UniveRSS: Microsoft’s 3D RSS Reader For Vista (Open Source)

This article was written on December 04, 2006 by CyberNet.

Microsoft is really trying to show off what Vista is capable of doing graphically by creating their own application that uses the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). The program that they have created is a 3D way for you to view your RSS feeds and is called UniveRSS (took me a minute but then I realized the name is like “universe”). Here is a brief overview of how the feed reader works:

It introduces a full-screen 3D universe where galaxies represent the folders of your RSS feed directory, and the stars are represented by the spinning cubes that hold the feed information. Size and position of the feed cubes indicate how many unread items they contain.

You navigate through the feed galaxies in a game-like environment, freely moving in all three dimensions. Selecting items in lists will turn the cube to the next side displaying the item’s content including images. Just click the right mouse buttons and you turn back to the list view or to the galaxy.

UniveRSS is a showcase application that demonstrates the use of several WPF features, 3D animations, data binding, and data visualization. Currently UniveRSS uses the RSS Feed Store managed through Internet Explorer 7. Later versions will allow you to manage the Feed Store from within the UniveRSS application.

Two things came to my mind when I saw this and the first thing was the system requirements. I looked and it requires Vista running with a compatible WDDM graphics driver which means it won’t work on my laptop (but should do fine on my desktop). The second thing that popped into my head was how useful this would really be. Sure it looks cool but there is no way that I could navigate through my 1,000′s of feed posts that I receive every hour by shuffling through cubes. This is obviously meant for the casual RSS subscriber.

Not only that but if you want to use UniveRSS you’ll need to have your feeds stored in Internet Explorer 7. That was the “nail in the coffin” for me not installing the program. They mentioned that future versions will have its own storage system but for right now you’ll have to use IE 7.

So I haven’t tried this myself so I don’t know what the graphics are really like but I can’t imagine that is anything so great that it should require users to have Vista installed with a WDDM driver. In the coming months we may see a knock-off version of this written in OpenGL or something along those lines that works with more than just Windows Vista. ;)

Download UniveRSS

News Source: Neowin

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Extensions Increase Firefox’s Vulnerability

This article was written on May 30, 2007 by CyberNet.

A new Firefox vulnerability has been discovered, and this time it is quite a doozy. It affects many different extensions including Google Toolbar, Google Browser Sync, Yahoo Toolbar, Del.icio.us Extension, Facebook Toolbar, AOL Toolbar, Ask.com Toolbar, LinkedIn Browser Toolbar, Netcraft Anti-Phishing Toolbar, and PhishTank SiteChecker.

So what’s the problem? When using an extension in Firefox it frequently checks to see if there is a more updated version available, and Firefox will notify the user whether they are running the latest version. Normally the user will agree to the update and proceed with their normal browsing activities, but there could be more going on behind the scenes than the user is actually aware of.

If an extension does not use a secure connection (a URL beginning with https:// is secure, where http:// is not) for the update it is possible for a man in the middle attack to occur. Utilizing an insecure connection a hacker could easily intercept an extension update, which would replace the extension on your computer with their own. So as you’re sitting at a coffee shop, Firefox could "harmlessly" be updating your extensions while a hacker is intercepting the request and replacing the extension with something more malicious…possibly something that would reveal all of your passwords.

Below is a video demonstration that Christopher Soghoian, the person who discovered the flaw, put together. The Firefox user has Google Browser Sync installed, and Chris demonstrates how he replaces the extension with his own:

This has been filed as a bug, but is not expected to be fixed until Firefox 3 gets released. This is a real problem though, because some extensions (such as those by Google) automatically update themselves without even notifying the user. Chris has contacted several extension developers, and this is what Google said they were going to fix the issue:

The Google Security Team replied on May 25th stating that they were working on a fix, and expected to have it ready and deployed before May 30th. At the time of publishing this vulnerability disclosure, it does not appear that Google has rolled out an update yet.

Here is what Chris recommends Firefox users do to circumvent the problem:

Users with wireless home routers should change their password to something other than the default.

