Do you use Safari to surf the web? There’s a Safari Browser Plugin that can help you search faster called, inquisitor, recently acquired by Yahoo.

Yahoo acquires Inquisitor, a Safari Browser Plug-in. Safari is the default browser on MACs but you can download it for PC too.

I find that Safari is actually a pretty good browser, a lot better than IE7. I like how the text boxes show up differently for the same site you load on Firefox.

via Zedomax.Net

Cooliris’s PicLens brings you the web in a completely 3D format. You can go to your favorite sites like Flickr, Google image search, among the many major services you can use. You can even browse YouTube videos in 3D using their search function, which is nice.

It’s like having an iPhone version of viewing the web on your computer. If you get bored of traditional browsing, I definitely recommend to try this route for a change for images and videos.

Thanks to Sally over at Cooliris for the tip.

PicLens instantly transforms your browser into a full-screen media experience. With just one click, PicLens makes photos come to life via a cinematic presentation that goes beyond the confines of the traditional browser window. Available for Firefox (Windows and Mac)

Go download and try it

My friend Deimos over at AhKong.Net posted an interesting post today about how to utilize the file cache of Firefox. By use of more cache, you will be able to browse the web faster, especially if you check out many of the same sites daily.

You can read about his full DIY on Firefox Cache HOWTO here.

Well, if you are like me, an early adaptor, you probably are already using Firefox 3 Beta. As many of you know, a lot of your Firefox plugins do not work or is not compatible with the new FF3.

Here’s a simple way to make it work: (Thanks to Lifehacker)

1. Type About:config in your FF3 Browser address bar.
2. Right click->New->Boolean then, type in extensions.checkCompatibility, select false.
3. Right click->New->Boolean then, type in extensions.checkUpdateSecurity, select false.

This pretty much disables your compatibility and update security check for all the plugins. Now, some of your plugins may not work and you might not be able to re-start your browser.

Well, if this happens, it’s pretty easy to fix. (for PCs)

Go to G:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\bwso99u0.default\extensions where Administrator is your Windows username and bwso99u0.default can be different. (It will be something along the lines of xxxxxxx.default)

Note: Make sure to set your File browser to view “hidden files and folders” as the Application Data folder is actually hidden as default. Make sure that the folder you are in matches above, otherwise you are probably in the wrong folder

Once you are in your extensions directory, you can move any of the folders to a temporary folder until your Firefox 3 works. Or simply move all of them to a temporary folder then move them back to the extensions directory one by one until you get a handful of plugins that work.

I’ve also found out that Google Toolbar doesn’t work with Firefox 3 so, above steps will most likely be necessary in your hacking without completely disabling your precious foxy animal.

Today, we will cover several ways that can help you to reduce cost of your printing, whether you are running a home business or a company with 1000 employees.

Make sure to Preview your documents before printing:

A lot of people might think this is something they do all the time but the truth is that most people waste a lot of paper printing out the wrong portion of their content, including myself.

Use that “Preview” button to preview what you are printing. Almost all applications including Firefox, Internet Explorer, Photoshop, and MS Word have this feature.

At least think about how many million trees would be saved if “everyone” used the Preview button?

Here’s an example of print preview on Firefox: (Yes, it’s so simple, isn’t it? Your actions can save a tree.)

Use Draft mode and Black and White mode for Drafts:

You can save additional time and ink if you are still working on your draft versions by using the draft mode.

Simply click on “Properties” and you should be able to set your printer to “Draft” or “Fast Draft” mode as shown here:

Save even more ink by printing in Grayscale:

Scan all documents “digitally” into CD or DVDs

Have you thought about all the stuff that could be digitized into a Jpeg or PDF file into a single CD or a DVD?

A lot of times, people will ask you to fax some important documents in order to verify your information when doing business.

By having all documents “digitized” and accessible from a single CD or DVD (or even your G-mail), you no longer have to remember where you left that Social Security card, passport, Business License, etc…etc… Although it is good idea to keep the original copies, I find it easier to e-mail my digital copies straight from G-mail.

I could be anywhere in the world and have access to all my important documents with just 1 CD or DVD instead of lugging all your documents everywhere with you, especially going over-seas.

Best ways to digitize your documents?

Get a good office scanner. I use an HP Deskjet F380, which cost me about $70 to do printing, scanning, and copying all-in-one. Although it’s slower than a laserjet, I can do most office work using it and it scans reasonably fast. I use it to scan all my invoices, receipts, and anything that can be scanned.

If you can afford it, there are some really nice laser version of the Deskjet, LaserJet M5025, which can scan hundreds of documents at a time and send them to your e-mail when its done via a single PDF file. This can prove to be very handy for all those POs and Invoices you have stacked up in huge boxes. I remember on one of my first jobs, I digitized about 20 boxes of POs (around 100,000 letter sized papers) from Wal-mart. (Think of how many trees I saved for their future POs!)

Nowdays, that company can simply access every one of their POs via a DVD-ROM.

