Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on October 16, 2006 by CyberNet.

Million Dollar Monday

Just when you’ve bought yourself a 24″ monitor and you think you have the biggest and the best computer monitor available, they come out with a 30″. The size of single monitors has reached new levels, and now so has the multiple monitor set-ups by using 6, even 7 monitors! These ultimate monitor set-ups using the latest flat-panel technology comes at quite the hefty price as well (although much more affordable today versus 5 years ago).  Those who are already using such a set-up will tell you it’s worth it! Take a look at these set-ups from digitaltigers.com – we’ll start with the cheapest and most affordable first (which also means smallest).

The first set-up, the Zenview Arena 21s has six screens total with a 21.3″ center panel. It includes:

• (1) 21.3″ arena panel with 1600×1200 resolution
• (2) 17″ wing panels with 1024X1280 portrait resolution
• (3) 17″ top panels with 1280×1024 resolution
• Price – around $3,700.00

The second set-up, the Zenview Arena 24s also uses six screens total with a 24.3″ center panel screen.  It includes:

• (1) 24″ arena panel with 1920 x 1200 resolution
• (2) 17″ wing panels with 1280X1024 resolution
• (3) 19″ top panels with 1280X1024 resolution
• Price – around $4,599.00

With the third set-up, the Zenview Arena Elite, you’ll be viewing 7 screens with a 24.3″ center panel. This one is huge! It includes:

• (1) 24″ arena panel with 1920×1200 resolution
• (2) 21.3″ wing panels with 1600×1200 resolution
• (4) 19″ top panels with 1280×1024 resolution
• Price – around $6,899.00

The last set-up is the largest and most expensive Zenview Arena Ultra HD and utilizes six gigantic screens! It includes:

• (1) 30″ arena panel with 2560×1600 resolution
• (2) 20.1″ wing panels with 1200×1600 portrait resolution
• (3) 20.1″ top panels with 1600×1200 resolution
• Price – around $7,499.00

These are undoubtedly huge “ultimate” monitor set-ups, perhaps a little excessive for the average Joe. So, who would actually purchase such a set-up? Maybe a hardcore gamer, or a stock trader would want the massive display. For most people, one monitor will do the trick, and if not one monitor, two at most. These set-ups take you to a whole new level. You can check them out at digitaltigers.com.

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:

CyberNotes: Your Week In Review With Sunday’s SummaryCyberNotes: Your Week In Review With Sunday’s SummaryYour Week in Review with Sunday’s SummaryAsus Working on an All-in-one Eee PC?CyberNotes: Getting Your Taskbar Onto Another Monitor

This article was written on April 30, 2008 by CyberNet.

Web Browser Wednesday

One of the most popular extensions for Firefox is Greasemonkey simply because it gives developers and users a chance to customize their browsing experience with very little work. The extension has been downloaded over 165,000 times which is pretty incredible, and new scripts that power the extension are always being created.

Given the popularity of the scripting system it comes as no surprise that Internet Explorer has something very similar, but it too requires an add-on before you’ll be able to get it to work. It just so happens that one of the best add-ons for doing so is IE7Pro, which in general is an awesome tool to have installed in Internet Explorer 7.

Once you get IE7Pro installed and running you can check out some of the scripts that it comes with by pulling up the configuration screen. Along the left side you should see a section dedicated to the User Scripts:

It comes with over a dozen different scripts out-of-the-box which is definitely a nice touch. Some are more handy than others, but there are a few that really stand out to me. The Show Password onMouseOver is really nice because it will reveal the contents of a password field when you hover over it with your mouse.

One problem with finding more is that you can’t go and grab a script designed for Greasemonkey because not all of them will work. The creators of IE7Pro realized that, and that’s why they setup their own script site that hosts only the scripts that function properly with their add-on. We thought it would be fun to go through the scripts they have posted, and pull out our favorites. So that’s exactly what we’ve done.

–No JavaScript Errors (Homepage)–

If you’ve ever used any version of Internet Explorer it’s very likely that you’ve been pestered by those annoying popups saying that there is an error with the JavaScript on the page you’re viewing. I’m not sure if anyone really knows why Microsoft decided to show the general population this message when the developers are really the only ones who can do anything about it. Oh well.

This script will, however, save you some frustration by hiding those popups from you. Is it not amazing that something so simple can be the number one script on the site with over 64,000 installs!

–Google Redesign (Homepage)–

If you’ve been wanting to make Google look a little better then this is the perfect opportunity. With this script your Google search results will use up the full width of the screen, and each result will be nicely divided making it a lot easier on the eyes. Check it out:

–Google Two Columns (Homepage)–

If the previous Google redesign wasn’t for you, then maybe this one will be! This takes your Google results and splits them up into two different columns. You might find this especially useful if you have a widescreen monitor and like to browse the Internet using all of the screen space that it has to offer.

