Tag Archives: Mozilla

Empty ‘em v0.76 Available on GitHub

I am making version 0.76 of Empty ‘em – my Thunderbird add-on – available on GitHub at:

https://github.com/downloads/asolkar/emptyem/emptyem-0.76.xpi

Only change in this version is that maxVersion of Thunderbird is bumped to 3.3a* – so it installs on latest nightly builds from the comm-central branch.

I am not updating the add-on on the addons.mozilla.org (AMO) since it does not allow maxVersion to be 3.3a*. Which means that I will have to update the add-on on AMO for every alpha release. I’d rather release it now for all alphas, later for all betas and eventually for the final release of Thunderbird 3.3.

I’ve been using Empty ‘em on 3.3a* versions of Thunderbird for a while now. It seems to be working fine. Then again, I’ve only tested it with Gmail(IMAP) and MS Exchange (IMAP) accounts.

Empty ‘em 0.76 in Thunderbird 3.3a (Shredder)

Take it for a spin and let me know of any issues on the Empty ‘em Support Group.

Your old Firefox Sync key is no good!

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After a recent upgrade of Minefield (nightly trunk version of Mozilla Firefox) my Sync was completely broken. All I got was the following error message when I started Minefield:

Wrong Sync Key error

One installation of Firefox kept working fine for me, all the others failed to sync after that particular update.

It turns out, the old Sync Key we all cherry picked is no good. A Minefield update probably changed my key to a longer, harder-to-remember key – I must say without any indication/notification. I reckon harder-to-remember also means harder-to-guess, so its a good thing for the security of my data in the cloud. However, on the flip side, I will need to print the key and keep it is some safe place – there’s no way I am going to remember that one! Or even better, I’ll put it in my Passpack.

Once I figured that the Wrong Sync Key error was not because of broken Minefield, but because Minefield indeed changed my key, I could quickly bring all the other installations of Firefox in sync again.

All that needs to be done is, grab your new key like so:

Open Minefield (or Firefox) button → Options → Options (Which is Minefield (or Firefox) button → Preferences → Preferences in Linux).
Go to the Sync tab
Expand the Manage Account group
Click on the My Sync Key item
Copy/Print/Write down/Passpack your Sync Key displayed in the dialog that shows up

Then in the installation of Firefox where you get the Wrong Sync Key error, update the Sync Key with the new key. This pretty much involves resetting Sync information and setting it up anew, like so:

Open Minefield (or Firefox) button → Options → Options (Which is Minefield (or Firefox) button → Preferences → Preferences in Linux).
Go to the Sync tab
Expand the Manage Account group
Click on the Stop Using This Account item
Select Reset All Information in the dialog that shows up.
Now setup Sync afresh in the Sync Preferences – using the new Sync Key

I hope when this changes makes into the Beta, there will be a proper notification and process to upgrade the keys in all Firefox installation. Until then, hope this helps…

Personas built into Firefox 3.6?!

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So Firefox 3.6 was released recently, it has some nice features.

In the list, there’s one feature addition that bothers me – default support for Personas. This is not exactly a new feature, it has been around as a Mozilla Labs project.

I usually stick with the default theme of any application I use. It is the one that developers have put most effort in. But just for kicks, I have tried out Personas in the past. Each time, it did not last more than a few hours before I uninstalled it.

In my opinion, Personas – no matter how popular, or highly rated they are – mess up the readability of Firefox window. I am sure it is a great distraction for people who spend most of their time playing with themes. But isn’t that why there are extensions/add-ons? If someone is so inclined, install the Personas add-on and you are all set to hurt your eyes!

Here, you be the judge:

Firefox with one of the popular personas

Firefox with one of the popular Persona themes, hurts my eyes! (click to enlarge)

That is Firefox with one of the more popular Personas. And here is Firefox with it’s default theme:

Firefox with its default theme is much more readable… (click to enlarge)

Not sure about you, but I’d stick with the default theme.

