I just love Firefox.

Stability-wise, it won’t hold a candle to the almighty IE. I’m not really an advanced computer user but I do know for a fact that Mozilla Firefox is less vulnerable to viruses compared to Internet Explorer. Since I started using it, I haven’t recalled a single instance of it crashing or freezing whereas “internet explorer has encountered an error and needs to close” has been such a fixture in my old browser I almost made it a desktop wallpaper.

In terms of innovation, Firefox leads the way as well. I’m not sure if it was Opera that came first but Firefox is definitely one of the first browsers to feature tabbed browsing which means more surfing mileage and more prime real estate on the taskbar below.

But if there’s one thing I really, really like about Firefox it would be its uber PIMP-FRIENDLINESS. The sheer amount of customizable themes, add-ons, extensions and plug-ins are mind-boggling. And you don’t even have to pay a cent to download any of them. Well, for now at least. With its custom themes, Firefox literally changes the way one looks at he internet. You can make your browser reflect your personality or change it according to your moods. Heck, changing Firefox themes is even easier than changing my Friendster profile!

I used to have Firefox 2. In fact most of my pimping stuff is embedded there. Here’s my Firefox 2 rig, to name a few:

• Tinymenu – compresses the navbar icons, saves a lot of screen space
• Fasterfox – Light-speed loading time for firefox
• Tab Effect – puts a new twist to tab surfing
• NASA Night Launch Theme – A Dark, minimalist firefox skin.

But that’s history, I’ve recently downloaded the Firefox 3 which was launched last July 16 with the aim of setting a new World Record. I’m not sure if it did break a record but it did give me something new to gawk at. After downloading it and installing the Pitchdark for Fx theme this is how my screen looks like now:

So far so good. I can’t wait for the next custom pimp stuff they’ll be coming up with for Fx. In the meantime, I had to content myself with Piclens. To give you an idea of how cool this thing works, let me show you what a normal google image search looks like:

And this is what it looks like when viewed from my screen with Piclens running the show…

Upon being embedded in your firefox browser you can use piclens to provide a dazzling 3D display of images or video thumbs from Picasa, Google, Deviantart, Youtube and so much more. A truly visual feast.

My favourite Firefox add-on at the moment is Tab Effect.

It uses DirectX 8 to create a rotating effect when switching tabs in Firefox, and that’s it! It has no other practical use other than to look pretty. But I love it.

This post is a club of free tools I encountered on the web at no cost and add a lot of value.

WAMP Server

In order to run PHP and MySQL queries on localhost one needs to install the Apache Server then install PHP and MySQL .
Due to the frequent updated releases of these three packages its would be tedious to verify what fits with what .

So, WAMP Server gives an easy installation package which includes all the three ( apache , mysql , php ) so one can run sql queries and run html pages embedded with php ( .php & .phtml ) .

codes for running PHP can be downloaded here 

Download Helper ( Firefox Add on)

Download Helper is a tool for web media extraction. It can capture video and image files from many websites. It can be used to download youtube , flash embedded videos etc.

Tab Effect

Its a fancy add on for firefox. Check it out for yourself.

Google Notebook

This is a simple and an effective way to save and organize clips of information when a user is browsing online. Google Notebook allows users to write notes images, and links from pages while browsing. These are saved to an online “notebook” with sharing and collaboration features.

Notepad++

Notepad++ is a source code editor. One doesn’t have to use dreamweaver or other source code editors for editing html , php and other pages. Notepad++ would be a cool replacement. It lists the functions used in the code used in the sidebar. the code will be pretty well organized and easy ford debugging.

MplayerC

Mplayer is one of the best media player will multimedia keyboard support. Its not preferred by users who bother about the ” Look ” but I prefer Mplayer as i can even play video files of all almost extensions like .flv , .avi etc and even files with a broken AVI index.

Scribd

Users can upload .doc , .pdf , .txt files and publish them. Users can also search the library and download the files from other users. This web service seems to be gaining popularity these days.

Mozilla Firefox Portable

Its the firefox browser bundled with a Launcher as a portable app, so that users can take your bookmarks, extensions and saved passwords withthem.

gOS

gOS stands for Green operating system. Its a Linux Ubuntu based OS with a cool desktop look. It offers all the popular web services icons on the desktop and google lovers will surely like it. The OS download is free and the updates are also offered at no cost via internet.

Google Gears( BETA)

Its an open source browser extension that lets developers create web applications that can run offline.

Gears provides three key features:

• A local server, to cache and serve application resources (HTML, JavaScript, images, etc.) without needing to contact a server
• A database, to store and access data from within the browser

Quick & usable Tec-Hebrew guides

• Safe browsing tips
• Windows Activation problems
• BitTorrent info, safer downloads, CD burning & Codec’s
• Tech news
• Free Software Download Page

AudioPill Silverlight Episodes: 12-13
Full Shownotes: Here
Listen to the podcast: Silverlight
Guest: Yosi Taguri Developer & Platform Adoption Group , Microsoft Israel
http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/yosit

Other topics: Adobes Flash, Firefox 3, Cario, Gran Paradiso,Tab Effect ,Metaliq, Top Banana,Mix, NetFlix ,POPfly, Scrybe, Google, Google Gear , google Reader, sql lite, LocalWebServer, WorkerPool, API, Flex , Apollo,Photosynth, Microsoft Surface, Ted, Flash player, vector graphics, raster graphics, Sound files, video files, .NET, Mac, Safari, JavaScript, pipes, 3D, browser, platform, XAML .