Are you using Firefox? I presume you are. If not, discontinue reading this post. This post is for all those firefox worshippers out there, who have multiple Firefoxes running around the web. A sneak preview at the latest from the secret labs of Mozilla. We have our history, our preferences, our bookmarks, history, passwords and everything on one PC and then try to replicate the bookmarks again on our firefox on another PC. What do we do about the history. Imagine browsing last nite from home and then coming home and searching for that website you browsed the previous night. Here is your solution. Mozilla’s offical labs product, WEAVE.
Install WEAVE like you would install any other extension for firefox. I installed both at home and work. Then create a user ID, password and a passphrase(this encrypts your data..when it is backed up on the servers). Do the initial sync. Go to your second PC and login using the ID, password and the passphrase. Then, sync. Voila! you have all your bookmarks. It simply super cool, considering the project is still in advanced stages of beta. So, your data could be lost. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK! I took it because it was worth reconstructing to try out the project.
I did run into a few issues trying to work on the sync. It repeatedly refused to sync and the error log said failed to acquire a lock. Now, the solution to that would be to go to Weave preferences -> Advanced -> Debugging tools -> Advanced -> Reset Server lock. Another issue I faced that it took me several tries to login to the help forum for Weave. But once it syncs, its miraculous. I happened to have both the PCs open at the same time and my PC2 actually asked me whether I wanted to open the webpages which were open on PC1. Weave also plans to come up with more and more user interactivity with the webpages in its future releases.
Now I wouldn’t advise installing Weave if you are paranoid about losing your bookmarks, history and stuff. Otherwise, try it out. Available here.
Weave is the Mozilla labs prototype for online services – this is what the addon installation description says.
The release of thunderror.com coincides with the download day of firefox 3, the browser. So I decided that the first blog should be a review of this site. Mozilla has used clever marketing in packaging the downloads into a guiness world record. So, I decided to do my bit for the most downloads for a single software by downloading firefox 3 (7.15 MB windows installer) and installed it on my microsoft windows xp pc with an AMD athlon dual core processor running at 2.41 Ghz and 1GB of RAM. Decent specs for a browser test I presume.
I had already beta tested Firefox RC1 (release candidate 1) and found that there wasn’t much which has been changed. Firefox 3 of course being the final release is more polished and complete version of the earlier beta releases.
The major changes from its earlier versions (v3 betas excluded) would be the auto suggest address bar. The redesigned navigation buttons, new advanced phishing and malware protection, site identification features which lets you identify whether the site you trust is trustworthy…Improved(tiny tweaks actually) download & bookmark manager. There is even a shortcut to your most visited websites on your bookmarks toolbar.
Though I did not find anything radically different, still its a step in the evolution of a browser already so mature that it can handle anything that you throw at it. I have heard stories of firefox 3 crashing..but till date I haven’t come across that problem with any of firefox’s releases (and I started using firefox when it was called firebird) The auto suggest address bar is both a helpful as well as an irritating feature at times and if you do not like it. I suggest that you use this addon to remove it. The site identification and phishing features are good by being secure without being too intrusive when browsing. The password manager now popups on top of the website asking whether you wish to remember the name of the website without being too intrusive (again, this was a feature already available on flock) The download manager shows its status on the status bar, a very nifty feature. There are lot of other minor tweaks here and there as well which make browsing all the more comfortable. Site rendering and performance too has improved quite a lot…
On the whole, even though firefox 3 is not a giant step for browsers, It still is a step in the right direction and I surely would recommend firefox 3 to anybody out there on the web. Get your copy here.
