One thing that I recently found out was that you can have your firefox browser do spell checking in a single line textbox. I need for any poor speller, like myself.
Here are the steps:
1. Open a new window / tab.
2. In the address bar type ‘about:config’ ( without the quotes of course )
3. Filter on the word ‘spell’
4. Find ‘layout:spellcheckDefault’ line.
5. Double click it and change the default to the number 2.
6. Restart firefox and enjoy single line spell checking. 
A few weeks ago I ran across this nice firefox plugin to give your GMail a minimalist feel. I’ve given it a try for some time, and thought it time for a review.
First, the install, like all firefox plugins, was really easy. Just a couple clicks and a quick restart of firefox and your up and running. Once you sign into gmail, you get a one time popup saying that the pluging is installed and ready to go.
Once configured ( how-to below) you can have your GMail look like this, with all the unneeded stuff gone:
Two simple features are, ‘A’ toggles on/off the header that has the links to documents, rss reader and calendar. ‘B’ opens the menu option, that lets you pick and choose what to hide:
I’ve really liked the plugin, especially hiding the ads and buttons that I never use. I like it more when I changed my theme to be a custom white and light blue theme. If you think you’ll like this little plugin, you should give it a try.
Firefox usage world wide is now at 24.07%, and has now passed IE6, the worst browser ever.
Read more about it here.
Per Clark’s request, here are my thoughts on the new Ubuntu OS.
As always the new splash screen for boot up and shut down have been reworked, and look better than the previous version. The default theme for Gnome is nice, with all new icons and images for shortcuts. Menu is nearly unchanged, seems only the games menu has been altered, all the logical games are grouped in a sub menu.
Firefox is at version 3.5, which is nice, as Ubuntu/Debian are always so dang slow getting the most current version running on software. New firefox has the ‘+’ feature for making new tabs, something I got used to with windows version and hated not having.
Ubuntu One is the new online file share/backup/storage. You have to make an account with Ubuntu to get in, and it appears to be 2 gigs of room. I had an account already, and didn’t know it, I must of had it from reporting a bug sometime in the past. I moved some files over with both the web UI, and the built in folder for nautilus. Both worked with no problems, and only took a few seconds for the file to transfer. I am not a big fan of this kind of online storage, it is a really bad idea. What if Ubuntu lost my junk? And I know the files have little to no security, and get looked through all the time. I host my own system, over SSL and feel much better about that.
Upgrade took ~2 hours, mostly all downloading from the overworked Ubuntu servers. I read somewhere that there is a torrent type upgrade, and I wished I had explored that option for the upgrade. I bet it is much quicker.
Only other change that interests me is the new Empathy IM client, that is replacing Pidgin. I’ll have to upgrade the work computer before letting everyone know how good it is.
I have a raid 1 storage box at home, for file storage and sharing. It has gone from the first version of Ubuntu all the way to 9.04. I’ll have to upgrade it to 9.10 when I get a chance. I think this will be the 9th OS upgrade, with no reinstall needed, something MS cannot do.
Here is a new extension for firefox / gmail. I’m going to have to give it a try.
