logon2 Blog » Web Browsers

Opera says Microsoft “deprives consumers of a real choice”

Tim — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 02:00:19 +0000

The Norwegian company behind the web browser Opera – a long-time competitor of Internet Explorer, has filed a complaint to the European Commission regarding Microsoft’s operating system Windows and it’s bias towards the Internet Explorer browser, which fails to properly follow the accepted web standards.

More specifically, Opera claims that the way Microsoft’s Windows connects its browser Internet Explorer to web activity is illegal and “deprives consumers of a real choice” of Internet Browser. Although Microsoft have done this since Windows 98 – there is a lot more competition out there and a whole lot more money to be made. In recent times, Internet Explorer has lost a huge chunk of market share to alternative browsers:

Opera is a member of the European Committee of Interoperable Systems (ECIS) , whose lawyer Thomas Vinje said in a statement: “By tying its Internet Explorer product to its monopoly Windows operating system and refusing to faithfully implement industry accepted open standards, Microsoft deprives consumers of a real choice in Internet browsers”

Whether it will be accepted will be interesting, but it’s not likely that Microsoft will be in for another antitrust case.

Source: Press Release “Opera files antitrust complaint with the EU”

Firefox Exploit – Your Google Account is Succeptible

Tim — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 21:22:27 +0000

Recently, a number of Firefox security holes have been found and exploited. The most serious one, involving a rogue JAR file, can give non-google parties to access the information from your google account, according to dailyApps. The type of exploit is a type of XSS or Cross-Site-Scripting attack.

You can protect yourself by sticking to trusted websites and not downloading anything that you don’t trust. dailyApps recommends using the noScript Firefox Extension – a Firefox plugin that blocks ALL scripts from sites that you haven’t personally approved, so as long as you excercise a bit of prudence, you’ll be protected from this and many other vulnerabilities.

Both Google and Firefox have a responsibility to protect their users and so they should be patching this up soon. Until then, keep safe and be responsible.

Maybe we should use two?

Multiple Home Pages in Internet Explorer and Firefox

Tim — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 13:07:47 +0000

Many people, including me, like to visit more than one website each time they get onto the internet. It’s now very easy to do, whether you use Internet Explorer or Firefox.

Here’s how to do it:

Internet Explorer 7:

Click Tools > Internet Options
In the “General” tab inside the “Home Page” frame, enter each of the web site addresses on a separate line, ie:
http://www.logon2.com.au/

http://www.cryptech.com.au/

http://www.mylook.cc/
Press OK.
And you’re done!

Firefox:

Visit each of the pages you want to be your home page in separate tabs (Ctrl + T opens a new tab)
Click Tools > Options
Click “Current Pages” in the “Startup” frame
Click OK and you’re done!

This might save you a minute a day, which is about 6 hours a year!

logon2 Blog » Web Browsers

Opera says Microsoft “deprives consumers of a real choice”

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Firefox Exploit – Your Google Account is Succeptible

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Multiple Home Pages in Internet Explorer and Firefox

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