Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on August 20, 2008 by CyberNet.

Web Browser Wednesday

Before a Firefox extension has a chance to become unbelievably popular it has to go through an experimental phase to make sure it’s worthy of being added to Mozilla’s extension site. This process can sometimes take months, and so today we wanted to show you some of the best experimental Firefox extensions that you probably don’t know about.

Since each of these extensions are still in the experimental phase you’ll need to have a free Mozilla account before being able to download them. Believe me though, there are some handy add-ons here that are worth going through the extra hassle.

P.S. If you get a “file hash” error message when trying to download any of the extensions checkout this guide on tips to solve the problem.

–MyBookmarks (Homepage)–

MyBookmarks creates a homepage out of all the bookmarks located in your Bookmarks Menu. Just type about:mybookmarks into the address bar, and it will traverse through your folders grabbing each bookmark displaying the results on a central page. It also sticks each site’s icon next to the results making it easy to find your favorite sites.

The color scheme might not appeal to everyone, but that’s not a problem. Just pull up the options, and using a little CSS magic you can customize the look of the entire page. Additional information on skinning the MyBookmarks can be found here.

–Get File Size (Homepage)–

How many times have you wondered how big a file is before you start downloading it? With this extension you just right-click on the URL of the file, select the option to get the file size, and then you’ll receive a popup letting you know just how big the download is.

–Find in Tabs (Homepage)–

Being able to find text on a page is nice, but being able to find text in any of your open tabs is even nicer! With this extension a new “Find in Tabs” button is added to the find bar. Once pressed it will pull up a listing of search results from each of the tabs that you have open. Clicking on one of the results not only takes you to that particular tab, but also focuses on the area where the match was found.

–Text Area Resizer & Mover (Homepage)–

We’ve seen extensions that let you resize text boxes before, but none of them are like this. Just right-click and drag to dynamically resize any text box, or double-(left)-click and drag on any text box to move it around. If you choose to double-click in a text field it will remain “locked” and movable until you double-click in it again.

The screenshot below demonstrates how you can do things like move a comment box up alongside an article so that it’s easy to pull out quotes. Then as you scroll on the page the text field actually moves with you.

–ErrorZilla Plus (Homepage)–

There are plenty of extensions out there that provide powerful “address not found” or “404 error” pages. Typically they just let you bring up the cache for a particular page, but this one is a bit different. ErrorZilla Plus also lets you customize a list of proxies, which you can then use to try and view the site. This is especially helpful for viewing sites that may be blocked for one reason or another.

–Google Redesigned (Homepage)–

The great people over at Globex Designs have taken the time to compile their two custom styles for Gmail and Google Calendar into one simple extension. A dark skin has never looked so darn good!

–GrandCentral Click to Call (Homepage)–

Do you use Google’s GrandCentral service? If so this extension makes it a lot easier to dial phone numbers that you come across in the browser. Just click on a phone number, and let the extension do the rest of the work!

The developer’s homepage has a lot more information about the extension.

–Noise (Homepage)–

I’m not a big fan of sounds while I’m surfing the Internet, but I know some people like them. If you happen to be one of those people this extension will let you add and customize the sounds used throughout the browser. Get audio alerts for when a popup is blocked, a download has completed, and much more.

–CyberSearch (Homepage)–

And the last one of the day is our own concoction. CyberSearch lets you view Google search results from the web, images, videos, local/maps, and more right in the Firefox 3 address bar. Be sure to checkout the options where you can customize the keywords used to drill down search results to a particular site or Google service.

–Overview–

There you have it! I have to say that there are a lot of great Firefox extensions that can’t wait to get out of the experimental phase, but in the meantime they’d love for you to take them for a spin. Let us know in the comments about any Firefox extensions you use that haven’t broken out of the experimental stage yet.

Update: You might have noticed that a few of the extensions are no longer experimental. It looks like some of them didn’t spend much time in the Sandbox.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on July 02, 2008 by CyberNet.

Last week we got our first glimpse of the Asus Eee Box , an ultra low-cost desktop PC that should be hitting the market soon, and now this week we’re getting a look at an all-in-one computer that Asus is supposedly working on as well. When we say all-in-one, we mean that there is no separate CPU, it’s built right-in to the monitor. Think iMac. Take a look at what it’s expected to look like:

Nothing official has been stated about whether this is just a monitor or whether it’s the all-in-one computer that everybody is expecting it to be. LaptopMag points out that it looks as though it’s about 19 or 20 inches and even has a webcam centered at the top. There are also 4 USB ports on the back along with two Ethernet ports, three audio ports and 2 audio-outs. The fact that it has two Ethernet ports is enough to make you assume that it is an all-in-one computer. They say, “If it’s meant to serve as a monitor, it must also double as a docking station, because otherwise there’s no reason to have Ethernet and audio ports.” They also mentioned that it is rumored to have a built-in TV tuner, all for $500. If this turns out to be the case, there’s going to be a lot of people going crazy for it!

