There are a number of extension updates available today simply due to new translations:

AutoAuth 1.1.1

• French (fr-FR)
• Dutch (nl-NL)
• Spanish (es-ES)
• Japanese (ja-JP)
• Portuguese (pt-PT)

Feed Sidebar 1.1.1

• German (de-DE)
• French (fr-FR)
• Dutch (nl-NL)
• Italian (it-IT)
• Japanese (ja-JP)
• Russian (ru-RU)

RSS Ticker 1.9.1

• French (fr-FR)

The updates can be downloaded from each add-on's respective homepage or via your browser's auto-update feature for extensions. Thank you to the translators at BabelZilla for all their hard work.

I've finally gotten around to updating RSS Ticker. Among other things like new locales and code optimization, this version includes a rewrite of the options dialog and its related code, so any reported bugs related to the Options dialog should be fixed now. This includes the known incompatibility with the All-in-One Sidebar extension.

You can download the latest version of RSS Ticker 1.9 from the RSS Ticker homepage.

On a related note: I originally wrote RSS Ticker so that I could use Firefox's Live Bookmarks to manage my feeds but still have an easy way to see new items from a small number of feeds. Since then, the number of feeds I follow has grown, and the ticker interface has become too restrictive for me. If this sounds like you, you might want to check out my new extension called Feedbar. It uses your Live Bookmarks for feed management like RSS Ticker, but it displays the new items in a sidebar, so it's easier to scan through a large number of feeds.

About a year ago, I wrote my first RSS-related Firefox extension, RSS Ticker. It was intended to be used for getting instant notifications from a small number of feeds. As the number of feeds I follow has grown, I've found the ticker interface inadequate and frustrating, so I've been working on a new RSS extension for Firefox over the past couple of weeks.

I'm calling it "Feedbar," and it's a sidebar for Firefox that aggregates all of the unread items from your Live Bookmarks in one place.

Click for full view.

It's not trying to be yet another standalone RSS reader that just uses Firefox as a platform (like Sage, infoRSS, or Wizz RSS). It doesn't have its own feed manager - it just uses the feeds you've already bookmarked and shows you the items from those feeds that you haven't visited. It's intended to be simple, easy to use, and something that could be included by default in Firefox without seeming out of place. As far as I know, there's not another extension already doing this.

You can download Feedbar 1.0 alpha 1 at the Feedbar homepage. Feedback is greatly appreciated.

After a series of delays, the new Mozilla Addons site (codenamed Remora) went live late last night. Changes to the site include redesigned visual aspects, localization, and an overhauled discussion/comment system, but probably the biggest change you'll notice is that new extensions do not undergo a mandatory approval process before being available for download.

As extensions are uploaded, they are relegated to the "Sandbox." This means that while they won't appear in search results or under their respective categories, the author can still take advantage of Mozilla's free add-on hosting by pointing users directly to their add-on's download page. Sandboxed addons can be nominated for general availability by requesting an editor review, but according to Mozilla, this should be reserved for addons that are of use to the general population and enhance the Web browsing experience, and I fully agree. We don't need the site cluttered with hundreds of "gam3rHax.com Forum Toolbar" extensions that are only used by their author.

As far as my extensions go, ScribeFire and URL Fixer have been deemed public-worthy, and I've nominated OPML Support. I'll probably leave the others (Slashdotter, GoogleTabs) in the sandbox, as they're not really what I consider "general use."

Update: It looks like the site has been rolled back to its previous state; I can't determine why, but the Mozilla Webdev blog will probably post an update. You can still check out Remora at the Mozilla Addons Preview site.

If you were running RSS Ticker 1.8.9 with Firefox 2.0 RC3 and some of your Atom feeds weren't being displayed, this update is for you.

I've just updated all of my extensions to be compatible with Firefox 2.0. They're all available for download at my site, and they'll all eventually be available at Mozilla Addons as well. No new features for these updates, just compatibility fixes.

I don't like to shop. So when I decided that I needed a bigger desk (and a new coffee table and some PC133 SDRAM - email me if you've got extra), I did what lazy shoppers do - I hit up CraigsList. It turns out that since I live within a half hour of a major metropolitan area, there are literally thousands of people e-begging me to buy their desks! It looked like my troubles were over.

Well, finding just the right desk is hard. I need something with lots of open space beneath for PC towers and whatnot, so desks with drawers are out. I also need lots of desktop area to rest my enormous forearms while I type, so regular puny-human sized desks are out too. It looked as if I would be browsing through the CraigsList listings forever, but when I noticed that you can subscribe to a CraigsList search via RSS feed, my task became a whole lot easier.

I subscribed to the RSS feed, and with RSS Ticker installed, new desks for sale scroll across the bottom of my screen within minutes of being posted. I imagine that this method would work with products other than desks, RAM, and coffee tables, but I can't personally confirm it.