Until the vendors release secure updates to their software, users should remove or disable all Firefox extensions and toolbars. Only those that have been downloaded from the official Firefox Add-Ons page are safe.

In Firefox, this can be done by going to the Tools menu and choose the Add-ons item. Select the individual extensions, and then click on the uninstall button.

I don’t think that you have to go through the work of uninstalling/disabling your extensions. Instead, just disable the extensions from updating, and then go do a "fresh install" of all your extensions from the Mozilla Add-ons site just to be sure that none of your extensions currently being used have been compromised:

Firefox Add-on Update

Unfortunately you’ll have to check for all extension updates yourself and manually install them, but it decreases the risk of an attack. However, I’m not sure if this will prevent those extensions from updating who do it automatically, such as those by Google.

News Source: Washington Post

Thanks to CoryC for the tip!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Create Site Shortcuts in Firefox

This article was written on July 16, 2009 by CyberNet.

sitelauncher.png

In Firefox you’ve always been able to assign a keyword to any bookmark, which would take you to that particular site if you type the keyword in the address bar and press Enter. That’s nice and all, but once you get a large number of shortcuts it can be tough to remember them all.

That’s where the SiteLauncher extension comes into play. You can setup all of your favorite sites and assign single-letter shortcuts to them. Then with a quick press of a hotkey (such as Ctrl+Space) you’re presented with a visually appealing list of shortcuts that is laid on top of the site you’re viewing. It serves as a good reminder of what letter you assigned to what site.

Want to know more? Here’s a quick rundown on the features:

  • Create super quick keyboard shortcuts to URLs and bookmarklets you need access to often.
  • Instant visual feedback from the Launcher panel means no need to actually memorize anything but the one hotkey.
  • Just about any character key can be associated with a site, you’re not limited to a-z and 0-9.
  • Highly customizable appearance – change colors, sizes, transparency, etc.
  • Make use of shortcuts with visual feedback, using the Launcher hotkey; or without, using the Direct-to-Site hotkey.
  • Arrange and group related shortcuts to have them appear together in a visually meaningful way.
  • Set the Launcher to open sites in current or new tab
  • Optionally set the Launcher to appear on startup instead of a regular homepage

If you’re feeling adventurous there’s an Alpha version available that also lets you choose the icon size, and to accommodate the mouse-centric users you no longer have to assign a letter to a shortcut.

SiteLauncher Homepage [Firefox only; free]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Download Winamp 5.5: New Skin, New Features

This article was written on September 14, 2007 by CyberNet.

Winamp 5.5 Bento Skin
Click to Enlarge

It’s hard to believe that Winamp will be celebrating its 10th anniversary next month, and they plan to do it in style! To mark the occasion they will be releasing Winamp 5.5 on 10/10 at 10:10AM, but a Beta version of the application has already been made available to testers.

Winamp 5.5 has been in the works for over a year, and I have to admit that the new Bento skin (pictured above) is among the best that I’ve ever seen for the media player. What makes this skin more unique is that it’s a single interface instead of being composed of several individual windows. I was a little skeptical of how nice that would be over the standard skin, but I quickly fell in love with Bento.

Here’s a list of the new features in Winamp 5.5:

  • Winamp Bento (SingleUI Skin)
  • Winamp Remote lets you access your media from anywhere via the web
  • Unified File Editor, with Album Art tab (for mp3, m4a, wma, ogg, flac)
  • Album Art window for Winamp Modern skin
  • Global ‘playback thread priority’ setting for decoders
  • Option to not show playlist item number in classic songticker
  • Version History drop-down selector and Search (in About dialog)
  • Multi-channel mp3surround support
  • Tree Options tab in Media Library Preferences
  • 3 pane view options in ‘Add/Edit View’ dialog
  • Smart View Presets
  • Album Art support/pane and retrieval service
  • Toolbar buttons to control view options
  • Winamp Playlist Generator (powered by Gracenote MusicID)
  • New fields, configurable filter panes & columns, 3 pane view
  • Album Art view & support for iPod and P4S Devices
  • Separate view for video files

That’s not even the half of what’s changed since the last stable version. The list goes on and on with dozens of bug fixes and enhancements all of which will make your Winamp experience that much better.

