Today, I have one interesting question for you: is Firefox 3 safe for public user? I know, it sounds lame, stupid, call it as you wish, but I must ask. Why? Well, I am not talking about the security flaw discovered a few days after the official release...or were those hours? Nothing is perfect, and I am not going to get into any data security dispute today. It's not Easter, of course, but I am moving around an Easter Egg now... It's all about robots!

All about robots...don't you get it? Firefox - robots - Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics...

OK, just type "about:robots" in the address bar! Got it now? Not yet?
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Even more, if you press the Try Again button...just don't press the button! Oh, my - you did that already? Well, next you can click the new button, now saying Please do not press this button again, and a robot will get to you and kick you in the back! Well...not quite that, just that the button will go away.

I didn't manage to see or hear anything else, but if you did, please feel free to let us know!

Did you notice the message in the tab with the message from the robots? So...what's all this Gort!Klaatu Barada Nikto! thingie all about? Just watch the movie below -


So...is Firefox 3 safe for public use? What if those robots have the plan of assimilating us? What if the Borg assimilated our favorite browser? Too many questions today, I got a headache... but I hope you enjoyed the Firefox 3 robots Easter Egg! ;)

Firefox 3 came up with a bunch of improvements, but some of its new features are really two-headed serpents, because some love them, while other hate them. Just one example - the default over sized Back button in the toolbar. I love it, but some people want to see it go away. No problem, we'll solve that, and we'll also check an additional Firefox 3 tips, so fire it up!

OK, so let's get to it - how to turn the big Back button into a smaller one?

- Right click on the toolbar to get to the menu, and choose Customise.

- Check Use Small Icons, and then press Done.

- Enjoy your small Back button, or go back to the big one!

Next, we'll see how to adjust the Smart Location Bar's suggestions number (maybe you don't want more than 3, after all).

- Type about:config into the Address Bar, and then press Enter.

- Press the I'll be careful. I promise! button.

- Type browser.urlbar.maxRichResults in the Filter field to get to this preference.

- Choose how many suggestions you need(5 is fine with me, as you can see below).

Next, let's see how can we choose what Firefox 3 does with a certain file type by default.

- Open the Tools menu, and choose Options.

- Go to the Applications tab, and type in the name of a program/company/file type. In my case, it's Adobe.

- Select the action you want to set as default, as you can see in the image below.

- Press OK, and it's all done!

Fourth Firefox 3 tip today is a very quick one - to open a tab that you just closed, press Ctrl+Shift+T. Sweet!

At last, a quick scroll tip - to quickly scroll with your keyboard, use the Space key. While the Space key scrolls down, use the Shift+Space combination to scroll up.

That's it for today, I hope you enjoyed these Firefox 3 tips!

Summer is a troublesome season for computer owners, especially for those without proper airflow in their cases, and if the computer is also located in a room that gets hot...problems are just around the corner! Even more, viruses and other security threats are also waiting to make your life miserable, but you don't have to go and drop your computer at the local computer repairs shop, or the geek next door, because there are a lot of free computer fixes within reach! You don't have to pay for any software, and you won't need any special tools for "playing" with your computer's innards, you just have to pay attention to my advices!

<-120x240 Vertical Banner - left->When it comes to software, checking 10 Computer Security Tips could help a lot, although I can't claim that's all you can do to secure your computer and your data, but those tips could take you much closer to "best security you can get," since there's no such thing as "unbreakable system," only "system that hasn't been broken in yet."

Now, let's leave the security issue aside and move to the heat related problems and other issues that my need fixing these days, shall we?

Computer not starting/random reboots after upgrading the video card? If you got your hands on one of the new ATI Radeon HD 4850 or HD 4870 cards, I envy you! Both offer unbeatable price/performance ratio, and there are plenty of benchmarks and tests published here and there to prove that, but what if you just got one new card, and you can't enjoy its power? No, ATI doesn't suck, and NVIDIA doesn't suck either! Here's what you can do by yourself...

