Tech With Ric » FireFox

Get the Old FaceBook Chat back (FireFox, Chrome & Opera)

Richie Sajan — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 14:22:35 +0000

Recently Facebook launched a whole new chatting system which, well, plainly sucked. No longer were friends shown in groups according to lists you made but also only those friends were shown who you used to contact the most. Whether they were online or not! Although many users have been protesting this move, Facebook being Facebook has turned a blind eye, However its pretty simple to get back to the old chatting system, here’s how.

The solution is pretty easy. Its done using an add-on called Facebook Chat Sidebar Disabler. Depending on your browser follow the steps:

FireFox:

FireFox users just go here and download the add-on. If it does say ‘This add-on has not been reviewed by Mozilla ‘ just click on it and click again on the Add to FireFox button. That’s it, restart it and you are good to go.

Chrome:

For Google Chrome users, download this app and just refresh the Facebook page (by pressing F5) and your done.

Opera:

Opera users need to download this add-on. And that’s it!

Using this method, although you will get the interface of the old chat back, still the underling chat system would be that of the new one. So expect some of those stupid problems to last.

Reduce Firefox’s Memory Usage with Memory Fox

Richie Sajan — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:43:42 +0000

Firefox is undoubtedly one of the best browser out there. Be it the speed, the security or the extend of customization, Firefox leads the pack. But one complaint, that all users of this great browser have in common, is the huge memory usage by it. In my 248 MB of memory, it uses up about 100 MB for itself, which roughly translates to about 40%. So here is a great add-on that will help you in this regard.

Memory Fox is a new add-on for firefox that considerably reduces Firefox’s memory usage. You can check out the below screen-shots taken by me.

Indeed its, good. Nearly 33 MB or 13 % of RAM recovered! Memory Fox primarily operates by flushing for memory recovery. As the developer stats:

“Memory Fox”, focuses on two ( 2 ) types of memory usage and with flushing for memory recovery. When resource requirements ( Stack and Heap ) have been reached, according to the user’s preset option settings, the memory will be flushed and recovered from Fragmented Orphaned ram memories.

You can read more about the add-on from here. The add-on is available for download at the Add-ons for Firefox site, here.

Once installed you can activate the add-on by going to Tools => Memory Fox => Activate Memory Fox or alternatively use the short cut Alt+A. Note that this add-on is still experimental and user discretion is advised.

First Image Credits: Orcon.net.nz. Technorati short code 7VFEZM729PBK.

http://www.orcon.net.nz/lifestyle/page/5_useful_firefox_add_onsO

3 Ways to Get any Browser’s Share Statistics

Richie Sajan — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:03:39 +0000

Many people, including me, are interested to find which browser is being used by people around to surf the internet. Its particularly useful for web developers to know which browsers are going out of use, so they can stop support for them and reduce their own workload. But how can you get such stats? Well here are 3 sources.

Global Market Share Statistics (from HitsLink)

The most comprehensive and widely used global stat site, Hitslink provides data not only about the browsers, but also about OS, resolutions, IP, search engine and even mobile stats. You can access their ever-comprehensive browser stats from here.

Global Stats (from Statcounter)

Statcounter, the ever-reliable stat plugin for websites, also has a global stats site that provides information about browsers, browser version, mobile browser and OS, search engine (desktop and mobile) as well as a desktop vs. mobile stat.

You can access the browser stats from here.

Historical Browser Statistics (from AXIIS)

Although this is not exactly a browser stat site, it gives a fun way of viewing the browser share market’s history. Data from January 2002 to August 2009 can be viewed over here.

You can access this page from here.

Got any other suggestions? Comment below. First image source: Wablog.

Use Google URL shortener service Goo.gl from FireFox

Richie Sajan — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 06:48:28 +0000

Goo.gl‘s URL shortener is hot property now! And why not, you get a good looking URL that is supported by none other than Google! The only official way of using it at the time of posting was using either it through feedburner or by using the Google toolbar. The feedburner option is for blogs only and wel, I’m not a big fan of toolbars. So here is a FireFox add-on for it!

The name of the add-on is goo.gl lite 1.0 by Matthew Flaschen. You can download the add-on via AFO, from here.

Usage:

Well this is a slightly tricky part if you are especially a new FF user. After installing and restarting your browser, right click anywhere above the URL box (in the blank section). Now select the Customize option from the menu.

Now search for a logo like this: , and drag it anywhere you like. (eg. next to the search box.)

That’s it. Now anytime you want to create a shortened Goo.gl URL of the current page, just click on that icon. The short URL will be created and copied to your clipboard. Just paste it anywhere you like!