Take the pledge and feel good. Why? Because it’s nerdy, it’s smart, it’s internets. And it’s got things like improved performance, security, ease of use and so on.

If you’re on Windows you’ll get HTML Validator off the Firefox add-ons page. For some reason Mac-users must do a slight detour, which I found after some googling. Go to the HTML validator sourceforge index page, and find the file called tidy_macintel_xxxx.xpi on the date of 26-Oct-2006. That’s spesificly for the new Intel-Macs, but you’ll find any other version you’re interested in on the same page.

It’s a great companion to the Web Developer Toolbar and Firebug.

Update: The Mac-file I’m referring too is for Intel Macintosh’s only! The filenames on the sourceforge page gives you a fairly straight forward clue to which OS and make it’s for, so remember to read before installing.

If you try to install the macintel on a G5 or earlier Mac it will cause Firefox to completely give up on you. The fix is then to export your bookmarks, delete Firefox, re-install. And then start adding all the extensions you’ve lost in the process.

…

Woooah, put your flamethrowers and pitchforks down please. No, the reason for my Firefox outburst is a something I consider a substantial break against all things userfriendly in the history sidebar (in FF1.5 and 2).

Let me make it clear that I’m a huge Firefox luvva, it’s my default browser over Safari, even though Safari’s antialising is better. As a webdeveloper/designer-guy I’m totally dependent on all the extensions. BUT – the history sidebar has always annoyed me. The way it just shows previously viewed sites alphabetically. Who ever came up with that idea should have his/her wiFi taken away.

But I was all wrong! There are other ways, it’s just that the options for them are hiding in the most unlikely place. The “View” button next to the search text field. That button is not related to the search box which it visually implies. Actually, it’s not even a button to go anywhere. It’s a dropdown! Who would’ve guessed? And that dropdown gives a number, 5 in total, choices of ordering the history. Why is then the default the worst option of them all? By the site title? Surely I can remember being on this and that page approximatly at 2 pm. But not the title. No way.

Perhaps newbies (in lack of a friendlier word) would click on it in the typical click-everything-and-hope-it-does-what-I-want kinda way. But I spend 10+ hours at the computer every day, and when something gives the impression of being something I’ve seen in a different setting x times before, I’ll quickly assume this is the case once again. In this case, a search text field with a button attached to it – I barely read the text on the button, and in this case “View” seems to fit the search function just fine.

And I know for a fact that I’m not the only one who’s had this problem. Just check out this extension. I think that proves my point.

/rant

Now excuse me while I get rid of one extension.