Here’s Why Firefox is Still Years Behind Google Chrome
Firefox has a problem. It has fallen behind, with development stalled on the most crucial, most difficult problems. Many of the most significant improvements in Firefox over the past few years have simply been copying changes made in Chrome.We wish Firefox was better, but the reality is that it’s still not as good as Chrome. With so many former Firefox developers now working on Chrome at Google, perhaps it makes sense that the innovation has been happening in Chrome, not Firefox.
We wrote this article two years ago, and sadly it’s pretty much still true today. The most important thing is that Firefox still doesn’t have security sandboxing for plugins.
If you’re using Firefox, you should definitely disable Flash and any other plugins.
Microsoft accused of adding spy features to Windows 7, 8
The concern with the new Diagnostic Tracking service is much the same as with Windows 10’s tracking: it’s not clear what’s being sent, and there are concerns that it can’t be readily controlled. The traffic to Microsoft’s servers is encrypted, sent over HTTPS, so it can’t be easily examined. While the knowledge based articles describing the new service list the DNS names of the servers that the service connects to, there are reports that the service ignores the system HOSTS file. As such, a traditional and simple method for redirecting the traffic doesn’t work.
Yes, Microsoft has added a whole bunch of new diagnostic data features to Windows, and even added them to Windows 7 and 8 through updates. The problem is that (so far) they refuse to say what data they are collecting, and this strategy will backfire on them, since there’s no easy way to opt out, and there’s no way currently to figure out what is being sent back.
It’s very unlikely that they are sending back anything that you would need to worry about — they are a huge company and it’s unlikely that they want a massive class-action lawsuit and potential government action against them, and so they aren’t going to be collecting the type of information that would get them in trouble. It’s still not something we’re happy with.
We will be looking into this more in the future.
Tesla’s Model S breaks Consumer Reports rating scale
In fact, the Model S actually scored 103 points in Consumer Reports’ test, requiring the publication to recalibrate the score somewhat since its scale only goes to 100. And in an attached post, the publication points out that even though the Model S gained a perfect score, it’s not quite the perfect automobile.
If a scale goes to 100, there’s no way that something can score higher than 100. And if your scale goes to 100 and the thing you are reviewing isn’t perfect but still gets a perfect score, perhaps your entire ranking system is horribly broken and is then meaningless.
Don’t get me wrong, the Tesla line of electric cars is absolutely amazing. But this whole story makes no sense and the fact that almost every site on the internet talked about it smells like a (successful) marketing stunt.
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Previous Thoughts You Might Have Missed:
- Tuesday: Microsoft is Trying Really Hard to Shoot Themselves in the Foot
- Monday: The Best Upgrade for Your Surface Pro 3 is the SP4 Keyboard
- Saturday: First Impressions of the Apple TV: Lots of Entering Passwords Using the Remote
- Friday: Soon, Windows 10 Will Be Automatically Pushed Through Windows Update
- Monday: The Emperor Has No Clothes and Nobody Cares