NevOn Experimental

Messy Firefox installation

Last week, Mozilla released Firefox version 1.0.2 which includes some security fixes.

While Firefox is a great browser, and continues to be the one I use above any other, where the developers fall down with Firefox is with what happens when you install it.

If you're using Firefox version 1.0 or 1.0.1, you'll see a little red icon at the top right of your browser. Clicking on this displays a window that tells you that critical updates are available. This is a great feature in any software and I wish more developers would include something simple like this.

So with Firefox, you'd tell it to go and get an update which it does and installs it. The trouble is, if the update is a program update, what this doesn't include is the advice that's buried in the release notes on the Firefox website not to install an updated version on top of a current installation:

Prior to installing Firefox 1.0.2, please ensure that the directory you've chosen to install into is clean and doesn't contain any previous Firefox installations.

Great to learn this after you've already installed the update on top of your existing installation!

A few days ago, I installed version 1.0.2 on my IBM ThinkPad T30, a machine that's not my day-to-day PC, by clicking on the update icon within Firefox. In looking in Add/Remove Programs in Windows a few days after the installation, I noticed the multiple installations of different versions you can see in this little snapshot image.

So I have three Firefox installations on this PC. Apart from the disk space each one takes up, I wondered whether these multiple installations might be the reason why Firefox 1.0.2 was behaving a little oddly and crashing a little too frequently.

So what I did was uninstall version 1.0.2 using Add/Remove Programs. This removed remnants of the two other versions and, after the uninstall, no Firefox information showed in that listing. During the uninstall, I did not remove all the Firefox directories thus preserving my Firefox configuration info. I then downloaded the 1.0.2. setup file from the Firefox website and ran then. Now I have an installation of just version 1.0.2 complete with all my settings. And no more crashes.

The auto-updating feature of Firefox is great, but what I'd like to see is this:

1. Auto-update tells you that you either a) need to uninstall the previous version before updating, or b) install the updated version into a different directory.
2. If you choose to uninstall, the updating feature will do it for you and then install the update.

It does something sort of similar with themes and extensions that a particular Firefox version doesn't support - it disables those themes and extensions so you can go and see if updated ones are available. At the very least, the Firefox updater should warn you re an existing installation before you install an update.

Simple, surely?

Easy tag editor for music files - and podcasts

AudioShell is a Windows Explorer shell extension plug-in which allow you to view and edit music files tags directly in Explorer.

The extension supports all file and tag standards supported by Tag&Rename. AudioShell adds tag editor and viewer tabs to a music file's properties. You can edit tags file by file or by groups.

Supported files and tags formats: mp3 (all ID3v2 tag versions), wma, asf and wmv, Apple iTunes aac (m4a and m4p) and mp4 files, ogg, flac (vorbis comment tags), mpc , mp+, monkey's audio, wav pack, optim frog ( APE and APEv2 tags). The app include full Unicode support.

This looks very useful for MP3s used for podcasts, especially those you download that don't have any or sufficient tag information in the file properties that work with playlist identification in programs like iTunes - helpful for setting up smart playlists, for instance, which you want to auto-sync to your iPod.

Published by Softpointer. Still a beta, but worth a try. Requires Windows 2000 or later. Freeware. Download AudioShell 1 beta 1.

(Hat tip: Home Computer magazine)

Dutch military develop colourful night-vision

Engadget reports:

A new night-vision system developed for the Dutch military may signal the end of those grainy green and grey images we’ve all come to know. The new system, created by the TNO research lab, works by drawing colors from similar scenes in the system’s memory then mapping them onto the night-vision images (seen in the three-step process above),resulting in a more natural looking image.

The researchers say the system will improve soldiers' reaction times and reduce fatigue that comes from staring at traditional night-vision images. Military for now, but we’re sure we’ll see plenty of other uses for the system sooner or later.

New version of Total Commander

One of my favourite utility programs for Windows, Total Commander, released version 6.51 a couple of days ago. Developed by Christian Ghisler in Switzerland, this neat utlity does for Windows what Norton Commander did for MS-DOS, and then some.

There are lots of Norton Commander-like utilities around - see this list, for instance - but for me, Total Commander does the file management job better than most as well as provide additional functions like FTP file transfer, integrated file viewer and much more. I've been using registered versions since version 1.2 about nine years ago. Shareware, free to try and 40 Swiss francs (€28) to buy. See this screenshot (which actually doesn't do the program full justice at all).

Back in the good old MS-DOS days, Norton Commander was one utility program that was absolutely indispensible. I stayed with version 2 for years during the 80s. Here's a great screenshot so you can see what it looks like (it says it's v5.5 but it looks the same as v2).

What this great program did was enable you to manage your file system (at a time when there was no real Windows, just a shell on top of DOS) - you had a command prompt (basically, what you see now when you type 'cmd' in Start > Run in Windows) and had to type instructions at the command line to run programs (one at a time), create directories, copy/delete files, see even hidden files, etc.

Thinking about MS-DOS utlitiies, another one I used in the early 90s was Lotus Magellan 2. What a great program! I still have the original disks and manuals. And I wonder what became of 1-Dir? Made by Borland, I think. I used that at times during the 80s.

But nothing beat the Commander for its simplicity and ease of use.

Fixing the Norton worm alert for Skype

One problem I've consistently had with Skype in recent months is that, every time I load it up, I get an alert from Norton Antivirus 2005 to tell me that its worm protection feature has detected a remote system trying to access Skype:

No matter what I do, this alert happened every time I ran Skype. I just couldn't figure out why. Skype is included in Norton's list of permitted application yet Norton kept giving me these alerts.

The solution is actually very simple:

1. Close Skype if it's running
2. Open Norton Antivirus options and select: Internet Worm Protection > Program Control
3. In the resulting dialog, select Skype (which will be listed) and click on Remove and then click OK
4. Close Norton and run Skype
5. You'll get the warning, as per the dialog shown above
6. Select Permit and click OK
7. Exit Skype and run it again - you won't get the alert

Is this a Skype or a Norton issue? Or both? I don't know. This fix works - but you will need to repeat it each time when you install a new version of Skype.

Thanks to rocketman in the Skype Support Forum for this extremely helpful solution.

New version of Picasa released

Google released version 2 of its Picasa photo manager program today. I tried version 1 out when I had a blog on BlogSpot as I was keen to see how it integrated with Picasa's Hello, the service for posting photos to your blog. It worked well.

With TypePad, you don't need such third-party services, so I haven't used Picasa for over 4 months now. But version 2 looks good with some neat new and improved features, so it might be worth looking at it again.

There's a good concise overview on The Office Weblog.