Tech Stuff | Ain't Complicated

Firefox: the World’s Best Browser

OK, OK — so the article below doesn’t say “best” — it says “most popular” — and I know not to confuse the two.

But Firefox continues to be my browser of choice.

Firefox 3.5: World’s most popular browser

Data released by StatCounter indicates that Firefox 3.5 is the world’s most popular browser, having edged ahead of Internet Explorer 7.

Looking at the data, it’s quite possible that Firefox 3.5 won’t retain the top spot for long as Internet Explorer 8 is catching up fast, and will get a further push from Windows 7 sales. That said, Firefox has a fair bit of momentum, so it could very well increase the lead it has over IE. Time will tell …

No matter what browser you happen to be a fan of, you have to admit that that Mozilla’s dethroning of Microsoft’s iron grip on the browser chart is very impressive and quite an achievement.

So lemme see if I can do some Cool Talk. 😯

Firefox…like…rocks. 😳

HT: Rob Miller (though the tip came via his Facebook Wall)

Adobe Reader: Critical Vulnerability

“Everybody” uses PDFs, right?

A Security Advisory has been posted in regards to the Adobe Reader and Acrobat issue discussed in the Adobe PSIRT blog on December 14 “New Adobe Reader and Acrobat Vulnerability,” CVE-2009-4324. A critical vulnerability exists in Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.2 and earlier for Windows, Macintosh and UNIX operating systems. This vulnerability CVE-2009-4324 could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system. There are reports that this vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild. Customers should refer to the Security Advisory for information on mitigating this vulnerability. The advisory will be updated once a schedule has been determined for releasing a fix.

More here: Adobe Product Security Incident Response Team PSIRT

Attention, eBay Sellers!

I saw this at Clark Howard’s site yesterday:

New e-commerce site Glyde promises eBay for dummies

Get ready for eBay for dummies, courtesy of a new e-commerce site called Glyde.

Launched by a former eBay insider, Glyde promises to take all the hassle out of buying and selling online. Sellers can list an item — a CD, DVD or video game, for example — by typing in its title and making a notation about the condition. Glyde then suggests a market value, which can be changed anyway you see fit.

If there’s an interested buyer, Glyde will mail you a pre-addressed, pre-stamped bubble-wrapped mailer and you simply drop your item in the mail within 24 hours. You can then receive a check in the mail from Glyde once the buyer is happy.

The service takes 10 percent for facilitating a transaction. The seller is also responsible for an additional $1.25 for the price of the mailer.

Think of Glyde as NetFlix meets eBay. It takes the complexity out of the whole process. “We want the middle-aged Midwestern soccer mom to easily be able to buy and sell her stuff,” Glyde creator Simon Rothman tells The New York Times. “It’s a pretty straightforward ambition.”

Glyde sounds slow and cumbersome to me.

The comments at Clark’s site are sure brimming with negativity about eBay. 😯

This Is Urgent!

Have you ever felt that way about responding to something or someone electronically?

Blog, Twitter, email, Facebook, forum, IM, text message, chat — having the option and capability to hit Reply right away seems to impose an urgency to do just that.

Most times, such urgency is an illusion untethered from reality. “Most times” — not in a 51% sort of way, but more like a 92% sort of way, if you get my drift. Yes, at the risk of overstating my case, I suggest to you that the urgency of most digital communication is a pseudo-urgency.

I suspect that most of the time, succumbing to such false urgency has little consequence beyond social pressure, inner tension, and time consumption. (That all sounds like something far more than “little consequence”!)

That aside, giving in to such imaginary urgency has far weightier consequences when responding in circumstances that roil personal relationships, easily impacting them negatively.

So I urge you to grant significant weight to my five essential guidelines for digital communication:

If you think your attitude will be milder in five minutes or five hours, wait.
If you think your wording will be more careful after an hour’s worth (or a day’s worth) of thoughtful editing and review, wait.
If you think your present circumstances are affecting you even though they don’t pertain to the message in question, wait.
If you think your choice of expression would moderate significantly face-to-face, wait.
If you think thinking about your response will change it, wait.

Otherwise, figure on falling short of constructive dialogue.

Unless, of course, you’re just engaging in weightless, inconsequential back-and-forth techno-babbling because you can and because you don’t know what else to do and because you want to.

Then you need a different set of guidelines. 🙂

Sidewiki

Another browser tool? And an expansion of Google Toolbar at that!

So I learned yesterday afternoon (and forgot to post it last night) that now Google Brings Commenting to Any Web Page:

Google today launched a new browser tool that enables users to add and view comments directly on any Web page they view while cruising the Web.

Sidewiki, the new tool, comes as a new feature of Google Toolbar, the company’s browser add-on for Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.

Once installed and activated, a pane appears in the left-hand column of a user’s Web browser. Within that area, users can view and contribute comments. Comments can be linked to one particular area of a page — selectable by highlighting — and also can be shared via Facebook, Twitter and e-mail, and on Google’s Blogger service.

Well, I don’t use Google Toolbar.

Maybe that’s too bad, because Sidewiki looks like something I might want to “exploit” for the benefit of my myriad Web sites and projects.

Nope. I won’t. Not now, anyway. I don’t need another project to distract me from what I’m supposed to be doing.

Where Is ISS?

Emily Belz wrote over at WorldMagBlog:

Sometimes it’s nice to take a break from politics and go walk around outside, look at the trees, listen to the sounds around you, gaze at the sky – perhaps catch the International Space Station flying overhead?

A new service on Twitter called Twisst alerts you when the space station will be flying over you. (To our Twitter skeptics out there, I’m trying to win you over!) It uses the location you enter on your Twitter profile, then calculates when you might see a flyover and sends you a notice on your account.

Maybe I’ll update this later with a screenshot of where ISS is relative to me.

(Oh, hey! This post adds much-needed alternative rendering of “It all depends on what the meaning of ISS is”!)

PC Security: Portable Linux?

In scanning the comments of a post at a UK news site, I saw a new-to-me concept: Having Linux on a travel drive to use for online banking.

Is that a sensible thing to do? Why or why not?

Do you do it? If so, tell me about the advantages as well as the process to setting it up. I have no experience with Linux.