'Demystifying Google' - Search efficiently

Google is the most advanced Internet search engine of our time. How many of us know that google search has more than that we think it can offer ?

Here are some small tips for those who don't know how to search efficiently.Google has the ability to accept some predefined search queries for providing efficient search results.

I'm going to discus some of those Special Commands and I'll explain each command briefly ,you can use this commands to form complex queries and find what you need in a flash.

"intitle:" - intitle:keyword

• The "intitle:" syntax helps us to restrict the search results to pages containing the searched word in the title of the web-page. eg: intitle:mother will return links to the pages that have the word 'mother' in their title.

"inurl:" - inurl:keyword

• The "inurl:" syntax is similar to the intitle but it returns the links of the pages whose url contain the word that is searched. for example inurl:cooking will show the links of pages whose url have the word cooking in it.

"site:" - site:website-url

• You may need to find something from a specific site sometimes.For example searching for Mac Mini related articles in wired.com.
• we can make use of the command - mac mini site:www.wired.com to find-out articles related to Mac Mini

"filetype:" - filetype:file-type

• Looking for a specific file type (i.e. doc, pdf or ppt... ) or an ebook, this command can help you a lot. eg : mathematics filetype:pdf will list the pdf files realted to mathematics.

"link:" - link:site

• This will return the list of sites link to the specified website. eg: link:amritapuri.org

"related:" - related:sitename

• This will return the results similar to the specified site. eg: related:www.wired.com

"cache:" - "cache:sitename"

• Cache will show the version of web-page that google has in it cache.
• eg: cache:nextdoornerd.blogspot.com

"intext:" - intext:keyword

• The “intext:” syntax searches for words in a particular website. It ignores links or URLs and page titles.For example: intext:gardening will return only links to those web pages that has the search keyword "gardening" in its web-page.

Pro Combinations

I hope these simple techniques can help you find informations more quickly and easily.Rather than using these techniques alone, you can try combining them to make complex queries inorder to achieve better results.Now start searching like a Pro.

• For example : to search for pdf files in the adobe.com site we may create a new query - filetype:pdf site:adobe.com
• While searching for pdf files if you need to avoid the results from a specific site, you can create a query filetype:pdf -site:adobe.com, which will not show any results realted to the search from adobe.com

Now we can move to some sophisticated methodologies of searching that will help us to increase the efficiency of our search.

Index browsing with google

• There are sites with index browsing enabled, this means any one can browse the site directories like local directories.To find the results from index browsing enabled sites just include a "index of" command infront of the query.eg : "index of" rpm"

More Search Tips

'|' Operator

• Using '|' symbol literaly means 'or'. For example you want to search for 'indian or american fish' then you can make use of | and the query will look something like indian|american fish the resulted links will contain either indian food or american food in their contents.

'&&' Operator

• Consider we need to find the pages containing both the words cook and chinese,here the '&& operator can help us to find the best results. eg: cook&&chinese

'-' Operator

• '-' can be used to avoid an item for example including -fall in a search query will tell google to avoid all results containing the word fall. eg : water -fall

'+' Operator

• Google ignores common words and characters such as where, the, how, and other digits and letters that slow down the search.If a common word is essential to getting the results we can put a + operator infront of that word to make sure that Google paying attention to it. eg : peanut butter +or jelly
  

Calculator

• We can use google to find the answers for our arithmetic operations, yeah this means google is a calculator too. just enter 5*9+(sqrt 10)^3= in the search field and see the results!

Currency conversion

• Need to know how much is 46745.65$ in Indian Rs, Just enter '46745.65 dollars in INR' in the google search field to get the result.

