Jul
28
2009

My Opinion on the Potential Redesign for Firefox 3.7 / 4.0

Posted by quesomanrulz
Posted in Apple, July 2009, Linux, Mac, Microsoft, Software, Windows, firefox, information, new | Comment(s)

There has been a lot of talk lately about the potential redesign that the Firefox may undergo during the 3.7 or 4.0 update. The UI appears to completely redesigned in the mock-ups posted on the Mozilla Wiki. For a quick example of what we’re talking about here is an all around picture of the basic idea of the UI:

Firefox 4.0 UI Mock-Up

Firefox 4.0 UI Mock-Up

There is also a version that features the tabs on top:

Firefox 4.0 Tabs on Top

Firefox 4.0 Tabs on Top

Now: my thoughts.

I have to say I have very mixed feelings about the redesign. The UI is a mix between IE8 and Chrome. Both browsers I have not been very impressed with thus far, not necessarily for design but performance reasons. But why does Mozilla want to associate their amazing browser with such ones less impressive as their own?

The bookmarks bar is not included by default in the mock-ups but it may be replaced by a bookmarks menu as shown in the tabs-on-bottom preview although not on the tabs-on-top, I feel that with this new design a bookmarks bar would clash with the rest of the design but I would be ok if the menu bar was included. If the bookmarks menu were left out that would a serious flaw in my opinion as i use the bookmarks bar everyday.

The only thing that I have to say that I completely dislike is the tabs-on-top version. I have used the Safari 4 beta and Chrome and have to say I find the idea of having the tabs on top very misguided. When I use a browser I like to have everything I use often right at hand, and obviously tabs are used most often than really anything else in the browser. Most of the time when browsing the web the mouse is within the webpage, either clicking on links or scrolling. With the tabs right above the webpage its never hard to open a new tab, its right there. With the tabs on top of the browser that means moving the mouse further to get to the tabs, and that’s it. I can see no advantage for the user to have the tabs further away, and that is something I never liked about Chrome or Safari 4 beta. Plus, I’m pretty sure Apple had a good reason for removing the tabs-on-top idea from the final version of Safari 4.

I could deal with the tabs-on-bottom version as I, of course, prefer the tabs below and I need the bookmarks menu if the bookmarks menu pulls a Houdini. At this point though, my final opinion is that if it isn’t broken don’t fix it. I love the UI the  way it is, its 1/3 of the reason why I prefer Firefox over any other browser (the other two being add-ons and performance). If you guys have opinions on the idea of a Firefox redesign or how you would like it done feel free to leave a comment, all opinions will be appreciated!

Tags: browser, firefox, Mock, Redesign, Up, update, Web
No Comments »
Jul
27
2009

How to Make an Awesome Watermark for Camtasia Videos

Posted by quesomanrulz
Posted in Apple, July 2009, Linux, Mac, Microsoft, Software, Tutorials, Windows, YouTube, information, new | Comment(s)

On the last few of my videos you may have noticed, if you are a subscriber or regular viewer of mine, that I recently created a new style of watermark. This new watermark is more of a longer rectangular shape and contains my avatar as well as my website (http://quesomanrulz.com/). I find that I like this watermark much better as it contains information for my website and it contains my avatar which would help it gain a higher profile around the net.

In this video I’m going to be showing how to create and apply your new watermark to be like mine and we are going to do this without any other software than Camtasia Studio which you probably use anyway. So you will not have any need for other expensive software such as Sony Vegas to accomplish this task. By doing it all in Camtasia you can also reduce rendering time by only having to render once as opposed to doing it twice, first with Camtasia and then again with Vegas to get your watermark in place.

It is actually very simple to make a watermark like mine and I figured this out by myself without too much trouble. All you will need is:

If you have any questions about this tutorial you may ask questions on the forum and you will be quickly answered by one of our excellent community members.

Thank You for watching!

Tags: Camtaisa, Studio, Tutorial, Video, Watermark, YouTube
No Comments »
Jul
19
2009

Access Twitter Behind Enemy Lines

Posted by quesomanrulz
Posted in Games, July 2009, Mobile, Software, Tutorials, YouTube, twitter | Comment(s)

After using Twitter for a while it can very easily become an addiction. If you follow me on twitter (@quesoman) you know that I tweet almost once an hour and many times more. It’s not hard to imagine then that when I am at school I get the dreaded “Twitter Fever” where I need to tweet so bad it hurts! Well, maybe its not that bad but it would be nice if I could tweet.

The reason that we can’t tweet is in most cases that the network administrator for your school or business has blocked that website and you receive a page saying that you don’t have permission to access the page. Well be that as it may that’s not necessarily the end, there are ways of going around the rules…

Pwitter

Twitxy

Tags: addict, Backdoor, block, business, college, Fun, office, online, Proxy, restricted, School, Time, Waste, Work, Workaround
No Comments »
Jul
09
2009

How I Render My YouTube Videos

Posted by quesomanrulz
Posted in July 2009, Software, Tutorials, YouTube | Comment(s)

I’ve been making videos for YouTube for almost a year now. Since my beginning on YouTube a lot of things have changed including the addition of the HD feature (which I LOVE by the way). One of my most difficult struggles in this industry has been keeping my videos up to the highest quality standards available. I have finally been able to achieve, after much refining of the process, my videos in HD quality and no black bars to fill the space. Until YouTube changes their player again I feel I have nailed this method on the head, for screen recording anyway. So its only fair that I share this method with all of you. Enjoy!

