Get More Screen from Firefox

It’s been a while since I wrote about anything that made sense (wait, when did that ever happen?). So today, I decided to tell you about – among many things – a simple, yet often underused customisation to Firefox, that gives you more screen space à la Google Chrome. I’ve observed that many people have started using Google Chrome just because of the amount of screen-based real estate it lets them save for their browsing purposes. However, they’re missing out on a lot of goodies. In particular, I’d never switch to Chrome until they support add-ons, and more specifically, one of my favourite add-ons: AdBlock Plus (which I seriously doubt Google will ever do, since it’ll cut down on their ad-revenues). Also, they’re missing out on a bunch of other add-ons like DownThemAll and FashGot. Anyway, this isn’t a Chrome Bashing post (I’ll leave that for later ). Here’s a link to Stefano Forenza’s EXCELLENT blog, where he explains how to do it in detail: http://www.stefanoforenza.com/minimal-firefox-how-to/. Do give his other articles a read, too. They’re really different and amazing.

Banshee Internet Radio FINALLY Working!

I access the Internet through a proxy server. Also, I prefer listening to music on Banshee Media Player. Up till the time I last checked, I couldn’t listen to Internet Radio because I was behind a proxy. After trawling through Ubuntu forums and finding several workarounds, one of which included creating a shell script that launched Banshee and kept a terminal window running in the background, I switched to Songbird, which is a favorite among many people. Songbird was fine, the only problem was that it was U-G-L-Y. It looked more like a browser than a music player. Although it had things like a variation of iTune’s coverflow, a mashtape that fetched the track’s details, and a nifty lyrics fetching tool (all of which worked under my proxy settings) ; it looked more like a web browser than a music player (It uses the same engine as Firefox) and had the ability to browse web pages (yuck!)

A few hours ago, I happened to check on Banshee once again. I played a track, and suddenly noticed last.fm recommendations popping up on the bottom of the screen! Could it be true? Had Banshee finally started to recognise my proxy settings? I scrambled to the Radio section, and added Dubai’s City 101.6 to its list (the URL, in case you need it is: mms://adams.wm-live.abacast.com/arabian_radio-city-64) and hit the play button. Then I noticed the words Contacting…. Bufferring (Whoopie!) and then finally, I heard playback! So it seems that the people at Banshee have finally fixed this bug, and have reinstated Banshee as my favourite music player. Here’s what music players should and should not look like:

Official Registered Linux User!

Yep! I’ve registered myself as a Linux user. What do I get out of it? Well, nothing, actually; but it’s fun and offcial looking. So why not? You can do it, too. Even if you’re not a Linux user (Sadly, this ancient website implements no OS detection). So go ahead and do it at http://counter.li.org/. You’ll get a cool registration badge.

Stefano Forenza, Again!

Well, this section is just a reminder about this new blog I discovered. It’s a tech-blog, mostly dealing with linux-related (particularly, Ubuntu-related) topics. Here’s the link: http://www.stefanoforenza.com/

A quick post about Mozilla’s name for its web-apps project called Prism. To be released as Web runner, Prism creates application-like environments out of traditional web-based services like gmail, google talk, facebook and twitter. People have traditionally used browsers for viewing web pages, and dedicated email clients, chat clients, news-feed aggregators for specialized tasks. Since the home user has seen a paradigm shift from these to web-based services, Mozilla decided to separate browsing from checking email, chatting and posting  facebook wall entries. Prism will create standalone applications that you can launch from your desktop, use solely for the purposes they are intended for, and then close them. In a way, all they’ve done is created little launchers that open up hyperlinks in a firefox window, but don’t allow any out of course web-navigation. Kind of cool if you think that the traditional way feels more satisfying. Not kind of cool if you realize what they’ve really done in essence: Strip off a browser of some clothes and shove a rod up its behind. This is still a labs project. You can find out more about it at http://labs.mozilla.com/2007/10/prism/ (By the way, this page is horribly designed. Somebody teach the Mozilla people how to use CSSs. They’ve been making too many browsers).

Here are the ratings for some movies I have recently watched. Believe me, these ratings do matter. They are non-numerical. You may assign them your own ratings based on my comments.

• Dostana: Funny, Funny, Funny! Why was bollywood not able to produce a single good timepass flick so far? Amazing music, too!

   

  Munda munde naal paunda yaariyaan
  Sehra paan da noore aunda khwaab maa da ujad gaya
  Maa da laadla vigad gaya
  Maa da laadla vigad gaya
  

  
  Heer mili na isnu ye raanjhe utthe mar gaya
  Gora chitta mukhda dekho kala kar gaya
  

  Innu raas na aaiyaan zulfon da thandiya Chaawaan
  

  Munda saada doli chad gaya
  Band baj gaya, oye hoye hoye
  Munda saada doli chad gaya
  Band baj gaya, oye hoye hoye
  

   

• How to Lose Friends and Alienate People: Really funny. I loved it. I don’t care if you critics think it deviated from the memoir. Slapstick is not necessarily crap, uh, stick (?)
• A Wednesday: One of my two favorite Hindi movies; the other one being Andaz Apna Apna.
• Horton Hears a Who!: Good entertainment. Good animation.
  