Dictionary Definitions

• define:word will show the definition of the specified word.
• eg : define:eccentric

Unit Conversion

• Unit Conversion is one of the features among the google search,eg : 10.5 cm in inches

Spell Checker

• Don't know the spelling of a word ? Just enter the word in the Google search box, if the provided spelling is wrong Google will suggest the correct spelling for you. eg : coltorol
  

Fill in the Blank

• Some times it is better to ask google a question is fill in the blank by providing an asterics (*) in the desired space. eg: Indians are * men

Google Clock

• To see the time in the many places around the world, type in time and the city name.
  
• eg : time Berlin
  

It is time to start Googling now... Have fun with these Commands and tips, combine them to get better results.

Have a nice time with Google...

NB: Just checkout this

55 Ways to have Fun with Google : a refreshing book for enhancing your Googling skills.The book is freely available for download.

http://www.55fun.com/book.pdf

CVS : Concurrent Versions System

I started learning some courses using MIT Open CourseWare, some of the courses need to have softwares like Eclipse,CVS etc. Let's see how to install a CVS Server in your Ubuntu Machine.

Concurrent Versions System (CVS), is a free software revision control system. Version control system software keeps track of all work and all changes in a set of files, and allows several developers to collaborate.

Install and Configure CVS Server

You can install CVS files by typing sudo apt-get install cvs in your terminal.

Then we need to install the CVS server by entering sudo apt-get install cvsd in your terminal.



Type in “/cvsrepo” when the cvsd prompts to enter a Repository.
(make sure the directory "cvsrepo" exists, if not create a directory with the command sudo mkdir /cvsrepo)

Now change the directories permissions using the command sudo chown -R cvsd:cvsd /cvsrepo

once the installation is completed, goto /var/lib/cvsd by typing cd /var/lib/cvsd in your terminal.

You can use sudo cvsd-buildroot /var/lib/cvsd to create a cvs build root directory.

Now initialize the cvs repository using the command sudo cvs -d /var/lib/cvsd/cvsrepo init

Creating a CVS user Account



sudo cvsd-passwd /var/lib/cvsd/cvsrepo +username can be used to create a new cvs account.

NB replace username with your desired user name (for example John).

Test your CVS Repository

cvs -d :pserver:testusername@localhost:/cvsrepo login

cvs -d :pserver:testusername@localhost:/cvsrepo checkout

Now everything is set and your cvs server is ready to fly. Experiment with it.

Inkscape : An Open Source Vector Graphics editor

Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.

Inkscape supports many advanced SVG features (markers, clones, alpha blending, etc.) and great care is taken in designing a streamlined interface. It is very easy to edit nodes, perform complex path operations, trace bitmaps and much more. We also aim to maintain a thriving user and developer community by using open, community-oriented development.

Features:

• Object creation (pencil tool, pen tool, calligraphy tool rectangles, ellipses, stars/polygons, spirals, text tool, embedded bitmaps, clones)

• Object manipulation (Affine transformations, Z-order operations, Grouping objects, Layers, Copying and pasting objects, Alignment and distribution commands)

• Fill and stroke (Color selector, Color picker tool, Copy/paste style, A gradient editor capable of multi-stop gradients, Pattern fills, Dashed strokes, Path markers)

• Operations on paths (Node editing, Converting to path, Boolean operations, Path simplification, Path insetting and outsetting, Bitmap tracing)

• Text support (Multi-line text, Uses any installed outline fonts, including right-to-left scripts, Kerning, letter spacing, line spacing adjustments, Text on path, Text in shape)

• Rendering(Fully anti-aliased display, Alpha transparency support for display and PNG export, Complete "as you drag" rendering)

• Miscellaneous (Live watching and editing the document tree in the XML editor, Command line options for export and conversionsm, Perfectly compliant SVG format file generation and editing)

You can get your copy of Inkscape from the Inkscape download page.

http://www.inkscape.org/ is the official website of Inkscape. Checkout the site for more details and documentation on Inkscape

DosBox : An MS-DOS Simulator for Linux

Wish to play your old M$-DOS games again ? You can use DOSBox to run your favorite vintage DOS programs in your Linux Machine.