First of all, be sure to check that the 6-pin PCI-Express power connector is inserted into the card, because most new PCI-Express card need a bit of extra power. If you didn't check before buying the card, you should also check that your power supply unit can handle the power requirements of your new card, since most of them need at least a good 450W one. At last, if you get reboots in games, check the temperatures of your card, and maybe add some fans to your case, or simply remove the side panel.

After the last power drop, your computer doesn't boot at all, or gives you the BSOD? I know this won't probably help, but be sure to buy a UPS, just to avoid such problems in the future! Now, to serious things...

Test your memory, first of all. How to do that? No, don't go to any specialist, you can do it, too! Grab a Linux bootable CD of, if you have Vista, you can try the Memory Diagnostics Tool to check the memory. If you don't want to use any Linux bootable CD just to check your computer's memory, you can also give MemTest a try, I know a lot of computer service technicians using it, and you don't need any special knowledge to do that.

If your computer is starting up without problems, temperatures seem to be fine, but you still get random BSODs, you shoud check the hard drive, too. The fastest method is to get a program able to check the SMART status, such as Active SMART, DriveHealth or HDDLife. Although these are commercial programs, using the trial versions for a quick check is possible, but you could also consider buying them for long term hard drive health monitoring...or not, it's your choice.

Slow computer? Programs crashing all the time? Check your memory, scan for viruses, clean the dust from inside the case...and maybe even get a new computer, if the one you're currently using is 10 years old!

That should be all for today, but if you're looking for other free computer fixes, don't hesitate to stand out and shout. Your wish is my command, so let me know what's wrong with your computer. If it's ill, we'll cure it!

These days, security becomes a problem to more and more people. I am not talking about terrorism as we all know it, but you can consider this a form of terrorism too, because computer viruses are surely a tool of terror. Why do I say this? Well, the less you know about computer security, the more likely you'll get frightened when your antivirus will detect "something," or when your operating system will display error messages. Since knowledge is power, today I'll provide you some valuable computer security advice, because that's what you need, before anything else.

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While most of you are probably using Windows, most of these tips apply to other operating systems, and some of them are also useful in real life situations, like interacting with people your don't know if you can trust or not. All right, these being said, let's see today's 10 security tips, shall we?

1. Don't rely on suppositions, and don't EVER say "that can't happen to me." Try to find at least 10 minutes per week to find out more about latest threats and to get some computer security advice.

2. Use a good antivirus, and don't rely on your friend's advice regarding this matter. Go visit Checkmark, AV-Test.org and AV-Comparatives to see for yourselves that the program you're going to spend some money for is really worth it...or not!

3. If your antivirus is not an all-in-one package, try using a firewall. My personal suggestion is Comodo Firewall Pro, one of the best out there, and also a free product! Obviously, you don't have to take my word for granted, so feel free to check some of the many firewall test results available on the Internet.

4. Be careful with incoming email, especially when your antivirus is not capable of scanning incoming messages, or you have disabled this feature. Even friends can send viruses without knowing it, so always double check strange attachments.

5. Don't use passwords easy to guess. Your phone number or your birth date can be easily found through trial-and-error, while a password like "7yhfX_8dh7z_1sZ3" is not something one would guess. Try to make your passwords as complicated as needed so you won't remember them, and store them in a safe location, like a USB drive.

6. Getting back to emails, don't answer spam. If someone you don't know sends you a message without sufficient identification data, better avoid answering too, although it may not look like spam.

7. Avoid sharing your personal documents on the network, as well as installing useless toolbars, programs you don't need, and those coming from sources you can't fully trust.

8. Keep your operating system and applications up to date, but don't use automatic updates. Why? Some updates proved to do more damage than the threats they were supposed to fix, so my advice is to wait a few days after an update is issued, and check user feedback before taking that step.

9. Avoid Warez sites, because these are obvious sources of Trojans/spyware/viruses. I don't have to say that using files you get from such sites is illegal in most cases, but sometimes only by accessing a Warez site you can end up with a virus.

