Performancing FireFox Extension
I've been migrating from my old, bad, IE habits to FireFox.
Sure I prefer an open-source browser.
Sure I don't want to be beholden to the "evil empire".
But for many years the only computers I used had that little IE logo - everything else was forbidden - except at home.
Habits like that stick - you look for the icon and click when you want to get on the web - that's why Microsoft bundled it so hard.
Last time I was in India I started using FireFox because it loaded quicker and didn't give me as much grief in Indian cybercafes - I got my email quicker even though I use a HotMail address when I am travelling.
When I finally got back online and had a computer of my own I went back to my bad old habits - you guessed it - I automatically clicked on the IE icon.
In the end I downloaded FireFox not because I realised what a good browser it was, not because it was leaner and meaner or more secure - none of the sensible reasons.
It was because I wanted to check that the Hacker's Handbook site looked OK in other browsers.
Now I have ditched IE - I've removed the icons from my desktop to stop myself doing the reflex thing - and there is one major reason.
FireFox is highly extendable - like "emacs" - but for the web. If you can think of something to extend FireFox and write code - you can - and people do.
Which brings me to the main point of this entry.
I am writing this using the "Performancing" FireFox extension which allows me to blog within FireFox without ever leaving the site I am in.
It's really easy to set up for multiple blogs - though watch out for the password pitfall - you need to create a password for your blog by going to Main Menu | System Overview | Authors and edit your profile to create a new password "for use with XML-RPC and Atom-enabled clients".
This API password is the last field in the profile - you need to put a password in there which is the same as the one you use in Performancing. If you try and login with your blog password it will fail - fix this first.
This is the commonest problem with Performancing - and easily solved.
The only other problem people using Movable Type seem to have is problems locating the mt-xmlrpc.cgi file - it should be right under your MT directory - http://myserver.com/mt/mt-xmlrpc.cgi - or whatever you've used.
Right now the Performancing plugin is under test - but it seems like a good a reason as any for getting out from under the boot heel of the evil empire.
Tags: performancing blogging movable type firefox firefox extensions