Firefox Add-ons

As I mentioned in the past (and not only once, I guess), I like to browse Firefox Add-ons page to look for new and useful extensions of this great web browser, and I give a special attention to the ones which address a problem of multiple languages, national characters etc., since BrainKing partially lives on it, regarding its 20 localizations (and I hope to increase this number in the future).

The extension I am writing about today is called Zombie Keys and it can be a very useful tool for everyone who needs to write non-ASCII characters (e.g. ä, õ, ¿, Ø) on an English only keyboard or a computer which does not support the particular language keyboard layout. Shortly set, this add-on implements Microsoft's Keyboard shortcuts for international characters (see http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/hfws.aspx?AssetID=HP051865621033), which means that it allows you to write any character with a help of a special combination of standard keys. Since I use an English keyboard almost everywhere, I find this tool very neat, especially when I have to include a non-English name to an English text, and don't want to make a complicated copy/paste from a Unicode character map.

Please visit the official home page for instructions or download and install it directly from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2335.

I think that every fan of Firefox web browser should check the official page of Firefox Add-ons and spend a couple of minutes there, at least four times a year, because nobody knows what interesting ideas can appear there as simple extensions to download and install and one could think "why didn't I use this neat tool a year ago?". Actually, I do it almost every week and even if no new add-on catches my attention, at least I get inspired for my own work - BrainKing Bookmarks add-on is a result of one of such browsing sessions.

I like when I can pass a boring action to machines which never get tired of a repetitive operation and I guess that one of the most annoying events to happen while browsing favorite web sites is when the particular site suddenly goes down (yes, BrainKing is not an exception). TryAgain is an elegant solution of this problem, because it does this "reload the page to check if the site is up" job automatically for you, so you can concentrate to another things until the desired site/page comes back to life. And it should work with Firefox 3 as well (at least Beta 5), which is good news too.

Download here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2462

BrainKing still lacks single player games which could be played against yourself or computer (except mctrivia's AI Ludo Player, of course). Actually, I want to solve this "issue" in my own way "soon" but it is too early to reveal any details.

Luckily, there are other solutions and one of them is made as a neat Firefox add-on with a simple and descriptive name Cards.

It is curious that the add-on is available since 2005 and I wasn't aware of it prior to this afternoon. I think the reason is that it never made it to the list of favorite extensions chosen by Mozilla team, although this fact is a mystery too. Anyway, this Firefox extension allows you to play a nice collection of popular single player card games directly in your web browser (Firefox), invoked by a simple Tools / Cards menu item click. It can be a pleasant way of relaxation, while you are waiting for your BrainKing opponents to make a move.

Download it from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1562 or visit the add-on page at http://cardgames.mozdev.org/.

By the way, if you start this tool for the first time and don't see any cards, just use your mouse to resize the game window.

Unfortunately the add-on not compatible with Firefox 3, although it would require only a simple change in one configuration file (of the extension package).

Speaking of Firefox 3, the Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1 version has been officially released. Many language localizations can be obtained here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-rc.html

BrainKing's bug tracking system was improved many times in the past and its current feature set makes the bug fixing process much easier due to the fact that it automatically provides important information, like the page when the problem occurs, user's web browser type and operating system, etc.

However, it is still not sufficient in some special cases, and it would be great if a screenshot of the problem page can be easily captured and attached to the bug as well. And that's the reason why I write about FireShot extension today.

It is a cool and easy to use Firefox add-on which allows you to make a screenshot of the current page by a simple click. But it's not all, of course. You can open the generated image in your favorite image editor and make some changes (write notes etc.), save it to your disk, upload to a web server for free, or email it just after capturing.

The last two options would be the right ones for enhancing a bug report - you can either provide a link to the uploaded screenshot image or email it directly to fencer@brainking.com. But I prefer the first choice.

And there is one more great functionality of this tool - you can capture either a visible part of a web page or the entire page at once, as a one long picture. Just have a look at the BrainKing home page screenshot which I have created a while ago. It is a perfect way to make outstanding presentations of your web site, without a need to capture a part of a page, then scroll down, capture another part, paste them together, capture another part, etc.

