(no subject)

I installed some Firefox add-ons.

DictionarySearch
Lets you select a word on a page and right-click to look it up in a dictionary. Up to 4 dictionary (or any other search) sites can be configured. Nice and simple.

Unofficial Google Translate
Pretty much what I was looking for. Adds some context menu items which let you translate the current page via Google Translator. Once you set the "Translate From" option as AutoDetect, and the "Translate To" option as English, those will be the defaults from then on.

Foxlingo
Also lets you translate webpages. Adds a toolbar instead of adding entries to the context menu. I like that it lets you use choose from several different translating websites - so you can open the same page with both Google Translator and Babelfish, for example. But I don't like toolbars up there taking away from my screen space, and I don't like that it includes a search-box that can't be hidden.
Ah, I can hide the toolbar and only make it visible when I want to use it. I'll leave it like that for a while and see how I like it.
Update - 2008/11/29. I uninstalled FoxLingo, as it was causing Firefox to take noticeably longer to open new browser windows.


I also checked again whether I can get internet access for cheaper. I currently have Earthlink through Time Warner Cable (TWC), for $41.95 a month. For some reason, DSL is not available at this address. TWC also has other internet options, including slower speeds at cheaper prices. I'm considering switching to one of those, but I'm not sure if they include webspace like Earthlink does. If they don't, I'd have to decide what to do with my website.

AngelFire must be a pretty good free webspace provider. There is one person's website which hasn't been updated since 2001 (which I still have bookmarked) and the main page is still accessible.

(no subject)

More and more often, when I click on the Random LJ link, not only is it a page in Russian, but it is a Russian porn page. Apparently some of these pages are created by bots... got 2 pages with different names but the same content, one after the other.

I wonder if the Russian LJ owners aren't policing this kind of stuff, if people are going to start posting underage porn / pedophile stuff and if the whole of LJ will end up being shut down or blocked by the U.S. somehow.

(no subject)

I tried calling one of my aunts in Germany, but except for a few words, she couldn't hear me. FF had been able to call her and speak to her last week. Why is it that even when I'm speaking in my loudest voice right into the phone, I'm not audible? Why is it that I always seem to have the bad handset, no matter which one I use? How can it be that people don't hear me, even when I'm yelling? Why did it used to be, that I could be on one handset, and not be heard, yet FF, on another handset was heard just fine? Why is FF's loud voice so much louder than my loud voice?

Oh well. Guess I won't be able to speak to her again, unless I visit in person. I guess FF used to do most of the talking anyway... actually, the aunt did a whole lot of the talking too. In person, you can just nod your head and mutter appropriately, and the other person doesn't really need to be able to hear you.