NoahBrier.com

Firefox Archives

Apr 22
2005

Aha Moment: Firefox is Becoming My OS

Yesterday I installed another extension for Firefox. This one is called Foxytunes and allows you to control your MP3 software from Firefox. Installing the extension wasn't that big a deal and, honestly, the extension isn't that big a deal either. What was a big deal, however, was the aha moment I had right after I installed.

All of a sudden I realized that my browser was looking more and more like an operating system. The more extensions I installed, the less I ever had to go anywhere else. I could have lots of programs running in the background, all controlled with Firefox. It's a pretty amazing idea.

Then, this morning, as I was sitting on the toilet (where I do some of my best thinking), I realized that I've installed more extensions onto my computer than software. Thinking about the software I use at work, it's not a long list: mail, Word, PowerPoint (occasionally), Excel (occasionally), iCal, AIM, MSN Messenger, TextEdit and of course Firefox. That's nine programs. You know how many extensions I have installed at the moment? 13. Kind of interesting. Imagine five years ago telling someone you have installed more programs on your browser than you have on your OS.

Wow.

WhatsInYourFirefox

WhatsInYourFirefox
Originally uploaded by nbrier.

Yesterday I posted this screenshot to Flickr and made notes on all the extensions. It's from my work computer and gives a pretty good idea of how I use Firefox. Go check out my comments, then come back and download the extensions for yourself.

1. Tabbrowser Preferences

2. Word Count

3. SessionSaver

4. Filangy Toolbar (email me for an invite -- nb [at] noahbrier.com)

5. SpellBound

6. Down Them All

7. Forecast Fox

8. BugMeNot

9. Google PageRank Status

10. del.icio.us (I even just noticed it works again with Firefox 1.0.3)

11. Greasemonkey

12. Web Developer Toolbar

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Hi, I'm Noah. I like writing on, thinking about and making stuff for the internet. I work for The Barbarian Group and am responsible for a few internet experiments like Brand Tags, likemind and My First Tweet. On this site I write about media, marketing, culture, technology and randomness. I like it when people email me.

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Mostly random thought (from Twitter): Wow, I am now getting Ground Zero Mosque comment spam ... I don't know whether to be impressed or disturbed. (31 August 2010, 11:54 am)

Q: What is this site all about?
A: I think Michael Bierut explained it nicely a few years ago in response to people asking him why he didn't write more about design on Design Observer: "But the great thing about graphic design is that it is almost always about something else. Corporate law. Professional football. Art. Politics. Robert Wilson. And if I can't get excited about whatever that something else is, I really have trouble doing good work as a designer. To me, the conclusion is inescapable: the more things you're interested in, the better your work will be." Replace "graphic design" with "media/marketing/technology" (or whatever you'd like to call my field) and you've got my deal.

Q: Where else do you live?
A: Good question. All over the place as a matter of fact. On Tumblr for more randomness, Twitter for short bursts, Dopplr for places I'm going, Delicious for things I'm reading, last.fm for music I'm listening to, Flickr for photos I'm taking and Facebook because I don't really have a choice. (Oh, and Amazon for stuff I want people to buy me.)

Q: I meant that literally. Where do you live?
A: Oh, sorry, Brooklyn, New York is where I call home at the moment.

Q: Any other side projects you'd like to tell us about?
A: As a matter of fact, yes. There's How Much Does it Buy?, a calculator for the rest of us. Holy Crap! Facts (and accompanying Twitter feed) which is pretty much exactly what you'd expect. Da' Bears Blog is, in my opinion, the best Chicago Bears blog on the web (I don't write it, I just helped it get off the ground) and Tweemail is a little PHP script I wrote for getting Twitter updates by email. I'm also always working on a few other things and will let you know when they're ready for public consumption.

Q: Um okay.
A: Yeah, that's a fake question mostly so I can throw in this one other quote I like that I think sums up some of what I try to do here. This one comes from Albert Einstein (or at least the internet says so) and goes something like, "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." Words to live by.

Q: What sites do you like?
A: Well that changes all the time. At the moment I've been digging clusterflock, Beyond the Beyond, Bobulate, Barking up the wrong tree and The Awl.