Jeremy's blog of tech/ science related articles

How to write an essay (found whilst on stumble upon)

noreply@blogger.com (jeremy) — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 06:26:00 +0000

If you’re searching for information on how to write an essay (and especially how to write a good essay), then you’ve come to the right place. The following article offers some important tips and tricks for writing good college essays that will impress your instructors and make your assignments easier to complete. Be sure to also check out the other resources available on this website, too.

Step One – Determine What Your Instructor Wants

This is the single best piece of advice I can give to anyone who wants to do a better job in college and learn how to write an essay. It always surprises me when students skip this essential first step, but it happens – and it happens a lot!
Let’s face it: if you don’t know what you’re supposed to be writing about or what you’re supposed to accomplish in your essay, then you are basically lost at sea. It really is that simple.
But that’s not even the most disappointing part of this baffling situation. What’s worse is your instructor really does tell you exactly how to write an essay that will make him or her very happy. Unless you’re dealing with a really bad instructor (and I mean REALLY bad), then you will not be able to figure this out very quickly at all. It does happen.
So how do you figure out how to write an essay your instructor will like? It’s very simple – look for the basic essay instructions. A writing prompt is a short but informative sheet of paper that explains exactly what you are required to do in the writing assignment. Once you’ve found that sheet and read it through very carefully, you’re ready to move on.

Step Two – Make an Essay Writing Checklist

Now here’s my secret advice: rewrite the instructions in checklist format. Most of you will never do this because it does require a little extra effort. Of course, the problem most students have is not doing adequate preparation BEFORE writing their essay. But you’re not like most students because you’re reading about how to write an essay.
If you take the instructor’s writing prompt and break it down into an easy-to-read checklist, you’ll be miles ahead of 95% of the other students. I know this because when I grade college essays, I almost always use a checklist. And guess what? That’s right: my checklist is derived from my assignment handout. Big surprise?

Step Three – Create a Basic Outline for Your Essay

No, no, no! When I say “outline” I am not talking about anything very formal. Simple is best for “how to write an essay” step number three. Here’s an example of an outline for an essay on Beowulf:
Beowulf Essay Outline
-Talk about the history behind the story of Beowulf
-Talk about the important characters in Beowulf
-Talk about how today’s stories are not like Beowulf
-Talk about why Beowulf helps us understand history
-Talk about how Beowulf also helps us understand the present-day
I want you to notice something very important here. The outline above is pretty crummy. Yes, crummy. But that’s not a bad thing because it’s going to help you get started. Watch how we can quickly clean up this outline into something a bit more effective:
Beowulf Essay Outline

Discuss history of the Beowulf narrative
Contrast Beowulf with contemporary literature
Analyze important characters in Beowulf
Show how Beowulf provides a window on the past
Demonstrate that Beowulf also speaks to the present day

This revised outline is not really much different from the original version; it’s just easier to read and more focused. Now we have something we can work with. Again, notice that when I say “outline” I am not talking about anything all that complicated!

Step Four – Freewrite Each Essay Section

The outline from step three is going to provide a nice skeletal structure for the muscle of our essay. Now we’re ready to really write this essay!
For step four, you simply need to take each section title and do some freewriting to develop the ideas. You can do this in any order, but it’s probably best to complete it in an order that makes sense to you.
Once you’ve finished freewriting each section, you can move on to freewriting an introduction and conclusion. Note: you should NEVER try to write your introduction or your conclusion before writing your essay. This is the classic beginner’s mistake in the “how to write an essay” world.

Step Five – Revise the Essay

Here’s the most important part of the total process. Most students will not make it this far. If you complete steps one through four correctly and thoroughly, you’ll be in the top of your class. But if you also complete step four, you’ll be in the very top of your class. No, I’m not being facetious.
Now that you have taken the time to develop each of the outlined sections by freewriting, you’re going to take your how to write an essay experience one step further and dig in for revision. If you completed step four correctly, you should be left with a bunch of garbled writing. This last step requires that you read through each section of your essay draft very carefully and revise with care.
Proofread for grammar and spelling errors. Edit out any style issues to improve readability. Add more content or explanation where necessary. Change or move sections that don’t make sense or might confuse the readers.
Revision and editing is easily the most overlooked part of essay writing simply because most students don’t allow enough time to do anything more than a quick spell check. If you revise your essay well enough, you’ll have a much more readable piece of work than when you started. Plus, you will be far more likely to demonstrate to your instructor that you really do know how to write an essay.
And there you have it – a simple guide on how to write an essay in five very easy steps. If you’ve made it this far, you are way ahead of the game. Now that you really do know how to write an essay, it’s time to get started!

from here < original source

I hate the google book downloader

noreply@blogger.com (jeremy) — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 12:25:00 +0000

ok, so its only been a few hours. but this is ridiculous.

i can download FREE books from torrents in like several seconds

im not saying i expect that program to be better, im just saying its had alot of high talk around the internet.

here is a nice graph

How to get free books from good ( as PDF's)

noreply@blogger.com (jeremy) — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 12:19:00 +0000

This is the first of the many articles i shall write myself. not just "copy pasta" lol.

if your like me and you wanna read books on something like an iPhone (if your a hipster faggot) or some other USEFUL device and you cant find the torrent for the pdf

you can get certain books from google.

this can only download free books, if you want good books you are actually going to read then torrent them, but seriously torrenting is bad and you shouldn't do it ;)

do it at your own discretion or go to library lol

Google book down loader!

i know there are several tutorials on this everywhere but they are very basic and don't make it clear on what you actually get.

here is what they new one looks like

and here is a pic of where the code is when you find the description of a free book you want

this is the code you paste into the search thingo, as far as i can tell it takes a while.

i have no fucking clue if this works but its still going so ill tell you when i know :P

be back on weekend

noreply@blogger.com (jeremy) — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 11:25:00 +0000

hey guys, been swamped with work from school and stuff.

ill be on here briefly but wont be able to stay on for long, ill continue to make posts though and try get around.

thanks!

SCOPE - Augmented Reality Toys.v3 (really fucking awesome idea)

noreply@blogger.com (jeremy) — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 11:22:00 +0000

SCOPE - Augmented Reality Toys.v3 from Frantz Lasorne on Vimeo.

Soundtrack: Daft Punk - Tron Legacy Theme (remix).mp3

Using tangible traditional toys to enhance augmented reality in games and causual play.

SCOPE merges the basic characteristics of video games and real-life toys to improve existing games or create new ones. By attributing various virtual parameters commonly used in video games (power, life, magic, experience, attack, weapons, etc.) to tangible toys, it brings the toys to life. With this approach, it is possible to create all sorts of videogame concepts mixed with the real world. For example, a child's bedroom could become a natural battleground for play.

Frantz Lasorne
L’École de design Nantes Atlantique

Sci Fi Foods We Wish Actually Existed

noreply@blogger.com (jeremy) — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 07:06:00 +0000

Sometimes, the strange foods in speculative fiction can make your mouth water. These delicious, fantastical items seem so good, you wish you could take a bite. Here are some of our most-wanted fictional snacks.
A brief note: Yes, real world versions of some of these foods exist, but you know they can't capture the awesomeness of the originals.

Slurm
This soda keep cropping up throughout Futurama's run, but it gets its moment in the spotlight when the Planet Express crew visits the factory. The revelation that Slurm is actually the biological waste product of giant works doesn't stop Fry from loving the stuff. I always imagined it was like a more delicious version of Mountain Dew...

Popplers
Another Futurama food, this one's deliciousness is once again outweighed by the disturbing truth of its origins. Sure, they are a tasty snack that everyone seems so addicted to that they scarf 'em down by the handful, but popplers are actually tiny underdeveloped alien babies. Maybe someone can develop a cruelty-free poppler substitute?

Romulan Ale
This beverage from the Star Trek universe has always appealed to me. That it's called an "ale" indicates that it's brewed like a beer, but it's blue, and that seems to suggest more exotic flavors. Kirk and McCoy love it, and I'm sure they have good taste. Plus, it's intoxicating effects are apparently quite strong.

Butterbeer
In the Harry Potter series, the kids often pop into wizarding pubs to refresh themselves. And they usually order butterbeer, something that sounds absolutely delicious. It's described as a frothing butterscotch drink, served either warm or cold, with a minimal alcohol content. This is probably the most tempting of all of the foods on this list.

Bantha Milk
We never actually hear this mentioned, and we barely even see it on screen. But apparently, those big, lumbering beasts called Banthas in the Star Wars universe produce blue milk. The blue milk has a brief appearance at the breakfast table in A New Hope, but it never really gets its due. I suppose it probably just tastes like regular milk, but I always imagined it was slightly sweeter and more rich.

(Cow from dirkjankraan.com on flickr)
The Milliways Dish of the Day
This "restaurant at the end of the universe" (from the book of the same name) offers all sorts of delicacies. The most prominent is the meat that serves itself. The Ameglian Major Cow can talk for itself and is bred to want to be eaten, even to recommend cuts of its own flesh. It's a gross thought, but I'd imagine a cow that's bred solely for its eatability, that tenderizes its own cutlets, would end up being as delicious as it is squirm-inducing.

Lembas
This Elven bread, from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, is like hardtack, in that it keeps for a very long time and is sustaining for travelers. However, it's said to be much more tasty than hardtack or even a type of honey cake made in the books. It's flaky and brown on the outside, but cream colored on the inside. It sounds delicious.

Two riders from New England ride the Trans America Trail

noreply@blogger.com (jeremy) — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 07:00:00 +0000

"Two riders, one from MA, the other from NH, ride the entire TAT, 5000+ miles of dirt roads and jeep trails. We made it to about 150 miles of the Pacific when one rider hit a bear and was out. This is a fantastic adventure, if you're thinking about riding it, go for it! You will not be disappointed"

How Not To Get Caught By The RIAA & MPAA (if in america, really doesnt matter in aus lol)

noreply@blogger.com (jeremy) — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 22:01:00 +0000

How Not To Get Caught By The RIAA & MPAA

Making Educated Pirates Out Of All Of Us

From the fall of Napster ages ago to the recent raids on torrent indexing servers, I’m sure many of you are familiar with the current happenings of the pirating scene. Many individuals in the recent years ranging from gansta-rap downloading grandmothers to unsuspecting college students have been sued into submission while the rest of us tremble in fear of the great cartels that is the RIAA & MPAA. I have to say this first though: This article might not be intended for the people of “just-don’t-download-illegal-stuff” argument; Nor is it of much importance to the occasional one Britney Spears song downloader. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is for those of us who has the feisty pirates in them, who will go beyond the call of duty to ensure that the latest movie release gets on to our hard drives…even if we don’t really want to watch it in the first place.

Personally, I am a very conflicted individual when it comes to copyright infringements; the line is indeed blurred for me, perhaps I will talk about only that in my next blog (For those of you who didn’t figure it out yet, this is my first blog).

After years of observation, I have found my set of rules to abide by; some of you might’ve known this already while many don’t. So, without further ado, I give you the golden rules of how not to get caught when downloading copyrighted material, divided into specific sections.

