I was amongst the 8 million people who set the World Record for most download in 24 hours when I downloaded Firefox 3. However, most of the add-ons that I had recommended in my previous blog 21 Firefox Add-ons to enhance your browsing experience needed to be upgraded or became completely obsolete to Firefox 3. Hence this blog where I will advice 10 new and/or improved add-ons.

10 New and/or Improved Firefox 3 Add-ons to enhance your browsing experience

1. StumbleUpon – Let’s keep it real, it is still as addictive as before and make you reach the enf of the internet -­ twice – through sleepless nights. A good add-on that will allow you to literally browse the web – your way
2. PicLens – Now that has got to be the coolest add-on ever made. You know whenever you’re on Google Images, and you have to go through 7 different pages that take hours to load before you can actually find the one that you’re interested in? How about when you’re watching your friends’ pictures on Facebook, MySpace or Flicker? Well fear no more: PicLens is an add-on that transforms your browser into a full-screen, 3D experience for online photos and videos. That’s right, VIDEOS too! This add-on searches through Amazon, Google, YouTube, Flicker, deviantArt, Photobucket, Facebook, Myspace and more! Highly Recommended.
3. Fast Dial – Another awesome and very useful add-on. I barely use my bookmarks anymore: Fast Dial replaces the ‘about:blank’ page whenever you open a new tab with a panel of thumbnails of your favorite sites. A real time-saver inspired by Opera’s Speed Dial. Again: Highly Recommended.
4. TwitterFox – For all the Twitters out there, stop downloading Twitterific or whatever it’s called for PCs. Get TwitterFox. You can follow your friends or write down a Twitt directly from Firefox. It’s just extremely convenient, and you don’t even have to launch another application.
5. ScribeFire – This is mainly for the bloggers. I’m actually typing this blog through ScribeFire; it’s a full-featured blog editor that integrates with Firefox and lets you easily post your blog. I can browse the web while I’m doing blogging to make sure all my web references and links are correct. Sweet add-on.
6. Previews – The makers of PicLens did it again. “Best extension ever? Quite possibly.” – LifeHacker. “Cooliris makes you a more efficient web surfer.” – CNet. I somewhat agree: it is very useful when you’re on Craigslist, MySpace or Facebook when you want to see a listing but don’t want to go from one page back to the index page and onto the next page and so on… it pops a new window within your already-opened tab so you can see different pages within one. I had to set it up to my convenience, but it’s definitely worth it if you don’t want to waste your time going back and forth one page.
7. Google Notebook – The page you’re on is somewhat interesting but not enough to read it right now, and definitely not interesting to bookmark? Put it in your notebook. Useful little add-on.And now for the web developers; I use those practically everyday at work:
8. FireFTP – Just as useful as it before, you don’t need another application for a cross-platform FTP, it works better then before (looks like they did some tweaking) and it provides easy and intuituve access to different FTP servers.
9. FireBug – This little add-on allows you to edit, debug and monitor CSS, HTML and JavaScript live in any web page. Very helpful and useful when you need to tweak your CSS.
10. Web Developer – This add-on and FireBug make a great team. Web Developer adds a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools.

I haven’t used all the add-ons that I used to have, for I’ve noticed that the more add-ons you use, the more memory they use, and they drastically slow down firefox and sometimes make it crash (ok, I had a PC, but that’s another story). So now I’m only using the ones that are necessary, useful, will make me save time and really improve my browsing experience.

Again, should you have any comments, suggestions, disagreements, whatever… feel free to leave a comment! Thanks for reading.

… said the old man who walked over to my table while I was enjoying my after-dinner cigarette and the rest of my beer. “I’m old and you’re young, so I’ve got a few of those I could give you but I’ll go with this one for now.” He was quite tall for his age, at least taller than me, and skinny for his height. He had white short hair, round glasses, and was wearing a blue shirt tucked in his white shorts. “Next time, instead of facing a wall or this ugly man,” continues the old man, pointing his finger towards my friend across from me, “sit in that chair and look at the sky, or in that chair where you can see this tree.” The tree he was referring to is a beautiful oak tree that’s about 400 years old; its trunk is at least 8 feet wide and its branches cover the whole patio of the burger joint and of the bar next door. The sky wasn’t spectacular, but the old man was right, it sure was nicer to look at than an ugly wall… or an ugly friend. “Don’t listen to him! He’s crazy!” interrupted  his wife who had a blue plaster on her left forearm. Then they walked to their car and drove away, leaving my friend and I with a “what the hell was that?” look on our faces.

