Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on February 23, 2007 by CyberNet.

After several delays, Mozilla was finally able to roll out Firefox 2.0.0.2 and 1.5.0.10 today. The release of Firefox 2.0.0.2 is a pretty big one with 158 bugs being squashed: 21 fixed crashing issues, 4 fixed privacy bugs, and 2 fixed memory leaks. Not only that but Vista users will recognize a huge difference in the way that Firefox handles itself. Here are some of the Vista-related bugs that were fixed:

• Automatic Updates now works with users who have limited account privilege and User Account Control (UAC) enabled.
• Uses the Vista Default Application API which means Firefox should now be able to set itself as the default browser without having to be run as an administrator.
• Before Firefox would remain elevated (a.k.a. running as an administrator) after an update was performed, but that has been fixed.

The remaining bugs relate to under-the-hood work that won’t be visible to you. You will, however, be running a more secure and stable browser by upgrading. The official release notes page has not been posted for either version, but they should be available later on today (1.5.0.10 and 2.0.0.2).

Download Firefox 1.5.0.10:

Download Firefox 2.0.0.2:

Firefox 1.5.0.x will continue to receive security and stability updates until April 24, 2007 so I highly recommend that you upgrade if you haven’t done so already.

I also put together a portable version of Firefox 2.0.0.2 and that can be downloaded from here. That is great for anyone who wants to take Firefox wherever the road takes you. Of course, if you already have Firefox Portable installed you should just be able to go to the Help menu and use the “Check for updates” option to upgrade Firefox. Note: As Max mentioned below in the comments the upgrade option won’t work until Mozilla activates the Update, which will probably be tonight or tomorrow.

Now I’m just waiting for the new Firefox Addons site to be launched. It was supposed to happen last week, but they ran into some unexpected issues (here, here, and here). They now say that they’ll be doing some additional testing over the next week and a half to help create a list of things that need to be fixed before they ship the new addons site. After that is completed then they’ll make a release schedule. Oh, and don’t worry, it is probably more frustrating for them than it is for us:

It’s embarrassing and frustrating to miss deadlines (as I know from very extensive experience!), and painful to not be able to put your hard work out into the world where it can help people. The entire Remora team has been working almost literally around the clock for the last few weeks, and very hard for half a year before that, and we would like nothing in the world more than to deliver it to the world.

Good Luck Mozilla at getting that rolled out!

Thanks for the tip Alfredo!

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on August 25, 2008 by CyberNet.

Microsoft offers a lot of free apps, but the problem is that finding the programs isn’t always easy to do. We’re always on the hunt for free programs put out by Microsoft, and when we stumbled across Microsoft Pro Photo we definitely had to look into it.

After you download Microsoft Pro Photo you’ll quickly realize that the sole purpose of the program is to manage the metadata attached to the photos you take. You can do things like adjust the date/time a photo was taken, assign categories, view information about the shot (aperture, focial length, etc…), and more. The really handy part of the program is the geotag capabilities.

Once you have Microsoft Pro Photo up and running you’ll want to open some images located on your computer, which can be done through the File menu. After that select one or more images from the thumbnail section, and then click the Location option in the left sidebar. This is where you can adjust the geotag information that is associated with a single or group of photos. The best part is that you don’t need to fiddle around with latitude/longitude… just enter in the address of the location and click on the Get GPS Info button. That’s it, you’re done.

With Microsoft Pro Photo you can also geotag photos by simply browsing a map. It will give you a pin on the map that you can drag around, and it will automatically determine the coordinates based upon where you drop the pin. This is a nice option for anyone wanting to more precisely geotag their photos.

While the program is really nice there are a few things that I’d like to see in a future release:

1. You should be able to browse the photos in your pictures folder instead of having to open each image.
2. Instead of being able to geotag by address the user should also be able to geotag according to points of interest. That way you don’t have to lookup the address of, for example, the Eiffel Tower. You can kind of do this when using the “Map Browse” feature, but it should be as simple as it is when entering in an address.

Microsoft Pro Photo Homepage
Microsoft Pro Photo Direct Download (No WGA Check)

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on May 02, 2007 by CyberNet.

Yesterday, Ryan pointed out a QuickTime bug that affected Java-Enabled browsers. The bug affected those using Firefox and Safari on Macs, and those using IE7 on Vista. Very few people were immune to this issue, and all it took was visiting a malicious website and the user’s computer could have been compromised.

Thankfully Apple got on the issue pretty quickly, and today they released QuickTime 7.1.6 which patches the bugs that were previously mentioned. Had it not been for the CanSec West Security Conference, this bug wouldn’t have been found, and Apple thanks Dino Dai Zovi, Tipping Point, and the Zero Day Initiative for reporting what could have caused some problems for users.

Also included with this release is support for Final Cut Studio 2, and display fixes for timecode and closed caption.

If you use QuickTime, I’d definitely take the time to download the update so that you don’t have to worry about the security of your computer being compromised.

Download QuickTime 7.1.6 here

Thanks anonymous tipster!

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on September 28, 2007 by CyberNet.

