Making The Ultimate Browsing Experience with Firefox

Firefox is the most customizable browser out of the lot. So why not use that to your advantage? My Firefox browser looks nice, is easy to use and backs up my bookmarks automatically so i will never lose them.

Using Firefox 3.0.10, i have many customizations and addons that make my experiences of browsing the internet so much better as i have a great browser to do it with. Here are the first steps to browsing perfection, using addons and customization.

First, visually.

Now i used to use a nice looking Internet Explorer-like theme as it matched my taskbar and general theme. Now, i simply use an extension that makes Firefox see through with an Windows Aero-esque effect. It is here and is a simple click and install job like most extensions in Firefox (which is why i love it). It looks great!



However, i can see this is not for everyone and there are thousands if not hundreds of thousands of themes for Firefox. The main source is of course official and probably has most of them listed. However, you can always fire up your favorite search engine and look for them.

Secondly, bookmarking.

Bookmarking is literally saving a link. However, instead of just copying and pasting them into a big word document, it is easier to have quick 1 click buttons at the top of your browser. Firefox has a built in bookmarks bar at the top under the address bar. I use XMarks to backup mine and have used the Smart Bookmarks addon to make the names disappear cause i have a lot of them.

Thirdly, other extensions that make things easier.

Many people on the internet live with something called Greasemonkey which allows the browser to use various code snippets and enhance browsing. However, i haven't ever tried it. I use other various extensions which i will list here.

The All Glass Addon (Windows Vista and Windows 7 only, Firefox 3.1 beta 3 recommended, works fine with 3.0.10) makes Firefox look Aero-like as detailed earlier.
AnyColor (Most versions of Firefox) allows you to colour or add a photo background to your Firefox.
Google Reader Watcher (Most versions of Firefox) shows number of unread feeds on your Google Reader.
Hyperwords (Most versions of Firefox) makes every word on the internet interactive. Use it to translate, share or a multitude of other things with any words on the internet.
PDF Download (Most versions of Firefox) allows you to use PDF's in many different ways in Firefox. It adds extra functionality to your Firefox regarding PDF's.
Smart Bookmarks Bar (Most versions of Firefox) detailed earlier, makes bookmark names disappear and show on rollover.
Wolfram|Alpha Google (2.0-3.5) shows the new, fantastic Wolfram|Alpha search engine results next to Google Search results instead of those annoying sponsored links on the right hand side.
XMarks (Most versions of Firefox) automatically syncronises and backs-up your bookmarks all the time. Really fantastic. Also gives an icon in the address bar giving you extra information about websites. Can also back up passwords.

Making it all work together
Installing these addons mostly take care of making it all work together.

XMarks will require a user name and password and so will Google Reader.

Add more or delete search engines by clicking the box to the left of the search bar and clicking Manage Search Engines. (Tip: Add Wolfram|Alpha to the search box with this add-on)



Customizing your space at the top can also help. Right click on the top and click Customize and you can have everything you like wherever you like. I have moved my Address bar to the top bar with the File, Edit etc menus, along with my Search Box. I have moved my bookmarks to the bar with the Refresh, Stop and Back/Forward buttons. I also removed my Home button, as i don't use it anyway. It makes for a minimal workspace with more viewing space for your websites.


(You may also want to get rid of your bookmarks bar like I did if you did a similar thing to me by right click > Bookmarks Bar)

Of course many more add ons out there, but this is my lot and how I use them.

Honourable mentions (because i either have a different program/add on with a similar purpose or don't use anymore)
TwitterFox, Google Gears (use the Labs feature in Google apps), Fission, Cooliris, ColourfulTabs, Greasemonkey

Final look:



Any other add-ons you love? Love your Firefox? Give your tips in the comments.

Installing Windows XP From a Flash Drive

Now, the rage right now is small laptops or Netbooks (as they are more commonly known) for general web browsing and small document editing as they are not very powerful.

I was asked to install XP on a netbook (a very nice white shiny Aspire One with Linux Linpus Lite installed already, which isn't great). I thought, wow, this should be the same as any other install. Whack in the CD, boot it up, add service packs... oh wait. CD drive.

So i went about searching the internet for a solution. Eventually, i got a very helpful article here on installing it. Also, the disk i currently had was only SP1, so i decided to "slipstream" it with nLite, a very helpful program. My first attempt with auto key entry and automatic user making resulted in a very strange situation - my very legal, paid for, license key refused to work. And so, I used a plain SP3 install. I am currently installing it now, hopefully it should work. I read here that also using Compatibility mode on Vista would also help, and seeing as i am using Windows 7 as my primary system, it makes sense to use the compatiblity mode.

Update: I eventually managed to get it installed, but i had to use a different XP disc. I also had to restore the MBR in the recovery console using the XP install disc/usb stick.
Commands Used
Press [R] to get to Recovery Console on XP disc
fixboot C:
fixmbr
exit

Creating a Liquid Metal Background in Photoshop

Firstly, open up Photoshop. This should work for CS3 and CS4 that i know of, and possibly other versions.

Next, create a new image. This should be the size of your screen, in my case 1280x800 (pixels).

After this, get out a paintbrush. Now, you should pick a mostly solid circular brush with a diameter of around 50 pixels. Then, draw some random squiggles, quite a lot, but not too many, similar to the screenshot below.

Next, prepare a radial blur with the settings below in Filters > Blur > Radial Blur

(Blur: 50, Spin type, Good quality)


Next, apply this. You should end up with something like this:

Alright, it is starting to look like something interesting now! Next, go to Filters > Sketch > Chrome. Now, you can mess around with the settings depending on screen size etc, but for me i think Detail = 5 and Smoothness = 10 looks best (as below)


Click OK. Now you have your lovely liquidy metal background! Obviously, this can be adjusted in any way you like.

Here is my normal finished version:

Alternative Suggestion 1: Press Ctrl+U and adjust some hue settings with the Colourize box ticked. See mine below:



with these settings:


Alternative Idea 2: Start with a 320x480 canvas and make yourself an iPhone background! Here is a couple of mine I made earlier:



Sound off in the comments below. Feel free to use my backgrounds above :)

Intro

This is my second blog, centralized around tutorials and spreading the love of technology and its brilliance. I will be publishing everything and anything on this blog that i can do with ease and think others will enjoy or like to use for themselves.

My personal blog is located here. My twitter is here and my Skype is here. Questions in comments are great. Any ideas for the blog or if you wish to know more details about anything, email me and i will get back to you as soon as possible and/or edit the blog post to reflect that.