I had never met this man, nor his wife, and I’ll probably never see them again, but as random as that was, it somehow feels like what he said was what I needed to hear.

Thank you old man.

Maybe never will I learn to stop putting myself in situations I don’t want to be in, situations where I can’t do anything but just be there and give the false impression of feeling great with a smile hiding my disgust of my own, sad and miserable life. Maybe never will I find the courage to speak what truly is on my mind and not care if I put others in uncomfortable situations. Maybe never will I stop caring about others and start caring about what it is I that I want. Maybe never will come the day where true happiness introduces itself in my life to stay there for more than a mere couple of weeks, days, or hours, to then leave me again to a state of lonely emptiness, or is it empty loneliness? Maybe never will those things happen. Maybe never will anything that I want to happen happen. Maybe never will I learn to do something about it? Maybe…

Hi all,

I am connected online from my MacBook via a wireless network using the latest Airport Express, and I have perfect reception. Whenever I try connecting to that same network from my iPod Touch (latest version 1.1.4), it says “Unable to join the network”. Is there some kind of set-up I need to do on my network or something? I’ve searched online, on the Apple Support site, and I can’t find anything.

Please advice, thanks.
jm

I found the solution! I hope this can help you out:

1. Go to “Settings”.
2. Select “Wi-Fi”.
3. Turn on the Wi-Fi, wait a second or two for the list of networks to appear, then tap on the blue arrow of the desired network (the one that you’re “Unable to join”).

   You should now be in the desired network’s DHCP settings – all the fields (IP Address, Subnet Mask, Router, DNS, Search Domains and Client ID should be empty).

4. Scroll down the bottom of that screen, and you’ll see the “HTTP Proxy” section, which should be “Off”.
5. Tap “Manual”, then turn the “Authentication” on, which should give you a username and password field.
6. Enter your network’s username and password.
7. Go back to your Wi-Fi Networks. Now try connecting to your network again, and this should do the trick.

Now, you may have different settings on your Airport Express/Extreme than I do on my Airport Express, so I can’t promise you success, but I sure hope it works for you too.

Lemme know if you know of any other way to make this work. Thanks!
jm

Copyright 2008 Jean-Marc Buytaert

This is it! I am finally graduating from The Art Institute of Houston! Whoo-hoo! I had my last class yesterday evening, and graduation is this coming Thursday. I am so glad that this is over and that I can finally start my career. I have been looking forward to this moment for quite some time now, and man does it feel great! I’m currently working on my portfolio/website which should be up and running within a few days. You’ll be able to check it out at http://www.webdziner.com. I just need to tweak it a little bit and fix minor bugs.

So as you can see, I have been busy with my portfolio for the past 3 months, hence the reason why I haven’t posted anything here in a loooong time. So here’s what else has been up with me…

I got a MacBook!!! Yes, I am addicted now. I’m a macfreak. No way I’m going back to PCs. ugh… Those 2 letters should stand for “Probably Crashing” or something. Seriously though, Mac OS X is so much cleaner, faster, it works and it works well… I don’t understand why people don’t want to switch… I understand that in the past 15 years, people adapted to Microsoft’s Windows OS, and “change is scary”, but Apple makes it so easy to adapt to their OS and they make it convenient for anyone to switch and/or adapt with their “Genius Bar” in Apple stores or with their free video tutorials online. As for software, PC people will say “we have to buy all our software again and that will be expensive”. Ok… granted. BUT, there are alternatives: for MS Office (which costs about $250), you have Apple’s iWorks which is only $80 which gives you Keynote, Pages & Numbers, the equivalent of PowerPoint, Word and Excel; do the everyday people use any other of Office’s software? Plus, Apple’s iLife lets you create movies, DVDs, photo albums and even websites in only a few minutes, and this comes included in every Mac. And another thing: you know when you turn on a new PC for the first time, you can’t use it for about an hour because of all the installs and upgrades and registrations and all… when I first turned my Mac on, I was already working on it within not even the first 10mins. So yea, go Apple :)

Anyway, enough about this propaganda, right? What else can I talk to you about… Ooh, yea, ok, so, when I first moved to Houston, the Houston Rockets won the Playoffs, and since then they sucked. Until now! They are up to 20-0! They’re currently tied with 1971 Bucks for the 2nd-longest winning streak… I’m not that much into sports, but I’d really like the Rockets to win the Playoffs this year just to party on Main St. with everyone from Houston… and also, I consider myself a Houstonian, so just to be proud of my home team :) GO ROCKETS!!!

On a completely different note, I’ve been watching “The Office” lately, and I find it extremely funny. Steve Carell is very funny amongst the other characters in the story.