–Compatibility Script for IE7Pro (Homepage)–

This script doesn’t actually “do” anything. It’s sole purpose is to make more Greasemonkey scripts compatible with IE7Pro. It consists of over 1,500 lines of code that try to replicate the functions and features provided by Greasemonkey so that it’s a lot more likely for these scripts to work. I’m actually a little surprised that this doesn’t come with IE7Pro.

–EZ Resize (Homepage)–

I find this script to be one of the more essential ones. With it you’re able to resize any text area or input field on a site. If it’s an input field that you’re dealing with (such as the search box on Google’s homepage) just put your mouse along the right side and you should see your cursor turn into the double-ended arrow. You’re then ready to resize the box.

Similarly, if you’re trying to resize a text area (such as our large comment box) you’ll want to put your mouse in the bottom-right corner. The cursor will once again turn into a double-ended arrow indicating that you can begin resizing the box.

–Inline MP3 Player (Homepage)–

Ever come across an MP3 on the Internet that you wanted to play, but didn’t want to download? This script will add a small icon next to any MP3 file that will let you stream the song instead of downloading it first.

–Overview–

Right now the number of scripts that are on the site is quite small, but I suspect that they will be growing as more people realize that they are available. Not only that but with the help of the Greasemonkey compatibility script that I mentioned above you should be able to use most of the scripts that are already out there.

Hope this helps some of you who are still using Internet Explorer!

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:

CyberNotes: Your Week in Review with Sunday’s SummaryCyberNotes: Your Week In Review With Sunday’s SummaryBest Greasemonkey Scripts – Element ResizerYour Week in Review with Sunday’s SummaryRunning Greasemonkey Scripts in Internet Explorer

This article was written on January 08, 2007 by CyberNet.

Million Dollar Monday

Years ago, it was usually the millionaires, executives, and celebrities that were chauffeured around in fancy limousines, too busy to drive a car for themselves. Today, there are a plethora of different styled limousines that can be rented for a night out on the town, prom, a wedding, or a trip to the airport.  It doesn’t matter how many zero’s are added at the end of your salary because limos are an affordable option to rent. Of course, just because you can rent them doesn’t mean that they aren’t expensive! Limousine companies pay a hefty price for some of these luxury vehicles, and they come in a variety of styles, and colors with features you may not even have in your home.Sometimes these limos have features or amenities that really aren’t practical (like a hot tub), yet those features suck people in to choose it over the simple no “bling” classic stretched town car. Limousines have evolved from an extension of a large sedan to the gigantic ultra luxury, ultra stretched exotic limos we see today.

–Stretched Hummers–

 Stretched Hummer limos come in all colors and models from the H2 to the H3 (also known as the baby Hummer). They also come with some pretty sweet features, some capable of holding 25 passengers. Wow! This is what your limo would include:

• Lighted dance floor
• Chrome Rims
• Full chrome mirrored ceiling
• 2 Plasma TVs
• Laser light show
• 20 speakers with subwoofers
• 8 bar areas
• Lightening disks in the bars
• Fiber Optics

And of course, if a Hummer isn’t big enough, you could always opt for the Party Bus capable of carrying 40+ passengers! Party busses have the typical seating arrangement that you’d find in a limo with bench couches down the sides and an open center section. They usually have all of the electronic gadgets that you’d want including TV’s, and Xbox or Playstation gaming systems.

– Pink Limousines–

So if the ordinary black or white limo isn’t doin’ it for ya, try pink! One company I found out of the UK has a whole line of pink limos. They offer a Hummer model, a Pink Jeep Limo, and a Pink Chrysler Hire. They’re typically rented by women, and according to the website are a pretty popular pick.

–Guinness World Records Highest Limousine–

On November 13, 1998, the Guinness Book of World Records deemed a limo made by Gary Duval as the Highest Limousine.  From the ground to the roof it measures 10 feet 11 inches. It has an 8 wheel independent suspension system and utilizes eight monster truck tires.  It also requires two separate engines! Looking at it makes me wonder how on earth someone gets inside! It took over 4,000 hours to complete this monster limo! I wonder if we’ll be seeing it at the monster truck races anytime soon?

– Guinness Book of World Records Longest Limousine–

Next, for the records is the Guinness World Records longest car every built! It measures 100 feet long and has 26 wheels!

It includes:

• Swimming pool
• Diving board
• King-sized waterbed

Now, you’re probably asking yourself how this thing is able to drive on any normal road? Well, it doesn’t hit the streets very often because it’s typically used in films and exhibitions. If by chance it does need to take a real road trip, it can be made to bend in the middle. I don’t think I’d want to be the driver on this one!

