One would think that it would only be natural if the browser developers would add a function to their browsers that would make it possible to check the hash algorithm of downloaded files. Firefox users can use the MD5 Hasher add-on to add the functionality to their browser.

Let me first explain why it could be important to check the hash algorithm of downloaded files. Many software developers and download portals add hash information to their downloads. Those information clearly identify a file and the user can compare the hash of a downloaded file with the hash on a website to make sure that he got that file and that no one tampered with it in the meantime.

It obviously makes only sense if the hash information are published on the website that contains the download. MD5 Hasher makes use of the Firefox Download Manager which means that the downloads have to appear in there because it is currently the only way to check the hash of the file.

continue reading "Firefox Hash Algorithm Check"

Did you know that you can easily load Greasemonkey scripts into Opera? While Firefox users need an extension for that Opera users can simply import them into Opera. Well, some manual work is required but nothing to serious. Takes probably half a minute to import it.

First you need to download the Greasemonkey script that you would like to use in Opera. You may need to rename that script so that the file ends with user.js if that is not already the case.
Now open Opera and go to Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Content and click on the JavaScript Options button.

There is a form at the end called User Javascript Files that points to the directory that contains all the custom Javascript files. If you got more than one put them all in that directory. I suggest you create a new folder in the Opera directory and name it Javascripts or something like that.

continue reading "Greasemonkey in Opera"

Fireclip is a pretty interesting Firefox add-on. It allows you to select and save part of a website, say a weather report, a web comic or anything else that you can think of, and load the saved part later to see if there have been any updates to it.

This means you can check for web updates without having to visit the actual website. It’s a bit like RSS News Feeds but more flexible since you can select any element on the website and monitor that one.

The add-on adds a sidebar to Firefox which displays all the currently saved elements and provides buttons to add new clips. Adding a new clip is simple. Click on the Select Clip button, you will notice that the add-on automatically marks elements on the website when you move the cursor around.

continue reading "Web Updates Check with Fireclip"

Outwit Hub is an interesting Firefox add-on. It serves two purposes at the moment, information gathering and organizing. This is done by separating each website into different parts, like images, links, text and email addresses and providing different tabs for each one of them.

That provides quick access to information that the user is after by virtually removing the other parts of the website. Each item discovered can be put in the so called basket which remembers the website the item was found on and if available the direct link to the item itself.

One interesting feature is the data grabber. If you ever wanted to copy and paste tables or lists you might have encountered formatting problems in the destination application. Outwit Hub seems to be pretty solid in keeping the original structure of the data intact.

continue reading "Outwit Hub Firefox Web Collection Tool"

Zipedia (via Instant Fundas) is actually the second (Wikipedia Taxi was the first) application that downloads Wikipedia and provides offline access to it’s contents. The main difference between Wikipedia Taxi and Zipedia is that the latter is a Firefox add-on which adds the Wikipedia offline search right into Firefox. The contents of Wikipedia can then be accessed by typing in wikipedia://wiki/ into the address bar. A keyword could probably help to reduce the address further.

The main benefit of this approach is that you can search Wikipedia while being offline. Other uses could be due to slow Internet connections or if Wikipedia is banned in the network.

The first step is the usual download of the Wikipedia articles. You can select any language version you like from the Wikipedia Dump. The import is started in the options of the add-on which also contains a download link to a recommended Wikipedia backup which has a size of more than 7 Gigabytes. Yes, the download can take a while unless you pick a different article backup. It’s also important to have enough space on the hard drive for the download.

continue reading "Download And Use Wikipedia Offline With Firefox"