I use the Mozilla Firefox web browser and I love everything about it! It’s a full featured browser that follows all HTML rules unlike Microsoft IE and it has a full range of different add-ons that you can install to make your web experience easier. I believe that my specific configuration of Mozilla Firefox makes my daily internet surfing activities safe! A good set of security features and a alert sense in browsing makes your computer almost unvurnerable to worms, spyware and viruses.

The one thing I hate are add-on tool bars, I suggest never installing any of them because most of them are spyware tools that either makes your computer slower or simply block your browsers viewing space. If you have too, then, the Yahoo, Google or MSN tool bars are okay to download.

Here is the main feature presentation, the 5 plugins TONY CAI uses! :

• Adblock - Once installed, it’s a snap to filter elements at their source-address.
  Just right-click: Adblock: done. Filters use either the wildcard character (*)
  or full Regular Expression syntax. Hit the status-element and see what has or
  hasn’t been blocked.
• Adblock Filter.G Updater – This is a companion extension to Adblock or Adblock Plus and should be used in conjunction with it. This extension automatically downloads the latest version of Filterset.G every 4-7 days. Filterset.G is an excellent set of filters maintained by G for Adblock that blocks most ads on the internet.
• Fasterfox – Fasterfox allows you to tweak many network and rendering settings such as simultaneous connections, pipelining, cache, DNS cache, and initial paint delay. Dynamic speed increases can be obtained with the unique prefetching mechanism, which recycles idle bandwidth by silently loading and caching all of the links on the page you are browsing.
• Google Notebook – With Google Notebook, you can browse, clip, and organize information from across the web in a single online location that’s accessible from any computer. Planning a trip? Researching a product? Just add clippings to your notebook. You don’t ever have to leave your browser window.
• Verizon Wireless Minutes Used – This plugin allows you to view the minutes used on your cell phone plan on the bottom bar of Firefox. Other carriers are available as well; Cingular, T-Mobile. Very easy and convent to use, never go over your minutes again!

So yeah, those are all the plugins I use for ease and security. Go have a try at it!

How about changing your DNS servers so it can block porn and other unsafe websites from being accessed on your computer? It can be done with ScrubIT! It works just like OpenDNS where you have to configure your DNS servers.

If you want to configure it manually, the DNS servers to use are:

67.138.54.100 and 207.225.209.66

“ScrubIT is a FREE recursive DNS server that regulates what comes into your home or business. ScrubIT “scrubs” the internet so you don’t have to be concerned about what your family members or employees will be confronted with.

We currently profile several million websites and by default block out any pornographic, phishing, and many other potentially harmful sites. Users who wish to customize which sites are blocked and allowed may sign up for our BETA and customize their ScrubIT experience.”

The service is of course free. See more about ScrubIt here!

Going to church, Freeport, LI. Taking pics on our road trip!

::Update::

I neglected to take any pictures but I can defiantly tell you about my whole experience at a black gospel church! WOW. As a promise to a friend, me and me friends went to church in Freeport called Perfecting Faith Church (PFC). The experience was a rather positive experience, I got to see a whole other world of church, the black church. People there worship god with dancing singing and crying. After the service, I asked my friend if the mood and emotion was like that all the time and he said yes. To my surprise, I actually liked it!

I got to see Pastor, Donnie McClurkin live in person. I googled him and found out that he’s a pretty famous man, he’s a singer, an actor, a pastor, and a radio guy. I think it’s great that he reaches out to all communities and for him to be a pastor at this church out in Long Island is amazing!

Like most of you, I look for deals on eBay, even deals on web hosting. But you know what they say, you get what you pay for and hosting on eBay is exactly that! In my past experiences, I’ve had “companies” go out of business, lack of support, not honoring refund guarantees and more. All bad news if you’re looking for uptime and overall good performance. So in the business of hosting, cheap is not always a good thing. I’ve learned my lesson!

