My Firefox Extensions
It struck me this morning that it may be useful or, perhaps interesting, to archive the Extensions I currently use in Firefox. The extensibility of browsers today is fantastic.
- Bitwarden - Password Manager
- Decentraleyes - Privacy tool which works by attempting to block unneccessary calls to content distribution networks.
- Easy Screenshot - Tool to easily snag screenshots of pages. I primarily use it to snag photos of complete pages where it scrolls down and screepcaps and then stitches them together.
- Facebook Container - Forces Facebook and Instagram pages into their own container, this blocks them from tracking you across the web.
- Feed Preview - It returns and enhances the ability to preview RSS feeds.
- Firefox Multi-Account Containers - I live and die by multi-containers in Firefox. The majority of it is so that I can easily differentiate Work and Personal credentials, etc. But I use it for all sorts of things.
- Firefox Translations - Mostly so I can test and experiment with Mozilla's local translation tool, meaning it doesn't interface with Google etc. Overall it's good, but not perfect.
- GIPHY for Firefox - Honestly, I use it largely to enable quick and easy gif access for posting on Mastodon.
- Privacy Badger - Privacy tool from EFF. It's not as good as it used to be, but it still blocks some tracking tools.
- Reddit Enhancement Suite - As a longtime Redditor, and I use the old layout still, it enables and enhances a bunch of functions on Reddit.
- Return YouTube Dislike - Using the API, it allows me to see the dislikes on YouTube videos.
- Simple Translate - Integrates with Google's Translate for easy on-the-fly translation.
- Soundfixer - It allows me to manage volumes for individual tabs in Firefox, very useful for my laptop which has dinky speakers and I want to boost the tab's volume over 100%
- Sticky Window Containers - Another tool for the account containers, this one has tabs in a window open in the same container as the first tab in the window. This also lets me easily do the work/home split.
- uBlock Origin - The best ad blocker ever
- Unpaywall - Legally find free access to academic articles.
|
"HTTPS Is Actually Everywhere"
The EFF has provided, for years, a number of useful privacy tools. In doing my previous post about my Firefox extensions I discovered that the EFF was sunsetting one I'd been using for years called 'HTTPS Everywhere' and that's because browsers now had that functionality built in.
Glad the technology moved central and was adopted!
Alec Baldwin charged with involuntary manslaughter from 2022 movie set killing
This is truly a shame and I have complicated feelings on how I think the judgment should go. Coincidentally I was just discussing Baldwin last night with friends while playing Boardgames, his scene in Glengarry Glenross came up.
As a child we didn't have guns in the house (I would later learn dad had a revolver in case of emergencies) but it was pounded into my head to not even point toy guns at people, only at "rocks and trees." And when in Boy Scouts they taught careful weapon safety with guns and with bows and arrows. On a movie set, obviously they have to operate differently, which is why they are supposed to have careful and very strict controls over these weapons.
When I worked at the theme parks, some of the park attractions also made use of weapons (the stage shows) and I recall hearing about them also going through very strict safety protocols. The people handling the stage weapons were never alone, always triple checked, always locked away, etc.
It's a tragedy which has to be pursued and investigated, but also shines a light on the thousands of other deaths which don't have the rigorous public eye because they don't involve someone from Hollywood. In the wake of school shootings my gun control ire spikes, but I don't fall on the "take all the guns" - many people have legitimate reasons for wanting them, however the need for strict licensing, buying limits and cool off periods, background checks, and gun safety education are paramount if we are to continue to allow such relatively unfettered access to them. Also, the idea that private individuals need AR15 style weapons is absurd. Those people are delusional.
Modifications for my end of day posts
As regular readers will notice, what started as just collecting a handful of Mastodon posts each day has evolved and now includes my daily chess results on lichess.org. This is, admittedly, primarily for me and I expect the audience for it to continue to be very small. I am currently thinking about how to continue expanding this post.
The top ideas right now, in a very rough order of likelihood of implementation:
- Add the day's weather - Mainly for posterity, so I can look back and see what the weather was on the day of various posts.
- Add a daily motivational or inspirational quote - I already have a list to pull from, it is trivial, and would be a nice little add in. It feels odd to do at the end of the day, but if I did this I'd add it to be something I email myself or somehow otherwise put in front of myself earlier each day.
- Add posts I snag for reading later - I have this integrated in a rolling manner on the sidebar of the site, this might be an interesting way to archive them. This would be ones I've added to be read later, but might or might not. I snag dozens of articles and only come back to read a handful. It also moves them more central, and inserts those links into the RSS feed, which isn't done in the current manner.
- Writing stats - As I mentioned earlier, now that I have a new larger writing project, I'm tracking my progress on it. Currently it's done in a Google sheet, though I could code it into a custom web app. If I did so, it would be trivial to start including the day's progress into the end of day wrap-up post.
- Blog traffic - There's an interesting seed of an idea to publicize traffic to the site, newsletter subscribers, etc. Would require a bit more coding and finding the best way to access this data automatically from where it's gatherered.
Who knows. Just musing as I get my day started and think about things ahead.
My dry spell of losing endless games of chess seems to finally be at an end as I continue to win more than I lose. Feels good.
Automated Archives for January, 19th 2023