Thursday, November 29, 2007

Firefox 2.0.0.10 crashing

I don't know if I can call this an accomplishment, but I have been able to crash firefox in a consistent repeatable manner by following a sequence of steps. The test case goes like this:

  1. Start Firefox - Open firefox. I have 2-3 live bookmarks one of which is My reading list on google reader, now when I initially launch firefox this live bookmark doesn't load as i need to sign into my google account through any of google services.

  2. Log into gmail - My usual routine, I log into gmail to check my mail.

  3. Reload live bookmark - After logging in I reload the google reader, my reading list live bookmark. It loads, no hitches.


  4. Visit problem item - This is where the problem is, I click on the item that leads to this link on lifehacker. After a few status messages on the status bar, FREEZE.
    Then i get the mozilla talk back screen asking me to report the problem, which I did giving full detail. I also get the Windows Vista dialog saying "This program has stopped responding".
    An interesting thing to note is that the bar on the bottom right corner that normally shows progress in terms of page loading doesnt appear. I dont know if its relevant or not, thats how it is.



Notes:
  • I have the following add-ons installed - Chatzilla 0.9.79, del.icio.us Bookmarks 1.5.44, DOM Inspector v1.8.10, Firebug 1.05, Indic IME 1.6.3 (disbaled), Talkback 2.0.10

  • The problem is limited to this profile. I created a new profile (by running firefox -p) and added just my reading list live book mark and repeated the above steps. It runs without problems, so I am guessing some configuration in my profile is causing the problem.

  • The problem does not occur if I click on any other item of the feed.

  • Other details on my setup: OS: Windows Vista Home Premium, Firefox 2.0.10


If you can help please post a comment. I would be very happy to provide any additional details required. I have the dump generated by the talkback client which it sends back to mozilla.

Update:
  • The problem is firebug 1.05 extension. I disabled that extensions and the crash did not happen.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Earthquake in Delhi

An earthquake shook Delhi and its neighboring areas in the wee hours of Monday morning on 26th November 2007. The earthquake was a relatively strong one and lasted for about 4-5 seconds. I must mention that it was a little scary as earthquakes have a history of widespread devastation in India, and the memories of that poignant republic day in 2001 are still fresh.

Update: The earthquake occurred at exactly 4:43 AM IST and measured 4.3 on the Richter scale. The epicenter as per news reports was in Bahadurgard, although this cant be confirmed at the moment.
The Delhi Met Department website should be able to provide more details in the days to come.
The location in Google Maps (Double click the map to zoom in):

View Larger Map

Friday, November 09, 2007

GMail probable bug


While using the new GMail, which I believe everyone hasn't received as yet, I observed the following behavior. While using the chat, it showed one of my friends as offline even though i was chatting with them and there was no problem in recieving the messages. See screenshot below? Post comments if you have seen this kind of behavior. For the record I run Google sidebar on Windows Vista Home Premium also. My browser is Firefox 2.0.0.9 with only the delicious extension being of note. I also have firebug which was disabled.

Thursday, November 08, 2007

GMail new mailist feature

Click to view full size image.Gmail new mailing list feature.The new feature for filtering messages of a particular mailing list in Gmail. I subscribe to a number of mailing and up until now had to use from addresses to filter my messages, this is a lot more precise.
This keeps up gmail's appeal to people who use mailing lists quite a lot. The conversations feature still prevents me from even thinking about any other web based email.

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Academic Research Commercial Research

An academic research effort in any field is supposed to establish outer boundaries. Commercial efforts demonstrate what is profitable; academic efforts show what is possible.