New Firefox Aurora (FireFox 6) is Ready for Download and Testing
The new Firefox Aurora is avaialable for downloading and testing! The new FireFox is better at handling HTML5, the browser is available for download from Mozilla’s ftp site. there are no major UI changes but they overhauled things under the hood with increased support for CSS3, DOM level 3, HTML5. It has enabled WebSocket support again which was disabled due to security concerns. The new features include:
- Data Management Window
- Add-ons Manager with Plugin Check
- Panorama Groups on Demand
Data Management Window is the new permissions manager that allows users to set permissions on per site basis.It’s an experimental feature. To start testing this feature type “about:permissions” in the Awesome Bar (URL Bar).
Lets take a look at what the individual permissions allow or deny.
- Store Passwords: It doesn’t affect third party password managers like KeePass Password Safe, affects the default Firefox password manager.
- Share Location: Firefox can detect location values: Allow/Block browsing.
- Set Cookies: Whether the site or all sites can set cookies.
- Open Pop-up Windows: If a site can open pop-up windows.
- Maintain Offline Storage: This should not be confused with the web browser cache. Offline storage is used to provide access to data when the browser is in offline mode.
Add-ons Manager with Plugin Check verifies the plugin compatibility from the Addons-Manager itself.
Panorama Groups on Demand improves browser startup time and overall experience by allowing power users to load saved tabs only when using Panorama.
There is a lot for Web Developers too:
The Scratchpad (F4) lets developers to develop and test java scripts quickly.
Web Console (Ctrl+Shift+K) enables the ability to move the console to other parts of the window or pop out into a separate window.
Please see the Firefox for Developers in the Mozilla Developer Center for the full list.
Mikko Hypponen believes the guy arrested in Shetland is indeed “Topiary”
Mikko Hypponen, Chief Research Officer (CRO), F-Secure and a respected security expert believes the 18 year old Metropolitan Police arrested in Shetland Islands is Topiary, the supposed spokesman for Anonymous and LulzSec!
The information is based on the conversation Mikko had with a user @testbeta on twitter.
The said user testbeta sent out a public question to @mikkohypponen saying:
@mikkohypponen do you think the guy they arrested in Shetland is really the Topiary, the LulzSec and Anonymous member?
@testbeta
testbeta
to which Mikko replied Yes!
The 18 years old was arrested at his home in Yell, a small island in the Shetland Islands and was transferred to London for questioning!
Mikko however didn’t tell how he concluded that the 18 years old Jake Davis is indeed “Topiary” aka “Gardenslayer”, the spokesperson for Lulzsec and Anonymous! Topiary appearing as Anonymous phoned in a radio show via Skype and hacked into the sites of Westboro Baptist Church and posted a message under downloads on the website!
Jake Davis
Topiary and the groups LulzSec and Anonymous are wanted for taking down Sony’s Play Station Network (PSN) and several sites including those of UK and US agencies
‘Topiary’ Arrested? The hacktivist supposed to be Lulzsec’s spokesman
The UK Police arrested 18-year-old man in Shetland Islands who is alleged to be involved in hacker attacks on law enforcement agencies. The Police sources said the man used Topiary as nickname, the alias used by LulzSec’s spokesman.
The group LulzSec have been active for long! LulzSec have claimed to have carried out attacks on a number of sites, on the Sun’s website last week when it redirected readers to a fake story reporting Rupert Murdoch being dead, on the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency, an FBI-affiliated site, the US Congress, and Sony’s European network, breaching Police and government’s e-presence like taking offline CIA’s website. The arrest in Shetland was made by the Metropolitan’s e-crime unit along with the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA) and Lincolnshire police.
A 17-year-old male is also being interviewed under caution at a Lincolnshire police station in connection with the inquiry but no arrests were made.
