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Xmarks for Safari, Firefox, Chrome and Explorer

I have continued to have stability problems on Safari 5 for Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) at work, and diligently reported the problems to Apple, and looked for and found two problems with my configuration and fixed them both. Safari on Snow Leopard continues to crash regularly (though it is very stable on my older Leopard machines).

I was reluctant to switch browsers because I have accumulated many excellent bookmarks and tabs in Safari over many years of using it, that make my daily internet usage much better. I also like Safari because it syncs bookmarks through MobileMe to my iPhone, which is very convenient.

Recently there have been more and more malicious cross-site javascripts turning up on commonly used websites (Facebook applications, and others). Safari is pretty secure in many ways, but it is horribly inadequate at blocking javascripts except on a whitelist. Until someone implements a javascript whitelisting tool like NoScript for Firefox, Safari no longer gets my recommendation.

All this pain has led to something very cool though, while searching for a way to migrate all my bookmarks from Safari to Firefox, I discovered Xmarks.

Xmarks allows synchronization between multiple computers running any browser from it’s list of currently supported browsers (Safari, Firefox, Chrome and Explorer); and makes keeping multiple computers or multiple browsers in sync very easy. Delicious does this too, but I like the interface of Xmarks a little better.

If you have ever needed to migrate bookmarks from an old computer to a new one, or from an old browser to a new one… you should look into these services.

2010 07 22 snolan Computer Security
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Ran out of Gas

On the way to work via the gas station Monday morning, I ran out of gas. I knew I was low, but did not think I was that low. The gas engine/generator in my 2006 Prius stopped about 1.4 miles from the planned gas station… I was still rolling, in traffic… I cut the air-conditioner, and turned off the GPS to reduce electrical load and ran on batteries praying for no red lights and that I’d make it before the car stopped entirely.

Within the first year we owned my wife’s 2006 Prius, she ran out of gas and the car quit entirely. I hiked to a nearby gas station, bought an additional gas can and a gallon of gas, and hiked back to the car to get it running again so we could go fill up. I was surprised when my Prius did not simply quit and require the same treatment.

There was a bit of a hill, which was tough on electric only, but I was able to coast into the station with one horizontal bar left on the batteries, and fortune was smiling on me, a pump had just opened up (usually there is a line).

After filling up, I got terrible (~30mpg) mileage until the batteries were fully recharged, but have resumed normal (~50mpg) mileage since then and the car seems to be unaffected from my close call. I’ll have service check it out on next oil change (which is tomorrow).

I count myself very lucky I did not have to hike a mile and back in this heat, and end up with yet another gas can…

2010 07 22 snolan Cars
Hybrid
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Safari crashing problem solved

A couple of weeks ago I upgraded Safari on my Macs at home and work to Safari 5; and noticed a sharp decline in stability despite being on a mix of Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6.

Well, I am a bit embarrassed to admit that after many days of ranting, it appears that the problem is my own.
A very nice commenter on my WordPress blog pointed out that I should check my ~/Library/Safari/Extensions folder to see if I had duplicate extensions. I did, and he was correct; once the duplicate was removed Safari became vastly more stable again… I should have known to check that, it really is pretty basic. Please learn from my error and check your own ~/Library/Safari/Extensions for duplicate extensions if your Safari is crashing.

Update: Turns out that solved the problems with Safari only on 10.5; Safari on 10.6 continues to be a joke of instability – reminding me of Windows and IE.

Update: The problem was JavaScript Blacklist; which I consider critical in order to block unwanted malware in the form of javascripts… so I switched to Firefox with NoScript; stable and more secure.

2010 07 09 snolan Personal Comments (2) Permalink

Frustrated by Car Stereo, Again

I’ve been working on a project to replace the Becker CDR-210 CD Receiver head unit in my wife’s Porsche for a while, and the project keeps running into delays. The Pioneer DEH-P6200BT that we carefully selected was on backorder with Crutchfield for several weeks.

When it finally came in, I discovered that the old Becker required special removal keys unlike the standard keys I already had… so another few weeks for those special keys to be delivered went by.

Those keys came in and I could finally pull out the Becker only to discover that we don’t have a standard factory installed system I expected, and the wiring harnesses Crutchfield graciously supplied me don’t match (which is not their fault, it’s mine for incorrectly assuming we had a factory unit). The good news is there is an extra amplifier hidden somewhere in the car. The bad news is now I have to figure out how to bridge the harnesses to connect to the mystery amp. Sigh.

I have pictures of the wiring label on the Becker and the plugs that are attached to the car in case someone is interested in the project.

http://gallery.me.com/scottdavidnolan#100282

2010 07 02 snolan Cars
Music
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This is one reason Fox is propaganda

The deliberate misrepresentation of data to manipulate it’s viewers:

Media Matters “Worst chart I’ve seen all day”

The Republicans have Fox and the Soviets have Pravda.

