FireFox

Hello Safari

For those who follow me on twitter you will know that I have been having some problems with FireFox on OSX. As I used FF on Windows I naturally loaded it up first on my iMac and didn’t really give Safari a chance. I have several extensions that I have used for awhile to make life easier when designing. I wasn’t ready to give up these extensions and still not. However, after using FireFox with no problems for a few weeks it started to crash often. This alone was a pain but then the keyboard would just stop responding inside FF. Did I switch yet? No, of course not. After the almost hourly crashes and daily keyboard not responding it started locking up my iMac to the point that I would have to perform a hard restart. So, as I was in the middle of client work and was having internet problems with my AT&T DSL and (mt) was having Grid-Service problems as well it was just a really off day. I finally had to force quit FireFox and just launched Safari instead.

At first Safari was a little different and I didn’t like it. In fact as I was changing some settings I was still eyeing the FF icon in the dock and kept thinking I would give it one more try, although I didn’t. After changing a few preferences I jumped back into client work as I really needed to get this design sent off. I was missing my extensions a little but overall Safari started to grow on me. I have found it to also be faster then FF which has been great. Best of all though is that it hasn’t crashed or locked up once. This alone makes it that much greater then FF. The only thing that really bothers me is that there is currently no way to middle click (button 3) to close tabs in Safari. I did find a ‘dirty hack’ that does this but I will just learn to do without it. I haven’t given the latest FF Beta a try (I’ve been meaning to, but haven’t gotten around to it) but will to see if this might solve my problems. If it doesn’t, I don’t think it will bother me much as Safari has been good for me.

Top 10 FireFox Extensions

I just recently restored my computer and in the process of installing my programs and getting everything set back up I was download the FireFox Extensions that I use. Everybody knows FF has thousands of add-ons and some of those are actually useful. I personally like my browser to be light and un-cluttered. So, I keep my add-ons very limited however there are a few select ones that I just can’t open FireFox without. So here are my top 10 FireFox Extensions (yes, a top 10 list to add to the other thousands of useless top 10 lists on the internet).

#10 - Greasemonkey
Greasemonkey basically allows you to customize how a page is displayed using javascript. My first contact with Greasemonkey was when using an extension developed for deviantART to allow you to use styles for your profiles. That extension is outdated and no longer needed now. You can find more information about Greasemonkey at DiveIntoGreasemonkey.org.

#9 - ChatZilla
I’m not addicted to IRC as others are however I have my favorite rooms that I do spend time in each week and for that I use ChatZilla. ChatZilla is pretty light and simple to use. I have never really used other IRC clients so I can’t say feature wise how it stacks up but it does everything I need it to. If you don’t have a favorite IRC client or looking for a new one check out ChatZilla.

#8 - Twitty Tunes
Twitty Tunes allows you to post what your currently playing to Twitter. Its basic and simple. I don’t really use it to post all the songs I listen to, however when I find new artists or come across a song that I just love then I will post it. A nice extension for those who use Twitter (which should be all).

#7 - Time Tracker
As a webdesigner/developer I like many others spend alot of time in FireFox. I like to keep track of my time through my work days and since I work from home its sometimes hard. Time Tracker basically keeps track of the time you spend in FireFox at a time. If you only want to keep track of your non-work time in FF then you can create a list of your work sites and the timer will pause while you are on those sites. I start a new session of FF when I start work (mostly to clear memory, etc) and it restarts so I can keep track of my hours spent working for a client.

#6 - del.icio.us buttons
del.icio.us is a great way to keep track of different bookmarks, find new sites, and tag your sites. Helps to organize your bookmarks. I mostly bookmark design sites, resources, tutorials, free software, etc to my del.icio.us account. This extension allows you to tag the site your at with one click and bookmark it to del.icio.us. It can’t get much easier then that.

#5 - ReloadEvery
I use dual-monitors and normally while working I move FireFox to my secondary and open PhotoShop and Notepad++ on my primary. I wanted a way for the browser to refresh every couple of minutes while I was coding so I could keep an eye on changes. ReloadEvery allows you to do exactly that. It will reload a site as often as you want it to. I save often while coding so it comes in handy to be able to look to the right a little at my other monitor and always see an updated version of the site as I’m working on it.

#4 - MeasureIt
MeasureIt allows you to draw a ruler on your screen and get the width and height in pixels of anything. I used to take a quick screenshot and paste in PhotoShop to find the pixel width/height but after finding MeasureIt it saves alot of time doing that.

#3 - ScreenGrab
Sometimes its a pain to take screenshots of your sites. Sometimes you want a full screenshot and not just what fits on your screen. ScreenGrab is a quick and easy way to take screenshots of whatever is in your browser. I haven’t used this extension for that long but it has gotten alot of use.

#2 - FoxyTunes
FoxyTunes is one of the most used extensions for FireFox and its great. It basically allows you to control your music player (I use foobar2000) via your browser. It also allows you to see whats currently playing. It comes in handy while your working and want to switch songs real quick. I’ve used this extension for awhile and its a must have.

#1 - FoxMarks
The extension that I could not live without is FoxMarks. FoxMarks is a bookmark synchronizer that syncs your bookmarks to their servers and allow you to always have a copy of your latest bookmarks no matter what computer your using. Its great if you use more then one computer (maybe home and work) and always want your bookmarks with you. I have used FoxMarks for awhile now and its great. Its nice to know your bookmarks will always be there.

Well that is my Top 10 FireFox Extensions. Its not much but I felt like sharing. There might be a few extensions that some of you didn’t know about but most are pretty popular. Overall if I could only have one extension it would have to be FoxMarks, but thank god I don’t have to pick just one.