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Firefox

Discussion in 'Techno-Magic' started by Harbourboy, Dec 26, 2006.

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  1. Harbourboy

    Harbourboy Take thy form from off my door! Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Remove all ads!
    I've heard so many good things about this Firefox browser. So when it showed up on the cover disc of PC World, I thought I would install it and see what the fuss was all about.

    I am using it right now and it just seems like an exact clone of Microsoft Internet Explorer (or Netscape Navigator).

    Can anyone fill me in on:
    a) what is so cool about this browser?
    b) any tips or tricks for making the most of it?
     
    Harbourboy, Dec 26, 2006
    #1
  2. Taza

    Taza Weird Modmaker Veteran

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    a) Extensions
    b) Extensions

    Firefox is more secure than IE, but it's extension system is really what sets it apart.
     
    Taza, Dec 26, 2006
    #2
  3. Shaitan

    Shaitan Always forgive your enemies; it annoys them so

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    There's a lot of cool ad-ons for this browser, wich allows for a great deal of customization. Thats good also for getting utmost out of it.
    I like it a lot and I use to recommed it, but it's due to (I think) a safer browser.

    Edit: He
     
    Shaitan, Dec 26, 2006
    #3
  4. Morgoth

    Morgoth La lune ne garde aucune rancune Veteran

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    Never used extensions, but what I like is how you can set your own keywords for different sites.
     
    Morgoth, Dec 26, 2006
    #4
  5. Harbourboy

    Harbourboy Take thy form from off my door! Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    What's an extension?
    What is so good about key words?
     
    Harbourboy, Dec 26, 2006
    #5
  6. Morgoth

    Morgoth La lune ne garde aucune rancune Veteran

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    Well I am a lazy guy, so if I want to normally go to a certain, for example, lyrics page on www.songmeanings.net I have to:
    • Open my webbrowser
    • Type in www.songmeanings.net
    • Click on the textfield in the upperleft corner
    • Type in 'Lateralus'
    • Change the dropdown field from Artists to Song titles.
    • Click on the 'go' button to get to the page where I wanted to go.
    But with Firefox keywords, I can set a keyword as "song" and point it to the appropriate searchpage.
    Now I only have to do the following:
    • Type "song lateralus" in my URL field and press enter, and there I am.
    I can use searchpages for anything, I have for example the following keywords on my workstation:
    • /., goes to slashdot.org
    • google, uses the google searchengine.
    • allintitle, when I type "allintitle boo" it uses google to search for every webpage with boo in the title.
    • php, when I type "php print_r" it uses the php searchfunction to search for the php function print_r
    • wiki, searches the wikipedia.com website.
    • dict, searches the dictionary.com website.
    • radio, searches the radioblogclub.com website for a radiostream with a specific song/artist title.
    Very easy to set up and very easy to use. Right now I am so spoiled that if another browser does not have it, I won't use it.

    [ December 26, 2006, 20:32: Message edited by: Morgoth ]
     
    Morgoth, Dec 26, 2006
    #6

  7. Wordplay Gems: 29/31
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    Click "Tools" -> Add-ons -> Get more extensions...

    Then get NoScripts, PDF-Download, and StumbleUpon. ;)

    That, and the fact FF is safer, has tabs, better options for managing it, and no M$ infamity.
     
    Wordplay, Dec 26, 2006
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  8. Brallrock Gems: 23/31
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    Not to mention the fact that Firefox had tabbed browsing and lots of other custom settings long before IE7 rolled around. I like the fact that it is very easy to customize (Ilike very few tool bars on the top or bottom of my screen) and eliminate all the function buttons that I never use. IE7 is just trying to catch up with the competition.
     
    Brallrock, Dec 26, 2006
    #8
  9. Harbourboy

    Harbourboy Take thy form from off my door! Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    What's the big fuss about tabs? They don't seem very exciting to me.

    I don't think I could ever be bothered to set up those fancy keywords you mentioned, but I can see how they could be useful if you did lots of searching in different places.

    What are the absolute best "extensions" and why? I'm far too lazy to go trawling through that huge list of extensions on that web site.
     
    Harbourboy, Dec 26, 2006
    #9
  10. Barmy Army

    Barmy Army Simple mind, simple pleasures... Adored Veteran

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    Tabbing = you can browse loads of websites at the same time without having your toolbar littered with loads of windows.

    Extensions make stuff better. 'Best' is personal taste.

    I like the themes with Firefox too. I currently use PitchDark 2.0 but I like to try new ones a lot.
     
    Barmy Army, Dec 26, 2006
    #10
  11. Alavin

    Alavin If I wanted your view, I'd read your entrails Veteran

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    My extensions:

    CustomizeGoogle: removes Google ads and anonymises the Google cookies. Also takes other search engines into account when using Google.

    Fasterfox: improves connection to servers, and also means I can see how long a page is taking to load.

    Gmail Notifier: tells me when new emails arrive.

    IE Tab: some sites hate working in anything but IE, which is annoying. This runs IE within Firefox (makes little sense, but that's my explanation) if required.

