Archive for the ‘Web Browsers’ Category

I ran into this problem where I was unable to install Firebug in Firefox. It would act like it was installing, Firefox would restart, but the plugin was simply not there.

A little research revealed there could be a variety of reasons for this, but for me it turned out Avast! antivirus was preventing it from working.

I disabled the Network service in Avast! long enough to try again, and it all worked.

Hopefully this will help someone else who runs into the problem.

Today when I was adding an article, I was getting really upset with Wordpress, I just wanted to add some simple characters and have it printed AS IS.

When working with Wordpress and using special characters like a redirection symbol ” > “  or something enclosed in it’s on tag  like “<dev>” it will get hosed while editing in “HTML” mode. You could insert syntax to stop it from doing that, but it’s much easier to add a post with such things in “Visual” mode first. Then switch over to “HTML” mode if any other special tags are needed. Read the rest of this entry »

Secunia, a computing security clearinghouse, has issued a warning regarding a new, zero day vulnerability in the Internet Explorer web browser.  This includes Internet Explorer 5, Internet Explorer 6, and Internet Explorer 7 on fully patched Windows XP systems.

Attackers can craft web pages in such a way to use this vulnerability to issue commands on your computer.  There are active exploits currently being used on the Internet to do this.

Your safest immediate course of action is to not use Internet Explorer until a patch is issued by Microsoft.  Instead, use Firefox, Safari, or Chrome.  Unless you are using version 9.3 of Opera, you should quit using it as well.

On another note, there was an article in the news recently which named Firefox as the most insecure application of 2008.  The article is highly biased, however, and the criteria for defining insecure applications ruled out the inclusion of Internet Explorer.  Still, it’s worth a read to help raise awareness about the vulnerabilities of computing on the Internet these days.

Whatever browser you use, you should know that exploits are found in all of them.  As exploits are discovered, they are usually patched as soon as possible, and it’s well worth checking for and installing the latest versions often.  Until patches are released, however, it’s a good plan to switch browsers.

Chrome just came out, and I downloaded it and have it installed.  Expect a review here once I have time to kick the tires a little bit.

One thing that made me chuckle during the installation was a dialog box that popped up when I told Chrome to import my settings from Firefox:

Sadly?  I’m impressed they feel so compassionate about the fact that Firefox was open on my computer.

Anyway, the first 3 minutes of messing with Chrome have been a series of “oooh cool!” moments for me.  Look for more opinions soon…

Holy friggin moly Google is coming out with a web browser tomorrow.

Presenting Google Chrome.

This should be interesting.

I can only wonder:

• Will it have plugins that could ever match those of Firefox?  Enough to lure me away?
• What will standards support be like?  Will it pass the Acid3 test?
• How pervasive will it end up being?  Could it really be the Windows killer?
• How will it tie into Google apps, docs, search, and services?

I know what I’ll be doing tomorrow…