My Thunderbird Part 2

Add Your E-mail Accts

The first thing you will do when you install Thunderbird, is add your e-mail accounts. Here are some screenshots of the process:

First, select File...New...Account

Select what type of account you are adding. I guess Gmail is not merely e-mail. Select the most appropriate option.

This is the information that will be visible to those that receive your e-mails.

Here is where you input your server information. If you are unsure about your info, check out this link.


This is what will show in your sidebar as the label for this account.

You are all done.

Add To Google Calendar In One Line

For those GCal users among us, this nice little tech tip popped up from GoogleTutor. This quick little article notes how to include event name, date, time, and place all in one line to add the event without going to the details.

Quick Google Calendar Tip: Say It All In One Line!

Erase Pre-Installed Software

Have you ever gotten a new PC that included trial programs that continually issue registration prompts until you visit their website and bribe them not to(pay for the program). Most of us prefer to make our own decisions concerning which programs we install on our PCs, especially for $$$. If you can excuse the crude name, this handy little program will allow you to remove these pre-installed programs with minimal direction and oversight. Freeware for Windows.

Pre-installed Software Removal Program

Jump Drive Tricks

Looking for some creative ways to put that USB drive to good use? Check out these tips from lifehacker. Some of their ideas include a portable programs that run off your drive, encryption, and using it for backup.

Top 10 USB Thumb Drive Tricks

Yes, I did remove the case on my 2 gig jump-drive. It makes the unit about a quarter of the original volume and can easily fit in the little hip change pocket in your pants. Makes it a lot easier to take anywhere. Grab some Plasti-dip at Home Depot and you can seal it so that it is water and dust proof.

Have any tips or hints of your own? Post them in the comments.

E-mail Etiquette

I hope we all know what the "TO:" field in our e-mail is for, but lifehack.org has a short article about the use of the lesser used fields. This article will give you a quick check-up in e-mail etiquette and maybe even teach you something you don't already know.

To BCC or Not To BCC

Do Anything With PDF

Fill out PDF forms online, convert docs to PDF, print to PDF, merge PDF files, and find some great, lightweight readers. Check out this list of programs and services for dealing with PDFs.

Cool PDF Tools from MakeUseOf.com

Firefox Windows Media Plugin

If you are like me, you wouldn't use anything but Firefox, but there are small issues with our favorite browser. The new Windows Media Plugin can cross one off the list. This plugin makes it much easier for Firefox to play windows media videos in your browser. Nothing fancy, just something to make life easier.

Window Media Plugin download page

Save Power With Standby

Looking to cut down your electric bill? Who isn't? Before you start making your own candles, check out this tutorial on how to use standby to save you a bit on the power bill. The detailed instructions and screenshots will get you through the process like you were an old pro. Afterwards, you can pat yourself on the back for doing your part to save the environment.

S3 Standby Done Right from Tweak Your Life

Edit Video Online

Makeuseof.com put together a great list of online video editing services. Don't feel like keeping a memory hogging app for video editing on your system? Check out these websites that can handle it all online. You would be surprised at what you can do.

18 Online Tools to Edit, Mix and Enhance your Videos

I Want a Firefox Extension To...

Looking for a little known extension that will make Firefox the ultimate browser customized just for you? You would be hard pressed not to find it in this extensive list organized by function.

I want a Firefox extension to...

Send Later Thunderbird Extension

Use this extension to send reminder emails to yourself or others. After you compose the email, instead of the regular Ctrl + Enter to drop it into cyberspace, use Ctrl + Shift + Enter to pull up the send later dialog box and tell Thunderbird when to mail the message down to the minute. Remember to leave Thunderbird open, otherwise the message will not be sent. This extension is compatible with the latest Thunderbird version.

Send Later from Lifehacker

Use Your Mobile Phone For (almost) Anything

Looking to get more out of your cell phone? Check out this list of useful mobile sites and services. Record calls, get news, share photos, get maps, search for real estate, get coupons, get traffic, and watch TV. ...Deep breath... You can even download this helpful list as an Excel spreadsheet.