DOSBox

DOSBox is a free sotware which simulates MS-DOS. It is intended especially for use with old computer games and programs.DOSBox does not rely on any Virtualization techniques it is a full CPU emulator, capable of running DOS programs that require the CPU to be in either real mode or protected mode.

Features of DOSBox

• DOSBox is even capable of emulating many types of audio and graphics hardware. Graphics emulation includes text mode, Hercules, CGA , Tandy, EGA, VGA, etc. Sound hardware that can be emulated includes the PC speaker, AdLib, Gravis Ultrasound,etc.

• Another advantage is, DOSBox can simulate peer to peer networking, this includes modem simulation over TCP/IP

• It's very simple and easy to use.
  

click here to read more

How to install DOSBox in Ubuntu

• Typing sudo apt-get install dosbox in your terminal will fetch you the dependency libraries and install DOSBox in a few moments.When the installation is completed you can type-in dosbox in your terminal to acces DOSBox.
  

External Links

• The official website of DOSBox is : http://www.dosbox.com/

• You can visit http://sourceforge.net/projects/dosbox/ for the source forge entry of DOSBox

• Wikipedia Entry about DOSBox is located at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOSBox
• 
  

NB: If you are looking for a more advanced windows software emulator where you can play your 3D games and other Softwares, you might probably give a look at Wine.

Amarok : Best Music Player for Linux

Computer is not just a Hacker-Box any more, it's revolutionizing our world with its entertainment capabilities. Let's make this more easier with Open Source.

Amarok !

Amarok is the music player for Linux and Unix with an intuitive interface.We all know how hard it is to maintain a good music collection, however Amarok makes organizing your music easier than ever.



Features of Amarok

Amarok is not just like any other music player available, it's more than a simple music player.It can be used to organize a music library into folders according to the information such as artist,genre and album, it can be used to manage music tags, album art,etc

• Amarok can play many types of media files including Ogg, MP3, AAC, WAV, Windows Media Audio, Apple Lossless, WavPack, TTA and Musepack, the list is not complete!

• Music file tagging (currently FLAC, Ogg, WMA, AAC, MP3, and RealMedia).

• Amarok can help you in associating Album art (Cover art) with a particular album, and retrieving the cover art from Amazon

• Creating and organizing playlists are more easier with Amarok it even supports dynamic playlists.

• Synchronizing, retrieving, playing, or uploading music to the following digital music players like iPod.

• Displaying artist information from Wikipedia and retrieving song lyrics.

• Last.fm support, including submitting played tracks (including those played on some digital music players) to Last.fm, retrieving similar artists, and playing Last.fm streams.

• You can even manage and listen to your favorite Podcasts using Amarok.

• The integration of Magnatune, a non-DRM digital music store, enabling users to purchase music in Ogg, FLAC, WAV and MP3 formats.

Disadvantages

• If you have own a collection of DRM protected Music, You must be disappointed.

How to install Amarok in Ubuntu ?

• Just type-in sudo apt-get install Amarok in your terminal.

Important Links

• http://amarok.kde.org/ - The official website of Amarok
• http://amarok.kde.org/wiki/Download - You can get your copy of Amarock from here
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AmaroK - Checkout the Wikipedia entry on Amarok
  

VirtualBox : Fix "Spawning Session" problem

After installing some Ubuntu updates, I noticed that I couldn't start any Virtual Machine in Virtual Box.It shows a “spawning session” dialog which stuck at 0% forever.



Solution for the problem

If you can't close or terminate your VirtualBox program which is stuck with the 'Spawning Session' problem, just open the terminal and force kill the VirtualBox

• type sudo killall VirtualBox in the terminal

Now you need to recompile the kernel module for VirtualBox, It's not that hard

• just type sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup to recompile the kernel module and wait for a few seconds

You will get an output like the following

• * Stopping VirtualBox kernel module * done.
• * Removing old VirtualBox kernel module * done.
• * Recompiling VirtualBox kernel module * done.
• * Starting VirtualBox kernel module * done.

