Posts by Sim

web standards - what new ways will exploder 8 break them

Is ie8 going to break web standards in any new and interesting ways or just the usual ones

whitelist based AV programs

Why are AV programs so crap? Why are they based on a blacklist of evil programs when they could instead base their operation on a whitelist of permitted programs? Is that so hard to arrange,as that is how the decent personal firewall programs operate? Are there any AV programs that are based on a whitelist? Am I wrong or misunderstanding things here?If anybody can enlighten me I would be grateful.

FF3 No Thanks

Old Location Bar 1.3 https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7637

not quite a full solution yet-but I am not the only person who thinks the awesome bar is not awesome at all.

Another useful webpage "How to disable the Smart Location Bar"

http://bbayles.googlepages.com/disable_slb.html

fiefox3 is horrible

firefox 3 is horrible -i uninstalled it after 5 minutes and reverted to firefox2

@tw burger re :broccoli

If you are planning to plant broccoli on Mars please ensure that the young plants are protected against pigeons

firefox 3 Url-bar Rubbish Behaviour

I downloaded Firefox 3 and uninstalled it after 15minutes

The url bar no longer autocompletes urls as you type it searches every thing the browser has ever read in a crappy fashion ( in the middle of words in page titles)-cant be switched off

FAIL

i am back on v2 because i cannot do without firebug

title required

i just use editplus and xampp.

win2k

i am sticking with windows 2000 -dont need no fancy pants xp thank you.

Tell Ofcom

you can tell ofcom your views on this matter

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/20/ofcom_tv_ads/comments/

your confidential

Some of the things that phorm will be intercepting and harvesting,whether or not they do not retain them in the long term :

Webmail,

usernames and passwords,

forum posts and website comments that you make.

I write web applications for small businesses.They often contain confidential information of various sorts that is not available to those without login credentials.

We need some informed legal opinions about the applicability of Data Protection Laws.

Reply from Virgin Media

A reply from virginmedia customer support( edited to reduce tedium)

I am sorry that the information that we are going to start using phorm

has worried you, here is some information to help give you a better

understading in regards to what this is.

A safer experience

Webwise will help customers avoid scams, such as 'phishing' - this is

where someone pretends to be a well known brand, like a bank, but is

looking to steal confidential information. [SNIP..]...identity theft. In this way Webwise helps to secure our customers' privacy.

A more relevant browsing experience

Another great thing about Webwise is that it can help reduce irrelevant

advertising. As customers browse web pages, Webwise looks at things like

search terms, and learns what topics might be of interest. This is done

without collecting any personal information, so once again their privacy

is protected. These topics are then used to help filter out adverts that

might be irrelevant - instead they'll simply see an advert that will

match a topic they're are more interested in.

Don't worry, they won't see any more adverts than they currently do,

they'll just be more relevant. [SNIP...]

Protecting customers' privacy

Webwise has been designed from the ground up to protect our customers'

privacy and anonymity. As the system only learns about topics of

interest, it does this anonymously, ensuring their privacy is completely

protected.

Neither the web addresses, nor search terms they use are stored. They

are purely matched to an advertising topic and then discarded.

Webwise doesn't store their internet (IP) address or keep track of their

browsing. The system or advertisers won't know who you are or the

websites they've visited.

No personally identifiable information such as email addresses,

surnames, street addresses, or phone numbers are ever gathered.

No sensitive or personal financial information, such as credit card

numbers, login IDs, passwords or bank account numbers are ever gathered.

We found that this system met our high standards for simplicity and

privacy - so customers' privacy is assured. These privacy standards were

also verified independently by Ernst & Young who conducted a detailed

audit of the whole process and Webwise solution.

Customers won't be forced to take up Webwise, so they'll be able to keep

their internet experience as it is now...

[END...]

That last phrase leaves it deliberately ambiguous as to whether or not users will be required to Opt In or Opt Out -I wrote back to Virgin Media to request clarification on this point.