My Firefox Extensions

This is my last post using Firefox 1.0.x. Firefox 1.5 is out and I will waste no time to install it. Only thing I am skeptical about is whether all the extensions I use will work. So I am listing all the extensions here for now. I'll update the post to add descriptions of each extension later.

1. Flashgot - recommended. I use it with Free Download Manager.
2. Disable Targets for Downloads
3. GreaseMonkey
4. View Rendered Source Chart
5. View Formatted Source
6. Google toolbar for Firefox - recommended.
7. Tamper Data.
8. StumbleUpon
9. Gcache.
10. BookmarksHome
11. SessionSaver - heavily recommended.
12. Yahoo Toolbar
13. ScrapBook - recommended for offline users.
14. FasterFox
15. BugMeNot
16. Web Developer
17. FlagFox.
18. Adblock Plus

I have added recommended to extensions that I simply can't live without. This list and descriptions are likely to change though. Firefox 1.5, here I come.

Honesty and Pragmatism

As a child, we are taught to be honest, starting with all those stories of how a child admitted his mistake and was not punished ... Then as you grow up, you get to know how all this is termed foolish by the pragmatic world. Then you come to know that had the child not admitted his mistake, he would have anyways not got punished. You understand its better to give Rs. 50 to the traffic cop to avoid challan. And I am not talking being 'fraudi' here, just pragmatic.

I fail to understand why teach stuff which one has to unlearn anyways? Why should a parent teach something to his kid which neither he follows nor would he want his kid to follow in future?

Sites that should go ajax

Ajax is the latest buzzword in web based applications and after watching the wonder applications created out of it, I fully understand why. I still remember when I first saw google suggest and gmail, I had long discussions with my tech friends trying to figure out how they did it.
While there are lots of products getting developed on this from Web based IM clients to Complete Web Based Office suites, I have a few sites in mind that would be ideal candidates for getting re-designed using ajax.

1. Live Cricket Score sites - Site gets refreshed after every ball being bowled and millions hitting the site and refreshing their browser trying to view the latest score. The kind of load these sites handle can be guessed by the fact that corporate internet connection is much slower on the cricket match day and companies like infosys have an intranet site to display the score (even that overloads) ... My point is ... If its just the score and a 1 line commentary that is updating every min, why refresh the whole browser and fetch non-changing information? If the request that currently fetched 100 kb from the server is made to fetch only 30 kb, the load would be much less.


2. Admin Consoles of Application Servers like Weblogic - Such console provide lots of thick client type functionality and also refresh the browser a lot for showing the current status of various stuff. All those refreshes can be avoided and the interface would be much more better


3. Siebel type applications - Avoid all that java stuff. Clean interface is the key

As and when I get more ideas, I would be posting it here. As of now, try Meebo, a web based IM client.

Indian official entry to Oscar is Paheli

I just couldn't believe my ears. When I wrote this post, not in my dreams had I thought that Black would not even be nominated for the coveted oscar. Anyone and his dog knows that paheli cannot win the oscar.
I really don't know what happens in those closed doors and I really cannot claim myself as an art critique but I certainly can call myself heart-broken as a Big B masterpiece goes down the drain.

Firefox extension: Session Saver

It was december 2004 when I first said that "Firefox Rocks". And its still rocking. In this same post, I mentioned the need of "saving the last open windows on exit" feature that I so much loved in Opera. Finally there is an extension that does exactly what I want.

SessionSaver restores your browser -exactly- as you left it, every startup, every time. Not even a crash will phase it.

Though still in early phases, works pretty well. Make sure to install from the forum link that is given at the end of the page. Only issue is that I had to disable LiveHttpHeaders extension. I don't use that extension anyways.

Alonso is the new F1 champion

Ya I know I am always late in announcing news ... but the era of Michael Schumacher seems to come to an end. Alonso has become the youngest driver ever to become the F1 champion despite late but stiff competition from Raikkonen.
I wonder what Ashin would say on this.

Being Vulnerable

The game of bridge has this concept of vulnerability ... As soon as you win a game, you become vulnerable, so stakes for winning and losing the next game increase, i.e. you get more points if you win a subsequent game and you lose much more if you lose.
Life is more of an opposite ... here stakes go high when you lose something ... One big loss and you lose lots of confidence and every single subsequent loss, however small it might be, makes you lose even more confidence ... And then it starts reflecting in other stuff that is not related to the original loss.
I was taught in a soft skill training that emotions arising due to one issue shouldn't be taken out on something unrelated ... we may make ourselves strong enough to do that ... But though there may not be a direct impact, it certainly leaves me vulnerable.