Enjoy!

Thanks for reading. How to install incompatible addons in Firefox 4 Beta is a post from Blake Imeson

Yeah, I know being thankful for a program is cheesy but these programs make my life easier and give me more time in the day.

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Internet Browsing

Firefox – powerful internet browsing.

Firefox Addons:

• Firebug – change HTML and CSS with live preview.
• Colorzilla – sample colors on a page and get hex colors.
• Fireshot – take screenshots of web pages.
• SEOtoolbar – great SEO tools, track ranking, PageRank, links…
• Delicious – social bookmarking and tagging of sites you find.
• Window Resizer – see how a site looks in different browser sizes. 
• StumbleUpon – discover new sites in topics you like.
• FoxyTunes – control music player from the browser.

Google Chrome – fast becoming my favorite browser.

Google Reader – best feed reader for all my RSS feeds.

AdBlock Plus – ads were yesterday.

Communication

Gmail – best way to handle the loads of email I wade through.

Skype – great way to communicate.

Trillian Astra  – Keeps all my chat accounts in one client.

Google Calendar – keeps my schedule straight.

Applications

Microsoft Office (2010 beta) – only one on this list that isn’t free. Specifically I am a fan of OneNote, Word, Outlook, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Window’s Live Writer – great tool for blogging. Easily add pictures and preview.

Notepad++ – Notepad on steroids. Syntax highlighting, tabs…

FileZilla – powerfully lightweight FTP program.

Texter – text replacement on the fly. Saves much time.

Ditto – clipboard history that allows you to re-paste past items.

Computer Utilities

TeraCopy – move large files and queue up files to be moved.

7-Zip – un-zip, zip, compress, and archive files.

Font Xplorer – preview fonts on your computer even if they aren’t installed.

Launchy  – lightning fast way to launch programs.

Dropbox – keep important files constantly backed up and accessible online.

Ultramon – control multiple monitors. Extend taskbar, easy window moving.

CCleaner – clean up temporary files.

Defraggler – defragmentation to keep your hard drive efficient.

SpyBot Search & Destroy – annihilate spyware on your computer.

Media

VLC – zippy little program to watch videos.

Winamp – keeps the tunes organized and accessible.

Audacity – splice and dice audio files.

ImgBurn – burn CDs and DVDs.

µTorrent – download torrent files.

Any of your favorites I need to check out?

Thanks for reading. Thanksgiving Apps Special is a post from Blake Imeson

A quick thought hit me as I was reading some posts on different operating systems… It will matter less and less what OS you choose. Here’s why… 

I do most of my computing online or “in the cloud.” I imagine many of you do also.

Google Docs, Zoho, and Office (soon) all have terrific online suites that do word processing, spreadsheets, PowerPoints presentations, etc. My files, docs, pictures, videos all can live online. This means I am no longer tied to one computer and if it gets lost/stolen no big deal.

My communication: email, instant messenger, social media, all online of course. Research, banking, news, TV, movies all are trending towards being provided entirely online. Gaming is even joining, although not to a great extent yet.

Here is the point, these are all browser-centric activities. Whether you are using Windows, Mac, or Linux, it will matter less and less.

Where the real magic and innovation needs to happen is in the browser. This is evidenced by the fact that the so-called “browser wars” are starting to heat up.

My powerhouse of choice, Firefox, has been a leading the battle. Chrome has made a justly deserved big splash recently. (it is very fast I must say. If it had FF’s add-ons I’d be all over it) Internet Explorer 8 also was recently released.

Browsers that are faster, more stable, more compatible, and more innovative (game-changing) are going to be the one(s) that win.

TechCrunch has almost pulled together their tablet which is a lightweight computer that only runs a browser. Do they see it coming?

I think we are moving towards the browser really taking center stage. It is the “OS” of the future!

Have I been staring at a screen too long? Agree or disagree, give me flame in the comments!

Thanks for reading. Forget Mac Vs. PC… It is Browser Vs. OS is a post from Blake Imeson