Web
Browsing the web with Min, a minimalist open source web browser
Submitted by Rianne Schestowitz on Wednesday 17th of October 2018 07:47:17 AM Filed under
Does the world need another web browser? Even though the days of having a multiplicity of browsers to choose from are long gone, there still are folks out there developing new applications that help us use the web.
One of those new-fangled browsers is Min. As its name suggests (well, suggests to me, anyway), Min is a minimalist browser. That doesn't mean it's deficient in any significant way, and its open source, Apache 2.0 license piques my interest.
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Brave and Firefox Latest
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Monday 15th of October 2018 07:01:06 AM Filed under
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Brave Browser Team Up With Tor
TOR [sic] or The Onion Router uses technology that separates your computer from the website you’re viewing by routing the network traffic through 3 seperate servers before it reaches your computer. That being said Brave Core Beta hasn’t been fully tested yet so “users should not rely on it for serious use just yet,” Brave said.
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Your RSS is grass: Mozilla euthanizes feed reader, Atom code in Firefox browser, claims it's old and unloved
When Firefox 64 arrives in December, support for RSS, the once celebrated content syndication scheme, and its sibling, Atom, will be missing.
"After considering the maintenance, performance and security costs of the feed preview and subscription features in Firefox, we’ve concluded that it is no longer sustainable to keep feed support in the core of the product," said Gijs Kruitbosch, a software engineer who works on Firefox at Mozilla, in a blog post on Thursday.
RSS – which stands for Rich Site Summary, RDF Site Summary, or Really Simple Syndication, as you see fit – is an XML-based format for publishing and subscribing to web content feeds. It dates back to 1999 and for a time was rather popular, but been disappearing from a variety of applications and services since then.
Mozilla appears to have gotten the wrecking ball rolling in 2011 when it removed the RSS button from Firefox. The explanation then was the same as it is now: It's just not very popular.
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Cameron Kaiser: It's baaaaa-aaack: TenFourFox Intel
It's back! It's undead! It's ugly! It's possibly functional! It's totally unsupported! It's ... TenFourFox for Intel Macs!
Years ago as readers of this blog will recall, Claudio Leite built TenFourFox 17.0.2 for Intel, which the update check-in server shows some determined users are still running to this day on 10.5 and even 10.4 despite various problems such as issue 209. However, he didn't have time to maintain it, and a newer version was never built, though a few people since then have made various attempts and submitted some patches.
One of these attempts is now far enough along to the point where I'm permitted to announce its existence. Riccardo Mottola has done substantial work on getting TenFourFox to build and run again on old Intel Macs with a focus on 32-bit compatibility, and his patches have been silently lurking in the source code repository for some time. Along with Ken Cunningham's additional work, who now also has a MacPorts portfile so you can build it yourself (PowerPC support in the portfile is coming, though you can still use the official instructions, of course), enough functions in the new Intel build that it can be used for basic tasks.
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Fediverse and Mastodon
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Monday 15th of October 2018 03:03:38 AM Filed under-
Spritely: towards secure social spaces as virtual worlds
If you follow me on the fediverse, maybe you already know. I've sent an announcement to my work that I am switching to doing a project named Spritely on my own full time. (Actually I'm still going to be doing some contracting with my old job, so I'll still have some income, but I'll be putting a full 40 hours a week into Spritely.)
tl;dr: I'm working on building the next generation of the fediverse as a distributed game. You can support this work if you so wish.
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The demise of G+ and return to blogging (w/ mastodon integration)
I’m back to blogging, after shutting down my wordpress.com hosted blog in spring. This time, fully privacy aware, self hosted, and integrated with mastodon.
Let’s talk details: In spring, I shutdown my wordpress.com hosted blog, due to concerns about GDPR implications with comment hosting and ads and stuff. I’d like to apologize for using that, back when I did this (in 2007), it was the easiest way to get into blogging. Please forgive me for subjecting you to that!
Recently, Google announced the end of Google+. As some of you might know, I posted a lot of medium-long posts there, rather than doing blog posts; especially after I disabled the wordpress site.
