Comments Approval

I have now set up to be notified of new comments via email so that you do not have to wait so long before your comments are approved or deleted.

Find High Resolution Image From Youtube Video Thumbnail

Want to see the thumbnail of a Youtube video in its highest resolution or original resolution? Quite simple!

In Firefox on the Youtube video page type "ctrl" + "u" (at the same time).

In the new window that pops up type "ctrl" + "f" (at the same time).

Now type "og:image". The searched text will light up green.

Right next to that highlighted text you will find the link to the original image in its highest resolution.

Open links in Thunderbird Portable with Firefox Portable | Change default browser for Thunderbird

Using Thunderbird Portable and http links in emails are not opening in Firefox Portable or the browser you like to open them with? Here is a simple fix.

In Thunderbird Portable got to Tools and select Options from the list.

In this menu select the Advanced tab furthest to the right and go down to where it says Advanced Configuration. Click on Config Editor in that section, bottom right.

Promise Thunderbird you will be careful.

Type "external.http" into the search bar (without quotation marks of course!).

Double click on "network.protocol-handler.warn-external.http".

Double click on "network.protocol-handler.warn-external.https".

This will set both configuration options from False to True.

Close the Config Editor.

Go to an email inside Thunderbird with a http link and click it.

Now a window will open asking you what browser you want to use with http links. This works the same for https links as well.

Click on Browse and select "FirefoxPortable.exe" wherever you installed Firefox Portable.

Click OK and done.

Now when you click on links in emails they WILL open with Firefox Portable.

StartPage and Ixquick Deploy Newest Encryption Standards against Mass Surveillance

First search engines to offer TLS 1.1.and 1.2 as well as "Perfect Forward Secrecy"

NEW YORK & AMSTERDAM - In the wake of the US PRISM Internet surveillance scandal, companies are revisiting how they do business online and beefing up their privacy practices to protect their users.

Private search engines StartPage and Ixquick have pioneered a new advance in encryption security this week, becoming the first search engines in the world to enable "Perfect Forward Secrecy" or PFS in combination with a more secure version of SSL encryption known as TLS 1.1. and 1.2 , which works by setting up a secure "tunnel" through which users' search traffic cannot be intercepted.

This is the latest in a series of security firsts by StartPage and Ixquick, which pioneered the field of private search in 2006. Combined, StartPage/Ixquick is the largest private search engine, serving well over 4 million searches daily.

Harvard-trained privacy expert Dr. Katherine Albrecht, who helped develop StartPage, says, "We take encryption very seriously, and we've always led the way when it comes to security. We were first to adopt default SSL encryption in 2011, and now we're setting the standard for encryption in the post-PRISM world."

SSL encryption has been proven to be an effective tool for protecting sensitive online traffic from eavesdropping and surveillance. However, security researchers now worry that SSL encryption may not provide adequate protection if Government agencies are scooping up large amounts of encrypted traffic and storing it for later decryption.

With SSL alone, if a target website's "private key" can be obtained once in the future - perhaps through court order, social engineering, attack against the website, or cryptanalysis - that same key can then be used to unlock all other historical traffic of the affected website. For larger Internet services, that could expose the private data of millions of people.

StartPage and Ixquick have now deployed a defense against this known as "Perfect Forward Secrecy," or PFS.

PFS uses a different "per-session" key for each data transfer, so even if a site's private SSL key is compromised, data that was previously transmitted is still safe. Those who want to decrypt large quantities of data sent using PFS face the daunting task of individually decrypting each separate file, as opposed to obtaining a single key to unlock them all.

This can be likened to replacing the master "skeleton key" that unlocks every room in a building with a tight security system that puts a new lock on each door and then creates a unique key for each lock.

In addition to its pioneering use of PFS, earlier this month StartPage and Ixquick deployed Transport Layer Security, or TLS, encryption versions TLS 1.1 and 1.2 on all of its servers. TLS is an upgraded form of SSL encryption, which sets up a secure "tunnel" that protects users' search information.

In independent evaluation, StartPage and Ixquick outscore their competitors on encryption standards. See Qualys' SSL Labs evaluation of StartPage's encryption features:

https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=startpage.com&s=69.90.210.72

CEO Robert Beens urges other companies to upgrade to these new technologies. "With Perfect Forward Secrecy and TLS 1.1 and 1.2 combined, we are once again leading the privacy industry forward. For the sake of their users' privacy, we strongly recommend other search engines follow our lead."

Protect Your Privacy When Searching With Google

Every time you use a regular search engine, your search data is recorded. Major search engines capture your IP address and use tracking cookies to make a record of your search terms, the time of your visit, and the links you choose - then they store that information in a giant database.

Those searches reveal a shocking amount of personal information about you, such as your interests, family circumstances, political leanings, medical conditions, and more.

This information is modern-day gold for marketers, government officials, black-hat hackers and criminals - all of whom would love to get their hands on your private search data.

Major search engines have quietly amassed the largest database of personal information on individuals ever collected. Unfortunately, this data can all too easily fall into the wrong hands.

Startpage Protects Your Privacy!

Startpage, and its sister search engine Ixquick, are the only third-party certified search engines in the world that do not record your IP address or track your searches.

