Which Firefox extensions would you pay money for?

July 30, 2007

firefox extensions, add-ons or pluggins

Extensions add some great functionality to Firefox. Although with thousands available, your web browser can quickly become overloaded. But what if you had to pay for them, which extensions would you really install?

Here’s ten extensions I use on daily basis and have made the effort to installing them on more than one machine on a number of occasions.

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    Foxmarks     - If you use more than one machine (linux, vista, apple etc), get Foxmaks to synchronise your bookmarks between all your machines, acts as a backup too.
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    CoComment     - Create more micro-blogging content with CoComment. Every time you leave a comment on various blogs, YouTube or Flickr etc, have CoComment website produce an RSS feed.
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    InFormEnter     - If your a web developer or blogger I couldn’t recommend this pluggin more, one of my favourite for saving time. I know your browser has smart forms, i.e. remembers what you’d written in pervious forms, but sometimes they become a little overcrowded.
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    Delicious     - I think most people would probably not use delicious if it wasn’t for this extension?
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    SearchStatus     - If your concern about Google ranking of your website’s, like to spy on the competition or concern who you link to then this add-on gives you Alexa and Google Page rank in the bottom right hand side.
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    Google Notebook      - Have quick snippets of text available within your browser, useful for regular used HTML and formulating blog posts. I lke this because I can share text between multiple machines.
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    Picnik     - This extension allows you edit images you find on web pages online (IE and Firefox). When your done you can send them to flick, photobucket or just save them to your desktop. I’ve briefly mentioned this one before.
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    vtigerCRM Toolbar     - This won’t interest 99% of people unless you have the excellent vTiger CRM’s (Customer Relationship Management Software). This toolbar allows us quick access to our CRM to add contacts, leads, notes and task etc.
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    Web Developer Toolbar     - This tool bar provides a loads of features that can make a web developers life alot easier. Some of my favourite features are window resizing for testing on smaller displays, div ordering, line guides and auto form populating.
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    Text Formatting Toolbar      - Recently our company has gone a little Wiki mad. So this toolbar makes inserting wiki code a lot easier. Not into Wiki’s, you can also use it to insert HTML and BBcode.

 

Your Firefox Extensions

I’d love to know which Firefox extension you can’t live without. You might only have two extension you would pay for or it maybe twenty? You may have a similar list as mine or extensions that do the same job but are slightly better?

To get us started I have tagged a couple of my favourite blogs who generally blog about different things to give us a wider spectrum…

Jamie

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Author: Support @ 8:00 am
Category: Apple, Downloads, Geeky Stuff, Windows



What’s this weeks internet buzz? Pownce

July 11, 2007

Over the last couple of months or so, the internet buzz could be summed up as…

twitter, jaiku, facebook, iphone, pownce

I’ve touched on Twitter before and even had a play around with it. Jaiku is nice because it pulls all our various Web 2.0 feeds together and reformats them into a timeline, see the right hand side. I am currently playing around with Facebook from both a personal and business point of view. Okay the iPhone is not a Web 2.0 technology, but I could hardly not mention it. Especially after the rave review my flatmate gave it. The company he works for designed the sound chip inside it and hence had his hands on one. Then the end of last week the new buzz has been Kevin Rose’s new venture, Pownce.

What is Pownce?

Its a way to send files to other people via the internet with a social networking spin to it. Someone describe it as twitter on steroids. 

Pownce is a way to send stuff to your friends. What kind of stuff? You can send just about anything: music, photos, messages, links, events, and more. You can do it all on our web site, or install our lightweight desktop software that lets you get out of the browser.

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Pownce appeals to me because quite often I transfer large files between the two offices using Skype. Sometimes we have issues with Skype so another way of doing this is a bonus. Add the social networking element and Pownce could be a good tool for businesses with two or more offices.

Invitation Only

Although the Pownce is currently invitation only during it’s beta stage.  Luckily I was sent an invite code from Rieke-Benninghaus who left a comment on The Thinking blog, thank you.

I now have six invite codes, so if you would like invitation to Pownce, please leave me your email address in a comment below, maybe use something like emailme(a)terinea(dot)co(dot)uk to stop spammers.

 

Author: Support @ 10:20 am
Category: Apple, Downloads, Network and Security, Windows



Bootable CD to the rescue!

July 9, 2007

superman

A couple of weeks ago I had some hard drive issues with a clients PC which stored the majority of their business data. Although backup was performed the night before, the hard drive failure occurred later on the next day. So it was essential to recover the days work from the failing hard drive. In this post I will mention a couple of strategies and tools that could aid the recovery of the data from the failing hard drive. It is also worth noting that a couple of these tools can help with lost passwords, boot up issues, spyware and viruses.

Don’t boot up!

Whenever face with a problem like this, you must avoid booting up your operating system (Windows, OSX etc) as extra disk activity will more than likely cause more damage to the hard drive. A bootable recovery CD will run a mini operating system which

Decision Time

You have two choices when it comes to recovering your data and fixing the machine. If your machine still manages to boot into the operating system you should try taking a complete snap shot of the failing hard drive onto a new hard drive. Swap the failing drive with the drive you just copied the files too and fingers crossed the Operating System will automatically repair itself, backup!

If your machine isn’t booting then you need to copy the files to a secondary drive (internal or external USB drive), insert a new hard drive, re-install the operating system, applications and data from fresh.

Shopping List

  • External USB Hard Drive
  • New hard drive
  • Operating System CD/DVD
  • Driver Disks
  • Applications
  • Recovery software
  • Blank CD’s
  • Time, luck and patience!

