Making Material with Mozilla

My "to-be-blogged" folder in Firefox is getting thinned down fast.

Linking and Commenting

I only drop comments on a handful of websites and forums.

When I do, it can be a bit tedious typing in the HTML code for links.

However, there are a number of great Firefox/Mozilla Add-on extensions that can assist with this.

MakeLink - adds a simple context menu that copies and pre-formats a link to the clipboard. You can then paste it into a comment field (or wherever else you may want).

What makes this link so great is that it automatically gives you three options depending on what you select for copying:

1. When used with a link, it uses the link text and URL.
2. When used on non-linked selected text, it uses the page URL as the link URL.
3. When used elsewhere on a page, it uses the page URL and title for the link.

It also can select and format for forum code links, Markdown, and plain text URL.

And if you are really clever, you can even come up with custom patterns for copy/markup.

Nice!

CoLT - While I use MakeLink tons now, CoLT is almost like a kissing-cousin. I like it a lot as well. CoLT provides two items to the right-click menu. You can copy a formatted link as HTML markup code for dropping in a comment field, or you can copy the link in a very nice "plain text" format. It also lets you define some custom link formats.

CopyAllUrls - Got lots of tabs open? Want to copy them all URL markup formatted? This is the extension for you!

Set your copy format options, then when you got bunch of tabs open you need to copy the URLS for (say to an email) just right click any page and select the "Copy All Urls" option. Then go paste-em.

Easy!

Send Tab URLs - If you want a quicker way to send up to 24 tab URL's to your default email client, this might interest you. (BTW-you can go higher than 24 with an about:config tweak.)

Supports Mozilla Thunderbird, SeaMonkey Mail, Outlook Express, and Office Outlook. Others may also work...or might not.

Tab URL Copier - Another extension to simply copy the URLs of all open tabs.

Matt Cutts' link collection method

Seems that Matt likes to just open a new Firefox tab when he sees a link worth looking into later. Then he keeps on trucking.

Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO » Wanted: convert Firefox tabs to links -

This works great for him until he has to convert them into links.

I've run across some posts by other bloggers who do the same, just leave open tabs (and make sure Firefox is set to relaunch with previously open locations) and select as needed.

That's a bit "messy" for my organizational tastes.

Claus's link collection method

For my own personal style, here is how I manage things:

1. I have (among the many) a special set of three folders on my ever-visible Firefox bookmarks toolbar:
   • "To Blog" - This is where I drag/drop potential blog links for keeping.

   • "Blogged" - This is where I move links to after I have blogged them.

   • "To Sort" - This is where I keep blogged links I want to (eventually) place in my main bookmarks.

2. Before I begin a blogging session, I sort and try to categorize the links in the "To Blog" bookmark folder by dragging them around and seeing if any patterns/themes exist. If so I add a separator to keep them together.

3. As I might not blog a theme/topic immediately, if I find additional links, I just add them to the sorted group in the "To Blog" folder.

4. When I begin a blogging session, I open up Windows Live Writer on my right monitor and Firefox on my left display. (Dual screens rock!)

5. I then open my bookmarks in a Firefox Sidebar and scroll to the expanded "To Blog" folder.

6. Then I can launch each one as I go in my browser and begin my blogging writing in Windows Live Writer.

7. One Bonus feature that makes Windows Live Writer so nice is I drag-drop the bookmarks directly onto Windows Live writer and they remain properly formatted! Major time saver!

8. When I get done blogging, I move the blogged links out of "To Blog" and either keep them for a while in the "Blogged" folder for later reference or I move the gems into the "To Sort" folder.

9. As time allows I will go back and move the links I want to keep into a more permanent location in my Firefox bookmark folders, proper.

Done!

I've been using this method to help me organize my blogging finds so well that it is second nature now. I do it so automatically I don't even think about it.

Really saves me a bunch of time.

And when I am at work and find some good URLs to blog but want to send home? I dump them into a similar folder on my work machine's Firefox bookmark bar. Then at the end of the day I open them all up and use CopyAllUrls to copy 'em all up. Then I paste them into my email client and send them to my home email address for later retrieval that night.

Sweet!

Bonus Firefox Add-ons:

FullerScreen - Everyone probably knows that by pressing F11 in Firefox or IE you get a "full-screen" render of the browser window.

However, this Firefox add-on takes that view one step more max. It removes the upper and lower toolbars from the full-screen view as well, and displays them only when you hover near those areas. Spotted on Download Squad.

Want something even better?

Full Map + FullerScreen - It is WAY COOL to play with Fuller Screen when using the Full Map extension for Firefox. Putting them together allows you to super-size your Google Maps views. Satellite image surfing to the max! I feel like Superman!

