Conference Calls in Real Life

Yup, this pretty much summed it up.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYu_bGbZiiQ

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Liberate Yourself, Be Productive

I can think of a few parents who would benefit (and get a kick out of) doing this to their teenagers. Hmmmm!

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc57X0j_UwM

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NeverWet: A Superhydrophobic Spray

This may appear as magic, but it's not; it's science. Ross Technology Corp (RTC) is a company that specializes in steel products, which needed a better way to reduce corrosion. This is where necessity was indeed the mother of invention.

This necessity lead RTC Engineers to identifying a need for "a coating to keep liquid away from steel. What they ended up with is a silicon-based spray that not only kept steel dry, it could also be applied to many different surfaces and materials" yielding the same results.

The rest, as they say, is history.

"When we started getting it to work, we realized it solved a lot of problems rather than just corrosion," said Andy Jones, who leads the new effort.

Jones is the President of Ross Nanotechnology, the subsidiary of Ross Technology Corp. that was formed to develop NeverWet.

In addition to fighting corrosion, NeverWet's nano-particle coating keeps things clean, dry and free of bacteria and ice.

Jones said that once they found a coating that worked on metal, they created different formulations that adhere better to other surfaces, including clothing, plastics and cookware.

The cookware formulation also was tweaked so it can better handle high temperatures.

"Anywhere you don't want corrosion, or ice or things to get wet, this works well," Jones said.

"When you start thinking about it, there are a lot of places where that's good."

Jones quickly mentioned a number of additional possibilities: NeverWet could make ovens, toilet plungers and bed pans a cinch to clean, packaging resist water and white boards free of "ghost" images, he said.

Another application is safeguarding electronics —"I sprayed my iPhone with NeverWet, submerged it in a foot of water for 30 minutes, took it out and it was good to go," Jones said.

Now all of this may sound crazy, but I ask you hold off on that judgment until after you watch this video.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7is6r6zXFDc

What do you think? Can you think of applications for this product? Sound them off in the comments below.  ▣
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Homemade - One Person Band

This is amazing. I'm not sure how much time was dedicated to this, but I'm truly inspired to go down a similar path ... one day, I hope, soon. IMHO, it's a true blend between creativity, technology and personal style & dedication that all came together to generate a something beautiful. This, once again IMHO, is no different (and no less) than any other masterpiece out there —It's simply a new-age masterpiece.

What do you think? Share with us in the comments.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izrL7pBdkaw

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Love and Social Media

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8E1AtDE3gY

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Google Magazines

Taken with permission from TechnologyNomad.com

Google Books, a digitized library of print materials, has quite a few magazines available in addition to all their other high quality offerings. I remember reading that publishers can choose whether they provide free access to back issues via Google Book Search, or use it to draw traffic to pay-to-view archives, so we assume the same goes for magazines. That said, all of the searches we tried led to free-access page images.

Although there hasn’t been a whole lot of publicity on this, Google books began adding full text magazines. They have digitized at least 100 magazines from cover to cover, showing us the ads, pictures and articles. In addition to the historic aspect, they are really interesting and fun to look through. By digitizing every page, it is almost like going to the Periodicals stacks on the second floor of a library and flipping through them right there on the shelves.

Amongst their digitized work are back issues of many (mostly popular) magazines. Specifically, in September, 2009 Google announced the availability of over 1,860 issues of the iconic LIFE Magazine on Google Books. Every issue of Life Magazine from its debut in November, 1936 to the end of 1972 is available via Google Books. You can browse the cover of each issue and search the text of articles.

As of recent, the entire archives (137 years) of Popular Science is also now accessible, searchable, and free via the PopSci web site.

A few days ago, I learned that Google's magazine archive has expanded with 40 years of digitized content available from IDG Publishing (Free).

With the project, readers can now access issues of CIO, CSO, InfoWorld and Network World dating back to the 1970s. The pages of the publications—including advertisements—have been scanned and digitized, and are available in a searchable archive on Google Books. Additionally, some microfilm issues of Computerworld have been posted and are available on the Google News Archive. “The real value of this project to IDG is in having the content of our enterprise IT publications—going back decades—preserved for all time and accessible to researchers and historians around the world,” Matt Smith, senior VP-COO of IDG Enterprise, said in a statement.

Here's the media release from IDG.

Another popular magazine out on Google Books is SPIN Magazine. "Flippin'" through it is sure to get a giggle or two at what was once considered cool from the 1980s. The contemporary cultural and political articles – as well as exciting fashions featured in the ads of decades gone are now available for perusal from any web browser. You can also browse through archives of New York Magazine, Popular Mechanics, Weekly World News, Jet, and even Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Years available will vary, but this is a wonderful resource for those looking for 20th century popular culture, and well worth a quick search or an extended browse. Don't forget to check out the LIFE Photo Archive while you're at it!

Ancestry announced in January, 2010 that the magazine would be discontinued, so how great it is now to have access to all the issues they’ve done! This is a great model for any other publishers/organizations that may be discontinuing.

Use the "Magazine" link on the Google Books home page to get to this material. Here's a page on Google Books that lets you browse the available magazine titles. You can also use the Advanced Interface and limit to only magazines and/or publisher.

As Google's official blog adequately puts it "In many cases, these magazines aren't just history as history, but history as perspective — a way of understanding today." If print ever dies, at least there should be a digital copy of all of this history on Google.  ▣

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Must-Have Firefox Extensions & Add-Ons

Provided by TechnologyNomad.com

If you're a Firefox user, then you already know that one of the things that make this open-source browser so popular is its extensibility --the big galaxy of useful extensions you can use with it. I for one, have a couple of add-ons/extensions/plug-ins that I simply cannot continue online without. I'll even go out on a limb and say that Firefox's extensibility is the reason the browser has become my very desktop. But what are those browser extensions that turn Firefox from a regular browser to a down-right necessity?

Let's think of this in a different manner. When you buy a new computer, or you land a new job or whatever it is that presents you with the opportunity to start fresh, what are the first things you do?

You see for me, the first thing I do is jump on the native browser that came with the machine and go download Firefox. And I won't go into what other applications I download and/or seek; but for Firefox itself, I immediately start looking for the following core extensions:

It's worth noting that I'm using "extensions" to include add-ons, plug-ins and extensions (of course).

Like all extensions & add-ons, if you don't like one you can always uninstall it; which's much cleaner & simpler than uninstalling a full-blown application.

Greasemonkey

God, I can spend all day on this alone.

The Greasemonkey add-on allows users to install scripts that make on-the-fly changes to most HTML-based web pages. Basically, as Greasemonkey scripts are persistent, the changes made to the web pages are executed every time the page is opened, making them effectively permanent for the user running the script.

These scripts do not actually change the web site itself, but it changes the way Firefox interacts with the HTML on a web page to make it act in a way that is more user-friendly and/or befitting of one's needs. This change only occurs in your Firefox browser and only for the current session. It does not change any coding on the server side or to the web site itself. It simply changes how Firefox reads the code on the page and redisplays it to you with the aesthetic and functionality based on the directions/code of the script(s) you have installed. Every time you visit the web site, the script changes the page for you without you noticing it. There is no delay in the changes visible to the naked eye, usually. Some scripts allow you to auto-fill forms. You can even automatically retrieve data from other sites to make two sites act as one ... very mashups-like.

