A team of Princeton and Stanford University researchers has fundamentally reinvented how ad-blocking works, in an attempt to put an end to the advertising versus ad-blocking arms race.
from https://is.gd/uBWs2e
Selected by Galigio via Computer Borders
We know that every time we visit a website we are caught by “invisible” robotized voyeurs which analyse our behaviour and share information to the site owner or to specialized data-collecting companies. These companies usually analyze the obtained information to improve the quality of their web service (in the most optimistic case) or to create a profile about the user with the specific goal to better sell services in the near future.
The real problem is that normally we are not able to realize what is happening. all this “ghost” activity happens in a silent mode without any tangible trace. To avoid this data collection and protect in a more efficient way our privacy we can use Ghostery, a specific add-on for Firefox and Chrome.
Ghostery defuses trackers, web bugs, pixels, and beacons placed on web pages by Facebook, Google Analytics, and more than 1,000 other ad networks, behavioral data providers, web publishers and companies interested in your web activity. As for every Firefox add-on, Ghostery is simple to install and manage. After the installation you can choose if you want to share anonymous information with the Ghostery servers to improve the quality of its services or if you prefer not to collaborate with them. You also can decide if you want to automatically update your Ghostery library and choose the specific trackers you want to neutralize. You can also create a policy for your cookies or (recommended) define a Whitelist for the websites you trust.
During my tests, Ghostery has not slowed the navigation speed in a sensible way also because I spent a little of time on creating a personalized Whitelist during my first use of this add-on.
Last but not least, Ghostery provides a very powerful information section where you can learn about any tracker it has blocked for you.
To conclude I can say that Ghostery is an add-on you must have on your Firefox to better protect your privacy! 
I usually update my Firefox as soon as possible but often, especially after installing the new version 5 on a Ubuntu 11.04 platform, I had to lose many add-ons that I previously selected and used daily. To avoid this problem I found some tips on the web and I tested all of them with different results.
Solution 1
– download the .xpi file from its official Firefox add-on webpage using the right mouse button (Save Link As) on 
– unzip the .xpi file with Archive Manager and open install.rdf using a Text Editor;
– find this line: em:maxVersion and change the value from e.g. 4.0.* to 5.0.*;
– click on 
icon in the Firefox Add-ons Manager, select “Install Add-on From File…” and follow the visual instructions.
Unfortunately this solution didn’t work always during my tests
Solution 2
– open a new Tab on Firefox and type: about:config;
– agree to the warning message;
– search all the lines with the string extensions.checkCompatibility and set the values to false
– restart Firefox and enable or install your “old” add-ons.
Solution 3 – The easy one!
– open a new Tab on Firefox and click on Tools –> Add-ons;
– search for the Add-on Compatibility Reporter and install it;
– restart Firefox and you will be able to install all the old add-ons.
Sometimes you will discover that installing “old” add-ons doesn’t mean that they really run on Firefox 5 but, in my experience, more than the 70% of them will be good for the new version. Have fun!!
Technorati Tags: Firefox, install, Firefox 5, Ubuntu, Ubuntu 11.04, tutorial
This article comes as a useful help for all Linux (Ubuntu) users, which will be presented with a new way of opening PDF files in the browsers compatible with this operating system. First of all, most of you probably know that Google Chrome is capable of doing this by default, without the user being required to make a particular setting.
However, Firefox does not currently have this built in feature, so it needs some help (usually in the form of a plugin) in order to open the PDF files you download or see online. In addition to the official plugin from Adobe (which contains numerous bugs and can sometimes be really annoying because if its way of loading PDFs), there is the option known under the name of Mozplugger. This is actually a plugin that allows the integration of different applications with the Firefox browser so that it can open some files not recognized automatically by default. If you want to install Mozplugger, the following simple steps are required and can be done by anyone.
After installing Mozzplugger, the following text muse be written in mozpluggerrc:
application / pdf: pdf: PDF file
application / x-pdf: pdf: PDF file
text / pdf: pdf: PDF file
text / x-pdf: pdf: PDF file
application / x-postscript: ps: PostScript file
application / postscript: ps: PostScript file
repeat noisy swallow (Evince) fill: Evince “$ file”
After making these changes, a restart is totally recommended. If you do not restart your browser right after that, changes might not take the desired effects. You will surely enjoy everything this great plugin has to offer. Not only will you be able to read PDFs directly in your browser, but there will also be some extra formats that you never thought they could be read directly from Firefox.
This week, in our Freeware Page, we posted a brief review about Jeteye, an interesting add-on for Firefox which we have tested few days ago. First of all, it is necessary to highlight that Jeteye is a free online service you can join in just few minutes. The Firefox plugin is available directly from the Firefox add-ons site. Personally, we were really delighted by Jeteye because we were able to create virtual folders, divided by topics, were we put not only links but also all the stuff we were selecting about a specific task (e.g. photographs). Using Jeteye you can create all the folders you want and, if you prefer, you can decide to share them with all the web-surfers or just with your friends. Unfortunately, at the moment there is not any possibility to migrate the info collected in Jeteye to Firefox bookmarks or to other online free services; de facto this represents a real limitation to the possibilities of this software. In fact, after some days of tests we would like moving some data to our desktop Firefox but we could only open each link and manually bookmark it one by one. Interesting add-on!
This week, in our Freeware Page, we have posted a brief review about one of the most interesting Firefox add-on we have found in the Mozilla website: Sage. This particular add-on allows you to easily read and manage all your favorite web feeds directly using Firefox. Sage contains also a feed discover who allows you to find RSS simply typing a keyword, moreover it is possible to import and export your web feeds through the OPML format. The graphics is very enjoyable and complete and after few minutes you forget the RSS reader you have used till now. Something to try!
Computer Borders 