Now you can start playing with your virtual machines.

Elisa : Turn your Linux Box into a Media Center

Jealous with that Jaw-dropping Front Row or Windows Media Center ? Checkout Elisa, an open source cross-platform media center with simple looks and stable performance.


The Elisa Media Center boasts of many advanced features that will help you turn your Linux Box into a Media Center. Everything is packed in a simple interface with a professional look and feel.

Features

Movies - Watch your Video files and Movies, you can even watch your favorite videos from youtube and other sites.



Music - Listen to your Favorite Songs and organize your music collection by artists or album covers.



Photos - Entertain your friends with your animated slideshows and image previews.



Peripheral Devices - Let it be an iPod,External Hard Disk or a Digital Camera, Elisa Automatically detects them all.




Internet - Let it be Youtube, Flicker or other popular sites. You can have all of them at your fingertips.


Click here for a more detailed list of features.


Installing Elisa in Ubuntu

• Installation of Elisa in Ubuntu and its Variants (Xubuntu,Kubuntu) are as simple as plucking a flower, just type sudo apt-get install elisa in the terminal.

Configure Your Media Directories

• If your music and movies are already in the music folder and movies folder in the home directory, you need need not worry about this step.

• Most probably you will have your music and movies located in another drive, in that case you can simply create a symbolic link.

• consider you have all your music located in /home/user/Desktop/Test/ all you have to do is just create a shortcut of that directory and place it in the music folder. You can either use ln -s (from terminal) or Graphical User Interface for creating a link.

Pros and Cons

• The Elisa is simple to install, configure and use.The interface is very good and clutter free.
• There are a few problems occured occationally while playing video files, other than this there were no serious disadvantages.

Downlaod Elisa

Obtain your copy of Elisa from http://elisa.fluendo.com/

Google Chrome (Beta) : Google's browser project

It's a really exciting news, that Google entered the browser war with a new open source browser called Chrome today (09/02/08). Chrome inherits components from WebKit and Mozilla. The main aim is to improve the browser stability, speed and security with a more simple and efficient user interface.

Google is using a new approach to promote Chrome, It's really cool that they are using a more cartoonish way for promoting it. They provided a comic book explaining about Chrome.

Security Features

• Blacklists : Chrome keeps two blacklists and periodically updates it, warns the user whenever the user is trying to access a harmful site.
  

• Sandboxing : In Chrome each tab is sandboxed (sandbox is a security mechanism for safely running programs) to prevent malicious codes running and malware from installing itself.
  

• Incognito : This is a feature that enable the user to browse without leaving any trails (It won't store any cookies and it won't record any of your actions).It is similar to Safari's Private Browsing and Internet Explorer 8's InPrivate Mode.It lets the user to browse the internet with complete privacy.
  

Speed

• JavaScript : Chrome developers developed a new Java Script engine called V8 JavaScript Engine. This V8 Engine is optimized for speed and reliability.
  

Stability

• Multiprocessing : Most of the existing web browsers are single-threaded.The chrome is implemented with a multiprocessing architecture.Each tab and plugin, other tasks are considered as a separate process.This ensures more security and robustness.

• Task Manager : There is a task manager which allows user to see which sites are using the most memory,downloading,etc.. and the user can terminate the unwanted sites,scripts or addons.

User interface

• Gears : Google Gears is included with Chrome which adds developer features for web application development,etc..
  

• New Tab Page : This feature replaces the home page with a 'New Tab Page' (an idea similar to Opera Speed Dial).This page shows the thumbnails of most visited web sites, most often searched sites and most recently closed tabs.

• Omnibox : It's the same URL box at the top of each tab, it includes auto complete functionality that are manually entered,search suggestions and often visted pages,etc..

• Popups : The popups will appear inside the mother tab and only appear outside if the user drags them out of the tab.

