Interesting Snippets!: September 2006

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Best/Popular Web 2.0 Applications

Web 2.0 applications are available from anywhere with an internet connection for a small monthly fee and sometimes even for free. These software programs are designed for small and medium businesses or workgroups that don’t really have the budget or the need for enterprise class software.

Web 2.0 applications provide the user with an easy to use program that get the job done and done well. I have categorised the different systems to make it easier to find what interestes you.

If you know of other Web 2.0 applications,leave me a comment and let me know where to find it.
Web based Todo Lists

Web Based Word Procesing

Online Calendars

Project Management & Team Collaboration

Social Bookmarking

Browser Home Pages - Start pages

Peer Production News Sites

Image and photo storage

Web Based File Storage

Blog Filters

Non Profit

Drawing Programs

Application Development & Databases

Facts about Shaving!!

If you’ve always wanted to know how many hairs are removed from a man’s face by shaving, you’re in luck! Can you believe the prehistoric man shaved too? This article is filled of shaving facts, that may be useless but at least you’ll know.

1. The average shave will trim away somewhere between 20,000-25,000 hairs from a man’s face.

2. Shaving cream was only made for men until the industry specifically targeted women in 1986 by manufacturing the whipped magic specifically for women!

3. Shaving cream didn’t always come in aerosol cans; the method wasn’t even introduced until 1950.

4. The Pharaohs of Egypt probably liked a good shave every now and then, of course using nothing less than the best made from gold and silver. Archeologists have found razor relics that date back as far as the fourth century.

5. Only about 30% of men who shave use an electric device to shave.

6. When a man wet shaves, it’s as good as using an exfoliating product because the process removes dead skin cells promoting healthier skin.

7. Shave gels weren’t even thought of until the 1970’s.

8. Archeologists believe that caveman used clams and shark teeth to shave with, 20,000 years ago-in the Stone Age!

9. Nearly 70% of American women prefer a clean-shaven man.

10. Some archeologists think that many warriors shaved their heads before battles so opponents didn’t have any hair to pull … maybe they were discouraging the practice of scalping?

Women and their Fairer Sex tag......

Are women really the fairer sex? Here are some examples of women ‘behaving badly’.

Charlotte de Berry’s career as a pirate began in the 1600’s when she dressed up as a man to follow her husband into the Royal Navy. Charlotte’s ruse was discovered when the ship they were on was attacked and it was discovered that she was really a woman. She was made to take a ship back to England. Along the way, the Captain of the ship bound for home assaulted Charlotte and in revenge, she lead the crew in a mutiny and lopped off the Captain’s head, whereupon she usurped his position and decided instead of going home, it would be more fun to be a pirate and raid ships along the African Coast.

Madame Popova operated a service in Russia in the late 1800’s specializing in helping married women get rid of cruel husbands. She used poison, her own hands, weapons or sometimes assassins to get rid of over 300 victims during her ‘career’ in murder-for-hire. The jig was up when one of the women she helped ratted her out and she was put in front of a firing squad.

Belle Gunness was the first 20th Century Black Widow. During the 1900’s she is said to have killed 49 people- husbands, ranch workers who worked on her farm and even children who were assigned to her care through social agencies. Most of her victims were poisoned, or suffered ‘accidents’ while on the farm. She convinced another ranch hand to use arson and help her cover it up by faking her own death. The ranch hand, who ended up dying in prison, was innocent of every crime but the arson. She was never convicted.

Melita Norwooda of London supplied Soviets with nuclear bomb plans back in the 30’s while working as a secretary in a scientific research institute. Most knew her as ‘Grandma Hola’, who happened to make the best darn homemade jellies in the whole neighborhood! A staunch communist and great-grandmother, Grandma Hola says she doesn’t regret a thing!

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Creating a Virtual Private Network

This guide shows you how to use free software to easily and quickly create a VPN (virtual private network) between two computers. An example of a great use for this is connecting to your computer at your house from your computer at the office and using files at your office that are located on your home PC.

What is a VPN tunnel?

A VPN is a virtual private network. What that means is you can create a VPN tunnel between your computer at your work and your computer at your house. Once you have a VPN tunnel between the two computers you can access files through the internet (in the VPN tunnel) on your home computer from your office or vice versa.

Is it secure?

Yes. If you have to seriously ask that question and you have things that other people must not see I would stay away from this. Don’t get me wrong, VPNs are very secure, but if you have sensitive data traveling across a VPN I would stick with CISCO VPN hardware or software to establish a VPN.

The security of the VPN tunnel talked about in this guide is more than enough for the average person.

Download the Software

The software I use is called Hamachi. Hamachi is free and VERY easy to use.

Click here to download Hamachi.

Once you download Hamachi, install it on your computer.

Once you install Hamachi you’ll see a quick guide popup the first time you run Hamachi. I suggest reading it.

Create a Network

Once Hamachi is installed and running on your computer you need to turn it on. Click the on button on the lower left of the Hamachi window. Once you turn it on for the first time you’ll see a window similar to the one below.

Type a nickname you want to use and click create.

Now you need to create a network. Think of a network as an account name for the computer you want to connect to. When you connect to a computer from another computer you use the network name and password to find and connect to it.

