Chrome Web Browser Extensions

What are “Extensions?”

Extensions are small software programs that customize the browsing experience. They enable users to tailor Chrome functionality and behavior to individual needs or preferences. They are built on web technologies such as HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.

An extension must fulfill a single purpose that is narrowly defined and easy to understand. A single extension can include multiple components and a range of functionality, as long as everything contributes towards a common purpose.

I have invented one lately as a Christmas gift to all of my readers. It is called, “Smart Back Buttons.” The purpose of this extension is to provide easy access to back and forward buttons just like a smartphone for any website. I use it daily and have made my life just a little easier. Try it, it is free!

Kindly give us five stars! 🙂

Here is the link to Google Chrome Web Store: Smart Back Button Extension.

Enjoy your Christmas this year! Merry Christmas!

Sub Skills

All people have skills that they could learn, and those skills must take practice to achieve success. Without practice, skills you learned would never improve and become useless.

For example, the first thing to learn when making a chair is to learn carpentry. You must practice how to use a hammer with nails, or else you would fail. The outcome is undesirable and thus ignored. Nobody will buy your chair if it is not made of high quality.

Sub skills are those skills that are required for a specific discipline. Like in our case, we need to learn and practice how to use a hammer, how to hold it and how to use its features, to make a chair. Then, another sub-skill is learning how to cut wood to create the shape of the chair. So on and so forth.

Try it yourself. Learn how to master each sub-skills to improve your craftsmanship and create better quality inventions.

He has given them skills in all kinds of work done by engravers, designers, and weavers of fine linen; blue, purple, and red wool; and other cloth. They are able to do all kinds of work and are skillful designers.

Exodus 35:35

Bible Society of South Africa. Good News Bible: Good News Translation (GNT). Bible Society of South Africa. Kindle Edition.

“Practice makes Perfect.” — Anonymous

Humans

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a weapon. This technology is dangerous enough if it falls into the wrong hands, our world will be in darkness. Pessimism about this is prevalent to humans because we are afraid of something we do not understand, but that is also the case for guns.

Guns are weapons that could kill. It had myriads of infamous news on the internet about school shootings, terrorism, and war in Syria. Guns are scary because it can take our lives, and being scared runs deeply in our subconsciousness. The real culprit is humans.

Humans create AI, not the other way around. Therefore, it is humans to be blamed for AI’s shortcomings. Guns are like AI in it’s truest form because they could be a weapon for good or a weapon for evil, which will take us into questions like, “Who would protect us from AI?,” or “Will the government take measures to regulate AI, so that anyone who uses it will not be a harm to everyone?”

Like guns, we should limit the people who are allowed to use AI because humans are prone to error. But, that is impossible! Like the internet, it can not be controlled. So, who can save us from the inevitable?

Humans.

The disciples went to him and woke him up. “Save us, Lord!” they said. “We are about to die!”

Matthew 8:25

Bible Society of South Africa. Good News Bible: Good News Translation (GNT) . Bible Society of South Africa. Kindle Edition.

Invent Gravity

We cannot live on Mars (for now). NASA research has found out that blood flow can stop and even reverse in the upper bodies of astronauts.

1 source: https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-research-astronauts-clots-bizarre-blood-flow

2 source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/new-nasa-study-finds-long-haul-danger-for-astronauts-blood-flow-in-reverse/ar-BBWIatd

It implies that the lack of gravity is the cause of blood clots in space. Therefore, we need gravity if we wish to survive in outer space for a long time.

We all watched science fiction movies that show spaceships that have this rotating protrusion in the middle of the craft to generate gravity. Is there a scientific basis for it? I don’t know, but it is essential for humans to invent a way to generate artificial gravity in space for us to have healthy lives.

I am optimistic that humans could survive in space for travel if we study biology and physics enough, for us to adapt in a harsh, lifeless environment.

The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

Genesis 2:15

Reduce

More adds complexity. Like buying products you don’t need; adding features that nobody uses; adding a workforce that brings up costs; installing apps that bloat the system, or adding more work with strict deadlines. To live simply is key to having a more productive, happier and safer environment.

