![[for Firefox users]](https://images.ilias.ca/Firefox-32x32.png)
Here’s another frequently asked question about Firefox:
When I start entering text in to a search field (or any other text field, like name, address, etc.), I get a drop-down list of items I previously entered in the same field. How do I remove one of those entries?
Answer:
Use the arrow keys (one your keyboard) to highlight the item in the list, you want to remove. Hold down the Shift button, and press Delete.
Guidelines, Rules, or Request?
Two out of three isn’t bad. 
Looks like there’s a discussion in the secnews Firefox newsgroup about bottom-posting versus top-posting. The most notable aspect of it are the references to the Posting Guidelines, sometimes referred to as “policy”, “rules”, “custom”, “preference”, “request”, “conventions”, etc.
It has always been rather confusing to the user, what the Guidelines are. And I don’t mean the specifics, but the Guidelines as a whole. If they are ‘rules’, why aren’t there any consequences for violating them? If the only consequence you see from a moderator is his/her refusal to help that poster, does that mean there is nothing more the moderator can do? Does that lack of moderator power mean the newsgroup is on usenet? If so, why should any other rule be adhered to? The whole thing turns into a series of wrong assumptions.
The first thing that needs to be understood is that the user support groups on secnews.netscape.com are not on usenet. The server is owned by Netscape, a division of AOL. The Mozilla Champions are there to monitor and moderate the Mozilla user support newsgroups, and have the permission to do so from the news server owner. Mozilla Champions have the authority to close threads, and remove others’ posts from the server.
The next thing to do is to get a dictionary, and look up the word ‘guidelines’. Specifically, how the word is derived: Guide + lines. When was the last time you were punished for not following a guide to something? A tourist destination guidebook is just a book that says “To get the best possible experience from this place, do this.” A health guideline, simply says “For the best possible health, do this.” In the case of the secnews Posting Guidelines, it’s “for the best possible answers to your technical problems, do this.” It’s not a rule, it’s a recommendation.
Here’s where all the confusion begins:
Some of the Mozilla Champions request that people responding to them, follow the guidelines. These should be considered personal requests, and not rules. If a Champion tells you to follow the Posting Guidelines, they’re not trying to impose a newsgroup rule, but imposing a rule when interacting with that Champion. It should also be noted that not all Champs make that request. Some people may have noticed that I do some snipping (although I’m not a very liberal snipper).
If a Mozilla Champion requests that you follow the posting guidelines, when interacting with him/her, don’t argue it. Either follow the guidelines, or don’t interact with that Champion (and don’t expect to get help from that Champ). It is possible to respectfully disagree with someone.
Hopefully this document will make things clearer for those wishing to explain it to newcomers; so we don’t end up with more long threads, where a lot of misinformation is passed.
Some people prefer to be warned when a website wants to set a cookie. Even though the option does not appear in Firefox, this is another feature from the Mozilla Application Suite that is in the back-end code for Firefox.
To enable cookie warnings in Firefox:
Enter about:config in the location bar.
Right-click anywhere within the list of preferences and select New -> Boolean.
When you get asked to enter the preference name, enter:
network.cookie.warnAboutCookies
Set the value to true.
Here’s a screenshot:
![[screenshot]](https://ilias.ca/screenshots/ff-cookiewarning.png)
Sometimes people ask how often Firefox refreshes live bookmarks.
The default is set to 30 minutes, but you can change that.
Enter about:config in the location bar.
Right-click anywhere within the list of preferences and select New -> Integer.
When you get asked to enter the preference name, enter:
browser.bookmarks.livemark_refresh_seconds
You will then be asked to enter a value. Set the value to whatever refresh rate you’d like. The unit for the value is seconds, so if you wanted the refresh rate to be 5 minutes, the value would be 300 (as in 300 seconds).
Any Deer Park (Firefox trunk) users, who like to use the SpellBound extension, will probably have noticed that SpellBound does not work on Deer Park Alpha 2, and the latest nightlies.
To fix it, you need to download and install (or unzip) the latest Thunderbird trunk build.
– in Deer Park, disable the SpellBound extension
– close Deer Park
– in the Thunderbird program folder, go into the \components\ folder, and copy the files: myspell.dll and spellchk.dll
– paste them into the \components\ folder of your Deer Park program folder
– start Deer Park, and enable the SpellBound extension
You should have to restart Deer Park, and you’re done!
