TwitterFox - Firefox extension

If you have not heard of Twitter yet it is a micro blogging tool that allows you to write 140 characters at any point in time. For more details on it please read my previous blog post which will give you some background on what it is. Well I have been using Twitter now for quite a few months and enjoy its ability for me to post useful comment and sometimes not so useful comments off to my followers. Something that I have found very useful is a Firefox extension called TwitterFox. This is the primary method I have been using it to post my tweets and interact on Twitter. If you live inside the Firefox web browser then TwitterFox is a great way for you to post, receive replies, direct messages and generally keep updated on the people that you are following. The extension is very lightweight and adds a tiny icon to the status bar of Firefox. I have been through quite a few bits of standalone pieces of software as well as a number of other Twitter downloads including the majority of the ones listed on the Twitter website (http://twitter.com/downloads) and found this one to be the fastest and most reliable. The URL to the extension is below;

http://www.naan.net/trac/wiki/TwitterFox

Firefox Wallpapers Galore

Firefox users, lovers and fanatics will love this link. The link below is to the most comprehensive listing of Firefox themed wallpapers for your desktop that I have found. Anyone with any other links to wallpapers that are not on this page please post away. This is just a short post but as you can see from the page I give a big shout out to Nikesh for putting this page together.

http://linuxpoison.blogspot.com/2008/07/100-firefox-wallpapers-that-will-blow.html

Speed up your page load times with a simple trick

Here I have for you a simple image trick to make your pages load faster. This might sound simple but it is something that i notice allot of web developers overlook when adding images to pages, whether it is because they are lazy or just didn't think about it, this is a fact. Every time you web page loads the browser looks for the width and height of an image. This is specified through the attributes width="236" & height="657" which allows your browser to instantly know, through your HTML / XHTML code, how big the image is and where to place it. What happens behind the scenes now is that you browser will load your page text before the graphics. If your graphics do not have width and height attributes set then as the browser reads the HTML / XHTML and gets to one of the images with no attributes, it causes the browser to have to perform a function to work out the actual size of the image, which hence slows down the load time a little bit. So the trick to making you pages load quicker is to make sure that all of your graphics, even the small transparent gifs and bullets have a width and height set. After some testing that I have done on a dial up connection you can really notice the difference. Give it a try.

Change file types in Vista - Using Types

Have you noticed that the functionality to associate file types with a program has been dropped in Vista from the explorer menu "Tools" > "File Types". Well there is a way to give you back the control that you are used to with a program called Types. It is a is a free and lightweight configuration utility for Windows Vista and XP that allows you to edit program associations, icons, context menus and other properties of various file types displayed in Windows Explorer programs in Vista. You can still use Vista to change what programs open which file extensions. For example by clicking on "Start" > "Default Programs", or by right clicking on a file and clicking "Properties" and on then by clicking on "Change" on the "General" tab. Types however allows you to full control of editing file types and context menus and many other properties. It is definitely worth a look at and is in my mind ones of the most powerful freeware file extension managers out there as changes are made instantly with a quick refresh click. It is definitely an improvement on the inbuilt Windows file extension management options.

http://types.sourceforge.net/

Google Chrome - New Google Browser

Google have released a new browser called Google Chrome. The best description I have found of the new browser in in Wikipedia. At the same time Mozilla have released Firefox 3.1 Alpha 2 and Microsoft have released IE 8 Beta. I have been on a bit of a downloading spree lately getting the latest versions of the browsers and and testing each of them. As always my favorite if Firefox simply because of the extensions that it offers and as a web developer I cannot live without the Web Developer toolbar and Firebug. But let me not get led astray. Google have a browser now and although it is in beta stage is is very quick when loading pages that rely on JavaScript and AJAX. I have tested it on a number of websites that use allot of AJAX and the browser works very nicely as it has been designed to. I have read a number of reviews that back this up http://null-logic.net/blog/2008/09/02/javascript-performance-comparison-with-chrome/ for one and http://goit-postal.blogspot.com/2008/09/chrome-first-little-test-with-highly.html . Google Chrome is defiantly a browser that will in the future go head to head with IE, FireFox , Safari and Opera however at the moment it is only early days so it is way to early to tell the extent that this browser will take a share of the market. For the moment I will be sticking to FireFox however I have noticed that it does perform better with allot of the Google apps that I use so I may find myself switching between the two when preforming different types of browsing. Interesting features that it offers is that you can browse incognito. This means that pages you view in this window won't appear in your browser history or search history, and they won't leave other traces, like cookies, on your computer after you close the incognito window. Any files you download or bookmarks you create will be preserved. Another feature that it offers is that if a tab crashes then the whole browser does not crash only the tab with the problem will close. Other new features include a new JavaScript Engine called V8 is in use, better performance through compiled JavaScript as it is compiled into machine code and not necessarily always interpreted. New JavaScript VM which has a better garbage collection included to preserve memory and browser tabs or new browser windows run in dedicated threads. I am still finding out more information about the browser as it is only new so if anyone has any interesting points to raise about the browser please post your findings and opinions of Chrome.

Google alerts to build back links to website

Building back links is essential for your website to rank high in the search engines. Finding relevant websites to request back links from can take time and research. I have found a great way though to located relevant websites to build these back links from which is free. If you have a Google account then you can setup Google alerts to send you links to websites and blogs that have published freshly content that matches the keywords that you are looking for. To do this visit http://www.google.com/alerts and enter the keywords and interested in and your email address and you will be sent alerts of and new web page that publishes content that contains those specified keywords. You can visit each of these websites, that Google alerts has provided you a link to, check that this website is relevant and if they offer the ability to publish press releases or links on their website, then offer them as link to your website. This can be added in the form of a link swap on their links page, a link embedded in some content that you provide the website that links back to you website or a back link in a comment on one of their blog post s’. Make sure that you leave relatively quality comments on blog posts though or you will find that they will not publish your comments.

I have found that this is a great way for me to build back links to my website as on a daily basis I am provided with a list of websites that have published content that related to my keywords. Over time also you get to see which websites are the ones that publish content the most that relate to your keywords so you can work out whether it is worth forming a relationship with these websites to add a permanent link to you site. If anyone else has any great ways of building back links please leave a comment.

Recuva - Restore files that you have deleted

Recuva (pronounced "recover") is a freeware Windows utility that can be used to restore files that you have deleted from your computer. It comes from the makers of CCleaner so you can trust the product developers. It can be used to retrieve files that have been deleted from memory cards, mp3 players as well as the recycle bin. If you have been hit with a virus that has deleted files then you can use the program to locate the files that have been deleted and restore them to their original location. I have only just started playing with the program and ran a few tests and it seems to work quite well. The interface is quite easy to use so it can be used by all levels of computer users with a relatively good understanding of a computers file system. It is in beta phase so it may have some bugs, but I am yet to find any. If you have deleted a file or need to recover lost data then give it a try. You can find it at http://www.recuva.com/.

Reader for iPhone by Google

There is now a even better version of XHTML version of Reader by Google for mobile devices available at http://www.google.com/reader/i/ .This version is aimed at the iPhone as it is aimed at mobile phones with advanced browsers. It is designed to offer many of the same features as the desktop, while making it quick and easy to act on items. You can scan the headlines for news items that catch your eye and then click to expand the headline. You still have all of the available features such as staring, sharing, and keeping unread are done in place. Check it out at http://www.google.com/reader/i/.