CHRISdotTODD

I have been using the Web Developer toolbar for Firefox for some time now, but I recently learned of a new, powerful Extension, Firebug from Joe Hewitt. Firebug makes it very easy to inspect different portions of your code while on your web page. For example, click the Inspect tab and then you can see the related code as you hover over different elements on the page. Where the Web Developer toolbar makes it easy to look at different parts of the code on a page, Firebug lets you interact with the page and subsequent code. If you want to see how fast (or slow) the various elements load on the page, click on the Net tab. In addition to showing the time to load the various elements, it is very easy to filter by element types such as JavaScript, images, and even Flash. You can use Firebug as a part of your browser window (while you're interacting with it) or in its own window. the one drawback I see is that each time I change tabs, the new website is processed by Firebug; not that it&

The Red Ferret Journal recently reminded us (original post June 2006) about Tim Berners-Lee's position on Net Neutrality . I thought it was a good reminder, as we are gradually seeing more and more restriction being placed on activities such as peer-to-peer and Internet telephony. Berners-Lee's video simplifies the issue very nicely: If I pay to connect to the Net with a certain quality of service, and you pay to connect with that or greater quality of service, then we can communicate at that level. But the phone and cable companies are using their deep pockets to keep the government from stepping in and protecting the people. Check out Exposing the Justice Department’s Hit Job Against an Open Internet from Save the Internet blog and decide for yourself. If you're looking for a more independent view, see PC Magazines article released this week: Senate Chair Takes on FTC in Net Neutrality Fight . To conclude, if you haven't notified your Congressional leaders

Tired of Lifehacker ? Is the DIY Network not your idea of fun? I found a fun new website, Instructables , a site with step-by-step instructions for do-it-yourself projects. Imagine using Legos to create a USB charger or to encase your USB memory stick. You can also find instructions for cracking and hacking windows passwords, extending the range of your car remote, and how to open a bottle of beer without an opener. Instructables has 8 categories: art, craft, food, home, life, not liable, ride, and tech. You can also browse the site using one of the many keywords. If that isn't enough, Instructables has an active Forum where you can exchange ideas and get help with the tricky parts of your project. Have fun. I know I like the car remote extender.

JimmyR has made a nice tutorial on how to save YouTube videos for playback on your computer or iPod. Here is the websites and software that he references: YouTube Downloader MediaCoder VirtualDub There are many ways to accomplish the same task, this is just one simple way. Have fun!

TechRepublic recently posted a link to a great site for fonts, dafont.com . dafont.com has nearly 7500 fonts of all types and styles. The only complaint I have is that some are inappropriate for children; this is not a site that I would share with my teens. Font themes include Fancy, Foreign look, Techno, Gothic, and Holiday among others. Here are some samples of the Sci-Fi and TV/Movie fonts. dafont.com also contains links to free and fee font related software. So next time you need just the right font, give dafont.com a look.

For the last several months, Outlook 2003 has periodically been real slow. The most common time would be first thing in the morning, so I wasn't sure whether it was network related or startup related. I would also experience it occasionally when sending an email... it would hang for a long time before starting the spell checker, and then between words it would hang again. I did some research, and though it has not been long enough to be certain it has been corrected, it looks promising. Here are the suggestions that I tried: Archive everything older than 3 months (it was 6). This should reduce the size of your PST file -- mine was 2.6 MB. My understanding is that newer versions of Outlook do not have problems with large PST files, but why take a chance? Tools | Options >> Other >> AutoArchive... Start a new outcmd.dat file (C:\Documents and Settings\[your user name]\application data\microsoft\outlook), as it could be corrupt. Close Outlook, rename the file, start Outloo

As Time-Warner puts packet-shaping technology in place to throttle service, Senators Snowe and Dorgan are still fighting for the public's right for Net Neutrality. Wouldn't it be nice to have more Senators representing the public instead of the huge corporate contributors? -- oh, that's for different blog. For all intents an purposes, Time-Warner's RoadRunner service just change their offering (June 6). Now, regardless of the bandwidth package you purchased, during busy times, they will slow down or throttle back certain traffic. So regardless of the service, instead of improving their infrastructure, Time-Warner will limit your bandwidth of certain tasks. "...implemented for newsgroup applications, regardless of the provider, and all peer-to-peer networks and certain other high bandwidth applications not necessarily limited to audio, video, and voice over IP telephony." I think it's high-time that the government steps-in to at least regulate that the ser