One would assume that clearing all the favicon.ico files out of Firefox 3 would be a simple task.

It isn’t.

Clearing your cache doesn’t work because the icons aren’t stored there. Rather it’s in a SQLite database called places.sqlite in your Firefox profile directory.

There are three ways to clear all favicons.

First method: Create a new Firefox profile. This is very annoying to do because you have to reset all your preferences for the new profile.

Second method: Delete all bookmarks, clear cache, start over. This is equally as annoying if not more.

Third method: Manually empty moz_favicons table from places.sqlite. With a Firefox plugin, this works and doesn’t require you to reset anything else.

(Fourth method: Use Favicon Picker plugin? Nope. This does not clear the cache for favicons all at once. Individual, yes. All at once, no.)

Here’s how to do the SQLite method:

Step 1.

Download the Firefox add-on SQLite Manager and install it.

Step 2.

Launch SQLite Manager by clicking Tools then SQLite Manager, like this:

Step 3.

From within SQLite Manager, click Database (top left) then Connect Database to bring the open dialog up. In the File Name field, type in %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox, like this:

Press enter once.

Above: Open the Profiles folder.

There should be one profile folder present with an "odd" name like aDPa7219.default. Open that one up. When you do, you should see something similar to this:

Above: If you see this, open up places.sqlite.

Step 4.

Right-click the moz_favicons folder on the left and choose Empty Table, like this. DO NOT use "Drop table" as that will delete it entirely. You DO NOT want to do that. Choose to EMPTY it.

Click Yes when asked if you’re sure you want to delete all the records from moz_favicons, like this:

Step 4.

Close the SQLite Manager.

Close Firefox including any other Firefox windows you have open.

Restart Firefox.

All favicons are now cleared. Every single one of them. It’s a beautiful thing.

Final notes

None of your bookmarks will be touched; they will all still be there.

The places.sqlite file will still be at the same size it was before. So if you were expecting the file to get smaller, it won’t. However the favicon cache is cleared and that’s what matters.

Happy browsing, everyone.

I have been a long-time OpenOffice user strictly for the fact I think it’s a complete waste of cash to spend almost 380 bucks just to type up documents and create spreadsheets.

Some notes before continuing:

If you’re the type who says "My life is inside Outlook", I’ll say up front that OpenOffice will not work for you because it doesn’t have any collaborative software bundled with it. To those who say "Use Evolution!", don’t even go there because that’s not even in the same universe as Outlook. The only thing you can cross your fingers for is Lotus Notes – but that’s a whole other discussion.

For the rest of us that don’t use Outlook (including yours truly) and don’t need collaborative software perks, unless you want over-the-phone support you literally have no reason to use MS Office whatsoever.

Cheers and Jeers of OpenOffice 3

Cheer: Friendlier

(click above for full size)

It’s hard to believe the above screen shot is from my Windows XP box because it looks futuristic.

For every release of OpenOffice it’s looking more and more like a suite of office apps you should be paying for – but they’re free.

With boring ol’ office-style stuff, the apps should be as friendly as possible because let’s face it – this is not exciting software. Whenever you head into apps like these it should feel friendly and easy. You definitely get that with OO 3.0.

Cheer: Faster launch times across the board

A big complaint I had about OO 2 is how long it took just to start any app in the suite – even with that launcher-app thing in the taskbar (that never seemed to speed up anything).

I can’t complain anymore because all the apps in OO 3 launch much quicker. You will notice this immediately if you’re currently an OO 2 user.

Jeer: Grammar check still not there

(click above image for full size – note lack of grammar check in OO 3)

I was hoping.. heck, I was praying that OO 3 would have a bundled grammar checker built in – but it doesn’t.

What’s even worse is that the software "teases" you into thinking it is there.

Check this out:

It SAYS "Spelling and Grammar…" but Grammar check isn’t there. Why is it even listed?

Cheer: No more X11 b.s. in Mac OS X

If you use a Mac you probably hated OpenOffice and used NeoOffice instead. Well, you can uninstall that because the X11 crapola is gone with OO 3 – and that’s just plain awesome.

For those totally confused by the above, in plain English this means OO 3 will act just like any other Aqua application whereas previously it didn’t.

Cheer: MS Office 2007 filters

OO 2 couldn’t read/write MS Office 2007 files, but OO 3 can. ‘Nuff said.

Jeer: Still behind in the design department

While it’s true OO 3 has newer/better icons, some shading here and there and so on, the suite is still behind design-wise compared to Microsoft Office. Yes, it is more difficult to get around compared to Microsoft’s "ribbon" way. Granted, both suites do the same job, but the MS way is still faster and more streamlined.

However being that OO is free – I don’t believe too many will complain about that.

Should you get OpenOffice 3?

Yes. If you’re using OO 2, get 3. If you haven’t used OO before, download it and try it out.

For our OS-hoppers in the audience, you especially should get this if you hop between Windows, OS X and Linux or vice versa because OO looks and runs the same on all three.

Bookmark management in all web browsers is terrible. All of them. You would think that something as simple as searching for a bookmark would be simple and easy to do but it usually isn’t.

In Firefox 3 you can at least search your bookmarks easily if you know how to do it. Fortunately this is quite easy. All you have to do is use your address bar. Just type in a word or two and your bookmarks are auto-searched along with browser history.

Most of the time your bookmarks are listed first, and that’s good. You will know if a search result is a bookmark because there will be a gold star next to the listing.

Below is a screenshot of what this looks like.

While this may not be perfect (sometimes the search is a bit too "picky"), at least you have some ability to search bookmarks.

I made a claim in the last PCMech Live show that it will be 2 months before we see Firefox v3.01. Why? Because I was 100% sure bugs would be found almost instantaneously with the new FF3 browser.

Don’t get me wrong, FF3 is great. I’m using it now and it’s far and above better than FF2. I absolutely will not switch back to v2. No way.

But you had to know that bugs would surface rather quickly. How quickly? It only took 5 hours.

Information Week has confirmed a few security flaws in FF3. Is Mozilla working on it? Yes, of course they are. We’ll see v3.01 soon, of that I’m sure.

You can check out what the security flaws are in the source link below.

[Source: Information Week]