Dr.Web anti-virus link checker - I've mentioned this one before, but it is so cool. Want to scan a link/file before you click/download to make sure it is safe? Try installing the Dr. Web anti-virus link checker. It works very fast and is very handy.

From the developer's page:

...the scan of the page or file you want to access will be performed on the servers of the Doctor Web Global Update system with the most up-to-date version of the Dr.WEB scanner and latest updates of the virus definitions base.

Mozilla Add-ons are so cool!

They are one of the features that make Firefox such a joy to use.

--Claus

(Lite) Security Sunday Leads

With all this lost-egg hunting and the like today, here are some quickly laid "peeps" that might be of interest when you finally get some down-time:

Microsoft's XP Change Analysis Diagnostic Tool (CADT)

Via ISC-SANS handler's diary post

Once installed the tool will scan the computer looking for specific types of changes to the computer including....

• Software Programs which are listed in the Add/Remove Program control panel
• Operating System Components including Hotfixes or updates from Microsoft Update
• Browser Helper Objects and other COM components loaded in Internet Explorer
• Drivers
• ActiveX Controls and
• Other Auto-Start Extensibility Points

It creates a nice little XML file that you can use for a variety of purposes.

The tool also displays changes to loaded applications and startup objects.

The goal for sysadmins here is to get a file to provide troubleshooting logs related to system changes. While site-wide deployment might be over-kill, this could be a good "monitoring tool" to drop on a system where there are lots of "go-backs" for system repairs due to "user activity."

For instance, Microsoft provides a scenario where Help Desk can advise a user to download and install the tool (assuming they have sufficient rights to do so). The user runs the tool, the XML file gets generated and the user can email the file to the Help Desk for system analysis.

We use some remote desktop tools so we could do it ourselves, but the concept is still the same.

I can think of two good reasons for having this on an XP pc for home users as well:

1. Providing easy geek support to "Mom/Dad/Relative/Friend" pc's. Often less-experienced users will install drivers/programs/stuff without really understanding what they are doing. This might help solve some of those "communication" barriers that often arise between the support geeks and the loved ones they support.
2. Monitoring "kid-installations" on the home pc. If you don't bother to set up a specific account for Junior on your home XP system, with limited rights, then no telling what might be going on the pc while Junior is off on early-release day. This might be a bit more "non-intrusive" method instead of relying upon an automatic screen-capture/keylogger type program (icky).

I am curious about one thing: According to the Microsoft KB article, it works by querying XP's System Restore data for a user-specified period then compares the changes and reports. Based on that, I'm betting it won't be of any use if you have turned off System Restore for some reason.

More information and download link from KB Article 924732 at support.microsoft.com.

Related utilities:

• InstallWatchPro (freeware)
• What Changed (freeware)
• Total Uninstall (free 30-day trialware period then $). Version 2 freeware builds can be found on some download hosts.

ASUS.COM Exploited

A bit of time ago, seems like a wicked ANI exploit was making its rounds hitting both Windows and Firefox browsers.

Fortunately, Microsoft issued an out-of-cycle security patch that closed that hole (once applied).

Unfortunately, a few websites had already been exploited by the malicious code.

One site was asus.com. You know...that motherboard/systemboard manufacturer?

Seems that they had an iframe exploit serving up bad code.

Only when ISC-SANS took a look they didn't find anything...until they dug deeper.

asus.com uses load balancing so some times you might get the IP of a compromised server, and other times you would pick up an IP of a "safe" sever. That's why it took a bit of time to track down.

A comparison between both server's home-page code revealed the malicious code.

(Good thing to remember...load balancing multi-IP servers.)

The code leads to another VBscript, which points to another (obfuscated) javascript code and a baddie .exe file hidden as a .jpg file.

That file showed up as a trojan/password stealer.

And all a bunch of poor users wanted to to was shop for systemboards for their l33t rigs or grab some drivers.

Just another reason to be extra careful with running your browser with JavaScript enabled.

I personally like using the NoScript extension for Mozilla's Firefox to control JavaScript execution.

ASUS seems to be slowly cleaning up their page code. English seems OK now, but at last report the other language websites were still showing evidence of the malicious code.

Thought it was interesting...

See Alice and Bob Do DNSSEC

I like pictures!

I drive the folks I work with crazy with extra flowcharts, screen captures, etc. in our documentation.

MatasanoChargen - is a clever security blog I have recently added to my RSS feed pile.

One of the fun things of late they do is to provide illustrated lessons on security concepts using Alice and Bob.

The iconic images are clear and easy to grasp, yet provide great foundational understanding to some of the more complex network security areas.

