FireFox

Creating your own persona

In this day of custom paint jobs and monogrammed lip rings why shouldn’t a web browser be as distinct as the person viewing it? If this problem has been vexing you ever since you thought up your penguin-themed browser, then worry no longer.

Mozilla’s Firefox web browser has the answer to your flightless bird dreams. Using a simple tool and a few online resources anyone can have their internet experience look exactly the way they want it to.

The first step is to create a file which will display correctly on the browser’s header bar. That’s the strip at the top of the browser window which starts out a simple gray when you first load Firefox.

If you don’t have a program like Adobe Photoshop loaded on your computer, that’s not a big deal. There are a couple of online resources which will allow you to start with a basic picture and create a file which will work for Firefox’s make-it-yourself persona feature. You can find a huge collection of images that can be used to create your persona using a P2P network like ares P2P.

SUMOPaint and Photoshop.com are two free online browser-based photo editing platforms which will let you open and manipulate a photo. Basically you need to either crop the image into a 3000 pixel wide by 200 pixel tall canvas. A simple way to do this is to open the photo, then create a new file the correct size. Copy the photo into the new canvas, and crop it to fit.

When you are saving the file, be sure to use JPG or PNG file extensions, and make sure the file is no bigger than 300k. Once you have the picture file the way you want it, go back to the Tools option and click Add-ons. From there, browse for new themes and when the web page opens look for the Create Your Own option near the top left of the window.

Finally, the penguins you wanted.

Filed Under: FireFox, Web browser Tagged With: Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox, Web browser

Bad Weather(Bug)

In a perfect world the internet would always be free, fast and void of spam, malware, spyware and the like. Things being the way they are, however, the internet is a potentially dangerous place.

You don’t want your computer wandering, unsuspecting through the untamed internet landscape, after all. It could catch a serious virus, or even worse, relinquish your vital data to some nefarious web bandit.

We take precautions to try and keep our various PCs, laptops, Macs and so on safe from the nasty things lurking in the web. We load it with anti-virus this and scan it for anti-malware that.

We know a few basic tips for staying safe we like to pass along. For instance we know the African prince who needs help getting his millions of dollars is a scam. We’ve even heard of Snopes.com which has proved useful when trying to weed through countless forwards and discerning fact from urban legend.

But did you realize sometimes the problem is your browser? It hardly makes sense that during these times of high competition between web browsers that any of them would fall in with the sorts of companies and individuals who (shudder) spam our in-boxes. And yet, that’s what can happen.

Take WeatherBug, for instance. When this neat little widget first showed up everyone and their mother had it blipping away the local weather in the corner of their desktop. It was, after all, pretty neat to get the current weather and a short forecast at a glance.

But things sort of fell apart when people starting realizing WeatherBug was a spyware distributor. And WeatherBug is a recommended Add-on at Mozilla.com, just going to show you can’t always trust a company to do the right or the smart thing. While it doesn’t make Firefox any less of a great browser, it’s important make sure you know what you are agreeing to when adding an add-on.

Filed Under: FireFox, Web browser Tagged With: Mozilla Firefox, Weather, WeatherBug, Web browser

Firefox 4 beta 3 for mobile

For a long time it didn’t really seem possible that smart phones would ever seriously compete with actual computers. There would still be a need and a reason to sit with a pc or at least a laptop and get some real work done.

For instance it hasn’t always been seamless or quick to load an attachment into an email. Also, the web pages sometimes didn’t look right and selecting click areas could often prove to be a pain on certain sites.

These complaints, however, are rapidly being answered by ever faster and more capable phones. In fact, it’s not really fair to call them phones anymore. We have to call them smart phones.

Admittedly, the things are pretty bright. Where one used to sort of lurch around a web page on a phone, you can now skate through the content with a finger tip, zooming in and out with simple pinching motions.

And if the features announced in the new Firefox 4 for Android phones are anything like what we can come to expect, then the day of mobile productivity has truly arrived.

Willing participants in the beta, which can be found in the Android Market by searching for “Mozilla Firefox” will discover this new browser literally integrating with their phone.

For instance it will add notification icons in the system bar along the top of the phone’s screen. It will also allow you to use the physical menu button along the bottom of the screen to access menu features within the browser.

Two of the neatest innovations are the Android keyboards and the File Picker system for uploading. The former adapts to what you are trying to do with the browser at that time by changing the enter button from either ‘go’ for url locations, or an hourglass ‘search’ button. The latter makes uploading and attaching files simple and quick.

Filed Under: FireFox, Web browser Tagged With: Android Market, Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Firefox 4

Safety Extensions for Firefox

Since the beginning of time we can assume people have had to hide their goods away behind lock and key to prevent them from being stolen. For whatever reason there have always been people willing to take what is not theirs.

The same is still true today considering your personal computer. Our machines are under constant attack from the outside world. The assaults come in a variety of forms, using a myriad of methods and it can seem expensive and confusing to gain a little confidence.

Still, understanding your attackers and knowing a good defense doesn’t have to be either expensive or daunting. In fact, just taking two basic steps can relieve a lot of security pain.

