Greet or Delete - Ubiquity

Greet or Delete Extension Review: Ubiquity

This interesting add-on has goals to make browsing the web more userfriendly. If you wanted to send an email to lets say your friend Ben a "welcome back" message, you could do that without having to navigate to Gmail! After pressing a hotkey, you would just type something like "Email Ben Welcome Back!" and it would automaticaly do that for you.

Although interesting, this Add-on doesn't have the capabilities (yet) to be useful for ChaCha. "Search Top Cell Phones" would bring you to a Google search page for "Top Cell Phones," but there're already quicker ways to search Google (including the use of bookmarklets).

Firefox has plans in putting the features of the Ubiquity project into a future version of Firefox as Taskfox, so hopefully it'll gain some useful features (or an easier way to "develop" features) sometime in the future.

Final Verdict: DELETE (for now)
Score: 3/10

Next Review: Whenever I run into an interesting extension to test. I think this would be best as 1) I have spent VERY few hours a week ChaCha'ing and 2) even less hours testing the extensions.

Good luck.

College Basketball 2009 - March Madness

ChaCha HQ posted a tipsheet to help us with the March Basketball Queries.... And although their help-page layout looks appealing, I was never a fan of using ChaCha links to help me on my searches (I don't think I've visited the Quicklinks page more than 10 times).

Anyway, Google just posted a page that might provide help to the same queries. Its an alternative to the ChaCha way, and may or may not be quicker for you.

Give the page a look--maybe you'll like it.

Browser Ball

Sorry, I usually don't post anything unrelated, but this is just pretty cool: Browser Ball

Greasemonkey - Myspace custom style remover

This Greasemonkey script removes the custom styles of Myspace pages so we can actually navigate through them.

Make sure you have the Greasemonkey Extension installed.

Greet or Delete - ImgLikeOpera

Greet or Delete Extension Review: ImgLikeOpera

I originally installed this add-on because I thought it could speed up page loading times as it forces Firefox to not load the images. Although the extension does this, and does it well, today's websites rely too heavily on image-based navigation--too much to make allow this script to fully be useful. Far too often I found myself disabling the script on webpages, simply because I could not find my way around.

Although I recommend this script to any dial-up modem users out there, this script is NOT useful for anybody with DSL+. Since all ChaCha guides are required to have at least DSL, this wouldn't be useful to anyone.

Final Verdict: DELETE
Score: 2/10

Next Review: Ubiquity

Multirow Bookmarks Toolbar :: Firefox Add-ons

I found a nifty little add-on that may be useful for those that have tons of bookmark items in their Bookmarks Toolbar. This add-on allows the toolbar to extend into multiple rows.

Multirow Bookmarks Toolbar :: Firefox Add-ons

Bookmarklets to ease your search

These bookmarklets will allow for faster searching, w/o much typing. I've been looking for a way to search "highlighted words" and was VERY happy when I found this. After setting it up, all you do is highlight some text on a webpage (ex: your ChaCha query), click a bookmarklet, and BAM your search pops on another tab.

Installation:

1) Make sure you have your bookmarks toolbar visible. You can do this by right clicking on your firefox top menu, and make sure "Bookmraks Toolbar" is checked. If it wasnt before, you should see a new toolbar up top. This allows for easier access to your bookmarks:

2) Drag and Drop! I've compiled some scripts already here for everybody -- All you need to do is drag and drop onto your bookmarks toolbar.

3) Use! Highlight, Click, and Go! If nothing is highlighted, most of the following scripts will prompt you for an input.

Web Search:
Search Google [G]
Search Yahoo [Y]
Search MSN [M]
Search Google, Yahoo, and MSN [SearchAll]

The above Yahoo Searches will help support me by generating some revenue through HPF. If you do not want to do that, use the following: Search Yahoo [Y] and Search Google, Yahoo, and MSN [SearchALL]

Language and Lookup
Definitions/Dictionaries:
Definr [D]
Dictionary.com [Dict]
Oxford English Dictionary [Oxf]
Merriam-Webster Dictionary [MWD]
Yahoo Dictionary [YD]
Wordsmyth English Dictionary [WD]
MultiDictionary Search [MultiD] - Includes Definr, Oxford, Merriam-Webster, Yahoo, and Wordsmyth
Urban Dictionary [UD]

