Here’s a list of the Extensions I use:

All-in-One Gestures
This extension allows you to execute common commands using mouse gestures, rocker navigation, scroll wheel navigation and page scrolling.

Answers
Alt+click on any word or term for quick info (Definitions, up-to-the-minute reference, and more). No selection necessary

Better Gmail
A compilation of the best Greasemonkey Gmail enhancements in one extension.

ColorZilla
Advanced Eyedropper, ColorPicker, Page Zoomer and other colorful goodies

Copy Plain Text
Copies text without formatting

CountdownClock
Displayes a clock that counts down to a target date.

CustomizeGoogle
Enhance Google search results and remove ads and spam.

CuteMenus - Crystal SVG
Adds icons to all menus.

Flash Switcher
Switch between various Flash plugins or remove current plugin

Forecastfox
Get international weather forecasts and display it in any toolbar or statusbar with this highly customizable extension.

FoxClocks
Displays local times around the world in the statusbar/toolbar.

Get directions from Google Maps
Select addresses on a web page, right click the mouse, and choose “Locate on Google Map” menu item, to see the location at Google Maps and find the directions.

Gmail Notifier
A notifier for Gmail accounts.

Gmail Skins
Skins and other extra features for Gmail.

Google Calendar Notifier
This extension provides robust notifications and display of your Google Calendars for today, as well as showing any upcoming all day events for tomorrow.

Google Notebook
Allows notetaking while browsing.

Google Toolbar for Firefox
Take the power of Google with you anywhere on the Web!

Html Validator
Adds HTML validation to the View Page Source of the browser. The validation is done by Tidy from W3C.

IE View Lite
Cut down version of IE View.

MeasureIt
Draw out a ruler to get the pixel width and height of any elements on a webpage.

MR Tech Local Install
Local Install power tools for all users.

PermaTabs
Create permanent tabs that don’t close, and stick around between sessions.

QuickJava
Allaws quick enable and disable of Java and Javascript from statusbar.

TargetAlert
Provides visual cues for the destinations of hyperlinks.

Toolbar Buttons
Adds toolbar buttons

ViewSourceWith
View page source with external application

Web Developer
Adds a menu and toolbar with various web developer tools.

The guys at MIT always come up with cool stuff. I’m wondering what it would take to do this in Flash. Probably the hardest thing would be recognizing the shapes. The actual physics part is rather straight forward.

You’ve probably already seen Johnny Lee ( Mr. 3D ) on youTube here, here, here, here, … you get the point.

Now you can see him presenting at TED.com.

Not many keyboards sell for over a grand. Then again, no other keyboard uses LEDs to create icons for each key on the keyboard either.

I love my current keyboard but there is one problem. I use a Dvorak keyboard layout so all the keys are mislabeled from my POV - except the a and m which are the same in both layouts. So, if this LED keyboard were to be reshaped as the Microsoft Natural keyboards are and the price came down in the, $300-$400 range then I’d seriously consider getting one.

Read the engadget.com review.

The eternal question: How many monitors does it take to make a geek happy? We’ll, in my case one more than I had before. Now I’m up to a three monitor system and . . . oh my gods is it sweet. Now I have a 4.824 Mega Pixels display.

The reason the colors look a little different is that I adjusted the background individually to try to balance out the different profiles on the monitors. It’s not perfect but pretty close.

The monitors themselves aren’t anything jaw dropping. I have two Dells and a Samsung. The two Dells both have a display of 1680×1050 pixels. But they are different physical sizes. The center display is a 22″ wide screen and the right display is a 20.1″ wide screen. The Samsung is a 19″ SynchMaster 940mw with a 1440×900 display.

Since I don’t play games on my PC - I have a Xbox 360 for that - I don’t really need snazzy monitors. I do a bit of graphics work but mostly I’m just coding. Boy is it nice having lots of room for panels and code and still have room for Winamp and other accessories that don’t have to be covered up all the time. And there are a number of times that I’m using all three monitors. I’ll have my Eclipse code/design on the center panel, output, help, etc. panels on the right and some XML document on the left. Now I don’t have to Alt-Tab back and forth so much.

