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At last, a post about Firefox extensions. I don’t know about you, but some selected FF extensions have become a necessary part of my everyday internet life : I just can’t live without them. And for today, the last day of 2005, I’ve decided to post a short review of a brand new (well, almost) Firefox extension, the almighty Performancing.

Performancing is a double-sided coin : either you love it, or you hate it. Nevertheless, I don’t fall into neither of these sides. The main purpose of this extension is to help you blog easily and effectively by just using Firefox, bypassing altogether your selected blog software.

When installed, it shows a notepad icon on the bottom right side of your window, and by pressing on it, the main window of the extension appears, conveniently placed on top of the page you were viewing, as a layer.

By using Performancing you can blog directly to all major sites offering blogging host (Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad, Livejournal, MSN Spaces) or you can specify a custom blog, if you happen to host your blog in your personal site. After creating an account and setting all the options you need, you can write and edit your text in a WYSIWYG editor, just like Microsoft Word. For hardcore (sic) bloggers, you can also view source, while there is also a “Live view” button.

Performancing also offers many useful functions, as multiple blogs support, full categories listing, post history and also a notes feature that is quite useful. It also offers the chance to conveniently add Technorati tags to your posts, use CSS or HTML for styling, inline ‘Blog This’ option to Firefox context menu, and many more.

That’s where the objective stuff stops. Stating subjective and personal opinions now :

Five Things I Loved About It :

• On-the-fly blogging is cool : no more Ctrl-T, search for Wordpress write post bookmark, click, write, click again.
• Easy to use editor : very intuitive and convenient, at least for people that weren’t abducted by aliens since the first beta of Microsoft Word was published.
• I love the fact that the window is layered on top of browser, it makes blogging process a really fast one. No more switching tags as crazy.
• Multiple accounts and ability to post to your custom blog and all the well known blogging services? Bliss!
• Technorati support is always a plus for me.

Five Things I’m Skeptical About :

• It generates somehow messy code. When I tried to edit a page written by Performancing with the default Wordpress editor, all hell broke loose.
• I didn’t search for it very much, but it doesn’t seem to support post editing. And I always edit my posts. Wrong, it does support post editing, my bad.
• In “History” tab, it only shows the latest 10 posts, why?
• Did I mention messy code generation?
• Somehow tacky icon and interface. (OK, that was the only other thing I could think of, my design self is overreacting there)

I’m sure you’d love to check it out, you know the process : download it here, tell firefox to trust those hard-working guys, and give it a try.

Then tell me if you liked it or not! And correct me if I’m wrong at my above assumptions.

firefox extensions, performancing, blogging tools

I’m sure the majority of you know - and have used at least once in the past - Wikipedia, or any of its wikibranches (wiktionary, wikibooks, wikiquote, wikinews, to name just a few).

The idea behind Wikipedia is, somehow, the old and neglected “give the power to the masses” idea. People from all over the world have the chance to write, edit or contribute with custom content in thousands and thousands of encyclopedia posts, covering a range from typical flora & fauna articles to the latest Marilyn Manson album. It combines, in a way, Encarta and UrbanDictionary and … Google? Maybe, if you use it for data mining.

But how about creating a news site that contains articles from all over the world, written by, say, you? You always wanted to be a reporter, no? NowPublic.com gives you the golden opportunity.

Think News Wikipedia++ : write articles, whatever strikes you as fancy, about your city news, your country news, your world news. Write your own context or transfer context from other sites. Upload your pictures. Share. Give the opportunity to others to view and contribute in your article, offering both critique, context and pictures. Blog. Find localized articles. Get the chance to even sell your high-resolution image of that elephant stomping on the police car.

Sounds interesting? Apply in NowPublic.com and check it out. It has great potential.

nowpublic.com, web application, news, drupal

If you’re out on search of a great and actually useful CSS-based design book, then search no more, you just found it!

“Bulletproof Web Design“, well written by Dan Cederhold, has the following caption, which I believe sums it all up : Improving flexibility and protecting against worst-case scenarios with XHTML and CSS. So what does it mean?

This particular book puts in test some of the most widely used techniques of web design. You want navigation bars? Content boxes? Fluid layouts? It covers them all. The innovation that this book adopts is that it first covers the main, table-centred design techniques that were widely used till today, states its problems and caveats, and then it recreates the exact same effects using pure CSS.

Apart from the fact that it explains step-by-step the CSS process, “Bulletproof Web Design” teaches safe, adapting web design even in extreme conditions (which may not be so extreme after all). The outcome is really bulletproof, safe and accessible code that covers most of the features a web designer may use in a website.

Five Things I Loved :

• Simple and understandable at-a-glance chapter layout.
• Simplified language and reduced use of technical terms, friendly content even to beginners.
• Extensive use of images to further explain the content and guide the reader.
• Complete CSS conversion of some of the most commonly used web snippets.
• A hands-on book that actually teaches CSS techniques.

Five Things I’m Skeptical about :

• Maybe the fact that it’s not teaching you CSS hands-on, or exhaustively. It provides already acquainted with stylesheets designers with a range of great tips and code snippets to make those pesky layers work. Not for the beginner, in my opinion.

Stating my personal opinion now ; I really loved this book. It’s short and so useful, almost a guide that any web designer keen on CSS techniques must have by his side while coding. “Bulletproof Web Design” is definitely a teaching book, and a damn good one too.

CSS, accessibility, web design

…and Happy Birthday to me!

(image by sxc.hu)

christmas, holiday, santa claus

I love web applications. And I have a feeling Web 2.0 will lead to the development of many gems in this field. Three of my favourites are :

• Flickr

  
  Is this one of the most widely used Web 2.0 applications or what? Simple to use, elegant and wildly popular, Flickr managed to gather all preferred photo album functionalities into one robust application.

  Three Things I love about it

  • Very simple, usable and elegant design, non-intrusive and cool.
  • Amazing drag-and-drop photos & collections organization system. Flash at its best.
  • Not just a photo album : contacts and groups and comments turn Flickr into a true community.
• Writely

  
  Imagine being able to write just about anything and post it on web. For free. It sure is in a medium beta phase, but it has potential. Writely is what its name implies : writely.

  Three Things I love about it

  • Sweet and simple web interface, leads you through all basic steps in a breeze.
  • Writely permits collaborative editing of your documents : get your brother join you in that paper.
  • Multiple sharing options : e-mail, messaging, blogging.
• Netvibes

  Do you think that adding features like your custom RSS feeds, your favourite podcasts, your gmail account in a fully personalized page which is accessible by everywhere through the Internet is a dream? Then Netvibes is for you.

  Three Things I love about it

  • Direct access to your page which can be edited in any time. No bells’n'whistles.
  • A great range of possibilities : podcasts, feeds, photos, articles, whatever.
  • An actual useful web application, brings myxxxx.com pages to shame.

Maybe you’re familiar with one or two of them. Check them all and you’ll start to understand what the new generation of information sharing Internet will be like.

web 2.0, web applications, flickr, netvibes, writely