Lesser Known Firefox Extensions: Yet Another Smooth Scrolling (oh and some other shit about stuff and junk)

Well, it seems The Tartar Sauce has started it's own impromptu "games as art week." I was thinking of chiming in with my own view on the topic, but instead you might as well just re-read Jake's post, as that's pretty much exactly where I stand. This is interesting as well, if you're bored enough to read yet another article on the topic.

Though (since Bobbicus seems to be going the noble route) I will add this: Roger Ebert can suck it.

I haven't posted in a while, though this time it's not because I've been busy. I sat down to write this article and instead of resting my hands on the home keys, I instinctively rested my left hand on WASD and my right hand on the mouse. You know you're a gamer when.....

If you're interested, the games that I've been wasting away my life on in the past week or so have been: GTA IV, Far Cry 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, Left 4 Dead, Tom Clancy's HAWX, GTR 2, GRID, Everyday Shooter, Star Fox 64, Super Smash Bros. 64, and oh god, way too much Call of Duty 4.

And that, for no reason, brings me to the purpose of this post, which is to introduce Yet Another new segment (har har, get it?), called "Lesser Known." In this segment I'll highlight a (here it comes) lesser known piece of software that deserves a little more love. I'll be starting with firefox extensions, since there's a lot of them, not enough people use them, and they're just plain sweet. I had an idea originally to do a firefox post in the same vain as my 10 lesser known music players post, but there's way more kewl extensions that need installing.

The first Lesser Known Firefox extension is called Yet Another Smooth Scrolling:

I consider this a must-install on pretty much every one of my Firefox installations. It's a very simple extension that changes the default, ugly, jagged, ancient default Firefox scrolling action with a smooth, clear one that makes the web a more pleasurable place.

It's actually got a ton of great customization features. There are 3 scrolling presets (each one of them is adjustable) you can choose from to suit scrolling behavior to your mood or preference. Whether you want scrolling to be slow and smooth for reading an essay or long article, or something quick and functional for scanning documents or RSS readers, you can set each preset to meet your needs. Switching between presets is as easy as right clicking anywhere or choosing the icon in the corner of the browser.

Scrolling is very well done, pretty much any settings you choose are going to look great. You won't have to play around with the settings long to find out what you like. I ended up using the default settings for 2 of the 3 presets. It's such a subtle feature that really makes the web so much easier on the eyes, and just makes Firefox look better.

Though there is a downside: More CPU is utilized to create the effect. So if you're on an ancient laptop or trying to conserve battery on a netbook, then maybe disable it untill you're plugged in. It's not like it sucks up all resources, but it's something to be aware of.

Really a great extension that should be built into Firefox.

Yet Another Smooth Scrolling