Add-ons are small pieces of software that add new features or functionality to your installation of Firefox. Add-ons can augment Firefox with new features, foreign language dictionaries, or change its visual appearance. Through add-ons, you can customize Firefox to meet your needs and tastes.
For the last few years I have working with Mozilla and Briks to create some cool add-ons for developers and users. Here is a selection of the add-ons I helped develop:
The official Mozilla Add-on Collector allows you to discover more of the best add-ons and organize your favorites in easy-to-manage collections. Subscribe to see how the collections you admire grow, and fans follow when you manage and update your own collections.
The Mozilla Add-on Compatibility Reporter helps Mozilla make sure your favorite add-ons get updated for upcoming Firefox releases by using this extension to report whether they still work or are having some issues with alpha and beta releases. Note: Recommended for alpha and beta users only!
Seismic Shaker rattles your browser window whenever a strong earthquake occurs near you. This add-on won the “Most Creative New Add-on” prize at the Mozilla Summit 2010.
In which Mackers presents more of his arty bullshit… This is the same work that was exhibited a few months ago in Valencia. If you missed that, here is a short video I put together of the evening.
Enter the world of SmileBunny, a realm created from human emotion. This piece is an exploration of how technology’s indifferent understanding of facial expressions can be adapted to create a sort of virtual dimension; a place reflecting that most pure of human emotions, joy.
This is an interactive installation. Digital tools such as projectors and webcams might facilitate the opening of this gleeful gateway, yet it is you the participant who must guide the journey.
o2sms is a useful program to send SMS messages using the websites of Irish mobile operators. Despite its name, it supports all four major Irish operators – o2 Ireland, Vodafone Ireland, Meteor Ireland and Three Ireland.
I created this program and maintained it for several years, but I have since left Ireland and so have little interest in continuing to maintain it.
So… I have moved the project to SourceForge. Hopefully this will diversify maintainence and ensure continued development should I drop off the planet :) If you want developer-level access, please contact me.
All of these were as part of “tech” articles or programmes, appealing mainly to geeks and GIS types. However, now Dartmaps has entered the world of the arty farty. From February 24th 2008, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City are running an exhibition titled “Design and the Elastic Mind“, which features Dartmaps as one of its exhibits. From the blurb:
The exhibition will highlight examples of successful translation of disruptive innovation, examples based on ongoing research, as well as reflections on the future responsibilities of design. Of particular interest will be the exploration of the relationship between design and science and the approach to scale. The exhibition will include objects, projects, and concepts offered by teams of designers, scientists, and engineers from all over the world, ranging from the nanoscale to the cosmological scale.
I’m not sure how Dartmaps fits into all that, but someone somewhere must have decided it does. The exhibit takes the form of a video recording of the site in action and a short descriptive text.
I couldn’t make the opening party and I probably won’t make it there to see it at all. But if anyone is in the city between then and May 12th, then be sure to pop in and take a gander :)
Edit March 9th, 2010: the installation is no longer live, but here is a video screencast of dartmaps in action:
