Brain Workshop, a free brain game you can install on Linux, Window and Mac machines, creates the exact circumstances of an activity shown in three different academic studies to improve one’s short-term memory and problem solving skills. To quote the game’s website, “these findings are important because fluid intelligence was previously thought to be unchangeable.”

Don’t believe a game can improve your brain? This being a free game, it won’t cost you anything to find out.

What It Does

As I said, this free brain game can improve certain aspects of your mental faculties, as this 2008 article in Wired pointed out. The main improvement this gives your brain is the ability to think on your feet. To quote the article,

Fluid intelligence measures how people adapt to new situations and solve problems they’ve never seen before. Fluid intelligence differs from crystallized intelligence, which takes into account skills and knowledge that have been acquired — like vocabulary, grammar and math.

This is significant. Before the method employed by Brain Workshop was created and tested it was assumed that fluid intelligence could not be improved.

Want to know more about how this process works? You can read the original study, if you want, or the other two separate confirmations. All seem to agree that playing regularly, around 20 minutes a day, is ideal.

How To Use It

So what does this software look like? The best way to get an idea is to watch this video:

As you can tell, the game is not focused on graphics:

The point is to increase the function of your memory. In each round, a square shows up in a particular part of the grid, and a letter is read aloud. You must keep track of what letters are read and where the square was when they were read, then find matches later. If you find a match you press one or two keys in order to point out what you’ve found. The default mode, Dual 2-Back, means you must remember what was on the board two rounds ago.

Do well and you’ll hear some nifty music. You are scored after each game, and will move up to harder versions of the game as you improve. The step after Dual 2-Back, for example, is Dual 3-Back. This means you must match squares and letters from three rounds ago. This, to me, is a great deal harder, but I imagine it will seem easy if I ever get to Dual-16 Back.

Download

You can download Brain Workshop here, if you’re interested. It works on Linux, Windows and Intel/PPC Macs. The main interface might be a little foreign to some users, because it’s keyboard driven instead of mouse driven. Having said that, it’s not too hard to figure this out.

Similar, albeit not academically researched, ideas include:

• 6 Online Riddle Games to Keep You Glued To Your Computer
• 10 Websites With Brain Teasers and Riddles
• 4 Web Games To Kick Start Your Brain

Let us know how much smarter you become in the comments below, or please do recommend other free brain games you may know about.

If you are looking for ways to tame the beast, I may have some clues! In this article I will show you 3 steps to reduce and limit the chunk Firefox bites off your RAM. I will start with the obvious, but in the last step, we will dive deep into the heart of your browser.

Prologue

I have been using Firefox for many years and have carried over my profile from each version and computer to the next. Over the years, I have accumulated hundreds of bookmarks, dozens of extensions (most disabled), and several plugins. So by version 4, Firefox has grown to a respectable size. You could call it a monster.

To show you that the tips I’m sharing do have an effect, I have documented how memory usage improved on my machine as I went from one step to the next. Unfortunately, I found that Firefox leaks memory, thus I recorded the value after a few minutes, even though in all cases it continued to increase. This is not 100% exact, but it still gives you a good idea of how well each step works.

Counting: 29 open tabs, 31 extensions

State of affairs: 700,740K

1. Close Or Hibernate Tabs

In case you didn’t know this already, the outrageous amount of memory Firefox uses, correlates with the even more outrageous amount of open tabs you cannot get yourself to close. Unfortunately, the easiest way to save a lot of RAM, is to close a lot of tabs.

If you cannot close all of them for the love of it, how about managing your tabs with the help of one of the following extensions:

• BarTab
  Loads a tab only when it is visited and lets you unload tabs from memory either manually or automatically.
• Memory Fox
  Fixes Firefox memory leaks and releases RAM.
• Load Tabs Progressively
  Limits the number of concurrent loading tabs. Similar to BarTab.
• TabGroups Manager
  Allows you to organize tabs in groups and hibernate groups, removing them from memory.

