firefox

Google browser sync

Alessandro Crugnola firefox , , , ,

I discovered today this great extension for Mozilla Firefox made by Google.

It synchronizes bookmarks, history, cookies and saved passwords continuously across your computers. It also allows you to restore open tabs and windows across different machines and browser sessions.
It allows you to select which setting to be sent using encryption (for example the saved password, even if I just use this extension only for my bookmarks).
Using firefox using different computers every day I always had the problem of bookmarks syncronization. First I used another firefox extension, but I dont remember its name, then I decided to put my bookmark.html file under a CVS repository, but now that I discovered this extension I will definitively use this one.

download the firefox extension here:
http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/browsersync

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 to public

Alessandro Crugnola general , ,

Microsoft has just released Internet Explorer 7 beta for the public.
For Firefox and Opera users its new features are very familiar, such as the tabbed browsing, quick tabs (a very handly plugin I use in Firefox and which lets to see thumbinails of all the opened borwser pages), zoom and the quick search box…
For the full feature list please read more on Microsoft site: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie7/featuretable.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie7/default.mspx

Mozilla Firefox 1.5 Beta 1 Released

Alessandro Crugnola firefox , , , , ,

FireFox 1.5 Beta 1Mozilla Firefox 1.5 Beta 1 is now available for download. This is the first beta release of the next major Firefox, which will be widely promoted to end-users, is scheduled for later this year.
New features include an improved software update system, faster Back and Forward navigation (I’m testing it and it’s really fast!), a feature for clearing private browsing data, drag-and-drop reordering of browser tabs, a redesigned Options/Preferences window and better popup blocking. Web standards support is also improved:

  • Support for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
  • JavaScript 1.6 and more CSS
  • Accessibility is also better (including new DHTML accessibility features)
  • Security has been enhanced and there’s now greater support for Mac OSX

Please note that installing FireFox over previous version will disable almost all downloaded extensions which are not compatible with this version of Firefox.
Beta 2 is scheduled for release on Wednesday 5th October and the first release candidate is due on Friday 28th October.
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/

Flying away… holidays!!

Alessandro Crugnola SEPY , , , ,

Before leaving for my holidays i just want to make a quick post about the recent SE|PY additions…

1. Quick search bar

sepy quick search

The new “quick search” bar at the bottom. Thanks to Eric Dolecki who suggested me a more usable and fast to use “search” control (thanks also to Eric new icons suggestions!)
I use Mozilla Firefox from more than one year, i love the way it has implemented the find bar, and I never thought at using it in SEPY? yes.. that’s true 🙂

2. Right border enhancement

This is directly taken from an Eclipse feature i like a lot.
For every bookmarked line or line with a “TODO” comment you will have in the right side of each document a small clickable rectangle, with different colors, which show you the absolute position of that line in the document.
When you move the mouse over that rect you will see a tooltip telling you the content of the line and click on it for move to that line.
Nothing particular, but I found it really useful.
It’s now possible to customize the words SEPY is looking for (not only “todo”, but what you want)
Moreover, with the last addition of a sqlite database once you open a document for the second time you will see all the previous bookmarked lines, and the cursor will be placed in the same position you previously closed the document.

MTASC compile

Last addition is the mtasc compile dialog.
Using this dialog window you can compile yuor script in SEPY using the mtasc compiler and see in the same dialog a preview of the created SWF.
BTW, I will leave for my holidays on Monday (destination Tallinn, Estonia).
See ya again by the end of August.. and great holidays to you all!!
http://sourceforge.net/

Firefox first victim

Alessandro Crugnola firefox ,

It seems incredible but the first victim of the cannibal Firefox (25 millions of downloads) it’s Mozilla itself!
In fact, even if already released some beta version of Mozilla 1.8, there will be no more a 1.8 final release anymore.
The unexpected success of Firefox shifts the development focus from the integrated Mozilla Application Suite to the new generation of applications — the Mozilla Firefox browser and the Mozilla Thunderbird mail and news client.
BTW, support and developement over current Mozilla versions will still continue.

read the full article: Mozilla Application Suite – Transition Plan

IDN Exploit In Firefox

Alessandro Crugnola firefox , , ,

I found out today there is a pretty, well very serious flaw in the various non IE browsers. Firefox is the one I am most concerned about becuase I use it constantly.
This exploit affects all browsers except IE. It has to do with the International Domain Name [IDN] support in modern browsers. The attack allows an attacker/phisher to spoof the domain/URLs of businesses.
There is a proof of concept document that will show you exactly what it can do; there is even an SSL connection that works as well, so much for a secure connection. Try it out before you apply the fix, but not in IE! There are several articles and workaround/fixes out there. I have been messing around with them all morning and here is the run down.

  1. There is a fix listed on Boing Boing. It says to type about:config in the address bar, find network.enableIDN and set it to false. This only works until you close Firefox and re-open it. Then the links at proof of concept will work again. It also broke my Macromedia News extension, don’t waste you time on this fix!
  2. Back up the compreg.dat file first, if you attempt this fix! There is another fix listed on tech.life.blogged. This one says to edit the compreg.dat file that is located in your profile directory, eg. On XP: C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\default.###\ Then you open the compreg.dat file in a text editor (I strongly suggest TextPad), find and modify the @mozilla.org/network/idn-service;1,{62b778a6-bce3-456b-8c31-2865fbb68c91} line. Change the 1 to a 0 and save the file. I tried this fix and it works, but the post states it is a permanent fix and it is not. The problem is that if you install a extension the compreg.dat file is reloaded and the 1 in @mozilla.org/network/idn-service; 1,{62b778a6-bce3-456b-8c31-2865fbb68c91} line is resored and the fix is lost. You will manually have to edit compreg.dat and change the 1 to a 0.
  3. The third fix I found at mozillaZine and advises to use AdBlocker to create a filter that will block any URL that uses characters that are outside the normal ASCII range. I have highlighted the steps to follow below:
  1. If you do not have Adblocker installed go here and install it!
  2. Once it is installed, in Firefox, goto Tools, Adblock, and open Preferences
  3. Important!! On the Preferences windows select Adblock Options and select Site Blocker: Note: Site Blocking will now have a check next to it.
  4. In the New Filter input box enter the following text: /[^\x20-\xFF]/
  5. Select Add next the New Filter input box to add the rule. Note: You will receive a Warning dialog when you select Add, just select OK to apply the filter.
  6. Select Done
  7. Go to the test page and select a link. The links will be blocked and should not load. Note: They had a paypal link but have since changed it. You still can see a nice sample of the domain spoofing.

I use Firefox everyday and love every minute of it. From what I read Firefox is working on a perminant fix that will eleminate this issue. I thought I would share this and the information I found out there about it, I would hate for a reader to expose personal information or financial data by this kind of attach. I always suggest to everyone on the internet, learn security, keep up to date on the kind of attachs going on, and most importantly, protect yourself and you data!

You can find out more details about the attach from The state of homograph attacks document.

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/02/06/shmoo_group_exploit_.html

Javascript quick reference

Alessandro Crugnola general , , ,

I was reading Christian Cantrell‘s weblog and i found a very useful link which display in the left sidebar of your firefox browser the javascript reference (css, dom, xsl, html, unicode tools).
In order to use check it out by saving this URL as a bookmark, and checking the ‘view in sidebar’ option in it’s properties: http://lachy.id.au/dev/mozilla/sidebar/sidebar.xul
Also very very useful the unicode tools

http://lachy.id.au/dev/mozilla/sidebar/sidebar.xul