Fun Facts

As usual another reader sent me this through an email, I went through it and decided to share it with everyone else, I am not sure which ones work and which ones doesn’t but most of them are working as I checked.

Thanks Brian for sending this one..

1. More screen space. Make your icons small. Go to View – Toolbars – Customize and check the “Use small icons” box.

2. Smart keywords. If there’s a search you use a lot (let’s say IMDB.com’s people search), this is an awesome tool that not many people use. Right-click on the search box, select “Add a Keyword for this search”, give the keyword a name and an easy-to-type and easy-to-remember shortcut name (let’s say “actor”) and save it. Now, when you want to do an actor search, go to Firefox’s address bar, type “actor” and the name of the actor and press return. Instant search! You can do this with any search box.

3. Keyboard shortcuts. This is where you become a real Jedi. It just takes a little while to learn these, but once you do, your browsing will be super fast. Here are some of the most common (and my personal favs):

* Spacebar (page down)
* Shift-Spacebar (page up)
* Ctrl+F (find)
* Alt-N (find next)
* Ctrl+D (bookmark page)
* Ctrl+T (new tab)
* Ctrl+K (go to search box)
* Ctrl+L (go to address bar)
* Ctrl+= (increase text size)
* Ctrl+- (decrease text size)
* Ctrl-W (close tab)
* F5 (reload)
* Alt-Home (go to home page)

4. Auto-complete. This is another keyboard shortcut, but it’s not commonly known and very useful. Go to the address bar (Control-L) and type the name of the site without the “www” or the “.com”. Let’s say “google”. Then press Control-Enter, and it will automatically fill in the “www” and the “.com” and take you there – like magic! For .net addresses, press Shift-Enter, and for .org addresses, press Control-Shift-Enter.

5. Tab navigation. Instead of using the mouse to select different tabs that you have open, use the keyboard. Here are the shortcuts:

* Ctrl+Tab (rotate forward among tabs)
* Ctrl+Shft+Tab (rotate to the previous tab)
* Ctrl+1-9 (choose a number to jump to a specific tab)

6. Mouse shortcuts. Sometimes you’re already using your mouse and it’s easier to use a mouse shortcut than to go back to the keyboard. Master these cool ones:

* Middle click on link (opens in new tab)
* Shift-scroll down (previous page)
* Shift-scroll up (next page)
* Ctrl-scroll up (decrease text size)
* Ctrl-scroll down (increase text size)
* Middle click on a tab (closes tab)

7. Delete items from address bar history. Firefox’s ability to automatically show previous URLs you’ve visited, as you type, in the address bar’s drop-down history menu is very cool. But sometimes you just don’t want those URLs to show up (I won’t ask why). Go to the address bar (Ctrl-L), start typing an address, and the drop-down menu will appear with the URLs of pages you’ve visited with those letters in them. Use the down-arrow to go down to an address you want to delete, and press the Delete key to make it disappear.

8. Add a keyword for a bookmark. Go to your bookmarks much faster by giving them keywords. Right-click the bookmark and then select Properties. Put a short keyword in the keyword field, save it, and now you can type that keyword in the address bar and it will go to that bookmark.

9. Speed up Firefox. If you have a broadband connection (and most of us do), you can use pipelining to speed up your page loads. This allows Firefox to load multiple things on a page at once, instead of one at a time (by default, it’s optimized for dialup connections). Here’s how:

* Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit return. Type “network.http” in the filter field, and change the following settings (double-click on them to change them):
* Set “network.http.pipelining” to “true”
* Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true”
* Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to a number like 30. This will allow it to make 30 requests at once.
* Also, right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “0?. This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives.

10. Limit RAM usage. If Firefox takes up too much memory on your computer, you can limit the amount of RAM it is allowed to us. Again, go to about:config, filter “browser.cache” and select “browser.cache.disk.capacity”. It’s set to 50000, but you can lower it, depending on how much memory you have. Try 15000 if you have between 512MB and 1GB ram.

11. Reduce RAM usage further for when Firefox is minimized. This setting will move Firefox to your hard drive when you minimize it, taking up much less memory. And there is no noticeable difference in speed when you restore Firefox, so it’s definitely worth a go. Again, go to about:config, right-click anywhere and select New-> Boolean. Name it “config.trim_on_minimize” and set it to TRUE. You have to restart Firefox for these settings to take effect.