What To Download (And Not To)

Stay away from new theatre releases of films (Fine, I’ll explain how to download them regardless in the end, but read this first) – The urge to download the latest movie when it’s in theatres is in all of us, but these types of files are the ones most actively monitored by the MPAA. The revenues generated from new media are very important to them, so the next best thing is waiting for a DVDRip/DVDScr release (but perhaps even then it’s somewhat risky, but the percentage of getting caught is SIGNIFICANTLY less also).

Second rule, perhaps the most important pertaining to movies, is that you should definitely check whether the movie you’re downloading belongs to a company that is part of the MPAA. A production company part of the MPAA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mpaa) will most likely and indeed be the only party that will take legal action…at least for the moment.

The same “early-release” and “RIAA-participant rule” aforementioned applies to music as it did for movies, but a tiny difference is that an individual will still get sued for even one song.

Downloading individuals of TV shows have yet to be sued, but that very well might change in the future, for safety though, I still recommend something along the lines of http://tvlinks.50webs.com/ and/or www.dailyepisodes.com. Games & software as of right now are not involved too much in legal disputes with individuals, so smooth sailing there. Kitty Pr0n however, is a no-no and I can’t help you there.

How To Download Securely (Important Section)

For Mp3s, One classic and effective way of downloading the latest music and bypassing this RIAA is using websites. Yes you heard me, leave P2P out of this. Websites as simple as AltaVista (the audio search function) will get you most of the single track songs that pops into your head. If albums are more your style, use special Google commands to search for your latest albums and download them from other people’s servers. This site (http://www.geocities.com/my_haz_runs/) tells you exactly how to accomplish this with ease.

Bit-Torrent – If you don’t know what this is or have heard people talking about it, you might want to read this article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent) a couple of times. Anyways, grab your favorite client/program (I’m split between Azureus/uTorrent/BitComet), and start off from there. For those of you that understand the torrenting process, I’ll cut to the chase.

PeerGuardian – Now I’m not a big fan of this, but it’s better than no protection at all. PeerGuardian blocks bad IPs, meaning that it prevents known IPs of RIAA/MPAA tracking companies from connecting to you during a swarm and identifying you. Is it foolproof? No way. Does it help a bit? Yes.

Private trackers, private trackers, private trackers – Now I’m not talking about “private” sites like Demonoid (Waits for laughter), but the ones that prevents you from connecting to other members if you are not a member. That kind of sharing will set a pirate free. But, getting into one of these torrent sites is difficult, most of them only does invite, while some have enough members and like to remain underground (my mouth is shut). But talk to your friends who have been around the torrenting scene, and ask around. Maybe you’ll get lucky and get and invite.

For certain torrent clients there are plug-ins for them such as SafePeer for Azureus and etc. Explore them as maybe you’ll find a gem.

Other P2P ways of getting files – DC++ is decent, but it still suffer the same danger as torrents if an “illegitimate” IP connects to you. For clients such as KazaaLite or Limewire, you are just wide in the open; try your best not to use them. Other ways of transferring files across the internet from people you DON’T know are Usenet, Tor, etc. I’m sorry I can’t list them all.

And finally ladies and gentlemen, you’ve reached this far, I’ve decided to reward you with some tips that will trump everything that I said above. These tips will allow you to download with abandon whatever you want.

If you have wireless, leave it wide open when YOU ARE DOWNLOADING. Now many computer security experts and also myself knows that it is ridiculous to have you wireless connection without a password. Mild script kiddies can view what you are doing online and your transactions and they can also piggyback on your network. But that’s the best part, EVERYONE can join and no one knows which IP belongs to whom. Two legal cases as of the writing of this article have already proven so. Both of the cases’ defendants used the argument that they left their wireless connection open and that anyone could’ve connected to it under their router and downloaded copyrighted material. Both of the cases the RIAA dropped the suit to avoid a record of loss. In theory, one does not even have to leave it open, you could claim your wireless is always open when lawsuits come along.

The downside, of course, is that lawsuits will come regardless, but you could always use this “wireless router argument” as a solid defense. If the RIAA uses “user negligence” argument, you can always state that you do not know how to set up a router.

Finally, last note, if you are on a college network (since the RIAA and MPAA are targeting the student audience so much), one way to share files effectively is through an internal network. I use a Darknet for sharing of movies and files under 50 people. WASTE is a great program for setting a closed network within a university network, just give it a spin. Then of course, there is always the conventional AIM/GAIM/GTALK file transfer feature. MyTunes (OurTunes doesn’t work for iTunes 7 anymore) for sharing all those mp3s with people in your dorm building.

There you have it ladies and gents, I have so much more too say but many have only so much time to read. If this article takes off, perhaps I’ll write my second blog entry on Ethics In Pirating, I can’t wait.

from here

the story of my hand

noreply@blogger.com (jeremy) — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 13:10:00 +0000

its a long story, one i had to explain to the police many times lol.

it was about 2 grams of flash powder, i was using tiny sprinkles from bag for fire to make marshmallows. from what i gave a large bit from bag went into fire and brought up enough flame to blow bag making loudest bang,

i got knocked back, and kinda passed out i think, i didnt know what happened i couldn't see or hear. but yea look at hand after awhile and saw that my thumb was like hanging off my wrist and there was blood all over me and pumping out my hand. lol

im back v1.2

noreply@blogger.com (jeremy) — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 11:12:00 +0000

hey well i didn't get around to posting some stuff, but now i have free time. ill try post something each day.

i usually find articles on stumble upon and other internet surfing apps, and "copy pasta" them. ;)

btw here is a xray of my hand (the reason i haven't blogged in almost 3 months)

the thumb was reattached, it didn't get completely blown off but it was hanging down my wrist. the ring finger tip got blown off straight away and the middle finger one still had bone but no soft tissue.

gotta love flash powder :D

IM BACK!

noreply@blogger.com (jeremy) — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 11:30:00 +0000

hello everyone, as you may or may not know. i was injured by one of my " science experiments".

this resulted in loosing two fingertips (at the nail) and 2 fractures plus lacerations to the palm and thumb.

i will though be able to type for the moment without using the two fingers that where injured in the explosion . ill try getting around on here as much as i can.

i will post pic of hand soon hahaha

BEST FREE FIREFOX EXTENSIONS

noreply@blogger.com (jeremy) — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 02:08:00 +0000

Hey guys, sorry i haven't been on. recently had an accident and cant use right hand... grrr typing with one hand sucks.

anyway, i found this whilst stumbling!

Blogging:

StumbleUpon
- StumbleUpon lets you "channelsurf" the best-reviewed sites on the
web. It is a collaborative surfing tool for browsing, reviewing and
sharing great sites with like-minded people. This helps you find
interesting webpages you wouldn't think to search for.
Clipmarks
- With Clipmarks, you can clip the best parts of web pages. Whether
it’s a paragraph, sentence, image or video, you can capture just the
pieces you want without having to bookmark the entire page.
Sage
- Sage is a lightweight RSS and Atom feed aggregator extension for
Mozilla Firefox. It's got a lot of what you need and not much of what
you don't.
Jeteye
- Jeteye is a unique Web-based application and service that is designed
for the next generation of enterprise and consumer use of the Web.
Jeteye changes how we interact with the web, in an era where
communication and social computing are more powerful than ever.
Performancing
- Performancing for Firefox is a full featured blog editor that sits
right in your Firefox browser and lets you post to your blog easily. You
can drag and drop formatted text from the page you happen to be
browsing, and take notes as well as post to your blog.
TorrentBar - BitTorrent File Search Toolbar for Firefox. Allows to search numerous sites in a matter of minutes for needed torrent files.
Wizz RSS News Reader - A fairly good RSS and Atom news reader.
MeasureIt - Draw out a ruler to get the pixel width and height of any elements on a webpage.
Show MyIP
- Displays your current IP address. If you have a static IP (Internet
Protocol) address, this number will stay the same each time you visit.
If you have a dynamic IP, the number will change each time you log on to
the internet (or your ISP assigns a new IP).
NewsFox - RSS/Atom News Reader.

Developer Tools:

FireFTP
- FireFTP is a free, secure, cross-platform FTP client for Mozilla
Firefox which provides easy and intuitive access to FTP servers.
IE Tab - IE Tab - an extension from Taiwan, features: Embedding Internet Explorer in tabs of Mozilla/Firefox.
Web Developer - Adds a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools.
Firebug
- Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools
at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor
CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.
Greasemonkey - Allows you to customize the way a webpage displays using small bits of JavaScript.
Tab Mix Plus
- Tab Mix Plus enhances Firefox's tab browsing capabilities. It
includes such features as duplicating tabs, controlling tab focus, tab
clicking options, undo closed tabs and windows, plus much more. It also
includes a full-featured session manager with crash recovery that can
save and restore combinations of opened tabs and windows.
Image Zoom
- Easily zoom in, zoom out, fit image to screen or set custom zoom on
individual images within a web page. All this can be done by using the
context menu or a combination of mouse buttons and scroll wheel. Handy
to see the finer details of smaller pics or to make very large pics fit
within your screen.
ColorZilla - Advanced Eyedropper, ColorPicker, Page Zoomer and other colorful goodies.
IE View
- Lets you load pages in IE with a single right-click, or mark certain
sites to *always* load in IE. Useful for incompatible pages, or
cross-browser testing.
iMacros - Automate your web browser. Record and replay repetitious work.

Editing and Forms:

Performancing
- Performancing for Firefox is a full featured blog editor that sits
right in your Firefox browser and lets you post to your blog easily. You
can drag and drop formatted text from the page you happen to be
browsing, and take notes as well as post to your blog.
Gmail Skins - Skins and other extra features for Gmail.
InFormEnter
- InFormEnter adds a small, clickable icon next to every input field in
a web form, from where you can select the item to be inserted - no
typing required. You can configure it to display your frequently used
information such as name, email, address and whatever else you want to
be available from the form menu.
Snipshot
- Edit any picture on the web with one right-click. The picture will be
brought into the online image editor Snipshot where you can crop,
resize, rotate or recolor it, then save it into a variety of formats
(JPG, GIF, PNG, PDF) or to Flickr or a free image host. For faster
workflow, you can optionally enhance the image as it enters Snipshot or
resize it to fit a set of custom dimensions.
JSView
- All browsers include a "View Source" option, but none of them offer
the ability to view the source code of external files. Most websites
store their javascripts and style sheets in external files and then link
to them within a web page's source code. Previously if you wanted to
view the source code of an external javascript/css you would have to
manually look through the source code to find the url and then type that
into your browser.
Password Exporter
- This extension allows you to export and import your saved passwords
and rejected sites between computers. Your passwords will be exported to
an XML or CSV file and can be encrypted.
AI Roboform Toolbar - Add RoboForm Toolbar to Firefox.
DejaClick
- DéjàClick is a web recorder and Super Bookmark utility designed
exclusively for Firefox. You can record and bookmark your browser
activities, then with a single click, replay the entire sequence all
over again. Got a package or an order you want to track? Have a favorite
category at an online auction site? Tired of going through the steps to
log into your e-mail? Use DéjàClick by AlertSite to automatically
access any final URL. Also works great for quickly producing web
application test scripts.
Unofficial Myspace Toolbar
- Automatically login to Myspace, instantly access your messages, view
hidden comments, create styled comments/bulletins and more with this
intuitive and customizable toolbar!
FireFoxMenuButtons - Adds 41 new Buttons (duplicating of menu strings) from Firefox Menu on the Toolbar!