Personally, I work with TabGroups Manager. The extension helps me to keep the amount of open tabs at bay, and this is how I could remove 13 tabs from memory all at once.

For more about tabs, see this article: The 5 Best Firefox 4 Addons For Tabbed Browsing.

Counting: 16 open tabs, 31 extensions

Memory usage: 496,860K

2. Remove Add-Ons

Running add-ons, i.e. extensions, themes, or plugins, eat up quite a bit of RAM. So go through your collection and remove those that you never use. Before entirely removing them, you can disable them and see whether that significantly improves the memory leak. Go to > Firefox > Add-ons and switch between > Extensions > Appearance and > Plugins. Be sure to update them via the > Tools for all add-ons button.

Counting: 16 open tabs, 21 extensions

Memory usage: 443,916K

3. About:Config Hacks

There are several very potent hacks that control how much memory Firefox can or will use. None of them had a huge effect in my demonstration, but your results may vary.

Limit Firefox’ RAM usage

Type > about:config into the URL bar, promise to be careful, and scroll to > browser.cache.disk.capacity. The default value depends on how much RAM you have installed. Double-click it to change the value. Do not limit the RAM usage too aggressively, especially not below the amount of RAM Firefox is using as you apply this hack, so be sure to check first! In my case around 400,000K was a realistic value.

Allow Windows to Claim Back RAM when Firefox is Minimized

With this hack enabled, Windows will be able to claim back RAM more aggressively. In > about:config right-click anywhere and select > New > Boolean and enter > config.trim_on_minimize as the preference name. Double-click the new entry to set its value to > true. Restart Firefox to enable the changes.

Limit Memory Storage for Open Tabs

The last about:config preference we are going to look at is > browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers. The default value is -1, which will automatically determine the maximum amount of pages stored in memory, based on the total amount of RAM. In other word, the bigger your RAM and the more tabs you have open, the bigger the chunk that Firefox will take. You can set this value to zero to not store any pages in memory or to 1 for 32MB, 2 for 64MB, 3 for 128MB etc.

More information about this preference can be found in the mozillaZine. I went with 3 for 128MB.

Status: No change in tabs or add-ons, all hacks applied.

Memory usage: ~400,000K (maximized) and ~350,000 (minimized)

Epilogue

All steps brought some improvement, but the end result was still not very satisfying. Besides, the real problem with Firefox 4 is the memory leak, which in my case was mainly caused by open tabs. Firefox’ memory usage would climb on and on with no way to stop it, other than to close all tabs. When I closed all tabs except for one, Firefox used about 230,000K. With a virgin profile, memory usage went down to around 48,000K; finally a realistic value, but sadly with almost every little bit of customization removed.

Status: virgin Firefox profile, 1 tab open

Memory usage: ~48,000K

The conclusion is that Firefox has a problem, but if you love your open tabs and add-ons, you will have to put up with it. If you prefer a lean and fast browser however, simply ditch everything, create a new profile, and be very restrictive with what you add.

Finally, you may also want to try the tips from this article: 5 Things To Do When Firefox Runs Slow But Other Browsers Run Fast.

So what are you going to do? Hold on to your stuff or browse lightly?

That doesn’t have to be the case though. There are quite a few cool ways to re-purpose old SD memory cards and drag some extra life out of them.

Convert To A USB Drive

The reason why SD cards can be a bit unwieldy is simply the format. These memory cards come in many different sizes, which fit into different slots on a computer. Some computers have support for many types of memory cards, but some don’t support any cards at all. Desktop computers are particularly bad about this.

Fortunately, you can side-step any such compatibility issues by simply turning your SD card into a USB drive. It doesn’t require any fancy tricks, just an SD card to USB adapter that’s compatible with the card you have. You’ll find these at local and online electronics retailers with a typical price tag of around $10.

Once you have converted the SD card to a USB drive, a world of possibilities opens up. You can load mobile applications, use the drive for encrypted storage, and do anything else you could do with a USB thumb drive. That’s not to say some of these options aren’t available on stock SD memory cards, but converting the card to USB makes it possible to use it with a wider variety of PCs and programs.

Create A Boot Drive

SD cards are quick, so they make a good candidate for a boot drive. Not every computer will present you with the option of booting from an SD card (you’ll have to check your BIOS) but if the option is available, your SD card could become the host of an alternative operating system.

It’s possible to run Windows (with WinToFlash) or Mac OS X off a SD card, but both of these operating systems require a fair amount of space, so it’s unlikely an older memory card will be able to accommodate them. A Linux variant is always a good option, and one of the easier programs for installing to your memory card is UNetBootin. It’s possible to install an OS to not only an SD card that’s by itself, but also an SD card that is in another device. I can boot Linux on my PC off my HTC Thunderbolt phone, for example.

Of course, if your computer is having trouble booting off the SD card, you can always just slap it into a USB adapter as suggested above. That should make your memory card bootable by most PCs.

Geek Accessories

Like USB thumb drives, SD memory cards are a great candidate for wearable data storage because they’re small, they’re lightweight, and they’re durable. In fact, a card is often smaller and lighter than a thumb drive, so it’s really the best choice.

There are many different ways to convert an SD card to something wearable or pocket-able. Perhaps the best option is a necklace lanyard or holder. This lets you keep you keep the card accessible at all times, but the card remains out of the way and safe from danger, and can also be hidden beneath your shirt or jacket easily (hey, a 32GB card isn’t cheap).

Alternatively, you can forego the wearable option and just go with a keychain or wallet option. Although less visible and accessible, these options may be more practical, and often can hold multiple cards at once.

Conclusion

There are many other ways to use SD cards, but I’ve focused on methods that actually keep the cards usable. Recreating the Mona Lisa with memory cards might be geek-cool, but probably isn’t practical.

Feel free to leave comments with your own ideas of cool ways to use SD cards.

Unfortunately, there seems to be no way to expand the memory on these devices or add an external hard drive as you can with your computer. However, as an owner of all three iOS devices, I’ve always purchased the bottom line of each model. I currently use an 8GB iPhone 3G and a 16GB Wi-Fi iPad, and I never long for a larger memory drive. The reason why? Simply put, cloud computing.

The best way to expand the memory on your iOS device, almost like adding an external drive to your computer, is to take advantage of web-based storage services and applications that of course only require a Wi-Fi or 3G connection to access your data.

The following are some suggestions for apps and services you can use with your iOS device to expand its memory, so to speak. If you’re not quite sure about how much memory space you’re using in your device, simply tap the Settings app > General > About. From there, you will get a breakdown of the number of songs, videos, photos, and applications you have on your device, as well as how much memory space you have available.

You can get the same information after connecting your device to your iTunes application.

ZumoCast & Zumo Drive

Songs, movies, and photos probably take up most of the space on Apple”˜s hand-held devices. But unless you travel a lot and have a hard time getting Wi-Fi or 3G access, you shouldn’t have to import hundreds of songs or movie files on your device. With a free web-streaming program and app called Zumocast, you can have access to all the media content on your computer from anywhere via Wi-Fi or 3G. This application is like adding unlimited storage space – as you would an external drive to your computer – to your mobile device. See Justin’s MUO article on how to set up and use Zumocast.

Now if you concerned about having to leave your computer on in order to access your data files, you can use ZumoDrive instead to upload data to the ZumoDrive server where it can be accessed for free. This cloud storage service and app adds up to 2GB of storage space to your device. To find out more about the differences between ZumoCast and ZumoDrive, check  out this blog post.

Dropbox & Evernote

I would imagine all savvy computer users know about Dropbox and Evernote, but I meet iPhone users all the time who don’t have a clue about theses web-based storage services and apps. With a Dropbox account, it’s like adding up to 2 gigabytes of storage to your mobile device. You can selectively store any kind of media, including audio and movie files, and you can retrieve your stored content via a free Dropbox app (iTunes Store link) on your device. Dropbox is like having an Home folder on your computer.

