Changing this setting back to where tabs open at the end of the tab bar is relatively easy and will only require a quick trip into the about:config section of Firefox.

1. Go To Configuration Settings
In the Address Bar, type about:config and hit enter. You’ll be greeted with a cheerful warning that proceeding into this section of Firefox might void your warranty. Click the button to promise that you’ll be careful.

2. Filter It Out!
In the Filter bar, type browser.tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrent which will filter out all the values we don’t need to see and just display the one we’ll be changing.

3. Toggle It!
Once you have found the browser.tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrent preference, you’ll notice that the default value is true. Right-click on the preference name and choose Toggle (or just double-click the preference name to toggle automatically). This will change the value to false.

4. Enjoy!
That’s it! You can close out the about:config window and enjoy having your tabs work like they used to.

Some will argue that we should just attempt to embrace the new open relative behavior. But I am far too set in my tab-using ways at this point. Mozilla is just going to have to embrace us.

Note that I’m referring to the cable subscription that we use to watch television with. I guess this also applies to satellite users, though it seems that not as many people are disgruntled with them and many rural customers don’t have a choice. So, just to be clear my focus is on those companies like Cox Communications and Comcast.

My argument leans firmly on services offered by Netflix, Amazon’s Video on Demand, and Hulu. With just one of these services, namely Netflix, I can watch just about all the television I can handle. I name Netflix above the others simply because I get so much for my money. About $15/mo lands me around 8-10 DVD rentals and the ability to watch streaming movies at no additional cost.

What really pushes me over the edge is how about $80 of my monthly cable bill applies television alone. That’s nearly $1,000 a year in television entertainment. Do I feel like I watch $1000 worth of TV? No, not really.

I can hear a few of you asking, “what about my local channels?” Fear not! Your local channels can probably be picked up over the air with an antenna… in HD! For the cost of a couple of month’s worth of cable television, you can have the equipment you need to watch over-the-air broadcasts for free. A couple of great sites to learn more about this are AntennaWeb.org and TitanTV.com.

I want to wrap up this post by saying that although I’m considering dropping my cable television subscription, I’m far from thinking about canceling my internet connection. After all, every one of these services rely on a fast and solid connection to the web.

• If you’re in need of a good laugh, check out Awkard Family Photos.
• Very cool concept photography from Martin Wilson. No Photoshop here; he creates montages by piecing together frames from an entire roll of film. Very meticulously done.
• Got a hankering for an Amazon Kindle but aren’t ready to fork out the cash? Search for a used Kindle at UsedKindleGear.com.
• MacUpdate Promo is a good resource for getting quality Mac software for a discount price. New deals running weekly!
• ColoRotate is a very cool way to come up with custom color themes for your designs.

However, remote access for my Mac has been a different story. I recently began using the free version of LogMeIn.com with much success. So seeing LogMeIn.com at the top of Lifehackers “Hive Five” list validates the opinions of the readers.

The benefits of LogMeIn.com is that it is cross-platform and allows you Internet browser-based access, so you don’t have to install any software on the client machine; only a small application is require to be installed on the target machine. Also, it’s free!

Setup
First, I walked through their painless registration process to create my account. Then, on the Mac I wanted to connect to I installed the required application and set an access password. That’s it. No ports to forward or firewall settings to battle with.

Connect
From any Windows or Mac machine, I simply login to my LogMeIn.com account, type in the access code for the Mac I want to connect to, and I’m in! A little notification window appears to let anyone who may be sitting in front of the computer I’m remotely controlling that it is being accessed via LogMeIn.com.

The user who is currently logged in to the target computer is not logged out, so LogMeIn.com would be an excellent option for remotely assisting a friend, family member, or client. So long as they don’t mind taking a few moments to install the required application to admit remote access.

Well, believe it or not this is easily doable, and it works across multiple browsers as well…though, it might not work through RSS feedreaders; if you’re reading this post through your feedreader, you might want to click through to our site to see the full effects of the transparency.

Step 1 – Modify Your CSS File
We first need a way to control only specific images. In our CSS file, we’ll insert this value:


.transparency {
    filter:alpha(opacity=50);
    opacity:0.5;
}


That’s it! That’s the only code you need to insert into your CSS file. To explain the attributes further:

Filter attribute
- Compatible with Internet Explorer
- The value for Alpha(Opacity) can range from 0 to 100

Opacity attribute
- Compatible with Firefox, Chrome
- The value for Opacity can range from 0 to 1 (where 1 equals 100% opacity)

Step 3 – Modify Your Image Tags
Now let’s look at your page’s content. Inside the <IMG> tag, we’ll need to specify an class of “transparency”, as well as add values for onmouseover and onmouseout.

<img src="/images/opacity_test.jpg" class="transparency" alt="example" onmouseover="this.style.opacity=1;this.filters.alpha.opacity=100" onmouseout="this.style.opacity=0.5;this.filters.alpha.opacity=50" >

This code will make the opacity of the image 100% when you mouse-over it, then change it back to to 50% opacity when you mouse moves away.