• Dragon Hunters: Beautiful animation. Boring story.
  
• The Ruins: Another crappy horror movie. Need I say more?
  
• Golmaal Returns: Should not qualify for this article, since I came out of the hall after half an hour (Yes, I don’t download movies illegally. I watched all these movies on legal DVDs / in a movie hall).
  

Last week was weird. As a child, I never used to watch a James Bond movie because I was aware that it was a part of a huge series. Something deep inside reminded me that it wouldn’t be as good a deal as watching the entire series would be. There are always some basic subplots, storylines, in-jokes and characters that are repeated. Having just their torsos or limbs isn’t half as fun as having each and every organ, muscle, tissue and offal portion is. The first Bond I knew was Pierce Brosnan. His bond-movie titles always put me off. So I never bothered to watch them. However, when there was big news about the selection of a new Bond, and a brand new, better than ever Bond film, my curiosity about the series was stirred up. However, I couldn’t watch it, since the Get-it-all-or-get-none syndrome was still there. So while some people; who love invisible cars, remote controlled explosions, death-ray satellites and watch-lasers liked nothing about the film, others were raving about it for being the first Bond film with a plausible storyline and an unstupid plot. Yeah. I felt bad. I HAD NOT SEEN A SINGLE BOND FLICK! WHAT ON EARTH WAS I DOING?

The Bonds

Two years passed, and during that period I had forgotten about watching the adventures of Jimbo Bond. Two weeks ago, my friend Rohan, who is a car-freak, was all excited about the release of Quantum of Solace. Here’s what he said to me:

Rohan: Parry, Quantum of Solace on 7^th November

Me: Uhhhh, What’s that?

Rohan: (GASP!) The NEW BOND FLICK!!!!

Me: Uh huh. I haven’t seen any of them.

Rohan: Not even Casino Royale?

Me: Not even Casino Royale.

Rohan: GASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSP!!!!

Me: (Crap! I haven’t even seen Casino Royale!)

So I decided not to live in a world of shame and ignominy anymore. If James Bond is calling, his call shall be duly answered.

Cut to the Thursday before the last one. I legally get DVDs of all the Bond movies. I count. There are 21. I can easily watch all of them before the 7^th of November, I say to myself. However, I find myself factoring in a few more details:

There shall be quizzes in between.

There shall be tests in between.

There shall be project reports in between.

In short, there shall be a loss of continuity. I decide to act upon Plan B. Plan B simply instructs me to watch all Bond movies as fast as I can.

Thursday: I start sequentially with Dr. No; starring Sean Connery. Oh yes, one more thing: I start at 2 AM.

I sleep at 4:30 AM

Friday: I go to the weekend trip, so there is no Bond.

Saturday: I start with From Russia with Love at 12 AM. I watch another one and sleep at 5 AM.

Sunday: I return after my lecture and start a bond film. An hour later I return for the next lecture, with the movie paused on a frame of James Bond looking at Ms. Moneypenny in a very suggestive manner. I return and continue the saga. I break for my jog at 6 and dinner at 7. Bond resumes. I watch 3 bond films that day.

Monday: 3.5 Bond films. It’s a day similar to Sunday.

Tuesday: I’m falling into a routine now. I manage to watch 4 Bond films.

Wednesday: Another 3.5 bond films.

Thursday: 3 Bond films are over by 23:30. Just one more to go! Casino Royale ends at 1:58 AM, and I am overjoyed. I research on Bond at Wikipedia and sleep at 5.

Friday
to
Sunday: I get no sleep at night.

Anyhow, Plan B succeeds. By far, I like Casino Royale the most, and Daniel Craig is my favorite Bond. I legally get some Bond music and declare myself to be an Authority on James Bond.

Please Remember That!

On the part where I tell you about how I restore my circadian rhythm…. I’ll let you know in a later post!

So if you have any queries regarding James Bond, you know whom to approach.

Regards

~~~~

Hi! This is a tryout post directly from Microsoft Word 2007. It’s got a nifty feature called New Blog Post, using which, you can publish posts directly to blog services like Windows Live, Blogger, WordPress and Typepad.

Text’s fine. Let’s check out the images:

I have even added a reflective picture style to the above screen-grab, in addition to a rotation effect. That’s enough for now.

Here’s a table:

Now Let’s see whether it comes up fine on Wordrpress. Do tell me if you found this article useful.