With the latest version of the Dropbox app, when you select and star individual files, you can access them offline.

In addition, Dropbox allows you to export say a PDF or Word file to another supported application on your device. This way, you’re only adding content to your device when you need it. All your other content stays in your cloud account on Dropbox’s server.

Evernote works pretty much the same way as Dropbox, though it’s limited to text, image, and voice recording files. ï»¿With an Evernote account and app (iTunes Store link), you can add up 25MB of data per month for free and access it also through your mobile device.

See my article on the Dropbox for the iPad for specific how-tos on using the mobile version of the app. And see Umar’s article of tips on using the Evernote.

Google & Picasa Album

If you need more space on your iOS device for photos, you can use Google’s Picasa Web Album service and Google Mobile application (iTunes Store link). Though this service and app is web-based, requiring Wi-Fi and 3G access, it’s like adding 1GB of external storage space to your mobile device. This option is not robust as Evernote and Dropbox, but it”˜s very useful for when you would like to have access to particular files without bothering to physically add them to your device.

There are of course paid options for expanding the storage capacity of the above services and apps. Apple”˜s own $99/year MobileMe cloud service would enable you to access up to 20GB of file storage via your mobile device.

While none of these options get you near the 160 gigabytes of space on a classic iPod, they do keep you from having to weigh down your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad device with files you don’t regularly use but would like to have access to when needed. Cloud apps and services also mean you don’t have to make a wired connection to your device in order to access or store media files.

Lastly, with Apples latest iOS 4.0 update, your mobile devices can make Bluetooth connections to your computer, Bluetooth speaker devices and AppleTV, which provides you with additional ways to access media without eating up memory.

So what do you think about the memory capacity of your Apple hand-held hardware? Are you always running out of space? How do you deal with storage capacity issues? We would like to know.

However, capacity is only one specification. RAM is also available in a variety of versions and speeds. A 2GB stick of DDR2 800 RAM is not the same thing as a 2GB stick of DDR3 1333 RAM. Understanding the difference is important because computers will generally accept only certain types of RAM.

Let’s take a look at the different types of DDR memory on the market and how they are different from each other.

The Big Issue: DDR2 vs DDR3

In late 2008, Intel released the first Core i7 processors. These processors were paired with a new motherboard chipset called X58. This chipset introduced the need for a new type of memory called DDR3.

In the last two years the entire industry has converted over to DDR3. All of Intel’s new processors can only be used with a motherboard that requires DDR3. Recent AMD motherboards are also changing over to DDR3.

The term “DDR” stands for Double Data Rate RAM. This term came into use at the turn of the century when the first Double Data Rate RAM modules arrived. Double Data Rate RAM was capable of two data transfers per clock cycle, giving it twice the theoretical peak bandwidth of previous SDRAM while running at the same clock speed.

DDR2 and DDR3 are improvements on the same technology and further increase the number of data transfers per clock cycle. DDR2 RAM provides 4 data transfers per cycle, while DDR3 increases the number to 8. Assuming a base clock speed of 100Mhz, DDR RAM will provide 1600 MB/s of Bandwidth, DDR2 provides 3200 MB/s, and DDR3 provides 6400 MB/s. More is always better!

Performance & Compatibility Consequences

Does this mean you’ll notice a big difference between DDR2 and DDR3 systems? Well, maybe not. While the increase in memory bandwidth is great, the truth is that 99% of programs are not capable of creating a workload that will be restricted by memory bandwidth. The issue is most relevant to server and workstation class products.

To see a difference in performance you’ll usually need to use a benchmark program capable of testing memory bandwidth.

However, purchasing DDR2 or DDR3 RAM isn’t usually a matter of preference. DDR2 and DDR3 RAM are not compatible. If your motherboard uses DDR2, you cannot upgrade to DDR3 without upgrading your motherboard. This means that if you currently own a computer with DDR2 RAM and you want to upgrade to a brand new processor and motherboard you have to throw your your perfectly good DDR2 RAM and buy new DDR3 RAM.

