Some great Firefox Add-Ons...

Yes, not the usual list with extensions that you’re already using. These are 10 very useful, not-so-popular Firefox extensions that I’m assuming you don’t know.

Snap Links - Download

You must have been in this kind of a situation before: You have to manually click on over tens of links. Time wasted. Save a few seconds and effortlessly open multiple links with Snap Links installed.

Use the right mouse button and drag it over a particular area, the main links get selected and open when the button is released.

Menu Editor - Download

Ok, you have a very customized Firefox installation on your computer. With your favourite addons installed. Tens of them. Each puts something in the right click context menu. That’s clutter, isn’t it? That’s where the Menu Editor extension comes in handy.

Using this addon, it’s possible to rearrange items in the right click menu, and even group them together.

HyperWords - Download

One of the best Firefox extensions out there, that probably deserves more praise. It makes every word on web pages interactive. Basically, after you’ve installed this addon, you have a whole bunch of things on your right click menu.

Select a word, right click, see the plethora of options that Hyperwords gives you. Don’t be taken aback. You can locate meanings of a word by just right clicking hovering over a few menu items. Select a word, click, and go to Google’s top search result page for that term. Select, click, do a shopping search. Locate a place in a map by right clicking on the place name. Possibilities are endless.

Reminder Fox - Download

If you spend the whole day inside Firefox, this is for you.

Reminder Fox can be used to set reminders and to-do lists, and can alert you when you have things to do.

Littlefox - Download

This addon is very useful if you have too many things on your Firefox window occupying a lot of space. LittleFox revamps the Firefox interface once installed, makes elements smaller and leaves a lot of room for viewing web pages. Have a look for yourself:

Must install if you have more than 3 toolbars floating around in the Firefox Window.

Hide Menu Bar - Download

Does anyone use the Firefox Menu Bar? Buttons on the toolbar do most of the jobs for me, so I rarely take the cursor over to the top to access the menu bar. This extension does a neat job of hiding your Firefox Menu Bar.

Gain some screen space, hide the menu bar. On those rare occasions when you need to use the menu bar, don’t panic. Just hold the ALT button and the menu bar appears instantly.

PicLens - Download

Makes browsing through pictures a wonderful experience. When you go to a compatible site like Flickr, click on the Piclens icon near the image.

PicLens transforms the page to a 3D Gallery-Like view. Use your mouse to drag, select and zoom in.

Fission - Download

Used Safari before? Then you might like this addon.

Displays the progress bar inside the address bar - just like you have in Safari.

Tab Effect - Download

Adds 3d Effects to Firefox.

When you switch tabs, a nice 3D cube effect is added.

Tab Scope - Download

Hover over a tab, and you get instant preview of the web page.

You can even navigate inside the preview thumbnail - scroll, zoom and open links.

Add more in the comments! - *Images Courtesy: addons.mozilla.org

AVG Free Edition

Review version: 7.5.503

Product Link - AVG Free

I have used AVG Free Edition off-and-on for several years now. And while it has not always scored the highest in detection rates, it is simple to install, simple to use, and is very light on system resources.

Installation - No registration currently required. Just download and install. Piece of cake.

Interface - AVG may not be the best looking girl at the ball, but she’ll turn a head or two. Though the looks are spartan, the interface is easy to navigate. Here is the Control Center.

And here is the Test Center.

Updating - AVG offers automatic updates, making it an effective set-and-forget piece of software. You can also easily make updates silent.

Footprint and Scanning - AVG is remarkably light on system resources. In 2003 I replaced Norton with AVG and was amazed at how much faster my computer booted and ran. It was like a breath of fresh air.

By default, AVG will try to schedule a complete system scan every 24 hours, though you may easily opt out. When doing a complete scan, I appreciate the option to automatically shut down the computer when the scan is complete.

It took AVG approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes to finish a complete scan of my system, which includes about 400 gigabytes worth of files. Of course, your mileage will vary.

Types of Protection - AVG offers real-time protection, on-demand scanning, and an e-mail scanner. It does not scan for spyware or offer firewall protection. To some this may be a downfall, but it is a feature in my opinion. I prefer programs that “do one thing, and do it well.” The included e-mail scanner is handy for people who rely on POP3 programs such as Outlook and Thunderbird.

EICAR Test - Here is a link where you can download a harmless test file that should be detected as malicious by antivirus programs. It is NOT a real virus. In order to test the effectiveness of a program, I download the EICAR test file to my desktop and start counting to see how long it takes the antivirus program to find it.

It only took AVG a couple seconds to find it and provide options on what to do with it. “Healing” deleted the file.

