The Venture Skills Blog

I have been using Firefox 2.0 for a little while now and thought I would do a quick update on how its going, you can see my first impressions here. The biggest difference is I seem to be using more extensions and I don’t really know why? My Firefox install were already pretty “pimped” up but I seem to have gone overboard with all the extras. A couple of things really stick out these include the dictionary function which is fantastic! though I seemed to have some how lost the check by default it was easy to get back I also changed it to check every field not just multi line fields by

1. Typing in the URL about:config to bring up the advanced config panel
2. In the search simply type spell and double click layout.spellcheckDefault
3. change the value from 1 to 2 (if on 0it checks nothing)

The dictionary is however incomplete particularly its lacking technical vocabulary of its American equivalent but hey that’s life. You can download your favourite dictionary here, now all we need is a good grammar checker and life would be perfect.

I haven’t noticed the new anti phising tool so I can’t comment if its working or not guess I will have to wait until my bank statement arrives!

Microsummaries again I haven’t come across them in the wild yet, though I plan on implement them on the new Venture Skills web site, along with open search which we have discussed before.

Extensions have been the big thing I’m surprised I have started to become an addict and its all down to the Mr Tech Local extension. A simple extension to manage other extensions and Firefox in general this extension is an absolute must for system administrators who want greater control on Firefox and extensions in particular. But the reason I downloaded it was to override the compatibility check to get refspoof to work which it does sort of though with some minor errors.

So without further rambling my current Firefox 2.0 extension list with suitable notes if needed

• Adblock – no real need to comment a necessity in this advertisement driven web
• British Dictionary – see above, one additional comment has a small bug, type Firefox and it will mark it spelt wrong, leave it a moment and it suddenly reverts to being OK?
• Colourful Tabs – Just can’t live without them, the latest version is both pretty and useful
• Colorzilla – give hex, RGB and HSV for any colour on a page thanks Dan for this one
• Download Status bar – a more integrated approach to downloads
• Down them all – an external download manager that I use for larger files
• Errorzilla – produces a custom error page which is actually useful offers various cached versions of the missing page
• Fasterfox – supposedly speeds my page rendering not sure if it does but the icon is cute
• Foxy Tunes – controls my media player in Firefox, you do need the player open but it is good for quick pauses.
• IE Tab – Windows only, renders a page in IE, shame you can’t use multiple versions of IE though
• Live HTTP Headers – useful tool to see what http requests pages are making
• Mr Tech Local – see above
• ook – Video downloader
• Pearl crescent Page saver – full page screen shots
• refspoof – running both the new beta and the old 0.7 version neither working fully
• SEO for Firefox – easy access to stats regarding a site
• Skype for Firefox – extension that turns any phone number into a Skype link haven’t really seen a benefit from this Windows only
  
• Stumblupon – a useful tool when your bored
• Video Downloader – hmm bet you can’t guess what it does?
• Web developer – a useful collection of tools for web development again thanks to Dan
• Uppity – Helps navigate sites with good strucutre, thanks to John Dale for the Tip

So that’s it 20 extensions have they improved productivity? well some do and a couple replicate each other though overall I’m pretty happy with the set-up as it is. What extensions do you use?

Some other Articles on the Venture Skills Network about Firefox
Firefox 2.0 is it any good? – Inital thoughts on the new Firefox
Firefox 2 released – Just a blog entry

Like what you see try these articles on the Venture Skills Network
Information mining the social way – Using del.icio.us to mine your competitors
The Tim Nash Experiment part1 – Implementing our Identity Rule
What’s the future for Google Apps for your Domain – A wish List
Subscribe to The Venture Skills Blog by Email

Spread it: del.icio.us | digg it | reddit