Mozilla

Some stuff about Mozilla (Mozilla as in Mozilla, not only Firefox):

It is highly standards compliant, supporting many standards from bodies such as the W3C, IETF, and ECMA.

Mozilla is built on a very big source code base and is far larger than most Open Source projects. It is 30 times larger than the Apache Web Server, 20 times larger than the Java 1.0 JDK/JRE sources, 5 times bigger than the standard Perl distribution, twice as big as the Linux kernel source, and nearly as large as the whole GNOME 2.0 desktop source—even when 150 standard GNOME applications are included.

As a result of the browser wars in the late 1990s, the platform has been heavily tested and is highly optimized and very portable. Not only have hundreds of Netscape employees and thousands of volunteers worked on it, but millions of end users who have adopted Mozilla-based products have scrutinized it as well.

-- Rapid Application Development with Mozilla, Nigel McFarlane (2003)


Also, a thing or two about Firefox add-ons development:

Useful tools:
Extension Developer
DOM inspector
XPCOM Viewer

Useful Websites:
Mozilla Developer Network (MDN)
Mozilla Cross-Reference

Jetpack: ready for takeoff

Mozilla Labs has released Jetpack, an API (add-on) for allowing the community to write Firefox add-ons using common web technologies.

Currently, Jetpack is still experimental and shares some similarities with Ubiquity, although both projects have different aims.

Mozilla Labs Jetpack - Intro & Tutorial from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Firefox 3 - 17 June 08

I received this email today:

Dear Add-on Developer,

Firefox 3 will be released June 17th. If you have a Firefox 3 compatible version of your add-on, we recommend you upload it to addons.mozilla.org at this time. If you are waiting until the final release day, we suggest to upload into the sandbox and nominate for addition once Firefox 3 has been released.

Full details of the final release can be found here:

http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/2008/06/11/coming-tuesday-june-17th-firefox-3/

Thank you for helping build one of the most amazing software releases in history.

Best Regards,

Firefox Product Team

With the release of Firefox 3 also comes the chance to set a new world record - a chance to prove the Firefox 3 is not only better but more popular than IE 7 or any other web browser in the history of the Internet.

Take back the web on 17th June!

Mozilla Add-ons T-Shirt

I was having lunch when the postman came with a "mysterious" bag meant for me. When I saw that the sender address indicated that the bag was from the UK, I wondered if it could be a friend from the UK. However, when I touched and felt the flimsiness of the content inside the bag... it suddenly occurred to me that it was Mozilla T-Shirt (for my work on making Fireclip compatible with Firefox 3b4)!

Wow. I never received news that Mozilla will be sending this t-shirt to me, so it came as a surprised. This t-shirt is definitely cool! Thanks to Mozilla! and thanks to all who helped on Fireclip!

Fireclip

This blog has been very quiet for almost a month. The primary reason is that I have been busy writing an extension called Fireclip for Firefox.


Fireclip is a nifty tool which allows you to clip out portions of webpages and reload them later to check for updates. The latest version is 0.2.1 and it is a stable release.

This blog post is a CFC (call for comments) or rather, call for reviews on Mozilla's Add-ons Page. Fireclip is currently labeled "experimental" and reviews are needed before it can go public. So, to all those out there, please get a Mozilla account and write a review here (on the right)! Thanks!

If you are interested in trying out Fireclip without registering an account, download fireclip-0.2.1.zip, extract the xpi file, and drag and drop it inside your Firefox browser.

More Resources:
- Official information
- Short video tutorial

Optimising Firefox

Some people may have noticed that Firefox uses a lot of memory.
Here are some tips:
1. Config.trim_on_minimize set to true. This allows Windows to reclaim memory when the program is minimized (a feature prominent in IE 7). This value may not be on by default in Firefox. You may need to go to about:config, right click to add new boolean, and set it to true.
2. Browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers set set to '0', i.e. 32 MB.
3. browser.cache.memory.capacity

With these optimizations, and disabling of unnecessary extensions (like 'DOM Inspector'), I managed to run Firefox under 45 MB with 5 Ajax-based websites opened in tabs. More tips on reducing memory usage here.

Recently, Yahoo launched an electronic Time Capsule. This was overshadowed by a bigger news - Google acquiring YouTube for 1.6 billion bucks. [This was close to the initial estimates and rumours that were flying all over the blogopshere before the deal was sealed.]

