Hyperwords

Hyperwords is just about the most useful add-on to Firefox that I have seen in quite a while.  Most of the utilities that I have added over the past four years have either silently incorporated themselves into the browser’s basic function, or have been removed.

Hyperwords is an active add-on.  I translate, shop, instantly search, send to email, twitter, facebook, etc.  It will check the spelling, tell me how to pronounce something and, as if it didn’t do enough, convert currency.

What made me want to highlight it on Belltowernews.com was a conversation I had with an expatriate now living in Sweden.  He drifts back and forth from English to Swedish on Facebook.  On a whim, I used Hyperwords to see what he was saying.  It worked.

So, I wrote something in English, used Hyperwords to translate it and sent him the Wall-to-wall in Swedish. Bam!  He was sold.  I use the word sold figuratively because the add-on is free.

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LiveJournal Tags: Hyperwords

Happy Mothers Day!

Image via Wikipedia

There are few spare moments between the breakfast my son made for his mother at 0600 and the dinner we plan to share with other mothers and their families.

In that spare time there are two ‘utilities’ I have started to use over the past few weeks worth mentioning.

Evernote is the first.  When we first started playing with it, I figured, as with most nice shiny things, it may last a day or two. 

Wrong on several counts with that guess.

It has become essential to my thought process because it has replaced the large portion of my brain where memory once lived.  It has also replaced the sticky notes that once decorated every dry surface on my desk and laptop.

Then there is Hyperwords.

This second, more recent of the two, was recommended in a tweet from @stephenfry.  In his message he said, “I don’t know how I lived without it.” Hyperbole was my second bad guess.

Especially when going over lists and comments left in several of the major languages, I have used Hyperwords to easily translate

to

translating is  one of the dozen or so selection that pop up by default when a word or phrase is highlighted.  The list disappears if you right click for the default menu.

It will define, search the engines as well as  Wikipedia and social sites, copy to notepad, and make tea. 

Okay, no  tea, but you need to visit their site to see what this jack of all trades add-on to Firefox, and soon Windows, can do for you.

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• Hyperwords Hacks for Firefox (sciencetext.com)
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LiveJournal Tags: Hyperwords

If You Vote, It Just Doesn’t Make Sense to Avoid Opera 9.61!

The point to make here is anyone who doesn’t use Opera Browser, now in version 9.61, is about as smart as an undecided voter.

You may have thought the Blog heading would be followed by a political statement.  The only political statement I can make now is that undecided people should not be allowed into the polling place.
I am forced to use Internet Explorer at work and Mac OS Safari where I volunteer.  Both are so completely cumbersome it can be painful at times.

There was a time you couldn’t drag me away from Firefox.  Then one day I discovered I was no longer using Firefox as a browser but a place where I can store extensions.

More of my usage time was spent waiting for the extension to load and look for updates and then reading every RSS feed where newer and better extensions could  be found.

Also, I was using Google Reader as my RSS source, Thunderbird as my email program and a variety of others to manage downloads.  All of that activity can be conducted inside Opera loaded with its default features. 

When I first started to reuse it, (more on that in another post,) I found myself looking for add-ons, widgets and the like.  Than, epiphany time, every feature I used the most was already part of the program.

Dropping the extension addiction took a monkey off my back.  Let Opera help you break  your extension addictions as well.

LiveJournal Tags: Opera And Voting

Three Blogging Utilities Settled In

LiveJournal Tags: RSS Grazing

In the past three weeks or so I have tested and then incorporated into my blogging/twitter routine three programs that reside either on the side, in the tool bar or in the background.  Each, in  a very short time, have become tools of the trade.

The most senior of the three is Jens Muller’s JC&MB Quicknote Ver. 5.4. 

There is a few pixels high and wide line sitting on the left side of the screen.  When I tap it, a customized note-pad materializes.  I write my note and tap outside the box and it disappears.   It has a password protected capability as well as almost unlimited room for expansion.  It has replaced my bringing up Notepad to take quick notes.

