Back in January, I wrote a post that shared some of my favorite add-ons for Firefox, the over best Internet browser today. I am posting a revisit on the matter. I like to run a lean browser, so I don’t like to install too many that might slow me down. There are hundreds, if not, thousands of extensions you can install in Firefox. I have tried plenty of them and a most of them are cool in their own way. But my list consists of a few key extensions that are not frivilous and ones which I have installed on all of my systems.

In my original post, I had listed Adblock Plus, which is an extremely popular extension, and does indeed work well. I don’t personally use it, though. I do have it installed, but it is disabled. I found it would occasionally go overboard and some actual non-ad material would be removed from the page I was viewing. Internet ads, for the most part, aren’t as annoying as they used to be, and with high-speed Internet, I don’t often care. It would be handy for sites like MySpace which do annoy the crap out of you with ads.

Image Zoom was another extension I had on my list. I don’t really have this installed on any of my machines today. Once in a long while it can be a handy extension to have, but I almost never used it.

• Del.icio.us - The first extension that I install when I put Firefox on any system. I often tag pages in Delicious instead of saving directly to my bookmarks folder.
• Colorful Tabs - All of your page tabs are a different color! Brilliant, and easy on the eyes.
• Tabs Menu - Adds a Tabs menu to your program’s menu bar. Be sure to edit the preferences after you install. Turn on “Numeric Keyboard Shortcuts” and you can toggle through your open tabs with your keyboard. Very, very handy! This tab eliminates my need for Swift Tabs, another extension that creates tab-related keyboard shortcuts.
• Firefox Bookmark Synchronizer - This is the most handy extension you can put in your aresanal. It automatically synchronizes your bookmarks between different computers. If this makes you nervous, understand that it gives you complete control over the process. I just discovered this little gem and it is worth its weight in gold. This is a must-have!
• Bookmark Duplicate Detector - Prevents you from adding duplicates to your bookmarks.html file. It also can sniff out existing duplicates. If nothing else, this extension is worth installing, even if you only run it once to find the duplicates which you certainly do have.
• IE View Lite - Right-click any webpage to pull it up in Internet Explorer (Windows only). I am also aware of the IE Tabs extension that lets you view a page using IE embedded in a Firefox window, but I don’t use that add-on.
• Safari View - Opens the current page in Safari (Mac). Why would one want to do this? I don’t really know.

After making my new Products category, I went in search of a post that I was sure I’d written about the Sonicare toothbrush. After not being able to find such a post, I am going to make one now.

The Sonicare electric toothbrush from Philips has been around for many years now. I am here to say that is nothing short of absolutely fantastic. Me and Laura have used one for a few years now, and are still brushing with the older Advance 4100 model. I recommend that everybody own and use one. For one, it encourages you to brush your teeth for a longer time than you’d probably spend with a manual toothbrush. The fast vibrating brush head moves the brush at hundreds of times per second, giving you the best teeth cleaning that you can get at home. It feels great while it is running and is actually fun to use. I like to refer to the experience as “a shower in your mouth.” It leaves your teeth and gums with the pure clean feeling that you only get when leaving the dentist. I believe the value of the main unit and the replacement heads are all well worth the price. If the heads initially seem expensive, keep in mind that they last longer than your typical manual toothbrush does, and that you can save by buying two or more heads at one time.

Today, Philips has many Sonicare models to choose from. If you aren’t using at least one of them, then you are simply missing out.

My favorite font for email and for pretty much all online text is Verdana. I love its simplicity, purity, and well-roundedness. I think it is the best font at our disposal. I find the overused Arial to be little too narrow to be read comfortably. It is good in spreadsheet tables to save space, but not for general use. Times is a pretty font, but one that I prefer only in printed text, like books and magazines. Times is one of those fonts that have a curly letter g, as is a staple of serif fonts. I don’t like reading words on my computer screen with that kind of style. See below for an example of what I mean.

Verdana is one font that looks terrific across the board on all operating systems. No matter what kind of computer you are using, everybody will get the same great-looking text.

Have you seen this terrible reality show on the Sci-Fi channel? It is so lame it makes me cringe in embarrassment for the people on there. This show is a cheesy low-budget reality elimination show where a group of losers compete to be the next superhero. They dress in ridiculous outfits and spout lame taglines as they complete seemingly ordinary tasks that are presented on TV with an overlay of grade school quality special effects. The show is hosted by 85 year-old Stan Lee, who communicates with the hereos in their warehouse “lair”. It boggles the mind, but the contestants actually behave as though there is some real prize to be won or that they are actually going to become a true superhero. The lamest of the contestants is this chubby lady dressed in a maid outfit, complete with hanging feather dusters from her belt, who calls herself Hygenea.

In doing a quick bit of research for this post, I found a message board on the Sci-Fi Channel website where fans post messages about the show. I am in awe of the absurdity of their comments. Viewers write of holding their loved ones on the couch while watching the superheros compete, wiping back tears, and feeling overwhelming emotion at what they are watching. They then sign their posts with a photo of themselves in costume, complete with an ID card for their personal superhero character. Are these people serious?!

