The Unknown Rebel, Tank Man

Jeff Widener captured photograph captured this incredibly heroic person.

Firefox disabling referrer and privacy settings

Here is an easy fix. Type “About:Config” without quotes into your browser header and Filter “Referer” without quotes. Now, change the boolean value to 0.

Another security fix is to goto Tools, Options, Privacy, Settings, and remove everything except Browsing History and Saved Passwords. I like to keep both these as it will retain the webpages so I can see my history and I only save passwords for stupid things I rarely use. When you click OK check, the “Always Clear My Private Data Before Closing Firefox”. As a side note deleting cache only wipes it from being visible from the OS and is recoverable. If you want to overwrite you need a program like Eraser and have it do several passes.

Firefox

Firefox in my opinion is superior to Explorer at this point with Firefox’s extensions. I use Fasterfox, NoScript, SafeCache, SafeHistory, AdBlock, and IE Tabs.

Adblock - Prevents advertisements from displaying on webpages. This is my favorite extension.
No Script prevents webpages from using Java or Javascript unless you grant permission
Fasterfox prefetches webpages which makes things load in background while you surf.x
IE Tabs if you have a page that only works in Explorer (ie active X) you can permanently open it up in a explorer tab within firefox. I use this for hotmail and windows updates.

Safe History, Safe Cache – I know they were developed by much more computer saavy programmers than myself so I’ll take the claim that it increases firefox security.

I use the Blue Ice Theme.

Jena 6

I have a hard time understanding why people are rushing to defend these idiots and make it the battle call. I’ve been threatened before with serious physical harm, but never have I actually had anything more than a fist fight with one person and never did it end in a concussion. The noose thing was a very low childish prank at this high school and I believe if they could figure out who did it they should have been expelled, but actually physically assaulting someone to me is much much worse and should not be tolerated with any ethnic group that has first hand experience with physical abuse.

Rebate coupons and online purchases

So recently Fry’s, an online seller, was implicated when Vastech Inc. was busted pitching consumers filled out rebates in the trash can. Since Fry’s was the only on offering Vastech’s coupons it is kind of a confirmation that the retailer isn’t oblivious to these shady, unregulated rebates.

Also, from my personal experience I’ve been screwed on a Goodyear Tires rebate promo where I bought 4 tires with a $80 rebate with a Goodyear credit card. I got the tires, I got the credit card, I didn’t get the $80 despite the kind folk at my local Good Year filling everything out for me and affixing the reciepts. The corproate GoodYear did the usual, but I will give credit to my local Goodyear for being competent mechanics.

I had a dirty encounter with US Cellular. Like Goodyear, the local US cellular did everything for me, even filled the form out and all I had to do was cut the UPC out. Later on I got a letter saying it was an incomplete form and to return the missing items to get the rebate, HOW do i do this if I don’t have the original receipt or upc anymore when thats what was required?

Be careful in your online purchases. I use a “virtual credit card” from my credit card online, and this requires access to your credit card online. This avoids companies being able to fraudulently use my credit card and prevents hackers from being able to use my virtual card. Also, I use pricegrabber, mysimon, froogle, onsale.com, pricewatch, and amazon to bargain hunt. I also use resellerratings.com to review sellers. I almost made a purchase from Buy.com until I saw their feedback. I think NewEgg shilled their feedback, but my one transaction with them was smooth.
Be careful of your time to submit your rebates and when you actually cash the check. The checks they send to you will appear to be junk mail and have a time limit, typically 90 days. Once upon a time, a Office Depot rebate was sent to me and the legitimate check they sent me was discared and found later >< my fault I know, I’m still bitter about it.

I’ve had good luck with abebooks (one of their independent sellers), bookbyte, and pcnation. I’m only mentioning them because it is probably hard for them to be competitive and hard to make a profit for being a lesser known company where nobody trusts these small companies.