Alan Le

Vertigo Coffee Mugs

The Vertigo Coffee Mugs have arrived. Should go great with the Grindmaster p200. Very Cool!

Gaming over age 30

Joystik just posted a funny take on gaming over age 30.  Here's are some of my favorites:

   2. Quit your job to pursue a pro-gaming career
   5. Pirate games - shouldn’t you have an income by now?
   6. Find the idea of teamkilling funny
   9. Tea-bag a downed opponent in Halo 2
  15. Ninja loot
  23. Hadoken someone as a greeting, complete with hand motions and sound effects

I would like to apend:

1. Ofer-ing or Liam-ing in settlers
2. Screenscape

Here are things that you are still able to do no matter the age.

1. Yell "Leeeeroy" before you do something stupid that wipes your whole group.
2. Say "In da FACE!" when you down an opponent with the shotgun in Halo 2.
3. Groove to Guitar Hero.

BTW, happy birthday Nezz.

4 Must-have Firefox Extensions

Extensions are a way to add new functionality to Firefox to enhance the web browsing experience. The list below are the extensions that I think every Firefox browser should have.

IE View
While many sites nowadays work fine in Firefox, there are the occasional sites that are "IE only". Instead of copying the url, opening a new Internet Explorer window and pasting the URL, this extension allows me to simply right click and select "View this page in IE". Simply, effective, productive.
link: http://ieview.mozdev.org/index.html

Web Developer
Adds a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools. Resize windows, show the DOM, modify css on the fly.. you name it. This toolbar is so useful that Microsoft created it for IE recently.
link: https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=60

AdBlock
Just say no to ads. This extension is simply the best way to filter ads may they be banner images, flash, or some other annoying feature. The filter can accept wildcards and patterns so it's cool to be able to block entire types of ads. On top of that I use it to remove the huge header banner on some sites, ugly avatars on messageboards, and unnecessary flash usage..
link: https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=10

AdBlock Filterset.G
This extension is a companion to Adblock that contains a bunch of preset filters for blocking intrusive ads.
link: https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=1136

AOL Explorer 1.2.3.7 Beta

A few days ago at the DUX05 conference, Rob and I got a demo of AOL's new beta browser.  The AOL Explorer browser is based on Internet Explorer 6. It has a few neat features around the tabbing functionality that's worth taking a closer look.

Look and Feel
I really like how AOL implemented the tabs above the address bar. It makes more contextual sense to me as the url in the address bar refelcts the current tab. The cool blue and silver colors as well as the round flowing buttons and styled textboxes are pleasing and is a nice touch. The tabs can be easily dragged and reordered. There's no wierd flicker when opening new tabs as seen in ie7 beta tabbed browsing.


Tab Preview
When you hover over the tab, a screenshot preview is presented displaying the contents of the tab. Such a simple feature yet can change the way I browse the web.



Tab Mosiac
If you've seen Exposé on the Mac you know this feature.  AOL implemented it for quickly scanning all open tabs.  They also added a history timeline for each tab along with a few buttons for tasks like printing, add to favorites, and page info.



While these enhancements to the tabbed browsing experience are great, they are not enough for me to switch my default browser from Firefox to AOL explorer. It's great though to see new features that are built on IE.

Links:
http://beta.aol.com/projects.php?project=aolexplorer