Must-Have Firefox & Thunderbird Add-Ons

There are lots of Add-Ons I use every day with Firefox and Thunderbird. These lists show the ones I use frequently (in alphabetical order).

Firefox Add-Ons:

• ColorZilla - Get colors of page elements or images, very helpful for web development
• Copy ShortURL - Quickly copies the short version of the current page's URL if one is defined, or will automatically make one using the TinyURL service. Very hand for Twitter and Facebook posts!
• Download Statusbar - Handy indicators for files that are downloading (or have been downloaded)
• Firebug - This is an indispensable Add-on for any web developer to debug client-side Javascript and much more
  
• FireShot - Take screenshots and easily do annotations and basic edits
• Forecastfox - Integrated weather info, very customizable
• FoxClocks - Display times in other timezones, helpful if you're working with people overseas (or are overseas yourself working with people back home)
• Live HTTP Headers - Useful tool for inspecting information being sent and returned from HTTP requests, great for web development debugging (ajax calls, etc)
• S3 Firefox Organizer - A quick and dirty Amazon S3 file manager. There are better free S3 tools out there (such as CloudBerry Explorer), but for quick things directly in Firefox, this works great.
• Tabberwocky - Provides tweaks to the way tabs are handled in Firefox
• TwitterBar - Allows quick Twitter posts directly from the URL box. It by no means replaces a regular Twitter client, but it's a great lightweight option for doing posts for the current web page you're viewing.
• Web Developer - If you're a web developer and you're not using this extension, I have genuine pity for you. Seriously, this extension provides so much functionality, it's unbelievable.
• Xmarks - An add-on that integrates with a free service to synchronize Bookmarks and/or Passwords with multiple computers. This makes keeping information the same on my different computers a breeze.

Thunderbird Add-Ons:

• Folderpane Tools - This extension allows for customization of the folder pane. Accounts can be rearranged and the start-up folder can be chosen.
• FoxClocks - Display times in other timezones, helpful if you're working with people overseas (or are overseas yourself working with people back home)
• Lightning - Calendar integration for Thunderbird (including iCal feeds)
• Nostalgy - If I could have ONE add-on, this would be it. Allows you to assign keyboard shortcuts to easily file mail. This saves me TONS of time and allows me to filter and file emails extremely quickly.
• Provider for Google Calendar - this pairs up with Lightning to allow Google Calendars to be added (though read-only Google Calendars via the iCal URL will work without this)
• Quicktext - this is another extension that I use daily. Provides a flexible way to create stored text strings/emails and easily use them when drafting new mails or replying. Great for customer service professionals!
• Zindus - Syncs contacts between Thunderbird and Google Contacts (or Zindus' format, but I use it for Google Contacts)
  

Am I missing any "must-have" add-ons? Please let me know!

TicketExchange by TicketMaster: Let's see how many ways we can screw over our customers!

By now, most people are well-aware that TicketMaster is in the business of dominating the event ticket sales market and approaches monopolistic tendencies -- at at the least, leaves a sour taste in each and every customer's mouth that uses their service.

If I were the CEO, I'd be seriously embarrassed that ZERO of my customers are happy with the service they are getting. The problem is that customers are literally powerless in many situations: If they want to see an event and the tickets are sold by TicketMaster, well, they just have to take it up the ass and deal with it.

This post is not really about TicketMaster in general, but is specifically about a service they have called TicketExchange. The TicketExchange "service" allows ticket holders to resell their tickets to other buyers in a quasi person-to-person marketplace.

This is a great idea in concept, but the manner in which TicketMaster does this is extremely questionable and has got to be darn close to illegal.

Let me first start by saying that I am aware that I, as a ticket holder, have a choice for how to sell my tickets. There are other options, such as StubHub, Craigslist, etc. The TicketExchange process makes things easier, and I appreciate that in concept. However, as you read on below you will see that they are seriously taking advantage of people that don't stop to think about what's really going on.

The best way to illustrate my point of TicketExchange's disturbing nature is by providing an actual example.

1. I have an extra ticket for an upcoming Sounders FC game that I would like to sell. I sign into my account and decide to list my ticket for $30. This is described to me as the "posting price". I don't know about you, but that sounds like the price it should be posted at -- i.e., the price that people should see when they are browsing for tickets that are available for the event in question. Simple logic, right? WRONG. The ticket actually shows up for sale for $34.50! I did some more testing and found that TicketMaster lists your ticket for 15% more than whatever you put in for your "posting price". I will explain later why this is royally screwing you even more.
2. As noted when I posted my ticket for sale, I will get "90% of the posting price". They are correct, I will get 90% of the posting price -- not the price it was posted at. Confused? I think that's something they do on purpose. They make no attempt to tell you that they are jacking up the price from what you type in. Per this example, I will get 90% of $30.00 -- NOT 90% of $34.50. As you can see already, TicketMaster is skimming even more than you might have thought from each sale.
3. When someone buys my ticket (for $34.50, not $30.00 as you thought), they are then charged an "Authentication and Reissue fee" of $2.50 per ticket. Let's be honest: no human is touching these tickets, so why exactly does it cost $2.50 to allow someone to buy my ticket and print it out on their own printer?
   

