Miscellaneous

Index

• Excluding Third Party Cookies in Firefox
• Acrobat Vulnerability
• YouMail
• OneSuite
• Anti-virus Software
• Tips

Hopefully, many of you downloaded the new Firefox 2.0 version (if not FF may have pushed an update to your 1.5.0.X to 1.5.0.8). To check what version you have, simply click on "Help" and then "About Mozilla Firefox". If you don't have Firefox Version 2.0, then I strongly suggest downloading it from the mozilla.com site and installing it. You do not need to uninstall 1.5.0.X first to install 2.0. Now on to the subject at hand:

Excluding Third Party Cookies in Firefox

After listening to a recent pod cast on Firefox 2.0, it was brought to my attention that there was no UI for excluding third party cookies in this version as there is for previous versions. As strange as it is, you can configure Firefox 2.0 to exclude third party cookies by doing the following:

1. Enter "about:config" into the url line in the Firefox 2.0 browser (without the quotes)
2. Your curser will be in a filter line. Type or paste the following: network.cookie.cookieBehavior
3. Double click the line network.cookie.cookieBehavior under "Preference Name"
4. A box will pop up, change the "0" to a "1" (without the quotes). If you excluded third party cookies in a past version, it may already be "1", in which case you are O.K.!

That is it! Now third party cookies will be excluded on web pages that you visit. For more info and a detailed explanation why you want third party cookies blocked as well as information in general about cookies and what they do, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie

In general cookies from the originating site adds functionality and convenience for users. For example I use them on my site for returning visitors to the family bulletin board (so you are remembered). I would never however allow third party cookies.

Acrobat Vulnerability

Yesterday (11-30), Informationweek announced that there was a critical vulnerability in the Acrobat Reader (7.0.0 to 7.0.8) and the threat is the possibility of having someone take control of your system. However, if you use Mozilla Firefox, this will not effect you. Only Internet Explorer users are effected as this is an ActiveX vulnerability (surprise). The problem occurs when you open a malicious PDF document within the IE browser on a web page. To fix this, delete the file acroPDF.dll which should be located under the program folder of Adobe (or just do a file search for it). For more info on this issue: http://snipurl.com/13sia or you are free to contact me.

YouMail

This month, I bring you YouMail. Although this is not computer related, it is a neat feature for your cellphone that is free (read site for details). Having used it for over a month, I can say that I am impressed and recommend this service. What is it you ask? It is a way to personalize your cellphone greetings according to the caller. You will need a microphone to set up each phone number's personal greeting. Although the process takes time to set up, it is well worth it!

OneSuite

Also not computer related, but I found this solution great for those that make long distance calls (especially International). It is basically the same as a calling card, but instead of the card it is web based. You enter a code from any phone (including your land based phone) and you can call inexpensively. For example, Germany is currently .03 cents a minute! Check it out: http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/001492.php (a better job at describing the service) or the company page: http://www.onesuite.com/

Anti-virus Software

For those of you that run an Anti-virus software, you will find the following an interesting read. It is a short article by George Ou that he posted on the blog section of ZDNet. Some of you that have talked to me about anti-virus software know that I am not a big fan of Norton or McAfee's anti-virus software. In this article George talks about most being a resource hog (I am in complete agreement). Anyway, here is the link: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=327&tag=nl.e539

Tips

Thunderbird Tip!

Do you send and receive email in other languages and wish you had a spell checker for that language? Well, you can add as many dictionaries from different languages that you want! It is easy. First go to: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/dictionaries.html and you will see a list of dictionaries to use with the Thunderbird email client. Follow the instructions, it is easy to do!

Firefox Tip!

Firefox retooled the search box. As you know you can add more search engines, but did you know that when you type in a search word the search engine offers up suggestions that you can select? Try it!