Off-Topic Category: Digital Rebellion Blog

Hacking Firefox extensions to work on beta versions

Sat, 02 May 2009 12:20:14 MDT

This is a little off-topic but some people might find it useful. For the past three months or so, I have been using the Firefox 3.5 betas as my main browser. Why? Well, it is considerably faster than the previous version, renders pages more accurately (much less difference between Firefox and Safari now) and has some features I now cannot live without, such as the ability to restore closed windows as well as tabs.

But the trouble with using a bleeding-edge browser is that third-party developers take time to update their extensions to make them compatible. This can be frustrating, as often no code changes are necessary and all that needs to be done is a simple modification of the maximum version string.

There are two things you can do here - switch off compatibility checking or modify the maximum version of the extension.

Switch off compatibility checking

1. In Firefox, type about:config into the address bar.

2. Select "I'll be careful, I promise" if a warning appears.

3. Ctrl-click anywhere and select New > Boolean.

4. Enter extensions.checkCompatibility (note the capital C) as the name.

5. Select false as the value.

I have heard people report problems with this so if you want to specify exactly which extensions you want to make compatible, read on.

If the extension is already installed

1. Make sure Firefox is closed.

2. Navigate to ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles.

3. You should see a folder with a gobbledegook name ending in ".default". Open this folder.

4. Delete or rename the file extensions.cache.

5. Open the extensions folder.

6. You will see more gobbledegook folder names. The only way to tell which one is the extension you are looking for is to open each folder one at a time and look at the contents of the folder's install.rdf file in TextEdit. The file's contents include the name of the extension, a description and compatibility information.

7. In the install.rdf file, look for the tag <em:maxVersion> and change the tag value to your current version (at the time of writing this is 3.5b4).

8. Save the file (you may need to change permissions on the file so you can write to it).

9. Launch Firefox and go to Tools > Add-Ons to verify that the extensions are now recognized by Firefox.

If the extension is not already installed

1. The Mozilla add-ons site won't let you download the extension if you have an incompatible version of Firefox. The easiest way to get around this is to fire up Safari, navigate to the add-ons page for the extension in question and download it manually (this works in Safari 4 - I don't have version 3 to test with).

2. Change the file extension of the .xpi file that is downloaded to .zip and unzip it. This will create a new folder on disk with the contents of the archive inside it.

3. Open install.rdf inside the folder and follow steps 7-8 above.

4. Select all files inside the folder, ctrl-click and click Compress X Items. You must compress the files inside the folder - do not compress the folder itself.

5. Rename the Archive.zip file to have an xpi extension.

6. Drag the XPI file into Firefox or go to File > Open File and navigate to it.

7. Firefox will now install it as if it was compatible.

Note - the extensions I modified were compatible with 3.1b3 (the previous version) so it was not much of a jump and I didn't experience any issues. I would not advise major version jumps (e.g. 2.x to 3.x) as this is likely to cause problems.

Twitter

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 04:23:26 MST

After years of wondering what the fuss was about, I have finally signed up to Twitter.

What's Twitter? It's basically a mini blog where you post very short messages up to 140 characters. It's great for letting people know what you are doing, asking questions and getting feedback. The beauty of it is the 140 character limit - this ensures posts are quick and to the point. Perfect for the modern age!

It'd be nice to have a little post production community where people can help each other out or just get to know each other. From a business perspective, it's also a great way of getting feedback on our products in order to improve them.

So if you want to follow me on Twitter, my Twitter URL is:
http://twitter.com/digitalreb

Merry Christmas from Digital Rebellion

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 11:12:06 MST

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Where on earth did 2008 go?

What I like most about Christmas is that, unlike most religious festivals, everyone gets something out of it no matter what they believe in. It's a special time and it's always a shame when it's over.

But 2009 looks like it could be a very good year for the company so I am looking forward with anticipation. I hope 2009 will be a fruitful year for us all.

RIP Paul Newman

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 10:59:04 MDT

We just lost a legend. RIP.

More details: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7639614.stm

Max Payne trailer

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:35:31 MDT

This movie had better be good.... I actually think Michael Madson looks more like Max Payne but hopefully Wahlberg does a good job.

And for reference, here is the original E3 2001 game trailer (which I think is better):

iPhone App Store now officially online

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:55:17 MDT

The 3G iPhone doesn't come out until tomorrow but Apple has activated the App Store and released the 2.0 firmware for the first-generation iPhone. Just download iTunes 7.7 and click the new App Store link in the iTunes Store. There are some very promising ones in there including eBooks, games, chat, calculators, finance managers, and many more.

Now, one thing you may have noticed is a distinct lack of any Digital Rebellion tools in there (or, indeed, any related to filmmaking at all). I'll be honest here - native iPhone application development is not an area I have properly researched yet. I do, however, plan to transition the iPhone-compatible web apps we currently have to fully-fledged iPhone Apps eventually but time is currently not on my side. I hope to have all of them ported within the next two months though, assuming Apple grants the company a license (not all developers have been accepted). Do rest assured, however, that the apps will still be available for the ultra-low price of free and in the meantime, you can access them from your phone (now at 3G speeds) from our resources page.

