Filterset.G down

On October 31st, my hosting provider blocked my account because they thought I was under a DDOS attack (the shared server’s performance was being affected). What they were seeing, however, was the success of [Adblock Filterset.G Updater Add-On for Firefox], which I hosted through them here at pierceive.com. […] I finally convinced them to unblock my domain on November 3rd, but the /filtersetg/ folder remains blocked to keep the server from crashing again. […] They now recommend I find a dedicated server or server cluster.

pierceive.com via Juha

WriteRoom (Mac) and Dark Room (Windows)

WriteRoom is a full screen, distraction free, writing environment. Unlike standard word processors that focus on features, WriteRoom is just about you and your text. […] Walk into WriteRoom and your busy computer life fades away. The distractions of e-mail, the web, and your thousand desktop icons are gone. Only you and your text remain. This is a place where work gets done and procrastination has no place.

Hog Bay Software via Dägä dägä via Vlk

[Dark Room is basically] a clone of the original WriteRoom that is an OS X (tiger) exclusive application. It is a child of necessity, as there were no viable alternatives in Windows to produce the same behavior. […] The goal of the project is to capture the essence of WriteRoom, while keeping it simple and just as free.

they.misled.us

Firefox add-ons (extensions) for Google definitions and translation

A lot of times you do things the hard way, and thankfully not know it. I use Google definitions a lot, and have always done so by using copy and paste, or even by typing the words in manually. It struck me just now that this procedure would be so much easier with a proper add-on for Firefox; what if I could, after having painted the text I would normally then copy and paste into Google, just point and right-click it, and have the definition pop up there for me?

Doesn’t sound too complex, and sure enough, there already are extensions to do just that. The first one I tried was simply called Define. What it doesn’t do is give me the definition in the right-click menu, but instead gives me a shortcut item there for popping up the definition in a new tab.

Define Firefoxin kontekstivalikossa

Now that is just fine, but even that seems a bit too complicated to me now that I’ve got it in my head that the definition could be given to me right there, in the context of the word itself.

Enter Inline Google Definitions. With this little add-on, you get another item in the context menu (see the picture above), and by selecting it you get a nice little (JavaScript) pop-up window right by the highlighted term. After reading the definition you can close the pop-up or, if you wish, go see the actual Google definitions page the pop-up got its data from. Very nice!

Inline Google Definitions näyttää määritelmää

When I began searching for the add-ons for Google definitions, I initially mistook gTranslate as one of them. It doesn’t do definitions, however, but instead translates (duh!) the highlighted text using one of selected dictionaries.

Gtranslate Firefoxin kontekstivalikossa

Although this wasn’t what I had in mind, I think gTranslate’s pretty useful too, so I’ve left it in my extensions for now. I do wish it did try the different dictionaries by itself until it would find a match, so that you wouldn’t have to choose the dictionary each time your source material uses a different language.

Though, I don’t know if that would slow the right-click menu down too much and also, you might want to keep one selected language constant while using a single source, as the same word may be found in different languages. But a Select First Match option in the dictionaries list would solve this.

(The page I was reading and used in the screenshots above was a review for La planète blanche (The White Planet) at europeanfilms.net.)

AVG upgraded from 7.1 to 7.5

AVG, the excellent Anti-Virus software from Grisoft, has been upgraded from 7.1 to 7.5 (via Juha). Although this has happened already a month ago, for me, the auto-update feature hasn’t yet announced the availability of the new free version of 7.5. However, it is already downloadable from Grisoft’s site and can be installed on top of V7.1 by selecting Repair installation on the Select Setup Type screen. Note that a reboot is required after updating.