Jan 16

CrossLoop Allows Easy Remote Access To Other Computers

Posted in: Freeware, Newly Released, Software, Today's Chili

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

Crossloop Do you need to access your computer when you’re gone? Is it a pain trying to help someone with their computer problems when they live hours away? CrossLoop aims to solve that issue by letting you painlessly connect to the other person’s computer using a program that takes just seconds to install.

There aren’t any configuration options like you would expect so there is little chance for error. There are two tabs in the program, one for connecting to a computer and one that provides the information necessary for someone to connect to your computer. In order to connect to a computer you will need a 12-digit access code which can be located on the “Host” tab.

I love how the access code works. Every time you start the program it retrieves a new access code so that you can give the code to a friend to help you and then after they are done you’ll just have to restart the program. After the program restarts or shuts down it will generate a new code so that it can only be connected to by those people who have the updated access code. That is the reason why I took the screenshot above without blurring my access code.

CrossLoop encrypts all of the files and messages that are transferred using 128-bit Blowfish encryption technology. For that reason your data will be safe which is one of the most important things for me when remotely connecting to computers. If you’re looking to connect to your own machine when you’re away from home then you may find LogMeIn to be a better solution.

I actually just had a real situation that I needed to use this in. I had the person download and install the program and I was connected in less than 3 minutes from the time I told them to download it. This is absolutely amazing!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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Jan 16

Microsoft Hires WebGuide Developer and Offers it for Free

Posted in: Freeware, Microsoft, Newly Released, Screenshots, Software, Television, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on September 06, 2007 by CyberNet.

WebGuide

Microsoft briefly announced in one of their press releases today that they hired on the developer of the popular WebGuide software for Windows Media Center (both XP and Vista). This software lets Media Center users manage all of their recordings from any browser, as well as stream content from your Media Center computer. You can also stream music, pictures, and videos that are stored on the PC all from the comfort of your browser.

I’ve actually been using this software for months, and there was both free and paid versions available. The free version did just about everything except for the streaming media, and I liked the software so much that I decided to buy it for the $10 or $15 that it was. Now, however, Microsoft has decided to make the software available at no cost.

The creator of WebGuide, Doug Berrett, made this announcement yesterday afternoon in his forum. Here’s a summary of what he had to say:

I’m excited to announce that I recently finalized a business deal with Microsoft to make WebGuide available to users for free and to become a member of the Media Center team.
…
For those of you who feel I’ve sold out, given in to "the man" or crossed over to the dark side, you don’t need to send me a nasty email.  I hear yah.  Go play a round of Halo to get it out of your system.  At the end of the day, my passion is for developing cool software, and this is an opportunity to do just that.  I’d be a fool not to take advantage of it.

Honestly the interface on this program is amazing, and it even includes a mobile version for phones and PDA’s that make scheduling a piece of cake. There’s also a Vista Sidebar Gadget available so that you can manage your recordings, view scheduled shows, or search and browse the TV guide without ever opening your browser.

Another interesting part of the website is the Top List which collects anonymous television recording stats. You can then view the most recorded shows for your country, and it’s pretty interesting to see what tops off the list for different parts of the world.

I highly recommend installing this software if you’re using either XP or Vista Media Center. It will handle almost all of the configuration itself, and you can create multiple users each with customized access restrictions.

WebGuide Homepage
WebGuide Screenshots

Copyright © 2011 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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Jan 16

Slick Firefox Theme Even Impresses Me

Posted in: Firefox Extensions, Freeware, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on February 27, 2007 by CyberNet.

I have always been a huge fan of using the default Firefox theme because I think it is nice and simple. On several occasions I have actually gone out and scrounged around looking for a nice Firefox theme, but each time I have come up empty handed. I have installed many of the popular themes that Mozilla lists, but none of them seemed to fit what I like…not even the Noia which everyone seems to love.