If anyone finds any great iPhone apps for filmmakers in the store, be sure to post them in the comments.

Perfect Sport wins MyFestival, screens at SIFF

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:20:29 MDT

I'm pleased to announce that Perfect Sport has won MyFestival, the online film festival that decides which movie will fill the last available screening slot at the Seattle International Film Festival.

Perfect Sport won the Feature Film category, with the short film Robbie's Withdrawal being screened before it. This takes the movie's total festival wins to two so far, the previous being Best Dramatic Feature at WorldFest.

The screening takes place at the Harvard Exit on Sunday June 15th at 6:30 pm. Tickets are $11 General Admission or $9 for SIFF Supporter. Tickets can be purchased here.

I'd recommend the theatrical screening for the best possible experience but the film is still available for viewing on the MyFestival site until June 15th.

Read the press release here.

Last chance to catch Perfect Sport

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:53:47 MDT

Only a few days left to catch the award-winning feature Perfect Sport online for free. It is competing in MyFestival, a collaboration with the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF). 10 features and 10 shorts compete for votes, with the winner in each category going on to screen at SIFF on June 15th. The movie will only be online until June 8th (this Sunday) so time is running out!

Here's what some people had to say so far:

Digg:

Just got done watching the movie on MyFestival- "socially-challenging while delightfully entertaining" sums it all up. Its a movie I won't soon forget.

IMDb:

Building on a very creative script with an unexpected plot and believable, fully human characters, the actors make unusual choices that bring even more life to their roles. Your typical sports movie this ain't. Perfect Sport is also set against a beautiful score. I'd recommend this movie to anyone who wants to see something original and gripping. It's so nice to see a movie where you don't know everything that's going to happen in advance. Loved it! Hope it comes out in wider release soon.

http://myfestival.indieflix.com/FilmDetail.aspx?filmid=12

Definitely not a movie to be missed. Also don't forget to post your thoughts on the movie into the comment box on the MyFestival site as feedback is really helpful for filmmakers.

P.S. I'm going to have limited internet access over the next few days so apologies if I can't answer your emails quickly.

R.I.P. Sydney Pollack

Mon, 26 May 2008 22:55:30 MDT

Didn't expect to read this... Sydney Pollack just died of cancer, aged 73.

Baz Luhrmann offers free filmmaking course on iTunes

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 01:57:10 MDT

Baz Luhrmann (director of Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge and the infamous Chanel commercial with Nicole Kidman) is now offering a free filmmaking course entitled Set to Screen in video podcast form on the iTunes store.

It lasts until October and each podcast features a specific aspect of the filmmaking process (e.g. set design, cinematography, etc) on Baz's new feature film, Australia, starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. The first one, On Set Photography, is available now. Peter Jackson did something similar on King Kong which ended up being very successful.

If you're a high school or college student, five of the podcasts come with a challenge at the end. Complete the challenge, post it to the Apple Student Gallery and you could be in for the chance of winning an iPod shuffle, iPod nano, iPod touch, or a MacBook Pro. A trip for two to Australia is also up for grabs, and the top prize in the final challenge is a trip to Australia with a chance to meet Baz and travel with him on the movie's promotional tour. Your project will also be featured on the movie's DVD release.

For those who aren't students, I think the podcasts are still very interesting regardless. I have a lot of respect for Baz and his work so I will be subscribing to this for sure and no doubt hanging on his every word.

[via CamcorderInfo]

Perfect Sport wins Best Drama at WorldFest

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 15:03:49 MDT

I previously mentioned that Perfect Sport had been entered into the WorldFest Houston film festival. I'm happy to announce that the movie fought off some tough competition to win Best Dramatic Feature at the festival. Congratulations to all those involved, in particular Tony O'Brien, the writer-director-actor behind it.

I saw a great review on IMDb from someone who saw it at WorldFest that summarizes the movie far better than I ever could:

I loved this movie! Caught it at Houston Worldfest where it won for Best Drama. For those of you who haven't seen it yet (don't worry, no spoilers here) here's a mini-review:

And finally, LA Times has a sneak preview.

The movie will be entered into other film festivals and I will let you know more about that when information becomes available. When it comes to your town, I definitely recommend checking it out.

NewsFire now completely free

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 00:32:01 MST

I just heard that the developer of NewsFire is now offering the popular Mac feed reader for free. I recommended this even when it cost money (I am a paid user) so I recommend it even more now that it is free.

So what is it and why do you need it? Well, those little orange buttons you see on web pages are links to RSS feeds. An RSS feed is a tiny file containing textual information such as posts from a blog or software updates. If you have a favorite site or blog, you can be notified of updates without having to visit the site every day. Obviously this saves a lot of time and bandwidth.

I didn't think I needed one until I tried it, and the time I saved was tremendous. If you see a new site you like the look of, put it in your feed reader and forget about it until the next update. Visiting a site to check for updates that don't exist is very inefficient.