Original Winamp 0.2 And in case you’ve forgotten what started it all we thought it was time to open the vault to Winamp 0.2 (pictured to the right), which was released back in 1997. Here’s what Wikipedia had to say about that fine release:

Its windowless menubar-only interface showed only play(open), stop, pause, and unpause functions. A file specified on the command line or dropped onto its icon would be played.

The acronym "AMP" stood for "Advanced Multimedia Products".

Get Winamp 5.5 Beta – "it really whips the llama’s ass!" :)

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Vista Transformation Pack 6 RC1 Released

This article was written on November 24, 2006 by CyberNet.

Vista Transformation Pack

The next version of the Vista Transformation Pack (VTP) should be coming up in the next month or so but testing is now underway. If you haven’t used the VTP on your XP machine then you are surely missing out. Once installed it will make XP  look like Windows Vista by applying a transparency to the border of the windows as well a skin that is unbelievably similar to what is included with Vista.

One thing that everyone always complains about with the VTP is that it has problems uninstalling and returning your PC to the previous state (icon restoration is the biggest problem I hear about). With that being said the new VTP 6 RC1 is a test release and isn’t exactly something that I would install on my primary system, but that is my personal preference.

You can view the full changelog and join in a discussion about VTP 6 at JCXP.net. Reading through some of the posts that are already there show that there have been some problems with the installation but the developer has already fixed that problem. If you are feeling like your PC needs a change then go ahead and give it a whirl.

Download Vista Transformation Pack 6.0 RC1

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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RegexRenamer: Bulk File and Folder Renaming Using Regex

This article was written on June 17, 2010 by CyberNet.

regexrenamer.png

arrow Windows Windows only arrow
We have covered all kinds of bulk file renaming tools here, but the free RegexRenamer is one of my new favorites. As you can see in the screenshot above it has a very clean interface, but that is largely because it relies on you understanding how regular expressions (a.k.a. regex) work. I’m confident that you’ll enjoy this little tool as much as I do if you’ve used regular expressions enough to know how to form them.

Can’t remember all the regex syntax? No problem. Hold down the Shift key and right-click anywhere in the “Match” or “Replace” boxes. You’ll then be prompted with a menu that can be used to get some of the syntax you may have otherwise forgotten.

The one thing that everyone always asks about these file renamers… “does it show live previews of what the output will be?” Yes, it does. As you adjust any of the renaming fields the preview column will update accordingly. Aside from that it also includes a bunch of other features:

  • Realtime regex validation, filename preview, conflict detection
  • File filtering by glob or regex (operate on a subset of files in a directory)
  • Flexible case-changing (change entire filename, or just the section matched by a regex)
  • Customizable sequential numbering (set start, padding, interval, reset)
  • Rename files in place, move & rename, copy & rename, backup before renaming
  • Support for network drives & network paths, renaming folders
  • Options to preserve file extension (only operate on filename), show/hide hidden files
  • Rename into subfolders (replace “file.txt” with “subdir\file.txt”)
  • Complete documentation including examples, regex tutorial & quick reference guide

RegexRenamer Homepage (Windows only; Freeware)

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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CyberNotes: How to Sync Sunbird & Lightning with Google Calendar

This article was written on May 03, 2007 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Tutorial Thursday

We knew that there was a new method coming that would let you sync Mozilla Sunbird and Lightning with Google Calendar, but we weren’t sure what form it was going to come in. It was thought that this would be a built-in feature but it looks like they took an alternative route by delivering the synchronization capabilities in the form of an extension called Provider for Google Calendar.