Let me be clear that I don’t watch this show! I just saw an episode on this week and ended up watching it play out in utter disbelief to what the reality show scene has become. I feel so embarrassed for these people! This show belongs on Comedy Central, not on Sci-Fi — if it has a place on TV at all. The grand prize should be a gun that they can off themselves with when the show is over.

I finally have found a way to permanently disable the annoying Windows system process ctfmon.exe. I have tried for years to rid myself of this stubborn system process. If you have installed Microsoft Office on your Windows system, chances are you are running ctfmon.exe all the time when you are using your computer, unnecessarily sucking up memory and CPU cycles. Every attempt to disable it with startup manager or msconfig is only temporary, as the program will be reinstated the next time you boot your computer.

Fortunately, there is a way to turn if off for good. In Windows, go to the Control Panel and choose Regional and Language Options. Click the Languages tab and click the button labeled Details. From there, in the Advanced tab, check the box labeled Turn off advanced text services. Now you can enjoy using your computer without this completely ridiculous process that Microsoft should not launch by default with Office in the first place.

I am sick of reading about hurricane predictions. The first article in the Raleigh N&O about hurricane preparedness was in June! I am sure that even months before that, they were citing the forecasters in the National Hurricane Center, announcing how many storms we were going to see this year, and beyond. Give it up. First, don’t print stuff about hurricanes until we actually have some in the ocean. What you print in June is long forgotten by September when we actually have something to worry about.

The worst fact of all is that I read in the paper today, September 5th, that the hurricane forecasters have revised their prediction for the 2007 year to reflect less storms. Too late, buddy! That is like someone betting on the score of a football game, only to up and try to change their prediction at half-time. Get real. If you have the nerve to predict the storm activity for the next decade, at least stick to the crap you shoveled out before the season got started a few months ago!

I have been a Cingular customer since I got my first cell phone several years ago. On the whole, I am satisfied with my service. I think their Rollover plan is the best in the business. Since I have had Rollover and unlimited in-network calling, I have never gone over my minutes a single time. As you all know, Cingular was aquired by AT&T this year. I am not all that excited about that fact, to be honest. I wish they’d kept the Cingular name, for one. It sounded modern, new, and futuristic. On the other hand, AT&T sounds like old, entrenched technology. Of course, to the older generation, it is a name that one would trust. That said, I am not writing today to debate the fact that Cingular in its original form is no longer.

My complaint is with their advertising saying they have the fewest dropped calls of any cell provider. I can’t imagine this is true. I just personally feel that if any other network has more dropped calls, they wouldn’t even be in business. Me and Laura both have had Cingular for years and make the majority of our calls in the capital city of our state, North Carolina. Even here, we have had dropped calls day after day for a long time. For the record, I have used a Nokia phone and today I use a Razr V3. Even when the call doesn’t drop completely, it is still stuttered all too often. Since becoming AT&T, the company seems to have stopped using the least dropped calls claim. Now their slogan is More Bars in More Places. That may be, but why even with full bars am I hearing so many drops in the calls I make?

Cingular isn’t alone in this problem, I’m sure. It frustrates me that the providers are investing so much into increasing web bandwidth and other new toys that have nothing to do with actually talking. I want my calls to be clear as real life, without any hiccups. I think this is possible. Why don’t we have it? Remove all the other features and give me clear calls.

I installed Google Desktop on my laptop today. I was immediately thrilled with it. Previously, I had been using Yahoo Widgets, but I started to get concerned about the amount of system processes involved and its memory usage. Google Desktop uses less memory than Yahoo and all aspects of the program run as a single system process. Google also makes a Mac version of this product, but I have not tried to use it. Considering my Mac has Dashboard and Spotlight built-in, I don’t see a need right now for Google Desktop on that system.

I primarily downloaded Google Desktop for the Sidebar widgets. Luckily, my laptop has a widescreen, so the size of the Sidebar without hiding isn’t too space consuming. The Sidebar is slick and shows the local weather conditions, email snippets, a news feed, a notepad, a picture, custom rss feeds, and a Google search box. I am using Gmail for my email already, so setting up the email section was easy. Bear in mind that Gmail is not required. When it comes to the picture, I was at first concerned it may be a waste of time, but it does look really good sitting in the sidebar. I don’t have many pictures stored on this laptop, but I easily added a photo feed from my Flickr page. It works perfectly and pictures are streamed directly to my desktop. The RSS section is also cool. I dabble in some RSS feeds here and there, both in my browser and also online on Google Reader. I rarely think to check any of them. Now with RSS built-in to the Sidebar, I can add my favorite feeds, such as Netflix New Releases and they will appear automatically.

The desktop search portion of Google Desktop is the main purpose of the program. It automatically indexes emails, chats, photos, web history, and more in a variety of different file formats. I haven’t put this feature to the test so far since I only installed the application this morning. I have made good use of Spotlight on my Mac, so I have begun to see the benefits of such an application. I’m sure to make good use of this program.

I think Google Desktop is a winner for the Windows desktop. If the Sidebar does become too cumbersome, which I do not expect, I can enable the auto-hide feature to tuck it away when I am not using it. For now, I want it to be in full-view, so I can read my RSS feeds and see my photos stream in. I am very happy. If you are a Google user and already make good use of a Gmail account, you’ll be sure to love Google Desktop.