Chrome Looks Shiny

Google’s entry into the web browser market should liven things up; it will certainly give Microsoft and Mozilla something to think about. If you haven’t already tried it then I suggest that you give Google Chrome the once over.. It’s early days yet, and this is the Beta version so take the usual precautions of setting a new Restore Point, but so far it looks quite promising. My favourite feature so far is the integrated address window/search box, naturally it defaults to Google but you can change it to Yahoo, MSN, Ask or the search engine of your choice on the Options menu. It imports all of your bookmarks and quick links so installation is smooth and quick, though I’m not so happy at the way it also seems to know all of my passwords, I would have preferred it to ask before importing those. Read More »

Space Invader

Over the years we’ve looked at several hard disc file viewers, that show in an easy to visualise way, what’s on your drive and how much space it is using, and I still use SpaceMonger, one of the first and still one of the best, but there’s a new kid on the block. It’s called FosiX, it’s also free and it displays the contents of your drive as a bar or pie char, in 2D or 3D. Like its rivals, you can click on the bars or segments to drill down through folders and see what’s inside and using up all the space but here’s the good bit. It comes with a number of extra tools, basically shortcuts to existing Windows functions, for clearing the browser cache and history, remove temporary files and run Windows defrag. SpaceMonger still gets my vote for simplicity but this one is well worth trying and if nothing else, those cleanup tools should come in handy.

Introducing the Firefox 3.0 CD

The gold bits of Firefox 3.0 went live on June 17, 2008, over half a year past the initially planned launch which was targeted for the end of 2007. At just a few days short of the first two months on the market for the successor of Firefox 2.0, users of Mozilla’s open source browser now have access not only to the download version of Firefox 3.0, but also to the CD. Via Mozilla’s store, Firefox 3.0 CDs go for $4.20 a pop in the U.S. and £3.00 per item for additional international markets.

“With more than 15,000 improvements, Firefox 3 is faster, safer and smarter than ever before,” reads a fragment from the description of the browser. “Dozens of new features including the “awesome” bar, one-click bookmarking, full zoom, advanced tabbed browsing and blindingly fast performance. Instant Web Site ID and other security features keep you safe from scammers and spammers. Over 5000 add-ons let you customize your web experience to your personal needs.” Read More »

Personalised emoticons for Windows Live Messenger

Can’t find the right image to use for your Live Messenger character? Help is at hand from the new minimise me website. This has an online designer for creating a new avatar for Live Messenger software. Once installed they will appear as the character picture in conversations and also as four different emoticons to use in conversations.

It is simple to use although it is sometimes a little slow to respond when clicking on some of the icons, but this is common complaint with web based editors and it is a limitation with the technology as a whole. Read More »

Smarter Surfing

There are few things more depressing than searching for something on one of the major Search Engines only to get back tens of thousands or even millions of hits. You know the answer is in there somewhere, but where? Refining your search terms can help, but here’s something else to try. Install SurfCanyon on your Firefox browser and the next time you search for something, click the little SurfCanyon bull’s-eye icon next to the top hit and check out its recommendations. Obviously it can’t work miracles but after trying it for a couple of weeks I have to say it’s quite impressive and more often than not its suggested results get you to where you want to go a lot quicker then trudging through pages of hits.

Firefox With Many Addons

Most of the Firefox users I know have a lot of addons, no matter if they’re running Firefox 2 or Firefox 3. Now, the problem appears when some of those addons start crashing, or when Firefox ends up eating huge amounts of memory. Yesterday, I read an older article on CybernetNews about having 200 addons installed in Firefox, and this made me think about taking things to a whole new level… Since all that was happening back in 2006, when Firefox 3 was not ready yet, and to have 200 addons installed and notice how the browser behaved with one or two sites opened is already a bit outdated, I decided to try and go for a new Firefox 3 world record as of 2008!

Obviously, things are not that easy as it seems, because I have a really rough ride in mind for Mozilla’s pet, my computer, and myself as a user. Here’s what I want to do: Read More »

Opera 9.50 Fixes Fiesta

On its official website, Opera describes the latest version of its browser as “beautifully engineered”. However, it looks like Opera 9.50 was made available to end users before the cooking process was ready. After the release of the gold version of Opera 9.50 on June 12, 2008, the feedback starting pouring in, and it was not a pretty sight. As a direct consequence of the user input, Opera is now scrambling to make available version 9.51, designed to resolve all the issues introduced with Opera 9.50.

“Discover the new standard in Web browsing. Download Opera today to get the fastest and most powerful Web browser available and make the most of your time online,” is a message on the official Opera welcoming page. And while the evolution of version 9.5 over its predecessor is indisputable, the fact is that so are the many problems plaguing the browser. June 25, 2008 saw the offering of Opera 9.51 Build 10074 Release Candidate 1, and as of June 30 users can also grab Opera 9.51 RC2 Build 10080. Read More »

New Firefox Quick Off The Mark

Barely a day has elapsed since the new Firefox 3 browser, was released it happened at 6pm UK time on the 17th of June – and at the time of writing it was rapidly approaching 8 million downloads at the rate over 6000 per minute. This is according to the surprisingly inelegant (but fun to watch) download counter on the Mozilla website, which also indicates that more than 270,000 of those downloads were in the UK though it’s probably a lot more by now. If you are a Firefox fan you’ll find the download at http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-rc.html, where it is available in over 45 language versions. Read More »

Introducing the Popfly Game Creator

Game development, like it or not, remains a territory largely off limits as it involves hard coding. And if this is the general rule, Microsoft offers the exception. The Redmond company has evolved its web and mashup tool in order to accommodate game creation. Now, the fact of the matter is that users won’t be able to create their very own sequel to a preferred title, but Popfly will enable the creation of simple, casual games without writing a single line of code. This is now possible through the addition of the Popfly Game Creator.

“Popfly is about more than mashups and web pages. It’s about making it fun to build things and share them with your friends. And one of the things we’ve heard loud and clear is that games are the kinds of things that people would like to try to build. What kinds of games can you create? Just about any kind of two-dimensional game, a category that includes things like the original Super Mario, Frogger, Asteroids, and a host of other old arcade games”, revealed a member of the Popfly team. Read More »

Hack a Laptop Challenge, Winners and Losers

In a three-day contest, held at a major security conference in Vancouver recently, teams of hackers were challenged to break their way into three laptops, running Mac OS X, Windows Vista and Ubuntu Linux operating systems, reports CNet News.

Now I know what you are thinking but you’d be wrong… On the first day all three machines repulsed attacks on the operating systems and via a network connection. The Mac Air laptop was the first to fall, however, two minutes into the start of the second day’s session. This was after the judges relaxed the rules to allow the hackers to attack browser and email vulnerabilities. Read More »