How in the TECH

Never Lose Your Form Data in Firefox Again

Adam Myers — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:03:16 +0000

If you’ve been an Internet user for more than a couple months you’ve probably experienced the following scenario. You’ve just completed a long web form and click Submit to post the data back to the website only to find out the submission couldn’t be completed. Sometimes the web server in question is experience problems, sometimes your browser crashes, sometimes it’s not even explainable. Going back to the form more often than not results in a blank form with none of your keyed in data. You are typically left with no choice but to practice those typing skills and fill out the form yet again, this time crossing your fingers when you reach for Submit.

Sound familiar? It happens frequently enough that a Firefox extension was developed to cure the curse. Lazarus Form Recovery saves the form data into it’s own SQLite database as it is entered. This allows for a quick recovery should disaster strike and the data is lost before submission. Seems like a pretty obvious solution to the problem right?

Typically this would be the point in time where privacy advocates would chime in about the negative impact Lazarus has. Thankfully, the addon has addressed many of those concerns by automatically expiring collected form data after a user configurable time-out period. When the time is up the form data is purged. Additionally, the restoration of form data can be password protected – in that a password would be needed before data could be recovered. Thirdly, all form data is encrypted in the SQLite database. I believe these three features satisfy even the most security and privacy conscientious individual.

Automatically Select Video Quality on Youtube

Adam Myers — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:02:22 +0000

In the beginning, Youtube allowed users to upload their videos in a resolution of 320×240, a rather low res even at the time. It wasn’t long before a new video quality was introduced – high quality at a resolution of 480×360. Most recently, Youtube has begun offering 720p content, otherwise known as HD quality. With three levels of quality it isn’t hard to become confused as to what you are actually watching. Worse, Youtube does a poor of even informing you about the various levels of quality available. More often than not you want to be seeing the highest quality encoding provided and really get your money’s worth out of your broadband connection.

Youtube HQ is a Greasemonkey script for Firefox that alleviates a lot of the guess work on Youtube. Once installed the script provides a few scenarios that are quite useful. First, you can force playback of a video in it’s highest quality available. The screen will resize to fit the higher resolution content automatically.

Second, and perhaps less useful to the masses, you can force playback to the lowest quality available. Why would anyone be interested in that? Simply, it’s an excellent alternative for the low bandwidth individuals. For me, I use it on my netbook when it’s tethered to the 3G network where bandwidth is metered but not to the point where Youtube is worthless.

Automatically Refresh Any Website Every Few Seconds

Adam Myers — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:52:27 +0000

Visit a website with any regularity that is continually providing updated information yet forces you to reload the page to get the new content? For the longest time most Sports websites would require you to refresh the page to retrieve the latest scores. The popularity of AJAX from a few years back allowed many of these sites to upgrade their functionality to provide near real-time updates to your browser. However, many sites have yet to upgrade and still require the rather archaic process of clicking reload or hitting F5 – eBay, I’m looking at you!

PAGE REBOOT is a fantastically simple idea that alleviates the problem in hand. The free service can automatically refresh any URL address provided in an interval of your choice. If an eBay auction that you are keenly interested in is nearing completion, rather than hammer furiously to reload, just pass the link to pagereboot.com. It doesn’t get any easier than that.

Delete Firefox Browsing History Selectively by Site

Adam Myers — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:56:55 +0000

The three major browsers out there – Firefox, Chrome, and IE – all include functionality that allows for private browsing sessions. While each browser likes to put their own name on the feature the idea remains the same, websites and any related data collected in a private session is deleted and removed from the computer when the session ends. Unfortunately, the moniker of porn-mode has gotten attached to this privacy session even though there are a multitude of other reasons one may want to hide their tracks.

Before private browsing most users who were concerned with their privacy were aware on how to clean-up after themselves but wiping their website history and any cookies associated. Typically, this was an all or nothing purge, if you wanted to hide your Youtube history from your employer you were often forced to delete all other history – history that is probably helpful in your day to day browsing. For example, in Firefox I can quickly bring up CNN by typing cnn in the address bar and assuming CNN’s website exists in my history, the URL would appear allowing me to jump right to the site. Session cookies are also highly useful when used to maintain an authenticated state across a message board, for example. All of this is lost when you execute a mass purge.

The privacy mode completely eliminates the earlier problem but also brings about one of it’s own. You have to remember to initiate the private session first! This process is still somewhat clunky and currently results in the browsers launching a brand new browser window. So what if you forgot to jump into private mode and visited a website you would like to remove from your history, but not remove the rest of your history? Firefox makes this rather easy but many people aren’t aware it’s even possible.

