Firefox 3 came up with a bunch of improvements, but some of its new features are really two-headed serpents, because some love them, while other hate them. Just one example - the default over sized Back button in the toolbar. I love it, but some people want to see it go away. No problem, we'll solve that, and we'll also check an additional Firefox 3 tips, so fire it up!

OK, so let's get to it - how to turn the big Back button into a smaller one?

- Right click on the toolbar to get to the menu, and choose Customise.

- Check Use Small Icons, and then press Done.

- Enjoy your small Back button, or go back to the big one!

Next, we'll see how to adjust the Smart Location Bar's suggestions number (maybe you don't want more than 3, after all).

- Type about:config into the Address Bar, and then press Enter.

- Press the I'll be careful. I promise! button.

- Type browser.urlbar.maxRichResults in the Filter field to get to this preference.

- Choose how many suggestions you need(5 is fine with me, as you can see below).

Next, let's see how can we choose what Firefox 3 does with a certain file type by default.

- Open the Tools menu, and choose Options.

- Go to the Applications tab, and type in the name of a program/company/file type. In my case, it's Adobe.

- Select the action you want to set as default, as you can see in the image below.

- Press OK, and it's all done!

Fourth Firefox 3 tip today is a very quick one - to open a tab that you just closed, press Ctrl+Shift+T. Sweet!

At last, a quick scroll tip - to quickly scroll with your keyboard, use the Space key. While the Space key scrolls down, use the Shift+Space combination to scroll up.

That's it for today, I hope you enjoyed these Firefox 3 tips!

Summer is a troublesome season for computer owners, especially for those without proper airflow in their cases, and if the computer is also located in a room that gets hot...problems are just around the corner! Even more, viruses and other security threats are also waiting to make your life miserable, but you don't have to go and drop your computer at the local computer repairs shop, or the geek next door, because there are a lot of free computer fixes within reach! You don't have to pay for any software, and you won't need any special tools for "playing" with your computer's innards, you just have to pay attention to my advices!

<-120x240 Vertical Banner - left->When it comes to software, checking 10 Computer Security Tips could help a lot, although I can't claim that's all you can do to secure your computer and your data, but those tips could take you much closer to "best security you can get," since there's no such thing as "unbreakable system," only "system that hasn't been broken in yet."

Now, let's leave the security issue aside and move to the heat related problems and other issues that my need fixing these days, shall we?

Computer not starting/random reboots after upgrading the video card? If you got your hands on one of the new ATI Radeon HD 4850 or HD 4870 cards, I envy you! Both offer unbeatable price/performance ratio, and there are plenty of benchmarks and tests published here and there to prove that, but what if you just got one new card, and you can't enjoy its power? No, ATI doesn't suck, and NVIDIA doesn't suck either! Here's what you can do by yourself...

First of all, be sure to check that the 6-pin PCI-Express power connector is inserted into the card, because most new PCI-Express card need a bit of extra power. If you didn't check before buying the card, you should also check that your power supply unit can handle the power requirements of your new card, since most of them need at least a good 450W one. At last, if you get reboots in games, check the temperatures of your card, and maybe add some fans to your case, or simply remove the side panel.

After the last power drop, your computer doesn't boot at all, or gives you the BSOD? I know this won't probably help, but be sure to buy a UPS, just to avoid such problems in the future! Now, to serious things...

Test your memory, first of all. How to do that? No, don't go to any specialist, you can do it, too! Grab a Linux bootable CD of, if you have Vista, you can try the Memory Diagnostics Tool to check the memory. If you don't want to use any Linux bootable CD just to check your computer's memory, you can also give MemTest a try, I know a lot of computer service technicians using it, and you don't need any special knowledge to do that.

If your computer is starting up without problems, temperatures seem to be fine, but you still get random BSODs, you shoud check the hard drive, too. The fastest method is to get a program able to check the SMART status, such as Active SMART, DriveHealth or HDDLife. Although these are commercial programs, using the trial versions for a quick check is possible, but you could also consider buying them for long term hard drive health monitoring...or not, it's your choice.

Slow computer? Programs crashing all the time? Check your memory, scan for viruses, clean the dust from inside the case...and maybe even get a new computer, if the one you're currently using is 10 years old!

That should be all for today, but if you're looking for other free computer fixes, don't hesitate to stand out and shout. Your wish is my command, so let me know what's wrong with your computer. If it's ill, we'll cure it!

Google is slowly turning into a monster able to provide you all that you may need from the Internet. For now, everything seems fine, and there are no side effects. Although I am not using all Google's tools, I am extremely happy with Gmail and I think the search engine isn't that bad, either. In fact, it's the best thing you can get for now, in most cases. To me, iGoogle is a pretty new service, since today it was the first time I used it, to be honest. Now, let's see what's the link between iGoogle and social networking, shall we?

Before moving on, I have to excuse myself for being so ignorant - iGoogle has been around since May 2005, and got its current name and a whole plethora of features on the 30th of April, 2007. On the 18th of April, 2008, Google turned its iGoogle page into its general user start page. Now, iGoogle has reached a level allowing it to compete with sites like Netvibes, Pageflakes, or Windows Live Personalized Experience.<-125x125 Button - right->

OK, so the story is short and simple - Google is working on a new version of iGoogle, and is currently testing social networking features for the personalized home page, including chat between those signed in Google Web mail, instant messaging, or iGoogle services, in the left side navigation bar, sharing of stories in Google Reader and images in Picasa, as you can read in the Google Operating System blog.

To be honest, I am not crazy about having that left side navigation bar inside iGoogle(I wouldn't stop using Netvibes too soon, either), but I am sure they'll add an option to remove it, or maybe even an auto-hide feature. I know there are plenty of good similar sites, but what about leaving another Internet task to Google? Well, it may be scary, but we may be closer to Google OS than most of us think!