ajb{log}: learn something new each day

Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!

Type “about:robots” on your address bar. This works on FF3 only.

Mozilla is dog slow today. Why? Because they’re launching Firefox 3 any time now.

Be a part of history. Download Firefox 3 today.

UPDATE: I just received an email (below) to tell me to start downloading. However, the whole Mozilla site right now is apparently under heavy traffic.

FireNes is a new Firefox plugin you can use to play all those NES game goodies without downloading a NES emulator or those game packages. You simply download FireNes, restart your Firefox, open up FireNes over at Tools >> FireNes. That opens up over 100 NES games. Games you played when you were a kid (at least for me), now right on your Firefox sidebar.

Double-click a game you want and it opens up automatically without even downloading anything after!

To save you time on the controls, it’s the X & Z. You can view the controls by right-clicking any game on the sidebar.

By the way, FireNes runs on Java (if that means anything to you at all). Also, here’s the English translation if you can’t understand anything on the site.

Enjoy your favorite games and have a good weekend.

–aj

We all know that a lot of (if not most) web developers love using Firefox for development. Mainly because of its simplicity, community support and functionality to extend the browser using add-ons.

It is also not a secret that we know that 60% or more* of our web users are still using IE. Most likely, half of those are IE7.

Now, to even the game of preferred development browser (sort of), there is a new update for IE7Pro (version 2.1).

IE7Pro is an app to extend your IE7 installation adding lots of Firefox-like features which you (web developer) need.

The app might get you to use IE7 more for development. Really. Why? It packs tons of improvements to IE7 and extend it like Firefox.

Some main features includes

• Enhancement of IE’s Tabbed Browsing Capabilities
• Super Drag and Drop
• Mouse Gestures (ala Opera)
• Crash Recovery (yeah! we need this!)
• Save Page to Image
• Quick Proxy Switcher
• AD Blocker (finally!)
• Greasy monkey alike User Script
• Inline Search
• Spell Check
• And a lot more…

More screenshots after the jump.

So, do you want to give IE7 another shot? Or do you want to simply check out what IE7Pro can offer? If your answer is yes to any of those, then get the app directly here.

It might be worth your time.

–aj

*Based on sites I handle/d

Here’s a quick walk-through using Thunderbird 2.0 to download emails from GMail on your private computer.

1) Download the latest Thunderbird 2.0

2) Install Thunderbird, then launch the application (a wizard should popup during the 1st run. Choose Tools >> Account Settings >> Add Account to launch if using an old install.)

3) Enter your name andGMail username (name before the @gmail.com)

4) Click Next and select Finish

5) Enter your GMail password and you are done!

Thunderbird should download your emails from GMail.com immediately. If you have a large inbox, you will have to wait a little bit longer to complete downloading all your messages.

If you prefer to use IMAP. Refer to this help document from Google.

Hope this small tutorial helps.

–aj

Ajax13 recently launched ajaxWindows and the concept is pretty straightforward: The software platform is operating system-agnostic and based on the XML User Interface Language (XUL) to act as a Web-based desktop.

Files can be moved around and opened, and applications launch with a mouse click. The interface also includes customizable wallpaper, start-up and shut down sounds, and browser bookmarks. But instead of interacting with the hardware, the user stores all desktop data, documents, and content, free of charge into a Gmail account.

Ajax13 products have been integrated into this webtop such as ajaxWrite, ajaxSketch, ajaxPresents, etc. Best of all, you can ultimately use this as your on-the-go desktop that can be accessible anywhere.

–aj

These people just won’t stop. I just got another good looking, legit looking, well-crafted but spoofed eBay email (screenshot below).

So, I clicked on the link, opened up my Firefox and tada… popped out a web forgery warning. Again.

Had I been using IE6 or the latest Opera browser (see screenshot), it wouldn’t let me know initially that I am already falling for a trap. Ugnh!

Opera has been bragging that it’s “The coolest, fastest, and most secure free Web browser available”. Opera’s fraud detection isn’t enabled by default. You have to go to settings to enable it. How? Here watch this demo.

Shouldn’t you guys simply enable it by default?

Ok, if this happens to you, what do you do?
Report these kind of sites to Phishtank and if it’s an eBay related email, forward the spoof email to spoof[at]ebay.com.

Lastly, don’t use IE6 and a not-enabled fraud detection Opera browser. For your sake, use Firefox 2.x and be sure to always update it.

Better safe than sorry.

–aj

I was in contact with Godaddy’s customer service regarding a domain issue yesterday. Also, I have been receiving lots of “legit” emails from their customer service department when I got an email (see below) asking me to complete some online form.

It didn’t look suspicious at that time. So, long story short - I clicked the link (good thing I was using Firefox). Guess what? Firefox popped a message that the site is a forgery (see below). It was! WTF?!

If I was using Internet Explorer 6 or below (yes I do have those installed. For testing sites), it would have not detected it. And it would have been a disaster!

Firefox saves the day for me from a common phising attack again.

Anyways, if you are still using IE6 or below, I strongly suggest you download and use Firefox from hereon. It is far more safer to browse the web.

Let me save you some time looking for it - here, download it now.

Take care.

–aj

Browsershots released a new version where you can test how your website will look in different browsers. The only catch is that you have to wait in a… well… very long queue (the site is getting popular by web designers). What you can do is bookmark the site to check the results at a later time.

Check it out.

–aj

Browser wars in our midst again folks. First Mozilla announced Firefox version 3 (yes, it’s coming!), then Netscape 9 launched their social browser (added sharing so-so features) and finally, last month we heard about a rumor of IE8 (err, ok…).

Now, after watching the keynote and reading all the Apple rumors and tech previews last Sunday - this is the only one I didn’t expect. Apple’s Safari 3… on Windows XP and Vista!

The screenshot above is running on my… ehem… Windows XP (added it to my net apps on the desktop).

Steve Jobs demoed the new browser and it showed to be many times faster than IE7 and 1.5 faster than Firefox 2. Wow! Hello Opera… (Busy on Wii and other devices?), where are you?

Next. So, after how many years, Apple decided to re-design the look and feel of Apple.com. Apple.com is now matching the interface of Quicklook and iPhone (nothing new on the iPhone, sigh). I can say Apple.com is quite a re-design (from white to black) and I like it!

Lastly, I think the iChat presentation was funny. I don’t know about you but you’ve got to watch the WWDC keynote to appreciate it. Here’s a glimpse of iChat (they’re making fun of Steve Balmer and I was LMAO!). Fun and cool at the same time!

Ok, stop reading. Watch the keynote here now! I’m assuring you, you’ll have a lot of fun.

–aj