August 2006 Entries

I got a email the other day asking if it is possible by using my Mozilla addon Launchy to start the Firefox Portable with within the Thunderbird Portable. So when you use Thunderbird Portable and right click on a link you can choose Firefox Portable. And when you from within Firefox Portable right click on a mailto link can choose Thunderbird Portable. And the answer is yes.

Lets say you installed Firefox Portable and Thunderbird Portable on your USB stick. Firefox Portable is installed so that the full path to the executable is something like USB_DRIVE_LETTER:\FirefoxPortable\FirefoxPortable.exe and the full path to the Thunderbird Portable executable is USB_DRIVE_LETTER:\ThunderbirdPortable\ThunderbirdPortable.exe.

The solution is to use the launchy.xml and and the %GeckoDrive% variable. The launchy.xml file is used by Launchy to add additional applications, besides those autodetected, to the right click option. The %GeckoDrive% variable always holds the drive letter from which the Gecko application was started. So if Firefox Portable was started from the drive letter Z the %GeckoDrive% variable is set to "Z:". Not that %GeckoDrive% also includes the semicolon after the drive letter.

The gives us the possibility to create a launchy.xml file that looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configurations xmlns="http://launchy.mozdev.org/configurations">
  <application>
    <label>Firefox Portable</label>
    <type>1</type>
    <command>%GeckoDrive%\FirefoxPortable\FirefoxPortable.exe</command>
  </application>
  <application>
    <label>Thunderbird Portable</label>
    <type>2</type>
    <command>%GeckoDrive%\ThunderbirdPortable\ThunderbirdPortable.exe</command>
  </application>
</configurations>

To get it working you have to place the above text in file called launchy.xml in these two directories:
USB_DRIVE_LETTER:\ThunderbirdPortable\Data\profile\chrome\
USB_DRIVE_LETTER:\FirefoxPortable\Data\profile\chrome\

This way the next time you start your Firefox Portable or Thunderbird Portable the right click Launchy option will show you the Portable options.

Does the sudden appearance of a Firefox crop circle imply which browser extraterrestrials prefer? We don't know, but it was still fun to make! Constructed by local Firefox fans and the same team that created the Firefox mural from cornstarch and kool-aid and launched the Firefox weather balloon, the Firefox Crop Circle project shows that we have so much passion for Firefox that we want it to be visible from space! Planned in under two weeks and completed in under 24 hours, the crop circle had a final diameter of 220 feet. We constructed the circle in an oat field near Amity, Oregon, where it was completely invisible from the road but unmistakable from the sky. Our team consisted of 12 people, mainly OSU students, and we carefully stomped down oats from 3:30pm Friday afternoon until 2:30am, putting on the finishing touches between 7:30am and 11:00am Saturday, August 12.

Watch the video
Read more about the project
Picture gallery

I hate Real Player but if it can increase the Firefox marked share then ok. Actually I used to like the player until it got bloated with all kinds of weird applications and functions.

RealNetworks said Wednesday that it has agreed to a multiyear agreement to offer Mozilla's Firefox Web browser with downloads of its RealPlayer, Rhapsody and RealArcade software programs. Real said it has also agreed to extend and expand a similar agreement with Google under which it will offer the search engine's Toolbar and Desktop programs with Real software. RealNetworks partnership with Mozilla comes as Firefox continues to notch steady gains in the U.S. Web browser market at the expense of Microsoft and its dominant Internet Explorer browser. According to Net Applications, Firefox's share of the browser market stood at 11.3% at the end of July, up from 9.6% at the end of 2005 and 4.6% at the end of 2004.

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