fragility

I’ve been using Ubuntu Hardy Heron since I got my new laptop (ended up getting a refund for the CR-21 and got a CR-31) but when I tried to start Firefox 3 it complained that the majority of my extensions weren’t FF3 compatible. I didn’t really had the time to investigate the issue so I installed Firefox 2 (which is still available on Hardy’s repositories) and kept using it. However, I’ve been reading so many blog posts and tweets on how Firefox 3 is blazingly fast that I had to try it. And it is. It’s stupidly fast. I can’t even believe this is really Firefox. As for memory consumption, it’s too early to tell (I’ve only been using it for a few hours now) but so far seems better.

By the way, regarding the new laptop, I’m keeping a wiki page about it which I’ll be updating with more details later.

So, after searching for a while I found out that some of the extensions I use have beta versions which are already compatible with FF3, so I decided to give them a try. Here’s the list of extensions which are not FF3 compatible and how I managed to install them or the alternatives I’m using.

Adblock
Not compatible with FF3 but it seems kind of unmaintained anyway, so I installed AdBlockPlus instead (which seems like what everyone’s been using for some time anyway).

del.icio.us Bookmarks
According to this discussion the extension is ready but it only works over the next delicious version which has not yet been released to the public. I’ll be following the news on the delicious blog closely.

I ended up using a hack which bypasses the check for extension compatibility, but if this turns out to cause any instability I’ll use the bookmarklet.

Firebug
Had to install 1.1 beta from http://getfirebug.com/releases/.

FireFTP
Had to install the latest preview from http://fireftp.mozdev.org/developers.html.

FireGPG
Had to install the latest svn. More info on http://firegpg.tuxfamily.org/?page=install&lang=en.

Gmail Manager
Supposedly there’s a FF3 compatible version on this discussion thread but this is probably just a hacked version of the regular extension and FF3 crashes on start. This is a handy extension but I don’t consider it essential so I don’t really mind not having it around for a while.

Google Gears
Doesn’t seem to be compatible with Firefox 3 yet, but I don’t really use it much these days. Maybe I’ll drop it for now. The hack I talked about before lets the extension load but I prefer to disable it for now to avoid any issues.

Google Toolbar
Doesn’t seem to work either but I only used it to check on the Pagerank so I guess I’ll drop it too.

TinyURL Creator
No compatible version available, but works with the compatibility bypass. There’s also an alternative bookmarklet.

User Agent Switcher and Web Developer
Apparently, the developer of these two extensions refused to release Firefox 3 compatible versions until the Firefox 3 final version is out, but the Firefox developers are asking for add-on creators to update their add-ons to check for any issues so the creator says he’ll be releasing a test version soon. I just hope he hurries because this is has always been one of my favorite extensions and I’m sure lots of webdevelopers rely on this extension as a part of their work. Oh and these two don’t load even with the compatibility bypass.

Gmail
Something i’ve learned over my internet years was not to trust your e-mail to your ISP’s, specially in Portugal. The competition made me change my ISP and will probably make me change again. And sometimes, those e-mail services were not really good anyway. So the best thing is to use an e-mail service which will stay the same regardless of your home connection ISP. The best solution would be to have some really nice hosting at some really nice company, but since i currently can’t afford to spend that much on webhosting i have to use something else (my current webhosting is…well, not quite stable, but at least it’s free :D). So among the existent free e-mail services i believe gmail is the best. It’s stable, it has lots of storage space, it’s web interface is great, and the spam filter is awesome. I couldn’t ask for much more from a free service.

del.icio.us
I explained the reasons for using this one in a previous article.

Google Personalized Homepage
This one is a nice complement to del.icio.us. Why ? Although del.icio.us is a greta bookmarking service, you’re surely going to have A LOT of bookmarks. So when i want to access my main bookmarks (like the websites i’m listing here on this article), it’s nice to have a easier way to do it, and the bookmarks widget on the google personalized homepage it’s a nice way to do that. Also, i love that flickr nugget widget :)

Bloglines
Bloglines is my main feed reader. I’ve tried Liferea (before bloglines), and Google Reader (right when it appeared, and also later when it’s features improved), and also took a look at NetVibes and some others and i always came back to Bloglines. The advantages of an online feed reader are evident. Why i keep coming back to Bloglines ? Probably because i’m already too used to it, and don’t really see any advantages in changing to any of the others. And they manage to churn out some nice new features once in a while.

Destakes
This one is a nice portuguese feed provider, specially for last century websites like Disco Digital. I don’t really visit it, just use the feed services.

Flickr
I don’t have a camera, so i just like to view some pics once in a while. And the account is currently just to keep track of my favorites (man i really need to get a camera).

Twitter
I don’t really know why i use it. Honestly. It’s kinda fun, and at the same time it’s not. Maybe i’ll get tired of it sooner or later, maybe i won’t.
I got tired of it and deleted my account since i wrote the first draft of this article.

Last.fm
Last.fm is great. You can keep track of your listening habits, you can find lots of great music that you really like, you can keep track of shows in your area, and if you’re really into the social stuff it’s great to find people which listen to the same stuff as you do and share even more suggestions about artists and songs. It has it’s occasional hiccups, but it mostly works fine. And the integration with amaroK it’s just great.

Hi5
Well, i only really use this because almost everyone who uses this kind of services here in Portugal uses it. I don’t really go around “meeting new people” (maybe search for some friend of a friend), and it’s a nice way to keep track of most of my friends and what they’re up to (personally known and online ones). About the service itself, i can only say it’s a steaming pile of crap, but it’s been improving over time. It’s nothing more than a clone of other services of the same kind. It started out as a pure orkut clone, but it’s been assimilating features from myspace, and althought i never user facebook, according to something i read recently about facebook, looks like they’ve been assimilating features from it as well.

Myspace
No, i’m not really a social whore. Like i used to write on the about section when i started using it: “I’m just here for the music”. Myspace is the preferred way by underground bands to show their work (most of them don’t have a “webdesigner friend” or can’t afford a website), and it’s also a nice way to keep track of concerts and updates on their work. With time, “big artists” also started using it and they also release updates. Since i usually attend some “underground” music shows, this is THE way to stay updated about those.