My 2009 Firefox Add-on Essentials List

Here is a list of Firefox Add-ons that I use that I have found functionally indispensable. They are listed in order of personal importance (that is, how much I rely on the add-on).

Gmail Notifier
I love Gmail. And I love it better when used with the Gmail Notifier. Gmail Notifier logs on to my account automatically when I start Firefox so I know if I have new messages immediately. And Gmail Notifier can be directed to check for mail by the minute so you know when a new message arrives. Simply brilliant.

McAfee SiteAdvisor
There is nothing more worrying than not know which sites are safe and which are dangerous. But all this has changed with McAfee SiteAdvisor. Sites found using the Google search engine are given a rating beside it by this nifty little add-on (a green tick means it is safe). So you never have to take unnecessary risks by following links to malicious sites any more.

Delicious Bookmarks
The internet is truly a great place for information. And there is nothing more annoying than not being able to find that piece of information, page or site that you didn’t bookmark on your browser. With Delicious and Delicious bookmarks you can save all your bookmarks and have access to them from any computer any time. And because you can tagged the bookmark you can group and organise them easily. You can also sync Delicious with your browser bookmarks. But I prefer to separate them. I use the browser bookmarks for regularly used or visited sites and Delicious bookmarks for individual pages that are informative.

Add to Search Bar
Firefox has a built in search bar in the top toolbar. You can add search engines to it through the Firefox site. But sometimes the search engine is so specific. For example, my own blog’s search function it is not listed. This problem is solved with Add to Search Bar. By right clicking the mouse in the search box and selecting ‘Add to Search Bar’ you instantly – as the name suggests – add the search engine to the browser’s search bar. Simple.

British English Dictionary
No, the world is not The United States of America though they want you to believe that. Just over three-hundred people (or one-quarter of the English speakers) are from there. The other three-quarters don’t use speak or spell “American”. So no more being told that ‘colour’, ‘civilisation’ or ‘centre’ are spelt wrong.

Zotero
This is the grand-daddy of research tools. This is the can’t-live-without tool for academics. Not only does it stores journal article names and details and the original PDF files, it make bibliographies with one click in Word. Absolutely fantastic.

LibraryThing/Goodreads Nonfiction/Fiction

I think the choice of which book cataloguing site to use – LibraryThing or Goodreads – in the end depends on your reading material. For me I buy and read mostly non-fiction. I would read anything from autism to Zen Buddhism. Not all books I will read from cover to cover. Not all books are meant to be read from cover to cover. So how do you rate these books?

Essentially Goodreads is for fiction readers who want to read and rate their novels, poetry and drama they have read. And LibraryThing is for nonfiction readers who want to catalogue and organize all their books on a database.

It is not a competition between the two. LibraryThing and Goodreads may be online services for books but the short of it is they serve different people with different purposes.

How to be gout-free without medication

I am finally gout free and that is without medicine.

I while back I had decided to stop taking my prescribed medication for gout to see what would happen. The result – nothing, absolutely nothing. In order to keep my gout under control I do the following:

• drink a lot of water (and pee regularly)
• eat less purine foods like meat and fatty foods
• eat more vegetables
• eat less, in general
• avoid alcohol
• do physical work

Actually this routine is a combination of a diet and gout control. And I feel better for it. One cannot underestimate how important a good diet is.

And this also means choosing food which has been grown or raised without overuse of chemicals. The best way to monitor this is to grow your own food. It not only gives you exercise but you get something out of it after your hard work – food. Plus you get in touch with nature this way, something we need to do in this day and age.

Using the Nikon 18-200mm for macro photography

When I first read about this on Ken Rockwell’s page I didn’t quite believe it. But it’s true. Nikon’s 18-200mm zoom lens can be used for macro photography.

The specifications say shortest focus distance is 50cm. But when zoomed out to 200mm the lens can focus on its subject under 30cm distance. And with a close-up filter (Kenko No.3) screwed on even greater macro magnification can be achieved. It is a cheap alternative to purchasing an expensive macro lens. It also means you don’t need to carry around another lens (I now mostly go out with the camera with just this lens on).

The only drawbacks are its depth of field (f5.6 at 200mm), bokeh (rounded diaphragm) and image quality. Not the best but good for the price.

Here are some test shots I took the other day using f5.6@200mm with close-up filter No.3 (click on images for the original sizes).

