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A Cleaner Firefox

08 Aug

If you are as obsessive as me about having a clear desktop, a clean browser is an essential for you, too. Today, I finally got what I desired out of Firefox. As a bonus, I also got around integrating Firefox with Windows Seven as much as possible without installing any external applications, like Winfox.

Tidying it up

The very first step in tidying Firefox up, is to install Omnibar. Omni bar is an add-on that will integrate “location bar and search bar into one”, and also “shows search and url suggestions”.

Omnibar gives you one, clear address+search bar

After installing Omnibar, I was struck by the picture: the bookmarks toolbar I once loved so much looked so ugly, now. So, I just hid it.

After I had done all that, I installed Compact Menu 2, a very cool add-on that let’s you hide the menu bar inside one, tiny button. So, that’s just what I did.

By doing just these three simple steps, my Firefox now gives me about 70 pixels more reading space, and 70 pixels less crowded, clickable widgets.

Windows Seven Taskbar Integration

After that, I was tempted, and persuaded, to try out "NEW Glasser by SzymekPL”, which gave me a very nice, sleek glass effect on the whole Firefox frame.

Firefox with Glasser

This was too cool to leave it alone, so I just Googled for Taskbar integration, and found out that in Firefox 3.6, taskbar integration is a built-in feature, and is simply disabled by default. So, I got on with it, and enabled it by first typing “about:config” in my location bar, and then toggling “browser.taskbar.previews.enable” to true. Now, I have individual tabs preview in my Windows Seven taskbar for Firefox.

Taskbar thumbnail previews for Firefox 3.6

If you want to take it even further, and use jumplists and another Windows Seven goodies in Firefox, you can install Winfox, but I, personally, don’t fancy the idea of installing another application just to smooth my original application up a little.

 
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Posted in Tips and Tricks

 

Apple vs. Opera: Mobile Browser War?

21 May

It’s happening again. The whole Windows+IE story is going to be repeated, and well, we all now that history tends to repeat itself.

In a shocking move, Apple has tagged Opera Mini browser’s download from the AppStore Opera Mini for iPhoneas mature, and before downloading, you need to confirm that you are over 17.

Is Apple really that concerned about anonymous browsing capabilities built-in within the Opera iPhone browser? Is the company really moving to protect our kids from porn? Why not add a similar warning to Safari’s first-run process, then?

Recent events have just take a ridiculous turn in my opinion. If you are selling a device, you are also selling the rights of ownership. You can’t be the big brother so “kindly” watching over us, keeping us from “being naughty boys.” I myself don’t believe in mobile porn business, but I certainly believe in freedom, and that, in my opinion is restricting that freedom.

Safari Browser on iPhone Steve Jobs might have started a revolution in mobile trend, but he is really showing that he just can’t bear the idea of other people sharing the ground with him. You can easily see that, when Opera has not only to compete with a browser already installed into the device, but only get through alarming warnings. Also, bear in mind that as the built-in browser, it has now been a long time since anybody used anything but Apple Safari on iPhone, so familiarity of application is another factor acting in favor of Apple.

But seriously, we all know that competition only makes competitors work harder. So, Apple, is this an indication that you don’t want to work harder and provide us with a better solution? Because it just seems damned so.

Also, read this entry from the Next Web on the same subject.

 
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Posted in My Opinions, Review

 

CLRS 3rd Edition

20 May

  CLRS 3rd Edition, CoverAbout two weeks ago, I finally got my hands on an original version of the latest edition of the CLRS book. Most significantly, the pseudo-code convention has changed to be a little more like modern, object-oriented languages (e.g. Java, C#, etc.).

For example, to access a property of an object, instead of property[object] (which was the notation used by the 2nd edition) we will write object.property.

Also, there are many places that the whole text has been rewritten. All in all, it was a very good buy. My only regret is that from now on my “CLRS at a glance” articles won’t be compatible with my earlier notes.

(Cover picture courtesy of Amazon)

 
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Posted in Review

 

Smelling Man

01 May

I can smell. I can smell everything. And when I say everything, believe me, I mean every single damned thing. Right on the second sentence, you probably thought that I was a blessed man – or a blessed woman, for that matter; for you had no reason to believe I was a man – and by the third one you probably thought I had lost my mind. But, believe me, it is more of a curse than a blessing.
Sure, I can right now smell where the old man living upstairs keeps his sorry amount of money. But oh, don’t forget, this same old man has a lot of things that, believe me, you don’t ever want to smell. Yeah, you got me exactly right. But there is no need to email me your ideas, my mind has already its own ideas on the matter, and believe me, my mind’s ideas are more accurate.
But let me share this little story with you. There was once this man – who thought he was very funny, by the way – that wanted me to smell for him the place where her mother-in-law had her wealth of jewels hidden before her death, in exchange of – believe me – a VERY tempting amount of the lost treasure.
And, believe me, I had to tell him all the embarrassing stuff I’d learned by smelling him, and threaten him to publish those particular details over the Internet, before having him off my neck.
So now, do you still want to change places with me, eh?

 
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Posted in Short Stories

 

Mean

30 Apr

I look in your eyes and you caress me,

Your touch is doubtful and there’s no confidence,

Oh, I’d forgotten. You’ve just met a guy,

but it seems such a queer coincidence!

 

I can be mean, too, if need be, you know.

But don’t get mad, baby, who said you were mean?

It’s not your fault, after all, that I wasn’t man enough,

and you simply had to cut me clean.

 

I was just brainy, and you wanted brawny,

And getting you to admit that was quite daring.

