Comments on: “…on pimping your browser”

By: David Hall » iCab

David Hall » iCab — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 23:13:05 +0000

[...] at it now! Browser polygamy that is, and Stephen Fry no-less, seems to be the latest – pimping Firefox [...]

By: Jack

Jack — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 12:39:59 +0000

Jack…

IÂ’ll admit it. i have been to your blog SIX times since your last post looking for a new postÂ…….

By: Susan P.

Susan P. — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 02:48:30 +0000

Tradition and not traditional. In and not is. Gregarious beasts words are, aren’t they? ;-0

By: Susan P.

Susan P. — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 02:45:58 +0000

Stephen R. That was kind of you to help. Isn’t it the way that kind people are always asked for more? Well, being unwilling to break that traditional I will pursue it.

What basic gain is there is having a home page tab as opposed to say several tabs under the tool bar? I’m not one who believes in double handling therefore I would prefer one click than two.
So, if I put all my tabs on a home page, isn’t that creating a two click system? One to enter and then another selecting the site I wish to go to?

I posted elsewhere here today Stephen saying how much I like my additional vowels. Please don’t remove them. They’re all I have to keep me warm in winter.

By: Susan P.

Susan P. — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 21:50:58 +0000

Could anyone enlighten me on why I may have repeated ‘lock up’ problems with Firefox so that I have to force quit? I need to test this a little but I believe it is activity on one site that seems to be partly creating the problem. I am the sole but part-time mod on a business site and if I have been in that site and moving around forums and threads etc and then try to leave and say open a different site, nope. No budge and I have to force quit. It’s an entire mystery to me why any site would influence like this. I go to ask..is it a cache issue? But that seems a tad vacuous..but..well..is it?

By: Wingedeelfingerling

Wingedeelfingerling — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:13:33 +0000

I have used Macs for 3+ years,having learnt to use a computer in May 2004,started on an eMac October of same year.I read up on the operating system and learned through trial and error and through experience,repetition ,etc.
One of the things I learned early on was that you can have as many web browsers as you like,play around,find out,experiment.I downloaded Firefox early on but never took to it,didn’t like the look and feel,same applied to Opera.
Things have changed rapidly and Firefox has improved and I am aware of what Stephen is on about.I am not so enthusiastic and this is why.If you are a Mac man(a friend led me in that direction,I was taught using Microsoft),Internet Explorer is no longer supported by Microsoft,so I have three web browsers-Safari(default),Omniweb and Camino(for Mac better than Firefox).
I commend Stephen for educating people and enjoy his articles,I have my own way of flying and have found that you learn something new everyday when computing.Open source is great and supplements embedded applications,laugh and play with it -Love it!!!!

By: pigsonthewing

pigsonthewing — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 10:47:46 +0000

Once you’ve installed Firefox, get the “Operator” extension. You can then see content marked up using “microformats” (sets of agreed HTML class names and rel values; see http://microformats.org/wiki/) and download things like addresses and events directly into your address book or calendar.

Stephen: If you’d like to have your pages marked up using microformats, drop me a line and I’ll walk you through the process.

By: Sam Wilson’s Journal » Addressbook v.0.9

Sam Wilson’s Journal » Addressbook v.0.9 — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 23:05:43 +0000

[...] I’ve added support for the hCard microformat; if you want this to be a fun thing, I recommend getting the Operator addon for Firefox (you’re already using Firefox, aren’t you? You should be, it’s not pants (to quote S. Fry)). [...]

By: Stephen R

Stephen R — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:09:52 +0000

Susan P. –

Type the following in your address bar to get a blank page:

about:blank

I’ve set that as my home page, which means I can clear the current tab with the “home” button on my toolbar.

Stephen –

I like the Aluminium Kai theme (even though they’ve spelt “aluminum” incorrectly*).

If you like Mostly Crystal, you might try Kempelton. Very similar, but I think a bit cleaner looking.

*Yes, yes, I know. It’s like “colour”. You Brits and your extranaeious vowels….

By: Susan P.

Susan P. — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 22:23:46 +0000

Ok. I realised after looking at more recent articles what a bore my comment re getting from A to B probably was. Forgiveness please. Moving on, I am honestly struggling with this explanation:

The next thing I would recommend is to use Tabs to create a home page of four or five favourite sites. From a blank single page you enter â€œnews.bbc.co.ukâ€ (or your chosen equivalent), then click â€œControl-Tabâ€ and in the new page enter, say, â€œpro.imdb.comâ€, repeating this procedure until all the sites are entered, each in a new tab. Next go to Tools-Options and select Use Current Pages from the Startup section of the Main tab. Note the plural. This is now something all major browsers allow you to do – have multiple sites tabbed inside your opening home page.

I honestly am confused by two elements. I have tabs across the top of my tool bar under the url frame. I have, now for example, news.com.au, Yahoo mail, wikipedia (my son’s choice!) and then my son’s photo gallery.

So, when you talk about a blank page and a ‘home page’ I am thrown. I have no idea how to get a blank page and does this imply I would have a page of tabs or just tabs along the top as I currently have?

To be honest, I’m not expecting you to take the time to explain any of this at all..I’m simply pointing out that for people with truly minimal skills, explanations often have to be very very basic. I have a background in education and academe and have written learning modules and I guess this re-emphasises to ME how people WITH a skill base often don’t realise just how simple explanations for some folk need to be. Forgive me Stephen, this isn’t actually a critique of you because if you had done an article as simple as I’m suggesting, you would have been howled down by 95% of the population. In fact, you would have almost been writing a children’s book of computing.

Oh, and just in case someone sneers and says..well..”academe’?..she’s pretty thick.. just remember that knowledge and skills are generally field/interest dependent and just because a person is adept in one area of life doesn’t mean they are in others. Humility is a good thing.