The 85 Piece Mobile Search Tool Kit

Supercharge Your Gmail

From Lifehacker

by Adam Pash
Yesterday Gina released Better Gmail, a Firefox extension that integrates the best Gmail user scripts under one easy-to-manage Firefox extension. Whether you're using the extension or the Greasemonkey scripts, these add-ons turn Gmail into an entirely new and wildly powerful email tool.

The problem is, you've got to know what you're doing to take advantage of what Better Gmail has to offer. That's why today, I'll show you how to use Better Gmail along with a few other Gmail add-ons to turn Gmail into the best email application you've ever used.

The Essentials

The Greasemonkey community has built several must-have scripts for enhancing Gmail, but that used to mean you had to go hunt down each script every time you wanted to power up your Gmail on a new computer. Additionally, for some reason or another, a lot of people out there aren't terribly keen on Greasemonkey. That's why we're all very lucky that just yesterday, Gina released the Better Gmail Firefox extension, which basically wraps together some of the best Gmail Greasemonkey scripts into one master extension. That includes:

Macros: This is the must-have missing feature from Gmail, and it's what I'll spend the most time explaining and demonstrating in this feature. It lets you perform all kinds of fancy Gmail footwork without ever taking your hands off the keyboard.
Attachment Icons: Adds small icons to emails with attachments to indicate what kind of file is attached.
Filter Assistant: Helps you quicky create new filters based on the message you're currently viewing.
Saved Searches: Lets you create custom, often-used searches that work sort of like smart folders.
Conversation Preview: Lets you preview a message with a right-click of your mouse.
and more...

Starting to see how useful this extension is? Now let's take a look at how you might put it to use.

Check out the video above (if you haven't already) for a look at how Gmail Macros, along with several of the other tools included in Better Gmail, can help you get things done in Gmail.
Best, must-know shortcuts

The ability to perform every email task you need, from navigation your conversations with j/k, navigating inside threads with n/p, or selecting the current email with x (all of which are baked into Gmail from the get-go, as long as you enable keyboard shortcuts) to the excellent on-the-fly labeling and label navigation you get from Gmail Macros.

The other keyboard shortcuts from Gmail Macros I use and love most are:
g + label name: This works for any label, saved search, or default sidebar navigation (like inbox, sent mail, etc.). Just type 'g' and the label selector will pop up. Then begin typing the name of the label you want and as soon as you narrow it down, Gmail Macros will take you there.
l + label name: Select your to-be-labeled conversation(s) with 'x', then hit 'l'. Begin typing the name of the label and again, once it's narrowed down, it'll automatically label your email with the match.
Shift-L + label: Lets you remove a specific label from currently selected email(s). You can also remove labels on a per-email basis if you're viewing it within the label you want to remove by archiving it with y.
Shift-N + label: Allows you to create a new label and apply the label to a message on-the-fly, a simple tweak that takes the extra steps out of applying a new label to a message, meaning you won't blow off creating the label because you can't be bothered to take the time. This is currently not available with Better Gmail (but it may be in the next release), but it is available with this version of the Gmail Macros script (via Gmail Power Users Group).

The label selector command window might seem a little confusing, since it looks the same no matter which command brings it up (i.e., g, l, Shift-l, Shift-N), but don't let that bother you. Once you get used to it, it's indispensable.

Then there are the compose, reply, and forward shortcuts. To Compose a message, hit c, to Reply to the message you're currently viewing, hit r, and to Forward the message you're viewing, hit f. Any of these commands can also be used to compose your email in another window by adding the Shift key to the shortcut (e.g., Shift-c will open a pop-up compose window).

To open an email, you can either hit Enter or O for Open. If you're viewing a long conversation thread with a lot of collapsed emails, you can expand them all in one fell swoop by hitting Shift-o.
As you're learning how to use the Macros, always keep in mind that you can pull up the keyboard command list at any time by hitting h, as in Help. However, if you're more into paper cheatsheets, click the thumbnail to the right for a passably printable image of the keyboard command list. [1]

My final favorite that I'm going to highlight is the Conversation preview shortcut. If you've enabled Conversation Preview, you could preview a message by right-clicking it, or you can do that from the keyboard, too, by hitting v for View. Awesome. (I have an unnatural love for my keyboard.)

