Make Firefox Start-Up Faster

Is it just me or does it take a while for Firefox to start-up? I'm experiencing this on windows and on mac. Both Internet Explorer and Safari seem to beat Firefox by about 2 whole seconds. I'm not sure about the solution for OS X, but I did figure out how to reduce the start up time Firefox on a Windows based computer. Actually it's pretty easy.

All you do is download Firefox preloader, and it loads up Firefox every time you start-up or restart your computer. So Firefox is always loaded in your memory, ready to spring into action. Although, you need to keep in mind that having Firefox running in the background might deteriorate the performance of your PC as it is still a memory hog. So, I only recommend you use Firefox preloader if your computer is loaded with extra ram.

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Minimize any application to system tray

Here's a little gem of a tool I found in order to help you minimize any application to the system tray so that you can easily access it later, without it cluttering up your taskbar. It's called PowerMenu, and to be honest, it is quite powerful. Apart from just minimizing any window to the taskbar, it can also do many other things.

It can also change the transparency of the window, and make sure that a program stays on top of all other programs. This can be especially helpful when you are chatting with someone, and you always need to keep an eye on the conversation.

I also use it on Windows Vista to minimze Windows Mail to the system tray, so that I can check my e-mail regularly, just like how outlook can be minimized to the system tray.

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Stop the Yahoo Messenger Spam!

If you too use Yahoo! Messenger like me, you've probably received an awful lot of IM spam from random people on yahoo messenger. Turns out, I'm not the only one. A lot of other people are having the same problem. Why is the Yahoo network so prone to random messages from spammers? Probably because the spammer doesn't have to be on your contact list in order to spam you, any random person can send you a message without your approval. And although this feature might be a pain in the neck, it's not hard to use it to your advantage. Here's how.

The solution to the problem is simply allowing only the people you know to reach you. Sadly, its a feature that only Yahoo Messenger (for now anyway) has because the Yahoo network (well AIM and other networks also have this feature, but Yahoo's the only one that seems to suffering the fury of the spammers right now) allows anyone to communicate with everyone on the network. So once a spammer has your Yahoo address, this is pretty much your only option.

How to ignore people you don't know in Yahoo Messenger

1. Click on Messenger after you open Yahoo Messenger
2. Click on Preferences
3. Click on Ignore List in the left column (this is the Privacy tab if you're using Yahoo Messenger on a Mac)
4. Then select the option 'Ignore Anyone who is not on my messaging list'
   
5. Click OK
   

The only downside here is that you have to add people to your contact list, and approve them before you can chat with them. But that's a small price to pay for being spam free.

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How to use Hotmail with Apple Mail

Update: If you're using HTTPMail with Leopard 10.5.6 - You'll have to upgrade to HTTPMail 1.53 for it to work! Click here to download HTTPMail 1.53. No wonder, my hotmail stopped working on Apple Mail after I upgraded to 10.5.6 =( ... But its all fixed now... =)

I absolutely love Apple Mail because of its simplicity and to an extent it's robustness (the To-Dos and Notes) and use it all the time when possible. I find that Entourage is a bit too bloated, and the same goes for Thunderbird. Plus, other applications don't have iCal integration, which is another application I have come to love. However, one big problem is that by default Apple Mail does not support Http accounts, so it's impossible to use mail if you use Hotmail or MSN (now apparently called Windows Live Mail). The solution was created by Daniel Parnell fit the bill. It's called HTTPMail. You can find it over at the Automagic Software downloads page.

Once you download and install the plugin, you should be good to go. Simple enough? Not really, it's Microsoft stuff, and as I've come to find out, Microsoft stuff isn't exactly simple. Yet. When I tried to send an e-mail through my Hotmail account in Leopard, I got an " *** -[NSURL initWithString:relativeToURL:]: nil string parameter" error. But, using Microsoft software for so long has taught me something - never give up. So I set out to find a solution, and finally after a couple of minutes of thinking I figured, it must be the URL, since the error had URL in it. Turns out, that you need to use some other URL to send the mail. The steps I took to solve the problem were as follows:

How to stop *** -[NSURL initWithString:relativeToURL:]: nil string parameter error

1. Open Mail
2. Click on Mail (in the menubar) > Preferences. Alternatively, you can press Cmd + , to open the preferences dialog
3. Click on Accounts and select your Hotmail Account
   
4. Where it says Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) click on the drop down menu. Then click Edit Server List...
5. Create a new entry as shown in the picture below. Make sure to use the server name oe.msn.msnmail.hotmail.com

1. Switch to the Advanced tab for a sec and make sure it says port 25
2. Then Click on OK
3. I recommend you check the box that says Use only this server under the Outgoing Mail Server drop down Box
4. Close the preferences dialog box. If you asks you if you want to save your settings, make sure you say save
5. Send your Mail (I'm guessing you already have mail in your outbox, or else you wouldn't know about the error) through the Hotmail (or whatever description you put in) server you just created.

Hopefully, you'll now be able to send your e-mails through Apple Mail. Now you'll be able to send and receive e-mails through your Hotmail account without having to use the inelegant web-mail interface.

