Wuff

Friday, June 6, 2008

web: quick Firefox setup guide

Here's what I set up for friends and family so they can be more productive on the IntarWub.
  • Get Firefox at getfirefox.com
  • Make it your default browser: during setup there's a checkbox "[ ] Use Firefox as my default web browser", check this.
  • Install Adblock Plus and restart Firefox. After it restarts, go to http://adblockplus.org/en/subscriptions and click Subscribe: EasyList. A filter like this says "skip anything from http://adserv - adsnew - doubleclick - ..., they're all ads." Now visit a site like cnn.com: your browser no longer downloads all the irritating ads on web sites, so browsing becomes much faster!
  • Get a Google account. It's not necessary to customize your home page (below), but you're going to want it: gmail is probably better than your current e-mail, Google Docs is awesome (you don't need Microsoft Office), Blogger is pretty good, etc.
    • If you already have a gmail mail address, you have a Google account; otherwise, go to google.com, and on the right click Sign in then click Create an account now
  • Now sign in to igoogle.com, make it your default home page in the browser (Tools > Options > Main; and click [Use Current Page]
  • Add a few things to your iGoogle home page:
    • my blog (click "Add stuff", click "Add feed or gadget" on the left, enter http://www.skierpage.com/blog/ and add me to your home page.)
    • configure the weather applet
    • add news sites like BBC news
  • Set up keywords so you can jump directly to pages without going to a search box; I have keywords for Wikipedia, dictionary definitions, and various Google map shortcuts

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2 Comments:

  • I don't know if you are aware of it, but it's not recommend to use Filterset.G any more.

    See here what the dev says about it: http://adblockplus.org/en/faq_project#filterset.g

    Also, it hasn't been updated since March, so it's kind of unsupported.

    As an alternative, I suggest that you give EasyList+EasyElement a try, you won't regret it. :D

    By Anonymous Ares, at June 06, 2008 3:51 PM  

  • Thanks, I removed the reference. I'm confused because my AdBlock options shows I'm already subscribed to EasyList but I don't remember doing so. Also Filterset.G kept alerting me on restart that it had updated, which I found reassuring.

    Hey Ares, have you read about your namesake Ares in The God of War?

    By Blogger skierpage, at June 06, 2008 4:46 PM  

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