Alexander’s Blog

Since Google has acquired YouTube, Microsoft plans to counter it’s rival by launching it’s own video site called Soapbox, which is currently in it’s beta. Soapbox will allow Vloggers to upload videos in various formats, assign categories and share them with others, just like YouTube.

As some wise-guy philosopher once said, it’s best not to make predictions, especially about the future. Microsoft is not predicting Soapbox’s success so only time will tell whether it will give YouTube a run for the money or not.

You can refresh the homepage to view a different video.

If you have upgraded your Firefox then you may have run into this situation where you try to install an add-on, plugin, theme, or an extension to Firefox but get this error message:

“Software installation is currently disabled. Click Edit Options… to enable it and try again.”

No matter what you do to Firefox configuration under Tools -> Options, you will not be able to install the software. I ran into this problem recently when I tried to add some cool add-ons to my browser. I was able to find the answer on mozillazine.com.

In Firefox 1.0.x the option to allow Web sites to install software is found under “Tools -> Options -> Web Features -> Allow Web sites to install software”. Starting in Firefox 1.5 the option has been removed from the user interface (UI). The software installation option must be enabled to allow installation of themes, extensions and certain plugins that use the XPInstall method.

If you click a Web site’s “Install” link and you see a message bar that says “Software installation is currently disabled. Click Edit Options… to enable it and try again.”, here’s what you need to do.

Firefox 1.0.x: Click the “Edit Options” button to open the Web Features preferences panel, place a checkmark in front of “Allow Web sites to install software” and try again.

Firefox 1.5: If you previously disabled this option and then updated to Firefox 1.5, the disabled setting will be carried over. Since the option to enable software installation no longer exists in the UI, you will need to use about:config to reset the “xpinstall.enabled” preference to the default “true” value. These step-by-step instructions should fix the problem:

1. Type about:config in the Location Bar and press enter.
2. Type xpi in the Filter box and then locate xpinstall.enabled in the list.
3. Double-click to toggle the value from “false” to true”.

Once you have made the change, you should be able to install software. You don’t even need to restart the browser. For a list of Firefox extensions, click here.
More info…

If you are using the Internet Explorer 7.0 beta, you might want to take advantage of these add-ons from Microsoft to help personalize the way you use the Internet. According to Microsoft, these add-ons have been carefully screened by then and rated by users to help you select the ones that suit your needs and preferences.

Internet Explorer has several new features. It provides improved navigation through tabbed browsing, Web search right from the toolbar, advanced printing, easy discovery, reading and subscription to RSS feeds, and much more.

Internet Explorer 7 provides security through a new architecture, security features that help defend against malicious software (also known as malware), and new ways to better protect against the theft of personal data from fraudulent Web sites, a practice known as phishing. In addition, Internet Explorer 7 also includes improved support for cascading style sheets, a rich RSS feeds platform, and tools for deploying and managing Internet Explorer 7 in large enterprise environments. More info…

For those of us who use Mozilla’s Firefox as their default browser but are forced to use Internet Explorer (IE) occasionally, the IE Extension Tab is a pretty useful add-on.

Although this is a great tool for anyone who prefers Firefox as his/her default browser, it is especially great for Web developers because it allows them to see how their Web page is displayed in IE while they are in Firefox. Among other things, it will also allow you to manage Virtual Server 2005 in Firefox, which isn’t normally possible and you will be able to run Windows Update in Firefox.

This extension is derived from the famous extension IE View, but is not the same. While IE View always open IE-only pages in a separate Internet Explorer window, IE Tab can view them in a Mozilla/Firefox tab. Here are some of the features in the new version 1.0.9.

1. Support XP theme for form controls under Windows XP.
2. Supress annoying script errors.
3. Support saved passwords of IE.
4. Fix Shift+Delete (hotkey for cut)
5. Support IE windows with fixed size.
6. Support built-in popup blocker of Windows xp SP2
7. Support RegExp on Filterlist (use /YourRegExp/, prefix and postfix use “/”)
8. Build-in Stop-or-Reload (hidden pref, set “ietab.stop-or-reload” = true)
9. When right-click on icon to add a new URL, only picked up its domain.
10. Some minor bugs fixed.

Known Issues:

1. IE’s ActiveX enable/disable settings do NOT work
2. All popup windows open in a new IE Tab
3. Navigation history list does NOT work
4. SSL icon does NOT work
5. Site’s favicon does NOT work

More info…

Microsoft is providing a new Clear Cache Feature for Internet Explorer that allows you to clear all Internet Explorer caches. This Internet Explorer add-on serves the same purpose as some other freeware or shareware products, such as ForgetIt.

Clear Cache can be downloaded from Microsoft at no charge here.