vincentkong.com » Firefox

Easy YouTube Video Downloader

Vincent Kong — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 02:56:45 +0000

YouTube has been around for a long time with a huge archive of videos, and once in a while there would be something I want to download. The best tool that I found for this job is a Firefox add-on: Easy YouTube Video Downloader. After installing the add-on new download links would appear on the YouTube pages. The best thing is that the video can be downloaded in HD quality if available!

Easy YouTube Video Downloader

Managing Multiple Firefox Profiles

Vincent Kong — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 05:45:00 +0000

I have a laptop which I use to connect to the internet both at work and at home. It’s a really hassle for me to change the connection settings in Firefox to use our office proxy server when I’m at work, and then remove it when I get back home.

Luckily, Firefox gives me the ability to manage multiple profiles where I can customize the connection settings, bookmarks, browser toolbars, extensions, etc, for each profile.

To start up the Firefox profile manager type the following at the command prompt

C:\>"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" --profilemanager

This will bring up the profile manager where you can create, delete, or rename a profile. I created a “Work” profile. If you uncheck the “Don’t ask at startup” check, Firefox will ask you each time it starts which profile it should use. If you don’t want to be asked the question each time, then it’s possible to create Firefox shortcuts which open Firefox using the profile specific with the -P parameter. For example, I created a shortcut that opens my “Work” profile with following: "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -P Work

Running Multiple Profiles at Once

By default Firefox doesn’t let you run two different profiles at once. An example of why you might want to run two profiles as once is when you are at work browsing an internal website but you also want to do some internet surfing through an SSH tunnel at the same time.

This can be done by adding the -no-remote parameter to the Firefox shortcut.

e.g. "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -P Work -no-remote

The image below I’m running the the “default” Firefox which has nothing, and my “Work” profile with the toolbars and extension installed to help me develop.

Firefox Extensions

Vincent Kong — Fri, 18 May 2007 15:02:19 +0000

I have been using Firefox ever since it came out. Not only is it a lot more secure to use than Internet Explorer, but it also has many extensions which gives added value to my experience. Here are the extensions which I like to add to the browser:

Google Toolbar
Web Developer adds a menu and a toolbar to the browser with various web developer tools.
NoScript gives extra protection and enable you to allow JavaScript, Java and other executable content to run only from trusted domains of your choice.
Firebug put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.
Gmail Manager allows you to manage multiple Gmail accounts and receive new mail notifications.
Gspace allows you to use your Gmail Space (2.8 GB and growing) for file storage. It acts as an online drive, so you can upload files from your hard drive and access them from every Internet capable system.
Google Notebook Firefox Extension gives you access to Google Notebook features.