For examples of Alice and Bob theatre:

A Case Against DNSSEC, Count 1: Solves A Non-Problem - explains DNSSEC, trusted keys and a bit of DNS.

A Case Against DNSSEC, Count 2: Too Complicated To Deploy - more DNSSEC fun

FYI -- DNSSEC stands for Domain Name System Security Extensions.

• DNSSEC - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Good topic overview.
• ONLamp.com -- The Basics of DNSSEC - Great O'Reilly Network whitepaper on the subject.

One more cool illustrated post from that blog: DRM Secrets Revealed At Nate Lawson’s Blog

Sunbelt Software Tackles Ethics and Antispyware

Sunbelt Software's Alex Eckelberry takes to task various "vendors" of antispyware products who offer free downloads of their scanning products, but then require purchase before they can be activated for removal.

SunbeltBLOG: Ethics and antispyware

I've always depended on quality freeware anti-spyware tools and have never gone wrong or been burned. As such, I've never been bitten by one of these products. There are just too many "quality" freeware anti-malware applications to bother with any of the more dubious products.

However, I can easily see where a "noobie" pc user, whose system is caught in the binds of a malware infection can get taken in. They don't have a "geek-support" friend or family member to call. A co-worker tells them to run a search on "Google." They do and next thing you know, they have stumbled erroneously on just such a rouge/suspect product.

Alex picks apart that model of software distribution very well. I learned some things.

For example, I had never considered that developers were actually paying download sites for each "free" download they server up.

And that there are conversion-rates for downloads and product purchases.

And that if a product offers a free scanner download, but requires payment to remove, conversion rates increase substantially.

Even worse, who can tell if those "results" are actually false-positives? A noobie user wouldn't have a clue. Scare tactics at their best.

Lastly, Alex reminds users that some "independent" review sites might rank products higher based on commissions paid. Ick. So take what you see rated with a sizeable "grain of salt."

As for Sunbelt's premier anti-malware product, CounterSpy V2?

Always offered as a fully-functional download (both for scans and removals) operational for 15-days. Should be long enough to get your machine back on its feet again and let you really decide if you want to drop a Jackson on it.

Or just go with one of the reputable anti-malware programs.

There are lots.

--Claus

Names you can't drop with XP/Vista

Ever try to use what you think would be the perfect name for a file in Windows and get it tossed back in your face?

ComputerZen guru and .NET programmer extraordinary Scott Hanselman recently ran into that issue with Vista: Naming a File a Reserved Name in the Windows Vista Operating System

It's a great read on how programmers and folks need to keep that information under consideration.

(Go check out his new blog layout! It is wicked-nice!)

The No-No list for Windows Users

If you just want the facts, Scott drops the following from a great MSDN page: Naming a File

Do not use the following reserved device names for the name of a file: CON, PRN, AUX, NUL, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, COM7, COM8, COM9, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, LPT4, LPT5, LPT6, LPT7, LPT8, and LPT9. Also avoid these names followed by an extension, for example, NUL.tx7.

CLOCK$ is also a reserved device name.

The No-No Characters in Filenames List

Of course, while OS X users make off better than Windows users, they still face some limitations when using characters in file names.

Forbidden Characters in Filenames - XvsXP.com, Mac OS X vs. Windows XP

OS X prohibits only the colon : character, because this character is used to represent a directory in HFS+ (OS X's default filesystem).

(snip)

XP restricts the use of the * . " / \ [ ] : ; | = , characters in a file or folder's name.

Apparently, mileage on permitted use of those characters may be different in a Windows application (say Word) than from the system (Windows Explorer).

Removing Files with Reserved Names

So what happens if you just want to live on the edge and say, delete one of those specially named files?

• Microsoft KB315226 provides the answer for XP users: How to Remove Files with Reserved Names in Windows XP.

• Microsoft KB120716 provides the answer for 2000 systems: How to Remove Files with Reserved Names in Windows

Basically, either way it takes some special command line Jujutsu.

What's that you say? Not up to command line Jujutsu?

Try the quite effective JRTS - Delete FXP Files utility. It comes in several flavors, including a freeware (for personal use) version. It has a very easy to use GUI interface for the command line intimidated.

It's very nice, but may be eventually phased out, so you might want to download a copy now, just in case...even if you don't need it now (and it isn't something you will probably need on a daily basis).

Bonus Microsoft Helps

Here are two fascinating (OK, for geeks) Microsoft articles that are highly detailed in their technical data. Bookmark 'em as you might need them one day while troubleshooting!

Microsoft TechNet: How NTFS Works

Windows XP Resource Kit: Troubleshooting the Startup Process

Now you know!

--Claus

Blogger/Picasa Image Space Reporting!

Limit? What Limit!

