Author Topic: Firefox Extensions: Your favorite or most useful (Read 821078 times)

IainB · « **Reply #675 on:** February 27, 2015, 08:49 AM »

@4wd: in the list Firefox (Pale Moon) Extensions used by @4wd (your FF PaleMoon extensions), you have Greasemonkey v1.15.
Is there any reason you have not updated to v2.3?
Thanks.

IainB · « **Reply #676 on:** February 27, 2015, 09:20 AM »

Here are votes for:

ABP = AdBlockPlus and its Select an element to hide option.
BehindTheOverlay - removes those dark overlays that obscure your view of webpage content.

I've found both of these extensions to be very useful from time to time, blocking the annoying pop-ups or repetitive images that you find on some sites, and that obscure the content on the page that you are trying to read.

Curt · « **Reply #677 on:** February 27, 2015, 10:29 AM »

hover_autocopy, a small user script that I am looking forward to start using:

https://greasyfork.o.../3487-hover-autocopy
@namespace hover_autocopy(at)userscript.org
Created 2014-07-21

hover_autocopy
A small icon will prompt up after you selected some text. The selected text will auto copy to clipboard when you move the cursor over the icon.

You'll need a userscript client that supports GM_setClipboard, or it will prompt an alert. (both Greasemonkey & Scriptish support the API)

***********************
I wrote this script because Firefox's copy in contextmenu is very unreliable, it makes my life easier...
-Author's Description

-------
modified:
no, hover_autocopy has gone, because the pop-up interfered with my Auto Context which also is a lot more versatile, (but requires forced compatibility ~ and a click).

4wd · « **Reply #678 on:** February 27, 2015, 04:56 PM »

Are you sure you're not using the old sync? In the new one, effectively everything is a merge unless you delete the online db.
-MilesAhead (February 27, 2015, 05:37 AM)

My bad, Pale Moon still has the option Firefox doesn't - shows you how often I use Firefox

I run my own sync server but don't use it any more since I only use Firefox based browsers on Windows based computers, it's a lot more efficient to just replace the contents of the profile with the one I want.

@4wd: in the list Firefox (Pale Moon) Extensions used by @4wd (your FF PaleMoon extensions), you have Greasemonkey v1.15.
Is there any reason you have not updated to v2.3?
-IainB (February 27, 2015, 08:49 AM)

Most likely because I'm lazy and don't go looking for updates, and the add-on doesn't auto-update. Plus it works with the scripts I'm using so there's never been a reason to update it.

IainB · « **Reply #679 on:** February 28, 2015, 04:39 AM »

Most likely because I'm lazy and don't go looking for updates, and the add-on doesn't auto-update. Plus it works with the scripts I'm using so there's never been a reason to update it.
-4wd (February 27, 2015, 04:56 PM)

OIC. Thanks. My reason for not updating from Greasemonkey v1.15 to v2.3 is because I read that the NEW version is so different that apparently it could disable some of the the functionality in some of your scripts that worked fine under the OLD version. Not backwards compatible, I guess.

That version change seemed to happen around the same time as http://userscripts.org/ was taken out of service or something...
Now you can't get at all those OLD scripts.
Then http://userscripts-mirror.org/ was set up ... and then of course, there's Wayback.

IainB · « **Reply #680 on:** March 05, 2015, 09:44 AM »

Useful/informative post on Lifehacker.com: ]Everyone's Trying to Track What You Do on the Web: Here's How to Stop Them[/u]

It covers FF extensions and other browsers.
The main FF ones recommended include: AdBlockPlus, Ghostery, NoScript.
I found the link whilst reading the sage advice in this Lifehacker post: Why You Probably Shouldn't Look Up Health Symptoms Online

4wd · « **Reply #681 on:** March 05, 2015, 06:48 PM »

My main anti-tracking add-ons in order of effectiveness, (most effective at top), would probably be:
RefControl - Works before you land on a site.
Request Policy - Works when you are on a site.
Self-Destructing Cookies - Works after you've left a site.
Bluhell Firewall - Picks up the odd link you click on that goes via a marketing/tracking site, (eg. doubleclick.com).
Ghostery
AdBlock Latitude

Ghostery and AdBlock are only really useful while on a site to stop visual annoyances, Request Policy catches anything requiring 3rd party site communication.

