Aquarionics

This is why I use Firebird (Which once was Phoenix, and is a browser-only version of Mozilla):

The primary reason, and the thing that stops me from going back to IE even if I ever had the option, is tabbed browsing. It sounds so very minor, but the ability to middle-click on a link so it loads in the background on a new tab changes the way you use the web, it really does. Also, because they are tabs and not windows, you don’t have fifty things on the task-bar too, having to be closed one by one. Also, if you have a set of tabs open you can bookmark the lot of them as one group.

The extensions.

The extension system is the main reason of Firebird over Mozilla traditional, it enables you to install all these little things that someone thought were cool and wrote. For example, these are the extensions I’m currently using:

Download Statusbar

adds a bar at the bottom of your window with the status of all your current downloads in it. Automagically goes away when it’s empty.

Firebird Icons

Turns the Firebird extensions into cool flame-based ones instead of the dull Mozilla ones.

GoTo

Adds functionality to every link as follows: Given the URL “http://www.aquarionics.com/journal/2003/07/07/Interview_Meme_redux”, you get the options:

• http://www.aquarionics.com/journal/2003/07/07/
• http://www.aquarionics.com/journal/2003/07/
• http://www.aquarionics.com/journal/2003/
• http://www.aquarionics.com/journal/
• http://www.aquarionics.com/
• ftp://ftp.aquarionics.com/

• http://aquarionics.com/

  Giving you the ability to get to any level of the site below you.

  Linky

  Gives you a menu per page allowing you to:

• Open all links in tabs or windows
• Open all links in selection as new tabs or windows
• Open all picture links in tabs or windows
• Open all picture links in selection as new tabs or windows
• Open all picture links in one tab

…and so on. allowing you to drag-select a whole load of links and open them at once, so they load in the background while you read. (This is good for, for example, blogrolls, lists of webcomics, galleries…)

Live HTTP Headers

Headers the server sent. Useful for developers :-)

MozEx

Allows the user to modify Firebird’s view-source functions, so you can view source in your text editor. Also allows you to edit any given text-area in your text editor, and change settings for mail, ftp and download links.

Tab Browser Extensions & Tab Browser Extensions Extra Prefs

Extensive upgrades to the tab system, including grouped tabs (by colour), ability to drag and drop tag order, close all other tabs, close tabs to the right of this one etc.

User Agent Switcher

Feeds sites differant agent strings so that sites which prejustice against Mozilla/Firebird users for no apparent reason can be accessed.

Web Development Toolbar

A whole new toolbar that gives you touch-of-a-button access to things like disabling all stylesheets, images, javascript and java. Resizing the browser to standard resolutions, validating, viewing contents of cookies etc.

So, there we have it, a selection of cool things for Firebird.

Paul Freeman

Do you want to do anything with your website that you haven’t yet done?

Completely restart from scratch. Problem is that I have this thing about broken URLs, so that idea sits dead in the water. I’d like it to autogenerate the right content for the right medium (So auto generate PDF, HTML, XML, RSS and eventually necho) from a single XML file. That’s the next step.

2) What do you like and dislike about Reading so far?

I like the fact I can get to London really quickly. I dislike the job centre :)

3) Which non-famous person do you most admire and why?

I don’t really idolise people, it’s not in my nature, so “Pass”

4) A mother is four times as old as her daughter. In 20 years she will be twice as old as her daughter.
How old are mother and daughter now?

Mother is 40 daughter is 10.

5) Where do you see yourself in two years?

24.

Still running Aquarionics, Designing CMSs, and it runs on Necho 3.0. Firebird still hasn’t reached 1.0, Duke Nukem 4-Ever still isn’t done, and the Bugzilla Database is being used by Database Design students as an example of an impossibly large database.

Same in 5, 10 and 40 years.

Ben Avenell

1 and only 1) Whats wrong with Reading?

I didn’t choose to be here, and I’m doing no better here than the previous 4 months in Cambridge. I need something to blame, Reading is easy.

After discovering – via an inbound link from Solitude – that CDF files should not be served as text/xml but as application/cdf instead, and also within moments from gilmae that my CDF files were invalid I’ve fixed both of these. IE Users can now just click any CDF file and make a menu of my last ten items in any category or section appear in your start menu. Neatocool.

Also, magic linking is starting to happen. Eventually this is going to be vector-based searching and crossreferencing, but for now it’s simply the last few items in each category that this entry is in. Due to technical issues this only works on entries added after I switched it on, but I’m working on this…

This week, I bring you someone you may have heard of, but probably didn’t know was a singer. This person is Milla Jovavich.

Milla is probably most famous for being “Leeloo Minai Lekarariba-Laminai-Tchai Ekbat De Sebat” in the the movie ‘The Fifth Element’ (She’s the star that isn’t Bruce Willis) and the Red-Dressed heroine “Alice” in the so-so action violence very-very-video-game movie ‘Resident Evil’ (To which a sequal ‘RE: Apocalypse’ is in pre-production right now)

She’s also a singer. She has a couple of albums out, but I tripped over her when searching Audiogalaxy for obscure Divine Comedy tracks because her first album is called ‘Divine Comedy’. Anyway, This is my favourite track of hers that I own. It’s called “The Gentlemen who fell” and is this weeks’ Aquarionics.com MP3 of the Week.

Milla Jovavich – The Gentlemen Who Fell