Tags: HD, online, Render, Video, WMV, YouTube
No Comments »
Jul
07
2009

The Future of Twitter Clients? – Mixero

Posted by quesomanrulz
Posted in Apple, Feed, July 2009, Linux, Mac, Microsoft, Mobile, Software, Tutorials, YouTube, information, new, twitter | Comment(s)

If your not on Twitter by now you really are missing something, the idea of real-time updates is almost futuristic. I myself have become so obsessed with Twitter that I can’t stand to just get my updates periodically from http://twitter.com/. Now I use a Twitter desktop client called Twhirl. Some people like a client called Tweetdeck. Tweetdeck is probably the most popular Twitter client available to date and you’ve probably heard of it already. Well now there is a new Twitter client in beta that might just be the downfall of Tweetdeck, Mixero.

Mixero is a Twitter client that runs on Adobe AIR just as Tweetdeck does, this means it is cross-platform. It has several features that were not previously offered in other Twitter clients such as channels, which are Twitter searches that will re-search at any given interval. You can also group you contacts and use the new Active List feature to keep the important things to at any given time close at hand.

Mixero is a program that is still in a private invitation only beta, therefore it is not publicly available for download. I do suggest, if you feel you can not wait for the public release, that you google for an invitation code. If you liked this software review/introduction please subscribe to be updated about future videos by clicking the yellow “subscribe” buttion in the upper right corner of this post.

Tags: Adobe, AIR, Client, Desktop, network, online, social, twitter
No Comments »
Jul
02
2009

Enhancing Web Browsing – My Favorite Firefox Add-Ons

Posted by quesomanrulz
Posted in Apple, Feed, July 2009, Linux, Mac, Software, Tutorials, YouTube, information, new, website | 3 Comment(s)

By now everyone should be using Firefox, that’s not to say that everyone is (I still haven’t converted all of my family yet) but if you’re not the main thing you’d be missing is the add-ons. While Firefox is one of the most stable browsers around and, next to webkit based browsers, the most speedy, but the one thing that none of the others really have great support for is add-ons. Add-ons make the browsing experience have practically endless possibilities! I use add-ons every day in my Firefox 3.5 install, I simply don’t know how I ever lived without them!

Another great thing about add-ons is that when you get a new one it can sometimes feel like you’ve got a new browser entirely, like you just got a new toy when you were a kid. Add-ons can completely revolutionize enjoyment and productivity when surfing the web. The web browser is no longer just a tool to surf the internet, it can now update your twitter, send text messages, organize your digital life for you and much much more.

All my Add-Ons:

  1. Add N Edit Cookies
  2. AutoPager
  3. Better YouTube
  4. BetterPrivacy
  5. Brief
  6. Cooliris
  7. Create Shortcut
  8. Download Statusbar
  9. DownThemAll!
  10. Fasterfox
  11. Favicon Picker 3
  12. FEBE
  13. Firebug
  14. Fission
  15. Flagfox
  16. FoxyProxy
  17. Gmail Space
  18. Greasemonkey
  19. Image Zoom
  20. KallOut – Accelerators for Firefox
  21. McAfee SiteAdvisor
  22. Prism for Firefox
  23. Save Session
  24. Sxipper
  25. Tab Mix Plus
  26. Targeted Advertising Cookie Opt-Out (TACO)
  27. Tiny Menu
  28. Xmarks
  29. YSlow

Themes:

  1. NASA Night Launch
  2. Daum Blue
Tags: browser, firefox, Internet, online, Web
3 Comments »
Jul
01
2009

BlindSearch – The Search Engine Taste Test

Posted by quesomanrulz
Posted in Feed, July 2009, Microsoft, information, website | Comment(s)

BlindSearch The Search Engine Taste Test

Since the internet took off and became mainstream users have used Search Engines to try and sift out the information that they’re looking for among the massive amounts of information. Today there are 3 main search engines (generally speaking): Google, Yahoo!, and Bing (formerly Live Search). While they all provide good results the thing that makes a person pick one over the other is how often a search engine can consistently provide the relevant results they are looking for. Some people though have always used the same search engine and don’t know that there are better alternatives out there, that’s where BlindSearch comes in.

http://blindsearch.fejus.com/ is a service developed just for fun to allow users to quickly search anything and receive the results from the previously mentioned search engines all on the same page. There you can view the results from each search engine without knowing which results are from which engine and select which one you prefer.

BlindSearch The Search Engine Taste TestIt’s quite a fun way to see how search engines are different and which one provides the results you want the most, you might be surprised at what you find. I was.

Tags: Bing, Competition, Engine, google, Search, War, Web, Yahoo
No Comments »