Greasemonkey allows you to stipulate what pages (and sub pages/directories) to run the script of your choice on. And the reverse is also true. Greasemonkey allows you to exclude certain sites/pages as well.

By itself, Greasemonkey does none of these things. In fact, after you install it, you won't notice any change(s) at all, until you start installing what are called "user scripts."

The "Swiss Army Knife" of Firefox extensions may seem like it requires a bit of ramp-up to get going, but it does not. You simply install those "user scripts" without as much as restarting your browser. There are literally thousands already written for you. To install these "user scripts," first you must install the Greasemonkey Firefox extension. Then head out to Userscripts.org and search for a web site or page you'd like to see optimized and in what manner and you're sure to find something.

Like I said, I could write about Greasemonkey alone. The fact is, there are definitely some "user scripts" that I seek out and install under Greasemonkey; but this is not the time or the place for that. I will tell you that you can find some for most popular sites. There are some that modify how Google presents search results, others that modify YouTube, some that add functionality to StumbleUpon, enhance Flickr, etc. What Greasemonkey scripts are amongst the must-haves is truly a personal thing.

Xmarks

Formerly known as Foxmarks, Xmarks syncs all your bookmarks (and bookmarklets of course) across all computers. As a fan and advocate of cloud computing (with some personally-put restrictions), Xmarks simply puts all your bookmarks & bookmarklets into the cloud so you can access them from any other computer connected to the internet. In addition to online backup, Xmarks is available for Firefox, Internet Explorer (IE) and Safari; so if you add a bookmark in one browser, it will automatically become available in your other browsers as well.

Xmarks has many other features that go beyond the scope of this specific post. One worth mentioning, however, is that Xmarks offers profiles allowing you to display certain bookmarks at certain locations (you may not want certain bookmarks, for example, to automatically be shown and/or available at work). For me, this is an absolute must, since bookmarklets I have created cannot become property of the company I work for; or disputed at any point to be so. Should you leave a workplace for which you had a profile location, you simply disable that location in your profile and they're gone once you sync up.

DownThemAll

Ever wanted to download all the articles, images (only GIFs, only JPGs, or both) on a web site but wish that you could grab them all at one time? DownThemAll does just that. DownThemAll is a selective, powerful download manager. It makes short work of snatching all the images on a page (including those links to the "bigger" or "zoom" versions), all the MP3s off a music or podcast blog, or any other kind of filter you can set up.

The only way to elaborate any more on this wonderful add-on is to build a small walk-through of it; which again steers away from the intention here. So ... I encourage you to try it out yourself and go from there. I'm confident you'll like it.

Better Gmail 2

It's no surprise that Gmail has become the web-mail of choice for many of us. However, there are some nuances that many have expressed; including the inability to use folders (as oppose to Gmail's labels). Better Gmail 2 addresses that and many others.

Better Gmail 2 is sure to impress you with what it offers. Amongst its lesser known features is the gem of hiding labels on the message rows. Only on mouse-over do you see the label that the message was tagged with.

Download Statusbar

Once you start downloading any thing, you're sure going to seek a much better tool than the one native to Firefox. When you are dealing with multiple downloads, it’s easy to get confused and lose track of your files. Sure, there are lots of download managers out there, but sometimes you want something that’s so discreet you barely even notice it. Is there a tool that will do the job?

Download Statusbar is a Firefox add-on that is very low-key. In fact, when you are not downloading, it is invisible, and when active, it is very, very discreet. Download Statusbar completely integrates Firefox's standard release, so there is nothing to configure before you start to use it. When you download a file, a very small download indicator (the statusbar) will appear at the bottom of your screen. From here you can control the download, pausing and re-starting in one click, running the file once it downloads, copying the URL and visiting the source website.

The Download Statusbar display makes it very easy to see what files you are downloading and how close to completion they are. If you open the add-on’s configuration options, you’ll find that the display and download are completely customizable. There are also a series of hints available on the Download Statusbar website that make your downloading even quicker. Simply put, it is effective, low-maintenance and very simple, and if you are a frequent downloader, it’s a must-have extension.

This, of course, serves a different purpose than DownThemAll (mentioned above), which allows you to download (automatically) several files at once. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I use & highly recommend both, and for different reasons.

Others

Most other extensions, plug-ins and add-ons are usually added later as you come across them. What I mean is that when you visit YouTube you'll quickly learn that you need to install the Flash plug-in; and if you visit an audio site that serves RealAudio files, you'll need to install that plug-in. And so on and so forth.

Without a doubt, there are other Firefox add-ons that I have installed; but they are specific to my needs. For example, I like having a tab-centric application (like Tab Mix Plus), an easier copy (as in copy & paste) solution like AutoCopy, and a few others. There are extensions that cater specifically to Developers, ones that cater to bloggers, and ones that cater specifically to laptop users ... to which I highly recommend FireFound and Meebo. The web-based instant messaging (IM) site offers an extension that especially goes well with portable (run off of a USB drive or something similar) versions of Firefox. Again, I'm sure there are many other extensions out there, but these are the ones I rush to add when I have a fresh copy of Firefox.

As a Firefox user what extensions/add-ons are the ones you rush to add when you have a fresh copy of Firefox? Share those with us in the comments.  ▣

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The Bloom Box: Green Energy for the Future

As many of you have noticed, I've taken some unexpected time off. I'm back now and hope that it doesn't happen again. I missed blogging.

Today's inspirational Monday post is about green energy. Yes, it's a buzz phrase that's makes its rounds every now and then; but this is in line with well deserved mention of The Winds of Change.

One of those blocks he's holding can power 4 to 6 Indian homes, one home in the UK or two blocks to power an American home. At least that's the claim being made by K.R. Sridhar, founder of Bloom Energy, on 60 Minutes last night. On 60 Minutes, "K.R." confesses that this was an oxygen-generating project built for a scrapped NASA Mars program. He reversed the process, and now instead of producing oxygen the new contraption, the Bloom Box, takes in Oxygen, mixes it with chemicals, resulting in a fuel-cell, which outputs electricity.

I would love to sit here and sound like I know what I'm talking about when I don't. Instead, I urge you to see the video.

In a day and age where one would think that all things have been invented & discovered, we are still surprised with things like liquid glass, wireless electricity and the Bloom Box.  ▣

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Safeguard Schools, Religious Institutions and Your Family Online

There have been a few things that have changed since I last wrote about how to protect your computer and your family. Of course, the applications of this are many. For example, I highly recommend a proactive approach to protect schools, religious institutions, your family (and the family of those you know and care about), etc. The options are very easy and anyone can do one, a combination or all of them.

At the network level, where everyone on your network will be affected (that's a good thing for most), the previously mentioned OpenDNS route is a very good one. Since I've mentioned it, however, I've learned that OpenDNS was responsible for a minimum of 15% impact on my network performance. While the protection is nice, their DNS (a definition was also covered in last year's article) was slowing down all systems using it. This may have just been the case for me, but I did some thorough testing only to be surprised that it was OpenDNS behind my slower connection (both inbound and out). Despite the negative-discovery, I still think that OpenDNS is amongst the top & best option, which allows for maximum customization for the entire network. With the categories they offer, and the option to add domain names via their web interface, OpenDNS makes it easy to protect all internet-accessing machines within your network.

