Google

2006-01-31

Less Known Firefox Addons

I saw a good article titled "10 Useful Firefox Extensions that don't get glamorized":

1. Download Statusbar - view and manage downloads from a tidy statusbar, so that downloads don't get in the way of browsing
2. Colorful Tabs - May sound really boring, but it makes it a hell of a lot easier to distinguish between tabs
3. Image Zoom - This is one of my personal favs as it allows me to zoom in on images on a page without having to download them
4. PDF Download - For all those annoying sites that seem to grow and grow where they are worried about you stealing their content. This extension allows PDFs to be opened in a tab for easier management
5. Tab Mix Plus - Every tweak and option under the sun you could ever want to manage tabs
6. WebmailCompose - Fantastic extension that opens your chosen webmail compose window if any email addresses are clicked on
7. Optimoz Tweaks - If you a heavy user of sidebars this great extension makes it easier to open and close them
8. Foxmarks Bookmarks Synchronizer - The only bookmarks sync tool I've found that works seamlessly between PCs
9. Autohide - This one isn't promoted heavily, but if you like browsing full-screen it gives some useful control over what elements Firefox displays
10. MediaPlayerConnectivity- automatically launches all media elements in their correct players, allowing full-screen playback of embedded videos

New Beta Apps

Google Toolbat 4 Beta: This is a nice upgrade to previous version with lots of wild reviews. Yeah, yeah, ability to add custom toolbar icons is cool alright!

Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview: It's not even Beta 2 but what the heck! I downloaded it anyway. Guess what? I could not install it as I already had Beta 1 on my Windos XP box and I am yet to find out how to uninstall that version first :(

2006-01-17

Sniffing Wireless Internet Connections Around...

Nobody will be surprised to hear that there are plenty of 'open' wireless routers out there that one can use. More and more people, however, are not broadcasting their SSID. Sheer Boredom has a nice article telling us about how to sniff them ;-) Oh, BTW, one of the apps they mention is named Kismet. Guess what, I guess the author of the app is not but the word Kismet is a common Turkish word which means 'fate'.

Quick Reference Guide

I saw a web page with nice Quick Ref. guides here. It includes quick reference guides to:

2006-01-11

MSN 8.0 Beta - Windows Live Messenger Beta

I got an invitation to join Windows Live Messenger Beta (MSN 8.0 Beta) testers. Thanks, Tolga! I downloaded and installed it. It looks pretty good! Messenger blog is here. You can see some screenshots there too.

Voice calling? How will that work?
Using Windows Live Call in Messenger, you’ll be able to start making calls within minutes to your friends’ across the country or around the world by singing up for MCI Web Calling. You will be able to purchase minutes upfront from MCI and then add minutes when your balance runs low. One of the great things about this will be the affordable domestic and international calls you will be able to make.

What are Sharing Folders?

Sharing Folders will be a new and simple way for you to share personal photos, documents, and files with your Messenger contacts. You will be able to create a Sharing Folder by simply dragging files onto a contact name in Messenger. This will create an exact copy of the files on both you and your contact's computers, and create a Sharing Folder that can be accessed from Messenger, and on the desktop.

I can already share documents using e-mail. So what's the big deal?
The Sharing Folder will be easier than email for sharing photos and documents. In a Sharing Folder, any time a file in the folder is added, modified, or deleted, those changes will be synchronized with the person you’re sharing with. The Sharing File icon in Messenger will also show you a gleam on a contact so you will know when a Sharing File has been updated. And it will be a simple drag-and-drop to share files, even simpler than the “send file” and “save as” functions you are already familiar with in Messenger.

The Sharing Folders will work pretty much like the PC folder experience you already know, so it will make sense right away. Just like in Windows, you will be able to drag and drop, get different views of files, copy, paste, etc. You will be able to access a Sharing Folder from your desktop, to manage files whether online or offline. And a Sharing Folder requires virtually zero setup or configuration, and efficiently handles file synchronization without any fuss.

2006-01-08

10 things I don’t miss about Norway

Jon Lech Johansen (aka DVD Jon) is famous for his DeCSS application which decodes the content-scrambling system used for DVD licensing enforcement. This software finally led to successful copying of DVDs.

