Nonsequittal Rumblings

As reported on slashdot, Netscape has created a new browser, based on Firefox. Aside from the ugly default skin, it looks promising. It feels and works just like Firefox. My shortcut modification does not work like Firefox though. I do miss the ctrl-Q shortcut. Hrm… And none of the Firefox extension are installable. What a pitty.

Slashdot article links to the netscape download URL, which we don’t have access to. Luckily, there was a comment that included a link to a mirror, which we can download a copy from.

P.S.
I found another comment on the slashdot story that I found mildly amusing.

P.P.S.
More link – http://fs5.deviantart.com/f/2004/335/c/8/NSbrowserSetup_Full.exe

Honestly, I never knew that it existed until today. But here it is – Portable Firefox 1.0.
http://johnhaller.com/jh/mozilla/portable_firefox/

So, what makes this product “portable?”
By portable, the creator claims it is USB drive friendly. But how so?
By today’s standard, USB 1.1 data transfer rate is not fast. Firefox isn’t exactly a small piece of application if you want to run it off of USB1.1 drives. So the jar files (the zip files that contains all of the user interface configuration files) are compressed more. Less data transfer equals faster launch time. Very clever. (This also means this version of firefox won’t speed up the application on normal hard drive.)

Also, it was modified so history data, cache, cookie, etc are not stored on the drive.

Well, pooh. I thought this was going to be a version of Firefox for portable devices like cell phones. Opera still has a lead on this area – they even have a version of opera that runs on Simbian OS. I admit, Firefox still isn’t the best browser for everyone yet.

It’s a big day at the open source camp with the official release of Firefox 1.0. The mozilla web site is just pounded to the ground – it just won’t load like it should, making the downloading of the browser difficult. Bittorrent came in to rescue. The official torrent downloaded fast from the mozilla FTP site, and firefox installation file itself was downloaded in matter of seconds too.

Now, my quest started.

I love keyboard short cuts.

As a web developer, I loved having the Page Info (Tools -> Page Info) at my finger tip. In previous Firefox versions, I could use ctrl-J to access that info. As of version 0.9, ctrl-J was assigned to the Download window, and ctrl-I is the bookmarks (the compatibility issue with Internet Explorer). Installing Pithy extension resolved this problem. So far so good.

There was a period of time when I used Mozilla 1.7 browser. It also is a fine browser. One of the keyboard shortcut I liked was ctrl-Q to shut down Firefox completely. And this shortcut is missing in Firefox. I’ve been wondering if I could add this myself. I should be able to, since the entire user interface of all Mozilla based applications are defined in XUL.

I was just be able to figure this out today. Here is the detail. (And it’s not for the faint at heart)

1. Find chrome\chrome.rdf file inside Firefox installation folder
2. Open it in a text editor
3. Find the section that looks like c:baseURL="jar:resource:/chrome/browser.jar!/content/browser/"
4. Replace that line with c:baseURL="resource:/chrome/browser/content/browser/"
5. Find the section that looks like c:baseURL="jar:resource:/chrome/en-US.jar!/locale/browser/"
6. Replace that line with c:baseURL="resource:/chrome/en-US/locale/browser/"
7. Save the file, and exit the text editor
8. Find chrome\browser.jar file inside Firefox folder
9. Make a copy of the file, and name it browser.zip
10. Unzip the content of the zip file to browser folder within the current location
11. Find chrome\en-US.jar file inside Firefox folder
12. Make a copy of the file, and name it en-US.zip
13. Unzip the content of the zip file to en-US folder within the current location
14. Find chrome\browser\content\browser\browser.xul file within the Firefox folder – This is one of the files that was just unzipped
15. Open the file in a text editor
16. Find the section that looks like <key id="key_SwitchTextDirection" key="&bidiSwitchTextDirectionItem.commandkey;" command="cmd_SwitchTextDirection" modifiers="accel,shift" />
17. Add this line after the previous one : <key id="key_Quit" key="&quitApplicationCmdWin.commandkey;" oncommand="goQuitApplication();" modifiers="accel"/>
18. Find the section that looks like <menuitem id="menu_FileQuitItem" label="&quitApplicationCmdWin.label;" accesskey="&quitApplicationCmdWin.accesskey;" oncommand="goQuitApplication();"/>
19. Change that line to <menuitem id="menu_FileQuitItem" label="&quitApplicationCmdWin.label;" accesskey="&quitApplicationCmdWin.accesskey;" oncommand="goQuitApplication();" key="key_Quit"/>
20. Save the file and exit the text editor
21. Find chrome\en-US\locale\browser\browser.dtd file within the Firefox folder – This is another one of the file that was just unzipped
22. Find the section that looks like <!ENTITY quitApplicationCmdWin.accesskey "x">
23. Add this line right below that <!ENTITY quitApplicationCmdWin.commandkey "q">
24. Save the file and exit the text editor
25. Close Firefox once, and re-run it

The newly created keyboard shortcut doesn’t show up in the menu unlike other shortcut with this method. I’m still looking for that tweak. But now I can quit the browser with ease when I need to.

Things hasn’t been the best between Emily and I as of late. Being so far apart always make the relationship challenging. We are now on the stretch which we’re not seeing each other for the longest period of time during our relationship – 4 months.

On top of that, there are plenty of factors that are interfering with our relationships. She is very stressed with school work. We knew even before the semester started that she has very heavy load. But now we’re facing the reality. Things are just not easy for her. I’m having the easier life of the two. But I don’t feel bright and cheery all the time. And when I’m not feeling the best, the communication between us can go in the wrong direction very quickly. Tonight was just one of those night. I was just feeling “bleh” all day – I even came home early.

But what makes me want to stay with her is that we have not had any disconnected conversation sit for long. She may not feel the best affection from me as of late, and especially tonight. But I really love her, and that won’t change any foreseeable future.

Aishiteru, Emily-san. Very much.

Just couple entries ago, I put up a post that showed how Japanese couples have less sex than the rest of the globe. Now I see the other side of it:
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=1&id=317577

The amount and level of sex education must be very low in Japan. The figure shown in the article is horrifying. 1.1 million babies were born last year in Japan (http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-06-02-japan-women-usat_x.htm). If you do the math, that means more than 1 in every 5 babies conceived get aborted. (One of the reader comments in JapanToday site says .5 million, but that seems like a misfigure.) The rate of sexual assault is somewhat high, but that figure tells me that there are more than just that. Japanese people needs to be taught how precious lives are, even that of the infants. And, as many readers of JapanToday suggests, the country needs much, much higher sex education.

I can’t say for sure, but I believe there’s certain level of denial as one of the reason for the lack of sex education. The talk of sex is somewhat of taboo subject there. And they don’t want to think that there’s that rampant of a problem among themselves. While not religious in nature, the marriage and family planning is still a sacred topic. It should not be violated. If it was violated in your life, the violated person feels ashamed, and doesn’t want to talk about it. The others feels close to it – the denial.

It’s easy to say “they need to be better educated.” It’s harder to put the program in place because of the cultural tendency.

On a lighter note – the USAToday report still confirms that Japanese people are sex deprived: “In a 2001 survey, condom maker Durex found that Japan ranked dead last among 28 countries in the frequency of sex: The average Japanese had sex just 36 times a year. Hong Kong was next to last with 63. (Americans ranked No. 1 at 124 times a year.)“