Many people don’t know this, but the XPI blocking feature in Firefox is also in the Mozilla Application Suite, starting at version 1.7 and up. They just couldn’t get a user interface for it, on time for Mozilla 1.7.
By default, the “Enable Software Installation” setting will not block anything. Simply unchecking it, will turn XPI installing off all together.
To enable software installation, but but only for certain sites, you first need to enter about:config in the browser location bar, then search for the preference xpinstall.whitelist.required, and set it to true.
By default, there is one site on the whitelist: update.mozilla.org. To add a site to the list, use about:config to look for the pref xpinstall.whitelist.add, double click on it (or right-click on it, and select ‘Modify’). Set the value to the domain you want to add. For example: ilias.ca
To remove an entry from the whilelist, you’ll have to close down Mozilla, go to your profile folder, and manually remove the entry from the file hostperm.1.
I recently did some testing of SMIME signed newsgroup messages. First, I guess I should state how I achieved it in Mozilla Thunderbird (also works in Mozilla Application Suite, and Netscape 7):
First, set up one of your mail accounts to have a certificate for digital signing. Close Mozilla Thunderbird, and open your prefs.js file. The mail identity in which you added a certificate should have a couple of pref lines pertaining to digital signing. For instance, if it were id1, it would be:
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.sign_mail", false);
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.signing_cert_name", "certificate name here");
Copy and paste those lines to the id that pertains to your news account, and edit the id number on the pasted lines. So, if your news account is id6, you should have both:
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.sign_mail", false);
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.signing_cert_name", "certificate name here");
and
user_pref("mail.identity.id6.sign_mail", false);
user_pref("mail.identity.id6.signing_cert_name", "certificate name here");
(Note that if you want your messages to be automatically be signed, you can change the value of mail.identity.id6.sign_mail to true.)
Save and close the prefs.js, and start Thunderbird. Open a newsgroup, and click on “Write.” If you want to sign the message, you can go to Options -> Security -> Digitally Sign This Message.
Okay, now that we know how to do it, what happens when it’s done?
Size
The first message I tested contained a body of one word: “test”. That message was 4KB. I got a certificate with lower encryption. The first was 2048bit, the second was 1024. The same test message with a 1024 bit key was 1KB less in size (3KB). Note that if you’re using the Face header, that will also add another KB to your message, so all in all, you could have a one word newsgroup post, that is 5KB in size.
Usenet
I did a few tests in netscape.public.test to see if the messages would propagate, and how Google will take and display them. Google didn’t take them. As a matter of fact, neither did Giganews. I had to use news.mozilla.org to post them. Unsigned replies to those tests showed up on both Google and Giganews, so I did some digging. The signed messages were sent with the content-type header:
Content-Type: multipart/signed; protocol=”application/x-pkcs7-signature”; micalg=sha1; boundary=”————ms090800060705060603050107″
Both Google and Giganews filter out messages with binary attachments in text groups. Google and Giganews are treating the signature as a binary attachment. To verify this, I tried to post a signed message to giganews.test.binary, and it worked. If you want to sign your newsgroup messages, expect them to be treated as binary attachments.
Display
Okay, the digital signatures are treated as binary attachments. How are other news clients going to display the message. What I have on my system is Thunderbird, Netscape7, Mozilla 1.7.8, Netscape Communicator 4.8, Opera 7.54, Outlook Express 6, and Xnews5.04. All, except Opera and Xnews, recognized the signature as such, and had special display for it (key, etc). Opera and Xnews just considered it an attachment and used the generic attachment display method.
Conclusion
If you’re posting on usenet, don’t bother. If you’re posting on a private server, make sure there’s a clear reason to digitally sign your messages, that is worth the extra 2KB, and take note of the software others are using.
The Mozilla Foundation has released the first alpha release of what will become Firefox 1.1. To prevent confusion of Firefox 1.0.x users, they have gone to great lengths to make sure only developers and testers download it. Among them are calling the release by its codename (Deer Park), changing the product name for the developer release, and even changing the icon. Instead of the Firefox “humping a globe“, it’s just a globe. Kind of apropos, seeing as it isn’t a finished product.
Very soon after installing Deer Park builds, I found that I prefer the Deer Park logo.
Here are some comparison shots:
| Firefox 1.0.x | Deer Park |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
I prefer the Deer Park logo because:
– it is more simple. That image is easier to remember, and easier to redraw.
– I can’t think of a better symbol for a web browser than a globe. A always loved how the old Netscape throbber inspired my imagination about what could be done with the product and the technology. The Firefox icon contains more fox than globe.
