Technically Speaking

For a while now I’ve been touting the benefits of Firefox over the more popular Internet Explorer. Firefox is generally a safer, better functioning browser that you can customize to your wants. Firefox is also an open-source product with the developmental power of hundreds of dedicated volunteers the world over.

However, if you have tried to use Firefox, you’ll notice that there are some pages that you just can’t use unless you go to Internet Explorer. One such site is Windows Update (pictured left). But if you click on the image on the left, you’ll find that this image is showing the Windows Update page in a Firefox tab. Impossible, you say? Well, I thought it was too. That was until I found the IE-Tab extension for Firefox.

The IE-Tab extension allows you to load an instance of Internet Explorer in  a Firefox tab. It actually uses Internet Explorer, but only shows the IE window in the Firefox tab.

You can customize your settings so that when you go to a specific page (Windows Update, or your bank homepage) it always loads on an IE Tab. Or you can use the button in the bottom of the window to switch back and forth between Firefox tab and IE Tab. When you are on a page that doesn’t load properly because you use Firefox, just click the button and whamo — the page loads as an IE tab.

Do your business, and when you’re done, close the tab, or just click the button again, and whamo — you are viewing the page in Firefox again.

This may be the coolest Firefox extension since — well, I don’t know when!

Ok. Its the fifth of the month and I’m sure you’re wondering what’s been going on in Pehrson Land. Ok, maybe you haven’t. But the network is down at work right now, and since I can’t do any of my very pressing work, I thought I’d take this opportunity to check in with my readers. And maybe there are some new readers who’re just joining us, having found out about my blog from our Christmas newsletter. (What? You didn’t get a Christmas newsletter? You’re kidding. Better drop me a line with your address. I’m sure I sent you one. Yours was probably one of the ones that came back as undeliverable…) Anyway, a big welcome to all (any?) new readers.

“Aha!” you say. “You said the network at work was down. How could you possibly be blogging?”

Well, dear readers, it is through the miracle called Notepad. I write my comments down in Notepad, save them to my desktop and at some point between now (when I’m writing this) and when you’re reading this, I found a chance to upload this to my blog. But heck, if I have to wait too long, I might just go home for the day. In which case this will be posted on the 6th. But you probably don’t care.

So Christmas was a wonderful break. I have to say that we had an absolutely marvelous time. We visited Christina’s parents in California. We had a good mix of partying (Christmas eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, and a quick visit to Kris and Melissa’s house), relaxing, geocaching (4 finds (or was it 5?)), traveling (trip to San Francisco and Sausalito; my first trip on BART), movie watching (We watched The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Pride and Prejudice (the BBC version with Colin Firth; does this count for 3 movies?), and Pride and Prejudice (the 2003 version, filmed in Provo, UT) and more.

A couple of things I wanted to blog about. My in-laws got a high-speed internet connection from a company called Clearwire. They are providing a pre-WiMax technology that sends high-speed internet through cell phone signals. And I found a company in Salt Lake that provides high-speed internet through radio signals. I will comment more about these two technologies in a future blog post.

I also found the coolest Firefox extension today. It is called ieTab. I’ll talk about this in a future post as well. Plus I finally read The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne. I bought the book like 4 years ago, but have never read it until now. I’m thinking about reviving the flagging bookclub by reading that book next. What do you think?

Anyway, the network is back up, so I better get back to work. I have a deadline today!!!