Stormbringer's Thunder

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen The most effective way to keep your identity, finances, privacy, and so on safe online is to never go online. Easy enough... Unfortunately, since internet activity is ubiquitous and even expected, it is impractical to stay offline and live in this world. There are owlhoots looking to get information and money, and many are very skilled. Software developers are constantly updating against viruses, phishing, and other hacks — which is one reason to let your operating system, virus scanner, and other software update itself. Cybercrime warning, Pixabay / Gerd Altmann (geralt) Okay, we know that most folks cannot completely avoid going online to do certain minimal things. Sneaky people still find ways of causing people harm. Education is extremely important, and I reckon a good measure of suspicion is useful. Experience is helpful but getting that also has risks because people are exposed to sites that may be harmful. Suspicious Facebook Messenger message with link (...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen My calendar reminder tells me that today is the anniversary of this, my first weblog. I think it was a contact in a newsgroup who encouraged me to do one. As expected, many things have changed and I have learned a great deal. When I started, I had no idea what to say, so I did a getting to know me thing. The subjects were about whatever struck my fancy, and Stormbringer's Thunder was written in a conversational style. This still covers a variety of subjects, but I focus on logic, refutations of atheism, and internet things such as browser security . Quick fun facts about the Edge browser. It has Immersive Reader to make a page more, well, readable. In that is a Read Aloud function (Natasha is my favorite voice). It also does a read aloud thing even if the site is not conducive to Immersive Reader. Like other browsers, Edge will open up PDFs. Here's what was fun for me: Using the Reader View by Yokris extension , a user can annotate and mark up a web pa...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  Back in the 1960s, there was a fad with a ball made of synthetic rubber that would bounce back very efficiently. Throw it in the living room, it bounces a lot, maybe breaks your mother's favorite lamp, makes the cat hide behind the couch, scuffs the walls, and so on. My articles on browsers and security have been bouncing around. The first one is here , then a few more, and something a bit tangential is over at " How to Conduct Insufficient Research ". Now I bounced over to this weblog again. Credit: Pexels /  energepic.com We hear so much about internet security nowadays, and reports seem conflicting and incomplete. Some of them touted certain lesser-known browsers as the safest, while others specifically condemned them. The big players I discussed in previous articles had varying reviews, and sometimes that is from people doing tests of a clinical nature. They were pretty much deemed reliable. From what I gather, on browsers were out-of-the-box a...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen Here is the final article in the trilogy. The first part was an introduction , then the privacy and other things were discussed in the second part . Now it is time to examine a few extensions (also called add-ons) that this cowboy has found helpful for productivity and security. Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos /  dfrsce It doesn't take an architect to add extensions since other people did the construction. Finding them is not much of a challenge, but loading good ones requires discretion. They can easily be added onto the browser's structure. Sometimes, too easily. Once again, I must point out that I am writing about my experiences using a Windows 10 desktop computer. Do my experiences and learning qualify me as a "power user"? Some Extensions can be Harmful Yeah, get the caution out there before discussing what I am using. I was unable to learn how many extensions are available for Firefox, but there are quite a few . Most people use browser extensio...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen Most recent edit: 11-16-2021 In Part 1, I gave a brief overview of things that are happening in the wild world of browsers. After I commenced my research, I learned that there is a prairie schooner-full of possibilities including several I know nothing about , so most of this discussion is based on personal experience. Remember,  I am using a Windows 10 desktop. Credit: Freeimages / Armin Hanisch In this day and age, we need to be secure from spying, hacking, and tracking. Something else that bears repeating is that most Windows browsers will get you where you want to go — right out of the box. Which browser is the "best"? Looking at reviews, there is conflicting information. Many times, reviewers use benchmarks (of which there are many, and some view them with mistrust), which should explain why reports on which is fastest are inconsistent. I have also seen conflicting information regarding privacy settings. A brief comment on browser speed is in ord...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  This is somewhat depressing. I feel like an old friend betrayed me, having used Firefox off and on for several years, and now this. It has made many improvements in speed, reliability, and security, but the Mozilla company has taken the bit of leftist politics into its teeth and jumped the corral fence. This derivative image was further modified at PhotoFunia . Shouldn't web browser companies focus on keeping us secure from tracking, spyware, hacking, and such? The expression "stay in your lane" comes to mind. I was dismayed to learn that Mozilla, makers of Firefox, have called for deplatforming and punishment of President Trump and others. So they are in favor of censorship. We need more than deplatforming Mozilla CEO Says Deplatforming President Trump Isn't Enough WARNING: Mozilla Calls for More Censorship to ‘Build a Better Internet’ – Celebrates Trump Ban Thousands are Uninstalling Firefox after Developers Demand Total Internet Censorship T...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen All y'all should know up front that this series of articles is based on my experiences as a Window 10 desktop computer user. Many of the things discussed will apply to laptops (are they different from notebooks?), but mobile devices will be left alone for the most part. Exploring browsers can be fun! Credit: Pixabay / Pete Linforth While many people are content to use the browser that came with their computer, they may ignore the fact that there are many browsers to choose from. Since Google (the parent company is Alphabet ) dominates teh interwebs, sojourners on their properties are inundated with, "Hey, we're the best ! Download Chrome!", which is probably why they have a huge market share (a difficult process that reminds this child of political polling) in the browser wars. The dominant browser years ago was Internet Explorer, which more experienced users loved to hate. If you want to move around the web, the major browsers will get the job...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen Although money makes the world go around (just check the tracking and advertising reports about major companies, for example) there are still some good-hearted and generous people around. Much of what gives voices to many is free or low-cost. Sometimes I return the favor by mentioning products or giving image credits, but I don't get one red grotzit for doing so. Left image: cropped from Freeimages / Leena Naidoo The image on the right is the left image modifed with FotoSketcher Sure, some companies and individuals will sell stuff at different levels such as the free, pay more for some features, pay a lot more for all the features. I use a wagon train-load of free materials (most notably Open Source and Freeware), but I admit that I've been burned by a few bad risks. To reduce these, I check reviews and if I download something, I can scan it with my free versions of Malwarebytes and the Avast! antivirus scanner — both of which were highly rec...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen Like many other people in these here United States, we became tired of the ever-increasing prices for cable TV, and decided to join the "cord cutters" revolution. This is the streaming video thing happening. We did not even know it was such a big deal! Cable Itself Became Expensive Sure, cable television is very useful, especially for specialized channels or for people who live in areas that do not have over-the-air broadcast variety of availability. The biggest complaint is that prices keep going up. Another complaint is that you can get hundreds of channels but nothing to watch, or the same movies on several channels. (Satellite TV is not an option for us, and that has its own set of problems.) We started with the company of many names, one of which was Time-Warner Cable. We got the package of three services that had phone, high-speed internet and television. Prices kept going up, and when Charter Communications bought Time-Warner Cable, it b...