Some time back (when I was figuring out Blogger) I pondered how a Blogger user could determine how much space we had used toward our quota limit.

At the time of that post (July 2006) there wasn't an easy way to tell (short of hitting it) how close we were to reaching the (then) 300MB total.

While I have included images in my posts sparsely, I don't want to run into the limit un-aware.

A Major Storage Upgrade

The not-so-recent news that Google/Blogger acquired Picasa and is now using that service to host its Blogger images (if desired) was welcome news.

Master Blogger guru phydeaux3 posted some neat perks that came with the merge: phydeaux3: More Blogger Photo Integration with Picasa

These included a blog photo album collection of your Blogger image uploads, and an image space upgrade from 250-300MB to 1GB (and counting!).

What's even better is that if for some reason you hit your 1GB limit, you can buy more!

Not bad, despite the image url quirks under this arrangement that are pointed out in phydeaux3's post.

But how do you tell progress towards your size limit?

Storage Reporting Solution #1

According to this Blogger Help link: How can I get more storage for my images? there is a link to a Picasa help page: How do I know how much storage I'm using?

The solution? Log into your Picasa Web Albums (using your Blogger login) and make sure you are on the My Photos page. At the very bottom your current storage information will show in green.

Yep. I did and there it was!

You are currently using 1 MB (1%) of your 1024 MB

Whew! Lots of room to grow!

It Gets Even Easier!

But then, this post was actually inspired by something else I noticed first.

I had barely noticed on Saturday's post, when adding my E7 image, that at the very bottom of the Blogger image posting pop-up window was a tiny line that notified me exactly how much space I was using of my Blogger/Picasa quota:

While it is possible I had missed this before, when I last posted an image to the blog, I think it is a fairly recent addition to the image adding interface.

Nice! On-posting storage reporting!

Me likey!

Bonus Tip...Cleaning House

While I was over in my Picasa Web Album page, I got looking at my Blogger images posted.

Images posted prior to December 2006 to Blogger before the Google/Picasa merger haven't been moved over yet, so they aren't showing. But Blogger says they are working on those as well.

I also noticed that there were some "draft" images I had originally posted to the blog, but ended up removing and replaced with a different image.

Before, I knew they were there, but not visible and no way to remove from my quota. Now with Picasa, I can go in and remove them!

Nice! No more "error image posts" to worry about taking up space.

Additional Links:

Blogger Help : Picture Posting FAQ

Tips for Using Images in Blogs

Happy Blogger image posting and watching!

--Claus

Ad-Aware SE Update Problem - Simply Fixed x2

Cookie Crumbs

So a few weeks ago I was going through my weekly cookie-cleaning process.

Download updates to Spybot Search & Destroy...scan...delete cookies.

Download updates to Ad-Aware SE...scan...delete cookies.

Download updates to AVG Anti-Spyware...scan...delete cookies.

Download updates to A-Squared Free...scan...delete cookies.

Yes, using four products is kinda overkill...but the overlap results in a very thorough scouring process, and even when ran in succession, each product picks up something the other didn't.

Only I ran into a hitch.

Failure!

My download of the Ad-Aware SE update failed.

When I clicked on the link to check for updates, it will download to 5% then fail.

At first I thought they had a server problem...but the problem has lasted for several weeks now.

None of my other programs had any problems hitting the net. Just Ad-Aware SE.

So I figured, maybe since I had installed LavaSoft's Ad-Aware 2007 Beta about that same time, maybe it was causing a conflict. So I uninstalled it. Still no update downloads.

So then I uninstalled Ad-Aware SE, downloaded it fresh, and reinstalled.

No dice.

Workaround One (but not my final solution)

My workaround was to manually download the Ad-Aware definition files updates, and unzip the file into the program's folder.

Problem (kinda) solved.

Only I really wasn't satisfied with that solution.

Sure it worked, but being a network/desktop support guy at work, I couldn't leave it alone.

Research Time

So I did some targeted Google searching and study and came up with quite a few forum reports about others suddenly running into this issue:

• Lavasoft Support Forums > Ad Aware SE Personal won't download new updates
• Smart Computing Q & A Board: Ad-Aware SE won't update
• Netscape Windows Support - messages #194236
• Ad-aware Definition Update Problems - Lavasoft Support Forums
• Ad-Aware "Error Retrieving Update" problem - CNET PC applications & utilities Forums
• Bleeping Computer: Error With Downloading Ad-aware Definition Update -- Problem?

A review of all of them led to a number of different suggestions;

1. Maybe the HOSTS file was hacked by malware preventing the download.
2. Maybe a DNS cache flush would clear it up.
3. The Lavasoft servers were being overwhelmed with update requests.
4. AdAware had updated some of their DNS table references and some DNS servers were having problems resolving the correct location. Change to a different DNS server location.