• Rendering engine : It is a more memory efficient,based WebKit rendering engine.It's very efficient and useful for embedded devices.

• Tabs : Instead of traditional tabs (windows containing tabs) the tabs are moved to the top of the window to provide more flexibility.

• Webapps : These can be launched in their own streamlined window.And thus ensuring robustness.

OS Support

Google Chrome is currently released for Windows and Mac, Linux Versions will be ready soon (They are working on it).

Pros and Cons (new)

Just downloaded and installed Chrome, here is a quick review !. This one is an easy to install software. The interface looks more drab compared to Firefox and Safari.The features are great, and the browsing is pretty faster with Chrome. The OmbiBox and New Tab Page features are very useful, It might be stable and secure but the browser lacks a number of features that are essential.


Related Links

• Official Site (get google chrome)
  

• Chrome Comic

• Announcement on Official Google Blog

Just now Google activated the Chrome site, while I was writing this post!

BitTorrent : Faster and more stable Downloads

What is BitTorrent ?

BitTorrent is an open source peer-to-peer protocol for distributing large amounts of data and files over the internet.The idea behind BitTorrent is to allow massive distribution of popular files without paining the actual source(Server).

How the traditional download works ?

Consider a traditional download method, where the user downloads a file from a server.When unusually high numbers of users are simultaneously downloading the same file, causing the server to run out of available bandwidth. When this happens the clients are refused a connection with the server and even results in a server crash.

To solve this problem Programmer Bram Cohen released a protocol called BitTorrent in April 2001.

How the BitTorrent Works then ?

image courtesy of wikipedia

The first distributor or server acts as the first seed, then each pair who downloads the data also shares the downloaded parts with the other peers.This helps to reduce the original distributor's bandwidth and hardware resource costs.

You can read more about BitTorrent here..

How do I download files using BitTorrent ?

Using BitTorrent for downloading files is very simple, all you need is a BitTorrent client and an active internet connection.Okey we can do it in 3 easy steps.

1. Get a BitTorrent client

• BitTorrent client is a software that uses BitTorrent protocol to download and manage torrents.There are a lot of BitTorrent client software available for each platform(Mac,Linux and Windows).Some popular BitTorrent clients are : Vuze (formerly known as Azureus),BitTorrent,uTorrent.

• The best choice for mac users is Vuze, for windows users uTorrent and for Linux Users BitTorrent.

• Just download any of these client software and install it.(Azureus and BitTorrent are available for Windows Linux and Mac OS X).
  

2. Find a torrent to download

• Okey now you have a BitTorrent client installed, now you need to find some torrent you like to download.

click on the image to enlarge

• for example : go to www.mininova.org and search for ''elephants dream" and click on a search results with more number of seeders (more number of seeders means fast download rates).

click the image to enlarge

• Now click on the desired torrent link and download the torrent file (.torrent file) from the site.

3. Start the download

• Once the file is downloaded double click on the file to open it.Some clients like Vuze may ask you to specify where to save the files.

That's all, now you are using BitTorrent !

Tips and Techniques

There are several BitTorrent sites , here are some of my favorites

• mininova
• torrentz - torrent search engine
  
• thepiratebay
• eztv - download tv shows

For faster Download rates

Choose torrents with more seeders than leechers
http://torrentfreak.com/speed-up-your-torrents/ checkout this link for a nice article on how to increase your torrent speed.

Read my review on Vuze (Formerly known as azureus), one of the most advanced and feature rich BitTorrent client available.

CinePaint : Professional Open Source raster graphics editor

Some of my friends who work in the film industry asked my what open source can offer for them ?
So I decided to introduce some open-source tools available for Film industry (Hey the first OpenMovie is out there!)

CinePaint is an open source raster graphics editor, it is one of the most successful open tool in feature motion picture work today. CinePaint is started as a fork for Gimp 1.0.4 version. CinePaint has so far been used for films such as Scooby-Doo, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, The Last Samurai and Stuart Little.

