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Start Google Plus: Combine Facebook, Twitter Feeds with Google+

Jared Moya — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 08:35:14 +0000

Browser extension for Mozilla's Firefox and Google Chrome combines your Facebook and Twitter feeds with your Google Plus Stream, and allows you to post to all three simultaneously.

For those already growing tired of having to navigate among their different Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus feeds there's a new extension available for both Firefox and Chrome called Start Google Plus that allows you to combine the three. What Start Google plus does is put your Facebook and Twitter feeds conveniently inside your Google Plus stream, complete with the ability to comment or "like" in the case of Facebook, and the ability to to reply or "retweet" in the case of Twitter. Similarly, like Facebook you can "block" or "mute" posts and tweets. The latter is handy if you don't necessarily want to see the tweets of everybody you're following via Twitter. You can even opt to post to both Facebook AND Twitter whenever you share something with your circles on Google Plus. Start Google Plus adds a Gmail inbox notifier to the top bar so that you don't have to keep a gMail tab open, and can really make Google Plus the sole destination for all your email and social networking needs. Another feature is the ability to import your Facebook photos, further completing the transfer to make Google Plus your go-to destination. Start Google Plus is free, but for those that want Facebook and Twitter feed refreshes more frequent than the current 5 minutes, or the ability to update greater quantities of photos, there's a subscription option available to upgrade your Start Google Plus account for $3.00 p/mo. For those that really want to take it up a notch don't forget about the Stylish extension I mentioned in "5 Essential Google+ Addons for Chrome" that turns Google+ into a Facebook clone (it's also available for Firefox). Stay tuned. jared@zeropaid.com

Mozilla Releases Firefox 5.0

Jared Moya — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 19:01:10 +0000

Includes added support for CSS animations, improved canvas, JavaScript, memory, and networking performance, and number of security and stability issues. Quick update from version 4.0 is part of Mozilla's rapid release development cycle.

It's been just three months since Mozilla released Firefox 4.0, and already it's pushing version 5.0. "The latest version of Firefox includes more than 1,000 improvements and performance enhancements that make it easier to discover and use all of the innovative features in Firefox," it said in a press release. "This release adds support for more modern Web technologies that make it easier for developers to build amazing Firefox Add-ons, Web applications and websites." Firefox 5.0 reflects Mozilla's shift this past April to a rapid release development cycle which it says is important to deliver "cutting edge Firefox features, performance enhancements, security updates and stability improvements to users faster." So what are some of the new features? Firefox 5.0 includes the following changes:

Added support for CSS animations
The Do-Not-Track header preference has been moved to increase discoverability
Tuned HTTP idle connection logic for increased performance
Improved canvas, JavaScript, memory, and networking performance
Improved standards support for HTML5, XHR, MathML, SMIL, and canvas
Improved spell checking for some locales
Improved desktop environment integration for Linux users
WebGL content can no longer load cross-domain textures
Background tabs have setTimeout and setInterval clamped to 1000ms to improve performance
Fixed several stability issues
Fixed several security issues

As part of Mozilla's rapid release development cycle it also offers daily downloads of the latest and greatest Beta and "Aurora" versions for those looking to test out the latest and greatest innovations Mozilla has to offer.

DOWNLOAD FIREFOX 5.0

Stay tuned. newstip? jared@zeropaid.com

Mozilla Refuses to Remove MAFIAA Fire Plugin

Jared Moya — Sat, 07 May 2011 15:12:46 +0000

Mozilla General Counsel Harvey Anderson says Department of Homeland Security contacted Mozilla about removing MAFIAA Fire add-on that redirects visitors to seized domains to new sites, but asked that it first legally justify the request.

Last month I reported the release of the MAFIAA Fire redirector plugin for Firefox and Chrome that circumvents the Department of Homeland Security's "Operation in Our Sites" domain name seizure campaign, and it appears that DHS has already asked Mozilla to take it down. "Recently the US Department of Homeland Security contacted Mozilla and requested that we remove the MAFIAA Fire add-on," writes Mozilla General Counsel Harvey Anderson. "The ICE Homeland Security Investigations unit alleged that the add-on circumvented a seizure order DHS had obtained against a number of domain names. MAFIAA Fire, like several other similar add-ons already available through AMO, redirects the user from one domain name to another similar to a mail forwarding service." The way it works is that it allows you to “un-censor illegally taken down domains.” MAFIAA Fire maintains a list of URLs and their mirror sites so that if or when ICE seizes a domain the plugin will take you to the new site without you even noticing. Anderson said Mozilla is always more than willing to "comply with valid court orders, warrants, and legal mandates, but in this case there was no such court order." Mozilla replied to DHS' request by asking it a series of questions so that it can better understand its "legal justification." They include:

1. Have any courts determined that MAFIAAfire.com is unlawful or illegal inany way? If so, on what basis? (Please provide any relevant rulings) 2. Have any courts determined that the seized domains related to MAFIAAfire.com are unlawful, illegal or liable for infringement in any way? (please provide relevant rulings 3. Is Mozilla legally obligated to disable the add-on or is this request based on other reasons? If other reasons, can you please specify. 4. Has DHS, or any copyright owners involved in this matter, taken any legal action against MAFIAAfire.com or the seized domains, including DMCA requests? 5. What protections are in place for MAFIAAfire.com or the seized domain owners if eventually a court decides they were not unlawful? 6. Can you please provide copies of any briefs that accompanied the affidavit considered by the court that issued the relevant seizure orders? 7. Can you please provide a copy of the relevant seizure order upon which your request to Mozilla to take down MAFIAAfire.com is based? 8. Please identify exactly what the infringements by the owners of the domains consisted of, with reference to the substantive standards of Section 106 andto any case law establishing that the actions of the seized domain owners constituted civil or criminal copyright infringement. 9. Did any copyright owners furnish affidavits in connection with the domain seizures? Had any copyright owners served DMCA takedown notices on the seized domains or MAFIAAfire.com? (if so please provide us with a copy) 10. Has the Government furnished the domain owners with formal notice of the seizures, triggering the time period for a response by the owners? If so, when,and have there been any responses yet by owners? 11. Has the Government communicated its concerns directly with MAFIAAfire.com?If so, what response, if any, did MAFIAAfire.com make?

"One of the fundamental issues here is under what conditions do intermediaries accede to government requests that have a censorship effect and which may threaten the open Internet," he adds. "In this case, the underlying justification arises from content holders legitimate desire to combat piracy. The problem stems from the use of these government powers in service of private content holders when it can have unintended and harmful consequences. Longterm, the challenge is to find better mechanisms that provide both real due process and transparency without infringing upon developer and user freedoms traditionally associated with the Internet," he says. The ACLU weighed in on the news by praising Mozilla for its decision to demand that the DHS justify its request rather than blindly kowtow to the govt demands, as usually seems to happen in most cases. Stay tuned. jared@zeropaid.com