Bring up your browser history with CTRL+SHIFT+ H in Firefox.
From the navigation window drill down to Today’s date. You will then see a list of all sites visited on the right.

Right-click on the site you wish to erase and select Forget About This Site.

Repeat step 3 for every other site you wish to purge.

Disabling Firefox 3.5’s New Geolocation Feature

Adam Myers — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:43:44 +0000

Location-aware browsing has taken the world by storm; mainly from the creative uses of the technology in Apple’s iPhone. As a result, many other handset manufacturers have jumped on the bandwagon with their own iterations. For the unaware, location-aware browsing allows me to locate all coffee shops with free WiFi, ordered by distance away from my current location – all at the click of a button on my phone. The possibilities are rather fascinating if you think about it, irregardless of the basic example I just provided. GPS has become prevalent and I feel we’ve only scratched the surface for it’s every day use.

With today’s release of the latest Firefox, Firefox 3.5, Mozilla has taken their own spin on location-aware browsing or geolocation in this instance. As traditionally the technology relies on GPS and very few desktop computers, if any, have that functionality, Mozilla leveraged their close relationship with Google and used Google’s Location Services. Location Services attempts to triangulate or your location based on your computer’s IP address and any nearby wireless access points. As Google already tends to know everything about us, this is often enough to locate your geographical location. Strangely invasive in my opinion.

Visiting websites with this integrated functionality in Firefox 3.5 will generate a familiar Firefox allow or disallow check-box. If you care to share your location with the requesting website thankfully you have a choice.

Unfortunately, there is no preference in the options interface to disable this across the board; a decision that will surely upset all privacy zealots. While the technology is in it’s infancy it might not be such a big deal to actively deny access to the few sites using it, but it’s not hard to see how annoying such a pop-up can become.

Longtime Firefox power users are aware of about:config and it’s gateway into the inner-workings of the browser. It is through this portal that we can completely opt-out of geolocation.

In the URL bar type about:config.
Type geo.enabled in the filter box.
Double click on the returned entry, there should be just one, to toggle the preference from true to false. False disables geolocation across the board.

Testing your Antivirus/Firewall for Leaks

Adam Myers — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:28:35 +0000

It’s good Internet sense to be running some sort of antivirus and firewall protection – everyone knows that and most heed the advice. But how well does your security software perform? Most of us would like to believe that our software does an excellent job of protecting us but how can you be sure? There are numerous online reviews of many competing products or anecdotal accounts by friends or colleagues, but at the end of the day they are all subjective and opinionated. Testing methodologies can skew the results and make any security suite behave poorly or not. This is not an attempt to call out bias in reviews but rather an attempt to explain the difficulty in ranking the suites.

Comodo Leaktest is a free application that tests your antivirus/firewall software for leaks. By simulating different methods of attacks or exploits, Leaktest can determine your level of vulnerability without causing harm to your computer. The software runs a set of 34 tests with variants of rootkits, invasion, injection, info send, impersonation, and hijacking tests. Each test is scored with a simple pass/fail where a pass is worth 10 points that results in a perfect score of 340. The specifics of each test can be access from the ? button in the interface. However, the software does not provide any solution to the problems it uncovers so further research will be necessary if you were going to attempt a fix yourself.

So you might be asking now why this leak test is any better, or even different, than any other online review. Leaktest does not test against specific exploits or viruses like most of those reviews focus on. Instead, Comodo focuses on common behavior of malware – such as opening random webpages or injection of a new auto-start application.

You can see that my antivirus scored an abysmal 120 out 340, which goes to show you that you are never as well off as you think!

Safely Disable Unnecessary System Services in Vista

Adam Myers — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:11:50 +0000

In the days when processing power was measured in megahertz and memory counted by the megabytes, PC users were always striving to eek every little bit of performance possible. Microsoft Windows has long had the stigmata of being a bloated and heavy operating system and a lot of that stems from the sheer amount of processes running in the background, typically unbeknown to the user. In the Microsoft world, background processes are called services and chances are, you have a number of services running that you don’t even need. Don’t have a printer? You still have the Print Spooler service running unless you actively disable it. For most, the days of performance squeezing are long gone but that doesn’t mean it’s completely dead.

Vista Services Optimizer is a free Windows utility that aids in the ability to streamline your Windows system. There are plenty of articles on the Internet that describe each and every service but often times you are still left confused on whether or not the service is truly necessary. Vista Services Optimizer takes the guess work out of the entire process by analyzing your running system and providing suggestions on what to disable. It will never lead you down the path of disabling a vital Windows service.

