Posts Tagged ‘downloads’
See whether or not your ISP's DNS server is faster or slower than other alternatives like OpenDNS or Google Public DNS with Namebench. This free benchmarking tool pits your current DNS servers against alternatives and generates handy charts and recommendations for which of your DNS choices are the fastest. Using either your browser history or Alexa's top 10,000 global domain names, by default Namebench runs 200 tests to see which resolve most quickly using regional DNS servers, public services like Google's and OpenDNS's, and your current DNS services. Here's what some of the benchmark results look like.
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Microsoft finally gave up on the paid subscription approach and is now offering a totally free virus and spyware blocker called Microsoft Security Essentials. MSE is a decent utility: it's a light download which offers real-time (as you save files) protection, and can do a quick, advanced, or custom scan. The interface is simple and it schedules regular scans by default.
I admit: since my desktop is behind my router's firewall and I'm super-careful about what I do on it, I haven't run AV or spyware blocking utilities on my PC in years--without a single problem. Happily MSE gave it a clean bill of health. It didn't try to upsell me for a paid subscription, and it didn't report that it quarantined harmless browser cookies (a common red herring that malware cleaners use to make you think they're saving you). While security experts who make their living selling you this kind of software will tell you not to depend entirely on it, I'll replace AVG Free on Grandpa's computer with this this weekend. Kudos to Microsoft for finally offering malware protection at the right price.
Microsoft Security Essentials [Microsoft]
You're out and about with your laptop and you're in need of some fast internet connectivity. Here are some tried and true ways to find and get free Wi-Fi.
Photo by °Florian.
The Most Likely Places You'll Find Free Wi-Fi
You can find some free Wi-Fi love at the local public library, Barnes and Noble, McDonald's, the airport, university campus, independent coffee shop, or hotel lobby. Not all airports or hotels or even campuses offer free Wi-Fi though, so give the destination a ring before you hoof it over there only to be disappointed. (For example, the San Diego airport offers free Wi-Fi as does JetBlue's T5 in New York's JFK, but many other airports are pay-for access only. On the UCSD campus you used to need a password to log on; now guests can get free access.)
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Just posted updates to two of my Firefox extensions: Better Gmail 2 and Better GReader.
Better Gmail 2 users can now enjoy the new Hide Labels in Message Row script (which hides labels until you roll over the message), and a Hide Spam Count update that doesn't underline the Spam link when you have themes enabled. Bettter GReader users will like that the Preview Item script no longer conflicts with Google Reader's new notes capability; and Show Feed Favicons has been fixed (for Firefox 3.1 users only). Both extensions are now fully Firefox 3.1 compatible, no hacks required. I'm not going to open comments on this post--if you've got questions or feedback, join the Better Firefox Extensions mailing list, which is happily going strong. I've submitted both new versions to Mozilla Add-ons for approval as well. Enjoy the updates and fixes!
Today Google announced the release of Secrets, a secure password manager for Android where you can store any kind of sensitive data you might need on the go. Secrets isn't available in the Market yet, so you have to download and install the apk manually to your phone.
Secrets provides enough fields per item to accommodate several types of information, from web site passwords to your ATM PIN to your credit card number, and they're all locked up with a master password. Here are some screenshots of it in action.
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Android users who are switching over to their Google Voice phone number full-time like I am need a handy little app called GV. GV provides calling and SMS support via your Google Voice number in Android that isn't perfect, but is getting there.
GV's About dialog says that GOOG hasn't released an official, supported API for the product, so it'll only work as long as Google Voice's mobile interface doesn't change. No doubt the Android developers at Google are busy at work building default hooks to Google Voice into a future release of the mobile phone operating system. But until Google Voice support comes out of the box, GV's the way to go.
Install GV from the Android Market (it's free), and hit up the settings to enter your Google Voice username, password, and phone number. From there, any time you make a call or send an SMS, you have the choice to use your Google Voice number or your cell phone number.
Here's what that looks like.
