Chris Ilias – Chris Ilias

Villa Ilias

Chris IliasMay 18, 2006 2 Comments

It’s nice, having the same name as what looks like one of the most beautiful places on Earth: Villa Ilias.

Mozilla Firefox users, who like to put many bookmarks in the Bookmarks Toolbar, sometimes get to the point where the number of bookmarks is too much to fit on the screen; so Firefox gives a drop-down menu at the end of the Bookmarks Toolbar, to access bookmarks not displayed on the toolbar.

Some users have used some simple methods of fitting more bookmarks on the Bookmarks Toolbar. These include renaming bookmarks [Right-click -> Properties], to give them shorter names. If a bookmark has its own unique favicon, removing the entire bookmark name will work.

I recently came across a neat little userChrome.css script that will cause the Bookmarks Toolbar to start another row, if the current one cannot fit all bookmarks.

Just add the following script to your userChrome.css file:
#bookmarks-ptf {display:block !important;} #bookmarks-ptf toolbarseparator {display:inline !important;}

Getting rid of the ‘new mail’ alert in the Windows system tray

Chris IliasMay 9, 2006 13 Comments

Mozilla Thunderbird users may have noticed that turning off “Show an alert” for when new messages arrive, does not get rid of the alert that appears in the Windows system tray.

There’s actually a Windows feature (I don’t know if it’s on anything other than XP), that lets you to disable that alert.
On the very edge of the system tray, right-click and select “Customize Notifications” in the content menu.
Select the Thunderbird item, and using the drop-down menu, choose “Always Hide“.

Update: Another method to get to “Customize Notifications” is via the Windows Control Panel -> Taskbar and Start Menu. Select the “Taskbar” tab, and under “Notification area”, click on “Customize”.

Often used bookmark

Chris IliasApril 23, 2006 3 Comments

As I was getting ready for church (Orthodox Easter), I had to reference a website I use more than I should:
Learn How to Tie a Tie

No matter how many times I’ve used it, I still need it every time I tie a tie. 😀

Looking at FTP sites for Mozilla releases: Part II

Chris IliasApril 20, 2006 8 Comments

Back in November, I posted about the dangers of looking at the Mozilla FTP server for new Mozilla releases.

With Thunderbird 1.5.0.2, 1.0.8, and Mozilla 1.7.13 expected soon, I’m surprised at the amount of people stating the those versions have been released, just because they see the directories on the FTP server.

What if there’s a problem updating one or more mirrors? You may see the release, but others won’t. Even worse, what if a problem is found with the uploaded builds, and they need to be re-spun before the new release is officially announced? You’re directing end-users to bad builds. And so, I’d like to reiterate that new versions have not been officially released, until the website is updated.

I don’t know exactly what is keeping Thunderbird 1.5.0.2, 1.0.8, and Mozilla 1.7.13 from being official, but I did just read a message in mozilla.dev.planning: Thunderbird 1.0.8/1.5.0.2 delayed until Friday or Monday.

It was nice of Tim to post an update on the situation, and I think we all should show our appreciation by not directing users to the new version, until it is officially released.

Removing ‘Remove All’

Chris IliasApril 18, 2006 14 Comments

Here’s a question: Using any of Firefox, Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, the Mozilla Suite, or Netscape, have you ever purposely clicked on the ‘Remove All’ button, in the password manager?

Follow up question: Have you ever clicked on it by accident?

Clicking on it by accident, is easy, when it sits right beside ‘Remove’ button. Luckily, the closest I’ve come to that, is removing all cookies, not passwords. The scary part is that there is no “Are you sure” prompt, asking for confirmation. One accidental click, and ‘poof’, data is gone.

I’ve been able to avoid this by removing the ‘Remove All’ button. If you’re using Firefox or Thunderbird, add the following script to your userChrome.css file, to remove the ‘Remove All’ button from the password manager:

#removeAllSignons {display: none !important;}

Presenting “SeaMonkey Help”

Chris IliasApril 12, 2006 6 Comments

I have created a SeaMonkey Help site. It was inevitable. 🙂 Most of it is copied over from my Mozilla Help site, with the appropriate changes. The majority of items have been tested, but not all. There were many that I just assumed also work in SeaMonkey.

Contact me, if you see any mistakes.

Website URL: https://seamonkey.ilias.ca/

Customize the Firefox Bookmarks location

Chris IliasApril 10, 2006 35 Comments

Don’t like your bookmarks being stored in your profile folder? Want two or more users on the same computer to share a bookmarks file?
Easy.
– close Firefox.
– copy/move your bookmarks.html file (and bookmarks.bak) to the location you prefer to keep it.
– open Firefox.
– enter about:config in the Firefox location bar, right-click on any of the listed preferences, and choose New -> String.
– enter the preference name: browser.bookmarks.file
– for the value, enter the new file path (including the file name) of your bookmarks.html file.

Using this method, not only can you share your bookmarks file with other Firefox users on the same computer (and possibly same network. I’m not sure.), but share the file with SeaMonkey users, or Mozilla Suite users, or Netscape users. If you share with SeaMonkey/Mozilla/Netscape, just remember that live bookmarks will not function.

If you have Netscape Communicator, you can even go as far as pointing it to your Communicator bookmark.htm file.

The \bookmarkbackups\ folder stays in the profile folder. The bookmarks.bak file travels with the bookmarks.html file.

Mozilla newsgroups are now allowing posting through Google Groups

Chris IliasMarch 29, 2006 1 Comment

When the mozilla.* newsgroups were originally set up, they were fed to Google Groups for archival purposes. Google allowed read-only access, not allowing posting via Google.

Things have changed (purposely). You can now use Google Groups to post to the mozilla.* newsgroups, and those posts will be fed to news.mozilla.org.

Anyone wishing to use Google Groups to post to the mozilla.* newsgroups, PLEASE read these:
http://cfaj.freeshell.org/google/
http://www.safalra.com/special/googlegroupsreply/
http://ilias.ca/blog/2005/08/plea-to-google.html