If you frequently want to switch between your local development instance of your web application, and the production version, or perhaps another version like an integration or QA installation, the Server Switcher Firefox plugin may be useful to you. With this plugin, you simply assign both URLs to each other in the Options tabe for the plugin and an icon will appear in the URL field of your browser. Clicking it will toggle you between the two URLs.

For example, if I was running an application on my local machine at http://localhost:8080, and the live version was at www.brianburridgecom, I would enter each in the plugin’s options under Development Server and Live Server respectively. When I got to either web site, I get an icon. A construction hat when working locally, and a server when on the “live” server.

The plugin supports ports, subdirectories, local files (specified with file://). Ctrl-Shift-X can be used to toggle with the keyboard.

I have found this plugin very useful during web site development. I don’t always have the “live” server set for a true production install, but instead to switch between my local development instance, and an integrated development server to perform some QA on both and compare the differences between them.

The plugin can be found here.

Since I began using Thunderbird some time ago, I have missed having a new mail notification in my tray. Of all the things I miss from Windows, that’s about it, but it has been missed. It’s time consuming to have to check my email manually every so often to ensure I know when I get new mail.

Thankfully, I found a solution recently. It’s a Firefox extension and is called the Mozilla New Mail Icon extension. I had no problems installing it and it works perfectly.

Over on NoahBrier.com, he posted a good summary of the advantages of using Firefox for readings blogs. Of course, its not only good for blogs, but for any web browsing. Firefox has definitely improved my web experience.

I’d like to add one more extension suggestion to what Noah lists, which will enhance your RSS experience even further:

Sage
This extension enhances RSS reading. I absolutely love this extension. It displays your RSS feeds, which you place in a bookmark folder specified in Sage preferences. It keeps track of which RSS entries you have read. Its divided into two segments, the top segment showing the RSS feeds, and the bottom segment showing you the entries for each RSS feed as you click on it. You can mark them read w/o reading them, mark all entries, read, read the summary of an entry by hovering over it, and then read the entire entry in the current window, a new window, or a new tab.