Amazon.com‘s AStore Affiliate program pays charities if you search Amazon via a referrer link. In the spirit of giving, here’s how you can replace your Amazon Firefox Search Bar button with the AStore search link of your favorite cause. Amazon will donate to them every time you buy something!

What you’ll need:
1) Firefox
2) The Add to Search Bar extension
3) A favorite charity that has already set up an AStore. I wasn’t able to find many online, but my two favorites that I know of are Heifer.org (an organization that gives helps people in developing nations find sustainable food sources) or  DanCarlin.com (producer of the incredibly excellent podcast HardCore History).

Procedure:
1) Install the Add to Search Bar extension and restart Firefox. This extension allows you to put your cursor in any search bar on your favorite web pages and add that search functionality to your Firefox search bar.
2) Go to your favorite charity’s AStore. Find their AStore search bar, right click in it, and select “Add to Search Bar”.

3) Use this search bar every time you search Amazon, and they will donate to your worthy cause each time you shop!

Has this ever happened to you?

<<<<<<<RING! RING!>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Me: Hello?
Dad: Hi Ted. There’s a problem with the computer. All my programs disappeared.
Me: What do you mean they disappeared?
Dad: I don’t know– they’re just gone. No Firefox, no iPhoto, all gone.
Me: Can you see the dock?
Dad: What’s that?
Me: Never mind. Just go to the Finder.
Dad: What’s the Finder?

At this point, he wants me to fix this situation, even though he doesn’t have the language to accurately tell me what’s going on. This fundamental paradox is the whole basis for the humor in all those funny tech support transcripts that people forward all over the net.

When you are put in this position, you now have two good tools to get you out of it. Yuuguu.com allows you to share your desktop with any email, IM, or Skype contact you have so you can SHOW THEM visually where to go to fix their computer. You can even voice or text chat while you do it. The best part is that they don’t have to download or install anything to be able to see your screencasts. You just send them a link and they can see it in a web browser.

If you want to go even farther to helping out old Dad, you can actually take control of his computer, seeing his desktop on your screen. Chicken of the VNC is a great open source program that allows you to VNC (Virtual Network Computing) into their computer.

Of course, he needs to give you his IP address for you to do this (“My IP what?”), so you better get started with YuuGuu to show him how to find it!

VNC is also a great technology to allow you to log into other computers you might have around the house. I have an old Linux laptop that I use to store and stream my music files. With VNC, I can log into that computer remotely and manage the files there.

The coolest use of VNC, though, is controlling a computer from an iPhone, essentially making it a multitouch remote control. I use Jaadu VNC to control my Macbook from across the room– much to the shock and awe of my students!

Zemanta is a Firefox plugin that scans your blog posts for keywords, then suggests links, images, and tags to complement your blog. It’s super easy and free. Check it out!

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