Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on October 25, 2006 by CyberNet.

Web Browser Wednesday

Over time I have had countless encounters with people who ask what Firefox extensions that I use, whether it be people from this site or simply friends that I am trying to convince to start using Firefox. I love telling people what I use but I am also curious what other Firefox users have installed.

I actually have separate Firefox profiles based upon the task that I am currently doing. For example, I have a web development profile that has extensions installed that I use only when I am creating or modifying websites. However, there is one profile that I consider to be my primary one which is what I use the most.

Firefox 2 was officially released yesterday and I am pleased to say that all of the extensions that I use in my primary Firefox profile have been made compatible. Most of them were updated when Firefox 2 was still in the Beta stage but there were still a few stragglers that were just updated in the last week or so.

To make it easy to share the extensions that others and myself use I decided to use Zoho’s poll system. It allows me to embed the poll within my site and also allows me to add more extensions as users point them out. So if have an extension that you would like added to the list then just leave a comment and I’ll go ahead and add it.

You can vote directly on the form below by selecting how many stars you think the extension deserves OR you can view a full-screen version of the poll here. Each extension is also hyperlinked to the homepage for those people who want to download them.

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

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

Time Saving Tuesday

Our daily lives continue to become more and more overwhelmed with information. The problem that most of us face now is finding an efficient way to keep all of that information organized in a fashion that makes it easy to find what we’re looking for.

Evernote has got to be one of the best solutions for taking notes for just about everything imaginable. Whether it be creating to-do lists, shopping lists, or clipping stuff from the Web…Evernote does it all. Check out some of the amazing features that it includes, and it’s all free:

• Note Formats: Create notes in multiple formats, including text, Web, email, handwriting, image clips and custom templates.
• Multiple Categories: I’m not sure if categories is really the right name for these because they behave more like tags. Basically you can add as many categories to a note as you want.
• Powerful SmartSearch: Multiple methods for finding notes: visually, by time, categories, automatic labeling and keywords, complete with matching note count.
• Web & Email Clipper: Instantly add web pages and emails into EverNote from Internet Explorer, Outlook, Mozilla Firefox or Thunderbird using an ‘Add to EverNote’ button along with context menus.
• Drag & Drop files: Drag & drop or paste text with images from any applications into EverNote.
• To Dos and Note Templates: Create and monitor To-Do lists, expenses, contacts and other common note templates. Here are some examples of the different templates (click to enlarge a screenshot):
     
• Embedded To?Dos: Click Ctrl-Shift-C or right-click and select “Insert To-Do checkbox” anywhere in your notes to place a checkbox at the cursor position in any note. This means the note will automatically appear in the To-Do category until all of the boxes are checked off.
• Send notes via IM: Drag-and-drop your notes into Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, Skype and other IMs to instantly transfer interesting bits of info to your buddies.
• Keep Your Sensitive Info Secure: Encrypt notes you want to keep private or protect from accidental changes or deletion. You can also password protect an entire EverNote database.
• Backup: Automatic and manual backup are available via the Tools>Options>Backup tab.
• Spellchecker
• Note History: All changes to edited notes in “History Notes”.

One of the cool things with Evernote is that you never have to think twice about saving your notes because it is done automatically while you work.

The Web Clipper is a very integral part of Evernote for myself. In Firefox it just adds a small icon next to the address bar, and clicking on that button will automatically create a new note from any of the content highlighted on the page. This is a very quick process and doesn’t require any other interaction. Once the note is saved you’ll see a little popup in the corner of your screen that you can always click on to edit the newly created note:

There is also an experimental feature that they currently have available called the Universal Clipper (pictured to the right). This is a separate download and once installed you will be able to quickly note just about anything by using double-clicking on the Universal Clipper icon in your System Tray. As seen in the screenshot, you can even specify an area on your screen to store in a note.

There is also an EverNote Plus version available for those who need synchronization capabilities or handwriting recognition features. I think most people will be content with the free version of Evernote since there is no time or note limitation, but Tablet PC users may find those more advanced features useful.

Visit the Evernote Homepage

Thanks for the tip JavaSharp!

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on August 05, 2006 by CyberNet.

