Opera Web Browser Version 10 »

Despite only having a 3 percent share of the web browser market, Opera remains undaunted by Internet Explorer and Firefox (60 percent and 30 percent respectively).

Opera Version 10 has been in Beta since June and now it is ready for prime time Internet Browsing. It boasts new technology called Opera Turbo and it is designed to speed up browsing experience for slower connections, up to 8 times faster according to Opera.

I like Opera, but must admit that it is not as easy for me to customize as Firefox, which is what I use 99% of the time. Opera is very popular in Europe and they also have a great mobile browser, Opera Mini. You can download Opera here and can download Opera Mini here. I really like Opera Mini.

Rockmelt: Yet Another Web Browser »

Just when you thought the web browser market was saturated, someone found a spot where another one could be squeezed in.

Make a little room between Google Chrome and Opera and you can shoehorn RockMelt into the mix. Yes, another way for people to view web pages and possibly another set of standards for which web designers have to prepare.

Rockmelt does have some pretty good backing, however. Do you remember the Netscape browser from the 1990s? The founder of that company, Marc Anderson, is a backer of Rockmelt.

Not much is known about Rockmelt at the moment and their website only has a spot where you can provide your email address to be sent more information. So we will have to wait and see.

At any rate, it faces a pretty packed market that already includes the likes of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari and Flock and a few others.

Adobe Flash Player Clickjacking Vulnerability »

The recently reported clickjacking vulnerability affecting Adobe Flash Player could also allow a hacker to remotely activate a computer’s microphone and webcam (meaning they could see and hear what you were doing).

The Adobe Security Blog is reporting that a Flash Player patch should be available by the end of October and until it is released, they are encouraging users to change their browser’s Flash Player settings by following these steps as a temporary workaround:

1. Access the Flash Player’s Global Privacy Settings panel at the following URL: http://www.adobe.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager02.html
2. Click “Always deny”
3. Click ‘Confirm’

Completing those steps will keep the bad guys from remotely accessing your computer’s webcam and microphone – although I am not sure why that ability was even an option in the first place with Flash Player.  Why would someone, good guy or bad, even need the ability to remotely access and control another person’s microphone?

Since YouTube and other online video sites use Flash to display the videos, users that frequent those types of sites could be particularly vulnerable, I would think.

UPDATE: Adobe has released Flash Player 10.0.12.36 which fixes the potential clickjacking issue that still exists in previous versions.  Adobe’s security bulletin recommends downloading and installing the latest version.  If you cannot download it, you should follow the steps above and they hope to have a patch ready in November.

Opera Browser Mouse Gestures »

Since my recent Firefox issues, I have switched to using the Opera web browser and I must say that there are several features that have really impressed me.

One is what Opera calls Mouse Gestures. By clicking a mouse button and moving the mouse in the prescribed direction at the same time, you can navigate quite easily and do some pretty cool things.

Opera’s web site thoroughly explains the mouse gestures and breaks them down into four categories: Navigation, link, windows and wheel.

For example, here is the Back Navigation Gesture:
To move back to the previous page – right-click on the current page and move your mouse to the left.

Once you get the hang of it, it is really pretty cool. Hop over there and check it out.

Firefox Memory Leak »

It may just be me, but is Firefox having some memory leak issues? I have noticed it over the past few weeks and today it has finally forced me to exclusively use my second favorite browser – Opera, which is a super browser in its own right.

When I fire up Firefox, immediately 50Mb gets sucked up, which is way more than the amount of memory Opera uses (only 20Mb) and is more than even, dare I say, Explorer (30Mb).

So, I exported my bookmarks from Firefox and imported them into Opera.

No, I am installing the Opera versions of my favorite Firefox extensions.

With all the programs that I usually have open at a given time – Outlook (yes, I use Outlook – it syncs with my PocketPC – back off), Google Reader, usually Photoshop and sometimes AutoCad – I like to have maximum ram at my disposal. That means, Firefox has to be shelved until I can figure out why it is being such a memory hog, or they put out a patch and Opera is the new browser of choice.