Why CinePaint ?

The first reason for why I prefer it is because it is an open source software (think of Photoshop, Corel Draw,etc and their cost!), that means this is free and you can even customize it for your personal needs. And yeah we all know this is a good software since it is already used for several movie projects including the Harry Potter.Now it is your turn to find out why you need it, try it before you decide .

Features of CinePaint ?

CinePrint has vast dynamic range : 16-bits per channel (64-bit RGBA)

• that's more range that can be displayed on a computer monitor,since the computer monitors are 24-bit RGB, and it is important when working with a film.It helps to prevent loss while editing.

Still Photographers and CinePaint

• With 35mm support it helps still photographers too. Still photographers can think of CinePaint as having many more F-stops of range .CinePaint also handles 8-bit, 16-bit linear, and 16-bit float images.
• CinePaint features the support for loss less formats such as TIFF,RLE,Cineon, and EXR, this helps the photographers to preserve the details of their photos without any loss, remember some of these formats are not even supported by Photoshop Gimp or other tools.

Other Main Features

• Frame Manager
• Onion Skinning support
• 16-bit floating point support for HDR and 16-bit colour managed work flow for photographers and printers
• Available in the following platforms: Linux, Mac Native, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Windows XP (Windows version is however broken now, a new version is in progress.)

Cons of CinePaint

I just tried out Cine Paint for a little image editing and found it is a little bit cluttered while considering the GUI (even though with expose feature of mac we can take advantage of this).But still it is a pretty good tool with a lot of features and it is pretty easy to learn this software even without any help.

You can Download CinePaint here

Entertainer : An open mediacenter solution for you

One of the most important aspect of why I wasn't shifting from OS X to Linux was lack of good Media center capabilities of Linux, So this week I've been searching for one and found entertainer, a new simple elegant and fresh looking Media center solution for Linux Machines. I think I started changing my mind.

Entertainer

Entertainer is a simple easy to use media center solutions for Linux machines with Gnome and XFace desktop environments. It is developed in Python.The Entertainer is still a kid in the open world but the developers are working hard to make it better.



Features

So let us have a look at the features that Entertainer offers.

Movies and TV-series

You can watch movies and TV-Series from your hard drive or any drive linked over the network. Entertainer even has meta data and cover art support.

Music library

You can now play all our

favorite music tracks easily, there are options that enables navigation of music by artist album,etc.We can even create custom play lists.Entertainer automatically downloads the art work and music information.

Photographs

Entertainer includes a photograph library, which allows you easily find your best shots.

Headlines

This is a cool feature that helps you to watch your favorite feeds even while you are resting in your sofa.

Weather

Entertainer can tell you the weather forecast at your, or any other location for the next 4 days. Quickly check if you need to pack that umbrella or your shots today.

Themes

Entertainer supports theming ! It is a disappointing factor now, because I was not able to find any new themes in the official site.



Turnoffs :(

Entertainer doesn't have any remote support.Currently it only supports keyboards to control it.The other main thing is several times entertainer fails due to bugs.Hope some of you can contribute by working on them.


How do you install entertainer in Ubuntu?


Okey now let's have a look at how I installed entertainer in my System.I've been trying entertainer in Ubuntu Hard y Heron, I've some install instructio ns if you prefer to spice up your Ubuntu.In order to install entertainer we need to have some packages installed.

Prerequisites


sudo apt-get install python-clutter python-gobject python-gtk2 python-gst0.10 python-clutter \
python-pysqlite2 python-cddb python-glade2 python-cairo python-feedparser \
python-pyinotify python-eyed3 python-pyvorb is python-imaging python-imdbpy \
python-notify

You can copy paste this code in your terminal to get these prerequisites installed.Remember you need an act ive internet connection to do so.

