Using Nuke Anything, you can adjust the page you're currently viewing by removing ads, pictures, or almost anything else that you don't want to see. Not only can you use this for better viewing of really cluttered pages, but you can also make the print view far more clean so you don't waste ink by printing stuff you don't want/need.

Click on the picture below to see a sample of a page before and after using Nuke Anything:

Tags: Firefox

If you were aware of the many companies that track you around the web and use the profiles they build on you to send you targeted advertising, you probably didn't know that you can opt out of this tracking one at a time with many of those companies.

How convenient.

While I suppose it's very nice that these companies will stop taking your private browsing habits from you without your knowledge or permission if you go through their hoops to stop it, there's a much easier way. A privacy-minded geek helpfully compiled a list of all the opt-out cookies that the ad networks look for to flag you as someone who shouldn't be tracked.

Further, he modified a free Google app that restores certain cookies after wiping your cookie files to preserve the opt-out cookies. So install BEEF TACO and you will better avoid being tagged and tracked like an animal online.

You can install BEEF TACO here.

Tags: Data Abuse, Firefox

Having an effective ad blocker is a great thing. Not only do you not see those extremely annoying and sometimes inappropriate ads on pages, since your browser never downloads the graphics for them, the page will load faster, you don't waste ink when you print the page, and the web bugs and cookies planted by ad services to track you are defeated as well!

Further, there are many cases of people buying ad space and then delivering malware through the ads. Because the people who show the ads don't review or approve each one, the chances for abuse are high.

Bonus: Why sites that say adblocking is hurting them are full of it.

Tags: Firefox

Since Firefox first came out, it has been hailed as being better in security and features than Internet Explorer by every person and website I know. I've been using it a while now and found it to be the case.

Most importantly, you can install plugins that improve Firefox's security and functionality. If something bugs you about the way IE works, you're stuck, but with Firefox, you can often find a modification to fix it.

Tags: Firefox

If you didn't know, because of Twitter and other social sites with space restrictions on posts, there are new "url shortening" services out there like "tinyurl" that instead of showing you something like this:

http://lifehacker.com/5234539/long-url-please-replaces-shortened-links-with-the-real-thing

Shows you something like this instead http://tinyurl.com/cblos7

The advantage is that you save valuable space on your tweets or blog posts, but the disadvantage is that you have no idea where you're really going. Considering that sometimes the only thing that keeps you from getting hacked is NOT going to bad websites, these shortening services present an enormous risk to your computer security.

However, if you go to the Lifehacker article linked above, you'll find an article that describes a plugin for Firefox that will replace the shortened URL with the full one (providing several different options for how they are displayed.

To get the plugin, follow the link from the Lifehacker article, or just click here to go directly to the plugin's page.

Alternatives

If you aren't using Firefox or can't install the plugin for some reason, most shortening services have a preview function that allows you to see the URL you're going to before actually going there. To activate the preview feature, do the following:

Tags: Firefox, Internet Security

Download a copy of Firefox 3 this Tuesday the 17th. Send a message that we’re tired of big-company products that aren’t stable, aren’t standard, aren’t secure, and can’t be customized. Tags: Firefox

If there was a disadvantage to Firefox, it would be stability and memory. Those have apparently been fixed in version 3 (due out in June), but one of the most exciting features will be Firefox’s brand new speed advantage.

Mozilla VP of engineering Mike Schroepfer claims that Firefox 3 is 9.3x faster than Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 and 2.7x faster than Firefox 2 in terms of JavaScript performance. In terms of Gmail message load time, he claims Firefox 3 is 6.8x faster than IE7 and 3.8x faster than Firefox 2. And he says Firefox 3 beats Apple’s Safari, which is also faster than Firefox 2.

I’m looking forward to it. Tags: Firefox