Koolaborate's Blog

Problem: You want to watch Silverlight based vids on Ubuntu, but Microsoft does not support Silverlight on Linux.

Solution: Install moonlight plugin for firefox in Linux.

There are a couple of practical uses for this.  For instance, some facebook applications are based on Silverlight.  Unfortunately, Netflix still restricts viewing based on OS, but there are rumors that Moonlight 2.0 and Ubuntu Jaunty will be supported by Netflix in the future.  If so, that’s cool.

Meanwhile, there’s only one real work around the Netflix issue.  Stay tuned for that tip.

References:

• http://go-mono.com/moonlight-beta/

Problem: 95% of your web use consists of 10 web sites.  Wouldn’t be nice to access them with a very quick key stroke?

Solution: Use the Firefox Speed Dial addon

Easy to install, easier to use, the Firefox speed dial is cool.  Once installed, the speed dial page will display when pressing ctrl-t for a new tab.  Click on any square and it will prompt you to add a website.  So when you click on that box again, it will forward you there.  You can also access that box via tapping the control key and a number from 1 – 9.  So to access google, per se, hit ctrl-t and then ctrl-1 on your keyboard (assuming that the first box is associated with google).

This may not be the coolest Firefox addon, but it is the most used addon I use.  But Firefox, please thanks Opera.

Reference:

• Speed Dial Addon for Firefox

Problem: The web is a dirty, dirty place… filled with thieves, pornographers and non eatable spam.

Solution: Use the Web Of Trust (WOT) Firefox addon

Of all the Firefox addon, the Web of Trust addon is my favorite.  Sure, Firebug is the most useful for the development side in me.  Speed dial is nifty and improves my browsing efficiency…  but WOT?  Badda bing!  It’s internet magic at its best.

It’s easy enough to install.  So you have an ring-like icon beside your address bar after installation.  Whatever site you go into, the icon will tell you the relative safety of the site.  A skinny ring is excellent and a dark circle is bad.  For instance, mail.google.com registers as excellent.  However, when you click on one of google’s ad-sense ad, if it’s unsafe, notifies me as poor, giving me an option of entering the site or not.

When I click on a ring, it takes me to a new tab in WOT rating for that page.  It tells me why it’s poor.  It ranks on the following criteria:

• Trustworthiness
• Vendor reliability
• Privacy
• Child Safety

Then if you register, you can add your own rating.   Moreover, if an href appears on the page, it has a mini ring right beside it.  It’s pretty light weight as far as addons go, but you can customize, edit or disable it on the fly.  Just go to Tools->WOT.

Pretty cool, yes?  Then what are you waiting for?

Problem: viewing one pic at a time sucks

Solution: install the cooliris firefox addon

Where: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5579

Cooliris has been out for a while now.  Its purpose is to let you view an aggregate of photos in a modern web 2.0 fashion.  Say you have a facebook account and you view your friend’s albums.  Facebook shows you one pic at a time.  For most people, this is fine.  However, there are a few of us which this is insufficient.  After installing cooliris, where ever  an aggregate of pics are available (say facebook or myspace), you can click on the lower left portion of the picture and a cooliris icon appears.  Upon clicking on it, with will take you to a new page where you can view the album in a rather cool way.

I can’t explain it to you.  You have to see it.  Its essentially a 3D view of the picture collection that’s super easy to navigate.  Cooliris is compatible with:

• Facebook
• Myspace
• Flickr
• Google Images
• And much, much more!

In conclusion, cooliris is killer, as more and more interfaces are migrating to 3D.