Meeting

I met Chaya, Tushal, Rikesh, Avish and Yusha at the Victoria Station and we took the (overcrowded) free shuttle to the Expo at Swami Vivekananda Convention Centre.

There, we met Selven, Jason and 1132nd (nom de plume).

Left to right: Jason, Tushal, Me, Rikesh, 1132nd.

The Expo

We used our free tickets to enter the exposition (we weren’t going to pay for that) and we got some empty sac bazaars (shopping bags) as gifts.. There was virtually nothing of interest inside the expo; so, if you aren’t going there with friends, it ain’t worth it. Beds, toilets and kitchen appliances were on sale. In the kitchen section (why the hell does a tech fair have a kitchen section? I wonder.), there were mandarines.

Effing mandarines at orange expo. What is this world coming to? :P

At the “Wi-Fi cafe”, I tried to use the internet but it was slower than James May‘s driving. I used my Emtel 3G connection instead. I tried out a HTC Magic with Google’s Android OS and realised that I’m much better off with my iPhone 3GS. ;)

The Orange Postman

Best. Costume. Ever.

The Macs

We loaded this page on most of the Macs at the fair.

The Notice Board

Since Orange Mauritius is a fail and the expo was another fail in itself, I decided to write “#orangemauritiusfail” (the hashtag we use on Twitter when we complain about Orange) on the notice board.

Yep.

After the Expo

No one had found something worth buying and we went to the cafeteria. There, I had the opportunity to film Orange’s latest ad (featuring Tushal):

We went out of the centre and it was raining heavily; Rikesh finally found a use for the bags they had given us.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

We took the bus to Shoprite to get some KFC. I forgot to take a picture there mainly because I was busy doing some more important things – like eating. Then, we parted ways and returned to our homes.

I really enjoyed myself, but I’m afraid that doesn’t make the expo less horrible. ;)

Rikesh’s post about the Expo here.

Tushal’s post here.

What about you people, did you go there?

Last Tuesday, I got my new iPhone 3GS, and, to make a long story short, it’s awesome (Seriously, I could go on for hours about this. :P). It’s a gift from my parents because of my results (I got aggregate 8 at the Cambridge O-Level exams) and I got it factory-unlocked from Hong Kong.

Since using an iPhone only to make calls and send messages is like using a Ferrari only to drive to the supermarket, I decided to activate 3G internet connectivity.

From the Emtel Website

I went to Emtel to activate it. The following is a transcript of what happened:

[After waiting in line for about 15 minutes, I was called by the customer service representative]

Me: Hi
Emtel employee: Hi, how may I help you?
Me: I need to activate 3G for my SIM card.
Emtel  employee: Oh, what phone are you using?
Me: An iPhone 3GS
Employee: *Types something into computer*
Hmmm, sir, I’m sorry but the iPhone 3GS doesn’t support 3G.
Me: Yeah, right? And why would they call in the “3GS” if it didn’t support 3G?
Employee: I don’t know how to activate it for your phone.
Me: You know, there’s a big difference between you not knowing how to activate it and my mobile not supporting it.
Employee: *dumb face* But the iPhone doesn’t have a WAP browser!
Me: WAP?! WAP is 2002 technology, for God’s sake. As far as I know, we are in 2010 and a modern phone doesn’t even need that.
Employee: You want me to activate Video Call and MMS?
Me: Hmmm…yeah.
*hands iPhone to employee*
Employee: *rotates iPhone in all directions*
Sir, where’s the front camera?
Me: There’s NO front camera.
Employee: Let me activate MMS then.
*types into computer*
Sorry, MMS is not supported on this phone.
Me: It does support MMS. Maybe you don’t know how to activate *that* too…
Employee: Yes, I don’t know.
Me: Are the settings for Internet connectivity the same as my previous phone (A Nokia 6300)?
Employee: I don’t know…maybe…
Me: *Takes iPhone from employee*
*Types settings into phone*
*Opens google.com…it loads*
*Shows iPhone to Employee*
Employee: Hey, it works!!!
Me: Normally, I should be the one telling you this.
*sarcastic tone* Well, I have to go now, thanks for your invaluable help; I would never have been able to do this without you.
Employee: No problem Sir.

