Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on September 28, 2006 by CyberNet.

Tutorial Thursday

Two files are needed from your Firefox profile in order for someone to easily retrieve your passwords: key3.db and signons.txt. If someone has those two files they will be able to decrypt all of your passwords and view them without any hassle.

To help get around this (and hopefully deter the theft of my passwords) I decided to alter the name of my signons.txt file so that it isn’t named what someone would expect it to be:

1. If you want your existing list of usernames/passwords transferred over to the new filename you first need to locate your profile folder which is located inside of the following folders:

   Windows 2000, XP:
   Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox

   Windows NT:
   WINNT\Profiles\<UserName>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox

   Windows 98, ME:
   Windows\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox

   Mac OS X:
   ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox

   Linux and Unix systems:
   ~/.mozilla/firefox

2. Once you have navigated to your profile folder locate the file named signons.txt and rename it to something else. I renamed mine to bookmarksbak.txt to make it look like a backup of my bookmarks.
   

3. Run Firefox and type about:config into the address bar.

4. Find the value named signon.SignonFileName and double-click on it to change the value.
   

5. Change the name to whatever value you renamed signons.txt to in Step 2. I changed mine to bookmarksbak.txt. Press OK when you are done.
   

6. Restart Firefox and you will now be using your new password file.

I understand that this is by no means a big security measure but if I let someone use my computer real quick I don’t want them to grab those two files. Someone could easily still figure it out by looking at my configuration file for Firefox but that would take some additional time. I guess this gives me a little more peace of mind.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

Related Posts:

Your Week In Review With Sunday’s SummaryTip for Saving Passwords in Internet Explorer or FirefoxCyberNotes: Week In Review With Sunday’s Summary!Huge List Of Default Passwords For RoutersMake Firefox Remember Passwords without a Bookmarklet

This article was written on December 05, 2007 by CyberNet.

Web Browser Wednesday

One of the things that I’m looking forward to the most with Firefox 3 is to see what kind of redesign they will come up with for Vista users. Right now the Firefox theme in Vista is anything but stellar, but it is possible to improve it with very little work on your part. We are going to walk you through several changes that you can make, all of which will keep the default Firefox theme in tact. We’re not looking to clone Internet Explorer 7 … we just want a good looking Firefox!

All of the tweaks we are going to demonstrate are available on Userstyles.org, which means you’ll want to have the Stylish extension installed before continuing. That way it will just take a few clicks to get each feature installed. Lets get stylin’!

–Toolbar Color (Homepage)–

One of the things that irks some people, including me, is the toolbar background color in Firefox. It is like a pastel blue, and doesn’t feel anywhere near the same as it does in other versions of Windows. You can change that though by adding this style to your repertoire, and you should notice a difference rather quickly:

Note the change in background color behind the navigation buttons

–Maximized Toolbar Color (Homepage)–

When you maximize Internet Explorer 7 in Vista it darkens the toolbar background to make it easier to focus on the content of the page. This style will do the exact same thing for Firefox so that only when the browser is maximized will it have the dark background. In the screenshot below we also have the Hide Menubar extension installed which makes the Menubar disappear until you press the Alt key.

–Tab Background (Homepage)–

If you didn’t decide to go with the first style mentioned in this article you may want to consider using this one. It will alter the background color behind the tabs to match that of the toolbars (the pastel blue), which I think does help tremendously in making Firefox have more visual appeal:

Note the difference in background colors next to the last tab

–Joined Back/Forward Buttons (Homepage)–

I’m a bit uneasy as to how well this fits into the default Firefox theme, but it will work for any theme that you are using. If you prefer to have the back and forward buttons “joined at the hips” like they are in Internet Explorer 7 just install this style, and voila:

Note the different back/forward buttons

–Vista Throbber (Homepage)–

In our quest to Vistify Firefox we can’t forget about the little throbber icon! Naturally it only makes sense to use the same “busy” icon that the mouse uses for indicating that a program is busy, and this will do just that:

–Address Bar Progress Meter (Homepage)–

This isn’t something that will necessarily make Firefox more like Vista, but it does look pretty sweet. You’ll need to install the Fission extension first, which makes Firefox show the page loading progress in the Address Bar. Then when you apply the style it has a Vista-esque feel to it:

–Overview–

I’m anxious to see what Mozilla has been brainstorming for a Firefox 3 theme in Vista, but as it stands they will be shipping a Vista-specific theme to compliment the eye candy incorporated into the operating system. One can only hope for amazing things!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

Related Posts:

Your Week in Review with Sunday’s SummaryFirefox 3 Themes: Vista on XP, or XP on VistaCustomize Your IE 7 Theme for FirefoxCyberNotes: Your Week in Review with Sunday’s SummaryYour Week in Review with Sunday’s Summary

This article was written on August 18, 2007 by CyberNet.