Just so that you know, your loyalties have changed;

Well, I don’t mind the change, as long as there’s no sharing.

 

Your touch is lacking, and your gaze doubtful,

If I’ve done something wrong I cannot remember,

I can be mean, too, but my heart won’t let me,

and it aches as I hang my head … in silent surrender.

 
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Posted in Poetry

 

Windows 7 on My VAIO-Z

02 Apr

I finally succeeded in updating my VAIO Z530N OS to Windows 7. Yeah, it was a hard and lengthy process to get everything working just the way I wanted, but I did it.

I really think Sony e-Support should mention that if you want “Vaio Care” software to work correctly, you have to first update your BIOS.

But I really have to say that it was worth it. Seven is so much better than Vista in so many ways, that writing a comparison seems almost futile.

There are still many things to install, but I’ve got most of it underway. This time, I guess I won’t be installing Eclipse, since from the time I started using Intellij IDEA I’ve hardly ever opened it.

Also, I think I’ll need an SVN client, and also Apache Maven installed.

Well, that’s seems like it for today.

 
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Posted in Myself

 

The Mad Showcase

26 Mar

Well, I’m just a misfit, a bug of media,

and I always idly surf the Wikipedia.

The lights of mayhem are slowly winking

while I quite silently sing an Ode to Thinking.

Modernists laugh at your way of thinking

and it matters not if your heart is sinking

Oh! where has Brecht gone, or Weber for that matter;

love and life are both great, but I’d prefer the latter

***

Ah how blue it’s to play the jack, how really dull

and all the while into foolishness we delve.

The path isn’t straight, the king has become a tool -

just like a ruler, only one used to draw a curve.

Jack is a Marxist, and there’s the Nazzi Jake,

See what a difference an E can really make!

Philosophies in showcases, ideologies everywhere;

and nobody can really tell the latter from the former.

And given all the choices that I’ve had to make,

there’s no one easy path that I’d wanna take.

But there’s still hope – ain’t there always? –

and I’ll put off choosing, for minutes, hours, and days.

***

You can choose to serve, or you can choose to rule;

And when all the paths so wildly swerve,

I don’t know if I can be anything less,

but I’ll just be a ruler who only wants to serve.

Do take a picture, and over it paint

a stricken heart, covered with a reddish taint

then carefully put the heart in the open chest

of a nightingale who has never left the nest.

This is no feint, and no truth either, but bring it anyway,

that pure madness with which all the world will sway.

I feel stretched in this lonely show, unstitched at the seams

and in this global zoo, I have left behind all the dreams.

***

I lay aside all my doubts, and clear my conscience,

and with a tired glance, I gather my nerve,

to ask the universe where it all went wrong, and maybe when?

But then I look around, and the questions … I shelve.

 
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Posted in Poetry

 

Eccentricities of an Exotic Soul

26 Mar

To live, is my dream, my one and only wish,

but alas, that dream the world won’t furnish.

I live, not as lively as I’d ever would;

and I’m starting to wonder if I ever could.

I just want to open my wings and fly to the sky,

escape this madhouse, the lonely, misfit I.

I want to be exotic, without being told how,

I’d want to be anything but me, even a crow.

I want to sing, and I want to dance, and I want to run

across the fields of golden wheat, and on and on …

I want to be, as no one has ever been.

I want to dream of a land so green …

I want to cry, with my head held high,

and over the winds to whisper a sigh.

Eccentricities of an exotic soul,

too low for a dream, to high for a goal.

My past in one hand, my future in the other,

and with neither should I ever again bother,

so long as I can foresee the present

and look at myself and foretell what I’ve spent.

I just hope that for this madness I’ve not overpaid

though too grievous were what aside I’ve laid …

Under the crescent moon to God I prayed,

and by all the rules I carefully played,

lest it all becomes nothing, all this that I did,

and all my belongings I lovingly hid,

in the darkest corner of all there is.

But the wicked winds would never cease.

And I discovered that I had to plow

ahead and ahead, even as a crow …

Oh … all those things I so wanted, all those dreams …

And I’ve finally become unstitched at the seems …

To live, is my dream, my one and only wish,

but alas, that dream the world won’t furnish.

 
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Posted in Poetry

 

Small Idea, Great Potential

14 Feb

Well, actually it might already have become a great business rather than a potential. But as I don’t know how it might exactly be, I’ll stick to my title.

What I’m going to talk about is the WikiReader.

What is WikiReader

WikiReader is a small BSD-based (?) handheld device that let’s your search in a previously downloaded version of Wikipedia articles. Or as the website says

WikiReader is an electronic encyclopedia giving physical form to Wikipedia. Now you can take it with you wherever you go.

It has a nice look, with only three buttons and a touch screen for easy navigation. With two standard AAA batteries it’s said that it’ll function for up to 12 months of normal usage.

It has an apparent monthly schedule for providing update files (which as of now measure to 4.7 GB).

No knowledge of how a wiki operates is required to use this device, which has an intended audience of school children and the like.

Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted in My Opinions, Review

 

Going Mobile

19 Jan

WordPress Mobile Edition is cool tiny utility that allows you to redirect your mobile visitors to a shiny, new interface which incorporates easy navigation and good looks in a simple UI.

As I’m personally using this plugin, I won’t hesitate to recommend it to anybody who wants their blogs to be compatible with mobile browsers. And remember, the issue here is not merely compatibility, but rather the ease-of-use.

Good luck to you all!

 
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Posted in Review

 
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