When you try to access a site with a CPALead survey or other online surveys, you’ll be greeted by something like this:

Users are required to fill up these online surveys or download and install games before they can proceed and get the stuff that they want. For most users, these online surveys are very annoying and time consuming and many times, filling up surveys doesn’t guarantee that the content they’re looking for will be provided. That’s why many users would just like to block, disable or bypass these online surveys so they can get immediate access to the stuff that they’re looking for.

Today, I’ll share you with you a few simple but effective tricks on how to block, disable or bypass online surveys.

Mozilla Firefox No Add-on Method

1. Open Firefox.
2. Go to the website that has the online survey (Let website load completely).
3. On Firefox, click on View > Page Style > No Style.

4. Firefox will disable all web styling elements (CSS, Javascript).
5. You should now have access to the content without being bothered by the online survey.

With the CSS & Javascript disabled, the online surveys won’t show up so you’ll have access to the content that you need. This should work most of the time unless the website is designed to check if the online survey is running or not. If that’s the case, then you can try any of the methods below.

Mozilla Firefox Add-on Method #1
1. Download and Install the NoScript Addon for Firefox.
2. Restart Firefox.
3. Go to the website that has the online survey (Let website load completely).
4. Click the NoScript Addon Options found at the bottom of the browser (Displays all enabled/disabled scripts).

5. Scripts vary for each website. You can determine which one is the online survey script by allowing scripts one at a time. Once the online survey pops up, revoke access to the last script that you allowed. (Options > Forbid [name of script])
6. If you’re trying to access an embedded video, allow it via Options > Blocked Objects.

7. You should now have access to the content without being bothered by the online survey.

Mozilla Firefox Add-on Method #2
1. Download and Install the QuickJava Addon for Firefox.
2. Restart Firefox.
3. The QuickJava toolbar will appear on the bottom of the screen of Firefox.

4. Go to the website that has the online survey (Let website load completely).
5. Disable scripts by click on the icons: Js – Javascript, J – Java, F – Flash, SL – Silverlight, I – Images or CSS (Disabled = red icon, Enabled = blue icon)
6. You should now have access to the content without being bothered by the online survey.

Methods 2 & 3 are practically the same as the No Add-on Method but they are a bit more complicated and allows more control over which scripts to enable/disable.

GreaseMonkey Script Method* (Mozilla Firefox & Google Chrome)

1. Requires the Greasemonkey script. get it here if you don’t have it yet.
2. Install the CPALead Remover script from Userscripts.

3. Restart your web browser (Firefox or Chrome).
4. Go to the website that has the CPALead survey.
5. You should now have access to the content without being bothered by the online survey.

*This method only blocks CPALead surveys.

NOTE: Make sure that you only use one add-on/script at a time to avoid conflicts and to ensure that the script/addon functions properly. Try out each one and keep the one that works for you.

Hope this tutorial on how to block online surveys was able to help you save you time and get rid of those annoying online surveys. If you know of any other methods or tricks on how to block, disable or bypass online surveys, please do share on the comments section.

Mozilla Firefox is a very good and stable browser and I love it because of the many available extensions/addons/plugins that provide lots of extended features. However, Mozilla Firefox when used (with a lot of extensions installed) on Windows Operating System, tend to slow down and tend to crash more often. I think its because Ubuntu like other Linux flavors get a Firefox version that’s optimized for the system. If you’re a Mozilla Firefox user who’s looking for a custom-built Firefox browser that would perform 25% better and faster on Windows Operating System, then you should try out Pale Moon.

The Pale Moon project is a custom-built, optimized Firefox browser designed specifically for the Windows Operating System. Although it is built on Firefox, it doesn’t have all the features or functions that Firefox has because some features have been disabled to maximize the speed and efficiency of Pale Moon.

