Go Go Greased Monkey!

Browerwise, I use Firefox almost exclusively these days. Sure, Safari has some better downloading tools and I open IE for testing once in a while, but the speed and extendablity of Firefox rules the roost. One Firefox extension that I find myself using more and more is greasemonkey.

Greasemonkey is a piece of software that runs inside Firefox that changes the appearance of web pages based on specified scripts. In english, this means the user has better control on how web pages are displayed. Greasemonkey scripts also let a user download content more easily. For example, many of the links in my Closet Theater postings are to Google Video or YouTube. These pages are great for viewing video at the computer but don't allow you to save the video for offline viewing. Josh Kinberg has written a pair of Greasemonkey scripts to enable downloading of this content. I also run a script called Amazon Music Helper that streamlines downloading free music from Amazon.com.

A way to share geotagged photos without all the tedious mucking-about in Javascript that I detailed earlier is to display geotagged images in flickr using the Google Maps in Flickr greasemonkey script. Only people running the same script will be able to see all the extra geoinformation, but a link to the script in your comments will make it easy for everyone (everyone running Firefox anyway).

These are all well and good, but the greasemonkey scripts I use most often are for my favorite game: The Kingdom of Loathing. There are two main groups of greasemonkey scripts for KOL, available here and here. Check out my new, improved interface (click to enlarge):

You'll note easier navigation links and automated recipie information. Not visible (but still cool) is detailed Cake Shaped Arena information and, my personal favorite, the ability to see the outcomes of KOL's "choice" adventures before you chose: perfect for hunting down that elusive Miner's Helmet. Greasemonkey scripts save me a lot of needless clicking.