Archive for September, 2009
September 30th, 2009
It has been a while since I checked out the New Tab King add-on for Firefox, and I have to say I am impressed with the progression of the Firefox extension. For those of you who don’t know, New Tab King replaces your blank new tab with a much more functional page of tools.
You get instant access to recently closed tabs, personalized suggested sites and even shortcuts to your desktop applications.
The most recent release also comes with 7 built in themes, so you have a few more ways to customize it to suit your needs.
There is no reason why, these days, your new tab should be empty and bland. With the New Tab King add-on for Firefox, you can make the new tab page and the Firefox browser even more functional than it was before.
Add me on Twitter! Come follow my daily antics, links, tips and more @mitchkeeler on Twitter!
© Mitch Keeler 2009 | Check out my personal blog and my hosting podcast too!
September 29th, 2009
Your favorite web browser is Firefox, you played with Mozilla Labs’ projects, probably you even hacked on them already? Now is the time to join the Mozilla Labs team and work with the wider community on creating the future of the Web.
We are currently looking for all-stars in the following roles:
Product Marketing Manager – Labs
You will be a key contributor to Mozilla’s outbound product marketing efforts for its innovation programs in general, and projects like the Concept Series, Ubiquity, Weave and Jetpack specifically. If you’re passionate about the Web, and are willing to roll-up your sleeves, then this position is for you.
For our Jetpack project:
Product Manager – Jetpack
Are you a talented Product Manager who wants to guide future development of Mozilla Labs’ Jetpack project? Read more about the position and apply here.
Labs Engineer – Jetpack
Are you an exceptional Software Engineer who wants to help design and develop the underlying technology framework for Mozilla Labs’ experiments, with an initial focus on the Jetpack project? Learn more about this role and apply here.
And for our Developer Tools/Bespin:
Labs Engineer – Developer Tools (Bespin)
We are looking for a forward thinking Software Engineer with a focus on User Interface creation to join the Developer Tools Lab and initially focus on the Bespin project. The Developer Tools Lab is a group within Mozilla’s Labs organization that is focused on making it fun and easy to create amazing applications on the Open Web platform. Bespin is a newly formed experiment in delivering a revolutionary code editing experience entirely in the browser using Open Web technologies, like HTML 5’s canvas element, local storage, web workers, and so forth.
September 29th, 2009
Last week Google released a new product in the browser space called “Chrome Frame.” Chrome Frame aggressively address a serious pain point for web developers. However, the overall effects of Chrome Frame are undesirable. I predict positive results will not be enduring and — to the extent it is adopted — Chrome Frame will end in growing fragmentation and loss of control for most of us, including web developers. Here’s why.
The Chrome Frame plugin is essentially a browser-within-a-browser. Chrome Frame inserts an alternative “rendering engine” into your browser, and allows websites to determine which rendering engine you end up using. (The “Why Chrome Frame” section below has a slightly longer description of the problems developers face and of Chrome Frame, for those not so familiar with browser technology.)
Chrome Frame and Loss of Control
Once your browser has fragmented into multiple rendering engines, it’s very hard to manage information across websites. Some information will be managable from the browser you use and some information from Chrome Frame. If the Smart Location Bar in the “browser” doesn’t show the sites you’re trying to return to, then you need to find a way to open Chrome Frame and search there. Your “browser” can no longer aggregate information for you across websites. This defeats one of the most important ways in which a browser can help people manage their experience.
For many people Chrome Frame will make the web even more unknowable and confusing. Image you download Chrome Frame. You go to a website. What rendering engine do you end up using? That depends on the website now, not on you. And if you end up at a website that makes use of the Chrome Frame, the treatment of your passwords, security settings, personalization all the other things one sets in a browser is suddenly unknown. Will sites you tag or bookmark while browsing with one rendering engine show up in the other? Because the various parts of the browser are no longer connected, actions that have one result in the browser you think you’re using won’t have the same result in the Chrome browser-within-a-browser.
Getting different results will be awkward even for those of us who understand clearly what is going on. Then imagine someone who isn’t immersed in browser technology. Imagine trying to explain to a neighbor that one day he went to a website, clicked on a button to “add web capabilities to your browser”, ended up with a duplicate “rendering” technology that surfaces and disappears based on website controls, and this now means that the search bar, location bar and other basic UI elements will work in different ways at different times. This affects individuals directly, and web developers indirectly. It doesn’t help web developers if basic ways of interacting with the site be
come awkward,for example if I don’t know where my password was stored and how to access it.