They are the first search engine to do so!

Give Startpage a try. You will love your newly found ease of mind.

Rest assured these guys know what they are doing.

Adobe CS6 Direct Download Links Without Akamai Download Manager

The Adobe CS6 direct download links have leaked and are NOW available at the usual post.

So far I have added CS6 direct download links for the following Adobe products.

Adobe After Effects CS6
Adobe Audition CS6
Adobe Design Standard CS6
Adobe Dreamweaver CS6
Adobe Flash Professional CS6
Adobe Fireworks CS6
Adobe Illustrator CS6
Adobe InCopy CS6
Adobe InDesign CS6
Adobe Master Collection CS6
Adobe Photoshop CS6
Adobe Premiere Pro CS6
Adobe Production Premium CS6

The language codes for the Adobe products are:

LS3   - ko-KR / zh-CN / zh-TW
LS4   - da-DK / de-DE / es-ES / es-MX / fi-FI / fr-FR / fr-CA / it-IT / nb-NO / nl-NL / pt-BR / sv-SE
LS6   - cs-CZ / hu-HU / pl-PL / ro-RO / ru-RU / tr-TR / uk-UA
LS7   - English / French / German / Italian / Japanese / Korean / Spanish
LS16 - en-US / en-GB / ja-JP

I am still verifying that all the products have the correct languages listed. So far this seems correct. If you find a mistake please do let me know so that I can update the list.

Soon there might be more links coming out, however I have chosen to only give you the online links at this moment. As soon as there are more live links the usual post will be updated.

Enjoy your Adobe product trials without having to deal with the dreaded Akamai Download Manager as well as 7 days early to the official release.

Adobe Direct Download Links Without Akamai Download Manager

Find genuine direct download links to Adobe software, CS2, CS3, CS4, CS5, CS5.1, CS5.5, CS6 and download without using the Akamai Download Manager.

October 2016 Update:

Adobe has given up and finally understood that users need to be able to download their software without hassle.  Download all the CS6 and below Adobe products you like directly from Adobe's website Help Section.

Here are all the direct download links for Adobe products.

You do not need to be logged in.
You do not need any special tricks.
You just click the links and they download.
This INCLUDES all CS6, CS5.5, CS4 and CS3 Adobe products.
Enjoy.

Problems with the Akamai Download Manager? Not able to download the latest Adobe trial? Lost or scratched install discs? Formatted hard drive with your installed and registered Adobe product? Forced to buy costly updates when you still have valid registrations for older products? Don't look any further! Here is your solution.

I have compiled a list with Adobe Direct Download Links of possibly all the Adobe products including the latest CS6. If there is a product or link missing please do let me know and I will add it.

I try to keep this list updated. Please do get in touch if you can help keep this list updated.

August 2014 Update:

Yes, the links still do work! I had a few issues getting them to work due to the following.

Using Firefox and the add-on HTTPS Everywhere (HIGHLY recommended!!) I had to temporarily change Firefox's settings.

What happens is that Adobe has so called mixed content, so content that is served via http as well as https on the trial download page and Firefox (and I assume other browsers as well) block this sort of stuff.

To temporarily tell Firefox to NOT block this mixed content follow these instructions: http://plsqlnotes.blogspot.com/2013/09/firefox-disable-mixed-content-blocking.html.

Once you have ONLY temporarily changed these settings in Firefox (DON'T forget to change them back after the download as finished!!) the trial download on the link given in the Download Instructions below under point 3. will work.

Proceed  as normal with the Download Instructions. You will ONLY be allowed to download from the direct download links once you successfully clicked on the yellow "Download now" button AND on the next page that opens you get a windows asking you where to save the download. ONLY then the Adobe session cookie is set in your browser and ONLY then will the direct download links work.

Download Red Bull Music Academy Radio Stream As MP3

Learn how to download or rip any mix, podcast and stream hosted on Red Bull Music Academy Radio and Archive as MP3 audio file.

Download Mixcloud Mixes As MP3 M4A Or AAC

Learn how to download or rip any mix or podcast hosted on Mixloud.com as MP3, M4A or AAC audio file.

This post is updated regularly with the latest information and method on how to download from Mixcloud. Bookmark this post and check back here if you are having trouble downloading from Mixcloud. Thanks to avid participation in the comments section there is always a quick solution if Mixcloud changes its site code or the way mixes are being streamed. Thanks goes out to all commenters below!

As a reference I keep the older and non-working methods archived as PDF files.
August 09 2011 Reference Version 01.pdf

Both JDownloader and Offliberty.com work again and will download the MP3 from Mixcloud.com directly. Well done!

One other helpful tool is Andrew's MixCloud to RSS converter. Check it out!

Play SoundCloud On iPhone, iPad & iPod Touch Without App Or Embedded Player

Learn how to make SoundCloud tracks play on any iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch without using the embedded SoundCloud Player for websites or having the iPhone SoundCloud App installed. So far users on an iDevice browsing sites with music hosted on SoundCloud cannot play tracks with the embedded player because Apple does not support Flash. Unfortunately SoundCloud's custom javascript based player that should hold the solution to this also does not always work. Here is a simple fix that always works.