Ari’s Blog

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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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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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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Do you use PuTTY? Ever wish Putty had tabs? Ever wish putty could remember the user name and password for a connection? Enter PuTTY Connection Manager.

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Ever have a need for a piece of paper – even though you have a PDA? Or wish you had a calendar handy just to glance at – even though you are surrounded by computers hundreds of time more powerful than the ones that sent man to the moon? I have – enter PocketMod.

PocketMod is a free online application that creates a CUSTOMIZED single piece of paper – that when folded makes a nifty little pocket sized PAA (Personal Analog Assistant).

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While we are on the subject of games – There is a great Mod out there for Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory called True Combat Elite. True Combat Elite (TCE) allows you to enter the roll of a terrorist or a Special Ops (SpecOps) agent. There are currently 2 types of game play – Objective and Body Count (CTF is coming soon). Objective has the Terrorists planting a bomb or achieving a target and the Special Ops agents have to stop the Terrorists. Body count is similar to team death match.

One of the things that sets TCE apart is the fact that in game play has no cross hairs (unless your weapon has a scope) – You have to use the sight on the gun you are using. You also only have one life in Objective mode. This means no Rambo style game play.

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Enough with utilities – Here is something that is 100% fun.

The world of MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) is filled with graphically intense games like the World of Warcraft and Star Wars Galaxies. Enter the Kingdom of Loathing (KoL). KoL is a MMORPG that has great game play and low end graphics. How low end you ask – Stick figures low. Do not be fooled by the low end graphics – This game is entertaining, complex and incredibly creative.

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Disclaimer: I used to work for this company – Having said that I would HIGHLY recommend this product in any event.

Answers.com is a free web based knowledge retrieval system. It is not search. It Far Far superior to simple web searching. Web Searching always give you a page that contains the search terms – Answers gives you, well, Answers. For example – lets say you wanted to know about Bluetooth and what it does. With search you would put “bluetooth” into google and get 212,000,0000 results. Many of them selling bluetooth devices. Granted – you could probably find what you were looking for in the first ten results – but it is still a pain to get a basic understanding of a concept (Search – Sort – Read) With Answers you get the information you were looking for in one step. You enter the topic “bluetooth” and you get the following page:

It has a definition, examples, pictures, the wikipedia entry and more.

Now with the Windows client – things got even better! – Answers.com has truly provided information at the user’s fingertips. (more…)

Here are some more of the Firefox extensions that I would call “Must Have’s”

They are

• Tab Mix Plus
• AdBlock
• IE Tab

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