Daily Archives: August 17, 2011

Fixing the Firefox “…due to mozilla’s security features error” pop-up

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I upgraded to the most recent version of Firefox, and for awhile, I was getting a “…due to mozilla’s security features” pop-up error on a lot of websites I visited.

I found the solution to get rid of this highly annoying “feature” from a user named Castaign buried in the Firefox forum.

“This is likely caused by the Web Fixer add on. If you have this add on installed, you should have a small icon on the bottom right corner of Firefox (next to the authentication padlock icon) that says Fix. Click this to access the Web Fixer menu and choose Quick Settings –> Change Settings –> Other Options tab. Uncheck the box labeled “Show message on security errors”. You may need to restart Firefox for the fix to work.”

Thanks Castaign!

Avoid the shiny metal HP v220w USB flash drives

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HP POS

HP POS

Please excuse my looooong absence, but I’ve been extraordinarily busy with hundreds of work projects these last few months.

Recently I purchased a HP v220w USB flash drive. It was on sale at the time and was the cheapest 16gb stick on the shelves, so I figured why not. A flash drive is a flash drive, right?

I first plugged it into my main desktop PC running Windows 7. It mounted, then disappeared, then re-mounted, then disappeared again.

OK, I thought, maybe it didn’t like Windows 7 or that particular PC. I rebooted the Windows 7 PC and tried plugging in the HP drive again, but got the same disappearing mount trick.

So I made the rounds…

  • Plugging it into a MacBook Pro Laptop : Wouldn’t mount five out of five times.
  • Plugging it into a Mac Pro 12-core Desktop : Wouldn’t mount five out of five times.
  • Plugging it into a Windows 7 desktop : Wouldn’t mount first 3 times. Mounted on 4th try and stayed mounted! Unplugging it and then plugging it back in… it wouldn’t mount.
  • Plugging it into a Windows 7 Laptop : Wouldn’t mount first 4 times. Mounted on 5th, then disappeared.
  • Plugging it into a Windows Vista desktop: Wouldn’t mount five out of five times.
  • Plugging it into a Windows XP desktop (the “emergency” spare): Wouldn’t mount five out of five times.

At this point, I knew it was a bad flash drive. So I went back to the store I bought it from and got an identical replacement HP drive. The same size, the same 220w variety.

So imagine my surprise when I plugged this new flash drive into my systems and the Same! Damn! Thing! Happened!

I was impressed. In all the wrong ways, mind you, but I was impressed.

So I looked online. Specifically HP’s own website where they sell this… thing. It’s full of one star reviews and people reporting similar experiences.

SO, in summary, I have to say the HP v220w USB flash drive is junk. Did I say junk? I meant ABSOLUTE GARBAGE. A USB drive that will not mount? That’s a textbook example of terrible engineering and rotten quality control.

HP: screwing up accessories every other company gets right.