One last thing - I think this extension works on Microsoft Windows only, which is a bad news for Mac or Linux users. But hopefully this issue will be addressed in the future.

Where to get it: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5648

Or visit the FireShot home page: http://screenshot-program.com/fireshot/

I like when people post comments to my articles, mostly because it is a good feeling when someone really reads them, but it is also a good way to share own experiences or opinions with others. For instance, thanks to a comment to my previous entry about ImTranslator tool, I have tried another neat Firefox extension called gTranslate and I think that it could be the right choice for those who need a simple tool which makes just a translation work as quickly as possible.

Furthermore, gTranslate uses Google as a translation service, while ImTranslator takes advantage of PROMT and Altavista, so it might be interesting to try both of them and compare results.

Get it here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/918

And, in order not to make this entry about Firefox extensions only, I have added a small but useful improvement to BrainKing as well. We know that the information section of a game page contains a line with estimated changes of the player's BKR, depending on current BKR values of the player and the opponent, for all possible results of the game - win, loss or draw. However, it might be good to know this information even before a game invitation is sent, just to be sure that it is worth challenging the selected player. And that is what the New Game page shows now (after selecting a game type and just one possible opponent), below the Number of games option, and if you already have a visible BKR in this game type.

Sometimes I receive messages from non-English speaking users and since I don't speak all 20 supported languages, it is not easy to understand what the particular message is about. Bugging other people for a help with the translation is not always the best approach, so the importance of good translator tools becomes significant.

I have discovered this neat Firefox add-on today and found it very helpful and straightforward. The basic usage is really simple:

• Select a text on a web page.
• Right-click on the selection and choose "ImTranslator" option.
• Do whatever you need in the popup window that instantly appears.

That's what the product page says:
"With ImTranslator you can enter multilingual text, check it for correctness, adjust unreadable messages, translate in different languages, look up words, print results and send email."

Actually, Hyperwords can do the translation work too but for some reason I like the ImTranslator window a little more. It's a matter of taste. On the other hand and if I am not wrong, Hyperwords is available in English only and ImTranslator is localized to at least 6 languages, which is always a positive thing. However, what I really like is the virtual keyboard. It is no longer necessary to look for Windows's Character Map which is everything but user friendly - simply choose the target language and start typing with a mouse.

And yes, the link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2257

I have discovered this neat Firefox extension today and it has caught my attention because it reminds me of some BrainKing related "problems" (or requests for enhancements, more like). Anyway, let me copy the promotional text first:

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"If you love the Firefox web browser, but are tired of repetitive tasks like visiting the same sites every days, filling out forms, and remembering passwords, then iMacros for Firefox is the solution you’ve been dreaming of! iMacros was designed to automate the most repetitious tasks on the web. If there’s an activity you have to do repeatedly, just record it in iMacros. The next time you need to do it, the entire macro will run at the click of a button! With iMacros, you can quickly and easily fill out web forms, remember passwords, download information from other sites, scrape the Web (get data from multiple sites), and more. You can keep the macros on your computer for your own use, or share them with others by embedding them on your homepage, blog, company Intranet or any social bookmarking service. The uses are limited only by your imagination! Whatever you do with Firefox, iMacros can automate it."

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Nice, isn't it? And the BrainKing related problem is that I was requested to add a feature called automated greeting in game that would allow a user to set a message which would be automatically sent as the first message (in the particular game) to the opponent - most likely some players are tired of copying and pasting GL! to hundreds of newly started games and would like BrainKing to do it for them.

I am not going to argue which approach is worse - to send an automated impersonal greeting or not to send a greeting message at all. Anyway, programming something like that has a really low priority, so if someone cannot live without it, one of the temporary solutions could be to take advantage of iMacros for Firefox.

Download and install from here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3863

This event was already announced a week ago, but since I prefer not to post more than 1 entry per day and there were other interesting things to write about, I am doing it now with a little delay. But I don't think it would be a big problem - the results remain still the same.