Weekend Warrior

When you’re traveling with a notebook, sometimes life would be a little easier and more comfortable if you had a laptop desk. There are multiple benefits from using one such as helping to keep your laptop cool and off of your lap! Another benefit is simply comfort. You can find laptop desks that can be adjusted so you can get the perfect height and others with arm rests. Some of them have room for an external mouse which can help out quite a bit. This article will give you a quick rundown of 4 different portable laptop desks that might suit your needs. First on the list is Lapinator’s 18 inch Lapinator Plus. It uses Thinsulate to block 95% of the heat to help keep your laptop cooler. It will cost around $29.95 and will keep you and your laptop comfortable. It is perfect in size for 17″ notebooks and measures 18x12x1 inches. You will have 18 inches of workspace and depending on the size of your computer, will have enough room for a mouse. Next is the Laptop Desk UltraLite from LapWorks. This would be ideal for computers under 5 pounds. One of the great things about it is that it can be converted into a desktop stand for your notebook. . It has non-slip pads all over for extra grip and to increase ventilation. It also has 5 incline positions to give you the perfect work station, plus it has the added room for a mouse. Measurements are 22″ long x 11″, and the price is around $29.95. Third on the list is the Targus Ergo d-Pro Desktop Notebook Stand. This option is a bit more pricey at $99.99, but is backed by the brand. Targus is a well known, respected maker of computer accessories. A couple things make this one stand out. First it has a document holder that is placed straight ahead for easy viewing. It also has built-in security slot feature that secures the stand. It weighs about 7.7 lbs and measures approximately 12.8″ x 12.3″ x 3″ up to 10″.And of course, it has adjustable heights and tilted angles to give you the most ergnomic stand. The last laptop desk is also a Targus but is made for Mac’s. It’s called the Targus Podium CoolPad for Mac and is very affordable at $29.99. As a sidenote they also have a non-mac version of this available for the same price. The CoolPad will suite your iBook or PowerBook well. It allows for 360 degree rotation making it a great tool for giving presentations or group meetings. It features rubber pads on the bootom for a secure grip, and as with most laptop desks, it helps the computer breath and get some ventilation. Measurements are approximately 10.25″ x 8.75″ x 2″. Portable laptop desks make a great traveling companion if you’re bringing your laptop. They’re also convenient for everday use to help your notebook get some ventilation, not to mention keep your lap from getting burned. If you don’t have one, you may want to consider getting one.

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on August 07, 2007 by CyberNet.

Time Saving Tuesday

Could you imagine using a computer without having shortcuts? Probably not, and that’s why shortcuts play an important part in how we use our computers. Now what if there was a way to manage your shortcuts in a way that gives you the fastest access possible to all of the apps you use the most? 8Start is exactly that and more…

I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of application launchers before, but I promise that this one is different. Its goal is to put all of your favorite shortcuts at your fingertips.

–Using 8Start (Windows only)–

It took me about 15-minutes to get used to how 8Start works, and so I thought it would be important to explain a few things first. The three most frequently used terms are categories, groups, and buttons. Here are definitions for each (using the picture to the right as an example).

• A button is an icon, which is what you would expect. You can customize the size of the buttons just about any way that you want.
• A group is a collection of several buttons. In my example screenshot, “Browser” and “Games” are considered to be two groups.
• A category is a collection of groups, and they almost feel like tabs to me. In my example screenshot “General” is the selected category which contains the groups “Browser” and “Games”. Then “CyberNet” is another category that I could switch to, and therefore expose more shortcuts.

After I had that figured out, it took no time at all to setup 8Start the way that I wanted it. One of the best things is that you can configure a keyboard hotkey or mouse shortcut that launches your 8Start. Anytime that you bring up the program, it is displayed underneath the mouse, and that is the reason why this is so great. It minimizes the distance that you have to move your mouse to open your favorite applications.

