things go), but it isn’t off. My biggest gripe about Firefox is that it takes a while to load up, and this fixes that becuase I never have to shut it off, but I can get it out of the way! As you can see, I have the same extension installed for Thunderbird, and there’s even similar functionality built into iTunes!

The problem is, this little tool doesn’t work with Firefox 3 becuase for whatever reason, the developers haven’t updated it. In truth, it still works, as in functions, but the application won’t let you install it, because there’s a built-in limit to the highest version it could be installed on! This is put there so that they can maintain control over which versions you use it with, so that people don’t install it in unsupported versions and whine when it doesn’t function like it should.

However, that’s exactly what I wanted to do! Since this extension has such a small, simple function, I’m not really worried about it breaking, so the only problem was to remove the version limitation. This is amazingly easy.

1. Download WinRar.
2. Downlaod the .XPI file for Minimize to Tray. If you try to use Firefox to do this, it will not work, becuase Firefox recognizes the file type. It either tries to install it right away (on a compatible version) or will not give you access (on a non-compatible version). So guess what? Crack open IE7, and go to the add-on’s page, listed above. View->Page Source. Search that document for ‘,xpi’ to find the correct link location to the .XPI file. Feed that into the address bar of IE7, and it will ask you what to do then, becuase it doesn’t understand what the hell an .XPI file is! Tell it to save the file to your desktop.
3. Open the .xpi file with WinRar.
4. Edit the ‘instal.rdf’ file so that the 2.0.0.* line of code actually reads 3.0.0.*. Or you could be a little silly, like me, and have yours be compatible up through version 14 of Firefox. It doesn’t matter, so long as you feed it a number larger or equal to the version you want to install!

I usually only need this hack for Minimize to Tray, but theoretically you can use this for anything. However, do so at your own risk, becuase on more sophisticated add-ons you are less likely to be able to get away with using an antiquated program with newer version.

2.) Tab Mix Plus Didn’t Work-
One of the most popular add-ons for Firefox, somehow, didn’t get updated for the version switch. You can download a developer build from their website which works just fine. No clue as to why this isn’t the version available in the add-on repository…

3.) I Don’t Like That Stupid Star-
Supposedly the little star makes it easier to bookmark things. Personally, I’m not really huge on bookmarks any more. I use them not for things I frequently visit, but for sites I infrequently visit, but don’t want to forget about. Thus, having that little star in the bar all the time is a little irritating to me. It’s pretty easy to get rid of though, so that’s good.

1. Find your ‘chrome’ folder. If you just search your computer for the word ‘chrome’, eventually you’ll find it, as I can’t imagine anybody has too many things with such a name. It’s located in your root directory (the one with WINDOWS, Desktop, Documents and Settings; that junk). From there it’s: \UserName\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\crazy-alphanumberic-combo\chrome. Though that’s just where it is on mine; for more help, check out the Mozilla article on profiles. Suffice to say, that’s where your ‘chrome’ folder lives.

2. Open up the chrome folder. Right-click userChrome-example.css and open it with Notepad. Once you’re in there, paste the following:

   
#urlbar > #urlbar-icons > #star-button {
display: none !important;
}


3. Save the file as userChrome.css

When you’ve restarted Firefox, that stupid little button should be gone! Hooray!

4.) Secure Websites Aren’t Yellow Anymore-
I actually stumbled across this while researching something for this entry: they changed the code from FF2 that made the address bar yellow for a secure (encrypted) website. I actually kindof liked that, thinking back on it, and so I went ahead with the fix. As above, it’s just a simple edit to your Chrome file. Paste the following into your userChrome.css file:


#urlbar[level] .autocomplete-textbox-container {
background-color: #FFFFB7 !important; }


Save, and that’s that!

5.) The Smart Location Bar Irritates Me-
I don’t like it. It’s big, and it’s ugly, and it uses a creepy algorithm that finds websites I looked at like… years ago… and slaps them up in this giant green nasty font. I’m sure it’s cool for some people, but if I want to search, I use Google. It’s my homepage. Done. I don’t use the browser itself to execute a search function. Thus, when I type in the address bar, I know exactly where I’m going, and these gigantic green suggestions do not help me in the slightest.

There’s two options for fixing this:

• Edit the config file. Detailed instructions are available, but I just didn’t feel like it today. You can, if you’re ambitious and computer-savvy.

• I opted to just download an extension that makes it function like the Firefox 2 bar did. Easy, clean, and more similar to what I know.

I’ve said it time and time again: “I’m like an elderly person. I like things they way I like them.” My browser is no exception; in fact it is the quintessential embodiment of this principal. So yeah, I spent the past two days whipping my browser back into shape, and at the end of it all, I’m really pleased about it.

