Slept almost 8 hours. I feel like a new man. :-)
So what do you do when your wife goes away with the baby. Spend more time on the computer of course. :-)
Spent some of today updating my browser with new extensions. An extension is a piece of code that lets your web browser do new tricks. All extensions are available at the mozilla extension room

For example: I have a mouse gestures extension installed. Right click - right -> move forward a page Right click - left -> Go back a page. Right click - up - open a new tab. Really speeds up the web browsing.

I then added an adblocker to go with the built in pop-up blocker. Adblock installs in your browser and then you edit its filter to eliminate the ads from your browsing experience. This is way easier than it sounds.

1. Click the install package for Adblocker 0.5d2.
2. Restart your browser.
3. Go to an add heavy site like www.canada.com
4. Look in the bottom left hand corner of your browser for the adblock link.
5. Click it.
6. It will pop up a list of blockable items.
7. Look for something like http;//ad.doubleclick.net/(long url here). Generally if it has ad in the URL you can block it.
8. Click the URL.
9. It appears in the bottom bar of the pop-up window you are looking at.
10. Edit the URL with a wildcard character '*'. For example: http://ad.doubleclick.net/*
11. Click Okay. Everything from that server is now blocked.
12. Your time on the web just got faster and more peaceful. Most of us return to the same sites again and again so this little extension pays off quickly in reduced visual clutter.

While on my way I then added an RSS reader to my browser. This means you can subscribe to syndicated feeds of sites you visit regularly and see their content without going to the site. Think of it as a personal news wire. There are several web based aggregators (referenced below.) This one brings it right to your desktop. You could add the feeds you need for to the aggregator and then set it as your home page. Everything you need when your browser opens.

I also have changed my blog so it is now syndicated. This is the link you need. http://exactlyandapproximately.blogspot.com/atom.xml. The aggregator I discuss below throws an error when you add the subscrition. Ignore it and click the view RSS feed buttom and everything will display just fine.

Check out the application here:
http://www.aggreg8.net/index.php. Kudos that it actually has a manual and decent documentation. Unusual in open source projects.
Once you have installed it in your browser paste this into your browser address bar.
chrome://aggreg8/content/aggreg8.xul
The application opens and you can add subscriptions. It is not documented but you must create a category before you add a feed and click on this category in the bottom window on the page prior to clicking add subscription. So to add my blog create a category, the paste in the URL ending in atom.xml above and click add.

To see what is available in the world of blogs go to www.bloglines.com or http://www.feedster.com/top100.php