image courtesy of explodingdog.com

• iTunesKeys – Since I have a Dell SK-8135 keyboard at home and work, being able to use the media buttons run iTunes is nice.
• DropBox – Just started using this to share files between computers now that I have a new notebook.  it’s pretty handy, I must say.
• Daum Blue Firefox Theme – I think I’ve finally found a Firefox theme that I like.
• HootSuite – This online Twitter client is excellent, except for the Ping.Fm integration sends @replies.  It should be interesting how all of the Twitter clients handle the new Twitter list functionality.
• VLC – This media player is like a Swiss Army knife.  It plays everything.  And yes, you can have it play full screen on a second monitor by default.  The “f” hotkey sets it to full screen.  It does simple video conversions, too.
• Jing – Done a couple of screencasts with this bad boy.  Very nice.
• Google Wave – I was a little frustrated that it took so long to get an invite.  I think Wave has a bunch of potential.  I do agree with some that instant collaboration has it’s drawbacks.
• IETester – Excellent for cross-browser testing.  Yes, people still do that.
• FileHippo.com Update Checker – I’m a little anal about keeping my software up to date.  I run this, like, once a week.
• Notepad++ – I don’t really want to ever use the standard Windows Notepad again.  Macro recording functionality and code highlighting is nice for the quick edit.
• Irfanview – Did you know that Irfanview can open multipage PDFs and convert them to single page with a watermark?  Now you do.  There’s a reason why Irfanview is always on my favorites list.  It’s amazing.
• MozBackup – Need to move all of your Firefox settings from one computer to another?  Use this.
• Launchy I like Launchy.  It seems weird sitting at a computer that doesn’t have it.  If you want to use Win-Space as your hotkey and you have Google Desktop installed, do this.

1. Adblock Plus – ‘Nuff said.  First add-on I load after a fresh Firefox install.
2. Google Advertising Cookie Opt-Out
3. Autofill Forms – I use this for testing at work.
4. Customize Google – Lets me force strict filtering in SafeSearch for Google searches.
5. DownThemAll – If you ever need to download a bunch of whatever from a page, this is what you need.
6. Firebug – This tool is amazing. still feel like I have a ton to learn about it.
7. Greasemonkey – Love this, especially during NFL and NBA seasons.  Free live fantasy stats, baby.
8. TwitterBar – As if I need another place to tweet.
9. Web Developer – Yes, I know most of this functionality is in Firebug, but I started using Web Developer Toolbar first, so there’s some things I find easier.
10. XMarks – I love having my bookmarks and toolbars sync’d up.

How about you?  Any add-ons you can’t live without?

No doubt you’ve seen this ridiculous “Get the Facts” browser comparison chart put out by Microsoft last week.

It’s insulting and misleading, IMO.

Of course they are comparing the brand-new IE8 and Firefox 2.0.7, which is not even the current version.  Guess they are figuring that people are really that stupid.

Here are some comments on each thing in the grid:

• Security – Let me guess — more user access control prompt nonsense built right in on whether accept ActiveX on a site by site basis?
• Privacy – Yeah, Chrome and Firefox 3.5 have both of those.
• Ease of Use – Blah, blah, blah about the Accelerators, Web Slices and Visual Search.  People don’t really care about that stuff.  The interface of IE6 was more intuitive than IE7 and IE8, in my opinion.  I still don’t understand why they moved the home button and buried the Tools and Internet Options
• Web Standards – Firefox is open source and has consistently done a better job complying to web standards that IE for years.
• Developer Tools – Uh, OK.  Who cares if you have add Firebug to Firefox?  Oooh, that’s really hard.
• Reliability – Yeah, nice try.
• Customizability – IE and Chrome can’t beat Firefox add-ons.   Yeah, but the add-ons I’m using in Firefox are features that aren’t currently in even IE8.
• Compatibility – Really??  IE is compatible??   As a web developer that’s had to code around IE bugs for years, spare me.
• Manageability – Microsoft controls the desktops in most companies.  Of course, it has better manageability. Not only that but IE8 is a critical Windows Update.
• Performance – Chrome is snappy. Firefox 3.5 is just as fast.

Like a wise Lifehacker commenter said:

IE8 is pretty reliable. It finished downloading Firefox without a single crash.

UPDATE: Here’s a funny parody site.

One of my favorite Firefox Add-ons has an update released today:  Adblock Plus.

You can download it here:

Adblock Plus: Detailed changelog for Adblock Plus 1.0.
Happy ad-blocking.

Well, I’ve made the switch from FF2 to Firefox 3 RC2 (here’s the official d/l page) as my primary browser now that Google has released a compatible Google Toolbar.

I feel faster already.

If you feel like participating in helping Firefox break the world download record tomorrow (6/17), click here: