conormulligan.com / blog

By default, Firefox 3 now blocks Javascript code from hiding the browser navigation bar. The idea behind this is simply to stop malicious popups from emulating a native OS window.

But, for advances users well aware of what constitutes a malicious popup and what it looks like, the ever-present navigation bar can be distracting. Fortunately, you can disabled it by altering a setting in about:config.

1. Type about:config into the navigation bar and press Enter (ignore the warning).
2. Type dom.disable_window_open_feature.location into the filter textbox. A single entry should remain.
3. Change the value field to false.

You can now close the about:config window; popups can now hide the navigation bar like in previous versions of Firefox. To restore the default setting, simply change the value back to true.

This Tuesday, the 17th of June, Firefox 3 will finally come out of beta. Just so you know.

I moved to using Firefox 3 nightlies as my primary web-browser a few months ago, a move that was painful not because of the volatile nature of pre-release software, but because of the patchy support for the Minefield builds amongst the most popular Firefox plugins. Slowly but surely, I got all my essential add-ons functional with the glaring exception of the Del.icio.us plugin. I eventually resorted to using an-invasive add-on (Shareaholic) just to have access to simple Del.icio.us functionality.

Well, my worries are finally over, as today Yahoo! released a Firefox 3-friendly Del.icio.us plugin.

The first thing I noticed when I installed the update was how all-encompassing it is; by default it adds:

• 3 navigation-bar buttons
• 3 status-bar icons
• A toolbar
• A sidebar
• A main-menu entry
• An options-menu entry
• Integration with the location-bar bookmark icon
• An ‘imported’ column in the bookmarks library
• And possibly more to be discovered

It sounds a bit much at first, especially when you take into account the massive overlap of functionality between all UI additions, but it is immensely customisable so you can get rid of as much or little of the fluff as you like. If, like me, you’re bookmarking needs are relatively simple you’ll likely get rid of everything barring the navigation-bar buttons.

Anyway, you can download the extension here; as always be careful as this is still technically beta software.

Two fine updates have been launched today; Ubuntu 8.04 ‘Hardy Heron’, and AVG Anti-Virus 8.0.

Ubuntu 8.04 is the latest LTS (long-term support) distribution, which is designed to appeal primarily to Enterprise users. There’s no shortage of new features, however:

• Virtualization built into the kernel
• Firefox 3 is the default web browser
• Updated Linux kernel
• Windows installer (Wubi)
• New version of Gnome
• New BitTorrent Client
• New VNC client
• Long-term support (5 years vs. the regular 18 months)

I’ve been using the pre-release version of this for a while now, and it’s a solid release. But the real update to look out for is 8.10, which promises a raft of significant new features, and a completely overhauled interface (the current Human theme is getting a bit old; hopefully the don’t go overboard on the brown this time, there’s only so much you can take).

AVG 8.0 is a really nice update, both functionally and visually (AVG had a pretty terrible interface before; now, I’ll go ahead and say that 8.0 is the best looking Anti-Virus software on Windows Vista today).

There’s a table over at grisoft.com that highlights the differences between the various editions (AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition, AVG Anti-Virus, AVG Internet Security). You can check it out here.

Wordpress 2.5 has come out of Release Candidate testing and is now available for general consumption. The biggest feature of the release is a completely overhauled Administration interface.

I had a change to play around with the release candidate and the new interface is certainly a step in the right direction; I especially like the new colour scheme. Also, the media manager has been cleaned up quite a bit, and tinyMCE seems quite a bit faster.