One the sale is done, the buyer has just given ticketmaster a total of $37.00, and I am getting a measly $27.00. I understand they are offering a service and that said service charges me a fee for the convenience, but they are skimming 10% off of my end, then jacking up the price AND skimming off more money (the "Authentication and Reissue fee") on the other end!

At a minimum, I would at least expect my tickets to be posted for the posting price that I said to post them at.

This is a total racket!

I want to make sure everyone is aware of this situation and keeps it in mind when deciding to sell their tickets via the TicketExchange "service".

Palm Pre First Impressions Review

While on travel to Chicago, I came across a Sprint store and spotted a banner for the new Palm Pre, so I thought I'd seize the opportunity to pop in and get my first hands-on look of the Pre.

I have been following the release of the Pre since it was first announced months ago, and had already read plenty of reviews, so I felt as if I'd already used the device even though I hadn't ever touched it.

For some context here, I was in the store for about 10 minutes, so this is literally a "first impression" and "quick glance" type of review and is not meant to be an exhaustive opinion of the device. I'm still on AT&T using my HTC 8525/Hermes Windows smartphone running Windows Mobile 6.0 (6.1 upgrade is not officially available for the 8525).

Very First Visual Impression
The Pre is smaller than I thought -- not in a bad way, but definitely smaller. Visually, I was seriously amazed at the screen's brightness and clarity. Have you ever seen cell phones on display when they have those fake card-like screens instead of the real, usable phone? The Pre's screen looked so vibrant that I thought it was fake -- in a good way. The stock background image looked amazing.

Very First Touch of the Device
The phone has a very nice, clean design. The screen is not inset like a lot of phones but is sort of just part of the phone. Somewhat hard to explain. The touchable surface of the phone extends below the screen itself to the gesture area (down to where the center bottom button is). Prior reviews that had cited the device as "cheap feeling" are totally off their mark in my opinion. The Pre is fairly lightweight but didn't feel cheap to me at all.

The sensitivity of the touch screen is great and sliding and doing gestures was very natural and worked well without any noticeable lag.

Slide-Down Keyboard
The keyboard slides down with good resistance. I would agree that the edge exposed by the bottom of the device when the keyboard is out is a bit "sharp" but not dangerous ;) I think it's a bit of tradeoff to get the device how they want it when it's closed.

Applications Quick Review
I won't go into the various applications it has, as you can find that info on the Sprint or Palm site with ease. I will say that it comes with what you really need. There has been lots of talk about how the iPhone has "thousands of applications" in their app store whereas the Pre does not -- but in the end of the day, do you NEED a fart application for the Pre? I think the Pre comes pre-loaded (no pun intended) with what you really need -- excellent contact & calendar mangement, multimedia video/audio playing ability, good web browsing, etc. The browser on the Pre looks great -- sites load fine and zooming in/out works great and the page re-renders quickly.

Summary
I really didn't see anything on this phone that stood out as lack lustre. It is a really great build, excellent user interface, and overall a great phone. I don't think the question is whether it's better than the iPhone, because to be honest, it's just a bit different. It's a personal choice. I tend to think the Pre fixes a lot of the annoying things about the iPhone, but maybe the iPhone is still "cooler" -- but at the end of the day, the number one goal of a smartphone is whether it can successfully make and receive phone calls, can give you access to the information you need, and can browse the web and leverage GPS successfully. Both phones do that, but in different ways. I think the Pre does it better through Synergy and general better thought into multitasking, etc.

Asus Eee PC 1000HE Netbook: First Impression Review

Introduction
After reviewing a good handful of Netbooks currently available, I eventually decided to purchase the Asus Eee PC 1000HE. I felt that it was the best value out there -- providing the features I wanted with excellent battery life. Granted, the array of features with Netbooks is pretty limited. Bluetooth support, Express Card slot, size, and battery life are the main differentiators. The 1000HE has Bluetooth support and excellent battery life, but does not have an Express card slot (which doesn't matter to me). Overall size for the 10" screen Netbooks is a bit larger than the others, but this is partly due to the larger battery. I felt this makes up for the slightly larger size.

This review is more about my experience and impression with the product and not so much on the actual specs. The latter are easy to find online.

First Impression: The Shipping Box
I was lucky enough to be home when the FedEx delivery man arrived (good thing because there has been a package delivery theft issue going on in my neighborhood lately). This thing is tiny. By "thing" I am referring to the box FedEx handed me. I have handled Netbooks before and knew it was small, but it was still shocking nonetheless.


The box the 1000HE came in (bottom). My Thinkpad Z61t and a 2.5" external USB hard drive are included for size reference.

First Impression: The Product Box + Contents
After opening up the shipping box, I was present with an only slightly smaller Asus product box. After opening that, the 1000HE was sitting at top enclosed in a protective sleeve.


1000HE Product Box

All contents were packed and presented nicely.