Type your network name and a very secure password. The network name must be unique.

Click create when you are finished.

If you want to create a network after Hamachi has been started simply click the create or join networks button on the lower right of the Hamachi window and select create network.

Join a Network

Once you’ve created a network on a computer and you are ready to connect to that computer from another computer click the create or join network button located at the bottom right of the Hamachi window and select join existing network.

Type the network name and password of the computer you want to connect to and click join.

If everything goes well you are now directly connected to your computer through a VPN tunnel.

You can browse to that computer and open files just like you would if you were on the same network at home or at work.

Top 10 Firefox Web 2.0 Add-ons

Here is something very useful that i found on another site.

Firefox Addons With all this talk of the Web as a platform, it's worth taking a closer look at what web apps are using Firefox as their platform. Firefox is regarded as the best Web browser in terms of extensions - i.e. small browser add-ons which modify or add to existing functionality. It has hundreds of add-ons, which can be downloaded from here. But which are the best 'web 2.0' add-ons for Firefox? And I'm using the term 'web 2.0' very broadly here, to mean any add-on that has a social Web aspect to it.

Based on Mozilla's list of recommended extensions, AdaptiveBlue's Alex Iskold and I have generated a top 10 list of Firefox Web 2.0 add-ons. As always, let us know your own favorite add-ons in the comments.

Smart Browsing / Personal Productivity

Browster

Browster is a very cool add-on that enhances your browsing experience - for example mousing over a link gives you a preview of the website. It enables you to speed up your browsing experience and can save a lot of clicks in the long run. It does this by automatically pre-fetching links. It's a free add-on for both IE and Firefox - and hopes to make a profit by putting ads in the pop-up previews.

Answers

Answers is an add-on that promises to "instantly deliver the information you are looking for". It comes from answers.com, which is a popular online dictionary and Wikipedia syndication site. Alex says this is a "perfect example of smart integration with a service in the browser". The Answers add-on works like this:

"Just point at any word, hold the Alt key and click. Upon letting go, an AnswerTip in the form of a pop-up "information bubble" appears on the screen explaining the term."

blueorganizer

The blueorganizer smart browsing extension for Firefox is developed by Alex's company adaptiveblue. This extension drives productivity by building smarts and semantics into the browser. The blueorganizer integrates with many popular sites and services - including Amazon, Flickr, YouTube, iTunes, Odeo and Netflix. It utilizes Amazon's S3 storage service, as well as being run from the Firefox browser - so it is using the Web as a platform in many ways. SolutionWatch has a great review of blueorganizer, if you want to find out more.

Bookmarking / Social Bookmarking

delicious

The del.icio.us extension for Firefox allows you to easily bookmark webpages in del.icio.us, from within the Firefox browser. It integrates with the Firefox toolbar and provides extra options such as right-click menu and highlight text to add notes.

delicious firefox

StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon is an increasingly popular bookmarking tool - indeed in my recent post about the Turkey market, we discovered that StumbleUpon is a very popular app in Turkey. The StumbleUpon add-on is described as "collaborative surfing tool", because you can browse websites according to what other people recommend.

ClipMarks

ClipMarks is an early pioneer in the clipping space. Users clip pieces out of web pages and share these bits with each other. They can also tag and lookup the clips, but not much more can be done since the information is not structured. The Clipmarks Firefox add-on integrates this with the browser.

Google Notebook

Google Notebook is very similar to Clipmarks, but has better Firefox integration. It also works in IE6. As with Clipmarks, the user manually extracts text and images out of the page - but this information is unstructured. Google Notebook has had mixed reviews so far, but we think Google is currently putting in resources to improve it.

Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer

FoxMarks Bookmark Synchronizer is an easy way to sync your Firefox bookmarks, if you use Firefox on more than one computer. It is very simple, but does its job nicely and has been well received by Firefox users.

RSS Readers

Unfortunately, we are not aware of a really great RSS Reader for Firefox. If you know of one, please mention it in the comments section. In our opinion the best reader in a Mozilla-based browser is the one which comes with Flock. It would be great if someone got inspired, extracted it and released it for Firefox - since Flock is also open source.

There are however two RSS readers that most Firefox users rely on:

Sage

Sage is a basic and lightweight RSS Reader, although you need to be a techie to use it. It leverages Firefox bookmarks to store feeds - and it does the job pretty well.

Wizz RSS News Reader

wizz rss

Wizz RSS is a fancier reader that works well. It supports OPML import and export, plus has advanced features like filtering news items on words and/or phrases. But it is still not as smooth in terms of usability and options as the Reader that is built into Flock.

Conclusion

Firefox is currently one of the best platforms for building a new breed of web applications, on top of the emerging Web Platform. Given its native support for JavaScript and excellent extension API, we expect to see more complex and more tightly integrated web apps built on Firefox in the near future.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Blogging Terms Glossary

This article attempts to simplify some common blogging terms organized into a simple blogging glossary. Only common and popular blog tools and services have been included.

Note : The language used here is mostly non technical to make the newbie blogger understand the blogging basics. These have not been created by me, but collected over time. This is NOT a substitute for dictionary meaning or a strict definition of these terms, but a simple layman approach to understanding what they mean. Please feel free to propose a better meaning in the comments.

