404 Tech Support » Software

Hands-on With The Firefox 4 Beta 2

Jason — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:36:55 +0000

Firefox 4 is under development with the first beta available and the second beta just hit the wire. The new version is, of course, getting faster and improving security but let's check out some of the new features to see some of what's coming next with Firefox. The features differ a little bit depending on your operating system with Windows Vista/7 leading the way in having the latest features included although beta 2 also brought these features to Mac OS X and Linux theme changes will be coming soon.

I tested on Windows XP, so I don't get to see all of the features but you can get quite the overview by checking out the Firefox 4 Beta Features page and watching the embedded video. Or... I can embed it after the jump:

This is an excerpt of an article from 404 Tech Support. Read the full article here: Hands-on With The Firefox 4 Beta 2

Move on with Ex-blocker, Hide Your Exes on the Internet

Jason — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:47:21 +0000

Ex-blocker is an add-on for Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome that allows you to move on with your life by blocking you from visiting your Ex-girlfriend/boyfriend's Twitter, Facebook page, and blog URL. It also whites out any references to the individual on webpages you visit. And if you're quite the pimp, you can block up to five exes with each add-on.

This is an excerpt of an article from 404 Tech Support. Read the full article here: Move on with Ex-blocker, Hide Your Exes on the Internet

A Rant on Cyber-Bullying or ‘They’re 11. You, the Parent, Take Responsibility!’

Jason — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:54:54 +0000

This is partially a rant and partially a list of resources to help keep your children safe online. I was "inspired" to write this post for two reasons, I was already accumulating the list of resources for keeping kids safe online and secondly, Good Morning America had an interview with a family that was victimized by cyber bullying where they got it all wrong. Here's my two cents as a guy who isn't as far out of the American public school system and isn't too old to be baffled by the technology that kids (I hate the word 'tweens' and won't be using it in this article.) are using. It includes these sections:

The cold, hard facts
Why my generation is the next "greatest generation"
The problem with today
A list of resources to protect your kid
Where technology isn't the solution
The rant

Videos and recommendations are after the jump.

This is an excerpt of an article from 404 Tech Support. Read the full article here: A Rant on Cyber-Bullying or ‘They’re 11. You, the Parent, Take Responsibility!’

Resolve Internet Explorer Slowly Opening New Tabs

Jason — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:01:35 +0000

Internet Explorer introduced tabs with version 7 but one of the many reasons I prefer Firefox and increasingly Chrome is that they handle tabs better. To open a new tab, you can hit the key combo Ctrl+T or click the button near the current tab in any of those browsers. The problem with Internet Explorer, both version 7 and 8, is that it takes a noticeable amount of time for the new tab to open even if it is just going to the about:blank page.

The solution to make IE's tabs open a bit more quickly is to disable a certain add-on...

This is an excerpt of an article from 404 Tech Support. Read the full article here: Resolve Internet Explorer Slowly Opening New Tabs

Mozilla Firefox 3.6.7 Released

Jason — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 01:06:33 +0000

Firefox 3.6.7 was just released and addresses a number of security and stability issues. You can update to this latest version by going to Help, Check for Updates... or by downloading the latest version from the Firefox site. While security issues are always good, a number of people have visited 404 Tech Support and commented that they were experiencing stability problems with versions 3.6.4 or 3.6.6 that mainly introduced crash protection.

This is an excerpt of an article from 404 Tech Support. Read the full article here: Mozilla Firefox 3.6.7 Released

Disabling Stationery in Outlook 2007 & 2010

Jason — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 21:20:31 +0000

This post is brought to you by that person (or persons) who use the stationery in Outlook to gussy up their e-mail messages. I'm sure you all know one or two. So, here's how they can turn it off and how we can prevent Outlook from showing it to us. Stationery in your e-mail looks something like a hideous 80s wallpaper is on the background of your e-mail, like this:

Some stationery is just annoying and some makes it a lot more difficult to read the message. To be courteous to your e-mail's recipients, turn it off and don't force this upon them. Office 2007 and Office 2010 have different ways of getting to the same screen where you can disable the theme.

This is an excerpt of an article from 404 Tech Support. Read the full article here: Disabling Stationery in Outlook 2007 & 2010

Deploying Skype to Your Organization via Group Policy

Jason — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:31:45 +0000

I was unfortunately given the task a while ago to deploy Skype to select computers within my organization. I say 'unfortunately' because I've heard many instances involving Skype that make me cringe with my network administrator hat on. Skype has a 'feature' that takes advantage of its P2P nature that it calls becoming a supernode. A supernode is just a computer that has Skype installed on it that has excess bandwidth. Skype then starts routing local Skype calls through your Internet connection. Sometimes when you have LOTS of excess bandwidth, such as at a University, so much traffic can start getting routed in that it floods the switches and disables an entire building's network and Internet access. All of this was publicly a big deal a while ago but this article will include steps on deploying Skype with the Supernode disabled and other settings so the software package has minimal effect on your environment.

This is an excerpt of an article from 404 Tech Support. Read the full article here: Deploying Skype to Your Organization via Group Policy

Mozilla Recalls Two Add-Ons

Jason — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 22:11:33 +0000

Yesterday, Mozilla announced that they pulled two add-ons from the Mozilla Add-ons site. One add-on was not approved but still installed by roughly 1,800 users with 334 users currently reportedly using it. The problem with this add-on, appropriately called Mozilla Sniffer, is that it compromised users security. If somebody with this add-on installed submitted a login form with a password, it would also submit all of that information to a remote location. The Mozilla Sniffer add-on was listed as still being experimental, which means it required somebody to login and review a prompt that warned them that the code had not been reviewed by Mozilla yet.

This is an excerpt of an article from 404 Tech Support. Read the full article here: Mozilla Recalls Two Add-Ons

End of the Line for Windows XP SP2 While Adobe Reader Changes Without Improving

Jason — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 02:29:47 +0000

Support for Windows XP SP2 Ends

With today's Patch Tuesday, it marks the end of support for Windows XP Service Pack 2. This shouldn't be that much of a news story except at the same time, we find out from Microsoft that 74% of business computers are still running Windows XP. Chances are that there is a significant percent of those that might not be running the latest service pack.

The end of support means...

This is an excerpt of an article from 404 Tech Support. Read the full article here: End of the Line for Windows XP SP2 While Adobe Reader Changes Without Improving

Ask 404TS: From My Experiences, Tips on Starting a Website

Jason — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:40:23 +0000

I was asked by a friend the other day about the details on running a website. From the effort required in maintaining a site to hosting and domain costs and what you should look for in a web server. The best way I could figure to answer all of the questions was to go off the only thing I had on the subject, my experiences running the WordPress-driven 404 Tech Support and a phpBB forum. After writing this up and talking about my experiences with others, we came to the conclusion that this information might be insightful for individuals wanting to know how to start a website and informative for those that are paying somebody to setup a website and know where their money is going. Although my experiences have been based on WordPress and phpBB, by-and-large this carries over to any general web hosting experiences.

This is an excerpt of an article from 404 Tech Support. Read the full article here: Ask 404TS: From My Experiences, Tips on Starting a Website