Image Browsing:

FlashGot
- Download one link, selected links or all the links of a page together
at the maximum speed with a single click, using the most popular,
lightweight and reliable external download managers.
DownThemAll - The first and only download manager/accelerator built inside Firefox!
Cooliris Previews - Cooliris Previews for Firefox gives you the power to browse faster and send links instantly.
Gspace
- This extension allows you to use your Gmail Space (2.8 GB and
growing) for file storage. It acts as an online drive, so you can upload
files from your hard drive and access them from every Internet capable
system.
Firefox Companion for Kodak EasyShare Gallery
- Organizing and sharing your pictures is easier than ever with Firefox
Companion for Kodak EasyShare Gallery. Upload photos directly to your
Kodak EasyShare Gallery, all within your browser. Drag, drop and arrange
pictures adding photo titles, and create albums by multi-selecting
photos - all of this without interrupting your Internet browsing.
Co-developed by Kodak, it also includes other popular photo services.
BlueOrganizer
- The blueorganizer is smart browsing and personalization technology
for Firefox. It makes the browser aware of everyday objects like books,
movies, wines, restaurants and much more. The blueorganizer helps you
automatically collect these object from many popular sites, manage them
and instantly find related information.
DownloadHelper - DownloadHelper is a tool for web content extraction. Its purpose is to capture video and image files from many sites.
Firefox Showcase
- Showcase provides a new way to manage your Firefox tabs and windows
by showing them as thumbnails in a single window, tab or sidebar.
Includes a find bar that will filter the thumbnails, and the capability
to select the thumbnails in the same way you would select files in your
system.
Image Zoom - Adds zoom functionality for images.
Send 2 Cellphone
- Send2Cellphone provides a simple way to send images from web pages
directly to mobile phones via free Send2Cellphone service. Simply right
click any image on any web page and select "Send2Cellphone" from the
context menu. After transferring the picture to your cell phone you can
view it, use it as a wallpaper or send to a friend via MMS.

Message Reading:

Cooliris Previews - Cooliris Previews for Firefox gives you the power to browse faster and send links instantly.
Mouse Gestures
- Allows you to execute common commands (like page forward/backward,
close tab, new tab) by mouse gestures drawn over the current webpage,
without reaching for the toolbar or the keyboard.
Gmail Manager
- Allows you to manage multiple Gmail accounts and receive new mail
notifications. Displays your account details including unread messages,
saved drafts, spam messages, labels with new mail, space used, and new
mail snippets.
ReminderFox
- ReminderFox is an extension that displays and manages lists of
date-based reminders and ToDo's. ReminderFox does not seek to be a
full-fledged calendar system. In fact, the target audience is anybody
that simply wants to remember important dates (birthdays, anniversaries,
etc) without having to run a fat calendar application.
NewsFox - RSS/Atom News Reader.
Yahoo! Mail Notifier - This extension notifies you when new messages arrive in your Yahoo mailbox.
Gmail Skins - Skins and other extra features for Gmail.
WOT
- WOT helps you avoid disingenuous Internet content by allowing you to
learn from others' experiences. WOT shows you website reputations on
your browser, telling you how much other users trust a website. This
helps you make better decisions while browsing and avoid phishing,
malware, and other types of fraud. Reputations can also be added to web
search results, Gmail, Wikipedia, and other selected sites.
Temporary Inbox
- This extension generates random disposable email addresses. You can
use these email addresses for registration in forums, adult sites or
whereever.
infoRSS
- Displays RSS, Atom, parsed HTML and NNTP feed in a scrolling area the
status bar. Compatible with podcasting RSS which can be downloaded
directly.
It's also a good Gmail notifier.

News Reading:

Forecastfox
- Get international weather forecasts from AccuWeather.com, and display
it in any toolbar or statusbar with this highly customizable and
unobtrusive extension.
Cooliris Previews - Cooliris Previews for Firefox gives you the power to browse faster and send links instantly.
Sage
- Sage is a lightweight RSS and Atom feed aggregator extension for
Mozilla Firefox. It's got a lot of what you need and not much of what
you don't.
BlueOrganizer
- The blueorganizer is smart browsing and personalization technology
for Firefox. It makes the browser aware of everyday objects like books,
movies, wines, restaurants and much more. The blueorganizer helps you
automatically collect these object from many popular sites, manage them
and instantly find related information.
TorrentBar - BitTorrent File Search Toolbar for Firefox. Allows to search numerous sites in a matter of minutes for needed torrent files.
Wizz RSS News Reader - A fairly good RSS and Atom news reader.
ReminderFox
- ReminderFox is an extension that displays and manages lists of
date-based reminders and ToDo's. ReminderFox does not seek to be a
full-fledged calendar system. In fact, the target audience is anybody
that simply wants to remember important dates (birthdays, anniversaries,
etc) without having to run a fat calendar application.
Forecastfox Enhanced
- Enhanced version of the popular Forecastfox extension
(forecastfox.mozdev.org) by Jon Stritar and Richard Klien. This adds 12
improved radar images for US locations and 4 for international locations
and the ability to supply a URL to use images from other sites.
NewsFox - RSS/Atom News Reader.
1-ClickWeather
- Because weather is important to you everyday... weather.com offers
you instant local weather conditions, alerts, radar in motion, satellite
maps, and forecasts all within your Firefox browser.

Tabbed Browsing:

IE Tab
- IE Tab - an extension from Taiwan, features: Embedding Internet
Explorer in tabs of Mozilla/Firefox. This is a great tool for web
developers, since you can easily see how your webpage displayed in IE
with just one click and then switch back to Firefox.
Tab Mix Plus
- Tab Mix Plus enhances Firefox's tab browsing capabilities. It
includes such features as duplicating tabs, controlling tab focus, tab
clicking options, undo closed tabs and windows, plus much more. It also
includes a full-featured session manager with crash recovery that can
save and restore combinations of opened tabs and windows.
Firefox Showcase
- Showcase provides a new way to manage your Firefox tabs and windows
by showing them as thumbnails in a single window, tab or sidebar.
Includes a find bar that will filter the thumbnails, and the capability
to select the thumbnails in the same way you would select files in your
system.
Colorful Tabs
- The most beautiful yet the simplest add-on that makes a strong
colorful appeal. Colors every tab in a different color and makes them
easy to distinguish while beautifying the overall appearance of the
interface.
Session Manager
- Session Manager saves and restores the state of all windows - either
when you want it or automatically at startup and after crashes.
Additionally it offers you to reopen (accidentally) closed windows and
tabs. If you're afraid of losing data while browsing - this extension
allows you to relax.
Tabbrowser Preferences - Enables enhanced control for some aspects of tabbed browsing.
Advanced Dork - Advanced Dork: gives quick access to Google's Advanced Operators directly from the context menu.
ChromaTabs
- Colors browser tabs based on the site loaded. For example, visiting
mozilla.org will make the tab blue, and cnn.com will make the tab green.
Tab Catalog - Shows thumbnail-style catalog of tabs.
Tab Control - Take control of your tabs!

XUL Applications:

FireFTP
- FireFTP is a free, secure, cross-platform FTP client for Mozilla
Firefox which provides easy and intuitive access to FTP servers.
FoxyTunes
- Do you listen to Music while surfing the Web? Now you can control
your favorite media player without ever leaving the browser and more.
DownThemAll
- DownThemAll is all you can desire from a download manager: it
features an advanced accelerator that increases speed up to 400% and it
allows you to pause and resume downloads at any time!
Gspace
- This extension allows you to use your Gmail Space (2.8 GB and
growing) for file storage. It acts as an online drive, so you can upload
files from your hard drive and access them from every Internet capable
system. The interface will make your Gmail account look like a FTP host.
ChatZilla - A clean, easy to use and highly extensible Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client.
Jeteye
- Jeteye is a unique Web-based application and service that is designed
for the next generation of enterprise and consumer use of the Web.
Jeteye changes how we interact with the web, in an era where
communication and social computing are more powerful than ever.
Performancing
- Performancing for Firefox is a full featured blog editor that sits
right in your Firefox browser and lets you post to your blog easily. You
can drag and drop formatted text from the page you happen to be
browsing, and take notes as well as post to your blog.
AllPeers - Share your files privately and securely. Chat with your friends.
Wizz RSS News Reader - A fairly good RSS and Atom news reader.
ReminderFox
- ReminderFox is an extension that displays and manages lists of
date-based reminders and ToDo's. ReminderFox does not seek to be a
full-fledged calendar system. In fact, the target audience is anybody
that simply wants to remember important dates (birthdays, anniversaries,
etc) without having to run a fat calendar application.

Bookmarks:

StumbleUpon
- StumbleUpon lets you "channelsurf" the best-reviewed sites on the
web. It is a collaborative surfing tool for browsing, reviewing and
sharing great sites with like-minded people. This helps you find
interesting webpages you wouldn't think to search for.
Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer
- If you use Firefox on more than one computer, you'll want Foxmarks.
Install Foxmarks on each computer, and it will work silently in the
background to keep your bookmarks synchronized. As a bonus, log in to
my.foxmarks.com from any computer anywhere to access your bookmarks.
del.icio.us Bookmarks
- This extension integrates your browser with del.icio.us
(http://del.icio.us/), the leading social bookmarking service on the
Web. It does this by augmenting the bookmarking functionality in Firefox
with an enhanced experience.
Clipmarks
- With Clipmarks, you can clip the best parts of web pages. Whether
it’s a paragraph, sentence, image or video, you can capture just the
pieces you want without having to bookmark the entire page.
Tab Mix Plus
- Tab Mix Plus enhances Firefox's tab browsing capabilities. It
includes such features as duplicating tabs, controlling tab focus, tab
clicking options, undo closed tabs and windows, plus much more. It also
includes a full-featured session manager with crash recovery that can
save and restore combinations of opened tabs and windows.
Yoono
- Yoono instantly suggests similar sites, blog notes and people sharing
the same interests while you are surfing, for each page you open. Zero
effort required - no more tagging, typing keywords or changing
interface. Let Yoono bring you the best that others have discovered.
BlueOrganizer
- The blueorganizer is smart browsing and personalization technology
for Firefox. It makes the browser aware of everyday objects like books,
movies, wines, restaurants and much more. The blueorganizer helps you
automatically collect these object from many popular sites, manage them
and instantly find related information.
Jeteye
- Jeteye is a unique Web-based application and service that is designed
for the next generation of enterprise and consumer use of the Web.
Jeteye changes how we interact with the web, in an era where
communication and social computing are more powerful than ever.
Firefox Showcase
- Showcase provides a new way to manage your Firefox tabs and windows
by showing them as thumbnails in a single window, tab or sidebar.
Includes a find bar that will filter the thumbnails, and the capability
to select the thumbnails in the same way you would select files in your
system.
iMacros - Automate your web browser. Record and replay repetitious work.

