info @ the P.Pole 04.11.07

7 Firefox extensions I couldn't do without:

• Greasemonkey - Absolutely the most useful extension there is for Firefox, GM lets you download/install lines of codes (from sites like Userscripts.org), allowing for more control over Firefox and opening up a world of new possibilities. You can change the way (specific/all) pages are displayed, change the appearance of some sites (notably Gmail.com with Gmail Air), and say, insert Gmail's inline mp3 player beside mp3 links (with the aptly named Inline Google Player script). There are extensions for skinning Gmail but why install that when I can just use GM.
  
• Gmail Notifier - Being an avid Webmail fan (Gmail, I love you) and web goer, I have a need for something that keeps me up to date/ minute/ second (actually more like minute, as I've got it set to check once per minute... man I'm paranoid) with my mail. Gmail notifier's one of those extensions Firefox really should just come standard with. It's clean and simple, just customizable enough, and does its job well.
• Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer - As someone who is extremely neurotic and paranoid (just look at how many back-ups of back-ups of back-ups of... ad infinitum that I have), as well as someone who frequently switches from Vista to XP and back, as well as having a terrible memory for URL addresses, something like FMBS is a must have. Foxmarks lets you manage your bookmarks and back them up onto remote servers under your account name (passworded of course). When you make changes to your list, you can automatically (or manually) update those changes to make sure nothing is lost, as well as importing your lists from their servers onto other computers/partitions. Win win for the little schizo in you.
• Session Manager - In continuation of my back-up theme, here is an extension that records and remembers the state of your Firefox tabs open every X seconds (your call) so that, in the off chance you accidentally close FF or your computer crashes, you can simply restore your last session and continue working. It even saves the text entered in fields on sites (even though Greasemonkey also has a script for that). It's wonderful as I've a habit of closing stuff accidentally with the following extension (it's not the extension's fault though, I just don't think before I stroke).
• All-In-One Gestures - The basic premise surrounding mouse gestures is that you can perform repetitious and simple (or even very complicated if you're 1337) tasks by 1) holding down a key/ mouse button and 2) performing a "gesture" with the cursor (for example, I drag my mouse down while holding the right-mouse button to close my current tab). AIOG speeds up browsing (since I can, say, go back or forward a page by dragging left or right instead of going up to the history forward and back buttons) and improves control over navigation in Firefox in general (you can assign a gesture for a crap load of common or not so common tasks, making life much easier). I just hate it when I close my window (which I can do extremely quickly with a simple down-up drag) prematurely or when I go use a computer not mine/ IE and I find myself clicking and gesturing stuff without response. Honestly, almost makes me want to use another gesture.
• No Squint - As someone who does a load of reading of blogs and web pages, my eyes tend to get very strained and tired. No Squint is lovely since it allows me to set default zoom levels for text, as well as customized, page-specific zooms as I please. This means two things: 1) I can read stuff without having to reset the text zoom every time I go to a different page and 2) I can read a lot more (leading to a need for thicker and more robust glasses). The only I don't like about this extension is that pages don't exactly zoom perfectly sometimes, meaning the placement of images and whatnot can be pretty screwed up sometimes. That's not the extension's fault though... Just web designers.
• NoScript - This is pretty much the most standard extension for Firefox that I'd suggest to anyone who gives a damn about their security. What NoScript does is, as the name implies, javascript blocking. There are many sites out there that have malicious scripts that can do God-knows-what to your machine and so, if you're paranoid like me, you'll want to protect yourself from most sites/ untrusted sites. Of course, you can set a safe list of sites you do want to allow. The only problem with NoScript (or is it the page designer's fault for using javascript?!) is that some/ many pages will not display or function correctly without javascript, forcing you to choose between safety and access to whatever it is on that page you need to read/ see/ submit.

And that is that. As you can tell, I'm a definite Firefox fan. I've heard (from Herman) that Opera has something akin to Greasemonkey that allows for scripting by the user, but seeing as how I am neither 1337 enough for that or willing to learn how to script such stuff at the moment, Firefox will do. I'm also wary of trying out alternatives to Firefox (I've grown quite attached and fanboy-ish) so I doubt I'll be switching any time soon (not that I even see a need to).
Everyone, if you haven't already, download Firefox.