    NoScript: stops sites using Javascript unless I want them to. Better for security and reduces website load times when they have unnecessary animations.

    StumbleUpon: click the Stumble button when bored, and it takes you to interesting websites of the categories specified.

    Adblock: blocks banners from specified sites and ad providers.
     
    Alavin, Dec 26, 2006
    #11
  12. Harbourboy

    Harbourboy Take thy form from off my door! Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Can you explain the point of this a bit more? I don't really understand it.

    Hmm, this is all interesting stuff. I look forward to learning more. Although I still don't see the point of tabbed browsing.
     
    Harbourboy, Dec 26, 2006
    #12

  13. Bahir the Red Gems: 18/31
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    The extensions I feel are the best:

    Adblock plus - with this, you won't be bothered by ads on pages anymore. It uses certain filtersets that pre-blocks a lot of ads. Should you find that some ads slip through the defense, you can right-click on them and just click either "adblock picture" or "adblock frame" to remove the ad. Wonderful extension.

    Adblock Filterset G. - improves adblock plus

    Update notifier - notifies you when there are updates available for your extensions (by lighting up a button on the top right of your browser). You can click the button and install all updates at once too. Great.

    Those are the ones I use the most, but I have others as well. There is also an extension from google that speeds up your browsing, I can't remeber what it's called (don't have it on this computer), that speeds up your internet browsing A LOT. The only problem with it is that it could potentially send private information to the google servers, but if you shut off the program, it won't.
     
    Bahir the Red, Dec 26, 2006
    #13
  14. Barmy Army

    Barmy Army Simple mind, simple pleasures... Adored Veteran

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    StumbleUpon is very good.
     
    Barmy Army, Dec 26, 2006
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  15. Harbourboy

    Harbourboy Take thy form from off my door! Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Why are you guys so excited about blocking ads? Ads on a webpage aren't exactly like ads on TV that you have to sit and wait through until your show starts again. On a web page, what difference does it make whether a banner is there with its ad or not?

    Popups I can understand. They get in the way, but I see no benefit from blocking banners and sidebar ads. I never bother blocking them on SP.
     
    Harbourboy, Dec 26, 2006
    #15
  16. Barmy Army

    Barmy Army Simple mind, simple pleasures... Adored Veteran

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    They slow the loading of web pages down.
     
    Barmy Army, Dec 26, 2006
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  17. Wordplay Gems: 29/31
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    Not needed, since NoScripts prevents Flash-ads and etc while the default "block image" feature can close out the rest.

    @ Harbourboy

    We aren't talking only about blocking ads, since there are many kinds of images we might prefer not to see. E.g: flashing lights, oversized forum-signatures, tracking images, ads, and so forth. It's about customizing your browsing experience and removing crap that only makes it more difficult to pick out the important stuff.

    "Support XYZ and surf ad-free!" Har, sound familiar? :shake:
     
    Wordplay, Dec 26, 2006
    #17
  18. Harbourboy

    Harbourboy Take thy form from off my door! Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Firefox can block those!? What do I need to do that!? That sounds like gold.
     
    Harbourboy, Dec 26, 2006
    #18

  19. Erod Gems: 14/31
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    Firefox is not really any more secure than the latest IE. The reason is very simple, the rapidly growing user base, which also leads to a rapidly growing amount of malicious users that want to exploit the system. Just last week, Mozilla patched a half dozen security holes, of which some were critical. So really, regardless of the browser you use, it is critical that you always keep it updated.
     
    Erod, Dec 26, 2006
    #19
  20. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    [​IMG] We've been through this before, so just a short recap: using ad blocking software is no better than pirating software or movies, i.e. stealing. Most people who do it pirate everything else as well so there's little point telling them about it, but I just felt I needed to mention it for those who might want to install ad blocking software just because someone else said they should do it.

    By blocking the ads on websites you are usually removing their only source of income to cover the costs of your visits. And yes, every visit of yours costs a website. Everything from the hosting expenses onwards needs to be paid every month. If you block ads on, say, SP, you're using up the resources of the site, server and everyone involved in running it without giving anything to cover the costs in return. In short, you're stealing. And since Internet is the native (and only) medium where websites can be viewed, the proper analogy would actually be theft from a physical store, coupled with vandalism (which is exactly what deliberate altering of the intended browsing experience means to a web creator).

    Many websites today (like SP) offer their visitors supporter accounts which come with ad-free surfing of the entire site, but this comes as a benefit of donating, which covers the cost of lost income from the ads which won't be showing for those visitors. This is the only legitimate way where you can disable all the ads on a given site and not feel guilty about it.

    This is especially important when it comes to small(er) sites where every buck counts and the profit is not nearly high enough that the site could afford to have its visitors block its ads. The end result of a significant portion of a site's visitors blocking its ads is either the financial ruin and consequent closure of the website or (more often) putting more and more intrusive ads up to compensate for the losses incurred due to the people who block ads.

    Unfortunately, that's how it almost always works in real life - legitimate users wind up paying for the leeching that the pirates do.

    [ December 26, 2006, 22:44: Message edited by: Taluntain ]
     
    Taluntain, Dec 26, 2006
    #20
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