Well, I was reasonably certain my pc hadn't been hacked by malware. My HOSTS file was pristine.

I flushed my XP system's DNS cache by running from a command-prompt session the following command: ipconfig /flushdns

That's usually a great troubleshooting tip I use at work frequently. However, no change here.

While I could see how the Lavasoft servers could be hammered every now and then, I wasn't buying that they would be off-line for weeks.

While some posters were scared to do those "highly technical" steps (not really) to change their provider's default DNS server, that wasn't the case with me. I have been very happy and not having any issues with my router's custom DNS server settings. I am using OpenDNS and am finding new reasons for loving it each month. I wasn't about to go back to my old settings. And since I had been getting Ad-Aware SE updates with no problems since I switched to OpenDNS, I didn't feel that was worth pursuing.

But I was kinda curious about this DNS thing some forum posters had mentioned.

The Lead

Back in November it appears that Lavasoft (back in November 2006) moved their update servers to some new IP addresses. At the time it seemed to take a while for "word" to spread to all the DNS servers about the IP address change.

It appears (based on information in forum posts) that Lavasoft may be having this issue again;

From this Smart Computing Q & A Board post:

Here's an answer from a technician from Lavasoft:

"Hi

We are working on a solution that will be released later today.
You can wait for that or change the DNS address. Use the DNS address that is closest to where you live (east?) as preferred and the other address (west) as your Alternate.

The update problems are a result of expired DNS records for our previous definition update servers.

Now, some Internet Service Providers DNS servers are routing erroneous domain requests to a custom webpage, rather than to the standard:

The domain you requested could not be found 404 error page.

This stops our updating service from functioning.

Kind regards,

Jona, Lavasoft Support"

And while it seems that Earthlink and their affiliates' DNS servers are having the most problems, there was this bit regarding OpenDNS specifically in this Netscape Windows Support thread:

For the curious, here's what was going on.

When Ad-Aware updates its definition file, it tries to fetch a new file via HTTP from download.lavasoft.de.edgesuite.net. That name disappeared from the DNS (It stopped resolving.) sometime on Friday, March 23rd.

In response, our nameservers began redirecting download.lavasoft.de.edgesuite.net to our typo-correction landing servers for users who have typo correction enabled (the default setting). Ad-Aware was able to connect to our landing servers, but it was (of course) unable to fetch a valid definition file from them.

On Monday, March 26th, after diagnosing the problem, we changed the configuration of our nameservers to prevent redirection of download.lavasoft.de.edgesuite.net. This causes Ad-Aware to try a second name, download.lavasoft.de, from which it can fetch a valid definition file.

There's one caveat: if you have a DNS search list, Ad-Aware may continue to have trouble.

The Test

I fired up Wireshark, and began a packet capture session. Then I launched Ad-Aware SE and ran the steps to get the update.

After it errored out, I stopped the packet capture and took a look.

Imagine my surprise to find the following two "info" lines in my packet capture:

Standard query A download.lavasoft.de.edgesuite.net

Standard query response, No such name

Yep. There was the pudding-proof.

Ad-Aware SE was attempting to resolve the update server's address at download.lavasoft.de.edgesuite.net and failing. So it errored out.

The Simple Fix

I didn't feel like doing any DNS changes (I really like OpenDNS) so I could just continue to manually download the updates, but I wanted something easier.

Luckily, I knew of a very simple solution that surprisingly hadn't been suggested in any of the forum posts I saw.

Lavasoft's CalamityJane had previously forum-posted the IP addresses that they use for their updates servers:

You could always see if the servers are up.

The are located at 82.99.19.xx and xx is 11 to 17

[Servers]
server0=82.99.19.11/public/defs.ref
server1=82.99.19.12/public/defs.ref
server2=82.99.19.13/public/defs.ref
server3=82.99.19.14/public/defs.ref
server4=82.99.19.15/public/defs.ref
server5=82.99.19.16/public/defs.ref
server6=82.99.19.17/public/defs.ref

So I just browsed to my HOSTS file located at C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\HOSTS and opened it with notepad.

Then I added the following line into it: 82.99.19.11 download.lavasoft.de.edgesuite.net

I saved the HOSTS file, then relaunched Ad-Aware SE and tried an update.

Bam. Got the whole thing.

Problem solved, simply!

No DNS server changes, no more DNS flushing, no malware, nada.

The Ad-Aware SE updates are automatically flowing again!

Why did this work?

Simply put:

The Hosts file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. This file is loaded into memory (cache) at startup, then Windows checks the Hosts file before it queries any DNS servers, which enables it to override addresses in the DNS.