The 1000HE is sitting on top in a protective sleeve.


Other box contents (1000HE removed). The protective case Asus provided (top) is a decent Neoprene case, better than I expected.


Everything that came in the box!
Top row: 1000HE, zippered neoprene case, power cord, power adapter. Bottom row: battery pack, user guide & other docs, drivers/utils CD (ironic since there is no drive in the Netbook), polishing cloth for the shiny finish of the 1000HE, Warranty form

First Impression: The Netbook
Man it's tiny. I knew it was thicker than other Netbooks, but let's be clear: "thicker" does not equal "thick". My Thinkpad Z61t is actually a bit thinner, but I don't care to be honest. The finish on the outside is glossy and actually has a bit of a "speckle" effect like a 70s ski boat, which looks great. It's not really noticeable more than about a foot away from the Netbook. The lid opens without requiring a closure release and has good feel. When closing the lid, the last inch or so subtly snaps closed, which is nice. Overall, the build quality of this Netbook is very good. It is very solid with little to no flex.


Fresh out of the box! (spots are artifacts from the photo)


Size comparison with Thinkpad Z61t (bottom) and 2.5" USB hard drive (top)


There is a protective film over the screen bezel. There was also a protective sheet between the keyboard and the screen which I removed for this photo.

Keyboard & Track Pad
The keyboard is the "chiclet" style that is becoming more popular, and is found on many Sony Vaio notebooks. The keys have good feel and throw and it is easy to type on. The keyboard as a whole has some slight flex to it, but it is minor and not something that should affect a purchase decision. The track pad is much larger than most Netbooks I reviewed, which was one reason I leaned towards purchasing the 1000HE. The buttons are also separate, which I prefer. The buttons have solid throw and a very clear "click" to them. I would probably say that they are a bit too hard to press for my preferences. I tend to do tapping on trackpads anyhow, so this doesn't bother me too much.


Full shot of the keyboard and track pad. The track pad is pretty much the normal size of a notebook track pad, not a tiny one like some other Netbooks are coming with. Right shift key is small, but is placed correctly and I have no issues with it whatsoever. My only issue with the keyboard is probably the requirement to use the Fn (function) key to do home/end and page up/page down. I use those a lot along with Ctrl to navigate through documents and code, so having to press Fn is a bit annoying. They did include two Fn keys, though -- one on the left and one by the arrow keys.


Closeup of the track pad and buttons.


Fancypants shot of the keyboard.


Power Adaptor
The power adaptor is nice and small and has a very long cord and a velcro strip for bundling the cord.

General Speed/Performance
I've been installing & configuring things for the last two hours and it's very snappy. You wouldn't know it's only an Intel Atom processor. I had the default 1GB of RAM installed for most of the setup and just recently swapped it out with the 2GB chip I purchased. It ran just fine with the 1GB and I don't think the upgrade is necessary for most people. I've now installed a WAMP (Windows-Apache-MySQL-PHP) dev environment on the Netbook, which is why I wanted the 2GB. It runs great -- faster than my desktop actually! You CAN dev on a Netbook (as long as you can deal with the smaller keyboard).

Webcam
The webcam is surprisingly good quality! Great color reproduction. Refresh seems fast for a web cam. As soon as it was turned on the picture was good (no "warm up" time for contrast or color was required as with some lower-quality webcams). Skype comes preinstalled but I upgraded it to the latest version. Did a test call with a friend using video and audio. Sounded and looked great, video was smooth on both ends.

Speakers
Speakers actually sound pretty good. They're small (for obvious reasons), but the sound quality is better than I expected.

Wireless LAN + NIC
No problems getting online with my WPA-enabled access point. The 1000HE uses the built-in Windows XP wireless management software instead of custom software, which I prefer (the less software running, the better). Tested out the wired LAN as well, no issues.

Summary
This is a great Netbook! Highly recommended.
Overall, I'd rate it about 4.7 out of 5.
Points lost for mouse buttons, glossy finish (looks good but requires cleaning). I'm nitpicking here, this Netbook rocks.

Handy site for creating secure passwords

I was using a Firefox add-on called "Secure Password Generator" but it doesn't seem to be compatible with Firefox 3.x, so I looked for something else and ran across this. Not quite as convenient as the add-on but just as useful. Password generator to generate good, secure, random and easy to remember passwords.

UPDATE 7/16/2010 -- this site is now apparently a pay service. Here's another one that's decent: Strong Password Generator

Learn CSS Positioning in Ten Steps

Despite the fact that I wrote my first HTML code around 1993, I am still learning all the time (not so much regular HTML, but DHTML, CSS, etc.). I was having trouble with some CSS positioning this evening and came across this great "10-step" tutorial on CSS position and floating. Definitely worth a read (if you do CSS stuff, that is).

Link: Learn CSS Positioning in Ten Steps: position static relative absolute float

Twitter and Yammer Test Dot-Com Business Models - NYTimes.com

The 2nd half of this article is another example of the philosophy of getting the product right first, then worrying about revenue. Read my older post where I discussed this.