The CyberNet blog previously showed us how to make Firefox remember any password, even for high-security websites that prevent password saving. That hack doesn’t always work in Firefox 3, but they’ve got another solution. By changing one value in a Firefox configuration file—found at C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\components\nsLoginManager.js in Windows, and Firefox.app\Contents\MacOS\components\nsLoginManager.js on Macs (the location will vary for Linux users, best to search for it), you can have Firefox ignore any flags thrown down by websites to prevent password saving. CyberNet walks through the nitty-gritty of the code change and how to undo it, but it’s worth stating again that you’ll only want to do this if you’ve got other systems in place to secure your saved passwords.
Make Firefox Remember Passwords without a Bookmarklet [CyberNet]Reader Dave, inspired by our posts on the Linux desktop tool Conky, keeps tasks, weather, and even Twitter replies on hand, along with a stylish clock. Here’s how you can re-create and modify his setup.
The picture up top was patched together from a full-size screenshot of Dave’s desktop; unfortunately, his 1920-pixel-wide setup is a bit too big to host in readable full view. But here’s a scaled-down idea of how Dave’s setup looks on his desk:
It’s not all about romance! Relax, recharge, reboot: here’s some of the top tech tips from the past week to pursue if you get a spare minute.
Double-check whether your ISP is taking part in filter trials Find the missing manuals for your older household appliances Check out some official YouTube downloads Use Flickit and your iPhone to sort your Flickr photo collection Backup your DVD collection with DVDSmith3 has updated its USB mobile broadband range with the E180, a model which can swivel through 270 degrees so that, as the site puts it, you can “optimise reception and position it for ultimate convenience”. In practice, the latter factor — being able to connect it without blocking other ports or laptop components — is probably the bigger selling point. The key also has a built-in Micro SD slot if you want to use it for storage. The E180 works on Windows and Mac OS X (and probably on Linux with a little tweaking). It costs $199 outright or between $5 and $10 a month on an existing plan. Of course, all the usual caveats about 3 being messy outside capital cities apply, though that might eventually change if the proposed merger with Vodafone goes through Three
Web site Jinni is a new closed beta web site that finds movies you’ll like based on your mood—kind of like Pandora, but for movies. Sound interesting? We’re handing out invites.As you can see from the video, Jinni offers recommendations based on content, so you can perform crazy searches like “dogs go to space” and hope to find a good result. Incidentally, that search did not work on Jinni—but a search like “save world in space” finds 39 strong options. The search results are displayed as images, and the size of the image is relative to its relevance to the search (e.g., the more “save world in space” applies to the movie, the larger its image). Recommendation services are always tricky, since, as they say, there’s no accounting for taste. Still, it seems to work with music recommendation sites like Pandora or Last.fm, and Jinni looks like a very promising recommendation engine for movie lovers.
Jinni Beta SignupAn impending merger with Vodafone apparently hasn’t stopped 3 from launching new products. Its latest option has some interesting possibilities if you’re a couple (or a gang of swingers) looking to cut call costs: sharing the value of a single cap across two or three people, each with their own number. $79 a month gets you $650 in talk and texts, plus $350 in 3-to-3 calls where you can get all lovey-dovey with each other. For the $109 threesome deal, you get $1,000 in calls and texts and $650 for on-network communication (and we don’t want to know the details). But do the maths: if you and your other half aren’t heavy phone users, a pair of cheaper caps or pay-as-you-go phones might well be cheaper. 3 Shared Caps
Reader Filip writes in with a tip for Chrome users that’s obvious when you’ve thought of it but pretty useful if you haven’t:
A tip for fitting more bookmarks in the Google chrome bookmarks bar. Make the name shorter: Lifehacker > LH , Kotaku > K1 , Photobucket > PB. You can easily fit 20+ bookmarks in a single bookmark bar. If you know the icon by heart, you don’t even need the name, just the icon -then you can fit 40+.
The iPhone doubtless played a crucial role in making mobile video mainstream, but now it seems we’re all addicted. A forward projection by Cisco suggests that by 2013, nearly 64% of all mobile web traffic will be video content. Are you addicted to video on your mobile device, or would you rather save your megabytes for something else? Share your usage patterns in the comments. More »
Human depravity really knows no bounds — scammers have been quick to set up fake charity sites to try and divert funds from bushfire relief efforts. Scumbags. The ACCC Scamwatch site has a useful guide to how to identify scams, along with a link to charities that are actually above the level via Consumer Affairs Victoria. More »
Web application Gog.is takes complicated Google search URLs and simplifies them down into a descriptive, short format for easy sharing over chat—without searching yourself and doing the copy/paste thing. The Gog.is URL format is simple, and converts any keyword after the slash into a Google search—for instance, gog.is/lifehacker will pull up a Google search for “lifehacker” just like you would expect (albeit via the main US site), or you can combine search terms by simply adding a comma or plus symbol between keywords, so gog.is/lifehacker+wii+hack or gog.is/lifehacker,wii,hack would search google for all three keywords. While the site may end up being just a novelty—and “just Google it” is the new RTFM—it could be useful when you need to tell somebody what to search for without wasting your own time doing the search. For a more obviously useful service, check out the previously mentioned Google Maps shortening service mapof.it.
Gog.is [via Help Desk Geek]
