jaybeefoxy

[jaybeefoxy]

Reblogging for usefulness!

So You've Finally Switched to Firefox: a Brief Guide to a Some Very Useful Add-Ons.

This post is inspired by two things, the first being the announcement by Google that the long delayed Manifest V3 which will kill robust adblocking will finally roll out in June 2024, and the second, a post written by @sexhaver in response to a question as to what adblockers and extensions they use. It's a very good post with some A+ information, worth checking out.

I love Firefox, I love the degree of customization it offers me as a user. I love how it just works. I love the built in security features like DNS over HTTPS, and I love just how many excellent add-ons are available. It is a better browser than Chrome in every respect, and of the many Chromium based browsers out there, only Vivaldi comes close.

There are probably many people out there who are considering switching over to Firefox but are maybe putting it off because they've got Chrome set up the way they like it with the extensions they want, and doing all that again for Firefox seems like a chore. The Firefox Add-on directory is less expansive than the Chrome Web Store (which in recent years has become overrun with garbage extensions that range from useless to active malware), but there is still a lot of stuff to sift through. That's where this short guide comes in.

I'm presently running 33 add-ons for Firefox and have a number of others installed but disabled. I've used many others. These are my picks, the ones that I consider essential, useful, or in some cases just fun.

Adblocking/Privacy/Security:

uBlock Origin: The single best adblocker available. If you're a power user there are custom lists and scripts you can find to augment it.

Privacy Badger: Not strictly necessary if you're also running uBlock, but it does catch a few trackers uBlock doesn't and replaces potentially useful trackers like comment boxes with click-to-activate placeholders.

Decentraleyes: A supplementary tool meant to run alongside uBlock, prevents certain sites from breaking when tracker requests are denied by serving local bundled files as replacement.

NoScript: The nuclear option for blocking trackers, ads, and even individual elements. Operates from a "trust no one" standpoint, you will need to manually enable elements yourself. Not recommended for casual users, but a fantastic tool for the power user.

Webmail Ad Blocker: The first of many webmail related add-ons from Jason Saward I will be recommending. Removes all advertising from webmail services like Gmail or Yahoo Mail.

Popup Blocker (Strict): Strictly blocks ALL pop up/new tab/new window requests from all website by default unless you manually allow it.

SponsorBlock: Not a fan of listening to your favourite YouTuber read advertisements for shitty products like Raycons or BetterHelp? This skips them automatically.

AdNauseam: I don't use this one but some people prefer it. Rather than straight up blocking ads and trackers, it obfuscates data by injecting noise into the tracker surveillance infrastructure. It clicks EVERY ad, making your data profile incomprehensible.

User-Agent Switcher: Allows you to spoof websites attempting to gather information by altering your browser profile. Want to browse mobile sites on desktop? This allows you to do it.

Bitwarden: Bitwarden has been my choice of password manager since LastPass sold out and made their free tier useless. If you're not using a password manager, why not? All of my passwords look like this: $NHhaduC*q3VhuhD&scICLKjvM4rZK5^c7ID%q5HVJ3@gny I don't know a single one of them and I use a passphrase as a master password supplemented by two-factor-authentication. Everything is filled in automatically. It is the only way to live.

Proton Pass: An open source free password manager from the creators of Proton Mail. I've been considering moving over to it from Bitwarden myself.

Webmail/Google Drive:

Checker Plus for Gmail: Provides desktop notifications for Gmail accounts, supports managing multiple accounts, allows you to check your mail, read, mark as read or delete e-mails at a glance in a pop-up window. An absolutely fabulous add-on from Jason Saward.

Checker Plus for Google Drive: Does for your Google Drive what Checker Plus for Gmail does for your Gmail.

Checker Plus for Google Calendar: The same as the above two only this time for your Google Calendar.

Firefox Relay: An add-on that allows you to generate aliases that forward to your real e-mail address.

Accessibility:

Dark Reader: Gives every page on the internet a customizable Dark Mode for easier reading and eye protection.

Read Aloud: A text to speech add-on that reads pages with the press of a button.