These are all only really useful during a browsing session, (I don't have a disk-based cache).

Besides all that: Router based ad blocking

MilesAhead · « **Reply #682 on:** March 06, 2015, 07:49 AM »

Self-Destructing Cookies[/url] - Works after you've left a site.
-4wd (March 05, 2015, 06:48 PM)

For a time I used ToolWiz Time Freeze mainly for browsing protection. The scheme(in case anyone reading is not familiar with it) is to use Shadow Services to redirect system partition disk writes to a cache file. Upon reboot the cache is erased and the system partition is as it was. But it occurred to me that while I was browsing, the tracking cookies where still tracking.

Is there a good preventive that doesn't hobble the browsing experience?

4wd · « **Reply #683 on:** March 06, 2015, 08:59 AM »

Turn off Third Party Cookies in the Firefox options - I think I only ever came across one or two sites that wouldn't work unless it was enabled so it was easier just not to go to those sites.

Otherwise, Self-Destructing Cookies is probably good enough, turn on the Strict Cookie Policy and reduce the cookie kill time to something short.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #684 on:** March 06, 2015, 09:24 AM »

Turn off Third Party Cookies in the Firefox options - I think I only ever came across one or two sites that wouldn't work unless it was enabled so it was easier just not to go to those sites.

Otherwise, Self-Destructing Cookies is probably good enough, turn on the Strict Cookie Policy and reduce the cookie kill time to something short.
-4wd (March 06, 2015, 08:59 AM)

Thanks for the tips.

4wd · « **Reply #685 on:** March 06, 2015, 05:20 PM »

A lot of tracking between sites is also done through the HTML referrals, which is where RefControl comes in.
If you set it to Forge then it uses the URL of the destination site as the referrer, is. the request appears to be coming from within the site itself.

In the 1+ years I've been running it I think I've got less than 10 sites whitelisted to send Normal referrer. These are usually login pages that are on the same server but use a different sub-domain.

Curt · « **Reply #686 on:** March 06, 2015, 06:35 PM »

BehindTheOverlay - removes those dark overlays that obscure your view of webpage content.
-IainB (February 27, 2015, 09:20 AM)

two better links:
https://addons.mozil.../behind_the_overlay/
https://github.com/N...NMV/BehindTheOverlay

One of my fav pages is using black overlays too often for my (lack of) patience. So, thanks for informing!

Edited:
It didn't work on this "old" Firefox 23 - even with forced compatibility.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #687 on:** March 16, 2015, 02:28 PM »

Hmm, I hope it doesn't go the way of MaxThon with only the few writing extensions:

https://blog.mozilla...ng-safer-experience/

Deozaan · « **Reply #688 on:** March 16, 2015, 04:00 PM »

Hmm, I hope it doesn't go the way of MaxThon with only the few writing extensions:

https://blog.mozilla...ng-safer-experience/
-MilesAhead (March 16, 2015, 02:28 PM)

I was nodding my head in agreement with their reasoning, thinking it would be much like the Google Play Store, until I got to this part:

After the transition period, it will not be possible to install unsigned extensions in Release or Beta versions of Firefox. There won’t be any preferences or command line options to disable this.

So, for my own good, you're not even going to allow me to override your decision and install whatever software/extensions I want on my own machine?

How does an open source group even come to a decision like that? How is that open?

Curt · « **Reply #689 on:** March 16, 2015, 04:18 PM »

There will be a transition period of two release cycles (12 weeks total) during which unsigned extensions will only generate a warning in Firefox.

After the transition period, it will not be possible to install unsigned extensions in Release or Beta versions of Firefox. There won’t be any preferences or command line options to disable this.

Installation of unsigned extensions will still be possible on Nightly and Developer Edition, as well as special, unbranded builds of Release and Beta that will be available mainly for developers testing their extensions.
-all of the paragraph

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #690 on:** March 16, 2015, 04:19 PM »

My bad, Pale Moon still has the option Firefox doesn't ...
-4wd (February 27, 2015, 04:56 PM)

I've got it! Palemoon is my favorite extension!

