atomizer

did ya check the ones out in my sig especially AIOS (all in one sidebar) and if anyone knows of a hack/extension that provides a split view (2 webpages side by side), i'm all ears.

never tried it, but here ya go! https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/morei...ication=firefox

can you list currently supported archives, or are all supported already in \bin\formats ? and thanks for the util!

i'm not having trouble, at least not that i've found, but it looks like you're not the only one. did you do a clean install, or an upgrade? look on the mozilla forums. http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewforum.php?f=38

have a look at these 2 sites... http://www.malwarebytes.org/index.php?page=downloads http://castlecops.com/check116685next.html

hello to you!

ha! i always use 'bob@aol.com' poor bob oh, and my favs are in my sig...

have you done anything to try to find the problem? http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html http://www.safer-networking.org/

yeah, it's difficult to break old habits. i did the same thing with FF and promptly went back to IE. not anymore though

i'd love to, but i think i'd better not

this may be true to an extent, but it is also true because FF, as well as (any?) other non-IE browsers, are inherently more secure. FF, Opera, etc., do not support ActiveX and have tighter restrictions on JS (and probably other potentially damaging technologies). yes, but... this doesn't change the fact that some products are inherently more secure then others. i don't use Linux, but i'd be an ignorant fool to state that the only reason Linux is more secure is because it's less of a target (and that's arguable because, as far as i know, *nix powers the majority of the Internet). Linux is inherently more secure. period. i don't use IE either, but i have used it for the vast majority of the time that i've been 'computing'. i'm also a sort of security/privacy nut and there's no comparison between security/privacy when it comes to IE and non-IE browsers. none. the base IE code, to my knowledge, hasn't changed much in many years -- patch-patch-patch and still more patches (practically every month). it lacks all sorts of functionality and most people don't know how to configure it. if you want to talk about 'joe user', then there is no argument that poor joe is left standing in the rain with his pants down when he decides (or simply doesn't know any better) to use IE. sure. agreed. but who releases NEW versions and patches more frequently? and what is the severity of the problems? the same can be said for the 'IE fanboys'. where is your (and i'm asking anyone at all) proof that IE is better/more secure/more privacy oriented/etc.?my knowledge is limited, but the 'proof' i can offer, as far as FF goes anyway, is that it doesn't use ActiveX - a security nightmare. i don't have to leave the main browser window to enable/disable Java, JS, Flash, cookies, redirects, etc., on a global or per-site basis. i don't have to d/l and run 2 or 3 other programs and proxies to control ads, spyware, etc., and 'scan' my system every other day. i don't have to run a new instance of the browser for every window -- and on and on. but none of this is new and has been mentioned over and over on the forums here, so to say that the 'FF fanboys' haven't offered any substantial proof that one is better than the other suggests you either haven't been reading relevant posts on the subject, or you simply prefer IE and choose to defend it regardless of its merits (or lack thereof). if you want to look at 'joe user', who doesn't know how configure security policies, what the 'zones' are, what websites to avoid, what spyware is, ActiveX, what the computer management console is, etc., what browser would you recommend they use? as mentioned earlier, i don't use Linux, but i have tried it several times (Suse, Mandrake, Ubuntu, Redhat). Linux, as you may know, doesn't integrate a browser and DOES offer choices. i don't know about you, but i enjoy the freedom of choices rather then having crap shoved down my throat at the expense of security, functionality and the all-mighty dollar. i was also very impressed with with the huge volume of s/w that was distributed with every Linux OS i've tried, many offering more than one word, mail, chat, FTP, browser, UI, etc., etc., etc.. your statement "The statement Microsoft shouldn't provide a browser with their product says that you think Microsoft should have an OS that is bare of any additional applications..." is plain silly. MS, as with many other OS's, could offer any choices it wants, they just decide not to. as a matter of fact, MS bundles the least amount of s/w with its OS's. and how do you (or the average joe) know which sites are reputable? which ones to avoid? and what happens when you stumble upon a malicious site by accident? yeah, look in the blocked sites lists for many of the cleaners that cater to IE, like Spybot S&D for instance. you'll find hundreds/thousands.