Gmail as a web-accessible hard drive
As Gmail's storage quickly approaches 3GB, a lot of people have got a lot of room they're not using. That's why it's been a prime target for really cool third party apps that let you mount and browse your Gmail account like it's a hard drive. Windows users should try the Gmail Drive shell, while Mac users should take a look at gDisk. If you want to keep things in Firefox, try out the Gmail File Space extension.

Encryption
If you've logged into Gmail at http://mail.google.com rather than https://mail.google.com, the messages you're sending could potentially be read by any dirty sniffer on your network. Logging into the https version, however, will encrypt your information as it's sent so no one can stick their nose into your messages. The 's' is for secure, people! To set every Gmail connection to redirect to the more secure https connection, try out CustomizeGoogle or the HTTP-to-HTTPS redirector Greasemonkey script. You can also use CustomizeGoogle to remove the Spam count from your Gmail sidebar, along with lots of other Google tweaks.
Real privacy hounds should check out FireGPG or Gmail Encrypt to add secure encryption to email you've sent with Gmail.

Knock out repetitive email
This is more of a tip for any email application than Gmail specifically, but if you process a lot of email every day, I can't stress enough how much time a text replacement application like Texter for Windows, TextExpander for Macs, or Snippits for Linux can can save you. For a very brief (and somewhat trivial) demonstration of how I use Texter with Gmail to automate personalized responses to email, check out the video below.
To find out how that worked, check out Texter.

Honorable mentions
GmailThis Bookmarklet: This little bookmarklet makes it easy to email any web page with the click of a button. Beyond that, if the mood strikes you, you can learn the advanced usage techniques to customize what your composed email will look like.

Gmail Date Search: Viewing emails sent on a specific date in Gmail requires a somewhat convoluted bit of syntax. The Gmail Date Search Greasemonkey script adds a Search by Date button to Gmail that lets you quickly search for emails by date by entering dates in a simple MM/DD/YY format. I wrote this one, so if you notice any bugs/have any suggestions, let me know.

DragDropUpload: This handy Firefox extension lets you drag files into Gmail (or any other file upload field) so that you don't have to go through the messy process of searching through your file directory just to upload a file you're looking at on your desktop.

GTDGmail: Fans of Getting Things Done should check out GTDGmail, a full-featured Firefox extension that seamlessly integrates the GTD philosophy to your Gmail inbox.
For more of a beginner's look at Gmail, check out my previous Gmail master feature. It covers more of the basics, like label creation (with an explanation, if you're confused), setting up filters, and Gmail search operators. For a look at the huge repository of Gmail-related tips we've posted, check out our Gmail tag.

