The Space

Mozilla Firefox - Why?

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 00:13:26 GMT

Recently, I've noticed that people have been asking me, "Kyle, why do you use Firefox?" Well, how about I just make a list of reasons that I prefer Mozilla Firefox to Internet Explorer.

Reason 1 - User Friendly: Firefox is simple enough for everyone to use, but also has enough features easily available for those intermediate-advanced users out there.

Reason 2 - Versatile: There are FREE add-ons and themes that you can use to customize Firefox to what you want it to look like. There are over hundreds of themes to choose from and more than likely you'll see one of the popular one's being used appealing to you. In comparison, Internet Explorer doesn't have many (if any) first party themes and most of their add-ons aren't worth it and the ones that might be will cost you money.

Reason 3 - Secure: I can not and will not try to prove that Firefox is indeed more secure than it's competition, but I can offer you the following. Why do you think Mac users don't succumb to viruses? Because there are beefy security men waiting to pummel that hacker on the other side? (I doubt it, but man that would be GREAT). Good programming? (Perhaps, but unlikely as to the reason stated). The reason that Mac users and Firefox users are prone to less attacks is because they are less widespread among end-users. Most people use Internet Explorer. Hackers don't attack these minority hardware and software systems as much as something more mainstream. I would imagine that if you are creating a virus why would you do it to only infect a couple systems? I'm sure they would have their reasons, but if you're going to do it - do it big. Nothing is invulnerable to an attack online, but you should do what you can to prevent something from happening.

Those same people who follow my advice here then ask, "Hey, you - what add-ons should I use with this thing?" Well seeing as how there are so many of them and quite a few of them being very useful - I'll only name off some that I use. Keep in mind that if you use too many extensions (I'm guessing like 8-10+) your computer might start to dislike you using it (depending on how awesome your system is). Let me begin.

To browse all available add-ons in Mozilla's library, visit this link.

NoScript: This add-on will block a lot of bad things that can happen inside your browser such as cross-site scripting (transferring you or your information to another page without your consent), malicious Java/JavaScript/Flash (all things that can be coded into a webpage to do various nasty things to your computer). This serves as a second line of defense against attacks such as these.
AdBlock Plus: This does exactly what it says - it blocks ads. Also, depending on your subscription you may also block images, cookies flash videos, etc. Anything that can be loaded into your browser it can block for you. You can turn it off for certain sites (as some sites that you regular may look strange without them. Example: Ctrl+Alt+Del) With this add-on, you can also subscribe to filters which act as kind of a "blacklist" for ads. I recommend the following:
- EasyElement + EasyList
- ABP Tracking Filter
IE Tab: This is a very nice little add-on. This will let you load Internet Explorer in Firefox. You might wonder where that would ever be necessary, but there are some anal web pages out there that only support Internet Explorer so instead of closing out of what you're doing and loading up Internet Explorer just press a button and it will load the same page in Firefox using the Internet Explorer engine. It's pretty slick.

There are PLENTY more add-ons out there such as ones that let you play iTunes in Firefox, download managers, FTP browsers - almost anything you can think of someone has probably made.

Some people don't need this functionality, but I do. I like to block things I don't want to see. I like to be able to prevent malicious code from being executed on my computer. All of these things make for a very enjoyable web experience for me and I hope that you'll think likewise after reading this.

New Book: Timeline

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 04:48:56 GMT

So I'm reading this book that my girlfriend (Danielle) recommended to me. It's called Timeline, by Michael Crichton. So far it's a pretty interesting book. It's about the discovery and use of quantum physics and how twice in our history some scientists have believed that we were edging close to the discovery of most of the basic concepts of physics. All that remained were some finishing touches. However, more discoveries are made and their conclusions proved false. The book takes place after the potential of quantum physics has been discovered and is being used by a single corporation; which is unbeknownst to the public.

Here's a quote:

It was at TechGate that Doniger's harsh management style became famous. During meetings with his scientists, he'd sit in the corner, tipped precariously back in his chair, firing off questions. "What about this?" "Why aren't you doing that?" "What's the reason for this?" If the answer satisfied him, he'd say, "Maybe...." That was the highest praise anyone ever got from Doniger. But if he didn't like the answer - and he usually didn't - he'd snarl, "Are you brain-dead" "Do you aspire to be an idiot?" "Do you want to die stupid?" "You're not even a half-wit." When really annoyed he threw pencils and notebooks, and screamed, "A**holes! You're all f****** a**holes!"

This had me laughing pretty hard. It's not a bad book so far. I'll let you know how well I like it when I get a little further than page 25.

(Also, I figured how to get Live Writer to stop messing with my code. It still screws up my indentations in my code, but other than that it leaves it alone now :) Furthermore, I'm using Microsoft Expression Web to do my editing so everything will now be XHTML 1.0 valid)

Windows Live

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 18:41:17 GMT

So I So I'm testing out some of the applications (slash one add-on) of the windows live suite. It includes:

Messenger
Writer
Sign-in Assistant
Mail
Toolbar
Photo Gallery
Family Safety

The ones in bold are the ones that I have installed.

Messenger (4/5):
We all know what messenger is and does so there is nothing new to speak of there. They need to add tabbed messaging then I'll boost that score. Everyone else understands, but Microsoft (nothing has changed).

Writer (4/5):
This is the blog publishing tool. I am actually using it right now. It's not exactly the greatest thing I've ever used (mostly because I like writing in HTML because I don't like sloppy Microsoft software code here), but it gets the job done if you're just trying to do things like inserting text, links, pictures, tables, maps, tags, and videos. I'm pretty sure you can even use themes and stuff here too, but I haven't looked into it.
Update: I wanted to up the score by 0.5 points because after realizing that I can change how this program handles HTML and how you load easily load and edit old posts to your blog I thought it deserved a higher rank :)

Mail (4.5/5): Recommended!
Wait a minute... did they finally get it right? I think they did. This email client can get email from your HTTP (Hotmail, yahoo, G-Mail) accounts and also your POP & IMAP (school & ISP) email accounts something that neither Windows Mail nor Microsoft Outlook could do; which is a great ability nowadays considering that a lot of people have free HTTP email accounts. I don't know about you guys, but I would much rather have a tool on my computer that checks my mail for me instead of having to navigate to separate web pages for each account.

Sign-in Assistant (4/5):
This tool apparently helps you sign into Windows Live services if you're using the Internet Explorer browser. You can basically log in with the click of a button; which is pretty nice. It stores your encrypted information on your computer and sends your username and password information to a Live site without having to type it in all the time. It's a convenience thing that was intended for multiple users. I don't really have a use for it as I don't browse with Internet Explorer hardly ever (I use Firefox), but I would assume it would be a pretty handy tool for those multi-user PCs

If you are interested in Windows Live, get it here.

First Blog

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 03:06:20 GMT

Testing from Windows Live Mail. Seems to work just fine.

I however have no use for blogs and unless handfuls or people are reading them... they are of no use to me.

I don't know if anyone noticed, but if you did you'll see the automated HTML coding in these blog editors is so awful. Microsoft has no standards here for HTML and puts tags all over the place for no reason. Ugh...don't get me started. Sometimes they just miss the ball entirely.

Like in this link

And before you go... check out this comic. Shoot, you might as well go to the homepage and read every article there. You'll be twice as more educated.

Book List: Book List

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 20:00:45 GMT

Michael Crichton: Timeline