Entertainment:

FoxyTunes
- Do you listen to Music while surfing the Web? Now you can control
your favorite media player without ever leaving the browser and more.
StumbleUpon
- StumbleUpon lets you "channelsurf" the best-reviewed sites on the
web. It is a collaborative surfing tool for browsing, reviewing and
sharing great sites with like-minded people. This helps you find
interesting webpages you wouldn't think to search for.
Gspace
- This extension allows you to use your Gmail Space (2.8 GB and
growing) for file storage. It acts as an online drive, so you can upload
files from your hard drive and access them from every Internet capable
system.
BlueOrganizer
- The blueorganizer is smart browsing and personalization technology
for Firefox. It makes the browser aware of everyday objects like books,
movies, wines, restaurants and much more. The blueorganizer helps you
automatically collect these object from many popular sites, manage them
and instantly find related information.
Fast Video Download - Fast Video Download can save embedded video files from video-hosting servers.
MediaPlayerConnectivity - Allow you to launch embed video of website in an external application with a simple click.
Torrent Finder Toolbar
- Torrent Finder Toolbar is a torrent search toolbar for Firefox, which
enables users to search over 100 top torrent sites and trackers from
their Firefox browser the same way they used to search using
http://torrent-finder.com form. It allows users to search a single site,
search all sites on one page, or open the sites in Firefox tabs.
TorrentBar - BitTorrent File Search Toolbar for Firefox. Allows to search numerous sites in a matter of minutes for needed torrent files.
FoxGame - Enhance user experience with O-game (now works in every o-game version)
Adds
a lot of features to the webgame O-game. It also integrates Database
features inside the game. O-Game, is a real-time spacial browser game.
Wizz RSS News Reader - A fairly good RSS and Atom news reader.

Kiosk Browsing:

Gspace
- This extension allows you to use your Gmail Space (2.8 GB and
growing) for file storage. It acts as an online drive, so you can upload
files from your hard drive and access them from every Internet capable
system.
All-in-One Sidebar
- All-in-One Sidebar (AiOS) is a sidebar control, inspired by Opera's.
Click on the left edge of your browser window to open the sidebar and
get easy access to all your panels. It lets you quickly switch between
sidebar panels, view dialog windows such as downloads, extensions, and
more in the sidebar, or view source or websites in the sidebar.
Dictionary Tooltip
- Press ctrl+shift+D (or) double-click (or) right-click after selecting
a word to see its meaning. This extension is ideal for those who
doesn't like to switch their window to see the meaning of a word.
FireFoxMenuButtons
- Adds 41 new Buttons (duplicating of menu strings) from Firefox Menu
on the Toolbar! Look for this buttons (after installing) on the
"Customize toolbar" (Menu/View/Toolbars/Customize...).
Public Fox
- Tired of cleaning stuff people download? Use this to limit file
downloading. Prevent browser changes, block unwanted Web Sites.
Firefox Google Bookmarks - Creates a menu to access google bookmarks from any computer. Needs Google Account to use this extension.
Personal Menu
- Feel tired of the conservative menus, and have tried to put them into
a single menu but never want to waste time on one more click?
Full Fullscreen
- Hides remaining toolbars that the normal fullscreen functionality
does not. Hiding the tab bar, as well as starting up on fullscreen, are
configurable from the settings dialog. Licensed under MPL.
gladder - Get over Great Firewall with Great Ladder!
R-kiosk
- Real Kiosk is a Firefox 2.0 extension that defaults to full screen,
disables all menus, toolbars, key commands and right button menus.
Alt+Home still takes you home.

Miscellaneous:

Adblock Plus
- Ever been annoyed by all those ads and banners on the internet that
often take longer to download than everything else on the page? Install
Adblock Plus now and get rid of them. Right-click on a banner and choose
"Adblock" from the context menu - the banner won't be downloaded again.
NoScript
- Winner of the "2006 PC World World Class Award", this tool provides
extra protection to your Firefox. It allows JavaScript, Java and other
executable content to run only from trusted domains of your choice, e.g.
your home-banking web site.
Forecastfox
- Get international weather forecasts from AccuWeather.com, and display
it in any toolbar or statusbar with this highly customizable and
unobtrusive extension.
IE Tab
- Embedding Internet Explorer in tabs of Mozilla/Firefox. This is a
great tool for web developers, since you can easily see how your webpage
displayed in IE with just one click and then switch back to Firefox.
FoxyTunes
- Do you listen to Music while surfing the Web? Now you can control
your favorite media player without ever leaving the browser and more.
Fasterfox
- Fasterfox allows you to tweak many network and rendering settings
such as simultaneous connections, pipelining, cache, DNS cache, and
initial paint delay.
StumbleUpon
- StumbleUpon lets you "channelsurf" the best-reviewed sites on the
web. It is a collaborative surfing tool for browsing, reviewing and
sharing great sites with like-minded people. This helps you find
interesting webpages you wouldn't think to search for.
Cooliris Previews - Cooliris Previews for Firefox gives you the power to browse faster and send links instantly.
Map+ - View a map of a selected address in Firefox without changing windows or tabs using the right click command.
Clipmarks
- With Clipmarks, you can clip the best parts of web pages. Whether
it’s a paragraph, sentence, image or video, you can capture just the
pieces you want without having to bookmark the entire page.

Privacy and Security:

NoScript
- Winner of the "2006 PC World World Class Award", this tool provides
extra protection to your Firefox. It allows JavaScript, Java and other
executable content to run only from trusted domains of your choice, e.g.
your home-banking web site.
Fasterfox
- Fasterfox allows you to tweak many network and rendering settings
such as simultaneous connections, pipelining, cache, DNS cache, and
initial paint delay.
Cooliris Previews - Cooliris Previews for Firefox gives you the power to browse faster and send links instantly.
Torbutton - Torbutton provides a button to easily enable or disable the browser's use of Tor.
Flashblock
- Never be annoyed by a Flash animation again! Blocks Flash so it won't
get in your way, but if you want to see it, just click on it.
FoxyProxy - FoxyProxy is an advanced proxy management tool that completely replaces Firefox's proxy configuration.
SwitchProxy Tool - SwitchProxy lets you manage and switch between multiple proxy configurations
quickly and easily. You can also use it as an anonymizer to protect your
computer from prying eyes.
iMacros - Automate your web browser. Record and replay repetitious work.
Firefox Extension Backup Extension
- FEBE allows you to quickly and easily backup your Firefox extensions.
In fact, it goes beyond just backing up - it will actually rebuild your
extensions individually into installable .xpi files. Now you can easily
synchronize your office and home browsers.
CustomizeGoogle
- CustomizeGoogle is a Firefox extension that enhance Google search
results by adding extra information (like links to Yahoo, Ask.com, MSN
etc) and removing unwanted information (like ads and spam).

Web Annoyances:

Adblock Plus
- Ever been annoyed by all those ads and banners on the internet that
often take longer to download than everything else on the page? Install
Adblock Plus now and get rid of them.
NoScript
- Winner of the "2006 PC World World Class Award", this tool provides
extra protection to your Firefox. It allows JavaScript, Java and other
executable content to run only from trusted domains of your choice, e.g.
your home-banking web site.
IE Tab
- Embedding Internet Explorer in tabs of Mozilla/Firefox. This is a
great tool for web developers, since you can easily see how your webpage
displayed in IE with just one click and then switch back to Firefox.
Fasterfox
- Fasterfox allows you to tweak many network and rendering settings
such as simultaneous connections, pipelining, cache, DNS cache, and
initial paint delay.
Greasemonkey - Allows you to customize the way a webpage displays using small bits of JavaScript.
Cooliris Previews - Cooliris Previews for Firefox gives you the power to browse faster and send links instantly.
Tab Mix Plus
- Tab Mix Plus enhances Firefox's tab browsing capabilities. It
includes such features as duplicating tabs, controlling tab focus, tab
clicking options, undo closed tabs and windows, plus much more. It also
includes a full-featured session manager with crash recovery that can
save and restore combinations of opened tabs and windows.
PDF Download
- Allows to choose if you want to view a PDF file inside the browser
(as PDF or HTML), if you want to view it outside Firefox with your
default or custom PDF reader, or if you want to download it!
Gspace
- This extension allows you to use your Gmail Space (2.8 GB and
growing) for file storage. It acts as an online drive, so you can upload
files from your hard drive and access them from every Internet capable
system.
BlueOrganizer
- The blueorganizer is smart browsing and personalization technology
for Firefox. It makes the browser aware of everyday objects like books,
movies, wines, restaurants and much more. The blueorganizer helps you
automatically collect these object from many popular sites, manage them
and instantly find related information.

Contacts:

JAJAH - Web-Activated Telephony
- The JAJAH extension for Firefox integrates call functionality into
your browser. Phone numbers on web pages are automatically detected and
highlighted. When clicked, JAJAH initiates a phone call from your phone -
landline or mobile - to the desired destination.
LinkedIn Companion
- LinkedIn is an online network of more than 7.5 million experienced
professionals. LinkedIn helps you be more effective in your daily work
and opens doors to opportunities by helping you develop and manage your
network of business contacts.
ReminderFox
- ReminderFox is an extension that displays and manages lists of
date-based reminders and ToDo's. ReminderFox does not seek to be a
full-fledged calendar system. In fact, the target audience is anybody
that simply wants to remember important dates (birthdays, anniversaries,
etc) without having to run a fat calendar application.
Email This
- Email This! (formerly known as GMail This!) will send your recipient
the link, title, & highlighted text of the page you are viewing
using GMail, Yahoo, and Stand-Alone Mail Clients like Outlook Express,
Thunderbird, & More!
FireFoxMenuButtons
- Adds 41 new Buttons (duplicating of menu strings) from Firefox Menu
on the Toolbar! Look for this buttons (after installing) on the
"Customize toolbar" (Menu/View/Toolbars/Customize...).
GTDGmail - GTDGmail discreetly integrates into Gmail making it even more suitable as a GTD tool.
Facebook Toolbar - Integrate your Facebook life into your browser.
WataCrackaz AutoSMS - Watacrackaz AutoSMS toolbar. Send and receive SMS text messages to and from cellphones around the world.
Skype Sidebar
- Skype Sidebar allows you to call, add, find, chat, and voice mail
other contacts without even leaving your browser. Skype Sidebar lets you
see the status of your contacts and quickly chat with them. It saves
you time, allows you to quickly send files, and also view contacts
information. You can even start conference calls. You can customize the
width of the Skype object.
SMS Send - ABC SMS Send is a toolbar that allows you to send SMS text messages to over 170 countries.

