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doublehp
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Location: FRANCE
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 Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 5:40 pm Post subject: Use a browser as task manager in the word meaning ? |
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Using FireFox as extensive protocol handler ?
I was looking in Google for how to get FireFox call thunderBird when clicking on Mailto links. Used to work, stopped working after recent update. I ended up to this answer: http://gentoo-wiki.com/TIP_Integrate_Thunderbird_and_Firefox
But, by the way, I went by this: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Network.protocol-handler.app.(protocol)
My first idea was ... could this be used fo configure Firefox to call Skype on callto links ? you know, skype pretends to support the format callto://0123456789 ... but, I never saw anything like this ...
This would allow to have my diary in HTML format, and simply click on the people to call them.
Actually, my diary is not HTML, but PDF; the difference is minor, since I know how to set up xpdf for this kind of things.
But I would not post for just reporting this kind of personnal stories.
Imagine I create a personnalised page, and many personalised scripts; this page could contain Fish links, callto, and many other: fish:// is the name used by Konqueror for sftp, or ssh tunneling ... so, my browser home page could be a resume of pointers to all services I daily use, even not web, even not internet !!!
Let's extend again: if Firefox will use the configured the application from registery, and pass the given argument, this can in fact be interpreted an otherway (after spending of course a few minutes/hours configuring it this way): for any link pointing to foo://bar , FF will call the program specified in the registery (saved in the file prefs.js) at the line | Code: | | user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.foo","/opt/myapp"); |
This is also applicable to thunderBird of course.
This way, the home page of the browser would not only become a portail, but a real task initiator, could even replace a launchbar ...
Anyone ever thought about this ? tried it ?
And, I guess the concept is also extendable to other browsers, as long as you know how to change the protocol handler system.
For local attempt, I will use a fix prefix, and make sure no public proto have the same name (likely "doublehp_myproto").
If any one is seduce, please tell me so; this idea may lead to a new concept and kind of portals, and service provider. In short term, I may start with a proto
and use some links like
( the form doublehp_lauch://eterm does not work: Firefox draws me them like links, but they point internally to this forum; which other form could allow visual separation ? dots and minus caracters are refused ... )
This is just a start. As long as I can point to home scripts, and pass arguments, I can do anything that is scriptable; and, since I already script mouse moves, and action of putting streams in the X mouse buffer ... I do think this would allow me to do virtually anything ... and not even limitted to Linux !!! Windows also supports protocols (the difference will be the difficulty to write scripts, and alter system conf without dedicated tools: only coders/programmers will be able in Windows to do what I can do in Linux with any stupid shell CLI).
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doublehp
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| Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 5:47 pm Post subject: |
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This is portable to any system as long as you can provide an automated program to update system profile's support of protocols, what have been recently been worked by majors (Gnome and Xorg teams have made great work around this those past years). This means, it's easy to implement locally (in linux, just edit perfs.js for FF), this is scriptable, or you can alter directly the protocol system support somewhere in /etc, extensible to windows, and if you can make these steps very easy, it can also be used on public websites ... as long as you can provide the required script.
After all, why declare home made protos to IEEE ? user remains responsible for using services, and remains in the spirit of FSF (a thing dont need to be explicitely legally accepted to be done ... or installable), and wont break rules as long as it does not conflicts with existing protos.
How to make a visual proto-name header ? are proto names restricted to 26 case insentitive letters ?
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DEMAINE Benoît-Pierre (aka DoubleHP ) http://www.demaine.info/
>o_/ Coin coin coin \_o<
to contact me (MSN,ICQ, JABBER, Skype ... ) http://benoit.demaine.info/contact.png |
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01mf02
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Location: Innsbruck, Austria
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doublehp
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| Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 9:08 pm Post subject: |
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funny to see I think about this feature a few days after this report (exactly 4); of course I have read some reports about MSW vulnerabilities ... but I concieved this theory base on my Linux experience, because I heavily use a $(HOME)/.sh/foobar.sh architecture ... binded to keys, launched by docks ...
as you imagine, I intended to use this feature as an advantage for the user ... and specifically for MSW people, the patch required to install the proto should of course register to the system and declare it's a safe proto for the user ...
(and I am happy to see that my Gentoo daily cronised updates already updated me to FF 2.0.0.6  but, I was not vulnerable to this in my Gentoo Linux anyway ^^ will Gentoo Windows come out soon ? )
Any way, what I tend to detail is a new way to offer services to end user, and allow whider use of the browser,this tool everybody use daily, and even associate to Internet itself (I have seen people who say "Internet is broken" when the problem is just a browser not showing window, or not the one the user expected ... ). Since life of some people depend on their browser, why not put there all they need, and remove all those launch bars and dock apps ? If we dont do it, someone else will anyway ... so, I propose to do it "this way".
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DEMAINE Benoît-Pierre (aka DoubleHP ) http://www.demaine.info/
>o_/ Coin coin coin \_o<
to contact me (MSN,ICQ, JABBER, Skype ... ) http://benoit.demaine.info/contact.png |
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01mf02
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| Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2007 7:58 pm Post subject: |
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| doublehp wrote: |
(and I am happy to see that my Gentoo daily cronised updates already updated me to FF 2.0.0.6 but, I was not vulnerable to this in my Gentoo Linux anyway ^^ will Gentoo Windows come out soon ? ) |
Btw, you know that automated daily updates are considered a very, very bad thing to do, as many things could break? |
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doublehp
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| Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2007 8:58 pm Post subject: |
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cronised only esync; then, cron mails me what's to update, pre-builds the command, and shows me what it should merge. Never broke anything (2 months). I had too many problems by having bugs that were already fixed, because on day D, you meet bugs that are older than your last esync ... haven't you ever been tired of people coming on IRC, or telling you about bugs that were already fixed ? just because they esync at most once a year ?
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DEMAINE Benoît-Pierre (aka DoubleHP ) http://www.demaine.info/
>o_/ Coin coin coin \_o<
to contact me (MSN,ICQ, JABBER, Skype ... ) http://benoit.demaine.info/contact.png |
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