WebPagetest, a site where it test the load time of your page and analyzes what loads, how long it loads, and even gives suggestion on how to improve it.

And of course the most important one: Browsershots. Ever wondered how your website looks in Opera 8? Or IE 6? Or any other dozen browsers out there? You don't have to install 10 browsers to find it out. This webservice takes care of it for you by taking screenshots in each browser and uploading said screenshots upon completion.

Related posts:

1. Shorten your URL – A small collection of URL shortening services

I for one create my passwords through my own convenient "algorithm" if you want to call it that, so I can remember even 20 characters long passwords with numbers, letters and special letters.

Or you could simply go to https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm and be done with it. Yes, this site is secure, it's using https, and the passwords generated there ARE very strong. Start using your heads folks, don't get f'ked because y'all are too lazy!

And if you can't remember each password you're using, use KeePass, store your passwords there, set a unique password you won't ever forget for your password database and either burn it on a DVD or better yet, use a password-ed flash drive.

Yes, I'm aware of the irony. A password for the flash drive and a password for the password database!

Just for the fun of it, test how secure your password is.

Related posts:

1. Using Firefox 3.x? Speed it up by vacuuming its SQLite database!
2. Say NAY to Key loggers, Trojans, Viruses, Worms 'n more!
3. Firefox 3.5 Add-Ons Round-up!

Cheers!

Related posts:

1. VirtualDub 720p HD settings for YouTube! [Good quality, small file size]

http://www.google.com/dictionary

Enjoy!

PS: I prefer LEO, Cambridge Dictionaries Online, Merrian-Webster and Urbandictionary over Google's somewhat yet limited dictionary.

Related posts:

1. How to enable the New Google Search!
2. Improve your search results with Google’s new Caffeine Sandbox!
3. 2 essential web-services for any web-designer & web-master!

How to enable it:

1. Go to google.com
2. Copy/Paste this into your web browser address field and hit enter:

   javascript:void(document.cookie="PREF=ID=20b6e4c2f44943bb:U=4bf292d46faad806:TM=1249677602:LM=1257919388:S=odm0Ys-53ZueXfZG;path=/;  domain=.google.com");

3. Reload google.com

Bear in mind, I have no idea how to revert this change. Still I like it this way much more!

Related posts:

1. Improve your search results with Google’s new Caffeine Sandbox!
2. Google launches its own dictionary!

In its raw form, WordPress provides everything one needs to start blogging immediately. That's the biggest plus! I've tested a few blog and CMSs and a lot of them were either very bloated or had almost no customization available.

Check out the 22 plugins I'm using...

Add to Any: Share/Bookmark/Email Button (download):

Social media becomes increasingly popular and readers like to share what they read with their friends. To make it convenient for the reader, Add to Any provides a button with many popular social media sites. Sharing was never easier.

After The Deadline (download):

After The Deadline is an integrated spell/grammar/style-checker which operates externally. It uses a database with thousand of users linked to it. Think cloud and spell/grammar/style-checking.

All in One SEO Pack (download):

Optimizes your blog for Search Engines.

Configurable Tag Cloud (download):

The standard tag cloud provided by WordPress.org was not satisfactory and I was too lazy fiddling in the  PHP files to style and configure it to my liking. Configurable Tag Cloud is what I wanted. A customizable widget!

Contact Form 7 (download):

A highly customizable contact form. Check "contact" in the navigation bar to see it in action!

Cute Profiles (download):

I ran out of space when I was linking my social profiles in the navigation bar. Cute Profiles adds all your Social Profile icons vertically on left or right side of your pages, which will remain visible all the time though the page is scrolled and without consuming the sidebar space.

FancyBox for WordPress (download):

A fancy way to display images on your blog. Using jQuery it enables you to use animations for resized images. From thumbnail to full-image and back to thumbnail.

Fast Tube (download):

A fast and very easy way to embed YouTube videos into your blog.

GD Star Rating (download):

Giving the reader the ability to rate your posts, pages and/or comments via a very complex star-rating system. It takes some time to properly configure it. But default settings are good and ready to go.

Google XML Sitemaps (download):

Having XML Sitemaps is a must if you want your blog to be SOE friendly. Though the add-on says Google XML, it actually creates the XML Sitemaps for Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com

Ozh' Admin Drop Down Menu (download):

I didn't like how all the admin menu links were left in a bar, so I got this one. The admin menu links are organized in a neat horizontal CSS driven drop down menu this way.

Quotes Collection (download):

A widget displaying your collected/favourite quotes.

Revision Control (download):

By default WordPress saves each post/page's content each time you save as a revision, so you can go back to a specific revision. I don't need it since I use external editors for that. Besides that it's a waste of database space.

Search Everything (download):

WordPress default search is very limited, and I wanted to be able to search a lot more. Search Everything provides just that. I can search posts, tags, links, pages, comments, drafts, category names, and a lot more.

TinyMCE Advanced (download):

WordPress' default editor has too few options for me, and I often had to manually enter my desired HTML-tag via the "HTML" editor. TinyMCE Advanced take care of that by providing you more options.

WordPress.com Stats (download):

Statistics, statistics and more statistics. If you want a lot of statistics, this is the plug-in for you. Though there are better statistics tools, like Piwik.

WP-DBManager (download):

Manage your WordPress database. Optimize, repair, back-up and more.

WP-PageNavi (download):

A fancier way to display page navigation. See at the bottom of the blog. Highly customizable via CSS.

