ImgLikeOpera
November 25th, 2012ImgLikeOpera is a great Firefox addon for those of us with limited data capacity Internet connections:
ImgLikeOpera allows load only the images that you want in Firefox browser. This extension is very useful for non broadband users.
Features:
– placeholders for blocked images (hi, LJ treads!);
– (re)load image from context menu or Ctrl+rightMouseClick;
– forced expiration time (5 minutes – 3 months);
– policies for tabs;
– filters.You can set one of policies for each tab:
– don’t load images;
– load cached images only;
– load images for the originating Web site only;
– load all images.Also you can block/allow images with filters. ImgLikeOpera supports two types of filters: simple, and Regular Expression (thanks AdBlock).
Even though I block ads and Flash by default, it seems like more and more sites are going nuts with higher quality images and more of them on their pages. I used View Dependencies to do some quick comparisons of page sizes with image loading turned on and off. The result: Unsurprisingly, most of my bandwidth is going up in smoke to load images that I don’t need to see.
Update on Our Unending Lack-of-Decent-Internet-Access Saga
Every couple of years, the grim Internet situation here gets the better of me and I go looking for a way to deal with it. I had hoped that the Rural Broadband Initiative would finally fix this. *chortle* This is what the Ministry of Economic Development’s widget reports to me when I type in our address:
You may get the following service:
Sorry – you are not in a UFB or RBI zone
HA! UFB is Ultrafast Broadband and RBI is Rural Broadband Initiative. We’re a bit too rural, I guess.
Believe it or not, there’s now a glimmer of hope: Ubergroup.
Ubergroup has made a business out of bringing fast (and relatively affordable) Internet access to the deepest, darkest, broadbandless valleys of Northland New Zealand.
I contacted them a couple of years ago, and the guy on the phone let out a sort of gasp when he looked at our valley on his topographic map. No luck.
But when I emailed them a couple of weeks ago, the situation had changed a bit. It turns out that a tipping point as been reached with the number of people in this area who have been contacting Ubergroup about getting Internet access and Ubergroup is now willing to build a solar powered repeater out here if I can find a hill tall enough to see one of their other repeaters and a land owner willing to host the repeater. (Obviously, our property doesn’t go high enough or we would have done it.)
I’ve found the hill, and the person who owns it is willing to let Ubergroup build the tower up there.
After years of reading about these problems out here, you’re probably thinking, “So now what’s the problem?” And you would be right to be thinking that.
There’s a minor detail related to that site: A steep hike/climb through about 500 meters of dense bush would be required to reach it. I don’t know how much a ten meter tower weighs, but that’s what they need to place up there, along with solar panels, antennas, batteries, etc. (I’ve hiked through bush like that and I was barely able to do it carrying only a rifle.) I half-jokingly suggested dropping a team and the tower up there with a helicopter and the person I’m working with at Ubergroup laughed and said, “It wouldn’t be the first time…”
But they really, really don’t want to use a helicopter, and I don’t blame them.
As it stands now, they’re trying to arrange an easier access path through a neighboring property.
I know. I’m not holding my breath.
Help us Ubergroup-Kenobi. You’re our only hope.
