Last week I upgraded for the latest and greatest from the Mozilla Foundation, Firefox 3. Oveall I’ve been very impressed with the increase in the loading speed. Before 3 it would take a good 20 to 30 seconds to load and now it’s down to about 10 to 15. As far as the browsing experience goes, I have noticed that it’s a little more snappy than the 2 series so it’s a good thing.
So to add to this, I though I would list out some of my favorite Firefox extensions. Some of these are good for everyone, some are mainly for web developers.
- All-in-One Sidebar - This add-on merges several Firefox option windows into a easy to access sidebar, things like Bookmarks, History, and Add-ons now just pop open on the side instead of in a window.
- BugMeNot - This is a goodie if you visit a site that requires you to do a free registration to read a simple article. It usualy has entries for smaller sites too like local news papers.
- ColorfulTabs - This one makes all of your tabs different colors. I find that it makes the tab bar more “glanceable” to go where you need.
- Extended Statusbar - This one is for webdevelopers and uptight surfers. It adds 4 panels to the status bar that gives you progress and statistics on your page load.
- Firebug - This is the big daddy of web debugging tools. Pop this add-on open and the entire page is there for you to examine, debug, tweak and adjust in realtime.
- ForcastFox - Adds the current weather and links to sat and radar maps to your status bar.
- Google Toolbar - Access your favoite search engine and many of it’s features from one toolbar.
- IE Tab - This allows you to switch a tab in Firefox from the Mozilla engine to the IE engine. Good for IE only sites. It also allows you to setup rules to switch for sites automaticly.
- Image Zoom - This is a great tool for images on web sites. You can hold down your right mouse button on a image and roll your scroll wheel to zoom or unzoom a image.
- PicLens - Another good image tool. This one is for searching images or YouTube. It uses a very visual and fast method for browsing your results. Check it out.
- ScrapBook - This one allows you to save entire pages, images and all, then go back and highlight and clip them. It’s great for keeping things for research or reference purposes.
- Tab Mix Plus - Currently in beta for Firefox 3, so you have to get a development build. This is the ultimate tab and session tweaking tool for Firefox.
Now you know why it took 30 seconds to load Firefox 2.
I’m in the process of migrating all of my MIS related stuff from MainTree’s web site to here. I’ve moved over the uScript Shared Libraries and a few other things. They are available from the CMHC/MIS Stuff section.
In the April MIS patch cycle, version 3.2 of mtSchedule was shipped. So far the feedback has been very positive. I’m also keeping my fingers crossed because so far there have only been 2 issues with the new version and both of them are in modules we ship the source for so they are field correctable.
For those who are interested, here are the 2 issues:
1: In very specific conditions, if you are using the Custom SAM option, the first item in the list can get corrupted in the Planned Event Editor. If you run into this, CS has a very easy 1 line code change that fixes it.
2: In order to make eCET group notes work with mtSchedule, Client Attendance was changed to always create the ISN register for new events. For users that don’t want this, they can comment out the $isncreate lines in mtClientAtt. There are 2 of them, line 253 for single items and line 989 for group members.
Now for the good stuff. Looking forward to 3.3 and beyond.
In the next version, tentatively called 3.3 and scheduled for the August / September time frame, there are 2 big things we are looking at. The first is adding a config page for Client Attendance and creating CFL hooks in it like the rest of mtSchedule so we can reduce the need for you guys to keep up with our upgrades to the Client Attendance process. There are no plans to close the source for that function, we just want to make it easier to maintain. Looking at the changes between the 3.0/3.1 version and the 3.2 version made me realize the need for that. Second, I’m talking to the mtSchedule Focus Group about the criteria for Check In and Check Out functionality. Check Out would be a extension to Client Attendance. If you want to get your wish list into that process, drop a message into the mtSchedule Focus Group’s list serve.
As always, if there is something you want to see added to mtSchedule, be sure to use the Product Suggestions page from the MIS support website.
Links:
Today is the big start to Netsmart Connections 2008. Last night was the ice breaker event and it was a chance for me to reconnect with a lot of old friends. Connections, and formerly the CMHC/MIS NUG Conference, are the main chance that I get to meet face to face with the users of the MIS. Over the years I’ve been involved with the MIS I’ve made plenty of friends and found out what a real community around a product can do. I can honestly say that without this community, I would not be doing what I am today.
Anyway, today is the big start. In the morning we have the Welcome from Netsmart’s CEO Jim Conway then we the Keynote from Henry Winkler. Later on this afternoon I’ll be doing presentations on mtSchedule and advanced uScript techniques.
Here’s to a good conference start.
Well, it looks like I’m updating this thing every 6 months. I need to do better than that. But anyway, I’m uploading some of the CMHC/MIS uScripts I wrote for MainTree to the NUG website. I’ll be adding more stuff to this site in the upcoming time as well.
Mental note: Never try to work on more than one project at the same time your are planning and in the process of moving.
I’m currently working on mtSchedule 3, updating some old uScript guides that I promised at CONNECTIONS, and some other miscellaneous things at the same time as trying to move to a new house. Needless to say my free time is around 0% right now. Because of all this, the general speed of the projects is going pretty slow. I’m not happy about that. Oh well, the moving part will be done in less than 3 weeks and all will be right with the world again.
Wow, it’s been almost a year and a half since I touched this site. Well that is going to change now.
With Netsmart Technologies acquiring MainTree’s CMHC/MIS based products, MainTree has to get out of the behavioral health market. That also includes moving the CMHC/MIS Tips and Tricks and the uScript Shared Libraries someplace else.
The Shared Libraries are going to get a new home at the National MIS User Group site so that just leaves the Tips and Tricks section.
Well, since I do have this nice site, and it needs some more content, I’ll just move it here.
Over the next few weeks I’ll be moving it all over and updating the information in it as well, so stay tuned.
Ok, I’ve converted my site to a blogging CMS. I wanted something that would let me add content on the fly without having to edit in one place and publish to another. The main reason for this is that I’m finding the need to rant about things from time to time now. So, there will be ranting soon, so hold on for some good insights… I hope. 
Right now I’m trying to get this thing to play nice with the rest of the site and make it look like my design. It is a pain in the ass to work on themes in WordPress, but I do have to admit they are pretty powerful.
Oh, one more thing, YES, I am running WordPress on IIS. Everything seems to be working ok for the moment. I’m just hoping PHP doesn’t decide to go bonkers on me. If something breaks, let me know. My e-mail is at the bottom of every page.
Well, it’s coming. On June 11th, 2005, I’ll be married to the woman who has become the love of my life. I don’t know what I would do without her now.
You can view the full gallery here.