Chrome Frame and Fragmentation
Google is not the only website developer that would find this idea useful. Google is providing the set of features it believes are helpful for making powerful websites. Other websites will have browser features they would find useful for their applications. Imagine having the Google browser-within-a-browser for some sites, the Facebook browser-within-a-browser for Facebook Connect sites, the Apple variant for iTunes, the mobile-carrier variant for your mobile sites — all injected into a single piece of software the user thinks of as his or her “browser”. Each browser-within-a-browser variant will have its own feature set, its own quirks, and its own security problems.
The result is a sort of browser-soup, where a given user action serves up some sort of response, but it’s not clear what the result will be: are my passwords and history stored in chrome frame? some other variant? in what I think of as “my” browser? This makes the web less knowable, less understandable, and certainly less managable.
Why Chrome Frame?
Web developers and website applications face a painful and seemingly never-ending problem: wanting to implement capabilities that some browsers don’t support. The degree of pain this causes is high. Imagine trying to cook a really fine meal with an oven that can’t get above 250 degrees F. In some cases it’s just impossible, in other cases it requires rearranging ingredients, cooking time and the order of preparation. Web developers go through this regularly.
One way of fixing this is to get people to use a new browser. This is effective, but hard. Mozilla Firefox has reached some 300 million people, but hundreds of millions more continue to use the browser that came on the machine they bought, sometimes years ago. Google began offering its own browser — “Chrome” — a year or so ago, but this has yet to gain significant traction. This week Google offered a different solution — a version of Chrome repackaged as a plugin for IE.
For those not familiar with the ins-and-outs of browser architecture, you can think of a browser as having two essential parts. One part we humans don’t see — it’s the part that “speaks” computer languages and talks with web servers. This is often called the “platform” or the “rendering engine”. The other part is the set of things that human beings see and interact with, which is often called the “front-end” or the “application layer.” The application layer includes the basic browser user interface -the window around content, the buttons, menu items, search box, etc. It also includes parts of the browser that appear based on what you are doing — the dialog boxes, the download manager, the password manager, the security warnings and the other messages.
Chrome Frame breaks this connection by inserting a separate rendering engine into your browser, and allowing websites to determine which rendering engine you end up using. If you download Chrome Frame you see the basic front end of your previous browser, but websites cause your browser to toggle back and forth between the rendering engine of Chrome and the rendering engine of the browser you selected. The application layer of your browser and the platform part of your browser are no longer connected.
At first glance this looks like it might be a useful option, offering immediate convenience to website developers in alleviating a very real pain. But a deeper look reveals significant negative repercussions.
September 28th, 2009
It’s time for another edition of Labs Night, our monthly meetup to discuss Mozilla Labs projects, your projects and the Open Web. Our October session will be Thursday, 10/08 6-9 pm. We haven’t yet settled on a venue yet as we are looking at a few different venues in San Francisco. We will post an update as soon as we’ve picked one. The event is open to everyone, so if you are in the San Francisco area feel free to stop by.
We have two awesome speakers this time around, so it will be double the excitement. Brett Slatkin and Brad Fitzpatrick from Google will talk about all the cool work that’s happening on the real time web. In particular, they’ll talk about Pubsubhubbub and Webfinger.
We will also hear what a lot of the Mozilla Labs projects have been working on, in 5 minute lightning talk style presentations. We’ll have a few slots open for other lightning talks as well, so if you are working on a cool project, this is a great opportunity to show and tell.
As with previous Labs nights, there will be some good food. Please RSVP on the meetup page if you plan to attend as that will help us determine how much food to order.
PS: We are also working on getting someone from the Firefox team come give a talk. Stay tuned for more info.
September 28th, 2009
The Personas add-on for Firefox brings user customization to a whole new level. Now you could mix your favorite Firefox theme, with your favorite Personas background for a unique browsing experience that nobody has ever seen or used before.
Here are my ten favorite skins to use with the Firefox Personas add-on for Firefox:
Remember, you can browse through even more Personas themes at getpersonas.com.
Add me on Twitter! Come follow my daily antics, links, tips and more @mitchkeeler on Twitter!
© Mitch Keeler 2009 | Check out my personal blog and my hosting podcast too!
September 28th, 2009
Now I do not plug my other projects very often, however I think this is an important enough update to share with the rest of my fans (even my wonderful Firefox Facts subscribers)! I just finished up with a brand new redesign of my layout over at Mitchelaneous.com – and I would love your feedback on it.
What is Mitchelaneous? It is my personal blog, with tutorials helping with tech tips, web development and geeky entertainment. Pretty much everything else I want to post about is posted here, that does not fit under the web hosting category of WebHostingShow.com and the Mozilla category or FirefoxFacts.com.
