I thought this was a really cool picture. Follow the link for the larger version

With the release of Safari for Windows a number of people have labeled its private browsing mode as “Porn Mode”. Stealther enables this functionality of surfing the web without leaving a trace while not having to annoyingly clear all of your private data.

Alex Albrect on a recent Diggnation episode claimed that Safari would be great if you wanted to buy your girlfriend flowers and/or hide your porn browsing from her. Either way you don’t want to leave a trace and you consider completely wiping out the history a trace. The Stealther Plugin for Firefox fixes this problem by temporarily disabling your private data.

If there are times you want to surf the web without leaving a trace in your local computer, then this is the right extension for you. What it does is temporarily disable the following:

• Browsing History (also in Address bar)
• Cookies
• Downloaded Files History
• Disk Cache
• Saved Form Information
• Sending of ReferrerHeader
• Recently Closed Tabs list

Installing Stealther

Go to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1306 and click the Install Now button.

You may be required to give permission for the addon to install by going to the Tools Menu and then clicking on Options…

Stealther Configuration

To access the configuration menu for Stealther you can go to the Tools Menu -> Addons -> Select Stealther -> Options

You can add a toolbar button by right clicking on your navagation toolbar (back/forward/reload/stop/etc) and dragging the round grey lock to the position you want it on your toolbar. Here is where I put it.

If you want to hide the existence of Stealther you can opt to not install the toolbar and hide the Tools menu entry.

Using Stealther

When you click the button it turns blue and it will force the browser to forget everything that happened once Firefox is closed. There are a number of ways to can use Stealther

• [Tools / Stealther] menu option
• Toolbar button
• Statusbar icon
• [Ctrl+Shift+S] keyboard shortcut (customizable)

I’ve gotten a lot of gifts from various people close to me over the years. I’d thought I’d make a list of the most useful gifts that I’ve ever received. It kind of surprises me that none of these have much to do with my facination with technology but I guess the tried and true stuff works the best.

Husky 6-In-1 Screwdriver
I got this as a gift when I went away for college. This is the only gift I’d had to buy for someone else so they woud stop taking mine. This is probably the most used gift I’ve ever gotten. It works great with my computer and its compatible with all the stuff around the house I have to tinker with.

Hammer
A lot of things get fixed with force. This thing is great.

Clothing
I don’t have a link for this because its kind of general. 90% of the clothes I wear have been picked out for me by someone else. I know its sad but I can’t pick out things for myself. I guess I like getting stuff that has been approved for my use by someone else. If I like it and they like it then it cant be bad right?

If you like to stay current you have to read a lot of websites. RSS Feeds are like a gift from heaven because they make it so much easier to browse and ignore content. Using a RSS reader like Google is like reading 100s of printer friendly websites at one time. No outrageous ads and quick, easy browsing. I’d thought I’d share some of the feeds that I subscribe to currently.

• TechCrunch - Just like Mashable but more focused. I’ll read a story here before I go to Mashable.
• Engadget - Who doesn’t like gadgets? I wish they would shut up about the iPhone though.
• Official Google Blog - Keep an eye on what Google is doing.
• Slashdot - News for nerds. Now that JonKatz is gone the site is pretty decent. They could use a spell checker though.
• Digg / Technology - most of Digg is now filled with spam, repeats and bad spelling. Occasionally they have some links that I haven’t seen somewhere else. I do enjoy watching diggnation every once and a while.
• How to Change the World - Guy Kawasaki’s blog. I like to read his insights as an entrepreneur.
• Mashable - I like to see whats new in the web.
• Penny Arcade - Because their comics aren’t daily its nice to see when they put out new comics.

The only complaint I have about Google Reader right now is that you can’t use search. The lack of search makes no sense to me. Where is the text search Google? Isn’t your whole business model ads and search.