Posts tagged firefox
Are Laptops A Distraction In School?
Sep 3rd
Class is in session, which means more work for me. Whenever it comes to getting my classwork done, and taking notes, my computer is an indefensible tool. I tend to have my laptop everywhere I go, and when I am in class taking notes, I have found nothing better than OpenOffice for note taking. It is free as opposed to certain commercial competitors, and it runs on nearly every modern operating system.
There are a few issues, and they aren’t exactly technical problems. Whenever I can pickup the school’s WiFi signal, I sometimes get too distracted talking to my friends on Pidgin (open source instant messenger, like Trillian), and surfing the web, notably Facebook. When it comes down to it, I am not sure if my laptop is more of a help or a hindrance as I am constantly distracted. That’s why I usually end up turning off of my wireless card, and proceeding into my class.
Whatever the case, the computer is a good thing to have if you don’t have the attention span of a monkey. Between all of the free tools you have at your disposal, from operating system (Kubuntu Linux is my choice) to the word processor (OpenOffice), to the organizer (Google Calendar), efficiency can be amped up a whole lot. These tools are useful for everyone, not just students, and I think that the benefits outweigh the risks.
What do you think?
Matt Parnell
Back To School: Firefox Campus Edition
Aug 29th
We know you Young-ins are busy preparing to go back to college. Now it’s 
time to add another item to your checklist of back-to-school essentials. Firefox Campus Edition combines the speed, security, and features of the Firefox browser with special extras that give you streamlined access to music, cool sites, and useful information.
It’s everything you need for a well-rounded college life all in one handy place (and for the very student-friendly price of totally free).
It comes packed with:
- Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] – is a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. It lives right where you do your work — in the web browser itself.
- StumbleUpon – Channel surf the internet with the StumbleUpon toolbar to find great websites, videos, photos and more based on your interests. StumbleUpon learns what you like and makes better recommendations.
- Foxytunes – Do you listen to Music while surfing the Web? FoxyTunes lets you control almost any media player and find lyrics, covers, videos, bios and much more with a click right from your browser.
You can grab it here http://www.firefox.com/backtoschool. I don’t know how much this browser will help you with going back to school but it has these 3 neato tools that are definately worth a look. Back in my day we had a pen and paper and it took 30 minutes to write a few paragraphs and we liked it like that :) Please shoot me when I really start saying back in my day…
Become an eBay Sniper with a Firefox add on!
Aug 21st
Now I’ve been using this gem for a few years now with great results.
The add on is called Biet-o-Zilla, but I am not 100% sure that it is still under development, but I know it works.
The only place I could find it was here.
It’s a foreign language site, but you can click on the install on the right side to download the XPI file.
Here’s what it looks like:
How it works is this:
Go into the settings and add your eBay account information, you can test it to make sure it works.
Enter in the item number in the right section, then the section where it says for your bid, then click on the last minute(you can set the amount of time before the auction ends the bid is placed in the settings)button. I set mine for 15 seconds before auction end because when I had it set lower, the bids were not accepted by eBay and I lost out on a few items much to my dismay.
At the specified time, the bid will be placed and hopefully you win!
Now one caveat.
Firefox and BOZ needs to be open and you need an internet connection for this all to occur. This is not a service, rather just a sniper app for you.
I know personally I’ve bought an $800 Canon Rebel for $570 with it and a set of $1200 ice hockey goalie pads(I do have a hobby besides the internet! ;-) ) for $167!
Play around with it and happy sniping!
PS: The buttons look funky on the image because the skin I have for Firefox messes with the way the buttons look.
Edit: For the not so brave who want a english solution that has been around for a while check out our own Admin’s experiences with Auctionsniper.com here. Note this is a service and not a free app like above. What do you guys use to win auctions? I know you aint doin it on the up and up! klgeeeeee
Firefox Plugin: GSpace – Use that mailbox as your personal online folder!
Aug 10th
While we’re on the topic of Gmail, here’s a nice little add on for Firefox that interfaces with your gmail.
Ever had a problem with large files and accessing them from multiple places, well Gspace is the answer:
This extension allows you to use your Gmail Space (2.8 GB and growing) for file storage. It acts as an online drive, so you can upload files from your hard drive and access them from every Internet capable system. The interface will make your Gmail account look like a FTP host.
After the installation, you’ll get an option called “Gspace” in your “Tools” menu, which opens the GSpace window.It’s great for storing/sharing files with your friends. Also very good to backup photos and music files (as you can view/listen to them from Gspace).
If you have any problems with the extension, please look at the FAQ page (http://getgspace.com/faq.html). If your question is not listed or the solution doesn’t apply to your specific question, please email the current developer (tnarik).
I’ve used this little Firefox plug in for about a year now with great success. Give ‘er a go.
Edit- a lil’ info from the authors site you should read before giving here a go:
Usage:* Do not upload/download many files in a single day. You may get your
account blocked for 24 houres. It seems this happens if more thatn 1GB of data
is transferred in a single day.* The best thing is to upload files and folders
that are NOT critical. Anyway, since file is available as an attachment on an
e-mail, they will always be available through the Gmail interface, and they
should be as safe as your e-mails.* Creating a new user account is highly
recommended because that won’t affect your regular account.
Review: Stumble Upon Script For FireFox
Mar 29th
I have “Stumbled Upon” A great website at http://www.stumbleupon.com. It is a firefox plugin and a direct website that asks you a bunch of questions to determine what kind of sites you like and then it lets you stumble around checking out random sites based on your interest.
I like the firefox plugin which has a stumble button and a thumbs up and thumbs down button like tivo to learn your preferences. If I have 10 minutes to kill, I stumble upon some new game sites or jokes… Try it out you won’t be sorry. It replaced my time with www.bored.com.
_TheBoredAdmiN_
