Eric Stewart: Running Off At The Mouth

So – Firefox 3.5 is out.  Already I have seen articles about the impending arrival of version 3.5.1, which apparently is needed because there are bugs that either have appeared since the release, or that weren’t resolved prior to 3.5’s full release.  I got it as soon as it was released (I didn’t get around to downloading it while it was in beta).  The only thing I’ve noticed that’s significantly different is that it seems like URL redirectors (such as TinyURL, or Bit.ly) take a tad longer to do the actual redirect than they did on the 3.0 line.

Firefox has long been known for its extendability.  Add-ons are available for a myriad of purposes.  For the bulk of this article, I clue you in to the add-ons I’m currently using.

• Ad-Block Plus: The other day I tweeted about a notice I got from Slashdot, where they said that due to my long standing, good status, I was eligible to disable advertising.  Funny thing – due to Ad-Block Plus, I hadn’t seen an ad on Slashdot (or 90% of the pages I visit regularly) in ages – only when I decide that the ads aren’t intrusive enough, and I want to provide some chance of the people running the website I’m patronizing of getting ad revenue.  Unless you subscribe to a particular filter list, Ad-Block Plus can take some time to get configured the way you want.  Web knowledgeable geeks will be able to figure it out pretty quickly though and build their own custom blocks.
• Forecastfox: I have an occasional obsession with weather.  Forecastfox provides some on-browser indicators that are highly configurable for seeing current weather and various forecasts in your chosen area.
• Twitterfox: Someone (I think it was @petersagal) tweeted about it the other day.  I added it – it’s pretty good, as Twitter clients go, as it can handle multiple accounts (quick switching, but only one account is “active” at any given time).  Thing is, I find myself using iGoogle‘s TwitterGadget or logging into Twitter’s website anyway.  Still, you might find it useful.
• Stylish: I use Google Reader for managing RSS feeds, but it’s not all that customizable as far as colors and layout.  Being a fan of light text on dark backgrounds (can’t you tell?) I searched for something that would allow me to read Google Reader in a color scheme that was better than the default.  Stylish along with Dark Reader made it tolerable.
• AutoCopy: I just started playing with this as another one of the people I follow on Twitter mentioned it.  It’s probably going to take some getting used to.  It assumes that any text you highlight in your web browser, you want to copy onto your clipboard – eliminating the need to hit CTRL-C.  Thing is, I’ve run into a few things while writing this blog post that make this … problematic.  The good news is that AutoCopy will keep a list of previous items on your clipboard, so you can always go in to your right-click menus and select something else.  I just remembered, though, that it’s got a one-click option to disable or re-enable it.

That’s pretty much it for now.  Hope you find some of these useful.