Centralized wishlists November 17, 2006
Posted by Kathy in Internet.1 comment so far
I was updating my wishlist on one of my favorite geek-gadget web sites when it occurred to me that I had wishlists at several different web merchants. What a pain it would be for people to have to go to all of them to see what I want. I wished I could have all my desired items on one web site that I could e-mail to my friends and family. Well what do you know: There’s a free service called Wishlistr that lets you do just that. The interface is pretty straightforward. After you create an account, you log in and add items to your list by entering the item description and then the web address where the item can be purchased. There are a few templates that let you alter the final result, which looks a lot like a blog. If you’re inclined to generosity, you can have a look at my wishlist.
I love the fact that you can add a bookmark to your browser that automatically adds to your wishlist the page you’re viewing at the moment. You can also subscribe to wishlists to get updates automatically, or make your wishlist viewable on a blog. You’re supposed to be able to import wishlists from Amazon.com and del.icio.us, but my attempt at an Amazon import didn’t work — don’t know why. I don’t see any method of tracking whether an item has been purchased so that gift duplication doesn’t occur. (Because of course there’s a big chance that two people might buy me the Mac Pro.)
Fishnet Radio Episode 6: Cool Things to Do with Your PDA November 16, 2006
Posted by Kathy in Also from LTF Tech, Gadgets & Hardware, Internet Radio (Podcast).add a comment
If you’re only using your handheld device (PDA) to track your appointments, you’re missing out. Kathy talks about a few practical — and novel — ways she uses her own PDA.
Blocking web site ads November 14, 2006
Posted by Kathy in Internet, Software.add a comment
I recently signed up for a MySpace account for two reasons: (1) to support clients who want help using it; (2) to see what the heck the big deal was about. It didn’t take long for me to become greatly annoyed by a constant bombardment of gaudy ads worse than Las Vegas and Times Square put together. Many of these ads use a technology called Flash, widely used nowadays to make video available on the Web. Since I’m a Firefox user and Firefox is easily customizable with third-party add-ons, I looked around the Firefox add-ons web site to see if I could find an extension to block Flash. Sure enough, I found FlashBlock. Download it, install it, restart Firefox, and Flash animations are automatically blocked. If you want to see one, just click on it. If you want to make an exception for a particular web site, add it in the add-on’s options. One thing to note is that Javascript must be turned on in order for the add-on to work.
For me, so far so good. And whew, what a relief. Of course, Your Mileage May Vary. There are probably other add-ons that do the same thing, but this happens to be the first one I tried. Of course, this add-on will only block Flash, so any ads that are using something different will still get through.
Mozilla Firefox 2.0: The Return November 8, 2006
Posted by Kathy in Internet, Software.add a comment
Right on the heels of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7 official release, Mozilla has released its latest Firefox web browser: Version 2.0. I’ve been using it for a couple weeks now and I am pleased overall with the improvements. (I can’t give a perfect review, though: read on.)
I notice a little bit of a speed increase in the new Firefox, at least on the Mac, where I’ve primarily been using it (and where I desperately need the performance boost). One noteworthy addition is session management — the ability to restore a previous set of windows or tabs that were open the last time you were using the browser. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had several windows open trying to accomplish a task, only to be interrupted by a system crash, forcing me to close the browser and lose my “place.” This functionality that was formerly only available in a third-party extension is now built-in, and I’m glad.
Another fascinating feature is search term suggestions. Type a word into the built-in search toolbar, and Firefox will give you ideas for other terms to search for alongside it. For example, I typed “natur” and Firefox offered a drop-down list with options such as “natural foods”, “natural selection”, and “natural gas.” This is an interesting idea, although on Windows I am having trouble getting the suggestions to appear consistently, even if I type the same text repeatedly. (Where do the suggestions come from, I wonder?)
By the way, I’ll mention that Firefox supports syndicated feeds such as are used to track blogs (like this one), podcasts, and news headlines. This support presents the feed text file in an attractive manner (not as undecipherable code), lets you subscribe to it on the spot. This is nice for feeds that aren’t normally formatted for web presentation, but for nice-looking feeds like those created by Feedburner, Firefox actually makes them look worse by not honoring the creator’s intended design.
After using the software on Mac extensively, I upgraded to 2.0 on my Windows machine. Immediately I noticed that tabs were broken: When I had several of them open, none of my URLs would open in any tab except the first. Then I couldn’t close any of the other tabs. Thankfully, this was resolved simply by uninstalling Firefox and reinstalling.
But generally, Firefox 2.0 is a nice upgrade. For more info on new features, see Mozilla’s press release. To download the new Firefox, go to www.mozilla.com.
I’m a little annoyed that Google hasn’t yet made the new Firefox available under their Adsense program. According to comments from Google that I’ve seen on the ‘Net, they still appear to be thinking about it. People (like me) who were advertising Firefox through Google can no longer get a benefit — unless of course they want to promote the old version, which is still available. The way I see it, Google might as well remove Firefox as an option altogether.
