Firefox & Blogger or Being Careful with Add-ons

Recently I updated to the latest (greatest?) version of Firefox, that being version 3.6. It immediately disabled IE Tab and one or two other extensions a.k.a. add-ons. Oops! I’d been using IE Tab to see my blog because I thought there had been a problem with Firefox and Blogger. I’d been losing the right hand column of my blog in Firefox and IE Tab was my current workaround.

Then last night I opened and read Sandi’s blog and heard her playlist which she has on the right side (same as I do) and wondered why I could hear her blog and not mine. So I started researching. The first thing I did was email Terry to see if he had any advice. He took a look, with 4 different browsers no less, and had no problems with my blog so he suggested I clear the cache. That’s Blogger’s usual advice too so I tried it but it didn’t help. Then I got a clever idea. Why not try disabling add-ons to see if any of them were the problem.

Wow, what I discovered would make almost 2 posts. First off I had way too many Java Consoles installed. Apparently when you update Java it doesn’t overwrite the old console but just adds a new one on. I’m down to just the latest Java Console and the Java Quick Start add-on. That works fine so no problem there.

Then I disabled everything else and restarted the browser. My blog showed fully and the playlist I’d been missing played beautifully. So I started enabling add-ons one at a time and found the culprit. It was Ad Block Plus. That’s a sweet add-on and I’m going to miss it because I hate ads being stuck willy nilly all over the pages I’m viewing and this baby took care of that. But lately it seems to be messing with Java and Flash content so I guess I’m better off without.

Then I googled “Firefox add-ons that cause problems with blogger” and got this fantastic page by Mozilla. It lists the extensions that cause problems, what they mess up, and gives a workaround. How helpful of them to put that up. It was even dated as recent as December 10, 2009 so it’s very current. Yes, Adblock and Adblock Plus were on the list. It also told me why my browser sometimes gave a message of Firefox is still running when I’d shut it down and then tried to restart it. That little snafu was thanks to Cooliris which is another neat add-on but I can do without too. So that’s gone now too.

Now my add-on list is much pared down and I’m happy with the way the browser is working again. I hope that link helps if you are having any problems with Firefox.

Peace! Hope! & Joy!

A Season of Bloglessness?

It’s raining this morning, and in addition to the loving behavior of my younger cat Hooboo making bread on my shoulder before settling down on top of me to await my arousal, I woke to thinking about blogging. It’s been more than a month since I wrote anything and I apologize to all of you who’ve been checking in from time to time.

I titled this the “Season of Bloglessness” because I’m not the only one who hasn’t been blogging lately. My friend Susan just posted after an absence of over two weeks and my good friend Sandi has been absent from blog land for almost as long. I’ll let you read Susan’s blog to find out what she’s been up to.

Sandi on the other hand is very busy with a no longer empty nest. Her son Wallace has moved back in. I’ll let Sandi tell you the story but you need to know that her life is doing all kinds of adjusting right now, so if you read her blog please take the time to drop by and give her support. I know she means to get back to blogging sometime soon but her computer is in what is now Wallace’s bedroom.

My job is going well. I love what I’m doing and the people I’m working with. Thank you for being so faithful. I’ll try to write again soon with pictures of the Christmas Poinsettias I was gifted with. Blessings for now.