When they say Unlimited or Unmetered hosting, they are lying to you and overselling server space. When you get near that amount, your account will be limited or suspended. They never think that you might actually fill up the space. There are so many gimmicks on eBay, it’s hard to tell which is legit. Most companies promise a lot but in fact are only resellers of larger companies and thats usually bad news for support inquiries.

Lesson Taught: Never purchase services like web hosting from eBay!
[audio:http://tonycai.com/billiejean.mp3]

Joost’s concept of the TV on a PC is amazing! I will update this post as I trial it further.

P.S: I have Beta Account Invitations, if interested please leave me a comment!

Download it for Windows XP here.

Great news from Microsoft, if you’re running the Windows XP operating system, your not left hanging anytime soon. Microsoft plans to support XP for 7 more years, they will continue to roll out with updates and fix bugs, you will be able to call them for support as well [however I don't know how much help they are ].

“Microsoft on Wednesday extended support for its Windows XP Home and Windows XP Media Center operating systems through 2014 to match policies already in place for the business-oriented Windows XP Professional.

The addition of a five-year “extended support” phase to Windows XP will take effect in May 2009. In Microsoft parlance, extended support is the period when all support is fee-based and non-security hotfixes are produced only for corporate customers. Until April of 2009, Windows XP Home and Media Center will remain in what is called “mainstream support,” which offers some no-charge support and free updates that don’t deal with security issues.”

Windows ME and 98 has discontinued support for about 1 year now and those of you who still runs those operating systems, you’re left hanging, upgrade to Windows XP now. I’m writing this just so people should not be pressured to use Windows Vista yet, Windows XP is still HOT!!

The Democracy Media player downloads and plays all videos from YouTube, etc. This open source software available for all platforms including Linux and OSX can be the ultimate player for you, powered by VLC player.

• 1. Play All Your Videos
  Play virtually any video– Quicktime, WMV, MPEG, AVI, XVID, and more. Browse your collection, make playlists, stay organized.
• 2. Get Internet TV Shows
  Subscribe to any video RSS feed, podcast, or video blog. Explore hundreds of free channels with the built-in Channel Guide.
• 3. Search YouTube
  Download and save videos from YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo Video, and other sites.
• 4. High Definition and Fullscreen
  Your computer screen is a high-def display. Watch free HD videos in gorgeous fullscreen.
• 5. Torrent Power
  Easily download any BitTorrent file. Fast. Then watch it in the same app. Simple.

To get the Democracy Player now, click here! Highly Recommended!

OpenID is a security system that allows you to login to many* websites with just one universal ID. Seems easy and secure right? Many things can potentially go wrong. A OpenID company can go out of service and your ID is lost but luckily there are many providers out there. Well how are there many providers of OpenID? Think of it this way, it’s a code that you can run on a server.

The problem is that too little primetime websites are using the service at the time. Recently, AOL says they would start using OpenID which is good news for OpenID because it’s getting a better user base.

* Too little websites using OpenID as of now.

I just signed up for an OpenID and it serves me pretty useless now.

Google Apps goes Premier Edition, meaning you get all of Google Apps standard plus more! All for the price of $50 per year. However, their target customer base are only companies and educational institutions so for the personal accounts that we all have, we should be good with just the standard basic.

“We offer multiple editions of Google Apps to meet the needs of different organizations. So whether you’re a small business or a Fortune 500 company, Google can power up your organization with the right services and support, for the right price.”

Of course with Google Apps, you need a domain, you can use your existing or register for a new one. Remember! Google is now a domain registar!

For a nice comparason chart between the differences, click here!

Many first midterms of the semester were held this week at Stony Brook. I had a Math midterm on Monday and a Sociology midterm I just took 30 minutes ago and everything went smoothly. However, I heard that people pulled the fire alarms that canceled tests twice, once yesterday and one this morning. I’m sure the university is taking this matter seriously and is investigating.

Some people got lucky and had their midterms postponed.