Today I was going around DeviantArt just for the fun of it, and I came across a guy who has made several Firefox themes that all look pretty amazing in Firefox. There was this theme modeled after Windows Media Player 11 that really caught my attention:

Firefox Black Theme

There are a few things that I would like to say about the theme though. First off you’ll notice that I have two sets of tabs in the screenshot above. The top set is from the Tab Groups that I just mentioned yesterday. The extension appears to be missing the “New Group” button normally located to the left side, but the empty black space is actually the button…the theme obviously conflicts with the extension. I, however, like having just the small area to click instead of showing a big “New Group” button that takes up too much room.

The next thing that I would like to say about it is that there is a lot of black in this theme. Honestly, I never thought that I would be using a black theme, but there is something about this one that looks nice and helps my eyes to focus on the content contained on the site. I also love how bright the currently selected tab looks because I can quickly find it when I have 20 to 30 tabs open. If it is too much black for you then you should look at two other themes offered by the same person:

Copyright © 2011 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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Jan 15

Texter – Create Macros and Text Snippets

Posted in: Features, Freeware, Newly Released, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili

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

Texter

Lifehacker’s Adam Pash just released the 6th installment of Texter, which can shave an insane amount of time off of repetitive tasks. Texter is used to make text replacements as you type. For example, you can have the “hotstring” mysig be replaced with a customized text signature each time it is typed.

Simple text replacements like the one I just mentioned are just the tip of the iceberg though. There are many advanced operations that you can perform, such as pre-formatting items on the clipboard and then inserting them somewhere. You can also simulate keystrokes like Control, Alt, and Tab. When you combine all of this stuff together you can create some pretty complex macros and text snippets.

Here are some of the new features in Texter 0.6:

  • Instant Replacements: If you don’t like the Space, Tab, or Enter triggers, but would prefer instead that your hotstring executes as soon as you finish typing text, try out Texter’s new “Instant” option.
  • Hotstring Renaming: You can now rename any current hotstring through the Texter Management by right-clicking it and defining a new one.
  • Universal Autocorrect: If you like Microsoft Word’s automatic inline autocorrect try enabling Universal Spelling AutoCorrect in the Preferences.
  • Scripting Shortcuts: If you’re big into using Texter to perform a little automated scripting, Texter now includes a simple keyboard shortcut that makes scripting tons easier: the Insert key. For example, if you want Texter to send an Enter keystroke, just hit Insert+Enter, which will automatically insert {Enter}. If you’re not familiar with scripts in Texter, these instructions (and this video) will help.

This thing would be a real goldmine for me if it supported HTML insertion into Rich Text Fields, like the one in Gmail or when writing a post in WordPress. If you need that feature checkout PhraseExpress (our review).

Download Texter (there is a portable no-install version available)

Copyright © 2011 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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Jan 14

Flock Releases Customized Browser for Fashion & Entertainment Enthusiasts

Posted in: Freeware, Newly Released, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on July 24, 2008 by CyberNet.

Flock has always been focused on the social side of the web, and there’s no browser that integrates better with all of the popular social networks. They have decided to take it one step further by offering a special edition of their browser that is targeted towards fashion and entertainment enthusiasts that adore the color pink.

When you first fire up the Flock Gloss Edition browser you’ll probably be taken back by it’s vast use of pink. But don’t be deceived because the skin isn’t the only thing that has changed. When you go digging into the RSS feeds and bookmarks you’ll see that they’ve already taken the liberty of populating them with the most popular fashion, celebrity news, lifestyle, shopping, and magazine websites from around the web.

flock gloss.png
(Click to Enlarge)

The Flock Gloss Edition is supposed to be more fun for those interested in this type of thing, and the Flock team describes it best when they say “Your friends are always there – just like celebrities in rehab.” You can download the Flock Gloss Edition here if it sounds like something you or your better half would enjoy.

