Adding Fire To FireFox

Mozilla Firefox is a good browser. But that shouldn't stop us from adding to it__more colour, or customisation in general. At the same time it should be efficient at its main task of browsing. The best thing here is that Firefox permits numerous ways of customisation. But before we come to that, you need to understand how to download add-ons for Firefox.

First, go to www.mozilla.com and search for add-ons. With the new version of Firefox, you can just go to Tools > Add-ons from the menubar. Then from the Get Add-ons tab, you can search the exact name of the add-on you want to install and start customising. This is another addition to Firefox.

Adblock Plus

This is an absolute must for Firefox. With Adblock Plus, you will be able to keep those AD banners that slow down your browsing experience, or serve only to irritate your sense, in check. When you install this add-on, you can subscribe to a filter that gets updated almost every day. For anything that slips past this filter, you just need to right-click a banner AD and select ADblock Frame or Adblock Image; the AD is now permanently blocked. In the preferences window, you will see a whole list of blocked image URLs and also the hits these images received. You can also add manual URLs as filters through the preferences window. This is the first thing you should install on Firefox. If you have been using Firefox long and have not installed this yet, do it immediately.

Managing tabs and bookmarks





Speed Dial

Let's start off with a small add-on that gives you the option of easily accessing your favourite web sites. It displays your web sites as a grid where you can access them by a single-click. This feature is already present in Opera, but is very useful and hence is a suggested add-on for Firefox. With Speed Dial extension, you can set the number of rows and columns in the lay out and also create dial groups. Other customisation includes the size of the browser background and also the shortcuts for each tab.

Tab Mix Plus

This add-on gives you full control of your tabs, right from allowing all your tabs fit on the screen by increasing the number of tab bars to even customising what a double-click on a single tab can do.

To access the options for Tab Mix Plus go to Tools > Tab Mix Plus Options. Options present here include Links, Events, Display, Mouse, Menu, and Session. In Links, you can set how you want your link to open__ either in a new tab or a new window. Events has many more options such as Tab Focus and Tab Merging. In Display options, you can set Firefox to hold multiple tab bars so all your tabs can fit your screen. You can also change the position of your tab bar from the top to the bottom of your browser. Under Mouse, you can customise mouse gestures. You can set the mouse to just hover over the tab and that tab comes forward, without clicking. You can set double-click to rename a tab. On right-clicking a tab, more options are displayed __ ranging from duplicating tabs to locking and protecting tabs. These options can be set under the Menu tab, where you can select or deselect the options you want to use. tab Mix Plus also comes with a session manager which means if your browser crashes, your session will be safe and can be restored.

Additional features with this add-on include locking and protecting tabs. When you lock a tab, everything else will open in a new tab and when you protect a tab, that particular tab can't be closed. It also keeps a list of closed tabs and you can even Undo a Closed Tab. Another great feature is that when you use [Ctrl]+[Tab] it does not just go to the next tab but goes directly to the tab you were last using.

Foxmarks

Foxmarks is one of the best bookmark manager in my opinion as it not only manages the bookmarks on a single PC, but it syncs your bookmarks across multiple PCs. You can get this either via www.mozilla.com or alternatively from www.foxmarks.com directly. The use the syncing service you will need to sign up which you can do either at the web site, or during installation. Once that's done, your bookmarks will be loaded onto their server and when you login with Foxmarks on another PC, it will sync the two. Another feature offered by Foxmarks is that it allows you to access your bookmarks from anywhere through their online service. For this you just need to log in at my.foxmarks.com. You can also create profiles and categorise your bookmarks for efficiently browsing through your bookmarks.

Multimedia Add-ons

FoxyTunes

The FoxyTunes add-on integrates a tiny media player control with Firefox. This is great for those of you who listen to music while browsing, as you can now control your music from the browser itself, instead of switching to the music player. There is a long list of players from which you can choose; I used this add-on on Windows Media Player and VLC and didn't face the slightest problem. The song title is also displayed in a small section at the bottom of your browser where the controls are located. FoxyTunes rids us of the hassle of hitting [Alt]+[Tab] to pause or switch songs, especially since this add-on has its own sets of shortcut keys to play, pause, stop and skip. Not only that, with FoxyTunes there is a button next to the music controls that lets you search for images, videos and lyrics of the song you are currently listening to. Additionally, you can access online streams such as last.fm and enjoy the music from there too.

FlashGot

With the FlashGot plugin, you can quickly grab and download flash videos from streaming sites such as Youtube. You can also download all the link targets that are present on a single site by clicking FlashGot All, which is located on the contextual menu(menu displayed on right-clicking). Initially, FlashGot downloads all the content using your default download manager. However, if you are using a download manager such as Free Download Manager,it can integrate with that as well. Not only videos, but it can also grab audio while you are listening. The FlashGot Media option, which is used to grab the media, from the context menu will appear only when a streaming media clip is playing.