[I walked away, unable to decide whether I should laugh or cry]

In retrospect, I realised that I had done nothing but waste 30 minutes of my life going to Emtel. However, my previous experience with their customer support was excellent, so this one could be an isolated case. I’m also fairly satisfied with their service.

Here are the web settings for the iPhone/iPhone 3G/iPhone 3GS; ridiculously simple:

(In Settings>General>Network>Cellular Data Network)

How about you readers, have you ever a had bad experience from Emtel or any other company’s customer support?

In October and November, I had my Form 5 exams; which are considered to be important by quite a lot of people. They were a hectic couple of months and I preferred to do more productive things (like downloading Illegal stuff and designing things that will stay in my ‘Art’ folder, never to be opened again.).

In December, with my exams now in the rear-view mirror, I went on a trip with my parents to the Middle East.

I went to Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Dubai. Find the pictures on Facebook if you’re in my friend list.

Without further ado, let’s come to the subject of my last blog post of 2009. I had absolutely no idea what to blog about and I decided to go with the flow for once. Here are my favorite things from 2K9:

Best Software

I’m not a big fan of Micro$oft but this time I’ll be objective and give credit where it’s due. My favorite software of 2009 is Microsoft Windows 7. The install was amazingly fast (9 minutes) and the system runs like a breeze (this is simply astonishing, it’s Windows after all. Microsoft finally managed to release a product that’s not behind the times. If Microsoft continues at this pace, it might actually surpass Apple in terms of awesomeness by 3009.

Best Gadget

This year, my favorite fruit-named company released the 3rd generation of the best phone ever: The iPhone 3GS.

I hope Apple will release that tablet we’ve all been waiting for in 2010 and also that Steve Jobs realizes how fanatical I am about him and gives me one for free. Amen.

Best Movie

My favorite film of 2009 is Public Enemies.  All the actors fit their role perfectly in that film and Johnny Depp is just awesome. That was a hard choice because I watched so many films this year, particularly on the plane. Honorable mentions: District 9, Inglourious Basterds, Up, Transformers 2.

Best Song

Linkin Park’s New Divide. Seriously, this one didn’t even have serious competitors. Transformers 2 wasn’t well-regarded by the critics, but I can’t say I didn’t enjoy the film. One of the reasons is definitely the awesome all-rock soundtrack. :)

Honorable mentions: Owl City’s Fireflies, Bon Jovi’s We Weren’t Born to Follow, Muse’s Uprising and Green Day’s 21 Guns.

Best Album

I found Green Day’s “21st Century Breakdown“ very good. Honorable mentions:  Dead bu Sunrise – Out of Ashes, Owl City – Ocean Eyes, Bon Jovi – The Circle, Bruce Springsteen – Working on a Dream.

Best Blog

Tremendous News! is my favorite blog of 2009. I’ve watched it grow from an amateur rant-blog to an awesome blog which is retweeted by the Twitter Elite. Good luck, Dee Tremendous, may you never leave your parents’ basement so we can continue to read your tremendous posts. ;)

With this one finished, here are some other things I’ve decided to include in this post.

Stats

I’m astounded that 14,543 persons have visited my blog this year. Not bad for a blog with 1 new post per month. ;)

The post with most views -and most comments- is unsurprisingly my article on the awful Mauritius logo. It has even been mentioned in Le Mauricien newspaper.

New Year’s Resolution

My new years resolution for 2010 is 1440×900, here’s the proof:

That’s all for today. I wont say Happy New Year because you should be happy every single day of the year. ;)

Although I appreciate the effort my beloved government (that’s a tongue-in-cheek statement, of course)  is doing, I can’t help but feel that this expensive campaign is going to fail. Call me pessimistic, but I do have some valid points; here are 5 reasons why it sucks (in no particular order):

1. It’s too complicated

When I first saw it, I was like: “What the heck is this, an advertisement for the carnival of Rio de Janeiro? What does it symbolize? OK, the M is some kind of Mountain…oh wait…it’s Pieter Both!! I’m *so* smart.”

Seriously, this logo doesn’t mean a thing for people who have never been to Mauritius. The Yellow T is what? A mermaid trying to embrace people? Someone dancing the Séga? We may never know. The only thing vaguely symbolising Mauritius is the blue line under “ius” which seems to be the sea. Moreover, people who have never heard of the island will be wondering what “Mauvitius” is because the letters are so badly syled. :P

2. Pieter Both

What’s better?

