Hello there

I like using the Adblock plugin for Firefox but I am running into two issues. Since it is not maintained anymore and also being curious, I dived right into the code to see what I can find.

#1 Installation
The plugin used to install but ever since the later 2.0 versions and then the current 3.0 versions of Firefox the plugin just doesn't install.

Fix:
Download the plugin
Change the extension from .xpi to .zip
Unzip
Edit install.rdf and change the maxversion of Firefox to some high number, I think I chose 99.9
Zip the files back up, Use .xpi instead of .zip in the zipped filename
Install plugin in Firefox using this local file

#2 The radio buttons for the group "Hide ads" and "Remove ads" are both selected in the Preferences dialog box.

Fix:
Edit the file content/settings.js
This file is extracted from chrome/adblock.jar which is essentially a zipped file.
chrome/adblock.jar on my system is found in:
~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/.default/extensions//
On line 39 of content/settings.js, change the entire "if" code block to this:

if (Hide) {
radiohide.setAttribute("selected", true);
radioremove.setAttribute("selected", false);
} else {
radiohide.setAttribute("selected", false);
radioremove.setAttribute("selected", true);
}

Zip up all the files to recreate adblock.jar.
The new adblock.jar file could be smaller in size than the original adblock.jar. That's ok, Firefox will still load the file fine. I think the original adblock.jar was packaged without compression.
Replace the old adblock.jar file with the new one.
Restart Firefox, the radio buttons in the Preference dialog box should now work correctly.

# posted by kfcblog @ 11:44 PM 0 comments

Tonight my uncle called me asking for computer help. My uncle speaks Cantonese and I don't speak it that well so I didn't ask more about the problem. I figured I just need to show up with my computer and see what's going on.
I arrive after my dinner and turns out the problem was his wireless mouse wasn't working. He has a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse set. To his credit he thought that the problem was due to batteries but after replacing them the mouse still didn't work. I immediately recognized the problem and told him about using Logitech's "connect" button on the receiver first and then on the mouse or keyboard second. He had this sudden and happy look to see that it was a quick fix and that he can do it himself next time.

My uncle called me before for another computer problem. He couldn't connect to his wireless network. Initially I thought I could resolve everything by just bringing myself. Turns out I had to bring my computer and an ethernet cable to diagnose his router and modem. So tonight when he called I thought I should bring my computer. (I left my ethernet cable at his house.) Turns out I didn't have to use my computer to "connect" his wireless mouse. So funny. :)

I had dinner tonight at Macau Friends Restaurant in the Sunset District. It was my first time there and I never heard of this restaurant before. I was looking through their menu outside and one item looked interesting: "Portuguese Style Curry Crab $14.99". So I thought why not!

I was so surprised at what came out. It was a fairly large oval plate and the curry sauce was filled to the edge. I scooped some of the sauce onto my rice and boy it was yummy! I next went for the prize and got my hands and fingers ready to work out the crab meat. The crab was simply delicious! It was a fairly medium sized crab and I think well worth it for $14.99 plus tax and gratuity.

My wife next asked me if this was as good as Thanh Long's crabs. I forgot the cost but I'm sure it was nearly twice the price or more. I thought for a bit and sided with Macau Friends. Thanh Long may have three different ways of cooking the crabs but the crabs are a bit smaller and obviously more expensive. Looking back, I think the Thanh Long's prices aren't justified.

The last few weeks I have been researching a phone to replace my aging Motorola V3I because my front display and camera has gathered a lot of dust inside.

I decided on the Nokia E71. I remember a few years ago my friend had the previous version E61 and I liked the web browsing capability, so I thought I go with the next version. Then as I read the reviews on Amazon, I found out the phone has some trouble with T-Mobile's tzones WAP service.

I was still interested in following the price of the phone on Amazon. I remember it started out at 319.99. A few days ago or more it jumped to 339.99. I think it was just yesterday the price rocked up to 366 something. Finally today it jumped down to 320 even! These prices are for the black version. I haven't really followed the white version but it's now at 366 something.

In the meantime I'm still using my current phone. :)

Recently my friend told me his wife got a ticket for a rolling stop near their home.

I didn't know what that was until tonight when my wife and I were scouting an intersection in SF while waiting for my uncle. We were looking at the tires of all the cars that passed by and only about 2 or 3 cars actually stopped. The cars that stopped did it only because other cars approached. But there were cars that still did the rolling stops waiting for other cars to pass before they moved on. So my wife and I were thinking with the SF budget, one way to help is by nabbing the rolling stoppers! At that one intersection we were there for about 20 minutes and saw about 30-40 cars doing rolling stops. Wow, think of the dough rolling in for the SF budget!