The Mozilla Foundation has an animal theme going, which is good for identity and association of all Mozilla products, but the Firefox icon doesn’t really communicate what the product does.
I prefer the globe.
There has been some recent confusion about threads in the secnews.netscape.com newsgroups being closed. I just want to make things clear for everyone.
What is this all about?
There has been too much off-topic discussion taking place on the secnews.netscape.com user support newsgroups. While camaraderie is encouraged, the utility of the user support venue is first priority. Too much off-topic discussion makes reading the group much less efficient. Those looking for technical support, may have to weed through a lot of off-topic discussion to find an answer to their problem. In some cases, an answer may not be there, because the problem may have been lost in the discussion. Those of us offering to help people with their technical problems become less efficient at solving problems, and less quick to get to the technical questions.
After being asked to stay away from off-topic discussion, most replies were in defense of such practise. Most users showed an unwillingness to adhere the request; so something more had to be done.
What is considered to be off-topic discussion?
secnews.netscape.com has newsgroups set up for user support. Each support group is dedicated to a specific product. If the discussion is not about the product the group is for, then it is off-topic.
What is the purpose of closing threads?
Closing threads is a way cutting down on off-topic discussion. This way, people will not have to compose messages with an uncertainty that the message will be deleted.
What is the criteria for a thread to be closed?
I make it a rule not to close threads in which the technical discussion is still ongoing, or the original posted problem has not been solved. Other than that, there must be an ongoing off-topic discussion. The closing of threads has absolutely nothing to do with who the original poster is, or who is engaging in the off-topic discussion. Thread closures are based on message content, not the authors.
If the above rule is exploited or abused at all, I may start partially closing threads, removing only the discussion that is off-topic.
As a general rule, if you want to discuss something that is off-topic, try to move the to an appropriate forum. Jay Garcia has set up a general discussion venue for secnews off-topic posters here.
Why are your “CLOSED THREAD” notices in reply to the original post, rather than the latest post in the thread?
I don’t want to give the latest poster the impression that the thread closure is his/her fault alone.
Why are you (Chris Ilias) the only one closing threads?
Closing threads is my responsibility alone. The rest of the Mozilla Champions have put their trust in me to choose which threads get closed, and to do the removing of messages. This is a responsibility that I asked for.
The posting guidelines say “The “Original Poster” has control of the thread”; so why is it that you can close them?
You control your threads to a certain degree. Ultimately, it is AOL’s server, and the Champions have the authority to delete posts. In the case of using AOL’s Netscape user support news server as your personal chatroom: you abuse, you lose.
Added on May 25th:
Why don’t you create a newsgroup for off-topic discussion?
We don’t have the power to create newsgroups on secnews. Even if we did, I’m not sure we would create a newsgroup for off-topic discussion (Still iffy on the issue). I mentioned the possibility of an OT newsgroup on the new Mozilla server to Gervase Markham, who replied with “OT discussion should happen somewhere where it’s on-topic. Otherwise in mozilla.general.” Yet web-based user support almost always have an OT forum. (After Dark, Lounge, General Discussion) The community is kept together, and able to discuss whatever they want. This is why Jay created a general discussion venue. I suggest you use it.
Part of why I participate on secnews, is because I’m able to talk off-topic. Either let it go, or I’m going to participate somewhere else.
This ultimatum makes me laugh. Most of the people saying it have been participating on secnews for years, yet there was never this amount of off-topic discussion, until just a couple of months ago. Why the change? Why is it, all of a sudden, so imperative? It’s not a question of ‘allow OT or disallow it’. It’s simply a case of volume. Having said that, if that amount of OT discussion is so important to you, take your OT and leave. There’s no shortage of people willing to help; and more will come due the increased efficiency.
Isn’t this censorship?
Why yes it is. Every privately owned user support venue is moderated.
Why don’t you post this URL on secnews?
To keep discussion out of the way of user support. I’ll add this URL to all of my “CLOSED THREAD” notices from now on.
Today Netscape 8 was released; so I went to Netscape.com to download it. I was automatically redirected to a detour page, with this message [click on image for the full page]:
I’m using Firefox 1.0.4. Netscape 8 is based on Firefox 1.0.3.
Folks, if you get this message, don’t believe it. It’s a lie. The only browser detection script being used is one that checks to see if you are already using Netscape 8.
As a matter of fact, if you’re using Netscape 8, your browser is outdated. 
