I’ve been finding Firefox more and more to be the browser that I naturally launch first. It’s starting to beat out Safari and Maxthon as my preferred browser. It is great that it is basically the same across all platforms (Windows, Mac and Linux). The other great thing about it is the huge amount of plug-ons or add-ins (e.g., Extensions and Themes) that are constantly being developed and/or updated.
So there are several add-ins that I really like and use a lot (and there are thousands out there). One easy way to find what people like is to check the Most Popular listing on the Mozilla site. However, if an add-on has been listed for a long time (e.g., several years), then the download tallies may be higher. So you could have something that is really hot and a few months old having the same “weight” as an older extension that is good but not hot. Anyway…on to my listing (in alphabetical order in order to be fair).
ErrorZilla – tired of those 404 errors (page not find) or cannot connect to the server? Install this extension and you are presented with a variety of options to do (e.g., “Try Again,” “Google Cache,” “Coralize,” “Wayback,” “Ping,” “Trace,” and “Whois”). Get the extension.
Gmail Space – Gmail is an amazing Google offering. Well, if you install GmailSpace, you can use a Gmail account as a file storage server. This complex extension allows you to upload, download and manage files through a Gmail account. Be sure to read the details on the extension page as there are possibilities of getting locked out of your account if you transfer too much in one day. Get the extension.
Google Browser Sync – I must say that I love this extension. Since I’m a geek, I have 5 computers that I actively use. Google Sync basically stores much of your information and allows you to carry it with you to other computers. You have to have a Google account, and then you hook it in to the Sync extension and any time you use Firefox on another computer, your information is updated. The best one is, when you launch the new session on another computer, it asks you if you want to restore pages that you were on on the previous computer. Other things that it syncs are bookmarks, history, cookies and passwords. Note that you have to go to Google to get this extension.
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by Michael Sheehan on November 16, 2006
in General
There is a nice little thing that you can do with your Gmail address (only) that can help you find out what sites have been selling your gmail address. Kudos to PCBGuy and the post they made on Hedir Review here. But here is the post if you don’t want to traverse the net to get there:
When you give your email address to a website, you hope that they don’t sell or trade your address to a bunch of spammers. Well if they do, here is a simple way to see what sites are responsible for what particular piece of email. This requires you have a Gmail account.
If your Gmail login name was username@gmail.com and you went to samplesite.com to fill out a registration form, instead of just entering username@gmail.com as your email, enter it as username+samplesitecom@gmail.com instead. When Gmail sees a “+” in an email address, it uses all the characters to the left of the plus sign to know who to send it to. In this example it would still send it to username@gmail.com.
Now whats cool is if you search Gmail for username+samplesitecom, you will see all messages that were sent to that email address.
To see who is responsible for sending a specific message click the Show Details link and you will see the complete address.
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by Michael Sheehan on November 16, 2006
in General
A coworker sent me a link (and his results) to an IQ test online. It is called IQtest.dk and it claims to be a “Culture Fair” test. According to the site, the test “minimises the effect of cultural variables, such as language, mathematics, etc. The test is based on logic, but is furthermore designed to test learning capability, memory, innovative thinking and the ability to simultaneously address several problems.”
The test is Flash-based program that takes 40 minutes to run. The answers are not published anywhere. The questions all are around understanding patters as define in examples. You get 2 listed patterns of 3 images (e.g., 1-circle, 2-circles, 3-circles & 1-square, 2-squares, 3-squares) and then 1 incomplete pattern (e.g., 1-triangle, 2-triangles, [BLANK] ). You have to fill in the blank to complete the pattern.
The questions get increasingly difficult as you near the end of the test. I must admit, I was guessing towards the end. I finished my test with about 3 minutes to spare. It is important to do it without any distractions. (My wife called me at one point…but I still stayed within the time…grin!). What were my results? I captured a screen shot below:
So with a score of 130…according to the site, I’m borderline insane…I mean Mensa. What will this get me? Well, bragging rights over my coworker (but I’m sure that my other coworkers will beat me out)!
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We have a family ghost. His name is Tipsy O’Malley. He’s Irish and, living up to the stereotype, he’s always drunk. We discovered him as we started experiencing an unrealistically high number of “spilled liquids” in our house. He’s the guy who knocks over glasses of wine or spills coffee on your keyboard or bumps glasses of milk off the table. He also seems to be attracted to anyone who is wearing white and tries to make his mark on those types of clothes.
He seems to be really good friends with my wife and follows her around alot. He has been known to follow me to work sometimes (I once lost a keyboard because of him and a huge Starbucks coffee as well). I remember him visiting us many many years ago (he was probably a guest then and seeing if he wanted to stay) when he managed to knock a glass of red wine out of my wife’s hand and all over a white sofa.
We know he is here to stay. I do think he has relatives that are out and about. If you know of any, let me know.