Note: This is still the version of Flock that is based on Firefox 2, not Firefox 3.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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Jan 13

Helpful Tip: Recover Lost Bookmarks in Firefox 3

Posted in: Firefox 3, Freeware, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on August 12, 2008 by CyberNet.

firefox 3 bookmark backup-1.png

Last year we provided a thorough guide on how you can recover lost bookmarks in Firefox, but as an anonymous reader pointed out some of the tips provided no longer work in Firefox 3. This is because Mozilla revamped the bookmarking system so that it performs better, and is also capable of more advanced functionality such as tagging. The good news is that recovering lost bookmarks in Firefox 3 is even easier than it was before!

What you need to do now is go to Bookmarks -> Organize Bookmarks -> Import and Backup -> Restore, and then select the date of one of the backups (the date is in year-month-day format). You’ll then receive a prompt asking if you’re sure you want to replace all of your existing bookmarks with those from the backup, and once you hit the OK button you’ll be all set.

Any site you’ve bookmarked since the last backup will be lost since this does replace your current bookmarks. For that reason you may want to consider performing a manual backup before proceeding with restoring your old bookmarks. This can be done using the Backup option located right above the Restore option. You’ll then be asked where you want to save the file, and restoring them is as simple as going to Restore -> Choose File.

Feel free to adjust the number of automatic bookmark backups kept by Firefox 3, which is still the same from our previous guide.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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Jan 12

CyberSearch Tops 25,000 Downloads

Posted in: Firefox 3, Firefox Extensions, Freeware, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on January 07, 2009 by CyberNet.

cybersearch.pngIt’s definitely hard to believe, but after 6-months of being released the CyberSearch extension has been downloaded over 25,000 times from Mozilla’s add-ons site. The stats page for our add-on appears to be a bit screwed up since it’s only reporting that we have 3 active users, but the average number of you actively using CyberSearch is around 4,000… which is probably a bit more accurate.

One thing I’ve really tried to do with the extension is listen and respond to the feedback of the people who are using it. I try to respond to every email I receive regarding the extension, and I’ve also come to learn that there are quite a few of you who are using it in pre-release versions of Firefox. That’s one reason I have a strong focus on the compatibility with both stable and nightly releases.

So hopefully all of you using CyberSearch are still enjoying it! I’m rather amazed that it has a 5-star average out of the 66 reviews thus far, and hopefully it will continue on that streak. What I’d really love to see some day is CyberSearch get front and center on the Add-ons homepage, but I don’t expect that to happen anytime soon.

CyberSearch Homepage
CyberSearch on Mozilla Add-ons

Copyright © 2011 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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Jan 12

AVG 8 Free Available, Not Bad Actually

Posted in: Freeware, Newly Released, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on April 25, 2008 by CyberNet.

avg 8 free-4.png

We were getting quite a few tips over the last day regarding the new version of AVG free that was just released. As you might recall AVG 8.0 Pro was made available several months ago, and it is a pretty comprehensive security suite. It wasn’t bad, but to me it seemed pretty bloated.

Now the free version of AVG 8.0 is available, and I gave it a whirl real quick to see what it all included. I actually like the free version better than the paid version because it seems a lot simpler. It includes the antivirus and anti-spyware portions which are very important, and excludes the anti-spam, firewall, and anti-rootkit. The parts it excludes are things most people can live without out.

There are a few things that actually really impressed me though. The first being that I was able to install AVG 8 Free and get it running without ever being required to restart my computer. That’s a huge plus in my book because having to restart after installing a program can really be a pain.

And then there is memory usage. To my surprise AVG 8 Free was pretty light on its toes. After running it for about 15-minutes it was only using up about 1.8MB. When I started to perform a full system scan the process took up about 18MB, and used a little over 20% of my processor consistently. Not bad at all, and my system still felt very responsive.

If you’re already using AVG then I think it’s worth taking the upgrade, but I don’t think this offers a whole lot to grab new new users if they’re already sitting happy with Avast or another free antivirus solution. The new interface is definitely way better than AVG 7 though.

