Last week Gmail launched free IMAP support, which was one of the most user-requested features. We were fortunate and got the IMAP access to show up in our account simply by logging out and logging back in, but some of my friends are still sitting around waiting for it to show up in their accounts.
I received a tip the other day from "S" who was letting me know that Webroot is giving away free licenses for their firewall software. This is for a limited time only, and I've already requested several licenses of it for myself.
One of the hot new ways for viewing photos is using a JavaScript technique called LightBox. I'm sure you've seen it before on sites where you click on a thumbnail, and a fullsize version of the image is superimposed on the page that your viewing. It then grays out the background so that it's easy for the viewer to focus on the image.
A few days ago Lifehacker posted a sweet Firefox configuration option that would enable inline auto-completion of URL's as you type them into the Address Bar. Changing that setting took away the necessity to use the arrows all of the time for selecting the first entry listed.
One of the new things in Ubuntu 7.10 is the ability to read and write to NTFS formatted drives, which is great for Windows XP and Vista users. What that means is that you can create a Firefox profile in Windows and set it up so that Ubuntu uses the exact same profile.
The eagle-eyed Google Blogoscoped forum noticed that Google Gears has started prompting some users to enable offline support. Tony Ruscoe looked through some of the JavaScript code on the page, and managed to scrounge up two different lines that provide definite clues that Google Gears support for Google Calendar is coming soon.
Yesterday I went through how you can enable restricted drivers in Ubuntu 7.10, but that was only part of my struggle while trying to get Compiz Fusion turned on. Enabling the advanced graphics should technically have been a piece of cake after getting my 3D-enabled ATI drivers installed on my ATI X1400 graphics card, but that wasn't exactly the case.
One of the new things in Ubuntu 7.10 is the one-click enabling of restricted drivers (a.k.a. proprietary drivers). This is important because it will give users the best experience possible, and I've received several inquiries in our Ubuntu 7.10 from people wondering how they are supposed to enable these drivers in Ubuntu.
Mozilla is trying to beef up extension security in Firefox 3 by ensuring that the updates are provided by a secure address. All of the extensions on the official Mozilla add-ons site will work perfectly with this new system, but there could be problems when venturing outside of the site.
Pidgin is an extremely popular open source instant messenger, but have you ever thought to yourself what it would be like if Mozilla created something similar? It would be possible to make the instant messenger do almost anything you want with the use of extensions ...
The right-click menu (a.k.a. context menu) is one area in Windows that Microsoft refuses to let users customize out-of-the-box. There should be some sort of utility that lets people choose what's included, and the order that the items are placed in. I don't think I even use half of the options that are often located in the menu!
We have talked about text editors a lot on CyberNet before because they can help you be a lot more productive. Up until a few weeks ago I was using Notepad++ on a regular basis, but then I came across PSPad that seemed a little nicer. I do quite a bit of website programming, and that got me thinking whether there was anything better than PSPad out there.
Ever since I tried Mandriva 2007 I felt that it was well ahead of other Linux distributions, and the same feeling has sprung upon me today with the new Mandriva 2008. After looking at all of the features I couldn't help but think that this is HOT! My 694MB download hasn't finished yet, but I'm sure once you read through the list of features below you'll probably start downloading it as well. :)
It's not often that I come across a Firefox extension that does so much that it actually warrants its own CyberNotes article, but Tab Kit is one of those extensions. The only thing is that the extension is so new that it's still in the Mozilla Sandbox, and therefore requires an extra step or two to actually get it installed.
Launchy is one of the best application launchers available, and it is about to get a lot better with version 2 that is right around the corner. Just today Launchy 2.0 Alpha 8 was quietly released in the Launchy forum, and I've been using previous Alpha's for over a week. Despite being early in the development process it is incredibly stable.
A few days ago we put together a list of the best application launchers, and as it turns out there were some that were mentioned by commenters which we had never heard of. FMsaziri mentioned one in particular, called Executor, that really caught my eye when I checked it out.
As it stands right now there are not many Vista-compatible firewalls available.
There have been tools in the past that monitor programs on your computer for updates, but none is like the new UpdateStar. This free app claims to check for updates on upwards of 80,000 titles including freeware, shareware and commercial software products. That's quite a database it has got built up!
Could you imagine having a browser without a bookmarking system? To me that would be like using a computer that doesn't let you copy and paste...it's almost impossible to fathom what that would be like! So I think it is safe to say that bookmarks are important for productivity, but the real question is, what can we do to make it better?
AOL's decision to dump Kaspersky for McAfee was not accepted very well by the tech community.
