Once you’ve subscribed to that command, all you need to do is open Ubiquity, and start typing “private-browsing”. Typing “p” may even be enough, depending on the commands you have. By default, it will toggle Private Browsing to the opposite of the state its currently in. You can also explicitly specify whether you want it on or off by specifying “on” or “off” respectively. That way you don’t have to actually remember or check whether you’re already in Private Browsing.

Screenshot of Private Browsing command

The command can be subscribed to from here:
http://theunfocused.net/moz/ubiquity/verbs/?cmd=private-browsing

Note: You’ll need to be running a nightly build of Firefox 3.1, or 3.1 beta 2 (when it gets released) or newer.

In other words, it punishes the user because the web service doesn’t trust the 3rd party application. This is wrong. Its not the user’s fault.

This has come up many times for Ubiquity command authors trying to provide easy and novel access to web services. It means that if commands want to use a web service’s API, they need a setup procedure before they can be used. Which is stupid, because a command already has access to the login cookie, and the login information in the password manager.

I’m not saying that I’m providing a solution for all of this. There are already plenty of other existing methods to choose from - some of which may fit, some of which may be just as bad. What I am saying is that while granularity in access control can be seen as a good thing, it should not come at the user’s expense.

Click on one of the small pictures to see it bigger.

Outside

First view from the road

Coming up the driveway

Side of house, at front door

Back door

Back door and next door

View of the back yard

Back yard with shed

Back yard and view

Hallway

Hallway and the front entrance

Hallway to the back of the house

Kitchen

Kitchen bench

Kitchen and old dinning table

Bathroom

Coming into the bathroom

Bath & shower behind the bathroom door

Laundry

Coming into the laundry, with the back door

Laundry storage, basin, and old washing machine

Bedroom / Office

Office window and closet

Office with old bed

Master bedroom

Master bedroom and windows

Master bedroom closet

Master bedroom doorway, leading to lounge

Lounge

From bedroom, looking into lounge

Lounge, from bedroom doorway

Lounge and entrance from hallway

Lounge window and bedroom door

And thats our new house. We’ve got a lot of re-designing planned, so I’ll be taking more photos as things progress, and posting them here.

Firstly, a short introduction about myself and what I’m doing. My name is Blair McBride, and I live in Dunedin, New Zealand. I’m enrolled at the University of Otago and I’m interested in amateur photography, programming, and making things easier to use. At Otago, I have completed an undergraduate degree in Computer Science, and continue to learn and work with computers outside of academia. Now I’m working on completing an undergraduate degree in Psychology, while also exploring other areas of study such as Art History, Latin, and Anthropology/Archeology. Computer Science and Psychology may seem like an unusual mixture, but I believe its important to understand how the brain works so that computer interfaces (and physical objects) can be designed for the people using them, rather than designed for computers/manufacturers.

This leads me to a topic which is likely to be featured a lot in my blog posts: Ubiquity. Ubiquity is a project from Mozilla Labs, the virtual lab responsible for various experimental browser addons such as Weave and Snowl. The principle aim of Ubiquity is to experiment with connecting the Web with language. In doing so, we’re attempting to find new user interfaces that could make it possible for everyone to do common Web tasks more quickly and easily. Instead of being forced to do things the way the computer thinks, it allows you to tell your computer what to do in the way that you understand it. In other words, it lets you control the computer, rather than having the computer control you. We recently reached the stage where Ubiquity could be useful for normal people, and so the first public release was unleashed upon the world. In conjunction with the official launch, Aza Raskin posted an introduction to Ubiquity and an more in-depth followup, each of which covers the basic concepts and usage. But as he explains, Ubiquity is more than just an interface - its also a development platform that lowers the bar for entry into augmenting the user’s browsing experience. In plain English, that means Ubiquity makes making Firefox addons easy. Really easy. Just be aware that Ubiquity is still in its early stages of development. There are bugs. There are things that will change, some drastically. But all for the better, because Ubiquity is going to change the way people interact with their computers.

I started contributing to the Ubiquity project sometime after the basic foundations had been laid. But since then, I’ve been able to find bugs, fix bugs, add features, contribute ideas, and meet some great people. And the development process is made as transparent as possible, so everything is public and anyone can contribute.