Is You Geeked Up? | Technology Blog for the Computer Geek | isyougeekedup.com

By itself, Firefox is a great browser, but what really sets it apart from all the rest are the addons available for Firefox.  Addons are basically widgets within Firefox.  There are many, many extensions out there that do all sorts of cool things, but I’m going to focus on my favorite and most useful addons.

Here is the list of addons I use the most:

1. ForecastFox - An addon which tells you the weather.  Displays information in the bottom status bar.
2. SearchStatus - Sits in the bottom status bar and reports the currently displayed page’s PageRank and Alexa Rank.  Very handy for webmasters to get a quick glimpse of where their pages are.
3. FoxMarks - Every person who has more than one computer should have this addon.  FoxMarks syncs your bookmarks across multiple computers to a central server.  Comes in handy when you use multiple PCs throughout the day.  If you bookmark something on one PC, it will not transfer to your main PC.  This is where FoxMarks comes in handy!
4. FasterFox - This plugin basically “turbo charges” your Firefox browser and can speed things up quite a bit.  It doesn’t speed up your internet connection, but it does prefetch links (load links in the background) and allow you to tweak Firefox network settings.  With FasterFox, you can grant Firefox more connections to use when connecting to a web server.  Do the web admins a favor and don’t turn this too high.  If you’re unsure of what to do, leave it at the default!
5. Web Developer Toolbar - A toolbar with lots and lots of functionality.  Mainly gives information, like CSS info, dimensions, etc about the page being viewed.  A must have for any web master because of the simplicity and huge functionality.
6. DownThemAll - The best download manager in my opinion.  This download manager will allow you to download anything at a very high speed.  It works by downloading multiple parts of the file simoultaneously, then reconstructing the file as a whole once all the parts are finished downloading.  DownThemAll also opens up multiple connections per download, similar to the way FasterFox speeds up web browsing.

Finally, here’s a screenshot of my browser.  At the top, you can see the Web Developer Toolbar.  At the bottom status bar (from left to right), you can see FasterFox, FoxMarks, SearchStatus, and ForecastFox.

http://www.fonerahacks.com

Yep, that’s what I’ve been up to lately. Many people seemed interested in the aircrack video I had posted here a few weeks ago so I figured I’d make another website dedicated just for the Fonera. I also noticed the lack of comprehensive, easy to understand tutorials regarding flashing procedures, so I decided to make some myself.

The site has many tutorials and guides with screenshots to help you flash the firmware. There is also a growing forum where you can get your questions answered.

I also have 15 invites to give away for people who register for the forums and follow these simple instructions.

I’ve been doing research on domain names lately and it hit me. .mobi domain names are going to be popular very soon. Look at prices for PDAs/smartphones, they are dropping rapidly. Right now the prices are free to $99 for an entry level device. For example, the Blackjack 2 and Treo Centro are two devices costing less than $100, or even free in some instances. With PDAs/Smartphones, the #1 thing people will want (besides the phone service) is a data plan. Without that, the phone is almost useless and functionality is reduced.

That’s when I got to thinking, “What do people need? What will people want?” The answer, a functional web page that serves a purpose. With that in mind, I decided to buy http://www.nettest.mobi and make it into a network testing site. You can ping, run a whois, check domain availability, etc. all on that page. You don’t need to download anything either. I thought it would be quite handy for IT professionals when they don’t access to a computer. I can even think of a few instances when I needed such a tool.

Another website I plan to build is http://www.birdguide.mobi for all of the bird watchers. Think about it for a minute. You’re outside with no computer, but everyone keeps a phone on them. Wouldn’t it be great if you could pull up a web page on your phone that had pictures and descriptions of the birds you were looking at? It also eliminates the need for a field guide if you’ve got an all in one reference in your pocket.

So, in order to succeed, I went from thinking, “I like this, I like that,” to, “What do people want? What do people need?”

Be sure to checkout http://www.nettest.mobi on your phone!