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It's no secret that Power Downloader's favorite Web browser is Firefox, for both Windows and Mac. Judging from the Mozilla browser's growing market share, it's not just Power's favorite, but the preferred browser of many of his fans, too. So, he's happy to recommend one of the most useful Firefox extensions he's ever come across: MR Tech Local Install.

It's a mouthful of a name, but it's got features for beginners and power users. Basically, it's the extension's extension, giving users added control over add-on behavior as well as … Read more

Real Goods Solar, which installs solar panels on homeowners' rooftops, filed paperwork on Thursday to go public with the goal of raising up to $57.5 million.

The company, now a subsidiary of environmental lifestyle company Gaiam, said it is the largest installer of grid-connected solar panels in California. It also operates in Colorado, where it is based.

The company was founded by John Schaeffer, who learned about solar electricity while living off-grid in a California commune in the 1970s.

It had revenues of almost $19 million last year. Including revenue from two installers it acquired, it had estimated 2007 … Read more

Our review of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard last Thursday lauded its lovely interface innovations but withheld judgment about the operating system's speed until we could put it through its paces.

Tests returned from CNET Labs on Saturday show that Leopard didn't perform noticeably faster than Mac OS 10.4.6 Tiger. (See the chart in CNET's review of Tiger.). Because Leopard's improved speeds of between 1 percent and 3 percent fall within the 5 percent margin of error, it's fair to call Leopard and Tiger even.

Lab tests explored Leopard's boot time, … Read more

Savor the irony. When there is a blackout, your solar power system will probably go out too.

That's because most systems are tied to the electrical grid. (In Germany, the utilities pay for this electricity, but in most states here, the utilities give you credit against any grid power you might buy.) To ensure that their workers don't get hurt, utilities shut off all devices that feed power into particular sectors of the grid when doing repairs.

To ameliorate that problem, SMA America, the U.S. group of a larger German company, has released a new version of … Read more

The folks in Mountain View, Calif., have recently updated their Google Pack, and while combining some of the best programs with an automatic updater and installer, some of the program choices have left me disappointed. The recent addition of StarOffice confirms that while this collection is good, it could be a lot better.

… Read more

I was in the Level 5 bathroom at the Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan, when I heard this amazing sound. Strange and beautiful music filled the one-person-at-a-time restroom, which I assumed was part of the Museum's "The Shapes of Space" show that runs through September 5. The music was pleasant enough, but there was something about the way the sound filled the bathroom that fascinated me. I could only locate one tiny speaker, up near the ceiling bouncing sound off the curved walls of the "D" shaped room. The sound was so ethereal, spacious, and calming, … Read more

Computer giant Dell made big news yesterday when it began shipping desktops and laptops pre-installed with Ubuntu, a popular Linux distribution. I'm not sure who the heck is going to buy a Linux Dell, but it certainly marks a sea change in retail computing. In terms of prepackaged operating systems, users have basically been stuck for a long time with the solitary choice of Windows vs. Mac. The fact that consumers can now purchase a Linux machine with support from the distributor certainly validates the open-source movement and Ubuntu in particular.

Yet if you're curious about Linux or … Read more