Previously, it was reported that the German government warned against using Internet Explorer due to security vulnerabilities. They urged users to drop IE for a better browser, like Firefox.

To be fair, the German government has now announced that Firefox 3.6 has a security vulnerability. Time for another update!

Updates to browsing software are pretty easy…for Firefox all you do is click on the menu item Help then on Check for Updates. You may not see the link to check for updates and instead the link Apply Downloaded Update Now… may be visible. This means that an update has already been downloaded, probably from having automated checks for updates.

Here’s how to make sure you have your Firefox set to automated updates — click on the menu item Tools then on Options and you’ll see a new window. Click on the Advanced tab and the Update tab and you’ll get the following:

Firefox Tools Options Advanced Updates

Make sure you select to have Firefox automatically updated. This will run in the background and when an update is found you will be notified via a new window.

When you do search for an update manually, by clicking Help/Check for Updates, a small Software Update window pops up while an update is sought. When one is found the appropriate message is displayed along with a link to the Mozilla website where you can learn more about the latest version of Firefox. Click on Update Firefox to download the latest and most secure version.

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• Firefox 3.6.2 Candidate Fixes Critical Security Vulnerability (techie-buzz.com)
• Mozilla Patches Critical Security Vulnerability In Firefox 3.6 (ghacks.net)

Complete security is a fairy land on the Internet. We all know there will always be people willing to get something for nothing, skirt the law, and outright steal from you. Protect yourself and your information.

Microsoft has begged users for years to use their flagship browser Internet Explorer with the highest security settings possible. Using IE with security set to ‘high’ will not allow scripts to run. Any sites that you use that personalize your visits in some way may not function correctly, but those can be added to a list of trusted sites.

Microsoft is kind enough to provide us with instructions for how to add a website to a security zone, but look how complicated it is:

1. Open Internet Explorer by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, and then clicking Internet Explorer.
2. Navigate to the website that you want to add to a specific security zone.
3. Click the Tools button, and then click Internet Options.
4. Click the Security tab, and then click a security zone (Local intranet, Trusted sites, or Restricted sites).
5. Click Sites.
6. If you clicked Local intranet in the previous step, click Advanced.
7. The website should be shown in the Add this website to the zone field. Click Add. If the site is not a secure site (HTTPS), clear the Require server verification (https:) for all sites in this zone check box.
8. Click Close, and then click OK (or click OK twice if you clicked Local intranet in step 4).

Gotta love that first step! It seems like Microsoft is stuck in the 1990s. Why not have a simple button on the browser toolbar to click off the sites that you really do want to visit and otherwise trust?

The best thing that you can do is download and run Firefox.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Microsoft Confirms Internet Explorer Vulnerability [Security] (ghacks.net)
• German govt’s Microsoft Internet Explorer warning (taragana.com)

The features that would be important to me are the amount of storage space you get, whether there is a limit on the size of the account, if backups will interfere with the computer speed, whether the stored files could be shared with others or myself sitting at another computer, and of course the monthly cost.

Here’s my latest breakdown of the most popular online storage providers.

• Mozy offers 2GB totally free. You pay only $4.95 per month for unlimited storage. Strictly a backup and restore service, not for file sharing. You can sign up two computers for free, but the 2GB would be shared. If you want unlimited storage and backup, then each computer would need its own account.
• Box gives you 1GB storage and allows file sharing. There is a limit of 25MB for the size of any file, but this would be a great service for small projects involving 5 people or fewer. You can invite collaborators to read and or modify the files. Unfortunately, you have to give your credit card number to sign up and it will be billed after a 14-day trial period. If you do sign up, the cost would be $9.95 per month for 5 GB of storage. This is more of a file-sharing service. Not a complete backup and restore service.
• DriveHQ provides more services than backup and restore. You can share your files with a slick drag and drop interface. This site can be used for sharing videos and photos and other large files. Backup plans start at $2.99 per month for 2GB and scale up from there depending on how much space you need. For 6GB the cost goes up to $7.99 per month, but you can backup multiple PCs.

First, you have to tell WordPress that there are two sidebars for your theme. This step is called registering the sidebar. The important point here is to make sure that each sidebar is given a different name. Here, two sidebars are designated. They will have the names sidebar 1 and sidebar 2. Put this code in functions.php.

