OneGuyFromBarlick

Have any other users of the Firefox web browser among you experienced the strange behaviour that I've been sometimes seeing in recent days? It goes like this...I keep the Active Topics page open to select topics that I want to view. I open a topic in a new tab and read the latest posts. Then, as usual, I click the the little X symbol on the tab to close it before choosing the next topic to view. But I'm finding that sometimes when I click that X it closes the current topic but also opens a new blank page, which I don't want. Nothing serious, just an irritation and I can always use an alternative method like keying Ctrl W to close a topic (and that works as normal). But I wondered if I'm the only one experiencing the glitch?

I hadn't noticed that Tiz but I use right click on the 'back' button in the top left hand corner for moving inside the topics....

I always use the View Unread Posts. I open that in a tab and then open all the topics in their own tabs with a middle button click. Close each one when I have read it or replied. Covers all the bases.

Not come across your extra tab problem Tiz. Have you tried resetting to defaults in the options?

Is that the options of OG or of Firefox?

Sorry Tiz, just had another look and the default setting is only for homepage not the actual browser settings.

Had yet another look and I have found it! Go to the side menu then select the customise tab at the bottom, there is a restore defaults in there which will be available if you have changed any of the settings. It greys out if nothing has changed.

I don't have the side bar. I think I killed it in the days of adverts. Never found the need for it.

It's not the side bar Stanley its the drop down at the top right hand side that gives you the Firefox options including access to the settings.

I'm not seeing the problem now so I'll leave well enough alone. I'm wary of resetting defaults because I can never remember what customisation I might have made over time and don't want to lose it all.

I've just received my new (replacement) FlexAccount debit card from Nationwide and it's contactless, the first contactless card I've had. It has a £30 limit so I assume no-one could extract more than £30 from my bank account if they were able to hack it. I'll use it because it seems safe and convenient for small purchases. However, I'd rather have a contactless card that had no link with my bank accounts, preferably not even with my bank. I would only want it for low value purchases. My ideal would be a sort of PAYG card that I could top up with a small amount and which had no connection with any of my personal details. I'm surprised that such a card doesn't seem to exist. It's what you might expect the supermarkets or Royal Mail to provide, but it would have to be universal in acceptance, not restricted to purchasers from the provider.

I was wary of contactless, but when you've used it a time or two in places that take contactless, its delightfully easy. Just dab the card on the machine. (Famous last words).

You can get PAYG debit cards, I've had them in the past, but I'll warn you now they are viewed with extreme suspicion by most establishments and many won't deal with them. (The anonymous ones at least ).

Heres one:

https://www.sovereigngoldcard.com/offsh ... paid-cards.

Thanks for the comments Pluggy - now I think about it I seem to recall we might have discussed the anonymous cards before on OG. I remember reading something saying that was a drawback.

No sooner had I sent that post than I got an email from Nationwide about `rewards', the usual stuff about getting discounts in restaurants etc. I scrolled quickly down the message but also noted this:
P.S. You could share the bill too, by using PayM. PayM is a free service that lets you send and receive money securely to, and from, your friends and family using just a mobile phone number.
Another great convenience? Or another security risk?

I'd say the latter Tiz. Mind you, I can see the benefit with something like an Oyster card where as I understand it you top them up with a specified amount.
Big update of the OS from Canonical this morning. As usual a fast and totally trouble free installation.

I wasn't sure where to post this, but it's technological so here goes...
A new development in terrorist weapons has begun. In the last week people in Syria have been killed by small drone aircraft fitted with an explosive device and deployed by ISIS. In some cases they explode on collision with a building or vehicle, in another case one landed and exploded when it was picked up by someone. This is not the sophisticated, expensive and secret drones as used by the US and other military but the cheap simple little things we can all buy in a high street shop or on the Internet. That, combined with the great power of modern explosives and the advantage of remote guidance, provides a remarkable new weapon for the terrorist. Now they don't even need to use suicide bombers, just fly in the bomb to its target. It's being done in the Middle East - where next, the streets of Paris or London?

That really is worth noting Tiz. Cheap, nasty and effective. What more could a terrorist want?

`Warnings over Dirty Cow Linux bug' BBC
Perhaps Pluggy could give us Ubuntu users some advice on whether we need to take any action? I've looked for more information from Ubuntu and they are recommending an upgrade but it's not clear whether this would have happened automatically via the Update Manager like all the regular software updates or has to be done as a big system upgrade. I've had a big Linux automatic update within the last couple of days.