This way of synchronization is much easier than using the GCALDaemon which we explained a few months back. In fact, you can have this up and running in just a few minutes…

  1. Download and install Sunbird (the stand-alone calendar application) or Lightning (the Thunderbird add-on) if you haven’t already done so. You will, however, need to be running a pre-release version of the calendar software (version 0.4 or higher). You can find the latest nightly of Sunbird here and the latest nightly of Lightning here (the extension is located in the linux-xpi, mac-xpi, and windows-xpi folders).
  2. Download the Provider for Google Calendar extension by left-clicking on the Install Now link, then right-clicking on the Accept and Install link, and choose the “Save as” option.
  3. Now open up Sunbird or Thunderbird, go to the Tools Menu, and select the Add-ons option. Then press the Install button and browse for where you saved the extension that you just downloaded. Restart the application to complete the installation.
    Sunbird & Google Calendar
  4. Now pull up your Google Calendar, go to the Settings page, and then click on the Calendars tab.
    Sunbird & Google Calendar
  5. Click on one of the calendars that you want to remotely access:
    Sunbrid and Google Calendar
  6. Copy the private XML address to the clipboard by right-clicking on it and choosing the Copy Link Location option.
    Sunbird and Google Calendar
  7. Now go back to Sunbird or Lightning and create a new Calendar. You should be prompted with a dialog box asking whether the calendar is on your computer or on the network, choose the On the Network option. Then on the next screen choose the Google Calendar option and paste in the URL you copied from step 6.
    Sunbird & Google Calendar
  8. You’ll be prompted to enter in your username and password for your Google Calendar account:
    Sunbird & Google Calendar
  9. Now give your calendar a name and press the Next button. Then press Finish. Your calendar will now periodically synchronize itself with the Google servers.

As you can see that is pretty easy to setup, but it does have its drawbacks which you should be aware of:

  • Recurring events can only be viewed, and not created or modified. I’m sure this will be a deal breaker for many people.
  • The newest version (released April 30, 2007) of the extension does support alarms, but it has to use a workaround to do so.
  • You cannot add attendees to your calendar.

Hopefully those remaining bugs will eventually get fixed because that will make this extension a lot more useful. In the meantime though, it is giving me an easy way to add release dates to our CyberNet calendar located in the sidebar!

Alternately you can also try using the newest version of Calgoo which also has several improvements. It does require Java in order to run which is something I’m not too fond of, but it does do a pretty good job of synchronizing the recurring events and reminders.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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CyberWare: JAlbum 7.0 Just Released!

This article was written on January 31, 2007 by CyberNet.

CyberNet's CyberWare
Tracking Down Great Software For You!

JAlbum is an application that I have been using for a long long time as an easy way to share personal photos on our website so that our family and friends can easily access them. I’ve been stuck using version 6 for a long time, and even though the interface was nothing to gawk at ,it got the job done, which was what mattered the most. Now however, JAlbum 7.0 brings a whole new look and some new features…

JAlbum 7

Besides for the fresh new look, here is a list of new features:

  • User interface completely redesigned. The new user interface is intended to be easier to use and more extendable, but not less powerful. Parts of the old tab-based user interface is now hidden under settings windows with only the most frequently used options (skin and style selection) on the main window.
  • Now co-developed on Mac and Windows to ensure that JAlbum should look good and work perfect on both systems
  • Completely redesigned publish section. The new publish section is also intended to be easier to use, but also more powerful. One can now visually browse a remote server using a directory tree control and manage directories like in any full featured FTP client (add, rename and delete directories).
  • JAlbum now allows you to build virtual album structures. You can pick images and folders from anywhere on your harddisk to your album. Just drag and drop them onto JAlbum!
  • Improved publishing robustness. JAlbum will now reconnect and reattempt several times if a file fails to be published before giving up
  • High quality image scaling now considerably faster
  • Minor improvements to file sharing user interface
  • JAlbum now supports variable image sharpening natively (not just via filter plugin)
  • Several languages updated. Thank you all translators!
  • Bundled Chameleon skin updated to v4. More powerful and 3 times as fast!
  • Bundled the popular Flash based BananAlbum skin (v5.0)
  • Bundled BluPlusPlus skin updated to v3.12
  • Compiled for Windows with updated Excelsior Jet 4.8 compiler
  • Packaged for Mac as a standard dmg distribution

If you haven’t used JAlbum before then you will be amazed at how easy it is. All you have to do is pick a skin that you like, and this is probably the best place to find them. After you download the skin (or use one of the included ones) you just select the folder where your images reside and it will generate another folder complete with scaled thumbnails for your image viewing pleasure.