The suspect was on Wednesday being transported to London for interview. The main Twitter account of LulzSec, which Topiary is alleged to be running, fell silent on Wednesday after 12:44 AM July 27th, the tweet read:
PayPal is only accepted everywhere because everyone uses PayPal. It's a shitty system - so let's start using these smaller services. :D
@LulzSec
The Lulz Boat
Anonymous and LulzSec have been attacking paypal for not accepting payments made to Wikileaks and on wednesday they staged a peaceful
Topiary (also known as Gardenslayer) as alleged ran the LulzSec’s main Twitter account, whilst he cleared all of his tweets off his twitter account but one tweet saying “You cannot arrest an idea.” at 4:02 PM on July 21st
{blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/atopiary/status/94225773896015872″]
Topiary along with running LulzSec twitter account appeared on the David Pakman Show when he phoned in via Skype to counter Shirley Phelps-Roper of the Westboro Baptist Church.
There has not been a comment from the Anonymous or LulzSec about the arrest!
LulzSec’s Sabu who act as a leader of the group and is one of the founder’s of the group tweeted at 9:30 AM on July 27th saying to the group
To Anonymous / #antisec: They can arrest one or two of us but they CANT arrest us all. We are a movement spawned from a thought. Keep moving
@anonymouSabu
The Real Sabu
The LulzSec website was offline stating their claim that they aren’t going to renew hosting and to their followers to make mirrors of the content!
However experts and a blog differ on the arrest been made, the blog differs titling the post “#antisec #anonymous #lulzsec – Police giving wrong information??? How can this be ‘Topiary’? Did he move to Scotland recently from Sweden?” on the basis on the content published online which claims that Topiary is from Sweden and posts a detail of his biography and his online presence as follows:
Daniel Ackerman Sandberg
Birthday 13 August 1988
Location Uppsala, Sweden
Interests Zelda 
, Warhammer, Writing, Being with friends, more…
Twitter – http://twitter.com/atopiary
Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/ManofWorld
Youtube – http://www.youtube.com/user/warpstonelord
Skype – x-tomtenisse-x , Doxiary
Digg – http://digg.com/warpstonelord
the blog sites the following video to be their source:
and the person in the frame at 16-22 secsto be Topiary but why would he appear before a camera to present his views when he has been doing anonymous broadcasting via phone in to a radio show via Skype, presenting his works and views of the organization via twitter accounts!
the point is when they have been taking extreme caution to remain anonymous why sudden urge to get online in front of viewers around the world! In my opinion they are just ordinary people claiming to be Anonymous!
Google’s two step authentication!
Google’s has made available it’s one of the most intriguing and comprehensive security measure, the two step authentication.
Google announced Advanced sign-in security for Google account on 10th Feb,2011 on both Google Official Blog and Gmail Blog.
Google two step authentication is one of the most sophisticated technique that involves account password and verification code sent to your linked phone linked to your Google/Gmail account.
So how is this total process?
First you need you sign in to your Google/Gmail account via Google Accounts https://www.google.com/accounts/.
Then under Personal Settings > Security click on the Using 2-step verification to turn two factor or two step authentication on.
There on instructions would follow as to how to turn on two step authentication.
Set up your phone.
Add backup options in case your phone is unavailable.
Confirm your settings and turn on 2-step verification.
Click on the Set Up 2-Step Verification.
This action would be followed by three steps given above.
Setup your phone > Add a backup > Confirm
Add your phone you would be given option to select from SMS text message or Automated voice message.
Select any a text or call would be placed to your number with the verification code, enter the verification code and click verify.
Then Follows the backup options in-case you loose your phone or or your phone isn’t available at that time, you would be provided with 10 codes that would give you one time access to your account store them in your wallet or vault don’t make a mistake of keeping a draft in the mail itself, store someplace convenient and safe like some other account say.
Keep a print of the codes and better keep them in your wallet.
Then you would be asked to add another number in-case the first one is not available, there is an option to verify the phone, it is completely optional. Your second phone is configured.
