First off, i want to thank everyone for all the useful comments and pointers about Firefox and things i might be able to do to get it up to acceptable performance for me. I’ll have to try doing a totally fresh install, getting rid of old files as mentioned. For now i’ll probably use Safari for a while. I need to revamp my bookmarks anyway.
One thing i might spend some time on today is just that - better organizing my bookmark folders and how i manage them. My current categories and organization is kinda poor - i’m constantly trying to organize bookmarks that don’t fit in any category that i’ve created, or worse, fit into multiple places and i can never find them again. I still have the bad habit of dragging bookmarks to the desktop where things can get cluttered pretty easy. I’ll use this switch as a chance to go thru and clean things up. Moving back to firefox from safari isn’t that big a deal, really. I’m getting used to moving bookmarks around. what i wish i could do is somehow coordinate bookmarks between my laptop and my main computer (without having to friggin subscribe to .mac. that’s just bullshit - another Apple money grab. synching bookmarks between computers on the same local network should be simple (my laptop comes here and gets plugged in because i keep my dev files on the laptop so they are always with me))
Anyways, i’ve got that and a ton of other things to do today. Oh, and if you are wondering why i am closing commenting on old posts, that’s an effort to prevent or at least manage content spam (i actually had some crop up in old posts, i had to go thru and delete a bunch of things and close comments). Thankfully, the latest version of ecto allows you to open and close comments without having to go into the movable type control panel. yay. 
- pirotunes: Dilate - Nemo’s Chord -
Howdy.
Have you considered using something like del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/) to store your bookmarks? It’s not quite as convenient (in some ways) as having locally-stored bookmarks, but they’re accessible from anywhere and you can get handy bookmarklets for adding bookmarks.
The tag-based organization may help you keep track of your bookmarks as well.
I use furl.net which is like del.icio.us and find it very useful (especially with the firefox extension) since I regularly jump between systems. Another cool firefox tool I use is slogger which is great for downloading an entire page with a quick click for further reading. Some use it to log entire browsing sessions for google desktop/desktop search. Quite handy.
Well, either you use the del.icio.us thing (whatever it might be), or you set up a simple FTP server (i.e. let cortana do it ;)) and use this extension here:
http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/index.php?showtopic=15
Have never tried it though.
One of the things I’ve found in my dabblings with Gnome is the default browser on that platform, Epiphany, which stores bookmarks using ‘categories’ instead of folders, so, for example, I can store fredart under both ‘Art’ and ‘Blogs’. The other thing I like about it is that the default method to access these bookmarks is just by typing in the address bar, and using the arrow keys to highlight the one you want, or Google it. I really don’t know why other browsers don’t pick up on it. I think it a shame that Epiphany on Gnome, Camino on OS X and probably that whatsitsname, K-Meleon (?) on Windows, all based on Gecko, the same base as for Firefox, have all been crushed out of sight by the behemoth of the open-source world, Firefox, even though in many respects, these browsers are more integrated with the host OS (although FF on Windows is pretty near perfect).
I’m not much for bookmarks, so I don’t have anything to add, but I ran across an alternative to Firefox and Safari. There’s a Japanese browser project called Shiira out there that uses the Safari rendering engine, but it’s made to be faster. I haven’t used it personally, but it looks like it could have some promise for the future. It actually shares bookmarks with Safari (or so says the page). The only warning sign I see is that it hasn’t been updated since September, so the project might be dead. Just the same, it might be worth looking into. It seems like it uses some good technology.
http://hmdt-web.net/shiira/
I’ve got just what you’ve been looking for. I wanted to sync up my laptop and desktop too, so I figured it all out. Check it out here:
http://www.joelmwatson.com/linux/rsync.html
All of it’s free. You just need an intermediate computer with a shell account (though you could probably make it work directly when your laptop is on the same network). I just used my webhost for my site.
Fred,
While it won’t help you just now (I don’t think), spam-wise, I think you might be interested in a little initiative the boys at google have been working on.
http://www.google.com/googleblog/2005/01/preventing-comment-spam.html
yeah, Six Apart and Google did take some fairly proactive steps to deal with the problem, mainly by eliminating the benefits of content spam
There are still some precautions i need to install here, i just haven’t had the time to bug cortana about it 
as for the bookmarks… bleah. Going thru and sorting old bookmarks has to be one of the most mind numbing (and treasure filled) tasks on earth. At least its done now. I’ll have to look into synching things now.
Fred,
While you’re still in limbo between browsers, I’d suggest that, if you’ve not looked at OmniWeb recently, you take another look at it.
I, like you, waffled about for a bit trying to decide on which browser to use. Like you, I looked at Firefox, Cam*io, etc. I settled on OmniWeb, in the long run. Here are (a few of) my reasons:
1) OmniWeb is fast. It’s a fast as Safari, since it uses the same HTML rendering engine.
2) OmniWeb is stateful. What I mean by that is that, if you quit OmniWeb (or if it crashes, which is very rare) when you relaunch, it reloads all of your tabs/windows and even restores the buffer to the position at which you were last reading. Really cool, I think.
3) OmniWeb has workspaces. If you have a bunch of related tabs/windows that you’ve opened, and want to save the state of all of those windows so you can return to it later, you can create a workspace for it, and then switch to a new workspace which is empty.
4) OmniWeb has a) graphical and b) draggable tabs. You can drag a tab from one window to another - thus moving the tab. You can reorder tabs, so that related tabs will be close together. Since they’re graphical, you can see what’s actually loaded in a given tab, at a glance.
5) OmniWeb has per-page preferences. This is useful if the rendering engine can’t guess which encoding for Japanese characters a page uses: you just set it on that page’s preferences, and it’s done.
