How does Firesheep Work?
“I’m worried about people accessing my passwords with Firesheep when I sign in to places like Facebook from the local
Category: Firefox
Add Google Secure Search to Firefox
Google secure search provides you with the ability to search with an encrypted HTTPS version of the Google search. This
Browse Faster with Bookmark Keywords
Bookmarks are one of the worst implemented features in the history of the browser. You need special software to tell
Password Exporter – Firefox Extension
If you store passwords for frequently visited Websites in Firefox, chances are you need to move those passwords or back them up. Password Exporter, a Firefox extension, makes it easy to export passwords from Firefox as either an XML or CSV file. You can then import passwords from the file to Firefox on another computer (or simply keep a backup of your password list. Encryption of the stored passwords is optional, so you can keep your passwords secure if necessary. One really handy feature is the ability to backup all those sites you told Firefox to never remember your password for, so you don’t get that nagging dialog box when you visit on another computer. [Windows 2k/XP/Vista $0.00]
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Backup Thunderbird Email
“I’m looking for an easy way to back up my email. I read your article on backing up Outlook, but I use Thunderbird. How do I backup my Thunderbird email?”
Most comprehensive backup applications support backing up the Thunderbird mail client. Email is a good place to start, but you also need to look for a more comprehensive backup strategy. Backing up your email is a good place to start; I certainly don’t know where I’d be if my email suddenly vanished. Here’s an easy way to make sure you don’t lose any of your Thunderbird email messages.
Google Browser Sync
I have mixed feelings about the new Google Browser Sync. The premise is keeping all your Firefox settings synchronized across every computer you use, including bookmarks, history, persistent cookies, and saved passwords. This is good in theory. I know there are plenty of times when I find something on one computer and then have to remember which computer in order to find the resource again. My concern comes from the implementation. In order to keep passwords, bookmarks and everything else in sync, the information is uploaded and stored on a Google server using the same Google account used for GMail, Google Talk and all the various other Google applications. Storing passwords and browser history on Google’s servers might be completely innocuous – a convenient repository of information. On the other hand all that information is definitively identifying in detail about where you go and what you do online. Google explicitly says in the terms of use, “Google may access, preserve, and disclose information regarding your use of the services if required to do so by law or under other conditions set forth in the Google Privacy Policy.” This gets scary if you ever end up getting divorced and your future-ex subpoenas your Internet history as some sort of proving ground for a relationship turned sour, or more importantly if the government decides they want to investigate a large block of Google users for patterns of behavior.
Keeping things in perspective, Google lets you choose what is or isn’t synchronized using advanced configuration. Google offers encryption for all this data, but fails in letting us know whether they hold a master key to decrypt it on their end. From my view, I’m inclined to use something like this to store my tab groupings to easily open them on any computer, bookmarks for the convenience of accessing them, encrypt both, and pass on trusting Google to store passwords, history, and cookies on their server. Bottom line, if you opt to use Google Browser Sync, I recommend caution. [Firefox for Windows and Mac $0.00]
Feed Your Reader
RSS is the information delivery tool keeping me on top of all the information I read daily. Without it, I’d be lost. While Firefox handles RSS auto-discovery, letting me know I can subscribe to something, with relative ease, it doesn’t elegantly add feeds to my RSS reader of choice (currently FeedDemon). Feed Your Reader steps in and elegantly adds one-click subscription functionality to Firefox, eliminating the messy copy-and-paste steps required to get from Web page to RSS reader. If you need to stay on top of information for your job, hobby or just want to keep abreast of the latest news, Feed Your Reader makes subscribing painless.