Almost eight months after writing the April article Google offered its own public (and free) DNS. The announcement this last December opened up a whole new option for all of us to use. Despite the lack of customization, Google's Public DNS still offers a lot of security benefits. Albeit, none of those benefits will offer protection against nudity, gambling, pornography, etc. Judging from personal experience, however, I'm very impressed with the speed of the DNS. I'm unable to detect any slowness or impact on my internet connection. On the contrary, it was faster than my ISP's own DNS (is that even possible?). With that speed, and with other options available to protect my network & individual machines from the profane side of the net, Google's public DNS was the right option for; and may be one for you too.

I still highly recommend using a customized hosts file in your Windows machine to help protect against many of the profane, inappropriate and plain-ol' annoying sites. The hosts file solution is awesome and adds a layer of protection that's unsurpassed by any other. Combining that with a good (and fast) DNS and you're well on your way to isolating & omitting more than 90% of the Internet's inappropriate content. To learn more about the hosts, I strongly recommend that you read last year's article. I went to great lengths to explain it and provide you the resources needed to make it happen without much work. Having a site that keeps an eye on such unwanted web addresses and updating a hosts file alone is worth the change to make in your hosts file. In other words, you'll never have to know what bad sites to block, what ad sites to block, what sites known for spyware, malware and the like to block, etc.

After standardizing on Firefox within my household, and within organizations I've helped, it was easy for me implement a few extensions to also help with protecting our children, congregation, company, etc. from all the inappropriate & dangerous content out there. Many swear by NoScript, which's an extension/add-on for Firefox that gives you the power to specify the sites you trust and only those sites will be allowed to run active content like JavaScript, Java (usually in applets) and other executable code. The add-on thus protects you from cross-site scripting and click-jacking attacks. Personally, I rely heavily on Greasemonkey. I always run Greasemonkey and adding to it is a breeze. In particular, I highly recommend the "Block XXX sites" script. Next in line is the "Profanity Filter." Hands down, it's the best one out there. For religious institutions and schools, these two are simply a must. If you're looking to have more control on substitution options for certain vulgarities, then I recommend Jmaxxz's Vulgar Word Blocker.

Many kids are online; and if you're responsible for protecting them directly or indirectly in an IT capacity, then I also recommend that you consider "5 terrific Web-Browsers to safeguard Kid’s internet activities."

My advice is based on my personal set up. It's also the one I recommend professionally or for any volunteer work I do. After I switched away from OpenDNS, it is now Google's Public DNS, a customized hosts file and Greasemonkey scripts after standardizing on Firefox. Did I mention that it was all FREE? And so easy to set up. You shouldn't have any questions, but if you did, I'm more than happy to help.

What's left? You still need a good anti-virus application. And there are several good ones out there that are 100% free and rival many of their commercial alternatives.

If you're responsible for the IT of a company, a religious organization, a school or a bunch of children, then I urge you to consider the above solutions. You do not want a child to come across some horrific images and/or content that many adults detest.  ▣

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Technology and Education: TED Talks for Teachers

I've only mentioned TED, ever so briefly, when I wrote the inspirational Monday article The Winds of Change. In brief, TED is a small nonprofit devoted to ideas worth spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. TED's scope is now much broader providing talks and performances for free (almost 500 TEDTalks are now available, with more added regularly). If you've not experienced TED, I urge you to do so. Don't take my word for it, read what others have said.

As you may know, I like to collect free alternatives to commercial software. Along the same lines, I at one point started collecting information on what free education is available out there from reputable schools like Berkley, Stanford, MIT, etc. As part of the ongoing search and collection of free education, I've come to like and follow Free Technology for Teachers. On one of their posts, the site featured 10 TED Talks for Teachers I thought were worth repeating & mentioning as a way to show how technology can serve education beyond student curriculum; and specifically for the teachers themselves. Here's the exact article from that post:

"
TED Talks provide viewers with insightful and thought-provoking commentary and ideas. The contents of many TED Talks can be directly or indirectly applied to your classroom practices. While you're on holiday break, you may want to watch one or all of these TED Talks. If you're interested in learning more about using TED Talks in your classroom, check out Teaching With TED.

TED Talks directly about education.
1. John Wooden on Winning vs. Success.
What strikes me most about Coach Wooden's talk is his emphasis on teaching and developing character over winning. One of his three most important rules, "no criticizing of teammates, I'm paid to do that," is a great rule that translates well to the classroom and the workplace.

2. Clifford Stoll Teaches Physics to Eighth Graders.
Clifford Stoll has done many cool things in his life including catching a KGB spy, but the coolest thing he's done is teaching college level physics to 8th graders. What I like about Clifford Stoll is that instead of just talking about ways to teach and improve education he is actually getting on the front line and trying his ideas. (Stoll has definitely done enough things and made enough money to sit back and be a "consultant" but instead he's actually teaching, something I have tremendous respect for). In this talk he gave at TED in February 2006 Stoll talks about and demonstrates measuring the speed of sound with an 8th grade class. Stoll also makes a very profound, but somewhat obvious, statement about the future. He says, "if you want to know what the future generation will be like, ask a Kindergarten teacher."

3. Don't Eat the Marshmallow
In this TED Talk given by Joachim de Posada talks about the behavior of children when they are given a marshmallow and told not to eat it for fifteen minutes. In the talk Joachim de Posada reveals that the response of children to this challenge can be indicative of future success in life. In addition to being informative and thought-provoking, the talk includes some really cute video clips. The information shared in the talk confirms what most of us know about the impulse control of small children. None-the-less, it's nice to have a reminder that can inform our planning of day's lessons.

4. Bill Gates Talks About Mosquitoes, Malaria, and Education.
In this interesting TED Talk (they're all interesting) Bill Gates discusses mosquitoes, malaria, and education. The education part of his talk (the last eight minutes) presents some interesting fodder for conversation.While you may not agree with everything that Gates proposes in this talk, it will definitely make you think about what does and doesn't work in education.

5. David Merrill Introduces Siftables
Siftables are the high-tech version of the alphabet and number blocks we all played with as children. Siftables are little computer blocks or digital blocks that contain motion sensors, neighbor detection sensors, digital displays, and wireless communications. The blocks can be manipulated to create words, equations, pictures, and designs. Siftables are not yet commercially available nor do I have any idea what they would cost, but there is a ton of potential for Siftables as an educational resource. Siftables would be great for young students just learning to spell and do arthimetic. Siftables could also be great for older students to develop and try solutions to mathematics problems.

Update: Sir Ken Robinson Says Schools Kill Creativity.
I don't know how I forgot this one, but thanks to a comment left by Dolores Gende I was reminded that I should have included this talk. In fact, it probably should be first on the list.

TED Talks with implications for education
6. Tom Wujec - 3 Ways the Brain Creates Meaning.
In this short talk Tom Wujec explains how the brain interprets words, images, feelings, and connections. As an educator I always take interest in research and discussion about how the brain absorbs and processes information. Knowing how the brain processes information should influence how we present information to our audience(s).

7. Jimmy Wales - The Birth of Wikipedia.
Do a Google search for just about any academic term and more times than not Wikipedia is at the top of the results. So how did Wikipedia get started? How does it continue to run? Watch this talk by the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, to find out.

8. Julian Treasure - 4 Ways Sound Affects Us.
In this talk Julian Treasure tells us that people working in open plan offices are 66% less productive than those in quiet rooms. Treasure follows that up by saying if you are in a noisy open plan room, wear headphones and listen to soothing sounds and your productivity goes back up. The ideas and information in the video are good to remember the next time you have students working independently in a large classroom. Perhaps instead of trying to keep them as quiet as possible, we should allow kids to use their mp3 players when they're working on independent assignments.