Features:

• Highly optimized for current processors
• 100% Firefox sourced: As safe as the browser that has seen years of development.
• Uses slightly less memory because of disabled redundant and optional code
• Significant speed increases for page drawing and script processing
• Support for SVG and Canvas, downloadable fonts, WOFF and some HTML5
• Support for Firefox extensions, themes and personas
• Support for OOPP (Out-of-process plugin execution)
• Able to use existing Firefox profiles, bookmarks and settings with this migration tool

System Requirements:

• Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/Seven, 32-bit or 64-bit (64-bit O.S.es are not natively supported, but the browser will run fine on them)
• A modern processor with SSE2 support like a Pentium IV or Athlon 64 or later (see list of supported processors) Standard Pale Moon will NOT run on Athlon XP processors! Please GO HERE if you are running on an Athlon XP or Athlon MP processor machine.
• 64 MB of RAM (128 MB or more recommended)
• At least 50 MB of free (uncompressed) disk space

I’ve tried Pale Moon for about a week now and I can say that it really is faster and performs better than a regular Mozilla Firefox build on a Windows Operating System. I’ve compared the boot time for each version and Pale Moon definitely boots up faster than Firefox. One particular test that I did was to load up several flash intensive websites like NBA.com, CNN.com, YouTube and Hulu on both Firefox and Pale Moon, and then checked the memory usage for each browser. As you can see from the screenshots below, Pale Moon uses less resources than Firefox.

Another important thing to mention is that almost all Firefox extensions/addons/plugins can be installed and will work on Pale Moon. I installed the exact extensions/addons/plugins that I have on Firefox and everything worked fine. I also noticed that the whole time I was using Pale Moon, the browser has never crashed. I tried and tested it by doing the same stuff I do on Firefox – logging in to my WordPress dashboard, web browsing, watching online videos, etc.

Pale Moon is an open source project so it is FREE to download/use. If you want to be updated with the latest Pale Moon developments and news, you can follow it on Twitter – @palemoonbrowser.

Click here to download Pale Moon.

IMPORTANT: Some users who tried it report that uninstalling Pale Moon can delete your existing Mozilla Firefox profile (stored bookmarks, passwords, sessions, etc.). To make sure you won’t lose your profile you can back it up by installing either the FEBE (Firefox Environment Backup Extension) or the MozBackup Firefox addon.

UPDATE: As pointed out by one of our readers, only older versions of Pale Moon caused issues with the Mozilla Firefox profile as Pale Moon 3.6.6 and later versions no longer share profiles with Firefox. If you’re running a version earlier than 3.6.6, you can use the Profile Migration Tool to migrate your profile.

Anyone else tried or are using the Pale Moon web browser? From your experience, is it faster and does it perform better than Firefox? Please share your thoughts.

While using my Firefox web browser this morning, I was notified about a new available security and stability release – Firefox version 3.6.13. I immediately downloaded the latest version and updated Firefox. After that, I checked on the Mozilla website to find out more about the security issues that were addressed. I found out that this release contains patches for 11 vulnerabilities with 9 of those being deemed as critical.

Here’s the complete list of vulnerabilities that were patched in Firefox 3.6.13:

Moderate Impact

• XSS hazard in multiple character encodings

High Impact

• Location bar SSL spoofing using network error page

Critical Impact

• Incomplete fix for CVE-2010-0179
• Integer overflow vulnerability in NewIdArray
• Use-after-free error with nsDOMAttribute MutationObserver
• Java security bypass from LiveConnect loaded via data: URL meta refresh
• Add support for OTS font sanitizer
• Crash and remote code execution using HTML tags inside a XUL tree
• Chrome privilege escalation with window.open and <isindex> element
• Buffer overflow while line breaking after document.write with long string
• Miscellaneous memory safety hazards (rv:1.9.2.13/ 1.9.1.16)

Aside from the Firefox release, Mozilla has also released a security update for their email client – Thunderbird version 3.1.7. The Thunderbird release contains several bug fixes for performance and stability as well as enhancements for better handling of locally stored large folder files and improvements to reduce the risk of corruption of local IMAP mailbox copies.

