Fix–“You’ve launched and older version of Firefox” error

IF you get the error “You’ve launched and older version of Firefox”..

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DON’T create a new profile:

If you create a new profile will not have your bookmarks, lose your cookies and site specific settings and any extensions you had installed and enabled.

You can amend the target in the shortcut – add:

-allow-downgrade

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After:

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This will allow Firefox to start without having to create a new profile.

Then launch the application and then check for upgrade – it should update.

After the update, remove the “-allow-downgrade“ info in the target and Firefox should be able to work properly.

How to download videos from the Internet

I am asked VERY often how I am able to save videos from the Net (read disclaimer at bottom please)

There are many reasons one might want to download a video for later viewing. To watch while offline or traveling, to study. Maybe because so many videos get removed if they don’t fit the ‘censor lords’ narratives or views. Or sometimes the vids show a happening that would undermine a current narrative or lie.

What ever your reason here are a couple ways.

This extension lets you download most flash videos EXCEPT YouTube (more on that in a moment)

https://www.downloadhelper.net/install

To download YouTube Videos.

First, install Tampermonkey

Open https://tampermonkey.net/ and install the extension for your browser.

Firefox: [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tampermonkey/]

Then go here https://en.savefrom.net/userjs-setup.php and install the script:

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Or

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Now you can download any YouTube videos as you like.

(you may have to switch your YouTube viewing to the ‘old format’ search google for how. For Chrome you can try this extension here but note some said it doesn’t work or requires authentication)

Head over to YouTube and select a video. You’ll see a button you can click to download files (has dropdown to choose quality too)! See example:

Untitled

NOTE: Sometimes you must ‘right-click’ on the download link and choose ‘Open in new Tab’ for the download options to show. Then you can save to whatever location you wish

There you have it. Two ways to get some videos.

[disclaimer: by downloading ANY copyrighted or owned property YOU are responsible for that action and any possible consequences. You may be violating some ‘terms of service’ or other legal shtuff. ALL that is your decision or choice. The information provided is just that – information. Not an endorsement of these methods.

How to export your YouTube channels to a RSS feed reader

To help make my time more productive while online, I use QuiteRSS portable RSS feed reader. Get it here:  https://quiterss.org/en/download (I use the portable version but you can use fully installed version if you like. Or use any feed reader you’re comfortable or familiar with.)

I find it so much easier to check up on what I want to without getting squirrelled onto tangents by being able to have my preferred providers in one spot.
I actually have 50 subscriptions for news and such alone, not including all my YouTube channels.

Okay so how to get all your subscribed YouTube channels into your RSS reader..

Make sure you’re logged into your Google/Youtube account first of course:

Got to: https://www.youtube.com/subscription_manager
At the bottom look for the ‘Export to RSS Readers’ line and then Export Subscriptions.
This will save all your subscribed feeds (feeds NOT content obviously) to an OPML XML file (download and save somewhere) that can then be imported into your RSS reader of choice. Simply open you reader and ‘import feeds’ and BAM all your subscriptions will now be there.

Additional tip for those that actually want to download YouTube videos. (YouTube does not wish you to this and sometimes it’s said you’re not supposed to via copyright or some other T.O.S. – but I believe that for personal has been adjudicated in the positive for individuals)
These two addons allow for a button to ‘Download’ at the bottom of the video. I Simply right-click and choose ‘Open In New Tab’ and have the option to download the video to my HDD.

My default browser it Chrome (sometimes I switch to Firefox) but both have the Tamper Monkey Extension/Add on on both browsers and have these two scripts installed
https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/371817-youtube-best-video-downloader-2
and
https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/33219-fastest-youtube-downloader-video-or-mp3/code

Un-F@#k Facebook

I was logged into Facebook recently to search for and show someone something I saw posted. The person that was with started to freak! They said, “How come your Facebook looks so much different? Where’s all the other shtuff on the pages?”

I explained I use the F.B Purity extension (Available on Chrome, Firefox, and other browsers too) Formally called Facebook Flufbuster. It has been my go to extension to un-f@#k Facebook for some time now. I recommend it to many but they often don’t take the time to read the guides/how to’s on their site or just can’t get it to work as well I they saw on my browser(s).

So for those that are interested or care here you go.

Here’s a view from my timeline:

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Simple easy to read posts and no extemporaneous crap or distractions. Below are my current exact settings:

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WebEx in Chrome security flaw

Recently there have been some pretty big security issues found with several browser plug-ins. Like this huge one for the WebEx in Chrome issue

It is best that, if you must use them, you manually update them. Please always keep your stuff updated.

To force update Chrome extensions:

Open Chrome, then got to Settings – clicking on the three vertical dots in the top right of Chrome.

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Then click on Extensions:

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Next Click on ‘Developer mode’ then click on “Update extensions now”

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For Firefox you need to update addons and plug-ins:

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Then

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And then

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Fix Facebook Annoyances.

I used to use the Firefox and Chrome extension called SocialFixer to unF**k my Facebook.
Sadly however, that extension has not been updated in some time.