BLOGGING

Weblog- An online dated diary listing your periodic thoughts on a specific topic, often in reverse chronological order.
Blog - short form for weblog
Blogging - the act of posting on blogs
Blogger - a person who blogs
Blogosphere - The internet blogging community

BLOGGING FORMS

Photoblogging - a blog predominantly using and focusing on photographs and images. Photoblogs are created by photobloggers
Podcasting - a method of distributing multimedia files (audio / videos) online using feeds for playback on mobile devices and personal computers. Podcasts are created by podcasters.
Autocasting - is an automated form of podcasting
Blogcasting - the blog and the podcast merged into a single website.
Vlogging - Also called video blogging. Shortened to vlog. Posted by vlogger. A variant on the blogging using video instead of text.
Audioblogging - Also called audioblog, MP3 blog or musicblogs. a variant on the blogging using audio instead of text. Created by audioblogger.
Moblogging - Also called moblogs. A blog posted and maintained via mobile phone. Moblogs are created by mobloggers.

BLOG COMPONENTS AND FUNCTIONS

Index page - the front page fo the blog
Header - the topmost part of the blog usually listing the blog title.
Footer - the most bottom part of the blog usually listing navigation and copyright statements
Sidebar - One or more columns along one or both sides of most blogs main page
Categories - A collection of topic specific posts
Post, Entry- individual articles that make up a blog
Comments - enabling readers to leave their remarks
Captcha - short for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”. Those word and letter verification images you need to type in to show you are human and not a bot. Helful to block automated spam comments. more
Ping - Short for Packet Internet Grouper. Blog and ping helps to notify other blog tracking tools for updates, changes and trackbacks.
Trackback - A system by which a ping is sent to another blog to notify that their article has been mentioned by you
Pingback - See trackback.
Permalink - A link to a specific article
Tags - labelling / attaching keywords to collect similar posts
Tag cloud - Displaying tags lists or keywords in a blog.
Blogroll - list of links to other blogs in your sidebar. Also see blogrolling.com
Sideblog - A smaller blog usually placed in the sidebar of a blog.
Template - the blog presentation design
BlogThis - a function allows a blogger to blog the entry they a reading
Plugins - Small files that add improved functionality and new features. Wordpress plugins can greatly improve your blog usage and interactivity
Dashboard - When you login to your blogging account, it is the first screen with all controls, tools and functions.
Archives - a collection of all your posts on one page. Can be categorized by month etc.
Expandable post summaries - show a small teaser part of the post on the index page that link to the full post. more
Jump - the continuation of a the story on another page to preserve space on index page.
FTP - short for file transfer protocol. Transferring file to and fro from your web host using FTP tools like Filezilla

WEB FEEDS

Web Feed - allows online users to subscribe to websites that change or add content regularly.
RSS - a family of web feed formats used for Web syndication. Short form for Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0), Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91, RSS 1.0), RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9 and 1.0). Wordpress generates RSS 2.0
XML - short for eXtensible Markup Language. a general-purpose markup language for syndication formats used on blogs.
RDF - short for Resource Description Framework. A web content syndication format.
Atom - another specific web feed format. Blogger feeds are usually of this type.
OPML - short for Outline Processor Markup Language. It is an XML format for outlines. Easily import and export multiple blog subscriptions between different rss aggregators.
Photofeed- a web feed with image enclosures.

BLOGGING SOFTWARE / CLIENTS

Blogger - a free blogging platform by Google.
Blogspot - free Blogger hosting blog at name.blogspot.com
LiveJournal - free blogging tool by SixApart
Movable Type - paid blogging tool by SixApart
Typepad - paid blogging tool by SixApart
Wordpress.org- Free. Easy to Upload, customize and upgrade.
Wordpress.com - A Wordpress blog hosted free for you.
Radio Userland - another blog publishing software package

TYPES OF BLOGS

Group blog- with multiple contributing bloggers.
Event blog - focussed on an event
Kittyblogger - writing about cats.
Celeblog - focused on a celebrity.
Celebriblog - maintained by a celebrity.
Clog Blog - written in Dutch and/or in Holland.
CEOBlog - run by a chief executive officer.
Plog - a project blog. Also for Amazon.com personalised weblogs
Movlogs - mobile video blogs.
Splog- a spam blog
Tech blog - focused on a technical subject.
Anonoblog - by an anonymous blogger
Linguablog - about linguistics, translation etc.
Metablog - a blog about blogging.
Milblog - a military blog.
Blawg - blogged by lawyer / related to legal stuff
Edu-blog - education oriented blog.
Progblog - A progressive blog.
Shocklog - provokes discussion by posting shocking content
Klog - used by company knowledge workers. by Kloggers
Blogsite - A web site that combines blog feeds from a number of different sources
Dark Blog- A non-public blog
Photocast- a photoblog that automatically updates when new photos are added.