A new feature I’m using is the “search for text when I type” feature. I don’t honestly know if it’s knew or not, but it is to me: Options->Advanced->General is where you can find this. On any given page full of text, if you’re not clicked inside a form (box for typing) and you start typing, it activates a tiny little QuickSearch bar to find what you typed. Click the page, and it disappears! I thought this was so cool, since I’d been using the old ‘CTRL+F’ shortcut to bring up the ‘Find’ toolbar for years now.

But that’s basically what I’ve got to say about Firefox 3. It’s open source and amazing. The browser I’ve come to love and take great, great pride in these past few years continues to improve and get better. The real beauty of it is that you can hack it to pieces and build it back up to make it JUST the way you want it, and I couldn’t be more pleased!

At the bottom here, a few more updates:
Sadly, there’ll be no radio show this summer! The equipment is all deconstructed and in the process of being moved, so I won’t be back on the air until August! Oh well. Maybe this give me time to finally get the archives up-to-date, and work on that much-lauded podcast. We shall see.

I will probably be working that into what I’m temporarily dubbing our 2.5 version.
Features, as mentioned before:

-Smaller-bandwidth navigation images (plus I need to get rid of the border that appears around them when clicked… thanks for that, Firefox 3)
-New banner set
-Feeds that display the date
-Radio page will have podcast capabilities (hopefully iTunes compatible)
-SnapShots? I still can’t decide on these things. I make up my mind to hate them, and then I come across some website where they’re really useful. Probably not, but maybe.

That should be about it. My other tech-related endeavor is getting Thunderbird set up as an RSS reader, a la Google Reader, which Ethan continually lauds. I want to see if open-source can compete with similar functionality. News on that later though.

[One final thing, becuase this just made me laugh so hard... Have you ever heard of the 'uncanny valley'?]

So I’ve been sitting on some pretty crazy stuff since I last blogged.
In truth, it’s just a bunch of random (pretty funny) things that have happened in the past few days, with actual news at the bottom. So here we go:

I’m a big fan of the Nintendo DS platform… or at least as much as I can be without actually owning one. Lizz has one, and on it she has one of the ‘Nintendogs’ games. These are pretty fun, becuase you kinda take care of stuff and so if you’re into nurturing or whatever, it’s a game for that.

There’ve been several spin-offs for horses, cats, whatever.
But this just crosses the line (CAUTION: The noises on that site are really loud; I had headphones on and nearly went deaf).
But for real: how messed up is that? Virtual Child-Rearing? From the looks of it, you feed them, wash them, change them, dress them, and so on. I just don’t see the market for such a game. Also: The babies all have E.T. faces.

You also seem them naked at one point, only to find that they are simply anatomically incorrect, described by this IGN review as akin to a naked Barbie Doll.

So yeah. All kinds of strange.

Speaking of strange, I’m going to drop the quote of the week on you guys:

The application is called Spark, and its with the Social Profile thing. Actually I think this random girl from high school was number two [...]. Facebook wants me to play for the other team, how embarrassing! Anyway.

First: ‘Play for the other team’ is the BEST euphemism for being gay I have ever heard.
Second: This ’spark’ application intrigued me, so I gave it a spin on the ol’ Facebook.

It is TERRIBLE.
The statistical run down says it all:

“Would you date Tom?”
YES 2 votes 28%
NO 5 votes 71%
Total 7 votes

You are more desirable
than 76.16% of people
Another 189,423 people are at your level
Your global desirability ranking is 14,445 out of 26,401,177 people
Last week: You were viewed 2 times and no people expressed interested in you

Wow. That has to be one of the more disgusting ideas I’ve ever come across. An application custom tailored to make you feel better/worse about yourself based entirely on how many clicks you get from these (pardon me if I’m talking about you…) sick people who have nothing better to do than to sit around and think to themselves, “I would/would not hit that!” and click the corresponding link.

That’s just… wow. Also, the numbers are staggering to look at. With 28% positive, I am more desirable than 76% of the other people? That’s insane. Especially when you consider the fact that people see THIS:

I mean… wow.
What a world we live in.

Speaking of Facebook, in an effort to get more people over here reading the ol’ blog, I’ve installed a little application called Wordbook on both Facebook and Wordpress. This just syndicates all blog posts here on my Facebook page, and hopefully people see it in the news feed as well.

I’m not really into Facebook or whatever, but a lot of people are super-into it, and on it all the time, so I figured I’d take a little stab at publicity and see if we can’t get more people stopping by the blog. This new syndication outlet is part of what you could call a small ‘Point Release’ of Schödinger’s Blog. Version 2.1 includes now not only this Wordbook outlet, but I also upgraded to the brand-spanking-new WordPress 2.5. It’s pretty fancy. They overhauled the interface, added a lot of new media features (which I used to insert the images in this post; I’m not sure if I’ll use it for everything from now on or not though), and made it more secure.

