-=PCTechTalk=- Re: Firefox vs IE
- From: Gman <gman.pctt@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:27:30 -0500
Hi Sandi,
IE and Firefox take two different approaches to rendering multimedia.
IE relies heavily on ActiveX, which has always been and will likely forever
be an easy target for malware writers to gain entry into your system.
Firefox and most other 'alternative' browsers completely ignore ActiveX and
instead rely solely on individual plug-ins, many of which can be modified
through the use of extensions. This means that multimedia tools such as QT
need to release their rendering systems as both ActiveX for IE and as a
plug-in for most other browsers. Apparently, the site you were using needs
to use an ActiveX control to display certain items. Regardless of whether
you're using QT or the QT Alternative, IE will still need that before it can
'talk'.
FEBE deserves an article all to itself. For now, I'll just say that
it's a great extension that allows you to back up your present profile in
two very important ways. In order to use it, you must first tell it where
you'd like to store your backups. Apparently, you did that at some point
after getting it installed. Then, you should tell it whether you want a
complete backup or a selective one. Complete will combine all aspects of
your profile into a backup stored within a single proprietary file ending
with a .fbu extension. This one file contains a backup of all the
extensions, bookmarks, passwords, cookies, preferences, etc. that were
present at the moment the backup was created. A selective backup can
selectively make a copy of any or all of these items, but they will be
stored in their OWN individual formats. That means you'll end up with an
HTML file containing your bookmarks, a bunch of .xpi files (one for each
installed extension), a cookies.txt file, etc.. If you you update Firefox
from 2.x to 3.x, you'll need to also update FEBE to a version that supports
Firefox 3.x's new method of storing certain items (.json instead of .html
for your bookmarks, for instance). Regardlless of which method you use for
making these backups, FEBE can easily restore your carefully constructed
Firefox experience quickly, whether it's on the same system or on a
completely different computer. The trick is to store your backups somewhere
other than the OS drive.
Have fun, ask questions and learn. It's the only way to grow. :)
Peace,
Gman
http://www.bornagainamerican.org
"The only dumb questions are the ones we fail to ask"
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sandi Beach" <sandib2@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "pctechtalk" <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2009 10:37 AM
Subject: -=PCTechTalk=- Firefox vs IE
> Hey, G, I am back to Firefox as my default browser. I am such a wuss.
> No,
> not really, but I just trust that you know best. And Firefox has so many
> interesting features--a worthwhile learning experience.
> I just looked up wuss in Merriam's on line dictionary to be sure it meant
> "wimp" and it does.
> Interesting thing happened. I looked in IE and got popups when I tried to
> check the pronunciation saying QuickTime wanted to install an add on. I
> exited and went looking in Firefox and when I checked the pronunciation it
> provided it (no questions ask and no request for an add on). Can you tell
> me why that would be?
> Another interesting tale to tell. I was playing in Firefox and clicked on
> Febe. I heard a couple of whoosh, whoosh sounds and suddenly I had
> backups.
> I had never configured it to tell it what to backup so I am not sure what
> it
> did by default. I looked in My Documents and there were two Febe folders,
> one empty and the other contained 4.03 MB of something.
> Just having fun this morning! And looking out my window as 40 or so
> turkeys
> are walking through our yard.
> Sandi
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