This:

…or this:

Do you see my point? For those who don’t know, the first picture is the Pieter Both mountain, the second is the Mauritian sea. Would you know that they are barely 20 kilometres from each other?

First of all, who was Pieter Both?

This guy:

No, that’s not William Shakespeare’s brother. Pieter Both was the first Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. He was given 4 ships to come to Mauritius and drowned before even setting foot on the Island in the year 1614. The Dutchmen, who were the owners  of the Island at that time, were probably feeling bored and decided to name a mountain (the one above) after the guy. More on Wikipedia.

Basing your tourism campaign on a mountain named after a rich Dutch dude nobody knows a lot about who died before even visiting the island 4 centuries ago ? How clever.

Come on, Mauritius has always been the Island of the 3 S’s: Sea, Sun and Sand. Why couldn’t they base the campaign on that? If someone wants to visit Mauritius, he’ll probably do it because of the Sea and the amazing beaches. Not because of a mountain nobody really cares about.

3. Not obeying the basic principles of logo design.

As David Airey, a prominent logo designer, says in a very good article:

Five elements that can be seen in every iconic logo:

1. It’s describable
2. It’s memorable
3. It’s effective without colour
4. It’s scalable i.e. works when just an inch in size
5. It’s appropriate

The logo obeys none of these rules, it’s:

1. Not describable.
2. Definitely not memorable.
3. Even the little symbolism in it is lost when it’s used without colour:



4. Not scalable:



5. Not appropriate, as I said in the previous point.

…which brings us to the next point:

4. Unable to challenge competitors even with the high price.

It’s a big, bad world and everybody wants to make money. People are willing to dedicate their time and money to advertise their products, however, I don’t think the people at the Tourism Authority are among those. From the same article I mentioned above, David Airey says: “Lastly, the design must be appropriate for the business it identifies. This is accomplished through in-depth research into the industry involved, and helps to differentiate from closely associated competitors.”

Look at some of the potential competitors’ logos:

From an advertising viewpoint, we stand no chance against these great campaigns. Absolutely no chance.

How much did we pay for that crap? Rs. 31 Millions.

5. Using two different languages.

As the slogan is: Mauritius – c’est un plasir.

Notice something wrong? In my opinion, using two languages is wrong. It should be “Mauritius – It’s a pleasure” or “Ile Maurice – C’est un plaisir”. The people who are in charge are either too stupid to realise the world isn’t trilingual or don’t really give a damn about the campaign. The best choice would be “Mauritius – It’s a pleasure” since the main language of the planet is English. Another interesting option would be to use two different logos for English-speaking and French-speaking countries.

Conclusion

I honestly think that the Government could have done much better. I know Mauritius is not a nation of Picassos and Michelangelos, but there are many excellent graphic designers here. They should have used national talent instead of hiring an English company to do the work. All in all, I — as a geek— would describe the logo and branding as an Epic Fail (i.e. It’s just awful).

Here’s how I would have designed the logo:

I think it’s not that good because I’m not (yet?) a professional designer and I designed it in half an hour. I don’t know if you people will like it or not.

So, what do you people think about the new advertising campaign? Love it or hate it? Leave your thoughts in the comments below. :)

Yesterday, I finally finished reading Dan Brown’s much-awaited new book, “The Lost Symbol“.

For the third time.

Yes, I read a 509-page-book thrice in less than a week. ;-)

As some of you might know, I’m a real book aficionado and Dan Brown is one of my favourite authors. I have all his books in my personal collection and I’ve read all of them more than 5 times.

I picked it up last Wednesday (I’m thankful I pre-ordered it as almost no copies were left on the bookshelves) and I naturally tweeted about it. I started reading it as soon as I got home and only stopped for food and prayers. =]

I finished it at 2 A.M.(~5 hours of reading) and the only thing I could say was “Wow”. It really is an amazing book and a worthy sequel to the international bestseller “The Da Vinci Code”.

I’m not going to spoil the fun for anyone by revealing the plot but I’m mentioning some interesting aspects of the book:

• It’s a fascinating story which will leave every reader enlightened about many subjects. In my humble opinion, the only way not to learn something from the book is to be an expert on Freemasonry. :P However, I think that people should realise that, although it contains many facts, it’s still a work of fiction. As in all Dan Brown’s books, the line between fact and fiction is very thin and the trick to really understanding the book’s message  is being able to discern between them.