9. How Cell Phones, Twitter, and Facebook Can Make History.
In this talk Clay Shirky examines how text messaging and social networks empower citizens to report the news without state-run media censorship. This TED Talk could be good for getting students to think about the positive things that they can accomplish using the technologies that they often think of as just fun tools.

10. Matthew White Gives the Euphonium a New Voice.
If you're a music teacher, this two minute performance might be something you'd like to share with your students to encourage them to develop their improvisation skills.

Update: Lead Like the Great Conductors.
Again, this is one that was brought to my attention by Dolores Gende. This talk has great lessons for school administrators.

Bonus: David Pogue on the Music Wars
In this video David Pogue performs a catchy medley about the changes in the way today's consumers access music and television. Pay particular attention to the middle section of song where David mentions how younger consumers watch two minute shows instead of traditional television shows. Watch and enjoy the video it will put you in a good mood for at least five minutes and you might learn something about shifts in media consumption too.

Update #2: More reader suggestions
Pranav Mistry - The Thrilling Potential of Sixth Sense Technology.
Benjamin Zander - On Music and Passion
Dan Pink - The Surprising Science of Motivation
"

As a person who relies on technology for my everyday life, and a geek at heart and by profession, it should come as no surprise that I'm a huge proponent of technology in education. Having technology for children, in the classroom, without a doubt, has its pros and cons. But in order for technology to be effective in today's education system, it needs to be intelligently integrated into a rich, meaning-centered curriculum. You can read more about technology in the classroom (with many excellent resources and references) here.

Having technology, however, as a tool for students, teachers, educators and professionals alike has without a doubt been of great benefit. I can only hope that we see more of how technology, in the form of online videos, podcasts, etc. (like the ones from TED) become part of how we advance as a society for one, and as of humanity as a whole.

It's worth mentioning that TED has (I believe) all their TEDTalks on YouTube (it makes embedding on Facebook and other social networks a lot easier). What do you think of TED?  ▣

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Tips for Browsing & Working Faster

As someone who does most of his work online, the browser has become the cornerstone application I run at all times. And being in technology for almost 15 years, I can't help but notice some of the browsing habits that my family, friends and colleagues have. In most cases, I'm their tech support and their first line of defense for most of their PC needs (purchase, how-to, strategy, approach, web site, email, etc.). So, I wanted to write a few browsing (and some non-browser) tips to help speed things up and help all to not only be speedier, but more productive.

It is worth mentioning (up front) that these tips are derived from my own personal style, and may not all work for you. However, I'm hoping that at least a few of them will come in handy and perhaps help you develop your own style. Since the objective of these tips is to be speedy and more productive, it should come as no surprise that this means I rely on the keyboard for most of them (instead of the mouse) minimizing "lift." That is, the act of lifting my hand and going to the mouse to only click on something once and allow me to resume typing. A perfect example of this is the URL bar/field. Many take the mouse to click on that field so that they could type away the URL in mind. I'm getting ahead of myself, but I figured an example is in order.

The Browser Itself

I wouldn't be surprised if the main application most of us use in today's age is the browser. Heck, I'm willing to go as far as suggesting that the browser is the new operating system (OS) of today. And your choice of browser says a lot about you, your browsing habits, and a whole lot more. Let me be short, sweet and to the point and say that if you're using Internet Explorer (IE) and you don't really have to (because of your work's IT, etc.) then do us all, and do yourself, a favor and switch. And if you're on IE6, then know ahead of time that you'll have to choose a side. Yes, it's that serious. Personally, I use Firefox. And if I wasn't, I would use Google Chrome. Why? Well, the number one reason I use Firefox beside the its compliance with the standards out there is its add-ons and extensions. There are some I simply would rather not work (or live) without.

Keyboard Shortcuts

As I previously mentioned, avoiding that reach to the mouse is sure to save you time and help accomplish things more efficiently. Addressing my earlier point, seeing a professional reach for the mouse and clicking on the URL bar only to type "www.google.com" kills me. Within most browsers (yes IE too), you can alt+d to put the cursor within the URL bar highlighting the entire current URL ready for you to type over it with what ever your heart desires. Besides copy (ctrl+c) and paste (ctrl+v), going to the URL is the next most common thing ... heck, I think it may even beat copy & paste.

While we're at it, you don't really need to type "www." and the ".com" at the end. Just type (in the example I used of going to www.google.com) "google" and hit ctrl+enter. That combo adds "http://www." before the string and ".com" after the string. The string being the "google" part.

Here's a list of keyboard shortcuts that apply to most browsers, but are listed here with Firefox in mind (yes, I'm bias):

• Go back one page in history: Backspace [or Alt + Left Arrow]
• Go forward one page in history: Shift + Backspace [or Alt + Right Arrow]
• Home Page of browser: Alt + Home
• Reload current page: F5 [or Ctrl + R]
• Stop loading current page: Esc
• Page down (i.e., scroll down) in current web page: Spacebar
• Page up (i.e., scroll up) in current web page: Shift + Spacebar
• Go to bottom of current page: End
• Go to top of current page: Home
• Zoom in (i.e., increase text size of page): Ctrl + =
• Zoom out (i.e., decrease text size of page): Ctrl + -

• Find a word in current page: Ctrl + F
• Find again: F3 [or Ctrl + G]
• Find Previous: Shift + F3

• Print current page: Ctrl + P
• Bookmark current page: Ctrl + D
• View Page Source: Ctrl + U

• New Tab: Ctrl + T
• New Window: Ctrl + N
• Close Tab: Ctrl + F4 [or Ctrl + W]
• Close Window: Alt + F4 [or Shift + Ctrl + W]
• Select Tab (1 to 8): Ctrl + (1 to 8) [for example, to select 2nd Tab: Ctrl + 2]
• Select Last Tab: Ctrl + 9

• Toggle Private Browsing: Ctrl + Shift + P
• Select location bar: Ctrl + L
• Select search bar: Ctrl + K

This keyboard shortcut list does not do it justice. My favorite list can be found here.

Don't expect to memorize half of them. Simply refer to the shortcuts and use them; and you'll learn them in due time. Despite my technology tenure, I learned one keyboard shortcut today, for example (shift+spacebar).

Use Tabs

I remember once reading something similar to the following line (I'm adapting it a bit): If the browser is the new operating system, then the tab is the new system process, and the tab bar is the new taskbar. There are always reasons to launch a new browser window, but for the most part try and use tabs whenever possible.

There are many add-ons (for Firefox) that help optimize tabs and their use. Most should know how to open a link in a new tab (just right-click the link ... when in doubt, right-click). As evident by the keyboard shortcuts, there's always more than one way to do the same thing. So look it up and see if using it works for you ... but be fair, give it some practice first. When I don't have a link but know my URL, I simply ctrl+t (open a new tab), type the main domain name & hit ctrl+enter to make it a .com url with the www part and I'm off to go. It's longer to read (and type) than to do, I assure you.

Get Organized

Organize your bookmarks in folders. I know that many use outside social bookmarking sites, and even local bookmarking is usually heavily tagged (meta-data); but I still think folders in this case (for bookmarks) rule. And I recommend creating as many of them as you can. Later, if you're serious about organizing, you'll find yourself consolidating some of the folders or even nesting some within others. The end result, in all cases, should be a more organized browser, a more accessible list of links and more efficient cataloging.