There are a few motherboards which are exceptions to this rule, but they are exceptions only because they provide both DDR2 and DDR3 RAM slots, and these exceptions are available only on older chipsets.

I know – it’s a bummer, but there isn’t much you can do about it. Both Intel and AMD have committed to DDR3 RAM for future products, so you’ll be forced to either buy new RAM and deal with your computer becoming a dinosaur.

Clock Speed – The Other Part Of The Equation

Another important specification to consider when looking at RAM is the clock speed. Clock speed is an indication of how well the RAM will perform in much the same way that clock speed indicates how well a processor will perform, and it is part of the equation that determines the maximum theoretical peak bandwidth of memory. A higher clock speed is better. However, as I mentioned previously, this is a difference that is unlikely to be noticeable in normal daily use. The typical enthusiast won’t see much benefit from memory with a higher clock speed.

With that said, there are motherboards that only accept memory within a limited range of clock speeds. It is always a good idea to consult a motherboard manufacturer’s website to double-check the RAM that is compatible. Motherboards are usually very flexible in this regard, but it is better to be safe than sorry.

Conclusion

The bad news is that the invention of DDR3 is making DDR2 obsolete by force. I have four sticks of spare DDR2 memory that are no longer capable of finding a home in a new system, even a low-power HTPC or office computer, because of the change. The good news is that new RAM technology is at least several years off, so DDR3 purchased today should be good for a while. Just be sure to check the type of RAM a new motherboard requires before purchasing RAM to go with it!

Credit for the third image goes to The Tech Report, one of my favorite hardware websites. Please visit them and check out their in-depth reviews!

So what is the least you should know about digital camera memory cards? Here are my recommendations.

1. Types of Cards

There are three broad and popular types of memory cards for digital cameras:  CompactFlash (CS), Secure Digital (SD), and SmartMedia (SM). There are other variations of these cards, but the important thing to know, of course, is which type of card your digital camera uses.

For consumer cameras, only one type of card can be used, while a few of the top of the line professional DSLR cameras might allow for using both Compact and SM cards at the same time. It’s probably best to stick to reputable memory card makers, which include Sandisk, Fuji, Lexa, Delkin, Viking, and Kingston.

2. Memory Capacity

Since most digital cameras on the market today start at 8 megapixels and higher, I recommend that your memory cards be at least 2 gigabytes or larger. A 2 gig SD card, for example, on my 12 megapixel Canon Powershot G9 can hold about 380 large JPEG size photos, but if I choose to shoot RAW format photos, that 2 gig card can only hold about 117 photos. If you on plan on shooting RAW photos with a 8+ megapixel camera, definitely use 4-8GB memory cards. The 256MB card that might have come with your new camera will not be large enough for most typical shoots.

After you insert your memory card into your camera, take a photo and then check the data on the camera’s LCD screen to see how many images your card can hold based on the shooting mode (JPEG, RAW, TIFF, or Movie) that you’re shooting. Also check the file size of the photo to how large each file might be on average.

3. Number of Shots

The type of shooting you do can impact how many images your memory card can hold. Your camera may tell you that the card can hold 380 images, but depending on the exposure settings and resolution sizes for each image taken, the file sizes can vary, though not significantly.

4. Keep a Backup

Always keep a spare backup digital camera memory card. If your camera included a rudimentary small size memory card, tuck that card away in your camera bag and keep it solely as a backup. If you’re using a 35mm camera with a nice size shoulder strap, you can purchase a small card holder attachment for your backup card. Thus if for any reason you fill up your main card(s) or forget to put your memory card back into your camera, you have the backup card with at all times. When you use that backup card, immediately put it back where you carry it for future use.

5. Format Your Cards

You should always format your memory cards on your camera. Never erase them on your computer. Erasing a few photos at a time on your memory card is okay, but you frequently to reformat your card, especially after you have shot and exported a large number of photos to your computer.

