Category: Web/Tech

Despite having long thought web mail a necessary evil, I am beginning to enjoy using Gmail, the recently introduced web mail application from Google. Although I am not interested in it for my “personal” email, I have been routing most of my email discussions lists there. It is nice to know that I can search for information that I once read via email, rather than having to use the limited search facilities provided by yahoogroups, for example.

I’ve also been interested in the way that Gmail filters Spam. If something spam-like ends up in the Inbox, I can mark it and click on a “Report spam” button. (Did Google get a special dispensation from Hormel? Or has Hormel decided to stop fighting this battle?) When I check the spam folder, I find not only those things that I have marked, but an accurate filtering of spam items I never saw in my inbox, including mail that discusses spam. Drive-by spammers are not unusual on some of the art discussion lists which I frequent, and one spam will frequently lead to five posts condemning it, which seems rather pointless.

Firefox Help: Keyboard Shortcuts gives a keyboard shortcut cross reference between Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera.

When browsing with Firefox, I use Privoxy as a proxy to avoid annoying popups and other intrusive advertising. However, there are some sites where privoxy interferes with the correct operation of the site, and it was a pain to have to drill down through Firefox’s menus to turn off the proxy.

SwitchProxy is an extension for Mozilla and Firefox that puts an additional toolbar on the browser so that one can switch between proxies or have no proxies at all. It also allows one to use a proxy that works as an anonymizer while browsing.