Google Providing Focus to Future of Online Video

Bruce Lidl — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 05:07:47 +0000

Not long ago I wrote a piece discussing the possibility of Google doing something pretty revolutionary in the video space. Having recently purchased the video codec company On2, there developed a lot of hope among open source proponents that the search giant would take On2's technology and release it to the public as open source and patent-free. Why was there so much speculation in this direction? Partially because On2 had previously donated the code from VP3, their earlier codec, to the open source video project Ogg Theora, so there was precedent for such a move. Further, the timing of the On2 purchase put it squarely in the on-going discussion about the proposed shift from Flash to HTML5 for serving video on the web. Many proponents of open web standards (including famously the team behind Mozilla) would love to see online video delivered not via a proprietary technology such as Adobe's Flash, but instead through the much simpler element present in HTML5. As the proprietor of YouTube, anything Google does in regards to video is going to make noise, and a combination of HTML5 and a patent-free codec would make for an absolutely free (as in both beer and speech) video distribution for the Internet. Flash is of course a proprietary commercial product from Adobe, and H.264 while rapidly becoming the de facto standard for video today can be open source (see x264) but is only royalty free as long as MPEG-LA decides so (they have only promised to keep it free through 2015). In other words, Google's just leaked decision to release VP8 as open source and royalty free, in combination with YouTube's more tentative moves towards HTML5, combine to be a serious upheaval of the digital video world. That's not to say there aren't still a number of challenges ahead, for both Google and proponents of the HTML5/VP8 solution. First, Google and YouTube are very unlikely to make a large transition to VP8 encoded video until it can be shown that On2's former codec can really back up the claims of its quality. Google has previously admitted that using the open and patent free Ogg Theora codec as it exists currently would exponentially drive up YouTube streaming costs because of Theora's inferior bitate to quality ratio compared to H.264. Codec experts that I respect have been pretty skeptical of On2's inflated claims about the quality of VP8, and the product is, at this point, little more than vaporware, so comparative tests between VP8 and H.264 remain impossible. However, even if VP8 is released and proves to be an acceptable alternative to H.264, there remains a pretty daunting legal minefield. MPEG-LA has traditionally operated from a pretty broad interpretation of its IP holdings and there is a *very* good chance they could target VP8 (or an improved Ogg Theora) for infringing on what MPEG-LA's member companies have patented in H.264. On2 was certainly not as tempting a litigation target as Google and YouTube would be. An interesting question remains, though, as to why Google is going to such expense and effort to overturn the current online video situation. H.264 is after all an excellent choice for many reasons currently, and Flash has served YouTube well even from its pre-Google days. One very sharp observer suggested to me, however, that the real motivation for the HTML5/VP8 play by Google comes down ultimately to advertising, not a shocking point considering where the search giant actually earns its billions in revenue. By wresting control of online video delivery from Adobe's Flash and H.264, Google could reinforce its own its own dominant role in video advertising via YouTube, and at the same time head off any inroads Microsoft is hoping to make with IE and Silverlight (or any plans Apple has to build video ads upon Safari as well). The decision by Mozilla to opt out of natively supporting H.264 presented Apple and Microsoft with the chance to push their own browsers and build walls and possibly build walls (and advertising schemes) around compelling video content. If Google can really switch YouTube to HTML5/VP8, then the other browsers will have to follow suit, essentially giving Google a commanding position. Admittedly, some of this stuff is probably wildly speculative, but the reality is that decisions on such relatively obscure technologies like codecs and browser plug-ins can have a profound affect on the shape of the Internet, and the billions of dollars of commerce conducted upon that platform. Google has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the codec front, so they clearly understand video's strategic importance.

Songbird, the Firefox-like Media Player

Mon, 06 Nov 2006 23:37:23 +0000

Songbird is a desktop Web player, a digital jukebox and Web browser mash-up. Like Winamp, it supports extensions and skins feathers. Like Firefox, it is built from Mozilla, cross-platform and open source.

Firefox is known for its open-source software that allows programmers to toy with features and help with bug fixes. Now, there is a media player to rival Windows Media Player, Winamp and other like players.

Songbird is at version 0.2 so take that into consideration as you hear about the pros and cons. This software will continue to be improved and changed but right now, it features the ability to play MPEG Audio (mpga), MPEG Layer 3 (mp3), MP4 Audio (mp4a), Ogg Vorbis, Speex, AAC, WMA, FLAC; and lesser known, LPCM, ADPCM, and AMR.

The creators of the program don’t claim to have a “better” product or a bug-free version just yet, but it’s certainly got features you can utilize. While installing the software you are asked if you want to include extensions, for iTunes import, Shoutcast, audioscrobbler (last.fm), or Wikipedia. It offers to scan your system for media files and then continues with the basic installation of the software. You can also set the program up for iPod sync. which many will look for.

There are mini-modes, skins (they have renamed this to “feathers”) and most of the basic options you would expect from a media player. All in all it seems to be a great addition to the media player family. Keep in mind it is open-source and will bear many improvements over time…probably much faster than Microsoft-based software.

Firefox 3.0 Wants You!

Jared Moya — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 16:30:53 +0000

The Mozilla team is compiling a features wish list for the Firefox 3.0 internet browser, so get your ideas, comments, gripes, etc. in early. The features you request will be saved as ideas for all future Firefox releases so even if they go unheeded now there’s hope for the future.

Now it speaks volumes about the open source nature of Firefox that this is even happening. I mean don’t think Microsoft’s IE team will be holding roundtables anytime soon. Can you imagine what would happen if they took enhancement ideas and requests? This makes reason number 1o million and one why I love Firefox and only use IE as a last resort short of suicide.

What’s even more startling is that you can comment on other peoples comments. You can criticize the enhancement requests of others making for an even more balanced, open, and honest exchange of ideas and thoughts. Rather than a boring and static “gimme gimme” list you have to duke it out on the merits of the ideas you proffer.

