I have a love/hate relationship with Firefox. I love the functionality it gives me, but I hate how over time it slows down and acts like a bloated pig. Two of the biggest factors that will make Firefox drag are the amount of history it maintains, and defragmentation of the Places database. We've already told you how to fix both of those issues, but it turns out that there is now an extension that takes the place of pasting a command into the error console in Firefox to vacuum the Places database and remove any fragmentation.

Vacuum Places Improved is a very simple Firefox extension that adds a small vacuum cleaner icon to your status bar in Firefox. When clicked, it vacuums your Places database, just like the command that Lee described in his post in August, but with a single click of the mouse. In my case, the results were remarkable - starting Firefox went from taking about a minute and a half to about ten seconds.

[via Lifehacker]

A while back, Jason mentioned giving your Firefox performance a boost by limiting the length of time items are saved in history.
At Mozilla Links, they've shared another handy tip from Mozilla developer Jeremy Orem.

His advice: take a vacuum to your SQLite databases. Here's how to do it:

1. Open the Firefox tools menu and click on error console.
2. Paste the following command into the code box as a single line (as pictured):
   Components.classes["@mozilla.org/browser/nav-history-service;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsPIPlacesDatabase).DBConnection.executeSimpleSQL("VACUUM");
3. Hit [enter] or click the evaluate button.

After a momentary hang, you'll be able to close the console and return to your main Firefox window to enjoy your leaner, meaner browser!

[via Lifehacker]

Not with a real vacuum, silly, but with SQLite's vacuum command! If you fancy yourself a bit of Terminal adventure, this simple command can supposedly increase Mail's responsiveness. Especially helpful if you have a hefty mailbox like I do.

1. Quit Mail (if it's open)
2. Open Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities)
3. At the shell prompt, type: sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index and press Enter.

You'll be greeted with:

SQLite version 3.1.3
Enter ".help" for insructions
sqlite>

4. At the sqlite> prompt type: vacuum subjects; and press Enter.
There will be a short delay while sqlite optimizes the subjects table, depending on how large your mailbox is this could take anywhere from 30 seconds to 5 minutes or more.
5. Once you're returned to the sqlite> prompt, press Control-D to exit.
6. Restart Mail and enjoy your newfound speediness!

Please be aware that you do this at your own risk. There's a potential for data loss, so if you want to be extra cautious backup the ~/Library/Mail/Envelope Index file before attempting this trick.

[via Hackszine.com]