Timeless Tales

The hallmark of good computer organization is everything in its rightful place. Proper file naming follows in the steps of good folder organization. Check back into the directory structure of your computer. Do you have folders set up to store specific kinds of files?

If not, then you are a few steps behind on the road to productivity. Of course, the hallowed portals of the Grand Council of Uncluttered Minds shall always remain closed for you. If you are serious about organizing your computer, let’s go back to where it all starts – downloads.

Presumptively assuming that you use Firefox for downloads, let’s see how we can download files in Firefox and automatically put them into their proper folders. As it is with everything in Firefox, we fall back on two little browser applications from the Mozilla Add-ons Gallery.

Download Sort

Download Sort is a Firefox add-on that automatically sends downloads to specific folders depending on the file extension or a keyword in the URL. To make it recognize the file extension or the keyword, we have to get into the browser extension’s Settings and do a bit of work.

The important thing to remember is that the sorting of downloads in designated folders only works with the right click (Save Link As/Save Image As) – not with the left.

Here are all the options that you can tweak under Settings.

You can set up download folders or subfolders for each file type. For instance, any doc or PDF file that you download can go into your My Documents folder or alternatively, you can create an eBook folder within the documents folder to catch all the incoming PDF files.

Here are some of the other features you can find under the Settings for Download Sort (screenshot above)…

Instead of sub-folders, you can also collect downloads in a folder by bracketing them according to the criteria given in the dropdown for Autosave Sub Folder.

You can route downloads by catching them using a keyword that could be in the specific URLs. This is useful if you download a lot from particular websites.

Download Sort can be set up to prompt you for a filename or give an alert if a duplicate file is found in the target folder. A set of actions can follow – Prompt for a new filename, Auto-increment the filename, Cancel the download, Overwrite the file.

With some work on the rules for the file types and the corresponding folders, Download Sort cuts short a few downloading steps for us.

In spite of it not being developed further since 2006, Download Sort works fine with the latest version of Firefox. If you do mind that, let’s go on to the next Firefox add-on.

Automatic Save Folder

Automatic Save Folder is a similar download tool that automates the process of saving and sorting of downloaded files into specific folders. Again, you have to set up a few rules to catch files by their file types and redirect them to the right folders.

With Automatic Save Folder, you can set filters according to the file extension or the domain. But it handles downloads a bit differently from the previous Firefox add-on.

Automatic Save Folder’s download rules will only work if Firefox always asks where to save the files. This setting for the browser is under Tools – Options – General tab – Downloads. Make sure that’s checked as in the screenshot below.

Unlike Download Sort, Automatic Save Folder works with single clicking on a download link as well as a right click.

When a download link is clicked, Automatic Save Folder opens the File Explorer at the right download folder (as set for the file type). Alternatively, you can also go into the Options of the add-on and set it to save downloads automatically bypassing the File Explorer.

Similar to the previous add-on, dynamic folders can also be created on the fly to hold downloads. The download folders can be named with a variety of variables.

Automatic Save Folder is compatible with Firefox 1.5 – 3.7a1 pre and works on Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX.

Finally…Pick Of The Two?

It all boils down to user choice. Automatic Save Folder has some distinct advantages. It can handle both left click and right click downloads. It is more flexible with its filters. But the clincher could be that Automatic Save Folder is being kept updated.

De-cluttering and organizing your computer is a habit. These two addons just make the habit a trifle easier to maintain.How do you download files in Firefox? Are you showing all your downloads the right path?

Source : MakeUseOff

Security and privacy are some of the major concerns these days while choosing a web browser to use. So much so that all the major players in the “browser wars” are providing or developing a private browsing mode.

Firefox with the myraid of addons that it has to offer is never far from action. Here are some of the top Firefox security and privacy addons that you should install for safer browsing.

Stealther

Stealther – Stealther provides you with what can be called a private browsing mode. It allows you to browse the web without leaving any trace. The addon disables browsing history, cookies, cache, recent tabs and sending of referrer header for as long as you want. It’s lot like the incognito mode in Google chrome. Distrust is another similar addon that allows you to acheive the similar results.

Close ‘n’ Forget

Close ‘n’ Forget – While Stealther and Distrust require you to turn on private browsing explicitly, what if you happen to stumble upon a site that you wished you would have known to turn on the private browsing mode for? Close ‘n’ Forget comes to your rescue. Just hit the special close button once you are finished and that site will be deleted from history and cookies cleared as if you had never visited the site.

WOT

WOT – We all know about the threats which surfers suffer like viruses, spywares, adware, malicious spam, phishing etc., but here Web of Trust comes to rescue. WOT warns you about risky websites that try to scam surfers before they enter in them using a safety rating of 21 million websites, WOT combines evidence collected from multiple sources. Not only does it help surfers but also sets a protection level for children by blocking inappropriate content.

