Zen And More » Sidetopics

Twitterfox marries Twitter and Firefox

Bengt — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 19:38:34 +0000

I have been a rather reluctant user of Twitter because I could not find a tool that was easy enough to use. Twitter itself is so so, I wanted something easier. Along came TwitterFox which is a Firefox extension that notifies you of your friends’ status messages on Twitter.

You get a small icon on the status bar that notifies you when your friends update their status and you can use Twitterfox small text input field to update your own status.

In the news: The Large Hadron Collider

Bengt — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:05:24 +0000

It is hard to miss the fact that the Large Hadron Collider started now. Daily Bits writes about The Day of the Large Hadron Collider. There are links to Wikipedia as well as an interesting TED-presentation at YouTube, Brian Cox: What really goes on at the Large Hadron Collider.

The Large Hadron Rap is facts presented in a very different way. And finally you can check Has the Large Hadron Collider destroyed the world yet?

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Antivirus and firewall

Bengt — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:44:44 +0000

I have been using AVG combinded Antivirus and Firewall for some time. When it was time to renew I decided to opt for free alternatives. First I tried AVG Free 8.0 but it messed up (as I see it) and installed addons in Firefox I could not remove without uninstalling AVG Free.

My choices of free software are avast! antivirus and Comodo Firewall. They work well together and are easy to set up.

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How to get folders in Gmail

Bengt — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:45:30 +0000

I have posted about using coloured labels in Gmail which makes labels more visible and useful. But I was still not too fond of labels as they are applied in Gmail.

Then I came across Folders4Gmail which is a terrific script for Firefox with Greasemonkey installed. Suddenly your labels show up in a folder-like hierarchy. You controll the hiearchy with how you name your labels.

Using coloured labels in Gmail

Foodluvin – Spreading the love one bite at a time

Bengt — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:06:25 +0000

I recently found Foodluvin which has this presentation:

Foodluvin reports on all things food. We dig up and review the newest and best gourmet food, gadgets,appliances, events, food related travel, recipes and anything else that may come across our paths and palates!

Foodluvin has great photos and interesting recipees.

GoEnglish.com Pocket English Idioms

Bengt — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 09:26:54 +0000

GoEnglish.com Pocket English Idioms is a nice site and the site has an Idioms index. I like the way the site looks, take a look at Birds of a feather flock together or You Can’t Judge A Book By Its Cover.

Link Medley

Bengt — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:17:37 +0000

Chris Garrett writes about Top Software Tools: Readers Recommendations where he lists software for Windows, Mac, Linux and cross-platform.

DailyWritingTips has PC Vitals for Every Freelance Writer, actually it is great advice for anyone using a computer.

DailyBits has a post about The Worst PC Disasters and Their Solution.

How to Get Smarter, One Breath at a Time

Bengt — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 07:07:10 +0000

I am testing Zemanta which shows related articles while you are blogging. When blogging about meditation it showed an article at Time titled How to Get Smarter, One Breath at a Time. In the article Walter Zimmermann attributes his brain’s enduring sharpness to 40 minutes of meditation each morning and evening. The practice helps him maintain the clarity he needs. “Meditation,” he says, “is my secret weapon.”

Time writes that:

Everyone around the water cooler knows that meditation reduces stress. But with the aid of advanced brainscanning technology, researchers are beginning to show that meditation directly affects the function and structure of the brain, changing it in ways that appear to increase attention span, sharpen focus and improve memory.

Richard Davidson, director of the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin, says that:

One of the most important domains meditation acts upon is emotional intelligence—a set of skills far more consequential for life success than cognitive intelligence.

How about that, in addition to getting smarter you also get improved emotional intelligence.

A related post in this blog is based on BBC, Scientists probe meditation secrets.

Note: This text is published at btwendel.com. If you see it elsewhere they are using my content.

Scientists probe meditation secrets

Firefox 3 is out

Bengt — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 05:53:49 +0000

Firefox 3 is finally released, the Mozilla site – Getfirefox.com – is overladed at the moment. Mozilla Zine writes about Mozilla Firefox 3 Released.

CNET has a review at Firefox 3. In summary they say:

The good: Firefox 3 touts faster rendering, vastly reduced use of system resources, clever new data-mining tools for your bookmarks and browser history, and more security features than any other browser.

In the process of getting better Firefox 3 dropped support of some operating systems: Windows 95, 98, and Me; Mac OS X, versions 10.2 and earlier.

Firefox remains CNET Editors’ Choice for best Internet browser.

If the Mozilla Firefox site is overladed then you can download from Mozilla Firefox 3 – CNET, that is where I got my copy.

Lifehacker writes about Top 10 Firefox 3 Features and has a Power User’s Guide to Firefox 3. They also have Posts Tagged “ Firefox 3 ” as a way to find other posts.

Mozilla aimed for a Guiness World Record in number of downlads within 24 hours. At Spread Firefox Download Day 2008 it says:

Thanks to the support of the always amazing Mozilla community, we got more than 8 million Firefox 3 downloads in 24 hours. That’s more Firefox downloads than we’ve ever had in a single day — an impressive feat indeed!

Note: This text is published at btwendel.com. If you see it elsewhere they are using my content.

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Scientists probe meditation secrets

Bengt — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:45:07 +0000

When browsing the net about meditation I came across an article at BBC: Scientists probe meditation secrets. The article says that scientists are beginning to uncover evidence that meditation has a tangible effect on the brain.

Research into the health claims made for meditation has limitations and few conclusions can be reached, partly because meditation is rarely isolated – it is often practised alongside other lifestyle changes such as diet, or exercise, or as part of group therapy.

The BBC article is interesting, it says that:

It is a new area of research, but indications are intriguing and suggest that meditation may have a measurable impact on the brain.

Note: This text is published at btwendel.com. If you see it elsewhere they are using my content.