The first step is related to ads on the internet. In this instance the thieves are after your demographic information. The advertisers want to know where you have been and what you have been looking at. Ads have a nasty way of leaving behind malware and spyware. Both of these nasty bugs can cause serious problems for your computer.

Adblock Plus is a free add-on available through mozilla.com. Just click Tools, Add-ons and search for ‘Adblock Plus’. Click on the big green ‘Add to Firefox’ button and the browser will do the rest. This feature will block incoming content from a massive list of ad sites, keeping you from ever seeing the banners or bouncing boxes.

Another good step to take is to deny all cookies by default. These little packets of information are where a great deal of trouble is passed along through the internet. Simple go to Tools, the click Options, and the Privacy. Make sure to Disallow all 3rd party cookies by default and Disallow all cookies by default.

The drawback is that now in order to log in anywhere you will have to make an exception for that website.

Filed Under: FireFox, Web browser Tagged With: Adblock Plus, FireFox, Mozilla Firefox

Firefox’s answer to Facebook Fodder

Unfortunately there is money to be made by jamming bright, poorly done banners and quiz traps all over our favorite websites. This is evidences by the myriad of jumping, flashing and otherwise nauseating ads one can easily find by logging in to Facebook.

For those who just want to keep tabs on their friends and see what’s going on around them, and don’t want to find out if their IQ is higher than Rhianna’s, there is an answer.

If you are using Mozilla’s Firefox web browser the answer is as simple as Facebook Purity, touted as the Facebook Homepage Cleaner. This feature is installed the same as most other add-ons, by clicking Tools, then Add-ons. Search for F.B Purity and then click on the green button to install it.

Once the program is on your computer you can check to make sure it’s running right by refreshing your Facebook homepage. If it’s installed and running correctly there will be a new information bar just above the Top News and Most Recent options on your homepage. This little ticker will tell you how many application and extra messages have been hidden.

The ‘apps’ being hidden are the application messages. If you want to see them you just have to click show and they will displayed with a light red dotted line surrounding the text.

The extras being hidden are the messages about this friend becoming friends with that one, and this other person attending that one thing. Again, if this sort of thing is what you are looking for, you can have the add-on show those as well.

A final neat little thing F.B Purity offers is the ability to further customize your FB page. For instance if a certain font has always been too small you can now bump it up and if the layout has never seemed just right you can fiddle with that, too.

Filed Under: FireFox, Web browser Tagged With: Facebook, Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox

A Programmers Dilemma: To Offer a Software Download for Free or for a Cost?

: Image via Wikipedia

If you are a software programmer, you will face the dilemma whether you should offer a software download at zero cost, or whether you should charge money even though you are not a big name in the world of software yet. Many software programmers choose the former approach and offer a software download at zero cost, hoping that their efforts will encourage individuals and users to offer gratuitous payment.

However, this approach is not going to work if you rely on your programming skills for your daily meal. On the other hand, charging money from customers can work counter-productively in the long run because people would prefer purchasing software from a more reputable organization. You can make use of the following tips and techniques to improve visibility of your software without offering free software download.

For starters, try to make a few free mini-applications such as web browser add-ons for every premium program you put up for sale.

Second, implement search engine optimization strategies and tactics on your website to ensure that the right set of customers are targeted.

Third, focus on after-sales and service. Many programmers are very good when it comes to writing code properly. However, they can be bad at people skills and do not provide good quality after-sales support to customers.

Remember, each and every customer you have is an asset that can give you returns for the rest of your life. If you offer software that is licensed on an annual basis, make sure that the quality of service is high enough to bring them back year after year

Finally, you should keep an eye out for competition. You should always be on the look out to overcome competition with minimum effort and expenses. If you ignore this aspect, chances are high that customers may get pulled to some other service provider instead.

Filed Under: Advantages, Explorer, FireFox Tagged With: Computer program, Customer, Personal computer, Search engine optimization, Software Development, Spyware, Uploading and downloading, Web browser

Don’t Track Me

For those of us who are loyal for Mozilla’s Firefox web browser it is sometimes painful to learn of the decisions the company has been making of late. For instance when they recommended the add-on Weatherbug, a known malicious distributor of malware and spyware it seemed contradictory.

Firefox, after all, is the open source answer to big money’s Internet Explorer, right? We have slowly been taught that Microsoft is the ‘Man’ and he’s keeping us down. Well, apparently things are not always as they seem.

Take for instance Mozilla’s recent actions regarding a Do Not Track tool they were developing. This tool would effectively limit ad companies and other evil web prowlers from loading up our computers with cookies. They want these cookies on our PCs and Macs because they want to know where we have been on the internet and what we have been looking at.

Mozilla removed their Do Not Track tool from the browser being beta tested, presumably because the ad companies were worried something like that would hurt their profits. It turns out the traditional method of advertising on the web isn’t nearly as profitable as the subversive and invasive kind of advertising.

Microsoft, on the other hand, has recently announced they will be enhancing IE9 with a Do Not Track tool, for the explicit purpose of protecting web users. This sort of pro-populous decision counters what we’ve been taught to think about big business versus open source.

