December 2006

Until I moved my site to a WordPress format — where I need a “template” that allows me to lay out the site with the information as you see it — I didn’t care much about what type of browser I used.

I used Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and didn’t think much about doing so, even though I had downloaded and used Firefox as a browser and liked the idea of the Extensions that are offered with the program.

In trying to discover a template that looked right, I found that there was a wide — a mile wide — variation in how the template would show up in both Internet Explorer and in Firefox. I was surprised by the variation and found out why it occurs.

It’s converted me to a Firefox junkie and this post will address how I’ve set it up.

Firefox follows standards and, of course, Microsoft follows their own. It is one of the most irritating things about the company, one that is headquartered here in Seattle-land and I have a lot of respect for. Microsoft often creates standards for the industry, a good thing. But once standards are out there and accepted, the company doesn’t convert their work to the standards, causing increased work on programmers everywhere.

For example, the template that you see here has specific coding hacks in it so it renders properly in Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer version 7, now out, requires more hacks to fix templates.

But instead of worrying about all that, I’d just suggest that your surfing experience would be much better served by using Firefox.

There are three reasons:

1. Firefox follows standards for coding Internet sites. That means perfect rendering of sites that follow the standards; virtually all.
2. Firefox allows for “tabbed” browsing . Instead of opening another entire window for browsing, you can open a tab next to your existing one and just move between the tabs. Way cool and much better than Internet Explorer 7.
3. Firefox has great add-in programs, allowing you to select your theme (Halloween - like? Outlook - like? No problem!) and some Extensions that significantly help your experience.

Here’s how mine is set up:

Firefox is downloaded for free from this URL. You can download and install the program and in and of itself have a better experience.

However, being the geek I am, I also downloaded some Extensions to really get the program right. Here’s my list:

• Adblock Plus: Blocks pop-up and internal ads. Way nice.
• Adblock Filterset.G Updater: This is a database that tracks the ads used by Adblock Plus to keep the relentless addition of pop-up ads at bay.
• Flashblock: Replaces Flash (multi-media program) with a button so you can click a button and choose to see them rather than force them on you.
• HashColouredTabs: This improves the ‘tabbed’ browsing by giving each tab a color-coded icon
• Tab X: This also improves the ‘tabbed’ browsing by giving you a close button on each tab rather than just one at the end that comes with Firefox.
• Sort Extensions and Themes: Sorts the lists of installed extensions and themes alphabetically.

You have access to all of these by clicking on “Tools” and then “Extensions” from the toolbar. At the bottom of the Extension dialog box is a place where you can get more extensions. Then search for the above extensions.

Once installed…boy, is this a nice surfing experience. I’d go for it!

Scot

[tags]browser, technology-for-writers, ten-keyboards[/tags]

While this blog is about how technology can help the writer, I would be remiss to not point out some really good posts from other bloggers about the discipline of writing. After all, you can have all the technology in the world to support your writing — but you need to be writing!!

Successful Blog offers up a post today that gives us Ten Reasons to Write and Publish Every Day.

Take a look at the ten reasons and use them to reflect on your writing practice here at the end of the year. I’m in the process of building out why writers should be using the technology of blogs to help with their writing. Liz’s reasons to write provide the foundation and a blog provides a vehicle to implement the foundation.

I’ll have the series up next week after the new year.

Scot

I hate maintenance; don’t you?

But, PC’s need maintenance just like anything else in life or the PC’s performance will suffer.

In this series on the basic work to be done to keep your system in great shape, I’ll tell you what else needs to be maintained on your PC.

The key to successful maintenance of a PC is to ensure that the maintenance is consistently done, usually on a weekly basis.

And the key to making that happen is utilize the program’s ability to regularly perform updates automatically. That way you don’t have to worry about it.

Let’s go through the list:

• Windows updates. In your security settings for Windows, you have the option of automatically getting critical updates. Select that option and as Microsoft (and Apple on Macs) comes out with updates, you’ll automatically receive them.
• Virus updates. Your program has an option to automatically check for updates. Make sure you select that option as virus updates often come out daily.
• Spyware updates. Your program should have an option to automatically check for updates.
• Registry maintenance. Not all programs have an automatic option. Fortunately, mine does and I have it set up to clean up the Registry every week.
• Data Backup. Most programs have an automatic option to back up the hard drive either completely or with an iteration update of the files that have changed on your hard drive since the last full backup.

In addition to the above list, I also defragment my hard drive at least once a month; often every two weeks. If you have a “protection suite” like Norton’s Systemworks, you have defragmenting in the program.

If you don’t have a suite-type program, look on your “Accessories” and then under “System Tools” from the Start tab in Windows. You’ll see “Disk Defragmenter” there. You can’t schedule the tool that comes with Windows, but running it — especially if you have never done this with your PC before — will significantly improve your PC.

What defragmentation does is move all of the information on your hard drive close in instead of scattered all over the disk. This allows your hard drive to retrieve information faster. It does other things, of course, but that’s the big reason I defragment my hard drive — faster retrieval of data.

But the trick to all of this is to have your PC on. To that end, I leave my PC on Friday night after work until I leave for work on Monday morning. And schedule all of my recurring maintenance on the programs on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights when I am sleeping.

Schedule the tasks automatically and allow the tasks to run overnight. The two keys to stress-free maintenance of your PC system.

Scot

[tags]backup, defragmenter, maintenance, registry, spyware, technology-for-writers, ten-keyboards, virus[/tags]

You maintain your car by doing oil changes, checking the brakes and performing those xx,000 mile checkups, right? Right?

But do you do the same thing with your PC?

Surprisingly, many people don’t and, over time, the PC performance degrades. And then degrades some more.

In this series on Technology for the Writer, we’ve taken a look at the basic things that you should do to protect and now maintain your PC.

In this post, I’ll introduce you to the Registry. Not the bridal one, but the PC one. It’s an important maintenance component.

One of the most critical components of your PC is what is called the Windows Registry. Essentially, where your program information is stored.

It’s a big database. When you add programs, lots of entries are written to this place. When you remove programs…not all of the entries are removed from this place. It gets unwieldy. It shows up in your system as taking a long time to boot up your machine or open your programs. The PC has to slog through all of the Registry information for your stuff. It chews up time and chews up your random access memory, making the rest of your programs slow down too.

Few programs address this issue. When I bought my Spyware program, Spyware Detector, the site offered me Registry Cleaner for only $10 more as an incentive. Simply based upon how well the Spyware program worked, I thought it worth the additional dollars and bought it.

Am I glad I did.

After not having the Registry looked at for 3-4 years, the first scan cleaned up about 700 entries that were no longer valid. Then, the program also optimized my Registry, similar to optimizing your hard drive to improve performance.

My system is a lot faster as a result. I now use the automated scheduler in the program to clean and optimize the Registry once a week. Not that it’s a big deal (it may find only one or two entries a week), but it keeps my system operating at peak efficiency.

Which is where I want it.

Do you have a favorite maintenance tool for your PC? There are lots of them out there and I’d love to hear your favorite.

Scot