Firefox-add On | Technology Blog

Firefox Password Revealer

January 1st, 2009

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Use long secure passwords. That’s what they say. Did you ever try to type in a secure password with a length of 25+ characters several times because the web form would not accept it? Since you do not see what you type you cannot easily identify what went wrong. Even more so because the password will obviously be removed when the form pops up again. It could be related to several things. A typing error, numlock, shift-lock, a wireless keyboard with problems or site problems. Most tech savvy users try to enter the password again thinking that they made a typing error before they start investigating why it is not accepted.

One of the easiest ways to do that would be to compare the entered password with the correct password. To do that the entered password has to be revealed and that is what the Firefox password Revealer Show Passwords does. (another way to make sure the right password is entered is to type it the address bar in Firefox and copy paste it into the password field).

Batch Download Images From Image Hosting Sites

December 26th, 2008

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Downloading images from image hosting sites can be a time consuming tasks if you do it manually. It usually involves clicking on the thumbnail of the image to load the full size version of it and right-clicking that to download it. If you have to do that for dozens or hundreds of images then you will be busy all day. A better solution is a tool to batch download images. Ideally a software program that would identify the links to the real images on the thumbnail page to download the full sized images.

Bilder Herunterlader is such a tool. The name is German and stands for Image Downloader (don’t worry, the interface is available in English and German). The tool is a Java application which means that it can be run not only on Windows computers but also on those running Linux. A Firefox extension is available to make it even more comfortable for Firefox users.

Youtube Video Download

December 26th, 2008

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Youtube is slowly starting to provide access to high definition videos on the video portal. If you perform a search for it you find many websites that explain how to view the videos on Youtube in high definition. High definition Youtube video downloads on the other hand are not explained that often. One of the best ways to download the Youtube videos in high definition is with the help of the Firefox add-on Download Youtube Videos in HD and MP4 [link]. The add-on provides an easy way to download Youtube videos by adding download links directly on the Youtube video pages.

Youtube video download adds two links to one of the right panels that contain the url and embed links. The Download as MP4 and Download as 720p HD MP4 are displayed. They can be saved by right-clicking on one of the two links and selecting Save Link As from the context menu. One should note however that this is obviously only working if a HD video is available on Youtube. If there is no HD video the download will display the file as get_video or videoplayback which will not save the video at all. It is possible that one of the two Youtube video download links is working but there have been cases where none was working.

Load Websites With Hotkeys In Firefox

December 25th, 2008

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Web browsers usually offer several ways on how to access websites quickly. Users can type in the url, assign keywords to urls or use their bookmarks to do that. Something that has not been on the radar yet is the ability to use hotkeys to launch websites. It is actually a very good question why no web browser is offering that feature yet. What’s easier and faster than opening a website with a keyboard shortcut?

Site Launcher is a Firefox add-on that adds this functionality to the web browser. It does that in two ways. The first is by proving access [via CTRL SPACE] to an overlay menu which displays the configured websites that can be launched from there. Each website is assigned a single key on the keyboard which has to be pressed to launch it.

The second method [via ALT SHIFT KEY] is there for keyboard junkies who prefer to press one hotkey for the same effect. Adding websites to the Firefox extension is easy. It is possible to open the Site Launcher Manager right away and add websites manually or add websites directly when they are loaded in the active tab.

It is furthermore possible to change the default hotkeys if other combinations suite you better.

Url Revealer

December 24th, 2008

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Url shortening services like Tinyurl have seen an influx since the release of web services like Twitter. Twitter is a prime example as the services limits the amount of characters per message to 160 much like SMS on cell phones. Yes, you can write / send multiple messages but that’s not really the same, is it?

If you head over to Twitter and log into your account you most likely will see links of shortening services. While they make links shorter so that you can save chars they also hide the real address of the link which in its extreme could be used to lure users to a website they do not want to visit. This can have serious consequences depending on the location or place the links are accessed: Think of following a link leading to an adult site at work.

Long URL Please is a experimental Firefox extension that turns urls of shortening services to their original one. It currently supports about 30 different services with more being added regularly.

Firefox Text To Speech

December 21st, 2008

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Making the computer read out text aloud can be useful in several situations. The most obvious is as a aid for blind people but it can also be helpful if you cannot look at the computer screen at that moment.

Speak It was a very popular Firefox add-on. It is listed to be compatible with Firefox 2 only at the official Mozilla homepage but a user changed the compatibility of the add-on and made it compatible with Firefox 3 as well.

It utilizes text to speech capabilities of the operating system to provide the means to read out text aloud to the user. It integrates itself nicely in the right-click context menu and can be used to read out all of the text on a website or only the selected text.