Download Tools:

Download Statusbar - View and manage downloads from a tidy statusbar - without the download window getting in the way of your web browsing.
FlashGot
- Download one link, selected links or all the links of a page together
at the maximum speed with a single click, using the most popular,
lightweight and reliable external download managers.
VideoDownloader
- Download videos from Youtube, Google, Metacafe, iFilm, Dailymotion,
Pornotube... and other 60+ video sites! And all embedded objects on a
webpage (movies, mp3s, flash, quicktime, etc).
FireFTP
- FireFTP is a free, secure, cross-platform FTP client for Mozilla
Firefox which provides easy and intuitive access to FTP servers.
DownThemAll - The first and only download manager/accelerator built inside Firefox!
PDF Download
- Allows to choose if you want to view a PDF file inside the browser
(as PDF or HTML), if you want to view it outside Firefox with your
default or custom PDF reader, or if you want to download it!
Media Pirate - The video downloader
- More and more websites publish their videos in those neat flash
players. But if you want to download a video there is no download link.
This doesn't mean that you can't download it. Media Pirate creates a
download link for you!
Gspace
- This extension allows you to use your Gmail Space (2.8 GB and
growing) for file storage. It acts as an online drive, so you can upload
files from your hard drive and access them from every Internet capable
system.
Firefox Companion for Kodak EasyShare Gallery
- Organizing and sharing your pictures is easier than ever with Firefox
Companion for Kodak EasyShare Gallery. Upload photos directly to your
Kodak EasyShare Gallery, all within your browser. Drag, drop and arrange
pictures adding photo titles, and create albums by multi-selecting
photos - all of this without interrupting your Internet browsing.

Humor:

Tab Effect - Add effects when current tab is changed.
Splash - Adds a splash screen to most Mozilla and Mozilla Based products.
Firefox Google Bookmarks - Creates a menu to access google bookmarks from any computer. Needs Google Account to use this extension.
President Bush Countdown
- A timer that counts down the number of days remaining in George W.
Bush's term as President of the United States. Clicking on the countdown
shows a more detailed timer and enables people to air their grievances
on newprez.com. An icon shows when there is a new topic for discussion
or a vote.
Usage Counter - Tells you how much time you have spent using Firefox and browsing sites. (Previously known as Wasted Time Counter).
Bork Bork Bork - View web pages or mail as spoken by the Swedish Chef like this: "Feeoo veb peges oor meeel es spukee by zee Svedeesh Cheff."
Anglais - This extension provides proverbs and jokes to better learn English.
STOP! Hammer Time
- Adds 'STOP! Hammer Time!' functionality to Firefox - Simply go to
"view -> toolbars -> customize" and swap your stop button for the
'STOP! Hammer Time!' button. Now you can hear MC Hammer whenever a page
needs stopping!
Sun Cult - Worldwide Sunrise, Sunset, Twilight, Moonrise and Moonset Times.
ghostfox
- Stylises Firefox into Ghostzilla (The Invisible Browser) style. Move
your mouse away and firefox disappears. Then move it towards the left
edge of the screen, back to the right and again to the left and voila -
firefox is back again, discretely blended with ur original application
to appear like a part of it.

Navigation:

IE Tab
- Embedding Internet Explorer in tabs of Mozilla/Firefox. This is a
great tool for web developers, since you can easily see how your webpage
displayed in IE with just one click and then switch back to Firefox.
Fasterfox
- Fasterfox allows you to tweak many network and rendering settings
such as simultaneous connections, pipelining, cache, DNS cache, and
initial paint delay.
StumbleUpon
- StumbleUpon lets you "channelsurf" the best-reviewed sites on the
web. It is a collaborative surfing tool for browsing, reviewing and
sharing great sites with like-minded people. This helps you find
interesting webpages you wouldn't think to search for.
Map+ - View a map of a selected address in Firefox without changing windows or tabs using the right click command.
Tab Mix Plus
- Tab Mix Plus enhances Firefox's tab browsing capabilities. It
includes such features as duplicating tabs, controlling tab focus, tab
clicking options, undo closed tabs and windows, plus much more. It also
includes a full-featured session manager with crash recovery that can
save and restore combinations of opened tabs and windows.
Yoono
- Yoono instantly suggests similar sites, blog notes and people sharing
the same interests while you are surfing, for each page you open. Zero
effort required - no more tagging, typing keywords or changing
interface. Let Yoono bring you the best that others have discovered.
PDF Download
- Allows to choose if you want to view a PDF file inside the browser
(as PDF or HTML), if you want to view it outside Firefox with your
default or custom PDF reader, or if you want to download it!
BlueOrganizer
- The blueorganizer is smart browsing and personalization technology
for Firefox. It makes the browser aware of everyday objects like books,
movies, wines, restaurants and much more. The blueorganizer helps you
automatically collect these object from many popular sites, manage them
and instantly find related information.
Firefox Showcase
- Showcase provides a new way to manage your Firefox tabs and windows
by showing them as thumbnails in a single window, tab or sidebar.
Includes a find bar that will filter the thumbnails, and the capability
to select the thumbnails in the same way you would select files in your
system.
Mouse Gestures
- Allows you to execute common commands (like page forward/backward,
close tab, new tab) by mouse gestures drawn over the current webpage,
without reaching for the toolbar or the keyboard.

Website Integration:

VideoDownloader
- Download videos from Youtube, Google, Metacafe, iFilm, Dailymotion,
Pornotube... and other 60+ video sites! And all embedded objects on a
webpage (movies, mp3s, flash, quicktime, etc).
StumbleUpon
- StumbleUpon lets you "channelsurf" the best-reviewed sites on the
web. It is a collaborative surfing tool for browsing, reviewing and
sharing great sites with like-minded people. This helps you find
interesting webpages you wouldn't think to search for.
del.icio.us Bookmarks
- This extension integrates your browser with del.icio.us
(http://del.icio.us/), the leading social bookmarking service on the
Web. It does this by augmenting the bookmarking functionality in Firefox
with an enhanced experience.
Greasemonkey - Allows you to customize the way a webpage displays using small bits of JavaScript.
Yoono
- Yoono instantly suggests similar sites, blog notes and people sharing
the same interests while you are surfing, for each page you open. Zero
effort required - no more tagging, typing keywords or changing
interface.
Firefox Companion for Kodak EasyShare Gallery
- Organizing and sharing your pictures is easier than ever with Firefox
Companion for Kodak EasyShare Gallery. Upload photos directly to your
Kodak EasyShare Gallery, all within your browser. Drag, drop and arrange
pictures adding photo titles, and create albums by multi-selecting
photos - all of this without interrupting your Internet browsing.
DownloadHelper - DownloadHelper is a tool for web content extraction. Its purpose is to capture video and image files from many sites.
Performancing
- Performancing for Firefox is a full featured blog editor that sits
right in your Firefox browser and lets you post to your blog easily. You
can drag and drop formatted text from the page you happen to be
browsing, and take notes as well as post to your blog.
LinkedIn Companion
- LinkedIn is an online network of more than 7.5 million experienced
professionals. LinkedIn helps you be more effective in your daily work
and opens doors to opportunities by helping you develop and manage your
network of business contacts.
Fast Video Download - Fast Video Download can save embedded video files from video-hosting servers.

A copy of the internet in one location exists!!!

noreply@blogger.com (jeremy) — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:30:00 +0000

I was on stumble upon when i found this, an archive of the internet has been kept on a cluster computers and servers in 3 locations. although the one in the picture does not look as snazzy as a data center for Microsoft, there are two more including one with blade servers.

"
November 04, 2002 | Tucked away in one of the seediest neighborhoods of San Francisco is a roomful of over two hundred computers with a terabyte of data stored on every three. Stairs from the street lead up an intimidating hallway that opens into a room with 15-foot ceilings and just-this-side of hip ductwork in the ceiling. To the right is a storage area with a single desk, to the left are Baker's racks tightly packed with off-the-shelf HP desktop machines, each turned on it's side to maximize the space. Somewhere in all that ductwork, a fan is squeaking painfully. Walking into this echoey, over-warm warehouse space, it's easy to be underwhelmed until you realize what you are looking at: spinning away on these computers is nothing less than a copy of the Internet from 1996 until today.

stairs leading to the Archive

Hyperbole is easy to generate: over 10 billion pages are held here. The content of a single computer is equivalent to the entire Library of Congress. Over 250 gigabytes of data are added daily. Over 12 terabytes are added every month and there are a total of over 120 terabytes of storage available. As a copy of the entire publicly accessible internet, it is also certainly the worlds largest collection of pornography in a single room.
The Internet Archive was founded in 1995 by Brewster Kahle with the intent of preserving what is arguably the fastest growing archive of human expression ever created. The Library of Congress, and other analog equivalents, keep copies of the thousands of books published every year, helping to preserve our paper history, but the amount of content on the internet has grown to dwarf that repository. Also, unlike books on the shelves of libraries, web pages are in a constant state of flux: the average age of a web site is only 19 months with the average page changing every 100 days. The amount of information created and lost every day is staggering. The current state of digital technology and the internet makes it feasible for the Archive to reach it's stated mission of universal access to human knowledge.
The Internet Archive has several locations, the Mission street facility is their co-location site. This no-frills building is where the data is stored. The other primary site is located at the Presidio in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge. That San Francisco location is where the most of the staff are and where the day-to-day business of the Archive takes place. There is another site in Egypt that holds a duplicate of the data on the Mission Street hard drives.
Computing Power on a Shoestring budget