12. Move or remove the close tab button. Do you accidentally click on the close button of Firefox’s tabs? You can move them or remove them, again through about:config. Edit the preference for “browser.tabs.closeButtons”. Here are the meanings of each value:

* 0: Display a close button on the active tab only
* 1:(Default) Display close buttons on all tabs
* 2:Don’t display any close buttons
* 3:Display a single close button at the end of the tab bar (Firefox 1.x behavior)

Fan Submitted

With the type of social media available today, the lines that distinguishes a blog from a website are becoming blurred. Why should one web page be called a website when you are calling the other a blog? Well, the most important thing you need to remember is that the blog is mainly designed for interaction while a website is designed as a business page.

You might be wondering though, what is the purpose of distinguishing it? After all, you can make a blog look like a website and vice-versa. There is no clear answer but the thing is, knowing their difference will help you decide whether it would be better for you to start a blog or a website if you love to go online all the time. You can even decide to integrate a blog on an existing website.

Blogs have different features including permalink, comments, categories, tags, and even a home page. Blogging is definitely a lot more versatile than its original purpose and description. Right now, you can even use your blog to upload audio, photos, and videos into your post. It can likewise be used as the base for podcast for better communication. It is no longer just about texts because you can have static pages for your bio and integrate tools into it.

Another notable development in the field of blogging is the introduction of blogging platforms. For example, WordPress is the most widely used platform right now. This open-source tool has grown to integrate the characteristics of a content management system. Other blogging platforms are notable as well. But it is WordPress that captures the heart of bloggers because of its user-friendliness and incredible features.

So what about the website then? A website is still important; in fact, it should be a staple in an online business. It can be likened to a company brochure that introduces the best of what you have to offer. Now, all things considered, which is better? A website or a blog? Only you can decide that. You should look into your business, the industry you are in, and your customer attitude to determine if you need a website, a blog, or both. Remember though that in both, you should get your own domain name. It will be your address on the World Wide Web and it can be the ultimate key that will determine your online venture’s success or failure.

Fan Submitted

In history class, you have probably studied about the Aztecs and the Incas. But it seems that their histories are always in the same sentence that you cannot differentiate the two cultures distinctively. Now, you meet a history buff and you want to impress him/her with your knowledge. What to do then? Well, find out more about this topic of course.

The Aztecs and Incas civilizations are easily confused with each other for the simple reason that they both have a lot in common. Basically, what you need to realize is that the Aztec empire traces its roots to Mexico while the Incas trace their origins to where Peru is located today. Both empires reached their greatest during the early 16th century. The two empires dabbled in human sacrifice, they made technological advancements, and ultimately, they fell under the colony of Spain.

As for their distinction, the only thing that seems to remove them far from each other is geography. The Inca Empire controlled areas of Peru, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, and Bolivia while the Aztecs set up their location thousands of miles north. To protect themselves against potential enemies, the Aztecs also built Tenochtitlan, their capital city, at the center of Lake Texcoco. Mexico City now lies on the ruins of this formerly great city.

But there are also subtle differences between the two cultures. In the years 1375 and 1521, the Aztecs have built a powerful empire who influence spanned the country of Mexico. They were also one of the first civilizations to require equal education for children, boys and girls alike regardless of their social class. It is important to note though that instead of reading and writing, the girls were taught how to raise their family. In 1521, the empire came to an end when Hernan Cortes, a Spaniard, defeated them by raising an army of indigenous people are by spreading smallpox on the area.

On the other hand, the Incas came from more humble beginnings. The empire started from a small tribe though it rapidly expanded in 1438. It eventually controlled most of the western part of South America. This empire was particularly impressive because of its diversity and it never came under a single political body. More than 700 languages were known in the Inca Empire. Despite their success, the Inca Empire never got the chance to rule for long because Francisco Pizarro, a Spaniard, showed up in 1532.

er. Pizarro was assassinated in 1541, and Cortés spent much of his later life suffering from bouts of insane paranoia.

Fan Submitted