High Tech Household

Some of the most nefarious security problems on the internet are delivered to your browser via JavaScript. Likewise for some of the biggest annoyances, like pop-up ads. But JavaScript is the heart of many recent Web innovations as well. So what is a safe surfer to do? You can’t turn JavaScript off entirely, but maybe it can be controlled a bit better.

Using today’s web browsers, there is really just one big switch controlling JavaScript: it’s either on, or it’s disabled for your entire web experience. Pop-ups are usually blocked, but otherwise, that’s a pretty blunt control. I may not want some random site to potentially exploit some issue via JavaScript, but I can’t check my webmail without it. Disabling JavaScript completely isn’t a good option.

White-listing to the rescue! By explicitly saying which websites can run JavaScript in your browser, you can reduce your risk quite a bit. Unfortunately, in researching this post, I could only find one tool for this job: the NoScript add-on for Mozilla Firefox. I use it, but I expected to find similar offerings for the other web browsers.

So, here’s a new twist here at HTH. We’d like to know what our readers use for JavaScript control, if anything. Lots of folks also just block pop-ups (which is the default behavior in most recent browsers), or Flash, or plugins in general.

What do you use for JavaScript control, if anything?

Microsoft has recently announced that it is phasing out some versions of Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista as of July 13, 2010.  Specifically, if you have any edition of Windows 2000, Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) or the original release of Windows Vista without any service packs (Release to Manufacturing or RTM) then support is dropping for your operating system.

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In part 1 of this series, we looked at the phenomenon that is social networking, and the various social networks.  In part 2, we looked at Twitter, what it is and how it works.  Here in part 3, we will explore social bookmarking, a way of aggregating the Internet and sharing content.  While the various social networking sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook can all be used to share content and bookmark, there are several sites such as Digg, del.icio.us, and Reddit that are specifically created to share good content from around the net.  Bookmarks end up being ranked based on user recommendations, and tags are added to allow for the indexing and searching of resources. Read more…

The next major version of Microsoft’s desktop operating system is being released into the wild soon, October 22nd to be precise. This will be a very important release for Microsoft, who have experienced increasing pressure recently from Apple on the high-end and Linux netbooks and nettops on the low-end.

So, whether you’re upgrading from Vista, you’ve been holding out since XP, or you’re thinking about jumping (back?) to Windows from Mac or elsewhere, there’s a lot to take in about this latest OS from Microsoft.

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With the announcements this week that Verizon will be launching Android phones with Google Voice capability and AT&T will also be allowing VoIP services on its iPhone after pressure from the FCC, it appears that we are at the beginning of a revolution of how traditional phone calls are made and placed.  Today, you can make cheap or even free phone calls using Voice over IP technology (VoIP).

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Despite popular perceptions, Social Networking has been around for as long as networked computers have existed.  Early computer enthusiasts would connect their computers over phone lines through the use of modems and communicate through message boards or forums.  Online services such as Compuserv, AOL, and Prodigy gave ways for more people to interact via message boards, chat, and email.  When the Internet first came on the scene, sites such as GeoCities and Tripod gave users the ability to interact, as well as set up their own web pages.

In the last few years, social networking has exploded with sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn.  Social Networking also includes blogs and social bookmarking sites such as Digg, del.icio.us, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.  Social Media sites such as YouTube and Flickr round out the social networking platform.  This series will look briefly at all of these types of sites.  Further information and tutorials will be provided in future posts beyond the scope of this series.  Part I of this series will focus on Social Networking Sites in particular.

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Anyone who has a computer these days browses the Internet.  The web browser has become as important as the operating system in meeting a user’s personal or business computing needs.  When the World Wide Web began its life 15 years ago, the dominant web browser was Mosaic, which later became Netscape.   In 1995, Internet Explorer entered the marketplace with Windows 95, coming free with every new computer.  As Netscape and Microsoft competed in the “Browser Wars”, Netscape became a bloated piece of software and died a slow death.  However, before Netscape’s dominance ended, they created an open source group to develop a new web browser called Mozilla, which ended up providing the engine for the popular FireFox browser.  Microsoft’s dominance in the web browser has been deteriorating in recent years because of the introduction of several new, powerful, and fast web browsers.

Since the battle between Netscape and Internet Explorer ended, different web browsers have come and gone, with varying levels of success.  The Browser debate also garners a lot of passion as people get very attached to their personal choice of web browser.  While there are countless minor web browsers out there (which we will examine at some point in the future), we focus on the five major web browsers currently in use:  Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla FireFox, Apple Safari, Google Chrome, and Opera.

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Blogs have exploded on the Internet in the last 10 years, covering a wide variety of topics.  They have ranged in scope from personal diaries to blogs such as this one that cater to a wider audience.  More recently, people have started using  blogs as a means of updating family and friends of an important life event.  These “event blogs” are being created to write about everything from the preparation for their wedding day to the difficult journey of a family member undergoing a serious illness.

These blogs differ from the wider-audience blogs in that they are catering to a select group of family and friends, and differ from personal diary blogs in that they are created to chronicle one specific event with long durations.  For example, we have a family friend who’s daughter spent a semester abroad in Europe, and she started a blog to post photos and details of her travels.  She was able to keep in touch with a wider circle of people than she would have been able to by individual emails and phone calls, and was able to circulate her photos and chronicle her travels across Europe in detail.

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Internet Radio has come a long way in the past few years.  What started as something that a few people did as a hobby has now become a full-fledged entertainment option.  When Internet Radio started, people were restricted to listening on their home PCs or laptops.  While this may be a good option when working, it is hardly practical for those who like to listen on the go.

Podcasting helped to expand the possibilities of online radio to go by allowing users to download mp3 copies of an internet radio broadcast onto their iPods or other portable music player.  While this added some portability, in the last year, there has been an explosion of options for listening to Internet radio.

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Now that we’ve got a little history, terminology and use of Wi-Fi down (see our previous article), we can jump into the more practical matters of actually finding and setting up a wireless router.

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