6. Card Capacity

Avoid filling your card up to its capacity. If your card can hold 380 JPEG photos, you might want only shoot up to 350 images. Feeling a card to its capacity might cause the card to get corrupted.

7. Card Speed

If you’re concerned about the speed of your digital card, you will want to check out its transfer rate. Cards can record images at rates of 4x, 10x, 40x, etc. Professional DSLR cameras need to faster capture rates than compact cards. See here for some information about memory card speeds.

8. Single Card vs. Many

If you’re shooting a wedding or important travel photos where you only have one opportunity to capture images, avoid using large 8-16GB cards to hold all your photos. Memory cards can and do fail. If you put all your eggs into one basket, so to speak, you might end up losing all your photos.

If you’re in the field, it’s a good idea to have a portable memory card reader and capture device that you can use to copy your cards to. Personally, I don’t like deleting images from my memory cards until I have them backed up at least twice. And even then, I might not reformat/erase images on the cards until my next photo shoot.

9. Removing Cards

Of course you should never remove a card from a camera while it’s writing images to it. It’s best to turn off your camera and then pull out the card from its slot. With smaller SD cards, you also notice if there is outside damage being done to the card when it is inserted and removed from the camera.

10. Card Holder

If you have several cards for high level shooting, you should not only keep them secure in a memory card holder, but you should also label them with your name and phone number, and even number them for when you’re shooting important events in which you might need to frequently change cards.

Though in the last eight or so years that I have been shooting with digital cameras, I have never personally had a card fail on me, but cards do get corrupted. But when that happens, try not to panic. MUO has run several articles on image recovery software that you should bookmark and be aware of.

Let us know your experiences with digital camera memory cards. Have you had a card fail on you? Do you tend to shoot with large size cards or do you prefer shooting with several mid-size cards? Let us know your recommendations.

Obviously, almost instinctively I attributed the trouble to Windows. Ran a couple of scans and diagnostics and they all came out clean. Fed up of the problems and not being able to resolve them I decided to go ahead and install Linux alongside. Half an hour later I was ready to bid a much wanted goodbye to all the troubles. However, about 10-15 minutes into the session, applications started quitting unexpectedly or failed to start altogether.

It was not a Windows problem after all. Now I was almost certain that it was a hardware issue. Having already scanned the hard disk, I didn’t know what to check next. Then on a random reboot I noticed the memtest86 entry on the GRUB menu. It has always been there whenever you install Ubuntu, yet I had completely forgotten about it. So I decided to give it a whirl and viola, one of the RAM sticks was found to be the miscreant!

Memtest as it turns out is an excellent solution for conducting a computer memory test, only its a little too advanced for the average user. Let’s attempt to demystify some of the options that you can make use of if time demands so.

First off you need to download Memtest and I would suggest burning the bootable ISO image onto a CD. That is perhaps the easiest way to use Memtest. Owing to its popularity and usefulness, Memtest is also included on a number of Live CDs including the likes of Ubuntu and System Rescue CD.

Once you have the CD ready, pop it in and let the computer boot from it. Depending on whether you are using the Memtest ISO or one of the other Live CDs you will be taken to Memtest directly or you would have to invoke it via one of the options. Here is how to invoke it on the Ubuntu Live CD:

In either case, once Memtest has been invoked, it starts running computer memory tests straight away without asking questions of any sort. It displays a basic memory information in the upper left hand corner, information on the currently running tests in the upper right hand corner and overall test results just below them (only errors are displayed). Towards the bottom you can find the means to interact with Memtest.

You can reboot any time using the ESC key and Lock/Unlock scrolling to view the errors if there are too many of them. Enabling the scroll lock also pauses the tests till you disable it. Hitting ‘c’ would take you to the configuration menu and allows you to customize a variety of settings and parameters. You can choose from amongst various tests. The detailed description of the tests and what kinds of issues they detect is available here.

