The Perfect Blend

I took these close-ups at the Winter Park Concours d’Elegance and converted them to black and white. All shots taken with the Nikon D40 and different Nikon lenses.

1. Rolls Royce

Whenever I install Firefox on a new computer or operating system, I always locate and install these add-ons as they are my most used and long time favorites.  I strongly recommend them for designers, web developers, and some for the average Joe and general public.

Adblock Plus – This lets you browse the web with a lot less clutter. You can disable it for any site as you wish. I like to keep the icon in the statusbar only.

AutoPager – You can’t beat being able to go to the next page by just scrolling down the screen! I also show this icon only on the status bar only.

ColorZilla – Ever wondered what is the color being used in a design? This lovely color picker lives in bottom left corner of Firefox.

Download Statusbar – I love how the downloads are minimized to the status bar and not have to deal with the Downloads popup.

FireFTP – My favorite FTP client. It’s nice to be able to use the same interface if you are using a different operating system.

iMacros – Allows you to record a cycle of a long repetitive task and have the computer do all the repetition. It could be used to get around other things too.

MeasureIt – Measure anything displaying on your browser. Very helpful for design adjustments.  This ruler typically places right next to the color picker on your status bar.

Shareaholic – Although I like AddThis, I love how this shows you the number of people who bookmarked the sites too.  I like installing it out of the way and inside the address bar.

Sxipper – Too many logins/passwords? Sites won’t let you save your password? Like to login with one button like Opera? Need a random password that you don’t have to remember?

Web Developer – Various useful tools for web development. You could keep it as a tool bar or just hide it into the right-click menu.

There are a few more add-ons that I use from time to time such as Firebug and Greasemonkey but I do not consider them favorites nor do I rush to install them on a every new browser.  FEBE is a nice addon to backup your common add-ons for easy re-installation.

Feel free to share your thoughts and recommendations. If you liked the list, please share it with others who might find it useful.

The other day I went to a fireworks show but had no tripod and felt like trying something different while shooting the fireworks.  Hence the Bokeh Fireworks Shots.  All shots were taken with the Nikon D40 & 35mm 1.8G lens.

I ran across this article today about innovation in tough times.  The following checklist summarizes Scott Anthony’s “Seize the Silver Lining” book about innovation:

1. Recognize today’s transformation imperative?
2. Have a handle on the future potential of innovation?
3. Have a process to prudently prune its innovation portfolio on a regular basis
4. Have clear consensus on the 1-3 top growth opportunities?
5. Always ask, “How does the customer define more?” before asking people to do more with less?
6. Match technological experiments (”can we?”) with strategic experiments (”should we?”)?
7. Constantly search to share the innovation load to de-risk innovation?
8. Have a plan to “love the low end” in existing and emerging markets?
9. Run an innovation factory with systems and structures to make innovation repeatable?
10. Have a plan to help leaders transform themselves?

VIA [ Scott Anthony @ Harvard Business ]

Yesterday was the 5th CFBMW Poker Run in Central Florida.  There were over 60 cars.  We drove an unknown route based on directions given at 4 different stops.  The route (map) came out to about a 130 miles of mostly rural roads on the outskirs of Orlando.

Pictures:

More pictures @ flickr