Safari, Firebird, and Pith Helmet Question

Abstract · Feb 3, 2004

Someone posted this in the Main News Forum in a Safari v1.2 thread, and I really have to ask what a Pith Helmet is. I read on for 9 pages, and nobody asked this question, so.....

Pith Helmet Fix For Safari 1.2:

open /Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins/
Right click (control+click) PithHelmet.bundle and select show package contents
Open the Contents folder and from there open the info.plist file in either textedit or Property List Editor if you have the dev tools installed
Find where it says MaxSafariBundleVersion and change the value to 125
Save and restart safari. thats it, now it works.

I thought there would be SOMEONE out there that knew as little as me about my Mac, but I guess I'm wrong.

What the fudge is "Pith Helmet" and why are so many people eff'ing with it? Why were people thankful for this "fix"?

About Firebird: why doesn't my scroll-wheel click open a new tab in Firebird like it does in Safari? In most browsers, all I normally do is click on a link using the scroll-wheel button (ie: the 3rd button), and it opens up the link in a new tab. This doesn't work in Firebird for me. Using Firebird, I have to press Cmd (apple) + left click on mouse to get a webpage to open in a new tab.

And why the hell is Safari soooooo slow when I go to a message board reply screen with 6-7 animated smilies, while Firebird handles the reply screen so much quicker? This "slowness" causes a 1 or 2 second delay between the time I physically type out a reply, and the time the text appears on my screen.

Safari is soooo good, but sooo bad, all at the same time.

joker2 · Feb 3, 2004

After googling for a bit and following a few more links, I found http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/18158 which is a Safari plugin offering content filtering.

I don't seem to have the slowness associated with the animated smileys that you have had.

Otherwise, your guess is as good as mine.

Powerbook G5 · Feb 3, 2004

Pith Helmet basically blocks advertisements on websites, so you can think of it as a pop up blocker for the ads that are a part of the website and don't actually pop up. It's immoral to use, from what I understand, because people like Arn who use ads to pay for their websites won't get the money from them, but to each their own.

I am not sure about the smilie issue, though, since Safari seems to be pretty fast even with smilies.

redAPPLE · Feb 3, 2004

i'd suggest you post your specs and point us to the URL and maybe we could say something more.

who needs animated smileys anyway?

there are sites that unfortunately fills up the whole page with adds that it tends to be difficult to read the real content. the macrumors site is designed "so well" that they do not annoy the reader.

mainstreetmark · Feb 4, 2004

...and there are folks like me who live on a boat, who's sole connection to the internet is through a cellphone modem, which generally gets around 60k/sec. Pith Helmet makes it so I never have to wait for another Punch the Monkey ad to download.

Google, on the other hand, has kindly decided to make color-matching, non-flashing, non-intrusive text-only, small ads, which I don't mind at all.

cc bcc · Feb 4, 2004

I think PithHelmet is excellent. I do have macrumors.com and others removed from the block list, so I do get ads here. It's easy, if you're on a webpage that you support, simply right-click (ctrl-click) and select "Never block ads from this URL" (I'm not behind my mac right now)

Westside guy · Feb 4, 2004

Originally posted by mainstreetmark
Google, on the other hand, has kindly decided to make color-matching, non-flashing, non-intrusive text-only, small ads, which I don't mind at all.

But PithHelmet blocks these as well. I have Google Ads on my Website, and PithHelmet blocked them when I tested it. I went with Google Ads, even though they don't pay as much as some others, because I thought relevant, low-intrusiveness advertising was what my page visitors would prefer (of the viable choices).

I prefer Firebird's solution - both built-in and with their "ad block" plugin. You can block the ads you find annoying (right click, and "block images from this server"). I feel this is the best solution, because at least in theory the advertisers will see which ads are being viewed and which are being blocked, and hopefully will be smart enouh to move towards the less annoying ad styles.

If enough people are using an indescriminate "kill every ad" tool, the advertisers will adapt. This will lead to more intrusive "sneaky ads" where blocking the ad means blocking the hosting site, or else it'll mean that every worthwhile site will have to charge for content.

Abstract · Feb 5, 2004

When you guys use Firebird, does clicking on the scroll-wheel mouse button while your pointer is over a link open up the link in a new tab, or is this something I'll just have to put up with if I decide to use Firebird full-time?

And I'd love to use Pith Helmet, but it seems that you are, in a way, cheating someone out of funds necessary to run a website. Nobody adds advertising unless its financially, right? You're just taking money out of their pockets while still going to a site and using their resources.

On the other hand, should I care if Rolling Stone magazine (just an example) gets more money for their crap website?

(I hate Rolling Stone mag)

Powerbook G5 · Feb 5, 2004

Well from what others have said, you can actually tell Pith Helmet to allow ads from one site (such as Mac Rumors) but block them from others (such as Rolling Stone) so that way you can support Arn but stick it to the Rolling Stone at the same time.

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Safari, Firebird, and Pith Helmet Question

Abstract

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joker2

macrumors 6502a

Powerbook G5

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redAPPLE

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mainstreetmark

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cc bcc

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Westside guy

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Abstract

macrumors Penryn

Powerbook G5

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