Better Firefox toolbar in Linux

While it looks just right in Windows, default toolbar in Linux just looks way too bulky: gap & padding for buttons are just too big. However, none can’t be customized. Here is what I configure mine.

For Firefox, it will read userChrome.css for custom UI. It’s located in /home/<user-name>/.mozilla/firefox/<random>.default/chrome/ You can just create one.

/* Menu Bar - Shrink and Fade Text */
#navigator-toolbox .menubar-text {
	font-size: 70% !important;
	color: #999 !important;
	}

/* URL Bar and Search Bar - Shrink and Fade Text*/
#urlbar, #searchbar{
	font-size: 85% !important;
	color: #333 !important;
	}

/* Tabs - Shrink Font and Height*/
.tabbrowser-tabs {
	font-size: 80% !important;
	height: 20px !important;
	}
.tabbrowser-strip {
	height: 22px !important;
	}

/* Bookmarks Toolbar - Shrink Font and Size*/
#PersonalToolbar {
	font-size: 90% !important;
	padding: 0px !important;
	margin: 0px !important;
	max-height: 20px !important;
	}
	/* Seperators - Remove */
	#PersonalToolbar toolbarseparator {
		display: none !important;
		}
	/* Toolbar Buttons - Reduce Margins */
	#PersonalToolbar toolbarbutton {
		margin: 0 -5px 0 -1px !important;
		}
	/* Toolbar Icons - Shrink and Reduce Margins */
	#PersonalToolbar .toolbarbutton-icon {
		max-width: 12px !important;
		max-height: 12px !important;
		margin: 0px 2px 0px 0px !important;
		}




This will reduce button size into what it should be. Surely you can adjust suiting your preference easily with a bit knowledge of CSS.

Popularity: 4% [?]

The day flip phone surprises me

Samsung V200In a day that smartphone rules the world of a living, iPhone, Android and such are just outperforming all featured phone. I have been using so-called smart phone since Treo’s day. Before that, I never was a fan of all in one kind of things: PDA and phone specifically. Then I was super happy Tungsten T2 + Sony E T-630. I could access internet by connecting via Bluetooth. Now, I’m with Nexus One. Is that good? yeah. Am I impressed w/N1? absolutely. However, recently I have been forced to have 2 cells. One with unlimited data plan—on N1 surely–and the other with cheapy voice plan; the combination works. Things get more interesting from that.

Nowadays, I find myself using N1 as just PDA back in the day. It’s much more powerful than T2, of course. I love it. The biggest surprise Samsung V200is a sammy flip phone. Nothing is special at all by today’s standard—back then it’s the very FIRST POLYPHONIC ringtone capable phone LOL. Lucky me that it is still rock. What do I find? I find that it’s very very easy to pick up the phone and surely nothing bothers if I tap on the virtual button or NOT. If I want to answer the call, just open the phone. If I want to hang up, just flip it back. If I want to make a phone call, just type the name. T9 sucks I must admit, but swiping through 300+ contacts is worse. Oddly enough, I never find Treo is less effective in phone ability to any featured phone. I, nevertheless, have yet to find any easy-to-use/real productive in phone for touch phone at all.

In short, are we running toward a wrong direction? possibly. I can see that Samsung flip phone just gives me more productive as far as phone call is concerned. Although it doesn’t give me any extra service like N1 can provide, touch phones by all means ain’t a good phone either. I wish I see a good new cellphone again one day. It won’t be so soon until touch trend is over; but on that day, I’ll be eagerly waiting.

Popularity: 1% [?]

3G UMTS Band fact for choosing phone

Although 4G is coming to town—well, at least in the US, considering purchasing phone for worldwide usage, it’s tough.

Band I (W-CDMA 2100) in Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania (ITU Region 1) and Brazil (part of ITU Region 2)

Band II (W-CDMA 1900) in North America and South America (ITU Region 2)

Band IV (W-CDMA 1700 or Advanced Wireless Services) in the United States (T-Mobile USA) [It’s 1700MHz upload link + 2100 download link; need dual band to work properly)

Band V (W-CDMA 850) in America, Canada, Australia, parts of South America, parts of Asia (ITU Region 2 and ITU Region 3)

Band VIII (W-CDMA 900) in Europe, Asia, Oceania (ITU Region 1 and ITU Region 3)

As far as I know, band usage is totally up to service provider. Guideline above doesn’t help a bit about what band we are using. We just have choose phone suit our choices of service provider. Sometimes it’s pretty hard to know all about these info since it’s not well informed publicly. I would add data in to this matrix as far as my knowledge goes.

Country Carrier UMTS band
US AT&T Band V
T-Mobile Band IV
Thailand AIS Band VIII
True Band V
TOT Band I

*This covers only GSM. Verizon & Sprint in the US and Hutch in Thailand use CDMA.

Most phones support Band I and either Band V or Band VIII, not both. You really have to be careful choosing one or you will end up using only EDGE network. So far, only iPhone 4 supports Band V, Band VIII, Band II and Band I (850/900/1900/2100) pretty versatile phone I would say. We surely can expect more of these very wide range of support in the future. [Apple iPhone 4 spec]

T-mobile G2 supports Band I & Band IV (AWS/2100) [reference]

Popularity: 5% [?]