Given this, I took to finding a way that can block search results. Officially, there’s no way you can do that from within Google settings (which would have preserved that as you moved from machine to machine), but there are extensions for Firefox. Still looking for a Chrome one!

For Firefox, there are a few extensions. One is CustomizeGoogle, but it doesnt work in the latest version of Firefox.

The one that does work is SurfClarity. It allows you to list of a sites that should be filtered out. It doesn’t do it from the server-side which would save a 1kb of traffic, but nonetheless is good enough.

This isn’t the answer, but a way of how to get access to the full response:

Right Click on the Packet in Line-based text data, then choose Copy > Bytes (Printable Text Only).

This will place the full response, and you can paste it in a text editor.

DNS is the system that converts a domain example www.google.com to an IP Address, something ‘computers’ can interpret and understand. When this process fails, it may appear the internet is down. All that is happening, however, is that the process of converting domain names to IP Addresses is slow (or dead).

One way to fix this is to use alternative DNS servers/addresses. By switching DNS addresses, you are basically saying, use this server to convert domains to IP addresses.

First things to check:

1. You have an internet connection. This will not help if you do have one
2. Check that entering an IP address works, example: http://41.1.224.101

• http://41.1.224.101 (vodacom.co.za)
• http://41.203.21.136 (mybroadband.co.za)
• http:// 196.8.95.20 (standardbank.co.za)
• http://74.125.43.106 (google.co.za)

If this works, but entering www.vodacom.co.za doesn’t, then changing DNS entries will help. Edit your connection settings, and try one of the following:

196.43.46.190 – SAIX
196.207.40.165 – Vodacom
168.10.2.2 – Internet Solutions (IS)
208.67.222.222 – OpenDNS
208.67.220.220 – OpenDNS alt

It is possible to mix them up, rather than using two by the same company.

Would it not have been easier for them to stick to DeWaal Drive, Roeland Street?

For Ubuntu users, the recommended alternative is Wireshark. Wireshark is noted as being more powerful than Fiddler, but the focus will be on the features most commonly used by web developers for tracking.

Installation

Wireshark is found in the Ubuntu repositories, so simply search for wireshark in Synaptic, or enter sudo apt-get install wireshark

Usage

Under Applications > Internet, you will notice there are two options. Wireshark and Wireshark (as root). Run the second one (as root) as this gives you more data to track.

After wireshark has started, the process is straightforward:

1. Choose which network interfaces to capture traffic from
2. Start capturing
3. Filter captured requests

1. Choosing which network interfaces to capture traffic from. From the menu, choose: Capture > Interfaces

This will bring up a list of network devices.

2. Since my work involves debugging work off my laptop (http://localhost etc), I only start device lo (127.0.0.1). This is useful as it immediately ignores all other traffic.

3. The one thing you will notice is that fiddler will log both the TCP and HTTP requests. For the purpose of debugging AJAX, etc., we are only interested in HTTP requests, TCP requests are not required. These can be hidden by adding a filter.

In the field next to Filter:, enter http and click on Apply.

The steps will now show all traffic coming on 127.0.0.1 via HTTP. The last step is picking up the AJAX parts for debugging. Notice that for each request, there is a response. Unlike Fiddler, Wireshark does not combine the request and the response. So click on the response line, and then expand the Line-based text data row. This will show the text of the AJAX response.

Conclusion

Wireshark takes more steps than Fiddler, and Fiddler is a more focussed program than Wireshark. Wireshark also captures traffic without having to install a plugin into firefox, etc., so it’s useful for debugging applications as well. The biggest improvement to make Wireshark truly replace Fiddler is to turn off truncation of the response text. Wish I knew how!

In light of a recent incident where a girl met someone on Mxit and ran away from home, it raises some questions:

• Are such young people putting themselves at risk with personal info and details being shared on Facebook?
• What steps/advice can be taken/rendered to assist and protect young people who are on Facebook?

Understanding Mxit vs Facebook

Mxit is a popular cellphone application in South Africa. In a region and continent with high and excessive telecommunication costs, Mxit is a cheap alternative to SMS (Short Message Service). Whereas users pay a premium rate to send SMS’es, Mxit uses a form of instant messaging, where users only pay for the data cost of sending a message.

Being a cellphone-based social instant-messaging application, the only information really being made available is the cell phone number of the user, and possibly the name of the user if they dont use a pseudo-name.

Mxit (like Facebook) operates on a friend request-and-accept approach, but also offers a chatroom service, and it is seemingly here that ‘relationships’ (for want of a better word) fosters.

Given the ability to generate online friendship, being known for having a lot of online friends, and thus possibly popular, may be one reason why people allow such friendships and relationships to happen.

Enter Facebook

These young people are entering Facebook at a time where it has already reached spectacular growth, and some are even forsaking it for alternatives like Twitter. I’m unable to account for why they are switching to Facebook. Is it perhaps the next step after Mxit? Is it because Facebook offers more features than Mxit? Is it because of the popularity of Facebook and that adults are using it?

Oddly, Internet access is not an issue since many of them are accessing Facebook via there cell phones. Perhaps the fact that Facebook has a mobile version helps.

Facebook Features which could be considered dangerous from a Mxit perspective

• Facebook allows users to upload photos of themselves, providing a picture to the name
  • So unlike Mxit, there is a picture to the person you are corresponding with
• Facebook allows users to be tagged in photographs
  • Even if the user does not provide a photo of him/herself, others could do it for them
• Facebook allows users to enter a detailed profile, including contact details
  • Compared to Mxit, this is much more comprehensive
• Facebook provides a history of past activity
  • Mxit doesnt.
• Facebook’s add a Friend feature provides a risk where people blindly accept friendships.
  • The more friends you have, the better it supposedly seems, as it makes you appear more popular. Mxit doesnt have the search feature of Facebook where users can search for friends.

If parents become concerned and paranoid about Mxit, it’s not difficult to see why they could possibly be more apprehensive of the dangers Facebook potentially provides at a greater risk than Mxit.

Facebook’s negative could also be positive

I recall an incident a few months ago where an older sister stepped in when her younger sister started receiving inappropriate comments on some of her photos. This is an advantage of an open system, and makes it easier for an adult/guardian to supervise. Needless to say, the intervention was a rebuke to the offenders who desisted from their actions.

What are your thoughts on the matter?

When Mozilla Prism was first launched, I honestly never gave it much thought as to it’s usefulness, or why anyone would want to use it. Today, it is such an essential tool for me. Let me explain.

What is Mozilla Prism?

Mozilla Prism is a tool that allows you to run web applications in a independent browser window. Take a website, and convert it into a “browser in a window”. Now this doesn’t sound too useful, and it doesn’t provide offline capability, etc.

But consider when you run a web-app like Gmail. It will either be in a tab or window of Firefox. Everytime, you want to check your mail, you need to switch between them. Furthermore, if Firefox happens to freeze or crash, it means you have to restart it and then open Gmail again.

By moving it to an independent browser window, means that it is unaffected by any issues Firefox may have. The other nice thing is that if you click on an external link in Mozilla Prism, it will automatically open it in your default browser. As it generally appears with as few/no toolbars, it also maximizes viewing space.

Lastly, Mozilla Prism supports extensions. The Firefox ones are not enabled by default, but this also makes it nice and fast to use.