Do you think Asus is on the right track by making their Eee line of computers compact and affordable?

Source

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Perhaps calling an immobile plastic bug with explosives strapped to its underside a “jumping robot” is a bit of a stretch, but who are we to argue with the Army Research Laboratory and the University of Maryland. The two groups have collaborated to create a pair of “robots” that measure just a few millimeters in size but can jump several centimeters in the air. One uses a spring like mechanism (which an operator must press down with a pair of tweezers) to propel it, while the other uses a small rocket, which can be triggered either by current applied over wires or a phototransistor (for untethered flight). It all makes for a pretty neat video, which you can find after the break – even if your sister’s Furby was more robot than these tiny things.

Continue reading Tiny ‘jumping robots’ have more in common with firecrackers than Johnny 5

Tiny ‘jumping robots’ have more in common with firecrackers than Johnny 5 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Sep 2011 01:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on October 03, 2007 by CyberNet.

Microsoft has quietly released four new updates for Vista that improve on performance and reliability. As of right now it’s unclear as to which of these updates, if any, will be made available on October 9th’s Patch Tuesday, but they are currently all available for individual download.

The first update that I want to mention really caught my attention. It is said to improve battery life, increase stability, and much more. Here’s a list of the more prominent things that it is supposed to improve, as well as some of the issues it is supposed to solve:

• It extends the battery life for mobile devices.
• It improves the reliability of Windows Vista when you open the menu of a startup application.
• It improves the stability of Internet Explorer when you open a Web page.
• It improves the stability of wireless network services.
• It shortens the startup time of Windows Vista by using a better timing structure.
• It shortens the recovery time after Windows Vista experiences a period of inactivity.
• Resolves a compatibility issue that affects some third-party antivirus software applications.
• Resolves a reliability issue that occurs when a Windows Vista-based computer uses certain network driver configurations.

The homepage for the update (KB941649) is here, and there are both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors available for download. It appears that this update is still in testing though, and Microsoft recommends that you do not install it yet unless you’re experiencing issues that it resolves:

This hotfix may receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, we recommend that you wait for the next service pack that contains this hotfix.

Meh, that makes it sound like it’s not coming out until Vista SP1 is released so I installed it anyway. Things do seem to be chugging along a bit faster than they were.

The other updates aren’t quite as important in my opinion, but are still worth mentioning:

• KB941229 (32-bit or 64-bit) – Update for Vista Media Center which resolves several issues.
• KB941600 (32-bit or 64-bit) – Fixes critical USB issues.
• KB941651 (32-bit or 64-bit) – Improves the reliability of Windows Media Player 11, but the homepage for the hotfix isn’t available so we’re not quite sure what it’s for.

Source: Techarena

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on April 16, 2007 by CyberNet.

Soon you’ll be able to transform your standard 2D outdoor images into a more lively 3D image with Fotowoosh, a new service that’s just getting started. What’s great about it is that it only requires one image to get the 3D end result, unlike other services that typically require multiple photos.

Right now, the only way you can get your foot in the door at Fotowoosh is by signing up for a beta invite (here). All you have to do is enter in your name and an email address.  From there you’ll get an email telling you that when it’s launched, you’ll  get an invitation into the beta program.

For now you’ll have to be satisfied by their sample collection. In order to view the 3D models, you’ll need a browser plug-in because it uses VRML (explanation here) so that you can interact with the photos.

Also interesting is that this originally started out as a project of Derek Hoiem who’s a PhD candidate at Carnegie Mellon University. His project page actually made the front page of Digg 174 days ago. Hoiem explains it as a system that:

“automatically constructs simple “pop-up” 3D models, like those one would find in a children’s book, out of a single outdoor image. The system labels each region of an outdoor image as ground, vertical, or sky. Line segments fitted to the ground-vertical boundary in the image and an estimate of the horizon’s position provide the necessary information to determine where to “cut” and “fold” in the image. The model is then popped up, and the image is texture mapped onto the model.

I’m not sure how fast this technology will take off in it’s current state.  If a method is created where people can interact with these photos without any additional plug-ins for the browser, that would definitely help.

Source: TechCrunch

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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