Weekend Website

There are so many online options for purchasing airfare and hotels (like Expedia or Travelocity) that it’s hard to know which one to use and if one is better than the other. Even when I visit those sites, I still end up checking the website for the airline I’ll be flying or the hotel I’ll be staying at to check if they have a better price than the “discount” sites, and often times they do. It takes time to look into all of the options to find out where the best deal is. This is where Kayak comes in handy.

—What is Kayak—

Simply put, Kayak is a travel search engine – not a store. They don’t sell anything. Think about your typical search engine like Google and Yahoo and how they gather up search results from all around the web. Kayak is the same way, only with travel sites! They search hundreds of sites around the world and then let you know where you can find the best price.

I always kinda wondered how they came up with the name “Kayak” for a travel site, and while gathering up information for this article, I found out why. They wanted a name that was “fun and easy to remember. We wanted a name that was short and easy to type. We also love the fact that our chosen name is a palindrome.” (Kayak reads the same forward or backwards)

—Searching on Kayak—

Kayak is not only for finding flights. You can also search for hotels, cars, and cruises. They search over 100,000 hotels, and their goal is to search nearly every airline in the world. Given this, Kayak is a very thorough way to search for the best prices.

When you search, you have a few filter options which include whether or not you want a nonstop flight or 1–2 stops, which airlines you’d prefer it search, choosing when you’d like to leave (morning, evening?) and when to return, as well as additional airports to display.

Another really nice feature when you perform a search is that you can choose between three different views: List, Matrix, and Chart. The list view just lists all the results while the Matrix view shows you which airlines they have results from at the top of the page so that you can easily navigate to them. The chart view is probably one of my favorites because it displays two graphs which help you get an idea of when the best fare would be during the month you’re traveling. If you can be flexible with your dates, the graphs Kayak provides will be extremely beneficial to help you determine when to leave.

—Kayak Blog—

Kayak does have a blog where you can keep up with the latest Kayak happenings. One of their recent posts was “Novel Trip Ideas” where they gave ideas for four different trips you could take based off of novels. If you’re into golf, you’ll enjoy an article from July where they pointed out five different places that you could go to have a golf getaway. While the blog isn’t updated that frequently, they still provide useful content that would be helpful in planning a trip.

—Fare “Buzz”—

One of the most useful features that Kayak has available is “Fare Buzz.” Here you can create a fare alert where you’d select where you were leaving from, where you’re going to, and the maximum price you wanted to pay. Then you’ll receive alerts when Kayak finds a fare that matches or beats the price you entered.

They also list the best fares to 25 of the most popular destinations like San Diego, West Palm Beach, Chicago, San Francisco, and include a Google map that shows the location, along with the airfare.

—Wrapping it Up—

I find Kayak so useful because they’re not out to sell anything. They’re there to simply point you to the best price on the Internet. I’ve found it to be one of the most helpful search tools while looking for a hotel or airfare. Searching is simple and quick, and the end result is that you’re able to find the best price around to save you money.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

Related Posts:

Your Week in Review with Sunday’s SummaryCyberNotes: SideStep Helps You Plan the Perfect VacationCyberNotes: ResultR.com – Create Your Own Personal Search EngineGoogle’s Search Engine Creator Makes Filtering EasyHow Do Search Engines Really Rank Themselves?

This article was written on June 19, 2008 by CyberNet.

Tutorial Thursday

Windows only
Sticky notes are one of those things that many of us have grown accustomed to placing all over our physical workspace, and our children. They serve as a great way to remember important things, but eventually you have so many of them that it becomes difficult to find what you’re looking for. That pretty much defeats their purpose, doesn’t it?

That’s why we hunted down two different free Windows apps that not only let you create sticky notes, but they also let you customize their appearance. By using different colors for different types of notes you’ll be able to find the things you’re looking for much faster, plus both of the applications let you set reminders/alarms for notes. After all, most of the things you probably write down on a note are important dates to remember, right? That way you can have the note appear when you need it instead of always cluttering up your workspace.

