Staticfree Blog

I just got a Zoom 4312 PC Card Bluetooth Adapter for my laptop, as I wasn't lucky enough to get a laptop with it built-in. For the Google record (because I wasn't able to find this information anywhere): this card works in Linux (tested in 2.6.15+), using the BlueZ Bluetooth stack and the hci_uart module. It is unfortunately a Bluetooth v1.1 card, but I've yet to find a PCMCIA Bluetooth adapter that had anything better. Additionally, this card is a clone (or rebranding?) of the Billionton PCBTC1 card, so those will work in Linux as well.

To make it go in a 2.6.15+ kernel, just compile the hci_uart and serial_cs (located in: Device Drivers → Character Devices → Serial Drivers → 8250... → 8250 PCMCIA) modules. Then use the hciattach tool to connect the /dev/ttySx device to the HCI.

At the moment, the driver seems to not be able to restore from suspend. Hopefully that will be an easy fix.

Minor note: I initially had trouble, as the BlueZ hci_uart driver doesn't properly depend on serial_cs which provides for the necessary serial port bits that make it go (a bug will be filed).

Firefox's slogan, "taking back the web" isn't just about blocking pop-up ads. One of the new features that comes in it out-of-the-box in version 1.5 is a way to add custom CSS to other peoples' websites (when viewed on your computer). This lets you fix the little quirks that may make themselves evident on websites that you frequent, but have no ability to fix.

One such site is my Livejournal friends page. When I view it in my normal 2-up browser mode (with 2 Firefox windows open, side by side each 640px wide), images embedded in the page often cause a horizontal scroll bar. This then causes the text to fill to fit the resized area and makes me maximize the window to be able to read it. While I can tweak the colors and such, I can't actually modify the CSS without getting a paid account (and I don't think I care that much).

My solution? Close Firefox then edit my ~/.mozilla/firefox/profilename/chrome/userContent.css file. Then add this block:

@-moz-document url-prefix(http://xxv.livejournal.com/friends/){
  img {
     max-width: 70%;
     height: auto;
  }
}

(If you are trying to use this, make sure you modify the URL for your username).

Now if I open my friends page in Firefox, it scales down all the images so they fit in the browser. If I want to look at one, I can maximize the window or open the image in a new tab.

userContent.css has been around for a long time to allow you to inject default CSS into all the pages that you view. Firefox 1.5 supports a special selector type @-moz-document which lets you match based on the current URL.

Being able to change the way you look at websites is really what "taking back the web" is all about. Platypus is another wonderful example of this, ultimately more useful than the hack mentioned above. With it you can change content in addition to simple style. Don't like an aspect of a website you frequent? Platypus lets you click on it and delete it, making it go away the next time you visit too.

Remember: a website is just text and links to images organized in a standard way. You can do anything to text, if you know how it's arranged and if you have control of what presents it. Could you do this in a closed, binary format such as Flash? No. Never.