Very well, what results? Since BrainKing recommends to use Firefox for browsing its pages (and the rest of the web as well), I keep watching the site of Firefox Add-ons and, from time to time, an interesting extension appears and it is worth mentioning at out Firefox Add-ons category. And because Mozilla obviously wants talented developers to make good add-ons for their web browser, they created a public contest called Extend Firefox. The contest is over now and the results (along with the winners) can be found here: Announcing the Extend Firefox 2 Winners.

I have installed and checked all 3 winner add-ons and 12 "runners up" as well. All of them are of a high quality and deserve their final positions. And this is my personal Top Three List:

• Shareaholic by Jay Meattle - this extension makes it easy for you to submit the web page you're on to your favorite sharing or bookmarking service, including: digg, del.icio.us, facebook etc. I always liked "one click solutions" and this one is one of my favorites. Besides, a direct outcome of my experiments with this add-on is an addition of a "Bookmark This" toolbar at the end of each BrainKing.info article.


• qtl by Gilad Kutiel - I was already writing about this great add-on a month ago and I am glad that it made it to the runners up list. I use it at least 20 times a day and not just for quick translations, its functions make typical tasks (like copy and paste, go to selected non-clickable URL, search on Google, etc.) extremely easy and mouse only, without a need to look for a keyboard.


• Update Scanner by Pete Burgers - if you don't like RSS feeds or want to monitor any changes to a site which does not support RSS, this add-on is the best solution for you. I have tested it with BrainKing.info site and each time the main page is changed (a new article or a new comment is posted), a small notification appears at the Firefox bottom bar. Simple and very useful.

The page of results also says that Extend Firefox 3 contest should be launched in early March. If you plan to make a nice Firefox add-on for BrainKing, this is your chance to become famous.

I have noticed an interesting Firefox Add-on today and I find it very useful for English speaking BrainKing users who like to communicate with players from other countries or need a quick translation of a foreign language word which appears at a discussion board etc. What I really like about this extension is its simplicity - the only thing you have to do is to choose the target language (it is set to English by default) and select the word to translate with your mouse (a double click works too). A small pop-up window instantly appears, containing the translation, the Wikipedia lookup and some more useful information about the word. And who does not like pop-up windows, can switch to Quick mode which makes the translation appear at your browser's address bar (where the current page URL usually resides).

I have just tested this functionality with French, Italian and even Czech words. It works very good. Of course, it is not capable of translating everything but can work as a great reference tool in many cases.

Mozilla page of this add-on and the official home page.

Everybody needs to search something and I belong to people who need to search every day, which is the reason why I occasionally search for neat tools/extensions to make the search process easier and more pleasant. The newest add-on I am currently playing with is called Hyperwords.

Hyperwords has everything what I really like on tools - it is simple but powerful and does not bother you with long and repulsive toolbars or finger-twisting keyboard shortcuts (by the way, any ideas which keyboard shortcuts we should add to BrainKing? ). You just select a text (one or more words) and a context menu instantly appears, where you can choose from many useful functions - for example, search the words on Google, find references on Wikipedia, get locations on Google Maps, translate, convert, shop, blog, e-mail, print, etc. I am satisfied with this add-on so much that I have even uninstalled my previous favorite Web Search Pro because I don't need it anymore.

Get it here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1941 And the tool is pretty customizable as well. Great work.

From time to time, I like to browse the Mozilla page of Firefox add-ons because there are many creative developers who kindly contribute to the wide variety of useful extensions of this popular browser and significantly improve its functionality. My own installation of Firefox currently contains 19 add-ons and I am very happy with all of them because they allow me to work faster and use only one program for many tasks which I am used to.

I have just found an add-on called Firefox Showcase and it has become one of my favorite ones almost immediately. It could be very useful not just for us developers who need to work with many different pages at once, but also for BrainKing players who like to use several Firefox tabs for different kinds of BrainKing pages (games, discussions, tournaments etc.) and I know at least three or four people who really do it.

The Firefox Showcase simply adds a small arrow button to the right side of the open tab list. When it is clicked, a window containing current snapshots of all open pages appear and you can easily check the current content of all of them at once. The add-on comes with many options to set or change, but I am glad to use the default option set at this moment. Everything works great and does exactly what it is supposed to do.