Alrighty, well, I’m running out of ideas, so I’m gonna leave you on a final note: to my friends from AiH, even though we won’t see as much as we’re used to now that we’ll be working for different companies, I still want to keep in touch and I hope that we’ll be able to see each other from time to time. It’s been a pleasure continuing my education with you guys (you know who you are). Congrats to you and may your skills and talents lead you to a successful career, which I’m sure they will.

Ciao friends! Hasta luego!

…is the best fucking day of your fucking life yet! How’s that for motivation?” I met this guy a few days ago, and yesterday morning, one of the first thing he told me was that quote… I was thinking “hmmm… interesting philosophy… I’ll roll with it…” and he was right! Yesterday was the best fucking day of my fucking life yet.

Life is great. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed life as much as I have as this past week. And I’ve come to realize that my life is great thanks to all the people that are part of it. I know LOTS of different people, from different backgrounds, with different age, race and beliefs, and I’m sure that if I were to put everyone together, some would get along, and some probably wouldn’t. But, I take every positive characteristic from everyone and put them together, mix ‘em up, and boom, here I am enjoying life. So yea, thank you, friends, for being part of my life. It wouldn’t be the same if I didn’t know you. Every moment we’ve shared are locked up in my weird and twisted mind, but whenever I look back on it, I just… smile :)

I wish you could feel what I feel right now ’cause it feels great (no, I’m not on drugs… I guess that right now, I’m just high on life!) Life is a celebration, and we should celebrate every second of it, ’cause time waits for no one.

Anyway, this month, my blog has had the highest traffic!!! WHOO-HOO! Celebration :)

Christmas is coming up… traffic in Houston is fucking ridiculous… it took me about 40 minutes to drive about 3 miles… that’s just nuts. I haven’t done any xmas shopping, so don’t expect anything from me… haha! All I can really give you is my love and best wishes. Take ‘em or leave ‘em :)

Then in January, I start my last quarter before I graduate in March. DUN-DUN-DUN! Oh yes, competition there will be and ass-kicking there will be (you know who you are) but most importantly, I know that this is gonna be another great quarter and we’re gonna have lots of fun. That’s all that really matters… I mean, seriously, if diplomas weren’t as important as they are, if people would just believe you when you say “yea, I know how to do that and how to do it well”, then I probably wouldn’t go to next quarter, skip graduation and just get a job… but nooooooo… today’s society is so fucked up that we have to be labeled with a piece of paper that says we’ve completed 4 years of school? Anyone can have that… the difference is knowing you’re good at what you do and wanting to learn more stuff and just absorb everything you can from everybody.

Ok, I have no idea where I’m getting at now, so I’m gonna end this blog. But before I do, I just want to wish all of you a

Here’s to you, new and old friends. I wish you the very best for the best fucking year of your life yet :)
Peace.
jm

Hey Everyone,

Today, I spent most of the day going through the Firefox Add-ons and found (and installed) a few good ones, so I thought I’d share them with you. For those who don’t know, an add-on is kinda like a mini-program that’s installed to Firefox in order to make your own way of browsing the web even better. Some of the following are directed to web developers but most of them are for anybody. Here’s how my browser looks like now with all the add-ons (click to enlarge):

21 Firefox Add-ons to enhance your browsing experience
The following are organized from left to right, top to bottom on my browser. Each link will lead you to its download page in a new window (or tab). I’m not sure if all of them work with Firefox 3, you’re gonna have to test that yourself.

1. Well Rounded
   Adds a nice ‘finishing touch’ to Firefox by providing aesthetically pleasing, rounded edges to the location bar, search bar, find bar, and all manor of other toolbars on your browser…
2. PHP Lookup (for web developers)
   Quick PHP function lookup.
3. GoogCal
   Creates a (movable) toolbar button that opens Google Calendar in the current tab.
4. StumbleUpon Toolbar
   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.
   BEWARE: This will make you procrastinate, but if you’ve got time to waste, then it’s pretty cool.
5. Digg This!
   The Digg This! extension speeds up the process of submitting stories to the news website digg.com
6. SQLite Manager (for web developers)
   Manage any SQLite database on your computer. I don’t know if it works with MySQL though.
7. FireFTP (for web developers)
   FireFTP is a free, secure, cross-platform FTP client for Mozilla Firefox which provides easy and intuitive access to FTP servers.
8. FireBug (essential for web developers)
   Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page…
9. Web Developer
   Adds a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools.
10. Google Browser Sync
    Google Browser Sync for Firefox is an extension that continuously synchronizes your browser settings – including bookmarks, history, persistent cookies, and saved passwords – across your computers. It also allows you to restore open tabs and windows across different machines and browser sessions.
11. Faviconize Tabs
    This extension adds a new “FaviconizeTab” option to the context menu of the tab.
    Look at my first 5 tabs and you’ll understand.
12. Tab Scope
    Preview and navigate tab contents through popup.

