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Friday 23 November 2012

Coder at Work

A few years ago, when our daughter started in the sixth form, he who fixes the computer designed an add-on for Firefox which would allow her to toggle her computer settings between home internet and school internet at the click of a button.
He made it available to the wider community where it proved popular, with most people giving the add-on glowing reviews. There were the odd one or two who seemed to think a free add-on to toggle internet proxy settings should also be able to boil the kettle, walk the dog and service the car, but you always get folk like that. The one criticism was that the button was in the status bar at the bottom of the page rather than in the toolbar.
He who fixes the computer hadn't a clue how to put the button in the toolbar and lacked the time to figure it out, so the button stayed at the bottom. He recently found a bit of time and so began the research, the experimental coding, the mumbling punctuated by the occasional outburst of slightly manic laughter. Last night it didn't appear to be going well. He's not a man given to foul language, but it seemed to be a close thing at times. But then he started punching the air. He has it figured. The button is on the toolbar. He has a bit of dotting and crossing to do before it's available to the user, but it was a happy computer fixer strutting and preening around the house last night.
Hopefully the users will be pleased with the results, though no doubt there will be someone who thinks it should now be able to predict the lotto results, pinpoint the location of Atlantis and stop all natural disasters. They'll have to wait a bit longer for that.
Toggle Proxy is available on the Firefox add-on site.

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