For example, I have a bookmark folder sitting on my Bookmarks Toolbar called E-Mail. In it are all the email sites I visit (gmail.com, mail.yahoo.com, hotmail.com, etc.). Another easily accessible folder (although this need not be this accessible) is a folder I created called Bookmarklets. More on those in a little bit. Another folder, again on the Bookmarks Toolbar, is (replaced with the company for whom I'm working). In it are links to the intranet, and several other internal links. In this same folder, I also keep the external and internal links (when they're different) to access my mail over the web. The next point should tie nicely with the reason behind this madness.

Use Keywords on Your Bookmarks

I don't use this as heavy, or even in the same way as most people do. Let's first talk about what they are: Once a bookmark is created, you can go back to it, go to its properties and see a field called "Keyword." It is in this field where you can set a small word or phrase (I'd keep it concatenated) to use instead of the actual bookmarked URL itself. Let me elaborate ... Let's say you bookmarked "http://mail.yahoo.com." Then you go give put "ym" as the string in the Keyword field. Now, all you have to do is type ym in the URL bar and hit enter. Circling back to the keyboard shortcuts, you would do alt+d then ym and enter; and voilà, you're at Yahoo! Mail. Of course, you can make your keywords as long or as short as you need them to be.

But where this is the most handy is with longer URLs that you want to bookmark. For me, the longest URLs I seek the most are bookmarklets. Excellent segue into the next section ...

Use Bookmarklets

I don't like to use toolbars outside of what came native with the browser. Heck, even that I butcher to maximize my browser real-estate on my old laptop (a used Dell Latitude D505). I don't install the Google Toolbar, the Yahoo! one, or any other. Toolbars will slow your browser down and are a security risk I'm simply not willing to take. Don't get me wrong, there are a few especially for developers that are absolutely amazing. Nope, I don't use those either. If I had a browser that had them, I'd have them disabled most of the time.

So what do I use instead? Most of what I need, and most of what the toolbars do, can be done with bookmarklets. Bookmarklets are basically JavaScript that calls that have been bookmarked. For example, javascript:alert("hello world"); is technically a link that can be bookmarked. Many sites offer bookmarklets that you can drag to your toolbar for later use.

JavaScript is used on most web pages. Those JavaScript bookmarklets allow you to run your own "manipulations" against the page that you're currently on/viewing. For example, you can force most pages to have a black or white background using a bookmarklet. Amongst such bookmarklets are the ones from such social bookmarking tools I previously mentioned, like Delicious, Tumblr, and others. Amongst my most used bookmarklets are URL shorteners. They not only provide a shorter URL for whatever I want to send out, but tracking (if you're logged in ... free account) all those URLs as well. I digress. You can read more about it here.

Now that I have my bookmarklets, I organize them in a folder called just that (see above), and then I assign my most used ones a keyword of their own to make accessing them a breeze. Like the Yahoo! Mail bookmark, now I can invoke a bookmarklet with alt+d, , enter.

Bookmarklets is what I use the most. And if you've been following my articles, you'll know I'm a bookmarklet-collecting freak. And I use a lot of them. I love the ones that help me read or watch YouTube by dimming everything else (two different bookmarklets). I use bookmarklets to help me write my blog (masking images and aligning them), to QA, to test accessibility, etc. There are many server services, with URLs, out there there that you could pass a URL to (like the current URL of a page) to do something with the page for you. Among such services is PrintWhatYouLike. I know this is not a bookmarklet article, but assigning such a bookmarklet a keyword and using it can have green implications (saving ink and printing paper).

A Couple of Words on Bookmarking ...

Where many use Delicious, Tumblr, or even others like Google Bookmarks and Instapaper, I've not been able to make that jump yet. Perhaps it's because I use Xmarks (formerly known as Foxmarks). Xmarks syncs my bookmarks and allows me to choose which ones are visible/accessible on different profiles. So my "work" profile only shows these folders, and not these others. I could also always go to xmarks.com and access my bookmarks from any computer with internet access.

I do, however, use photo/image bookmarking through a 3rd-party. Where most use such services as vi.sualize.us, I've found myself in love with weheartit (pun intended). I've added their bookmarklet to my collection, made sure it's in my Bookmarklets folder (organized) and have assigned the keyword "loveit" to it. Now, when I'm on a page/site that contains an image or a photo I like, I simply alt+d to go to the URL field, type loveit and hit enter. I then pick the image on that page that I want to "bookmark."

Other Browser Tricks

There are other tricks you can use to boost the likes of Firefox, which you can find here (speeding Firefox itself), extensions and add-ons that are highly recommended, and finally hacks to Firefox's configuration.

These are all things you can do to enhance Firefox. The bulk of the browser tips (and most are generic to apply to other browsers as well) came before the last paragraph, and they are discipline-based with a few technical ones here & there to help you along the way.

Outside of the Browser World

I'll try and be brief here. I find myself often needing to take a note. Nothing elaborate. I'm usually jotting a phone number down (although I do a lot more ... like this entire article), and I usually need it quick ... like NOW! My application of choice is Notepad. But in the spirit of keyboard shortcuts, I do not click on the start menu, find all programs, accessories, yada yada. Instead, I type ctrl+alt+n. That's the shortcut key I've assigned Notepad. I've also assigned one to the calculator (ctrl+alt+c). Now I'm only 3 -key presses away from getting what I need done.

There are many other things/quirks I do to help me work faster and being more productive. One overlooked item that I use almost always is alt+tab to switch/cycle amongst running applications within Windows. I cycle through tabs, since the browser is the bulk of what I use, with ctrl+tab. Sometimes, it's easier for me to do ctrl+1 for the 1st tab. On many occasions, I find myself guessing the number of the tab (hmm, it's about the 6th open tab so ... ) ctrl+6. All it does is bring focus to that tab. No harm with being wrong. I just adjust the number based on how close I got.

Using services that consolidate multiple touch points for you will inevitably, and perhaps by definition, help you work faster & better. Many of us use instant messengers like Yahoo! IM, AOL IM (AIM), Facebook chat, MSN, GTalk, Jabber, etc. But we also use Twitter, check our email, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. I use one application for them all: Digsby. It's a standalone application that's not browser based (must install it on Windows), but it's free and worth it if it was not.

Another highly recommended tools to help you work faster, better and be more productive include password managers like 1password and KeePass. Combining their use with your browser life and perhaps some cloud computing services (umm, like Dropbox ), and you'll quickly be armed with security on the go. Read more about that here.

As you can see, what you use outside of the browser (like to listen to your music, to watch video, etc.) can also help you be more efficient. Naturally, not all things that consolidate are worth a lick. Some things are best left separate.

That's the tip of the iceberg for my style and what I do. What's yours? I would love to learn new tricks (wuf wuf). Share them with us in the comments.  ▣


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Cloud Computing: Definition, Pros & Cons

My apologies, this article is a couple of days late due to illness.

I've talked about cloud computing and have touched more so on its benefits than anything else. In today's article, I wanted to give this technology-trend a place of its own, defining it properly and taking a closer look at its pros and cons ... perhaps more so on its cons; as to help exercise reasonable care, if nothing else.

What exactly is cloud computing?

