I’ve decided to watch, and blog about, one horror movie a night throughout all of October. It’s coming up quick and I need a list of classics to start out the month, so of course I come to you all. Leave a comment below with your favorite horror movie. If your lucky I may fit it in (: haha. but really. help out?
-Mike
While using the magic stumble button tonight, I found a video on youtube titled “Did you know”. It brought out a lot of good points, and kind of capitalized on a lot of the things that Web Design is headed towards. Technology is taking a turn, and a lot of businesses aren’t going to be prepared for the change. New versions of CSS and HTML along with several scripting languages will be coming out soon that will revolutionize the way the internet is viewed, and computers will eventually be taken over by phones. I sound like a crazy person right now, but I swear it will happen. As much as I resent Mac and Apple, I think the iPhone will become industry standard (if its not pretty much there) within the next 2 years. Unless, of course, Microsoft delivers on their promises of a Zune-Phone. My point being, that Cell Phone Technology (or CPT) will advance tremendously fast in the next few years, or even months. It’s all a bit much for someone like me, who is pretty bluntly expected to understand all these changes when I step up into the working field. Just a few things to ponder while you watch this video. Are you prepared for all of these changes? How can you contribute to making this better? for everyone?
A new reader happened to include a link to his WordPress site on a comment today, which is mainly about the ever popular Hamburger joint McDonald’s. As many of you know, I rather dislike the subculture of ‘Clowns’. They are not to be trusted. Nor are people who dress like clowns. There’s something. . . wrong. . with their minds. On this particular article, there happened to be a video about the “first” McDonald’s commercial. I’ve decided I hate the infamous golden arches, as well as it’s mascot of terror who spends his free time adding layer after layer of blubber to the good people of our country. Just thought I would let you all know that Mcdonald’s has made its way on to my list of things I hate. Along with IE.
ps. here is the nightmarish brainwashing clip brought to you by America’s largest lard manufacturer.
So I did promise you all a list of FF extensions, or add ons, that would help bring your experiences on the internet away from the dreaded IE. Here is such a list, and I do believe I will continue updating it periodically. Not to mention all of the themes you can get as well. Comment below with any suggestions, new add ons, questions, or testimonials. (:
Firebug — Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.
Capturefox — You can capture your screen and record your voice to make screencasts (tutorials, e-lessons, etc.).
Forecastfox — Get international weather forecasts from AccuWeather.com, and display it in any toolbar or statusbar with this highly customizable and unobtrusive add on.
Flagfox — Displays a country flag depicting the location of the current website’s server and provides quick access to detailed location and webserver information.
Video DownloadHelper — The easy way to download and convert Web videos from hundreds of YouTube-like sites. This works also for audio and picture galleries.
Cooliris — Full-Screen, 3D — transforms your browser into a visually stunning experience for searching, viewing, and sharing online photos and videos. The “3D Wall” lets you effortlessly search and zoom your way around thousands of images, videos, movie trailers, news feeds, and even online retailers. To share stuff with friends, just drag and drop. Check out the demo
Ctrl-Tab — Ctrl+Tab navigation and “All Tabs” panel
Web Developer — Adds a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools.
CoolPreviews — Gives you the power to browse and share Web links and rich media faster. Just mouse over any link, and the preview window immediately appears to show you the content.
Fireftp — A free, secure, cross-platform FTP client which provides easy and intuitive access to FTP servers in browser.
Router Status — Shows the current status of your router in the status bar and allows you to control it.
Download Status Bar — View and manage downloads from a tidy statusbar – without the download window getting in the way of your web browsing
ColorZilla — Advanced Eyedropper, ColorPicker, Page Zoomer and other colorful goodies.
ShowIP — Show the IP address(es) of the current page in the status bar. It also allows querying custom services by IP (right mouse button) and hostname (left mouse button), like whois, netcraft. Additionally you can copy the IP address to the clipboard.
Gspace — This extension allows you to use your Gmail Space (4.1 GB and growing) for file storage. It acts as an online drive, so you can upload files from your hard drive and access them from every Internet capable system. The interface will make your Gmail account look like a FTP host.
Html Validator — HTML Validator is a Mozilla extension that adds HTML validation inside Firefox and Mozilla. The number of errors of a HTML page is seen on the form of an icon in the status bar when browsing.
MeasureIt — Draw out a ruler to get the pixel width and height of any elements on a webpage.
URL Fixer — URL Fixer corrects typos in URLs that you enter in the address bar. For example, if you type google.con, it will correct it to google.com (asking first, if you enable confirmation).
