Tag: Web

Supercharge Firefox

January 26, 2009 by Jason

If you are a Firefox user (and if not, why not…?) then here’s possibly one of the most useful add-ons ever well, for web users like me at any rate. It’s called UrlBarExt and it’s available in Windows, Mac and Linux versions. Here’s what it can do. A set of discrete icons appears at the end of the address box and from left to right they copy the current address or URL to the clipboard, shorten the displayed web address to a Tiny URL (or the web shortening service of your choice, Bit.Ly, cli.gs etc). It will search the currently displayed site using a keyword (right-click on the icon to open a search box), go up one level to the website’s root or home page, tag or bookmark the current page from a menu of popular tags, navigate through sequential pages (really handy when web pages are numbered, like those in my Boot Camp archives), and surf anonymously, using a proxy server. It’s highly configurable and like all the best things in life, completely free, so give it a spin, it’s really impressive once you get used to it.
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Enable ActiveX On Firefox

January 17, 2009 by Jason

This is a firefox plugin that I was looking for since long time, you will probably say why we need activeX with Firefox ? But some Intranet application require some functionnalities that are already available as ActiveX. I had a ActiveX twain solution that I wanted to run on firefox, so finally I think this could be done using ff-activex-host.

The extension is developed by Leeor Aharon, IT Structures Ltd, makes possible to use ActiveX controls in Firefox and provides full access to the hosted control (events, functions, properties) based on the Gecko NPAPI. Concerning security :

The plugin has some security related features to limit the risk it might pose to users by making ActiveX controls available in Firefox. First of all, it is using a special MIME Type so that it won’t get triggered by sites that were not specifically designed for it. Additionally, it supports lists of well known CLSIDs and PROGIDs so that it can be limited to use with specific controls and interfaces. Finally, it can be “site locked” to make sure it’s only being used by a predetermined list of domains. Read More»

Booting Windows XP with USB Flash Drive

January 02, 2009 by Jason

Almost everyone who has worked with computers for any length of time at all has run into at least one situation in which a problem left a PC unbootable. What if you could return the machine to a bootable state just by inserting a USB flash drive though? Believe it or not, it is actually possible to install a bootable copy of Windows XP onto a flash drive and then boot a PC off of the flash drive. From there, you can use applications that you have installed on the flash drive (anti virus, anti spyware, disk repair, etc.) to fix the PC’s problem. In this article, I will show you how.

What’s the catch?

As with most cool new techniques, there are a few catches. For starters, not every PC is capable of booting from a USB flash drive. For the most part, computers manufactured within the last two years are generally able to boot from a flash drive. Older systems may require a BIOS update, or might not be able to boot from a flash drive at all.

Another catch is that not every flash drive will get the job done. The primary factors that limit your use of a particular flash drive are capacity and speed. Technically, speed isn’t really a limiting factor, but booting Windows will be painfully slow unless you use a flash drive that supports USB 2.0. Read More»

Update Windows within Firefox

December 07, 2008 by Jason

For Firefox users, Windows Update usually becomes the only time we are forced to run Internet Explorer. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Since Windows Update requires an ActiveX control in order to run, it’s impossible to exclude Internet Explorer completely, so you will need to install IETab first, the magical Firefox extension that lets you open a web page with Internet Explorer within Firefox in a couple of clicks.

Once it is installed, you will need to replace the Windows Update shortcut in the All Programs menu. To do this:

  • Press Start. Select All Programs.
  • Right-click on Windows Update menu item and select Properties.
  • In the properties window, enter “C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe” http://update.microsoft.com in the Target field. Make sure you enter the correct path for your Firefox install and if the path contains any blank space, enclose the path in double quotes. Read More»

Nine tweaks for Firefox location bar

December 04, 2008 by Jason

While Firefox 3’s location bar is perhaps my personal favorite new feature and the one I missed the most when I have to use Firefox 2 for some testing, there are a lot of people who find it weird, obtrusive and don’t like it including bookmarks and history among its results.

An option to restore its old behavior was available for a few weeks during Firefox 3 development but it was pulled basically because it would need a lot of testing and it was thought it was not worth it. The option may come back for Firefox 3.1.

In the meantime, for those who prefer the old way and those who want even more power, here are 9 easy tweaks you can try.

1. Make the autocomplete menu show only typed addresses and not visited or bookmarked

  • Enter about:config in the location bar to access the advanced preferences. Accept the “This may void your warranty message”.
  • Look for browser.urlbar.matchOnlyTyped and double click it to set it to TRUE.

