Software

The trouble with bringing your own software

Dave Farquhar security, Software , , , , , , , , , , , ,

PC Magazine is advocating a bring your own laptop, with your own software approach to business. It likens it to mechanics who bring their own tools.

The trouble is that while mechanical tools in a toolbox operate autonomously and don’t interfere with one another, software residing on a computer does. Read more

Firefox 20 is out. I don’t blame you if you wait for 20.1.

Dave Farquhar Software

I need to sync my haircut cycle with Firefox’s release cycle. It’s that time again. Version 20 is out, and it has some new features, but as frequently as dot-one releases follow new releases, I don’t blame you if you wait.

I usually update at least one of my machines right away, if only out of curiosity, but tend to let the others lag a day or two. Or a week.

And this is why I’ve been saying to uninstall Java, rather than disable it

Dave Farquhar Software , ,

Apple just uncovered and fixed a vulnerability that allowed an exploit to re-enable Java in a browser when it’s been disabled, which then of course allows a litany of exploits.

There are two lessons here. Macintoshes are hackable just like any other device, and latent software can be re-enabled. If you don’t think someone’s trying to do the same thing in Windows and Linux, you’re not paying attention.

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Fixing mashed headings in Word 2010

Dave Farquhar Office, Software

I’m making some minor updates to the stylebook that my workplace’s technical writers use, and I ran across a weird problem. Some, but not all of the numbered headings had the numbers mashed up against the text. It didn’t the last time I looked at the document, but, guess what? That was when we were still running Word 2007.

It took some investigating, but I traced the problem to the margins. For some reason, Word 2010 decided to apply custom margins of 0.38 inches on the left and 1.0 inches on the top, bottom, and right. Moving the margins back to something more conventional fixed that issue for me.

The fix when Firefox won’t let you cancel a download

Dave Farquhar Software , ,

It’s frustrating when Firefox won’t let you cancel a download. It took me a while to find a solution, but I found one.

Here’s some background. I started downloading this monster file the other day, not realizing I didn’t have enough disk space to store the blasted thing. So I went to cancel it. The problem was, it wouldn’t completely cancel. It would keep trying to download until it filled up my disk, at which point other terrible things would happen. I couldn’t cancel the download, I couldn’t pause it, and I couldn’t delete it.

The solution, as it turns out, is to close Firefox. Next, go into your profile. To find it quickly in Windows, you can hit the Windows key + R, type %appdata% and hit OK, then navigate to Mozilla, then Firefox, then profiles. My profile was in a directory named wtkz7xzy.default. Yours will be similar. On a Mac or Linux box, your profile is probably in your home directory.

One you’re looking at your profile, locate the file called downloads.sqlite, and delete it. When you launch Firefox again, the list of downloads will be blank, and the download that wouldn’t go away will be among the casualties. And that will stop the endless loop like I had, or other bad Firefox behavior.

More tips

If Firefox has gotten a bit sluggish on you, I have a number of proven tips to speed up Firefox.

Speed up Android with Seeder Entropy Generator

Dave Farquhar Android, Software , , ,

Seeder Entropy Generator, released on XDA Developers, became a sensation the last couple of days. There’s debate whether it works, and debate over why it works, but enough people reported an improvement that I gave it a whirl. The difference was noticeable. There is a downside–more on that in a bit.

I don’t know why it works either, but it made my pokey 800 MHz Nook Color running Cyanogenmod 7.2 more responsive. What I haven’t seen is a nice how-to on installing it. Read more

Apply this fix if you aren’t running IE9

Dave Farquhar Software, Windows , , ,

Windows XP users, and those running something older than IE9 on newer versions of Windows need to apply this fix immediately.

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Go Launcher Ex is a nice upgrade for Android

Dave Farquhar Android, Software , ,

I gave Go Launcher Ex a whirl on my hacked Nook Color-turned-tablet. The promise was that it’s faster and smoother than ADW Launcher, the default program launcher that comes with Cyanogenmod. Unlike some promises, it was true. It’s fast, smooth, polished, and customizable.

I was a little apprehensive at first–how does one go about changing something so fundamental as the program launcher–but it was easy.

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If you need a vector drawing program, Microsoft Expression Design is free now

Dave Farquhar Software ,

For some reason, Microsoft decided several years ago that they needed to market a vector drawing program. It flopped. There may have been several reasons for it, but I’m sure one of the reasons was marketing.

At any rate, they decided to discontinue the product and offer it for free download. Read more

If you’re wondering where those anti-Google ads came from

Dave Farquhar Software , , , , , , , , ,

If you’re wondering why political-style anti-Google ads are suddenly running everywhere, it’s no coincidence. Microsoft has hired one of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s advertising masterminds to try his hand at campaigning against Google.

While it seems to be having some effect on public opinion, its effect on market share and Microsoft’s bottom line will take more time to gauge. But I think in the long term, talking to customers and figuring out why they are walking out of Microsoft stores empty-handed will prove more effective. Read more