Why CSS Float is Sometimes Unpredictable
Submitted on July 12th, 2007 by admin
Filed under Browsers
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In tweaking things around here in TipMonkies land, I have been ironing out some odd css float issues.
One of the issues I never realized is that floating a div without a set width can have unpredictable results. Just setting a width will correct most of the float issues. Firefox, not surprisingly, renders css float more intutitively; however, setting the width will insure that your pages render correctly across all browser platforms.
Now many of you may call BS and say that you float things without widths all the time. This is because float without a set width will work correctly if you are floating an image–which is its most common usage. Browsers realize that an image has a width and renders as one expects. However, a div full of text (or js script output) can be rendered many different ways. Setting the width in this case will allow rendering to be uniform and predictable.
Web based “Writer” to help you focus
Submitted on May 10th, 2007 by admin
Filed under Productivity and Browsers and Blogging and Software
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First off, I have to say its nice to post again after a long time away. I hope Martin and I can get this going again because I really enjoyed the site. In the time that we have been away I have become very interested in “lifehacking.” I’m into David Allen’s Getting Things Done, and other ways to live smarter. I hope to post quite a bit about that. In that vein is what I’m going to mention here. It is called “Writer” and it is a neat Web 2.0 app. Basically a while back there was a program that someone made for OSX called Darkroom, and this is a web based (and therefore cross-platform) clone.
The program gives you a very simple interface to write. In the default mode there is a black background with green text. It lets you save things and edit them later, but thats about it for features. The feature is the lack of distraction. When I was doing some stuff for school this past semester I found it very useful, because I have a terrible tendency to get involved in something else. Check it out: Writer
Get Firefox to speed dial webpages
Submitted on May 8th, 2007 by admin
Filed under Productivity and Browsers and Software
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Firefox is an extremely popular browser, and while the download itself comes with no extra features, one of my favorite things about the browser is how many extensions are available which can add all sorts of functionality to do almost anything you want. Extension creators sometimes copy functionality available in the Opera (see BitTorrent, built-in RSS feeds, widgets, etc.) browser and add it to Firefox. One of the newest additions is the Firefox Speed Dial extension which displays screenshots of nine different webpages providing quick and easy access to any of them. While you can’t rearrange the pages’ order, it could be a worthwhile addition to those of you who do a heavy amount of web browsing.
[Via Download Squad]
9 Reasons Not to Upgrade Firefox
Submitted on October 30th, 2006 by admin
Filed under Browsers and Security
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The Mozilla Foundation recently released the latest version of its Firefox browser to many praises, but is version 2.0 as great as everyone seems to think? I came upon 9 reasons not to upgrade Firefox over the weekend, which offers some interesting points as to why you may be better off waiting for 3.0. While I don’t necessarily agree with everything in the article, there are some good points made.
Give Safari search as you type functionality w/ Inquisitor
Submitted on October 29th, 2006 by admin
Filed under Productivity and Browsers and The Mac Side and Services
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Inquisitor is a superb Mac application which integrates into the Safari browser. If you’re an OS X user, chances are you know about Spotlight, the search as you type search system. Inquisitor works in much the same way but in your browser, so that as you type search queries into the Safari search box, you get possible results popping up immediately. While previous versions had to be bought, the latest version is completely free.
If you’d like to see how it works, or if you’d like to play with it and don’t have a Mac, then why not try Inquisitor Beta, a web-based version of the application which search through Google, A9, Amazon, and other popular search engines. Like it’s Safari-only brother, the web-based version is also free.
[Via Digg]
Manage Firefox tabs with Showcase
Submitted on October 29th, 2006 by admin
Filed under Productivity and Browsers and Software
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Showcase is one of those Firefox extensions which aren’t essential, but which add a little bit of eye candy and make the browser just a little bit more useful. If you have browsing habits like mine, then chances are that you keep at least 5, sometimes 10-20+, tabs open at once. Managing such a large number of tabs can be a little daunting, but not with Showcase.
Showcase shows you thumbnail images of all open tabs. If you want to switch to a particular tab, just click on its thumbnail and you’re taken there, or you can select multiple tabs by holding CTRL on your keyboard and selecting those tabs. Showcase can show tabs in a tab, a new window, or in the Firefox sidebar. The extension is free and open-source and should work all Firefox version up to 2.0.
Monitor downed sites with L8ter
Submitted on October 29th, 2006 by admin
Filed under Productivity and Bookmarking and Browsers and Resources and Services and Networking
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As your site grows in popularity you are bound to face some downtime with your site, particularly if you end up getting dugg or slashdotted. Once your site reaches its bandwidth limit, users will start seeing error messages and may end up forgetting about your site and not coming now. There is a new service cleverly called L8ter which should help out. If you find a site that’s down, but that you’d like to come back to, simply head over to L8ter and enter the link of the site as well as your e-mail address. L8ter will then query the site until it comes back up, then inform you, via e-mail so you can go back to it and check it out. Additionally, L8ter offers a Firefox extension called Monitor with L8ter, so you can monitor a site right from your browser. Like all great things, it’s 100% free.
Get rid of ads in Safari
Submitted on October 29th, 2006 by admin
Filed under Browsers and The Mac Side and Security
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If you’re a Safari user, and want to get rid of website ads, then here’s a simple hack using a stylesheet.
[From Sam Critchlow Blog, via Digg]
Drag tabs between browsers on a Mac
Submitted on October 28th, 2006 by admin
Filed under Browsers and The Mac Side
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Did you know you can drag web pages between tabs on a Mac? Yes, even between screens! Here’s how:
If you ever have a page open in one browser and want to open it in another browser, simply drag the URL (grabbing the favicon to the left of the URL is the easiest way) to an open spot in the tab bar (the tab bar needs to be visible to do this). If you want to overwrite another tab’s page, drag it onto that tab. (You can also use this to duplicate tabs in the same browser.)
Dragging into Camino’s toolbar is the same as Safari. Shiira always makes a new tab, no matter where you drag the URL. Firefox, Opera, and OmniWeb both behave the same as Safari and Camino.”
[Via MacOSX Hints]
Browse Google videos from your mobile phone
Submitted on October 28th, 2006 by admin
Filed under Browsers and Portables and Services and Video
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Maybe you’re on the road a lot, or you’re bored at work and you’d like to watch some videos, but have no access to a computer. What do you do? You could always flip open your mobile phone and try to search for some videos online, but some sites don’t support phone browsers, or are too cumbersome to browse from a phone. Fortunately, there’s a cool new web app which lets you search through Google Video. Simply type http://srobbin.com/mobilevideo into your phone’s browser, and search away. There are a couple of catches though. You do need to have an unlimited data plan (unless you want to pay the huge bill), your phone’s browser must support XHTML (try Opera Mini, FREE), your phone must have enough storage to download the videos, and your phone must be able to play AVI or MP4 videos. If all these apply to you, you’re in for a nice and easy experience.
[Via Download Squad]
