Summer Project: Create A Cool Persona For MCIIS! (Getpersonas.com)

Firefox has a very neat new add-on that allows you to quickly create your own "skin" for your browser. They call this feature "Personas" and your task for the summer (should you decide to accept it, Mr. Phelps...) is to create a really cool one for MCIIS.

Personas are different than "themes" with Firefox. Themes are a complete package that include customized buttons as well as backgrounds. Personas only change the background in the browser at the top and the bottom. While not as comprehensive as themes, they more than make up for it by being easy to make.

To see how this all worked, I created my own persona called "MCIIS09". You can get a sense of what it looks like in the screenshot at the top of the page and, if you want to see how it looks on your browser, you can go to the MCIIS09 page to download it.

I wanted to tap into that intel lab vibe (I know so many of you miss it already...) and I think I was successful at that. It is less successful (as you can see) with regards to functionality -- the buttons are pretty hard to make out against the rapidly alternating dark and light background image.

In short, I am sure that someone with a little more (read: any) skill in art and design can do a better job. Once you are done, send me a note and I will be happy to post a link to it on SAM!

SAM Goes Back To School, Part 2: Top Firefox Add-Ons For Intel Studies Students

One of the basic tools of an intel studies student's life is the internet browser. Everyone has an opinion, of course, but for my money Firefox 3 is the best choice. I have come to really like the flexibility of Firefox for the project-based work we usually find ourselves doing and have become increasingly impressed with the new features on Firefox 3 (introduced back in June).

• Beyond Firefox 3, of course, there is Internet Explorer 7, Safari, and Opera. I like Opera the best of the three (particularly for cell phones) with Safari a close runner up. IE 8, which should improve on the current browser, is still in beta and Google's addition to the browser wars, Chrome, is not due out until today. There are, of course, other browsers out there and anyone with strong preferences is welcome to post to the comments...

One of the things that makes Firefox such a great browser is the ability to customize it using add-ons. There are add-ons for every conceivable purpose so I will only highlight the ones here that multiple students have found very useful in the past. In addition, Firefox 3 built a number of traditional add-ons from Firefox 2.0 into the browser itself so there is no need to install them.

• Zotero or Scrapbook. Both are very good ways to store and retrieve web pages for research purposes. Zotero is a little more complicated but is very useful for writing academic style as well as intel style papers (Zotero integrates easily with MS Word which makes including citations and bibliographies in papers a breeze). Scrapbook is easier to use but does not have the power that Zotero has. Because of Zotero's ability to help students in both intel and non-intel classes, we require the use of Zotero in our freshman Advanced Intel Analysis class.

• IE Tab. IE Tab allows you to see content that is typically only viewable in Internet Explorer in Firefox. There aren't many sites where you need this tab but some troglodytes out there still insist on optimizing their content for IE only. In these cases, IE Tab is invaluable.

• PDF Download and Download Statusbar. Both of these add-ons help manage downloads, particularly large PDF files, with ease.

• McAfee Site Advisor, Web Of Trust or Netcraft Toolbar. When poking around the internet you are almost certain to come across what might look like a suspicious website. All of these add-ons provide you information to help make an informed decision. I use McAfee Site Advisor and Web Of Trust has come recommended by a source I trust (Thanks, Megan!). Netcraft Toolbar is another such add-on (targeting phishing attacks in particular) that comes recommended to me.

• Morning Coffee. This add-on allows you to bring up a whole menu of websites with a single click. It is particularly useful if you are working on a project and want to monitor a number of sites routinely and simultaneously.

• Adblock Plus. Tired of annoying ads on pages? Adblock Plus gets rid of them.

• Forecastbar Enhanced. Gives you a complete weather picture whenever you want it. Particularly useful in places where the weather can shift from one extreme to another within hours (like Erie...).

• Ubiquity. I almost put this one first. It is one of the most advanced tools I have seen for Firefox. My only hesitation is that it is in extreme Alpha status right now (but getting better quickly!) and it requires Firefox 3. What does it do? Just about everything. Check out the video below.

This is a short list of the add-ons that have been repeatedly recommended to me over the last year. If you have others, please post a link to the comments!

Related Posts:
SAM Goes Back To School, Part 1: Wake Up!

Firefox 3 Download Day! (Mozilla)

Many Mercyhurst intel students use Firefox because of its ability to be easily configured to meet an individual analyst's needs. You need a currency converter or an automatic translator, it is easy to find one and add it to Firefox. Today, Mozilla, Firefox's parent organization, hopes to make that experience even better with the release of Firefox 3.

Lifehacker has a complete run down on the browser and Mozilla has put together a nifty screencast that is worth watching to get a feel for some of the new features. Every test I have seen has Firefox 3 running faster and more stable than any of its competitors (except maybe Opera 9.5).

Mozilla is also trying to beat the world record for downloads in a single day. They apparently had overload problems early in the day but I just downloaded my version in under 2 minutes. Having downloaded Firefox 3 once, I will probably wait to install it on all my computers. As a heavy add-ons user, I have had compatibility problems in the past as it takes some time for the add-on software gurus to catch up with the new version.

This just in: Portable Firefox 3 is also now available!

Live Help Online When You Need It (Qunu)

Qunu is an answer service unlike any that I have seen before. It taps into what it claims is a fairly large number of volunteers to provide instant answers over Instant Messenger for a wide variety of computer and other technical issues. The most popular tags seem to be open source initiatives such as Ubuntu and Thunderbird but there seem to be some proprietary pieces of software in there as well (like Photoshop).

What really caught my eye, though, was Firefox. We use Firefox an awful lot in our intel studies program here at Mercyhurst. We recommend it to our students because it can easily be configured to work the way the individual analyst works. Any service which could answer questions about Firefox would be enormously useful to our students.

So...try it out and leave a comment for others!