handy tech tools to download

WOT gives websites a rating from green to red that you can see on your browser before entering them (little circles, or 'doughnuts)

Search 'permaculture' and things look pretty green
I've tried a few search terms that I thought would get me a mountain of red doughnuts, but dodgy sites tend to be in amongst reputable ones and I'm more likely to stumble across a bad site whilst doing something innocuous than searching"'@@##$%^&*()"
I generally remember that a red 'doughnut' beside a link means ENTER AT OWN RISK, but if I mindlessly click a red-rated link, my virus protection often sets up a clamour: aside from anything else red-rated sites often carry viruses, malware etc.

I also recommend adblock which edits out all the ads which drive me nuts online.

Thanks Leila, hadn't heard of that one.

In this age of criminal snoopery another good addon is HTTPS Everywhere. It will try and always use an encrypted connection for your web browsing. Not perfect since not all sites support HTTPS but it is better than nothing. Of course it is not just the government who is watching, there's also marketers and other data miners, Disconnect might help with some of that.

I also use Comment Blocker since seeing the vile things people write is no fun, excepting rare sites like permies which I whitelist. It can sometimes be a pain to manage though, then again, I also put up with NoScript which is more of a pain. Gives me control over what sites are running what scripts from whom though.

For shopping online, Coupons at Checkout can help save a little money.