Zoom Page WE: Provides the ability to zoom in on pages in multiple ways: text zoom, full page zoom, auto-fit etc.

Mobile Dyslexic: Not one I use, but I know people who swear by it. Replaces all fonts with a dyslexia friendly type face.

Utility:

ClearURLs: Automatically removes tracking data from URLs.

History Cleaner: Automatically deletes browser history older than a set number of days.

Feedbro RSS Feed Reader: A full standalone reader in your browser, take control of your feed and start using RSS feeds again.

Video Download Helper: A great tool for downloading video files from websites.

Snap Link Plus: Fan of Wikipedia binge holes? Snap Link allows to drag select multiple hyperlink and automatically open all of them in new tabs.

Copy PlainText: Copy any text without formatting.

EPUBReader: Read .epub files from within a browser window.

Tab Stash: A no mess, no fuss way to organize groups of tabs as bookmarks. I use it as a temporary bookmark tool, saving sessions or groups of tabs into "to read" folders.

Tampermonkey/Violentmonkey: Managers for installing and running custom user scripts. Find user scripts on OpenUserJS or Greasy Fork, there's an entire galaxy out there of ingenious and weird custom user scripts out there, go discover it.

Browsing & Searching:

Speed Dial 2: A new tab add-on that gives you easy access to your favourite sites.

Unpaywall: Whenever you come across a scholarly article behind a paywall, this add-on will search through all the free databases for an accessible and non-paywalled version of the text.

Web Archives: Come across a dead page? This add-on gives you a quick way to search for cached versions of the page on the Wayback Machine, Google Cache, Archive.is and others.

Bypass Paywalls: Automatically bypasses the paywalls of major websites like those for the New York Times, New Yorker, the Financial Times, Wired, etc.

Simple Translate: Simple one-click translation of web pages powered by Google Translate.

Search by Image: Reverse search any image via several different search engines: Google Image, TinEye, Yandex, Bing, etc.

Website Specific:

PocketTube: Do you subscribe to too many YouTube channels? Would you like a way to organize them? This is your answer.

Enhancer for Youtube: Provides a suite of options that make using YouTube more pleasant: volume boost, theatre mode, forced quality settings, playback speed and mouse wheel volume control.

Augmented Steam: Improves the experience of using Steam in a browser, see price histories of games, take notes on your wishlist, make wish listed games and new DLC for games you own appear more visible, etc.

Return YouTube Dislikes: Does exactly what it says on the package.

BlueBlocker: Hate seeing the absolute dimmest individuals on the planet have their replies catapulted to the top of the feed because they're desperate to suck off daddy Elon sloppy style? This is for you, it automatically blocks all Blue Checks on Twitter. I've used it to block a cumulative 34,000 Blue Checks.

Batchcamp: Allows for batch downloading on Bandcamp.

XKit Rewritten: If you're on Tumblr and you're not using whichever version of XKit is currently available, I honestly don't know what to say to you. This newest version isn't as fully featured as the old XKit of the golden age, but it's been rewritten from the ground up for speed and utility.

Social Fixer for Facebook: I once accidentally visited Facebook without this add-on enabled and was immediately greeted by the worst, mind annihilating content slop I had ever had the misfortune to come across. Videos titled "he wanted her to get lip fillers and she said no so he had bees sting her lips", and AI photos of broccoli Jesus with 6000 comments all saying "wow". Once I turned it on it was just stuff my dad had posted and updates from the Radio War Nerd group.

BetterTTV: Makes Twitch slightly more bearable.

Well I think that's everything. You don't have to install everything here, or even half of it, but there you go, it's a start.

[jaybeefoxy]

Oh, God. He'll be brilliant as always.

EXCLUSIVE: HBO‘s Harry Potter series has cast another key character. Tony and Olivier Award winner Bertie Carvel (The Crown, Dalgliesh) has been tapped to play Cornelius Fudge in the high-profile TV adaptation, Deadline has learned.

Carvel is believed to be recurring as Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge. In the film series, he was played by Robert Hardy who appeared in four consecutive movies starting with Chamber of Secrets.

[jaybeefoxy]

I'm one of them. I'm an elder of the random community. I've been a gamer for over forty years, a con-goer for roughly the same, a cosplayer decades before cosplay was even a word. I've been writing for roughly the same length of time, but I've only been writing decent stuff since 2009. Without us, you wouldn't have a fandom. Battles have been fought, purges survived, and technological changes weathered. We are still here. There are NO ages limits.

how are you gonna be 31 and posting fandom content bro leave it to the teenagers

People 10 and 20 years older than me are writing your favorite fanfics, and drawing your favorite characters. You'd have no fandom without the people you think are 'too old' to have hobbies.

[jaybeefoxy]

Cat dad is back and updated! RIP Pancake, but this is the sweetest. So glad they're around.

This is so wholesome

[jaybeefoxy]

I pledge the oath of the AO3 Knight, that never shall I allow my offerings to be governed by a soulless engine of content creation. I pledge to uphold this vow, through good times and bad, whether time be short or abundant, whether plot bunnies scarce or plentiful, and I shall not yield to Writer's Block or a scarcity of spoons. Nor shall I succumb to curiosity of the dreaded "I'll just try it once and see how it turns out". I shall remain strong and true to my vow, and if I fail, may the Gods have mercy on my soul. This I swear!

Having said that, AI does give people with zero skills the opportunity to produce amazing art, but I'm worried how much it'll take the place of human skills, of how many people who could be wonderful artists will give up because they feel intimidated and believe they can't compete. There are all kinds of other issues too, and benefits, but I think we should be considering the impact of AI much more. I am not going to use it because I feel there are too many limitations; it 'forgets' details, it isn't consistent, it's not a human with a human's insights, it's ARTIFICIAL. It isn't real. It's as synthetic as a bright unfading modern dye in a historical reenactment. Stay real. Stay authentic.

NOTICE: As more and more fanfic writers are using generative AI for their works (you uncreative dweebs), I hereby swear on everything I hold dear that I have not and will NEVER use generative AI in ANY of my written work. Everything I post will be organically and creatively my own.

[jaybeefoxy]

I agree it is very easy to overlook one's achievements in times of trying to get oneself organised. Parts of my life suck, but a lot of it is stuff I'm proud of; having two kids who turned into kind , funny and generous adults; achieving the job I saw (and wanted but thought I'd never get) 35 years ago; reaching my 30 year wedding anniversary (when there have been a few times I thought we would fail); gaining a First Class Honours at uni; passing my driving test first time. All these things didn't come at once and didn't come in the order I listed them either. Sometimes you need hard graft, sometimes you have to be patient, sometimes you might get lucky, but dreams are achievable, in between getting your ducks in a row.

[jaybeefoxy]

Been following this guy for a while. Midterms, folks. Check you are still registered to vote, and use your power.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by America The Possible (@americathepossible)

[jaybeefoxy]

This hateful ask prompted me to try fundraising for something that could make my daily life a bit easier to face.

So I resurrected my old GoFundMe account. As always, please only donate if you can do so responsibly... It's an especially difficult time these days *gestures at what everyone is experiencing*.

[jaybeefoxy]

This is so damned British.

Is your barren lawn getting you down?

Try a single allium!

You surely won't regret planting and painstakingly mowing around a single allium

[jaybeefoxy]

Out at sea, how do you know when you are?

I need everyone to know that the ship Götheborg, the world's largest ocean-going wooden sailing ship, answered a distress call the other day.

Imagine waiting for the coast guard or whatever to show up and instead a replica of 18th century merchant ship pulls up and tows you to the coast.

[jaybeefoxy]

New Chapter of 'You Are My Reason For Living' in the 'Adam's Heir' series up for reading on AO3

Go ahead, indulge. I managed to get another chapter up and running. Triggers for bullying behaviour, and mentions of corporal punishment in this one. Read it here.

[jaybeefoxy]

Always reblog the reblog bait? I dunno, I fall for these every time... why won't autocorrect ever allow me to spell REBLOG? Seriously, we're a quarter the way into the 21st century, I'm reblogging money dogs and autocorrect doesn't even recognise REBLOG? What the actual fuck...?

this is the money dog, repost in the next 24 hours and money will come your way!!

[jaybeefoxy]

For those in the UK, may I recommend these two...

Herts Fabrics

Fabworks

Both have what I would call decent prices. There are some European ones, but I haven't dealt with any.

So my sister wants to start sewing more, because

a. She’s 5′ 11″ and can never find pants long enough for her legs or shirts long enough for her arms.

b. She hates synthetic fibers as much as I do and it’s difficult to find natural fiber clothes that aren’t made of cotton

c. She’s a biologist and would physically fistfight microplastics if given half a chance

So her gift from mom and dad for her birthday was a sewing machine. Not a super expensive one but a good solid serviceable one.

And recently she asked “So where do I GET wool or linen and thread that isn’t polyester” and mom was like ‘go ask your sister’

And I, of course, crashed into the group text like “GET A PEN I HAVE WEBSITES FOR U” and honestly I’m thrilled about this

[jaybeefoxy]

Is it me, but is the dude in red a modern day Odin on a mini Sleipnir? That pony has 8 legs!

Horse breed of the day: Mongolian

Height: 12 -14 hh

Common coat colors: Predominantly dun but grey, chesnut and bay are seen as well

Place of origin: Mongolia

[jaybeefoxy]

Gods' sake, I'm even older, and considering what I didn't have access to when I was at college, I managed much better than you lot. Isn't it about time you youngsters took responsibility for your own work? Do you really want to be outsmarted and outachieved by all the oldsters? Because, my dears, that is what it amounts to. I achieved a First Class Honours degree aged 60. What will you achieve right now?

[jaybeefoxy]

100% this. I always struggled to connect the Moffat version of John with what he would have been in the field. He was broken far more in the series than he appeared or indicated. He forgot all of his knowledge, all his skill. What do you mean, he couldn't click back into skills that would have been just about autonomic by the time he was invalided out? He couldn't deal with sherlock collapsing on him better than the paramedics who arrived in the flat? It never rang true. Even for someone affected by PTSD and its attendant effects, I cannot believe he wouldn't have jumped back in, especially when someone he loved was in need.

If Moffat would have put me in the writers’ room…

I’m making John an ER doctor. Probably after Reichenbach.

You’re telling me the combat-trained army doctor isn’t throwing himself into trauma and emergency medicine after losing Sherlock? You’re telling me this man, who treated blast injuries in the field, performed chest tubes in a tent, and sutured wounds under fire, isn’t going to thrive in a place where patients are crashing every hour?

John is devastated. His best friend is gone. His partner. Does he even know what Sherlock was to him?

He copes the only way he knows how. Intubations. Central lines. Running traumas back to back.

He zones out and loses himself in the chaos of the ER. No thinking. No grief. Just the next patient. GSW to the abdomen. RTA rolling in. Code blue in the ICU.

Maybe he takes an attending position at St. Bart’s. Maybe he likes the familiarity of the halls. Maybe he passes the spot where Sherlock fell to his death every day and tells himself it doesn’t matter. Maybe if he saves enough people, he’ll feel something again.

At first, he struggles. The equipment is too much. Too many resources. In the war, he had pressure dressings, ketamine, and luck. Now he has thoracotomies, ECMO, a whole trauma team. It feels excessive. It feels wrong. But he adapts.

Soon, he is the one barking orders. 16-gauge IVs in both arms. 1:1:1 transfusion. Push Epi. Get me a thoracotomy tray. His hands don’t shake. His leg doesn’t hurt. He works fast. He doesn’t go home. He picks up extra shifts. He’s always there.

Sherlock was the genius in the morgue. John is the one keeping people out of it.

Anyways I’m still mourning the bbc Sherlock we could have had.

[jaybeefoxy]

Amazing.

I made a thing

Here is my BBC Radio folder on Dropbox

Here is my BBC Radio folder on Mediafire

Here is my BBC Radio folder on Google Drive

Cabin Pressure, John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme & Double Acts, The Unbelievable Truth, 2525, Angstrom, and more! Let’s call it a masterpost.