If you are using services like Gmail Mobile, Desktop Picasa, Adwords etc, Google would prompt you to set Application Specific Passwords because these services don’t use 2-step authentication. Google says, “Application-specific passwords need to be entered only once for each application, and don’t need to be memorized.”
You are almost done confirm the phone numbers and that you have printed the backup codes then click on the Turn on 2-step verification, you would be signed out of all devices and services.
Login again now using 2-step authentication Google would ask for both password of your account, once the password is entered Google would send you the verification code to your primary number if available otherwise it would send the verification code to the secondary phone, unavailability of which would amount to using the back up codes. There is an option to remember the authentication for 30 days {cookies}
Once in, it depends on whether you use services like Gmail mobile if yes then you would be prompted to create Application Specific Passwords, click on the prompt and you would be shown the list of sites that you have given access to your Google Account and a password generator for specific Applications like, Gtalk/Pidgin client, Thunderbird, Gmail Mobile.
Enter the application and generate the password now this password would be shown only once so you must carefully follow the instructions: Use the username and this Application Specific Generated Password to sign in to your Application for which it was created, thus generate passwords for the Applications for which 2-Step Authentication hasn’t yet been turned on and those which are hardcoded to just receive the username/password combinations.
Google probably created this extra security measure due to account hijacking of users.
Google Two Step Authentication is the Lock for Locks.
Firefox 4 recorded more downloads than Internet Explorer 9, 24 hours after launch
Firefox 4 more popular than Internet Explorer 9? [Infographic]
How to delete the Facebook account permanently?
Deleting the Facebook account is no mountain uphill but Facebook has not given the public access to delete their respective accounts.
All one can do from the Facebook console/settings/control panel is deactivate the account.
Deactivation denies access to everyone trying to seek access to the deactivated account’s data, when accessing the deactivated account data or profile/albums/photos/status updates/comments you would be shown the “This Content Is Currently Unavailable” page.
If you login to your deactivated account anytime in future your account would be activated then and there.
You would be back on Facebook again your data would be available to whoever wants to see you of course via your privacy settings.
To delete an account of Facebook you need to click on this link following:
http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account
Then follow the simple steps asking you your password and a reCAPTCHA challenge.
We don’t know but it seems like somebody requested the help/support team of for deletion of their account and they provide it hidden
under help topics. Maybe because Facebook doesn’t want people going off their site and in process of doing so deleting their account data updates/photos/videos/comments/likes etc.
To delete an account on Facebook takes 14 days of patience. They remove your data after 14 days of deletion request you put in.
And you are not supposed to login to your Facebook account for 14 full days, during this period otherwise you might end up activating your account again.
Note: However doesn’t take down the data off its servers data is still there you can access if you have direct links to it. happened to me atleast,data photos etc associated with the profile i deleted more than 14 days ago is still up and haven’t not been deleted
For more read the official help post: http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=13016
WP Audio Player by Martin Laine
For those of you using wordpress.com blogs, you might already be using this player, Automattic folks have enabled the wp audio player for all the blogs in its multi user site WordPress.com the wp audio player which you, the wordpress.com folks use has been developed by Martin Laine
For self hosted WordPress blogs there is the same plugin to embed audio in the posts or pages can be had here http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/audio-player/. Originally developed by Martin Laine now it is being maintained by someone with username ‘doryphores‘ in licence and README of the plugin ‘doryphores’ is cited as contributer, the plugin is still copyright of Martin Laine, the plugin is linked to the wordpress plugin page in the site wpaudioplayer.com which we surely know is of Martin Laine
There is a similar player called µAudio Player by ‘jwriteclub’. this player places the player whenever an mp3 direct link is clicked.
Getting back to Martin Laine’s player WP Audio Player is highly configurable player, you can change its look to match with the theme color scheme.
It has many features:
Can show ID3 tags
Custom theme
right-to-left layout switch for Arabic and Hebrew language
Autostart and loop play
Once WP Audio Player is installed you just need a shortcode and direct link to the mp3 file to play an mp3 file.