Get AVG 8 Free [via Download Squad]
Thanks to everyone for the tips!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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Jan 11

Mozilla Hopes to Retain more Firefox Users

Posted in: Freeware, Mozilla, Software, Today's Chili

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

Firefox Retention

Mozilla is currently taking new steps to improve upon their 50% user retention rate for Firefox. That number means that only half of the people who try Firefox actually continue to use it on a regular basis. So what’s Mozilla going to do to make that number even better? Here’s their plan:

  1. Force the Firefox icon to easier to find location
  2. Alter the default browser settings path for better user choice
  3. Major outbound brand marketing program driving brand recognition and differentiation
  4. Change Firefox icon label to closer resemble action of getting to web
    Firefox Icons
  5. Improve download page and first run pages
  6. Launch support.mozilla.com
  7. Make common plug-ins work out of the box
  8. Make add-ons and personas more accessible
  9. Stickier start page
    Firefox Frontpage
  10. Make the web feel more human
  11. Improve messaging through communication channels

Mozilla recently started a community effort to create more support documentation, and we’ve been contacted by Mozilla to see if Chris from our very own Learn Firefox could contribute some of his work to the project. We’re still trying to work out some of the terms regarding that, but Learn Firefox has everything beginners and advanced users need to know about getting started with the browser. And if you’re looking for a theme there is no better place than Learn Firefox to browse over 200 of them!

There’s no doubt that Mozilla is making some progress as they climb up to 20% of the browser market share, and hopefully by implementing some of these tactics it will increase their retention rate. In the first week of September Mozilla should also be hitting a big milestone: 400 million downloads of Firefox. They are currently close to 390 million downloads, and I’ve estimated the 400 million mark using the current download rate.

Source: Ars Technica

Copyright © 2011 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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Jan 11

OnTV: TV listings on your GNOME desktop

Posted in: Freeware, Linux, Television, Today's Chili, ubuntu

This article was written on July 11, 2007 by CyberNet.

There are lots of TV listing fetchers out there, but OnTV is certainly different. OnTV is not a stand-alone program. It’s a GNOME applet, which means that you can put it anywhere on your GNOME panels.

OnTVs Now/Next window

When setting up OnTV, you can choose which channels you want to be shown. This little applet supports over 25 countries including the USA, the United Kingdom and most countries in Western Europe.

OnTV also allows you to set up reminders for upcoming programs. Right-click the OnTV icon, click ‘Search Program’, type in the name of the program you want to set a reminder for, right-click it and finally choose ‘Add reminder’. When your program is about to begin, something like this will pop up:

OnTV Reminder popup
Note that this reminder window even displays a countdown clock (bottom right).

How to install OnTV on Ubuntu systems:
1) Enter sudo apt-get install ontv in a terminal
2) Right-click one of your GNOME panels
3) Click ‘Add to panel’
4) Drag the OnTV applet to one of your panels

If you’re not satisfied with the default logo of a certain channel, you can change it in Preferences. OnTV has the tendency to stretch channel logos if they are not square. You can do away with this little annoyance by opening the logo in an image editor, making it square and finally reloading the channel image. Here’s how you can do this using The GIMP:

Canvas Size window

  1. Locate the logo you want to edit and open it using The GIMP. OnTV’s logo database can be found in /home/username/.gnome2/ontv/logos.
  2. Go to Image > Canvas Size.
  3. Click the chain (near Width and Height) to unlink it.
  4. Have a look at Width and Height. Change the lowest value to the highest one. In my case, the width and height values were 56 and 41, so I had to change the height value to 56.
  5. Click the Center button.Canvas Size window
  6. Press OK and save the image.
  7. Right-click the OnTV icon and click Preferences.
  8. Go to the second tab.
  9. Right-click the TV channel you edited the logo for and select Properties from the menu.
  10. Click the logo and re-select the same logo. The logo should be displayed correctly now.

If you prefer full listings instead of the Now/Next-style listings that OnTV offers, you should take a look at gTVlistings. Unfortunately, it cannot be installed from the Ubuntu repositories.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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