January 2006 Entries

Due to a GUID change in recent versions of Launchy, Linky and Slashy extension you might end up with two versions of the extension installed. Please check your Extension Manager and uninstall the oldest version of the duplicate extension.

The result of the duplicate extension is that you're prompted that the extension has been update over and over again. Just uninstall the old version of the extension.

Netscape release version 8.1 of their browser yesterday. New things in the release is amongst other Anti-Spyware Protection, Built-in RSS reader, Undo tab close.

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Release notes

The open source browser Firefox has been rated alongside Google, Apple and Starbucks as one of the most powerful brands in the world in 2005, according to a study published on Monday. Brandchannel.com, a Web site for marketing professionals run by global branding consultancy Interbrand, asked over 2500 readers during November and December which brands had the most impact on them that year. Firefox was voted as the eighth most influential brand worldwide in 2005 - the first time that a piece of open source software has featured in the top 10 list in the five years that the survey has been carried out.
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See result

Darin Fisher implemented a new ping feature and some users hate it.

I'm sure this may raise some eye-brows among privacy conscious folks, but please know that this change is being considered with the utmost regard for user privacy. The point of this feature is to enable link tracking mechanisms commonly employed on the web to get out of the critical path and thereby reduce the time required for users to see the page they clicked on. Many websites will employ redirects to have all link clicks on their site first go back to them so they can know what you are doing and then redirect your browser to the site you thought you were going to. The net result is that you end up waiting for the redirect to occur before your browser even begins to load the site that you want to go to. This can have a significant impact on page load performance.

You can test your browser for the ping feature here. Only nightly builds of Mozilla Firefox has the feature.

Firefox 1.5 was a major milestone on all platforms, but it was not quite what it could have been on Mac OS X. We just didn't have the resources to test for and fix bugs fast enough when release time rolled around. However, not delaying the release was a decision that I was happy with because it was the right thing to do, even if it meant less-than-great Mac OS X support. Firefox 1.5 was still a major upgrade in terms of Mac OS X support, and nothing to be ashamed of. Once Firefox 1.5 was out the door, we got the time we needed to test for and fix some of the major bugs in Firefox 1.5 for Mac OS X. Mozilla's release drivers were great about helping us get the results of that effort into the upcoming Firefox 1.5.0.1 release, and I'm writing this blog post to let you know that Firefox 1.5.0.1 is going to be everything Firefox 1.5 could have been on Mac OS X. You should definitely download it as soon as it comes out.
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More Mac news : Firefox for Intel Macs planned for March

What would happen if Mozilla's Firefox suddenly became the browser that everyone was running? What would happen if it was as big a target for hackers and for virus and spyware authors as Internet Explorer is now. How would Firefox's reputation for security hold up? One has to wonder how secure a default Firefox installation is, and if there are things that can be done to make a Firefox deployment more secure?
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The year 2005 was a banner year for open source Web browser Firefox, a fact underscored by recent market share numbers released by site tracker NetApplications. The company saw the number of Firefox users inch tantalizingly close to the 10 percent figure (9.57 percent, to be exact) in December 2005, a nearly 1 percent jump from November 2005. Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) still dominates the browser world at roughly 85 percent of the market. But that figure is a drop from NetApplication's November 2005 statistics, which put IE at 86 percent of the market. Mac-based Safari inched up from 2.78 percent in November 2005 to 3.07 percent the next month; Opera experienced a negligible gain from .53 percent to .55 percent in the same time frame. Netscape dropped from 1.25 percent of the market to 1.24. All other browsers collectively saw a gain from .43 percent to .53 percent. The numbers show that, while there are a number of browsers available today for end users, it's likely going to come down to a two-horse race between IE and Firefox.
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Microsoft Explorer 7.0 looks and feels like Firefox. We were indeed very shocked when we managed to see and feel the beta of Explorer 7.0. The key thing is tab browsing that looks and feels like you are using Firefox. Even the search button at the left hand side looks and fells like this free browser. Just as in Firefox you can ad search engines. There are some extra features as its easier to block the nasty sites and the RSS button is more accusable. Of course you can bookmark tabs as well.
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Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox browser finished the year with a flourish, a Web measurement firm said Wednesday, and came within half a point of the 10 percent market share that many analysts have set as the bar to long-term success against Microsoft's leading Internet Explorer. According to the latest numbers from Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based NetApplications, Firefox wrapped up 2005 with 9.6 percent of the browser market, a gain of almost a full point over November.
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AllPeers is a free extension which combines the strength of Firefox and the efficiency of BitTorrent to transform your favorite browser into a media sharing powerhouse. Regain control! You decide which media files you want to share with whom and to maximise your privacy, communications are encrypted.
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Got a nice surprise today when I installed the new beta of FastStone Image Viewer which is the image viewer that I use. After installing it, it launched my web browser with this page. It's a "thank you for using FastStone page" but it also features a "you should use Firefox" notice. Way cool to see my favorite image viewer promoting Firefox.

No way to build a market: No more Mac users. No more Dell users in the UK. HP's shipping Netscape. Internet Explorer 7 is the ultimate "me too" knock off. And nobody's madder than Microsoft employees and fans. Microsoft employee Rory Blyth: I think IE is horribly behind the times. When every other browser on the planet that's worth a damn supports tabbed browsing, it's just crappy that I still have to have different copies of IE open to have multiple sites open at once. As of right now, my favorite browser on the planet is Apple's Safari.
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