And this is the same photo as seen by Firefox:

Safari’s rendering is exactly how it should look. Firefox both brightens the exposure and softens the colors.

Another example, and this is the one where I first noticed the problem. Here is a photo taken specifically to highlight the bright red color. This is how it looks in Safari:

And here it is in Firefox:

The reds are much more muted in Firefox and it looks like a completely different exposure. Safari comes much closer to the original.

So what’s going on? Why do I only notice this for some of my own photos? Well, I think it must have to do with my photographic workflow. The photos above were taken in RAW format with my Nikon D50. I imported them into Adobe Lightroom, played around with the exposure and color a bit, then exported them to JPEG. There must be something about the process that messes with Firefox’s little brain and causes it to reinterpret how the images should look.

At least, that’s my guess. Does anyone have details on what this effect is and how to overcome it?

In the meantime, I’m considering switching to Safari when looking at photos online. It seems to most accurately present a photo as it is meant to be seen.

It turns out GDS looks for browser handling instructions in a dimly lit and dusty corner of the Windows Registry, a place not subject to the commands sent from the “Set Program Access and Defaults” applet or “Tools | Options | Default Browser” setting. If you would like to sever ties completely between GDS and IE, here’s how:

1. Open the registry editor: regedit
2. Find: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile\shell\open\command
3. You will likely see a string value with the full path to iexplore.exe. Replace the value with: "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -nohome
4. Enjoy GDS once again.

I found this solution in the archives of the Google Desktop Google Group. Thanks CB!

One final note for those who’ve installed the latest GDS v3 beta, do not enable “search across computers.” At this point, it’s an unnecesarry privacy and security risk. More on that here and here.

I have updated my Amazon-to-Seattle Public Library lookup Greasemonkey script to work with Firefox 1.5 and Greasemonkey 0.6.4. Get it here.

It inserts a link under the book title indicating the book’s status at SPL.

Here’s the original post.

Book Burro is way better than any lookup script I have seen. And it looks like he’s working on a new feature for adding your own custom sources. Go get Book Burro now.

I’ll be keeping tabs on Greasemonkey developments in the near future, and should something turn up that I can use to update my library lookup script for Firefox 1.5, you can be sure I’ll post about it here.

About six weeks ago, I cobbled together a quickie Greasemonkey script for including a LibraryLookup link in Amazon’s book pages to the Seattle Public Library. It’s proved very handy. Some non-techie family members are using it, and it’s generated more comments and feedback than any previous entry on this here blog.

So, it was to my wonder and amazement that I recently happened upon a similar user script that does more tricks, more better. Over at snarfed.org is a script that queries the Palo Alto Libraries and displays the circulation status of whatever book you’re looking at on Amazon.com, just like Jon Udell’s script. As luck would have it, the Palo Alto Libraries use the same Dynix cataloging system as the Seattle Public Libraries, making the task of adapting the script for SPL trivial. Here’s a screenshot. Notice the nice green link under the book title which informs me that The System of the World is available in the Seattle Public Library:

Cool or what? Click that link and it takes you directly to the item in SPL’s catalog. The script is smart enough to also tell you if the book is checked out, on order, in process, or not available. I like.

Now, if you have previously installed my first script, I suggest you uninstall it before grabbing the new one. Also, I make no guarantees that this will by my last version. To make use of the script you’ll need Firefox, Greasemonkey, and to right-click the following link: amazonspl.user.js, then choose “install user script.” Then browse for a book.

What does this plugin do? It adds to the list of search engines you can pick from in the Firefox toolbar. By default, you get Google, Yahoo!, and other major sites. There are a plethora of other engines you can add. (One of my favorites is for Netflix.) After installing the plugin, you’ll see a new option in the drop-down menu next to the toolbar search box for the Seattle Public Library. If you select it, enter some key words in the text box, and press Enter, your search terms will be passed to the SPL catalog website where the results will be returned. Nifty! What could be simpler?

Now, this is a basic keyword search, and the results are sorted by publication date. This means you can put in a book title, or an author’s name, or whatever, and the catalog will do its best to return good results based on those words. If the results aren’t what you were hoping for, you have the option of executing a more advanced search right on SPL’s website.

A big thanks to Corey Seeman of the University of Toledo for offering excellent documentation on his search plugin.

Get the plugin.

Have fun, happy searching, and use your library!

For a related hack, try my LibraryLookup Greasemonkey script for one-click searching of books using Amazon and the SPL Catalog.