Ari’s Blog

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.

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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.

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I am sold on Chrome. Not the shiny automotive kind. The browser kind. I know Chrome is developed by Google. I know Google may be the next current “big bad“. Even so, Using Chrome is just a nice experience. It is a fast browser that has a really simple user interface and has great extension. Now for those of you who do not use/know what extensions are – Think of them as an app store for your browser. Your browser comes with basic functionality (like a new iPhone) and you add additional functionality to it with extensions (like apps).  I will write about my favorite extensions in another post.

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blog.billauer.com is now iPhone friendly. I added the  WPtouch iPhone Theme to wordpress and walla!  When you surf to the site from an iPhone/Android phone you get a slick iPhone app like interface.

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I am now waiting for an invite to Google Wave.  I have several potential invites in the works but none have panned out yet.

As soon as I get the invite I will write up a review. My buddy Hillel has already written up an article about his “Eight Google Wave Annoyances“, but I am not letting that influence my judgment. Now I just have to wait.

I hate waiting.

UPDATE: Ugh -  I just found out it can take a week from the time I am invited until the invite shows up in my inbox.

Did I mention I hate waiting.

Filezilla is a great free and open source FTP client. It beats the pants off of windows explorer. I have been using it for ages and enjoy it – It is user friendly and feature rich. If you need to FTP files look no further.

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Ever need to compare the contents of 2 files? You could use WinDiff. But WinMerge is a far better option.

WinMerge

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This is a cool site I read about on Lifehacker called YourFonts. YourFonts is a free website that helps you create your own font.

sample personal font

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Lclock is a nice mix of eye-candy and functionality. This utility takes the clock style from Vista and brings it Windows XP. In addition to a nicer looking clock the utility adds a useful calendar- which is FAR better than right clicking on the clock and going to adjust date/time.

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Ok – I have updated the blog!

I have updated the WordPress to the latest version – Which was really easy. If you are thinking of starting a blog I highly recommend WordPress ( http://wordpress.org/)

Also I have added a new post which you can see below! (http://blog.billauer.com/?p=48)

Hopefully I will continue to update the site more frequently!

-Ari