Firefox – Configuration

Go to about:config and change the following settings to allow different themes for different instances:

services.sync.addons.ignoreUserEnabledChanges = true
services.sync.prefs.sync.extensions.activeThemeID =  false.

Favorite Themes

• Dark Blue (like old Netscape headers and dark pages
  • https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/dark-blue/?utm_source=addons.mozilla.org&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=search
• Developer Edition
  • https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/firefox-developer-edition-v1/?utm_source=addons.mozilla.org&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=search

Desktop files (for Linux .local/share/applications)

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Firefox
Icon=/home/munky/Bin/firefox/stable/browser/chrome/icons/default/default64.png
Exec=/home/munky/Bin/firefox/stable/firefox
Categories=Network;WebBrowser
Type=Application
Encoding=UTF-8
Terminal=false
Version=1.0
StartupWMClass=Firefox

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Firefox Developer
Icon=/home/munky/Bin/firefox/developer/browser/chrome/icons/default/default64.png
Exec=/home/munky/Bin/firefox/developer/firefox
Categories=Network;WebBrowser
Type=Application
Encoding=UTF-8
Terminal=false
Version=1.0
StartupWMClass=Firefox Developer Edition

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Firefox UserChrome

I don’t like the look of the new Proton theme in Firefox. So I’ve created the following userChrome.css to make it look a bit nicer. This theme is based heavily on https://github.com/Tnings/MacosVibrant with changes to make it look nice in non-Mac systems. Basically, I removed the transparency, set the inactive tables to have no background to make it easier to see the active tab, and modified some spacing issues.

Bugs: I’ve noticed that the bookmark toolbar sometimes does not recenter itself when a tab is closed.

Adblock: Taboola

Taboola ads are among the worst online; they format the ads to look like additional content on the websites making it easy to trick the users to click an ad when they think they are viewing another story.  I can’t stand deceptive practices like this so I block them completely using the following rules:

##[id^="taboola"]
##[class^="trc_"]

Web z-index fixes

I’ve noticed an annoying trend where web developers are using z-index to place their header above every other element on the page.  When the window is made smaller this header often covers other more-important elements (like media players).

Chrome: app mode

If you want to open a chrome window without the tab bar and toolbars, you can start chrome in application mode:

Chrome.exe --app=http://www.netflix.com

You can run this from the Run dialog (Windows-R) or create a shortcut.  I use this mode for both MLB.tv and Netflix.

Converting Virtualbox VM to VMWare

I am running the latest version of Virtualbox on my Windows 8.1 desktop and I’ve noticed my network has been unavailable after the machine resumed from sleep mode.  I found several people that claim the problem is with Virtualbox so I decided to switch to VMWare Player and see if that solved the problem.  The VM I chose to use for the testing is an ArchLinux install.  My Virtualbox VMs are located in the folder V:Virtualbox and my VMWare VMs are located in the folder V:VMWare.

Changing Reddit link colors using Stylish

I really don’t like the link and visited link colors on reddit; they are too similar in appearance.  I prefer to have green links and red visited links.  I can get these link colors by installing the Stylish Addon and creating the following style:

Google Profile copying problems

Twice I have been bitten by something in the Dev channel breaking something I need, meaning I had to downgrade to the Release (stable) version. What I have discovered is that the Dev profile will not load in the stable release. After a long of trial and error, I have found that the following procedure makes this process somewhat painless.