Definitions/Thesauri:
Merriam-Webster Thesaurus [MWT]
Yahoo Thesaurus [YT]
MultiThesaurus Search (MultiT] - Includes Merriam-Webster, Yahoo, and Wordsmyth

Definitions/Acronyms:
Acronym Finder [Acro]

Non-Famous People:
123People [123]
MySpace People [MSP]
MySpace All [MSA]
Spock People Search [Spock]

Weather and Time:
Quicklinks weather [Wzip] (accepts zip codes only)

Entertainment and Arts
Horoscopes (Highlight the name of the horoscope--must be correctly spelled):
Astrology.com [AHoro]
Yahoo Horoscopes [YHoro] - somehow, this only works if the horoscope is NON capitalized. Otherwise it will bring you to the horoscope from 1969.
Cafe Astrology [CafeHoro] - same as Yahoo. Their website does not recognize horoscopes that are spelled with capital letters.

Movies:
IMDB Search (imdb)

Music:
Amazon MP3 Search (mp3)
SongMeanings Artist (lyrA)
SongMeanings Lyrics (lyrL)
SongMeanings Song Title (lyrT)

Health and Fitness
Diet and Nutrition:
The Daily Plate (cal)

Medicine and Treatment:
Drugs.com (med)


URL Shorteners (Just click when you're on the page you want the URL shortened)
TinyURL
Tr.im
is.gd

If you have any requests, post a comment here, or send me an email.

Thanks for reading.

Notes: I have yet to figure out an extension that allows you to HOTKEY bookmarks. I'm looking into keyconfig, but I haven't figured it out yet. I'll post when I do.

Shorten URLs with Bookmarklets

I just found this to be very useful--And it just takes only a bit of space in your Bookmarks Toolbar!

Sometimes, when the IS asks us to send a picture or guitar tablature we cannot send via text message, we can send the URL. And URL's sometimes cna be VERY long. Many of us use shortening services such as TinyURL.

Now, instead of going to the shortener's webpage, you just click a button on your toolbar and it generates a link for you.

Drag the following onto your Bookmark toolbar and try it out (3 different URL shortening services)
TinyURL
Tr.im
is.gd

Enjoy!

Greet or Delete - Changes

Hello,

This is just a notice informing all you loyal visitors about the change of the weekly Greet or Delete into a bi-weekly column.

I just got a new job so I want to have a few more days each week to test out the new extensions before writing a review.

I'll have the review on ImgLikeOpera in by next Friday, March 13... (Wait, that's ANOTHER Friday the 13th?)

Change phone numbers into xxx-xxx-xxxx format!

This is regarding a thread posted on the Ge/Sp Addons forum that I found VERY helpful. This script uses the Greasemonkey extension and changes any phone number in the format (xxx) xxx-xxxx or (xxx)xxx-xxxx into the ChaCha preferred format of xxx-xxx-xxxx.

Special thanks to diesel for making this possible.

Notes:

-This does not seem to work on phone numbers on Google Maps
-It does not work on phone numbers listed in xxx.xxx.xxxx format
-This also changes dates from dd mm yyyy to mm dd yyyy.
-The script is provided on an external website and I hold no responsibility if it changes. I currently use one with the following source code (this is the same as diesel's version as of March 02, 2009:

// ==UserScript==
// @name           Date Correct
// @namespace      home
// @description    Dates to US format
// @include        *
// ==/UserScript==

// Regular expression components
var sMonths = "(January|February|March|April|June|July|August|September|October|November|December|(?:Jan|Feb|Mar|Apr|May|Jun|Jul|Aug|Sept|Sep|Oct|Nov|Dec)\\.?)(?=\\s|\\b|\\d)";
var sDays = "(3[01]|[0-2][0-9]|[1-9])(?:st|nd|rd|th)?(?=\\b|[^\\d])";
var sSpace = "[\\s\\u00A0]*";

