Chris Wiles, vnunet.com, Tuesday 30 December 2008 at 00:00:00

Automatically populate web forms

Although most of us choose to use one web browser for accessing the internet, we still need to remember multiple passwords, login information, security for our homepage and need to enter the same information in to the numerous web forms.

Many of the recent browsers enable you to automatically populate web forms with information stored within the browser. This includes basic information such as our name and address.

However, the security aspects are still kept separate from the forms and after a while, a cookie will expire and we’ll need to enter the security information from scratch.

Wouldn’t life be much easier if we could find a tool that would enable you to collate the secure information you enter in to a web form and then automatically fill in this information, whether you’re using Internet Explorer, Firefox or Netscape?

Roboform has been around for eons and will remember the details you enter into a form, when you surf the internet. Better still, it encrypts the information so that only you are aware of the security information Roboform has stored.

Through a service called GoodSync you can use Roboform to share your information across each computer where you’ve installed the service. This means that you can use Roboform at work, at home and on your laptop, with the same information available across all three computers.

Note that you’ll need to download and then install the Universal Adapter Installer after installing Roboform, to use it within Firefox or Netscape.

Latest version contains support for Netsape 9 as well as Firefox 3.

Paul Rowlingson, vnunet.com, Tuesday 30 December 2008 at 00:00:00

Portable web password manager

RoboForm2Go is the portable version of the RoboForm software, and lets you securely store all your passwords and login details on a USB key, for use on any PC, anywhere, anytime.

It can be used to generate passwords, store form information for later auto-completion, and create identities for more general form-filling. It can also be used as a portable bookmarks manager.

By default it works with Internet Explorer, adding a toolbar for quick access to all its functions. A free plug-in is available that makes it compatible with Mozilla Firefox.

Visit a site with a login box, and when you log in RoboForm2Go will prompt you to save these details. Next time you want to visit this site, use the RoboForm2Go toolbar to select the relevant login, and RoboForm2Go will load the website and auto-complete the login procedure.

All data is encrypted using DES, and if you set a master password the likelihood of anybody accessing your details is pretty slim.

When using RoboForm2Go on a public PC all evidence of RoboForm2Go is removed for complete security.

It isn’t the easiest software to get to grips with, but once you’ve grasped the basics the rest comes easy.

Chris Wiles, vnunet.com, Tuesday 30 December 2008 at 00:00:00

Weather forecast from Firefox

This is the software publisher’s description.

Firefox extension that brings international weather from AccuWeather.com to your web browser. You can use your US zip code or you can easily find your town or city by using the built in search tool. It is unobtrusive and lightweight, yet can be customized to display nearly as much data as the leading desktop weather programs! If you can’t find what you are looking for, click the weather icons displayed to open the AccuWeather.com forecast for your location. A slider, similar to when popup notification for when all downloads complete, pops up from the bottom right corner of your screen when the current conditions are updated. You can even set what appears in it or disable it!

Forecastfox lets you customize everything, from the number of days to be forecasted, to the content of the tooltips. You can decide whether to see the labels, and you can decide what toolbar to place Forecastfox in. The options window is intuitive and makes it fast and easy to change any of the settings you’d like.

The profile system lets you easily change between multiple locations. Each profile saves all of its own settings, including the tooltips and labels, the number of days forecasted and the location of the forecast. There is even a setting that allows you to automatically rotate between the profiles at a given time interval.

Chris Wiles, vnunet.com, Tuesday 30 December 2008 at 00:00:00

Control & manage your finances

This is the software publisher’s description.

Money Manager Ex is a free, open-source, cross-platform, easy-to-use personal finance software. It primarily helps organise finances and keeps track of where, when and how the money goes. It is also a great tool to get a bird’s eye view of your financial worth.

Money Manager includes all the basic features that 90% of users would want to see in a personal finance application. The design goals are to concentrate on simplicity and user-friendliness - something one can use everyday.

Becoming organised financially requires some amount of discipline. Financial management becomes complicated because there is no clear understanding of cash flow or an idea of income against expenses. Debt is usually what results when expenses exceed income.

The first step towards better financial organisation is keeping good records. Only when there is recognition of the expenses being made on a day to day basis will there be an understanding on how to cut back.

Did you realise you spent 300 Pounds in buying DVD movies last year? How many times did you watch them? Do you think now that the 300 Pounds would have been better spent on the unexpected maintenance on the car that came up yesterday? Of course there is no right or wrong answer to how you should spend your money. After all, it is you who earned that money and the right to spend it whichever way you see fit. But you can always make your money work harder for you.