Best Extensions for Firefox 2?

If you’ve been reading my escapades with IE7 and Firefox 2 at RealTechNews (here and here), you know I’ve pretty much made the switch to Firefox. Didn’t have much choice, really, if I wanted to keep using the same browser at work and home.

I installed a couple of extensions (all right, more than a couple), but my favorites are Tab Mix Plus and IETab. I found this nice article on News.com today that lists (in their opinion, right?) the top Firefox extensions.

The two I really like are listed, but there are some that I don’t use … but that I will definitely try … like Mr. Tech Local Install. If for no other reason than it will override the MaxVersionNumber restriction on older extensions that keeps them from working every time Firefox is updated.

Take a look at the article if you use or are thinking about using Firefox. And post your favorites here!

Text Message Speak Allowed on New Zealand Exams

Here’s a good one. New Zealand has just decided to allow the use of text message speak on their NCEA exams. You know, things like ROFL (Rolling on the Floor Laughing), stuff like that.

NZQA deputy chief executive of qualifications Bali Haque said credit would be given in this year’s NCEA exams if the answer “clearly shows the required understanding”, even if text abbreviations were used. Source: NZ Herald

OMG! What were they thinking of! IMHO (S ICNR), we could eventually have young people coming up and speaking in ways like “OM-Guh” (I’m trying to phonetically do OMG) instead of “Oh my God!”.

That’s all tongue-in-cheek, of course, but much of the feedback (the following below from a NZ news website) in New Zealand has not been favorable.

What a real pity our kids are being given permision to do exams in text language. As a society what are we telling our youth. Would you or I employ someone who is only able to communicate in an abbreviated form of languagePublish?

and

I am a 16-year-old girl from Kapiti and I’m about to sit my end of year NCEA exams. For examiners to say that teenagers should be able to use ‘text language’ in their exams is ridiculous in my opinion. Teenagers need to be taught good habits and have them reinforced by adults, not tell them that its okay to use short hand text language.

and

GR8 1 NZQA. wot a ld o rubish! Our edukshun sys is bad ’nuff alrdy. Mre dum kids who cant spel. Whoever though of this, and/or gave the okay, should be taken outside and shot!

Yep, it’s almost like saying, “it doesn’t really matter if you learn the right way to do things.” On the other hand, they might be able to use less paper for the exams.

New Way to Fit Extra Ads into TV Shows

Heck, the good thing is I can skip ads with my Tivo. But they’ve managed to fit more ads into a half-hour without affecting the length of the actual show. How are they doing this? So far, I’ve only noticed this on CourtTV.

What they’re doing now is overlapping the ending credits of one show with the intro of the next show. While the ending credits of the last show are on the RHS of the screen, the intro of the next show is on the LHS of the screen. With this technique, they can now show at least one more commercial every half hour without reducing the show length (which has already gotten shorter and shorter, right)?

Maybe they should start showing commercials the entire half hour on the RHS while the show itself runs on the LHS of the screen. Then there’s no way to skip them at all! Or maybe I’d better keep my mouth shut and not give them any ideas.
Tags: Tivo, Television, Ads, CourtTV