Here are a few of the popular posts to check out too:
- Best of the Free Zombie Flash Games
- Free Mega Man Desktop Icons
- Garfield Without Garfield is Funnier
- 9 WordPress Alternatives
- Get More from Google Calendar
As you can see, I go all over the place with this blog. For the most part though, I try to keep the madness focused on helping you get more out of what you want to do, and provide you with the best advice I can on a number of different topics. From wallpaper downloads, to free custom desktop icons, to the best of the video game world. There is something for everybody’s inner-geek to enjoy.
How can you subscribe for free?
You can also get updates via e-mail of new posts, or from your favorite feed reader:
Subscribe in a Reader! | Subscribe to Mitchelaneous by E-mail
You can also just copy and paste this into your feed reader of choice too:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/mitchelaneous
Go check it out at Mitchelaneous.com and let me know what you think!
Add me on Twitter! Come follow my daily antics, links, tips and more @mitchkeeler on Twitter!
© Mitch Keeler 2008 | Check out my personal blog and my hosting podcast too!
September 28th, 2009
I think everybody, at times, would like to be able to customize certain web sites to better meet their goals. Now, I am not talking about simple visual edits – like making the background black and the text white. How about adding keyboard shortcuts for certain web site links and navigation elements? You an do that and more with the Customize Your Web add-on for Firefox.
So do you want to customize web sites without writing one single line of code? Check out this video tutorial for a little more information about the Customize Your Web add-on for Firefox.
Some of the other customizations featured include:
- Removal and rearrangement of elements (cut / copy / paste behavior)
Modifying of elements in every possible way (changing size, color, default values etc.) - Definition of keyboard shortcuts / shortstrings for any clickable element (shortstrings are multi-character shortcuts, e.g. "SO" for a "Sign out" Button)
- Adding keyboard navigation support for any list of elements (e.g. for the result entries of search)
- Insertion of arbitrary HTML and JavaScript code
- Definition of small macros which are triggered by a shortcut
- Automatically triggering actions on page load (e.g. for automatic click on a login button or focusing a special field)
I am just having fun playing around with this add-on figuring out all the things I can do with it. For some, it might seem a little complex, however there is extensive documentation to help you along.
You can pick up the Customize Your Web add-on for Firefox from the Firefox Add-ons site or from Mouseless.de.
Add me on Twitter! Come follow my daily antics, links, tips and more @mitchkeeler on Twitter!
© Mitch Keeler 2008 | Check out my personal blog and my hosting podcast too!
September 26th, 2009
Very clean and easy on the eyes, two things you can say about the ArzoFox theme for Firefox. I like themes that can make the browser experience better just by touching up a few things. The gradient background, mixed with the colorful icons is a great combination that is really hard to beat.
Like what you see? You can pick up the ArzoFox theme on the Firefox Add-ons web site.
Add me on Twitter! Come follow my daily antics, links, tips and more @mitchkeeler on Twitter!
© Mitch Keeler 2008 | Check out my personal blog and my hosting podcast too!
September 25th, 2009
Are you a big fan of Google’s custom search feature, which allows you to customize your own search engine to fit your needs? The Custom Google Search add-on for Firefox, in that case, is a perfect companion.
In a nutshell, this extension for Firefox allows you to create, use and mange your own Google Custom Engines from within the Firefox browser interface.
You can pick up the Custom Google Search add-on for Firefox on the Firefox Add-ons web site.
Add me on Twitter! Come follow my daily antics, links, tips and more @mitchkeeler on Twitter!
© Mitch Keeler 2008 | Check out my personal blog and my hosting podcast too!
September 24th, 2009
Mozilla has released a few new screenshots of their latest Firefox 3.7 theme and interface revisions. I’m happy to see the bookmark toolbar is back, and the loading bar on top of the tabs is a very interesting idea.
Here is the old Revision 01 version of Firefox 3.7’s interface:
Here is the brand new Revision 02 of the Firefox 3.7 interface:
In comparison, I do have to say I like the direction they are going with this. Here are some of the features included and mentioned when discussing the Vista/Windows 7 version of the interface:
- Embracing Glass: Toolbar and Tabs using Glass. Buttons translucent and slightly glossy to meld with the toolbar. Raised 3D look to achieve tactile "feel".
- Page and Tools Buttons: Page and Tools on the Navigation Bar.
- Bookmark Bar: Bookmarks bar on by default. New Bookmarks "widget" containing the bookmarks menu contents.
- Home Tab: Home tab containing your homepage to start. Expanded functionality planned for 4.0.
To get more information and amazing screenshots, be sure to check out the Windows 3.7 theme mockups page on the Mozilla.org wiki.
Add me on Twitter! Come follow my daily antics, links, tips and more @mitchkeeler on Twitter!
© Mitch Keeler 2008 | Check out my personal blog and my hosting podcast too!