Skype Tips and Tools

From Makeuseof.com

One-by-one we are publishing jumbo tips and tools lists for popular services. Today it’s Skype. What follows is, 30 carefully-selected and tested (when possible) Tools and Tips for Skype users, including popular Skype extras, desktop widgets, addons (for browser, email and Office programs), cool tips and more. As always, all free!
(1) SKYPE EXTRAS (Windows, Skype 3.0 or higher)
SAM - Answering Machine - cool voice answering machine for your Skype client. Takes voice message, records conversations, includes inbuilt lie-detector and lets you setup video greetings . [requirements: Win. Media Player]
Media Controller - nice extra that lets you auto-pause/stop/decrease volume of your media player (Winamp, WMP, iTunes) at the time of an incoming call. It’ll change the state back to normal as soon as the call ends. (Note: little heavy on memory usage)
TalkAndWrite - collaborate with your contacts on any document (doc, rtf, pdf, xls, ppt, png, webpage, etc.) side by side. Demo
uSeeToo - lets you share images, maps, play multi-player games and collaborate with your contacts.
KishKish Lie Detector - fun, real-time lie detector that monitors stress level of the person you talk with.
Tumara VC for Skype - search your Skype contacts using voice commands.
Fadeout Fun - free Skype soundeffects, i.e. phone rings, toilet flushes, etc. [Works on any platform]
Last.fm - integrates customized (based on your favorite artists), ad-free radio to your Skype client. Automatically fades out on incoming calls. [requirements: Flash 7 or higher]
(2) DESKTOP WIDGETS (both for Mac and Windows users)
Yahoo Widgets (?): SkypeContacts [Win] / Skyper TM4 [Win , Mac] - displays your Skype contacts and lets you contact them by using provided action buttons.
Google Gadgets (?): Skype Plugin [Google Desktop 4 or above] - displays your skype credit and contacts.
Mac Dashboard: Skype Widget [Mac OS X 10.4 or later] - dashboard widget that lets you make calls, look up country codes and check calling rates.
(3) ADDONS (For Browsers, Email Clients and Microsoft Office)
SkypeWebToolbar [Firefox / IE] - recognizes phone numbers and Skype names on webpages, and lets you initiate a Skype call with a single click.
SkypeEmailToolbar [Outlook, Oulook Exp. 6, Thunderbird(win)] - access Skype contacts from your email client, call Skype names and phone numbers listed in the emails, view status of your contacts, add a Skype Button to your email signature and more.
SkypeOfficeToolbar [Win] - lets you send the file you are currently working on via Skype. Also recognizes phone numbers within your documents (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) and lets you call or SMS them.
Skype Sidebar [Firefox (1.5 – 2.0b1), Win] - handy addon that lets you call, add, find, check status, chat, voice mail and send files to your contacts right from your browser.
Callto: Linkify [Greasemonkey(?) script] - turns text phone numbers in webpages into ‘Skype Dial’ hyperlinks. When clicked it’ll initiate a Skype call to that number.
CustomizeSkypeAccount [Greasemonkey script] - integrates extra info to your ‘Skype Call list’ on your account page (skype.com), i.e total cost per month, total call time per month, etc.
(4) COOL TIPS
How To make a portable Skype phone from an old cordless phone.
Skype hack enables higher resolution video calls. For PC For Mac.
Router secrets that improve the quality of Skype phone calls. ‘HowTo’ video
Adding a ‘Skype Me’ button to your email as a signature
How To get Skype to work from your USB Drive. (aka portable(?) Skype)
(5) MORE STUFF
Anothr - simple and extremely easy to setup service that lets you use your Skype client as a notification tool for getting updates on your favorite blogs and feeds
SMS to Skype - allows GSM mobile phone users to send instant messages to any Skype user. (Note: Regular SMS rates apply)
JiWire Hotspot - helps you locate wireless hotspots anywhere in the world
Plusfax - fax paper documents from your fax Machine directly to any Skype user
KanTalk - free foreign language practice community for Skype users
SkypeMobile - install skype on your mobile for cheaper calling rates
Skype for Mac 2.6 (Beta) - newly released Skype version for Mac users with bunch of cool features, i.e. chat type indicator (i.e John is typing), call transfer (transfer your active call to anyone on your contact list) [requirements: Mac OS X v10.3.9 Panther or later]

Top 10 Firefox Extensions to Avoid

From Computerworld

April 10, 2007 (Computerworld) -- Welcome back, Firefox fans! We've helped you get started on your journey to browser perfection with our list of 20 must-have Firefox extensions. But the ability to tweak your browser is a double-edged sword. There are extensions best avoided, including some of the most popular.

Popularity shouldn't be the acid test to determine if you should install an extension. The important question is whether it enhances your browsing experience without any nasty side effects. The good news is that the extension community is actually pretty adept at self-policing. Most extensions that are truly "broken" (for instance, they crash your browser or suck up all your CPU power) either get fixed quickly or simply vanish.

But some extensions are "bad" in unapparent ways, or just don't provide enough benefits to be worth running. So, in no particular order, let's look at 10 to avoid.