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #691 on:** March 16, 2015, 04:24 PM »

After the transition period, it will not be possible to install unsigned extensions in Release or Beta versions of Firefox. There won’t be any preferences or command line options to disable this.

So, for my own good, you're not even going to allow me to override your decision and install whatever software/extensions I want on my own machine?

How does an open source group even come to a decision like that? How is that open?
-Deozaan (March 16, 2015, 04:00 PM)

(Bitter) No. Because FF decided their market is "hipsters not cool enough to go for Apple but with none of the tech skills of the original FF spirit." (/Bitter)

All this junk is making me always go WWPMD as in What Would Pale Moon Do. Besides the very nice oasis on the UI side with my familiar menus, the P-M people also seem to try to keep some sanity back in the browser when they can. I'm still on the old version, but will this change filter in there?

You'd hope a plugin dev would be thorough enough to sign the addons, but often times it's hobbyists just trying to release something cool, in that spirit.

It would be a shame if it all got chilly and locked them all out.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #692 on:** March 17, 2015, 06:13 AM »

So, for my own good, you're not even going to allow me to override your decision and install whatever software/extensions I want on my own machine?

How does an open source group even come to a decision like that? How is that open?
-Deozaan

I mainly stay away from IE variants because of BHOs and ActiveX. But during the MaxThon 2.x days I used to enjoy that community. Since then I would download MaxThon once or twice a year just for nostalgia. See what the new version looked like etc.. Man those extension restrictions totally killed it. The community is a shell of its former self. It seems like the trend these days is hell bent on making surfing a chore to be endured rather than a fun way to pass the time. Such a waste.

Deozaan · « **Reply #693 on:** March 18, 2015, 02:05 AM »

There will be a transition period of two release cycles (12 weeks total) during which unsigned extensions will only generate a warning in Firefox.

After the transition period, it will not be possible to install unsigned extensions in Release or Beta versions of Firefox. There won’t be any preferences or command line options to disable this.

Installation of unsigned extensions will still be possible on Nightly and Developer Edition, as well as special, unbranded builds of Release and Beta that will be available mainly for developers testing their extensions.
-all of the paragraph
-Curt (March 16, 2015, 04:18 PM)

I don't want to run an unstable Nightly or a Developer Edition, nor do I want "special" builds just to run some extensions. If I'm going to go for special, unbranded builds, I might as well go for IceWeasel or Pale Moon or Project Spartan.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #694 on:** March 18, 2015, 05:24 AM »

I don't want to run an unstable Nightly or a Developer Edition, nor do I want "special" builds just to run some extensions. If I'm going to go for special, unbranded builds, I might as well go for IceWeasel or Pale Moon or Project Spartan.
-Deozaan (March 18, 2015, 02:05 AM)

Plus what extension author will bother if the thing will only run on marginal builds?
I fear many will go the way of Andy Halford.

ewemoa · « **Reply #695 on:** March 18, 2015, 08:09 PM »

Very interesting link -- thanks for sharing that!

Curt · « **Reply #696 on:** March 30, 2015, 05:17 PM »

I don't care about cookies
Get rid of annoying cookie warnings from tens of thousands of 'infected' websites!

Explanation for outside_of_EU -users:
The EU regulations require that any website using cookies must get user's permission before installing them. This can be extremely annoying.

http://www.kiboke-st...-care-about-cookies/

tomos · « **Reply #697 on:** March 30, 2015, 11:26 PM »

^I dont care about cookies

I suspect I shouldnt, but have to admit I feel the same way now (due to those EU regulations).

IainB · « **Reply #698 on:** April 09, 2015, 02:52 PM »

Useful catch here: Bookmark Manager AM-Deadlink discontinued and crippled - gHacks Tech News

This is pretty useful too: The ultimate bookmarks guide - gHacks Tech News

IainB · « **Reply #699 on:** May 03, 2015, 02:14 AM »

Just saw this on firefoxfacts.com today: Browsec VPN

Need to encrypt traffic and websites you are browsing? Check out Browsec VPN. Facebook closed by an overzealous sysadmin? Browsec to the rescue! Browsec encrypts your traffic and routes it through our secure cloud. No one will be able to identify, track you or sniff your traffic. ...