Computery Gizmo-y Stuff

I would not consider myself truly "computer literate", but over time I have figured a few things out. With the recent addition of a new laptop to the household, I've had to scramble to be up to date and be able to function better. I thought I'd share a couple of goodies that have helped.

First off, Firefox is a pretty great replacement for IE. I haven't really had any qualms with IE until about a year ago when it began crashing ten times a day. This is not helpful when you are accustomed to opening multiple links (usually from blogs) to check out, then boom! They're gone. Firefox, if it ever crashes, restarts with all your tabs open. Gotta like that!

My favorite thing about Firefox (besides the not crashing business) is the ability to highlight any url and drag and drop it into a toolbar, creating an icon for one-touch speed surfing. I have all my most common sites on it--library, bank, blog, feed reader, mail, etc. Love it!

There are add-ons to Firefox that have really changed how I use the computer. One is Clipmarks. It allows you to highlight and copy that recipe, instruction, or whatever and print just that. It logs where you got it from, so you won't forget. Very nice. It makes for less bookmarking. Incidentally, it is also available for IE, but a friend with Vista says it's a "no go".

Then there is my newest find which is Read it Later. Can I just say "YeeHaw!" This is a great tool that lets you mark a site or page to read or check into later without bookmarking it for all eternity (then never looking at it again!). Then, anytime you have a few minutes to read (yea, I know!) you pull down the list, check the sites, and mark them read. So cool.

For calendar help, there is Rainlendar. I got this link from a recent blog (sorry I can't remember who) and it is a great calendar/planner for online. It is a small desktop calendar (also shows today's date in the tray). You can enter a to do list for each day, as well as events. You can set remainder alarms too! I'm just starting to use it more, but I like it so far! They have a free and a pro version available.