BLOGGING HABITS

Metablogging - writing articles about blogging
Blogstipation - writer’s block for bloggers. Cant think of what to blog about?
Blogathy - I do not want to post today and I do not care about it
Blogopotamus - A long long blog post
Blogorrhea - unusually high output of articles
Bleg - To use one’s blog to beg for assistance etc.
Hitnosis - Refreshing your browser repeatedly to see if your hit counter or comments have increased
GAD - Google Adsense Disorder. Repeatedly checking your adsense earnings. more
Blego - Blog+Ego. Measuring blogger worth
Blog hopping - jumping from one blog to another
Blogroach - A commenter who rudely disagrees with posted content
Blogoholic - addicted to blogging
Blogorific = blogtastic - something which a blogger says is terrific
Blogsit - maintaining a blog while the primary blogger is on leave
Blogvertising - Also called blogvert. Advertising on a blog.
Blurker - a blog reader not posting comments, just lurking around quietly.
Blogathon - update your website every 30 minutes for 24 hours straight. Maybe collect sponsorships. more
Blogiversary - your blog birthday
Blog Carnival - Links to other articles covering a specific topic.
Multiblog - running multiple blogs
Blog Tipping - Compliment 3 blogs on day 1 of every month. more
Blogger bash - a blogger party
Commenter - someone who leaves remarks / comments
Reciprocal Links - called link love. You link to my blog, I link to yours. To improve search engine rankings.
Linkbaiting - a habit of writing good content with the sole purpose of getting it linked from multiple sites.
Blogstorm - a large amount of blogosphere activity due to particular controversy. Also called Blog Swarm.
Blogsnob - refusing to respond to blog comments from “not-friends”.
Doppelblogger - plagiarize the content of another blogger. To Doppelblog.
Blogophobia - Fear of blogs and blogging.
Bloggerel - the same opinion posted repeatedly on a blog

BLOGGER TYPES

Problogger - professional blogger
Blognoscenti - especially knowledgable bloggers
Blogebrity - a famous blogger.
Blogerati - the blogosphere intelligentsia.
Commentariat - The community of those leaving comments.
Dooced - lost a job because of blog entries. To Dooce.
Blogther - a fellow blogger.
A-List- the top bloggers who influence the blogosphere.
Blogstar- blogger running a popular blog

OTHER BLOGGING TERMS

Bloggies- Annual blogging awards. more
MSM - Mainstream Media, or old media like newspapers etc.
BSM - Blogstream media. from most heavily trafficked blogs.
Blog Day - 31 August. Find 5 new Blogs that you find interesting and tell them. more
Blaudience - your blog audience.
Blargon - Also called Blogssary. Blogging slang and glossary. What I am telling you now.
Blogiversary - your blog birthday
Blogiverse - see blogosphere
XFN - short for XHTML Friends Network. Is a simple way to represent human relationships using hyperlinks.
Blogonomics - blogging conference on a Blog Cruise in 2006. more
EFF - short for Electronic Frontier Foundation. A nonprofit group working to protect blogger rights.
Blog of Note - a recommended blog. more
Navbar - a navigation bar usually seen on top of Blogger blogspot hosted blogs. more
Blook - a book created from a blog. more
Hat Tip- acknowledgement of the source that tipped you the news.
Spomments- Spam comments
Blammer- Blog spammer
SOB- acronym for Successful and Outstanding Blogger. From successful-blog.com
Blogiday- you get fed up and take a holiday from blogging

BLOGGING TOOLS & SERVICES

Bloglines, Rojo, Newsgator, Kinja, - are News Aggregators that display content from syndicated Web content from web feed. Can be configured online or downloaded on your desktop. Like . Also called RSS readers, feed readers, feed aggregators or news readers
Pageflakes, Newsvine - Track multiple feeds on a single page by modules.
Odeo, Podnova - are Podcatchers, a form of aggregator used to automatically download podcasts and can sometimes transfer a portable media player. Like
Feedburner - a professional feed management system
Pingomatic, Pingoat - ping multiple blog tracking services. More
Feedblitz, Zokooda - Email subscriptions and newletter tools.
Technorati - a real-time search engine that keeps track of what is going on in the blogosphere
b5media, 9rules - examples of popular blogging networks. Collection of blogs and bloggers providing great content, with revenue sharing sometimes.
K2, Blix - names of some popular wordpress themes.
Blogexplosion, Blogclicker- popular blog traffic generation / exchange services.
Adsense, Adbrite, CJ, Chitka, Blogads - popular affiliate programs to generate money from your blogs.
Sphere, Icerocket - blog search engines
Live Bookmarks - a firefox web browser feature. Update themselves automatically with the latest content from the Web.
Creative Commons - licenses provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors to offer a voluntary “some rights reserved” approach.
CoComment - Tracks your comments across different platforms and follow conversations
WBloggar, Ecto, Qumanna - desktop blog publishing tools
Mint, Mybloglog, Measuremap, Analytics - site traffic tracking tools.
Haloscan- free trackback service
YouTube, Rapidshare- puts video on your blog
Flickr, Imageshack - photo sharing service. Host images on your blog
Del.icio.us, furl, spurl - share social bookmarks.
Blogburst - Syndicating your feed to top publishers.
Bloggeropoly - professional blogger recruiting agency. more
Blogger code - a way to describe different types of bloggers. more
Bloggoggle - Directory of Blogging Professionals
BlogHer - where the women bloggers are. At Blogher.org

BLOG TRAFFIC SURGES

Digged - link posted on digg.com driving huge traffic to your blog
Slashdotted - link posted on slashdot.org driving huge traffic to your blog. more
Instalanche - link posted on instapundit.com driving huge traffic to your blog
Farked - link posted on fark.com driving huge traffic to your blog
Boing Boinged - link posted on boingboing.net driving huge traffic to your blog

MISCELLANEOUS BLOGGING TERMS

Ajax - acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. creates interactive web applications.
Greasemonkey - a firefox web browser extension that can alter the functionality of any website using specific scripts.
Wiki - a collaborative on-line software that allows readers to add and edit content.
SEO - search engine optimization. To improve your search engine rankings.
Page Rank - Google measures of importance of a page which reflects in its rankings.
CMS - short for Content management system. software used to publish and manage websites.

One Click Multiple Blog Services Pinging Tools

Blog and Ping! Pinging lets dozens of services which specifically track and connect blogs to know you’ve updated so they can come check you out. I was using Pingomatic for several months, but maybe it has become so popular with bloggers, that it many times does not connect for me or works very slow. So what are alternatives to Pingomatic?

So I set out to look for alternative pinging services that ping or notify a number of blogging services that keep track of weblogs and publish them. By pinging, you let the services know that your blog has been updated and hence, they crawl and index your site, publishing your blog contents, thus increasing your blog’s popularity.

Remember pinging is important if you use feedburner feed since feedburner will come crawling around after you ping it and update your feed with the latest content. And based on its content other blog tracking services will update.

So here are the One Click Multiple Blog Services Pingback Tools

Pingomatic - the most popular. Pings several popular services and specialized services. Create a bookmark for each ping url.
Pingoat - Pings a huge collection of 52 blogging services, including special services and non english tracking services. You can easily select all services by selecting the category.
King Ping - Pings multiple services - 18 in all. Easy to check and uncheck boxes. And you can also create a bookmark with your settings.
Blogflux Pinger - Pings 32 services, including several specialized services and language specific services too.
Feedshark - Ping, submit, & promote your blog, feed, or podcast for free to multiple services.
Blogomatic - Just enter the rss url and it submits to all the 12 listed services. You do not need to select each service.
BlogBlip - Just enter the blog url and it will submit to 15 popular blog tracking services.
Ping.ws - pings 16 popular services. 3 are ticked, rest you have to select.
PingQueue - Pings 16 preselected popular services in one click.
Pong - is a free desktop ping application that notifies blog tracking web services about updated blogs and feeds. It currently supports XML-RPC protocol pings for up to fourteen services at a time.
Ping The Empire - Pings 18 common blog tracking services.

Please let me know of more services which I can add to this list and keep it updated. Till then Blog and ping!

Best Firefox Extensions

There are hundreds of firefox extensions on the web. Which ones do you use? Here is my attempt to collect the most popular and best firefox extensions which make your browsing, downloading and navigation in Firefox as easy as possible, while harnessing the full power and features of Firefox.

Extensions are small add-ons that add new functionality to Firefox. The list has been classified on the basis of some broad categories.

Please Note -
- Most of these extensions work on the latest version of the Firefox Web Browser 1.5. When a new firefox version is released, it allows easy update of these extensions whenever a new update for your version is available.
- You need to check that similar functioning extensions may not work with each other.
- Use extensions which work best for *your* needs. You can always uninstall extensions easily if you do not like them.
- Some say installing too many extensions may slow the startup time for firefox.
- Fastest way to install these extensions from developer sites is to drag them to the url bar.
- Look at these top extensions to manage firefox extensions.
- You probably already use many of them, and may find some new good extensions here…

Control Firefox Tabs

All-in-One Gestures - merges the popular following extensions for management of mouse gestures, scrolling and power navigation. (Mix of Mouse Gestures, Rocker navigation, Tab scroller, History scroller, Link tooltip and Autoscrolling extensions)
Tabbrowser Preferences - a comprehensive UI for changing a number of the hidden tabbed browsing preferences in Firefox. It also provides the ability to control how internal and external links are opened in the browser and how the browser will react when links are sent to it.
Tab Mix Plus - More tweaks added to tabs. Ability to select and open muliple links in tabs, open link in a duplicated tab, merge tabs and close tabs from similar domain…
Undoclosetab - Allows accidently closed recent tabs to be reopened.
Tab X - Adds a small close button to each of the browser tabs, and removes the close button from the end of the tab bar. (May not work with TabMix Plus)
Restart Firefox - Adds “Restart Firefox” menuitem to “File”, and a toolbar button for easy restarting. Great for when you install themes or extensions and need to restart Firefox.
Sessionsaver - restores the pages you had open the last time you used Firefox - even if it crashes or there is a powerout.
Duplicate Tab - allows you to clone a tab with its history and place the duplicate tab in a new window or in the current window.
Colorful Tabs - Colors every tab in a different color and makes them easy to distinguish while beautifying the overall appeal of the interface.
Viamatic foXpose - Click on the icon in the status bar to view all the browser windows with a single click.
Firefox Showcase - easily locate and select any open browser window in Firefox.
Separe - Helps you keeping tabs tidy by introducing a new kind of tab.
Permatabs - turn tabs of your choice into permanent tabs that can’t be closed, and stick around between sessions.