• It has many references to internet culture: A blog, Wikipedia, Google…even Twitter!! :D

• It has many acts of intense violence that may leave people shocked…such as the crushing of an iPhone!! :P

• I loved the subtle and sincere reference to Digital Fortress, one of Dan Brown’s books. It’s clearly intended for the fans who will probably be the only people to see it.

• The plot is simply mystifying. Pure genius.

Overall, I think it’s an impressive book which lives up to the hype and is well worth the wait. It’s equal, if not better, than even The Da Vinci Code, and that‘s a book that’s extremely difficult to live up to. I’ll definitely read it again. ;)

You have no chance to survive make your time. Ha Ha Ha…

The Mauritian government has recently announced(WARNING: French language! :P) that all schools will be closed starting from today (21 August) to the 30th of August. The reason is because of the H1N1 flu virus, commonly called Swine Flu, Mexican Flu or Stig Flu. ;-)

As a student and as a practicing Muslim, I’m happy that there won’t be school during the following week. I’ll have some time to relax (and possibly revise) before the Form 5 exams in some months and the sacred month of Ramadan (in which us Muslims observe the fast) probably starts on Saturday.

Too much, too late?

As a human being with a (mostly) functional brain, I’m not so happy. I can’t help but feel the Mauritian government has either taken this decision too late or simply shouldn’t have taken it.

I could write a whole article about why I think it’s a bad decision, but I won’t. It’s a highly controversial subject and there has already been much discussion about it on other Mauritian blogs. I generally agree with Bruno on this topic.

Yes, precautions must definitely be taken but the Mauritian people are just being pessimistic and paranoid about this. Ok,  it’s an epidemic and people are dying. Much more people also die from several other diseases everyday, right? That’s my point. No need to be paranoid.

P.s. For those who didn’t understand the picture or the caption, there’s always Wikipedia.

Your views on topic the are welcome. However, please take into consideration that my mind is already made about the subject.

Bloggers Meeting

Friday Night

On Friday night, I still hadn’t decided if I would go to the Blogger Meeting or not, but after a quick chat with Yashvin(@yashvin) on MSN Messenger, I talked to my dad and decided to go. That’s definitely a decision I won’t regret! :D

Saturday Morning

Woke up at 6 as usual, took a bath, dressed up and went to Chemistry tuition at 7 (Who the hell gave the teachers the idea to give tuition at that time on weekends? :@). Normally, I have an English tuition but I skipped it for this very special occasion. After tuition, Yashvin called me and I went to meet him near Caudan Waterfront. In his car were Dakshinee, Ashesh(@asheshr) and Pirbhay. We had an interesting talk about…(you guessed it!)…blogging! :P

At Flic en Flac

We arrived at Flic en Flac at 10:15 and saw that Jevin, Morinn(@Morinn) and Sun(@__Sun__) were already there. After some minutes, we went to Spar and bought some drinks and a football there. When we returned back, Stefan(@Chillisland) and his daughter were there. Shortly after, the Meetoo family; Avinash(@avinashmeetoo), Christina, Anya and Kyan joined us. Sheran, Dhaneesha, Reena, Michel, Tushal, Kervin and Kevina came later.

Geek Discussion

Geek Debate

People: Avinash, Me, Stefan, Ashesh and Sun

Topics: How Apple is the best company around and Macs rock(No carrotmadman6 = no opposition :P), Google.mu in creole, Bing, the internet, Linux, Twitter, carrotmadman6‘s identity, Google Chrome OS, Web 2.0, etc…

Games

Pierced Bottle:

Pierced Bottle Game

LOL:

:P

Uno:

Playing Uno

I swear, the only reason why I know how to play that game is because I’ve got it on my iPod! (Soundtrack: Metallica – Fade to Black \m/)

Treasure Hunt:

Deep in thought...

That was the best game!! Morinn and Jevin wrote really nice clues which got everyone thinking hard!! e.g. “I can sea you, Can you see me”, “Grass is greener on the other side, but what’s greener than grass?”

Congrats to Sun and Yashvin for winning the prize! (and apologies to Ashesh, who was my partner in the game. We’ll get it next time! ;-)

The Winners

Frisbee(Flying Disc):

Frisbee

Really enjoyed myself!!