Buy ink cartridges online from 3rd party suppliers

Buy cheap ink cartridges from 3rd party suppliers like DataBazaar.com. I find that their prices are much cheaper even if you are buying an OEM brand.

CD and DVD Labels

Now, just make sure to label them right using good CD labels, especially if you do have a lot of data to digitize. You can download free CD templates over here. These templates are great if you actually want to organize your digitized documents. You can even get some really good discounts on CD/DVD labels here.

Label Printers

If you like to spend more money, you can always get a label printer too. I have tried Dymo label printers before and these work really good with address labels or CD/DVD labels.

Print Labels and get your mail delivered faster!

Instead of spending time writing the addresses, I use my printer to print out labels so I save time on my frequent mailings and my mail gets there faster.
(Did you know that US Postal Service actually uses a scanner to process mail? If you have handwritten addresses, your mail will could actually take 1-2 days more due to manual scan by human workers. I did learn this through an executive manager I talked to at Pitney Bowes.)

By using labels instead of handwriting, you will save yourself hassle of writing and your mail will get to your destination faster. (You can even print out the US Postal Service address bar code on the envelope itself to ensure super fast delivery.)

You can also save some money by ordering labels from online label shops such as WorldLabel.com, which I have used before and found 40-50% cheaper than retailers. They even have popular “size-compatible” Avery labels, much cheaper than buying the branded ones.

Now, if you think this blog post will “change” printing behaviors of our readers, please leave a comment on how many trees you think we saved today.

I know there are many ways to build a proxy on your web server. In college, they make you make a proxy server from scratch. Well, anyways, I site hopped onto one of these cool little howtos on how to proxy firefox through your SSH:

PuTTY on local machine
Remote host running OpenSSH
sh -D 7070 username@host.com

1. Create a new PuTTY session

Run PuTTY and create a new session in PuTTY to connect to the remote host that is running OpenSSH. Fill in the hostname, the port (usually 22), make sure SSH is checked, give it a session name and hit Save.

2. Configure a secure tunnel
Click on “Tunnels” on the left and set up dynamic fowarding for a local port (e.g. 7070). Under “Add new forwarded port” type in 7070 for the source port, leave the destination blank, and check Auto and Dynamic. Then it the Add button. If you did it correctly, you’ll see D7070 listed in the Forwarded Ports box.

That’s it for tunnels, as there is no need to create more than one. Remember to save your session profile in PuTTY so you don’t have to set up the tunnel next time.

3. Connect to the remote SSH box
Double click on the connection profile and type in your username and password when prompted.

4. Configure Firefox
Go to Tools, Options, General, and then click on Connection Settings.

Check Manual Proxy Configuration, leave most of the fields blank, but fill in 127.0.0.1 for the SOCKS v5 host with a port of 7070 (or whatever you used in Step 2).

5. Enjoy
That’s it. From now on, as long as you first log into the remote ssh host with PuTTY, your Firefox and IM traffic will be routed over a secure tunnel to the remote host and then out to the Net. Good stuff.

Note:

Use Pidgin with these settings for your IM needs.

Use Thunderbird with these settings for email.

If you’re using linux, skip the first three steps and run

via techtest

Here’s are some great ways to watch your YouTube videos even faster:

(I’ve found the YouTube FireFox add-on most useful as I do like to listen to a lot of music on YouTube)

• Download SpeedBit Video Accelerator which makes videos from YouTube and many other video sites faster by reducing buffering problems.
• The URL Hacking: Add a simple &fmt=18# to the end of the normal YouTube video URL would make the hi res video, if it exists, to load On the other hand if you would like youtube videos which are of better quality then remove the # from the end.
• Search faster and Watch fast youtube videos with Youtube Seatch.
• Use an Firefox Addon which is really cool - YouPlayer (If you not using FireFox please excuse me.)
• Change the Youtube Video setting to better suite you.

via urbanread

Here’s a quick 2AM post on how to use Internet Explorer in Firefox as a tab.

First, go to your Firewall application and deny Internet Explorer for incoming and outgoing network traffic. This will protect you against malicious IE hackers.

Second, download and install this cool IE tab Firefox extension for your Firefox.

Now, simply right click and select “View page in IE Tab” for any website you need to use IE.

I like this extension simply because I can view SiteHoppin in Firefox and IE without opening up 2 browsers.

Check out the new Crap Cleaner, CCleaner. It may help you clean crap on your computer easily.

CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. But the best part is that it’s fast (normally taking less than a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware!

Several options are presented on the cleaner screen, allowing you to select the types of data you wish to remove from your PC. One tab lets you select Windows related files to remove, the other is a list of popular applications which are auto detected.

There are several reasons why you may want to clean your system. After using your PC for a long period of time it is quite likely that temporary files have accumulated which are no longer needed. For example the Windows temp directory can fill full of 100’s MB of unused files after enough use.

Secondly, CCleaner can remove all history traces left in many applications on your PC (such as Internet Explorer, FireFox, Document History, Media Player history etc…). These can all be wiped in the click of a button.

via ReviewSpring