October 22, 2009

Cross Platform Bookmarking with Delicious

Personally I never saw the use for Bookmarking tools until I started having 20+ tabs open. Then bookmarking tabs became the only way that I could keep track of them. I would bookmark a tab, close it and just get back to it whenever I had time later on. The default bookmark manager was more than up to that simple task. And then I started working with multiple browsers and multiple locations and things got a little more confusing. Suddenly, it wasn’t as simple as hitting a button anymore. I needed a way that I could not only bookmark items but also look up these bookmarks on a computer where I couldn’t install addon’s. I needed to be able to access it from a multitude of browsers and 2 different OS’es.

After much searching on the net, I settled with Delicious.

To start off with, Delicious requires you to create an account with them. Registration is free, and only takes a few moments. Lukily, I had already registered my name when Delicious first started (it’s a habitI have) so I logged in and took a look around. What you’ll want to do once your in is either add the add-on for Firefox or Internet Explorer, or grab the bookmarklet if you’re using anything else. I’d recommend going through the Quick Tour pages as it covers setup and basic use of it. Since I’m using Firefox as my default browser, the rest of the screens will be from the addon installed on that.

Since I only need to see my bookmarks and add new ones, I’ve customized the interface a little. First off, I right clicked near the address bar and select Customize and then dragged the following two icons to my single toolbar interface. delicons

The first icon is the “Tag” icon. It lets you quickly save a page to your Delicious library. So when you stumble on a page you want to save, clicking it opens  a little form for you to fill out. Hit save to add the link to your library.

delisave

The other link simply opens a little sidebar that lets you browse through your bookmarks and open them up and re-organize (tagging, deletion, renaming etc).

Short of registering your account on Delicious, you never actually need to set a foot on the website since prettymuch everything can be managed right through your browser.

If you’re looking for a cross-browser bookmarking service, definitely go with Delicious!

October 21, 2009

Single Toolbar Interface for Firefox

This is a video tutorial that I did a long time ago for one of the earlier versions of FHB that went by the name Xangelo (which is my online identity). It covers some handy features like customizing the Firefox interface and keyword shortcuts for search engines.

Since I work on a laptop primarily, screen space is of vital importance to me – the more I can see the better. I’ve taken the default firefox from it’s 3 Toolbar + Tab bars to a single toolbar + tab bar. To do this I utilized the “Customize” feature in the video above to drag all my elements around. I also used the ability to hide and show toolbars (they’re in the same menu as customize) to eliminate the unneeded ones.

My toolbar now looks like this, with the Navigation tool bar and Bookmarks toolbar disabled.


2toolbar

For more information about customizing your toolbar in Firefox, check out this great post over on Online Tech Tips

October 20, 2009

Must Have Apps

I just did a fresh install of Windows 7, legitimately gotten through MSDNAA, and so I decided to write up a list of applications that I don’t think a windows user should be without.

Browser

Google Chrome

To me, you have two real choices here. Either Firefox or Chrome. Chrome doesn’t support extensions that I require so Firefox is it for me. Chrome offers allthe features that Firefoxdoes except for extensions, but if you just need something to browse the next, Chrome is it. You’ll find it faster than Firefox too when it comes to rendering pages, and when you have 20+ tabs open, it will feel a lot snappier. Firefox, on the other Mozilla Firefoxhand, offers an extensive extension library as well as tabbed browsing, password management (albeit very basic), anti-pshishing controls, standards compliant web-browsing and a pop-up blocker (Chrome offers these as well).The extensions add everything from Chat to advanced download managers to twitter clients. Once you get used to that, I’d recommend checking out this video I made a long time ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXGpBYjnFkE It covers converting your default browser to take advantage of as much screenspace possible, and also covers a more advanced tip about search shortcuts.

Winner – Firefox
Runner Up – Chrome

Chat Service
wlm
digsby-logoThere are numerous chat services out there, but for me only two matter. Windows Live Messener (or MSN Messenger as it used to be called) and Google Talk. In fact, it’s safe to say that my chat services are dominated by WLM to the point that I can get by without installing Google Talk as a separate client and I just use the web version. This will sorta be dictated by geographic region, I find countries like India and Indonesia use Yahoo! Messenger more than WLM, which seems to dominate the West. You can also go with Skype, Digsby (if you’re into multiple chat clients), Trillian and a host of others. However, these are kinda dictated by your friends. If everyone uses WLM, you’re probably going to use it too.

Winner – Windows Live Messenger
Runner Up – Digsby

Anti-Virus
eset_nod32_antivirus_logoavast-logo-w-tag-medThis is the biggest thing that Windows users need.  I can’t point my finger at Windows forbeing riddled with security holes in comparison to other systems. It’s just that so many more people use Windows, and so many people are looking for ways to break it. But that doesn’t mean you can’t take a few steps to secure your system against threats. A good anti-virus program won’t cost you much (heck, it’s probably free) but will save you tons of time and headaches later on. A good anti-virus should provide constant scanning and frequent updates to its virus database. As well, it should be as light on resources as possible. Price is also a factor. For that reason I have chosen NOD32 and Avast!. Avast! offers a free version of their anti-virus located here, while NOD32 is pay only. I highly recommend NOD32 if you have the cash, because it is a great piece of software. However, if you’re strapped, Avast! offers much of the same functionality.

Winner – NOD32
Runner up – Avast!

Those 3 types of applications form the basis of all your computing. Your browser allows you to interact with the web, your anti-virus keeps you safe, and your chat services let you connect to friends. Everything else is just icing on the cake.

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