Control Website Links

Linky - Lets you open or download all or selected links, image links and even web addresses found in the text in separate or different tabs or windows.
WebMailCompose - Makes mailto: links load your webmail’s compose page and adds a Compose link to the context menu.
Linkification - Allows Firefox (0.9+) to view plain-text URLs and e-mail addresses as actual links
IE Tab - can open the current page or a selected link embedding Internet Explorer in tabs of Mozilla/Firefox. Very useful for those IE only pages.
FirefoxView - Open Firefox with the current page or a selected link displayed in Internet Explorer. Adds “View in Firefox” menu items to the content and link context menus.
Paste and Go - lets you paste an URL from the clipboard into the address bar and load it as a single step, either via the adress bar’s context menu or by pressing Ctrl-Shift-V

Control File Downloads

FlashGot - handles single and massive downloads with several external Download Managers.
PDF Download - Every time you click on a link, checks if the target is a pdf file and in this case let you choose what you want to do (open pdf file inside a new tab, download it to the filesystem or view it as HTML).
ScrapBook - helps you to save Web pages and easily manage collections.
DownThemAll! - adds new advanced downloading capabilities to your browser. It lets you download in just one click all the links or images contained in a webpage or refine your preferences using fully customizable filters.
TargetAlert - provides visual cues for the destinations of hyperlinks. If a hyperlink points to a something that is not a web page (in cases of pdf, doc, zip files etc.), then TargetAlert will try to append an icon to the hyperlink that represents its destination
Download Manager Tweak - modifies the default appearance of the firefox download manager and allows it to be opened in a separate window, the sidebar, or a tab.
Download Statusbar - is a browser extension that allows you to keep track of ongoing and completed downloads in a hide-away statusbar
Disable Targets For Downloads - Prevents sites spawning blank windows when clicking binary downloads.
FireFTP - is a free, secure, cross-platform FTP client for Mozilla Firefox which provides easy and intuitive access to FTP servers.

Control Webpage Behaviour & Navigation

GreaseMonkey - Install user scripts and change the behavior of any web page
Image Zoom - Right click on an image and select a zoom option from the popup menu, or, hold down the right mouse button in combination with the mouse wheel to zoom in or out on an image.
Fasterfox - Speed up Firefox. Dynamic speed increases can be obtained with Fasterfox’s unique prefetching mechanism, which recycles idle bandwidth by silently loading and caching all of the links on the page you are browsing. Also tweaks many network and rendering settings. (Some readers said it actually slowed down their firefox - verify yourself)
SpellBound - enables spell checking in web forms such as html textarea / input elements (html input password elements are not checked by SpellBound) and rich text form elements. This allows you to spell check forms before submitting them.
BugMeNot - Bypasses compulsory web registration using the BugMeNot without the hassle of surfing to it and querying its database everytime.
AutoCopy - Select text on any web page and it will be automatically copied to the clipboard. Middle click to Paste.
Copy Plain Text - Copies text without formatting. Have you ever copied something and been annoyed that the text formatting (bold, font size, etc) came with it? Don’t you wish you could just copy the text itself, without having to copy it, paste it into notepad, then copy it again?
QuickNote - A note taking extension with advanced features. Save snippets of information whilst browsing for later use in your work, with no more switching to word processors.
Google Images Re-Linker - This will let you click the thumbnail images on images.google.com, skip the referred framed page, and jump straight to the full-size image.
Stop-or-Reload Button - Makes the Stop and Reload button behave like a single one (as in Safari).
Extended Statusbar - adds an Opera-like statusbar for Firefox that shows number of loaded images, bytes downloaded, average download speed, load time and percentage of the page loaded.
Resizeable Textarea - Resize small textareas in forums to your needed size avoiding scrolling.
Adblock - allows the user to specify filters, which remove unwanted content based on the source-address. Block ads, applets, flash, embedded-media etc. Adblock Filterset.G Updater is a companion to Adblock that automatically downloads the latest version of Filterset.G set of filters every 4-7 days that blocks most ads on the internet. Some users recommend Adblock Plus which is an enhanced version of Adblock.
Flashblock - blocks all Flash content from loading on a webpage.
Sage - add a lightweight RSS and Atom feed aggregator which integrates with Firefox’s bookmark storage and Live Bookmarks.
Cacheout!- lets you try to access articles on servers affected by the Digg Effect /Slashdot Effect through Google’s caching service and CoralCDN.org.
Pearl Crescent Page Saver is - capture screenshots and save full webpages as images easily.
Reload Every - adds an option to the context menu to reload the web page you are viewing every so many seconds or minutes. Useful if you keep refreshing some pages often.
Copy URL+ - copy to the clipboard the current document’s address along with additional information such as the document’s title, the current selection or both. Customize it to add your own menu entries.
InFormEnter - adds a small, clickable icon next to every input field in a web form, from where you can select the item to be inserted with your frequently used information such as name, email, address and whatever else you want to be available from the form menu.
All-in-One Sidebar - is a sidebar control, inspired by Opera that lets you quickly switch between sidebars, view dialog windows such as downloads, extensions, and more in the sidebar, or view source code or websites in the sidebar. Can be extensively customized.
Text size toolbar - Adds buttons to increase or decrease text size or restore default size easily. Useful for those small unreadable font sizes.
Reveal - allows you to see thumbnails of pages in your session history and quickly find the page you want.
Mystickies - allows you to place sticky notes all over the web and organize them with tags.
Clear Cache Button - Adds a clear cache toolbar button that cleans the cache in one click. Very handy for those who have use for it.
gTranslate - translate any text in a webpage just by selecting and right-clicking over it. Uses the Google translation services.
Xinha Here! - is a wrapper for the Xinha HTML editor that enables WYSIWYG editing in any textarea and text box on any website.

