Making Your Firefox Tabs Open at End Again

Starting with newly released Firefox Version 3.6, new tabs are opened in the tab adjacent to the one you are in, not at the end like they used to. This behavior is rather annoying to many who are visiting multiple sites for clicking purposes (Adgitize, CMFads, Entrecard).

Good News: There is a FF setting that you can change to restore the previous behavior of having Tabs open at the end. Below are two methods that you can perform to get Firefox to work as before.

Note: This information only applies if you are using Firefox Version 3.6 or later.

Method 1 - The Easiest and Safest

Visit the Firefox add-on page:

New Tabs at the End 1.0

then press the green "+ Add to Firefox" button as shown in the screen shot at right. A little window will pop up, and press the "Install Now" button. The add-on will be installed, then click the "Restart Firefox" button in the next window that pops-up because Firefox needs to be restarted for the change to take affect.

The advantage of this method is that if you later want to go back to the new FF tab setting, you simply remove the add-on.


Method 2 - By Hand (Requires Caution)

The second method does not require an add-on extension, but you will have to be careful not to screw up your other Firefox browser settings. To do this,

1. Open a new browser instance (so that you can follow these instructions).
2. Enter the string about:config in the address bar (I can't make this a link).
3. You then may get a gray warning screen like the one on the right. Press the  “I’ll be careful, I promise!” button.
4. In the next screen that displays, type in: tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrent in the filter box (upper left).
5. Lastly, Right-click the Value entry, and select “Toggle” (that will change the setting from true to false and vice-versa)
6. Then close that brower window and you're done!

Hopefully, Firefox will create an entry in the "Tools/Options/Tabs" control box in later releases to make this setting change easier.

Don't Be Banned, Remove Entrecard ASAP !

Urgent: In an Entrecard admin Blog Post on March 16th 2010 titled Blackjack, anyone?? , Entrecard introduced their first Marketplace game written by a 3rd party:

Online Blackjack

Players can use their virtual EC currency to play against the developer.  And, if you don't have enough credits, you can buy more from Entrecard. That's outright gambling. And,

Online Gambling is Illegal in the United States!

After thinking about this, I realized that every U.S. EC member is at risk of being banned from Google and other providers.

One cannot advertise or display ads for the purpose of driving visitors to an online gambling site. Violation of such action can result in having your site: removed for Blogger, delisted in the various search engines, Adsense & Adwords termination, perhaps arrest, fines and jail.

Therefore, I removed all Entrecard Widgets this morning from all my sites to avoid being an accomplice to such actions.

And, I encourage all U.S. Entrecard members to remove your Entrecard Widgets ASAP to avoid being drawn into the potentially criminal actions of EC. Ignorance of such activity is not a viable defense.

EC Screen Shot

Game Lead-in Page Screenshot

While I don't know what the final implications of Entrecard's intention to promote online gambling will be, I believe it is important for all Entrecard members to understand the consequences of knowingly driving traffic to an online gambling site.

Better Safe than Sorry

JL............

How to Make Your Child a Math Wiz

Several years ago when our son was in 4th grade, we decided to enroll him in Kumon Math. This is a program that specializes in supplementing the child's learning by assigning a series of daily homework drills. In math, the student is asked to complete 2 to 4 pages of problems a day, and to calculate the answers in his head, without the aid of a calculator or finger counting. Then once a week, the child visits the Kumon center, and is asked to complete the daily assignment there. This session is timed and corrected.  Feedback is given to the child and the parents, and the cycle begins again.

When we first took our son, he complained that he was proficient in math and didn't need tutoring. But after spending a few sessions at the center, he realized that this program went beyond tutoring and advanced training, similar to what aspiring young athletes experience.  In our community, most of the other children were of Asian decent, whose parents expected them to excel in all academic areas.

While our son did not want to tell his friends that he was taking Kumon, he would pride himself in being the first to finish all the math tests and usually obtain a perfect 100% score.

The program is structured in levels. Depending on the age and aptitude, the child begins with simple single number addition. Gradually, this is expanded to 2 digit, 3 digit, and large number addition. Then, they move onto subtraction, multiplication, division, algebra, trigonometry,  and calculus.

This training really paid off when our son was accepted into the County Math & Science Magnet school.

He is now about to graduate from college with a degree in Chemical Engineering, and is one of the few lucky seniors to have been offered a well paying job upon graduation.

We are extremely proud of our son and what he has achieved.  Not only do we attribute his success to his own hard work and dedication, but also to the training programs that helped shape his career.

As I visit and read many of the fellow blogs that are in our various communities, I noted that many members are mothers and parents. Therefore I wanted to share my son's little secret that helped him become a mathematical wiz.

JL..............

Report Trojans, Virus, Pop-Ups, Hackers & Malicious Sites Here

Perhaps the most common obstacle that our Blogging community faces when trying to visit other member sites is the unwanted encounter with a malicious site. How many times have you clicked on a site and all of a sudden, the screen flashes, and various windows pop-up.

The typical attack presents alert boxes asking you to "click here". You're afraid to do that for fear of infecting you computer and cannot close the annoying and dangerous attacks.

Worse, you feel all alone. Who do you tell? Did anyone else know about this?  Was this preventable?

During the past week, I had such an encounter on Adgitize. While I was able to close all the browser windows, my laptop failed to shut off. I was able to turn the power off and then force a "reboot" when powering up again.

I did report this, but as far as I know, the culprit is still there. I know the problem isn't on my machine because I performed a full scan after each attack and nothing was detected.

This isn't a problem isolated to me. CMF Ads has a noteworthy thread about this problem. And after reading it, you will find that many experienced bloggers are often the victims.

Whenever you click on Entrecard sites, Adgitize ads, or CMF Ads, you are at risk. Turnip recently reported that he disabled one such site on CMF. Entrecard's blog states that they made a complete scan of all blog members and eliminated many. And, Adgitize removes sites when they are found.

However, these three organizations are combating the malicious attackers in isolation. Unfortunately, they are not working together to share the list of evil-doers, and we, the blog clicking community remain vulnerable.

Therefore, I'm asking all members of each network to report a malicious site here, in a single place, for others to read and be informed. With that data, I will validate the claims, and report the offenders to each of the three networks.

So, if you have a problem, and can isolate the name of the bad site, leave a comment here. 

We've got to work together to patrol our community and keep each other safe.

JL...........

PS: 

• I didn't list the site I encountered here because I haven't identified it yet. I think it is fired off when I close the window which is already too late.
• Also, many CMF members recommend Sandboxie.  I haven't checked it out, but intend to do so.
• Lastly, it's important to remember that many of the offending sites may be victims of hackers. As such, they are innocent, but need to be quarantined  until they are sanitized and safe again.

Blogversary Contest Extended to March 18th

For the past week or so, I've been writing a number of articles in response to Kay & Pehpot's Blogversary Contest which was initially planned to end on February 28, 2010. But, it has been:

Extended to March 18, 2010

As per Pehpot's post (hyperlink above), there is still both: time to join; and, earn extra points by commenting on contest sponsor & member sites.

When I first wrote about this Contest, I was rather skeptical. But since that time, I've gotten into the spirit, and tried to fulfill many of the requirements for earning extra points.

So, it you want a chance to earn a little extra, then you've got to join now. Besides the possibility of earning some money, you'll also get a chance to visit and read some very good blogs. And, along the way, you'll probably make a few more sincere friends!