Browsers

The Evolution of Famous Logos

September 21, 2011 by noemi 1 Comment

It doesn’t take a marketing and branding expert to realize the importance of logos. After all, the average consumer knows just how a good logo can make you associate it with a particular brand. Case in point: anyone who sees that ubiquitous apple (the fruit) with a chunk bitten off knows just what company it stands for.

I sure don’t know much about creating logos, but I came across this funny slash interesting post at Stock Logos ((Stock Logos Web Site)) about how the logos of famous companies have evolved over the years. AND how they just might evolve in the years to come. That is the funny part. [Read more…] about The Evolution of Famous Logos

Beware of Scareware!

October 8, 2010 by noemi Leave a Comment

I’ve heard of malware, but scareware? Apparently, scammers are now playing on the fears of Windows users – fear of viruses and other malware. In order to make money, they dupe people into thinking that their system is suffering from a relentless malware attack, hence the term scareware. As the scammers prey upon those fears, they prompt users to download security updates that can “keep users safe.”

Obviously, they will charge for these updates. The problem is that, one, the threat is almost always fake; and two, the security updates are just as fake. The user who falls for this trick will end up being at least $50 poorer, without having anything to show for it!

This tactic was exposed earlier this week by Parveen Vashishtha from Symantec. In a blog post, he outlined the modus operandi of this new breed of scammers. The trick is in knowing that browsers DO NOT ask you to download security updates via malware threat warnings. If you do see something like the image below, chances are you are the target of a scareware scam.

If you’re thinking that people who are dumb enough to fall for this trick deserve it, think again. The truth of the matter is that the trick seems to work so well – even some experienced users fall for it. In fact, the scareware business has already made more than $100 million, according to the FBI. Don’t laugh just yet.

Your safest bet is NOT to click the download button, obviously. Of course, you also ought to make sure that your OS, security software, and browser/s are updated on a regular basis.

3 Internet Pet Peeves and Their Fixes

July 5, 2010 by noemi Leave a Comment

Considering the time that you probably spend online, you would know that there are a lot of things that can happen out there that get your goat. We all have our pet peeves; some of them we can find fixes for, some we just can’t do anything. And, speaking of these Internet problems and fixes, I read a very interesting and useful list at PC World.

There are too many too mention here, but let me give you the three that are my pet peeves.

Facebook game and apps overload

I love Facebook games – a couple of them, at least; but I know how irritating it can be to see all those feeds when you are NOT interested in them. Hence, I try to limit the things that I publish. If you have friends who can’t help but flood your feed with their Facebook games and apps, though, PC World suggests Facebook Purity, which is part of Firefox’s GreaseMonkey add-on.

Useless search bars in web sites

What use is a search bar embedded in a web site if you can’t get relevant results? This has happened to me countless of times that I have simply stopped using them most of the time. What I have been doing is what PC World suggests: go to your usual search engine and key in site:nameofsite.com “what you’re looking for” instead.

Flash ads automatically blaring out some audio

Imagine browsing the net while at Starbucks or some other place when suddenly, this loud audio emanates from your speakers. Forget that – imagine working late into the night, you’re alone at home, and the same thing happens. I have jumped out of my skin so many times because of this! Here’s the fix from PC World: use FlashMute, which blocks Flash access to your audio. They do have a disclaimer: your anti-virus software might see it as an attack when you download the software. Ignore it.

For the complete list, visit PC World.

Firefox 3 Beta Available

November 20, 2007 by Admin 4 Comments

Firefox fans can already download and start playing with the Firefox 3 beta version 1. Here are some of the features that the new version should pack:

improved security and malware protection
improved password and download management
more personalization options with bookmarks and searches
improved HTML rendering and font architecture
performance improvements

I will probably start using Firefox 3 as soon as it comes out, but I need to second what Duncan Riley said on TechCrunch. The main issues with Firefox right now are the memory leaks and crashes, and according to him there is no evidence that this new version will solve these problems for good.

I found the memory leak issue especially harsh under Ubuntu Linux, which is my current operating system. Hopefully beta testers will report this problem.

Flock: Pretty, But Still Not Very Useful

November 20, 2007 by Ryan 4 Comments

Version 1.0 of the much anticipated Flock browser was finally released earlier this month following more than two years of development. The release was met with much fanfare, but despite the amount of time and energy put into Flock, at this point it remains little more than a piece of eye candy.

Flock is a very good browser, being that it is basically Firefox in a shinier skin. But it falls somewhat short in the other areas of functionality it boasts.

Flock’s blog editor, for instance, is woefully less powerful than the alternative browser-based tool Scribefire, and light years behind corresponding desktop tools like MarsEdit, Ecto and the newly-popular Windows Live Writer.

Similarly, Flock’s built-in RSS feed reader is polished and easy to use, but currently can’t hold a candle to the likes of NetNewswire, FeedDemon and Newsfire.

The bits of Flock that shine the brightest are the Facebook sidebar and the browser’s integration with online photo storing sites Flickr and Photobucket.

However, despite the Facebook sidebar’s impressive functionality, it still pales somewhat in comparison to simply leaving Facebook open in one of your browser tabs. And while the photo uploading and sharing tools are likewise well implemented, the millions who turn to Kodak, Google and various smaller providers for their online photo storing needs have been left out in the cold.

Some will argue that while Flock may not be the best of breed at any of the individual functions it performs, it does provide the benefit of being able to do all those things from within a single application. But at a time when many new computers are offered with at least 1GB of RAM, and additional memory can be purchased dirt cheap, is it really a problem to have a separate blog editor, feed reader and Internet browser open at the same time? Surely the added functionality of the more feature-rich individual applications trumps eliminating the need to switch windows, a task that the ctrl+tab (cmd+tab on Macs) keystroke makes negligible.

There are purists who insist that an Internet browser is for browsing only, and should not be made to accomplish tasks it was not originally intended for. At present I am inclined to side with those purists (using Safari with no add-ons is a blazingly fast and pleasant browsing experience), though I do hold out hope that Flock, or someone else, will eventually manage to create a browser/blog editor/feed reader that is better than the respective standalone applications without consuming the bulk of a computer’s available memory.

Flock is a positive step in what could be “the right direction,” but after two years of development some hoped for a little more solid functionality to go along with the spit-shined exterior.