Leave your questions here and I will answer and organize them. You might also check the PithHelmetSurvivalGuide for help getting started.

  1. All I want to do is...
  2. I just quit Safari, why does the Installer still think Safari is running?
  3. How do I block midi files?
  4. How do I write rules to match particular URLs?
  5. Why doesn't the preferences pane/panel show up?
  6. Is it possible to use PithHelmet to filter text based ads?
  7. Is it possible to to reformat sites that I visit very frequently?
  8. Will you make PithHelmet available for Mozilla/Firefox/Camino/OmniWeb?
  9. Can PithHelmet and Safari Enhancer Co-exist?
  10. How do I block Flash content?
  11. Why does PithHelmet wait for all the ads to load before removing them from the page?
  12. Does PithHelmet download blocked images?
  13. Are PithHelmet and Saft compatible?
  14. I already donated, do I have to pay to register?
  15. What does 'Enable Fast Collapsing' in advanced site preferences do?
  16. Why don't my contextual menus show up?
  17. Where can I learn more about Machete?
  18. Shiira crashes when PithHelmet is installed, can I fix this?
  19. NetNewsWire warns me that this version is untested, and PithHelmet is disabled. What do I do?

1. All I want to do is...

Try the PithHelmetSurvivalGuide if you are new to the wonders of PithHelmet.

2. I just quit Safari, why does the Installer still think Safari is running?

You probably have multiple desktops running and another users is running a copy of Safari. That person needs to login and quit Safari. Optionally, you can restart the machine that will definitely quit all running copies of Safari.

3. How do I block midi files?

They are blocked by default in v2.x - you can toggle the rule on or off to your liking.

4. How do I write rules to match particular URLs?

PithHelmet uses a common software package [WWW] PCRE (Perl-Compatible Regular Expressions) to do its pattern matching on the URLs that Safari attempts to load.

The list below is a series of links to other web sites that describe how regular expressions work.

5. Why doesn't the preferences pane/panel show up?

NOTE: A fix-it tool is included with v0.7.3 and later that should correct this problem. Please see the included installation notes for more information about the tool.

The PithHelmet preference pane should be located in Safari Preferences (Command-Comma). (see the [WWW] screenshot)

For reasons I don't quite understand, occasionally after an upgrade, Safari will refuse to recognize the newly added PithHelmet preferences pane. Luckily, the work around is simple.

  1. Quit Safari.

  2. Remove the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist file (either by trashing it, or moving it out of the Preferences folder). This will reset your Safari preferences to the factory defaults. You will have to manually restore them using the Safari preferences panel.

  3. Restart Safari and open the preferences.

If the PithHelmet icon does not appear on the right side of the toolbar, please feel free to contact me via email.

6. Is it possible to use PithHelmet to filter text based ads?

Yes. Google Adwords can be blocked quite easily. (block googlesyndication.com)

7. Is it possible to to reformat sites that I visit very frequently?

Only with PithHelmet 2.0. It's also tricky - it depends what you mean by reformat. However, the new PithHelmet engine is quite powerful and can mutate quite a number of things about a web site as it comes streaming in. You might want to look at the PithHelmetRuleExchange for some examples.

8. Will you make PithHelmet available for Mozilla/Firefox/Camino/OmniWeb?

The way PithHelmet works is not really compatible with Mozilla/Firefox/Camino. However, there is an excellent free plugin called [WWW] AdBlock for Mozilla/Firefox that does a pretty good job. You should be able to copy/paste the default PithHelmet rules in to AdBlock.

OmniWeb has its own content filtering system/ad-blocker. Even though its based on WebCore, as is Safari, PithHelmet is built on a higher level API, WebKit, which OmniWeb does not support. Some PithHelmet rules can be rewritten for use in OmniWeb, but I haven't tested this extensively. I don't have any plans to support it further.

9. Can PithHelmet and Safari Enhancer Co-exist?

Yes. Most people have complained about the lack of control for link underlining. Here's what you do:

  1. Open the rule editor and select the Default Site Rule.

  2. Select the style tab.

  3. Select the Custom Style Sheet popup and select "Other..."

  4. Choose the file ~/Library/Application Support/Safari Enhancer/linkcolours.css

That will do the trick.

10. How do I block Flash content?

In 2.0, there are two ways. First way it to modify the Default Site Rule and uncheck "Enable Plugins." The second way is to enable the Flash rule in the rule editor - simply click the small checkbox next to the Flash rule in the rules list.

11. Why does PithHelmet wait for all the ads to load before removing them from the page?

PithHelmet has always had to load the full page before hiding/collapsing blocked content. It doesn't wait for ads to load per-se, just the page itself. If there are ads that don't match the block rules (perhaps because images are linked to a blocked address instead) it might appear that there is a wait.

12. Does PithHelmet download blocked images?

Most of the time, no. If a URL matches a block pattern, Safari won't be allowed to make a connection to grab the image. There are some cases where the URL doesn't match, but is instead linked to some ad web site. In this case, PithHelmet may look at the link once the image has been downloaded and hide the image from view.

13. Are PithHelmet and Saft compatible?

Certain versions are not, though the latest version of Saft (7.5.3 I think) should be.

14. I already donated, do I have to pay to register?

No. If you were goodly enough to pay before registration was required, consider yourself exempt. Go ahead and click the "I paid" button with impunity.

15. What does 'Enable Fast Collapsing' in advanced site preferences do?

The content collapsing is handled by Javascript. There are two ways you can scan all the elements on a page. One is fast, but due to bugs in Safari/WebKit/WebCore, can crash the entire browser. The other is slow - almost 10x slower, but doesn't crash all that often. The default is "slow."

16. Why don't my contextual menus show up?

Possibly you have iGetter installed? There is a conflict (first reported by a man known to me only as 'macguy') which causes all contextual menus in Safari to "disappear." You can specifically disable the contextual menus in the PithHelmet preferences and then restart Safari. Or you can uninstall iGetter.

17. Where can I learn more about Machete?

Try [WWW] this.

18. Shiira crashes when PithHelmet is installed, can I fix this?

You can make PithHelmet stop trying to work with Shiira. Open the /Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins/PithHelmet.bundle/Contents/Info.plist and remove the bundle identifier section for Shiira. Here's a screen shot of what it looks like: http://culater.net/software/PithHelmet/PithHelmetPlist.png

Just delete that key and restart Shiira. If you screw up, just reinstall PithHelmet - everything will be fine.

19. NetNewsWire warns me that this version is untested, and PithHelmet is disabled. What do I do?

You can:

  1. make PithHelmet stop trying to work with NetNewsWire

    • Open the /Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins/PithHelmet.bundle/Contents/Info.plist and remove the bundle identifier section for NetNewsWire. (similar to above instructions for Shiira)

  2. try to force PithHelmet to load

last edited 2006-11-13 18:09:14 by MikeSolomon