There are different options which are detailed below:
Posting an mp3 to be played by Martin Laine’s Audio Player, you just need the shortcode which is like this:
Note: put the code in [ ] for it to function, the [ ] has been knowingly left out because these trigger the plugin to show a player instead of the code
audio:path_to_your_audio_file
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
and to embed a file:
audio:http://www.example.com/your_mp3_file.mp3
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
you can directly chnage the color scheme using settings or from options:
audio:http://example.com/your_mp3_file.mp3|bg=0x0000ff|lefticon=0xff0000
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
bg=0xF8F8F8
leftbg=0xEEEEEE
lefticon=0×666666
rightbg=0xCCCCCC
rightbghover=0×999999
righticon=0×666666
righticonhover=0xFFFFFF
text=0×666666
slider=0×666666
track=0xFFFFFF
border=0×666666
loader=0x9FFFB8
bgcolor=0xFFFFFF
Player width:
Default player width is 290 px you can change it to a different pixel setting or can use percentahe like say 100%
audio:http://example.com/your_mp3_file.mp3|width=100%
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
How do I load multiple tracks into the player?
Use a comma delimited list of urls:
audio:http://www.domain.com/path/to/your_mp3_file_1.mp3,http://www.domain.com/path/to/your_mp3_file_2.mp3
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
You can also add titles for these tracks:
audio:your_mp3_file_1.mp3,your_mp3_file_2.mp3|titles=The title 1,The title 2|artists=The artist 1,The artist 2
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
You can repeat a song by looping it:
audio:http://www.domain.com/path/to/your_mp3_file.mp3|loop=yes
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Even for a single file:
audio:http://www.domain.com/path/to/your_mp3_file.mp3|titles=TITLE|artists=ARTIST
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
It must be noted that even for a single file you need to add options in plural titles and artists
Some other options
animation=no (player is always open)
remaining=yes (show remaining time instead of elapsed time)
initialvolume=80 (0 – 100, 60 is default)
there is more here:
FrequentlyAsked Questions
WordPressDotCom support
Troubleshooting
The New Twitter Falls Short On Many Fronts!
First its the readability.
Readability is dropped with the new partitioned tweetstream space into two scetions one now houses following followers links other the important segment tweetstream itself.
Tweetstream is too left aligned that readibility is hindered
the media should have been inline in the stream itself but media and other metadata is given to other section which again lowers readability, a person can glance at the data and is okay to take in new data but same data have to be scraped first by clicking on the tweet with users having larger following count must have difficulty. Google offers its insight to Google Instant
Our key technical insight was that people type slowly, but read quickly, typically taking 300 milliseconds between keystrokes, but only 30 milliseconds (a tenth of the time!) to glance at another part of the page. This means that you can scan a results page while you type
Same applies here too you can glance at a section of page and then another but twitter has added extra clicks to retrieve the same data that should have been on front at first.
Another:
now you can see the full size image of a protected tweets/ private acount earlier you just couldn’t get the larger account image. but this proves to be good because tweets are protected not the bios and other personal information and image.
A Better Twitter
Why Is Chrome Growing?
What is fueling the fast growth of Google Chrome?
Well first it is the simple and clean and minimalistic user interface that it has got.
Google chrome has simple UI, that has helped it reach 8% share. Its minimalistic user interface provides larger viewing area than Safari, Firefox and Opera {talking in terms of four browsers, with IE getting usgae share because of being default on MS machines}
Google Chrome is fast, Google Chrome is fast when it comes to page loading and all, but why is it getting higher shares is because of the name and brand Google associated with it. People have good faith in Google as a brand, which is one of the main reasons why Google Chrome is winning.
Google Chrome unlike other browsers has the same bar for search which doubles as address bar it is one of the plus points that i have noticed during my chrome usage.
Browser stats are out. here is one by CNET (Credit: Net Applications / Stephen Shankland/CNET)
