Set a Guinness World Record Enjoy a Better Web
Sounds like a good deal, right? All you have to do is get Firefox 3 during Download Day to help set the record for most software downloads in 24 hours - it’s that easy. We’re not asking you to swallow a sword or to balance 30 spoons on your face, although that would be kind of awesome.

Link: Official Download Day Page
View: Time Zones of the official download time

Not only is it slow, Firefox sometimes hangs for no reason, consumes a large amount of memory and CPU usage can climb to 90% or more when you have multiple tabs open simultaneously.

You have uninstalled most of the extensions and toolbars, deleted all the cookies and internet temporary files, cleared up the file download queue and disabled the background check for software updates - but none of this has helped you speed-up Firefox.

Solution: This is a common problem especially if you have been running Firefox for some time - I don’t know why Firefox slows down but here’s a small trick to rejuvenate the aged copy of Firefox without doing a fresh install.

Step 1: Start Firefox and export your bookmarks as a file on your hard-drive (we’ll need them later).

Step 2: Type firefox.exe - P in the Run box of Windows. (see screenshot)

Step 3: Click the Create Profile button without making any modifications to your existing profile (which is normally called “default”)

Now when you Start Firefox in the new profile, you are very likely to be impressed with the speed. You can import the bookmarks that you saved in Step 1. If you have made any changes to the Firefox Dictionary, copy the persdict.dat word list file from the old profile folder to the new one.

Yes, there won’t be any old Firefox add-ons in the new profile but the browser will be extremely quick and won’t hog the CPU - just the way you want Firefox to run on your computer.

And if you ever need to revert to the old profile, just type Firefox -P again and click the old profile. Nothing is lost.

Microsoft has put in place the preparations for Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 ready for Mix 08.
A full features page has been revealed which lists the following additions to Internet Explorer:

• Activities
• WebSlices
• Favorites Bar
• Automatic Crash Recovery
• Improved Phishing Filter

Activities allow users to lookup/send information in a right-click contextual menu, such as retrieving an address map from Windows Live Maps, submitting a story to Digg, sharing a page on Facebook etc. WebSlices allows users to crop a specific area section of a site and bookmark it. Improvements have been made to the phishing filter which continues to block known Phishing sites and now blocks sites known to contain malicious software that could harm users’ computer or steal their information.

Perhaps one of the best new features is Automatic Crash Recovery which recovers your tabs if your browser crashes. It is widely expected that Microsoft will release the first beta of Internet Explorer 8 at this years Mix 08 which begins today.

Update: The download is now live and can be installed on Microsoft Windows Vista, XP, Server 2008/2003

View: Internet Explorer 8 New Features
Download: Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1

In Back Page News, from CyberNet on its cross browser tests… They’ve compiled the results of the SunSpider javascript Benchmark test for each of the different browsers. All of the tests below were performed on the same Windows machine, and the Firefox 3 nightly builds definitely came out on top. Here are the results sorted from best to worst (each one is hyperlinked to the full stats):

1. Firefox 3 Nightly (PGO Optimized): 7263.8ms
2. Firefox 3 Nightly (02/25/2008 build): 8219.4ms
3. Opera 9.5.9807 Beta: 10824.0ms
4. Firefox 3 Beta 3: 16080.6ms
5. Safari 3.0.4 Beta: 18012.6ms
6. Firefox 2.0.0.12: 29376.4ms
7. Internet Explorer 7: 72375.0ms

Firefox is still amazingly good for a product that is free! Well dont to the Mozilla Corp, they continually keep there products updated and running like a dream!

During the MacWorld SF, Apple has quietly seeded to developers a new build of the Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.2 update numbered 9C16. The seed-note lists an endless list of enhancements in almost any part of the system.