Fasterfox

This Web accelerator has a "pre-fetching" mechanism that makes you a very bad Web citizen. Here's how it works: You land on a page and start reading it. While your system is idle, Fasterfox silently starts following links and downloading the destination pages. The idea is that if you then decide to click on one of these links, the page is already cached on your local machine and will pop up very quickly.

This is nice for you, but it can be an incredible waste of bandwidth -- just think about how many links are on a typical page. Even if you don't care about bandwidth, there are reports that some systems administrators are now detecting the extension (and others like it) and blocking clients that are using it. While it is possible to use Fasterfox responsibly, it is best avoided unless you know what you are doing.

If you must use Fasterfox, choose the Courteous setting -- it will speed up your browsing a bit without making you a complete bandwidth hog.

NoScript

This extension is hugely popular and works as advertised, giving you control over which JavaScript, Java and other executable content on a page can run, depending on that content's source domain. You whitelist the sites you consider safe and blacklist the sites you don't.

	NoScript has you allow or forbid executable content by originating domain; a single Web page can include such content from multiple domains.

If you really have a need for this kind of control, then you're already using the extension and will continue to do so. But for the average Web surfer, constantly having to whitelist sites so that scripts can execute in order to give you a fully formed Web experience gets tedious very quickly.

Does NoScript make Firefox safer? Sure. Is it worth the hassle? No. For some reason, paranoia seems to be cool among Web geeks, but for the most part, it is totally unwarranted unless you're sending and receiving sensitive data. Most typical Web surfers who install this extension remove it after the novelty wears off.
Adblock and Adblock Plus

Obviously, we have some bias when it comes to ad-blocking extensions, as Computerworld is an ad-supported site. We also understand that these are very popular extensions. But if everyone blocked ads, how would sites such as ours continue to offer content free of charge?

We'll be the first to admit that there are some horribly annoying ads out there. (Buzzing bee, anyone?) But we prefer using Nuke Anything Enhanced to zap the annoying ads while continuing to support the sites we love by allowing most ads to appear.

PDF Download

Here's another extension that works as advertised and is very popular, but it seems like overkill for most users and can cause headaches for others. PDF Download lets you control how Firefox handles PDF files when you click on them -- you can display a pop-up box that lets you choose whether to download, open or view the file as HTML. You can also set it to take one of these actions by default, skipping the pop-up.

PDF Download's pop-up dialog.

Besides the option to view the file as HTML, the real draw for many people is the ability to have PDF files open in the external PDF viewer of their choice rather than the Adobe Reader plug-in for Firefox. Using the external viewer is significantly faster on some systems but not at all on others. Likewise, viewing as HTML sometimes takes longer than opening the PDF with the Adobe Reader plug-in.

So what's the problem? The extension can run into trouble when it tries to handle certain PDFs. Some Web sites send you to a "silent interstitial" page for tracking purposes or some other reason, then redirect you to the PDF. In these cases, the extension won't work. Usually when this happens, PDF Download just gets bypassed, but we've had Firefox freeze up when dealing with redirected PDFs, too. For the little benefit that PDF Download provides, the problems it can cause just aren't worth it.

VideoDownloader

Homegrown video is hot right now, and why not? Sites like YouTube and Google Video make it easy to put content online for Web denizens to enjoy. The VideoDownloader extension promises a way to download video from these sites and many more for your offline viewing pleasure. Sounds great, right?

The problem is that the extension has to connect to a Web site in order to work, and more often than not, you'll find that instead of a download window, what you get is "Service Temporarily Unavailable." When it does finally work, the download is infuriatingly slow.

What you should see when you try to download a video (left) ... and what you'll often see instead.

Perhaps the extension is a victim of its own success, but until the server issues are addressed, save yourself some aggravation and skip this one.
Greasemonkey

Hey, wait just a minute. Wasn't this on our list of best extensions? Well, yes it was. Greasemonkey is a really nifty extension to use, as long as you know what you're doing with it. It can potentially get you in trouble because it allows JavaScripts written by other people to run in Firefox. If one of those scripts is malicious, your system could be at risk.