A walk through any other co-location site would be a testament to the Cisco and Sun sales force: high-end servers with terabytes of storage all connected together in a network that has packets flying so fast you can feel your fillings melt if you get too close to the wires. The Archive, on the other hand, is a poster child for function over flash. The machines on the racks are the cheapest possible—the ideal computer is one with a reasonable CPU, a gigabyte of RAM and case for under $300—loaded with a free operating system. The racks look to be straight out of Costco and you won't find an Aeron chair anywhere on the premises.
Gathering this many computers is certain to point out even the smallest problems inherent in the hardware. There is a failure of one kind or another almost very other day. Hard drives are a common problem, failing long before the manufactures' specification claims they should. The summer-time temperatures in the Archive facility hover slightly above what would be covered by the warranty, and a failed drive is potentially a piece of internet history lost. Motherboards, power supplies: anything that can go wrong, will. In those cases, a crash cart is rolled over, the problem diagnosed and hopefully fixed.
So why isn't the Archive using the latest and greatest Sun servers in a temperature controlled co-location facility where the air and power are filtered? The answer is simple: Librarians don't drive Porches. The Archive budget is not overly generous, and the total cost of ownership for Sun servers, proprietary operating systems and top-of-the-line routers and switches can be onerous. Filtering and cooling the air would approximately double the operating cost of the Archive. Under these restrictions it makes more sense to use commodity hardware and have layers of redundancy rather than a single server worth thousands of dollars.
Crawling
Anyone familiar with the concept of a web spider will understand the heart of the Archive's operation. Spiders are programs that traverse the internet and glean information from web sites. Search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Lycos rely on spiders to gather information to feed their search engines. The quality of these spiders and the quality of the indexing determine the success of your searches.
The Internet Archive does essentially the same thing in what it calls a "crawl." Crawls are carried out by the Archive itself or crawls are donated by other entities. Most of the data currently in the Archive has been donated by Alexa internet, also founded by Brewster Kahle. The Archive does two kinds of crawls: broad and narrow. A broad crawl is an attempt to archive a wide range of sites as completely as possible while a narrow crawl is designed for complete coverage of selected sites or selected topics. Both types of crawls have their own inherent challenges.
Broad crawls can create a number of different problems. While it may be easy to create a crawler that takes full advantage of a 100Mbs link to the internet, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep the crawler fed. Extracting unique URLs becomes computationally demanding as the database of indexed sites increases. A broad crawl can encompass over 150 million web pages in a week and run for 40-60 days total. Each page encountered needs to have the links on it extracted and followed. However, those links first need to be checked against the database of previously visited sites. If it's the first time this URL has been hit, then it will need more attention while a repeat can be ignored. This comparison is done in RAM, so if the database is large enough to exhaust the RAM on the computer and force it to page to disk, the speed of the crawl slows down significantly.
Another issue is for crawls is politeness—not all web sites are able to handle the load imposed by a high-performance, multi-threaded crawler. In these cases, there are only two outcomes: either the crawler is smart enough to back off and reduce the strain on the server, or the server will likely crash. A crawl that is looking up tens of millions of web sites per day can also having a devastating effect on DNS servers. These servers also often run out of RAM quickly as the lookups accumulate.
Broad crawls are a necessity because in the vast pool of web pages, it's impossible to know what information should be preserved. A broad crawl is specifically designed to copy as much information as possible over a wide range of web sites. Since there are a lot of duplicate pages out there, and the task of discerning them on the fly is far to difficult, the Archive ends up with about a 30% duplication rate on broad crawls.
Narrow crawls may require less storage and less bandwidth, but they have their own challenges. On a topic-driven crawl, the most obvious is the programming involved in assuring that the crawl has achieved its goal. Making certain that topics such as the attacks on September 11th have been covered completely goes far beyond finding pages with those keywords on them.
Taking care not to overwhelm servers becomes even more of an issue in a site-based narrow crawl. Attacking an underpowered web site with the full force of the Archive is certain not to make friends. In order to cover the sites completely, it is also vital to be able to pull out links from the pages that are not strictly HTML—links buried in Flash, Shockwave, JavaScript or created dynamically in other ways. In the same vein, the robot exclusion file that some sites use to declare parts of the site out-of-bounds to normal spiders can be ignored by the Archive if they are doing a crawl on behalf of an authority such as the Library of Congress. In that case, the webmaster will receive a notification, suitable for framing, explaining that they should be suitably honored that the exclusion files are going to be ignored so that this site can be added to the Library of Congress Web Archive.
Sure it's cool, but what can it do?
The Internet Archive is for web developers what home movies must be for celebrities. Preserved for posterity are our bad web designs, animated gifs and blinking text. The Wayback Machine is a glimpse into the pages held in Mission Street: enter a URL and it will sweep you back as far as 1996 to look at the early days of the internet explosion. The Wayback Machine is a popular site, it receives about five million hits per day. While it is clearly in heavy use, it's not known what research, if any, the people using the Wayback Machine are doing. Other researchers are using the Archive, but it's not an easy task. While there is plenty of data to look at, there isn't an easy interface for accessing it.
The types of research that are waiting to be done are even more interesting. The Archive contains over ten thousand news sites, various archives of e-mail lists, and a growing number of blogs. This is the chatter of the world, and as time goes on it can provide a wonderful glimpse into the psyche of the time. Nefarious uses are equally easy imagine: the effects of advertising campaigns, product releases or political debates. Having the opinions of millions of people clearly documented, easily accessible and quantifiable would be a boon to market researchers and anthropologists alike. Blogs and personal web sites may be of even greater interest than mainstream news site since they are an unfiltered view of the public at large.
Bigger, Better, Faster, More
The Archive can only continue to grow, but obtaining more raw data isn't the only goal. The tools for accessing the data have to be improved before research can become commonplace using the Archive's stores. The quality of the collections needs to be addressed also: duplicates, missing pieces, new sites and new technologies all must be dealt with as the collection continues to grow.
The future also holds more cooperation between the Archive and other organizations. The Library of Congress and other national libraries have a keen interest in adding web archives to their collections, so a teaming makes perfect sense.
The speed of crawls is also due for an upgrade. Alexa Internet is doing the majority of the crawls for the Archive, but soon they will be able to do their own. When that is put in place, the collective speed of crawls will effectively double from the current 45Mb/sec to almost 100Mb/sec. That also means an increase in the speed of the LAN at Mission Street and the WAN between Mission and the Presidio.
There is a great deal more to the Archive than what is covered here. The Prelinger collection of advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur movies is a fantastic, scary and sometimes downright hilarious remembrance of "duck and cover" type movies from the 1950s and on. The collection covers everything from patriotism to personal hygiene with a pre-"Bewitched" Dick York in a number of roles. Most of the movies are unintentionally, jaw-droppingly funny. (See: Dick York as the Shy Guy, Dick York as a runner battling insomnia, Dick York as a Navy recruit with insomnia. Geez, did this guy ever sleep?)
Explore the Archive's web site often, this article has barely scratched the surface of the material available. The Internet Archive Bookmobile, a mirror of the Project Gutenberg files, the Orphan Films collection and the special collection of September 11th related web material are a small sample of the overwhelming store of information available. And it's free, just like any good library."

Lolo's Alarm Clock -- The omniscient alarm clock...

noreply@blogger.com (jeremy) — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 00:31:00 +0000

A fancy alarm clock built with the Arduino platform and hardware. It keeps track of time and can measure temperature, humidity, dew point, light level, air quality, and sleep patterns. It's designed as a wooden box with touch sensing for control.

It monitors the quality of air, and general comfort in the room during sleep and wakes you up at the best possible time by sensing your sleep state with an accelerometer sensor under the bed. All data is logged wirelessly to a base station connected to the computer for latter analysis.

Right now I am providing all source code (Arduino) and videos for the project. Details on the electronics will be provided at some later time.
Theory.

The more you move during your sleep the easier it is to wake you up. 'Deep sleep' is the worst time to wake up and is characterized by very few body movements. Any other time is better: in particular just after moving substantially. For example turning from belly to back side, moving arms, legs, head... This sometimes corresponds (at least for me) to a short moment of consciousness while dreaming or close to waking up. The alarm clock monitors a time window defined by a wake-up deadline and a preceding monitoring period (configurable). For example you can tell it to wake you up no later than 8h00 but up to one hour before (between 7h00 and 8h00). It will wake you up just after a body movement that exceeded a given intensity threshold.

Below is an example 'Sleepogram':

Also interesting is the possibility to monitor the general comfort of the room while sleeping. I usually get fued in the morning if there was not enough air circulation. The alarm clock can warn me if there is a problem with the air quality. Air contaminants detectable by the Figaro gas sensor (TGS2602) accumulate and are a good indicator of overall air freshness...

The alarm clock makes 'bird-like' sounds although right now the birds sound very wrong... A nice idea would be to have bird-like sound that slightly vary randomly thus avoiding the usual repetitive and boring alarm clock buzz.
Hardware.

What I have used:

    * Arduino Dueminalove (alarm-clock)
    * Seeduino Mega (Base-station)
    * Real-time clock
    * LCD screen
    * Temperature and humidity sensor
    * Gas sensor: detection of air contaminants (TGS2602 or TGS2600)

Click to see the video

Hackers turn Google into vulnerability scanner

noreply@blogger.com (jeremy) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:52:00 +0000

The hacking group Cult of the Dead Cow (CDC) this week released a tool that turns Google into an automated vulnerability scanner, scouring Web sites for sensitive information such as passwords or server vulnerabilities.

CDC first achieved notoriety ten years ago with its backdoor Back Orifice, which demonstrated in a highly public way just how easy it was to take unauthorized control of a Windows PC.

The new tool, called Goolag Scan, is equally provocative, making it easy for unskilled users to track down vulnerabilities and sensitive information on specific Web sites or broad web domains.

This capability should serve as a wake-up call for system administrators to run the tool on their own sites before attackers get around to it, according to CDC.

"It's no big secret that the Web is the platform, and this platform pretty much sucks from a security perspective," said CDC spokesperson Oxblood Ruffin, in a statement. "We've seen some pretty scary holes through random tests with the scanner in North America, Europe, and the Middle East. If I were a government, a large corporation, or anyone with a large Web site, I'd be downloading this beast and aiming it at my site yesterday."

The tool is a stand-alone Windows .Net application, licensed under the open source GNU General Public License, that provides about 1,500 customized searches under categories such as "vulnerable servers," "sensitive online shopping information" and "files containing juicy information."

The results are displayed as a list of links that can be opened directly in a browser. Example results include tell-tale error messages and Java applets for the remote control of surveillance cameras, according to CDC.

Goolag Scan is based on "Google hacking," the practice of exposing vulnerabilities via Google, which CDC says has been pioneered by a hacker going by the handle "Johnny I Hack Stuff."

Goolag Scan is, however, the first time such vulnerability searches have been built into a simple tool, according to CDC (Compare Patch and Vulnerability Management products).

(http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/022208-hackers-turn-google-into-vulnerability.html)

Setup your own Proxy Server in 5 Minutes for Free

noreply@blogger.com (jeremy) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:51:00 +0000

A simple Google search and you’ll find dozens of really good PHP scripts on the Internet to help you create proxy servers in minutes for free. The only limitation with PHP based proxies is that you require a web server to host the proxy scripts and second, you also need a domain name to act as an address for your proxy site.

If you don’t own a domain or server space, you can still create a personal proxy server for free and that too without requiring any technical knowledge.

Create a Free Proxy Server with Google App Engine Here’s one such proxy site that you can build for your friends in China or even for your personal use (say for accessing blocked sites from office). This is created using Google App Engine and, contrary to what you assume, the process is quite simple.

Step 1: Go to appengine.google.com and sign-in using your Google Account.

Step 2: Click the “Create an Application” button. Since this is your first time, Google will send a verification code via SMS to your mobile phone number. Type the code and you’re all set to create apps with Google App Engine.

Step 3: Choose a sub-domain* that will host your proxy server. Make sure the domain is available, agree to the Google Terms and click save. The sub-domain is also your App ID that will uniquely identify your proxy application.

For this example, we’ll use labnol-proxy-server as the App ID though you are free to choose any other unique name.

Step 4: OK, now that we have reserved the ID, it’s time to create and upload the proxy server application to Google App Engine. Go to python.org, download the 2.6.4 MSI Installer and install Python.

Step 5: Once Python is installed, go to code.google.com, download the Google App Engine SDK for Python and install it.

Step 6: Download this zip file and extract it to some folder on your desktop. The zip file, for the curious, contains a couple of text files (written in HTML and Python) that you can read with notepad.

Step 7: Start the Google App Engine Launcher program from the desktop and set the right values under Edit –> Preferences (see screenshot above).

Step 8. Click File –> Add Existing Application under the Google App Launcher program and browse to the directory that you created in Step 6. Click the Edit button and replace “YOUR_APP_ID” with the ID (sub-domain) that you reserved in Step 3.

Step 9: Click Deploy and your online proxy server is now ready for use. You can experience it live and if any of the steps don’t make sense, please refer to the following video screencast (available in 720p HD).

You can edit the main.html file to change the appearance of your proxy server and you can even add Analytics and AdSense code to your proxy server in case it gets popular on the web. The application is currently open to all users but you can add a layer of authentication so that only users who are logged-in into their Google Accounts can use your web proxy server.

If you have made any changes to your HTML files, you can upload the latest version to Google App Engine either by clicking the “Deploy” button again or use the following command -- appcfg.py update <app-directory>

Credits: The proxy server uses code from Mirrorr, an open-source web caching project by Brett Slatkin. Thanks Pratham for your help!

