Firefox Needs Content-Aware Image Resizing

The new feature called "content-aware image resizing" in Photoshop is amazing. There is a promotional video up on the Adobe site that's really fun to watch. For example, they make a Volkswagen bus more "economical" (mind you, while keeping the wheels round):

The technology behind it is based on research from an Isreali research group. That group put a video up on youtube in 2007 already:

It's a little more technical, but no less impressive, so all of you geeks who wonder how it actually works should watch this as well.

I can tell you one thing: I want this in Firefox's page resizing code. Sadly, I assume it is strictly patented and Adobe will probably have made sure to have some sort of exclusive deal on it.

Update: A commenter points out, there is an open source plugin for the GIMP that does content-aware resizing--already since 2007. Thank you, Gandalf!

September 21, 2008Fred Wenzel

Downloading a Complete Picasa Web Album (Without Installing Picasa)

Google's Picasa Web Album supports downloading an entire album, however, it requires the Picasa software to do so. Bummer if you are on a Mac, or don't want to (or can't) install Picasa on your computer.

There's another tutorial online that suggests using a Greasemonkey script to surface the download links, then use the DownThemAll Firefox extension to grab the links.

Sadly, the Greasemonkey script in question stopped working after a recent code change on the picasa website. I was able to easily fix it, but due to the lack of an open license, I am unable to share the script with you :(

However, I found an alternative solution: The album's RSS feed! Along with the aforementioned DownThemAll extension, you can easily download a complete album off Picasa Web. Here is how:

Go to the desired Album, and click the "RSS" link on the right hand side:

Firefox will show you the RSS feed in a more or less appealing way. Note that each of the pictures shown has an "attached" JPEG file underneath:

The only thing we need to do is download all of these with DownThemAll. For that, right-click, and choose "DownThemAll". In the "links" tab, it'll automatically grab all pictures for you:

Just hit "start" and let it load!

Hope this helps!

September 04, 2008Fred Wenzel

Not a Firefox

I promise, my blog is not going to turn into a "desktop wallpaper collection", but this one is too cool not to show it to you:

"Ceci n'est pas le fond d'écran officiel de Firefox / This Is Not The Official Firefox Background Picture"

By the way, the photographer Denis-Carl Robidoux publishes a picture per day, all of which in different sizes to fit your screen, and for free, too.

August 31, 2008Fred Wenzel

Red Panda Wallpaper

Just found a nice red panda pic that works as a desktop wallpaper:

The picture was made by meantux on flickr, and is licensed under a CC by-nc license.

August 19, 2008Fred Wenzel

Bank of America Supports Firefox (Finally)

From the "announcements" section of Bank of America's online banking:

Firefox is now supported by Online Banking.(New) Experienced Firefox users and customers interested in using Firefox can conduct Online Banking activities knowing that the browser is fully supported. For information about settings that will help you get the best possible Online Banking experience with Firefox, visit our Browser Help and Tips.

Glad to hear!

July 27, 2008Fred Wenzel

Off to the Mozilla Summit 2008

Yay, I am out and about for the Mozilla Summit 2008 in the beautiful Whistler, British Columbia, Canada.

It's going to be an exciting week with a lot of people I know and haven't seen in a long time, and there will be many new people to meet as well. I am looking forward to it!

Whistler itself is a breathtaking place, they say, so I am particularly thrilled that such a great place was picked for the event. I know at least one of my friends is jealous because he'd love to go mountain-biking there!

If you want to see what's going on at the Mozilla Summit, hop on over to summit.mozilla.org, a new mash-up site showing tons of media related to the summit. Soon it'll look much fuller than this:

I'll write again when I'm there :)

July 13, 2008Fred Wenzel

Nice Firefox Wallpapers

I just stumbled across a collection of very nice Firefox background images.

Some of them I've seen many times (like "always wear protection", which always reminds me of the "natural mail enhancement" pic), others are new to me, but they seem to be the work of some very talented designers in the Mozilla community, so make sure to check them out.

July 10, 2008Fred Wenzel

Firefox + World Record = Hot

Here you see Tristan Nitot, president of Mozilla Europe, receiving the Guinness World Record certificate at the London Firefox 3 party. Awesome!

(Thanks for the link, laura)

June 17, 2008Fred Wenzel

From Redmond With Love, Part 2

Oh, hello! The MSIE team sent us another cake. This time, sadly, I wasn't around to taste it, but it looks much nicer than the old one! Internet Explorer just started getting color, it seems like!

Here it is, photo courtesy of robcee:

I hope it tasted as delicious as the first one!

June 16, 2008Fred Wenzel

Make Firefox a Guinness World Record!

As many of you may already know, tomorrow, June 17, Firefox 3 will be released to the general public.

But that's not all: In an event called "Download Day" Mozilla is trying to set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloads in 24 hours. You can help set the record!

All you need to do is download Firefox 3 tomorrow within the first 24 hours of its release.

Need more info? Hop over to the Mozilla Blog or read the official Download Day FAQ.