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Monday, 16 June 2008

  • Firefox addons and useful files for Windows

    OK, so yes it is 7:00am and no I haven't slept yet. But then again, who needs sleep anyway?

    While doing my nightly web surfing I found a few useful firefox addons and small programs that make my life easier and more convenient. Since they are just so @#$%ing good, I will link them all here and maybe a short description (if I feel like it, if not then click the link and read about it yourself). Some of these addons I already had, but I thought I should post links anyway.

    Firefox Addons:
    Tab Mix Plus - This is basically an addon for Firefox that allows you to customize how the tabs and windows are handled (as well as other things). Out of all of the addons that you could download for firefox.. this is the one that you absolutely have to have. This addon will also allow you to setup Firefox to display tabs in rows instead of having the scroll buttons so you can see all of your tabs at once.  The link posted for this is a direct link to the download so if you have a popupblocker you might not be able to see it.

    Cooliris - This is an addon that allows you to see link previews in small window when you either hover over the link or click ont eh small Cooliris icon next to it.

    Download Status Bar - This is just a status bar that opens at the bottom of your Firefox window to keep track of all of your downloads.

    DownThemAll! - Ok, I take back what I said earlier. Out of all of the Firefox addons you could possibly get, Tab Mix Plus and this one are the ones that you absolutely must have. It has a few different options, but basically it allows you to download multiple files by clicking once.

    Hyperwords - Another extremely useful addon. This makes everyword in Firefox hyperactive. When you select a word a menu will appear. The menu will show options to search for the word using sites like google, amazon, wikipedia, etc. It also has options to look up the word at Dictionary.com and translate the word to virtually any language.

    PicLens - Think Microsoft's PhotoSynth or Sea Dragon in the form of image/video browsing in Firefox. This opens a 3D wall panel that allows the viewing of videos and images where you can scroll along the wall instead of constantly having to load new pages.

    StumbleUpon - This is websurfing on steroids. It adds a toolbar to Firefox with a Stumble! button. You click the button and you get a random page, image, site or video that shares something in common with the preferences you set. A person could easily spend hours with this addon alone.

    Taboo - Taboo is very useful for Firefox users like me that have a bad habit of leaving a lot of tabs open with the intention of reading them later but often times forgetting about them or just too tired to even bother. This adds two buttons to Firefox: one that will save a tab to read later and another that will open a new tab with thumbnails of all of the tabs you have saved. This addon may not be useful for everyone, but it helped me a lot.


    Tiny Programs to Make Your Life Easier (for Windows users)

    Taskbar Shuffle - This program is a nice tool for people that are used to having a lot of programs open at once. Basically, this allows you to drag and drop programs on your taskbar in windows so you can organize the order so you can find what you are looking for.

    AlwaysOnTopMaker - The name of this program really makes it hard to determine what it does.. so I will explain it to you. AlwaysOnTopMaker allows you to make any window to be always on top.

    Foxit - This is a PDF viewer that loads much faster than Adobe's.

    Windows Grep - This is copied from Grep that is used in Linux. For those that have never used Linux before, this program allows you to search folders or files for specific words that are found within the document. Whether you are searching through a folder that is filled with hundreds of files for one simple command line of text, or if you just can't remember the name of the text document you saved for class but you can remember atleast one word that was in it this program is extremely useful.

    HTTRack - This is a program that will allow you save entire websites with one click. All you simply need to do is open the program and type in the url. Then you can choose to download everything or just specific file types.

    Gpost - When you are looking for that one specific codec.. you know.. the one that will make you feel extremely happy because you can now play your favorite video.... Ok, basically this program will allow you drag and drop videos into the Gspot window and it will then show you which codecs are needed to view it while displaying other information like resolution. It will also tell you if you already have that codec installed.

    pdf Creator - Say you are making a file and you want to share it with everyone but the program you are using won't allow you to save it as an image or pdf. Enter pdf Creator. Once you install this program you can make any file into a pdf. Just hit print, then choose pdf Creator as the printer. It will then convert the file into a pdf for you.

    File Menu Tools - This will add more advanced options to your menu when you rightclick a file.

    Thanks to jimmyrcom from Youtube for his video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLmwZDmc0Ns&feature=user ) for giving me the links and descriptions for most of these programs and addons. If you haven't watched any of his videos, you really should. I have learned a lot and found some nice programs from his videos.






Tuesday, 10 June 2008

  • My Lachesis is here (warning, Razer fanboy rant will follow)

    So my Lachesis arrived today! Just when I didn't think Razer could improve on the Copperhead.... they proved me wrong. The good news is that they removed that annoying rubber/light/grip thing that ran all the way around the copperhead. While it worked as a grip, it wasn't a very comfortable one. They also added 2 new buttons to the Lachesis, they are right under the mouse wheel (looks like they took a page out of Logitech's book with this one). I'm a little disappointed that they didn't make the scroll wheel tilt as button clicks like Logitech did on the G5 and G7.  But overall, it is a great mouse and I am glad I ordered this one.