Update: To answer some of your questions:

This proxy works with Flash videos (like YouTube and ABC News) though not with Hulu.
If you are getting the “quota exceed” error, try this mirror site. Update: This has been removed since the App Engine TOS does not allow you to split your app across multiple accounts to make use of the free quotas. So technically, the mirror of the proxy is in violation of the TOS.
As some of you have suggestions, domain with the word “proxy” or “proxies” are banned at workplaces so you may include them in your proxy address.
Though there exist proxy servers for accessing secure sites, this is a basic proxy server that won’t work with sites that require logins (eg, Gmail or Hotmail).

Build your own botnet with open source software

noreply@blogger.com (jeremy) — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 12:26:00 +0000

Traditionally botnet's have recked more havoc then good. By effectively controlling millions of unsuspecting user PC's, modern botnets have demonstrated the ability to manage a global infrastructure on an unimaginable scale. By applying the same techniques and approaches used in botnets within your computing environment you'll be capable of handling any demands placed on you or your infrastructure.

This how-to article will take a closer look at using common open source components to create your very own botnet for the purposes for securing, protecting, load testing and managing your global internet infrastructure.

Enomalism - Open Source Cloud Computing Platform
XMPP - De-centralized Command & Control
OpenVPN - Encryption & Network configuration
openID - Authentication (Client & Server)
Server Virtualization - Botnet Application deployment

Introduction to Botnets Good Vs Evil As in any internet technology, it can be used for good or for evil. The purpose of this article is to examine some of the positive uses of botnet technology in business applications.

Darknet Vs Botnet A darknet is a private virtual network where users connect only to people they trust.

A Botnet is a term for a collection of software robots, or bots, which run autonomously and automatically. They run on groups of computers controlled remotely.

Business Usages Moores Law describes an important trend in that the number of transistors that can be inexpensively placed on an integrated circuit is increasing exponentially, doubling approximately every two years. Almost every measure of the capabilities of digital electronic devices is linked to Moore's Law: processing speed, memory capacity, etc. All of these are improving at (roughly) exponential rates as well.

As business become more and more compute centric, the need for additional sources of compute capacity has become a critical competitive aspect in many IT focused businesses.

By applying some of the key approaches found in today's modern botnet army's; companies can build more powerful, self healing and adaptive computing environments. Some of the these applications include (but are not limited to) the following,

Cloud Computing Cloud computing is a new (circa late 2007) label for the subset of grid computing that includes utility computing and other approaches to the use of shared computing resources. Cloud computing is an alternative to having local servers or personal devices handling users' applications.

Grid Computing / Computational The creation of a "virtual supercomputer" by using spare computing resources within an organization.

Application / Website Scaling Application load balancing is a technique to spread work between two or more computers, network links, CPUs, hard drives, or other resources, in order to get optimal resource utilization, throughput, or response time.

Load Testing Load testing is the process of creating demand on a system or device and measuring its response.

Fault Tolerance Fault-tolerance or graceful degradation is the property that enables a system to continue operating properly in the event of the failure of (or one or more faults within) some of its components.

Feel free to add your own use case.

How To Build a Botnet Difficulty Level (Medium to Hard) Tricky, but not impossible. If you're a decent computer geek you'll have no trouble.

What You'll Need

Access to several computers or a on-demand compute utility such as Amazon EC2
High Speed Internet access
Experience configuring Linux or Windows Networking
Experience with server Virtualization

1. Allocate computers / Servers At the heart of any botnet are the physical machines that execute the various processes. RAM, Storage and system/network I/0 will be your main limitations. A cluster of Mac Mini's will work just fine, although a cluster of Intel quad core servers will perform significantly better.

You also have the option to use pay per use compute utilities such as Amazon EC2 or even a VPS or dedicated web hosting environment. For the purposes of this how-to we will assume you have local hardware at your disposal, we're using several mac mini's with 2GB of RAM, 2GHZ dual core processors.

2. Choose Operating Environment (Server Virtualization) When looking at your various options it is good to stick with the operating system your most familiar with. Our preference is Linux, but Windows, OS X or BSD could also work just fine.

Just enough operating system (JEOS) When looking at the management of large numbers of slave machines, the OS size will become an import aspect to keep in mind. Operating systems with graphical desktops tend to be a lot larger, so for that reason we recommend the use of a small virtual machines also known as Just enough operating system (JEOS) A popular option includes the JEOS system provided by Ubuntu.

Server Virtualization There are number of different approaches that can be taken when deploying a botnet. The most typical is provided in the form of malware that sits on a users desktop PC and propagated via email or other subversive means.

Our preferred method involves the use of server virtualization. Server virutalization allows for many operating systems to running in parallel on a single computer or server.

What is Virtualization? The Wikipedia defines virtualization as "a technique for hiding the physical characteristics of computing resources from the way in which other systems, applications, or end users interact with those resources. This includes making a single physical resource (such as a server, an operating system, an application, or storage device) appear to function as multiple logical resources; or it can include making multiple physical resources (such as storage devices or servers) appear as a single logical resource."

So why do you need virtualization? Basically virtualization provides a more portable and easily adapted infrastructure capable of instantly changing to the demands placed on it.

Blue Pill Server Virtualization According to the author of the original blue pill Joanna Rutkowska, by using hardware accelerated virtualization to enable a virtual machine to run in parallel to the host operating system, malicious code could effectively enable a secondary operating environment to trap a running instance of the operating system into a undetectable virtual machine, and would then act as a hypervisor, with complete control of the host computer. Joanna Rutkowska claims that, since any detection program could be fooled by the hypervisor, such a system would be "100% undetectable"

Since our botnet is meant for more positive purposes, we recommend a more adaptive approach using server virtualization.

Enomalism Elastic Computing Platform In our example we're using an open source virtualization management platform called the Enomalism Elastic Computing Platform, which is geared to the easy management of several types of virtual environments including Xen, KVM, OpenVZ, and VMware. Enomalism makes the setup of a distributed multi server and geographically disperse virtualized environment significantly easier trough an easy to use web based dashboard. Enomalism isn't limited to one data center and can be setup to running across the globe.

3. Configure Networking When configuring your botnet one of the most important aspects will be the networking and dealing with securing remote and possibly untrusted network environments.

The best and easiest ways to deal with secure networking within a globally diverse computing environment is to use a Virtual Private Network VPN. We recommend using OpenVPN, a free and open source VPN program for creating point-to-point encrypted tunnels between host computers.

OpenVPN Technical Overview OpenVPN allows peers to authenticate to each other using a pre-shared secret key, certificates, or username/password. It is available on Solaris, Linux, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Mac OS X, and Windows 2000/XP.

4. Configure Command & Control A fundamental aspect of setting up a botnet is the "master" (Command & Control - C&C) and Zombie Machine (Slave). The slave is where the work gets done. In the early days, botnet C&C were typically deployed via the IRC, although lately most IRC networks are taking measures to block access to botnets, controllers must now find their own servers such as exploited PC's.

eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol There has also been a shift in the C&C from IRC based communications to eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) which requires no open ports, is encrypted and is extremely difficult to detect from regular IM traffic. XMPP also works behind firewalls, by using HTTP or HTTPS binding.

The decentralized architecture of the XMPP network is similar to email; anyone can run their own XMPP server and there is no central master server. 99% of the botnet can go offline without actually bringing down the overall botnetwork.

If configured correctly, it is almost impossible to take the XMPP based Command & Control system down. SO BE CAREFUL!

5. Define User Access 6. Applications & Monitoring 7. Auto discovery

Bacteria that lights up around landmines

noreply@blogger.com (jeremy) — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 12:26:00 +0000

source: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/11/scientists-create-bacteria-glows-landmines.php

A stunning 87 countries around the world are still littered with undetonated landmines, and their impact is devastating. Tens of thousands of people are killed or injured by mines every year, and they pose a grave threat to ecosystems and wildlife. But an unexpected solution may be on the way--scientists have developed a special kind of bacteria that actually begins to glow in the presence of landmines.

It seems like something straight out of a science fiction film, but this new bacteria is very real. According to the BBC, the "scientists produced the bacteria using a new technique called BioBricking, which manipulates packages of DNA." The bacteria is then mixed into a colorless solution, "which forms green patches when sprayed onto ground where mines are buried." The bacterial stew can also be dropped via airplane in extremely sensitive areas.

Then, only a few hours after it's sprayed or dropped, the bacteria begins to glow green if it's next to an undetonated explosive. This, of course, would be an invaluable asset in the ongoing quest to rid nations like Somalia, Bosnia, and Cambodia of their atrocious, deadly minefields.

While there's been much experimenting with new landmine detection techniques--genetically engineered mine-sniffing rats, color changing plants, and tobacco bio-sensors, to name a few--scientists are especially optimistic about the bacteria because the solution is cheap and easy to mass produce.

Landmines are one of the most horrible artifacts of war there are--they've killed and scarred millions during their tenure as the cheap, debilitating guerrilla weapon of choice. While human suffering is the first and foremost concern when it comes to landmines, it's often overlooked that landmines are severe threats to the ecosystems as well. Millions of animals have also been obliterated by landmines.

According to BNet,

one environmental specialist has compiled anecdotal reports of more than 1.6 million animals dying from land mines in 39 countries. In his collection are stories of as many as 20 elephants a year being killed by mines in Sri Lanka, of animals being "blown to pieces" in the Falkland Islands, and bears, deer and foxes triggering the devices in Croatia.

Landmines are a particular threat in areas rich with biodiversity. Countries like Myanmar (Burma), Colombia, Mozambique, Cambodia, and Angola are all teeming with wildlife--and have some of the largest minefields on the planet. While the specific numbers on animal fatalities remain inconclusive, researchers agree that mines are devastating in such environments.

Now, perhaps, this new glowing bacterial solution will help prevent both people and wildlife from meeting a fate nobody--and no animal--should ever have to suffer.

NASA to bring down the ISS in 2016

noreply@blogger.com (jeremy) — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 12:24:00 +0000

Question: What do you do with a 654,000 pound space station with no budget past 2015?

Let her crash and burn, which is just what the current plan is for the International Space Station. The short story here is that NASA will not have the budget to keep the huge space station in orbit. It seems like a shame to let the $100 billion ISS fail in such a glorious method. NASA doesn’t have the money and soon will not even have transportation with the Shuttle on the quick road to retirement.

There are of course folks in the government that want the ISS to survive a bit longer, but they can’t find the money. AIG executives apparently need a bonus so the space station needs to come down. Sorry, science and humanity, some playboy needs to make yacht payment. Sad.

Growing Fresh Air with 8 Powerful Plants

noreply@blogger.com (jeremy) — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 12:24:00 +0000

Janelle Sorensen Wednesday, December 23, 2009 What do you do when you become allergic to the air? When your lungs begin to shut down because the air is too contaminated? Kamal Meattle suffered from this fate and guess what his solution was? Grow new air. Based on years of NASA studies, other scientific research, and 15 years of his own testing, Meattle discovered that three common houseplants, used strategically throughout a home, could vastly improve the indoor air quality.

