Support for third party add-ons or extensions is compulsory for any browser competing in today’s market.  The ability to synchronize these plug-ins is simply the next logical step.  Just as it is a boon to have bookmarks synchronized across browsers on different computers, wouldn’t it be convenient for all of the browsers that you use to have the same add-ons installed and enabled?  (Why yes… yes it would.)

The problem of browser data synchronization echos the challenges faced by anyone who has upgraded to a new computer or tries to use more than one PC.  How do you make sure that you have all of your stuff?  How can you avoid having fragmenting your documents and data across multiple computers?  What’s the easiest way to customize your computer so that it’s just the way you like it?

Now consider Chrome OS.  You boot up, log in with your Gmail or Google Apps credentials and you get a browser.  That’s it, just a browser.

But wait…

Bookmark synchronization is built-in.

Google Docs…  File sync done.

Now add extensions sync to the mix.  If extensions are the Chrome OS equivalent of apps, then application sync is in the bag.  Any Chrome OS computers you use would take advantage of your hand-picked extensions, thus giving you consistent functionality.

If Google actually does launch a music service this fall, that’s just one more feature that elevates Chrome OS from a mere novelty to something that’s actually quite compelling.  Simply log on to a Chrome OS computer and you have all of your stuff.  Now THAT’S cloud computing.

Uncheck "Enable Acrobat JavaScript"

If you’re a trusting soul and just want to take my word for it, open up Adobe Reader (and/or Adobe Acrobat), go to Edit -> Preferences -> Javascript, and uncheck “Enable Acrobat JavaScript”.

Why?

Experts are saying (and I believe them) that Adobe products such as Acrobat, Adobe Reader, and Flash will be the biggest targets for hackers in 2010.  With Microsoft doing a much better job at security, hackers are turning their attention to poking at the holes in Adobe’s software.  For the hackers, it just makes good sense to reach for this low-hanging fruit.

Over the course of 2009, many warnings were issued concerning vulnerabilities in Adobe’s core PDF creation and viewing products.  The common thread in many of these warnings is that the vulnerabilities exploit the JavaScript functionality in PDF documents.

When I state that JavaScript is the key security hole in “many of these warnings”, I really mean “every single one that I can remember”.  Users who have disabled JavaScript are not at risk.

Adobe’s security chief defends JavaScript in Acrobat.  I have no qualms with JavaScript being available in PDF files, but the simple fact of the matter is that the overwhelming majority of users don’t need it, don’t use it, and wouldn’t even notice if it were turned off.  Instead of choosing to make their product secure by default, Adobe has made their product the number one target for hackers.

UPDATE:  Rogue PDFs account for 80% of all exploits [in Q4 of 2009], says researcher

Earlier this year, I received a new but similarly misleading set of emails.  The emails were related to a couple of my domain names (we’ll call them example.org and example.net).  The messages seemed to be crafted to imply that the sender was the owner of the example.com domain and that the domain was for sale.  Here’s an example:

Domain Sale Notice:

example.com is coming available for sale in a few days.

Since you own the domain example.net, we thought you’d be interested in example.com.

If you do have interest in acquiring example.com, please fill up priority notice form availble

here: <LINK REMOVED>

and we will contact you as soon as the domain is available for purchase.

We look forward to hearing back from you.

Kind regards,

John Timmers
InTrust Domains
4845 A Pearl East Circle
Boulder, CO 80301

No more please: http://<DomainRemoved>/store/unsub/<etc…>

[NOTE:  Above text edited for privacy and readability only.]

My initial reaction was one of excitement.  “It would be nice,” I thought, “to have the whole matched set of domain names.”  A few days later, though, I received the following email:

Our company specializes in acquiring expired domain names to help individuals and businesses protect their brand online.

The domain name EXAMPLE.COM expired recently and we were able to secure it.

We noticed that you own EXAMPLE.ORG and felt that you may be interested in acquiring the .COM version of your existing domain name.

It is available for a one-time fee of only $49.00 USD.

To purchase or learn more, please visit http://<DomainRemoved>/buy.php?domain=example.com

–
Trader Domains, LLC
sales@<DomainRemoved>

I was not pleased about the prospect of spending $50 on a domain.  But wait a minute…  how can two different parties be offering me the same domain name?

A few days later, I received yet another email from Trader Domains.  It was identical to the first except that the price was lowered from $50 to $30.

It turns out that neither company owned the “example.com” domain.  I was able to register it directly from a reputable domain registrar.  That being the case, we can come to the following conclusions

• InTrust Domain’s statement that the domain would be available for purchase “in a few days” was false.
• Trader Domain’s implication that they had “secured” (or procured) the domain name was false.

The claims made by these companies are crafted to mislead consumers.  Buyer beware.

Let me attempt to make my vision a reality.  Here’s another obscure problem that Google should know about… a blast from the past with a circa 1997 database application.

PROBLEM
When attempting to print from Paradox 8 in Windows XP, the following error message is received:

PERFECTPRINT ASSERTION
File z:\service\pfps\Include\pfps.h
Line 2220
Expression pIprinter
(Retry will break into an active Debugger)

SOLUTION
Run “C:\Corel\Suite8\Programs\PFREG.exe”.
Choose “Register”.

This will register necessary components and should allow Paradox to print.

When troubleshooting a problem, it has become a fairly safe bet that:

1. You’re not the only person to have the problem.
2. You’re not the first person to have the problem.
3. Someone else has, in fact, already solved the problem.
4. Someone who has solved the problem has also shared the solution.
5. Your friend Google will help you find the solution.

The above is especially true when you have an exact error message.

I encountered a problem recently, however, that did not follow this model.  Perhaps not too many other people had the problem.  Perhaps not many of those people experienced and solved the problem shared their experience online.  Whatever the case I feel compelled to share the problem and solution, if only to seed Google and help some other poor techie who runs into this issue.

Scenario:

The file server for a largish department hangs at random intervals.  When this happens, the server still responds to ping requests.  At the console, a blank desktop (solid blue background, in my case) with a mouse cursor appears.  The mouse moves, but other input doesn’t seem to do anything.  The server service appears to be stopped, as network shares are unavailable.  Remote restart commands (shutdown -r -m \\SERVERNAME) have no affect.  The only successful course of action is to power cycle the server.  After doing this, the server works fine for a while.  There does not appear to be a pattern to the timing of the event, as it would occur in the middle of the day or the middle of the night.

Instances of this problem are characterized by the following event log entry:

Event Type:        Error
Event Source:    Application Error
Event Category:                (100)
Event ID:              1000
Date:                     MM/DD/YYYY
Time:                     HH:MM:SS PM
User:                     N/A
Computer:          <OMITTED>
Description:
Faulting application svchost.exe, version 5.2.3790.3959, faulting module ntdll.dll, version 5.2.3790.3959, fault address 0x00010a5b.

For weeks, I racked my brain, consulted peers, and scoured the web (see points 1-5 above) to no avail.  I ran tons of diagnostics, swapped out memory, updated drivers.  I even tried daily preemptive rebooting.  No luck

Finally, I stumbled upon a Microsoft knowledgebase article entitled
“The Service Host process may stop unexpectedly in Windows Server 2003″ (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932762).  The article does not mention the event log entry above, but the hotfix does appear to have corrected the problem.  The server has been up for months now without unexpected reboots.

Good luck to any of you dealing with this issue, and I hope that I was able to help!