Sort of a Plug

So, now that I have to provide for myself financially (for this semester anyway), I have to keep track of what I’m spending. This is especially the case when my ATM card has not arrived yet… But that’s a story for another day. Anyway, I’ve found this site:
http://www.spendingdiary.com
. What it does is pretty simple, you just input how much you’ve spent and on what, and it keeps track of it. But you can get a lot of cool data out of it, like pie graphs of what category of thing you’re spending the most money on, things like that. It’s definitely easier than doing it on paper, and for someone like me who isn’t spending massive amounts each day, it’s pretty helpful.

Another Plug. Well, Sorta.

I am a dedicated Firefox user. However, recently, Firefox 2 has really been letting me down. So, on a whim, I tried Firefox 3, which is currently in beta testing. And it’s amazing. It’s so much quicker than its predecessor, it fits better into the Apple aesthetic, and it has a lot of really cool features, like an autofill address bar that is easy to use and you don’t get what you aren’t looking for.

That being said, a lot of extensions and add-ons don’t work on 3 quite yet. And it has the possibility of screwing up your settings for the old Firefox, if you just download it and open it (your profile files consider it the same program, which gets confusing.) But never fear, there are two solutions! The first, which I use, is MultiFirefox. It allows you to keep multiple profiles and multiple versions of Firefox open at the same time, so there’s no risk involved with using the new version. It’s Mac-only, though. The second option is to use the portable version of Firefox 3, which, as I understand it, works completely on its own, and so doesn’t change your files. This one is only for Windows, so you really have to choose between the two based on your system.

So give it a shot. It has a lot of great features, and it’s very interesting because, as it is a beta, it’s still changing. They take your feedback and put it into the next version. I was lucky enough to start using it only a few days before a new beta came out, and unlike most beta products I use, the changes were really noticeable. And that’s exciting. Especially to know that your comments are actually going to use to build a better product.

And of course, it’s free! What have you got to lose?