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Four Web Browsers for the Linux Command Line
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Friday 12th of October 2018 07:00:30 PM Filed under
Remember the days when the web was as simple as searchable text. The terminals and low powered personal computers were enough to access the text-based web over snail-paced internet connections. Of course, people then used the command-line web browsers to visit the web; these included the famous Lynx browser as well. Times have changed now, the browser technology has shifted to the graphical and more powerful web-browsers such as Chrome, Firefox and, Safari. Still, there are people who are more Terminal savvy and prefer accessing to-the-point information from the web through Terminal based browsing. Even Terminal based computers also exist and for them, command-line browsers are sometimes the only way to connect to the web. So how do we install and use these text-based browsers through our Linux command-line, the Terminal?
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Mozilla and Chrome: WebP, WebAssembly and Google Chrome Alternatives
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Monday 8th of October 2018 05:16:58 PM Filed under
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Mozilla Firefox Embracing Google’s Image Format After 8 Years
Google brought its WebP Image Format to compete with PNG and JPEG back in 2010. The images using WebP are usually 45% smaller in size than PNG and JPEF which is great for websites as it helps reduce page load times.
Firefox had remained rebellious to WebP until now. The browser now supports WebP, 8 years after it became a standard for Google Chrome and Chromium based browsers such as Opera.
Mozilla originally rejected the use to WebP claiming that it doesn’t offer enough improvements, The browser supported JPEG and PNG while evaluating the use of Google’s image format every now and then.
At this point, the format is only supported on Windows PCs and Android-based devices. Support for iOS devices such as Mac won’t roll out until the first half of 2019, according to Mozilla.
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Calls between JavaScript and WebAssembly are finally fast
At Mozilla, we want WebAssembly to be as fast as it can be.
This started with its design, which gives it great throughput. Then we improved load times with a streaming baseline compiler. With this, we compile code faster than it comes over the network.
So what’s next?
One of our big priorities is making it easy to combine JS and WebAssembly. But function calls between the two languages haven’t always been fast. In fact, they’ve had a reputation for being slow, as I talked about in my first series on WebAssembly.
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10 Best Google Chrome Alternatives
Google Chrome dominates the browser market worldwide with a massive 60% share, leaving the rest to other web browsers. To be honest, Chrome provides a really good web browsing experience with a seamless functioning across multiple devices. However, we all know that such a smooth experience comes at a cost — our personal data.
We know that Google tracks us relentlessly and the onslaught of personalized ads gets really annoying at some point. Even if we keep it aside, there are serious problems like heavy RAM usage that makes your device sluggish. So whatever may be your reason to leave Chrome and seek other options, here is a list of best Google Chrome alternatives for you.
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Google/Chrome and Mozilla Firefox Leftovers
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Thursday 4th of October 2018 03:11:07 PM Filed under-
10 Productivity Gmail Extensions for Your Browser
Gmail is used by 500+ million people but how many of us make the best use of it? Yes, it’s a convenient email client to use but what if I told you that Gmail is capable of way more functions than it offers you at the moment?
The same way applications use plugins is the same way Gmail does, and here are 10 that will boost your productivity.
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How is Crosh Different From the Linux Terminal on a Chromebook?
As of Chrome OS 69, support for Linux applications is a baked in part of the operating system. Once enabled, this installs the Terminal on your Chrome OS system, but what is it and how does it compare to Crosh?
Don’t worry if all that sounds like gibberish to you—if you’ve never spent any time poking around in your Chromebook’s guts, then you’ve likely never used (or even heard of) Crosh. And if you’ve never used Linux before, well, then you’ve never had to bother with the Terminal. The good news is that we’re going to make sense of both things today.
[...]
The Terminal and Crosh are similar tools—in fact, they’re the same basic concept, but the Terminal is specifically for the Linux aspect of Chrome OS, where Crosh is for the Chrome OS side.
You’d be forgiven if that doesn’t make a lot of sense right out of the gate—they’re both running on the same machine, at the same time after all. But they’re not connected.
One of the biggest benefits of Chrome OS is its enhanced security. As a result, most things on the operating system run in an independent sandbox. That means that most elements don’t really interact with each other—for example, if a single tab suffers a failure and crashes, the other tabs in the browser window aren’t affected.
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Helping you to tackle the midterms on your terms
For many people, a confusing tangle of cyberjargon and misinformation have combined to make the idea of turning to the web for election information a weird proposition.
[...]
We’re doing this to make it easy for people across the political spectrum to participate this November and beyond.