The Mozilla team writes:

If you have ideas about features listed here please create a new wiki page off of your user page that outlines your ideas (mockupswelcome!)and add a link to that page in the “References” column, or linkto existing pages with examples, design thoughts, interesting articles, etc.
If you have ideas for features not listed here please add them to the most appropriate group below. Include any references to more detailed implementation ideas.
If you would like to comment on features listed here please do so on the discussion page rather than in the list itself.
Please include a summary comment that describes your change so that it shows up in the page history view.
Please make a User page for yourself with contact information so that if we need clarification of your idea, we can get in touch with you.

So what are people already asking for you wonder? Well, one guy has asked for a floating toolbar, writing “Allow the user to pull all toolbars off the top of the window and create a floating toolbar. These floating bars could be overlapped, tiled, etc to save screen real-estate.”

I like this idea a lot. Firefox has so many dam cool plugins and extensions that I’m already 4 toolbar boxes deep right now and looking to save space any way I can. From Stumble!, a very extension by the way that takes you to sites you otherwise would never check out, to the trusty Google search query box, a floating toolbar would be a must have on my Christmas wish list.

The menu “wish list” also has a request for allowing the user to “…specify the font (and especially the font size) used in menus and toolbars. This is especially useful for those of us with failing eye sight or those with high resolution screens (that cause the fonts to be too small).” Now my eyesight’s just fine, but it would nice to choose the font type and size irregardless of the theme that you may currently be using. Some guys have a done a great with the color and design aspect of their themes but, in some cases the font selection has taken a backseat to aesthetics.

Another great idea is to allow users to “Capture all pages in the window (including links up to user selectable depth) directly to PDF file.” This would make for better archiving of static material instead of the default “cut and paste” option.

Download control, like in IE where you have the option to “open” and run a download file instead of saving it is also a nice one.

For you MAC guys and gals looking for OS X style widgets, one guy writes:

Use OS X’s provided widget set, especially for text area, button, radio, checkbox and select elements. Native widgets feature spell check among other niceties. This would go a long way towards making Firefox feel more like a “real” OS X application. The current UI does not follow many of the common idioms on the Mac which causes confusion when switching between it and other Apple apps. This could greatly impact adoption on OS X, particularly among less savvy users who don’t understand why it’s different.

Now the MAC OS and I practically speak in broken english to on another but, this idea sounds pretty reasonable to me.

Lastly, I like some of the virus and malware protection suggestions. A reader requests:

*Integrate a sandboxing feature automatically. (Like Sandboxie -http://www.sandboxie.com/)
*Integrate virus scanning and malware protection for retrieved content/files
*Integrated support for 3rd party Anti-virus scanners
*Firefox to run in a “Protected mode” like IE7/Vista (see the Sandboxing above)

I like the notion of the sandbox feature but am skeptical about more program integration ideas. Simple is oftentimes better.

In any event, I hope all you out there take the opportunity to check out the Mozilla Wiki page and help to make Firefox 3.0 a thing of beauty.

Ex-Microsoft Security Strategist Joins Mozilla

Jared Moya — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 05:43:22 +0000

Former Microsoft security strategist Window Snyder is joining Mozilla to lead the company’s effort to protect its range of desktop applications from malicious hacker attacks.

Snyder, who was responsible for security sign-off for Microsoft’s
Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows Server 2003, will spearhead Mozilla’s security strategy, eWEEK has learned.

The hiring of Snyder is a coup for Mozilla Corp., the for-profit subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation, based in Mountain View, Calif.

The group has seen its flagship Firefox Web browser chip away at the market dominance of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, largely because of high-profile security flaws in and attacks on IE, and the addition of Snyder is sure to help beef up Mozilla’s security process and improve its communications with bug finders.

Mozilla Corp. Rolls Out Firefox Fan Videos

Jared Moya — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 00:48:22 +0000

Mozilla Corp. on Wednesday launched the first set of Firefox video commercials created by diehard fans of the open-source Web browser.

Part of the Firefox Flicks marketing campaign, the ads can be viewed online or downloaded for sharing with others. Links are also provided for embedding in Web pages or blogs.

The campaign includes a contest in which a panel of judges will choose the best of more than 100 videos submitted to Mozilla, the for-profit subsidiary of the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation. The for-profit company plans to release a new set of videos each day until all the 30-second spots have been released.

The contest closes on Friday, and the winner will be announced this month at the San Francisco International Film Festival. The winning video will be incorporated in Mozilla’s international marketing campaign for Firefox.

Mozilla is not the first company to tap its customers’ creativity for marketing purposes. Sony, Mastercard, General Motors, and Converse are among other companies that have asked customers to create amateur ads for products.