Category Archives: Software

Firefox Hates On Its Users

Posted on November 14, 2017 by Michael Froomkin

Ok, maybe FF57 is faster, but it’s uglier and less functional. They finally pulled the trigger and killed off thousands of add-ons. My workflow just got noticeably worse.

I just lost about 30 enhancements and extensions. Admittedly, many were just frills. But I’ll particularly miss Tab Mix Plus, Autocopy, CoLT, Tab Mix Plus, Zoom Page and the beautiful and functional Nautipolis theme.

Oh, and did I mention I’m missing Tab Mix Plus?

With this revision and the disabling of key customizations, FireFox eliminates its #1 advantage over Chrome. After all these years, I may just switch.

Posted in Internet, Software | 4 Comments

Avira Does Not Play Nice With GCal Under IE11

Posted on May 5, 2016 by Michael Froomkin

avira-logoFor the record: under Win 7, IE 11, the Avira antivirus browser plugin causes Google’s calendar site, GCal, to freeze up and do other strange things. Using just Avira real-time protection, the main anti-virus program, does not cause the problem, just the browser add-on. The odd thing was that Gmail worked fine, but Gcal locked up, or got caught in a scripting error.

The fix is simple: disable the Avira add-on.

And, before you ask, no I don’t use IE much, but I do use it to access a 2nd gcal calendar that belongs to an organization without signing out of Google on my main browser or commingling the two identities in any way.

Posted in Software | Comments Off on Avira Does Not Play Nice With GCal Under IE11

Windows 7/8/8.1 Is Spying on You. This Batch File Will Reduce It.

Posted on September 8, 2015 by Michael Froomkin

Concerned by this batch file from an elevated command prompt to clean things up. I adapted it and slimmed it down from the to my eye excessive version at wildersecurity.com.

Text of the key parts of the file below if your system blocks downloads of .bat files, as well it might.
Continue reading →

Posted in ID Cards and Identification, Law: Privacy, Software | 3 Comments

U Miami Security Self-Surveillance App: Clever or Creepy?

Posted on September 3, 2015 by Michael Froomkin

UGuardian App :: UMPD Campus Safety:

Miami has a new app which lets users phone quickly for campus cops, and also set a time to get from one place to another, during which ‘friends’ can monitor progress. And if the user doesn’t reach the destination in time, the app sends an alarm.

Most of it seems to have been crafted with some thought to user privacy. But at 0:55 the video mentions that if you use the enhanced 911 feature, it will send your location and “a recent selfie”. If it’s one the user downloads and earmarks in advance that’s OK. If the app just picks a recent picture, that gets a bit creepier. Anyone willing to download this app and report back?

Posted in Software, U.Miami | Comments Off on U Miami Security Self-Surveillance App: Clever or Creepy?

Be Warned

Posted on June 17, 2015 by Michael Froomkin

EDRi, Microsoft’s new small print – how your personal data is (ab)used:

Summing up these 45 pages, one can say that Microsoft basically grants itself very broad rights to collect everything you do, say and write with and on your devices in order to sell more targeted advertising or to sell your data to third parties. The company appears to be granting itself the right to share your data either with your consent “or as necessary”.

This was particularly ominous:

Also, when device encryption is on, Windows automatically encrypts the drive Windows is installed on and generates a recovery key. The BitLocker recovery key for the user’s device is automatically backed up online in the Microsoft OneDrive account.

That said, there will be a few things you can turn off by deep diving into your computer’s settings and the Privacy Dashboard. And, I suspect, by not having a Microsoft Account or a OneDrive at all.

Microsoft’s new services agreement goes into effect on 1 August 2015, only a couple of days after the launch of the Windows 10 operating system on 29 July.

Posted in Law: Privacy, Software | Comments Off on Be Warned

The Style Trap

Posted on June 15, 2015 by Michael Froomkin

Robert Graham,

A lot of companies spend a great deal of time, and politically gnashing of teeth among developers, in order to draft style guidelines. This is garbage — it truly does not matter where you put braces, for example. Experienced coders have to be accustomed to reading various styles anyway. Here’s what you should do. Start a program asking anybody who is interested to come in after work in order to draft a new set of style guidelines. Fire everyone who shows up — they are political animals who are likely deadweight anyway. Then just pick a style guideline at random, like the Linux kernel style doc or the WebKit style.

— Errata Security, How to code: lesson 27

I don’t know if I’m persuaded by this, for all that it sounds good. I would expect that some coding styles impose some discipline on coders, making it hard to make careless errors — and easier for others to spot them. Plus shared expectations do make code easier to read and understand.

Then again, maybe modern coding languages have other tools that can notice when you leave out a ) or a }, or mis-specify a variable. It’s been a long time since I actually had to write code anyone else would see, much less work with.

Posted in Software | 3 Comments