Here are a few more screenshots of different categories that I created with smaller buttons:

–Adding Buttons–

Creating and arranging buttons in 8Start isn’t quite as easy as dragging and dropping stuff around, but it is still pretty convenient. The configuration screen has all of the tools that you need to create categories, groups, and buttons:

It’s also easy to add some of your Internet Explorer favorites to 8Start. I wish they offered the option to use Firefox bookmarks as well, but I’m not one to complain. 🙂

Once you get familiar with how the organizer works, you’ll probably be able to step up to the file explorer view. This is where you can drag and drop shortcuts from anywhere onto your computer and organize them yourself into the proper structure. If you have a ton of shortcuts that you want to organize, this method will be a lot easier:

When using the file explorer view, don’t get confused by the numbering scheme that 8Start uses, because all you have to do is drag-and-drop shortcuts into the proper folder. Then when you’re all done just hit the “Apply” button back on the Organizer. 8Start will automatically name the files in the correct format, and you don’t have to do a thing.

–Customizing Buttons–

You can customize just one button, a group of buttons, or all the buttons in an entire category. 8Start offers a great interface for picking the size and layout of the button(s), so that if you want the text to go along with the icon that is a piece of cake:

–Configuring Settings–

There aren’t many settings to configure, but there are enough to satisfy most power users. You can do things like create a keyboard hotkey to use the middle mouse button for launching 8Start. Perhaps the best thing, however, is that you can choose which of your drives you want to show the remaining hard drive space for.

–Change Skins–

Lastly, there are a variety of skins available for 8Start so that you can make it fit well with the look of Windows. I went through most of the skins, but I found myself going back to the default because of its simplicity and classy look.

–Overall–

I haven’t been using 8Start very long, but I’m already getting it worked into my routine. It’s one of those apps that you have to remember to use, and after a little while it will become second nature.

If it becomes hard to use computers that don’t have 8Start installed, don’t worry, you can have it installed to a Flash drive and it will use relative paths to point to all of the shortcuts. So you can even use this as an application launcher for all of your portable apps!

8Start Homepage

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on August 09, 2006 by CyberNet.

Web Browser Wednesday

Two of Firefox’s slogans are “the browser you can trust” and “safer, faster, better” but maybe we can beef up the security a little more with the help of Firefox extensions. You can do everything else with extensions so why should adding more security and a little privacy be any different? Okay, lets jump right into it… –NoScript (Download)– NoScript is one of the most popular extensions for Firefox and one of the simplest concepts. It will block all executable content, like JavaScript and Java, from every site until you put the site in your list of trusted domains. If you find a site that you want to run the scripts on then all you have to do is left-click on the icon in the status-bar or use the context menu to mark the site as trusted. Once you have done that you will experience that site as if you never installed the NoScript extension. –Google Safe Browsing (Download)– I receive phishing attempts all the time in my email but luckily GMail has caught every single one and filtered it as spam. For a lot of people the phishing scams are pretty obvious when you receive an email from PayPal asking you to enter in every piece of information that makes you unique. From your credit card numbers to social security numbers the scammers want to get it all…but Google wants to help stop them! The Google Safe Browsing extension is important for almost everyone to use. It will try to distinguish the site you are visiting from a list of phishing sites and will warn you if any forgery is detected. This feature was deemed so important for users that Mozilla decided to put it in the upcoming release of Firefox 2. If you aren’t running a pre-release version of Firefox 2 then you should definitely have this extension installed! –McAfee SiteAdvisor (Download)– When doing a search it is often difficult to know what a resulting site is going to lead you to. What if you could get a heads up before you even clicked on a link? McAfee SiteAdvisor will give you a quick report on your search results from Yahoo, Google, or MSN. It has a foolproof labeling scheme that is sure to catch everyone’s attention: green means the site is clean, yellow means the site may try to change your browser’s default settings, and red means you need to watch what you download from that site because it could be infested with adware. You can find out all of that information before you even visit the site. For an example of a full site report checkout the one on Kazaa.com which also has a lot of user comments 🙂 . –Stealther (Download)– Most people know how easy it is to clear your data in Firefox. You just have to go to your Tools menu, select “Clear private data” and choose which data you want to clear. That is easy and all but what if you don’t want to lose all of your browser history or saved form information? With the help of Stealther you can temporarily disable several privacy features:

• Browsing History (also in Address bar)
• Cookies
• Downloaded Files History
• Disk Cache
• Saved Form Information
• Sending of ReferrerHeader