Control Privacy / Security

SwitchProxy - lets you manage and switch between multiple proxy configurations quickly and easily. You can also use it as an anonymizer to protect your computer from prying eyes.
NoScript - allows JavaScript, Java (and other plugins) only for trusted domains of your choice. This whitelist based pre-emptive blocking approach prevents exploitation of security vulnerabilities with no loss of functionality
Always Remember Password - Instructs web sites to always remember your password. Some sites like Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, and banking sites instruct the browser to never allow your password manager to retain your information.
CookieCuller - Extended Cookie Manager to protect/unprotect selected cookies.
Stealther - surf the web without leaving a trace in your local computer by *temporarily disabling history (and address bar), cookies, formFill, disk cache and sending of ReferrerHeader. Verify details of what exactly it can work for you.

Control Web Searches

Google Toolbar for Firefox - Lets you search google and all its services easily. Also powered by Google Suggest (Get query suggestions as you type in the search box), SpellCheck, AutoFill, Pagerank of webpage, access to gmail, WordTranslator etc.
CustomizeGoogle - enhances Google search results by adding extra information (like links to Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, MSN etc) and removing unwanted information (like ads and spam).
NextPlease! - allows you to assign keyboard shortcuts to jump to next and previous links on search results pages, like Google, Yahoo, Ebay, Amazon, and many other sites.
BetterSearch - enhances Google, MSN Search, Yahoo Search, A9, Answers.com, AllTheWeb, Dogpile.com, del.icio.us and Simpy.com bookmarks by adding previews (thumbnails) and Amazon product images and info etc.

Control Your Music / Video

FoxyTunes - Listen to music while surfing the Web, and control your favorite media player without ever leaving the browser.
MediaPlayerConnectivity - Allow you to launch embed video of website in an external application with a simple click

Control Your Email

Gmail Manager - Allows you to manage multiple Gmail accounts and receive new mail notifications. Displays your account details including unread messages, saved drafts, spam messages, labels with new mail, space used, and new mail snippets.
Gmail Notifier - checks and notifies your email in Gmail accounts.
AJAX Yahoo! Mail - Preview your messages with a single click. Adds AJAX support to the Yahoo! mail.

Control Your Bookmarks

Bookmark with Del.icio.us - Integrate del.icio.us right into Firefox. Easily access your bookmarks and post new bookmarks. Post a bookmark without leaving the page you are on.
Bookmarks Synchronizer - lets you connect to an FTP server and synchronize your bookmarks that are stored in an XML file. Set if to automatically download the file on startup or upload it when you close your browser.
StumbleUpon - is an intelligent browsing tool for sharing and discovering great websites.
Reliby - provides you with Reload all Live Bookmarks functionality.

Control Other Popular Services

Adsense Notifier - Displays your Adsense earnings on the statusbar.
Forecastfox Enhanced - Get international weather forecasts and display it in any toolbar or statusbar. Now with improved radar images and allows for pausing, restarting and setting the frequency of automatic updates.
StockTicker - Shows your favorite stocks in a customizable ticker.
DictionarySearch - Looks up a user selected word in an online dictionary you selected.
Web Developer - Adds a menu and a toolbar with various essential web developer tools.
Performancing for Firefox - A full featured blog editor that sits right within Firefox and lets you easily post to your Wordpress, MovableType or Blogger blogs.
TimeTracker - Keeps track of how much time you browse.

This list is by no means complete and you may not agree with my choice, but this is merely an attempt to find the top and best firefox extensions. This post is regularly updated. If there is some favourite firefox extension you use which deserves a mention here, post it in comments…

iPod users avoiding iTunes Store

In spite of the fact that the Apple's iTunes Store dominates the market for legally downloaded music, only a fraction of iPod owners actually use the store for their audio needs, according to Jupiter Research.

A report by the research firm reveals that, on average, only 20 of the tracks on an iPod will be from the iTunes Store. The study also shows that users of the device much prefer to rip CD's they own, or download content from filesharing sites.

The report's authors estimate that during 2006, Europeans will fork out more than 385m euros (£260m) on digital music, most of which will be spent at Apple's iTunes Store. However, the study shows 83% of iPod owners don't regularly purchase digital music, if at all. Only a mere 17% buy and download music often, usually single tracks, at least once a month.

According to the study, only 5% of the music on an iPod will be bought from online music stores on average. The remainder will ripped from CD's or downloaded from peer-to-peer networks.

The report also warns that the importance of "free" to digital music fans should not be swept aside. Some firms have already made inroads towards a future of free digital music such as SpiralFrog, which has announced that it will use an ad-supported business model rather than charge consumers.