To stay out of trouble, you should use Greasemonkey only with scripts you know are safe, either because you're familiar enough with JavaScript to satisfy yourself or because the script has enough comments at userscripts.org to indicate that people are using it with no ill effects.

If you're not willing to do your homework, skip this extension altogether.

ScribeFire (formerly Performancing)

This falls into the category of extensions that seem pointless. What we have here is a browser-based tool for writing blog posts. But don't most blogs already have a browser-based editor that works just fine?

Perhaps there's a blogging system out there that needs this kind of helper app, but we're not familiar with it. Until we come upon such a beast, we'd rather skip the overhead of an extension and stick to our blogging software's built-in editor.

WordPress' built-in editor on the top, ScribeFire on the bottom. Do you need both?

Don't get us wrong, ScribeFire is a nice piece of software. We just don't see a need for it at this time. If you do happen to be using blogging software without a decent editor, ScribeFire would be a fine addition to your extension toolbox.

TrackMeNot

This is another of those extensions for the overly paranoid. The developers apparently became concerned with search engine profiling -- the process in which search engines track your queries and build a demographic profile of you based on those queries -- after a list of three months' worth of search queries from 657,000 AOL members was released on the Web.

	A small section of a log file of searches performed by TrackMeNot.

We don't mean to downplay privacy concerns, but the technique used in TrackMeNot is questionable. The extension runs in the background while you surf, and sends random search queries to AOL, Yahoo, Google and MSN search engines. What a waste of system resources for both you and the search engines you rely on!

Tabbrowser Preferences

This extension lets you tweak Firefox's tab settings in various minor ways. For instance, you can add a New Tab button to your tab bar, or control whether the Close Tab icon appears on each tab or at the end of the tab bar. It works fine.

The problem is that if you uninstall the extension, it doesn't reset your tab settings, leaving you with tweaks that you have to undo by going to the about:config page, which many users don't understand or even know about.

If you uninstall this extension, you'll have to delve into the about:config page to undo the changes it made. That's poor extension etiquette.

The changes the extension makes are fairly subtle, but that's not the point. If you uninstall an extension, you do so for a reason, and once it's uninstalled, the browser should be reset to its default state.

Tabbrowser Extensions

This extension is a real heavyweight but seems quite popular in certain Firefox circles -- it almost seems to be a rite of passage for Firefox nerds. It gives you lots of control over how tabbed browsing works and even supports plug-ins to add even more functionality. However, it is buggy and conflicts with many other extensions. In fact, even its developers suggest that you not install it!

When the people writing the code suggest you stay away, you should stay away, no matter what your über-Firefox-geek friend says. In any event, the extension hasn't been -- and probably won't be -- upgraded to support Firefox 2.x.

Bonus: Watch out for the Numbered Links 0.9 imposter

There's nothing wrong with the Numbered Links 0.9 extension per se. By showing numbers next to links, buttons and other interactive elements on Web pages, it lets you navigate without using a mouse. If you chose to install Numbered Links 0.9 previously, there's no reason not to go on using it if you find it helpful (though you might be interested in Conkeror by the same developer).

However, if you see this extension in your add-ons list and don't recall installing it, then tread carefully. There's a version that has been modified into the FormSpy Trojan, which installs itself as a Firefox extension and keeps the title "Numbered Links 0.9." FormSpy can potentially capture information entered into HTML forms and send them on to a malicious Web site. For more information, see McAfee's FormSpy profile.

What do you think?

So there you have it -- our 10 picks for Firefox extensions to avoid, plus an imposter to really be on the alert for.

As always, we welcome your thoughts. Have any extension horror stories you'd care to share? Want to defend an extension that we've listed? Please use the comment form at the bottom of the page.

Peter Smith is a Web developer and freelance writer with a special interest in personal technology and digital entertainment.