<?php
if (function_exists("register_sidebars")) {
register_sidebars(2, array("name" => "sidebar %d"));
}
?>

Alternatively, the functions.php code could use separate lines, one for each sidebar, like so:

<?php
if ( function_exists(‘register_sidebar’) )
register_sidebar(sidebar-one);
register_sidebar(sidebar-two);
?>

You could have more than one sidebar. Just make sure each one is registered with a new name.

The content for each sidebar will be in separate files, such as sidebar1.php and sidebar2.php.

Second, each sidebar must be included in the index, page, or single pages where each sidebar is to appear. Use a template path in an include statement with the name of each sidebar file, like so:

<?php include (TEMPLATEPATH . ‘/sidebar1.php’); ?>
<?php include (TEMPLATEPATH . ‘/sidebar2.php’); ?>

Third, the sidebar.php files must pass the name of the sidebar when calling the dynamic_sidebar function. At the top of each sidebar.php file, insert this code:

<?php if ( !function_exists(‘dynamic_sidebar’) || !dynamic_sidebar(‘sidebar 1′) ) : ?>

Here, we pass the name of the sidebar (sidebar 1), not the filename (sidebar1.php).

The top of the sidebar1.php file is:

<div class="sidebar">
<ul>
<?php if ( !function_exists(‘dynamic_sidebar’) || !dynamic_sidebar(‘sidebar 1′) ) : ?>

followed by a few list-items, closing unordered list and closing div tags. Sidebar2.php is as follows in its entirety:

<div class="sidebar2">
<ul>
<?php if ( !function_exists(‘dynamic_sidebar’) || !dynamic_sidebar(‘sidebar 2′) ) : ?>
<?php endif; ?>
</ul>
</div>

There you have it! Now all there is to do is to go back to the WP admin panel > appearance > widgets and select the widgets that you need for each sidebar. Now, your WordPress theme has two sidebars!

phpBB3 does do a much better job (so far) than its predecessor. Hooray! Let’s hope it’s not short-lived success.

Directions for converting the forum software are thorough enough – I’m glad I wasn’t left with more questions than when I started.

Note that the first step is to install a brand new phpBB3 forum in a different location than the existing forum – so go up to the top of the page and start from there. During installation you’ll feel like someone is holding your hand – the directions were step-by-step and quite easy to follow.

Renaming the directories, in order to have the new forum replace the old, worked like a charm.

Oh yeah, don’t forget to delete the install folder when you’re sure everything went smoothly.

Immediately, about 40% of the users were dropped when comparing those in phpBB2 to those still present in phpBB3. I hope that spam suppression works better in phpBB3 – so far so good!

Anybody use Akismet with phpBB3? Do we need it -yet?

Just click on a word in the tag cloud to browse through widgets in that category. You’ll find some fun widgets that would go well on a MySpace or iGoogle page.

Most of these widgets will appeal to users of personal pages, but most aren’t suited for more professional websites. A couple exceptions would be the countdown clocks and color picker widgets for those of us in marketing or design.

One neat twist is that you can make your own widgets. Take your Flash, HTML, JS or blog content and turn it into a widget that you can share with your whole community.

Print much? Reduce your costs for paper and ink by printing smarter. Try this free software program that checks your pages for wasteful junk – before you hit print page.

GreenPrint is a small download that installs easily to help you reduce your printing costs. If we all print less, we can really impact the amount of energy used to destroy trees and make paper.

Hey, an even better idea is to think before you print and ask yourself, Do I really need that page printed right now? Chances the answer is NO!

Check out these ecological facts regarding paper use and tree consumption. Did you know that “1 tree makes 16.67 reams of copy paper or 8,333 sheets”? Staggering, isn’t it?!

Perhaps there are times when you don’t have access to your computer with The GIMP. Maybe you want to find another place to stash some of your pictures for sharing. Everybody is gonna need a little more storage room, so why not pick up an extra 2GB for your images?

Adobe just published a new, free resource for anybody who needs these services. It’s called Adobe PhotoShop Express.

You can upload tons of pictures, manage them in albums, and edit them. A nice feature is that you can link your gallery with your facebook, photobucket and picasa accounts.

That’s where The Butterfly Marketing Manuscript comes in handy. Mike Filsaime, the famous Internet Marketer, wrote the definitive how-to piece on Internet marketing. BFM gives you what you need to know to get started today.

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