Archive for August, 2010

VLC for all your media playback needs

Recently, a friend asked me what he should install on a new PC before he takes a backup snapshot. The PC is going to be used by the whole family as a media PC in addition to other functions. I put VLC Media Player on this list of must haves.

VLC Media Player

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The Invisible Hand – It saves you money!

Few web browser extensions are as unobtrusive and as useful as the the invisible hand. Once installed, the invisible hand extension subtly tells you while shopping if the site you are on is offering the lowest price for the item you are looking at without you having to do anything. It just works.

Say you are looking for a camera and you go to Amazon and find the camera you want. While on the page a little yellow bar will appear and tell you if the same product is cheaper elsewhere or if this is the best price. Automatically.

The invisible hand in chrome

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Password Hasher Plus

Hands down this is the number one must have Chrome extension. Password Hasher Plus. Here is why:

Identity theft is a serious problem and it does not look like it is getting any better. People are starting to use strong passwords but they use the same one for all sites they visit. This is VERY risky. Suppose your twitter account information gets stolen. If you use the same username and password on all you sites the hacker now has access to ALL your sites (E-mail/Amazon/PayPal/Facebook …). This happened to a colleague of mine. His Facebook account was hacked and from there the hacker took control of several other accounts including his E-mail. In the age of on-line banking this also can mean unfettered access to your money.

Imposters

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