firefox

We’re just about ready for an era of 64-bit browsers

Dave Farquhar Software, Windows , , , , ,

Adobe released a new Flash player this week. As almost an afterthought, they mentioned there’s a 64-bit version included.

That means Windows users can finally have mainstream 64-bit web browsers without using any beta software. I can put one on my main machine, and Gmail and Youtube and anything else that relies on Flash works the way it’s supposed to work.

What about Firefox? Read on.
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Stop social networking sites from tracking you

Dave Farquhar security , ,

I found some tips to help stop social networking sites from tracking you 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 along. If it bothers you, read on.

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Version 7 looks like just what Firefox needed

Dave Farquhar Software , , , , , ,

Firefox 7 is out. Chances are, if you’re reading this, you already have it, because, historically, a large proportion of my readers use Firefox or, in the past, used other Mozilla-based browsers.

The last couple of Firefox versions have been yawners, and a frequent butt of jokes on Twitter. “It’s Tuesday. Time for a new major Firefox release.” This one looks better. Here’s my review, after a few days of use.

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Is that price a good deal or not?

Dave Farquhar Saving money , , , ,

So you’re shopping online, and want to know if you’re getting a good deal on something. It’s pretty easy to shop around, and check multiple web sites to see how they’re pricing an item. But sometimes prices change over time, and wouldn’t it be nice to know if pricing on the item is relatively stable, or if it’s something that frequently goes on sale for less?

Enter the Camelizer.
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Happy Patch Tuesday, September 2011

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

Microsoft has five updates and Adobe has two for us on this fine Patch Tuesday, in addition to a patch Mozilla pushed out for Firefox last week.

Don’t get too complacent if you run something other than Windows. If you run Microsoft Office on a Mac, or Adobe Reader or Acrobat on a Mac, or Adobe Reader on Unix or Linux, you’re vulnerable. The vulnerabilities in those affected products are more serious than the vulnerabilities for Windows. So keep that in mind. Don’t be smug about security. It’ll bite you.

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Time for some unexpected updates

Dave Farquhar security , , ,

Due to the Dutch certificate authority Diginotar being compromised, Mozilla released Firefox 6.0.2 and Microsoft released security advisory 2607712 in order to prevent those compromised SSL certificates–in layperson terms, a file that permits web servers to use https for security–from being used.

Without this step, someone could use a compromised certificate to set up a fake web site masquerading as some other web site you trust and using it for fraud.
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PC Magazine’s sub-$200 PC

Dave Farquhar Hardware , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

PC Magazine has reprised its sub-$200 PC. I think it’s a good guide, and a savvy shopper can potentially do a little bit better with some care and some luck. At that price, it’s running Linux, but it also serves as a good guide for upgraders looking to upgrade an existing PC inexpensively. If you have a case and hard drive you can reuse, you can either buy better parts, or just pocket the savings.

Here’s my take on their selections.

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Webserver Wednesday

Dave Farquhar Apache, security , , , , ,

Yesterday must have been Webserver Wednesdsay, because two things happened. A new version of Apache was released, and a new tool for testing the vulnerability of webservers to denial of service (DoS) was released.

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Firefox 6 is out. Yawn.

Dave Farquhar Software ,

Firefox 6 came out sooner than expected, and yet, I can’t find anyone who’s excited about it. Probably because, under last year’s conditions, this probably would be called Firefox 4.2 or perhaps Firefox 4.5 or 4.6, something like that.

Yeah, I’ll be installing it, if only because it’s the security update for Firefox 5. But it sure feels anticlimactic. When Firefox 3 and Firefox 4 came out, I felt excited. Maybe that means something’s wrong with me. But there was something compelling, something tangible about those new releases. I don’t think either of them let me do something I couldn’t do before, but they at least held the promise of letting me do those things faster.
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A simple security enhancement you can and should do now

Dave Farquhar security, Servers and Networking , ,

HTTPS Everywhere is a free Firefox extension–the EFF would like to do it for other browsers but says it’s not possible without source code–that forces the browser to use HTTPS (SSL-encrypted) connections whenever possible. This isn’t foolproof security–HTTPS is vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks–but it forces an attacker to do more work in order to snoop on your web traffic.

If you spend a lot of time on public wi-fi networks, this is the bare minimum you should do to protect yourself.

I need to remember to write up an explanation later this week of how SSL is vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks. But it’s better than nothing, and there’s nothing wrong with using it as additional protection even when you’re on a safe network.