TW Blog :: Archives for November 2004
The Philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways: the point is to change itKarl Marx
Extending Firefox Search Plugins
Relates to Accessibility and Firefox and Co
What makes Firefox so great is the unlimited scope for customisation. Take the Firefox search plugin - a great utility for stockpiling search engines from MyCroft. But it doesn't have to just be a search tool, for plugin files can easily be composed to extend the functionality to your requirements. As an example, placing the following snippet in a src file in the searchplugins directory below Firefox's installation route will give quick access to Jens Meiert's User Interface Test Resources.
<search
name="UI Tests"
description="UI Accessibility and Validity Site Tests"
action="http://uitest.com/en/check/results/"
method="GET">
<input name="url" user>
</search>
Now a domain can be entered in the search box to generate UITR's comprehensive set of links to the major validation sites. If the site to be tested is already being viewed a Conquery could be used instead to avoid entering the URL string:
<search
name="UI Tests"
description="UI Accessibility and Validity Site Tests"
action="http://uitest.com/en/check/results/"
method="GET">
<input name="url" value="[:url]" label="Enter URL">
</search>
This should be placed in a cqr file in the searchplugins directory.
Posted on Nov 13, 2004 at 14:54:54. [Comments for Extending Firefox Search Plugins- 0]
Clusty Clustering
Relates to SEO
Search engines have once again dominated the news the last few days with the release of M$N Beta. Despite the teething problems, speculative allegations, bombing, untimely Google announcements, and a falling out between this website and M$NBot, the engine does not seem too bad. The Beeb has posted a comparison of this and four other major players using three simple tests. In the verdict Ask Jeeves classification system appears to make it the popular choice. Personally I think this pales into insignificance compared to the powerful categorisation offered by the clustering meta-search engines, the latest addition to which is Clusty from the Vivisimo group. I would recommend checking out the Clusty featureset - a Firefox search plugin is also available.
Posted on Nov 13, 2004 at 14:54:01. [Comments for Clusty Clustering- 1]
Wheel Mouse Insanity!
Relates to Registry Hacks and Security
I spent several hours the other night test-driving firewalls to decide on a replacement for BitDefender. Following numerous installs, uninstalls and registry sweeps I finally settled on Sygate PFW being the only one that does not seem to be causing system freezes or any other conflicts - starting to wonder if this PC needs a serious clean out!
So with job done, I was about to settle down to some coding only to discover that the wheel on my logitech mouse was no longer scrolling vertically in any application. Well, I knew it wasn't broken since scrolling worked fine in input boxes. The next few hours were spent trawling Groups, reinstalling drivers and rolling back registry keys to try and repair the error. At the point of insanity, I stumbled across an entry in the Windows Registry Guide.
- Navigate to HOT_KEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
- Reset the string value for WheelScrollLines which had inadvertantly been changed to 0
It is alarming how dependant I have become on the mouse wheel - perhaps I need to try unplugging the mouse completely for a few days.
Posted on Nov 13, 2004 at 14:53:15. [Comments for Wheel Mouse Insanity!- 0]
Firefox 1.0 Is Here
Relates to Browsers and Firefox and Co
I have woken up on a typically bitter November morning to the news everyone has been in anticipation of… Yes, finally the official release of Firefox 1.0 has arrived. This I hope will make November 9th 2004 a historical turning point in the future development of the web.
Firefox has been making gradual indents into Exploder's dominance of the web over the last few months. Closer to home, my logs saw Firefox creep into the lead over Exploder 6 for the very first time in October: 
More than likely the Firefox website may still be down at the moment, so if you are keen to grab a copy jump over to the FTP folder instead - no apparant bottlenecks there. Pheonix Oceano really does feel like a distant memory now…
Posted on Nov 09, 2004 at 12:40:34. [Comments for Firefox 1.0 Is Here- 0]
Reclassification
Relates to Browsers and Firefox and Co, Exploder
I have decided to re-classify some of the categories here on my weblog. Its that unfortunate tendency to have an ordered world around me seeping into my virtual world too! I have started by splitting up Browsers into separate categories for Firefox and Co. and Exploder. I feel it is an injustice to be blogging about the legacy browsers (and that includes IE6 in my oppinion now) in the same space as the standards based browsers. Since my convolutions on Opera and other browers are fairly irregular these remain in the Browsers category.
Shouldn't break any links, I hope, and if it does you should just land at the index page for that category. Right what is next…
Posted on Nov 08, 2004 at 20:53:56. [Comments for Reclassification- 0]
