Is your Adobe Flash crashing (your Firefox browser)?

Ever since I upgraded either to FireFox browser version 3.6.15 OR Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash) version 10 my Firefox browser crashed
:(
So, all flash games and even YouTube stopped working for me! :(
CrashReporter comes up and reports the problem to the Mozilla team – but no response from them… luckily for me Firefox 4.0 has just been released – so rather than try to downgrade Firefox to an older version, I decided to take the plunge and upgrade to version 4 – and risk some of my extensions/addins not working in this brand new, fresh version.

It worked, and now my flash sites work – and some Firefox extensions don’t work (yet)

  

If you do want to debug your Flash installation then go here for more details here: the Mozilla Knowledge Base

Firefox slow startup caused by RetailMeNot addon – Solved :)

I couldn’t figure out why my Firefox browser startup was soooo slow, and why my bandwidth monitor showed that lots of data being downloaded (>1 MB) even though I have my auto-updates DISabled.  Then, yesterday a Firefox error appeared “Script: chrome://retailmenot/content/rmn-networkhandler.js:74” which gave me a clue.  I decided to DISable the RetailMeNot add-on and the startup is now fast and there’s no extra bandwidth usage.


On further investigation, it seems that the RetailMeNot add-on updates its internal database on startup so that whenever you visit a site it checks for discount coupons or vouchers that might be redeemable at the site.
I’ve decided to turn off the RetailMeNot add-on until I’m in shopping mode – then I’ll turn it on.

Barry’s Best Computer Tips could help you as it did me

I bumped into a mine of information the other day: “Barry’s Best Computer Tips” (BBCT) blog and it’s kept me busy for hours enjoying the tips and free software! 



Here are some links to Barry’s Best blog pages that I loved and are applicable to South Africans - I’m sure you’ll enjoy:

• When you're scared enough to say it anonymously, then use: NiceCritic.com
• Find free Wi-Fi anywhere: WeFi
• Last Freeware Version - Go back to when it was free: Last Freeware Version
• Best By Golly Blogger Backup Bar None: Blogger Backup
• Free Open Source Alternative to Microsoft Project: OpenProj
• Project management using Excel: Excel Time Sheets and Resource Management
• Excel tips, tricks and tutorials to die for: Pointy Haired Dilbert
• Free web-based project management tools: OfficeZilla
• Drag your windows to hell and gone: AltDrag
• Share your printer over the Internet: PrinterShare
• Optimized pointer utility for multiple monitors: Multi Monitor Mouse
• Rearrange your taskbar buttons: TaskBar Shuffle (that’s the bar at the bottom of your Windows screen)
• Free employee scheduling software: ezDRoster
• For Newsletter Lovers:: LetterPop
• Make (alt-Tab) windows switching windows much easier with free TaskSwitchXP
• Find files and emails and images and anything else on your PC fast and easily: Copernic Desktop Search
  Note from HTT: the latest version of Copernic Desktop Search Home 3.2 has some very useful features disabled (until you pay for the pro version) – so, rather download and install an older version 2.3 from here: Copernic Desktop Search Home 2.3 build 18
• Measure a space on your screen (Firefox extension) for say a logo: Measure Your Thing with "Measure It"
• Speed Up Windows XP: 2 Quick Tips
• RSS Feeds: What they Are and How they Work
• Web-based, 2D/3D interactive floor planner: FloorPlanner.com
• A powerful, free 3-D floor-plan designer: AutoDesk Project Dragonfly
• Get 30 free pages of OCR daily: OCR Terminal
• A Flash app that adds a nice effect to photos: TiltShift Generator (blur effect on a photo)
  

Thanks Barry – keep up the gr8 work “Consistently delivering only the best computer tips, Internet tools and software news.”

Barry's Best Computer Tips is updated several times every day; the easiest way to get your daily dose is by subscribing to his news feed.  Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.
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If you're into software development of the GUI kind, then here's a Pencil that you can't do without - and it's free!

If you're a software developer who loves putting GUIs (Graphical User Interfaces) together then this free tool is for you.
Pencil turns your Firefox 3 browser into a sketching tool with just a 400 Kb installation package.