It turns out Microsoft actually has a division devoted to privacy strategy and it’s chief of that division believes there is a healthy balance to be maintained between consumer empowerment and privacy and the needs of the internet as a business. He said in a statement that tools like Do Not Track are important because they maintain the level of functionality internet users are used to and demand.

Filed Under: Explorer, FireFox, Web browser Tagged With: Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox

Firefox Do Not Track update

: Image via Wikipedia

For those who were dismayed by Mozilla’s killing of the consumer protection Do Not Track tool, there is hope after all. It turns out the company did not kill the anti-tracking program because of pressure from online advertisers.

That was the story not long ago when Microsoft took great pains to point out that they were still developing a Do Not Track tool to combat the onslaught of spyware and malware designed at monitoring consumer internet activity.

And don’t be mistaken; that’s where the big money is. It turns out that traditional, honest advertising on the internet isn’t all that reliable. Companies can’t rely on banner and box advertisements to bring in good money.

They can, however, go after the private and hidden information on our computers. They want to know where we are going, what we are looking at and what we are purchasing online. They can find all that out by jamming cookies on to our machines and watching the data roll in.

Do Not Track tools are programs designed to eliminate this sort of thievery. That’s why it was such a blow to Mozilla fans when they scrapped their anti-tracking program part of the way through beta testing the newest version of Firefox.

It is also why it’s good to know the real reason why Mozilla backed away from the project. Officials from Mozilla are now reporting the real reason they stopped development was because they were beginning to worry the tool would inspire ad companies to use even more devious methods to get what they want.

One way or the other consumers can expect this issue to come to some sort of resolution as the lawmakers in Washington start to pay attention. The word is a House subcommittee dedicated to consumer protection is vetting this very topic of Do Not Track tools right now.

Filed Under: FireFox, Web browser Tagged With: Add-on, Microsoft, Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox

Is this add-on safe?

Internet security is a new and ever-evolving field where the consumer can ultimately be left with a feeling of inept vulnerability. It seems no matter what precautions one can take there are always another series of new, evil and inventive methods whereby once can lose their vital information, security or data.

It doesn’t help when the places we are taught to look for ‘safe’ and ‘secure’ transactions are as suspect as the dodgiest of backwater internet sites. It can be disheartening to learn that PayPall and other presumably secure sites lose secure information to attacks on a regular basis. Yet the reality is whenever a consumer puts anything in the internet there is always a chance it will be compromised.

And again, the same can even be true for sites we are supposed to be able to trust. Even Mozilla, the maker of the Firefox web browser has been known to make a bungle when it comes to protecting their consumers. Take as a case in point the recommended add-on Weatherbug. Mozilla lists it right along with the rest of the easily accessible and quickly down loadable add-ons. And it’s a nifty little big, except for the problem that it’s loaded with spyware.

So how does one know what to do and who to trust? It turns out the internet user’s greatest resources is other internet users. Conveniently listed in the user’s reviews of the Weatherbug add-on just below where Mozilla places a giant download button is the truth about this nefarious widget.

In fact, more than one user has taken the time to not only report the truth about the Weatherbug add-on, they even admonish Mozilla for blindly recommending something so counter-consumer.

Do not blindly trust any add-on. Only trust applications and add-ons that are highly rated and have good user reviews. Also you should be very careful in transferring files through FTP clients. It is recommended to use FTP clients like FileZilla FTP that is known to provide greater security to its users.

When talking about add-ons, you can trust add-ons that are highly rated and recommended by the users. Like, you can trust Openoffice.org Menu that lets you to get connected with the Open Office community, because the add-on has good user reviews and rating.

In the end the best thing to do when you don’t know is ask questions. Go to forums dedicated to whatever your question is relate to (there is bound to be one) and ask.

Filed Under: FireFox, Web browser

The Inside Story on Firefox

Firefox has become a popular browser in the mainstream, with schools and other organizations as the standard to be used for the internet. One of the primary reasons for this is its excellent built in security features, which help to filter out websites that are potential threats. The browser also offers excellent speed when searching on a particular topic. The search results are simple to scan through and are highly relevant to whatever keywords are put into it.

One of fun features of Firefox is the ability to add your own “theme” to your browser. This is an image that runs in a strip along the top of the page and across the bottom. Users can create their own style using the application on the start up page, or they can pick from one of thousands that others have designed. There are also characters and actors featured from your favorite movie, and you can change the theme whenever you like.

Firefox does have some issues with certain websites, requiring you to download an add on in order to applications. This can be problematic, and you may have to switch into another browser for trouble free work. These problems are not common, though, and Firefox is worth downloading for its excellent protection features. Schools like this browser as it decreases the chance of someone opening up a harmful site that could put a virus into the system. This makes it a versatile and safe tool to use.

The browser also has several add ons that you can download. If you are a Twitter fan, you can get Echofon, which notifies you if someone you know tweets something interesting. There is also an Amazon add on that allows you to shop at the click of a mouse. Firefox has thousands more that you can pick from, depending on your interests.

Filed Under: FireFox, Web browser Tagged With: FireFox, Web browser