MozCorp Announces Firefox 1.5 Extension Competition

vain gloria writes "The Mozilla Corporation has launched a competition to Extend Firefox by developing an innovative new extension for the soon-to-be-released latest version of their popular browser. The competition runs until January 6th and the three big prizes are Foxified Alienware PCs. Keen developers may want to grab a copy of the 1.5 Release Candidate and get a head start. Better check your passports first though, as those outside the US, EU and Canada (or in Québec) are ineligible to enter."

Re:Why only U.S., Canadian and European contestant

[slavemowgli]

They were talking about the EU, not Europe, so Russia is out as well.

Re:Japan

[zecg]

The very (IMHO) finest of Firefox extensions (when regarding complexity, usefulness, ergonomics and overall polish), ever - Scrapbook [vis.ne.jp] is from Japan.

Re:extentions are great.....

[Mostly a lurker]

I agree with you that extensions are what makes Firefox as good a browser as it is. However, I have become very wary of trying to run with too many. In my experience, there is a tendency for extensions to conflict with each other. As a result, I now only include those that I consider genuinely important. Those with marginal utility, even though they may be nice, no longer have a place in my system. For me, about a dozen extensions give me most of what I want: the days of 30-40 extensions are over.

javascript verification, please

[Isomorph]

Someone make a Javasript verificater.

I have been programing some javascript programs, but they
don't work when I move to Opera or MSIE.

A plugin that could check if the code is standart complient
whould be great.

Or if the plugin know what code can't run on MSIE.

Where does TFA mention geographic restrictions?

[Agelmar]

I've read TFA, and I can't see anywhere where the rules prohibit entries from Japan etc. The only thing in the rules I can see that mentions geography is "These official rules will be void where any provision thereof would be found invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction. If you are a resident of such a jurisdiction, you may not participate in the Contest." and later, "...he/she is a resident of a jurisdiction where these official rules may be enforced in their entirety and without modification."

Nowhere does it specifically limit the contest to USA,CAN,EU that I can find - I'm wondering where the OP got this? Can anyone shed further light on the subject?

Re:Where does TFA mention geographic restrictions?

[Otter]

It's in the contest rules [mozilla.org]...

Re:Where does TFA mention geographic restrictions?

[Agelmar]

Interesting - it's in the "Contest Rules", but not in the "Official Contest Rules" [mozilla.org]. That's most odd in my book.

Better pop-up extentions?

[NXprime]

Better pop-up extentions? 1. A popup blocker that works %100 of the time. Even with Firefox 1.5 Beta2 build, I still get a popup by clicking this link http://www.activewin.com/awin/default.asp [activewin.com] and then clicking anywhere on the page at all. Appearently they have a javascript that knows when you're 'touching' a webpage? I have to highlight text to read better so I don't know why this is going on. I do have my settings set at opening pages or user clicked popups in the same window as the current tab. Don't know if that's causing it or not. Is there a nicer Windows news website than Activewin? I'm really starting to hate that pop-up infested site. 2. Flash pop-up detector. Go here. http://www.cleveland.com/ [cleveland.com] a flash ad flys across the page. I like using Flashblock that blocks all flash (yeah, right) until I allow it to. Happens sometimes on yahoo.com news pages too. I guess I'm asking for a noscript type extension, but is dormant until I ask it to block scripts for a webpage since it's only these websites driving me nuts right now. A blacklist if you will. I spent more time messing with NoScript extension then going to my daily 45 websites. Plus I like installing a new clean install of firefox and updated extensions meaning I don't have time redoing this crap all the time. Disabling SOME scripts for websites would be cool too. Spellcheck as you type for Firefox would be a killer extension too. :)

Re:The MozCorp ....

[cybergrue]

This is because the rules for contests winnings in Qubec are comnpletely different then anywhere else in North America. If I recall correctly, the major difference is that a percentage of the potential winnings has to be given to the Qubec government as a tax for the contest to be run there, even if it is not won by a Qubecor. That an a whole lot more paper work means that residents of Qubec are excluded from most contests run in North America.

Re:The MozCorp ....

[frankcow]

Dude, every person in Québec believes they're not in Canada either!!!!

Re:Why only U.S., Canadian and European contestant

[Predathar]

Quebec does have special rules and regulations, but mainly the problem with contests is that there is a FEE to be paid to the province in order to have a contest. Yes that's right, if you want to include Quebec in a contest, you must first pay up, something about a fee to make sure the contest is not bogus... to protect the consumer or something like that I seem to recall.

The reason

[bcore]

It's not political or anything, Quebec just has REALLY strict contest laws that require the contest promoters to jump through a lot of hoops. Most contests here in Canada are usually advertized as being "contest void in Quebec" or whatever to that effect.

Here's a bit more info [pr9.net]

Re:Want to win?

[adamjudson]

You could use http://tamperdata.mozdev.org/ [mozdev.org] to change the
referer on the fly...

A

Réfléchir avant de parler! (About Quebec

[nierdal]

The reason why Quebec is excluded is because here in Quebec the lottery is regulated by the RACJ, a goverment agency. The lottery have is own laws, and therefore if the Mozilla Fundation do not accept to fill the papers that loto Quebec ask for they cannot participate.

See : http://www.racj.gouv.qc.ca/section.asp?lang=en&noS ection=4&noGrappe=5 [gouv.qc.ca]

Also, I would be great if the slashdot community would stop bashing Quebec about the "language police". THERE IS NOT LANGUAGE POLICE IN QUEBEC, this is bullshit!. There are only laws that make in sort that everything must be written in french on commercial products, and that the french must occupate the same space than the english. That's all! So if a consummer see a poorly written french on a products or an ad, it can make a complaint to the Quebec french language office that will HELP the seller to translate is products to french. You heard it right! They will HELP without any fees!

Why this? Hey we are 6 millions french (and 1 million english) in Quebec. There's 330 millions english speaker around US! How you would expect US to keep our language without laws? If you were 6 millions english speaker with 330 millions spanish what would you do if you were actualy enjoying your cultural heritage? You would not stand up to protect your liberty of speaking whatever language you want?

That's why the law is there.

See Wikipedia if you want to lean a bit more about Quebec. Very good description IMHO. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec [wikipedia.org]

(Oh and sorry I know my english isn't that good..)

Re:Better pop-up extentions?

[john83]

I went to both sites too. No pop-ups, no flying flash ads. I'm using Firefox 1.07 with Adblock (personalised filters).

Re:Japan

[AnonymousBystander]

From the FAQ [mozilla.org]:
Is the contest open to International entries?

Yes. Please see the contest rules for more information.

and I don't see the US + EU + CA only rules in the official [mozilla.org] rules

Re:Then why is Quebec excluded?

[Whafro]

Meeting legal requirements for contests limited just to the United States is often a very difficult chore. I see how much work the attorneys in the advertising/competition group in my firm go to for each such proposed contest, and am glad I'm not in that group.

It gets exponentially more difficult when you go into other countries, with completely different rules and regulations.

So in contrast, I am impressed that they went to the trouble of making it as international as they feasibly could without bankrupting themselves on legal fees and delaying the contest for another year while it was approved.

Re:Extension Tutorial

[erikharrison]

http://arstechnica.com/columns/linux/linux-2005090 7.ars [arstechnica.com]