Step 3 – Method 2: Reverse It!
You can actually reverse the effect by simply modifying your <IMG> tag–no need to specify the id value or change your CSS file!

<img src="/images/opacity_test.jpg" alt="example"
onmouseover="this.style.opacity=0.5;this.filters.alpha.opacity=50" onmouseout="this.style.opacity=1;this.filters.alpha.opacity=100" >

Simply adding this code to your image will shift the opacity to 50% on mouse-over and the image returns to full opacity on mouse-out. Below is an example of how the image transparency will work on top of a colored background.

Further Reading
Check out Jared’s post on CSS Basics – 5 Steps Toward Mastery.

Amazon’s most recent version of their popular ebook reader ships out today. For all you of lucky people who pre-ordered, this is going to be a good week!

In case you haven’t heard about the Kindle, here’s the specs for the latest and greatest version, the Kindle 2:

Kindle 2 New Features & Enhancements

• Slim & Lightweight: Just over 1/3 inch and 10.2 ounces
• Books in under 60 seconds: Get books delivered in less than 60 seconds; no PC required
• Improved Display: Reads like real paper; now boasts 16 shades of gray for crisp images and text; even reads well in bright sunlight
• Longer Battery Life: 25% longer battery life; read for days without recharging
  More Storage: Take your library with you; holds over 1,500 books
• Faster Page Turns: 20% faster page turns
• Read-to-Me: Text-to-Speech feature means Kindle can read every book, blog, magazine, and newspaper out loud.
• No Wireless Bills: No monthly wireless bills, data plans, or commitments. Amazon pays for Kindle’s wireless connectivity so you won’t see a monthly wireless bill.
• Large Selection: Over 230,000 books, plus U.S. and international newspapers, magazines and blogs available
• Low Book Prices: New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases $9.99, unless marked otherwise

If you or a loved one loves to read, be sure and check out the Kindle 2. Now, excuse me while I put this thing on my wish list. :)

Until now, we’ve had to login our old Hotmail accounts every month or so to check mail from friends (if we can still call them that!) who refuse to update their contact list, and to keep Hotmail from erasing our account data because of the lack of activity.

Well, Hotmail has finally decided to add POP3 support. This means we can now add and receive our Hotmail emails in our beloved Gmail accounts or any mail client that supports POP3.

First off, let’s take a look at the info:

• POP Server: pop3.live.com
• SMTP Server: smtp.live.com
• Incoming Port: 995
• Outgoing Port: 25
• SSL Required? Yes
• Authentication Required? Yes
• TLS/SSL Required? Yes
• User Name: Your Full Email Address/Windows Live ID (Example: geekinspired@hotmail.com)
• Password: The password you use to login to your Hotmail account

Add Hotmail To Gmail
In your Gmail account, click on the Settings link in the top right corner, then choose Accounts from the secondary list of options.

Send Mail with Hotmail Address
Under the Send mail as area, click on the link to Add another email address you own (Even though you might not want to send mail through your Hotmail address, Gmail wants you to go ahead and add this info). From the pop-up menu that appears, simply enter your name and your Hotmail address. A verification code will then be sent to your Hotmail address, so you’ll need to login to your account (one last time!) and get that code. Once the code is verified, you’re all setup to send mail through your Hotmail account.

Get Mail From Hotmail
Next we’ll want to take a look at the Get mail from other accounts area and click on the Add a mail account you own link. You’ll get a new pop-up where you’ll add your Hotmail address again. Click Next and enter in your username, password, POP server (pop3.live.com), port number (995), and make sure to check the option that says “Always use a secure connection (SSL) when retrieving mail.” The other options on this screen are optional.

Click the Add Account button and that’s it. You’re all set! Of course, you might want to send a test email from your Gmail to your Hotmail account to verify that everything’s working correctly.

Of course, after you do this it’s pretty much guaranteed that your so-called friends will finally update their contact list with your Gmail info. So, enjoy catching all of your Hotmail spam in your Gmail inbox!

Here I will outline a better way to have a copy of this content for easy printing. It just takes a little bit of patience and time, but you end up with your favorite website’s content in a flexible format that can either be printed or transferred to a handheld device for easy reading.

Please note that this should only be used for personal use and not for illegal offline distribution of any kind. Please protect the rights of the authors of online content.

1. Copy Content from Web Page
We’ll start by copying the desired content of a web page and pasting it into Word. Typically, you’ll want to position your cursor to the immediate left of the article title/heading and click and drag straight down the page while still holding down your mouse button. Keep dragging downward until you get to the last word in the article (or the location where you want to stop copying).

Depending on the layout of the page you’re copying, it may be tricky to copy the content while avoiding any unwanted advertisements or stray icons/photos. If there are numerous ads or other obstacles within the article that you do not wish to copy, you may find it easier to copy portions at a time instead of all the content at once.

Once you have either the segment or the entire article selected, copy the content (cmd/ctrl+c) and go to your Word document. Simply paste (cmd/ctrl+v) the content within your Word document. You should see all the content, including both text and images, that you intended to copy.

2. Arrange Layout
Depending on what all was copied from the web page, it may be necessary to rearrange the layout or add and delete certain elements or content. You may want to spend a few moments just quickly browsing through the article to make sure that everything is in order.