The second in seniority on my system is Read it Later from the Idea Shower.  I am a very fast reader.  Having to constantly stop and take notes as I scanned the hundreds of feeds in my RSS Reader slowed me considerably.  Once I installed Read it Later into Firefox, all I had to do was either tap the toolbar icon or right click and choose Read it later.  Then, once the feed has been milked, I can go back and peruse that which I was able to effortlessly glean.

The third and junior of the bunch is Texter.  There was another program I had loaded.  It was recommended as a must-have program for efficient writing.  I was convinced and installed the trial version.  It was okay.  Not spectacular.  In support I went to the home site to register a copy for home use. 

The price was OVER $50.00. It is being offered by a man with whom we found much in common.  We were ready to fork over payment when an added fee of $3.00 for use of PayPal popped up.  In pure emotional reaction, I canceled the order and scraped all vestiges of the program from the system.

Then Texter came to our attention while Twittering.  It does all that the other program did for me but is simpler to use.  It doesn’t wave itself around constantly reminding us of its existence.  It just helps create the script that cuts typing speed in half.

Careful When Writing inScribefire with FF 3.04b

I was writing an inane blog entry regarding the 38 Firefox Add-ons that I deleted when upgrading to the Firefox beta version 3.04b when the browser crashed.; I was simultaneously deleting Add-ons as I wrote the piece. When I deleted the ZOHO Firefox Reader Add-on BAM, to the Floor.

It is good to note that Scibefire is working just fine. It seems to be drawing a line above the line I am typing right now. Will this show up in the blog entry? Only one way to find out.


Technorati Tags: Firefox Beta

TWiT Live - Watch Leo Laporte Laugh!

LiveJournal Tags: TWiT

I installed the Firefox 3.### Portable to watch TWiT live stream.  It went right to the page and started playing the feed.  There are no add-ons. In FF 2.## I have at least four maybe five add ons to allow video playing.

It seems to be a raw version of the show’s production.  I came in half way through the show, so I will listen to the first half when it comes up on TWiT.tv .  In my imagination, prior to seeing this stream, I had all of the participants  sitting around in stuffed chairs at a tavern in Corte Madera. 

As soon as the stream is over, I’ll play with the portable Firefox.  I did look at the Add-ons in tools.  There is a row of uninstalled, with the green field exclamation but none of them are loaded.

One of my problems with this broadcast is the way they are making fun of the Blogger Bob, a poor government employee hired to make sense of insensibility.   Their laughter sounded like mocking laughter.  It matters little to source or the reason for mocking, wherever it occurs it is painful to hear.

Two Hours At Google Reader

Using the Firefox Extension, Read-it-later, I was able this morning to hold for later viewing all of the links below while browsing through the Google Reader .

What assisted me in copying these links I as perused them in Firefox clicking on the Read-it-later and the Read-it icons was the newest note taking utility added to the laptop, Quicknote. Quicknote was praised in an earlier blog entry.

The Read-it-later extension is not only for Google Reader. It copies to its bookmark any link you may encounter while browsing. Therefore, one or two of the links below may have come from browsing places like Technorati or commandN, but most come from Google Reader, whither there are feeds from both of these sites

I have loaded the complete link below the names of the sites instead of embedding them. This way you can see, before you click on them, exactly where the link is taking you. However, some links were so long, in the original entry, they went off the page. Those I have embedded in the name of the link.