Since I knew the actual IP locations for the download server, and my Wireshark session told me what server name Ad-Aware SE was trying to query, I just manually matched up the two bits of information in the HOSTS file.

Then, since the system will check the HOSTS file first and go with whatever is there, it was able to make the connection before even trying to query a DNS sever.

For many users, this change is probably much easier and less "intrusive" than trying to locate a good DNS sever to use and then make those changes to either their PC or router.

The Final "Official" Word/Solution from Lavasoft

In the process of working through this post, I eventually stumbled across "The Official Word" from Lavasoft: "Error Retrieving Updates". Interrupts At 5% Download Completion.

Lavasoft's fix as of April 4th, 2007?

Download a new version of Ad-Aware se from this page: Solution For " Error Retrieving Updates. Interrupts At 5% Download Completion "

So to see if this really worked,

1. I removed the line I had added to my HOSTS file and resaved it.
2. I uninstalled my just recently downloaded version of Ad-Aware SE from my system.
3. I reinstalled the newly "patched" Ad-Aware SE program installation file.
4. I launched it and checked for updates.

It worked fine. Downloads flowed with no 5% error-outs.

So forget all my work on modifying the HOST file (unless you just want to) and grab the not-so-public fixed update file for Ad-Aware SE.

Items of Curiosity to Claus

First, I did happen to run another Wireshark packet capture during the new version's update process.

For comparisons, this new version of Ad-Aware SE is now using the DNS server name dlserver3.download.lavasoft.com where before it had been using download.lavasoft.de.edgesuite.net

On this pass it snagged the server IP address of 82.99.19.13

I'm sure they are still cycling through the IP's mentioned above in the post. This bitty change is what "officially resolves" (pun intended) the update problem!

Secondly, why doesn't Lavasoft just release this new version to all the download sites instead of still serving up the "old" version and making the "fixed" version so hard to find?

The MD5 sum for the Free version I just-now-as-I-post downloaded directly from their official "Free Download" link on this page was 0DBA00FC40C3468BBE474812299B0DF3 aawsepersonal.exe

The MD5 sum for the "fixed" version I just-now-as-I-post downloaded directly from their "solutions" link on this page was B88FA66F15BE61FB0538F78D3A620EC1 aawsepersonal.exe

The files are not the same. Is it because just a few users of specific ISP DNS servers are running into the problem? Wouldn't this version fix everyone's problems, including...say...new users to this fabulous Lavasoft product who happen to want to use this program, and don't yet realize that their ISP DNS server settings are about to crap-out the update experience for them? How quickly will they abandon this application and have a bad taste in their mouth because they got an "old" version and not the newer "fixed" one that works just fine?

It was a major pain in my rumpus to hunt down that "fixed" download file post. And it is not referenced anywhere clearly on the main Lavasoft pages for Ad-Aware where most non-technical users would likely first turn to seek help.

Thirdly, during this process, my "old" Ad-Aware SE Personal build was 1.06r1.

After the update it still displayed the version as 1.06r1, so the minor change they made to program in the call to a different DNS name didn't apparently justify a need to even slightly increment the version number.

Bummer.

From a professional troubleshooter's perspective I strongly think that was a bad decision; as that small bit of info might go a long way to help users who might be having this similar issue and are seeking help. Simply calling it 1.06r1a or 1.06r2 would have done the job nicely.

But that's just me.

Don't let my whining here get you down. Lavasoft's Ad-Aware SE is a great application and I really love it, even with these sudden update problems of late.

Bonus: Lavasoft's Ad-Aware 2007 Beta Testing

I've been testing their next-generation Ad-Aware 2007 (now at Beta Five with Beta Six coming on April 20th). It sports some MAJOR changes that I like quite a bit, and some things that I don't (which I am hoping get worked out during the beta process).

Download from FileHippo if you don't want to register at Lavasoft's Beta page (which is painless and I recommend doing if you really want to try it out).

Since it is still pretty "beta" at the moment, I don't want to post any specific comments evaluating its performance. It wouldn't seem fair while in development.

For now, suffice it to say I am looking forward to being (hopefully) impressed when the final version is released. I'm waiting to see how some current elements get included (or dropped) at final release time. I may speak more about that in a later post.

Hope all this this helps someone,

--Claus

Mozilla Mayhem

The last few weeks have presented some real challenges to Mozilla.

Firstly, the Add-Ons Oopsie

The Mozilla Web Development team finally followed through and rolled out a new redesign of the Mozilla Add-on's page. This is the top landing zone for folks to get the extensions that make Firefox so customizable.

Only when they rolled it out a few problems ensued.

It seemed according to some accounts that only about 150 or so extensions made the cut from the previous 2500 or so previously present.