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Ten must-have Linux cheat-sheets

November 28, 2008 by Jason

Need a quick reference card? Here you have a list you can choose from:

1.Linux Command Line Tips

This is a linux command line reference for common operations (HTML format).

2.Unix/Linux Reference Card

Linux Reference Card published on FOSSwire website by Jacob. (PDF format)

3.One Page LInux Manual

A summary of useful Linux command by Squadron. (PDF format)

4.Linux Security Quick Reference

The intent of this Quick Reference Guide is to provide a starting point for improving the security of your system, to serve as a pointer to more in-depth security information, and to increase security awareness and methods that can be used to improve security. (PDF format) Read More»

Double your Firefox speed in just five minutes

November 26, 2008 by Jason

Firefox has been outperforming IE in every department for years, and version 3 is speedier than ever.

But tweak the right settings and you could make it faster still, more than doubling your speed in some situations, all for about five minutes work and for the cost of precisely nothing at all. Here’s what you need to do.

1. Enable pipelining

Browsers are normally very polite, sending a request to a server then waiting for a response before continuing. Pipelining is a more aggressive technique that lets them send multiple requests before any responses are received, often reducing page download times. To enable it, type about:config in the address bar, double-click network.http.pipelining and network.http.proxy.pipelining so their values are set to true, then double-click network.http.pipelining.maxrequests and set this to 8.

Keep in mind that some servers don’t support pipelining, though, and if you regularly visit a lot of these then the tweak can actually reduce performance. Set network.http.pipelining and network.http.proxy.pipelining to false again if you have any problems. Read More»

Are You Suffering From Internet Addiction?

November 24, 2008 by Jason

Do you spend your entire day surfing the internet and have withdrawl symptoms when offline? Chinese doctors took the first step to give a diagnostic definition of Internet addiction to address medical concerns over psychological problems from Internet overuse.

Symptoms of addiction included yearning to get back online, mental or physical distress, irritation and difficulty concentrating or sleeping. The definition, based on a study of more than 1,300 problematic computer users, classifies as addicts those who spend at least six hours online a day and have shown at least one symptom in the past three months.

They say such persons can seek medical help and counselling and now psychiatrists can easily treat such cases. I am sure a large population is surfing the web over 6 hours daily and showing one of those symptoms. I am sure many of my bloggers friends show these signs of addiction too. Maybe I am also getting addicted to the web, sitting and writing this post on a Sunday evening, though I still try to avoid my blogging time wasting habits. Read More»

10 Spyware Warning Signs – Are You Infected?

November 20, 2008 by Jason

It’s been estimated that over 60% of all computers have some kind of spyware installed and most of their owners are unaware! If you are tired of your PC running slow and filling your screen with those nasty pop-up then you will want to read the 10 warning signs listed below.

Afterwards check out my “action plan” and what you can do to rid yourself of your spyware infestation.

1. Browser Hijacks – When I used to get a call from a customer saying that their homepage had suddenly changed, without them doing anything, I knew to bring my anti-spyware fighting software. Malicious programmers love to change your browser settings to transfer your homepage to their “client’s” websites.

2. PC is Crashing – Without warning, your PC starts crashing, freezing or locking up, but you haven’t added any new software or updated anything recently.

3. Pop-Ups – You open your browser to visit your favorite blog site then “WHAM!” You are suddenly drowning in pop-ups! Your screen is full of brightly colored lures to porn, gambling or gaming websites. You click on the “Close” or the “X” to shut it down…uh, oh something is downloading to your machine! Read More»

Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 Release Blocked by 17 Bugs

November 12, 2008 by Jason

The upcoming stage in the development of the next iteration of Firefox is blocked by a consistent volume of bugs, Mozilla revealed. No less than 17 blockers are stopping Firefox 3.1 from moving onward to Beta 2. On November 10, the conclusion was that the Firefox 3.1, codename Shiretoko, Beta 2 was not ready for build because of the large number of issues affecting the development milestone of the open source browser.

“Despite a lot of hard work, we’re still a little bit away from being ready to hand the code for Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 over to the build team at this time. As of this writing, there are 17 bugs (marked blocking with the appropriate TM) that need to be resolved before we can ship,” revealed Mike Beltzner, Mozilla’s User Experience lead.

Beltzner indicated that no less than ten bugs impact Firefox 3.1 Beta 2, while another seven affect the underlying Gecko 1.9.1 Beta 2 rendering engine. The release of Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 continues to be planned for mid-November 2008; however, considering the number of blockers still unresolved, availability might slip toward the end of the month. Read More»