November 2006 Entries

The much hyped "Venice Project" which is:

The Venice Project is code name for new venture of Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis (founders of Skype). The pair plans to develop software for distributing TV shows and other forms of video over the Web using peer-to-peer technology. Working under the code name "The Venice Project," Zennstrom and Friis have assembled teams of top software developers in about a half-dozen cities around the world, including New York, London, and Leiden. The teams are currently in negotiations with TV networks, although it's not clear whether any agreements have been reached.

is using Mozilla open source technology. The P2P client which will deliver the TV, will be based on XULRunner and will be available on the same platforms as XULRunner supports Windows, Mac and Linux. Super cool to see that a post dotcom company with a huge potential like The Venice Project is using Mozilla technology. Way to go Mozilla people and community! Also credit to another Mozilla Dane in the project Allan Beaufour Larsen.

There are some nice features in IE7 that might halt the steady flight to Firefox. Quick page zooms and enhanced web page programming support fit well, while Microsoft's antiphishing looks more thorough. However, Firefox 2.0 remains ahead of its rival in many areas. Upgrading from Internet Explorer 6.0 will mean finding your way around a new interface, so IE enthusiasts would find it a good opportunity to convert to Firefox.

That's the verdict that will appear in the January 2007 issue of PC Advisor.

Read more

The other day I reported (in Danish) that Firefox won over IE7 in a test of free anti-phishing solutions. Now software testing firm SmartWare has released a report that shows that the phishing filter in Firefox is soo much better than the one in IE7.

Summary
- Firefox 2 Phishing Protection is more effective than the Microsoft Phishing Filter in Internet Explorer 7.
- Firefox 2 offers users a choice between local and remote protection modes.
- Firefox 2 Phishing Protection uses local mode by default, which protects user privacy.
- Even in local mode, Firefox 2 Phishing Protection is significantly more effective than the Microsoft Phishing Filter in Internet Explorer 7, operating in either mode.
Read more about the test

Back to the numbers: The testers found that with IE7's auto-check turned off, the browser blocked less than two percent of all phishing sites thrown at it. With the phone-home option turned on, IE blocked 66 percent of the scam sites. In its default configuration, Firefox 2.0 blocked close to 79 percent of all phishing sites during the test period; with the "Ask Google" option enabled, Mozilla's browser blocked nearly 82 percent of all scam pages.

Read more and the report itself.

Also read about the built-in Phishing Protection in Firefox 2

I invested in a new external hard drive. The hard drive I choose was the Western Digital MyBook Premium 320GB. 320GB should be enough for a couple of years of data. I currently have around 13GB of pictures. The drive is pretty fast and doesn't make that much noise and then it looks good.

If you look carefully at the drive (photo 1, photo 2) you can see that the cover has morse code in it. The morse code has words like "innovative", "reliable", "personal", "design", and "simple in it. Super cool!

The drive also won the "Best in test" in the October 2006 issue of the Danish version of PC World.

I paid around DKK 1.100,- (Danish kroner) for the 320GB. Using the currency converter it's around $190,- which again calculates to $1.7 per GB.

For backup I use the very good and free Cobian Backup. It's a Windows program and it has all the things and features I need. It can do incremental backups, has schedules and a load of other things. And the GUI is nice and simple.

You can read more about the drive at wdmybook.com and the morse code at Wikipedia.

I just saw that a thing called Tamarin (AVM2 open source) Flash9_DotReleases_Branch initial revision was checked into the Mozilla CVS repository. And shortly after the following press release was available:

Adobe and the Mozilla Foundation today announced that Adobe has contributed source code for the ActionScript Virtual Machine, the powerful standards-based scripting language engine in Adobe Flash Player, to the Mozilla Foundation. Mozilla will host a new open source project, called Tamarin, to accelerate the development of this standards-based approach for creating rich and engaging Web applications.

Once again Mozilla Foundation leads the way in the open source world.

This is a major milestone in bringing together the broader HTML and Flash development communities around a common language, and empowering the creation of even more innovative applications in the Web 2.0 world

Read the press release or read about the Tamarin project.

Firefox 2 get together i København 2006 var en stor succes. Vi fejrede således frigivelsen af verdens bedste browser, nemlig Mozilla Firefox version 2. Det blev som de andre gange fejret på Ølbaren i København. Vi har jo fejret både version 1.5 og version 1.0.

Ølbaren har blevet behørigt udstyret med Firefox plakater og en hulens masse A4 posters med gode argumenter hvorfor man skal skifte til Firefox. Måske det forkerte sted at reklamere, da stort set alle i Ølbaren den aften brugte Firefox. Måske der var et par enkelte uskyldige personer i Ølbaren den aften, som ikke var kommet for at fejre Firefox 2.

I år med TV dækning
Aften var af en anden årsag også historisk da vores party kom i TV. Eller rettere Net TV. Comon havde læst om vores party og havde kontaktet mig om de ikke måtte komme og lave et interview. Selvfølgelig måtte de det. Så nu er vores Firefox 2 party foreviget på Net TV. Så sus over til Comon og se giraffen.

Du kan se et par billeder fra aftenen her.

Stor tak til alle jer der mødte op og fik en øl og en snak med venner, kollegaer og Firefox entusiaster.

Du kan læse meget mere om Mozilla Firefox version 2 og alle dens herligheder her.

Det nye phishing filter, som er inkluderet i Mozilla Firefox 2.0 løber med æren af at være den løsning der fanger flest phishing forsøg i denne test. På en anden plads finder vi Netcraft Antiphishing Toolbar, forfulgt af en delt tredjeplads mellem Microsoft Internet Explorer 7’s phishing filter og Earthlinks Scamblocker.

CSIS har kørt de forskellige gratis anti-phishing løsninger igennem en test for at afgøre hvilken af løsningerne der er bedst til at advare om phishing sider. Både den nye Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 og Firefox 2.0, som sidder på overvældende majoritet af browsermarkedet, parate med et indbygget phishing filter til deres populære browsere. Phishing problemet er kommet for at blive. Den traditionelle form for phishing, som vi hidtil har hørt mest til, hvor helt almindelige brugere via e-mail lokkes til en forfalsket hjemmeside og her opkræves brugernavn og password, kreditkort oplysninger eller lignende, får i fremtiden hårdere betingelser. En stribe producenter er klar med gratis løsninger til slutbrugerne - nogle direkte integreret i browseren - som kan medvirke til at forhindre og synliggøre når brugeren lander på en ondsindet phishing side, eller generelt surfer forbi en side der kan opfattes som mistænkelig.

Læs mere om testen

Testresultatet kan af testen kan hentes her:
http://www.csis.dk/Media/test-aptools.pdf