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Mozilla and RSS feeds

I seem to be reading a lot of Mozilla-related blog posts lately, extolling the virtues of this open-source web browser, so I thought I would throw one of my own into the ring.

I had resisted the urge to even delve into what is Mozilla, like I resist looking into many things that have a sort of zealotry aura around them (XHTML validation, web accessibility, and in general any writing about Apple computers and and especially its new OS). I only have so many hours in the day…. At any rate, as I suspect has happened with a lot of other Mozilla converts, I kept seeing the phrase “block pop-up ads” pop-up (excuse the pun) repeatedly in these glowing accounts, and I finally determined that I should see what all the fuss was about and download the damn browser already.

Unfortunately it isn’t the godsend to browsing that some seem to view it as, although it certainly has some things to recommend it.

What I like:

* Blocking pop-up ads (duh!)

* The ability to block images from certain servers. This was a feature I wasn’t aware of, but I think I enjoy this almost as much as nuking the pop-ups (and -unders). Certain sites (Yahoo Mail for example) use a lot of big splashy ad jpegs, and it’s nice to right click on the image and choose “block images from this server”. I’ve gotten so into this feature that this afternoon I surfed all the ad-heavy sites I could think of (like Slate and Salon for example) and blocked a whole slew of servers from loading images onto these pages. Great for getting rid of redwoods (industry term for those long narrow ads usually on the right-hand side of web pages) — oops, I’m supposed to be an environmentalist! One thing that it doesn’t too unfortunately is give one the ability to block flash ads, which are quite prevalent.

* Sidebar. More on this below.

What I don’t like or have been disappointed by:

* I use my right-click context menu exclusively for going “back” and “forward” when browsing, and one thing that has always bugged me about IE is that when the pointer is over an image, “back” is not an option on the right-click menu. One has to move the pointer to a non-image part of the page and then right-click back. Unfortunately, this holds true with Mozilla as well. Sometimes images take up the whole page, and so finding a blank spot on which to right-click is well-nigh impossible, and I have to resort to the alt-left arrow keystroke combo to do the trick. Why is this so important to me? Because I don’t use the standard IE toolbar with the “back,” “forward,” “home,” etc. buttons — it takes up too much space, and I want the maximum browsing area possible. Which leads me to…

* I hate that in Mozilla one can’t separate the “button” toolbar and the URL entry field (together called the “Navigational Toolbar”). I don’t need those blasted buttons, and they’re big too! I know that getting rid of them only would give me a smidgen of extra viewing space, but I want it.

* I’m a bit saddened that I don’t have my Google Toolbar anymore. Mozilla does let one use the URL input field as a search tool, and I’ve configured it to search Google, but I miss being able to have my search results pop up in a separate window, which was configurable with the Toolbar. Oh well.

* Also, I can’t adequately use Movable Type’s publishing system, as the formatting icons (for making text linkable, or italicized, for example) don’t show up in Mozilla. I use to create HTML pages in Notepad back in the day, but I’m a lazy WYSIWYG guy now.

* I’ve heard some folks tout that Mozilla uses less system resources that IE does, but I haven’t seen much benefit. Might it be because I’m not using Mozilla’s “tabbed browsing” feature much? I don’t know, I guess I just haven’t gotten used to closing the individual tabs, and often by mistake close the entire window, resulting in the sudden loss of a bunch of web pages I want to read. I’m not quite sure I see the benefit of browsing via tabs versus new windows (other than the possible system resource usage issue I just mentioned).

At any rate, I’m trying to stick with it, and tonight discovered a great reason to do so, the Mozilla Sidebar used in conjunction with RSS feeds (I’m not equipped to explain what RSS feeds are, but you can click on the preceding link and get educated if you want. Or try this recent introductory article at the Guardian.). I’d been flirting with trying to incorporate RSS feeds of various blogs and news sites I frequently check into my custom-made default browser home page (just a boring image-less page that sits on my own hard-drive with most of the links I regularly check). I have been using an external RSS reader called Ampheta Desk, but I don’t like having to launch an external application in addition to my web browser. However, pulling these feeds into my web page requires installing some Perl modules and is a bit more work than I’m looking to do.

Fortunately, through some Google searching I discovered a great workaround: using Mozilla’s Sidebar feature to display RSS feeds. The Sidebar is similar to IE’s “Explorer Bar”, basically a column added to the left-hand side of your browser that allows you to do web searches, access your web history cache, etc. I never used it because it took up space I felt I couldn’t afford to give up. But being able to have RSS feeds there at the ready, using Mozilla, without the need for another external application, I’m willing to compromise.

