Ars Technica made a bit of a splash this week with this provocative headline. This is real. The article gives the usual advice, like not opening e-mail from strangers, not clicking attachments from strangers, and not visiting dodgy websites. That’s all good advice, as is staying off torrent and other file sharing sites, but even [...]
All posts tagged chrome
The men (boys) who spy on women through webcams
Posted by Dave Farquhar on March 13, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/03/the-men-boys-who-spy-on-women-through-webcams/
Firefox 19 is a big security improvement
Mozilla quietly released Firefox 19 this week. Its biggest selling point is a built-in PDF viewer (like Google Chrome does), which makes me more comfortable than having Acrobat Reader installed–Mozilla is generally faster at fixing security holes than Adobe. Besides that, the built-in reader is fast. No waiting for Acrobat to launch. Short documents like [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on February 21, 2013
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2013/02/firefox-19-is-a-big-security-improvement/
Get defense in depth with antivirus by installing Avast as a secondary scanner
Two antivirus programs on one system? Heresy, right? Well, not if one is designed to play second fiddle. As it turns out, Avast, one of the best free antivirus programs, can do just that. Just download it, run the installer, and pick the second option–”Compatible install – install as the second line of defense.” Be [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on December 13, 2012
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2012/12/get-defense-in-depth-with-antivirus-by-installing-avast-as-a-secondary-scanner/
Easier deep Firefox SQL optimization
Last year I examined ways to optimize Firefox’s SQLite databases. I’ve since found I like it better when I just put the Firefox profile in a ramdisk, but that may not be an option in all cases. If you don’t want to go the latter route and would like to avoid the command line jockeying, [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on April 14, 2012
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2012/04/easier-deep-firefox-sql-optimization/
Tips for stopping social networking sites from tracking you
I found some tips for stopping (or at least slowing down) social networking sites’ ability to track what you do outside of them at a surprising place: Infoworld. And yes, to one degree or another, social networking sites can track what you’re doing on the rest of the web. If that doesn’t bother you, move [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on October 4, 2011
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2011/10/tips-for-stopping-social-networking-sites-from-tracking-you/
How to view questionable PDFs safely
I said Tuesday that it’s a bad idea to download and view PDF (Adobe Acrobat/Adobe Reader) documents from questionable sources, but I didn’t really elaborate on why. The reason is that pretty much anybody with a little bit of determination and the ability to follow a recipe can plant a trap in a PDF file [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on August 18, 2011
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2011/08/how-to-view-questionable-pdfs-safely/
More help is on the way for high Firefox memory usage
After years of workarounds, and even sometimes denying there was a problem, Mozilla has identified a fix for Firefox’s sometimes out-of-control memory usage. The culprit appears to be the Javascript engine, which probably shouldn’t be much of a surprise.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on July 6, 2011
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2011/07/more-help-is-on-the-way-for-high-firefox-memory-usage/
Firefox needs to adopt the Ubuntu model
Firefox has an identity crisis. Used to being the #2 browser and eroding share from IE, Firefox sees its share eroding slightly–or not growing as fast as it used to, depending on who you ask–and the upstart Chrome gaining. What Firefox has done is tantamount to panic.
Posted by Dave Farquhar on June 25, 2011
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2011/06/firefox-needs-to-adopt-the-ubuntu-model/
Firefox 4 is out
And although Firefox 4 isn’t officially released until tomorrow, copies have leaked out via FTP staging servers. I grabbed a copy from betanews to do my upgrade early. I’ve played with pre-release versions, so no real surprises. It’s quick. The look changed quite a bit, but you can easily configure it to look like older [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on March 21, 2011
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2011/03/firefox-4-is-out/
Don’t use Internet Explorer this Christmas
In case you haven’t heard elsewhere, there’s a nifty unpatched vulnerability for Internet Explorer floating around. And it’s actively being exploited. Metasploit, an exploit toolkit used by penetration testers and script kiddies alike, is able to detect and utilize it. Under these circumstances, Microsoft has been known to rush out a patch before the next [...]
Posted by Dave Farquhar on December 24, 2010
http://dfarq.homeip.net/2010/12/dont-use-internet-explorer-this-christmas/