Most people around me spend their free time watching TV dramas, chatting, gathering with friends… Those are not very tech-savvy people, they rarely touch the Internet. They questioned me on what’s so good about Internet. Well, I have to say poor souls like them always under estimate the power of Internet and the impact it can bring to us. Sooner or later, they will realise that, not to worry. (Now even senior citizens learn to online because they want to book cheap air fares.)

What is the best thing you can get from Internet?
UNLIMITED RESOURCES!
Yes, if you are a frequent Internet user, you should know that we download “a lot of things”. Then you come across file sharing sites like Rapidshare or Megaupload, just to name a few. However, if you want to enjoy unlimited download access, you have to signup as a premium member, which most of us don’t like, because we have to pay!

With the growing poluarity of Rapidshere, they have recently implemented the “CAPCHA” word verification with the so-hard-to-identify cat images embedded in the verification characters. But now, they also come out with the “Happy Hour” campaign.

On certain time, you are able to download files from Rapidshare without any waiting time. That’s the so called Happy Hour. But when will such hour occur? We don’t know. But now we can know by installing a small Firefox extension called the HappyChecker.

However, the HappyChecker Firefox add-on requires you to login before installation. This add-on is an experimental one. But it works and able to detect Rapidshare’s Happy Hour. This plugin will check for the happy hour on half-hourly basis.

It does not have any control interface. Right after you install the plugin, it will start to function. When the Happy Hour is detected, a window will pop up showing this:

I recommend you to disable this plugin if you are not planning to download anything from Rapidshare, or else you will get the notification (if Happy Hour is active) every half-hourly.

Download HappyChecker.

[ via eches ]

Firefox has a lot of useful plugins that can enhance your browsing experience. That’s one of the reasons you should turn down Internet Explorer (especially IE7 and above) and switch to Firefox. Or at least try some other powerful browsers like Opera, Flock, etc..

Now, Firefox 3 is coming soon, real soon. I’ve tried Firefox 3 Beta and I’ve seen some good features and improvement. So, I’m going to download Firefox 3 once officially launched.

Find out more about Firefox 3 and join the Firefox Download Day 2008!