LinkChecker — Check the validity of links on any webpage.
Window Resizer — Resize your browser to various standard resolution sizes.
Page validator — Validates a page using the W3C Markup Validation Service. Adds an option to the right-click context menu and to the Tools menu to allow for easy validation of the current page. Opens the results in a new tab.
lori (Life-of-request info) — ‘lori’ can tell you how long it takes to load a page. Useful for web developers who are working on profiling, optimizing a web site.
DT Whois — Domaintools.com’s whois service maybe is the best whois resource on the net. This small Firefox extension just adds button to your browser for easy access to current opened site’s whois source.
Page Update Checker — Tired of clicking the reload button? Page Update Checker (aka PUC — pronounced “Puke”) is a FireFox extension that automatically checks to see if web pages have changed.
and for all you nerds out there:
World of Warcraft Realm Status Tool — Monitor and receive alerts about World of Warcraft realms while you use Firefox.
Addblockplus — Right-click on a banner and choose “Adblock” from the context menu – the banner won’t be downloaded again. Perfect for getting rid of those annoying flash banners on every page.
FoxyTunes — lets you control almost any media player and find lyrics, covers, videos, bios and much more with a click right from your browser.
FireNes — use Firefox to play more than 2,5000 NES games and remember gaming prehistory!
TrashMail.net — Create free disposable email addresses and paste them directly in forms. This helps to protect you from spam mails and could be useful when subscribing to forums or newsletters
STUMBLE UPON!! — StumbleUpon discovers web sites based on your interests, learns what you like and brings you more. most possibly the best add on I’ve ever found. PERFECT for when you are bored, or want to discover more sites about your interests.
Internet explorer is not compatible with the W3C web standards. Instead, Microsoft offer their own solutions: totally ignoring the standards set by the W3C. Web standards insure that any page written according to the standards will work on any standards compatible browser, no double work required to make it work with one browser or another. but Internet Explorer is NOT standards compliant, intentionally. This means that every web developer out there, myself included, has to go through double trouble to make a page work both for Internet Explorer and standards compliant browsers, -or- give up on the standards and develop Internet Explorer-only sites, which Is what Microsoft wants us to do.
So, by using Internet Explorer you are supporting Microsoft in ignoring the standards, thus making web developers work twice as hard to get a usable web page.
Q: Why should I care? It works fine for me.
A: Right now, they are some pretty freaking sweet technologies (CSS3, mootools, etc.) that can move the internet forward, and change your browsing experience, these are internationally agreed standards on how the web should work. Microsoft, on the other hand, has their own set of solutions, which can only work with IE. So now, we can’t implement both technologies, because they aren’t supported by the each other. Web Designers have to literally create two versions of the same site, and the web is being held back from advancing to it’s full potential.
Q: So maybe sites should be developed for Internet Explorer only, using the Microsoft technologies?
A: That would limit a users freedom of choice to decide which browser he wants to use, and totally cuts off users of other operating systems such as Linux and Mac (and no, Mac users can not download IE, or even IEtab). It should be clear to you that internationally agreed standards should be used, not one company’s technologies, even though it IS Microsoft.
Q: But some sites just don’t work properly with standards compliant browsers…
A: That’s because they were built to work with Internet Explorer, not with standards. A majority of people using the internet use IE, so you can either make an amazing site that looks b-e-a-utiful in FireFox, or you can make one that most people can see, but without the added technologies. By using a standards compliant browser, you are forcing these sites to take standards into consideration, and rebuild their sites to conform with the W3C Web standards. To advance the internet as we know it. ‘If you build it, They will come.’
Q: But Microsoft say that they’re trying…
A: Nonsense, If smaller development teams such as Mozilla and Opera were able to get their browsers to comply with the standards, It’s hard to believe that Microsoft, a multi-billion dollar company, wasn’t able to do the same.
How many times have you read about another security hole in Internet Explorer? some Internet Explorer technologies such as ActiveX and Active Scripting make it easier for malicious software, such as spyware and viruses, to be installed on your computer.
With all things considered, I am truly amazed that anyone still uses IE. The capabilities of even Opera put IE to shame. Chrome has great potential, and by far FireFox is my favorite. I would strongly suggest using it for yourself. The add-ons alone are enough reason to switch.
As a matter of fact, I will compile a list of add-ons for you all.
Anything to help convert another soul away from the evil that is. . . Internet Explorer!