Alright, here are the two fabulous apps that will initiate the de-cluttering of your physical world!

–Hott Notes (Homepage)–

Hott Notes is one of the best looking note taking applications that I have come across. The thing that really stood out to me was its incredible interface, and the fact that there’s a portable version available means you can take your notes wherever you go.

Once you have it running the first thing you’ll probably want to do is create a new note. This can be done in one of several ways. The default keyword shortcut is the Windows Key+N, or you can use the System Tray icon to do it. Double-clicking on the System Tray icon will create a blank sticky note on your desktop, or you can right-click on it and go to the New menu. There you’ll see the three different types of notes you can create: note, checklist note, and scribble note.

The “note” option is your typical note, while the other two are somewhat special. A “checklist note” is something you would use for a list of things you want to check off, and the “scribble note” lets you draw freehand (great for Tablet PC’s). Here’s what the first two look like when they’re placed on your desktop:

Don’t they look nice? This is one of the few sticky note applications that I’ve seen which includes a built-in task manager format, which is really handy for the to-do lists. It does, of course, have some other features that I haven’t touched on yet:

• Set an Alarm – You can attach an alarm to any note, and when the time/date you specify comes around it can either have it bring the note to the front of the screen, or have it play a sound. Unfortunately there’s no “reoccurrence” option.
• Waste Basket – If you accidentally delete an important note that you needed there’s no need to panic. Hott Notes will place any notes that you crumple up (a.k.a. delete) into the waste basket in case you ever need to retrieve them.
• Note Desktop – The Note Desktop is assigned the Windows Key+S shortcut by default, and whenever it is pressed all of your notes will be brought to the front of the screen. Plus it will gray out the background so that it’s easier to focus on the dozens of notes you have floating around.
• Adjustable Appearance – Each note can have it’s own set of colors applied, and the nice thing is that you can actually create your own gradients by specifying a starting and ending color. That’s what I did in the screenshot above for the silver note… it starts with the silver color at the top and gradually fades to white.

And last but not lest, the Notebook. This is a central location where you can manage all of your notes, including the ones you’ve sent to the trash. Here’s what it looks like:

Overall Hott Notes is a nearly unbeatable application if you’re looking for a way to throw sticky notes all over your desktop, but we’ve got another application that might just tickle your fancy a little more…

–Stickies (Homepage)–

If you think Hott Notes has a little too much pizzaz then the more simplistic (in terms of appearance) Stickies application might be more of your taste. Once you get the app setup you can press the Windows Key+S to create a new note, or just double-click on the System Tray icon. You’ll instantly be able to start typing on your note, and formatting options can be applied by right-clicking:

The arrow in the upper-left corner is a quick shortcut to force the note to stay on top of all the other windows. This is quite handy when you’re trying to grab information from a note while using another application.

Just like Hott Notes this also has a central interface for managing all of your open notes, except this isn’t quite as spiffy. I know that some of you will probably prefer this app simply because there is a minimal amount of eye candy. It does, however, have searching capabilities to efficiently sift through the dozens of notes you’ll have created in no time at all.

The best feature it has may very well be it’s ability to make a note go to “sleep.” When you use this option the note will hide itself for a specified period of time, and you can set it up to reoccur at a variety of different intervals. For example, let’s say you pay your phone bill on the 15th of every month. You can create a note reminding you to pay the bill, and have it sleep until the 15th of each month. Then when the 15th rolls around the note will show up, and it can optionally play a sound to notify you. Cool, huh?

If you have multiple computers you would like to share sticky notes between then you may find the sharing options to be convenient. You can send sticky notes from one computer to another through direct networking, or via email.

If you decide that you want to use Stickies, but want a little more eye candy you should checkout the 70+ skins that they have available. Personally I really like the default skin that it comes with, but there are a few others that look rather slick.

–Overview–

So there you have it! Those are two amazing ways for a Windows user to create and mange sticky notes on their computer, and since they are free you really don’t have much to lose. Just imagine all of the things you’ll never forget now.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

Related Posts:

Your Week in Review with Sunday’s SummaryCyberNotes: Protopage- AJAX Desktop Fun!Wallnote Puts Notes And To-Do Lists On Your DesktopMIT Modernizes Post-it NotesCyberWare: WireNote – Sticky Notes on Steroids

This article was written on May 24, 2008 by CyberNet.

