The true weblog portion of drzy. Bookmarks from around the internet this last week. Updated every Sunday evening.

• iPhone software 2.2 features Google Street View, mass transit directions »
• Purple tomato with snapdragon gene could fight cancer »
• Google App Engine »
• Laura Bush ran stop sign and killed another driver »
• Sticky tape generates X-rays »
• Pumpkin sculptures »
• $150K for Palin fashion shopping spree » how folksy is that?
• Star Wars: The Old Republic » Star Wars MMORPG from Bioware based on Knights of the Old Republic
• E3 Returning To Past Size And Spectacle In 2009 »
• FREE FOR ALL! »
• Video the Vote »
• But Y would I want to do a thing like this? » Y-combinators, aka fixed point combinators
• Andrew Lahde: Goodbye! » Andrew Lahde, manager of a small California hedge fund, Lahde Capital, burst into the spotlight last year after his one-year-old fund returned 866% betting on the subprime collapse. Last month, he took his ball and went home. Tired of the stress, he closed the fund. This is his goodbye note to… everybody.

The true weblog portion of drzy. Bookmarks from around the internet this last week. Updated every Sunday evening.

• Longhorns landslide: Texas unanimous No. 1 » in the AP Poll
• reQall » reQall is the best tool to integrate your memory with your life, helping you get more from life while improving your real memory. It does this by building on the easiest, most natural communications base — your voice — to access an intelligent, intuitive, centralized memory; letting you use whatever tool is near you –your cell phone, iPhone, the web, IM, email, text — even Google Gadget — to help you remember better.
• Settlers of Catan Settles on DS »
• ‘I Am Under 18′ Button Clicked For First Time In History Of Internet » from the Onion
• Clamwin » open source free virus scanner
• Texas Box Office »
• Apps Amuck »

The true weblog portion of drzy. Bookmarks from around the internet this last week. Updated every Sunday evening.

• App Store Deals »
• 2008 Polls - Presidential Election, Latest Political - Democratic Candidate Poll - Tracking Current » The latest 2008 presidential primary polls are updated twice daily and archived by state, candidate, and month. Delegate count predictions are made based on the most current of political election polls.
• Download Vista tcpip.sys and UAC Auto Patcher to Increase TCP Connection Limit »
• Image Saver Firefox Extension » Image Saver extension saves images in tabs automatically (and can close them afterwards, if that is set in options) Can also save largest image with a hotkey. Adapted from Bazzacuda Image Saver and several other extensions to work with Firefox 3.0+
• Processing » Processing is an electronic sketchbook for developing
  ideas. It is a context for learning fundamentals of computer programming
  within the context of the electronic arts.
• Browse the Artifacts of Geek History in Jay Walker’s Library »
• Hacking Firefox Extensions - Why Won’t Some Extensions Install? »
• Firefox Toolbar Tutorial »
• Setting Up Firefox as IDE for Firefox Extension Development »
• Gmail Drunk Goggles » Stop sending late night drunken emails with this very unexpected feature to Gmail.
• Ford feature will let parents set speed limits for teens »
• Grand Illusions »

Everyone who uses Firefox regularly has a core of extensions that they have grown to use so much as to make them necessary to browsing.  One of the most tedious parts of browsing and then posting material is the saving and organizing of large amounts of pictures.  I fully use 4 extensions every day for this task, and have several others that I use at least weekly.

One of the most useful of these extensions was Bazzacuda Image Saver.  I loved this app because it could detect images in tabs, save them to a predefined folder, and close those tabs, all in one step.  Plus it has the separate ability to find the largest image on a page opened in the current tab, and will save that image and close the tab.

Upgrading to new Firefox versions takes a little bit of finding, updating,  and re-installing of extensions.  For the most part, everything works at least the same as before, but with each new version, we all lose a few extensions that were orphaned by their developers.  I lost Bazzacuda when I upgraded to Firefox 3.0.  The extension would work every so often, but for the most part gave a very generic error and did nothing.  I tried to find other extensions to replace it, hoping that eventually the developer would fix the extension.  I was let down on both counts.  No other extension (or combination thereof) would replace it, and the developer website is now redirected to something completely unrelated.  Despite many comments asking for updates, the developer has been silent on the Mozilla Addons page.

So, a few days ago, I set out to see if it would be a simple change to fix it.  I had already overriden the version number to allow it to install, and unpacked the code to take a look.  Unfortunately it wasn’t something simple to find, but I eventually found it and fixed the problem and the little cascade of other problems it caused.

So, since it wasn’t something superficial, I am releasing the modified code.  I changed the name to be generic, just in case the original developer decides to release more versions of his own program.  This updated for Firefox version 3.0.2 extension is called simply Image Saver. Both the original extension and my updated version are under MPL/GPL licensing, so it should be no problem.

I also wish to add-on functionality in the future, such as more folders and more hotkeys.  So renaming it now seemed best.

Download it from the Image Saver Project Page.

update 10/9/08: If you are one of the people that downloaded this yesterday, please redownload it and install again.  A bug not allowing the default folder location to be saved has been fixed. Eventually I’ll put automatic updates in.

The true weblog portion of drzy. Bookmarks from around the internet this last week. Updated every Sunday evening.

• ScriptLance.com » Custom Freelance Programming
• Freelance Programmers »
• Freelance Projects »
• Junction Point Studios » Austin Game Development studio (Warren Spector)
• Apple drops iPhone NDA »
• Armored truck robber uses Craigslist to make getaway » Decoys, Masks, and an inner-tube river escape. Countdown to this being made into a cheesy TV movie…
• Carbon nanotechnology in an 17th century Damascus sword »