One of the changes listed above in JAlbum 7 is the inclusion of BananAlbum skin 5 which is completely Flash based. It is the only skin that I have seen that’s Flash based and you can view a live demo here if you want to see how it works. The other skins that I have worked with normally generate static HTML pages and don’t need PHP or MySQL running on your server. Of course if you upload large galleries that also means there will be a lot of HTML files (typically one for every full-size image).

One thing that you should try to remember when looking through the skins is to focus on finding a layout that you like. Most skins will include a number of different color schemes that you can choose from or some you can even customize yourself. If a theme is really well developed, like the BananAlbum one (it’s Flash based), it will have all sorts of features included as well:

It has a lot of features; choose your own colors, select a typeface, place the thumbnails at the top, bottom, left or at the right, support for movies, browse through your images using the cursor keys, image preloading, background image (full screen or tiled), auto hide the thumbnails wherever they are, advanced positioning possibilities of all elements, improved slideshow functionality, improved download functionality (php), crop the thumbnails, possibility to create your own typefaces, etc. BananAlbum also features a high-tech hierarchical menu (the BananaTree) and auto scale functionality, which creates high quality images.

As for other themes you should checkout, I would like to point out this Windows XP theme (demo)I like just because it is simple and nearly anyone who has used a computer will be able to understand it. The one that I currently use is PhotoDawg (demo) with some personal customizations that I have done to it. It hasn’t been updated in quite awhile though so I think I’ll be switching to the cool BananAlbum Flash theme soon.

XP Theme

Of course when creating a website, one of the big things you have to think about is whether it will work in everyone’s browsers. On the JAlbum’s skin site every skin will have a list of known browsers that it works with and in the case of BananAlbum it is compatible with every browser that’s available on every operating system, so that is probably one of the wisest choices (I’m sure you’re quickly seeing why it is one of the most popular skins).

That pretty much sums it up for JAlbum and anyone who is looking to share a photo album with family or friends will more than likely find this to be the best tool to do it.

Download JAlbum 7.0 (note that you can skip the registration page by clicking the appropriate button at the bottom of the download page)

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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CyberNotes: Track a Stolen Computer

This article was written on May 15, 2008 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Tutorial Thursday

arrow Windows Windows only arrow
Today we’ve got an amazing freeware application for Windows that actually serves two different purposes. Give a hardy welcome to LocatePC. First and foremost it will keep you informed of your computer’s whereabouts by sending you an email either on a daily basis or anytime the IP address of the machine changes. In the email it will give you all kinds of details that can help you track the PC’s location, such as the ISP it’s connected to and IP address of the machine.

What’s the other purpose it serves? Most of you are probably not paying to get a static IP address from your ISP, right? That means your IP address might change periodically, and this program can notify you via an email each time the IP changes. This isn’t a stated purpose of the application, but that was one of the first things that popped into my mind after I looked at some of the configuration options.

locatepc 1.png

It wasn’t too difficult to download and install LocatePC, but one problem I did run into is that it wouldn’t install without running it as an administrator on Vista. After I ran it as an administrator I was able to fly through the rest of the setup, which is pretty much just entering a password to protect the application. The end result is the screenshot you see above.

Remember, LocatePC is supposed to be discrete so that it couldn’t easily be found by someone if your computer was stolen. For that reason you won’t see anything in the System Tray, and the process name is slightly obscure making it hard to pinpoint when doing a quick visual scan. Don’t worry though, you can access the console at any time by pressing Alt+Shift+Home.

Now you’re ready to configure all of the email settings. This is pretty much a no-brainer, but might require you to setup a new email address since it only supports POP accounts that don’t use SSL. I know, that’s not optimal but you can easily go setup an AOL account that you’ll use only for sending the emails. You can have the notifications sent to any address you would like.