Pencil will always be free and can run on virtually all platforms that Firefox 3 supports.

The Pencil Project's unique mission is to build a free and OpenSource tool for making diagrams and GUI prototyping that everyone can use.

Top features:

• Built-in stencils for diagramming and prototyping
• Multi-page document with background page
• On-screen text editing with rich-text supports
• PNG rasterizing
• Undo/redo supports
• Installing user-defined stencils
• Standard drawing operations: aligning, z-ordering, scaling, rotating...
• Cross-platforms
• Adding external objects
  

Click over to their home page and read the quick instructions for end users to start using Pencil in just half an hour.


Oh, and if you don't use Firefox (for some reason), then there's a stand-alone install (8.6MB) as well WinXP, Vista, Linux.
See here for the download options: download Pencil

So, you think it's convenient to get your browser to remember passwords?.... what if a virus/worm attacks and harvests those passwords???

Gulp!!! Yes, I'm guilty as charged.... I thought the same - "Oh, it's so convenient to use the browser's "secure login" add-on" [for Firefox users] or Ctrl-Enter for Opera's "Magic wand" functionality. BUT.... yes, there's a big but....
In the light of more and more vicious viruses and worms out there - I'm sure that it's relatively easy for one of them to export your browser's passwords to a file and post it to their "repositories"?
Maybe, maybe not - but for me, I'd rather be safe than sorry, and so I have decided to use a more secure way of storing my (very) numerous passwords.
I've decided to use KeyPass (http://keepass.info/index.html) that's free and there are tools to export the passwords from Firefox and Opera so that the migration is painless:

1) Export your Firefox passwords to xml using this Add-on:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2848
Install it, and export all your passwords into an xml file onto your computer.
NOTE: This xml file contains ALL your passwords (and matching web page addresses) in an UNencrypted form - so be careful with this file.

2) To import the passwords into KeePass you'll need to convert the XML into CSV format - so that KeePass understands.
Use this tool to do the conversion: http://keepass.info/extensions/base/convert_to_csv/FirefoxXmlTo1xCsv-01.zip
Download the zip file to your computer;
Unzip it to a folder
Drag and drop the xml file over the xml2csv.exe (literally - this means drag 'n drop) - and it creates a new file in the directory where your XML resides - with the XML-Filename extended by "_EXPORT.csv"

3) In KeyPass: File->Import From->csv file->select the .csv file -> Open
and your passwords will be imported :)

4) Go to a web site that requires a password and (in KeyPass) right click on the entry and select "Perform Auto-Type"
The username and password will be entered automatically into the web site.

For Opera users:
See this blog for more info: "Using KeePass with Opera" http://jean-francois.im/2009/03/using-keepass-with-opera.html

...and your passwords are now securely stored inside KeePass's encrypted master password protected environment.

Oh.... don't forget to delete those passwords inside your browser's "Secure login" and "Magic Wand"!

Moving from Opera to Firefox.... Here's the list of addons that I needed to install

I have just been through the same process (changing from Opera to Firefox).

Thanks to Tokei from http://stephan-mann.de/?p=5 for his article.
In addition to the addons that he listed, here are some gaps that I found and how I filled them:

Extended Statusbar 1.2.7: A Statusbar with Speed, Percentage, Time and loaded size (like Opera's one)

ImgLikeOpera 0.6.15: Allows load only the images that you want

keyconfig 20060828.1: Rebind your keys so that your Opera keystrokes can be used

PageZoom 0.3.3: Adds page zoom functionality.

Secure Login 0.9.1: A login extension similar to Opera's Wand login

Tab Mix Plus 0.3.6: Tab browsing with an added boost.

User Agent Switcher 0.6.10: Adds a menu and a toolbar button to switch the user agent of the browser.

wmlbrowser 0.7.17: Display WML (Wireless Markup Language) content (for WAP sites)

Duplicate tabs: duplicatetabs

Once you have configured FireFox - you don't really want to do it again if your PC crashes - so backup your Firefox addon config using: mozbackup-portable-firefox-and-thunderbird-backup-tool

Here are more sites with interesting info and comments on the subject:
10-features-youll-find-only-in-opera
50-best-firefox-extensions-for-power-surfing