Firefox is the ultimate browser for your customizing pleasure. You can change themes, add search engines, and install various extensions to improve its functionality and look to meet your needs. Here are some of my favorite Firefox Add-ons.

StumbleUpon is a social bookmarking extension that makes surfing the web fun and exciting again. When setting up your account you select from a list of things that interest you. Then all you have to do is click on the “Stumble” button and it takes you to sites that contain those things you like.

RoboForm is a must have for any web browser Read more »

When I’m conducting experiments in the lab late at night, often there is downtime when I am just waiting for something to happen so I can take a measurement. Sometimes the downtime may be up to an hour of just waiting with nothing to do. One can only do so much reading and writing in a single day and sleep deprivation isn’t the best catalyst for great writing. Thus, online videos offer a nice alternative to pass the time. Between OVGuide and Hulu you can find just about any tv series or movie to watch for free. Hulu even goes a step futher and allows you to embed any one of these movies on Read more »

Clipmarks is a web tool that enables you to take any content from any web site. The resultant clippings can then be saved in your clipmarks account, shared with others, or pasted into another site. This is a very handy tool for bloggers or anyone for that matter. It saves lots of time and is really easy to use. Here is an example of an article I clipped on Engadget.com:

StumbleUpon is a free social bookmarking site that enables you to share and discover web content. When signing up for a new account, the user indicates his/her interests from a keyword list. These likes are then used to identify and suggest web content (i.e. websites, videos, games, pictures, etc.) to you.

During registration, a simple toolbar is installed on your IE or Firefox browser. This toolbar allows you to browse the Read more »

Video sites like YouTube and Metacafe are great for a good laugh. They host tons of AFV-like videos, my favorite episodes of The Simpsons, and other comedy shorts that are hilariously entertaining.

In addition to funny videos, however, these sites also host lots of useful instructional videos that can be used for fun, entertainment, and educational purposes. For instance, if you search for “how to” on YouTube the results display a wide variety of content ranging from Read more »

Trying to keep up with all your user IDs and passwords can be a pain. To manage this problem most people use the same user ID and password for everything. This is a big mistake and huge security risk. All it takes is one crooked administrator to find out which sites that user accesses (i.e. banking site, credit card site, etc.) and voila! The user’s identity, money, and credit are instantly gone. Another reason to not use one single easy to remember password is the fact that these kind of passwords are not strong, lengthy, and difficult to hack like those that incorporate numbers, case-sensitive letters, symbols, and other characters. Read more »

One of my new favorite open source applications is a Java based mind-mapping software called FreeMind. In case you haven’t noticed I frequently entertain various random thoughts that sometimes, albeit rarely, stem from a common point of interest. The difficulty lies in organizing these thought patterns or “blueprints” of ideas into a meaningful concept and then describing this concept to another individual.

Not that I have any, but when dealing with complex, multifactorial concepts it is very Read more »