Richard's IT Blog

Long time no blog - blogging is hard.

Today it is about my favourite Firefox addons. When you move around a lot one thing you miss is your favourite addons. This also gives me the chance to download them quickly when I am on a different computer as an added bonus.

Some of the flash popups that show on a lot of sites are so ghastly. Where do some publishers get the idea that people love to see huge flashy thingys popup in their face when they want to concentrate on the text in their article? You don't get that in a newspaper, why should you want them on a web page?
Did I also mention that when you are viewing a computer over Remote Desktop or VNC graphics, especially the animated kind and Flash, can kill the performance totally?

I feel sorry for the web advertisers whose text adverts get killed off by Adblock etc, because I don't have the temperament for such nasty intrusive behaviour. Yahoo pay attention.

Addons in no particular order.

Titlebar Tweaker

Tweak titlebar text and place current date/time into titlebar.

This is my favourite and most needed add-on. I browse in multiple profiles and windows and this one enables me to pick the browser I want to view quickly and easily from the toolbar. It beats having to many tabs in a single browser window, and labelling the Windows by profile is a godsend.

The latest one is version 4.1.4 but I am sticking to 3.8.2 as the later versions seem to be messed up somehow.

I need this ${Name} - ${Profile} : ${Title}
googlebar

The original (though unofficial) Google toolbar for Firefox, with an emphasis on easy access to many types of specialized searches

I find the translation button and search within the current website very useful. Old but good.

AdBlock Plus

Annoyed by adverts? Troubled by tracking? Bothered by banners? Install Adblock Plus now to regain control of the internet and change the way that you view the web.

Reduces the pollution on web pages. A definite need.

TabGroups Manager

TabGroups Manager helps to classify and organize tabs by dividing them into Groups. Because tabs become easier to manage, you can never have too many! TabGroups Manager is ideal for tab power users.

It enables you to pages relating to an object of interest in separate groups. Very useful. Only problem is it seems to destroy all your tabs if you don't hibernate them before closing your browser. I thought it would just save them and recreate the tabs after you close and reopen your browser. There are others such as Tab Mix Plus, but Tab Groups Manager seemed to do exactly what I wanted. I should try it out in my other profiles.

Video DownloadHelper

The easy way to download and convert Web videos from hundreds of YouTube-like sites.
This works also for audio and picture galleries

Enables you do download videos as soon as they begin playing. With Youtube you get to choose the download quality as well. Useful for those Mooji Satsang videos and some Drupal videos as well.