Final Thoughts - AVG is one of the most popular antivirus software programs for a reason. Yes, there are probably more effective commercial programs available, but most of them will rob you of both your money and your system resources. I have no problem recommending AVG to anyone who wants a free antivirus program, though I suggest that you install a separate anti-spyware utility.

TweakUI

TweakUI gives you access to modify settings that necessarily cannot be changed in Windows XP.

Over a hundred default settings can be modified by using the TweakUI Control Panel Applet.

Integrating very well with the default interface, this tool is very lightweight as well.

You'd be foolish not to install this. Why they didn;t just include it in XP we'll never know!

Download Tweak Windows XP

We all need MP3's...

Ok, we’ve all got loads of music on our computers - but is that all unorganized and simply not easy to use? We all know we need to do something. Literally thousands of software let you play, organize, burn and etc with your digital music collection. We all want a well tagged, sortable music collection that we can be proud of!

Here is a list of free programs that might help you squeeze the best out of your MP3 collection.

Part I - Audio Players

The default audio player software on your Windows is probably not enough, when it comes to extensive features and customizability. Here’s a pick of the best media players that can let you sort through and efficiently play most audio formats on your Windows computer:

VLC Player - It’s more light on resources that you would imagine. VLC is a very versatile player - throw any odd format, and it plays them for you instantly (FLV included).

Winamp - Winamp has its own fans, it’s customizable to a large extent and can come as a great saver. If you listen to music every other day, you need to have Winamp installed. A similar player is Jet Audio.

Songbird - A feature rich application that has great looks, go for it if your Windows computer has got some memory to spare, it’s reviewed here. You can customize it by adding extensions (similar to Firefox).

Part II - Organizers/Taggers/Jukeboxes

Jukeboxes are music software that come with amazing capabilities. Go for them if you have huge music collections scattered all around - not just in your computer, but also in audio CDs.

Media Monkey - The best piece of software out there that you’ll love using. Tag editor, format converter, CD recording, iPod support, you name it - it’s got all the tools that squeeze the best from your tracks.

J River Media Jukebox - Very pretty, has good features. And might serve as a good jukebox.

>> I missed out Foobar, thanks for the heads up Ashwin!

MP3 Tagger - The best ID3 tagger out there in the market, that’s free as well.

Magic MP3 Tagger - Update: Oops, sorry guys this is not freeware.

Part III- Rippers, Converters

Audio Grabber - Fantastic audio ripping software, with FreeDB tagging support included. Another similar ripper is FreeRip. Another one a few commenters have mentioned is Exact Audio Copy

Part IV - Audio Editors

Trust me, as far as I know, there’s no free editor as much capable as the professional ones out there. But still if you’d like to do some basic recording and effects, you could try these:

Audacity - Open Source, and is very light weight.

Wavosaur - Comes with no installer, and is a single exe file that does the job. Supports WAV format

Part V - Other

Last.fm - A social networking site for audiophiles out there. Listen, get interesting tracks based on what you’ve played, and add friends! More such music sites here.

Tunatic - A song is playing on your head, but you just can’t get it’s title right? Then download this, install, hum the song through your mic and let Tunatic locate info on the song for you! Quite cool for show off as well

Audio Files GDS Indexer - Google Desktop Plugin - Install this one if you have got Google Desktop installed. Adds a bunch of functionality to the Desktop Spider to make it more friendlier towards Audio files.

Download Managers and the likes...

We always tend to download stuff from the internet. Be it movies, music, software, ebooks, we’re always in thirst of information and download plenty of things from the web. If you’re a download junkie, you can try the following free software I’ve listed below to make things better, easier and efficient:

FlashGet / Free Download Manager

Nothing beats these for download management. There’s torrent support in both these software. Flashget integrates very well with most popular browsers and the latter has support for downloading flash video files. Check out more free download managers.

uTorrent

Lightweight, feature rich, and encryption for your torrent downloads. Simply the best torrent client out there. It’s even got a Web based UI that can be used to control it via a remote interface.

DownThemAll

If you just don’t want to have multiple apps for just the sake of downloading, try the DownThemAll add-on for Firefox. DownThemAll is an excellent download manager and accelerator that is constantly being developed.

FileZilla

FTP client that has got it all. It’s cross platform, and has drag and drop and speed limiting features. Multi lingual interface is available as well.

BitMeter

Bitmeter can be used to track download and upload speeds, and also bandwidth consumption. A little tool to estimate the time it’ll take to download a file is also inbuilt. Check out more bandwidth monitors.