Now down at the status bar…

1. Google Notebook
   Add text clippings, images and links to your Google Notebook and share them with friends.
2. ScribeFire (for bloggers)
   ScribeFire is a full-featured blog editor that integrates with your browser and lets you easily post to your blog.
   Unfortunately, there’s an error message that pops up whenever I want to post a blog in WordPress, but I’m still keeping it and waiting for them to fix this.
3. Web Personal Cleaner
   Allows to hide parts of website pages (like publicity). So, you can personalize your favorite websites…
   This is a MUST GET. I removed the ads on myspace and facebook, and any other ads I see will be “cleaned”.
4. GMail Checker
   Light-weight Firefox extension to check for new messages in your Google Mail’s Inbox and Labels.
5. Brief
   Brief makes reading RSS feeds as easy as it gets. It is designed to have the right set of features to be both powerful and simple. Brief stores feeds on your disk and presents them on a seamless, interactive page.
   Best one I’ve seen so far.
6. WeatherBug
   Get live, local weather conditions in Firefox with the WeatherBug extension. Featuring forecasts, radar, and severe weather alerts from WeatherBug’s community of neighborhood weather…

And, for the add-ons that are not noticeable on my screenshot…

1. Dictionaries
   These dictionaries work with the spell-checking feature in Firefox, in a lot of different languages.
2. Download Statusbar
   View and manage downloads from a tidy statusbar – without the download window getting in the way of your web browsing.
3. Organize Status Bar
   This extension will enable you to organize your status bar icons. You can now rearrange or remove any item (icon or text) in the Firefox status bar. If your status bar is full and cluttered like mine was, give this a try.

There’s just one negative thing that I have to say about those though… With 20 add-ons installed to Firefox, sometimes it will freeze for a second or two… but then again, my computer’s a piece of crap and always had memory problems. Hope those are helpful to you in some way!

Comments are always appreciated, and if you have any other add-ons that you think might interest me, comment away!
Peace :)

Yes, I just got an iPod Touch, and it kicks ass. Best thing EVER invented, no doubt. I’m gonna make this iPod my “Best Of Music & Movies”, however I do not have any movies at this time, so if any of you guys have any good movies, I’d gladly take a look at what you have :)

So yea, I’m doing a fine selection of my favorite music and transferring it… But I’m not gonna spend too much time on it ’cause I’ve got way too much homework right now… I know what I’ll be doing during my Xmas break :)

As freakin’ awesome as the iPod Touch is, I came up with a few suggestions, in no particular order, that I believe would make it even better.

10 Ways the iPod Touch could be even better

1. Take pictures (w/flash) and movies

   Something’s missing, and that something is a camera. On every iMacs, MacBooks and MacBooks Pro, there’s a tiny camera on top of the screen, and last time I checked, the resolution’s pretty damn good… Something like that would open a whole new market for Apple.

2. Universal Remote Control

   On the top-left of the back of the iPod, there’s the Wi-Fi antenna; on the other side, they should have an infrared transmitter which would become everything’s remote control; imagine controlling your whole living room with just the iPod? Again, new market for Apple?

3. Bluetooth for cell phones

   The headphones should be the same as the iPhone’s: with a microphone; and the iPod Touch should be a Bluetooth receiver, so that when you have a call from your cellphone, you can directly see who’s calling on your iPod Touch and take the call (or ignore it), without having to take your headphones off and switching to your cell. Once the call is over, the music you were listening to would come back.

4. Purchase movies and applications on demand, not just music

   I haven’t purchased anything yet from the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, but I checked it out and it’s only for music; no movies, no applications, no games, which kinda sucks ’cause you have to download the movies and the games from iTunes on your computer, then transfer them to the iPod. I don’t even think you can download applications other than games and transfer them without hacking the iPod.

5. Delete unwanted songs

   You can delete videos whenever and easily by sliding your finger across whichever video you wish to delete in your video list and then press the ‘Delete’ button that appears on the right. You should be able to do the same with your MP3s (and applications, maybe in the next-gen Touch?)

