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Firefox and Perapera Chinese


abcdefg

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As of the release of Firefox 40, the Perapera Add-on no longer works. Both parties say they are trying to find a fix.

 

I've become very dependent on such a "hover translation" tool and am eager to hear temporary alternative solutions. I'm sure they will eventually get things worked out. Don't really want to change browsers, although I know Chrome and Perapera are still compatible.

 

What started as "training wheels" on my bike, have now turned into a "crutch." Didn't realize that until I had to do without. It's a punch to the ego and may finally force me to get better at reading. I also use it as sort of a "spell checker" when writing Chinese. Cuts down on the typos.

 

But all the "every cloud has a silver lining" type thinking aside, wonder what I can do to continue using the Chinese internet.

 

Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated.

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I installed SOBA talking popup translator addon. Its ok, it works but I don't like it as much as Perapera, but it will do till they fix it. I emailed them and the reply I got was basically the same as the notice on their website but also that they are fixing it but firefox can be slow at accepting updates.

 

From my post from the other topic, it really is a good substitute, try it.

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#2 -- Thanks, Querido. That was my first thought. When I went to the Firefox site to do it, I was warned off by their stern admonition:

 

Often when there is a problem with a Firefox update, people look for a way to go back to the previous version. That usually doesn't solve the problem and will make your computer and information vulnerable to attack. This article gives you some alternatives to downgrading and links to old versions of Firefox if you do choose to downgrade.

 

I took them at their word, but maybe I should ignore that and do it anyhow. Pharmaceutical companies always include dire warnings about unlikely consequences to cover their rear in case of untoward events. They can say, "We told you this might happen."

 

Plus, here I know the one specific problem I'm trying to fix -- in this case the ability to use the Perapera add on. It's not something vague like "Firefox no longer works smoothly after the upgrade."

 

#3 -- Thanks, Shelley. I don't see SOBA translator listed as an available add-on in the Firefox list of possibles. When I Google it, I get information on a type of Japanese noodles. (I probably am just not searching right.)

 

#4 -- Thanks, Giokve. I will take a look at that Reddit thread.

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Has anyone tried this one?

 

http://www.muhammadsafwat.com/hover-translate-firefox-add-on/

 

Hover Translate is a new add-on for Mozilla Firefox web browser that enables the user to translate any word on web pages by just hovering the mouse over it. It resembles the translate service that was provided by Google toolbar before it was discontinued by Google.

 

The developer's webpage heading says: "LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION" which gives me pause. (I realize I'm probably just being stupid about that. But what revolution does Mr. Muhammad mean?)

 

1. Does it work?

2. Is it safe?

 

Also, most of the user reviews I found on-line were negative, at least the ones that were in English (some were in Arabic.)

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Let this teach you not to upgrade Firefox until your plugins have been upgraded, too.  Firefox has gone off the deep end and no longer develops for its users.  I am impatiently waiting for the reborn Opera (Vivaldi) to reappear on the scene, until then it's suffer with Firefox. 

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I used MDBG's Chinese Reader app.  It's not perfect but I like it.

 

But more importantly, I have been very careful not to have it on by default, unless I am in a rush to get something done.  

 

This makes reading slower, but has made me far less reliant on the tool.  

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I found Soba by typing chinese into the addon search box.

 

Soba talking chinese popup translator  2.6.9.1- signed

 

This is the full name.

 

It doesn't do anything helpful if you search in google, you need to search in the addons in firefox.

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#9 -- Vellocet --

 

Let this teach you not to upgrade Firefox until your plugins have been upgraded, too.

 

How can an ordinary end-user determine that? (I'm not arguing with your statement; just asking for further information. Wondering how to implement your suggestion next time around.)

 

#12 -- Shelley --

 

I found Soba by typing chinese into the addon search box.

 

Thanks, I will try that. I only tried typing in SOBA before.

 

#11 -- Tysond --

 

I used MDBG's Chinese Reader app.  It's not perfect but I like it.

 

Thanks. I'll take a look at it tonight.

 

#4 -- TechKatz

 

There was a temporary fix posted on reddit that worked for me.

 

Yes, I saw that. Guess I could first create a system restore point (Win7) and give it a try. If it didn't work, I could undo the changes. (I'm not a very high-tech guy.)

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How can an ordinary end-user determine that? (I'm not arguing with your statement; just asking for further information. Wondering how to implement your suggestion next time around.)

 

The burned hand teaches best.  Plugin development always lags behind browser development, and if you upgrade right away, you'll break all your plugins.  Since Firefox was designed from the ground up to be a bare-bones browser and have needed functionality added via plugins, I'm surprised it hasn't happened to you before now.  What's worse is when a needed plugin ceases development because the programmer got tired of riding the FF upgrade treadmill.  This thinking works for any software that requires plugins, like Anki.  I used the old version 1 for a long time because Pinyin Toolkit still worked and there was no substitute for it in Anki 2.

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OK, Vellocet, I understand what you mean. Thanks for that tip.

 

Since a long time ago I have switched off all automatic updates, and review them one at a time. But it's very seldom I don't go ahead and install them once I've had a quick glance at what they purportedly are for and what they purportedly do. Henceforth, I won't be so quick on the trigger.

 

Windows updates are particularly sneaky. The last few months they have added a "nag-reminder" popup which advertises their new Windows 10, urges one to "reserve a free copy." There is no way under the sun I plan to even try Windows 10 until a couple years have gone by, if even then. I'm not eager to be one of their unwitting beta testers.

 

But they added the "nag-reminder" popup as part of an "essential security update." Finally managed to manually kill it after finding out how from some user forums. Still, with every new security update, it attempts to re-install. Unless I manually look for and uncheck "Windows security patch KB3035583," I will get it over and over again.

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Thanks for this thread! It came just on time to save me from updating to FF 40 and losing Perapera.

 

Has anyone tried to see whether the "Zhong Wen" pop-up dictionary works with FF 40? It may be an alternative to Perapera for now, although I think it only offers Chinese to English translation.

 

abcdefg, I'm one of those "beta testers" for Windows 10 and am very happy with it. It is by far the best Windows OS for multi-language use, especially for Chinese.

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abcdefg, I'm one of those "beta testers" for Windows 10 and am very happy with it. It is by far the best Windows OS for multi-language use, especially for Chinese.

 

Thanks, Luxi. I'm glad to know that. I was real disappointed in Win8, and feared Win10 might be more of the same.

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I hung on to XP until I had to have new hardware 3 or 4 moths ago and if I wanted an SSD drive I had to go  to 7. I will not change now unless there is some other good reason to do so.

 

I never go with the cutting edge of technology, I like to let it settle until people are not getting cut :)

 

I have some friends who are very techy and they go for the bleeding edge of technology and from what I can see you really have to know what you are doing to avoid pitfalls and problems.

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