Tools that you will use daily

wsx

Tools that you will use daily
« on January 3rd, 2014, 08:51 PM »
Here are things I strongly recommend to help with productivity.
 
1 www.sandboxie.com it makes a virtual sandbox that you can have multiple programs open at the same time if it does not allow you to, you can search the internet or download files without worry of viruses infecting your pc, you dont have to keep changing your password if you make multiple email account on the same provider, you can use demo programs that have a time limit and reset it all the time, you can keep your pc running clean if you have people that use it which can run it on sandbox they put their own information so that your information does not get overwritten, etc. with one click you can close all programs that run under it or erases everything you did in it.

2 Firefox is still the best thing for internet due to the many plugins and features. Even the history or bookmark feature you can quickly see what you have unlike the other browsers which are horrible. The adblock if you do not have it saves a lot of time on videos when on youtube. So a few tricks will be on firefox and if you don't have it then you are only hurting yourself. Besides why support google or miscrosoft more than you have to? I use them if a site is not comparable.
http://filehippo.com/download_firefox/54515/

3 firefox plug-in adblock https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/adblock-plus/ Block all ads or annoying images. Even the wait time in youtube is no more and you don't have to click skip video since it does not show any ads.

4 firefox plug-in Easy DragToGo Seriously lighting fast searching can be done with this, so I highly recommend this. Just highlight a word on a page and drag it down a bit let go and a new tab opens up on google with the word searched, you can modify it to have it when you drag it left or another direction to have it search wikipedia, or another search engine, etc.
Oddly this plug-in does not work on new one in the official one
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/easy-dragtogo/
BUT you can download a modified version or look for it online yourself called Easy DragToGo+ 1.1.7 BETA17
One site I got it once from was http://www.firefox.net.cn/read-29894
Which does not seem to work now, but another site that had it is.
http://haebaru06.seesaa.net/article/384116028.html

You can use this site to translate pages
http://itools.com/tool/google-translate-web-page-translator
But if you are paranoid of downloading then here is the perfect time to try tip 1 Sandboxie.

5 firefox plug-in Video DownloadHelper
To download video form youtube. i sometimes use it if the video is long and I play it on quicktime to play the video 1.5 times (ore more) faster since a 3 hour video I see it within 2 hours. The more you listen to things quickly the more you get use to it and more more you push yourself to comprehend quicker. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/

6 So don't procrastinate and if you are here is some motivation
/watch?v=1nBwfZZvjKo&list=UUC552Sd-3nyi_tk2BudLUzA

7 if your eyes start to get buggy from too much reading you can try a text reading program like textAloud. If you have vista or windows 7 the voice quality is more realistic than XP. The catch is you have a time limit since you have to pay, but if you go back to step 1 then what time limit, or buy it.
http://www.nextup.com/download.html

To set up textAloud to be efficient go to tools/clipboard & mouse (3rd one down)/clipboard options/ prompt to copy text (disable it)/perform action automatically (enable it). On the default action select what you want which something I select the replace current article text. You can do that with the mouse speak option tab if you want when you highlight but it might read everything you highlight which can be a bit of a hassle at times.
Under tools/automatic action(4th one down)/ automatically speak new article(select it so that when you copy something it reads it automatically)
on tools/textaloud options/article options/ select limit number of articles (so that it does not keep saving if you want everything to clip board, unless you want it to then don't select it), you can deselect Archive delete articles, so that it does not save what it read on the pc.  The rest you can select yourself in what you like. Under fonts tab on the top of those options select the size you want it to display. Under miscellaneous, floating toolbar (disable), start textaloud on startup (enable), show spashscreen (disable) select what else you need but since some were personal preferences.

That's all... from me.

Matt Watts

RE: Tools that you will use daily
« Reply #1, on January 3rd, 2014, 09:21 PM »
I use VMware Player or ESXi 5.5 on my server.  All my CAD/CAM software runs on a VM and is backed-up, so a complete wipe-out crash takes about 10 minutes to restore.  Can't afford to lose any of this stuff--took weeks to configure and get everything working correctly.  BTW, if anyone wants a nice server, slip on over to the e auction site and lookup an HP Proliant DL380 G6.  I got one for about 300 bones and they listed new at 8000.  Still runs like an 8000 bone model.  Just saying.  I did that whole build your own server thing three times; it was stupid.  Just get a real server and be done with it.  Heck, get two, it's worth it.
Quote from wsx on January 3rd, 2014, 08:51 PM
2 Firefox
SeaMonkey works nicely and doesn't update twice a week.  Has integrated email client too which is handy.
Quote from wsx on January 3rd, 2014, 08:51 PM
5 firefox plug-in Video DownloadHelper
YTD Video Downloader seems okay for the most part.

wsx

RE: Tools that you will use daily
« Reply #2, on January 3rd, 2014, 09:50 PM »
Thanks for the suggestion I'll sandbox seamonkey to try it LOL
I would personaly not bother with a server despite I was given 2 old ones a xeon quad quore which I would not make that start up with a regular windows xp. I had OS crash and it is annoying to set it all back up again and its been months and I still have not set it up and when I try to always one special issue after another. I got I assume all files but how it was set up is lost since everything has to be set up again which some can not be or as easily as it use to be. A component got fried and the entire pc got fried with it.
The video download is a suggestion and it has many types of video downloads people can try which can be better but I do not remember then name after the crash.
Well I hope the other tips were helpful like the esy drag to go.