Description and Problem:

Google Gears is a plug-in that extends your browser to create a richer platform for web applications. There are many Web applications that currently make use of Google Gears. Some of these include Google Docs, Google Reader, MySpace, Picasa, Zoho and (the reason for this post) now even WordPress. Google Gears, or simply just Gears as it is now known, not only enables offline browsing of supported sites, but it can also greatly improve the performance of these sites and web applications like WordPress. This makes working with supported web applications much nicer.

Now, my problem (and many others of you out there) has been that I am running 64-bit Ubuntu (8.04 Hardy Heron) and Google has not made a 64-bit version of their Gears software. They cite lack of time and testing resources, but my guess is it’s not that important to them since there probably aren’t too many 64-bit users out there. Luckilly for us, Gears is an open source project. This is now a prime example of the beauty of open source software, in that some really smart people created an “unofficial” patch that allows you to install and run Gears on 64-bit Linux in Firefox. In my case it’s Ubuntu and Firefox 3.x, but I have read folk that have had success with SuSE and others as well. It only took me about five minutes once I found the patch.

Here are the steps I took to get this installed, up and running:

Grab the latest version of the Gears binary that has been patched for 64bit at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~swolchok/gears/, I used this command:

wget http://www-personal.umich.edu/~swolchok/gears/gears-linux-opt-0.4.9.0.xpi

Open Firefox and choose File->Open File and browse to where you saved the file you just downloaded. It should open an install window, you want to press the “Install Now” button to start the install.

Once the install is complete, press the “Restart Firefox” button to restart Firefox and complete the installation.

Summary:

For me, upon the initial restart, I got an error about this addon not being compatible with my architecture. Despite that it seems to work fine, and I haven’t gotten any more errors since then, so I would suggest you simply ignore that error.

Lastly, go to a site that is supported, add it to Gears and enjoy! If you have any questions or comments, post ‘em below.

Hello all, I have circled back around and added some new extensions or addons to the “Must Have Firefox Extensions” page.  The ones that I have listed there are, in my opinion, still rock solid choices.  However, some new stuff has come out and I wanted to add some goodies to the list.  So, head on over and take a look, you might find something you didn’t know was out there.  Don’t forget that we do update our information, so come back and check on it now and then to see what’s new!

A new feature has been added to the site, it’s for anyone that wants to use it and it’s totally free.  I call it Short Links, and basically it’s a web site redirector.  We all know it’s a pain in the rear to send those really long links to friends and family because they get wrapped and all munged up in the email and then don’t work.  Then you are trying to copy and paste in notepad and put it all together or explain all this over the phone when mom calls and is clicking but not working.  Yeah, we’ve all been there.  So, what you can do here is enter your long web site link, hit the button and get a short one back.  The short one you can send to whoever you want and when they go there it will re-direct them to your long link.  It makes life easier all the way around.  Simply go to our Tools section and click on the Short Links item from the list and go crazy.  I hope you all enjoy this new feature!

Here is a tip for anyone like me that is running 64 bit Ubuntu on AMD processors and wanting to install Skype.  This is what I ran into recently and I found a solution so I wanted to share.  This is a one liner that will take care of it for you, or at least it did with me on 8.04 Hardy Heron.

sudo apt-get install ia32-libs lib32asound2 libasound2-plugins;
wget -O skype-install.deb http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-ubuntu;
sudo dpkg -i --force-all skype-install.deb;

See? That’s all there is to it! This installs some supporting libraries as well as Skype itself. I broke this into multiple lines at the semicolons so it would display properly, but you can run it all as one big command or seperately. Enjoy!

OK, so I am late on this bandwagon, and I probably don’t have to tell you about it already. However, on the off chance that you haven’t tried or even don’t know what it is, let me tell you about something cool that I have been playing with. If you hadn’t guessed it already, it’s called Skype. Skype is a Voice over IP (VoIP) software package that allows you to not only text and talk from one computer to another (Skype to Skype), but also to call land and mobile phones and talk as well.

Not everything is free, Skype itself is free and Skyp to Skype communication is free, but calling real phones costs you something. Right now I am signed up with a plan that gives me unlimited minutes to the U.S. and Canada for $2.95 per month … how about that?

OK, let me give you the goods. First, how does it sound? It sounds great, I honestly cannot tell it from my regular phone and neither can those who I have called so far. Naturally this will depend heavily on the speed and quality of your Internet connection, but the technology itself seems solid.

Second, how much does it cost? Well, I have already mentioned the $2.95 for unlimited U.S. and Canada calls, they also have great rates for over seas and more. Outbound calling is quite reasonable it seams. If you want a number that people can call you on, and voice mail, that costs extra but the costs are not bad, especially if you have a subscription with them instead of simply paying as you go. Depending on where you live, availability of local numbers might be an issue.

The only downside is that you need to use your computer, so you are tethered to it. But wait! You can get a VoIP phone for under $60 that let’s you use it just like a cordless phone. Of course, you can spend more and get something fancier too.

All in all, I am liking my Skype experience, I’ll share more as time goes on but I suggest you check it out if you have any need to VoIP, chat or video chat software.

It appears that if you are running Windows XP Service Pack 3 and using ZoneAlarm firewall software, when you install patch KB951748 (MS08-037) that came out yesterday’s “patch Tuesday” bunch, it breaks ZoneAlarm. You cannot access the Internet until you either uninstall the patch or turn off ZoneAlarm. This patch is related to the DNS poisoning exploit that came out recently, so it should be applied. What to do? Well, one suggested workaround (other than the two mentioned above) was to lower the security settings to medium in ZoneAlarm. At least then you don’t have to disable it entirely. Another suggested fix has been to leave ZoneAlarm at High and set the Internet Security Zone to Custom and add the following rule “Allow outgoing TCP Ports:80,443″. I cannot verify that these fixes work, I don’t use ZoneAlarm myself, but others hit by this problem have had success with them.

Here is the Microsoft link with information about the patch:

http://www.microsoft.com/ … /ms08-037.mspx

Here is the official link from ZoneAlarm about the problem:

http://download.zonealarm.com/ … /LossOfInternetAccessIssue.html