We want to help make sure that the web isn’t being used to manipulate, misinform, and limit you from accessing all the information you need to make an informed choice.
In addition to the Firefox election tools, we have other resources to help you.
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WebRender newsletter 24
Hi there, this your twenty fourth WebRender newsletter. A lot of work in progress this week, so the change list is pretty short. To compensate I added a list of noteworthy ongoing work which hasn’t landed yet is but will probably land soon and gives a rough idea of what’s keeping us busy.
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Chrome and Google: Breaking the Web, Extension Permissions and In-Browser Games
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Tuesday 2nd of October 2018 08:34:05 AM Filed under-
Google wants to change URL? Proposal.
You may have heard about this. Google is considering an idea of changing how people interact with websites. More specifically, how people interact with URLs, the human-readable Web addresses by which we largely identify and remember websites we go to. The ripple effect around this proposal has been quite interesting, to say the least. And it got me thinking.
One, the actual backlash against the change is more revealing than the change itself. Two, is there really any real merit in trying to make URLs somehow more meaningful and/or useful than their current form? To that end, you are reading this article.
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You’ll Soon Have Granular Control of Chrome Extension Permissions
Chrome extensions have been under heavy scrutiny over the couple of years due to security risks, but Google is looking to change that with upcoming granular permission control. This is a huge step forward for extension security.
Basically, this is a similar take on Android’s granular permissions controls, just for Chrome browser extensions. The biggest problem with extensions—at least from a security standpoint—is their essentially universal ability to read, write, and change data on websites. With this upcoming feature, you’ll be able to control when and how extensions can read and write data.
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Google’s Project Stream is Ready To Play AAA Console Games in Chrome
Streaming full 3D games over a high-speed web connection is a fast growing trend. And with ridiculous amounts of infrastructure and remote computing power, Google is well equipped to join it.
That’s the gist behind Project Stream, the web giant’s latest foray into the consumer market. Google will stream Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, the latest entry in Ubisoft’s long-running stab-em-up series, to Chrome browsers on desktops and laptops. Aside from a small client program, you won’t need the usual gigabytes of local storage or beefy PC hardware to play: it’s all running on Google’s remote systems. The beta test of the service will begin this Friday, October 5th, and it’ll be playable on Windows, macOS, and ChromeOS.
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Web inventor Berners-Lee creates a new privacy first way of dealing with the internet
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Sunday 30th of September 2018 02:52:19 PM Filed under-
Tim Berners-Lee launches open source project Solid to decentralize the web and place users in control of data
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The Inventor of the World Wide Web Plans to Start a New Internet to Take on Google and Facebook
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One Small Step for the Web…
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World Wide Web inventor plans a new version to bypass big tech companies
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Web inventor Berners-Lee creates a new privacy first way of dealing with the internet
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Exclusive: Tim Berners-Lee tells us his radical new plan to upend the World Wide Web
Last week, Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, asked me to come and see a project he has been working on almost as long as the web itself. It’s a crisp autumn day in Boston, where Berners-Lee works out of an office above a boxing gym. After politely offering me a cup of coffee, he leads us into a sparse conference room. At one end of a long table is a battered laptop covered with stickers. Here, on this computer, he is working on a plan to radically alter how all of us live and work on the web.
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Tim Berners-Lee Launches Open Source Project Solid To Start A “New Internet”
Due to the continuous torrent of data breaches and scandals like Cambridge Analytica, Tim Berners-Lee is devastated. To fight the powerful forces of the Internet, world wide web inventor has worked on a project called “Solid.”
In collaboration with MIT, the open-source project is build to make web decentralized, snatch power from big players like Facebook, Google, Amazon, etc. Solid offers tools to create social applications which follow the existing W3C standards. In simple words, you will have a tremendous amount of control over your data.
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One Small Step for the Web...
I’ve always believed the web is for everyone. That's why I and others fight fiercely to protect it. The changes we’ve managed to bring have created a better and more connected world. But for all the good we’ve achieved, the web has evolved into an engine of inequity and division; swayed by powerful forces who use it for their own agendas.
Today, I believe we’ve reached a critical tipping point, and that powerful change for the better is possible - and necessary.
This is why I have, over recent years, been working with a few people at MIT and elsewhere to develop Solid, an open-source project to restore the power and agency of individuals on the web.
Solid changes the current model where users have to hand over personal data to digital giants in exchange for perceived value. As we’ve all discovered, this hasn’t been in our best interests. Solid is how we evolve the web in order to restore balance - by giving every one of us complete control over data, personal or not, in a revolutionary way.
Solid is a platform, built using the existing web. It gives every user a choice about where data is stored, which specific people and groups can access select elements, and which apps you use. It allows you, your family and colleagues, to link and share data with anyone. It allows people to look at the same data with different apps at the same time.
Solid unleashes incredible opportunities for creativity, problem-solving and commerce. It will empower individuals, developers and businesses with entirely new ways to conceive, build and find innovative, trusted and beneficial applications and services. I see multiple market possibilities, including Solid apps and Solid data storage.
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Malicious Features in Chrome
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Thursday 27th of September 2018 02:29:03 AM Filed under-
Chrome 70 Will Let Users Opt Out of the New Auto-Sign In Feature
An upcoming Chrome option allows users to log into Google accounts without logging into the browser. The change was prompted by a backlash among users and privacy advocates.
Chrome 69, which came out earlier this month, logs all Google users into Chrome, even if they’ve previously opted out of signing into Chrome. This did not enable Chrome’s sync feature, but some users saw it as intrusive.
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Google Does Damage Control After Chrome Faces A lot Of Backlash For Automatic Sign In Feature In Recent Update
The first thing that most of us noticed was the UI redesign in the latest chrome update underlying which were many small and big changes alike that were not as easy to catch the eye. One of these was the feature that would automatically sign people into Chrome when they sign into a spate Google service such as Gmail.
Google faced a lot of criticism this past week as even security experts are calling out Google for breaching individual’s privacy and point that this is a method which involves tricking the less technically adept people into sharing or rather handing over more data to Google.
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How to stop Chrome running in the background
Whilst I use Firefox personally, I understand that some people like to use Chrome due to the availability of a lot more extensions. So what do you do to stop Google tracking your activity even when it’s not signed in?
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More Malware-Like Behaviour From Chrome and Firefox Introduces Firefox Monitor, Other News
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Tuesday 25th of September 2018 04:48:12 PM Filed under-
Now Chrome Doesn’t Delete “Google Cookies” Even If You Clear All Cookies
Yet another privacy concern for Google Chrome users! Previously, we talked about Google’s auto-login mechanism which is hijacking our local Google Chrome data. Now, another Chrome 69 setting has come to light which is risking our freedom to remove data.
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Introducing Firefox Monitor, Helping People Take Control After a Data Breach
Data breaches, when information like your username and password are stolen from a website you use, are an unfortunate part of life on the internet today. It can be hard to keep track of when your information has been stolen, so we’re going to help by launching Firefox Monitor, a free service that notifies people when they’ve been part of a data breach. After testing this summer, the results and positive attention gave us the confidence we needed to know this was a feature we wanted to give to all of our users.
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Firefox Monitor, take control of your data
That sinking feeling. You’re reading the news and you learn about a data breach. Hackers have stolen names, addresses, passwords, survey responses from a service that you use. It seems like we’re having that sinking feeling more and more. But we don’t have to despair. While technology will never be impervious to attacks, we can make sure that we’re able to respond when we learn that our personal data and passwords are part of a breach.
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Firefox Quantum, Beta and Nightly Affected by ‘Reap Firefox’ Crash Attack
A particular vulnerability in the present Firefox browser has been unraveled by the security researcher and basically the creater of this bug, Sabri Haddouche in his blog post. He pointed towards a bug which brings the browser and also the operating system possibly with a ‘Reap Firefox’ attack crash. This vulnerability affects Firefox versions working under Linux, macOS and Windows.
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$1.6 Million to Connect Unconnected Americans: Our NSF-WINS Grand Prize Winners
After months of prototyping and judging, Mozilla and the National Science Foundation are fueling the best and brightest ideas for bringing more Americans online
Today, Mozilla and the National Science Foundation (NSF) are announcing the grand prize winners in our Wireless Innovation for a Networked Society (NSF-WINS) Challenges — an audacious competition to connect millions of unconnected Americans.
The grand prize winners are as novel as they are promising: An 80-foot tower in rural Appalachia that beams broadband connectivity to residents. And, an autonomous network that fits in two suitcases — and can be deployed after earthquakes and hurricanes.
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