Thoughts on installing…Firefox, Jing, and Zotero

First I installed Firefox. I didn’t install it before now because I know that with my computer it would take FOR-E-VER! And it took about 20 minutes because my browser froze the first time I attempted it. Installing Zotero was easy except I wasn’t sure what website to visit to begin the installation. However, before I looked into installing this extension I Googled how to uninstall it. It’s good to have a backup plan.

There is a version of Zotero you can install from http://addons.mozilla.org and there is a version you can access from www.zotero.org. I visited the first site and decided I would complete a trail installation so that I would know what I was talking about when I recorded my screencast. When I clicked to download I received a security warning. Rather than risk destroying an already crippled computer I attempted the trail installation from the second website and still received a security warning so I figured it wouldn’t matter which site I used.

Next, I went about installing Jing using my new Firefox browser. This was a frustrating experience. First, I couldn’t find my “sun.” The demo said I should have one but I couldn’t find it anywhere on my toolbar or hovering about my screen. I assumed that Jing must not have been installed properly and I began the steps to install it again and found that new programs are listed in a little ready-to-install-box. Is this just a Jing thing or is this a Firefox thing? Either way I thought it was annoying that the installation wasn’t a straightforward series of menus prompting the user to read the directions, check the appropriate boxes and then click, “next” until the user can click, “finish” and be done with it.

I recorded my screencast. Old headphones with the fuzzy pads ripped off are a good substitute for a microphone. I’m fairly satisfied with the result of the recording except my gimpy computer was slow to restart Firefox so viewers have a nice long shot of my desktop.

Now, I’m sitting here typing my frustrations away and wishing that I had been able to upload my screencast video. It simply couldn’t get past the “Processing video” stage. Thirty minutes of that seems a little excessive. I’ll try again later. Now off to bed.