You can find lots of definitions on Google or in technology-related publications. I, however, think of it as simply using centralized services over the Internet.

So what exactly are we talking about here? The "cloud" is more or less an IT or "geek" term for the Internet, and cloud computing, or cloud integration, means storing and having access to your computer data and software on the Internet, rather than running it on your personal computer or office server. In fact, if you use programs such as Gmail or Google Docs, you may not realize you are already doing cloud computing.

To put cloud computing in simpler terms, I invite you to watch this video:

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdBd14rjcs0

The companies offering cloud computing services are some of the biggest and best known in the information and/or technology industry: Google offers the Google App Engine, Amazon.com sells Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2), Microsoft released Azure and Windows Live Sky Drive, and AOL provides Xdrive, to name a few. If you’ve ever used MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Picasa, Flickr, Hotmail, or one of the many Google services, then you’ve used cloud computing. A recent survey conducted by Pew Internet showed that 69% of all Americans use cloud-based software to store pictures, videos, emails, calendars and other various data online.

One definition I came across and liked enough to save (don't know its source) is:

Cloud computing is a way of providing both hardware and software as a service via the internet. Users access the necessary infrastructure, applications, systems, and hardware via the web using their web browser. Cloud computing combines the concept of software-as-a-service, where a software application is accessed and used in a hosted environment, together with the concept of utility computing, where shared, scalable software and hardware is purchased on a usage basis.

Whether cloud computing is the same as Software as a Service (Saas) or not requires a more technical definition and explanation. One I feel is not meant for this article. To learn more about that, however, I strongly encourage the following article, which I've found to be the best & most comprehensive explanation.

The benefits (pros) & advantages of cloud computing

Having your data and business computing programs running online, rather than exclusively on your office computers, means that you and your staff have access to them anytime, anywhere there's an Internet connection. Small businesses like the idea of being able to access their data from home, at a client's location, on the road, or even on a smartphone. And of course, if you know you will have to work disconnected, you can load the files you need onto a hard drive, a USB flash stick/drive or better yet use another offline/online cloud computing tool I mentioned in the past called Dropbox (or many like it). Many of the more common cloud computing offers out there, such as Google Gears and Adobe AIR, make it possible for some Web-based programs to be used on a computer even when you're not connected. That basically took one aspect that may have been viewed as a limitation and made it a huge plus.

Some of the more basic benefits/pros of cloud computing include:

• How it frees up physical space - Think of remote data storage, servers you'd otherwise have to to keep in house, etc.
• Cloud computing eliminates the needs for maintaining a cool enough environment for computer hardware that can easily overheat and crash.
• Saves electricity - in larger organizations this alone may be worth it.
• Eliminates the cost of maintaining one's own IT staff to update and upgrade software or hardware because the data center handles that.
• Software & Hardware maintenance - Software provided online is upgraded and maintained by the provider, so the small business owner does not have to purchase the newest version of a software program or download fixes and patches for this or that server, router or hardware. Not having to buy a program outright but entering into a monthly or annual contract is very appealing, as is the fact that many applications are offered for free. The fixed cost allows business owners to plan rather than be caught off-guard when a costly software or hardware upgrade must be purchased.

For me personally, cloud computing has provided a sense of work-life balance. My personal budget, without any account numbers or anything except debits and credits, is in the cloud shared with my wife to simplify budgeting & updating. My to-do list is on the cloud. I email strictly now via the cloud. And best of all, my calendar is in the cloud. This affords me the flexibility to coordinate things between my personal life (more like several lives) and work. But enough about me.

Other less obvious benefits, especially for businesses, include:

• Data fragmentation and dispersal are held by Unbiased Party (cloud vendor assertion); in fact, shifting public data to an external cloud reduces the exposure of the internal sensitive data.
• Survey says that more than one-third of IT professionals abuse administrative passwords to access confidential data (see this)
• Cloud homogeneity makes security auditing/testing simpler
• Dedicated Security Team
• Rapid Re-Constitution of Services
• Greater Investment in Security Infrastructure (Real-Time Detection of System Tampering; Low-Cost Disaster Recovery and Data Storage Solutions, Hypervisor Protection Against Network Attacks).
• 1 In 5 Companies Cutting IT Security Spending in 2009 (see this)
• Simplification of Compliance Analysis
• On-Demand Security Controls

It is important to note there are downsides to shipping your company's entire conglomeration of data to a remote storage site. Many people find it difficult to relinquish control of their data. And it's not what I recommend at all. Instead, I'm suggesting you understand the risks and make a decision about what needs to be in the cloud and what doesn't. For some, it all can be in the cloud, with back ups locally (on premise). For others it's a mix & match solution.

Let's take a look at some of the reasons why many are still apprehensive about cloud computing.

The risks (cons) & disadvantages of cloud computing

The chief executive of leading security company Check Point, Gil Shwed, has warned enterprises from plunging too quickly into cloud computing, stating that the technology is inherently dangerous.

“The basic fact that you’re sharing data with others is a huge security risk. If I have my server with my data at least I know that I can protect my data, but if I mix hundreds of these [servers] there might be one bug, in one application, that will allow a virus to move to the others. A bug, a configuration error, anything.”

Shwed did not wish to discourage the move towards the cloud, however.

“I am definitely a supporter of cloud computing, but I don’t think it will take over from traditional computing – it will have some portion of the market. One of the things the enterprises want is control, and once you outsource ... you lose a big portion of that control, so companies will only do this if there is a very, very, good reason," he said.

“There is a clear and interesting challenge there, the move from controlling things to letting other people control it for you.”

While I don't want to discount Mr. Shwed, you have to take his perspective into consideration. He's in the security business. Naturally, it's all about control; as evident by his quotes. As a small business or even a larger one (several larger ones actually), as I will mention in my conclusion below, some things are OK to relinquish control of provided the risks are understood and perhaps even mitigated. For example, I'm OK with relinquishing control of my email for my business or for most businesses I work with to cloud computing. The convenience and cost benefits out weight the control and risks (especially when they're mitigated).

Let's move on to other risks & disadvantages, and I'll try not to interrupt with my opinion again.

Security & Privacy
Research showed that the most common concern about implementing Cloud programs was security and privacy, a finding supported by an IDC study of 244 CIO's on Cloud Computing where 75% of respondents listed Security as their number one concern.

"With services such as Google's SaaS, data loss is less likely because the information is accessible from anywhere and anytime without saving it to an easily lost or stolen USB stick or CD" (Eran Feigenbaum, director of security for Google Apps)

Most organizations pay extraordinary attention and devote considerable resources to IT security, but that doesn't mean that their data is any more or less secure. The reality is that many attacks come from a lack of timely software update management and server misconfiguration. And the likelihood of such issues occurring (at least as frequently) is greatly reduced in the Cloud, where security-patching process is more streamlined than in a typical enterprise: vendors, servers and software architecture tend to be more homogeneous, and due to economies of scale, there is staff dedicated to security, ensuring application of the latest security patches.

While anonymous computer hackers are very unlikely to gain access to your business information in the cloud, a disgruntled former employee familiar with your company might be able to guess your passwords or answer your security questions and get into your accounts to do mischief —or worse.

Don't get me wrong, there have been a couple of highly publicized incidents recently where online services lost supposedly secure data or went offline for some period of time, during which their customers' accounts were inaccessible.