NoScript

NoScript – An absolute must have security addon for your browser. NoScript gives you the power to specify the sites you trust and only those sites will be allowed to run active content like Javascript, Java code and other executable code. The addon thus protects you from cross-site scripting attacks and clickjacking attacks.

Panic

Panic – Panic allows you to instantly close all the open tabs and replace it with another tab of your choice. So next time while you are on facebook and your boss drops to check in just hit Alt + ` and you would be taken to predefined page in no time.

hideBad

hideBad – Hides bad things! Saves all the tabs, closes them and opens your home page. Allows you to clear history, cookies, cache and passwords at your will and then restore them later.

TabRenamizer / Page Title Eraser

TabRenamizer and Page Title Eraser – Do your tabs give you away? Why not change their names with TabRenamizer or remove the names all together with Page Title Eraser? Both these addons let you play with the tab titles so that you can change them according to your will.

Gish It / tEMPORARYiNBOX / spamavert

Gish It!, TemporaryInbox, spamavert – These addons allow you to protect your inboxes from Spam by getting throwaway email addresses to be used with web forms while registering for sites you are not sure about.

BetterPrivacy

BetterPrivacy – Now you don’t need to worry from anything like ‘you are being tracked..!!’ BetterPrivacy is a Super-Cookie Safeguard which protects from usually undeletable Flash-Cookies. It blocks long term tracking on Google, YouTube, Ebay to name a few.

Ghostery

Ghostery – It keeps an eye on the websites that are keeping an eye on you i.e. it finds out that which web sites which are tracking you and would alert you about the same.

Torbutton

Torbutton – It provides a button to securely and easily enable or disable the browser’s use of Tor. Tor can be used for anonymous browsing and has been covered on makeuseof in detail.

FoxyProx

FoxyProxy – FoxyProxy automatically switches an internet connection across one or more proxy servers based on URL patterns and switching rules defined by you.

JSview

JSview – Allows you to view the source code of external files like javascript and CSS files. Although it would require a bit of knowledge and looking through the code to determine if it really is harmful, it can be quite useful to see if there is some malicious code sending off your passwords to somewhere else.

You have more such addons .. please share in comments.

Source : MakeUseOf

There are sufficient free games available for the budget gamer, but it’s not the only alternative. For some gamers from the yester years, there are some good old games like Sim city 2000, F22 Raptor, Indyracing, Duke Nukem, Doom, Wolf 3d ( and loads more ) etc etc , then get them here at the sites below, and whats more its all FREE

Wikipedia

One of the best sites to look for an ex-commercial video game is Wikipedia. That’s right – on one of their pages, they keep a pretty up-to-date list of abandonware (loose interpretation) titles.

The list shows less games than these other sites, but from a wider array. You’ll find games from 1988 to 2008, all of them with a short descripton, most of them worth a try. If you think there’s a game ‘missing’ from the list that should be there, you can add it yourself – after all, that’s what wikis are for.

Remain In Play

Another site that takes on a wider array of (also non-DOS) games is Remain In Play. This site refuses to take in abandonware and games that were free from the start. They only focus on commercial games that were deliberately released as freeware.

Even though site navigation is not optimal, they host plenty of great games – both new and old. If your search is superfluous, you might want to consider their ‘top 10 games’ in the sidebar, for it is the only way of sorting titles by rating. Otherwise, you can search their database by name, data (type), genre, or OS.

DOS Museum

A DOS focused site – the name gives it away – is DOS Museum. Their goal is to preserve old DOS games and make sure they won’t be lost over time. Through one of their other initiatives, they try to encourage other copyright into making their work available, “either for sale or as freeware”.

With over 1,600 resources (although this includes various patches and save-games), DOS Museum offers an even wider array of games. Through an easy, graphical interface, you can browse the games by name, rating, date or popularity. Although you won’t find excessive reviews like on Abandonware, basic information (usually in two or three sentences) is provided.

Abandonia

Abandonia is an index of abandonware, “dedicated to classic DOS games”. Abandonware titles are games (or software) with expired copyright, or games which are no longer supported by the publisher.

The site was founded in 1999, when the concept of abandonware was merely two years old. After a few inactive years, it was and has continued to blossom, with new ‘abandoned’ games added nearly every day. At the time of writing, the Abandonia database hosts 1,063 downloadable games and counts a total of more than 100.000 members.

Most games get a thorough review, screenshots, an editor rating as well as a user rating. You can browse and download old pc games by name, year, rating and category. As the game’s focused on DOS games, you won’t find any of the ‘newer’ abandonware games here, but the vast DOS archive should satisfy most of your gaming needs — at least for a while.

I hope you’ve found some great new sites today and will continue to discover cool free games to waste your precious time.