These are the kinds of shots you can expect from an inexpensive and flexible lens like the 18-200mm which inadvertently doubles as a macro lens. If you are looking to take award winning professional-like shots then you will need a dedicated macro lens with shallow depth of field (f2.8 or less). But for a weekend photographer like myself I couldn’t be more happy with this versatile and reasonably built lens.

How to bypass a computer network’s censorship

Here is how to gain access to sites blocked by your network (it also enables you to surf anonymously):

1. download Firefox;
2. in the Menu bar, click ‘Tools > Add-ons’;
3. click ‘Get Add-ons’;
4. search for and install Phzilla;
5. restart Firefox

Now you are ready to go across network borders.

Please note I am not recommending you to undertake suspicious or unethical activities. Censorship can be used as a tool for protecting. But more often than not it is used for suppressing expression. Like everything else anonymity should not be abused or used irresponsibly. I believe in transparency. For some the anonymity and access a program like this it allows is the only means of bypassing a non-transparent and unethical network.

Elegant blogging

Earlier I have said a person only needs one blog. But is one blog already too much?

And what to do when the topics of your blog vary so much like mine?

Of all my blogs the one which has been least effective is this blog, the general blog. It has no direction. It has a title which is has no meaning to anyone else but me. I tend to put in anything (rant) and find none of the content is really worth writing about. The ones I do focus upon don’t seem to match blog title. This I think is important.

My other blogs are pundit blogs – one photo, one linguistic and one sustainability blog. My sustainability blog is the oldest and most successful in terms of content and readership. But my most successful post is one in the linguistic blog. It is of practical nature (a how-to post) and it consistently gets found in web searches because this is what people are looking for.

So the question is which topic I should stick with. I do not think a general blog is particularly good for producing content. Having a focus is always good. So a focused blog is a good blog.

The likely candidate is my sustainability blog I think. And how-to posts for it are probably going to make it better.

If Jesus comes to take your hand, I won’t let go

… If Jesus comes to take your hand, I won’t let go.

I can completely relate to this.

If you do not already know the line is from the song Run Wild by New Order.

This song actually makes sense compared to most of their other songs. And it is a love song of all things. How bizarre. Other memorable quotes from this song include

… And we’re not like all those stupid people who can’t decide which book to read unless the paper sows deceit (the Seed).

and

… I’m gonna live ’til I die. I’m gonna live to get high.

I’m not sure I agree with the last quote (which are the closing lines of the song). If he means a natural high then, yes. But knowing their track record I doubt they mean that but rather the more common form of high. So one has to ask who really are the stupid people.

Just how many blogs does one person need?

I have four blogs.

I don’t know why I have four blogs. Actually I do know. I have a blog for different interests. But now I think that defeats the purpose of a blog.

A blog is supposed to be a for expression of an individual. By having separate blogs for everything I have effectively made the blog impersonal.

To have four blogs also means when I write something on one blog I am seemingly neglecting my other blogs. Put another way my other blogs seems to be not moving along.

In short then I have come to the conclusion that a person only needs one blog. Any more and you are spreading your efforts everywhere.

The question now is should I use one of my present blogs or start afresh with a new blog.

We are creatures of habit

Virtually (and physically) we are creatures of habit.

The illusion may be we are popular or that we have information at our fingertips the truth is we don’t stray far from the same people, places and things we are most familiar with. Online, I too visit only half a dozen or so places regularly. It is easier than “freestyle” net-surfing. It is only when we need some more information that we stray into new web territory. And even then we do not stay long in these new places. Once in a while we may find a new site which appeals to us and trust as a source of information and entertainment. But by and large we stick to the same old places … like brand loyalty.

That’s life. I am certain other creatures too are creatures of habit.

LibraryThing and the redundant barcode scanner

A while back I wrote about how good it was to use a barcode scanner to add books to LibraryThing. But now that I have finished cataloguing all my books the scanner has become somewhat redundant. From this experience I now recommend you either:

1. get a cheap barcode scanner like CueCat, or;
2. make sure you have a use for the scanner afterwards (like starting a lending library for an extensive reading course)

Even though I have continued to buy and add new books to my library I have found it easier now to enter them manually. The occasional purchase does not warrant the amount of effort it takes to plug the scanner in to the computer when typing the ISBN in is not as tedious as doing this for, say, 1,500-plus books.