Google Maps Street View Horror Video

Via Google Operating System.  More stuff by the Vacationeers can be found here and here.

Not Ageist

My daughter Zoe talking about the Runescape Forums:

We don't judge people by their age, just their stupidity.

Ouch! And I thought I was off the hook.

Adblock Plus

There are two types of people who browse the web: those who see adverts on the sites they visit, and those who don't.  The latter use Firefox with the Adblock Plus add-on installed. 

Recently, I was reminded of  how intrusive web advertising is when I had to use someone else's PC.  It is like having an idiot waving to attract your attention all the time.  I even find obnoxious the relatively subtle Google Ads that appear in the side-bar of this blog (especially when they are promoting some creationist pack of lies).

Other Firefox add-ons  I use are Flashblock, which prevents flash animations from running until you click on a button (this filters out a lot of the worst adverts), and the Adblock Filterset.G Updater, which makes sure your Adblock filter list is up-to-date. 

LibraryThing

I have just recently come across this.  There is something enormously satisfying and final about making lists of books you have read, like dumping a big box of old books at the local second-hand bookshop.

How To Disable Firefox Quick Find

[Note added 2009-07-19: The advice given in this post is now out of date.  In modern versions of Firefox it is possible disable Quick Find using the menus.  On windows, click: Tools > Options > Advanced > General and deselect Search for text when I start typing.  On Linux click: Edit > Preferences > Advanced > General and deselect Search for text when I start typing.]

Recently I have found that when I start typing into a text box in Firefox I often get a Quick Find bar coming up at the bottom of the screen.  This happens if I am typing ahead.  Firefox seems to be interpreting characters typed at a web-page as a search string.  I don't remember having asked for this behaviour and I find it rather annoying.  I would much rather have Firefox silently ignore the type-ahead characters.  At least then I would not have to go to the trouble of removing the unwanted Quick Find bar (or sitting and waiting until it removes itself).  Fortunately a little research revealed the following fix:

Enter about:config in the Firefox URL line and click Go.

Select the line starting accessibilty.typeaheadfind and double click it until the Value field is false.