If you are using Mozilla Firefox as your web browser and Thunderbird as your default email client, it is strongly recommended that you immediately update to the latest versions. In case you didn’t receive any notifications while using Firefox of Thunderbird, you can download and install the updates manually from their respective websites – Firefox website and Thunderbird website

Today, November 9th marks the sixth birthday of the Mozilla Firefox web browser. Firefox is my main browser of choice for the past eight years. I started using it back in 2002 when it was still called Phoenix/Firebird. I still remember the day I first installed it on my computer and how it felt to have a cool, new browser that was much better than the default Internet Explorer or alternative web browsers like Netscape and Opera.

For something that started as an experimental branch of the Mozilla Suite, Firefox has surely gone a long way. Firefox is now available in more than 70 languages and has about a quarter of Internet users choosing Firefox as their web browser of choice. Mozilla Firefox has been downloaded more than 1 billion times with the latest version, Firefox 3.6 having been downloaded more than 42 million times. Aside from that, more than 150 million users use Firefox Add-ons to customize their Web experience.

Personally, I’m looking forward to the new features and other enhancements that will be added/included in the upcoming version – Firefox 4. New features will include a redesigned UI (user interface), a home tab, “door hanger” notifications, improved support for HTML5 and CSS3 features. Firefox 4 will also include the Firefox Sync project – a tool that allows users to sync stuff like bookmarks and browsing history with the cloud and a new type of tab called an “application tab” similar to the Mozilla Prism project which allows users to turn web pages like Gmail into applications.

I know that other browsers like Google Chrome and Opera can hold their own against Firefox but until another web browser can offer me the same addons/extensions I have on Firefox which I heavily use and rely on for work, I’ll continue to be a happy Firefox camper.

Happy Birthday Firefox!

[image source: Flickr/Ryan Doherty]

Earlier this week, Facebook rolled out several updates including the Mobile Initiative with updates on its Facebook iPhone/Android apps. However, the most noticeable update and the one that got a lot reaction/complaints is the Facebook font size. A lot of Facebook users are complaining about the smaller font size because it’s causing them to squint and strain their eyes just to be able to read stuff on Facebook.

I didn’t notice the new font size because I use the Facebook for iPhone app most of the time. I found out about it because of several status updates posted by my friends. It’s not certain whether the font size will be reverted to the original size but according to Facebook, the smaller font size is just an experiment on making the site more efficient for users.

Because of the amount of complaints and frustration I’ve seen from many Facebook users, I’ve decided to write this short and simple tutorial to help them with the Facebook font size issue. This tutorial will enable users to adjust Facebook’s font size to make it bigger and more readable (this is applicable to any website). This procedure doesn’t require any changes done to your Facebook profile settings but utilizes a built-in “universal” shortcut command for all web browsers.

It doesn’t matter what web browser you’re using – Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Opera, etc. because the procedure is the same. All you need to do is login to Facebook and once you get to your profile, just press and hold CTRL then press the + (plus) key and that would automagically resize the font on your browser, making it bigger and easier to read.

Here’s a sample I made while viewing my Facebook profile:

BEFORE

AFTER

If you compare the BEFORE and AFTER screenshots, you can see that the font is a little bit bigger after performing the procedure and is now easier to read.

Usually, doing the procedure once is enough to make the font size readable for most people, but in case it’s still too small for you to read, you can make the font size larger but repeating the process. In case you want to revert and/or make the font size smaller, instead of the + (plus key), press the - (minus) key. So press and hold CTRL and then press - (minus).

Btw, some users may not experience any issues with Facebook’s new font size due to web browser settings. Also, if you’re logged in to Facebook on the iPhone or Android app then you also won’t be affected by this update. It’s still uncertain whether Facebook will revert back to the original font size or provide font size options, so for now this tutorial can be used as a temporary solution while the new smaller font size is still in effect. I hope this short and simple tutorial will be useful for those having problems with the Facebook font size. Please don’t forget to share this with your friends on Facebook.

Anyone having problems reading stuff with the new Facebook font size? Do you prefer or hate the smaller font size? Please share your thoughts.