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The greatest most essential Mozilla Firefox extensions I've come across thus-far

Here are the most essential Mozilla Firefox extensions I've come across thus-far:

AdBlock Plus (*NOTE* I highly recommend that you install the EasyPrivacy filter subscription for this.)

AdBlock Plus: Element Hiding Helper (*NOTE* I don't understand why this feature does not come with AdBlock Plus by default - it is nearly as good as AdBlock Plus, and is developed by the same developer.)

Clippings

Greasemonkey

Hide Menubar (*NOTE* This extension will soon be obsolete since the current beta version of Mozilla Firefox has native support for hiding the menubar.)

Image Zoom

Inline Google Definitions

Is.GD Creator (*NOTE* I just recently discovered this; highly recommended.)

Nightly Tester Tools (*NOTE* Nightly tester tools is only recommended if you enjoy using nightly/beta builds of Firefox.)

NoScript (*NOTE* This extension is overkill for some users, but for many, it is considered as being an essential add-on.)

Rotate Image

Screengrab

Site Launcher

There you go. That is my list of the most essential Mozilla Firefox extensions I've come across thus-far.

Each of the add-ons I listed are hot-linked to their respective download page at addons.mozilla.org. Simply click on the add-on name to read the full description and reviews; this will ultimately help you decide whether you want to install a particular extension or not.

Reflections on Two Years of Mozilla Application Development - Part 2

Before getting into the nuts and bolts of Mozilla programming, let me share some more background.  In 2005 I graduated from the a university in Kentucky with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science.  I participated in a cooperative education program that gave me some helpful on work experience.  I primarily used C++, with a small sampling of Java, VB, Perl, and other languages.  I had almost no experience with JavaScript.  After graduation, I began working part-time Christian ministry on staff at a local church.  A year and a half later I began an additional part-time job - working remotely from Kentucky as a contractor for a small company in Raleigh, North Carolina.

At that time I joined a two-person team (industrial/organization psychologist and software developer) who developed software for military clients to aid in the assessment and selection of certain elite soldiers.  What began as a complicated Excel spreadsheet years prior had evolved into (and outgrown) a Microsoft Access database.  When I joined the team, we were working to separate the front-end from the back-end database, with plans to move the database to a more industrial-strength database.  We also planned to move the application to a client-server model, eventually.

Our lead developer selected the Mozilla platform for designing our client interface.  I was not familiar with XUL at the time, but I was comfortable developing with a proven technology -- a la Firefox and Thunderbird.

In my next post I will begin discuss the benefits of XUL application development.

Reflections on Two Years of Mozilla Application Development - Part 1

Two years ago I began using Mozilla as a platform for application development.  Non-developers may not realize that Mozilla is more than Firefox, or more than Firefox and Thunderbird.  It certainly can be confusing - after all, Mozilla includes a non-profit foundation and a subsidiary corporation.  It is an open source project, and Firefox is certainly their flagship product.

Firefox (and other Mozilla products) are built using web technologies like Javascript and CSS - and something else called XML User interface Language (XUL).  XUL provides the ability for the user to describe and create a interface in a simple fashion using XML.

Beyond using XUL to create Mozilla applications, Mozilla also offers the technologies up for other people to create their own applications.  In 2007, I began working along-side another developer to use XUL to create a new front-end for an application.  In this series I will share what I've learned and make observations about the use of Mozilla as a platform for application development.

Read Part 2.

techline.hu - Máris Wave-konkurens? A Mozilla intelligens levelesládája

via techline.hu

Mozilla Labs introduces Raindrop

via labs.mozilla.com

Mozilla tries to bring all forms of web-based communication (flickr, facebook, twitter, ...) together with email and tries to bring sense and usability to it. The 0.1 doesn't look like a big leap yet, but some of the design principles do make a lot of sense.

However, since they target for a web-based solution, it may again be one of those great tools you'd like to have, but being a corporate citizen, there isn't any way to make it poll your company mail account - which makes it a no-go for many.

Raindrop

I just spent about an hour installing Raindrop and here is what I think.

For those of you who read my blog (next to none) and don't know what Raindrop is, it is a product from Mozilla that is in very early development and it is a mixture of Goolge Wave and Email. It uses all the old protocols and mixes them together giving you all the information that you need. The Raindrop website is avaliable at: http://labs.mozilla.com/raindrop

It is a lot of work to install, espicially if you have never done this type of thing before. There are heaps of dependiceis that you have to download, although there is an option to install them all automaticly (if you are brave). After downloading it you have to edit configuration files. I am still not sure if I did it right, I am having lots of problems. After getting everything set up, it is not as easy as opening an app, there are some steps required before opening it.

Now before I go any further this is BEFORE Alpha this is one of the first builds, you can only install from source code and it is not yet finished. There is still A LOT of work to go, before people can start using it. I can not wait for this to be further deveolped into a full fledged communication manager.

So to open Raindrop after unpacking and configuring everything there are a couple of commands that must be oppened. As seen in the picutre below.

I am not sure if I am surposed to leave it update, I normally leave it for a while. After leaving it connect then you have to open the webpage. It will only work if the two otehr processors are running.

After opening the webpage it loads. This is where I am confused, it has some of my Twitter stream there, but the Twitter stream does not seem to update. It just stays were it is.

As for Gmail, I can not get it to work. This is pretty much all the functionality that is added at the moment. I can not seem to post Tweets, Direct Messages don't work, while contacts and sent work pretty well.

That is my review of Raindrop, I will keep testing it out to see if I can find anything else.

Web 2.0: Mozilla Raindrop – Die intelligente E-Mail-Inbox

Mozilla Raindrop: leveraging the email

Built around the idea that “email isn’t fun anymore,” Raindrop aims to be a sort of intelligent inbox filtering system that kicks minor messages and notifications to the sidelines while foregrounding messages from Mom and other important people you actually know. The idea is to make a people-centric communication tool that brings your various services together in one interface, instead of constantly playing a game of “find that browser tab” when you want to check up on a particular conversation or thread.

Wave and Raindrop, both working to leverage the existing email. Should be interesting.

4 Reasons Why Mozilla’s Raindrop Matters

Mozilla Labs - Introducing Raindrop