Sam Woodfin's Micro

Missing Some Firefox Add-Ons? Lifehacker Says "Don't Panic!"

If you've noticed some Firefox Add-ons missing all of the sudden, this is because there's a bug in the latest Firefox update. Your add-ons aren't gone, though, so don't worry. They're still operating but you just can't see them.

via lifehacker.com

Granted, panic would be a bit of an overreaction. But, yesterday, when I updated to Firefox 7, NoScript disappeared. For those of you unfamiliar with NoScript, it's a security extension. It blocks non-whitelisted JavaScripts by default, and allows other scripts to be toggled to allowed or blocked, per domain of origin, permanently or temporarily, on the fly.

In other words, it works via user interaction. So, while NoScript may still have been invisibly "operating" after I updated Firefox, it sure as hell wasn't working.

I'll admit to being pissed when I couldn't find the NoScript icon in my navigation toolbar, or in the Customize dialogue, and even moreso when I couldn't find NoScript in my list of extensions. Instead of panicking, though, I reinstalled the extension. That seems to work better than either panicking or waiting for Mozilla to fix the bug.

And, for the record, kids, the phrase is "all of a sudden". I don't care what the Internet's taught you. It's "a". Not "the".

UPDATE:

Ghacks has an article up about Mozilla's fix for the disappearing add-on problem:

Mozilla furthermore notes that the company is working on an update that will fix the issue and restore all hidden add-ons so that they can be managed again in the browser.

An add-on has been released in the meantime that fixes the issue for affected systems. The Add-on Recovery Tool – Firefox 7 is available at the Mozilla add-on repository.

via www.ghacks.net

Unless I see a problem, though (and there have been none, so far) I'm just gonna stick with my spankin' new NoScript installation.

Firefox 6: Add-ons Manager Has a New Look

Seriously. It just stays like that.

Firefox Version Numbers Set to Go Ninja

Mozilla is basically trying to use the argument that opponents of the major version increase had when they were first announced:

The opponents said that versions do not mean anything if the browser does not deliver, and that it does not make sense to increase the browser version if the changes are only minor.

Mozilla now says that versions do not mean anything, and that users simply should not look at them anymore.

via www.ghacks.net

All because Google went the big-number route on Chrome's versioning. Personally, I don't give a rat's ass whether Firefox uses big numbers for little updates, incremetal numbers for incremental updates, or swtches over to the Dewey decimal system. I do care about having the version hidden from me, though.

If it's important, why hide it? If it's not important, why hide it?

Regardless of what Mozilla, as a collective, thinks about the importance of versioning, there are some users--i.e., me--who want that information readily available. And, even if Firefox users are presumably more savvy than IE users, there will be some who don't know how to access about:support when they need the version number for troubleshooting.

You may have 99 problems, Mozilla, but a version number ain't one.

Swing by Ghacks.net to read the full article.

Life Without Site Launcher

My list of "must have" extensions for Firefox is relatively short: ColorZilla, Firebug, Flashblock, InFormEnter, NoScript, and Site Launcher. You'll note that of all those extensions, Site Launcher is the only one not linked to. That's because it's the only one of my essentail six still not updated for Firefox 5.

And it's essential enough that I put off upgrading to Firefox 5 for as long as I could. "I have NoScript and Avast," thought I, "those Firefox security fixes can't be all that essential!" (It should be noted, here, that I've done plenty of web-surfing without actually running anti-virus software, using only NoScript and a suspicious mind to stay malware-free.)

But yesterday morning, when I started Firefox, the browser updated. (Note I didn't say that I updated it, just that it updated. But that's a different post for a different day.) There was still no update for Site Launcher, however. The Site Launcher blog hasn't been updated since May 12th. The Site Launcher Twitter was last updated a few days ago--July 8th--with the following message:

Important news regarding SiteLauncher soon - we haven't forgotten you tweeps! SiteLauncher will be coming back bigger and better than ever

 

Disregard, for the moment, that promises of "bigger and better", in the context of software updates, tend to make me nervous. My surfing habits have become dependent upon using Site Launcher to quickly get where I need to go, with minimum effort on my part.

I started searching for temporary replacements. I finally settled on an extension that takes Opera's Speed Dial feature, and adds a few features of its own, but uninstalled that extension when I realized there was no way to keep it from tracking my history (something I don't even allow Firefox, itself, to do).

And, then, I learned a bit about the basics of Firefox's bookmarking system. Keywords are your friend. I started reorganizing my bookmarks (which needed to be done, anyway), and adding keywords to the ones I was used to accessing via Site Launcher. For those who don't know what I'm on about, this is a simple process:

1. Right click on the bookmark you want to add a keyword to.
2. Choose "Properties" from the list that pops up.
3. Add the keyword of your choosing.
4. Click "Save".

The first bookmark that I modified was the one for my Gmail inbox. I used "1" (minus the quotes) as the keyword. Now, when I type "1" (again, minus the quotes) in Firefox's address bar, and hit enter, my Gmail inbox loads.

This is not as slick a solution as Site Launcher provides, and, after becoming accustomed to Site Launcher's hot keys, my fingers have decided that learning a new method is just awkward. But it's a workable solution for the interim. And who knows, maybe I'll have adapted enough by the time Site Launcher updates that I won't be especially frustrated if "bigger and better" ends up meaning "resource hog".