Archive for category Perspectives Firefox
Perspectives 4.3.4 Released!
Posted by daveschaefer in Perspectives Firefox on April 23, 2013
As you may have noticed, Perspectives has been updated! This release contains an important compatibility update for Firefox 20, plus a number of other changes:
- Update code for working with invalid certificates in Firefox 20
- Fix a bug to send requeries to the correct notaries
- Make the Preferences and Report Attack windows resizable
- In the Preferences window, set proper default height and width for the Notary Server textboxes
- In the Results window, expand the results box vertically to fill available space (This makes more text visible and keeps the radio buttons in a consistent place)Before:
Old Results Window
After:
New Results Window
Enjoy the update!
As always feedback is welcome. Feel free to leave a comment here or talk to us on the mailing list.
Perspectives Client 4.3.3 Released!
Posted by daveschaefer in Perspectives Firefox on November 22, 2012
Perspectives 4.3.3 has been released! This is a small update that simply adds heimdal and nine-eyes to the default notary list. Hopefully this will improve notary responses and keep your Perspectives addon running!
The update has been submitted to the Mozilla Addons site, and will be automatically published once it has been reviewed by the Addons team. You can also download it directly via this link.
As always if you have questions or comments feel free to leave a comment here or talk to us on the mailing list.
What Lies Ahead for Perspectives
Posted by daveschaefer in Notary Server, Perspectives Firefox on August 29, 2012
In the past 5 months we’ve had 2 instances of the default Perspectives notaries being unavailable for several hours. We’re taking concrete steps to prevent that. In addition to a number of other useful fixes and updates, here is a preview of upcoming features that will keep the Perspectives system running.
Perspectives Server version 3.0 – COMPLETE!
- Refactor the database code to use sqlalchemy, so it’s easier to run a notary on different systems and databases
- Add default arguments to Perspectives python modules wherever possible, so it’s easier to set up and run a notary server (stay tuned for a snappy HOWTO!)
- Add a static index page so visitors can learn what a ‘network notary’ is
An example static index page
Perspectives Server version 3.1 – In Progress
- Add support for memcached, to improve server performance and uptime
- Add the ability for notary servers to optionally count some performance-related metrics, to help us measure and improve notary performance and increase uptime (more details coming soon)
Perspectives Client version 4.4 – In Progress
- Optimize the code that handles notary replies so it runs more quickly (between 22x and 800x faster!)
- Add support for earlier quorum calculation if we have enough notary replies – so e.g. if you have 7 replies and that’s enough to establish a quorum, you won’t waste time waiting for the 8th notary to reply or timeout.
- Scale the Preferences window so it’s easier to see notary keys inside the textboxes
Earlier and faster quorum calculation in your browser combined with result caching on notary servers should make Perspectives faster and more robust. Using metrics to learn more about how Perspectives notaries are used and when they receive the most requests should help us ensure they can handle the request volume and continue running smoothly. I’ll also be launching at least one more notary server on a different web host. Hopefully all of this results in a better experience for everybody!
As always, if you have questions or comments let us know!
Perspectives 4.3.2: Perspectives en Español, en Français, auf Deutsch, and 中文!
Posted by daveschaefer in Perspectives Firefox on July 20, 2012
Do you speak Spanish, French, German, or Chinese? Then this update is for you! We’ve been working hard to get Perspectives ready for localization, and thanks to the help of some supremely awesome translators (thanks guys!) the release is now ready. Perspectives 4.3.2 contains four new languages, including German – our most-requested translation! If you speak any of these languages (or just love testing) please give Perspectives 4.3.2 a try and let us know what you think.
Perspectives 4.3.2 has been submitted to the Mozilla Addons site, and will be automatically published once it has been reviewed by the Addons team. You can also download it directly via this link.
As always if you have questions or comments feel free to leave a comment here or talk to us on the mailing list.
Perspectives 4.3.1 – SeaMonkey Hotfix
Posted by daveschaefer in Perspectives Firefox on June 20, 2012
For anyone using Perspectives with SeaMonkey, two bugs have been fixed and Perspectives and SeaMonkey are once again compatible. You can download an updated version directly from the Mozilla Addons site , or wait for it to be automatically published after it has been reviewed by the Mozilla Addons team.
Many thanks to the person who sent a Firefox Compatibility Report! I have added a note to the Perspectives tests to ensure SeaMonkey is tested more thoroughly in future releases.
Perspectives Firefox 4.3 Released!
Posted by daveschaefer in Perspectives Firefox on April 3, 2012
Welcome! After a hiatus, a new version of the Perspectives Firefox Extension (version 4.3) has been uploaded to the Mozilla Addons site: Install New Version
The new version will be reviewed by the Addons team, then automatically pushed via auto-update.
What’s New?
Remove the forced statusbar icon: The Perspectives icon will no longer always appear on the addons bar or status bar, freeing you to only place it where you want!
Add Perspectives icons: The Perspectives icon will now appear when you press alt-tab to switch between windows, making it easier to identify Perspectives dialogs.
Display key age: The ‘Notary Results’ dialog now displays the age of each key in days:
Several UI Improvements:
- Perspectives dialogs now center themselves in the screen
- The ‘Escape’ key can be used to cancel and close all Perspectives dialogs
- ‘OK’ and ‘Cancel’ buttons have a consistent placement
- The size of notary key textboxes has been increased to improve readability
- Alert popups now mention that they are from Perspectives
Other fixes: Perspectives 4.3 also fixes several bugs and adds more error checking to the Preferences dialog, so everything should work more smoothly!
Please try out Perspectives 4.3 and let us know what you think! Feedback, questions, and requests are all welcome 
Perspectives Firefox 4.2 Released
Posted by danwent in Perspectives Firefox on July 4, 2011
A new version of the Perspectives Firefox Extension (version 4.2) has been uploaded to the Mozilla Addons site: Install New Version
The new version will be reviewed by the Addons team, then automatically pushed via auto-update.
What’s New?
Customize Icon Location: Perspectives Icon can be place anywhere using Firefox’s mechanism for customizing toolbars. For example, here’s a picture of the Perspectives icon right next to the URL bar:
Add Your Own Notary Servers: The Perspectives Preferences dialog now has a tab dedicated to notary servers and includes the ability to specify your own notary servers to query in addition to the default set of notaries run by the Perspectives Project (the default notaries can even be disabled, if you prefer).
To add a notary server, add text in the following format to the bottom dialog window. The first line should be the notary server’s DNS name and port, separated by a colon. The next lines should be the notary server’s public key, including the “BEGIN PUBLIC KEY” and “END PUBLIC KEY” lines. For example:
notary.mydomain.com:8080 -----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY----- MIHKMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4G4ADCBtAKBrAFiENC/BwZXOfzDOed4Qbvjd/25 MixlCMlRUlfArJAvcjeBRmnY4fdQhi7/VH1qZeTQClegX1FMcuOORD29a4lks12W eTrh1HxLKxCTkPp5ZLqP8OiNxWqHdEQyinh2ulYFXZHWMlXhlsQKV2T7VsmfS0rL eukQAWpgGTXhACyZNpOQgjMm1vWEFaIsd2tT59Son7vxyCcaBoFCWv+zRW6kwaoK i0KgnEHwKwcCAwEAAQ== -----END PUBLIC KEY-----
For example, here is a picture of adding a fake additional notary.
If you’re curious how you can get additional notary servers, look at our post about running your own notary server for free on Amazon Web Services.
If you’d like to beta test future version of the Perspectives Firefox Extension, sign up for our beta testing email list:
