Over on The City Wire, I have an article on why Internet Explorer, particularly Internet Explorer 6 must go the way of the dodo bird and pet rock.  For further proof, take a look at this graphic from Alan Foreman of Poisoned Minds.

This is the day to give your computer some TLC.  Try these tips to get your computer in tip-top shape.

• Use the Disk Cleanup utility in Windwos (Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Cleanup) to clean up old files you no longer need.
• Clean up your desktop - this will make your computer run faster.
• Remove unused programs using Add/Remove Programs (XP) or Programs and features (Vista Tartare and 7).
• Run Disk Defragmenter (Start -> All Programs -> System Tools -> Disk Defragmenter) after cleaning up the files and programs to defrag you disk.

Speaking of Windows Tartare, this would be a good time to upgrade to Windows 7.

Other tips:

Clean all vents in the desktop or laptop body of dust.  A well-ventilated computer is a cooler computer.  Cooler computers run faster and last longer.

Go through your floppy disks, CDs and DVDs and throw out what you no longer need.  If you are still holding on to valuable floppy disk, better get those converted over to some other media because floppy drives are going the way of newspapers.

After just posting my Favorite Firefox Plugins, I switched to Google Chrome Beta for my default browser.  Why the Beta?  It takes extensions.

My favorite Chrome Extensions (so far):

Chrome SEO - Gotta keep up with search engine statistics.

Delicious Bookmarker - As I’ve said before, Delicious is a great place to store links to websites for later use – even years later.

Docs PDF/PowerPoint Viewer - builds in PDF viewing.

Facebook for Google Chrome - Keep up with your notifications from the button.

Google Reader Notifier – shows number of unread items (handy when you subscribe to 250+ feeds)

IE Tab – For those sites that only work in IE (I pity the fools that build these sites)

RSS Subscription Extension – An obvious missing feature.

Send Link – Another obvious missing feature.  This one adds a “mail to:” button.

StumbleUpon – Incredibly useful timewaster for Internet surfing.

TooManyTabs for Chrome – Run with a dozen or more tabs open?  Get lost?  TooManyTabs to the rescue.

Xmarks Bookmarks Sync – Although bookmark sync is available for the Chrome browser, Xmarks kicks it up a notch by storing passwords, too.

Most users that favor Firefox do so because of the myriad of plugins that are available.  Below are the plugins that I currently use.

Classic Compact:  Technically a Firefox theme, Classic Compact tightens up the Firefox user interface to allow for more website real estate.  Every pixel counts!

Delicious Bookmarks:  After searching and surfing the web for years, I’ve some across hundreds of sites that I want to save for later use, maybe a year or more later.  The social networking and bookmarking service Delicious allows you to save these and tag them to be easier to find.  The Firefox plugin adds buttons to the toolbar to make it even easier to tag sites.  Much better than using favorites or bookmarks.

Foxy SEO Tool:  If you are a web professional, or are doing in depth site analysis for you company site, it does not get much better than this.  Traffic, profile, keyword, and other tools are all available.  Probably the best all-in-one SEO package for Firefox

RunDownload:  Like to “run” or “open” a download like in Internet Explorer?  This plugin adds that capability to Firefox.  Since this is an “experimental” addon, be sure to check the box to allow it to be added to your Firefox installation.

ScribeFire:  Although my favorite web posting tool is Windows Live Writer, Scribefire is getting more and more powerful with each version.  Especially great if you have multiple blogs to publish.

SearchStatus: Another SEO tool.  Quickly see the PageRank of a website upon visit.

Tab Mix Plus:  Unbelievable control of Firefox tabs.  Almost overwhelming with features.

Xmarks:  Have 2 or more computers that you want to keep bookmarks and passwords synced between?  This is as good as it gets.

After reading Fake Steve Jobs discussion with about AT&T complaining about iPhone users bandwidth, I wondered if the United States is becoming irrelevant, but Amazon has taken it once step farther:

Here is a little ettiquette tip for proper Internet Communication.  When you get a funny picture, a political outrage, or a religious sentiment you wish to share with everyone on your email list, do 2 things:

Seriously consider whether everyone on your email list really needs this information.  Seriously.  Most recipients probably don't need it, want it, or they have already seen it.

If you feel you must email something to everyone in your email list, at least use the BCC: field so you are not sharing everyones email address with everyone else.

Besides the privacy issues, email harvesters can more easily see the addresses which contributes to more spam.  

Use this site if you need to do an intervention on a friend or relative that forwards too much email to others.

Need Christmas background music for the holidays?  Let your computer do it.

Over at makeuseof.com, they have assembled a list of 8 sites for listening to holiday music.  I haven’t tried any of these for Christmas music, but I know that Last.fm is a great online radio station.