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  • The new Reset Firefox feature is like magic
    So the support team worked with product and engineering to create the Reset Firefox feature. The first implementation of this is a button on the Troubleshooting Information page (about:support). What is does is create a new profile and migrate your bookmarks, passwords, cookies and form data. Everything else gets set to the defaults.

    I have to say, this thing is like magic. You basically get a brand new Firefox installation without the penalty of losing all your data....

    Read more about Reset Firefox on the support site and then download Firefox Beta and try it out....Notes...It only saves bookmarks, passwords, cookies and form data. You will lose your add-ons, Sync settings, open tabs and tab groups. - Verdi@Mozilla

  • Feds considering allowing DVD-encryption cracking
    Another proposal for the first time calls for the public at large to be authorized to make copies of their own DVDs without breaching the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, which makes it unlawful to circumvent encryption technologies in items that you buy.

    Earlier in the day, here at UCLA, regulators held a hearing as part of its deliberations over whether it will continue to allow Americans to jailbreak their mobile phones, and whether they will expand that right to cover tablets and video game consoles. Jailbreaking and rooting are techniques used to get past manufacturer-installed roadblocks that prevent users from having full control over their devices.

    Every three years, the U.S. Copyright Office entertains requests to create temporary loopholes in the law that outlaws the circumvention of encryption technologies. The afternoon public hearing largely focused on the so-called CSS that must be cracked to make a copy of a DVD. All DMCA exemptions, which are proposed by the public, expire in three years and must be reauthorized by the Copyright Office. - David Kravets, ars technica

  • Fat Lady Finally Sings: Yahoo and Alibaba Officially Shake on $7 Billion Stock Sale Deal
    As AllThingsD.com reported several days ago they would, Yahoo and Alibaba Group have finally reached an agreement for the Silicon Valley Internet giant to sell back half its stake in the Chinese Web company in a $7 billion deal. - Kara Swisher, AllThingsD

  • Pakistan blocks Twitter over contentious tweets
    The tweets were promoting a competition on Facebook to post images of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, said Mohammad Yaseen, chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication's Authority. Many Muslims regard depictions of the prophet, even favorable ones, as blasphemous.

    Yaseen said Facebook agreed to address Pakistan's concerns about the competition, but officials have failed to get Twitter to do the same. "We have been negotiating with them until last night, but they did not agree to remove the stuff, so we had to block it," said Yaseen. - AP

  • The media hated Google but embrace Facebook
    By contrast, when Google went public in August 2004, writer after writer tore into the fledgling company.

    The Motley Fool was typical: "This mania over its IPO, certain to come out 15-20 times sales and perhaps over 100 times earnings, just has me scratching my head. Great companies can have lousy stocks if you buy them at the wrong price. Given the excitement here, that's almost exactly what this promises to be."

    Here's Reuters: "The rich price tag being hung on Google Inc.'s initial public offering has many financial advisors steering their clients away from the deal, turning off some of the very investors the Web search giant had hoped to attract."

    The Wall Street Journal's "Heard on the Street" column picked up rumblings of institutional discontent... - Howard Gold, MarketWatch