I did some research and found the Google Browser Sync add-on for Firefox is no longer going to be supported. Not only will it not be continued for Firefox 3, but it will be completely discontinued after 2008. Ouch.

The add-on allowed me to syncronize my bookmarks, cookies, etc across multiple computers. All I had to do was install it and setup my login information. The rest was seemless.

So I am off to find an alternative, one of which I am already testing. I came across a letter from Google that stated the following:

For those of you who want to continue to use Firefox 2, we’ll maintain support for old versions of Google Browser Sync through 2008. After that, we can recommend a few other products that scratch a similar itch. We hope that one of them works for you:

Mozilla Weave [labs.mozilla.com] from Mozilla Labs—Offers bookmark and history synchronization across computers.

Google Toolbar for Firefox [toolbar.google.com]—Store your bookmarks online and access them from any computer online.

Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer [addons.mozilla.org]—Synchronizes your bookmarks across all computers where it is installed.

Regards,
The Google Team

I’m giving the last choice (Foxmarks) a shot at winning over my heart. If it fails, you’ll be sure to hear about it.

I knew I should have waited, yet I couldn’t help myself. I had to install the new Firefox browser version 3.0 and here I am with only have of my extensions working. Ugh. I should know better than that.

If anyone else out there uses my CopyforNotes extension (add-on), I have updated it to work with the new Firefox browser. You can grab it here: CopyforNotes version 1.8.

What extensions do I have installed?

• ColorZilla (not working)
  This plugin allows me to use an eyedropper pointer to select colors on any webpage. It allows me to easily select the color values when programming a website either from an image or the html.
• CopyforNotes (working)
  With this, I can select text on a page and copy it plus the url of the page for placement in my notes. I wrote this for MODSonair topics creation. It will either take the url of the current page or that of the link I am hovering over. More details are somewhere in this blog.. give a search if you want to know more.
• Dummy Lipsum (working)
  When programming a website, sometimes you need text to fill in an area here and there. This allows me to create filler text on the fly that doesn’t actually say anything. However, it looks like real sentences and paragraphs so the client can get the overall picture.
• Google Browser Sync (not working, damn it all!) (read following blog post)
  This extension that I love so dearly allows me to carry my bookmarks across computers without thinking about it. Whatever my bookmarks are at work are at home, which are on my laptop, etc.
  Wait, there’s more. It also saves my cookies, passwords and other authenticated business. I don’t have to keep typing in all that junk when going from work to home or any browser I have installed and setup with this plugin.
• Google Notebook (working)
  I use Google Notebook for taking my initial notes for MODSonair. This allows me to quickly save anything I see online for review later in the week. I then use CopyforNotes to turn those links into topics that easily paste into the final product.
• Greasemonkey (working, but not working) (now magically working without my intervention) (broken again)
  This is an interesting add-on that allows you to program and use Greasemonkey extensions. It’s like a platform of pre-made functions so that you can more easily program your own extensions. I use it for a Greasemonkey add-on that automatically inserts a custom signature into my different Gmail email addresses. I’m not sure what I’ll do without it that feature which isn’t working
• Gmail Signatures (new and working) (link)
  I found this as a replacement to the Greasemonkey add-on crossed out above. With it you can insert a custom signature for any of your gmail email accounts. Since you can send out your gmail from any account that you own (like from gmail, foyleman, or modsonline), you can now assign specific signatures to each.
• IE View Lite (working)
  Right click the screen and have the option to open your current page or selected url in IE. As a programming, websites need to work across multiple browsers.
• MeasureIt (working)
  Measer the width and height of a selection within your browser window. Great for figuring out the size of an area you have to work with to properly size the image you plan on putting in there.
• Screen grab! (working)
  Two clicks and you can copy or save the webpage you are looking at as an image. You can copy the select, entire page or what you see.
• Web Developer (working)
  A necessary tool for web programmings to hunt down problems on any web page.

I’m running an experiment to see if I can use Gmail as my only email client. For the past few years, I’ve been using Mozilla Thunderbird to retrieve and read my email. It’s a great program and I recommend it to anyone looking for an email client to install on their desktop. It’s also great if you have several email addresses all of which require special needs.

I have about 5 primary email addresses between MODSonline, Tres, and the rest. Each account requires a specific email signature. I’ve always copied all of my email to Gmail in the event I want to check and reply when I am away from home. Gmail has good spam filters and makes an excellent online interface for all your email. You can even send your email via Gmail as if you are sending it from the person who received it.

I’d now like to make it easier for me to have my archived work email and home email all located in one place. If I can switch to Gmail, that would mean all my email is available where ever I go. Therefore the experiment is on. I am going to see if I can survive without a desktop client to deal with email.

Some issues that I’ve overcome:

• Gmail doesn’t really let you have different signatures for different email addresses. However, there are Mozilla FireFox addons (extensions) that resolve this. A combination of Greasemonkey and Gmail Signatures fixes that.
  One bug though… to save each signature I have to add one sig, restart FireFox , then add next sig… repeat. This also has to be done on each machine you plan to use your signatures on. Oh well. Still works.
• I’m not sure how to synchronize my contacts and calendar with my phone. Using GooSync, I can synchronize my phone without needing a desktop client. It’s all done over the air.

As many of you know, I love playing Battlefield 2142. I often play it while talking with my buddies on Skype. However, one very annoying problem with the game is that when you start playing, it will mute the microphone volume so that I can’t hear myself talking. This causes me to yell because I can’t hear myself (the wife doesn’t care for that).

