Wednesday, September 29, 2004

Firefox Wallpaper

If you like Firefox go get a cool wallpaper for your desktop. It shows the Firefox logo in 3D on a nice blue background.

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Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Spread the Word! Take back the Web!

Are you a Firefox user? Help spread the word about Firefox by registering here.

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Friday, September 24, 2004

Note Studio

I have been using some cool new software lately so I thought it time to talk about. It's called Note Studio. It is kind of a personal web sitle or wiki.
When you run it, it starts out as a blank slate. It's up to you to figure out how you are going to use it and make it useful to you. I use it to keep track of projects, notes, lists, darn near any info that I want to keep track of and, even better, have with me. Yes, it syncs to my Palm organizer. Sweeet. You can edit on either the PC or the Palm and life is wonderful.
I takes a bit to get your mind around the whole thing. How do you want to have things organized and how best will you find the info once it is organized? The feeling is similar to how you set up a new office or kitchen. Where are you going to put what to be most efficient.
The absolute key to the system didn't really dawn on me until I read this excellent site by someone who transformed her life with Notes Studio. The site is called note studio as GTD machine. Getting Things Done (GTD) is an excellent book by David Allen. I read the book a year or so ago and the practices, while easy, are difficult to maintain for me. Note Studio is really helping me stay on track with GTD. As you'll see if you go to that site, the key I am referencing is the NavBar at the top of each page. That allows me to go from one screen of info to another in just a couple taps or clicks.
It is so nice to be able to have my list of movies with me when I go to Blockbuster. AND be able to update the list as I pass a new movie on the shelf. Additionally, I use it to file obsure information like the size and wattage of the flourescent lights in my garage. May sound lame but if I happen to be near Home Depot and I remember I saw a light out I can buy a new one because I have on hand the info I need. Now, I don't go around writing down all this stuff but I needed a light once and it's now filed away in my system for next time.
Equally cool is the desktop interface. It makes editing even faster than the Palm and also allows me to copy and paste info from any application and then download it to the Palm. Read a book review? Copy/paste to my reading list. Newsletter email I don't have time at the moment to read? Copy/paste to my to be read page and sync away.
The possibilities are endless. And I haven't even mentioned backlinks. When you are on a page you click to see the back links. You'll then see a list of all other pages in your NoteStudio that link to the one you are on. This is SO powerful for notetaking. It makes it easy to see relationships you might not have noticed before. Having said all that, you have to be disciplined to link your pages. Once you do you'll see the power but you can't just willy nilly enter info and expect miracles. Besides, it's not that hard once you learn the syntax.
Oh yeah, you can export your pages too. I now maintain my Firefox Tips page in Notestudio. As I find new stuff I edit NS, export it and then FTP it up to my server. It's much more powerful than Notepad or some text editor and isn't full of bloat like Dreamweaver. My site is basic so it fits my purpose with ease.
Get the demo and try it out!

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Saturday, September 18, 2004

US-Election.org: The world's voice, the world's vote

Its been 2 weeks since I blogged about US-Election.org so I thought I'd check in on the latest results. There have been about twice as many votes as before but the results appear to be the same.

Total Votes: 9,494


BUSH: 1,710 Votes 18%


KERRY: 6,428 Votes 68%


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Friday, September 17, 2004

Updated: My Firefox Help, Tips and Tricks

I finally got around to updating My Firefox Help, Tips and Tricks page. I put up my latest AdBlock sites as well as uploaded my user.js file and 2 versions of sage.css.
I decided that I kind of like the old version of sage.css but the new one is fancy and I didn't want to lose the work so I put both of them up for people to use/hack/whatever. Enjoy.

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Thursday, September 16, 2004

Firefox - Rediscover the web

Firefox 1.0 Preview Release is out. An extremely brief look at it shows that not much has changed since 0.9.3. There is a new feature called Live Bookmarks or something that lets you view RSS feeds but it's kinda lame, IMO. I like other news readers like Sage better.
When I installed it told me that Google bar, AdBlock and IE View extensions were going to be disabled because they aren't compatible. Google bar and Adblock have since been updated and they now work. IE View remains a problem so hopefully that will be fixed soon.
My Firefox tips

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Tuesday, September 07, 2004

Speed up firefox

I decided I'd post my current user.js file. It is based on several recommendations I've read on Mozillasine. I tried to put in lots of comments so that others could tweak settings based on their system and connection speed. I also put in some of the URL's where I obtained the information. I'm not an expert in this but these settings have helped me. Enjoy.

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Friday, September 03, 2004

US-Election.org: The world's voice, the world's vote

There is a new site called US-Election.org that lets people from around the world register their vote for the upcoming US election. So far it looks like the world favors Kerry. You can look over where each candidate stands on various issues. Log in and register your vote! We'll see how things go. I don't know how they can prevent ballot stuffing but it's interesting.
Current World Results
Total Votes: 4,854
BUSH: 915 Votes 19%
KERRY: 3,471 Votes 72%

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Thursday, September 02, 2004

Updated my sage.css file

I've updated my sage.css file to in include and enhance the excellent work done by Bèr Kessels. The news stories now pop up over the text so you can see the article and then open the next one as you move the mouse down. CSS is coool. My sage.css file is here.

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Wednesday, September 01, 2004

Sage alternative styleheet

Bèr Kessels has taken my sage.css style sheet and made some interesting modifications. You can find it here.

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