Jeff Rivett has worked with and written about computers since the early 1980s. His first computer was an Apple II+, built by his father and heavily customized. Jeff's writing appeared in Computist Magazine in the 1980s, and he created and sold a game utility (Ultimaker 2, reviewed in the December 1983 Washington Apple Pi Journal) to international markets during the same period. Proceeds from writing, software sales, and contract programming gigs paid his way through university, earning him a Bachelor of Science (Computer Science) degree at UWO. Jeff went on to work as a programmer, sysadmin, and manager in various industries. There's more on the About page, and on the Jeff Rivett Consulting site.

All posts by jrivett


Firefox, Mozilla, Patches and updates, Security

Firefox 53.0.2

Leave a comment

Mozilla released Firefox 53.0.2 on May 5. The new version includes three bug fixes, one of them for a security vulnerability.

As usual, Mozilla did a lousy job of announcing the new version: in fact, they didn’t bother at all, apparently preferring to leave that job to others like the far more dependable CERT.

If you use Firefox, and you’re not sure which version you’re running, open its menu (click the ‘three horizontal lines’ icon at the top right), then click the question mark icon, then About Firefox. If an update is available, this should trigger it.

Chrome, Google, Patches and updates, Security

Chrome 58.0.3029.96

Leave a comment

A single security fix is the only change mentioned in the release announcement for the latest version of Chrome.

The change log contains forty-one changes, of which about twenty-five are minor bug fixes.

Chrome is pretty good about updating itself, but since this version includes a security fix, you should probably make sure by checking: three-dot-menu > Help > About Google Chrome. This will usually trigger an update if one is required.

Microsoft, Windows 10

Support for original Windows 10 release ending on May 9

Leave a comment

When Windows 10 was first released in July 2015, the version number assigned to it was 1507. (In case you haven’t noticed, those four digit version numbers Microsoft is using correspond to the year and month of the release.)

In keeping with Microsoft’s new policies, support for Windows 10 version 1507 will end on May 9, 2017. That meas no more security updates, and an ever-increasing risk from security threats.

If you’re still running the initial release version of Windows 10, you might want to think about upgrading, or perhaps reverting to a less problematic O/S, like Windows 7 or Linux.

Chrome, Google, Security

Chrome set to flag more sites as ‘Not Secure’

Leave a comment

Google’s efforts to make the web a safer place include the recent addition of a Not Secure indicator in Chrome’s address bar for sites that are not using HTTPS encryption.

Up to this point, that indicator only appears when a web page includes boxes for entering passwords or credit card information. In the near future, Chrome will expand the conditions in which sites are flagged as Not Secure. In October, Chrome 62 will start flagging as Not Secure any unencrypted web page that includes any data entry boxes, and all unencrypted pages accessed while Chrome is in Incognito mode. Eventually, Chrome will flag all unencrypted pages as Not Secure.

If you use Chrome, you’ve probably noticed that it also flags encrypted sites as Secure. This is misleading, since all it means is that the site is using HTTPS encryption. It doesn’t imply that the site is safe to use, only that it is using an encrypted connection. A site flagged as Secure can still be dangerous to visit, for example if it contains malware. Wordfence’s Mark Maunder recently wrote about the danger of assuming Chrome’s Secure flag means ‘safe’.

Patches and updates, Security, Vivaldi

Vivaldi 1.9

Leave a comment

Vivaldi’s selection of search engine choices has a new member: Ecosia, which bills itself as “the search engine that plants trees with its ad revenue.” Sadly, it appears that Ecosia is very easy to manipulate, since searching for a nonsense word will show at least two ads trying to sell it to you.

Vivaldi 1.9 also fixes a few bugs, including several related to security. The release announcement provides additional details.

Patches and updates, Security, WordPress and other CMS

Joomla 3.7

Leave a comment

WordPress is the current king of Content Management Systems, but there are others, including Joomla. Web sites built on popular CMS software are enticing targets for malicious hackers, because the people who manage such sites often lack the skills to keep them secure. Keeping a CMS-based site secure mainly involves keeping the CMS software up to date.

Joomla 3.7 — released yesterday — includes over 700 improvements, eight of which are related to security. Several of the security vulnerabilities addressed affect versions of Joomla going back to 1.5 and 2.5.

Joomla 1.0 through 2.5 are no longer supported. If you’re running a site that uses those older versions of Joomla, you should upgrade to 3.7 as soon as possible, as the site is otherwise likely to be hacked.

If you run a Joomla 3.x site, you should update it to 3.7 as soon as possible. If your site currently runs Joomla 3.6.x, it’s a single click update, so there’s no excuse not to do it.

Opera, Patches and updates, Security

Opera 44.0.2510.1449

Leave a comment

Opera’s developers were quick to respond to the recent discovery that many of the major web browsers (including Firefox and Chrome) allow site addresses to be obfuscated using special Unicode characters. Opera 44.0.2510.1449 now shows any Unicode characters in the address bar using the corresponding two digit hexadecimal code, rather than the character itself. The obfuscation technique was being used in phishing schemes.

Opera 44.0.2510.1449 also includes fixes for a few more minor issues. The change log has all the details.

Firefox, Mozilla, Patches and updates, Security, Windows XP

Firefox 53.0: security updates and performance improvements

Leave a comment

A major change to the internal workings of Firefox should result in faster web page rendering on most Windows computers. Unfortunately, that doesn’t include Windows XP: starting with version 53.0, Firefox no longer supports XP or Vista.

Firefox 53.0 also fixes at least twenty-nine security issues, so it’s a good idea to update it as soon as possible. Firefox can be rather sluggish about updating itself, but you can usually trigger an update by clicking the menu icon at the top right (three horizontal lines), then the little question mark icon, then About Firefox.

Also in the new release are some improvements to Firefox’s user interface, including two new ‘compact’ themes that free up some screen space. Site permission prompts are now somewhat easier to understand and more difficult to miss. Tab titles that are too long to fit in a tab now fade out at the end instead of being cut off and replaced by ellipses, which makes more of the truncated title visible.

Chrome, Google, Patches and updates, Security

Chrome 58.0.3029.81

Leave a comment

The change log for Chrome 58.0.3029.81 is ten thousand items long, so you might want to think twice before clicking that link. It’s probably safe to say that there are no new features or major changes in the new version, since nothing of the kind is mentioned in the release announcement. This is an important update, though. That’s because it includes fixes for twenty-nine security flaws.

Chrome seems to update itself on most computers within a day or so of a new release, but you can usually trigger an update by opening the browser’s menu (the three-vertical-dots icon at the top right) and navigating to Help > About Google Chrome.