Rick's Daily Tips

How to automatically start up Firefox in Private Browsing mode

Posted on January 4, 2013

If you value your online privacy above all else then you’ll probably enjoy using Firefox’s Private Browsing mode.

Private Browsing prevents Firefox from saving any of your Internet history in its log files which in turns makes it difficult from a third party to see what you’re been doing on the Internet.

Most people who use Private Browsing simply clicking the “Start Private Browsing” option on the main Firefox menu, but this only turns on Private Browsing for the current session only. But there is a simple way to instruct Firefox to turn on Private Browsing automatically every time the program is started. Here’s how: [Read more…]

New warning message in WordPress 3.5 makes some blogs appear to be broken

Posted on January 3, 2013

When WordPress released version 3.5 in December 2012 they included a brand new warning message about a possible security hole due to the way some plugins are written. If you recently upgraded your WordPress installation to version 3.5, you might be seeing a message similar to this at the bottom of every page:

“Warning: Missing argument 2 for wpdb::prepare(), called in /home/content/52/8331652/html/wp-content/themes/chateau-2.0/functions.php on line 91 and defined in /home/content/52/8331652/html/wp-includes/wp-db.php on line 990”

If so, don’t worry, your blog is perfectly fine. It isn’t broken. That is just a warning message, not an error message. Removing the warning message is easy. Just edit your wp-config.php file (make a backup copy of the file first though in case something goes wrong) and add this line to turn off error display on your blog:

@ini_set(‘display_errors’, 0);

Upload the edited wp-config.php file to your server and you’ll be good to go!

How to enable HTTPS secure browsing on Facebook

Posted on January 2, 2013

Hackers, crooks and busybodies are always on the prowl for sensitive information on unsuspecting Facebook users, and one of their favorite hangouts is at venues that offer free, unsecured Wi-Fi service such as restaurants, airports and libraries. And if you have an unsecured wireless router in use inside your home (not recommended!) they can even steal your info while sitting in your driveway!

You can protect yourself and your Facebook account from hackers, thieves and other scoundrels by securing your account using HTTPS encryption. Here’s how to turn it on: [Read more…]

Ditto – a great Windows Clipboard replacement

Posted on December 31, 2012

ditto For me, one of the biggest annoyances of Microsoft Windows has always been the Clipboard utility. Well, it has for me at least.

Why? Because it can only remember the contents of the last “Copy” or “Cut” and if the computer crashes or gets shut down for any reason, whatever is on the Clipboard at the time is lost forever. If you do a lot of Copying, Cutting and Pasting like I do that gets really old in a hurry.

There are a number of good Clipboard replacement programs out there, but the one I like the best is called Ditto. This little gem runs as a stand alone program. It runs in the background, waiting patiently for you to call it up by clicking on its icon in the System Tray. I’m pretty picky about which programs I allow to load automatically every time Windows boots up, and this is one of them. [Read more…]

Rick’s Picks: 6 of my most visited websites

Posted on December 31, 2012

I spend a lot of time on the Internet both for work and pleasure, and over the years I have come to rely on a number of websites that help me with both. Here are six that I find myself visiting over and over:

1 – TodaysPhoto.org – Yep, this one actually belongs to me, but I enjoy posting the “Picture of the Day” every morning and reading all the wonderful comments left by members of the TodaysPhoto community. I hope you’ll check it out and stop by yourself as often as possible! I post a new photo every morning at 7am eastern time.

2 – Pandora – I love listening to music and Pandora allows me to listen to just the kind of music that suits my mood at the moment. I have created “stations” that play nothing but Bluegrass, Bluegrass Gospel and Country. If I don’t like a song (or it doesn’t fit the genre of the station) I can give it a “thumbs down” and it will never be played on that station again. If I like one particularly well I can give it a “thumbs up” and Pandora will seek out and play more songs that are similar to it. I love Pandora! [Read more…]