Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Change Firefox 3.6.2 Default Tab Ordering Behavior

If you've recently upgraded to Firefox 3.6.2, you may have noticed how the default behavior for opening new tabs by middle-clicking links has changed. Specifically, new tabs open immediately after the current tab instead of at the end of the tabs.

This behavior drove me *nuts* since I prefer my tabs be in a FIFO or First In, First Out ordering - I expect that the first tab I opened be the tab I'm going to read next, and the most recent tab I've opened should be at the end of the list. The new LIFO or Last In, First Out ordering made little sense to me.

Since I couldn't find any apparent way to change this in the preferences, I cracked open about:config and searched for "tabs". I found the "browser.tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrent" option, which was set to "true", and I changed it to false. Perfect! Now my tabs are back to the way they used to be.

The Fix:
Type "about:config" into your address bar, or click here for a direct link.

Search for "tabs.insert" and you should see the following:


Simply double click this entry to set the value to "false".

UPDATE:
I found this issue in the bug tracker. Apparently it's been marked WONTFIX =(

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Facebook Ads

Last night I decided to create a Facebook ad to promote my photography. I was surprised at just how inexpensive advertising was. When you create an ad (limited to 135 characters), you choose between CPC (cost per click) or CPM (cost per impression/views/1000). With CPC, you only pay whenever someone clicks on your ad. With CPM, you pay for every 1000 views (impressions) for your ad. For each model, you place a "bid" for each click/1000 views. Facebook then selects which ads to display based on which has the higher bid. You can also target your ads based on demographics and keywords, and you set a daily maximum for how much you'd like to spend per day of advertising.

For my ad, I chose the CPM model since it "felt" like it would get displayed more often. Although, I honestly don't fully understand the difference between the two model s (leave a comment if you can explain it!). I targeted it to everyone within 50 miles of Amherst, MA, and I added keywords like "photography, photos, pics, wedding, graduation". According to their estimate, I would reach about 28,000 users. Based on the bids for other ads targeting my demographics, facebook suggested a bid of $0.24-$0.29, and I went with $0.27. At the time of this writing, my ad has had 14,619 impressions and 0 clicks.

I can understand why I've gotten 0 clicks despite so many views - I barely even notice the facebook ads, let alone actually click them. I'm only doing 1 day of advertising (with a max budget of $2.50) as well, which isn't very long at all. I think I'm going to experiment with different wording, keywords, and running times to see if anything works better. I'll also try running an ad for a full week closer to graduation. My hope is that folks who are talking to friends about wanting wedding/graduation photos will see my ad displayed and click it.

Update: My ad has finished its budgeted run of $2.50 with 18,138 views and 1 click.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Security vs. Privacy

I was just having a discussion with someone on freenode (my username there is [mharrison]) about security vs. privacy. When they joined the channel, I mentioned that they were from Massachusetts (given their Comcast hostname), and they immediately asked how they could hide that. I asked why that was important, and they cited the usual - they didn't want any creepy Internet stalkers knowing where they were.

So what did I do? I volunteered my address and invited them to come visit. I've already sacrificed my privacy online, as most of us have. But I maintained my security. There's a big difference between the two. If I wanted privacy, I would have taken steps to hide my IP, name, and address. But why would I do that? What would this person have to gain?

Even after sacrificing privacy, I maintained my security. This person knows nothing of my passwords. They know nothing of my banking institution(s), my logins or passwords, nada. They know nothing of my physical security either - what's in my apartment, who lives around me, who I REALLY am, etc.

So why am I so secure in giving out my address? I'm confident that this person doesn't have either the motive or the interest to launch an attack on me, electronic or physical. 99% of the population doesn't care who I am or what they have to gain from me. And in the off-chance that this person WAS in the 1%, they're the ones going into an unknown situation - not me.

If you'd like to learn more about security and privacy, I highly recommend Bruce Schneier's blog.