2010 06 30 snolan Economics
Environment
News
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Mountville Folk Festival was magical

Last night our neighbors and friends invited to join them at the Mountville Folk Festival which they hosted on the lawn near their house in Aldie, Virginia. It was a magical evening with many folk, rock, and jazz musicians playing live on a beautiful lawn under a beautiful moon with kids dancing and playing around many families. Thank you Dana and Rich for hosting such a wonderful event so close to home.

2010 06 27 snolan Fun
Local
Music
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16GB iPhone 3G for sale

Yesterday my beloved stood in line to get us both iPhone 4 replacements for our old iPhone 3G devices. We will be selling them. Mine has a defect with the vibrate only mode switch that makes it vibrate randomly when the switch is set to vibrate only (silent ring). Aside from that, both work well and come unencumbered with any contract.

Mine also has an ultra-slim Incipio brand protective shell and the clear plastic screen protector film.

Initial thoughts on the new iPhone 4 are that it has much better reception than the 3G and is much faster. I couple of my old applications are not working, but they tend to be the silly fun ones rather than the crucial ones I use every day.

Update: both iPhone 3G units have been claimed

2010 06 25 snolan Personal Comments (2) Permalink

Safari 5 unstable?

Is anyone else noticing a dramatic increase in web browser crashes since upgrading to Safari 5?

I am on Version 5.0 (6533.16) with Mac OS X 10.6.3 at work – and even with flash blocked, and the extensions turned off my Safari crashes several times an hour.

Update: I upgraded to Max OS 10.6.4 and noticed no difference (Safari still crashes all the time).

Carefully loading one page at a time and it is stable. Using “Open in Tabs” to open 8-10 pages at once causes the crash every time, and nearly instantly. It does not seem to matter which pages I visit; but being more busy seems to cause the crashing faster.

Update 2: The crashing happens a lot more on Snow Leopard than it does on Leopard. Apparently Apple is aware of the bug and is able to reproduce it… I am hoping they can fix it promptly.

Update 3: Thaumar Rep suggested I check my ~/Library/Safari/Extensions folder for duplicate extensions. I de-duplicated and Safari is vastly more stable! Thank you Thaumar!

2010 06 22 snolan Computers Comments (4) Permalink

Darn, our 16 port switch died…

A few years ago we upgraded our wired network at home to do Gigabit Ethernet throughout the house, an upgrade I have loved since the day we did it. We used a Netgear ProSafe 16 Port Gigabit Switch (GS116 v1) as the main switch in our wiring closet, and D-Link “Green” DGS-2205 and DGS-2208 gigabit switches in our offices. Network speeds have been blazing fast and the convenience of plugging gear into any room and having fast access to the rest of the house has been wonderful.

Sadly, the Netgear GS116 died this past weekend. Completely dead. Power light comes on, but all 16 ports do not respond when plugged into anything. I am pretty sure it’s out of warranty so I am shopping around for a replacement switch and would like a few more ports so I am in the market for a 24 port switch.

The good news is that D-Link’s “Green” lineup of switches, routers, and hubs now includes 16 and 24 port managed and unmanaged switches! Hurrah! I have not put the new stuff on a Kill-A-Watt to measure, but our existing DGS-2205 and DGS-2208 sip very little power (about 1/10th that of the 4 and 8 port 100baseT switches they replaced).

The question is, should I go managed or stay unmanaged for cheaper up front costs?

D-Link DGS-1224T is ~$250 from NewEgg, and supports 802.1q VLANs, SNMP, Link Aggregation, Port Mirroring… wow… VLANS at home!

D-Link DGS-1024D is ~$160 from NewEgg, and is unmanaged simplicity and efficiency…

Are there other switches/routers I should be looking at?

Update: Dan Bradley points out that getting two or three 8 port switches is both cheaper and an effective way to reduce the impact of failure when it happens. Thanks Dan, excellent point!

D-Link DGS-2208 are less than $50 each at NewEgg. Three of them is still less than even the cheap switch listed above, and could buy me some of the flexibility of VLANS by having physically separate LANs. I owe Dan a beer.

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2010 06 22 snolan Computers
House
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Find My iPhone no longer tied to MobileMe

For many months now you could find your iPhone if you had a MobileMe account, useful for finding a misplaced item. You can even remotely wipe your data if you think your phone fell into the wrong hands.

Apple has graciously made it possible to do from anyone else’s iPhone or iPad (and probably iPod touch too), by launching the “Find My iPhone” apps for iPad/iPhone. They are free.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/18/apple-launches-find-my-iphone-app/

Snag the apps in the iTunes Music Store.

2010 06 18 snolan News Comments (0) Permalink