Reducing Firefox Memory Usage

clipped from www.howtogeek.com Fix for Firefox memory leak on Windows This Fix for Firefox memory leak on Windows This seems to help out with the memory usage quite a bit. Generally, when you minimize a window the memory usage goes way down because that application isn’t active. Unfortunately, Firefox by default doesn’t adhere to this behavior. Here’s how to force it to. Type the following into your address bar in Firefox: about:config You will see a window that looks similar to this: You will want to right click anywhere in the window, choose New, Boolean, and enter in the following text: config.trim_on_minimize To change the value you can either doubleclick, or right-click and choose Toggle. You will have to restart Firefox, but after you do, you should notice the memory usage go way down whenever you have Firefox minimized. Update: You will want the value to be set to True in order for this to work.

Ten tips for new Ubuntu users

clipped from tips.linux.com Ten tips for new Ubuntu users Ubuntu has become the most popular Linux distribution for new Linux users. It's easy to install, easy to use, and usually "just works." But moving to a different operating system can be confusing, no matter how well-designed it is. Here's a list of tips that might save you some time while you're getting used to Ubuntu.

Nice list of free (OSS) programs for windows

The usual suspects are on this list, but there are a good number I never heard of or completely forgot about. Overall, it's a pretty good list.

clipped from www.thesimpledollar.com 30 Essential Pieces Of Free (and Open) Software for Windows Recently, I received a fresh new laptop from Dell. Upon receiving it, I did the traditional “installation of Windows from scratch” on it to remove a lot of the garbage that is preinstalled on Dells. Then I got really busy installing tons of great software that takes care of pretty much every software need I have. Not only was all of the software free, every piece of it was open source, which means that the code is peer-reviewed; no spyware here! What follows is a list of thirty pieces of software that are the cream of the crop of open source software for Windows. Not only is every piece of it free, almost all of them directly replace expensive software packages.

450+ Freeware Utilities

clipped from www.clipclip.org I want a Freeware Utility to ... 450+ common problems solved. Extremely useful free utilities that do specific jobs really well and save time and money. Open Source Software is listed separately. See : Open Source Freeware : 400+ free applications and utilities Categories : Anti-Spyware / Anti-Virus / Anti-Rootkit | Audio / Music / MP3 / Real / Wav | Business / Office / Access / Excel / Word | Communication | Desktop | Editors / Notepad Replacements | Files and Folders | Financial | Graphics / Images / Photographs | Information / Fun / Misc | Internet | Keyboard | Performance / Recovery / System | Productivity | Programming | Uninstaller | Video / DVDs | Windows Explorer Replacements / Shell Extensions | Corrections

101 Shareware and Freeware Programs Every Nerd Needs

clipped from www.rewardprograms.org 101 Shareware and Freeware Programs Every Nerd Needs How can a person limit juicy downloads to 101 freeware and shareware choices? Tough calls, but the tools below are ones that every nerd needs, or at least should ponder. Many freeware choices are open source, and the shareware all offer trial offers. Topics Covered in this Article Audio | Browsers | Compression | Desktop Enhancements | Download/Upload Clients | E-Mail Tools | FAX and Telephony | Graphics & Photo | Internet (Surfing) | iPod Tools | MySQL Database Tools | Networking | Office Productivity | Personal Finance | Programmers | Security | System Utilities | Tweaks | Web Authors/Owners

Switching to Ubuntu from Windows

Nice and rather true list of the advantages and problems of switching to Ubuntu from Windows.

clipped from www.arsgeek.com What you should know about switching to Ubuntu from Windows You will miss some aspects of Windows. Sometimes, you’ll really miss using Windows. You’ll find yourself spending a lot less money. When you don’t have to buy the software, the temptation to pirate software is removed. You’re not going to have to worry much about viruses, worms, trojans and spyware. You are going to be more vulnerable to hackers. There are times you’ll be sorely tempted to just go back to Windows. You’ll need to learn at least a little about the command line. Surfing the web, checking email and instant messanging stay pretty much the same. Playing DVDs, Music and Movies on your Ubuntu box takes two extra steps. If you have a family member or friend who acts as your tech support and they know Linux, they will thank you profusely. You’ll find that you don’t have to reboot. Really! You’ll find that lots of people are willing to help you, simply because you’re using Ubuntu.

Super-Close Google Maps Zooms

Wow!

clipped from blog.outer-court.com Super-Close Google Maps Zooms Holy moly that is a close up zoom of a camel (see my screenshot above) – and it works for other place on Google Maps too! Yes, it turns out that you can zoom in much more deeply onto Google Maps by doing this: Select a location and switch to satellite view Zoom in as far as you can, and click “link to this page” at the top right Now replace the “z” parameter in the URL with a higher value, e.g. 20, 22, or 23, and wait. Some locations will now show more detailed imagery The French Ecrans website and Geotrotter have more on this. What fun images can you find? Please post screenshots. Playing water ping pong. It seems he’s looking into the camera, actually. This is a rare zoom level 23, almost (already?) creating privacy issues people joked about earlier. Nobody’s in the Googleplex pool. Relaxing at the beach. [Thanks Frank Fuchs!]