This series of articles is about a subject that is near and dear to just about every geek’s heart, making Mozilla Firefox just a wee bit faster and a wee bit more useful. For this part of the series you’re going to need two files.

• Firefox 2.0 - A must have when optimizing firefox.
• balloontoablimp’s Keyword Searches - A list of bookmarks that I’ll show you how to install and use later.

Part I of this series deals with keyword searches. A keyword search allows a firefox user to search a website from their browser’s url bar. If you, for instance, wanted to search Google for bears (after you set up the quick search I outline below) it would simply be a matter of keying up to your url bar and typing g bears and hitting Enter. Keyword searches are so quick they will proably save you years of your life. Lifehacker has an amazing article on how to set up keyword searches, you should really check it out. In case you hate lifehacker or just love me, I’ll give you a brief tutorial on how to set up your own keyword searches.

1. In firefox go to a search engine with an input box (like Google)
2. Right-click inside of the input box on the search engine
3. From the drop down menu click Add a Keyword for this Search…
4. In the resulting dialog box in the Name: field type the name for this search, for instance, if you used Google, type, “Google Keyword Search”
5. In the Keyword: field type the keyword (or letter) that you want to use for this search, for instance, for Google, you could simply use the letter “g”
6. Click OK

This brings us to the file I had you download at the beginning of this article, "balloontoablimp’s Keyword Searches." This file is simply a compiled list of 13 keyword searches that I’ve already put together in a handy little package. To install, first, save the file somewhere on your computer. Then, inside firefox, on the menu bar, click Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks… In the Bookmark Manager choose File > Import… Inside the Import Wizard make sure the From File radial button is selected and click Next>. Then simply locate where you saved the file and click Open
So what’s in this amazing Keyword Search package you ask? Well…First is the Google Keyword Search (once the package is installed) go to your url and type g “whatever you’re searching for” and a google search will pop up.

The Remaining twelve keyword searches (and url commands) are:

• Dogpile Music Search; url command: music “whatever you’re searching for”
• Dictionary.com Search; url: dict “whatever”
• Thesaurus.com Search; url: thes “whatever”
• Ebay Search; url: e “whatever”
• Wikipedia Search; url: w “whatever”
• Amazon.com Search; url: a “whatever”
• Google Maps Search; url: map “wherever”
• Google Image Search; url: image “whatever”
• Google Video Search; url: video “whatever”
• Technorati Search; url: technorati “whatever”
• Bloomberg.com Stock Info; url: quote “stock symbol”
• Pirate Bay Search; url: pirate “whatever”

This concludes part I of my firefox optimization series. Come around next weekish (give or take) for part II: Revenge of the user.js File!

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I wouldn’t have thought that I’d need a linux course what with my experience with various live CD’s, but a live CD and a HDD install are two different things entirely. I can’t seem to find anything in the file system without the terminal. I just don’t know where things go when I download them, what various folders do, etc. etc. ad nausium. Whatever, anyway, I’m smart enough to know when I need help. That’s why when I was perusing the cleverly titled blog [Geeks Are Sexy], I was really pumped (for lack of a better sounding word) when I saw this post.

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I realize that this update is long overdue, in fact, that is the point of this update. I have been kind of busy lately what with the end of semester and all, and I'd just like to share with you (because you're interested) a few of the things I've been up to besides updating this blog.

1. Makin' all A's
2. Studying non-stop for my Comptia A+ exam.
3. Working all week at the WIN Office on the Wichita State University campus. Yeah I maintain the website, not impressed? Yeah, it's not that great.
4. And Finally as of yesterday, I installed new RAM into my Laptop and then installed Windows XP Pro and Ubuntu 7.04 to dual boot, which, when all was said and done, killed my day (no, not cause I'm stupid, just cause it does).

Well, I guess now everyone’s up to date on ole Tyler’s life right now. It may not be entertaining, or interesting at all, but that’s how I roll son.

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As everyone who has ever read this blog knows, I'm a Google junkie. This, recently, has begun to disturb me. I mean the connotation of the word junkie is rather negative when you think about it; people who are always looking to get their fix etc. However, when I thought about the true meaning of the word junkie, negative connotation and all, I realized that's what I am, a Google Junkie. In light of my recent epiphany I have decided to try to kick the habit, or at least ween myself off of Google slowly, by doing some research into new (better perhaps?) search engines. The following list is the cream-of-the-crop of search engines sans Google.

1. Perhaps my favorite Google alternative of the moment is hakia (beta). Even though the engine is still in beta it does some things that Google doesn't, like (a) compliment you on your choice of search, (b) seems to recognize questions versus search operators, (c) it categorizes your searches and then gives you a table of contents so you can find what you're looking for easier. A search for golf shows produces an exceptional table of contents featuring Headlines, Rules of the Sport, Hall of Fame Players, and nine other categories for you to peruse.
   
2. My next favorite search engine in the game is probably exalead. You can customize your homepage with some of your favorite shortcuts (kind of the equivalent of Opera's speed dial). Not only is that a neat feature but any search (like golf for example) results page has a preview of the website right next to the url. Plus, in a right hand column, you can choose to narrow your search to different file extensions, media types, languages, search terms, site types, you name it, exalead's got it.
3. Number three on my list is like almost like number one, except with less features, Clusty - the clustering search engine. This search engine basically takes all of your results and breaks them into meaningful "clusters." This site, while not as amazing as the two other search engines still warrants a mention on this list.
4. Number four on this list is not an unknown in the wide world of search, most people have probably heard of it and have their own opinion on it, Snap. I think it has a lot of features that could be cool, if they were done right. For instance the webpage preview window on their site was done much better with exalead. Snap also has some features that are kind of annoying. For instance the suggestion drop down at the search box, who needs that? The only thing I use it for is if I can't spell what I'm searching for.
5. Finally a search engine that is kind of cheating from my Google cold-turkey resolution, Sputtr. Sputtr is a meta search that lets you search almost any (popular) search site you can think of all from the comfort of their stylish web 2.0 interface. Check it out, it's the bomb (people still do say bomb, right?).

Anyway, that’s my list of search engines I use besides Google. Although there should be an honorable mention for Dogpile.com just for the music search. If any of my readers have a fav search engine that wasn’t mentioned here, tell me about it in my yell box.

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Freeme - Home of the free DVD on the web. The DVD includes many different types of open source material. The DVD packs in a LOT including:

• A live-cd Linux Distro
• Movies that you can play on your DVD player
• Lots of ebooks that have fallen into Public Domain

So check out the DVD and also check out their website for more links to open source and freeware ish and welcome to the information age. [via Boing Boing]

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I know that this is a goofy little tech blog, but I think that a disaster that hit close to home (for me anyway) needs more attention than it's getting. My fear is that the Greensburg tornado will fade from the public mind just as quickly as it came. I would like to share with you all something about exactly how amazingly devastating this tornado was in a state where tornadoes, at least (I assume) in the national mindset, are thought to be commonplace. I have lived in Kansas my entire life and never once have I even seen a Tornado, I mean in real life. I have never known anyone who was affected by a tornado, and I have never seen a tornado (in my lifetime) cause as much damage as the tornado that touched down in Greensburg over the weekend. I feel terrible for the whole town, it's unreal how much damage the tornado did. I remember hearing on the news that the mayor said something like 95 percent of the town is destroyed. Since I live here in Kansas it's easy for me to donate to disaster relief, but if you live outside of Kansas and your city doesn't have a fund already set up you can send your donations to:

Midway-Kansas Chapter, American Red Cross, P.O. Box 3726, Wichita, KS 67201

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