And of course you can see that I put in a bit of effort to get a spanning desktop background. What I did was use an Active Desktop and put an HTML file on each screen that is going full screen. The background of each HTML file is a portion of the background. It works great and as I develop some Flex widgets I have in mind I can drop them into the existing HTML and let them ride over the background and under my apps.

I also had to get a second video card to get three monitor outputs. My Dell XPS came with the ATI Radeon X1300 Pro which is great. I just went to Frys electronics down the street and got the cheapest PCI Express card they had to give me the third output. Plugged it in, installed the drivers and it works like a charm. Which is good because I really didn’t feel like screwing around with troubleshooting dual video card conflicts. It’s really nice when things work the way they’re supposed to.

Power to the pixel!

Check out this site: xrez.com. They have lots of pixels.

xres.com uses the GoogleMaps API to display a huge array of photos that you can use to zoom and pan in an environment. And when that environment is Yosemity then you have something worth exploring. I can’t wait to see more.

Microsoft is making news today by showing off it’s Surface project to the public. And while MS-Surface is very impressive it’s also old news in many ways. Many teams are doing research into multi-touch user interfaces.

Jeff Han, of New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, gave an excellent demonstration at TED, back in August 2006, where he showed his teams research into this exciting field.

And if you liked that you’re gonna love these - more of the same from Jeff Han.

Similar but not multi-touch is this work from MIT - these guys are real smart.

And this amazing work from BumpTop.com.

It’s clear that the evolution of user interfaces has a long way to go from the keyboard and mouse. Webcams are becoming ubiquitous and their input is just beginning. Add to that RFID, voice, video recognition, and many others that have not even made it to the back of a napkin yet and it’s clear to see that the future of UX is going to be exciting.

Peter Donnelly at TED: It isn’t often that someone can stand before an audience of highly educated, successful people and tell them that they are wrong, most of the time, when they have an opinion on a subject governed by uncertainty. Peter Donnelly, statistics professor at Oxford University, does just that during his TED presentation on statistics of uncertainty.

He uses everyday examples where uncertainty and logic are often at odds with each other. The subject is far to complex for him to elucidate us on how to think correctly about uncertainty and statistics. Instead he uses everyday examples where people have gotten the statistics horribly wrong. Thus the message is: if you are dealing with a decision based on statistical evidence of an uncertain event then you are likely to get it wrong. Therefore before making that decision you should consider that even though it seems logical you are, very likely, making a logical error and should look harder at the problem.

From TED:

Statistician Peter Donnelly explores the common mistakes humans make in interpreting statistics, and the devastating impact these errors can have on the outcome of criminal trials. Donnelly is a statistics professor at Oxford University who collaborates with biologists, applying statistical models to genetics, with the hope of shedding more light on evolutionary history and the structure of the human genome (Recorded July 2005 in Oxford, UK. Duration: 22:06)

A Mind of Their Own : Software developers have created algorithms to emulate actors in CG movies. Most of the uses so far have been for orcs, ants and such in very large numbers. I remember reading about the initial use in TwoTowers where the developers gave random characteristics to the orcs and then ran the program. Most of the orcs ran into battle but some of them ran away. The dev guys said that they were surprised at how the characters interacted and couldn’t have predicted the emergent behavior of the group.

Arctic explorer Ben Saunders recounts his harrowing solo journey to the North Pole, complete with gorgeous images, amusing anecdotes and previously unseen video footage from the Pole. At 26, Saunders became the youngest person ever to ski solo to the North Pole, updating his blog daily during the trek. He’s now planning the next journey, SOUTH, an unprecedented, roundtrip expedition across Antarctica and back. (Recorded February 2005 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 18:48)