There ya have it, a collection of some of the most expensive limousines in all styles and colors. They’ve certainly evolved from the plain town cars of the past, and it doesn’t require a six-figure income!

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:

Your Week in Review with Sunday’s SummaryCyberNotes: World’s Most Expensive MP3 PlayerCyberNotes: Our Favorite Monday CyberNotes ArticlesCyberNotes: Week In Review With Sunday’s SummaryCyberNotes: Your Week In Review With Sunday’s Summary

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

CyberNet Exclusive Look

We’ve decided to break away from our normal CyberNotes today to take an exclusive look at the features in Opera 9.5 (codename Kestrel). Opera has done a remarkable job of keeping the specs and features of Opera 9.5 under wraps. The Opera Desktop Team wrote a post last week that detailed some of the under-the-hood work that has been going on in 9.5, but as expected, they steered clear of mentioning the most notable features. After all, they want to save the excitement for the big Alpha release tomorrow!

Luckily I was able to test drive Opera 9.5 a little bit early, and it’s only fair that I share my findings with you (and we have Opera’s permission of course). I’ve put together a 5-minute video review that details four of what I believe to be Kestrel’s most notable features. So you can start out by watching the video, or you can read through the article as I cover each feature there as well.

–Video Introduction–

I thought it would be best if I start with a video of Opera 9.5’s new features. All of these are covered in detail below, but this will give you a really good idea of what you can expect tomorrow when Opera 9.5 Alpha is released.

–Rendering Engine–

It’s been over a year since Opera’s rendering engine has seen any significant improvements, and this time around there are some significant improvements. Kestrel is now running the same rendering engine that powers the Wii Internet Channel browser as well as Opera Mini 4 Beta, and there are some astonishing differences…probably due to the thousands of bugs they’ve fixed.

I’ve been told to expect to see the rendering speed get better as further builds get released, but I have a hard time believing that they can get better than what I’ve seen. I decided to do a rather unofficial speed test to see how fast the different browsers rank in terms of loading our site (with an empty cache). I did three tests for each browser and averaged out the time it took for each to completely load our site. Here are the results with the slowest browsers first:

• Internet Explorer 7: 18 seconds
• Firefox 2: 15 seconds
• Opera 9.23: 12 seconds
• Firefox 3 Nightly: 11 seconds
• Opera 9.5 Alpha: 8 seconds

Aside from speed improvements, the site compatibility has also gotten much better. They’ve fixed problems with various Google sites, some issues with the default WordPress template, and corrected a few things with some of the JavaScript libraries. Opera 9.5 can now handle many more sites…with ease!

Here are some of the other updates in Kestrel related to the rendering engine:

• A lot more CSS3 support, including complete Selectors
• Support for JavaScript 1.5 Getters and Setters
• AJAX compatibility has been improved
• New JavaScript engine that is faster and more efficient
• Improved HTML table layout algorithm

–Open With… (in the video)–

Despite all of the hurdles Opera has overcome with their new rendering engine, there are still some sites that probably won’t work as they should. Opera isn’t going to deny that it happens, and they are actually going to do what they can to help the situation. You can now right-click on any site and choose to open it in another browser that is installed on your computer!

I’ve also been told that the “open with” command will work with some files as well, but complete support hasn’t been added yet. I would like to see this feature extended to things like images so that I can right-click on an image and have it open in Paint.NET without needing to save it first.

–Restore Windows (in the video)–

Opera has a little trash can on the Tab Bar that is normally used to restore tabs you’ve recently closed (which can also be done with Ctrl+Z). Kestrel has introduced a new feature that will let you restore entire windows that you have closed, which includes all of the tabs contained within that window. I don’t open multiple windows very often, but I know this feature will come in handy.

–Sync Bookmarks (in the video)–

This is one of those things that I had said Opera needs to work on the most. By this point, most Firefox users have grown accustomed to keeping their bookmarks synchronized with an online service. Now Opera users will have the same pleasure! All you need is a free My Opera account, and you’ll be able to privately synchronize your bookmarks, Speed Dial sites, and Personal Bar with their server. You’ll then be able to access that data whether you’re at work, home, or anywhere!

To setup synchronization just select the “Synchronize with My Opera” option from the File Menu.

–Full History Search (in the video)–

The search capabilities in Opera 9.23 vs. Opera 9.5 are like night and day. They have now introduced full history search that looks back over all of the pages you’ve visited. I’m not talking about just scanning the URL and title of the page either…it looks at all the text contained within each site!

There are two ways that you can take advantage of this feature, and the most common one will be straight from the address bar. As you can see in the screenshot above, I was typing in “thumb” into the address bar, and the resulting page that was returned is our homepage. That’s because I had recently visited CyberNet where “Thumbnails” was one of the words used, but it wasn’t in the title or the URL, it was just in the body of the article.