A system scan and recommendations thereafter is great but Vista Services Optimizer takes it a step further by asking easily answered questions about your system. Do you have a scanner or digital camera? Have you installed anti-spyware software? The answers to these questions will help the software further pin down your requirements.

If you end up getting yourself in trouble still by disabling something you actually needed the Rescue Center can revert to a previous snapshot of the system services state. Additionally, you can have multiple profiles defined and applied on a whim. If you are playing a resource intensive game, it may make sense to disable different services.

Vista Services Optimizer requires the .Net 3.5 framework and, of course, Windows Vista.

Stay Safe and Stay Away from these Search Terms

Adam Myers — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:55:58 +0000

It’s been a slow educating process but most Internet surfers are aware of a few search terms or downloads that increase the risk of a malware infection if you are not careful. For example, most know that the search term warez is a recipe for disaster and as such, stay away – ignoring the moral or legal arguments of course. Furthermore, sex and cracks are equally dangerous. Logically it’s safe to assume if one were to assemble a list of the top 10 most dangerous search terms, any of the above should be on it, right? Ironically, that proved to not be the case.

A McAfee study has recently released the results of study conducted on search terms and percentage of maximum risk associated with each. Using search results from all the popular search engines and then cross-correlating them with McAfee’s own Site Advisor led to some surprises. Specifically, warez, sex, or cracks weren’t on the list! The search that took top billing? Word unscrambler. Followed by: lyrics, myspace, and free music downloads. Visiting websites returned by these search terms greatly increased the probability of infection.

Who knew?

Hide that Running Application with Dad’s Around

Adam Myers — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:52:08 +0000

Historically, the Boss Key or Panic Button is a piece of software running in the background that can be triggered to obstruct parts of the screen on demand, typically by a predefined keyboard shortcut. The logic is pretty simple to deduce; if you are running or viewing something you should not be, perhaps a video game or a YouTube video, and your boss walks by you are likely to get caught in the act. Rather than hastily fumbling with the mouse in order to hit the minimize button, you quickly execute your boss key, and thus save the day or even your job.

Dad’s Around is one such panic button application and was an entry in the Donation Coder NANY 2009 programming challenge. The software performs just as describe above and requires no installation – meaning it’s portable and leaves no remnants on the host computer. At just over 5MB of memory use when running, it is also lightweight and hides away in the Windows tray while running.

By default, Dad’s Around actions are initiated with Windows Key+Z and kick-starts four functions: mute audio, close out the active application window, minimize all windows, and black the screen. You may configure the software to do any and all of the previous actions as well as rebind the shortcut key to whatever is most convenient for your sneaktivity!

Using Firefox Without a Mouse

Adam Myers — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:12:05 +0000

No one would argue the huge importance around the introduction of the mouse and what it meant to interfaces of then and now. The mouse made the computer more approachable and less intimating to unfamiliar users. While I wouldn’t trade away a good set of keyboard shortcuts, I see the value the mouse offers to everyone. Obvious understatement there, I know. The fact of the matter, even though I prefer using the keyboard shortcuts, there are many applications that just aren’t feasible to be used without a mouse.

Firefox is one such application that is really cumbersome to use with just a keyboard. You might be wondering why anyone would be without a mouse? It’s a fair question at this point and here is a real life situation. One of my laptop trackpads is horrendously unresponsive and going on borderline unusable most of the time. Typically the troubled laptop sits on my desk with a USB mouse attached but there are times I find myself on the road with it, and unfortunately I don’t always remember to bring along a mouse. The trackpad is frustrating to use, and some may say that even a fully working trackpad is a pain, but it’s the only thing I have at that point.

Mouseless Browsing is a Firefox add-on that provides an excellent interface for keyboard-based browsing and navigation. It’s so complete and thorough that the entire experience can be controlled exclusively from the keyboard with little to no compromise. The add-on accomplishes this by adding small numeric id boxes to the right of every link or form element. Typing in the numeric id actives whatever it’s associated with it.

Mouseless Browsing is pretty effective at what it sets out to address. The only annoyance I’ve come across is that sometimes the numbering of web links or form fields can shift the rendering or display layout of the website which can cause things to look a bit wonky. It’s a minor thing when you are in dire need of a fix, but it is enough for me to not have this enabled for every day use. It is possible to stylize the numeric id display as well as defining rule sets for particular websites however.