This had the consequence of rendering a large number of web links in Google, blogs and other pages to the extensions useless as a Add-on Not Found page was generated. I have to admit I (naively) was expecting mass revolt across the web, burning of effigies, riots and panic as a wave of uproar generated by Firefox faithful screamed out for restoration of their extensions.

Alas, it seemed to be a yawn. Maybe I dig the extensions too much as a "power-user" of Firefox. Maybe the average Joe and Jane who stumble across Firefox just don't get (or need) the extensions. I'm not sure what happened.

It seemed that for the most part only extension developers who were left out in the cold and some Firefox power-users were the only ones expressing any concern or passion about the deal.

My, oh my.

Then their servers apparently melted down under the load and they rolled it back to the old-style.

Now they have rolled it back out again, and tossed in some more extensions to bring the current "trusted" pile available for public access up to about 850.

Then there is that whole new "Sandbox" thing with the add-ons.

See, they had split the extensions into "trusted" and "Sandboxed" extensions. The ones in the public area had been vetted by a crack team of ninjas...no, wait...by seasoned and experienced Mozilla team members. While those awaiting quality assurance were held in a hard-to-reach "sandbox" area for review, until they were eventually moved into the public zone.

Only that also got rolled back and all the pre-existing extensions got put back into the public zone again: all pre-existing add-ons restored (made public) - Mozilla Webdev

So now, things are back to "normal" over on the Mozilla Add-Ons site. It is cleaned up and site navigation simplified, and some tweaks were made to improve server performance.

At the fundamental level, I really do like the idea the Mozilla Webdev team has in mind with the Sandbox concept:

It is very, very important to us that unsuspecting users are protected from malicious or careless software when using the AMO site.

(snip)

Additionally, as Firefox’s appeal widens to a more mainstream, less computer-savvy audience, we came to realize that we needed to make sure that the add-ons were comprehensible and accessible to people who were not as comfortable working around installation problems or figuring out what an extension did by experimentation. The add-ons that people find through their use of AMO should be inspiring examples of what the extensible web can provide, and should make users’ lives better in every way.

The implementation just kinda sucked.

For more information, take a minute to read the policy page description and review process flowchart.

Secondly, a new Alpha for Firefox

Gran Paradiso Alpha 3 was released

Mozilla Gran Paradiso Alpha 3 Release Notes

It's clearly offered for extreme cutting-edge testers, but overall I have found it to be very stable on my XP systems. And while I am not quite ready to utilize it for daily usage (over Firefox 2.0.0.3) I am very happy with its performance and minor feature improvements.

Thirdly, Minefield goes to 3.0a4pre

In the past week or so, Mozilla has bumped it's Minefield "nightly " build from 3.0a3pre to 3.0a4pre.

As of this post: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9a4pre) Gecko/20070407 Minefield/3.0a4pre ID:2007040704 [cairo]

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/3.0a4pre/

I REALLY want to use this as my daily Firefox browser build. The graphic rendering seems so much better, it seems faster, and I just get a very positive (subjective) feel. However, I remain "chicken" to depend on it for all my blogging/browsing/secure web session needs.

Bonus feature: Discontinuous text selections in Firefox 3.0a. Wonderful for bloggers!

So this "Minefield" build remains like a really nice "topless" sports car; taken out for fast and fun weekend spins on the Web...but probably not quite suitable for daily commuting.

Lastly: Thunderbird 2.0--fueling up for Release!

Let me be totally biased here: I think Mozilla's Thunderbird is the best "home" email client.

Ever.

Yes there are lots of contenders, but I just really enjoy the way Thunderbird works.

I've been using the 2.0b2 (Beta 2) version of Thunderbird for some time now and positively love it.

Then Thunderbird Release Candidate 1 (RC1) was released just a few days ago. I jumped on it.

It has a number of new features: Including native Gmail support (hurrah!), message tagging, and true Vista support, and a clickable system-tray new mail notifier (like Outlook!).

New features & significant changes in Thunderbird 2 Release Candidate 1:

• Tools for organizing and managing e-mail
  • Implement mail "back" and "forward"
  • Message Tags
    • Ability to search tags
    • Support for editing tags
    • Improve Usability Of Tag Menus
  • Folder Views
  • Option to file replies in folder of original message
  • Find As You Type in the message pane
  • Enable auto-save by default
  • Recent folder menus for Copying and Moving messages
• Be Informative
  • Main mail window now shows IMAP quota usage
  • New Mail Alert Improvements
    • Ability to customize new mail alert information
  • Folder Summary Tooltips
  • Add ability to check news servers for new messages at startup
• Support for new platforms
  • Windows x64 platform support
  • Universal binaries for Intel Macs
  • Windows Vista support
• Automatic detection of online state
• Preference dialog redesign
• Remote image policy changes
• Two pane view using a folder location picker toolbar widget
• Spell check now also checks the subject line
• New Windows installer based on Nullsoft Scriptable Install System
• Theme updates for all platforms
• New, combined and improved Add-ons manager for extensions and themes
• New account types - Gmail (all systems) & .Mac (Mac OS X only)
• New localizations: Belarusian, Georgian & Portuguese
• Thunderbird 2 release notes link in Help menu should point to localized documents

