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

Recently, a blogger friend of mine asked me how I got the social media icons (with links) on my email signature. If you recently received an email from me, then you might’ve seen it too. My email signature contains my name, a link to my blog – JaypeeOnline, links to my LinkedIn profile, Facebook Fan Page, Twitter account and my Google profile and at the bottom is a link to my latest blog post.

My “cool” email signature is powered by a Firefox addon/extension called WiseStamp. This is not a new addon and some of you might have heard of it before or probably even using it already (version 1.0 was released back in July of 2008). Anyways, I wanted to share it because I know there are still many people who don’t know about WiseStamp.

WiseStamp lets you customize your email signature – choose the font style, size & color, add images, lets you add RSS feeds – share blog posts, bookmarks, videos, quotes, etc., add links to social media and social networking profiles/accounts – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Flickr, FriendFeed, Digg, Plurk, MySpace, Tumblr, IM services and many more. With WiseStamp, you can also create multiple email signatures that you can use for personal or business emails.

To know more about WiseStamp, here’s a quick video tour:

WiseStamp features:

• Personally designed signatures
• Easy setup and configuration interface
• Use multiple email signatures (Business and Personal)
• Rename signatures
• Signature Rich Text editor (WYSIWYG Editor-choose color and font)
• Add your personal feeds (rss)
• Add your logo or image to your signature
• Automatically insert your signature to your webmail services
• Supports to all webmail functions- Compose Mail, Reply, and Forward
• Easily Include all your IM (Instant messaging) ID’s + Icons
• Easily link to all of your Social profiles & Services + Icons
• Manually add your signature at mouse cursor location
• preview while editing Signature
• Simple control- switch signature on/off
• Support for special characters
• Works with Gmail, Google App’s, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, AOL and more…

Advanced features:

• Option to treat each signature as HTML
• Full Ltr & Rtl languages support
• Add your personal signature to any online Html supported page (Google Docs…etc)
• Supports Firefox 2 & Firefox 3

Screenshots:
General

Settings

Preview

Email Signature

By default, WiseStamp will automatically insert an email signature when you compose an email. This feature can be turned on/off from the settings page. If you have multiple email signatures, it will select the default signature that you specified in the settings page. To access WiseStamp or edit your existing signatures, just click on the WiseStamp icon found on the bottom part of your browser or via Tools > WiseStamp.

Right now, WiseStamp is available as an extension for Mozilla Firefox, Flock, Google Chrome and Mozilla Thunderbird. It also works with most webmail providers – Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, AOL, etc.

The email signature I’m using is a pretty simple one. I’ve seen other email signatures that are more fancy and more creative. If you’re having a hard time designing or choosing a template for your email signature, you might want to check out the WiseStamp signature template gallery for some inspiration.

To download the WiseStamp extension or learn more about it, visit WiseStamp.com.

In case the download links won’t work for you, here are the direct links to the extensions:
Mozilla Firefox & Thunderbird, Flock
Google Chrome

What do you think of the WiseStamp Firefox extension? Anyone else using WiseStamp email signatures? What other features or options would you like to see added to WiseStamp? Please share your thoughts.

I signed-up last Friday but I was too busy and didn’t have time to do it. So if you noticed any downtime earlier, that because I was setting up my account, moving all my files and restoring my backups and finished around 1 AM Sunday morning. I supposed to finish this entry and publish it but I was so sleepy. The transition went well and I didn’t have any problems restoring my backups. The only thing that caused delay was me trying to get used to Dreamhost’s user panel. It’s totally different from Cpanel of which I’ve been using for a long time.

I’d also like to thank the guys at IGB for hosting my blog totally free for several years. You’ve been a great help to me and for JaypeeOnline.Net and I will never forget your kindness and hospitality.

Other Updates:

First update: When WordPress 2.1.3 was released, I wasn’t able to upgrade my installation right away because I was more worried about the problems I was experiencing within my blog. The only time I was able to upgrade was when I moved to Dreamhost. It was also easy coz they have a One-Click install section where you get to choose different programs like WordPress, Joomla, phpBB and have it installed for you with just one click of a button. All I had to do was upload my custom files and restore my database using phpMyAdmin.

Second update: I installed a plugin called Edit Comment created by Andrew Sutherland. What it does is that it enables blog readers to edit their comments within a specified time limit. This is useful because there are times when readers want to change or add something to their comment or sometimes correct a misspelt word and couldn’t do it because they’ve already hit the submit button. I know how it is coz I’ve experienced it a lot of times myself while leaving comments on other blogs. I’ve configured the plugin to let readers edit their comments within 30 minutes. Please let me know if it doesn’t work or if you experience problems with this feature.

Third update: I’m slowly switching to Gmail. If I frequently visit your blogs, you might notice that I’m using a new email address. I now use one of my Gmail accounts as my primary email account for blogging and for personal use. One of the main reasons why I made the switch is because of the POP access which I couldn’t do with Yahoo! Mail or Hotmail without using a third-party program. With Gmail, I can download email on my desktop using Thunderbird or in my Pocket PC. I’ll still be using my Yahoo! accounts but only for backup purposes and other subscription details.