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Posted 10 Nov 2008 — by Ellie
Category Geek Girl
One of my favorite jobs was working in tech support for a large international company. Not only did I learn a lot about to troubleshoot OS and software issues, but I also got hipped to Firefox! When I first got introduced to Firefox, it was version 1.0 and it was November, 2004! Now, 4 years later, I’m using version 3.0.3 and loving every moment of it!
If you are serious about web surfing, you will quickly find that many websites render (load) faster in Firefox, it is easily customizable through the options available out of the box, but you can choose from hundreds of add-ons (extensions) to add additional functionality!
This is a preview of
10 Must Have Firefox Add-ons for Serious Web Surfers
.
Read the full post (642 words, 1 image, estimated 2:34 minutes reading time).
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Posted 28 Sep 2008 — by Ellie
Category Geek Girl
About time! Firefox 3 officially supports built-in Gmail as your default email client support!
I showed you a hack back in July that would force Gmail to be your default email client.
However, for those who aren’t as comfortable with coding, try these quick steps to set your Gmail account as your default email client:
- Open the Options window (or Preferences on Linux and Mac).
- Click the Applications tab.
- Type “mailto” (without the quotes) in the Search Field.
- In the Action column Select “Use Gmail”.
- Click OK.
You do not have to restart your browser.
This is a preview of
Firefox 3 Supports Built-in Gmail Default Email Client Support!
.
Read the full post (106 words, 1 image, estimated 25 seconds reading time).
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Posted 25 Aug 2008 — by Ellie
Category Geek Girl
Google Knol is Google’s attempt to break into user-created content. It has similarities to Wikipedia and About.com, but it also takes a turn into social networking and collaboration by promoting the author of a knol prominently in the sidebar.
A knol by definition is a “unit of knowledge.” So, Google Knol is a collection of articles (called knols) on a myriad of topics – but at current, many of the knols cover medical topics (boring!).
However, there are a few really neat and helpful knols available, including my favorites:
So, I click on this orange button and I can get your latest posts. But what is RSS?
RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”. A RSS feed document can contain a summary or the full content of that site. It allows you to know the latest of all the sites you regularly visit saving you the trouble and time of visiting each individual site everyday to get the latest content. Almost all blogs, news sites and other sites that have regularly updated content provide RSS content.
View this three and a half minute video about RSS from CommonCraft:
Posted 11 Jun 2008 — by Ellie
Category Random
Everybody loves Easter Eggs, right?
Well, Google Reader has a neat Easter Egg, which I found on Google Blogoscoped.
Open Google Reader and type:
up up down down left right left right b a
Do you see it? If it weren’t so neat, I’d probably be annoyed.
To turn the feature off, simply refresh the page or close and reopen your web browser.
photo credit: tillwe
Posted 11 Jun 2008 — by Ellie
Category Geek Girl
Gmail’s latest experiment in adding features to their web client – Gmail Labs – launched last week to much fanfare across the blogosphere. I was impressed with the which features 13 experimental features included in Gmail Labs because they give me some of the functionality I lacked before – and really wanted in a web based email client.
There are currently 13 features included in Gmail Labs, and the team assures us that more will be added in the future.
Photo Source: Lifehack.org
Posted 12 May 2008 — by Ellie
Category Geek Girl
Over the years, I have brought all kinds of free software and open source software to your attention. There are many software options that can make your life a lot easier AND you don’t have to pay for them!
The Geek Girl’s Software Pack includes what I consider to be a solid set of free software that every computer user should have installed on their system – whether they are computer beginners or experts!
OpenOffice provides excellent Word, Excel and PowerPoint equivalents that are fully compatible with the Microsoft file formats. It is easy to use and has extensive support, including free templates. It also comes in a portable version for your flash drive.
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Posted 18 Dec 2007 — by Ellie
Category Technology
As what I’ve deemed a gesture of goodwill in the holiday season, Gmail has rolled out quite a few new features in the past few weeks. If anything, these small gifts of functionality and integration serve to remind us that Gmail is popular for a reason – they actually listen to the users and add functions we love, want and need!
Gmail chat now offers the option to sign in to your AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) account to chat with your AIM buddies from Gmail! Chatting with your AIM buddies is easy – just click on a name in your chat list, and start typing. Read more at About AIM in Gmail.
Google Reader has just started offering “Top Recommendations” on its homepage. This section lists feeds that you might be interested in, but aren’t subscribed to yet.
After clicking “View all”, you can see the entire list that has been computer generated for you thanks to an algorithm that aggregates your Google Reader subscriptions, Google Search history and location.
Information included for each feed include the estimated number of subscribers and average number of posts per week.
To the right is a screenshot of the box that is now located on the Google Reader homepage in the upper right hand corner.
