BokkBase - Just My Personal Blog

The dangers of the web are a worry for many parents. Pornography is everywhere, even on many seemingly safe sites. Obviously you don’t want to have to ban younger family members from going online – there are plenty of entertaining and educational sites out there that it would be a shame for them to miss out on. A better solution would be to install some sort of guardian software. Vista comes with Windows Parental Controls built in and XP users can make use of Microsoft’s Windows Live OneCare Family Safety service (https://fss.live.com). Both are reasonable, but there are better options available. One of the best, for Firefox users at least, is Glubble. As a free add-on for Firefox, Glubble is a 3.4MB download available from http://glubble.com. It customises the browser, giving it a more child-friendly look, and comes with a starter pack of websites which are guaranteed to be safe for the under-12s.

This simple add-on lets you create individual browsing accounts for everyone who uses your computer. When adults log in they get access to the full internet, but children are only permitted to see and search trusted sites – everything else is blocked, unless you specify otherwise. It’s easy to set up and use and is very secure. However, it does only work with Firefox so if you have other browsers installed (Internet Explorer for example) you will either need to hide or remove them, so your children can’t use those instead.

Part of what makes Firefox such a superb web browser is the ease with which you can customize it. If you find that it’s lacking a certain feature or you’d prefer it to work in a slightly different way, the chances are you can get it to do what you want simply by installing a third party add-on. This support for extensions is one of the main reasons for Firefox’s continued growth and popularity.

The choice of add-ons available for the browser is staggering. To name just a few, there’s Clipmarks, which lets you bookmark just the interesting content from a web page; Adblock Plus, which automatically strips the adverts from a site; Scribefire – a fully featured blog editor; Download Statusbar, which transforms the unwieldy download box into a tidy bar at the bottom of the screen; Greasemonkey, which lets you change how your favourite web pages work; and FoxyTunes, which gives you in-browser control of your media player. And that’s just to get you started. There are thousands of add-ons to play around with and some are better than others. However, because they’re all free, there’s nothing to stop you trying out an extension and then abandoning it if it has failed to impress you.

Most people use either Outlook or Outlook Express to get their email. Both programs are fine, if a little unexciting. Vista’s Outlook Express replacement, Windows Mail, is much better and offers several improvements including instant search, and junk and phishing filters. There are plenty of other programs you can use to get your email though and the best of these is Mozilla’s Thunderbird. The original version was very good, with an intelligent junk filter to help cut down on unwanted spam, but the latest release of the software is a massive leap forward. It’s packed with impressive features you never knew you needed, but once you’ve tried them you’ll never want to live without. It’s incredibly configurable too and the software has lots of advanced searching and sorting options. Thunderbird also acts as an RSS feed reader, so you can access all your messages, blog posts and news headlines through the same program. Here’s how to make the most of Thunderbird’s outstanding new features.

The latest version of Thunderbird is free to download from http://getthunderbird.com. It’s by Mozilla, the same people who produce the Firefox web browser, and its pedigree is unmistakable. The software is packed with handy tools and options but it’s also very straightforward to use.

Just like Firefox, There are also a great many add-ons you can use to enhance its functionality even further. Thunderbird can be customized and expanded by installing add-ons and extensions. Go to Tools, Add-ons. This displays any currently installed extensions 1 and you can browse for new ones by clicking on the Get Extensions link. If you’re thinking of switching from Outlook Express to Thunderbird you should find it a simple and trouble-free process.

To properly install Windows on a SATA (Serial ATA) drive, many users need to manually supply the drivers when prompted by the Windows installation program. Download the SATA drivers from your motherboard manufacturer’s Web site, copy them to a floppy diskette, and press F6 when you see the following message: “Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI [Small Computer System Interface] or RAID [redundant array of independent disks] driver.” Follow the on-screen instructions to install the drivers.

Here are a few of my favorite Firefox extensions.

• Adblock Plus

This popular extension blocks Web site ads from loading, speeding up the rendering of information you care about.

• All-In-One Sidebar

This powerful extension adds a sidebar to Firefox that affords easy access to a number of windows and options normally found on various menus.

• Answers

Press the ALT key while clicking any word on a Firefox Web page, and Answers will deliver a pop-up window with information on the word. Depending on the word, you may get company data, a definition, or something else.

• Duplicate Tab

Firefox likes to open blank pages (when you ask for a new tab) or your home page (when you ask for a new window). Duplicate Tab clones an existing tab instead, retaining all its history. This action lets you move back to pages you previously viewed without losing the one you’re currently viewing.

• FireFTP

FireFTP opens a basic FTP (File Transfer Protocol; for uploading and downloading files to and from the Web) window in a Firefox browser tab.

• Forecastfox

Forecastfox puts the weekly weather forecast (with lots of extra options) in your Firefox interface.

• FoxyTunes

FoxyTunes adds a mini music player interface so you can listen to favorite digital audio files directly from your Firefox browser. It supports several file formats and numerous players.

• Gmail Space

Turn your Gmail storage allocation into an online drive to store or back up files. (The extension places a GSpace option on your Firefox Tools menu.)

• IE Tab

Even if you love, love, love Firefox, there will be times when a page will only display correctly in Internet Explorer. This extension creates an IE-compatible interface inside Firefox.

• New Tab Homepage

This tiny, click-saving applet automatically loads your home page when you open a new tab.

Part of what makes Firefox such a superb web browser is the ease with which you can customize it. If you find that it’s lacking a certain feature or you’d prefer it to work in a slightly different way, the chances are you can get it to do what you want simply by installing a third party add-on. This support for extensions is one of the main reasons for Firefox’s continued growth and popularity.

The choice of add-ons available for the browser is staggering. To name just a few, there’s Clipmarks, which lets you bookmark just the interesting content from a web page; Adblock Plus, which automatically strips the adverts from a site; Scribefire – a fully featured blog editor; Download Statusbar, which transforms the unwieldy download box into a tidy bar at the bottom of the screen; Greasemonkey, which lets you change how your favourite web pages work; and FoxyTunes, which gives you in-browser control of your media player. And that’s just to get you started. There are thousands of add-ons to play around with and some are better than others. However, because they’re all free, there’s nothing to stop you trying out an extension and then abandoning it if it has failed to impress you.