Gavin Sinclair @ nogwa

Mozilla Keywords

Gavin, 31 January 07

If you find mozilla and firefox boring. So be it. They’re major advances in the browser world, in open source software and in computing in general.

One of their underplayed features is the ability to have versatile bookmarks. Bookmarks (the equivalent of what IE calls favorites [sic]) can include javascript or RSS feeds. This effictively means they can be dynamically updated with actions or data dependant on content. For example a javascript bookmark can show the google backlinks to a page – an RSS live bookmark / livemark can display headlines from a news site (similar to how I have the BBC news displayed above).

Bookmarks can also be dependant on keywords. This can allow them to be based upon a search string – so the bookmark keyword ‘g nogwa’ will search using google for any pages mentioning nogwa. The bookmark keyword will for example turn ‘imdb Fight Club’ into a dynamic search of IMDB for reference to the film Fight Club.

My keywords are in this file which can be saved and imported into firefox. If you are boring and use an inferior browser don’t expect it to work. Have a look at the file to see some other examples of the power that can me made of keyword bookmarks.

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Mozilla

Gavin, 15 January 07

I have been a regular user of mozilla technologies for some time. I’ve used and contributed since the times of the 0.7 mozilla suite. Currently Firefox and Thunderbird get daily use as my prefered web and email clients.

I thought I’d share my firefox toolbar:

An ultra-compact affair that allows all the navigation that I need from a slimmed down interface. The n and LM buttons allow quick access to a selection of regularly used bookmarks and live bookmarks (RSS feeds). I also make use of a good number of search keywords (for example allowing me to type g search-term in the address bar to search google for a term).

The mozilla project has come a long way in the past few years and can be seen as quite a success for open source software. This is a development model that promotes free access – nobody owns exclusive rights to the code for the browser.

While this has always been the underlying model for the mozilla suite – it has relied upon heavy support from Netscape – then AOL in earlier stages. Recent development has been funded through tie-ins with the google search engine.

The fact that the code was open source is what allowed Firefox to be branched from the application suite and succesfully developed as a stand-alone browser by some individuals involved in the project. This was despite the intentions of the AOL teams steering the project who intended that it continue as a bundled suite for email; web browsing and development. In this sense the freedom offered by open source is about much more than a ‘free’ browser as in zero-cost. It is the freedom offered by unlocking potential to create without constraints.

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TXP update

Gavin, 14 December 06

I updated to textpattern 4.04 – running into problems with the way raw php is handled. Although the FAQ suggests that sites in live mode and with appropriate advanced settings should be OK – I was getting warning output and garbled php in those little boxes where my rss news and delicious feeds are displayed. Simple to fix using the recommended <txp:php> ... </txp:php> format – I’ll have to check through my txp forms in case I’m still using php snippets on pages long forgotten.

I’ve also taken off the comment spam blacklists after finding that my IP with BT seems to be blacklisted with the default spamcop.net and spamhaus.org services. I’m not sure if it was something with my set up or it’s just something that happens to blocks of dynamic IPs from time to time. Never seemed to happen while I was with ntl.

Comment [2]

Another dimension

Gavin, 11 December 06

I’ve just bought a lens from loreo that should allow me to take sterograph pics. I’ve always had an interest in pictures that have a 3D effect – buying copies of the Eagle and Look-In when they had red and blue glasses on the cover and attempts to produce 3D comic strips.

Visiting Futuroscope in the 80’s I enjoyed the range of ways in which attempts were made to gain a 3D effect in movies. Recent articles suggest there are viable ways of developing the technology without the use of coloured or polarising glasses.

To date, I’ve produced a few pics using century old techniques – by taking two snaps with the same camera – moving it a couple of inches between exposures.

So far I’ve then lined them up for cross viewing in the GIMP, though I’ve also seen a 3D applet that I might use if I want to display more images as I experiment with the new lens.

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