NewsFire is a great program because, as the developer himself says: "Unlike other readers, NewsFire is designed with a deliberately minimal interface. The news is what matters and it takes center stage." And now it's free, so try it out.

We have several feeds on this site, listed here. We also have an appcast feed that tells you when one of our applications is updated.

[via TUAW]

iPhone storage bumped up to 16 GB, iPod Touch increased to 32 GB

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 10:53:44 MST

Apple just increased the storage space on its iPhone and iPod Touch lines. Here are the new prices and specs:

iPhone 8 GB - $399
iPhone 16 GB - $499

iPod Touch 8 GB - $299
iPod Touch 16 GB - $399
iPod Touch 32 GB $499

I don't think there is anything right now preventing the iPhone from having 32 GB of storage, it's more of a case of Apple not wanting to cannibalize iPod Touch sales for those with larger music collections.

iTunes tells me I have 32.86 GB of music so I guess I will have to wait for the next two storage revisions of the iPhone before buying one (the next one presumably being 32 GB and the one after that being 48 or 64 GB, one would imagine).

Bloody Omaha

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 15:52:14 MST

For the BBC history show Timewatch, they did a reenactment of the Omaha Beach landings - using only three actors. They used all kinds of camera and post tricks and managed to pull it off believably. Here's the making of "Bloody Omaha":

[via ProLost]

Opera sues Microsoft over Internet Explorer

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 13:30:19 MST

Opera Software is suing Microsoft over Internet Explorer, claiming that it is anti-competitive to integrate the browser with the operating system. That claim has been made many a time. However, they are also claiming that Microsoft deliberately flouted web standards in order to discourage interoperability. I would agree with this. Firefox is my primary browser so I generally design for that, but the site is near-identical in standards-compliant browsers such as Safari. Try it in Internet Explorer and it looks completely different.

The access logs for the site say that the majority of visitors are on a Mac, so wouldn't be able to use IE anyway - no bad thing, and the majority of visits come from Safari, with Firefox at second place and IE at third. I don't feel that it is a worthwhile use of my time to create code that will detect IE and offer a site specifically tailored for only the third popular browser used to navigate to this site, especially as the incompatibilities are entirely Microsoft's fault.

Opera says that it would like the European Commission to force MS to comply with standards. I don't know if that is possible but then again, European courts takes a sterner stance on Microsoft than their US counterparts, so it is possible. Either way, I am hoping that this will generate negative press for IE and alert people to the fact that there are alternatives.

I would personally recommend Firefox for speed, stability, standards compliance, ease of use (I find IE7's interface really confusing) and above all, extensions. Extensions are small pieces of software that perform tasks. For example, I have extensions for removing ads, displaying page ranks and for counting words in text areas (very useful when filling data into forms with minimum or maximum character limits). There are extensions for pretty much anything.

I also recommend Safari. Safari is VERY fast. It doesn't support extensions unfortunately but it's an Apple product so there is a lot of attention to detail. It's mainly the small details that cause people to like it so much, like the fact that you can resize text boxes in forms so that you can see what you're typing, Snapback mode that lets you easily return to your search results, and an advanced RSS reader that lets you filter and re-order the posts in the list.

I have also heard good things about Camino but have never used it myself. Firefox and Safari are compatible with both Mac and Windows but Camino is Mac-only.

Internet Explorer users: you might think your current browser offers you everything you could want but give one of the browsers listed above a try and you will find a lot of things that you can't live without.

[via BBC News]

Extras season finale this Sunday

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 04:30:30 MST

HBO is showing the season finale of Extras on Sunday Dec 16th at 9pm. Extras follows the life of aspiring actor Andy Millman. The first series features him as an extra trying to make the jump into full-time acting. The second series features him as an actor who has "made it" to an extent - but he's still no better off.

It's a comedy by the people who brought you the British version of The Office. Whilst The Office was great ("oi, no professionals"), I believe that this show is superior. It's sad that it's coming to an end but I have a lot of respect for Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant because they always end their TV shows before they get old. I can't wait to see what their next project is.

I wanted to make a post about it because despite being broadcast on HBO, a lot of people in this country still don't know about it. Every episode features them on the set of a production with a high-profile celebrity. They've had Ben Stiller, Daniel Radcliffe, Samuel L. Jackson, Kate Winslet, Orlando Bloom, Robert De Niro, Patrick Stewart, and many more. The humor is derived from the fact that they each play a slightly warped version of themselves. I think this is best illustrated by this clip of Patrick Stewart:

I would recommend checking out some of the episodes or clips on YouTube before watching the final episode as 1) you won't understand what's going on and 2) the final episodes are generally not as funny as the other ones as they mainly focus on tying up the story. I'm sure it will be good though.

Scorsese creates "The Key to Reserva"

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 01:01:41 MST

This is a really great Hitchcock tribute by Martin Scorsese. He supposedly found a 3 1/2 page lost script by Hitchcock with a page missing and wanted to create a movie from the script as a tribute. It's fake obviously - it's actually a wine commercial - but it's still a pretty good short film and very enjoyable to watch.

The Key to Reserva

[via HDForIndies]