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If you need your Unix command line on a Windows PC, chances are you use a terminal emulator like Cygwin--and if you do, you want to check out MinTTY. The MinTTY terminal window for Cygwin puts a native Windows interface on Cygwin which offers more keyboard shortcuts and colors and styles. Check out the difference between Cygwin and MinTTY side-by-side in the thumbnail on the right. Using MinTTY you can turn on window transparency, set your font, and colors, copy and paste output by just selecting it with your mouse, and scroll up using the Shift+arrow key combination. (Once it's installed, right-click on the MinTTY window and choose Options to customize its look and keyboard shortcuts.) Here's what the full MinTTY window with transparency turned on looks like.
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Figure out what font that hip web site uses and download a copy for your own project using some of my favorite typography tools and free font downloads, published over at Lifehacker this morning.
My personal faves include Font Squirrel, Dafont, and WhatTheFont; hit the whole list to get them all.
Stanford graduate Ramit Sethi's personal finance blog, I Will Teach You To Be Rich, is one of Lifehacker's most-quoted sources of financial advice, so I was honored when Sethi asked me to contribute a bit to his new book, also entitled I Will Teach You To Be Rich. Sethi's direct, authoritative style (evidenced by the blog and book title) may put you off at first glance. But on closer inspection you'll find he's an approachable, sensible guy, not some jerk trying to sell you a "foolproof" make-a-million-dollars-a-month system.
In fact, the I Will Teach You To Be Rich book, which went on sale today, is an excellent graduation gift for the college students in your life who are venturing out into a horrible economy steeped in student debt. To get a taste of what it's like, download the introduction PDF for free.
When you do get the book, you can find my contribution on page 134, a short piece on how I automate my week-to-week transactions in order to set and track long-term goals. Here's a full reprint.
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Google rolled out some changes to the HTML that runs Gmail in the last few days that rendered several of Better Gmail 2's features completely busted. (Yes, that's the technical term).
So I just posted a quick fix-it version 0.7.3.1, which includes changes from the very speedy and helpful Arend von Reinersdorff. (Arend is responsible for Better Gmail 2's most popular features, Folders4Gmail and Hide Spam Count, and I know--because users flip out the moment they stop working. Thanks, Arend.)
Sadly I had to remove several scripts which have not yet been updated to work with Gmail's new markup. Update, Thursday, March 5th: All scripts have been fixed in version 0.7.3.2, which is available now! Thanks for your help.
In the meantime, download the new fix-it version 0.7.3.2 using the Download button on the right, from Better Gmail 2's homepage, or just using Firefox's Add-on boxes' "Find Updates" button. Thanks for your patience with the broken features the last couple of days.
Minutes ago I posted an update to the Better Gmail 2 Firefox extension, which adds all sorts of functionality to Gmail. Since Gmail Labs launched, there's been less of a need for Better Gmail 2 features--so this revision clears out a lot of redundant stuff and pares things down to the items Google doesn't offer (yet?).
My favorite addition to this new version 0.7.3 is the awesome Unread Message Count in Favicon script, which adds that helpful little red unread message count to your Gmail tab's favicon (shown above). Note: A similar script which includes chat alerts is Gmail FavIcon Alerts, which I'll try to get permission to include in future Better Gmail 2 versions.
Download the latest version of the extension using the button here, or hit the homepage to see the changelog for the nuts and bolts of what was added, removed, and updated.
After all the hullabaloo last week about Hulu dropping support for Boxee, the popular Mac-based XBMC port, a new beta of Plex (another Mac XBMC port) drops, which offers a working Hulu plug-in in its new App Store.
As a fan of the entire XBMC project, any new release on any platform is exciting, but besides the original Xbox version, I've spent the most time with Plex. (Here's a Plex writeup I did over at Macworld last October.) To install Plex plug-ins via the new App Store, install the latest beta version 0.7.8, and under Applications visit the store. There you can install apps--like the Hulu, YouTube, TED Talks, and TWiT viewers, for example--upgrade and restart them. Right now I'm streaming red carpet highlights from the Oscars last night thanks to Hulu through Plex without a hitch (or a hack).
Nice work, Plex crew.
Update: I asked Plex's lead developer Elan Feingold if he could explain why Hulu got pulled from Boxee and other XBMC ports but works on Plex. He said,
Basically, Boxee was keeping around Hulu data on their servers, and XBMC reverse engineered the player to come up with their hack. Obviously not kosher. We use WebKit to display the site just like Safari does, and make sure it fits in the Plex window, so in a sense we're just a specialized web browser for the TV.
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