Alvis is itching to get to a pool-party and Dad here is anxious to get a list of "to-blog" linkage cut down. So here are some Firefox items of note I have come across this week:
Firefox Themes at a glance
It's always hard to decide on which Firefox skin to use. The official Firefox Add-on site for themes is OK, but sometimes the quality and usefulness of the screenshots with each them make it hard to decide how your browser will look.
Cybernet News recently downloaded and installed all the currently available themes and took screenshots of them for comparisons.
Firefox 2.0 Themes - presented by Learn Firefox - CyberNet News
This should give you a more realistic view of the offerings before deciding.
Me? I've returned (yet again) to Opaque + ClearTabs.
Cache Me if you Can!
Unlike Internet Explorer, viewing the contents of your Firefox cache can be a bit of a pain. Sure you can use about:cache but it isn't very easy to navigate around and find what you are specifically looking for.
Enter the Firefox extension CacheViewer.
This tool allows you to preview, search and save the files kept in the Firefox cache.
Handy.
The interface is very easy to use and provides time/date stamps when the items were fetched.
Worth checking out and makes a nice compliment.
Open Plain Text URLs on a page
One aggravation in web-surfing is occasionally finding a page with a URL link that hasn't been HTML coded. Sure you can copy it and then paste it into the address bar...but what if you want to be a bit faster?
Here are some extensions that might fit that bill and allow you to launch a plain text URL in Firefox.
Smart Link :: Firefox Add-ons - I'm using this one right now. Works fast and is tiny.
Others with expanded features:
Drag de Go :: Firefox Add-ons - Opens a link, as well as allows saves and search on selected text.
Linkification :: Firefox Add-ons - Converts text links into HTML enabled links.
Fetch Text URL :: Firefox Add-ons - Another tiny extension to allow plain-text URL's to be opened from the context menu.
URL Link :: Firefox Add-ons - Works with both Firefox and Thunderbird to open plain-text URL's, fixes broken URL links across lines in emails, and can convert email addresses into website addresses to follow. Interesting little extension.
Plain Text Power-Up
If you want to increase the power of acting on selected plain text in your Firefox browsing...consider adding this next extension:
SlimSearch :: Firefox Add-ons\
Select the target text, then right-click to do a Google search, Google Image search, Google News search, Google Local search, Google Maps search, YouTube search, Urban Dictionary search, Wikipedia search, IMDb search...or a few others.
Power to the People, Man!
Larry Joins the Firefox 3 Team
Firefox Extension Guru introduces us to Larry, the passport dude.
Basically, Larry's iconic job will be to verify a site's identity and safety. Just seeing a "padlock" on the address bar doesn't necessarily mean that a site is legit. Larry will try to bridge the trust-gap by checking the site's SSL certificate validity in a clear and easier to understand manner.
If you want to give Larry a temp-job in your Firefox 2 version, he's willing to work for free. See the Firefox Extension Guru's post for the link.
Retro-Travel styled Firefox "Grand Paradiso" Wallpapers
Mozilla Links has a lead to some groovy retro wallpapers for Gran Paradiso (Firefox 3) made in the style of the golden-age of travel: Waiting for Firefox 3? Do it in style : Mozilla Links. He has some good background on the artist in his post.
Or go directly to the wallpaper downloads.
Makes me long for a trip on a DC-3.
That's all for now...time to hit the pool.
--Claus
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