According to the seed-note, the update “focuses” (if we may call this focusing) on, Active Directory/Directory Services, AirPort, AppKit, Application, Firewall, Audio, Automator, Back To My Mac, Chinese Input Methods, CoreData, CoreFoundation, Dashboard Widgets, Data Detectors, Directory Services, Dock, Finder, Foundation, Grammar Checking, Graphics Drivers, High Level Toolbox, iCal, iChat, iDisk, Keyboard Layouts, Mail, Networking, Parental Controls, Podcast Producer, Printing/CUPS, Quick Look, Rosetta, Safari, SMB, Spotlight, SQLite, Terminal, Time Machine, X11.

New issues fixed in this seed, as listed on the seed-note, are the following: (more…)

Security researchers have released attack code that will crash Windows XP and Vista PCs that are susceptible to a recently patched bug in the operating system. The code was released yesterday to security professionals who use Immunity’s Canvas computer security testing software. It causes the Windows system to crash but does not let the attacker run malicious software on the victim’s system. It is not available to the general public.

That’s the biggest concern for security experts who worry that a more dangerous attack may soon follow as researchers dig further into the vulnerability. The bug is particularly troublesome for two reasons. First, it affects a widely used Windows component that is turned on by default. Worse, no user interaction is required to trigger the flaw, meaning that it could be exploited in a self-copying worm attack. Microsoft patched the flaw in its MS08-001 update, released last week, but it takes time for enterprise users to test and install Microsoft’s patches.

View: Full Article @ PC Advisor

People living in South Brent (near Totnes in Devon) have seen the effects that a large lightning bolt can have. BT has had to replace 85 metres of overhead cable, and local computer stores are reporting a rush of kit to be repaired, including modems, routers, printers and phones damaged by a large single lightning strike.

To read more on the bolt from the blue visit DartmouthToday.co.uk. There is not much you can do to protect your expensive hardware from a direct strike on your home, but devices like surge protectors (which need to be ADSL compatible) can help to reduce the risk of damage from strikes further away.

Most ADSL modems include a sacrificial component that will destroy itself if a surge occurs over the telephone line to protect kit connected to the device, but in the case of a near or direct strike the amount of energy involved will jump this broken component.

“If you can control the MBR, you can control the operating system and therefore the computer it resides on,” wrote Elia Florio on security company Symantec’s blog. Mr Florio pointed out that many viruses dating from the days before Windows used the Master Boot Record to get a grip on a computer. Once installed the virus, dubbed Mebroot by Symantec, usually downloads other malicious programs, such as keyloggers, to do the work of stealing confidential information.

View: Full story @ BBC News

Just another reason not to use Internet Explorer! For all of my clients and friends that I have and keep continually recommending Firefox to, this is a prime example of why I always point people in the right direction!

Reasons into wanting to extend my WiFi is as follows:

• I have my friends house thats 0.6miles away from my house, and I live at the top of a hill so its a perfect situation to broadcast.
• I live under a mile from my work place. At work we have restricted Ineternet. Well I say its restricted but we all know firewalls and proxies are piss to get around so I “can” use the net as needed, but im not actually ment to, so I dont. At the end of the days its not worth loosing my job over!

So what I do want to be able to do is watch movies at my friends and get file access from home to work.

Currently I have a Belkin Access Point, and although its great secure and does the job, its very crap at distance. Most commercial access points are in all honesty, So I did some searching and found these beasts!

http://www.ubnt.com/super_range_cardbus.php4
This is more powerful than a normal AP (300mW)
http://www.ubnt.com/xtreme_range2.php4
This is more powerful than either if you have a miniPCI slot (600mW)
http://www.ubnt.com/litestation2.php4
And a system board with 400mW integrated 2.4GHz 802.11bg…the CPU won’t be great for routing but it’d work excellently as an Access Point.

So Im interested in these models but Im not sure which route to take. I need to have a look into the whole range and obstictle run down. Il keep things posted!

The Eee PC’s memory bay is also home to the machine’s Mini PCI slot. Well, on early models it is - some later ones lack this feature. EeeUser.com forum poster Johnx’s does, allowing him space to add a pair of surface-mount USB ports, fixed to the motherboard and then - very delicately - connected with wires he soldered onto points on the circuitry.

View: The full story @ The Reg