Archive for November, 2005
· November 23, 2005 at 11:00 am · Odds & Ends
I like to listen to music while I surf around and work Online. It just seems to help pass the time better for me. Some people like more music, some people like no music at all. There are all kinds of flavors of music, but not a lot of ways to listen. Usually you have a standard media player on your computer. Well, FoxyTunes take some of the work of going back and forth to a media player. It brings the media player into your Firefox browser.
Some of FoxyTunes features include: Multiplatform - works on MS Windows, Linux and Mac OS X; Supports many popular media players, will support more players in future versions; Also supports the Mozilla Suite and Mozilla Thunderbird; Position anywhere in the browser - on the status bar or on one of the toolbars; Volume controls; Seek Slider; Configurable keyboard shortcuts; Currently playing track information; Customizable and collapsible; Auto-hide; Skinnable and localizable; Automatically launch your player when needed; Pop up and hide the player window with a click and more.
It also supports a plethora of players out there as well, such as: iTunes 4, Winamp, foobar2000, Windows Media Player, and Musicmatch Jukebox. There are also a number of skins you can download and use as well with the Firefox extension.
Like listening to music while you surf with Firefox? Then give FoxyTunes a test drive. You’ll be head banging your way through the Web in no time at all.
· November 22, 2005 at 11:00 am · Odds & Ends
I remember in my youth when I used to go to the public library every Saturday morning to go check out a new book. Sure, the city I live in is small so chances are I probably got the same book more than once. These days, you don’t have to be bothered with the searching and hunting for the book you want. You can do that all from the comfort of your own home. Well, that is if you have a search plugin via Firefox for your local library of choice.
The Web page that makes all the magic happen is Library Search. Here is what they have to say about the project on the front page:
Library Search is a collection of Mozilla Firefox search plugins that search online library catalogs. There are currently search plugins available for 51 libraries, however this number is constantly growing. If you would like to be notified when new search plugins are ready, join our mailing list. To see if a search plugin is ready for your library [and/or] to install a search plugin, click the Downloads link at the top of this page.
I stumbled upon this Web page not too long ago, and I have to say I am very impressed. What does the Web page deliver to you? Well it gives you a long list of libraries to choose from. On the end of each link, you will find a Firefox search plugin to tap into your browser and bring the library home to you.
Here is only a small sample of some of the libraries they have listed: San Francisco Public Library, Santa Clara County Library, Ada Community Library, the Orange Country Library, San Antonio Public Library and many more.
Sure, not every library in the world is listed here. That is where you come in. If you know of one that isn’t on the list, let them know. That way if that library has an Online system that would allow for searching, a Firefox search plugin could be written.
· November 21, 2005 at 3:55 pm · Odds & Ends
It seems like this was a big week for Ajax development and Web hosting. There were two new tools that caught my attention this week on the Web Hosting Show which I thought I would share with you. There is no denying the fact that there are a lot of good things coming from the Ajax development world these days. These are the first two I have seen that have dealt with the Web hosting industry though.
SQLFusion announced the release of the first online site building application ever built with “AJAX” technology. This online web site builder, called Drag Drop Site Creator, is available at dragdropsitecreator.com. It is intended primarily for web hosting companies, which offer Drag Drop Site Creator as an additional service to their hosting customers.
Well maybe I am a little quick to say nothing good has come out of the Web hosting world as far as innovations go. I had the folks at SQLFusion drop me an E-mail earlier this week asking me to take a look at the new Drag and Drop Site Creator and I have to say, I am really impressed. With tools like this getting better and better, Web site designers might soon be a think of the past!
It seems like a lot of folks were happy with the domain name tool I featured on last week’s show, so I figured I’d go ahead and feature another one I found. This one goes into the Ajax and Web 2.0 category as well.
You can find it at ajaxwhois.com. What is it? Why it is another domain name lookup tool. Just type in the domain name you want, and it will do a real time search. The thing this one has over last week’s pick, is it isn’t limited to just .net or .com names.
The fun doesn’t stop there. You can also set it to do Whois searches on the fly. Just type in the domain name you want to find more information about. Another free, new and innovative domain name tool for you to use! Once again, I recommend you at least give it a shot at ajaxwhois.com.
Download the Web Hosting Show! (MP3) | Read the Show Notes!
Running Time: 22 minutes | File Size: 4.88 MB
· November 21, 2005 at 11:00 am · Odds & Ends
So are you an Opera browser fan who isn’t sure about the jump to Firefox? What if you could have the same theme, features and functionality you found in Opera while using Firefox? That is what Andrew Gregory has attempted to recreate with his Web page on the subject.
In the introduction to the Web page, its purpose is made pretty clear:
It should be obvious that my preferred browser is Opera. Not that there’s anything wrong (much) with Firefox/Thunderbird/Mozilla. I just prefer using an internet suite. The best suite (in my opinion) is Opera. The Mozilla suite is just too big, fat, and ugly. This section of my site is dedicated to anything I have to say about Firefox, Thunderbird and other Mozilla projects.
Personally, I would say all the things he said about Firefox to the folks who use Opera. It is always good to hear all sides in debate though. The more fighting that goes on, the better product everybody produces. Now with that said, he does list a long list of extensions you can install to give you that “Opera-like” feeling while using Firefox.
So want to make the change? Check out this Web page first, to see if you can comfort your browser changing blow you might take.
· November 18, 2005 at 11:00 am · Odds & Ends
If you could open Internet Explorer inside of one of Firefox’s tabs, you’d have the perfect mix of browsing perfection, wouldn’t you? Well the new thing that everybody seems to be excited about is the new Firefox extension that lets you do just that.
This is great for viewing some Web sites out there that don’t come out very well in Firefox. One of them that comes to mind is Yahoo’s Music Launch Web site. You can open up the IE Tab from a right-click on a link or by clicking the Firefox logo in the taskbar of the browser.
All and all, it seems like a good idea but there are parts of it that just bug me right now. One issue I noticed was the Web page would load fully via Firefox, then it would reload using IE’s display engine. Little problems like that will probably keep me from keeping this extension for too long.
If you are still using Firefox 1.0.x, you will need to install another script into Firefox to get it to work. I have noticed a lot of people getting hung up at this part of the extension install. You can find it and more information on the IE Tab Web site.
Right now I’d say the extension isn’t exactly perfect just yet. I ran into a few problems when using it, but it is the talk of the town. For another alternative, you should check out IE View.
· November 18, 2005 at 11:00 am · Odds & Ends
I have said it before and I will say it again, Feedview is one of my favorite Firefox extensions out there today. It makes the world of RSS, XML, and syndication a little easier for new folks to understand and for that I am very happy and grateful. Now it looks like Feedview’s usability will be built into Firefox 2.0.
Via Feedview’s author’s Web site I learned this:
My tiny Firefox extension will be included in the main browser.
Originally it would be part of Firefox 1.5, but because of the urge for perfection the Mozilla developers needed more time.
The new Feedview will include most features that people have been asking for. Like correct date handling, better html viewing, the rss icon will show Feedview instead of a livemark dialog. I will keep the Feedview installer on the site up, but I will not update it anymore. Let’s just hope Firefox 2.0 will be here soon.
So the bad news here is we will have to wait till Firefox 2.0 to see a pretty interface to the XML in RSS feeds via Firefox. The good news is that once it does roll around it will be an interface worth looking at.