I can’t believe that I’m actually saying this, but I may have stumbled across a text editor that is better than Notepad++! In yesterday’s Daily Downloads I included a free program called PSPad, which sounded like a nice text and code editor. The reason that I had come across it is that they recently released a new Beta version of the software, and so I decided to try it out.

It had the features that I was already familiar with in Notepad++, such as syntax highlighting, but it also had some more unique things. One of the things I quickly fell in love with was the built-in FTP connection manager which would let me browse a remote FTP, open files, edit them, and then save the changes. All of that is done from within PSPad, and I found that to be tremendously useful.

Another thing that I liked was the more advances syntax highlighting that it includes. For example, when you’re in an HTML file and you place your cursor in the middle of a tag, the matching open/close tag is highlighted. I do quite a bit HTML development, and I have quickly become accustomed to this new feature.

Here’s a list of other things that PSPad has to offer:

• Manage projects
• FTP client – edit files directly from the web (stores login information, too)
• Text difference with color-coded differences highlighted
• Syntax highlighting according to file type
• Auto correction
• Intelligent internal HTML preview using IE and Mozilla
• integrated TiDy library for formatting and checking HTML code, conversion to CSS, XML, XHTML
• Reformat and compress HTML code, tag character case change
• ASCII chart with HTML entities
• Code explorer for Pascal, C/C++, INI, HTML, XML, PHP and more in development
• Spell checker
• Matching bracket highlighting

There are also some PSPad extensions available to add more features, syntax highlighting for obscure languages, and many other things. Even if you are content with Notepad++ or another text editor I think you should give this a whirl…remember, it doesn’t cost a dime!

PSPad Homepage

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on April 29, 2008 by CyberNet.

Time Saving Tuesday

This article might seem familiar to some of you because we’ve covered shutdown utilities quite a bit in the past, but rest easy knowing that this is going to be different than anything you may or may not have read. We’re going to cover some of the best shutdown programs and tips out there since, as Ashley has pointed out, this coming Saturday is Shutdown Day.

By shutting down your computer you can save a lot of energy, which is merely money in the bank for you! If you’re one of those who leave your computer on 24-hours a day then think about the money you could save by shutting down your computer overnight. It’s estimated that 25% of people leave their computers on at the end of the day (whether it be at work or home), and so a simple shutdown would be very much welcomed. Heck, we’ve already seen how much money Vista saves because of its various power schemes.

Alright, let’s jump into the different ways to shutdown your Windows computer…

–Shutdown After BitTorrent Downloads Finish–

I’m sure many of you have left your computer running overnight to download something from the BitTorrent network. That’s definitely understandable considering how long it can take somethings, such as Linux DVD’s, to finish downloading especially when you don’t have a fast Internet connection.

One of the most popular BitTorrent clients, uTorrent, has a feature buried within the Options menu that you may not have seen before called Auto Shutdown. Check it out… you can have uTorrent shutdown your computer when the downloads complete:

–Schedule and Shutdown From Anywhere–

I have a server that I like to shutdown at night before I head off to bed, but one of the problems is that it’s not connected to a monitor or anything. So what I end up doing is remotely shutdown the computer from a web interface using Shutter, and thanks to a little port forwarding on my router it’s actually accessible from outside of my network. Don’t worry, you can specify a username and password so that some joe schmo from your local cafe isn’t rebooting your computer every 10 minutes. 😉

(Click to Enlarge)

To setup web access beyond the computer you’re on you’ll need to pull up the options, and there is a tab called Web Interface that you’ll need to jump to. You’ll want to change the Listen IP from the 127.0.0.1 to the IP address of the computer, and it’s probably easiest if you leave the port set to 80.

Tip: There’s also a Screenshot option that you can select on the web interface which is really nice. It will show you a screenshot of your desktop at that moment, which is handy when you don’t have a monitor hooked up!

–Shutdown After Firefox Downloads Finish–

Maybe it’s not a BitTorrent file that you’re downloading? No problem. If you’re using Firefox you can have it shutdown your computer after all downloads in the browser finish. All you’ll need is the Auto ShutDown extension.

Once installed the extension will place a “Shutdown” checkbox in the download window, which essentially gives the browser permission to shutdown the computer once the downloads complete.

If you really get into using this you may want to checkout the options it has to offer. You can change around how it works quite a bit, but the default settings will be fine for most people.

–Bulk Shutdown Computers–

Have too many computers that you need to shutdown? PowerOff Beta has an option available where you can specify multiple computers that you would like to shutdown according to IP address, name, or by browsing for them. Naturally you’ll need to know any usernames and passwords for the computers you want to shutdown… otherwise we would all be having too much fun randomly shutting down people’s computers. 😉

(Click to Enlarge)

–Shutdown Shortcut–

Looking for a blazingly fast way to shutdown your computer? What’s faster than creating a shortcut that you merely have to double-click? There are a lot of different options available when shutting down your computer via a shortcut, and so I’m just going to point you in the direction of our fairly comprehensive article on creating the shutdown shortcuts.

–Overview–

So I think you’re all set for Shutdown Day on Saturday, May 3rd! Shutdown your computer, get some fresh air, and then come Sunday you can stop hyperventilating from the severe withdrawals you went through.

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com