According to The Rumbling Edge, over 950 bugfixes and improvements went into this new build from the 1.5 Thunderbird branch. Wow.

Of course...I couldn't be satisfied with Thunderbird 2.0 RC1, so I went poking around on the Mozilla FTP server and found a Thunderbird 2.0.0.0 RC2 (nightly?) non-released build. It's actually dated a wee-bit older than the RC1 version in a parent folder on the server. I'm not sure what the real distinction is between all these....but that is the version I am currently running and haven't had any problems or crashes yet.

Tentative final release date for Thunderbird 2.0?

Still late April.

Have fun!

--Claus

E7 - Burned and Extinguished

I'm only just now able to rationally talk about this

Cartoon Network's Adult Swim is broadcasting the American release of Eureka Seven.

I am deeply into the series.

The Setup

So, as it airs at midnight (Gulf-Coast Time) and the girls don't usually stay up that late I dutifully set the VCR (yes...no TiVo yet) last Saturday night to capture episode 47. There are 50 episodes in the on-air series. I even checked the on-line TV schedule to confirm...just in case there was a change in the broadcast series again.

This was going to be a big one according to episode 46's ending teaser.

And as my girls slept, I kept a sleepy eye out on the TV for the episode to roll.

Only I began at 11pm'sh and this crazy bad stuff was running, and not the regular anime programming.

No problem. It would be done soon.

The Switch

Only it wasn't. This crazy "stupid-head" cartoon feature continued to run, past E7's slot and it kept going. At 1AM I gave up, frustrated and ticked.

No new E7.

The Burn

So in the morning I checked the Cartoon Network Adult Swim schedule to see where I had gone wrong.

I didn't. But there was a double run of E7 episode 47 showing. But I was still ticked.

And the girls were disappointed.

Now we had to wait two whole weeks with no E7.

Just as it looked like Renton and Eureka would find Renton's lost sister!

Unacceptable!

The Plan

Some more intensive web-scouring turned up what had happened.

Turns out that Adult Swim had let loose a clever April Fools prank on their fans by running "Perfect Hair Forever" in their regular anime programming block.

To make it even funnier (more funny?) they ran-down the video quality to VHS grade signal, had periods of bad "VHS" tape tracking, added (bad) English subtitles that vaguely matched the audio dialog, and sometimes didn't even match at all.

Funny stuff guys.

Needless to say E7 fans were less than amused. Darkmoon over on Lux.Et.Umbra drafted a well-composed Open letter to Adult Swim...

Dear Adult Swim,

Great on the April's Fool's joke. Haha. Playing Perfect Hair Forever instead of the usual anime line-up. What's interesting is that you complain the whole year about your ratings, then you get some good shows that are not well advertised and you screw up by pissing off your fan base. It's also laughable that the boards are having troubles at the time of this post due to the heavy traffic from upset fans (either that, or the forums software can't scale very well).

(snip)

Great job.

In fact, the only bright-spot in the whole plan seemed to occur when I spotted that Adult Swim would begin a fresh run of Ghost in the Shell: 2ndGIG in May. (Which, IMHO is a way better run than the first season's SAC run.)

Getting Satisfaction

So what did I do?

I did some clever searching on a certain Well-Known Portal for video uploads and found episode 47 of Eureka Seven. (I'm not telling/linking to them for you...however, you shouldn't have any trouble at all finding them.)

And I watched it.

It was tiny, and it was subbed, but it was great.

And then I went on and watched Episodes 48, 49 and the stunning conclusion in episode 50.

Wow.

Then that night, the entire family piled into our bed and watched them all again together on Lavie's laptop.

Wow!

Call that fire extinguished.

The End

I won't provide any commentary about the "un-aired" episodes of E7.

We still are going to tape/watch the dubbed versions when their air on Adult Swim (hopefully no more pranks).

I am still (even more so now) committed to purchasing the E7 DVD's of which I already own five or six.

And Eureka Seven will now assume a honored place in the top of my favorite anime series.

Last night I rewatched all four final episodes again. They were that good.

Stupid Head Adult Swim.

Who's laughing now?

--Claus