Source:
BBC

The Dumbest Deaths in Recorded History

Attila the Hun:
One of the most notorious villains in history, Attila's army had conquered all of Asia by 450 AD-from Mongolia to the edge of the Russian Empire-by destroying villages and pillaging the countryside.
How he died: He got a nosebleed on his wedding night.
In 453 AD, Attila married a young girl named Ildico. Despite his reputation for ferocity on the battlefield, he tended to eat and drink lightly during large banquets. On his wedding night, however, he really cut loose, gorging himself on food and drink. Sometime during the night he suffered a nosebleed, but was too drunk to notice. He drowned in his own blood and was found dead the next morning.

Tycho Brahe:
An important Danish astronomer of the 16th century. His ground breaking research allowed Sir Isaac Newton to come up with the theory of gravity.
How he died: Didn't get to the bathroom in time.
In the 16th century, it was considered an insult to leave a banquet table before the meal was over. Brahe, known to drink excessively, had a bladder condition-but failed to relieve himself before the banquet started. He made matters worse by drinking too much at dinner, and was too polite to ask to be excused. His bladder finally burst, killing him slowly and painfully over the next 11 days.

Horace Wells:
Pioneered the use of anesthesia in the 1840s
How he died: Used anesthetics to commit suicide.
While experimenting with various gases during his anesthesia research, Wells became addicted to chloroform. In 1848 he was arrested for spraying two women with sulfuric acid. In a letter he wrote from jail, he blamed chloroform for his problems, claiming that he'd gotten high before the attack. Four days later he was found dead in his cell. He'd anaesthetized himself with chloroform and slashed open his thigh with a razor.

Francis Bacon:
One of the most influential minds of the late 16th century. A statesman, a philosopher, a writer, and a scientist, he was even rumored to have written some of Shakespeare's plays.
How he died: Stuffing snow into a chicken
One afternoon in 1625, Bacon was watching a snowstorm and was struck by the wondrous notion that maybe snow could be used to preserve meat in the same way that salt was used. Determined to find out, he purchased a chicken from a nearby village, killed it, and then, standing outside in the snow, attempted to stuff the chicken full of snow to freeze it. The chicken never froze, but Bacon did.

Jerome Irving Rodale:
Founding father of the organic food movement, creator of "Organic Farming and Gardening" magazine, and founder of Rodale Press, a major publishing corporation.
How he died: On the "Dick Cavett Show", while discussing the benefits of organic foods.
Rodale, who bragged "I'm going to live to be 100 unless I'm run down by a sugar-crazed taxi driver," was only 72 when he appeared on the "Dick Cavett Show" in January 1971. Part way through the interview, he dropped dead in his chair. Cause of death: heart attack. The show was never aired.

Aeschylus:
A Greek playwright back in 500 BC. Many historians consider him the father of Greek tragedies.
How he died: An eagle dropped a tortoise on his head
According to legend, eagles picked up tortoises and attempt to crack them open by dropping them on rocks. An eagle mistook Aeschylus' head for a rock (he was bald) and dropped it on him instead.

Jim Fixx:
Author of the best selling "Complete Book of Running," which started the jogging craze of the 1970s.
How he died: A heart attack....while jogging
Fixx was visiting Greensboro, Vermont when he walked out of his house and began jogging. He'd only gone a short distance when he had a massive coronary. His autopsy revealed that one of his coronary arteries was 99% clogged, another was 80% obstructed, and a third was 70% blocked....and that Fixx had had three other attacks in the weeks prior to his death.

College Applicant at NYU!

This is an actual essay written by a college applicant to NYU in response to this question:

IN ORDER FOR THE ADMISSIONS STAFF OF OUR COLLEGE TO GET TO KNOW YOU, THE APPLICANT, BETTER, WE ASK THAT YOU ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTION:

ARE THERE ANY SIGNIFICANT EXPERIENCES YOU HAVE HAD, OR ACCOMPLISHMENTS YOU HAVE REALIZED, THAT HAVE HELPED TO DEFINE YOU AS A PERSON?

I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award-winning operas, I manage time efficiently.

Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row.

I woo women with my sensuous and godlike trombone playing , I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and I cook Thirty-Minute Brownies in twenty minutes. I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Peru.

Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I play bluegrass cello, I was scouted by the Mets, I am the subject of numerous documentaries. When I'm bored, I build large suspension bridges in my yard. I enjoy urban hang gliding. On Wednesdays, after school, I repair electrical appliances free of charge.

I am an abrstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie. Critics worldwide swoon over my original line of corduroy evening wear. I don't perspire. I am a private citizen, yet I receive fan mail. I have been caller number nine and have won weekend passes. Last summer I toured New Jersey with a traveling centrifugal-force demonstration. I bat 400.

My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles. Children trust me.

I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick, and David Copperfield in one day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening. I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. I have performed several covert operations with the CIA. I sleep once a week: when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. While on vacation in Canada, I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery. The laws of physics do not apply to me.

I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic, and my bills are all paid. On weekends, to let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami. Years ago I discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down. I have made extraordinary four course meals using only a mouli and a toaster oven.

I breed prizewinning clams. I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and spelling bees at the Kremlin.

I have played Hamlet, I have performed open-heart surgery, and I have spoken with Elvis.

But I have not yet gone to college.

(The author was accepted to NYU.)

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