Weekend Website

It’s so easy to take hundreds of pictures these days, but what is someone to do with all of those pictures once they’ve been taken? With the increase in popularity of digital cameras has come an increase in online photo services for printing your photos and and sharing them with others. Today we’re going to be taking a look at three different services that offer the option for you to print your photos, but also do something a little more with them whether it be creating a poster, a book, or making a personalized calendar. The three services we’re looking at include Shutterfly, Winkflash, and Snapfish. If you have a favorite online photo service that you would like to recommend to others, feel free to leave a comment!

Shutterfly (link)

Shutterfly is a photo storage solution that has been around since 1999. Not only do they offer a storage solution but they also offer all kinds of options for getting creative with your photos and turning them into personalized gifts. You can also simply just print your photos for a reasonable price.

Below you’ll find their list of print prices, for example, a standard 4×6 photo will cost you around 19 cents each. You can also sign-up for a pre-paid print plan and you’ll be able to get those same 4×6 photos for around 12 cents.

What they offer:

• prints and posters
• photo books
• cards
• calendars
• t-shirts
• accessories (totes, purses, cosmetic bags
• photo DVDs
• frames and albums

They’re also smart because in the left sidebar you’ll see a “solutions” section. Father’s Day is coming up and Summer is a hot time for weddings, and so they provide links to gift solutions for those events.

If you decide you want to share your photos and projects, you can create a personalized web site through Shutterfly to share, connect, and collaborate with your friends and family.

Winkflash (link)

A couple of months ago I stumbled across Winkflash when they were having a fantastic sale on photo books. I decided to give them a try and I’ve been hooked since. One of the reasons I’ve been hooked is because of the promotions that they offer rather frequently. My only complaint is that sometimes their photo uploader has issues which can get frustrating. Other than that, they offer a lot and their customer service has always been fantastic. I emailed them with a problem once and received a response within an hour.

What they offer:

• photo prints of various sizes
• card and announcements
• posters
• albums and books
• miscellaneous things like calendars, mugs, mouse pads, coaster sets, t-shirts, tote bags, aprons, license plates, paper weights, baby bigs, key chains, and more…

Below is a chart of some of their print prices:

They also have a free sharing service with unlimited storage. This means you don’t have to worry about running out of storage space for your photos and sharing photos is simple. You can create folders, subfolders, and sub-subfolders if you’d like so that you can arrange your photos just how you’d like it. You can also move folders and the pictures within each folder around.

Features of their storage solution that you’ll enjoy:

• add tags to your photos to make searching in the future easier
• all photos are completely searchable
• download the high-resolution version of your photo for free
• add notes to your photos
• view your photos as a slideshow

Given that it’s a photo sharing service, they do offer a few different options for privacy settings. You can select to make your photos available to individuals, a group of people, or you can make them available to the public.

Snapfish (link)

Snapfish hasn’t always been a part of HP. They originally launched back in 2000 and then were acquired by HP in 2005. Here’s an interesting fact, as of last year, Snapfish is host to over 1 billion unique pictures and they have over 40 million members. That’s a lot of photos and a lot of members!

Like Winkflash, Snapfish offers 4×6 prints for just 9 cents each. Ordering photos continues to get cheaper and cheaper! They also have a promotion going on right now where if you’re uploading pictures for the first time, you get 20 free prints.

One of the really nice features about Snapfish is that they offer some editing tools like the option to crop photos, remove red eye, and adjust the contrast right from the site. This makes editing your photos before printing them easy and hassle free. They also provide various tips like how to shoot photos in the Winter and snow, and tips to avoid five common photography mistakes.

They too offer all kinds of different gift ideas including:

• photo jewelry
• posters and collages
• flip books
• photo books
• stationery
• mugs
• mousepads
• and more…

Wrapping it up

If you have photos that need printed or personalized gifts to give, Shutterfly, Winkflash, and Snapfish are great solutions. We know they aren’t the only solutions though, so where do you turn when you need photos printed?

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

Related Posts:

Your Week in Review with Sunday’s SummaryPutting Yahoo! Maps On Your Ipod With iPodiWayFotoFlexer Adds More Advanced FeaturesNew Yahoo Photos Available For U.S. ResidentsPicnik: Online Image Editing at its Finest!