Now get the source code

• svn checkout http://entertainer-media-center.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ entertainer

You can grab the source code from entertainer using the above code by just typing it in your terminal. Okey when the source code is completely grabbed change directory to entertainer (cd entertainer).

Copy the configurations to your Home

• cp cfg ~/.entertainer -R

when you are done,change directory to src (cd src)

Set Media Locations

Now we can add folders and locations where our media files located in our machine.

typing this code will show a window where you can add your media files.

• ./entertainer-content-management.py

Now we are almost done.

Preparing the index

Type ./entertainer-backend.py in the terminal and let the entertainer prepare for the work.

just type ./entertainer-frontend.py to fire-up the Entertainer.

Now it's time for entertainment

You can control your Entertainer using keyboard :(

• F - Toggle full screen on/off
• P - Toggle pause/play when video or audio is playing.
• S - Stop playback
• H - Navigate to home screen. Press this anywhere and main menu will be displayed.
• I - Toggle information view when watching photograph in full screen mode
• 1,2,3,4 - Change video playback aspect ratio
• Arrow keys - Navigate menus
• Enter - Select current menu item
• Backspace - Navigate to previous screen

Hope this is pretty easy work for all of you and you enjoy Entertainer, Please drop a comment if you need any help or if you have any doubt regarding the installation.

http://www.entertainer-project.com/ is the official Entertainer website.

Essential Firefox Addons

Everyone is talking about Firefox these days, I thought I must share some of the best add-ons that I use regularly with Firefox.So have a look at them and start customizing your Firefox so that you can do most of the things without leaving Firefox.


Adblock Plus - Tired with ads ? then go for this Firefox add-on. Adblock Plus enables you to block ads.If you wish to enable ads for a particular site then you can create an exception.The only drawback of Adblock Plus is the exception filter creation needs a little knowledge.(Example exception filter - add @@|http://nextdoornerd.blogspot.com to add an exception for this particular site,remember you have to do this manually). You can learn to write Adblock Plus filters from http://adblockplus.org/en/filters. It is a nice how-to article on how to write custom filters.

Download AdblockPlus

DownThemAll - This is one of my favorite Add-on, this is a cool and easy to use complete download manager.DownThemAll even supports download resuming and queuing.

Click here to get DownThemAll

StumbleUpon - Go check it out, a cool add-on helps you discover Web sites based on your interests.This is a useful site when you are bored and looking for something to browse or when you want something funny or informative to browse through.

Get StumbleUpon

PicLens - It is an awesome add-on that transforms your Firefox into a next generation Image and Video viewer with their stunning new Image wall.(hey if you have Google desktop installed then you can use PicLense to show your offline Images to your friends,and see them say WOW!)

Download PicLens

PrintPDF - Installs a driver printer on your machine and lets you print your web pages to pdf files (Mac users, you already have this feature!).

Download PrintPDF

GSpace - This add-on allows you to use your Gmail as an online storage space.So now you can upload files from your hard disk and access them from anywhere.

Get GSpace from here

ScribeFire - If you are a regular blogger then this is a cool add-on for you,You can blog without leaving Firefox.You can even drag and drop text from web pages and take notes using this add-on.

Download ScribeFire

ChatZilla - Love your old IRC chat ? , then here is an add-on.ChatZilla - An easy to use IRC client add-on for your Firefox.Now you can chat without leaving Firefox.

Download ChatZilla

PDF Download - Did you ever think of downloading web pages as PDF files ?. Here is a very useful add-on that help you download web pages as PDF files.

Download PDF Download

FoxyTunes - FoxyTunes lets you control almost any media player and find lyrics, covers, videos, bios and much more with a click right from your browser.

Download FoxyTunes

Sage - Don't want to leave your browser for reading your favorite rss feeds ? here is a handy plugin with some cool features and easy to use interface for handling feeds.

Download Sage

Zotero - Easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources.

Download Zotero

ColorfulTabs - Colors every tab in a different color and makes them easy to distinguish while beautifying the overall appearance of the interface.