6. Play Flash on internet

   Safari works, and it works well. It’s awesome. The other day I was waiting on my friend to come pick me up from Ford, so I took out my Touch and checked my email, facebook & myspace after connecting to a wireless network. Freakin’ sweet! BUT, it doesn’t support Flash… what the hell, Jobs? :)

7. HD Radio

   HD Radio, and/or just plain, regular AM/FM Radio would be a nice touch (no pun intended).

8. Speakers

   And, what would a radio be without any speakers? The iPod Touch should have the iPhone’s speakers, which would be loud enough for a small, radio-alarm clock. The alarm isn’t loud, and didn’t wake me up earlier on, so speakers might be a good idea?

9. More than 16GB

   I know, 16GB in that little thing is a LOT. But, I am very demanding, and I know my iPod Touch will quickly be full once I start putting whole movies in it; PLUS, I read some articles that Samsung has launched a 32GB Flash Drive. I’m sure Apple’s having some discussion with them.

10. Support other formats than .mov

    I have a few movies in the .avi and .wmv formats on my computer, but whenever I try putting them on the Touch, it says that it doesn’t support them. I’d be nice if Apple added a DVD-Ripper in iTunes.

Those are just suggestions that I think would make it even better. I am not gonna start a petition so that Apple do those changes (see The human race is dumb) and I’m sure they’ve already thought of them and they’re already working on it.

I have nothing bad to say about the iPod Touch. It is a great machine and I doubt anyone’s gonna do better than that. The quality is perfect, it works flawlessly, the screen is big enough and has a great resolution, it is user-friendly, it’s just… awesome! The iPod Touch is the only thing I would want to have if I were stuck on a deserted island (even though I doubt the web would work there). I recommend it to everyone, it’s a masterpiece.

Tell me your thoughts :)

jm

I am sick and tired of people doing this… I found this on digg.com:

“Petition on Apple’s forums: iTunes for Linux or iPod unlock

Are you fed up with Apple trying to prevent you from syncing your iPod nano/classic/touch on Linux machines? Let them know that you want a solution and fast. Either they develop iTunes for Linux, or they unlock the iPod.”

This is the reason why I left France! Thanx to France’s ultra-socialist system, people are allowed to go on strike (that means get a shitload of people to go in the streets and protest which can sometimes turn into a riot) for whatever reason AND STILL GET PAID!!!!

People may not go in the streets of San Francisco and protest if Apple doesn’t unlock the iPod or if they don’t develop an iTunes for Linux, but still, a freakin’ petition!? What the fuck?! I think that Apple’s very generous move to reimburse previous iPhone owners before the $200 price drop with a $100 store credit was very good for the company’s image (customers first!) but this opened a door for stupid shit like this… “Hey, Jobs, I want you to make me a freakin’ time machine, a real one! If not, I’m gonna sue your ass for not doing what I tell you to do, or better yet, I’ll starve myself to death and then sue you for damages.”… Pschhh… I’m sorry, but that just plain pisses me off.

Some dumb bitch in NY is actually suing Apple for $1.0 million for “damages” because of the price drop… I mean… what the hell?! When Apple sent out the $100 store credit to previous iPhone owners, they had sold about 700,000 iPhones… times that by $100, and you get $70,000,000.00… $70-fucking-million goes from Apple’s pockets just to please customers… I mean… WOW. Respect. That’s marketing for you. And yet, nope… people are not happy…

If they’re not happy with iTunes or iPods not working on Linux, they just shouldn’t buy the iPod or stick to Windows Media Player, or just buy a freakin’ Mac!

I’m not saying that I’m completely against petitioning or going on strike. For instance, in France, the people working for the SNCF (Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français) (French National Railway Company) went on strike one day because a woman working there had been raped in a train, so they went on strike to reinforce the security so that nothing like that happens again… I mean, those fuckers always go on strike anyway, but this was a good reason.

My friend Ne:Mi wants to do a petition at school so that they reduce the price for the parking sticker, but I’m cool with that because it’s for a good cause.

AirFrance is always on fucking strike for some dumbass reason, like they’re not getting paid enough… shiiiiiit… if they’re not happy where they work at, then they should look for another job. I hate the notion of begging, if not forcing someone to do something. The worst part about AirFrance or the SNCF going on strike is that it not only annoys the company or make the news, but it annoys the shit out of regular people living their daily lives because it disturbs them!… A few weeks ago, a friend of mine came from France to Houston, but she arrived about 12 hours late, because dumbass frogs were on strike so nobody could get in a plane that day from the CDG airport.

Anyway, when I get pissed off, I start mixing my thoughts and losing my train of thought, so I’ll stop for now… I hadn’t posted anything for a while and this seemed like a good topic, so… tell me your thoughts about this!

jm :)