Some Useful Addons

My girlfriend recently got herself a new laptop. This is a vast improvement over the Flintstone's era thing she was using. I've seen abacuses (abaci?) with more processing power than the computer she just got rid of. Fortunately for her, this new one actually runs software.

With that in mind, for her benefit and your own edification, today I will be describing (and linking) several programs I find particularly useful. Each should offer a nice little way to improve your computing experience. Now, I don't have Vista yet, so I don't know how these programs actually interact with that system (or even if it makes some of their functionality obsolete), but they all do fine for XP. If you can make your computer do these tricks without downloading anything additional, so much the better for you. If not, well here they are. Added bonus: they're all free.

Without further ado, the programs:

EULAlyzer
This one analyzes End User License Agreements, flagging any particularly alarming clauses. It beats trying to read through those things on your own, and it certainly beats not reading them at all. I'm putting it first, since some of the programs that follow might have EULAs that you might want to test it out on.

Adblocker
It does just what it claims to do, blocks ads. It even prevents banner ads and those irritating pop-up ads that expand on the webpage to get in your way. I'm pleased with it, if only for the reason that I haven't seen a dancing silhouette in a long time.

Autocopy
This firefox addon is pretty clever. It operates on the principle that the only conceivable reason you would select text on a webpage is so you can copy it. This cuts out the Ctrl-C aspect of the operation. Just highlight text in your browser and it's automatically copied to the clipboard. It's not all that dramatic, but it is a nice feature.

Panorama
Dave Click first showed me this program in 1997 and I've been using it ever since. It rotates your computer background through a set of images you select. You have control over just how often and in what order they change, among other options.

del.icio.us addon for Firefox
This is one of my favorite new addons. I mentioned del.icio.us once before. Well, this addon increases its usefulness dramatically.
For starters, del.icio.us is a means of storing and tagging links online. The tagging system is more versatile than the folder system and having it on the web means you can access your links from multiple computers. It also has a public/private option so you can share useful inks with other people and hide those you don't want them to know about.
This addon allows you to access your links through the firefox toolbar. It has completely replaced my bookmarks toolbar. The whole system permits me to manage far more bookmarks as well. It's currently tracking over 200 links and with the addon I have no problem getting quickly to the one I want. I also installed the addon in my profile at school, so now I have a synchronized list of bookmarks that's identical on all computers I use.
The addon, upon setup, will automatically import your current bookmarks if you like (they all start off set to private). So that part won't take any effort. However, if you're new to del.icio.us arranging your tags will take some time, but I promise it will be worth the hassle.
If nothing else, check out my collected links. You might find something useful or amusing.