Universal Extractor

These days, most files you download are compressed, and so an uncompressor becomes indispensable. Universal Extractor is very superior than any other archiving tool, and virtually supports every other archiving format you can think of.

CCleaner

CCleaner can clean up the temporary files and other installation mess that appears once you complete your downloads. An uninstaller and a registry cleaner are built in to CCleaner.

Killer Tech Tips

Killer Tech Tips is a blog where you can find interesting and useful information on software and web tools that are useful for people who are not just based on computers, but also for people who are non-professional IT guys.

At Killer Tech Tips, Shankar Ganesh (he’s just 16 years old, mind you!) talks about software that’s free and just does the job for you. If you’ve got anything interesting to share, do use the contact page or mail us at tips@killertechtips.com

If you like the blog and would like to receive updates, you can subscribe to the RSS feed in a reader. Here’s the URL of the feed for you: http://feeds.feedburner.com/shankarstechblog

FreshUI

FreshUI comes from the makers of Fresh Diagnose, and is a separate program that can be downloaded here.

It lets you tweak lots of settings than TweakUI, and is great for users who’re a bit advanced.

You can restore the modifications you’ve made with a single click.

Its scope is more wide than TweakUI.

Download Tweak Windows XP

Google Sync (for Firefox)

Do you have more than one computer, or do you find yourself in situations where you use more than one computer regularly (such as work/home)? Do you use Firefox?

If so, you owe it to yourself to try Google Browser Sync. This slick little extension for Firefox allows you to syncronize certain aspects of the browser across multiple computers. With Browser Sync, you can unify bookmarks, cookies, history, passwords, tabs, and windows “automagically.”

This is very convenient for me, as syncing bookmarks saves a lot of importing and editing time across multiple systems, and being able to close a set of tabbed pages and home and open them at work is very slick.

It serves its purpose well, but I would like to see an option to syncronize more aspects of the browser, such as themes and other extensions. Perhaps this will be possible one day. Until then, Google Browser Sync is a highly useful extension that can save lots of manual tweaking time.

original post at Google Sync (for Firefox) written by Brian and posted on August 28, 2006 at 8:56 pm and filed under Google, Software.

Convert CD Image Types to ISO Without Installing Anything (Windows)

If you ever need to convert between different types of CD images, here is an easy and install-free method of doing so (for Windows).

The free utility is IZArc2Go, which is a portable version of the archive manager IZArc. One of its slick features is the ability to convert image types, namely:

• BIN to ISO
• MDF to ISO
• NRG to ISO
• PDI to ISO

To quickly and easily do so, launch the program and go to Tools - Convert CD Image.

Now simply choose your original image file and make sure the Convert Type is correct.

I find this utility especially handy for converting the occasional BIN or NRG (Nero image) to ISO. Best of all, it’s free, and it requires no installation.

Original post:

Convert CD Image Types to ISO Without Installing Anything (Windows)

The Top 50 Proprietary Programs that Drive You Crazy — and Their Open Source Alternatives | WHDb

Not every proprietary program can drive a person crazy, right? Some, like Norton Ghost, are superb tools for anyone to use. But, the fact that these tools are proprietary can drive open source fanatics up a wall. It’s not the price of the software that makes the real difference (although it’s a reason to migrate from one software to another for many people); it’s the idea that proprietary software comes with boundaries that keeps the user experience confined to…well, being the user. That’s enough to drive any developer crazy.

The following fifty proprietary programs are listed in no particular order within broad categories along with their open source alternatives. In some cases you could probably write your own book on frustrations with the proprietary programs shown here. In other cases, you’ll discover that the open source alternative isn’t quite up to snuff yet. And, in other cases still, you’ll learn that some proprietary programs are real gems, but that the open source advocate can replace those gems with equally shiny objects from the open source repertory"

See here:
The Top 50 Proprietary Programs that Drive You Crazy — and Their Open Source Alternatives

The Basic Ones to Switch...

Windows Vista OS to Ubuntu OS: This is Microsoft’s operating system (OS), and even Microsoft fans have become disillusioned with this product. Open source OS alternatives have expanded; but these OS often are difficult for the average user to install, learn, and operate. Why deal with it when Ubuntu has become so easy to use that even the most computer illiterate can jump into this operating system with very little time spent on a learning curve? In fact, users can purchase a Dell computer with Ubuntu already installed. Remember, however, that when it comes to using open source software that the open source community often focuses on applications that can be used through Windows, Mac, Linux, or Unix with the majority seemingly devoted to Windows.