There are tutorials (like this one) for creating your own custom Mozilla sidebars but these require the Perl modules as well. A better option for the layperson like me is to use a tool like Corvar’s Mozilla Sidebar Installer. You just enter in the source URL of the feed you want, and bam, the feed gets added to your Mozilla Sidebar.

Now the trick is to get more and more folks to include an XML feed link on their blogs. I’m sure many users of Movable Type do what I originally did: say to themselves, WTF is this “Syndicate this site” nonsense, and dump it from their templates. (I have reader Andrea to thank for kindly requesting me to reinstate my feed, which sort of got me on this bandwagon to begin with. Thanks Andrea!). I did get Kiyo of KEC Journal to recently add a feed, let’s see who else I can convert…

Of course, it’s not just blog content that is available. There are lots of news feeds available as well. To wit, I came across this unofficial list of unofficial feeds being generated by the BBC (via Perceive.net) (I should also thank Bill Thomas of Corvar who quickly amended his tool to accept the very long BBC feed URL’s after I emailed him). Kudos to the BBC for doing this, however under-the-table it is at the moment. Hopefully other mainstream sources will be following suit.

For more feeds than you can shake a stick at, head on over to Syndic8.

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Japanese anger

Oh, I’m having a good time this afternoon reading some of my fellow Japan bloggers. Gaijinworld has a side-splitting look at one of the few things Japanese will get visibly upset about, parking. (He doesn’t have permalinks, find the entry for August 30, 2002). It’s been quite a while since I’ve laughed this hard. The following is quoted out of context so please go to his site and read the whole thing:

By the time I came back some forty minutes later, the van was awash in post-it notes, taped-on pieces of paper and written evidence of general ill-feeling. The wild woman was gone, though not for long as it turned out. I read what I could of a few of the notes, though I was scared she might attack out of nowhere. She might launch herself at anyone stopping to show an interest in the van, I thought. I expected claws and teeth and hair on my back, so I read quickly. The dog, drew away, whimpering, sensing the malevolence in the air around the van. As far as I could make out, the note in the lowest possible level of politeness (still about ten levels above our western everyday level of politeness in English) told the owner that this was definitely not his parking space and that her next move was calling the police to remove his van if it wasn’t taken away AT ONCE. There were at least ten of these notes.

To Gaijinworld’s garbage and parking as the two things that will actually force Japanese to break their normally placid and stoic reserve, I might add “accosting one’s mother-in-law about her loud house cleaning at 9am on a Sunday morning”. I should also qualify this and add that the accosting should be done while not fully awake and prior to one’s daily caffiene intake, and in the most basic, non-polite, and grammatically incorrect Japanese possible, for maximum effect. This I know from personal experience, having committed this grievous sin about two months ago. My mother-in-law’s shrill cries of “wagamama otoko” (“you are a spoiled man”) and “sore wa Nihon!” (“this is Japan!”) still ring in my ears. The whole thing was quite unpleasant, and I regret the incident deeply. However, I wrongly assumed that things would be awkward for only a couple of days, and then we’d get on with our lives, each the wiser and more understanding of our respective cultural differences and sleep habits.

Unfortunately, the brittle icy block of resentment that came over our relationship lasted quite a bit longer than I thought, and really has only started to thaw in the last couple of weeks, and I suspect tiny residual beads of animosity will last much much longer. I have to wonder if the ill feelings my mother-in-law still obviously harbors about the incident are not in some measure a result of shame at losing her cool, and holding me responsible for that.

Speaking of mothers, Yuki over at Japanish has an amusing rant about her Mom, and specifically her Mom’s cooking. I could rant similarly about my mother-in-law (though not about the cooking, which I am very grateful for), which would feel oh so good I admit, but probably not advance our painfully slow detente.

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Japan’s ancient, byzantine corporations

An insightful article in today’s Japan Times by economist Noriko Hama that looks into the hermetic machinations of many Japanese corporations, in light of the recent scandals plaguing this country’s business world. She hangs her argument on Nippon Ham’s recent troubles, but her argument extends further:

The Nippon Ham incident is a symptom of a deeper and more widespread problem in Japan today. Again and again, we see situations in which there is a complete mismatch between the institutions and the reality.

Japan’s companies behave as though they are in the Middle Ages, where the boss is prince and no dissent is allowed. Its banks wouldn’t look out of place in a Merchant of Venice setting. But the reality that surrounds them is one filled with intense global competition, instant communication, and an increasingly aware and well-informed citizenry.