Download ColorfulTabs

Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer - If you use Firefox on more than one computer, you'll want Foxmarks. Install Foxmarks on each computer, and it will work silently in the background to keep your bookmarks synchronized. You can also log in to my.foxmarks.com to manage your bookmarks from any computer.

Download Foxmarks

Just drop a comment here in case of any doubt or suggestions.

[this post will be updated frequently with more better plugins as I come across them.. :) so don' forget to check this out]

Free and Open Source alternatives for everyone

I know a lot of us are afraid of moving from one OS to other, yeah it is a human nature.So what can be done for those who wish to use their favorite operating system while they still love Free and Open Source Software ? Here I've some software recommendations for every one, just checkout..

Media [Audio & Video]

• VLC media player : Highly portable cross platform media player and streaming server. This can be a better alternative for your windows media player. VLC supports various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, AVI, mp3, ogg..) as well as DVDs, VCDs.

• Elisa : An Open Source media center application, a replacement for Apple Front Row and Windows Media Center
  

• Media Player classic : Compact and powerful media player that can play almost all the media files.
  

• Miro : A free and open source Internet TV and video player that can automatically download videos from RSS-based channels.It even comes with a built-in BitTorrent client.

• HandBrake : Hand brake is an open source, multi platform, multi threaded DVD to MPEG-4 coverter, available for OSX, Linux and Windows.

• Exaile Music Player : An iTunes alternative for Linux
  

Internet

• Mozilla Firefox : One of the finest web-browser available for all the platforms including Windows, Linux and Mac. This can be the best alternative for your Internet Explorer or Safari. I listed some very useful add-ons for Mozilla Firefox in an old post Essential Firefox Addons
  

• Mozilla Thunderbird : A rich e-mail client from the Firefox family which offers a nice set of features.Now it is easier to organize your mails.Thunderbird is available for Windows, Linux and Mac

• Pidgin : A simple easy to use multi platform IM client that can handle multiple IM accounts simultaneously.This can be a best alternative for your Yahoo messenger,Google Talk or MSN messenger.

• Adium : It is a free instant messaging application for Mac OS X, a better Pidgin replacement for Mac Users (hi this is my personal favorite)

• Download Plus : Now known as 'True Downloader' is a Free and Open Source download manager and it is only available for windows.
  

• RSSOwl : A solid cross platform RSS feed client.

OFFICE

• OpenOffice : This is essentially a free Microsoft Office alternative. as an added advantage it features a drawing program and direct support for PDF files.Available for most of the operating systems.
  

• NeoOffice : A more Mac-like implementation of OpenOffice.Unlike OpenOffice it has a more native look and feel in Mac.

• AbiWord : Award winning cross platform word processor

Creative

• Blender : An amazingly powerful 3d suite which is easy to use, small sized (nearly 40MB) and feature rich open alternative for your 3D authoring tool.

• Audacity : Audacity is an excellent general purpose sound capture, editing, and sequencing program.

• GIMP : An open alternative for Photoshop,It is not as user friendly as Photoshop.

• Inkscape : It is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X. And it offers even more advanced features.
  

File sharing

• Cabos : A simple, easy to use file-sharing program. Gnutella network.

• GnuCleus : Another very good file-sharing program.

• FileZilla : An excellent cross platform FTP program.

BitTorrent Clients

• Vuze : Formerly known as Azureus, is an open source BitTorrent client available for Windows, Linux and Mac.

• μTorrent : It is another bitTorrent client developed for windows, which is designed to use minimal computer resources.
  

• Deluge : Another BitTorrent Client. Deluge is a multi platform light weight open source software for Windows,Linux and Mac.

Zip Utilities (Archiving Utilities)

• PeaZip : Free archiver utility is a portable, open source file and archive manager.
  

• 7-Zip : It is a file archiver with a high compression ratio, currently only available for windows users.