Once you enable the extension it will block any of the chosen options from being saved and Firefox will immediately resume normal operation once you disable Stealther. It can be quickly enabled/disabled by using the Tools menu, toolbar button, or the Ctrl+Shift+S keyboard shortcut. –PasswordMaker (Download)– This is probably one of my favorite Firefox extensions because it solves one of the biggest problems that plague most people: secure passwords! You know that there is one or two passwords that you continually use between several (possibly hundreds) of sites. You have one password for sites that you really really trust and another password for sites that you aren’t quite sure about and don’t want to take any risks. You can change your habits by using Password Maker which will generate a secure password for you and all you have to remember is your master password. Heck, that is even better than before because now you only have to remember one password! It uses some very secure techniques to generate your password based upon several factors and the great thing is that the passwords aren’t stored anywhere! PasswordMaker will generate the password each time you visit a site, and if you happen to be on a computer without the extension installed you can use the Online version. You may think it sounds like a pain but PasswordMaker will fill in a login form with just one click! I don’t think I could ask for anymore from it. –SpoofStick (Download)– This is another way to catch those sites that are using the technique known as phishing. The SpoofStick extension will show a toolbar that will inform you of the actual domain that you are visiting. It isn’t as good of a solution as the Google Safe Browsing mentioned above but it could definitely be used with it. If you tried to visit a site such as “http://signin.ebay.com@10.19.32.4/” (which is similar to many phishing emails) the toolbar will report that “You’re on 10.19.32.4″. That will obviously catch your attention and hopefully prevent you from continuing to browse the site. –Netcraft Toolbar (Download)– Ahhh, yet another anti-phishing extension for Firefox. These types of extensions are so prominent because identity theft is becoming an increasing problem. The Netcraft Anti-Phishing Toolbar is what I consider “THE” tool to ensure that you know where your personal information is going. Not only do they notify you of phishing sites but they also make it extremely easy to report a site to them if you believe it has suspicious content. You may have asked yourself “what about a pop-up window that blocks toolbars?” The developers over at Netcraft have already thought about that and they will force the toolbar to stay open…even in pop-up windows! Try it out and you’ll find that it has a lot of really great features that will help keep you protected. –FormFox (Download)– FormFox could also be classified in the anti-phishing category because it will show you where the data that you have entered in a form will be sent. It will show you the destination immediately when you hover your mouse over the “submit” button. One thing I would like to see in this extension is an option to make it display the destination of a form immediately when you click in the first box. It could show it off to the side so that it is out of the way but I think that having to hover over the submit button could be a little late for some people. Natural instinct for most people would be to click on the button right away and submit the form before they are able to verify the receiving site. –Dr. Web Anti-Virus Link Checker (Download)– Everyone is worried that they are going to be the unlucky soul that downloads a virus. The Dr. Web Anti-Virus Link Checker Extension (whew, that is a mouthful) will scan a file for a virus before you even download it to your computer. It is as simple as right-clicking on the link and selecting “Scan with Dr. Web” from the menu. To show you what downloading a virus would look like I went ahead and tried to download the EICAR anti-virus test file. Here is the resulting pop-up window that I received:

As you can see it effectively caught the file before it even made itself onto my computer. You probably come across sites all the time that you are a little skeptical on downloading from so don’t even take a risk…get the Dr. Web extension! –JavaScript Options (Download)– JavaScript can give some sites a little too much control over your browser but the JavaScript Options extension aims to put the control back in your hands. The screenshot to the right shows you just a few of the options it contains and those happen to be my pet peeves. I hate when a pop-up window opens up and there is no address and navigation toolbar. I would always end up having to right-click and use the back button located in the context menu, but that won’t happen anymore. –Overview– That is the list of extensions I managed to find that will make your Firefox browsing experience even safer. Many of these extensions have not been updated to work with the upcoming release of Firefox 2 but I hope the developers will take the time to make sure they run smooth. Just like with all Firefox extensions you need to make sure you let the developers know how much you love their extension so that they will continue to update it. That way Firefox will truly be the “browser you can trust”.

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com