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In: Web
With: 3 Comments

This is an update of my older list of Firefox 2.0 Extensions I’m a long-time user of the Mozilla and Firefox browsers. Google Chrome is awesome, but I’ve been unable to switch to it as my primary browser because the Add-Ons just don’t offer the customizations and features to which I’ve grown accustomed. Here’s my list of extensions that makes Firefox the ultimate browser. Essential Add-ons that I use every day: Tab Mix Plus: If I had to choose only one extension, this would be it. This extension alone keeps me from switching to Google Chrome. It makes the tabs behave any way you wantRead More →

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In: Wordpress
With: 5 Comments

I just implemented a new theme on my WordPress website. I’ve been wanting a new design for well over a year but couldn’t find what I wanted: a simple design with lots of subtle transparency, rounded corners, and a simple color pallet. Then I found the Aeros theme (created by Joe at TheBuckMaker.com blog) and it provided a great starting point — but some modifications were required. I started off by prepping my site content for the new theme. Using the P2Pconverter extension, I converted many of the old and outdated pages into posts to unclutter the top page navigation bar. Unfortunately, WordPress does notRead More →

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In: Events & Travel
With: 0 Comments

I was sitting at work wishing I could go somewhere for lunch and watch the inauguration. Then I went to CNN.com to see if I could catch a live stream. I was surprised that a Facebook application popped up beside the video and I was able to view my friend’s comments in real time. It was like watching with friends even though I was sitting alone in my cube. A very plesant surprise – well done CNN!Read More →

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In: Tech
With: 4 Comments

I think Microsoft should be given credit for single-handedly stimulating the economy. Consumer spending is down, most of the Black Friday deals are lame, but I’m purchasing things that have been on my Wish List for years.  Why?  Because I can get 25% cash back if I purchase an Ebay Buy It Now item and pay for it using PayPal. This is such a good deal that I’ve I installed the Live.com search Add-on for Firefox and replaced Google as the default search engine.  I’ve found the search results to be just as useful as the Google results.  Live.com earned bought my loyalty. 🙂 HereRead More →

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In: Tech
With: 0 Comments

About a year ago, I somehow happened upon a request from computer case manufacturer CoolerMaster to browse their new website and provide feedback on areas where improvements were needed.  In short, the site was terrible, with coding errors, navigation issues, and worthless search capabilities. I provided feedback thinking that they would actually value it and make some improvements. They didn’t. Even worse is the fact that I was signed-up for their newsletter in the process. I have one of their computer cases and thought the newsletter may be of interest. It turns out it wasn’t, so I used the unsubscribe link and unsubscribed. I recievedRead More →

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In: Tech
With: 33 Comments

Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Solution) is a great way to store (and optionally share) large amounts of data. It’s cheap, fast, and reliable. If you’re a casual user, you may not know that you do much more than just store and sever data of HTTP, as long as you use an advanced application such as Bucket Explorer (or read through the S3 documentation and code it yourself.) Here’s a list of 9 features you may not have known about. Torrent Tracking and Seeding: Amazon S3 can server as an ultra-reliable torrent tracker; share/seed the files from your local PC and let S3 act as theRead More →

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In: Reviews
With: 10 Comments

I’ve tried several different Amazon S3 file managers and had settled on the free S3 Firefox Organizer. But then I tried Bucket Explorer. Not only did it do everything I needed it to do, it introduced to me new features I didn’t know Amazon S3 supported. If you’re like me, you love free and open source software. Bucket Explorer, once out of beta, will be a commercial program. I’m not sure what the final price will be, but assuming it costs less than $40, it is a program worth purchasing. Here’s why I’m recommending it. Bucket Explorer is a Java-based GUI for managing, uploading to,Read More →

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In: Wordpress
With: 3 Comments

I happened upon the site WebSiteOptimization.com and started testing the performance of my site. I was astounded by how long it would take to load the front page of my site over a 14.4 kbps modem connection. True, not many people use a modem connection anymore, but still, 130 seconds is a long time to wait! Now this the time required to load every last image, not the the time required before the page starts to render and become readable, but still there is room for improvement. So I started playing around with performance settings and quickly made some substantial gains. First of all, IRead More →

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In: Web
With: 85 Comments

A few months ago, I noticed I was approaching my bandwidth limits on my hosting account. Switching hosting providers is a pain, so I decided to move some high-bandwidth graphics to Amazon S3, where the bandwidth is cheap and unlimited. All was well until I realized that Google was returning search results pointing to my bucket on s3.amazonaws.com instead of carltonbale.com. Luckily, AmazonAWS has a work-around. You can use your own domain name in an Amazon S3 bucket. Here are the instructions on how to do it, from beginning to end. Introductory Steps for new Amazon S3 Users: First of all, obviously, you need yourRead More →

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In: Web
With: 31 Comments

I recently needed to share some open source files via BitTorrent and wanted to host them on my Amazon S3 account.  For those of you familiar with S3, here is the short-answer: add ?torrent to the end of the URL of a public-shared file to get the *.torrent file, so the link would be http://s3.amazonaws.com/your_bucket_name/your_file_name?torrent If you’re new to Amazon S3, read on for more info and detailed instructions. Why would you want to distribute a file using BitTorrent? I wanted to do this because, when sharing a file via a torrent, you use less of your Amazon S3 bandwidth and lower your monthly expense.Read More →