October 2014

Firefox 33.0.1/33.0.2 Released

Mozilla released a couple updates for Firefox 33 over the past week: October 24, 2014: Firefox 33.0.1 – Firefox displays a black screen at start-up with certain graphics drivers October 28, 2014: Firefox 33.0.2 – Fix a startup crash with some combination of hardware and drivers Users may be prompted to update to the newest release of Firefox or can do so manually within Firefox by going to Help > About Firefox and following the update prompts. Users may also manually download and install the Firefox update via the getfirefox.com site. The next scheduled update for Firefox is November 25th with Firefox 34.

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Firefox and POODLE Attack

Google researchers announced recently of the POODLE (Padding Oracle On Downgraded Legacy Encryption) Attack which hackers take advantage of sites (around 0.3%) still using the outdated (introduced in 1996) SSLv3 security protocol. Mozilla has announced that SSLv3 will be disabled, unfortunately it won’t be until Firefox 34 which will be released on November 25th. However, user can (and are urged to) install the SSL Version Control extension which will disable SSLv3 on the fly. I would not be surprised though if Mozilla pushes out Firefox 33.1 update to have SSLv3 disabled in the coming days or weeks. Google Chrome is already testing changes to disable…

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Provider for Google Calendar 1.0.x Issues

The developer has attempted to make setting up your Google Calendars in Lightning easier with the 1.0.x versions of Provider for Google Calendar. Unfortunately, this change may not work with certain Google Calendars. The new setup process simply wants the email address associated with your Google Calendar (instead of using the Calendar or Private addresses). While this worked for my main calendar directly tied to a real Gmail address, it did not work for my school calendar. My school calendar is tied to the domain of my college district (maricopa.edu) which uses Google API for email, calendar and other Google services. The problem seems to be…

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Firefox 33 Released

Mozilla has released the latest update of Firefox on Tuesday, October 14th with Firefox 33. This update contains numerous changes and fixes, which can be viewed in the Release Notes. Users may be prompted to update to the newest release of Firefox or can do so manually within Firefox by going to Help > About Firefox and following the update prompts. Users may also manually download and install the Firefox update via the getfirefox.com site. The next scheduled update for Firefox is November 25th with Firefox 34.

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Thunderbird 31.2.0 Released

Mozilla released the next scheduled update for the Thunderbird 31 branch on Tuesday, October 14th with Thunderbird 31.2.0. This release addressed these issues: Bug 1008718: Fixed a case where having a contact and card in an address book with the same name could send to the mailing list Security fixes can be found here Users may be prompted to update to the newest release of Thunderbird or can do so manually within Thunderbird by going to Help > About Thunderbird and following the update prompts. Users may also manually download and install the Thunderbird update via the getthunderbird.com site. The…

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Windows Won’t Install Updates

Some months ago I resurrected a Windows 7 Ultimate computer I had retired a couple years ago after it threw one too many (and consecutive) BSODs. I suspected that all my problems likely stemmed from trying to ‘upgrade’ it from Windows Vista to Windows 7 when I really should have just bought an OEM version of Windows 7. Doing a clean install of Windows 7 Pro seemed to fix all my problems. This was back in April and I got busy with work and other projects. Plus, at that time I really didn’t have a place to keep it setup in my home…

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How to Enable Right-click

Ever come across a site that won’t allow you to right-click? Some sites block the ability to right-click usually via JavaScript so you can’t say copy or download images. However, it is rather frustrating on a site such as a message board where Firefox underlines a misspelled word, but you can’t right-click to correct or ignore. A very quick about:config settings change will “fix” this for you: In a new tab type in the address bar about:config and press enter If you get a warning about “Voiding your Warranty” click the I’ll be careful, I promise button to continue In the Search box type context In the…

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Pale Moon Commander adds advanced preferences to Firefox (and Pale Moon)

“… The developer of Pale Moon, a Firefox fork that has seen a surge in popularity after the introduction of the new Australis interface in Firefox, has created a browser extension for Firefox and Pale Moon that introduces an advanced options menu in the browser. …” Source: gHacks Tech News Details  Pale Moon Commander adds advanced preferences to Firefox (and Pale Moon)

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Google Software Removal Tool (Windows)

Google has come out with a tool (beta) for Windows to help users identify and remove rogue extensions and toolbars that are secretly tracking you. When malicious programs are using your Chrome browser to collect data, serve you ads or cause overall sluggishness, there’s a quick way to find out what’s causing the issues. Google recently published the Software Removal tool for Windows that will scan for software that is causing issues with the browser. A few words of caution before you use this tool: It is still in Beta so you may want to create a restore point just…

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Be careful with extensions…

Browsers extensions are great as they enhance the usability and your experience with your browser. However, there are some extensions out there that will actually do the opposite. This seems to be a bigger problem for Chrome but there are a couple known ‘spying’ extensions in Firefox. These ‘evil’ extensions may track you or as in the case with Scott Hanselman inject ads into sites you are viewing. My perspective on JavaScript-based browser extensions has been far too naïve until this point. We were all burned by bad toolbars or evil ActiveX add-ons in the past, so when I run IE I run it with…

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