Technology, Books and Other Neat Stuff

Have a play with GetWebKit (aka Swift), which is built on Apple's WebKit HTML rendering engine.

Warning: Very Very Alpha Code

Or perhaps we do.

Here's Google's library of more than 600 new search buttons you can add to the newly customisable Google browser toolbar. There's a nice selection of reference sources, and buttons that'll search many other search engines.

Useful...

One of the good things about Firefox is the ability to add new features through extensions. If there's something you've wanted a browser to do, then there's probably a Firefox extension already written to do it...

Here's my list of extensions (all working on Firefox 1.5). With links so you can install them too!

• Forecastfox - instant weather forecasts all the time!
• Google Toolbar for Firefox - it's the Google Toolbar. You need an explanation?
• PDF Download - manage whether PDF files are rendered in the browser (you can even view them as HTML), or if you'd rather download them for future reference.
• IE View - launches the page you're viewing in Internet Explorer - a useful tool for debugging pages, and testing code.
• BugMeNot - get past those pesky log ins for sites like the New York Times...
• FlickrFox - integrated Flickr browsing.
• Tabbrowser Preferences - I mainly use Firefox for the tabs. This extension makes using them a lot easier.
• Web Developer - see just how that page was put together - including DHTML and CSS features.
• Allow Right-Click - disable JavaScript right-click blockers, so you can get the URIs of images and print pages...
• Bookmarks Synchronizer - I can keep my bookmarks on a public web server, and make sure all three of my machines have the same bookmarks.
• del.icio.us - manage social bookmarks from inside the browser.
• Viamatic foXpose - see all your tabs - in one view. More useful than you might think at first...
• SessionSaver .2 - saves open tabs when you close the browser, so you come back to the pages you were at last time.
• Clip to OneNote - adds the selected content to a OneNote side note. Only useful if you use OneNote as your standard note taking application!
• Restart Firefox - one button restart for when you install a new extension or theme! With SessionSaver, you're back the way you were in seconds.
• DownThemAll! - download everything from a page, faster than using Firefox's own download tools.
• IE Tab - embeds IE in a Firefox tab, ideal for debugging web sites and working with IE only sites (Windows only).
• FireFTP - a full FTP client, right there in the browser.
• Colorful Tabs - colours tabs, making it easier to see the active tab, and switch between sites and pages.
• How'd I Get Here - takes you back to where you started to explore a site - even across tabs.
• Blogger Web Comments - keep an eye on what one small part of the web is saying about the page you're viewing.
• Spell Bound - form field spell checker.
• Fasterfox - network speed tweas for Firefox.

What are you using? And why?

In a truce in the browser wars, Microsoft has agreed with Mozilla that the standard browser icon for RSS will be the friendly orange button from Firefox...

I’m excited to announce that we’re adopting the icon used in Firefox. John and Chris were very enthusiastic about allowing us (and anyone in the community) to use their icon. This isn’t the first time that we’ve worked with the Mozilla team to exchange ideas and encourage consistency between browsers, and we’re sure it won’t be the last.

Apparently the Mozilla folk are happy for anyone to use it - so let's hope we see Opera and Safari pick up on the Mozilla move. After all, there's one thing that's good for the web, and that's consistent semiotics.

<rant text ="And it's not that annoying and incorrect XML icon that certain people want everyone to use. RSS - and ATOM - are XML languages. The relationship between XML and the web is much bigger than just content syndication, and it shouldn't be trivialised in a misleading orange blob." />

Here's a nifty Firefox extension that runs Internet Explorer inside a Firefox tab.

So now you can use Windows Update and the like without leaving your day-to-day browser. It's still under development, and somewhat buggy, but it's promising and useful.

Windows only