Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on October 10, 2007 by CyberNet.

Being the geeks that we are I’m sure you’ve tried at one time or another to create some sweet ASCII art. When you look at some of the ASCII art that has been done it almost looks like it should be simple, but there is an insane amount of time that is spent getting the spacing and character density just right.

You can now be the envy of all your geeky followers friends by generating your very own gallery of ASCII art. We’re not talking something as simple as the last trick we showed you either, instead this is a full-blown software application. It’s called ASCII Generator, and I found out about it today while doing our Daily Downloads. After I looked into it I knew that I had to give it a shot.

The nice thing is that ASCII Generator is an open source project, and doesn’t require any installation to run it. Once you have loaded an image into the generator it will pump a bunch of text into the main content area. There is the “Size” option on the top toolbar that can be used to decide how many characters are on every line, and the more characters you have the more detail you’ll see.

Once you’ve got all of the settings adjusted you’ll be able to save your artwork as an image or text file. The sweet thing is that it also adds color to the text to help give the ASCII art a more photo-like effect.

Below you’ll see an image that I converted of an extremely colorful garden. I set the Size as large as it would go so that I could capture as much detail in the photo as possible. Think about how long it would have taken to make something like that without the generator.

ASCII Generator Homepage
Download Page

Here’s a garden that I converted (click to enlarge)

Copyright © 2011 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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This article was written on November 15, 2006 by CyberNet.

Web Browser Wednesday

Memory leaks seem to follow Firefox with every release but have you ever stopped to think that some of those leaks may be the cause of an extension(s) that you have installed? Many of you probably have thought about that but you haven’t taken the time to disable them one-by-one to find the culprits.

I don’t blame you because it takes some time to do that. First you have to record your memory usage after about an hour of using the browser. Then you have to disable one of the extensions and spend about another hour of browsing to see what your memory usage climbs back upto.

I take the time to do it every now and then but I typically have less than 7 extensions installed and I have found most of them to be leak-free. However, with the release of Firefox 2 I decided to give two extensions another shot after not using them for months: Tab Mix Plus and IE Tab.

I had forgotten how great Tab Mix Plus was and quickly became addicted to it all over again. After a few hours of installing the extension I noticed Firefox starting to run slow so I pulled up my memory usage and it was at 120MB! That isn’t as bad as some of you might experience but that is 40MB over my normal amount. It was hard but I determined that I would rather eliminate this memory leak so I ditched Tab Mix Plus, once again.

Next up was IE Tab. I didn’t install this simultaneously with Tab Mix Plus because I never install more than one “trial” extension at a time. After I have it installed long enough I’ll move the extension from the “trial” category to the “I think it’s a keeper” category. IE Tab was a little better than Tab Mix Plus but after around an hour of typical usage the memory meter was reading a little over 100MB which means IE Tab contributed around 20MB to the memory leaks. Needless to say I don’t use the extension that much so I decided to drop this one as well.

These memory leaks get pretty frustrating but I feel bad for the Mozilla team because so many people criticize their browser for being loaded with the leaks, when in fact the leak is often caused by an extension that the user has installed. Months ago I put together a list of extensions that are known to have leaks and IE Tab was on that list, but ironically enough Tab Mix Plus was one of the solutions to another problematic extension. I’m not sure what caused Tab Mix Plus to start leaking memory but after removing it from Firefox my memory usage returned to the 80-90MB for typical use.

Then there is always this about:config tweak that doesn’t remove the memory leaks but will free Firefox from using your physical memory as soon as you minimize the browser. Opera has this feature enabled by default and I think it is a good idea to use it in Firefox as well.

What’s the best way to start fresh and minimize the amount of memory that Firefox uses? The solution that everyone is saying works 100% is restarting Firefox, although that is just a temporary solution as well. The problem is that no one ever wants to restart Firefox because they don’t want to lose their open tabs or windows. No problem! Firefox 2 has a built-in session restore feature that can be utilized to cure that situation. Just install the Restarter extension (yes, another extension ) and it will add an option in the File menu to restart Firefox. It will automatically remember all of the tabs that you have open and even all of the windows. This is definitely a must-have extension for everyone using Firefox 2 and especially those people who are plagued with memory leaks!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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This article was written on January 10, 2008 by CyberNet.

Lifehacker found a really cool program called WMWifiRouter that will let you transform a Windows Mobile Device into a wireless router with little configuration! With that you would be able to create a ad-hoc Wi-Fi connection to the device so that it can be used as a modem. It’s a simple solution to get wireless Internet on your laptop without purchasing additional hardware or data plans.

The developer has put together a small tutorial on how to get WMWifiRouter installed and running, and it seems pretty straight forward. Here’s a list of the requirements for successfully using the free application:

• Windows Mobile 5 – SmartPhone Edition or PocketPC (with phone functionality) Edition OR
• Windows Mobile 6 – Standard or Professional (NOT Classic!)
• A WiFi connection on your device
• A (cellular) data connection on your device
• Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) installed (and working) on your device

Once you have everything working it should become an effortless process each time you need to use WMWifiRouter. In most cases you can even turn off the screen on your device and the app will continue chugging away, thereby conserving some precious power.

Warning: Be careful with how much you use your data plan, because we all know how strict the service providers are on excessive use.

WMWifiRouter Homepage
WMWifiRouter Instructions
[via Lifehacker]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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This article was written on July 23, 2010 by CyberNet.

Windows only
The Windows HOSTS file is a way for you to redirect a domain on your local machine to any IP address that you specify. There are a lot of reasons for doing this, such as a web developer testing a website locally or even making certain sites inaccessible by pointing them back to your machine (a common method used for ad blocking). The HOSTS file is not something most people work with each day, but if you are one of the few that are regularly making updates to it this is one tool you’ll love.