Football:

Football

Players: Me, Ashesh, Kervin, Sun, Mr. X and Mr. Y(I don’t know their names :P)

Read more about the games on Jevin Not-Jevin’s blog ;-)

The Banner

At the end (well, almost at the end), we imprinted our hands on a piece of cloth that Yashvin had brought to make this wonderful banner.

Black Hands! xD

And finally, what’s without doubt the best picture:

Group Picture

Thanks

I’d like to thank everyone who was present for the cool ambiance and the great fun we had, Yashvin for the ride, Ashesh for being my partner in the treasure hunt, Sun for the jokes, Avinash and Stefan for the discussion and Morinn & Jevin(A great duo! ;-)) for the fantastic organization.  :) I’m already looking forward to the next meeting!! :D

Other blog posts about The Meeting

Yashvin’s Post

Not-Jevin’s Post

Ashesh’s Post

Morinn’s Post

Photos

Event Photo Album

Yashvin

Pirbhay

Sheran

That’s it. This post took 4 days.

Day 1: 500 Internal Error.

Day 2: No time.

Day 3: keyboard broken.

Day 5: Finally managed to finish it. :D

P.S. If you’re looking for people to blame for the lack of posts on my blog, take a look at Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams and Biz Stone. :P

(Image created using Obamicon.me)

One month ago (on St. Valentine’s day LOL), I bought a new domain (sjdvda.com) and unlimited hosting plan from DreamHost and another domain from GoDaddy(which is still under constuction). BTW Thanks to Kurt Avish for the coupon code :D. As most of you know, I had previously been blogging using the Tumblr blogging platform on sjdvda.tumblr.com at first, then on sjdvda.co.cc.

On my new domain, I’ll be using WordPress for all my blogging needs (Goodbye Tumblr…). In the next few weeks, I’ll write a post with the reason why I’ve changed platform, the key word here is Customization. I hope this will be a new start for me as I have not written a post since January and I’d really like to blog more often, so don’t forget to subscribe to the new RSS Feed or by e-mail.

I started completely from the ground for this new blog, with only the posts from my old blog and nothing else (I couldn’t find a way to import the comments  :cry:).  During the last month, I’ve learned about WordPress, plugins, FTP, Domains and a lot of interesting things :)

Independence Day at school

(left: our country, our pride. right: our country, our shame. Image from orange.mu)

Yesterday I went to school for the independence day “celebration”, though I can hardly call what happened a “celebration”: It totally sucked!!

I was standing in the sun, wondering why the hell I had gone to school  O_o, less than quarter of the students were present!! Among the 6 classes of Form 5, only 16 students had come to school! When they first put the music of the national anthem, only a few students were singing and almost no sound was heard. So they had to put a version with vocals so as not to lose face! :? That’s not really weird as the students in Form 4 and Form 5 didn’t have any practice; there had not been any rehearsals or schedule. The proof here is that no pupil even knew who would be the guest of Honour before we saw him!!  :@ :@

If I had not enjoyed myself with some friends after school, my entire day would have been ruined! :@ (BTW Thanks Akshay, Saif, Niddy & Doomesh). This decline in patriotism really pisses me off, how can we move forward if everyone thinks about leaving the country??

If anyone has something to say, the comment form is below :)

There was a time when hi5 was actually cool, it was unique, it was great.

3 years ago I joined hi5 because all my friends were on it, it was my first social network, after some time I discovered Facebook and I found it better because of the applications and the status updates, but I still used hi5 because it was different!

Now hi5 copies almost everything that Facebook does; first came the status updates, then the applications, now there’s even chat!! What’s the use of joining two social networks when they are nearly the same??? That’s why 2 months ago I changed my hi5 status to “Saajid is tired of hi5, prefers facebook now”. I haven’t accessed hi5 since that.

Some reasons I prefer Facebook over hi5:

1. Too many UFRs

UFRs (Unidentified Friend Requests) are the requests you recieve from people you don’t know and you probably don’t want to know. (BTW “UFR” is a term I picked from a mashable article, but I don’t remember which one).