But it's worth noting that the larger Cloud providers tend to have a better grasp of threats, because these people deal with security issues at more complex levels than your own IT team sees on a daily basis.

Under the Law
To search your house or office (including documents or any files like music stored on your computer's hard drive), cops need to obtain a search warrant. To get to the information you've stored on a third-party's web servers, they only need a subpoena, which is easier to obtain. This latter kind of search can also happen without your knowledge. The NY Times reports:

Thanks in part to the Patriot Act, the federal government has been able to demand some details of your online activities from service providers - and not to tell you about it. There have been thousands of such requests lodged since the law was passed, and the F.B.I.'s own audits have shown that there can be plenty of overreach - perhaps wholly inadvertent - in requests like these.

Also under the law, is the difficulty of determining where data will be stored, and, thus, what courts have jurisdiction and what law governs the use and treatment of such data (i.e., local, state, federal, foreign, etc.). Information sent or received by an organization or individual using a cloud computing service could be physically located in the United States or any other country in the world. How will a cloud computing customer address situations where one country’s reporting or discovery obligations conflict with the data privacy laws of another county? How will a cloud computing customer protect its intellectual property rights against infringement or other wrongful activity when its cloud-based applications are hosted in a country that does not recognize certain intellectual property protection measures?

Companies should take note that the concerns over security and privacy are not limited to law enforcement. A company considering a cloud computing arrangement will need to know what steps the cloud provider takes to ensure that a customer’s data is not inadvertently disclosed to another customer who may be sharing the same resources. Organizations need to extensively vet the security and privacy standards of a cloud provider, including asking the following questions: a) What security commitments are taken and are they sufficient to meet my company’s needs? b) Do the terms of use commit the cloud provider to keeping a user’s data secure, or even private, from other legitimate users of the service? c) Do you have the right to perform audits on the cloud provider’s policies and processes? d) What right does the cloud provider have to change those policies and processes?

Third Party Control
Although this mainly applies to services not at the enterprise level, it is still very relevant. Amazon reacheing into customers' Kindles and remotely deletes already-purchased books. Facebook launching Beacon, an advertising mechanism that collects and publishes information about what you do on external web sites on your Facebook profile (only to apologize and offer opt-out later). Apple denies approval for the Google Voice application in the App Store. Twitter doesn't offer the ability to export more than 3,200 status updates. Flickr only lets you see the last 200 photos you uploaded if you don't have a paid Pro account. MySpace and Facebook don't immediately remove photos from their servers when you delete them. When you're living in the cloud, you're at the mercy of a third party who can make decisions about your data and platform in ways never seen before in computing.

Lock-Out
One of the biggest benefits of storing your data in the cloud is that you don't have to worry about backing it up anymore. Big companies with hundreds of servers are more reliable than your little external hard drive, right? Yes. But servers do go down, and when you're dependent on a web application to get your email or access that presentation for the big meeting, there's always the risk that your internet connection will go down, or that the webapp's servers will. Offline technologies like the previously mentioned Google Gears, decent export functionality, and a good backup system can alleviate this particular concern, but not all systems offer those things. Again, it's about understanding the risks and mitigating them.

In conclusion ...
It’s interesting that the government is behind cloud computing and has recently launched apps.gov, a catalog of applications in the cloud. Despite the challenges of cloud computing, many large organizations are not only evaluating it, but are jumping to adopt it. Jaguar Land Rover moved to Google Apps. And the Los Angeles City Council today (if I wasn't ill to write this on time - 2 days ago) voted unanimously to “Go Google,” (like Jaguar Land Rover) approving a $7.25 million contract to outsource the city’s e-mail system to Google’s cloud and transition some 30,000 city employees to the cloud over the coming year, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.

In case you haven't noticed, I personally am right on the cloud bandwagon with all of you. My web browser is the one app I run on my desktop at all times; I've entrusted the likes of Google, Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, Amazon, and Yahoo with my data just like you have. The key is to know what you're getting into when you make that choice, to crank up your personal security (like alternate email addresses and password choices) and to lobby for better user protection by hosting providers in the cloud.

It’s clear that cloud computing is a wave of the future. Ultimately, putting your data in the cloud involves choosing convenience and productivity at the cost of some security risk. In the real world, convenience almost always wins, and there's nothing wrong with that. What's important is that you understand the dangers. All you have to do is exercise some good judgment and practices and you ought to be able to alleviate many of the risks and challenges of cloud computing, leaving you to enjoy its many benefits.  ▣

UPDATE: A relevant story to this post hit this evening, Thursday, October 29th, 2009, that a Federal Judge Says E-Mail Not Protected by 4th Amendment.

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A Simple Firefox 3 Hack to Fix Its Memory Leak

Firefox is likely the best browser out there. And in my humble opinion, it pretty much is. But that does not mean that it doesn't have its own share of issues. A quick search reveals how the open source browser is plagued with memory leak issues. Now, Firefox 2 may have been inundated with such memory issues, but the latest and greatest (FF 3.5.x) has resolved many of those issues.

Per Mozilla:

With a new management function in place, Firefox keeps memory usage under control. The XPCOM cycle collector continuously cleans up unused memory. Plus, hundreds of memory leaks have been remedied.

Of course, since Firefox is very extensible (with wide array of extensions, plug-ins, add-ons, etc.), it comes as no surprise that the application would run heavy at times. For most users, Firefox doesn't use an abnormally large amount of memory. For others, however, Firefox's memory consumption is a major problem.

There are many different memory problems, and ways to "patch" them helping you restore some of that much needed memory.

First, though, let's make sure we're all on the same page and define what are memory leaks. Whatis.com defines it as:

A memory leak is the gradual loss of available computer memory when a program (an application or part of the operating system) repeatedly fails to return memory that it has obtained for temporary use. As a result, the available memory for that application or that part of the operating system becomes exhausted and the program can no longer function. For a program that is frequently opened or called or that runs continuously, even a very small memory leak can eventually cause the program or the system to terminate. A memory leak is the result of a program bug.

Some operating systems provide memory leak detection so that a problem can be detected before an application or the operating system crashes. Some program development tools also provide automatic "housekeeping" for the developer. It is always the best programming practice to return memory and any temporary file to the operating system after the program no longer needs it.

How do you know how much memory Firefox (or any other application) is specifically using?

Hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete in Windows 2000/XP (or Ctrl+Shift+Esc in Vista/Windows 7) to pop up the built-in Task Manager, which offers a pretty decent look at what programs you're running, as well as current CPU and memory usage for each and a basic description. I personally go straight to the "Processes" tab, and then click on "Image Name" to sort that column alphabetically. I scroll down to the F's and there's firefox.exe. The "Mem Usage" column, matching it to the row of the application you're seeking (Firefox in this case), shows you exactly how much memory that application is consuming in Kilobytes (KBs). If the number is in the thousands, as it will likely be, then simply divide it by 1,024 to know how much it's consuming in megabytes (MBs).

Understanding the columns in Vista/Window 7 can be confusing, so I urge you read "What do the Task Manager memory columns mean?" by Microsoft. How to optimize your system's memory, optimizing the task manager along with a few other tricks along the same line is the subject, I'm hoping, of a future Tip Tuesday on ahmadism.com

Getting back to the browser itself, it's worth mentioning that Firefox caches objects for future use. In addition, memory becomes fragmented as memory is repeatedly allocated and de-allocated. This general increase is normal.