If you’re looking for a more detailed way to search your entire history, just type opera:historysearch into the address bar. The result will be a Google-like search page where you can type the keyword(s) that you are looking for. It will then return the results that matched just like in this screenshot:

–What You Don’t See–

It’s very obvious that there has been a lot of under-the-hood work in Opera 9.5, and you’ll be able to see that as soon as you start using it. There has particularly been a lot of fixing up for the built-in Mail Client. Now it has a new indexing and storage backend that doesn’t use as much memory and runs faster. IMAP also works much better, and the browser isn’t supposed to freeze anymore when checking for new mail or feeds.

Of course Opera still starts almost instantaneously, which is one of its best qualities. And memory usage has (somehow) gotten better. I’ve never seen Opera 9.2 climb over the 250MB marker, and that was when I would have 50 to 100 tabs open at the same time (hey, I go through a lot of news in a days time). Now it seems to run at about 80% of the memory usage that it used to, and for most people it will hover between 25MB and 70MB.

–And There’s More!–

I’ve covered most of the big stuff above, but that’s not everything! Here’s a list of some other things that have been improved in Opera 9.5:

• The Status Bar is enabled by default…yay!
• The “Save your password” dialog box does not stop the page from loading behind it. That way you can verify that the username and password you entered works before actually saving it. What a great feature!
• Content blocking is better
• A “drag to scroll” feature has been added that will let you scroll by “grabbing” the page, much like in a PDF reader. You can enable it by typing opera:config#UserPrefs|ScrollIsPan into the address bar.
• It supposedly looks better on a Mac, and conforms to the Apple Human
  Interface Guidelines. Unfortunately I don’t have a Mac to try that out on.

–Making it Better–

There are some things that I believe Opera can do to make the final product even better, but one of the most important is inline spell checking. This is often the first complaint I hear from existing Firefox users who try Opera, and I think it is an extremely useful feature.

–Overview–

There’s no doubt in my mind that Opera 9.5 is going to be a truly amazing browser once it is released, and it will likely raise the bar for other browsers. However, the build being released tomorrow is an Alpha, and it will have issues at first. There might be sites that don’t work properly with it, and if you decide to try this out, make sure to install it in a separate location from your stable Opera installation.

For more details on some of the backend work done to Kestrel, read this article posted by the Opera Desktop Team.

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:

Opera 9.5 Download – Alpha Addicts WantedYour Week in Review with Sunday’s SummaryOpera 9.5 Download Available TuesdayCyberNet’s Year in Review: July-AugustFirefox 3 Improves Password Saving

This article was written on March 22, 2007 by CyberNet.

Tutorial Thursday

Google Gadgets have been around for several years now and number in the thousands (more than 4,400 at the time of this writing). Windows Vista, on the other hand, is still pretty new and the selection of gadgets is slowly making progress with just over 1,100 currently available. There is a nifty little application called Amnesty Generator that will actually convert Google gadgets, Grazr RSS Readers, SpringWidgets, PicGames, and YouTube movies into gadgets that can be used in Vista.

The program that you need (download mirror) is about 4MB in size and will require installation. Once the setup process finishes you’ll be just a few steps away from putting Google gadgets on your Vista desktop (they also have a version available for Macs).

1. Download and install Amnesty Generator (download mirror).
2. You’ll need to pick a Google gadget from a list of the ones available to embed in a website. You can’t pick from ones that Google lets you put on your personalized homepage, but many of the same ones are listed on this site as well.
3. Generate the code as if you were going to place the Google Gadget on your website. Now run the Amnesty Generator and insert the code into the box:
   
4. After that the Vista Gadgets page should automatically open up so that you can select your newly created gadget.
   
5. You can now drag it onto your desktop or onto the Vista sidebar:
   

I know it doesn’t look the best with unreadable fonts on the top and bottom, but that’s not the most important part of the gadget. The content of the gadget is what you’re looking for, and from what I’ve seen it always looks pretty good.

I originally thought this would be cool for the Google Talk gadget that was just released last week, but when I tried it I couldn’t get it to work. It needed me to sign-in and every time that I tried it would pull up Internet Explorer, sign me in, but it would never refresh itself so that it actually worked. That would have been one of the cooler gadgets that could have been used, too.

The Amnesty Generator is still a work in progress, and the Vista version is actually labeled as a Beta. The software itself seems stable, but I’m guessing that they will continue to refine how it converts the Google gadgets as well as widgets from other companies. Maybe in a few years this won’t even be necessary if companies start to follow what Netvibes has now started.

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:

Resize the Vista SidebarNew Google Desktop Is Compatible With VistaCyberNotes: Your Week in Review with Sunday’s SummaryGoogle Integrates Desktop Gadgets into iGoogleVista Sidebar Gadget Calculator & Converter