Here's the breakdown:

Areca Palm is "The Living Room Plant" - This plant is a daytime oxygen factory and Meattle recommends having 4 shoulder height plants per person.

Mother-in-Law's Tongue is "The Bedroom Plant" - This plant is an evening oxygen factory and Meattle recommends having 6-8 waist-high plants per person.

Money Plant is "The Specialist Plant" - This plant is the filter that removes formaldehyde and other volatile organic chemicals from the air.

If maintained appropriately, Meattle claims you could live inside a bottle with a cap on top and these three plants would generate all the fresh air you need.

Not looking to live in a bottle? These plants will certainly still improve your indoor air quality (even if you don't have quite so many). And, if you're not satisfied with just three options, other new research has identified five "super ornamentals" that demonstrated high effectiveness of contaminant removal.

These include the purple waffle plant (Hemigraphis alternataa), English ivy (Hedera Helix), variegated wax plant (Hoya cornosa), Asparagus fern (Asparagus densiflorus) and the Purple heart plant (Tradescantia pallida).

Of the 28 plants tested, these five were effective at reducing levels of a number of common household VOCs, including benzene, toluene, octane, alpha-pinene and TCE. The work, funded by the University of Georgia's Agricultural Experiment Stations, was published in the August 2009 issue of HortScience.

Ready to grow your own fresh air? NASA studies recommend that you use one good-sized houseplant in a 6 to 8-inch diameter container for every 100 square feet of your home. Though, additional research is being done to identify exactly how many of each type of species is necessary for remediation (as in Meattle's work). You should also be sure to keep the foliage clean and dust free (so the leaves can do their job). And, keep the top of soil clean and free of debris, as in some cases, that's where the bulk of the filtering is taking place.

The healthier your plants, the more vigorously they'll grow, and the better they'll clean the air for you.
Read more: http://healthychild.org/blog/comments/growing_fresh_air_with_8_powerful_plants/#ixzz0of3wAmuM

Also:

By Greg Seaman Posted May 13, 2009 Common indoor plants may provide a valuable weapon in the fight against rising levels of indoor air pollution. NASA scientists are finding them to be surprisingly useful in absorbing potentially harmful gases and cleaning the air inside homes, indoor public spaces and office buildings.

The indoor pollutants that affect health are formaldehyde, Volatile Organic Compounds (benzene and trichloroethylene or TCE), airborne biological pollutants, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides, pesticides and disinfectants (phenols), and radon. These pollutants contribute to ’sick building syndrome’, which causes symptoms ranging from allergies, headaches and fatigue through to nervous-system disorders, cancer and death.

Through studies conducted by NASA, scientists have identified 50 houseplants that remove many of the pollutants and gases mentioned above. Dr. B. C. Wolverton rated these plants for removing chemical vapors, ease of growth, resistance to insect problems, and transpiration (the amount of water they expire into the air).

NASA, with assistance from the Associated Landscape Contractors of America, conducted a two-year study directed by Dr. B.C. Wolverton, an environmental engineer from Picayune, Miss. Wolverton has worked as a research scientist for NASA for some 20 years. His study, in the late ’80s and early ’90s, of the interaction of plants and air found that houseplants, when placed in sealed chambers in the presence of specific chemicals, removed those chemicals from the chambers.

Dr. B.C. Wolverton, researcher and author of “How to Grow Fresh Air — 50 Houseplants that Purify Your Home or Office” (1997, Penguin paperback, $15.95), conducted plant studies for NASA that determined that plants can clean pollutants in homes, offices, factories and retail outlets.

Later, Wolverton expanded the study and assigned plants a rating from one to 10, based on a plant’s ability to remove chemical vapors or indoor air toxins, ease of growth and maintenance, resistance to insect infestation and the rate at which water evaporates from the leaves.

Top ten plants for removing formaldehyde, benzene, and carbon monoxide from the air:

1. Areca Palm (Chrysalidocarpus lutescens) Also called the “Butterfly Palm”. An upright houseplant that is somewhat vase shaped. Specimen plants can reach 10 to 12 foot in height. Prefers a humid area to avoid tip damage. Requires pruning. When selecting an Areca palm look for plants with larger caliber trunks at the base of the plant. Plants that have pencil thin stems tend to topple over and are quite difficult to maintain.

2. Lady Palm (Rhapis excelsa) Also called the “Lady Palm”, this durable palm species adapts well to most interiors. The Rhapis are some of the easiest palms to grow, but each species has its own particular environment and culture requirements. The “Lady Palm” grows slowly, but can grow to more than 14′ in height with broad clumps often having a diameter as wide as their height.

3. Bamboo palm (Chamaedorea seifrizii) Also called the “reed palm”, this palm prefers bright indirect light. New plants will lose of some interior foliage as they acclimate to indoor settings. This plant likes to stay uniformly moist, but does not like to be over-watered or to sit in standing water. Indoor palms may attract spider mites which can be controlled by spraying with a soapy solution.

4. Rubber Plant (Ficus robusta) Grows very well indoors, preferring semi-sun lighting. Avoid direct sunlight, especially in summer. Young plants may need to be supported by a stake. The Ficus grows to 8’ with a spread of 5’. Wear gloves when pruning, as the milky sap may irritate the skin. Water thoroughly when in active growth, then allow the soil to become fairly dry before watering again. In winter keep slightly moist.

5. Dracaena “Janet Craig” (Dracaena deremensis) The Dracaena grows to 10’ with a spread of 3’. Easy to grow, these plants do best in bright indirect sunlight coming from the east/west. They can adapt to lower light levels if the watering is reduced. Keep the soil evenly moist and mist frequently with warm water. Remove any dead leaves. Leaf tips will go brown if the plant is under watered but this browning may be trimmed.

6. Philodendron (Philodendron sp.) One of the most durable of all house plants. Philodendrons prefer medium intensity light but will tolerate low light. Direct sun will burn the leaves and stunt plant growth. This plant is available in climbing and non-climbing varieties. When grown indoors, they need to be misted regularly and the leaves kept free of dust. Soil should be evenly moist, but allowed to dry between watering.

7. Dwarf Date Palm (Phoenix roebelenii) A hardy, drought-tolerant and long-lived plant, the Dwarf Date Palm needs a bright spot which is free of drafts. It grows slowly, reaching heights of 8-10’. The Dwarf Date Palm should not be placed near children’s play areas because it has sharp needle-like spines arranged near the base of the leaf stem. These can easily penetrate skin and even protective clothing.

8. Ficus Alii (Ficus macleilandii “Alii”) The Ficus Alii grows easily indoors, and resists insects. It prefers a humid environment and low to medium light when grown indoors. The Ficus Aliii should not be placed near heating or air conditioning vents, or near drafts because this could cause leaf loss. Soil should be kept moist but allowed to dry between watering.

9. Boston Fern (Nephrolepis exaltata “Bostoniensis”) The Boston fern grows to 4’ in height with a spread up to 5’. It has feathery ferns which are best displayed as a hanging plant. It prefers bright indirect sunlight. Keep the soil barely moist and mist frequently with warm water. This plant is prone to spider mites and whitefly which can be controlled using a soapy water spray. Inspect new plants for bugs before bringing them home.

10. Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum “Mauna Loa”) The Peace Lily is a compact plant which grows to a height of 3’ with a 2’ spread. This hardy plant tolerates neglect. It prefers indirect sunlight and high humidity, but needs to be placed out of drafts. For best results, the Peace Lily should be thoroughly watered, then allowed to go moderately dry between waterings. The leaves should be misted frequently with warm water.

String Theory

noreply@blogger.com (jeremy) — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 12:23:00 +0000

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/string-theory-for-dummies-cheat-sheet.html

String Theory For Dummies From String Theory For Dummies by Andrew Zimmerman Jones String theory, often called the “theory of everything,” is a relatively young science that includes such unusual concepts as superstrings, branes, and extra dimensions. Scientists are hopeful that string theory will unlock one of the biggest mysteries of the universe, namely how gravity and quantum physics fit together.

String Theory Features String theory is a work in progress, so trying to pin down exactly what the science is, or what its fundamental elements are, can be kind of tricky. The key string theory features include:

All objects in our universe are composed of vibrating filaments (strings) and membranes (branes) of energy.
String theory attempts to reconcile general relativity (gravity) with quantum physics.
A new connection (called supersymmetry) exists between two fundamentally different types of particles, bosons and fermions.
Several extra (usually unobservable) dimensions to the universe must exist.

There are also other possible string theory features, depending on what theories prove to have merit in the future. Possibilities include:

A landscape of string theory solutions, allowing for possible parallel universes.
The holographic principle, which states how information in a space can relate to information on the surface of that space.
The anthropic principle, which states that scientists can use the fact that humanity exists as an explanation for certain physical properties of our universe.
Our universe could be “stuck” on a brane, allowing for new interpretations of string theory.
Other principles or features, waiting to be discovered.

Superpartners in String Theory String theory’s concept of supersymmetry is a fancy way of saying that each particle has a related particle called a superpartner. Keeping track of the names of these superpartners can be tricky, so here are the rules in a nutshell.

The superpartner of a fermion begins with an “s,” so the superpartner of an “electron” is the “selectron” and the superpartner of the “quark” is the “squark.”
The superpartner of a boson ends in “–ino,” so the superpartner of a “photon” is the “photino” and of the “graviton” is the “gravitino.”

Use the following table to see some examples of the superpartner names.

Some Superpartner Names Standard Particle Superpartner Higgs boson Higgsino Neutrino Sneutrino Lepton Slepton Z boson Zino W boson Wino Gluon Gluino Muon Smuon Top quark Stop squark Keeping Track of String Theory’s Many Names String theory has gone through many name changes over the years. This list provides an at-a-glance look at some of the major names for different types of string theory. Some versions have more specific variations, which are shown as subentries. (These different variants are related in complex ways and sometimes overlap, so this breakdown into subentries is based on the order in which the theories developed.) Now if you hear these names, you’ll know they’re talking about string theory!

Bosonic string theory
Superstring theory (or Supersymmetric string theory)
- Type I, Type IIA, Type IIB, Heterotic string theories (Type HE, Type HO)
M-theory
- Matrix theory
Brane world scenarios
- Randall-Sundrum models (or RS1 and RS2)
F-theory

Key Events in String Theory History Although string theory is a young science, it has had many notable achievements. What follows are some landmark events in the history of string theory:

1968: Gabriele Veneziano originally proposes the dual resonance model.

1970: String theory is created when physicists interpret Veneziano’s model as describing a universe of vibrating strings.

1971: Supersymmetry is incorporated, creating superstring theory.

1974: String theories are shown to require extra dimensions. An object similar to the graviton is found in superstring theories.

1984: The first superstring revolution begins when it’s shown that anomalies are absent in superstring theory.

1985: Heterotic string theory is developed. Calabi-Yau manifolds are shown to compactify the extra dimensions.

1995: Edward Witten proposes M-theory as unification of superstring theories, starting the second superstring revolution. Joe Polchinski shows branes are necessarily included in string theory.

1996: String theory is used to analyze black hole thermodynamics, matching earlier predictions from other methods.

hai guise lets click

noreply@blogger.com (jeremy) — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 10:51:00 +0000