// Regular expressions
var reUSdate = new RegExp("([\\b:]?" + sDays + sSpace + ")?" + sMonths + sSpace + sDays + "(," + sSpace + "(?=[12]\\d{3}))?(?!:|\\d:|\\d\\d\\d?\\b)", "gi");
var reDayMonth = new RegExp("\\b" + sDays + sSpace + sMonths, "gi");
var reISO = /([12]\d{3})([\-\/._])(1[012]|0[1-9])\2(3[01]|[0-2][0-9]|[1-9])/g;
var reUSnumeric = /(3[01]|2[0-9]|1[3-9])([\-\/._])(1[012]|0?[1-9])\2([12]\d{3})/g;
var phnumber = /(\()([0-9]{3})(\)\s*)([0-9]{3}\-[0-9]{4})/g;
//var reTwelveHour = /\b([012]?[0-9])(?:[:\.]([0-5][0-9]))?\s?([apAP])[mM]\b/g;

// Proper case string prototype
String.prototype.toProperCase = function()
{
 return this.toLowerCase().replace(/^(.)|\s(.)/g, function($1) {return $1.toUpperCase();});
};

// Takes a number and returns the ordinalized form
var saOrdinals = ["th", "st", "nd", "rd"];
function ordinalize(iNumber, sMonth)
{
 var sOrdinal = "";
 iNumber = parseInt(iNumber, 10);
 if (sMonth.substr(sMonth.length - 1) != ".")
 {
  if ((sMonth.length > 3) || (sMonth.toLowerCase() == "may"))
  {
   var iOrdinal = 0;
   var iHundredUnit = iNumber % 100;
   if ((iHundredUnit <> 13))
   {
    iOrdinal = iNumber % 10;
    if (iOrdinal > 3)
    {
     iOrdinal = 0;
    }
   }
   sOrdinal = saOrdinals[iOrdinal];
  }
 }
 return iNumber + sOrdinal;
}

// UK date to US (May 4th to May 4th)
function cbUSdate(sMatch, sPrefixOuter, sDayPrefix, sMonth, sDaySuffix, sComma)
{
 var sDate;
 if (sPrefixOuter && (sPrefixOuter.substr(0, 1) != ":"))
 {
  sDate = sMatch;
 }
 else
 {
  sPrefixOuter = sPrefixOuter || "";
  var sDay = ordinalize(sDaySuffix, sMonth);
  sMonth = sMonth.toProperCase().replace(".", "");
  var sSufix = ((sComma == ", " || sComma == ",") ? " " : "");

  sDate = sPrefixOuter + sMonth + " " + sDay + sComma;
 }
 return sDate;
}

// Ordinalize and capitalize (Jan 3 to Jan 3)
function cbDayMonth(sMatch, sDay, sMonth)
{
 return (sMonth == "may" ? sMatch : sMonth.toProperCase() + " " + ordinalize(sDay, sMonth));
}

// ISO date to US (06-28-2008 to 06-28-2008)
function cbISO(sMatch, sYear, sSeparator, sMonth, sDay)
{
 return (sDay.length == 1 ? "0" : "") + sMonth + sSeparator + sDay + sSeparator + sYear;
}

// UK separated date to US (04/13/2008 to 4/13/2008)
function cbUSnumeric(sMatch, sDay, sSeparator, sMonth, sYear)
{
 return (sMonth.length == 1 ? "0" : "") + sMonth + sSeparator + sDay + sSeparator + sYear;
}

// phone number format
function newnumber(sMatch, lp, ac, rp, num)
{
 return (ac + "-" + num);
}

// Localise UK dates to US format
function localiseDates(sText)
{
 if (sText.match(/\d/))
 {
  sText = sText.replace(reUSdate, cbUSdate);
  sText = sText.replace(reDayMonth, cbDayMonth);
  sText = sText.replace(reISO, cbISO);
  sText = sText.replace(reUSnumeric, cbUSnumeric);
  sText = sText.replace(phnumber, newnumber);
  //sText = sText.replace(reTwelveHour, cbTwelveHour);
 }
 return sText;
}

// Apply date localisation to all text nodes
var xpathResult = document.evaluate("//text()", document.documentElement, null, XPathResult.UNORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE, null);
for (var iNode = 0; iNode < onode =" xpathResult.snapshotItem(iNode);" nodevalue =" localiseDates(oNode.nodeValue);" inode =" 0;" iset =" 0;" onode =" xpathResult.snapshotItem(iNode);" nodevalue =" anglicise(oNode.nodeValue);" iset ="="">