    The Destructor mouse pad has a very nice mousing surface. It looks like it would be rough, but it is actually very smooth and made just for this type of mice. It is a little more flexible than I had expected, but that doesn't take away from it's effectiveness. But then again, the Cyber Snipa was a nice pad when I first got it as well. Only time will tell if the Destructor will last longer. I ordered the eXactmat wrist rest with it and it fits this pad perfectly.

    /end Razer fanboy rant.

    Ok, back to anime now...

Monday, 09 June 2008

  • Overclocking....

    Yeah... so I have been tossing the idea around in my head a lot over the last month or so. I am wanting to overclock my cpu atleast. It annoys me that it is only sitting at 2.8... why can't it be at a pretty number like 3.0?

    Actually, the idea of me overclocking a computer scares even me... I mean... I am the guy that set a power supply on fire.... Ok, so it was only a bright flash and lots of smoke (a hell of a lot of smoke), but that is close enough. I am, however, researching it a lot. Researching is my expertise afterall. So far, I have discovered that my cpu and motherboard are capable of being overclocked fairly high (my cpu has been oc'ed to 3.1-3.2 from the stock 2.8 by many other people with air cooling). It's a AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ 2.8 Windsor dual core in case you are wondering. My motherboard is actually fairly popular with the AMD overclockers, Foxconn C51XEM2AA- 8EKRS2H AM2 NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI.

    It's going to be a while before I even begin to actually overclock though. Right now I am researching every minute detail and taking plenty of notes. I want to make sure that I know what the hell is going on before I risk crashing my pc.

    On the plus side, I still have my old pc so I can experiment on it once I am comfortable enough in my knowledge to give it a shot.

    I am aiming on overclocking my motherboard, cpu, memory and video card. So far, I am understanding how to oc the mobo and cpu, but the RAM part is confusing the hell out of me. I honestly don't think my ram can handle much of an oc, but then I am wanting to upgrade to 4gigs anyway. I plan on getting a 4 gig OCZ Reaper kit within a month or two to replace this 2 gig Hynix (yeah, I haven't heard of them before either...) kit I have now.

    Here is a list of useful programs I have found to help with this:
    Everest
    CPUZ
    Orthos
    RivaTuner
    ATI Tool
    I am actually using the beta version of ATI Tool that can be found here.

    Oooooh yeah. I almost forgot... I ordered a Razer Lachesis and Razer Destructor mousepad to replace my Razer Copperhead (I already wore out the left click button.... I really do have way too much time on my hands) and Flexiglow Cyber Snipa (Great mousepad at first... but it wears down really fast).



Friday, 02 November 2007

  • My Computer Arrived!

    Well, actually it arrived Tuesday. It was funny, as soon as it got here I hooked it up.... and I couldn't get it to recognize the hard drive. So I called up tech support and tried everything, it showed up in the bios, I disconnected it and waited a few minutes before reconnecting it but nothing worked. So I used my Windows XP disk to delete the partition and format the drive (My Windows Vista disk wouldn't let me do it >.<) and that managed to fix it.

    Well after I got it up and running I thought about getting rid of Vista, but I actually kind of like it. i haven't run into any errors yet and my system is more than capable of handling the extra workload that Vista adds. Plus I get DX10 which doesn't have as many errors as people have been saying. So far I have been able to run all of Valve's Games (HL2 series, TF2, CS:S, DoD:S, HL@:DM), UT2 Demo, and Crysis Demo all on max settings without any errors.

    All in all, Alienware really knows their stuff. I was a bit worried about the cooling system since I really didn't have any control over what they used (they pick that on their own), but they did it better than i would have. All 120mm case fans (4 of them) and a 90mm fan on the CPU. The powersupply they used is great as well, I've had my computer on for 2 days straight and the air coming out of the fan isn't even warm. It's a great system and I recommend Alienware to anyone that wants a great gaming PC but you don't want to build it yourself. For reference, I bought the 7500 Aurora with an AMD CPU. Yeah, Intel is better but AMd has never let me down =)

Wednesday, 24 October 2007

  • Fiunally Getting a New Computer

    That's right, I am finally getting a new computer. The computer is being made by Alienware and will have a AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ (2.8) and a nVidia 8800 GTX (768mb), 2 gigs of ram, etc etc. I splurged on the CPU and GPU so I had to take a slight cut on the other items. It will still be over twice as fast as the one I have which opens a new door for gaming for me. I can finally quit WoW since I will be able to run other good games (/cheer). I'm going out to buy The Orange Box as soon as my comp arrives and I'm picking up UT3 when it releases in January. I am also picking up Hellgate: London, from there I really don't know what else to get.

    To be honest, I have missed out on a lot of gaming simply because my system couldn't handle it. Now that I will be able to run anything out, I don't know what to do first. It's like sending a 2 year old in a candy shop and telling him he can have anything he wants.

    I'm more of a multiplayer gamer though I really want to stay away from MMO's. The occassional single player is good as long as it is worth the time. Right now Half-Life 2 is the only one that stands out that I can play on my current system. Once my other comp arrives I can see what else can even begin to compete with Valve, hehe.

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SnowBrother

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