Fix incompatible add-ons and extensions on updating to Firefox version 3

Updating to Firefox 3 from Firefox 2, you may find some of your extensions and add-ons are no longer compatible.*

Here are three ways of solving this problem. They range from a risky and easy solution to a more involved but safer fix. I’ve also included how to rescue Firefox when it won’t start.

* Unless of course the extension author has already updated their add-on, in which case three cheers for them.

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Tags are not the new groups

Aggregation over RSS makes it easy for people to collaborate in ad hoc ways. So what’s the role of groups (forums, online networks, bulletin boards)? Do they even have one?

Georgian trekking cheese basket from Tusheti

Simon Berry of Ruralnet raises this question when he asks, “Are tags the new groups?” A provocative question. (Hat-tip Megan)

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HOWTO: Integrate RSpec on Rails with jEdit

Here’s how to hack together a setup to load an RSpec backtrace into jEdit. In other words, you’ll be able to click the relevant failed behaviour or error to go straight the relevant file and line.

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‘Web 2 For Free’ could save you £1500

Today I gave a couple of workshops at NCVO that introduced some key Web 2 applications and tools.

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Streetmap 1.0.2

New version of the Streetmap Firefox extension: now with Firefox 2 flavour!

Copywriting Essentials training

Learn how to promote products and services efficiently and effectively with flyers, newsletters, emails and websites: join us at an October copywriting training session in Nottingham.
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Website audits, and what to do with them: November workshop

Your aim is a brilliant website that surprises and delights visitors. How do you get there? And how will you know when you’ve arrived?
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‘Effective copywriting: the basics’ in French, Spanish translations

What’s the French or Spanish equivalent of “Think like a Saxon”?
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High impact copywriting, fast

(Part three of ‘Effective copywriting: the basics‘.)

Copywriting is writing that does a job. You have a job, too, and the chances are that writing is just one of the tasks that competes for your time. Effective copywriting, then, is also an efficient process: doing as best as possible in the time available. Strangely enough, that involves thinking like a Saxon.

Not that Saxon. Read the rest of this entry »

The F-Pattern: how readers (don’t) read

Diagram showing how the eye tends to travel around the page in an F-shape
New eyetracking research from the Neilsen Norman Group shows how users often read web content in an F-shaped pattern.

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