Via the settings menu, you can also customize the memory address range that should be tested. Its best you leave it to the full memory scan especially on the first scan, then you can use custom values, depending on the errors you get to test only the bad addresses. In addition you can change error display options and redraw the screen. Frankly these are the bits that you should be concerned about. If you need to go into the advanced options, you probably already know a lot about Memtest!

Memtest is an excellent tool to keep in your virtual troubleshooting toolbox. Although such memory errors like I encountered are rare, they do leave you clueless as to what’s giving way. A quick memory scan can either rule that out or point you towards the problem straightaway.

Let us know what you think of the Memtest computer memory test or if you have a preferred alternative.

Part of the reason behind Firefox’s success is the fact that there is an awesome team of individuals behind it, who work around the clock to make it live up to the stringent quality standards, which are a hallmark of Mozilla.

However, there is a second, almost equally important reason as to why each version of Firefox is a runaway success. There’s virtually no limit to the amount of customization you can apply to Firefox. Most of these come in the form of extensions (small add-ons, which add to the functionality).

However, today we are going to talk about another, more covert way of customizing Firefox. All the different settings of Firefox can be accessed from one convenient location using the Firefox “About Config” hack. By typing about:config in the address bar, one can bring up a page listing all the different options. Once on that page, it’s simply a matter of double-clicking and editing those settings to make your browsing experience even better.

Here’s a list of the best, most useful Firefox about:config hacks. All these hacks can be enabled by going into about:config. In case a setting doesn’t show up in the search, just right-click and select New to create it.

Make Firefox Free Up RAM When Minimized:

Unless you have a RAM behemoth for a rig, you will know that RAM is a precious commodity. Simply put, RAM is like a container into which all applications are thrown when they are first run. The applications carry out all their processing in the RAM and then leave the RAM when they are done.

The problem arises in the way Firefox handles RAM. Most programs return unused RAM when they are minimized. Firefox, on the other hand does not do so. So, the Firefox ninjas around the world found an about:config workaround for it:

• In the “Filter” search, type: config.trim_on_minimize

• Right click on the setting and click “toggle” so that the Value turns to “true“.

From now on, Firefox will act like any other Windows app and return all unused memory when minimized.

Stop Websites From Blinding You With Blinking Text:

Some webmasters have this crazy habit of making text on their pages blink. Maybe it’s their idea of looking cool, but in reality, it’s nothing more than a major irritation. Coupled with that is the fact that it really tires your eyes. Here’s how you can change about:config to disable blinking text:

• In the “Filter” search, type: browser.blink_allowed

• Right click on the setting and click “toggle” so that the Value turns to “false“. This disables the blinking.

Paste Text With The Middle Mouse Button:

Linux users will vouch for how awesome pasting with the middle mouse button is. Now, Windows users can get the same functionality within Firefox. You guessed it! You need to go to about:config to do the following:

• In the “Filter” search, type: middlemouse.paste

• Right click on the setting and click “toggle” so that the Value turns to “true“.

Open Search Results In A New Tab:

Every now and then I come across a term on a website that I really need to research. I quickly hit Ctrl+K (the Search Box shortcut), type the keywords, and hit Return, only to remember at the last instant that the search will take me away from my current page. Using the following about:config hack, I configured Firefox to open all searches in a new tab.

• In the “Filter” search, type: browser.search.openintab

• Right click on the setting and click “toggle” so that the Value turns to “true“.

Make Firefox’s Menus Load Faster:

Sometimes, the delay caused while opening a Menu is just a major headache. Here’s how to do away with it using about:config.

• In the configuration window, right click and choose New -> Integer

• Name it ui.submenuDelay and set it to 0

And that’s all that there is to it! It’s simply amazing how a few configuration changes here and there can make your surfing experience so much smoother. About:config hacks really make Mozilla Firefox all the more awesome. No wonder it is one of the most popular browsers in the world.

What about:config hacks are your favourites?