10. Backup, backup, backup! USB drives are extremely cheap these days, and so are DVD discs. Spare at least 30 minutes per week to save your latest documents on a disc or a USB drive, and keep the backups in a safe place. Your data is far more valuable than the hardware used to store it, so don't suppose your hard drive won't crash. The warranty can replace the dead drive, but won't bring back your data!

This is it. I know some of the computer security advice above may seem obvious, but this is like learning to write, especially for beginners. The key is to repeat it all until you'll find the security measures above to be as natural as breathing. If you have some computer security advice I missed and you'd like to share with the rest of us, please drop your comment below, your effort will be highly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

In the end, it seems TorrentSpy didn't managed to die with dignity, if I have to believe some of the readers that took their time to drop their comments, for which I have to send all my thanks, and I have no proof against their claims. Good, so maybe TorrentSpy compromised some of its users while going down, breaking their own promises, but what about downloading some music, movies, and even games from sites that won't give away your identity to the cops, won't ask you to give any donation to increase your ratio and, most important of all, won't turn you into a thief?


<-180x150 Small Rectangle - left->No, I am not on drugs! I am not even drunk. I am as sane as possible, and I am not dreaming with my eyes open and my hands on the keyboard! Before moving on, I have to warn you - this may not be a golden mine, and things are rather limited, because you won't see any Electronic Arts games or Microsoft operating systems available for download on the legal torrent trackers we're going to talk about, but you'll get 100% legal content, and some of the stuff you can get is high quality, so...

...first stop, as you probably figured out, if you visited their site at least once since they got the new logo, is LegalTorrents!

Currently in the Beta stage, the site offers only a small number of torrents, most of them(if not all) allowing you to download Creative Commons-licensed content.


If you look closer, you can even find 3 older games for Windows (The White Chamber, Facade and The Adventures of Fatman), 6 audio books, about a dozen music downloads, including some 1-2GB collections, a single wallpaper pack...but it's a site worthy of your attention, although you may not find enough reasons to come back, after a while.


PublicDomainTorrents is a site whose name says it all, but it's swarming with ads, and I think that browsing it is a gruesome task. Well, at least for me, but if you like diggin' for gold, you may find some interesting things. Only movies, from what I can tell...


Next on the list, we have Legit Torrents, a site currently having 6703 users and 1569 torrents. The content you can get here is covering a wide range of topics, from Linux distributions to games, including some new freeware titles, and even free MMORPGs like Archlord. The problem is that some torrents(most of them) don't have any description, so illegal downloads may appear here, but they are removed as soon as they get reported by someone.

As a side note, let me add something - sites like the BitTorrent download store or Azureus' Vuze may provide some good free content, but they are swarming with DRM-protected material, as well as stuff you have to pay for, so...thanks, but I'll pass. Anyway, you may want to check it out, so feel free to do it, if you have the time and patience required to browse through their extensive media libraries.

Ooooh, yeah! Losless music, anyone? Etree is the place to go! As its front page clearly says, this site's only purpose is to help fans by "sharing the live concert recordings of trade friendly artists."


Now, you're probably thinking there are only anonymous artists to be found here, but hear these names and think again: Los Lobos, Radiohead, The Grateful Dead or Primus. Unfortunately, if you're not into live recordings, this site may not be your thing, but if you think the above sounds interesting, this site is heaven - updates are frequent, and there's an impressive collection of torrents to be browsed!

No, I can't give you any torrent sites where you can download the latest Madonna album, or the "Iron Man" movie, but that's life. Some things are worth paying for, while others come for free, and since I mentioned this fact once again, I can't conclude this article without showing you the path to the largest Linux torrents archive on the Web, available at Linuxtracker.

These being said, I hope you will drop me as many comments as possible, because I am sure there's more to have from the free torrent world, so if you know one legal torrents site worth checking out... you know what to do! I will be waiting...