Repeat the above steps for each article you wish to copy. Continue pasting the articles one after another into your Word document.

3. Change Article Titles to Headings
In order for our Table of Contents to work, we’ll need to insure the title/heading of the article is correctly formatted as a Heading within Word. Make sure the Formatting toolbar is visible (View > Toolbars > Formatting).

Select the title/heading of the article. Make sure that only the text of the title is selected and no extraneous spaces or lines are selected. From the Style drop down menu in the Formatting toolbar (the drop down menu to the immediate left of the Font drop down), choose Heading 1.

If there are sub-titles in the articles you are copying, choose Heading 2 for them.

4. Create Table of Contents
Go back to the very beginning of your document and press Return a few times to add a few lines of spacing before your first article. We’re creating room for where your Table of Contents will be placed.

Go to Insert > Reference > Index and Tables and choose the Table of Contents tab. You have a few display options for how your Table of Contents, mostly regarding whether or not to show the page numbers, how to align them, and if they will be active links within the document. To get the most out of your Table of Contents, I would recommend using hyperlinks as this adds easy navigation within the Word document and the PDF version.

At this point, you can save your document and have a working copy of your favorite website complete with a Table of Contents. However, we can take this a step further and convert it to PDF.

5. Convert to PDF
The easiest way to do this is by simply using the tools provided with Adobe Acrobat. Just use the Convert to Adobe PDF command in the Adobe PDF toolbar within Word.

If you don’t have access to Acrobat, you can use free tools (doPDF) to create a virtual PDF printer for your computer. Simply install the software, go to File > Print like you normally would, and choose the virtual PDF printer from the printer drop down menu.

If you’ve been using Gmail for a while now, you may have stumbled through some of the settings just to see what’s out there. Maybe you’ve heard about these new fangled themes that people have been talking about. Just in case you’re oblivious to the many wonderful ways you can customize and configure your Gmail account, I’m going to go over some of my favorite features and how to use them.

How to Configure Gmail

There are several ways to configure and customize your Gmail account, especially if you’re using Firefox. The most popular are Firefox Extensions, Gmail Labs, and the new Gmail Themes. If you’re not using Firefox (shame on you), you can do a good deal of configuring without the extensions.

Using Firefox Extensions to Configure Gmail

There are two really nice Firefox extensions that can be used to configure Gmail. Actually, one of the extensions affects your entire Google experience.

CustomizeGoogle offers a wide array of options that lets you customize your Google and Gmail experience; my favorite is the ability to remove ads from both. This benefits me most in Gmail, as I’m able to use my entire screen for mail functions, and not ads. Here is a brief animation that shows off some of the features you get with the CustomizeGoogle extension.

Better Gmail 2 adds some functionality to your Gmail account. My favorite features are the Highlighted Messages and Attachment Icons. You can use different skins with Better Gmail, but they aren’t as nice as the new Themes that were recently rolled out.

Configure Gmail with Gmail Labs

Ever wondered what that little green beaker at the top of your Gmail screen is for? That’s your ticket to all of the neat features that aren’t quite ready for a true release, but usually work like a charm. Currently, there are nearly 30 experimental features available for you to play with. All you have to do is choose “Enable,” and then click the “Save Changes” button at the bottom of your screen.

Right now, a few of my favorites are the Muzzle (hides friend’s status messages), NavBar Drag and Drop (let’s you move your menus around and put them in the order you like), and the Mark as Read Button (adds a ‘Mark as Read’ button to use instead of the drop down list).

By the way, if you’re having trouble finding the little green beaker, you can access the Labs section by clicking the Labs tab in Gmail Settings.

Disable all Gmail Labs Features
Since these features are still experimental, there’s a small chance that enabling a feature can “break” your Gmail. Do not fear, though, as the Gmail team has left us a way to disable all Labs Features. All you have to do is go to https://mail.google.com/mail/?labs=0, and then manually disable the feature you think is causing all the trouble.

Customize Gmail with new Gmail Themes

In case you haven’t heard, the Gmail team rolled out several new themes about a week ago (around November 20th, 2008). With Gmail Themes, you can apply a different “skin” or “theme” to your Gmail account. All of the themes look wonderful and really help to dress up our favorite email application. At the time of this writing, I’m totally loving the Mountians theme, which presents a different, beautiful mountain scene each day.

To apply or change your Gmail Theme, simply go to Gmail Settings, and click on the Themes tab.

OpenDNS simply provides free, open DNS servers to anyone, whether it’s for personal use, small business, university, etc. There’s no need to install any software, you’ll simply just need to configure your Internet settings so that you’re using their servers:

• 208.67.222.222
• 208.67.220.220

You can even sign up for an account with OpenDNS.com and have access to web stats, content filtering, phishing protection, customized pages (complete with logo and instructions) in case someone tries to access a page that you have blocked, and zero downtime network.

So, whether you’re having Internet connection problems like I was, or if you’re just wanting a way to monitor and manage some of the traffic happening at your home or office, OpenDNS.com offers a solid service at a great price. Free!