Normal Firefox memory usage reported by Windows might be as high as 100-150 MBs. These numbers will vary because Firefox is configured by default to use more memory on systems that have more memory available and less on systems with less. If you experience substantially more usage than this, there may be a problem, or you may just be viewing pages with large amounts of data.

So could Firefox extensions, themes and plug-ins be causing this?

For extensions & themes (not plug-ins), observing memory usage while Firefox is in safe mode may help tell you whether one of your extensions or themes is causing memory problems. There is a list of extension-specific problems, which may be of benefit.

Plugins can cause Firefox to use more memory when they're used and may not release their memory until Firefox is closed. It's a good idea to make sure you're using the most recent version of every plugin. To save the maximum amount of memory, uninstall any unnecessary plugins. Or you can block/control specific instances of memory usage, such as for Flash Player, via extensions or configuration options. Flash images in particular are pervasive in modern web pages (as ads, videos, etc) and so are a common source of memory usage. Here's some plugin-specific information.

Reducing Adobe Reader memory usage

• Shockwave memory usage
• Flash memory usage
• Java memory usage

Aside from extensions, themes and plug-ins, what else could be consuming memory when using Firefox?

In addition to the settings you can make/modify to reduce memory usage (below), there's download history.
Memory usage can increase and Firefox can slow down or hang if the download history is allowed to accumulate. Clear the download history (you may need to exit Firefox and delete the file "downloads.rdf" from the profile folder in some very rare cases) and change this setting to circumvent the problem:

"Tools -> Options -> Privacy -> Download History -> Remove Files from the Download Manager", select: "Upon successful download".

So what settings can you change to reduce Firefox's memory usage?

Aaah, the trade secrets at last. Before I move on, it is essential that you understand that many (if not all) the changes suggested below require a change to the browser's configuration; which is like messing with Windows' registry and could render your browser useless in the worst case scenario. Changing the about:config preferences below may have an effect on memory consumption but may also affect performance or reduce functionality. Use at your own risk.

How to access the about:config preferences in Firefox 3

In Firefox, type about:config in the Location Bar (address bar) and press Enter to access the hidden configuration options and display the list of preferences, as shown below in Firefox 3. (If you see a page with the warning message, This might void your warranty!, click the button labeled "I'll be careful, I promise!", to continue.)

To add a new preference, context-click (right-click) anywhere in the list of preferences. In the context menu, select New then select the type of preference you are adding.

• String is any sequence of text
• Integer is a number
• Boolean is true-false

To modify an existing preference, context-click (right-click) on the preference, select Modify and type in the new value. In some cases, Toggle will be the selection offered for boolean (true-false) preferences.

To reset a preference to its default value or to remove an added preference, context-click (right-click) on the preference and select Reset. If you added the entry via about:config, the preference will no longer be listed after restarting the program.

browser.cache.memory.capacity

Controls how much memory is used to cache pages. More accurately (and geeky), when images are loaded, they can be cached so they don't need to be decoded or uncompressed to be redisplayed. This preference controls the maximum amount of memory to use for caching decoded images and chrome (application user interface elements).

Right click on the page and choose New then Integer and create an integer called browser.cache.memory.capacity and set it to a low number. This controls how many kilobytes of memory are used for the browser’s cache.

The possible value of "-1" (without the quotes) means Firefox will automatically decide the maximum memory to use to cache decoded images and chrome based on the total amount of RAM.

"0" (the number zero, again without the quotes) means do not cache decoded images and chrome in memory. Any positive integer means the maximum amount of memory in KB to use to cache decoded images and chrome (1 MBs = 1024 KBs).

Caveats: browser.cache.memory.enable (see below) must be true for this preference to take effect. Lowering this value causes less memory to be used but also increases the load time of previously visited pages and dialogs. Raising it has the opposite effect.
To view current memory cache usage, put about:cache?device=memory in the Location Bar
This preference does not exist by default in applications other than Thunderbird.

What numbers do I recommend? Well, if you have 1 GBs of RAM installed in your machine, then try 32768 KBs as the memory cache integer. For 2 GBs, try 45056 KBs. And for 4 GBs, try 59392. If you have more than 4 GBs then you shouldn't be complaining about memory leaks ;)

browser.cache.memory.enable

This boolean preference (true or false) looks at when a page is loaded, it can be cached so it doesn't need to be rerendered to be redisplayed. This preference controls whether to use memory to cache decoded images, chrome (application user interface elements), and secure (https) pages. browser.cache.memory.capacity (above) controls the maximum amount of memory to use.

A value of "true" (without the quotes), which is the default value in Firefox, allows decoded images, chrome, and secure pages to be cached in memory. Whereas a value of "false" (without the quotes) means don't cache decoded images, chrome, and secure pages in memory.

Caveats: Setting this preference to false causes less memory to be used but also increases the load time of previously visited pages and dialogs, especially those of secure sites.
If browser.cache.disk_cache_ssl is set to true, secure pages will be stored in disk cache, not memory cache.

browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers

Pages that were recently visited are stored in memory in such a way that they don't have to be re-parsed (this is different from the memory cache). This improves performance when pressing Back and Forward.

This preference limits the maximum number of pages stored in memory per tab.

Like browser.cache.memory.capacity, a "-1" (without the quotes) will automatically determine the maximum amount of pages to store in memory based on the total amount of RAM. "-1" is the default value. "0" (the number zero without quotes) tells Firefox to not store any pages in memory. Whereas any positive integer up to 8 will indicate the number of pages to store in memory.

Lowering this value causes less memory to be used but also causes more previously visited pages to have to be re-parsed (thus increasing their load time). Raising it has the opposite effect. One page will on average take 4MB of memory. I personally recommend the value to be between 5 and 8, but if need be, it can go down to 2 or even 1.

config.trim_on_minimize

Configure Firefox (Windows only) to swap memory to disk when minimized. This will make Firefox less responsive if you minimize/maximize a lot, but it is good if you need to free memory while multi-tasking to other applications.

Right click on the page and choose New then Boolean and create a boolean called config.trim_on_minimize and set it to true. Now when you minimize the window it will free up memory.

network.prefetch-next

Network link prefetch will download all pages with the rel=”prefetch” tag. This uses up more memory than you would otherwise think. Simply set network.prefetch-next to false. However, for sites that use prefetching, disabling this preference will decrease the amount of bandwidth used, but increase the time required to navigate sites.

browser.cache.disk.capacity

When a page is loaded, it is cached so it doesn't need to be downloaded to be redisplayed. This preference controls the maximum amount of hard drive space to use for caching purposes. A positive integer means a maximum amount of hard drive space in KB to use for cache. Firefox's default is 50000 KBs. A value of "0" (the number zero without any quotes) means do not cache files on the hard drive. Note: browser.cache.disk.enable must be true for this preference to take effect.

I know it must be odd that I'm even suggesting this, but an there are extensions out there that could help. Amongst such extensions is RAMBack, which allows the user to manually free memory, such as caches, that is usually used to increase performance. This gives the advantage of small cache sizes without having to always suffer the performance hit.

And finally the obvious ... If you find that Firefox's memory usage continues to grow after long periods of being open, you may want to consider periodically restarting Firefox to bring the memory usage back to reasonable levels. Close Firefox and select the Save and Quit option to reopen your tabs when Firefox restarts.

I'm curious how all of this helps. Share it with the rest of us in the comments.  ▣


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