Here are the different configurations screens you’ll encounter (click on any screenshot to enlarge it):

  1. Email Account
    This is where you’ll enter in the details of the email account to use for sending the notifications. If you have a Yahoo! Plus account you can go ahead and use that, otherwise I would recommend just grabbing an AOL email account. If you use AOL or Yahoo it will automatically fill in a lot of the details for you.
    locatepc 2.png
  2. Email Message
    This is where you want to enter in the address to send the notifications to, and also any other information you want included in the email. Maybe enter in the model and serial number of the PC so that you don’t have to try and dig it out once the PC is stolen.
    locatepc 3.png
  3. Email Schedule
    Choose how often you want to receive the emails. By default it will send one email out everyday in addition to one if the IP address changes. It’s probably easiest to just have it send an email if the IP changes, which is the only other option available.
    locatepc 4.png
  4. Advanced
    Here you can configure some of the advanced settings such as the site used to get the trace route, the hotkey used to show the console, and where it obtains the IP address from.
    locatepc 5.png

And now you can enjoy the fruits of your labor! Whenever your IP address changes you should receive an email similar to this:

Message sent: 5/15/08 11:43:06 (universal time: 5/15/08 19:43:06)
Computer's host name: John_Desktop
Logged in Windows account name: John

Found 2 network connection(s) on this computer (this list may be incomplete):
1 Name: MyISP Type: Dialup modem Phone number: (555) 555-4321 User name: JSmith
2 Name: BigCo Type: PPPoE Service name: MySvc User name: (empty)

Computer's web IP address reported by ip.locatepc.com: 216.239.142.3
To learn more about this IP address, use the IP tests at www.dnsstuff.com.

Computer's local IP address(es):
Adapter 1 101.151.8.92

Computer's MAC address(es):
Adapter 1 (ZX-11 Ethernet): 00-21-54-17-64-26

Trace route to www.locatepc.com:
Hop Name/IP Addr
1 Router [101.151.2.1]
2 101.151.8.92
3 cust-quik.pdx.or.uspops.net [216.239.161.82]
4 fe1-1-300.gw0.pdx.or.uspops.net [216.239.161.81]
5 206-169-234-45.gen.twtelecom.net [206.169.234.45]
6 core-02-ge-3-1-0-508.ptld.twtelecom.net [66.192.248.108]

Identifying information (owner name/address, computer model/serial number):
This computer is the property of:
John Smith
123 Elm Street
Anyville, NY 12345

Computer brand: ABC
Computer model: Megazoom 10000

LocatePC Homepage

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Opera 9.20 Sporting Some Developer Tools, Too

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

The Opera Desktop Team just announced a new experimental build of the desktop version of the Opera browser. The version that they are currently working on is 9.2 and when released it will have a few new features, including a usage report collection as mentioned a few weeks ago.

The new feature this week is a set of developer tools that will open in a pop-up window for the website that you are currently viewing. I tried it on our site to see how well it works and it is nicely laid out to help developers quickly troubleshoot problems. Here is a screenshot of what it looks like:

Opera Developer Tools

I briefly used this tool and it would undoubtedly help to troubleshoot layout problems with Opera, but it isn’t anything extravagant especially after having used the Firebug extension for Firefox. The Opera Developer Tool is just a JavaScript pop-up window with a tabbed interface, so it also doesn’t integrate very well into the browser like I would have expected from Opera. This is just a pre-release version so I can’t be too quick to judge, but I would have expected this to be something located in the sidebar (or at least an option to dock it). Using Opera’s built-in cascading/tiling capabilities you could always make it act like a sidebar though:

Opera Developer Tools

For my primary development tool I’m going to stick with Firebug right now because it seems to be more powerful and feature-packed. However, when designing sites I always ensure that they fully function with Opera and if I end up running into any problems this will definitely help. Thanks to the Opera Team for the nice addition!

Download the latest Opera weekly build to see this for yourself.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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