E-Musings
Offtakes on Web-related software, services 'n tips
Firefox 4 Beta out now with modified user interface
It’s heeeere! The much awaited Mozilla Firefox 4 Beta (or rather Beta 2 to be exact). With its ‘all new’ layout. That’s quite similar to Chrome but still needs work. Feature-wise little has changed since the Firefox 3.7alpha5 release. And there are still plenty of gap areas. That in the Beta can’t be addressed through add-ons because of changes in the Firefox 3.7alpha5 add-on structure. Even Nightly Tester Tools, every tester’s jailbreak app, doesn’t work.
Right now there’s just the one add-on that does work: Mozilla Sync (aka Weave, Dec 9, 2009).
Several previewers have been complaining that Firefox 4 Beta starts More >
SpywareBlaster 4.3 Out Now
Jun 28th
If you use, or are looking for a great anti-spyware software look no further than JavaCools Spywareblaster 4.3. The new release improves compatibility with Gecko-powered browser like Firefox and SeaMonkey (does anyone really use this Netscape Navigator upgrade?). Along with IE for Windows Vista and Windows Seven (7) updates and a number of other bug fixes and improvements.
For those who came in late, SpywareBlaster is among the best tools that block spyware before it affects your browsing. It works for Windows, IE (Internet Explorer) and Firefox. But excludes Opera and Google Chrome.
I find the IE tools handy even though I More >
Tip Jar: Pidgim – multi-service Instant Messaging (IM) client
Jun 21st
Friends, family and customers frequently wonder which instant messaging client I use. The answer is the free Pidgin. That allows you to connect to multiple services like Yahoo, GMail (Jabber), MSN, AOL, ICQ, IRC, MySpace and more. And is available for the MacOS, Linux and Windows platforms.
There’s even a Skype plug-in for Pidgin but because of the Skype platform model, you also need to have Skype running. Which sort of defeats the purpose of a single IM client? Just use Skype for text, voice and video chats
Yes, some features like voice chat (VoIP) and file transfers are either crippled or plain More >
Tip Jar: Firefox Spell Check – Do Word-style grammar squiggly underline
Jun 14th
The Download Squad dug out this gem from the Mozilla Knowledgebase.
Firefox’s integrated spell checker is extremely handy for avoiding an embarrassing typo in an email, blog post, or Twitter update, but after a while, the light red underline is easy to ignore. Fix that with a quick about:config tweak as follows:
- Enter About:config in the Firefox address bar. If it pops up an alert, tell it that you know what you’re doing and proceed.
- Search for ui.SpellCheckerUnderlineStyle. If you find anything, skip to step 5.
- If your system is like mine, you found nothing. That means you have to add this configuration value. Right-click the More >
Tip Jar: Fix Firefox 3.7 Alpha Memory Leaks & Runaway Processes
Apr 9th
If you are using Firefox 3.7 Alpha (properly Firefox 3.7a4 pre) and have been noticing your system slowing or choking, there are a few sub-processes or properly Out-of-process plug-ins (OOPP) that may be leaking memory. Active OOPPs will be listed in Windows Task Manager > Processes as mozilla-runtime.exe.
In my testing I found that three plug-ins
- Macromedia Shockwave for Director Netscape v10.1.1.16
- RealPlayer Version Plug-in 6.0.12.1348
- RealPlayer G2 LiveConnect-enabled Plug-in (32-bit) 6.0.11.2240.
were guilty. Shockwave Flash would also run as an OOPP when you opened a Flash-enabled site. However once you done visiting such a site you can safely terminate this sub-process without messing up Firefox.
And if More >
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