6) OmniWeb has RSS support, and can re-check bookmarks periodically to see if bookmarks are still live and if the page bookmarked has changed.
7) It has built-in ad blocking, which is configurable, and which works, out-of-the-box for a lot of web pages.
There are other reasons besides, but these are fairly representative. There is one downside, though: it’s not free. They expect that you will like it enough to be willing to pay $40 ($39, really) for it. I did - I decided it was both worth it, and worth giving them encouragement to continue to work on the product. It does have a 30-day trial, the only restriction during that time period is that you can’t set your startpage.
Hope this helps!
actually, i tried omniweb 5 when it was in beta, and i did like it - i haven’t tried the final version yet, i probably should (i dont mind buying something that i use as much as a web browser) I’ll have to poke at it
Firefox bookmarking tips…
First things first, customize your “toolbar” and add the Bookmarks and History buttons to the “Bookmark Toolbar” This will provide easy one click access to both features (yes I know you can hit a couple of’ keys…but I’m lazy) This will case the bookmarks or history to show up in the left “sidebar”
Nice thing about this is that you can re-arrange bookmarks “on the fly” with out have to jump back and forth between windows.
Then Download and install these two Extensions:
Add Bookmarks Here: https://addons.update.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?application=firefox&numpg=10&id=11
This is handy, as it allows you to add bookmarks directly to sub-folders in the dropdown “Bookmarks” lists…or directly to any folders on you bookmark tools bar (which is another tip, add folders to you “Bookmarks Toolbar Folder” and they will become dropdown menues on the Toolbar itself)
Bookmarks Synchronizer: https://addons.update.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?application=firefox&numpg=10&id=14
This jewel will allow you to sync your bookmarks to a FTP or WEBDAV server…any server you want, not just iDisk.
There was a app that “If Then Software” made called “My Favorites Martian” that did the same thing for Safari, but I can’t seem to find it anymore…
Other things tips to report, if you ctrl-click on a bookmark (in the sidepanel or bookmark manager) and choose Properties you can add a “keyword”. This allows you to…say add ‘MT’ to your megatokyo bookmark, and then just hit ‘MT’ in the address bar to get wisked there… No need to look for the bookmark… (even if it’s on the Bookmarks Toolbar)
You can also choos to have something show up in the sidebar, such as nees feeds and the like that way you can glance at…say slashdot.org while you ‘re posting at Fredart.com
And why can’t I use BR or P tags here
Ahh… I guess because it puts them in for me…duh…
Anyway I hope you find the tips helpful.
(This is a bit off an off-topic post, but bare with me? Please? ^^;)
Hey…love Megatokyo and have been following it for like 2 years now (has it been that long or longer since it began?) but I’ve really been wondering about “WARMTH”. Are you ever going to post it ON-LINE? I mean,I know you have the ‘prologue’ or whatever already up but the comments at the end stated that you wanted it up and running here on the site by the end of 2004 (which has come and gone…whaaa…) and it’s not. I know that you had started posting it in an English manga-zine at one point also, but I don’t recall the name right now and have no idea if it’s even still running (is it?). Could you let me know what’s up with that? Thanks. Love your art and hilarious story-line. ^_^*
P.S. Sorry for the off-topic post (again!).
Regarding browsers: I use the full Mozilla suite (have been using it nearly three years now; I rather like the Skypilot Classic theme on it). Seems to work just fine. While Firefox is a wonderful alternative to Internet Exploiter, I felt no compulsion to switch when what I already had was perfect for my needs. But that’s just my take.
@Julie_Bean:
Your questions might be answered in this post:
http://forums.megatokyo.com/index.php?showtopic=1692477&view=findpost&p=3648846
@Hyrcan:
Yup. But you don’t see them in the preview. Fred/Cortana? Is there a possibility to change this behaviour?
I don’t use bookmarks, because I have a very good memory, and easily remember webpages. Whenever I do use a bookmark, I usually forget I used it, and come back to it later, and i no longer need it.
An FTP server would be really easy to setup and use, assuming you can get URMEL’s extension to work, plus there are tons of free ftp servers out there.
Umm, I know that this has nothing really to do with the topic, but I would like you to know Fred, that you had fan art in NewTpye-USA magazine… Some person sketched a Pirogeoth picture which is kind of kewl… Also NewType-USA had a little feature on Air, really nice pictures… Just letting you know… Can’t wait til’ tomorrows comic…
Bookmarks huh? I have problems with them sometimes, though mine are of a different manner. See, a few years ago I used to be so worried about organization and tried to group bookmarks and stuff - this went on for years. However, I went too far in my quest to keep my computer in order, and I ended up deleting stuff that was kind of necessary for the computer’s programs to perform properly. This put an end to my over-organization fast.
I’m still pretty organized, don’t get me wrong, but now I only keep bookmarks of websites I go to a lot. I find it pointless to go to certain websites when you have nothing there for you anymore - really there are only four or five sites I go to a lot, and the other six or so I only visit on a monthly or weekly basis.
I go to these sites, in order of favorite-ness: Runescape, Xanga, Gaia Online, Megatokyo, and Photobucket. That’s pretty much it - every now and then I might check out EB Games or Gamespot or MPOGD to look for good MMORPGs. …But I don’t go to message boards or Bolt! or check out Homestar Runner or anything like that quite as much as I used to.
It’s all about going to sites that you have time for - why pollute your favorites with sites you hardly visit?
oh crap, sorry Fred but I forgot to mention something. Just so you know, it only happens now and then but sometimes on Firefox you’ll just liek, automatically lose your bookmarks or toolbar settings. I don’t know if any other Firefox users have noticed this yet though, but it may be taken care of in an update eventually. I haven’t lost my bookmarks again in a while, however my toolbar mysteriously changed on me last night.