I’ve found another extension that works nearly as admirably – F.B. Purity
Check it out if you’d like to wrest back control of your Facebook experience.

I can’t even post this on FB because they don’t like the plugin!!

I’ve removed so much FB crap from my feed it’s actually usable again!

Check it out. install extension, go to FBP options and start hiding (by checking) loads of annoying crap. You’ll be amazed!

Flash update kills Firefox causing hanging and crashing

Starting with the latest Adobe Flash version, some browsers, particularly Firefox, will hang or crash.

After the last Adobe Flash update my Firefox Browser became completely unusable. Chrome and Internet Explorer (IE) still worked but they too were markedly slower.

I am a huge fan of Firefox and use it as my primary browser because it enables me to use a plethora of extensions that greatly increase my productivity and the usefulness of the pages and sites I visit. [I’ll list my plug-ins at the end]

To get Firefox to even work at all I had to started it in Safe Mode –
in the ‘Run’ dialog type “Firefox -safe-mode” (minus quotes) – Then choose to continue in safe mode. Then go to ‘Tools>Add-ons>Plug-ins and then disable Shockwave Flash. That would then allow Firefox to work but obviously that is not a solution.  Without Flash you can hardly view some websites and of course could not watch most videos or multi-media files.

So I set off on a solution like an angry rhino.

I tried uninstalling Adobe Flash (using Windows Uninstall AND Adobe’s own ‘Flash Removal Tool) and re-installing it several times; that didn’t work.
You can get the official Adobe Flash ‘uninstaller’ here. [download/save and then ‘run as administrator’ to use it.]

For all of Adobe’s Flash Player downloads (the FULL Offline installers) you can go here
Make sure you download all the players you will need – if on Windows download the one for Internet Explorer AND the ‘Plugin-based browsers’ versions.

I tried using older versions of Firefox; that didn’t work.
Re-installed the latest version of Firefox, with Flash Player 11.3.300.257,
I tried the latest Beta/Developer versions of Firefox ; that didn’t work.
I tried reverting to older versions of Flash; that too didn’t work.

I finally found the reason for this behavior AND a solution after MUCH searching and LOADS of aggravation.

According to Adobe, “Starting with Flash Player 11.3, a protected mode was added as a new security enhancement for Firefox 4.0 and greater on Windows Vista and higher.  This security enhancement is designed to limit the impact of attacks launched from malicious Flash content (SWF files).”

They are trying to ‘sandbox’ Flash files to limit their susceptibility to being used as vectors for more serious virus/Trojan attacks.
Problem is I believe their developers FAILED. While the idea of sandboxing is sound (Chrome and the latest IE browsers use it extensively) this implementation is obviously poorly written and implemented in Flash for Firefox.
You would think that Adobe, with it’s truckloads of cash, could hire decent security coders and engineers and then thoroughly test their software. But judging by that fact that Adobe’s products have been the primary vector for serious security wholes over the last 7 years I guess not. But I digress.

Ok so now to the solution
To disable this newer ‘protected mode’:
add the following line to your ‘mms.cfg’ file located in:

On Windows 32bit: C:\windows\system32\macromed\flash
Or
On Windows 64bit: C:\windows\syswow64\macromed\flash

“ProtectedMode = 0”  (without the quotes)

If the mms.cfg file does not exist, create one using any standard text editor (e.g.. notepad).

Make sure if you create the file that the file ‘extension – is NOT a .txt but is the .cfg.
If you don’t see or know how to see the file name extensions you can read how to do that here. Depending on your operating system, you might need to first create and or save the mms.cfg file to a writable location (such as your documents or desktop folder) and then copy the file into the destination folder using Windows Explorer.

Here is a link to a zipped mms.cfg file version with Protected Mode disabled (directly from Adobe).

Download, unzip the file and copy it to the needed location.
One note:
I did not find the mms.cfg file in my “C:\windows\system32\macromed\flash” so I copied that file to there.

I did however also find an mms.cfg file in my “C:\windows\syswow64\macromed\flash” directory.

There I simply opened the mms.cfg file (with notepad) and just added the line ProtectedMode = 0

below the last line there.

Then I started Firefox normally. Went to Tools>Add-Ons>Plugins and made sure Shockwave Flash was ‘Enabled’

Now all is working very well. And since I’m using version 14 (beta) of Firefox things are even faster.

That ends two days of aggravation.
I hope that helps some of you.