To the Anti-Google Sentiment

From Lifehack.org

Last week I wrote an apparently controversial article on how I do my work completely online and why the operating system I use is no longer relevant: Firefox OS: Why My Hard Drive and Software are Obsolete.

In the many comments that followed, I was accused of being a Google fanboy, because I use so many Google apps: Gmail, Gcal, Google Reader, Picasa, Google Homepage and more. The truth is, I use those apps because in my experience they are the best online apps in each of their respective categories.

But it’s true that it’s never good to be under the thumbs of one company, and so by popular demand, here are the best alternatives to those Google apps. While it’s too late to save myself, perhaps you guys can get free from the Google stranglehold!

Top 10 Alternatives to Google’s apps

1. Thunderbird. As I noted in the previous article, I’m a fan of Firefox … and Mozilla’s open-source Thunderbird is right behind it in terms of usefulness, functionality, speed and extensibility. Thunderbird, although not an online app, is a great alternative to Gmail. If you add Mozilla’s Lightning or Sunbird, you can replace Gcal too.

2. 30 Boxes. Although the simple and fast Gcal meets my needs perfectly, 30 boxes is just as fast and easy, and is loved by many. If Gcal didn’t integrate with Gmail, I would probably be using 30 Boxes.

3. Netvibes. Although I love the speed of Google Reader, Netvibes can not only hold all of your feeds in an organized way, it can replace both Reader and Google Personalized Homepage. A great way to organize all your favorite services in a personalized way, Netvibes was my homepage of choice until I discovered Reader.

4. Zoho Office Suite. Perhaps the best online alternative to the Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Zoho has just about everything you’d ever need: a spreadsheet, word processor, presentation program, project manager, notebook, wiki, web conferencing, mail, chat, database and CRM. This might actually be my choice of the future.

5. Peepel. This new offering takes my online OS model almost literally — it offers a desktop environment from within your browser. This service contains office apps, accessible anywhere online, including a word processor, spreadsheet and more. I haven’t actually given this a spin yet, but I intend to. It’s limited in its current beta release, but it has potential and plans to expand in the future. Replaces Google Docs and Spreadsheets

6. Bloglines. If Netvibes or Google Reader isn’t for you, Bloglines is another popular and excellent choice.

7. Zimbra Collaboration Suite. Yet another online office suite, Zimbra started out with email/calendar functionality and has since launched spreadsheet and word processing apps. I haven’t tried this, but have heard excellent things about it, and I love that it’s open-source with an API that could have many uses. Another alternative to Google Docs and Spreadsheets

8. ThinkFree Online. Billed as the “best online office on earth,” ThinkFree aims to ween people from Microsoft Office to is web office suite. It has spreadsheet, word processing and presentation apps, online storage, document sharing and more. Unfortunately, only some of that functionality is free, but it’s still an interesting suite. Replaces Google Docs and Spreadsheets.

9. OpenOffice.org. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention everybody’s favorite open-source office suite, OpenOffice. It’s not an online app, but it offers everything Microsoft Office can give you, but for free, and without all the bloat. This is definitely worth a try, especially if you’re not only trying to get free from Google but Microsoft as well. Replaces Google Docs and Spreadsheets.

10. Flickr. An obvious choice as a replacement for Google’s Picasa web photo service, Yahoo’s Flickr is actually much more popular. My free Flickr account wasn’t good enough for me, but it’s a great service loved by many.

Can you get free from Google’s grip? Yes, I believe you can. As I said before, I’m more than willing to try out the alternatives, but Google’s apps are the best I’ve found so far. For those of you who aren’t fans of Google, there’s a lot more out there.

Leo Babauta blogs regularly about achieving goals through daily habits on Zen Habits, and covers such topics as productivity, GTD, simplifying, frugality, parenting, happiness, motivation, exercise, eating healthy and more. Read his articles on keeping your inbox empty, clearing your desk, becoming an early riser, and the Top 20 Motivation Hacks.

Top 20 Wordpress Plugins

From Makeuseof.com

30 March, 2007 | written by Aibek |

Finally something for wordpress folks, my all-time favorite, carefully-selected, top 20 wordpress plugins. Enjoy!

