Jumat, 09 Januari 2015

Google Chrome Adblocker

Google Chrome does not come with an option to block Internet ads. Many think that this has been a deliberate choice by the Google development team to avoid harming Google’s core businesses Adsense and Adwords. Whatever the reason it surely means that the web browser is unattractive to those users who prefer to block ads on Internet websites. Several websites have posted workarounds to block ads with bookmarklets or third part solutions like Privoxy.

While that surely works it is not the same as to simply flip a switch and have the ad blocking functionality. This is currently not possible in Google Chrome but it is possible in its Open-Source pendant SRWare Iron. Iron is based on the Chromium source that is also used in Google Chrome. The advantages of Iron are increased privacy and security.

What many users do not know is that it is possible to enable ad blocking in the Iron browser. This is done by downloading a file called adblock.ini from the developers homepage and copying that file into the main SRWare Iron directory replacing the blank file of the same name.

The adblock.ini file contains information to block hundreds of advertisers, included are all the popular advertising companies like Google and Yahoo.

Kamis, 09 Januari 2014

Installing Fonts in Linux

If you do much desktop publishing or graphics work in Linux than you might be at a place where you are struggling to get fonts installed. Well never fear - it’s not nearly as difficult as it sounds. In fact, installing fonts in Linux is quite easy. Of course the easiest means to installing fonts in Linux is with the command line. In this article you are going to learn how to install true type fonts both per user and globally.

Naturally one of the issues with fonts is where to get them. If you do a search for “free fonts” you will come up with plenty of sites that offer fonts. There are even sites that sell fonts for a reasonable price. Of course if you are serious about desktop publishing or graphics you will want to look at higher quality fonts. On with the installation.

Per User Installation

By far the easiest installation is the per user installation. What this type of install does is install the fonts in such a way that only the targeted use has access to the fonts. For this type of installation download all of your fonts into a directory the user has access to (the ~/Downloads directory works fine.) Once you have your fonts collected (You will most likely have to unzip each file which will result in either .ttf or .TTF files) do the following (all in a terminal window) within the directory containing your downloaded fonts.

mkdir ~/.fonts

mv *ttf *TTF ~/.fonts

Now log out of your desktop environment and log back in. Those fonts should now be available to you. If you’re unsure you can fire up either OpenOffice or The GIMP to see if your fonts are available. They should be.

Global Installation

Installing fonts globally allows all users access to the fonts. This is not as simple as installing per-user but it is still simple. You sill have to download all of your fonts. Once you have them downloaded unzip the files (making sure all the *ttf and *TTF files are in the same directory) and su to the root user. Once you are the root user issue the following commands:

mkdir -p /usr/local/share/fonts/ttfonts
mv *ttf *TTF /usr/local/share/fonts/ttfonts
cd /usr/local/share/fonts/ttfonts
ttmkfdir -o fonts.scale
mkfontdir
chkfontpath –add /usr/local/share/fonts/ttfonts
/etc/rc.d/init.d/xfs restart
Now log out of your desktop and you can log in as any user and the fonts will be available to them.

Final Thoughts

See, installing fonts in Linux isn’t difficult - especially when installing on a per user basis. For most people the first method will suffice. Unless you work on a machine that is used by more than one user, you will only need the per user method. Of course if the global installation method is a bit daunting you can always copy the fonts into the ~/.fonts directory of every user that needs access to the various true type fonts.

Rabu, 09 Januari 2013

Use Google Chrome For Secure Web Browsing

One of the latest additions to the Google Chrome browser is the ability to force SSL. What this means is that the web browser will only open websites using the https protocol. Connections to insecure websites that only make use of the http protocol will not be initiated. Google Chrome will display the message that the webpage is not available in that case.

Why would someone want to force SSL in the web browser? The answer is easy: To increase security. This is an excellent way to deal with most phishing threats. Phishing sites are currently copying the looks and feels of popular financial sites. What they do not do is to make use of the https protocol. This means that those phishing pages would not even be opened in Google Chrome as they are not making use of https.

Here is the idea. Create a Google Chrome profile that forces SSL and that is purely used for accessing sensitive sites. This could be PayPal, Gmail, other financial sites and basically any site that is making use of the https protocol.

The ability to force SSL is only available in the latest developer’s build of Google Chrome. Read the Google Chrome 2 release announcement article for information on how to obtain a copy.

The force SSL option has to be supplied as a parameter during startup. This can be done by appending –force-https to the Target row in the shortcut’s properties.

Senin, 09 Januari 2012

5 Great New Features Of Windows 7

Do not worry. This article will not contain the same old blabla that most of the other Windows 7 toplist articles will mention. It will instead concentrate on five lesser known but powerful new features that increase productivity by a large margin.

You might want to check out our article about Windows 7 which has all the information you need to download the beta of the new Microsoft operating system. If you are not convinced yet that this is a good idea read on; You might be surprised:

1. Opening multiple Instances of the same program

Want to open multiple instances of the same program? Maybe a second command prompt or another application that can be opened in multiple instances? Instead of opening the program again the usual way you can simply press the SHIFT key and left-click on the first instance in the Windows Taskbar to open a second one.

2. Problem Steps Recorder

If you ever had to do phone support you know how hard it can be to understand what the user on the other end of the phone did and wants. The Problem Steps Recorder is a sweet little tool in Windows 7 that can be used by the user to record his steps.



All that the user needs to do is start the recorder by entering psr in the Start Menu box and click on Start Record in the program interface. Screenshots will be taken from user actions. It is possible to add comments at any time if the user feels so. The whole recording will be saved as a zip file containing a slideshow of the actions.

3. Pin Favorite Folders

Want to add a favorite folders to Windows Explorer to be able to access them faster? Just drag and drop the folder to the favorites menu. It will remain there until you delete it with the delete key again.

4. Moving Windows and such

Windows 7 introduces several new keyboard shortcuts for window management. Some useful ones are:

[Windows Shift Left Arrow] or [Windows Shift Right Arrow] to move windows from one computer monitor to another.
[Windows Left Arrow] or [Windows Right Arrow] to dock windows to the left or right side
[Windows Up Arrow] to maximize a window
[Windows Down Arrow] to restore or minimize windows
[Windows Home] to minimize all windows but the active one
5. Shortcuts to start pinned taskbar items

Pressing [Win Number] will start a new instance of a pinned taskbar item. You should also note that the items can be dragged and dropped into different positions easily.