For your download needs

DownThemAll

DownThemAll is the first and only download manager add-on that integrates with Firefox. It's a very basic download manager and claims to accelerate downloads. You can set the maximum concurrent downloads between 1 and 10 and you can set filters for your download using file extensions; this would help manage downloads even better. If you were to use the default download feature of Firefox, all the files, regardless of their type would be downloaded and dumped into a single folder.

Gaming

The Nethernet

For those of you who like to play games while waiting for something to load or just to pass the time during work, The Nethernet(an online game based on the internet) is meant for you. If you were to classify it, it would fall under the RPG category as it has quest that you have to fulfil. These are not ordinary quests where you have to go and slay beats and monsters; but instead, the quests have been created by fellow players themselves. These quests consist in linking web sites with a story, that actually takes you to web sites that you might not have known existed and enjoy visiting them. For example, somebody might make a quest of visiting different online comics. The Nethernet gives you a tour of the internet and along the way you get game points and unlock different badges.

After you download this add-on, you will need to register with The Nethernet. Once that's done, you will see the add-ons toolbar on your browser with a bunch of buttons. You have options to attack others by leaving mines at a web site or you could create a portal that will allow you to link the site you have visited to another that you think might be enjoyed by others. All these get integrated into your browser and there are also some special effects that occur with each one of them. You can also chat with other players going through the Nethernet. The community is quite friendly and you are sure to enjoy mixing with them.

So if you are bored at home, or at work and don't know what to do, this is the perfect add-on for you as you might rediscover the internet with this.



Search Engine Optimization and SEO Tools

FEAR 2

Up front let it be known that I was disappointed. And no, F.E.A.R. 2 is not a bad game. Quite the contrary; it's better than the average FPS and boasts really nice graphics and a perhaps even more of the the atmospheric eeriness that made the first game so unique. But for me the kill-joy was the actual combat experience. The original game had this very gritty, ultra realistic combat and weapon system that enthralled gamers. As a result, fire fights were a frantic, visceral affair. The feel of a weapon recoiling, the thud of the bullets against enemy's body armour, and even satisfying thwack of a well delivered gun butt were all elements that kept the realism going. If anything, F.E.A.R. 2 has lost that visceral in-combat feel. Yes, guns still recoil, as do the baddies when they're hit, but the visible impact and the recoil system has been toned down a lot - the word neutered pops up in my mind for no apparent reason. Another component of game-play that contributes to the lack-luster combat system is the audio component. Bullets just do not sound like bullets anymore. At first I wondered if all this was international, to keep the appearance of violence to a minimum. But it's hard to clamp down on violence and gore levels when there is a vengeance seeking psychopath with psychic powers on the rampage and the franchise was never meant to be docile.

Alma is back and this time she'll pop up even more frequently (an unexpectedly). In fact this is one of the areas where the game has improved, and will unnerve you at times. The ambient sound system coupled with your rather incapable flashlight means that tackling dark corridors are always going to be a scarry proposition. Any bump in the dark will make your heart jump and those heart-stopping moments when you suddenly come across Alma scuttling across a dimly-lit room will send shivers down your spine. One of the additions to the game is the use of HDR (High Dynamic-Range) lighting techniques (this term is used differently in the game industry from the way photographers would understand it). At times this is useful because it allows for complex-lit scenes. A certain room can be very brightly lit in the center while a corner of the room could be totally dark. However, the bloom effects have been overdone in many places and it's obvious that developers still love to take liberties. In certain places the use of HDR seems annoyingly overdone and totally uncalled for. Imagine shotgun fire lighting up a dim corridor like a 100-watt bulb- what's up the that? There's a booboo in the slow-motion system too. In F.E.A.R. the slow motion system looked the part with bullets causing Matrix-style air ripples. All that has been changed, and the atmosphere takes on a weirdly blue-tinged look when you go into bullet time. Enemies also look like fluorescent figures. The effects are not as realistic as before, although there is more gore and dismemberment. Overall, this game doesn't feel as realistic as earlier one.

So, should you play it and (more importantly) buy it? It would seem from this review that it isn't worth the time or the money since all I've done is nitpick. Well, that's my job. I try not to be too butt-retentive and judgmental when reviewing games, but to me, F.E.A.R. 2 could have been so much more, if only the developers had kept the worthy parts of it's predecessor around. Comparisons to its gene tree aside, however, it's a good game -imersive, atmospheric and fast paces.