Gadget Corner: Kicking the habit

How to quit smoking without that nasty gum

 by Megan Irwin  published on Thursday, February 2, 2006

We all know smoking is bad for us -- it causes lung cancer. The tobacco industry exploits its workers. The reasons why smoking sucks are plentiful. But if you're a smoker, I guarantee all you got out of the previous sentences was "Blah blah blah. Yadda yadda. Blah."

When you're a dedicated smoker -- like I was for five years -- quitting sounds great, except for one problem: you're addicted. Which is why I was delighted to discover "Quit Mozilla," a neat downloadable extra available to users of the Mozilla Firefox Web browser. It calculates how many cigarettes have gone unsmoked -- and more importantly, how much money I've saved -- since the day I quit smoking.

Since I know you're curious: as I write this it's been one month, six days and 13 hours since my last cigarette -- yes, it's that precise. I've saved my lungs from 601.26 cancer sticks and saved my pocketbook $150.31. I haven't even caved in to a craving at any of my super-smoky weekend haunts because I know I'd have to reset my calculator.

If you're trying to get the tobacco monkey off your back, you need this. Go to "extensions" under the "tools" menu in Firefox and the browser's prompts will guide you from there.

Reach the reporter at megan.irwin@asu.edu.