HostsMan Editor provides a GUI to managing what could ordinarily be an overwhelming file. Some people may have hundreds or thousands of entries in their HOSTS file, and that makes changing it quite a pain without a manager like this. On more than one occasion I’ve found myself creating duplicate entries, which can then cause confusion when trying to figure out why a change I’ve made isn’t necessarily taking affect (when duplicate entries exist it’s normally the last entry that is the accepted one).

With the help of this free and portable HOSTS file manager you can make things a little easier on yourself. You can backup/restore HOSTS files, make changes, validate entries, bulk update IP address references, enable/disable the HOSTS file, and more. You can even go a step further and subscribe to HOSTS files that others have created (such as ones for ad blocking), and have them automatically merged with your own HOSTS file. It’s a great app to keep in your back pocket for those times you have to update the HOSTS file.

HostsMan Editor Homepage (Windows only; Freeware)

Copyright © 2011 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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This article was written on March 21, 2007 by CyberNet.

Web Browser Wednesday

While I have a tendency to use the Firefox browser most of the time, I do use Opera quite a bit as well. Opera is kind of my casual browser because it is slim, efficient, and yet powerful while Firefox offers the extensibility that I need when plowing my way through hundreds of different sites I visit everyday. I don’t really get around to playing with all the different tweaks that lie under-the-hood of Opera, but I think I have some that you may not yet know about.

I’ve already covered some speed enhancements for Opera in a previous article, so the focus here is is going to be a little bit different. I’m going to dive into the opera:config which is similar to Firefox’s about:config screen. In both browsers that is where all of the hidden gems lie that most people are afraid to tinker with, and as a result you could really miss out on some great tweaks.

In my opinion Opera’s opera:config screen is a little more formal than what Firefox has to offer. To get to the configuration screen you simply have to type opera:config in the address bar and there you’ll see a bunch of categories that can be expanded to reveal corresponding settings:

It’s easy to get the hang of, and if you ever mess something up you can always press the “Default” button next to an option to return that setting back to its original value.

A short description for all of the settings listed on the opera:config screen can be found here, and you’ll notice on that page that all of the settings are hyperlinked. Those links will only work in Opera because they will take you directly to the that option on the configuration page. The few tweaks that I mention below also use hyperlinks to help you find the setting quickly.

—Add Thumbnail Previews to Ctrl+Tab Window Cycle—

This is probably one of the cooler features for switching tabs, and for some reason it isn’t enabled by default in Opera. If you want to switch tabs in Opera you can use the Ctrl+Tab key combination to do so. It will pop open with a tab switcher that is purely text-based. The screenshot to the right was taken after I enabled a setting in opera:config to show thumbnails along with their corresponding titles.

The thing I like about this is that it only shows three thumbnails on the right-side of the list so that it doesn’t get too cluttered. The thumbnail in the middle is the one that you currently have selected, and the one above and below it are the tabs before and after it, respectively.

The thing that I don’t like about it is that there is no border at all around the tab switcher. It only has a white background that can make it a little more difficult for your eyes to visualize the boundaries.

To turn the thumbnail preview on for the tab switcher all you need to do is enter opera:config#UserPrefs|UseThumbnailsinWindowCycle into the address bar, and then check the corresponding box.

—Disable Opera’s BitTorrent Client—

I recently saw this configuration option over at Opera Watch, and many Opera users that I talk to say that it is nice having a BitTorrent client built-into the browser but it doesn’t work nearly as well as a standalone program. For that reason there is an opera:config setting to prevent Opera from handling BitTorrent downloads itself:

To disable the BitTorrent client in Opera:

1. Copy and paste the following into the address bar (the URL bar): opera:config#BitTorrent|Enable
2. Unselect “Enable”
3. Click “Save”

To use another BitTorrent client with Opera:

1. Go to Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Downloads
2. Unselect “Hide file types opened with Opera”
3. Type “torrent” in the Quick find box
4. Double-click the line that looks like this: application/x-bittorrent torrent
5. Select “Open with default application”
6. Click “OK”

—Opera’s Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts—

• Ctrl+H sends Opera to the System Tray.
• Holding down the right mouse button and using the scroll wheel will bring up the tab switcher that is mentioned above. This makes is really easy to switch between tabs!
• Going back and forward in Opera is really easy. To go back just hold down the right mouse button and then press the left one, or to go forward just hold down the left mouse button and press the right one.
• Pressing the period (.) key will initiate a Find As You Type search feature just like in Firefox.
  
• Shift+Left Click on a tab to close it.
• Ctrl+B will paste a URL an already copied URL onto the clipboard and press enter for you. Thanks for the tip ResearchWizard!
• Ctrl+Z will undo the last closed tab.

—Cascading/Tiling Windows—

This is one thing that Firefox will never be able to do because Opera is built using a Multiple Document Interface (MDI) that lets you cascade, tile, and minimize windows all from within the window. There is an extension for Firefox that tries to replicate this feature, but it doesn’t quite cut it for me.

Actually, this is one of the biggest reasons that I use Opera in my casual browsing. If I come across two items that I want to compare I can put them side-by-side very easily with tiling. To use this feature just right-click on any tab, go to the Arrange menu, and choose the option that you want to do:

Here is what it looks like when I tile a few different windows:

—Overview—

Opera is full of all kinds of tweaking goodness that is just waiting to be exposed. I’m sure some of you have used Opera more than me so if you know of any great tweaks please make sure to mention them in the comments so that we can all benefit from them! I’ll go ahead and leave you now with a few sites that may help you on your journey for finding more tips and tricks:

• Official Opera Tips & Tricks site
• Opera:config Settings Explained
• CyberNet’s Guide for Making Opera Even Faster
• Opera Wiki

Copyright © 2011 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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