Steam(ing pile of c***) yeah, i believe IE is required for Steam. i almost always turn away from dev's that require IE to run their s/w. Valve's 'Steam' platform is no different. although i've always bought the games (including HL2), i don't run Steam anymore! where there's a will, there's a hack.

ALL of the above is available in FF as well, some natively and some through extensions, IF you want them i tried Opera as well, just a month or so ago (would that have been v9? - the one available when they were giving away licenses). like i said in an earlier post, if you want a browser that requires little fuss and has a decent amount of features built-in, then stay away from FF. Opera is the way to go. if you don't mind getting your hands just a tad bit grimy and you want the capability to customize 'till your teeth bleed, then nothing in the main stream can touch FF -- nothing i've found anyway. FF is what ever YOU want it to be.

i forget the model. do a search for: "hacked firmware" linksys however, i have read that Linksys is owned by Cisco and that the Linksys product line is rather crappy compared to other units. don't hold me to that however -- do your own research. i have a BEFW11S4 and haven't had any problems with it that i'm aware of. btw, that's not the one that everyone is modding.

heck man, i thought i WAS defending Opera it's a good **** browser. period. but for the tech savvy, as you put it, who enjoy tweaking and virtually unlimited customization (me), i would recommend FF. also, FF either natively has (proper tabbed browsing -- new tab, not window, a password manager, smooth scrolling), or can have with tweaks or addons (if you want it), all the items you listed. and yes, poorly written extensions can be a problem. i've experienced that myself. they also slow the loading of the browser. however, for me anyway, the very rare problem with extensions and the slightly slower loading is worth every bit of the additional functionality. i always read the reviews of extensions before trying them, plus, the more i use FF, the better idea i have on what extensions may conflict with others and how to configure them. still, in the end, it's all up to you!

spend money? > UltraEdit free? > PSPad (http://www.pspad.com/) i've found the latter to be a very good replacement for UltraEdit, except for its goofy column selection mode.

i borrowed them form Jeremy

1 star per 10,000 posts

i did, which is why i asked don't get me wrong, i'm not trying to say this is better than that, but i'd like to point out differences and shortcomings of other browsers (mainly IE, not NetCaps). see this screenshot as an example. upper left is the main menu, of course. to the right, i've arranged most of the standard buttons on the same toolbar to save space. two i'd like to point out are the arrow with the red circle and the gray icon. the former toggles redirect URL's (bypassing redirects) and the latter is the User Agent Switcher which makes FF appear to webservers as whatever browser you want it to appear as. below the main toolbar is the GoogleBar Lite toolbar. this is NOT from Google and does not update itself automatically and install annoying crap. optionally, it displays a webpage context menu as well. below that is the All In One Sidebar where i'm showing the extensions. that thing, by itself, is incredible. it is highly configurable and can display extensions, bookmarks, history, a web page and much more. easily opened/closed several ways. this can also display a webpage context menu with some useful tools. overlaying the sidebar is the standard options dialog, showing off the FasterFox menu. further down is the Bookmarks Manager and below that is the Adblock Filterset.G options dialog which goes hand in hand with Adblock Plus (upper right). the Filterset.G updater syncs with a well maintained ad blocking list and does so automatically, at the users option. it also saves my user created filters after an update. Adblock Plus can easily be used to block most anything at all and is easily accessed, configured and turned on/off from the "Adblock" text button on the lower right side of the status bar. custom blocking is easily accomplished by right-clicking on the offending element of a webpage. supports black and white listing as well. also located on the status bar, the green "C" is a cookie manager that is super easy to use for allowing (always, session), blocking or removing cookies on a per-site basis. to the right of it is a blue "S" (covered by a red circle because i didn't allow JS for MFSN). it is similar to Adblock, but is used to block/allow JS, Flash, Bookmarklets, etc., on a per-site or global basis. in the lower middle is the DOM Inspector which is good for web developers and above it is the JS console. to the right of DOM is the Themes manager for skinning FF (i have none installed). and there's a lot more as well. the heart of FF, it's configuration files, are not shown. for instance, 'about:config' can be typed in the address bar to access many additional settings.