The steps to un-mute the microphone meant that I had to:

• load the game
• go into the audio configuration to trigger the mute
• exit to the main screen
• Alt+Tab out of the program
• open my sound devices
• un-mute the mic
• try to get back into the game which sometimes doesn’t work

It would be so nice if there were only a way to create a keyboard shortcut to perform this operation automatically. Oh wait… there is! Yes, I found such a program to make it all happen and here is what you need:

• Download NirCmd. Unzip the contents someplace permanent such as in it’s own folder somewhere on your hard drive.
• In this same folder, create a .bat file (text file renamed to something like unmute.bat).
• In this text file, paste the following command as outlined on this page.
  .\NirCmd.exe mutesysvolume 2 microphone
• Create a desktop shortcut to that .bat file.
• Right click the shortcut and select Properties.
• Create a Shortcut Key such as M which will be created as Ctrl+Alt+M
• Save and play.

Now, when you press Ctrl+Alt+M, your microphone volume will either mute or un-mute. Tada.

*Update: This doesn’t seem to work within the game. The shortcut works outside of the game, but apparently the binding system of the game overwrites the shortcuts for the desktop. I need to find a way to bind a key I guess?

I came across yet another instance in which I needed to review a website using older versions of Internet Explorer. The problem is that once you upgrade this browser, it overwrites the previous installation. I found a great solution for XP. TredoSoft has a free program that will install IS version 3 through 6 and allow you to access them all individually. Perfect for testing those websites to ensure the javascript and other coding is compliant.

I finally redeemed myself in regards to my soup making skills.

I like to host Thanksgiving for the family. When my Grandmother moved out of state, there wasn’t anyone willing to go through the effort of creating a big meal and getting everyone together to enjoy it. So I decided to step up to the task.

Aside from Thanksgiving dinners, I enjoy making soups. Chicken, crab, vegetable, bisque, etc… they are all fun and taste great.

Last year I decided to add soup to the Thanksgiving repertoire. I came up with a great Fall soup called Butternut Squash Crab Bisque. The downfall was that last year I put a little bit too much cayenne pepper into the mix and it came out feeling like fire on the throat. You could put it in your mouth and taste it and it tasted great. But you couldn’t swallow or you would really feel the wrath of God.

Over the past year I ran some experiments on the soup to find the right blend of spices. This year at Thanksgiving I revealed the new and improved soup and it was perfect.

In case you’re interested in the recipe, I’ve pasted in the next page for you. (more…)

I keep appointments for work, life… pretty much everything. Otherwise I could end up forgetting something important. I have a smart phone with a great calendar (Windows Mobile 5). I also like using Google Calendar because it’s easily available when online (plus it’s sharable). But until now, I could sync the two calendar programs together without A LOT of work. Well, that’s changing.

What you need:

• A smart phone
• Google Calendar
• Thunderbird (link) with
  • Lightning Calendar Addon (link)
  • Birdie Sync (link) (search this blog for details)
• Google Calendar Provider Addon (link)
• Two additional files to fix syncronization as described in this Birdie Sync forum post (link)

One problem, however, is that recurring appointments in google are not yet properly supported. Only the first in the series will display. Hopefully that will be patched somewhere down the line.

I do a lot of note taking for MODSonair, a podcast for MODSonline. I also use FireFox as my primary web browser. This means I have the ability to use add-ons (aka extensions) to add features to the browser to make life easier.

In taking notes for MODSonair, I regularly copy come text from a web page that has an interesting topic for discussion during our show. I copy this text along with the link of that page. I copy it in plain text format so that it doesn’t take on the color or size attributes of what I am copying. Then I paste it into my notes. Here’s an example of what I do about 25 times a week for the last 84 weeks:

- site update - harumph
http://www.foyleman.com/archives/107

Well, I decided to try and make things a little easier for myself by creating an add-on that would do this for me. Basically, the add-on will copy any selected text as the title of the notes and also copy the URL of the current page. The content will be formatted as you see above. All that’s left for me to do is paste it into the actual show notes and perhaps hyper-link (so it goes to the link when you click it). I am calling this new add-on ‘Copy for Notes’ since that’s the whole purpose.

* Update version 1.7 allows you to select any text on the page. Then right click the page not on any link on the page and ‘Copy for Notes’ to copy the text with the current page URL. OR right click the page on a link found on the page and ‘Copy for Notes’ to copy the selected text with the right clicked URL instead of the current page URL.

Note that Ctrl+Shift+M is the shortcut associate with this add-on.

You’re welcome to play with my new add-on. You can grab version 1.2 1.5 1.7 right here:

Copy for Notes 1.7

I’m installing linux again. Read the previous post if you wondering why. But, besides the reasons, I needed to take some notes on installation and what better place then to make these notes public for later reference. Yeah… that’s all that I have going on in this post so if you don’t care… then move along… nothing to see here.

First, to get the webserver up and running properly, I like to follow some of the instruction found at Staton-Finley. Good stuff and if you know what you’re doing, this makes good reference for lines in the httpd.conf.

Maybe more later. I am getting frustrated.

I’ve been having trouble remembering the installation and setup sequence to modify Half-Life 2. If you are interested in making code changes to the game, here is the installation methods for the tools needed (as of this date). This assumes you have done the mod creation setup in Steam. (more…)