UFRs are easily recognizable:

1. They normally have profile pictures with actors/actresses/sportsmen/celebrities
2. Their profiles are rarely updated
3. They don’t reply to your messages and chats

I have about 120 friends on hi5, and I don’t even know half of them!! On the contrary, I have 230 friends on Facebook and I know most of them. I have a rule: since a month ago, when I get an UFR on Facebook, I look at the profile of the sender and if no info is provided, I send him/her/it (there are indeed some animals on Facebook, I even have some chimps in my friend list TVR!) a message. If they don’t reply after some weeks, I remove them from my friend list.

2. hi5 applications suck!!

I find most hi5 applications pale copies of Facebook applications. There are indeed many useless Facebook applications, but some apps are really cool!! There’s also a lot more apps on Facebook than hi5.

3. Not compatible with many services

hi5 is not compatible with many web services. For example, if I want to sync my Facebook status with twitter (which I’ve been using a lot lately) or vice versa, I have the twitter’s own Facebook application which will sync my Twitter status to Facebook and FriendFeed which will sync my Facebook status with twitter. hi5 isn’t even supported by FriendFeed.

4. I don’t like the hi5 themes

I find Facebook themes much better as they put emphasis on the content rather on the design.

The reasons above are why I don’t access hi5 anymore. The only 2 advantages I find with hi5 are:

1.They allow “vanity URLs”. e.g. http://sjdvda.hi5.com instead of http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=526038179. Currently Facebook doen’t support this but it’s coming sometime soon according to the help page.
2.Custom HTML is allowed.

I know it’s been a long time since I wrote a blog post and the reason is that I took a lot of time to adapt to the new school schedule after the holidays :( But hopefully I’ll get some more time with the school hours back to normal…

Looking forward to seeing you guys again and don’t forget to comment if you liked this post :D

(click image to enlarge)

Someone told me that my firefox looked cool and I decided to write a blog post with the details

Theme:

Chromifox

(click image to enlarge)

I really like the look of Google Chrome but i can’t live without my FF Add-ons, so this theme was perfect for me!

Toolbars:

Bookmarks Toolbar:

I have the regular bookmarks toolbar with the Share on Tumblr and Share on Facebook bookmarklets

Google Toolbar

The Inevitable Add-on for any Google fan. The Autofill fucnction is really great for people who don’t want to install a lot of extensions although I prefer the one in Sxipper.(continue reading for Sxipper)

Tabs:

I have the setting “hide the tab bar” set to “never”

Tab Mix Plus

This one has so many features that it’s better to read it’s descripion on Mozilla Add-ons.

Undo closed tabs button

Tab Scope:

This add-ons show thumbnails of tabs on hover, similar to Vista’s Aero feature.

Address Bar:

(click image to enlarge)

Locationbar²

Fission

This combines the progress bar and the address bar, like Safari.

Flagfox

Displays a flag showing the location of a website’s server.

Home Page:

Fast Dial

(click to enlarge)

Fast Dial is my favorite and most useful FF add-on, each time I open a new tab or a new window, it appears with all the links I need, either thumbnails or logos of the linked site can be shown. I personally prefer logos to thumbnails because they are much cleaner and better to look at, most of the logos in the screenshot are made by me and can be found on UserLogos, where I’m the 6th all-time top contributor. (hopefully 5th in the near future :D) It’s based on the “Speed Dial” feature in the Opera web browser but it’s much cooler.

Note: I’m using the Beta version.

Details on the background and settings in Fast Dial can be found here

Status bar:

(Click to enlarge)

Colorzilla

Extended Statusbar

Shows speed, percentage, time and loaded size similar to Opera.

Gmail Notifier

Google Reader Watcher

Google Redesigned by Globex designs

This add-on applies a custom theme to Google services such as Gmail and Google Calendar (I’m eagerly waiting for the Google Reader Redesigned to come out of beta!)

FoxyTunes

GreaseMonkey

Linkification

Converts text links into clickable links.

Stylish

Sxipper

This add-on fills my forms, remembers my passwords and generates random ones.

WiseStamp

Allows me to create custom HTML signatures for gmail and Hotmail.

Under The Hood:

Adblock Plus with Element Hiding Helper and Filterset.G Updater

Blocks most of the ads on the internet.

Better Gmail 2

Better YouTube

Better GReader

3 Great add-ons by the senior editor of my favorite blog, Lifehacker.

CustomizeGoogle

Enhances Google search results

DownloadHelper

Enables me to download embedded videos on websites.

Google Gears

Prism

Saves websites as separate applications.

Thanks for having the patience to read this long post.