can you elaborate on its security and "toys" that you can't find elsewhere? just curious.

interesting you mention that. i had heard that MS released an extension or plugin for FF users to be able to access WU. i spent some time searching and found many articles, but no links. also didn't find anything on the M$ website.

used IE forever and always liked it, but got tired of having to constantly keep an eye on security settings and having run 2 or 3 3rd party apps to keep it clean (app for spyware, BHO's, etc., and another for ads) and still being at high risk. IE hasn't changed in in forever and it's just patch after patch after patch. i also never like the fact that MS insists on making it difficult to remove contents from the 'temp internet files' directory (index.dat files), which makes it easy for law enforcement to use it against you. although i don't participate in illegal activities, it's the principle of the **** thing. now, i no longer even have that dir (removed with autoruns). tried Opera briefly, but found it's not nearly as configurable as FF IMO. however i'd recommenced Opera for anyone who wants a good, secure and fairly feature rich browser out-of-the-box with a minimum of fuss. over the years i've tried FF a few times and couldn't see what all the fuss was about. now that i've been using it exclusively for probably close to a year, i DO see what all the fuss is about for me, there is no other browser. out of the box it's very slim and very fast. add all the extensions you want to give it the functionality YOU want. the downsides i've found is not sorting bookmarks alphabetically with folders first (there are work-a-rounds) and slower application loading times (and again, there are work-a-rounds). as far as not being able to access windows update, i consider that a plus. with IE, OE, WMP and many other windows annoyances and security hole riddled apps removed (nLite), there is far less use for windows updates. MFSN hosts a list of updates (http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=31886) and then there's an auto-update for FF users here: http://windowsupdate.62nds.com/ .

i'm no security expert, but if you're truly interested in securing your data, then encryption is probably the best way to go. pick a good password and it will be *very* difficult to crack, especially if you can use non-standard characters that aren't easily typed with a keyboard. keep in mind that if you use the encryption built in to windows, MS, to my knowledge, has never released the source, so who is to say how good it is? some folks here already covered some of the bases as far as accessing your system drive (and all drives). another option, in addition to a Linux distro that can access NTFS partitions (such as NT offline password editor), is simply to use the recovery console and choose a repair install. i just did that with a CEO we fired because he wouldn't provide the password to his company laptop (and i couldn't get the Linux method to work). if you encrypt your data however, then it can't be recovered this way. he didn't, nor do most people i would guess. as far as firewalls, Kerio is a pretty good one. it is very rare i actually buy a piece of s/w, but i did buy Kerio Personal Firewall -- ok, i lied. my company bought it if Kerio is about to dump, i didn't know anything about it. may want to check into that first. 'Tiny' uses the Kerio engine, but has modified it (or perhaps just the GUI). i absolutely hate it. i found it to be the most UN-intuitive GUI i've seen in a firewall. i'd also suggest staying away from 'Zone Alarm' -- too many problems and i'm not so sure about the company's ethics. Steve Gibson, who is nothing more than a salesman from what i understand and a self-proclaimed "security expert", highly recommends ZA and that's enough reason for me to put it on the 'suspicious' list. i think a good place to scan for network security/privacy is here: http://www.pcflank.com/index.htm

or swear at it

you can pretty much forget "response times" as reported by the manufacturer. they are largely meaningless. read why at tomshardware.com. read a lot of user reviews to get an idea of how well an LCD preforms for gaming. also, many buyers of the dell ultrasharp 24" are reporting a high pitch whine. i don't know if the same goes for the 20".