Unless you've got a very old copy of Ubuntu that's out of support , it has been fixed as part of the update process. A non issue for anyone on here, its only a threat if you're running a server or you have ports open to the internet. Standard desktop Ubuntu never has.

Comprehensive and reassuring. Thanks Pluggy.

Thanks Pluggy, I was hoping that would be the answer!
(It's ironic when I think of all the phone calls I get from people saying they're from microsoft and want to mend my computer!)

What amuses me is that like all scammers they work on the assumption that we all use Microsoft. It was Linux and Ubuntu that saved me from that telephone scam earlier in the year. As soon as I entered the code they gave me Firefox lit my screen up with a very effective red warning message as it refused to connect. And that without any expensive anti-virus service.

I saw news this morning that Microsoft intends to put its prices up by 22%. It makes Ubuntu look even more attractive!

The malicious hackers are now benefiting from the so-called `internet of things'...
`'Smart' home devices used as weapons in website attack' LINK
"Hackers used internet-connected home devices, such as CCTV cameras and printers, to attack popular websites on Friday, security analysts say. Twitter, Spotify, and Reddit were among the sites taken offline on Friday. Each uses a company called Dyn, which was the target of the attack, to direct users to its website. Security analysts now believe the attack used the "internet of things" - web-connected home devices - to launch the assault."

Ubuntu rules, OK? If users of windows knew how efficient, cheap and trouble-free it is Microsoft would be in deep trouble. It's only inertia that preserves their market. Anyone who has really looked at the difference and changed over would never go back! The only downside was some obscure programmes that only work in a Windows environment including some peripherals. As we have discussed before, our market is too small for some manufacturers to bother about producing suitable drivers. That's why I still keep an old PC on Windows upstairs to run a scanner and if necessary some old genealogical data bases.
I saw the reports of the hacking. What good does it do hackers to attack the internet which they need to function. Crazy......

Stanley wrote:The only downside was some obscure programmes that only work in a Windows environment...

Unfortunately the Adobe Creative Suite is one of those "obscure" programmes and, before anyone says there is an alternative, GIMP has some of the functionality but nowhere near what I use.

Even this stalwart of Linux occasionally uses Windows applications. Doing tax returns for a partnership to HMRC comes to mind, doing it online they demand third party software is used, which is universally Windows only. And being in the business I am demands I know my way arouund the various versions of Windows so I have 4 different versions I run in a VM environment in Ubuntu (XP,7,8.1 and 10). I've settled on Windows 10 as the version I use myself when I just have to use Windows.

I cannot argue that GIMP is any kind of substitute for Adobe applications. The odd times I do use Image manipulation I use Linux applications because they do enough for the level I work at. I usually use applications that make GIMP look comprehensive......

I'm writing this on a Chromebook, which is sort of Linux. Its just too limited to use as a general computer although Its light years ahead of trying to surf the web on a Smartphone or Tablet. (HMMMMMM, half decent sized screen and a Keyboard with buttons)

Kev, the vast majority of folk using a computer would never need anything like Adobe Creative Suite and I think that's what Stanley means by calling it `one of those "obscure" programmes'. I do more image manipulation than most people and Gimp is more than enough. For PCs those people could get all they needed from the Ubuntu OS. It's a bit quirky but that's a chicken and egg problem - if it became more mainstream it would quickly lose some of the quirkiness. The only other problem is similar - too many big organisations are wedded to windows and make it difficult for anyone who uses an alternative. Again, that would disappear if Ubuntu were mainstream.

Kev, you are quite right about Adobe but as Tiz says, GIMP is perfectly adequate for us ordinary mortals. There is the contrary case in which anyone doing front end software engineering almost always uses Linux or even more esoteric operating systems. It's horses for courses and yes if I needed Photo-shop or other programmes that depended on Windows, I would, like Pluggy, have to use it. But we live in our own worlds and in mine, Ubuntu does everything I need at no cost, maximum speed and minimum hassle. It's a matter of personal choice and satisfaction. Besides, Windows has one great advantage, it gives Pluggy a living! Long may it continue, I would never have got where I am without him. Yes, there is a God and it isn't Bill Gates!