Test Drive TraceMonkey Nightly Builds in Portable Firefox [Tracemonkey]
Our in-house portable Firefox guru Asian Angel has posted a thorough how-to for those of you hot to use the lightening-fast TraceMonkey JavaScript engine nightly builds without disturbing your full-on Firefox installation. Here's how to run the newest Firefox TraceMonkey nightly build as a portable version.
IcoFX Creates and Edits Icons for Free [Featured Windows Download]
Windows only: If you're looking to create or edit custom icons, try IcoFX. With support for multiple resolutions and transparency, you can create slick, resizable icons for applications you develop or just to help you quickly find oft-used folders. And you can export icons into Windows or Mac format. The software offers some basic image editing tools, but you can also import images from other programs like Photoshop or Illustrator. IcoFX will preserve transparency and even do the resizing and color mapping. The Tools menu offers both batch processing for handling multiple icons, and a resource editor to change the icons for binary files. The software offers a little more power than drag-and-drop icon creator ToYcon. Too lazy to create your own icons? Try searching ICONlook or IconFinder. IcoFX is a free download for Windows. Thanks, celldrifter!
DateInTray Adds a Small, Quick Calendar to Your System Tray [Featured Windows Download]
Windows only: Free application DateInTray adds a small, unobtrusive calendar icon to your system tray displaying the current date. Clicking the icon displays a small pop-up calendar. If you liked the calendar integration of previously mentioned Analog Clock but don't want to expand your taskbar to enjoy it, DateInTray (which we've mentioned once before) is a perfect utility. And if you're the type to avoid extra system tray utilities to avoid bloat, DateInTray's minuscule 500-700KB of RAM usage should please even the most miserly of systems. DateInTray is freeware, Windows only. Thanks Doug!
Find and Download Higher Resolution Videos on YouTube [YouTube]
Tech blogger Amit Agarwal has a great tip for using Google to search YouTube only for videos offered in higher resolution:
Go to Google.com, type your search phrase and append the following parameters to your search query: site:youtube.com "watch in normal quality watch in high quality"
Once you've found something you're looking for available in better quality, copy the YouTube URL and swing by KeepVid (or have the bookmarklet handy). Paste in the URL and click the Download button. KeepVid will offer you both the lower-resolution FLV and the higher-resolution MP4 — download the latter to save to your phone for reference when you're lacing up that turducken in the kitchen for Thanksgiving.
Schick Manscaping Helps You Make the Ever-Important Fu Manchu Choice [Grooming]
Ever toyed with the idea of growing out a moustache, mutton chops, soul patch, or full-on beard, but haven't committed because you aren't sure how you'd look? Schick's Manscaping Flash app aims to help you try out as many different facial hair configurations as you'd like without any of the embarrassing side effects of actually growing it first. For more (and better) grooming tips, check out our top 10 easy ways to look sharp.
Sponsor Shout-out [Thanks Sponsors]
Thanks to this week's sponsors: Casio, Cingular, Chevy Fuel Solutions, Energizer, Gyration Air Mouse, HP MediaSmart Server, HTC Diamond, IGN, The Last Remnant, The New Museum, The New York Times Magazine, Nokia E71, Rovio, T-Mobile, Toshiba. Click here to advertise on Lifehacker.
Make Windows Networking Suck Less? [Call For Help]
Frustrated reader Dave says he hates Windows networking. He writes in:
Windows Networking is a huge pain in the ass. It defeats its entire purpose: easily moving files around. I don't think I've ever set up a network easily, without a lot of trial and error and thrashing about various wizard screens. Windows Networking often requests a USB flash drive to copy/paste Networking settings, policies, and password on a router or other machines. What if your router has no USB port? You're stuck keying in a bunch of stuff and praying it works. I hate how network places spontaneously disappear from My Network Places. I'm often forced to re-add network places, especially FTP servers.
I'm running a second desktop using Ubuntu. My file sharing is run through WinXP and Samba. I find that Windows doesn't always play friendly; one day I can drag/drop files to the Ubuntu machine as if it were another folder on the C: drive and the next (with or without WinXP reboot), I can't get in without a reboot of the XP machine.
As someone who, coincidentally, spent the morning fighting to restore a previously-working FireWire connection between my Mac and PC, I'm feelin' Dave's pain, especially when Microsoft's own troubleshooting strategies failed miserably. Anyone out there have any advice or techniques that helps make Windows networking happen more smoothly? Or are we just stuck waiting around for Windows 7 and hoping for the best? Tell us your tricks in the comments. Update: Thanks helpful commenters, I solved my 1394 connection problem by using a different static IP address. Not at all obvious, but it worked!
Three Extensions to Trick Out Your Firefox Tabs and Location Bar [Firefox]
Reader RJ writes in with his/her perfect combination of extensions and user styles that make working with tabs easier: TabMix Plus, Locationbar² and Stylish (with a custom style). RJ explains:
It might not look like much to some, but this combination of add-ons has made it a lot easier for me to work with tabs, and moreover, improves the look and feel of the browser by making it more interactive and accessible. I have shared this with some of my coworkers and friends and their reaction has been very positive.
Here's the rundown of what does what (with links) and a screenshot.
TabMix Plus formats the text on the tabs. There are formatting options for active and inactive tabs.
Locationbar² stylizes the URL bar. You can set a color and/or bold the domain in the URL bar.
Stylish further improves the URL. (I find this to be very handy) NOTE: When using Stylish with Locationbar², the Locationbar² options for adding color or making the domain text bold won't work. You will have to do this by editing the CSS stylish sheet. This isn't hard.
Locationbar²: CSS mods style uses different colors for different document types. Currently there are three different "colored" groups:
- Static documents (.htm, .html and .txt)
- Dynamic documents (.php, .php3, .php4, .cgi, .asp, .jsp, .cfm)
- Images (.jpeg, .jpg, .bmp, .tiff, .png, .gif)
Here's the full-width look at RJ's Firefox chrome with these extensions and styles set up.
(Also, if you go ahead and install the Stylish extension, don't miss our favorite functional user styles.)
What are your favorite tabbed browsing tweaks? Let us know in the comments. Thanks, RJ!
How to Protect Your Wi-Fi Network from the WPA Hack [Wi-Fi]
WEP Wi-Fi security has been known as an easy-to-crack security protocol for a while now, which is why it was superseded by the more secure Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) standard. But now a PhD candidate studying encryption has found an exploit in the WPA standard that would allow a hacker to "send bogus data to an unsuspecting WiFi client," completely compromising your Wi-Fi security and opening your network to all sorts of hacking. Lucky for you, it's not terribly difficult to protect yourself against the new exploit.
The key: Just log into your router, switch off Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) as an encryption mode, and use Advanced Encryption System (AES) only. TKIP is the only protocol that the hack applies to, so switching to AES-only will ensure that your Wi-Fi network is safe again. It's quick and easy, so do yourself a favor and make the adjustment now so you don't run into any problems in the future.
You received this email because you are subscribed to the real_time feed for http://feeds.gawker.com/lifehacker/full. To change your subscription settings, please log into RSSFWD.
No comments:
Post a Comment