Best… Extension… Ever!

I am a big fan of video podcasts. Alas, my portable media player does not have video functionality, so I mainly watch them on my PC. Downloading all of those large files through Firefox’s built-in interface can be slow and clunky, so I installed the DownThemAll extension. This is, in my opinion, the best Firefox extension currently available. There are just too many good things to name, so I will just say this: Download it, install it, and prepare for a downloading experience 1,000 times better than before.

A Simpler Twist on Todo.txt

I was perusing Slacker Manager the other day when I came across their “Best Of” section. There are many interesting posts featured there, but one caught my eye. It is called “Append to text file v.4” Using the free program AutoHotkey as a base, this post gives you a script that allows you to append text to a text file with a timestamp. This could have many uses: research, a worklog, etc., but I chose to use it for a to-do list. Keyboard shortcuts allow you to easily append text, dump the clipboard into the file or call up the file itself. With some simple editing of the script file, you can set the path of the text file to be anywhere on your computer. I will try this out for a few weeks , but at the moment it seems like a much simpler alternative to the previously-discussed Cygwin method of Todo.txt.

Problem Solved!

I have recently been having the most annoying problem with Firefox. To make it more understandable, let me put it into context. I use a wonderful PDF reader called Foxit Reader. It loads much faster than the competition from Adobe. So, when I come across a PDF file in Firefox, I want it to open in Foxit. But, when I visit Tools>Options>Content>File Types> Manage, I am met with a puzzling sight: no file types listed! I have done research on this problem but only found references to it occuring in Firefox 1.5 (I am using 2.0). But, finally, I found the solution. There must have been a corrupt something-or-other in my Firefox profile. See, uninstalling Firefox through Add/Remove Programs only removes the essential program files, not your stored extensions, bookmarks, config files, etc. But, when I uninstalled Firefox and deleted my Mozilla folder (Located in C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\), and then reinstalled Firefox, the problem was solved. Now, I am happily viewing PDF files in Foxit Reader.

Remember the Milk: A Worthy Alternative to Todo.txt

If you’re not much into the Cygwin, Unix bash-script menagerie that is the Todo.txt organization system, you should try the web-based task manager Remember the Milk. It’s a whole lot simpler than Todo.txt, and has a lot of great features unique to itself. For example, you can view a Google Maps/RTM mashup of your tasks by the locations that they are based upon (for example, you would pre-configure the address for Kroger, and when you typed “buy milk” as a task, you’d select Kroger as the location). If you have a lot of tasks sprawled out in different areas, this can really help you plan your day. RTM also allows you to add different “lists” (more like contexts to those GTD folks) to which you can append tasks so that they are not all floating around in one big task bowl. And with sharing and publishing capabilities as well as a spiffy Web 2.0 interface, RTM is a viable contender to other methods of organization. In fact, in comparison to Todo.txt, I am starting to favor RTM. So, give it a try- it’s free!

Search Opening Windows From Firefox

If you want to search Opening Windows directly from Firefox, no matter what URL you are at, I have the code for you (There is a tutorial for you to do this on your own site, but it uses Google. I had to do some tweaking to use the built-in WordPress search).

1. Paste the following code into Notepad:

<search
name=”Opening Windows”
method=”GET”
action=”http://openingwindows.wordpress.com/”
queryCharset=”utf-8″
>

<input name=”s” user>
</search>

2. Save the file as “ow.src” in C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\searchplugins (and be sure to select All Files from the drop-down, or else it will be saved as ow.src.txt).

3. Also in that folder, save this .GIF file.

That’s it! Now, when you restart Firefox and access your search bar in the upper-right of the window, you will see an “Opening Windows” option, complete with the Windows logo.

Google Reader Shared Items

This is a link to the Google Reader page that contains my favorite posts from all of the RSS feeds I read.

Google Reader -  shared items

Cut Your Browsing Time with Google Reader

Google has some pretty interesting webapps out there, but I personally believe that the best one is Google Reader. Instead of trying to piece together your virtual newspaper everyday by hopping around to twenty different sites, Reader brings it all to you via the power of RSS: real simple syndication. Granted, there are many other RSS readers out there. But Reader has one of the best interfaces I have seen. It’s also much more intuitive than other readers. I especially like how easy it is to use Reader to subscribe to podcasts. There is a built-in audio player as well as links to the original files. Also useful are Reader’s Star and Share features. Starring posts allow you to easily keep them for later reference. And clicking the “Share” button adds them to your public Google Reader page, a URL that you can give out to your friends so that they can keep track of your favorite stories. Google Reader also works easily with the Firefox address bar RSS button. Just click the button and choose Google Reader from the drop-down list. If you cannot find what you are looking for just by browsing the Web, Google also provides subscription packages, recommendations and a feed search tool.

Read more at the Official Google Reader Blog.

VCD = Video-Caused Destruction

Sometimes, free software just isn’t right for the job. Take VCDs, for example. They are supposed to be called Video Compact Discs. but I have come up with a new acronym: Video-Caused Destruction. Let me explain.

I was awake until 2:30am on Christmas morning. Never again will I attempt to compile a video project without a DVD burner. I was forced to use a VCD: the low-quality alternatives to DVDs burned onto CD-Rs or -RWs. I was creating a video compilation as a present to a family member. I ripped some (non-copy-protected) DVDs to my computer and added pictures, music, narration and interviews. I used Windows Movie Maker for the editing. When it came time to burn, I converted the existing file to an AVI file and tried to use a free program called Avi2Dvd to create a burnable disk image. After selecting the AVI, I found that I could not select an audio stream. So, the program allowed me to use the original WMV file. I encoded it and used ImgBurn (also free) to burn a BIN file. When I originally played it, it was fine at the beginning but the audio cut out after about two minutes. After careful inspection of the encoded audio stream, I discovered that it was, in fact, a problem with the encoding process. I tried encoding using different settings, but the audio stream only fluctuated in length and was never complete. Finally, I used Audacity to record the audio manually using a double-ended cable hooked to my Line-in/out jacks. I created an ISO of the encoded MPG file, but it did not burn as a VCD. It only burnt as a single file. But, alas, it played with full audio on the home DVD player after hours of work.

The moral of this story? I want a DVD burner.

Easy Bookmarking and Site-Searching in Firefox

I read a Lifehacker post a few months back that changed the way I use Firefox. If I want to go to Weather.com, I would normally type out the full web address. But now, I only need to type “w.” And say I wanted to search Lifehacker for a specific keyword. I would normally go to Lifehacker.com and use the built-in search bar. But now, I just type “lhsearch keyword” (without quotes and with ‘keyword’ being my search term) into my Firefox address bar and press Enter. These one-letter bookmarks and address-bar based searches are easy to configure, as long as the site’s search tool works something like this:

http://www.site.com/search/%s

“%s” represents the search term. That is what your address bar should look like after you’ve performed a search on the site.

The extension you need and all of the instructions to easier, faster bookmarking are available through the Lifehacker post.

No Outlook, No Blackberry, Just .txt

I’m not much of a fan of complicated things. I, for one, do not need ten copies of my information floating around in different devices. I set my limit at two or less. One local, one on a flash drive. I also do not like to open my organization program to enter a to-do and be barraged with messages and buttons that serve no purpose to me. This is why I log my to-do list using some downloadable scripts and a plain text file. This method is known as Todo.txt. I personally use the todo.sh script. You can find the download links on the page, and install it through plain text editing and Cygwin using the instructions provided. Then, you can carry your todo.txt file on your flash drive and access it from any computer, Internet access or not. For more information, read this Lifehacker post.