1. Advanced WYSIWYG Editor - adds more editing options to the WYSIWYG post editor. See it below

2. Akismet - default wordpress plugin which does an excellent job at filtering spam comments. To activate it you’ll need WordPress API key, which is freely available to every wordpress.com user. Once activated you can access it through ‘Options ->Discussion’.

3. BDP RSS Aggregator (update: original site seems to be offline, for now you can download this plugin from here) - lets you grab one or several RSS feeds, mix/style them and publish them on your blog. It’s an ideal solution, for any blogger looking for an easy and yet powerful solution to embed RSS feeds on your blog posts or pages. Access it through ‘Manage-> RSS feeds’.

4. Bookmark Me - adds links to popular social bookmarking sites. Once installed, it will add ‘Bookmark Me’ tab under the ‘Options’ menu, from where you can select which sites you want to be shown. Includes almost all popular sites.

5. Category Tagging - powerful plugin that lets you (1) create tag clouds based on your existing categories and (2) display related posts for each of your posts.

6. Comment Count - can be used to count total number of comments or comments for a specific post. You can see it in action on top of every article on makeuseof

7. Optimal Title - lets you move the position of the title ’separator’ to after the blog name rather than before. Even though some folks have been saying that such naming is good from the SEO(Search Engine Optimization) point of view, I think it’s just a better way to title your posts. It will also produce better looking pingbacks when you link to external blog posts.

• before: MakeUseOf.com >> Gmail Craze: 30+ Tools and Hacks for Gmail
• after: Gmail Craze: 30+ Tools and Hacks for Gmail >> MakeUseOf.com

8. Exec-PHP - lets you execute PHP queries within any of your posts or pages

9. Google Sitemaps - handy generator that will create a Google, Yahoo and MSN compliant, auto-updated sitemap of your blog and place it to the indicated location on your server. Access it through ‘Options -> Sitemap’.

10. WP-Cache - very fast cache module, that can come in handy for sudden traffic spikes, i.e. when featured on digg’s homepage. Once installed and enabled(’Options -> WP-Cache -> enable’) it will considerably reduce the load from your server, helping you survive the digg effect. (Note: Make sure to disable it once traffic level gets back to normal)

11. WSR Contact Form - lets you quickly create ‘contact’ page for your blog. See it in action on our contact page

12. Smart Archives - provides simple and clean way to present your archives. Check it out here

13. WordPress Database Backup - On demand backup of your WordPress database. You can either run backups manually or schedule them (daily, weekly, etc.)

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14. WordPress Reports - gets stats from Google Analytics and Feedburner and adds them to the new ‘Reports’ tab

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15. Custom Query String (CQS) - allows you to choose how many posts to be shown and specify how they should be ordered, for any of the ’search queries’ and blog categories.(’Options->CQS’)

16. Feedburner Feed Replacement - automatically detects all ways to access your blog feed (i.e. http://www.yourdomain.com/feed/ or http://www.yourdomai.com/wp-rss2.php, etc.), and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every subscriber

17. Digg This - this one is a popular one, it detects incoming links from Digg.com to your wordpress post and automatically displays animated digg-count button(or text link) showing number of diggs a story got. Cool thing about it, is that as soon as your post is submitted to Digg, an email is sent to the site’s admin.

18. WP-Postviews - allows you to display the number of times a post has been viewed. In addition, you can use it to display your top 10 most popular posts.

19. HowTo: Separate Comments from Trackbacks - this isn’t a plugin but a quick and easy howto explaining how to separate blog comments from Pings/Trackbacks.

20. 1024px-10 - many people expressed interest to the theme used on makeuseof.com, hence I decided to post it here as well. It’s a simple theme which is extremely flexible for further buildup. Note that what you see on makeuseof right now is a slightly modified version. I shifted the sidebar menu to the left, this can be done by modifying style.css file in 2 places.

• for the ‘content’ titled box change the float value from right to left
• do the opposite for the ’sidebar’ one