Internet Explorer Browser to Firefox Browser: Sure, Internet Explorer (IE) is free; but, that’s because it comes packaged with Windows’ operating systems. Free is far different from open source software, where users have more control over how that software works. While you might feel more comfortable with a proprietary operating system, you can still use an open source browser like Mozilla’s Firefox, an exceptional product that expands its use with ‘add-ons‘ created by avid users.

FreeRip 3

Sure, there are a lot of applications that “rip” CDs. iTunes is one that I use frequently, but if you just want to rip or convert some music, iTunes is a bit on the excessive side. Plus, its formats are limited in comparison to FreeRip 3

Using FreeRip 3 , you can currently save audio tracks to WAV, MP3, WMA, OGG and FLAC. You may also easily convert from one format to another. I really like FreeRip 3 , but hope to see them add AAC in the future. (Aside: the FreeRip 3 installer gives you the option to install the MySearch toolbar, but you can opt out easily.)

PrimoPDF

Like it or not, the ability create PDFs is essential now. Windows by default cannot create PDFs, but it can with the addition of utilities like PrimoPDF, which installs as a virtual printer. Once it is installed, you may “print” to it from any application that can print. Though there are many similar applications, I like PrimoPDF for its ability to “merge” PDFs together. For those interested, it also allows for file security, such as limiting viewing and printing unless you supply the specified password.

I recommend using PrimoPDF in conjunction with the free Foxit Reader, a PDF viewer that runs circles around Adobe Reader in terms of installation and loading speed.

PrimoPDF

OpenOffice 2.4

If you have not heard of OpenOffice, where have you been since the turn of the century?

If you need an introduction, let’s just say that OpenOffice is currently the best free replacement for the MS Office Suite. I write all of my business letters and documents with it.

In fact, I own a copy of MS Office XP, but have used Openoffice exclusively since 2005 and have no plans to ever switch back to MS Office. Current version is 2.4.

You'd just be daft not to!

OpenOffice

Filezilla

Way back in the day, I used WS_FTP. Now I exclusively use Filezilla for my file transfer needs. It supports SFTP, allows for bandwidth speed limits, and easily saves server settings.

Best of all, it seamlessly combines with text editors (such as Notepad++) for quick-and-dirty file editing on the remote server!

Filezilla

GanttProject

If you need to do any project management, GanttProject will help you get everything organized. As the name implies, it uses Gantt charts and resource load charts to help break a project into a tree of tasks, complete with dependencies.

GanttProject even allows you to exchange data with Microsoft Project, though you may find that you have no reason to do so.

GanttProject

InfraRecorder

Need CD/DVD burning software for Windows? It doesn’t get much better than InfraRecorder (by the same author of TUGZip).

InfraRecorder can burn audio/data discs. It can handle multi-session discs, creation and burning of disc images (ISO and BIN/CUE), and can even save audio/data track information to separate files.

InfraRecorder

RSSOwl

RSSOwl is a cross-platform RSS reader. It allows you to easily track updated content on multiple sites. I really like the tabbed interface.

I find RSSOwl especially useful on a laptop, but on my always-connected desktop I prefer a web-based RSS reader, such as Google Reader.

RSSOwl

GnuCash

If you recoil in horror at the bloat of financial programs such as Microsoft Money and Quicken, GnuCash may suit your needs. It’s a slimmer version of those programs, and it has all the features I need for managing my meager amount of money.

The interface is easy enough to understand. It actually looks a lot like a digital checkbook ledger. Don’t be fooled, though - GnuCash can handle the needs of much more demanding users.

GnuCash

HandBrake

HandBrake is a DVD to MPEG-4 converter that allows you to stick a DVD in your drive and have the video converted to a digital file for convenient viewing. It’s great for minimizing wear-and-tear on DVDs, plus it’s handy if you travel a lot and want to watch movies on your laptop. For best results, use it in conjunction with DVD43.

HandBrake

PDFCreator

PDFCreator allows you to create PDFs from any program that can print. Once it’s installed, simply “print” to the virtual printer that it creates, and the resulting document can be read on any computer with Adobe Reader (or comparable software).

There are several similar programs, but if you dig open-source software, PDFCreator trumps many of the others.

PDFCreator

Launchy

Similar to Quicksilver on Mac OS X, Launchy is a neat little utility to launch files and programs. Once installed, simply press ALT + Spacebar to bring up the Launchy window. Start typing the name of any program in your start menu and Launchy should find it.

You can also easily browse your filesystem or add specific files and folders (such as MP3s or pictures) for indexing.

Once you get used to it, it saves a lot of time.