I also decided that Schödinger’s Blog is probably due for a major upgrade in the coming months. I’m shooting for this summer (before or around our two-year mark in August) as a good time to make some changes for what I’m tentatively calling Version 2.5. Feature list right now is short, but like I said, I’m still in the formative stages:

• Fixing the Feeds-
  They still don’t show the date like they used to, and I’m pretty sure I can fix that.

• New Design-
  I have some cool ideas for how to update the button console, but it’s going to mean exporting this job. I’ve finally come to grips with my graphic-deisgn incapability, so I’m probably going to come up with a concept, and have a real art-person put together some templates for me that I can tinker with, but are still way better than anything I could’ve thrown together on my own. That’s the plan anyways.

• Rooftop Update-
  I haven’t been keeping this that current, and so it could probably use some work. Additionally, I want to get the videos that are there uploaded to YouTube, and condense that down to fewer pages for people to view more easily.

So those are the ideas I have right now.
We’ll see how well they pan out in the next few months.

On a final computer/upgrade note I downloaded the fourth beat release of Firefox 3. It was pretty cool. They’ve tinkered with the interface a bit, and made it quite a bit faster. However, none of my extensions worked that well with it, and I use those a lot more than I thought I did, so I downgraded back to 2.0.0.13. While I was doing that though, I got some new extensions, which I can recommend:

-FireFTP, which lets you run FTP from a plain old tab
-Download Status Bar, which gets that pesky download manager condensed into a little progress bar at the bottom of the screen

I dunno. I’m into webrowsers.
What can I say.

There’s actually more things to talk about, but I figured, why not leave them for next week.
It’ll give the illusion that I’m posting more consistently.

On one final note, I had some time tonight, and so I also posted our second radio show.
If you missed parts or all of either, please check out radio.schrodingersblog.com and get caught up!

[The show still lacks a name. I need to get on that!]

I am so angry with Microsoft.
It’s been literally one thing after another.

Tonight I wanted to use the ‘helper CD’ that came with my calculus text book. I downloaded whatever crap software it wanted (it’s uninstalling right now), and opened the excessive little splash screen with silly sounds and graphics. Whatever. I click through and find the thing I want, and I go to actually see it, and it opens up in Firefox with an error.

This program was created to work as a proprietary with Internet Explorer! And of course I can’t just tell it to open in IE, I’ve got to change IE to the default browser so the stupid CD knows to use that instead of Firefox. It doesn’t work. So I restart… and I was so proud! Even though I’d gone and told IE to be my default internet application, Firefox refused to yield that spot. It just wouldn’t give it up.

So I say to hell with the CD. I’m now just trying make sure IE wouldn’t constantly be trying to unseat Firefox for top browser. I go in to the settings to turn off the ‘default’ option, and I see something… it says “Manage IE Add-Ons”. Excuse me?

What’s new in IE7? Tabbed Browsing. Excuse me?
What’s new in IE7? RSS Feeds. Excuse Me!?

That has gone too far. I can’t believe they’d be so barefaced. IE7 basically took everything that was good and pure about Firefox, all the reasons it was kicking the pants of IE6 (believe me, there were plenty) and STOLE THEM. Outright, it just copied them and stuck ‘em in IE7.

Come on. They don’t even try and put their own spin on it. Now the only difference between the two is IE7 just looks like a bad skin of Firefox that runs slower. This is absolutely pathetic. I have a really hard time believing that Microsoft, with all the money it makes, can’t pay their developers enough to actually motivate them to innovate.

At least Apple has the courtesy to rename the things it copies. (Finder, Safari, etc.)

So I’m all steamed up and I’m going to let the Big M know how I feel. I pull up microsoft.com and start looking around for a feedback form. There aren’t many. At all.

I FINALLY find one. I click it, and get ready to rant;

“Use Windows Live ID to sign in to MSN Messenger, MSN Hotmail, MSN Music, and other sites and services! Windows Live ID works with Passport Network sites.
It’s free to access Windows Live ID. After you sign up and create credentials, you can sign in on any site that displays Microsoft Passport Network or Windows Live ID.”

Screw that.
I’m done, Microsoft.

I was on the fence for a few reasons as to whether or not I’d ask for a MacBook for Christmas. This sealed the deal. I’m going to get a Mac, and I’m going to enjoy it. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: Windows makes for a pretty amazing OS. I like it a lot. I’m comfortable with it, and I know all the ins-and-outs for the most part. In that vein, the Office Suite isn’t bad either.

But every other Microsoft product I’ve EVER used has sucked to a nearly incomprehensible degree. Microsoft: please stop making dumpy software. Feel free to start any time… no one will complain. I promise.

Sidenote to Apple: Stop calling them MacBooks. Call them ‘MacTops’ instead. I like the sound of it better, and it seems like something you’d buy at a convenience store in either A) the future, or B) 1986.