Adam Bower adam@thebowery.co.uk wrote:
For firefox (so I presume Iceweasel too) go to "about:config" configure "ui.allow_platform_file_picker" to be false. [...]
Must be in later versions. I'm pretty sure I'll remember to look after I next upgrade. Thanks.
I'm getting bored of people asking questions or complaining about software "problems" when the "problem" isn't the software at all, just that it is their inability to use the internet to research problems and get the answer themselves. That was the basis of my original rant.
Some may be unable to use the internet to research problems because they're clueless, but it may be partly because the internet is gradually getting stupider.
The above fix may have been found through a search engine, but no link has been posted and probably the search results will have changed overnight. Web site owners try to "win" the latest search engine rankings, because most users stop on page three of a search [BBC]. This wouldn't be so bad if the search results were halfway stable and not open to so much manipulation.
But it is bad, because you can't rely on a search engine's results from one minute to the next. The ranking algorithm is manipulated by Search Engine Optimisers (SEOs) as a paid service, and by the engine admins as a punishment of sites they don't like.
This frequent fiddling - and its dramatic effects - encourages the bad SEO sellers /spammers /scammers by letting them show the occasional "quick win" in the rankings, which helps them convince more unsuspecting victims to buy their pollution services. Google's probably not too unhappy with that, because most SEOs (good and bad) also buy Google ads for their services and clients: giving SEOs results for their adverts feeds the spiral and helps Google's profits soar.
The obvious ways to stamp out this pollution are:
1. to start using bookmarks again, either directly or through shared-bookmark services - as well as reducing google's influence, this has the added benefit of helping reduce the typo-domain-squatters, and maybe help reduce "phishing" attacks (if you only access your subscribed sites through your bookmarks, you're less likely to end up on a fake); 2. to help rebuild the directory services like vlib and dmoz - these sites are compiled by reviewers and sometimes give better results, but they always seem to need more help to keep up with the huge search index robots; and 3. to use non-google search engines as a last resort.
We've got to stop searching and start navigating again, before we all drown in crap.