Its a classic Silicon Valley story. And indeed, those are very, very happy men.

In addition, Microsoft just set a new record by releasing patches for fixing 26 security holes. Wow! =p

Firefox 2.0 RC2

Firefox 2.0 RC 2 is just out, and its uber fast.
Some of the new stuff in Firefox 2.0 I really like:
- Better support for previewing and subscribing to Web feeds. (You can assign Firefox to add your feed automatically to your favourite feed reader like Google Reader.)
- Inline spell checking in Web forms. (This is damn useful when you are blogging. The word that is spelled wrongly is underlines in red, and you can right click on it to choose the correct word.) [see screenshot below]
- Support for JavaScript 1.7

Some tips:
- If you don't like the default theme in Firefox 2 RC 2 and your current theme is not compatible, I recommend Azerty III.
- Don't forget to update your extensions. (the auto update does not seem to be foolproof)
- The download link. Tell the world!

Technorati: Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Flaw is a Joke

Recently, 2 developers at the ToorCon hacking convention in San Diego claimed that there was "a previously known Firefox vulnerability that could result in a stack overflow ending up in remote code execution."

The duo called Mozilla's implementation of Javascript a "complete mess" and "impossible to patch," according to the article. The hackers reportedly claimed to have 30 more Firefox vulnerabilities that he intended to keep to themselves to set up "communication networks for black hats."

Unfortunately, its a case of jokers looking for quick fame. Maybe they could have been sued by Microsoft if they had played the same trick on IE. However, all these cannot distort the truth - the number of FireFox users continue to grow.

And of course, those two presenters have apologized. More comments by those involved can be found here.

The Book of Mozilla

And so at last the beast fell and the unbelievers rejoiced. But all was not lost, for from the ash rose a great bird. The bird gazed down upon the unbelievers and cast fire and thunder upon them. For the beast had been reborn with its strength renewed, and the followers of Mammon cowered in horror.

from The Book of Mozilla, 7:15

Type about:mozila into your Firefox address bar and you will get this "easter egg". Of course, Mammon refers to MS IE. For the interpretation of the above "holy text", please refer to Wikipedia.

Some other tricks in Firefox:
about:config, about:buildconfig, about:cache, about:plugins, about:credits, about:mozilla

Firefox Extension: Page Saver

For Firefox users, check out Pearl Cresent Page Saver. It lets you capture images of web pages (whole page or a portion only) in PNG format. It sure comes in handy sometimes, and take a look at the this image capture of HanWorks Research

Create a Firefox Ad

http://firefoxflicks.com/adcontest/brief.html

Check out Mozilla's latest effort in their campaign to become the premier web browser (as if it isn't the best already!). Create and ad for Firefox, and stand a chance to win!

Firefox Stability Problems - Have you seen them?

• Firefox's use of physical and virtual memory is exceptionally high.
• CPU usage spikes to 100 percent (usually while loading a Web page).
• The browser freezes up for seconds, minutes, or permanently.
• The browser won't launch until they remove an errant "firefox.exe" process in Task Manager.
• The browser crashes suddenly (usually while loading a Web page).
• The browser has trouble loading specific pages, but there's no commonality among users as to which pages won't load.
• The initial launch of Firefox loads slower.
• Third-party application hyperlinks (such as a link in an e-mail message) take a long time to open a new Firefox tab or to launch the browser.

More here

FireFox 1.5

We are EXTREMELY HAPPY... because FIREFOX 1.5 is here!!!

Its really cool... with support for CSS 3 and SVG and movable tabs for tab browsing. For themes, we recommend you try out the iFox theme... (mac style). In addition, you can now access www.mozilla.com instead of www.mozilla.org.

Finally, if you are viewing this blog in Internet Explorer, we can say with full confidence that you should make the switch today!

MathML in Firefox

I just found out that to view Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) properly in Firefox, you need to download the fonts.

As for IE 6, external plugins are needed to view MathML properly.

And if you want to check if your browser can support MathML, go to this test page.
For list of supported browsers, see this.

For not-so-apparent reasons, IE always seems to have problems following W3C's recommendations. I wonder if IE 7 will support XHTML 2.0 and MathML (unlikely, Microsoft will most likely leave it to external plugins to "demonstrate" the "flexibility" of IE).

I just looked at the IE blog.


If I ever get to install IE 7... the first thing I will do is to find a way to fix that MSN Search to Google Search.