Read-It-Later Links

What is Relativity?
http://www.livescience.com/mysteries/080208-relativity.html

Tinker
http://www.tiinker.com/

GMail Skins

WOT For Firefox
http://www.freewarefiles.com/wot-for-firefox_program_39708.html

The Draco Tavern
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0786159472/omnivoracious-20

Archbishop Defends Remarks
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7236174.stm

Google Map Mashups

Stephen King On Writing
http://www.amazon.com/

First Look at Firefox 3.0
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061212-8409.html

WiFi Sites
http://hotspotr.com/wifi

Photo Enforced
http://www.photoenforced.com/

The Elegant Variation
http://marksarvas.blogs.com/

eHub-Flexadex
http://www.emilychang.com/go/ehub/app/flexadex/

Duke of York Trashes US
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7227627.stm

Creative Swearing (This is very fast but funny)

Configuring GMail Imap in Thunderbird

Daylife
http://www.daylife.com/

Romney Exits (Herald Tribune)

Dignity Village

Smoke at Ansonia

commandN #121

Add Content to Google Maps

Create PDF Magazines
http://www.pdf-mags.com/index.php

Cram Magazine (PDF)
http://www.cram-mag.com/

Daily Dose of Imagery
http://wvs.topleftpixel.com/

The Tenant Who Wrote Macbeth

Word and OpenOffice Compatibility

How to Fold a Towel Monkey

Digital Camera Reviews
http://www.dpreview.com/

Blogger Buzz
http://buzz.blogger.com/

LiveJournal Tags: Read-it Extension,Google Reader,Quicknotes. Live Writer

Firefox Back Up

It should be mentioned that Firefox, though no manipulation of my own, is now back up and running. 

When it activated all of my add-ons, along with their associated websites.  I had to go in and turn off the add-ons not currently in use.  It did surprise me there were so many.  I am a taster.  When I find mention of something that may make the browsing experience more interesting, will try it.  Mostly the reason I turn it off as to do with loading time or its conflict with a already running feature.  I only delete the ones that have an obvious detrimental effect on my set-up.

I wonder if this huge patch, whose pending arrival was all over ZDNet news. (Google Read Feed), was a precursor to Firefox's version 3.0.

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Technorati Tags: Firefox Patch

Web 2.0 Comment

We just left a comment at the ZDNet "Web 2.0" article regarding Mozzilla's Firefox memory usage. It implied that anyone really understand "memory leakage." It has been explained in so many contrary ways, we believe it to be a cyber-myth that explains a law of physics with a colander cum punctured tire comparison.

In out comment we mentioned that Firefox runs fine on a laptop, this one, with 42 extensions, including the one with which we are writing this blog entry, running simultaneously.
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What will I do with three days off?

After a visit to the doctor today I was told some stuff that wasn't fun.  I have the next three days off to think about it.  The question is, why would I want to waste three days off thinking about bad news?  I think it's time to veg and swim in the Egyptian River.

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One of these Weekends...

I just completed filling in my Google Calendar for the rest of the year to coincide with the school calendar. It has four layers, the first two - appointments of a work and personal nature. The third is a layer showing the phases of the moon and the fourth national holidays.

When I first started tinkering with the Google calendar, I searched around of for special calendars to enhance it. I found what has to be close to a dozen. It took several months to whittle it down to these four. The other plug-in is the five day weather icons.

Then along came Lightning. This is the calendar module for Thunderbird.

Coming from MS Outlook, we expect a calendar to be part of the email program. Now it is. However, I find I am more likely to open the Google Calendar in Firefox than to hit the tab to open Lightning. Too much of a good thing? I don't think so. The Lightning calendar is linked to both the work and personal calendars, so when I make changes, they appear almost instantly on Lightening. I would like different colors for information from different calendars, but not yet.

If I don't have Internet access, the information is still there for me.

On a totally different topic, today is the anniversary of the Attica prison riot in upstate New York. I was overseas at the time of this blot on the country's history, but I think it was a major tipping point in history and should be remembered.

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ScribeFire got better.

ScribeFire, the blogging addition for FireFox has become MUCH better.

There were a few glitches unique to the Blogger uploads that seemed to have disappeared in this latest version.(1.42)

It also isn't displaying the high ASCII code for double space when I do that out of habit between sentences.

This is a good thing.
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Scribefire Blogger Editor

The rock star formerly known as Performancing in is now called ScribeFire.  This is my first attempt at using it to write to Belltowernews.



It seems to have inherited the settings that were already up for Performancing.



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