For example, list all the things you do when browsing the web. We all use a web browser to interact with websites, or apps to access social media, do online shopping, and research in school, right? Common sense dictates that the web browser is your portal to the outside world. But, the world is not rosy and pretty realistically. Let’s be honest, everything on the internet sells something for financial gain because it is business, but there are also bad actors that only after your money and do harm. That’s why parents are fearful of their children’s safety online. So, what do we do to help protect the public from malicious individuals or cybercriminals?

The answer is to reduce.

Reduce everything from your web browser’s powers. Turn off everything you don’t need like access to your microphone, access to your camera; turn off access to your location, file editing, block notifications, motion sensors, etc.

Next, your operating system must close ports you don’t use like disabling access to apps in your firewall. Every OS like Windows, Linux, macOS, and Android have a firewall to prevent unauthorized intrusion by hackers.

Next, use wired instead of wireless as much as possible. It’s safer to use a wired connection because it is physically attached to your computer. But, this is just a bit of advice that you can break because everyone at some point needs a wireless connection like using Bluetooth, and WIFI.

Be sure to update your devices. I know it’s a problem with Android phones since they rarely do updates, and after years older, your device is probably obsolete anyway. You have to have to buy newer phones to be safer. Just be sure to dispose of your phone properly.

Reduce the number of people that can send you emails, and limit the number of websites you visit. Don’t click that link. Be sure that the website is legit. How? By looking at the URL or email address. The URL must be simple names that do not mask or show random numbers and letters. If you find that it has this, then stay away or check to see if it’s from a trusted website or domain name that everyone knows.

The online world gives us the ability to connect, share with others and nourish relationships, but we must be careful about how we interact and use these technologies because the world we live in is not just a fairy tale. These are just a few suggestions in order to enjoy a much safer experience online. Therefore, to reduce the number of vectors and complexity is a solution that most of us can utilize.

Here are tips from Microsoft on how to avoid getting infected by ransomware: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4013550/windows-protect-your-pc-from-ransomware

How I love you, Lord!  You are my defender.  2 The Lord is my protector;  he is my strong fortress.  My God is my protection,  and with him I am safe.  He protects me like a shield;  he defends me and keeps me safe.  3 I call to the Lord,  and he saves me from my enemies.  Praise the Lord!

Psalms 18:1-3

Bible Society of South Africa. Good News Bible: Good News Translation (GNT) . Bible Society of South Africa. Kindle Edition.

Avoid Repetition

Repetition is a problem, but sometimes unavoidable. As the Bible points out that usually, history repeats itself. This should not happen. God has given us free will to choose, but sadly people choose the same things, over and over again.

Let’s scale it down to our daily lives. We get up in the morning, check email or messages, wash-up, eat breakfast, and on and so on. This is repetition. Time will come that this “routine” will get a hold of us and become imprisoned by it that makes it hard to break free from this cycle. Therefore, repetition is a plague.

The solution to this is you have to have the will to change the things that repeat over time. We have to stop it now and try to deviate from the chains that bind us to something that our own doing. We have to plan ahead, think things through and mix things up. If possible, automate.

Time will come, when everything is NOT a routine, our lives will improve and free from history repeating itself.

4 Generations come and generations go, but the world stays just the same. 5 The sun still rises, and it still goes down, going wearily back to where it must start all over again. 6 The wind blows south, the wind blows north — round and round and back again. 7 Every river flows into the sea, but the sea is not yet full. The water returns to where the rivers began, and starts all over again. 8 Everything leads to weariness — a weariness too great for words. Our eyes can never see enough to be satisfied; our ears can never hear enough. 9 What has happened before will happen again. What has been done before will be done again. There is nothing new in the whole world. 10 “Look,” they say, “here is something new!” But no, it has all happened before, long before we were born. 11 No one remembers what has happened in the past, and no one in days to come will remember what happens between now and then.

Ecclesiastes 1:4-11

 

Human: The Tin Man

What is the meaning of being human? When we say we live as being a normal human, thoughts of living according to our desires as human, which is feelings and senses and flaws. We live like how others live; being dictated by culture and society. Having an affair with another human is acceptable if you are single, or watching pornography is being manly because we are human.