WP-PostViews (download):

Providing a way to show the count of post-views. You can exclude bots, and restrict the counting to everybody, registered users, or guests only.

WP-SpamFree (download):

Comment-Spam is a problem! And WP-SpamFree takes care of that, I mean REALLY takes care of that!

WP Security Scan (download):

Scans your WordPress installation for security vulnerabilities and suggests corrective actions.

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (download):

I wanted to be able to link my posts to other related posts. This plug-in uses, in my opinion, a very good algorithm linking related posts and showing them at the end of each post. Algorithm is to some extend customizable by allowing, excluding, adding extras, considering with extra weight, etc.

Related posts:

1. Firefox 3.5 Add-Ons Round-up!
2. Improve your search results with Google’s new Caffeine Sandbox!
3. How to enable the New Google Search!

Over time it's get filled up with unnecessary and old info if you want, and there's a simple method to ditch those useless info and speed up your Firefox considerably, or like most of the guides say to "vacuum" it.

Use it once in a while, I've seen an improvement on my Firefox since I used it.

1. Go to "Tools" -> "Error Console"
2. Paste this in the "Code" text box:

   Components.classes["@mozilla.org/browser/nav-history-service;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsPIPlacesDatabase).DBConnection.executeSimpleSQL("VACUUM");

3. Press enter or click "evaluate"
4. Your Firefox will freeze for a short time, just wait
5. Enjoy your speed up Firefox!

Related posts:

1. How to fix the video lag in Firefox!
2. Make your Firefox load faster!
3. 5 easy-to-do tweaks to make your Firefox faster!

Yet deep down it DOES work differently and it most certainly delivers the promised improved search speed and better search results.

What does better mean? Well that's up to everybodys point of view, for me at least the newly structured search results are in fact way better structured  than the old ones.

So without further ado, go on and test the new infrastructure: http://www2.sandbox.google.com

PS: Since it's in beta testing stage expect the new search engine to be down occasionally!

Related posts:

1. How to enable the New Google Search!
2. Google launches its own dictionary!
3. Improve your verbal and written English skills!

Firefox 3.5 is out already a few days! Get if folks! Ditch your Opera, IE, Chrome and Safari!

I thought I'd share my Add-Ons I pretty much use on daily basis.

Adblock Plus:
Ads, oh how I loathe them. This addons takes care of every ad I came across until today. I'm 100% ad-free! Of course websites who rely on their only income, ads, will suffer from this.

So remember, if you have a favorite site you frequently visit and it relies on ad revenue to keep alive, un-block and support it!

Fasterfox Lite:
Remember the 5 tweaks I posted way back then? Well this Add-On takes care of it automatically. Except this LITE version, which is the only one functioning for 3.5, doesn't have prefetching.

If you don't like to do these manual tweaks this is the Add-On for you.

Edit 25.09.2009: Fasterfox has been updated to run with 3.5 since August 26th 2009. Not the Lite, the normal one!

Flagfox:
Since I sometime need to know about the location of a website or its server, Flagfox gives me their IP, location and ask whois detailed information, if needed to be.

Gmail Notifier:
If you own a single GMail account this is small addon to notify you if you got new mails in the inbox. There's a GMail Manager for those with multiple accounts.

NoScript:
Perhaps the most important Add-On for Firefox. It is, assumed it's correctly configured, what makes Firefox and in turn your computer so resilient to scripts, Keyloggers and viruses.

I can pretty much click any link I come across without fear of somehow installing malicious software, keyloggers or viruses.

This Add-On is constantly being updated to keep up against scripts, keyloggers and viruses who try to circumvent NoScript. 3 cheers to open-source!

PDF Download:
I think the name explains it all. It allows you to choose between downloading a PDF file or opening it up

Skipscreen:
With 1-click-hosters such as Rapidshare, Netload, Megaupload, etc. becoming widely popular this Add-On is pretty much a must have if you want to skip all the unnecessary pages to go directly to download.

Saved me a lot of time, this diamond!

Related posts:

1. Using Firefox 3.x? Speed it up by vacuuming its SQLite database!
2. How to fix the video lag in Firefox!
3. 5 easy-to-do tweaks to make your Firefox faster!

Identi.ca because I can link my Twitter account to Identi.ca and post only on Identi.ca to make my notices (identi.ca) also apear as tweets on Twitter.

The question, when I heard about such microblogging services, I asked myself was when should I be using it.

Then I looked at my blog and thought about it. It ain't that bad if you think about it.

I use Twitter and Identi.ca for distributing interesting links I stumble across while surfing  and the occasional, unsubstantial notice/tweet.

So why would I waste a whole lot of blog space when I can put the links in 140 characters. Sure I can collect the links and present them in weekly or daily blog posts, but then it'll be lacking something only the microblogging services offer: immediateness (huh, that's some strange word I came up with).

You see microblogging services, unlike personal blogs, are available and know to millions of people. While I have to promote my blog to gain users, on Twitter and Identi.ca there already are millions of users ready to read.

When I share a link it becomes, on Identi.ca at least, visible to everybody right the second I posted it. (On Twitter you have to be registered and following me in order to immediately get the tweet I just posted!).

Microblogging services, they are great, ain't they? What say you, dear reader?

Related posts:

1. Shorten your URL – A small collection of URL shortening services
2. Stop Spam, use temporary and disposable mail inboxes!
3. How to share your email publicly and avoiding spam bots!