 

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The important bit, Recovery Software

One CD all Windows/Linux people should have handy is the Ultimate Boot CD. This CD is packed with tools that can save your bacon and it’s free! The website has an extensive list on all these tools, but here are my recommendations…

  • HDClone - For copying the entire contents of the drive to a new hard drive, HDClone has a fairly easy interface and will continue to work even if there are errors existing on the hard drive.
  • G4U - Command line interface with options to recover data to a network resource such as FTP server, G4U can also be downloaded separately onto a floppy disk
  • Ranish Partition Manager - Copy, resize and edit disk partitions
  • Cute Partition Manager - Same as above
  • NDN - File recovery and editor

You can also check out UBCD which has a handful of useful tools such as…

  • Spyware
    • Ad Aware
    • Spy Bot
    • CWShredder
    • Hijack This
  • Virus removal
    • McAfee Stinger
    • ClamWin
  • Firefox, Notepage, PDF Viewer, Zip etc

Another windows recovery CD is BartPE which I’ve used successfully in the past to recover a Window Server machine. Both disks do require a copy of Windows CD and little bit of configuring, but if you have a spare hour, get one built ready for an emergency.

Apple People

The Ultimate Bootable CD might work with latest Intel Apple Macs, other wise check out the websites below…

Bootable Mac CD

How to create a bootable CD in Mac OS X 

How to Make a Bootable Emergency CD

Carbon Copy Clone

Professional Data Recovery Mac Utility

Remember, always Backup, Backup, Backup and Backup!

 

Author: Support @ 6:10 am
Category: Apple, Downloads, Geeky Stuff, Hardware, Windows



Restoring Windows XP Backups on Windows Vista

July 5, 2007

499218_48006509 

Last week I installed a couple more Windows Vista machines after a series of catastrophic problems at one of our smaller clients. Then it came to restoring some files from the backups which where originally created using Window XP backup utility. Microsoft in their great wisdom has removed backwards compatibility with XP backups in Windows Vista.

So here is the work around…

  1. Start Menu >  Control Panel > Programs > Turn Windows Features On/Off  > Select “Removable Storage Management”

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  2. Once you have completed the above task, download Windows NT Backup - Restore Utility from Microsoft and install
  3. Start Menu > Type in ”NT” and select NTBackup-RestoreUtility

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  4. You should then be present with your old faithful Windows Backup Utility, well the restore half that is. Unfortunately it doesn’t offer any backup capabilities which would be useful because the Vista backup seems to do a full system backup (entire c:\ drive) and nothing inbetween.

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Backup Alternatives?

I’ve started looking a Cobian Backup, but are there any other alternative backup solutions for small businesses?

 

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Author: Support @ 4:23 pm
Category: Downloads, Geeky Stuff, Network and Security, Windows



Getting Over Office 2007 - Part One

June 27, 2007

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Since it’s arrival last year, there has been a lot of negative press relating to Office 2007. Primarily over the compatibility of the new documents it produces and the user interface. So generally we have continued to give our existing clients Office 2003. Which is a very similar case with regards to deploying Windows Vista in your business. The problem businesses and IT Companies will increasingly face is a shortage of hardware that comes with Windows XP and Office 2003. So with this in mind, here are a couple things to ease your life with Office 2007.

Default Office 2007 to save as 97-2003 format

Setup office only to save documents, spreadsheets and slides etc as Office 97-2003 format only. That way people using Office 2007 won’t email or save files that others will have difficulty opening.

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Simply click on the big round office button on the top left corner and then click Word Options. Then from the “Save files in this format” select “Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc)” and click on OK. Remember you must do this for all other applications (Excel, PowerPoint, Access and Word).

Office 2007 Compatibility

The Compatibility Pack will allow Office XP or Office 2003 to open, edit, save, and create 2007 Microsoft Office files.

Office 2007 Compatibility Pack

 

Author: Support @ 9:50 pm
Category: Downloads, Windows



BBC Explanation of Open Source

June 12, 2007

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If you run a small, medium or a large business and you are not sure what “Open Source” is all about, then the BBC’s Click program will give you an easy insight into the world of Open Source. The program contains an interview with Mark Shuttleworth, the man behind the Ubuntu a free and popular alternative to Microsoft Windows and Apple OSX.

Open source is a strange phrase. To many, it suggests someone has left the top off the ketchup bottle, but in the hi-tech world it is both a way of life and some say the future of the computer industry.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/6733501.stm

Open Source Software

As you would expect BBC Click highlighted Open Office, Firefox, Thunderbird and Linux as key open source software applications. Here is a small list of other open source applications that businesses may find useful…

OSalt.com is a worthwhile checking out, as it provides a list of open source alternatives to popular business software.

More Ubuntu and Open Source Software in South Africa

Related

Open Source HR Software (Human Resources)

What Open Source Alternatives are There To Microsoft Exchange that can run on Windows?

open source - the players, the issues & the Future

Open Source Helpdesk Software - Part One

 

Author: Support @ 10:08 am
Category: Business, Downloads, Open Source



Windows Live Writer - Updated

June 11, 2007

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If your a regular blogger or not, having a decent desktop blogging client is one of my biggest recommendations. If you know how to use a word processing client like Microsoft Word then you can use a blogging client. My main reasons for using one are…

  • Use it offline and post later
  • Spell checker
  • Quick and easy to format text/images
  • Pre or Post date posts
  • Manage multiple weblogs 

Microsoft has recently update the very excellent Windows Live Writer which is free and one of the best clients for the windows platform.  

Download it http://writer.live.com/ | Blog http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/

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Mac and Linux

Okay if your Mac or a Linux’s person then have look at these two post of alternative clients.

Free Desktop Blogging Clients

Linux Desktop Blogging Clients

 

Related

setting-up-microsofts-windows-live-writer

Author: Support @ 10:30 am
Category: Downloads



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