We live in a society shaped by evil. Our thoughts, our speech, and our actions speak loud about how malicious, senseless and evil. Being evil is what society has brought us because it is the root of it. Before having an affair with another woman is gross, put to death, but now having an affair is just another divorce case.

Our human morality has eroded into a Sodom and Gomorrah story. How do we avert an impending doom?

Even as a society today has advanced so rapidly into technological feats and miracles, society changed into a soulless human. We don’t feel empathy anymore; we are cold. If we want to make the world a better and sustainable life is enriched rather than depleted, we must put a heart on our inventions.

“A robot without a heart is just a robot.” — Fernando

Big Show

2 “So when you give something to a needy person, do not make a big show of it, as the hypocrites do in the houses of worship and on the streets. They do it so that people will praise them. I assure you, they have already been paid in full. 3 But when you help a needy person, do it in such a way that even your closest friend will not know about it. 4 Then it will be a private matter. And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you.

Matthew 6:2-4

Do you know somebody who loves the approval of others, people who like others to praise and adore them? Yup, just like Marilyn Monroe.

We all love celebrities, for they give us cheer and entertain us, and even inspire us to live a better life; something to look forward to in life even in times of dismay. We all wanted to be loved like them; yearning to be like them — fame, fortune, and romance. But, these are just a dream for most people that will never bring true, deep, and long-lasting happiness:

But the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 humility, and self-control. There is no law against such things as these. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have put to death their human nature with all its passions and desires. 25 The Spirit has given us life; he must also control our lives. 26 We must not be proud or irritate one another or be jealous of one another.

Galatians 5:22-26

Steve Jobs is a celebrity who invented great things. Things that we cannot think to live without. But, even he must not succumb to the pleasures of life, for he had little time left. Therefore, we must remember how life is short, and that we must live our life to its fullest.

So do not worry about tomorrow; it will have enough worries of its own. There is no need to add to the troubles each day brings.

Matthew 6:34

“Do you want to have a fulfilling life? Put down your phone!” — 😉

 

Small Things

What is the most trivial task you are doing every day? This could be a chore like in laundry, washing dishes, or sweeping the floor? Now, the real question is, “Did you do this small thing at your best possible?”

Often times, the most trivial things test your ability to do your best. If you are good at small things then you can do big things. Before your boss can trust you with a big task, you must be tested and prove you are deemed worthy of that big task by looking at how well you performed in small tasks.

Immediately doing those big assignments without doing small undertakings, will only give you headaches, anxiety and is doomed to failure. It’s impossible to succeed in running a big, multinational company without learning how to run a startup. Starting at the bottom, then working your way up is sound advice. Eventually, doing momentous tasks would be easy because you know how now.

‘You have been faithful in managing small amounts, so I will put you in charge of large amounts.’

Matthew 25:21

When you were still small, it’s easier at first to pluck a low hanging fruit rather than picking the fruit on top of the tree. Later, as you grow taller and wiser, you can use a ladder to pluck the fruit high above the tree since you’ve learned much in the process as time went by. Don’t forget to write down all the things you’ve learned every day because learning valuable lessons is crucial to reach your dreams.

A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord determines his steps.

Proverbs 16:9

Under The Law

No one is above the law. So, we must follow it. The law is something that keeps people free. It shows us that obeying the law makes us do the right thing and not only us who benefit, but also other people. If there is law, there is justice. Without justice, then there is no peace.

An invention is made to solve problems. However, if an invention transgresses the law, then it is not worth it. Sometimes, the invention precedes the laws that are required for fairness, just like what happened to social media sites. They created something wonderful, but also something deadly. Now, social media is abused because of this freedom, which ironically trespasses it. Then, laws arise from it to regulate how this powerful tool can be used.

When we invent something, we must think carefully about what effects it could bring to people. Sadly, some inventors only thought of making products just to be wealthy and does not consider the cause and effect of a product once it is released. Nowadays, social media has become a battleground, even a mantra for fake news, lies and more hatred. The very thing we abhor is the very thing it gave life to. We created a monster!

Therefore, we must abide by the law. We should ask questions to ourselves if what we make is above, or under the law.

“Which commandment is the most important of all?”

Mark 12:28