Why you should be using the Firefox browser...

If you're like most of my friends then you're probably an internet retard (sorry, friends) - this depsite the fact that the web has been around for over a decade now. I'm going to help you make your internet life better. Ready?

Download Firefox and become instantly cooler...

Don't um and ah. Just do it. Here's the link. If you're someone who needs a reason...I spend more time online than you and know what I'm talking about.

Install it and then we can get busy making your online experience full of sunbeams and happiness.

Custom Extensions

This is why you're going to love Firefox (or FF...if there's some geek in IT you need to impress); the ability to to make your browser do cool things for you.

There are currently...well, a lot of extensions for Firefox, but I've selected a few of the one's that I think you'll find most useful, so let's get cracking.

Xmarks - this synchronises your bookmarks and passwords across multiple computers. If you've got a work computer and a home computer and want your browser setup to be the same on both - get this installed. It also does a bunch of other stuff that I don't really care about...but just having this functionality is enough to make your life instantly better.

FaceMod - ever yearned for the ability to make known your negative feelings about something someone posted on Facebook? Now you can, by installing this extension. When you do, you'll see a new icon appear in your list of options and you'll be free to punish nonsense status updates from your friends:

Three things you need to know about this:

1. Only people who also have the extension installed will be able to see that you dislike something. It doesn't somehow magically alter Facebook's original interface - it's just some clever programming. It also means that if none of your friends have it - your displays of displeasure will be nothing more than a personal joke echoing through the emptiness of cyberspace. If you're my friend on FB though - I promise to dislike at least 83% of what you say.
   
   
2. This extension is classed as experimental - meaning it's technically a prototype and hasn't been fully tested. It has already been downloaded 150,000 times though, so make up your own mind.
3. It will add some more ads the right side interface of FB. Not really an issue, but just a heads up.

Morning Coffee - this one's great. If you check a number of sites daily / regularly and find yourself going through the same routine of opening new tabs and then finding your saved bookmarks - install this add-on.

It sits as an icon next to the address bar and once you have set it up, it automatically loads all the sites that you want to open into separate tabs.

But the best part is that you can customise different days of the week. If your browsing habits are different on Thursdays and weekends, for example - just add a different set of sites in the configuration panel. Then when you hit the coffee cup icon on that day, the correct set of sites will open up for you. Knock out!

Ad Blocker - no explanation needed really. Stops ads appearing on websites. In general, I have no issue with ads - people need to make a living...but certain sites load so many ads that they become slow to the point of unusable. Installing this speeds up performance.

Tab Mix Plus - gives you a metric ton of control over how your tabs behave. Highlights include:

- Undoing closed tabs
- Recovering tabs if your browser crashes
- Duplicating tabs
- Highlighting unread tabs (this is worth the install alone)

Very useful, if like me, you browse with mutliple tabs open (current count: 14)

Honourable Mentions

Download Status Bar - manages your downloads without the download window getting in the way of your browsing. Handy little add on to keep things flowing.

Greasemonkey - this is only if you're feeling a little more adventurous and I almost left it out as installing this might might damage your non-geek cred.

Greasemonkey is an extension that lets you load other scripts that control the way your browser works. For example - want a script that completely changes the Gmail interface; or lets you do multiple friend accepts in Facebook; or changes the way information is presented in Amazon?

You can install this extension and then head over to userscripts.org where they have thousands of scripts that change anything and everything to do with your browsing experience.

So that's it. Next time I'll show you how to put in search short-cuts into the the browser - which, for example, makes looking things up in Wikipedia a snap. And it's not the way you'd probably think to do it either.

Happy browsing.

Haven't installed Firefox yet? Stop being a bed-wetter and download it now.

Hong Kong's 40 Wealthiest Now 65% Richer

SCMP is reporting that:

• Hong Kong's 40 wealthiest tycoons are worth a combined US$135 billion. A 65% increase on last year.
• We're still in front of the mainland's top 40 who are worth US$107 billion
• Li Ka Shing leads the way with 15% of the combined total
• The richest 10% control 40% of Hong Kong's wealth

Full article here (paywall - subscription required).

Watch or Download Free Documentaries

If you love documentaries and free things then this site is for you. It's exactly what it says - a site where you can watch or download free documentaries - and their collection is pretty extensive.

(If you've never watched any Adam Curtis then you're in for a treat. - they have both The Power of Nightmares and The Century of Self.)

The picture quality varies - but then again did we mention they're free?

http://freedocumentaries.org/

Posting Calories On Menus Makes People Eat More

Since 2008, fast food restaurants in New York have been required to post calorie counts next to items on their menus in an effort to get consumers to take more care over what they're eating. Great idea, and one I'm generally in favour of. Being more transparent about what people are shoving into their mouths, especially at fast food restaurants, should, logically, encourage people to consume less calories.

But, according to two research papers by NYU and Yale, consumers actually ended up consuming more calories after the changes were made. So much for transparency. I can think of a number of reasons why this might fail, but two spring to mind:

1. If you're ordering a super-sized anything at a fast food restaurant, worring about calories probably ain't at the top of your list of things you're worrying about.

2. I'm sure your brain is probably going - "wow, if I order the slightly larger one, my cost per calorie just fell. Score!".

A Sexier Stock Index From...Puma?

Great ad. Website, less so.