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Fullscreen in Firefox on Mac OS X

Update: Finally, Firefox 3.6 (and onwards hopefully!) support fullscreen. Just Press the Command key + Shift key + F, or go to View > Full screen. Nevertheless, the method below might still be useful if you want to make the Firefox window a particular size, say 1024*768 or something like that for testing purposes.

_______________________

Mac: Hi, I'm a Mac. I look cool and interesting.
PC: And I'm a PC. I look ugly and boring.
Mac: Dude. You're so boring.
PC: I sure am.
Mac: I rock.
PC: Ya sure do.

- Some Apple commercial where Apple makes fun of "personal computers".

Yup. The Apple commercials sure are right. There is huge different between the Mac and PC lifestyles. I've been a switcher recently. And one big problem that I ran into recently is that a lot of things on the PC side aren't quite available to the Mac users.

Usually, when I'm on the PC, I hit F11 and Firefox goes into full screen mode. However, when I'm on Tiger or Leopard for that matter, hitting F11 will only show you your desktop. You can change that however through system preferences, but there's no way of going fullscreen on a mac :(. For other cocoa applications, Ian Henderson created a really lightweight and useful app/plug-in called megazoomer, but Firefox isn't exactly a cocoa application.

So, after searching the inter web for a while, I came across this lifehacker post. I then searched a bit more to find out what you can do with javascript and a bookmarklet. Turns out, you can do a lot.

To be honest, it's not possible to maximize a firefox window completely on a mac. However, it is possible to maximize the window to fit in the whole screen. To do this just follow these steps:

1. Create a new bookmark by right clicking on the bookmark toolbar. If you don't see the bookmark toolbar just go to View > Toolbars > check Bookmark toolbar.
2. Give the bookmark a name like Fullscreen (something that you can remember) and then paste the code below in the Location box. Make sure you paste all the code in 1 line only though, or else it won't work.

javascript:self.moveTo(0,0); self.resizeTo(screen.availWidth,screen.availHeight);


3. Click OK, and then just click on the Fullscreen button to maximize Firefox.

Then once you click on the Fullscreen Button, Firefox should then take up all the space that OS X allows an application to take up, depending on the size and position of your dock. Sometimes, when I'm viewing pictures, I like to minimize the dock by pressing Cmd + Option + D and this will allow Firefox to take up more space.

Do let me know if you find other ways of going Fullscreen in Firefox or any other Mac app for that matter.

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How to export Firefox Bookmarks to Del.icio.us

Del.icio.us! Ever heard of it? If your answer is no, then I highly recommend to take a look at del.ico.us. It's a really cool website where you can store your bookmarks online, and then access it from anywhere. But the best part is that you can tag them and make them public so the rest of the world can see what you're really into.

This post is all about how to export Firefox bookmarks into delicious, so that you can access them from anywhere. And if you're anything like me then you probably have a lot of bookmarks in Firefox, so you might want to back them up first.

The easiest way is to use the del.icio.us plugin. Once you install it just go to del.icio.us in the menubar > del.icio.us website > import bookmarks. You will have to be logged in to do this step.


If you don't wan to use he plug-in it is possible to upload the bookmarks that you have in Firefox manually as well.

Once you are done backing up your Firefox bookmarks, you are ready to export them into a HTML file. To do so

1. Click on Bookmarks in the menubar
2. Click on Organize Bookmarks
3. Click on File and then on Export

Then a window should pop-up prompting you to choose a file name. Just choose a file name and remember where you saved it.

Log into your del.icio.us account and click on settings in the upper right hand corner of the window. Then click on import / upload.

Here, browse for the HTML file that you just created, and then choose your desired settings. Once you click on the import now button, delicious will automatically start importing all the bookmarks. Once its done, all you're bookmarks will be stored on delicious forever, and you can access it from anywhere.

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Back up Firefox and Internet Explorer bookmarks and settings

The highly digital lifestyle that we live in today requires us to constantly back-up, update and maintain our computers. One of the most important applications that we use today is a web browser. And backing up the data in it is just as essential as backing up the files in your computer. It's impossible to know when disaster is going to strike and the next crash is going to happen.

Here are a couple of ways you can back up your web browser of choice.

How to back-up Firefox bookmarks, profiles, extensions etc.

If you use Firefox as your main browser, and I highly recommend that you do, and you're on Windows, the tool you'll most likely want to use is called MozBackup. It's a nifty little tool that backs up all your settings, profiles, history and bookmarks. It even allows you to back up your cache and cookies. Very handy if you ask me. You can download it here.

If you're on a mac, you're kinda going to have to do a bit more work. First, you're going to want to download the firefox environment backup extension. Then you can save your bookmarks, if you still have it on your browser, by going to Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks > File > Export. Then save the file to a safe location. Exporting it to Del.icio.us would be a wise decision.

How to back-up Internet Explorer bookmarks, settings and history

If you use Internet Explorer, then I highly recommend you switch to Firefox. It's better, trust me. And its most likely going to save you a lot of grief and trouble. However, if you are looking for an application to back up Internet Explorer, then I recommend Internet Explorer Backup. It's going to do the job for you without the hassle. If you do decide to switch to Firefox, it will automatically import all your Internet Explorer bookmarks and settings, and then you can back those setting up through the applications listed above.

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