As of 2005, Johansen is now working at MP3tunes in San Diego as a software engineer. He has a blog named So Sue Me and a few days ago he wrote an entry titled 10 things I don’t miss about Norway

This led to numerous discussions and in my opinion tons of hilarious comments, this being my favorite

Downloading Google Video and YouTube Clips » InsideGoogle » part of the Blog News Channel

A nice article from Inside Google Blog:

One of the frustrating things about websites that use Flash video is that they rarely provide links to let you download the video files for offline viewing or transcoding/syncing to portable devices. That time has come to an end with this funky Greasemonkey plug.

Joshua Kinberg made it happen, now it’s your time to go have some fun !

Google Video Getter
YouTube To Me

To install these scripts you will need the Greasemonkey extension for Firefox. After installing Greasemonkey, relaunch Firefox, then right-click the links above and select “Install User Script.” Now whenever you browse to a Google Video or YouTube webpage, you will see a prominent download link at the top

2006-01-03

Jay is Games : Top 20 Games of 2005

I have to confess: I did not pay attention to 'addictive' nature remarks & spent two hours solving the puzzles of Planarity. Kudos to the developer,Case Western University student, John Tantalo!

There are lots of other games mentioned in Jay is Games Blog entry of Top 20 games of 2005 that you would probably want to check out if you have time. ADDICTIVE!

Beautiful Wallpapers

I was testing yet another .net based RSSReader called RSS Bandit (which I will cover later on when I have enough to tell about it) when I came across this link: www.joejoe.biz in the New Links section of Populicious.

You will find incredible wallpapers on this site, which is very well organized and pretty fast. Take a look.

2006-01-02

Goowy

Goowy is a name I heard on Mark Cuban's blog. If you are familiar with Yahoo's Widgets, you will find yourself at home. They are giving away 2GB free e-mail as well as other stuff. You can either use their nice web site or download Goowy desktop client.

By this time you should be asking why the funny name. Here is a few answer s from their FAQ:

Why did you name the service goowy? Isn't that a funny name that people are put off by?
goowy is actually meant to be playful and easy to remember. But its more than that. It's a play on words - the term GUI which is pronounced the same way, refers to a Graphical User Interface. We felt that one of the key areas where our application would make a difference is with the vibrant, interactive interface. And so goowy was born. There are people that feel funny about giving out something@goowy.com as their email address, but we imaging that when Hotmail and Yahoo first launched, there were similar reservations about their naming decisions. As we grow to be a household name, this will cease to be an issue.

What does the (re) in goowy (re) mean?
The (re) in goowy(re) stands for "rich experience". We believe in providing a truly interactive medium for managing our member's digital lifestyle.

What's a widget?
A widget is a small specialized application that provides easy access to frequently used functions or provides some visual information. Examples of widgets are news (rss) viewers, desktop notes, quotes, bookmarks, search windows, etc.

Where to Invest in 2006?

Here is an article titled "My investment advice for 2006" from Mark Cuban. In short he is telling everyone to stay away from stock market and go with an interest bearing investment. Why? See below an excerpt:

"For every stock you buy, there is someone selling you that stock. What is it that you know that they dont ? What is it that they know, that you dont ? Who has the edge ? If its not you. Chances are you are going to lose money on the deal."

He also has another article about the subject which to me is A MUST READ FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO INVEST IN STOCK MARKET. I guess I'll buy that "The Number" book he mentioned but I don't know if I'll probably take his advice and not go deeper than I already am.

2006-01-01

Windows Live Ideas


What is Windows Live Ideas?

Windows Live Ideas is where you can check out the very latest Windows Live products—so new that they're not even finished yet. So give them a try and then tell us exactly what you think. And don't hold back. We need your help to make these products the best they can be.... You can continue at source & sign up for some beta Live products.

Windows .wmf vulnerability

Well, this has been around for a few days now but it looks like vulnerability is getting more and more dangerous. Although it's the .wmf files that has the vulnerability, attackers are simply changing the extention to .jpg or other innocent looking files.

Microsoft has released an advisory but no patch yet. There has been a patch made available on Hex Blog by