For those that care here are the Firefox Extensions/Add-ons I use:

Adblock Plus
http://adblockplus.org/en/

After the Deadline
http://atdfirefox.wordpress.com/

Better Gmail 2
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/better-gmail-2/?src=userprofile

Video Download Helper
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/

Downloads Context Menu
http://www.bm-productions.tk/

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/downloads/file/128500/downloads_context_menu-1.5-fx-windows.xpi

Ghostery
http://www.ghostery.com/

Google Redesigned
http://www.globexdesigns.com/#!products/gr
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/downloads/latest/8434/addon-8434-latest.xpi?src=addondetail

FireFTP
http://fireftp.mozdev.org/

IE Tab V2
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ie-tab-2-ff-36/

PDF Download
http://www.pdfdownload.org/

Redirect Remover
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/downloads/latest/537/addon-537-latest.xpi

RightToClick
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/righttoclick/

Social Fixer for Facebook
http://socialfixer.com/

Stop Autoplay
http://neticat.ath.cx/forum/index.php

TinEye Reverse Image Search
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tineye-reverse-image-search/

Vacuum Places Improved
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/vacuum-places-improved/?src=api

Greasemonkey
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/greasemonkey/

Greasemonkey Scripts:
Search here http://userscripts.org/
Google Maps Zoom
http://jeffpalm.com/gzoom/

YouTube Enhancer
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/33042

SocialFixer fixes Facebook replaces BetterFacebook

Better Facebook extension/Addon has been updated/changed to ‘SocialFixer’

This extension makes Facebook SO much more useable!! It’s just great. I hope you check it out.

If you previously had the Better Facebook! extension installed remove it.

Then go here and install the new version called Social Fixer for your preferred browser(s).

Install the Social Fixer Extension (for Firefox, Chrome, Opera etc.) Then go to https://facebook.com You will then be prompted with the configuration wizard.

Here is what the wizard looks like and here are the settings I chose.

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I don’t like the ‘Light Box’ feature, so I choose to Disable Light Box Viewer:

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I’m also fine with the Default theme

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I also went in and made more changes.

You will see a little ‘Wrench’ where you can access your ‘Social Fixer’ settings:

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Here you can REALLY TWEAK away.

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My advice is to make one or two changes at a time and sees how they work for YOU.

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I hope that helps some of you wrest control of you Facebook back. Peace out.

Fix the ‘new’ Facebook feeds

Let’s try and fix some of the ‘new’ Facebook enhancements.

As some of you know I recommended that to get Facebook back to normal. You could Go Account Settings -> Language -> English (UK). And it seemed to work. But Facebook is pushing the crap out globally, so that may only work for a short time if at all now.

I have written many times previously about how to improve your browsing performance and productivity using Firefox and add-ons. Read here please  with special consideration of the Firefox add-on Greasemonkey.
Greasemonkey is a hugely popular add-on for Firefox browsers.
To me this is my most used add-ons the first being AdBlock Plus – Get that here. A GreaseMonkey script could be anything from blocking ads, to adding several different things to Google search, to a bot which basically browses the internet for you. Greasemonkey is most known for Firefox, however many scripts can now be run in the latest version of Chrome!
Get Greasemonkey here.

So on to the Facebook issues. We all now know how Facebook has made radical changes to the way the feed and news are presented, and more are on the way! And it has many in a tizzy. There are a few things that can be done to try and regain some functionality that many of us had been used to. That involves using Greasemonkey scripts and by extension the Firefox or Chrome Browsers.
The first script I would get is one:
BetterFacebook you can read about it here. Note that there are many options you should consider looking at once the script is installed. They will by up in the right hand corner in a drop down menu. I really like this one!
The script install for Firefox is here.

The next is FFixer, you can read about that here. I have noticed that this one requires loads of settings and you my not like it. If you installed it and don’t like it in Firefox go to Tools>Add Ons>User Scripts>then Disable FFixer.

The script install is here.

I also use Facebook Cleaner

As the next few days roll on I am sure that there will be many updates to these scripts and the addition of others to ‘fix’ Facebook. I will keep an eye out and let you all know what I find useful.

I hope this helps some of you.

Here are some articles on using Greasemonkey to improve other browsing:
http://findtricks.com/2011/08/24/top-25-best-facebook-greasemonkey-scripts/

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/ultimate_greasemonkey_guide_google_chrome

Blacksheep add-on to protect against WiFi session Hijacking

This is a Firefox add-on everyone should use if you use public WiFi anywhere anytime.
It’s called ‘Blacksheep’.

Blacksheep will find and block ‘Firesheep’ – a highly popular new hacking tool used to ‘sniff out and steal your sensitive information on WiFi networks.

What Firesheep is:
Firesheep is the Firefox extension that makes it easier to steal logins and take over social media and email accounts after users log in from a WiFi hotspot or even their own unprotected network. It is designed to sniff out weak security and hijack web site credentials on open Wi-Fi networks. This technique is technically called ‘Session Hijacking’.

Session hijacking is nothing new. Web sites typically use SSL connections for initial login pages, but revert to non-encrypted traffic for all subsequent communication. As such, while a user’s username and password may be protected, once they are authenticated, any user on the same network can simply sniff network traffic, obtain a user’s session ID and then hijack their session for a given website. Although this has always been a serious risk, especially on insecure networks such as public WiFi hot spots, some degree of technical knowledge was required to accomplish the attack. Firesheep, opens such attacks to the masses as it turns session hijacking into a point and click exercise. Unless websites mandate SSL for all traffic on the site, session hijacking will always remain a threat.

Fortunately, BlackSheep can be used to let you know if someone is running Firesheep on the same network and protect you.

Read some more here.

and here

or just add the extension to Firefox by going here!

Be safe folks!