But hey! no one is grabbing me by the collar and forcing me to use Personas. So it’s all good.

Only thing I am curious about is the thinking behind picking the Personas Labs project to be integrated into Firefox. Why not Prizm? Or Weave, that would be awesome! Or Ubiquity perhaps. All these add value to Firefox too. May be they all have the merit, but are not mature enough?

I hope Personas was not picked because Google Chrome has a developing themes ecosystem… (and bunch of folks claiming ‘Oh! look how cool my Chrome looks’).

Granted that Personas is still a work in progress (it does not theme buttons and icons, like actual themes do), and that it is a better way to implement themes. But in the end, I still maintain that Personas was great as an add-on, and it should have stayed that way.

With rants and opinions out of the way, what is your favorite Firefox 3.6 feature?

Firefox 3.5 Released! Moving on…

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As you probably know from tons of different sources, Firefox 3.5 was released yesterday. For all the new features and security updates, I would highly recommend you to update to the latest release, if you already use an older version of Firefox. If you don’t use Firefox, this is as good as any other time to try it. So go grab a copy…

Upgrade the Web – Firefox 3.5 is released!

Like many of the past Firefox releases, I used this release (code named Shiretoko) from its pre-alpha stages. It has developed into a solid release.

Now that this release is out, there will be many users to use it and report bugs. For me, it is time to grab the latest nightly builds and start using them. Hopefully file some bugs to help with testing.

Plans for the next version of Firefox – called the Firefox.next – are already in the making.

Congratulations to the Firefox developers on yet another great release. Now back to work on the next one…

Using non-Mozilla server for Weave

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If you use Weave, you’ve probably noticed that Mozilla servers are currently overloaded. Accounts are not working. My account authenticates (If I access

https://services.mozilla.com/user/<user_name>/

it asks for and accepts my credentials), but I get a “Not Found” 404 error. The accounts that do work, are very slow.

Like always, I went forumming, trying to get to the bottom of this trouble. I came across some helpful posts at the Weave forums. Posts from covidium and netoak are especially useful. This post is just a compilation of steps I followed to get my Weave working again.

Get a WebDAV host
I guess there are only a handful of these, that are free. I tried to find one in the US, but couldn’t. I just used the one that covidium suggested. I opened a free account at myDisk.se.

Create directory structure
Weave expects the files to be in a specific directory structure. If you have myserver.com as your server, it will look for

myserver.com/user/user_name

To cater to this, I created a directory called user, then inside it, I created one called user_name.

In retrospect, I should have instead made

weave/user/user_name

directory structure. That would keep everything Weave together.

Set Weave’s Server Settings
Open Weave’s Server Settings (Tools -> Weave -> Preferences…) and then go to the Advanced tab. Replace the default Server Location with

https://mydisk.se/user_name/

mydisk makes my files available at https://mydisk.se/user_name/, other hosts may use some other path.

If I had used

weave/user/user_name

directory structure, I would set the Server Location to

https://mydisk.se/user_name/weave/

Try Weave again
In Weave preferences’ Advanced tab, click on the Advanced… button. Click on Reset Login and Reset Server Lock buttons. I did not think it would be required, but I had to quit Firefox and restart it.

Now, sign in to Weave again (Tools -> Weave -> Sign In). Follow the setup wizard as if you are opening a new account. Use username and password from your WebDAV server. Pick a strong passphrase.

At this point, you should be all set.

Do leave feedback to point out errors in the above process, so other readers can benefit too.

My current web host does not provide WebDAV. From what I read, DreamHost does. I wonder if Weave users who have DreamHost accounts already host their own Weave servers.

Set a world record on June 17th…

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Its official, Firefox 3.0 will be released on June 17^th, 2008.

Join more than a million others by pledging to download Firefox 3.0 on the day of release. Celebrate the Download Day by setting a world record. Click on the image below: