# Web browsers



## Greg (Jan 19, 2005)

Just curious. I already have a good feel for this based on my logs, but geek talk is always fun. I use IE 6 and Firefox about equally. I like some of the functionalilty that both offer, but I find myself using FF more and more.


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## Stephen (Jan 19, 2005)

I use Firefox. I rarely fall back to IE. There are certain sites that I've been on that lock out anything BUT IE. (lame)

-Stephen


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## TenPeaks (Jan 19, 2005)

Since Firefox came out that has been all I use. However, like Stephen, there are a few sites I need to open up in IE.


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## Joshua B (Jan 19, 2005)

Same browsing habits as Stephen for me too.


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## bigbog (Jan 19, 2005)

100% Firefox  8)


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## riverc0il (Jan 20, 2005)

firefox, baby!  in action, YEA!


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## Stephen (Jan 20, 2005)

Except your Get the BBCode Extension is a mailto: :-?

-Stephen


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## ChileMass (Jan 20, 2005)

Wow - I am soooo out of the loop, I guess - what's Firefox and why should I consider it?   :dunce:


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## bvibert (Jan 20, 2005)

*Firefox* is a browser that is much more secure and stable than IE.  Its also highly customizable.  I haven't gone back to IE since I started using it (except for those rare sites that are poorly coded to only work with IE)


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## Greg (Jan 20, 2005)

riverc0il said:
			
		

> firefox, baby!  in action, YEA!


Question for you, riv. The only gripe I have with FF is when editing text in the post text field to add formatting (bold, URLs, etc...), the cursor will scroll up to the top of the window. In IE, if I add formatting to selected text, the cursor stays that the point of the edit. I usually need to add a fair amount of formatting for articles posted to the News section here, and it's cumbersome to have the cursor scroll the window up. Does the BBCode extension alleviate that?


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## bvibert (Jan 20, 2005)

Greg said:
			
		

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Yes it stops the cursor from moving up.  I just installed the extension and tried it out while replying to this post


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## Greg (Jan 20, 2005)

Thanks bvibert. I'm so lazy. This will  possibly convert me to FF for good. I also just discovered *Sage* which is an RSS reader extension for Firefox. Once installed, you can go to Tools --> Sage (or Alt-S) to open the pane. Then visit any AZ page with an XML link (e.g., the *News* portal) and click the  "Discover Feeds" button (magnifying glass). It will then autmatically detect and prompt you to add the feed. Once added, it provides a really nice layout to browse the articles.  8)


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## bvibert (Jan 20, 2005)

No problem, I wasn't going to install it until you reminded me of that annoying quirk so I gave it a shot.  It would be nice if it did the  tags too though.  I ussually just type out the tags anyway so I guess it doesn't matter to me too much.. :)

I'll have to give Sage a shot, sounds pretty good...


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## riverc0il (Jan 20, 2005)

> Except your Get the BBCode Extension is a mailto



i posted a corrected link in my blog prior to posting here, couldn't edit the post.

greg, i'm not sure what type of scrolling problem you are having but i haven't noticed any issues with functionality within text fields.  certainly nothing different than IE from what i remember (it has been a while though).  then again, i do all my formatting with the extension which is as simple as highlight and right click, very similar to editing in a word program.  so i believe the answer is yes, it will fix it.  i use lots of markup but only reply using the quick reply field since the extension has all the markup i could ever need.


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## Greg (Jan 21, 2005)

I'm loving the BBCode Extension riverc0il.



			
				bvibert said:
			
		

> It would be nice if it did the  tags too though.[/quote]
> I was thinking this too, and then I found it! Copy the image URL into the clipboard and then select  BBCode --> Clipboard --> Image  8)


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## bvibert (Jan 21, 2005)

Greg said:
			
		

> I'm loving the BBCode Extension riverc0il.
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## Greg (Jan 21, 2005)

I did it! I set Firefox as my default browser today! So far so good.


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## hammer (Jan 21, 2005)

Greg said:
			
		

> I did it! I set Firefox as my default browser today! So far so good.



I didn't see it mentioned here, but I'd suggest that you get the extension that allows you to open up the current page in IE.  It's a good extension to have for those sites that don't (yet) work with Firefox.


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## bvibert (Jan 21, 2005)

hammer said:
			
		

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Congrats on making the switch Greg!  :beer: 

Yes, *IE View* does come in handy from time to time...


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## hammer (Jan 21, 2005)

Thanks for including the link, bvibert!  Next time I'll try to remember to do so...


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## bvibert (Jan 21, 2005)

hammer said:
			
		

> Thanks for including the link, bvibert!  Next time I'll try to remember to do so...



Not a problem, gave me a chance to play with my new  *BBCode* extension.    :beer:


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## Greg (Jan 21, 2005)

Greg said:
			
		

> I already have a good feel for this based on my logs...


What's most interesting about the results of this poll is that my logs indicate only 6% of forum visitors are using FireFox, while a majority of the members that participated in this poll are using it. Perhaps, active members are more geeky than your average lurker?


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## bvibert (Jan 21, 2005)

Greg said:
			
		

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I would say thats probably not too far off base.  Most of the active members here probably frequent other online forums/resources and would be more likely to be exposed to geeky stuff like Firefox    I for one heard about it on another forum, I think it was an automotive forum that had a computer discussion area...

I assume that IE tops your logs?...


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## riverc0il (Jan 21, 2005)

glad to help!


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## pedxing (Jan 23, 2005)

Greg - I'm also wondering how many people (like myself) are very recent converts to Firefox.  Also, if I am not on my own computer (as is the case right now) I am usually using explorer.


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## skijay (Jan 24, 2005)

I had Firefox 1.0 on my previous PC w/ Dial Up. It worked great and I would launch & connect to AOL, minimize it, and launch Firefox to surf the net.

I downloaded Firefox yesterday and made it the default browser, but it wil not connect.  It launcehes but no matter what I type for adress, it can not connect to it.  I am on cable & using 802.1b.

Any reasons why it will not connect?


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## Max (Jan 24, 2005)

I'd like to give it a try as well, but I'm leery of not getting things to work right, i.e. Skijay's problem.  I'm also on cable and using Zone Alarm pro.  Is this something I can do myself, or do I need to call in a specialist (aka 12 year old neighborhood kid)?


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## bvibert (Jan 24, 2005)

If you can get IE to work you shouldn't have any trouble getting Firefox to work...



			
				skijay said:
			
		

> I downloaded Firefox yesterday and made it the default browser, but it wil not connect. It launcehes but no matter what I type for adress, it can not connect to it. I am on cable & using 802.1b.
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> Any reasons why it will not connect?



I'm little confused by "it will not connect" do you get any error messages?  Does IE work with your new setup??


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## skijay (Jan 24, 2005)

IE works fine.  The message that pops up after entering a URL, such as www.yahoo.com, on Firefox is:

Firefox is unable to connect to: www.yahoo.com

I looked at the connection settings and I tried to compare vs. the IE and to my ability it looks as if it is configured the same.

I have Windows XP, and I am not at the PC currently.

Edit: I also have a firewall (McAffee), but IE has no problem communicating.


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## TenPeaks (Jan 24, 2005)

"Edit: I also have a firewall (McAffee), but IE has no problem communicating."

Your firewall is preventing Firefox from accessing the web. Open up your firewall program and configure the settings to have Firefox always connect.

My firewall seems to default to "do not connect" when I install new software. So, I've got to go in and manually change it myself.


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## hammer (Jan 24, 2005)

TenPeaks said:
			
		

> Your firewall is preventing Firefox from accessing the web. Open up your firewall program and configure the settings to have Firefox always connect.
> 
> My firewall seems to default to "do not connect" when I install new software. So, I've got to go in and manually change it myself.



If I remember right, I had some similar issues with the Windows firewall after I installed Windows XP SP2.

I'm not sure what additional protection the firewall gives me, but I still keep it on.  I haven't figured out how to do FTP without temporarily disabling it, however.


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## bvibert (Jan 24, 2005)

TenPeaks said:
			
		

> "Edit: I also have a firewall (McAffee), but IE has no problem communicating."
> 
> Your firewall is preventing Firefox from accessing the web. Open up your firewall program and configure the settings to have Firefox always connect.
> 
> My firewall seems to default to "do not connect" when I install new software. So, I've got to go in and manually change it myself.



That sounds about right, I forgot that the software firewalls prevent programs from connecting...


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## skijay (Jan 24, 2005)

I will check the firewall settings tonight.  Thanks everyone!


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## hammer (Jan 24, 2005)

Does Firefox have a "spell checker" extension?  Maybe that could be suggested for some forum members so that we avoid meaningless arguments over mispelled words in posts (e.g., helmet vs. helmut).


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## bvibert (Jan 24, 2005)

hammer said:
			
		

> Does Firefox have a "spell checker" extension?  Maybe that could be suggested for some forum members so that we avoid meaningless arguments over mispelled words in posts (e.g., helmet vs. helmut).



Yes, I use *SpellBound* which seems to work pretty good.  I think there are others out there too.

You misspelled "misspelled" by the way and helmet is the correct spelling   I would never point that out normally, except you brought it up...  :beer:


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## hammer (Jan 24, 2005)

bvibert said:
			
		

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I guess I'm the one who's in need of a good spell checker  :dunce:


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## bvibert (Jan 24, 2005)

hammer said:
			
		

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:lol: Its all good, I thought mispelled looked correct at first too   :dunce:


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## riverc0il (Jan 24, 2005)

at least no one on here is using 133t speak, then we might have some real issues


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## skijay (Jan 24, 2005)

Firefox now works when I disable the firewall.


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## bvibert (Jan 25, 2005)

You sholdn't have to totally disable the firewall.  There should be an option somewhere that you tell it what programs are allowed to connect to the internet.


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## Greg (Jan 27, 2005)

Are any of the Firefox geeks here also using *Thunderbird 1.0* as an Email client? Is so, how is it?


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## hammer (Jan 27, 2005)

I use Thunderbird at home to connect to my work e-mail account.  It's pretty good, although I have had some problems when typing e-mails where the text I've typed in doesn't appear.

I haven't installed any extensions yet, so I can't comment on those.


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## bvibert (Jan 27, 2005)

I downloaded one the beta versions a while back and it looked nice, but I don't have a need for an email client.  Here at work we use Outlook which seems to work well enough for its purposes.  For my personal emails I use the web based interface so that I can get at my emails from any computer.  I get a 2 GB mail box on Yahoo as part of my SBC-Yahoo DSL so that works out fine for me...

If I do, however , find myself needing a new email client I'll try Thunderbird first.


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## Stephen (Jan 27, 2005)

riverc0il said:
			
		

> at least no one on here is using 133t speak, then we might have some real issues



D0n't kn0ck l33tn3ss. 1t's th3 b0mb!

St3ph3n 4k4 ub3r-4lp4h-G33K

P.S. 4ll y0ur b4s3 4r3 b3l0ng t0 us.

Note: Written at 25% leetness. 
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/text/leet.php


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## Greg (Jan 27, 2005)

Perhaps Google is interested in Firefox?

http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/developer/google-firefox-goodger-39995.html
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=29996


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## bvibert (Jan 27, 2005)

Interesting, I wonder if it means anything or maybe the guy just wanted to work at Google??  A partnership between the two companys would be interesting...


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## riverc0il (Jan 27, 2005)

i tried thunderbird and didn't like it.  i used outlook and outlook express and like them A LOT more than thunderbird which has a ways to go, imo.


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## riverc0il (Jan 27, 2005)

> P.S. 4ll y0ur b4s3 4r3 b3l0ng t0 us.


 :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol: 

thought i'd seen the end of that....  whatever you want to call it, years ago!


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## dcarbs (Mar 30, 2005)

just got firefox, like it a ton more than ie


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## MichaelJ (Mar 31, 2005)

I made the progression. I gave up IE a long, long time ago when they started doing ActiveX support. That's when I went to Netscape. Then I left the Windows world for Linux and continued to use Netscape. When Mozilla came out I switched over, but it was pretty bloated and so I quickly switched to Galeon as soon as it came out. Galeon was a light wrapper around Mozilla's Gecko rendering engine. Finally, I switched to Firefox.

What a tale of software woe, though, as they keep reinventing the wheel. I hope that with Firefox they'll just stick with it and not move on to something else.

And the BBCode extension is very, very, very cool!
 :mrgreen:

Hmm ... except it doesn't have the same set of smilies...  :roll:


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## ALLSKIING (Mar 31, 2005)

I was using IE but changed to Opera six months ago. I will be checking out fire fox soon.


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## bvibert (Mar 31, 2005)

MichaelJ said:
			
		

> And the BBCode extension is very, very, very cool!
> :mrgreen:
> 
> Hmm ... except it doesn't have the same set of smilies...  :roll:



I've noticed that too... but its still pretty cool!


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## riverc0il (Mar 31, 2005)

ALLSKIING, i switched from IE to opera before switching to firefox...  overall, firefox is a better browser than opera, imo, and not having to look at the ads in the free version is a plus too.


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## ALLSKIING (Mar 31, 2005)

riverc0il said:
			
		

> ALLSKIING, i switched from IE to opera before switching to firefox...  overall, firefox is a better browser than opera, imo, and not having to look at the ads in the free version is a plus too.


You will be happy to know that I just downloaded it.


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## Greg (Apr 2, 2005)

bvibert said:
			
		

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Yeah - looks like it uses BBCode for vBulletin which is a bit more prevalent than phpBB.

Anyone have problems where the copy function randomly stops working in Firefox? I've seen this happen on a number of machines. Restarting the application clears it. The weird thing is the cut command works all the time...  :blink:


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## bvibert (Apr 4, 2005)

Greg said:
			
		

> Anyone have problems where the copy function randomly stops working in Firefox? I've seen this happen on a number of machines. Restarting the application clears it. The weird thing is the cut command works all the time...  :blink:



I haven't noticed any problems, I copy stuff quite often.  Are you using the menu, right click, or ctrl+C?


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## Greg (Apr 4, 2005)

bvibert said:
			
		

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Typically Ctrl-C, but I've noticed that if this starts happening, the Copy command from the Edit menu is greyed out...  :blink:


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## bvibert (Apr 4, 2005)

The only thing I could find after a quick search of the MozillaZine forums is a reference to the "Auto Copy" extension causing problems.  You don't happen to have that extension installed do ya?  Other than that make sure you have all the current updates.  If it keeps causing problems you could always post a question on the support forums...


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## riverc0il (Apr 4, 2005)

i haven't had any issues with copying.  i use both right click and the key board short cut.  hopefully the person that created the extension can add phpBB smileys to the menu.


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## ctenidae (Apr 4, 2005)

I don't know if I' jsut not doing any of the high-level super l33t type stuff online, but I switched from IE to Firfox about a month ago, to see what the hype's all about.
Net difference noticed so far: 0%

Well, except it seems to take about 3 times as long for Firefox to startup than IE, but that's probably my computer. It's old and decrepit.


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## MichaelJ (Apr 4, 2005)

Every so often Firefox will get a tiny bit confused about where the keyboard focus should be - on the address bar, in a field in a form, or on the web page itself. I've noticed this happen and it gives me behavior like you describe - the copy command isn't actually available because the selection and the focus aren't held by the same widget.

I've never had to restart, though. Just a few clicks here and there to get the two realigned fixes it for me.


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## riverc0il (Apr 5, 2005)

ctenidae, try downloading extensions.  get there via tools ---> extensions on the menus bar.  also, do you open multiple windows which you can do using multiple tabs in the same window with firefox?  firefox also blocks pop ups.  if you don't utilize some of the features and just use the browswer "as is" then you probably wouldn't notice a huge amount of difference.


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## ctenidae (Apr 5, 2005)

I've looked through the extensions lists, and haven't really found anything particularly useful. I guess I'm just old and ornery, but I do things the way I do them. The popup blocker is nice, though I haven't found it to be any too much better than the Google toolbar (though AdAware doesn't seem to like the Google toolbar, and has no problem with Firefox) I did play with the tabs option, but you can't alt-tab between them, so it's another case of me being stuck in my ways. 
It's kind of frustrating, because I know Firefox has many more capabilities than IE, I just haven't found any use for them. I guess, if asked which browser is better, I'd have to give the vague old "Depends on what you're doing" answer.


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## bvibert (Apr 5, 2005)

ctenidae said:
			
		

> Well, except it seems to take about 3 times as long for Firefox to startup than IE, but that's probably my computer. It's old and decrepit.



Thats the only thing I've found I don't like with Firefox, it takes forever to load up.  My computer isn't too old or decrepit either.  The other benefits far outweigh that minor inconvenience for me though...


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## riverc0il (Apr 5, 2005)

start up time is a lot better than netscape and mozilla were, thankfully.  i never could use either due to the clunky 10 second wait to access the browser.  not being able to alt tab beteen the tabs is the biggest limitation i have found with firefox.  i will often hit alt tab expecting to go between tabs and have another window open up on me...


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## bvibert (Apr 6, 2005)

Did you know that you can use Ctrl+Tab to scroll through tabs?


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## ctenidae (Apr 6, 2005)

I just noticed the Ctrl+Tab ability last night, but it always goes to the next tab, not the last one you looked at. I didn't get around to downloading the extension to change that.


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## bvibert (Apr 6, 2005)

ctenidae said:
			
		

> I just noticed the Ctrl+Tab ability last night, but it always goes to the next tab, not the last one you looked at. I didn't get around to downloading the extension to change that.



I don't use Ctrl+Tab, but I did notice the extension called *LastTab* that should do what you want.  If you download it let us know how it works...


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## riverc0il (Apr 6, 2005)

how did i miss that, lol.  thanks for the heads up.


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## bvibert (Apr 7, 2005)

riverc0il said:
			
		

> how did i miss that, lol.  thanks for the heads up.



I didn't know about it either, but just out of curiosity I was looking for an extension that would give the alt+tab functionality for tabs and stumbled across it...


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## Greg (May 17, 2005)

Greg said:
			
		

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I still experience this quite a bit. Rather annoying...


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## riverc0il (May 17, 2005)

1.0.4 recently came out.  not sure if it addressed that problem


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## Greg (May 17, 2005)

riverc0il said:
			
		

> 1.0.4 recently came out.  not sure if it addressed that problem


Running it... ;(


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## riverc0il (May 17, 2005)

weird, i've still yet to experience this issue.


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## pepsi (May 25, 2005)

I broke the tie. Downloaded Firefox. 

So far no issues and no popups


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