elnino blog

Roadster season is still not in full swing due to cold temperatures and occasional snow. But here are a few tips what you should do before the season.

Tip number one:

If your gear shifting is not buttery smooth as normal or you just want to make it a bit better I would suggest to change transmission oil. My Mazda MX-5 has 6 speed transmission which was co-developed by Ford. I need to say that while this is one of the best short gear transmission it can fell a bit notchy while the car is still cold, specially going into first gear. Over the internet you can find a lot of advises how to fix this behavior.

Like most of the people I was looking for Geniue Ford Motorcraft XT-M5-QS Full Synthetic Manual Transmission Fluid. This product is widely know as "unicorn tears" in Miata community.

After a bit of research I found out that it's quite hard to get it in Slovenia. Who would imagine that unicorn tears are so hard to get?

That did not stop me and I found out that Castrol is actually making unicorn tears with their own brand. It's called Castrol Syntrans Multivehicle 75W-90 and it also says that it meets Ford Approval which should results in smooth shifting.

I got this Castrol manual transmission oil and it did a great difference in the smoothness of my 6-speed manual transmission. I can highly recommend it.

Tip number two:

My model has an additional performance package which also brings Limited Slip Differential or simply LSD. Benefits of having an LSD, which is located on the rear axle, is improved vehicle traction and handling. LSD is also using special oil. On most cars you only change this oil when your odometer is showing around 200.000km. With sportier cars in this case Miata you need to change this oil more regularly. I would advise it to change in intervals at around 30.000-40.000 km.

After a bit of research and help of Mazda community I decided to go with Motul Gear 300 LS 75W-90 this one is intended for differential on high performance and racing cars. It is also important to note that it needs to be API GL 5 for Mazda MX-5 NC differential.

With a change of LSD oil we quickly notice that the ride becomes much more quieter and only then you notice how loud the differential really was with old oil. Definitely something you need to do properly maintain your Miata.

Also don't forget to frequently change your oil filter and engine oil. That are really the basics.

With that said, check your tires, tire pressure and you are ready for your first season trip. Don't forget to clean it, so it will shine on your ride.

I wounder where will you go...

Until next time …

Cheers,

Last year, the pre-pandemic year of 2019, I was enjoying sunny days under the pyramids of Egypt. Ten days of sun, relaxation and journeys.

Freedom of driving in the middle of desert, with wind all around reminded me of a long time wish I had. Dream that was there for a long time. When I arrived home from Egypt I was determined to tick another lifetime goal that I had.

Welcome back, it’s been a long time since last post.

Before we start with some fresh new content I want to introduce you new redesigned blog.

Really soon there will be new posts.

Until next time …

Cheers,

The term “hacker” can refer to someone or an activity with either good or bad intentions. The popular use is almost always with a negative connotation, mainly because of popular media showing this term in negative light.

How would you describe hacker?

I would compare it to a painter. What hackers and painters have in common is that they are both makers. Along with composers, architects, and writers, what hackers and painters are trying to do is make good things. Exploring possibilities.

The way to create something beautiful is often to make subtle tweaks to something that already exists, or to combine existing ideas in a slightly new way. After curiosity, a hacker’s most useful trait is persistence.

Let’s get back to comparing writers, painters and hackers... Over time, beautiful things tend to thrive, and ugly things tend to get discarded. It’s often like that if you are a writer. Good writers usually get the appropriate traction and reputation after they die.

How do hacker gain traction?

Hackers need to understand the theory of computation about as much as painters need to understand paint chemistry.

How do hackers gain knowledge?

Believe it or not the best sources of ideas are not the fields that have the word “computer” in their names, but the other fields inhabited by makers. Painting has been a much richer source of ideas than the theory of computation. For example, I was taught in high school that one ought to figure out a program completely on paper (diagram/algorithm) before even going near a computer. I found that I did not code this way. I found that I liked to program/code sitting in front of a computer, not a piece of paper.

Worse still, instead of patiently writing out a complete program and assuring myself it was correct, I tended to just spew out code that was hopelessly broken an hacky, and gradually beat it into shape. As far as I can tell, the way they taught me to program was all wrong. You should figure out idea/code/program as you’re writing them, just as writers and painters and architects do. At that point I realized I’m a hacker.

A programming language (not to be specific) is for thinking of programs, not for expressing new innovative way in form of code/programs you’ve already thought of.

If hackers identified with other makers, like writers and painters, they could show their full potential.

What about research institutes, academic world? If universities and research labs keep hackers from doing the kind of work they want to do, perhaps the place for them is in companies?

Unfortunately, most companies won’t let hackers do what they want either. Universities and research labs force hackers to be scientists, and companies force them to be engineers.

Because hackers are makers rather than scientists, the right place to look for metaphors is not in the sciences, but among other kinds of makers. So, what else can painting teach us about hacking?

One thing we can learn, or at least confirm, from the example of painting is how to learn to hack. You learn to paint mostly by doing it. The same applies for hacking and embracing the hacking mentality.

But in the end it’s all business. The rise of successful startup companies is the side effect of implementing hacker mentality.

If you want to make money at some point, remember this, because this is one of the reasons startups win: Big (corporate) companies want to decrease the standard deviation of design outcomes because they want to avoid disasters. But when you damp oscillations, you lose the high points as well as the low.

This is not a problem for big companies, because they don’t win by making great products. Big companies win by sucking less than other big companies.

Let’s take a look at one great example: Hackers think in different ways and they try to make revolutionary things. While Product Managers already have the framework and they just want to continue in their own way. It’s hard to engage a big company in a (for example) design/UX war, just as it’s hard to engage an opponent inside a castle in hand-to-hand combat. It’s easier and quicker to grab a gun in this case.

So, if hacking works like painting and writing, is it as cool?

After all, you only (probably) get one life. You might as well spend it working on something great. Being creative, the act of creating and making, is actually fundamental to what it means to be human. Famous philosopher Abraham Maslow also came to the same conclusion: creative acts are fundamental.

The concept of the hacker mentality is very simple at a low level. It is just people manipulating everyday things in their own environments with motivation to improve the way we interact with the objects an the world around us. So let’s hack all the things! And challenge current ways, methods.. whatever.

So, my question to you is, what are you hacking?

Till next time ...

Cheers,

What would you do if you could do it all the time?

Everybody is the happiest when they are doing what they want to be doing. When you get to do what you want to do, you’ve won. That is seductive nature of human beings in 21st century. To be more precise, in the era of Information Society.

I’ve been very fortunate to collaborate with high competent people in my early teenage days. At that time I had a lot of ideas. But we all know that ideas without execution are worthless. Some of the ideas became great projects, some of the ideas were just not ready for the world at that time and a lot of ideas failed on the first steep.

One of the first projects was building of my own brand “elnino.si” which was and still is my number one incubator for ideas. It’s funny when people say... “hey elnino!” While this was strange for me at the start it was also a solid proof that my work is recognized locally and much more globally thanks to the power of Open Web. Last year Janino Organization was born as a result of “too much” projects coming to elnino.si brand. In that year Janino has become an umbrella organization with a small team behind, few successful projects and still some ongoing projects.

The wishes are really “blue sky vision”, but still we have more demand for our services than we can handle and this is a proof we are doing a good job at Janino Organization.

One of the fields that really gave me a lot is also Open Source and culture around this phenomena. I was and still am supporter of this movement that is changing the world. When I started exploring Open Source world it was still being labeled as “hobbyist playground”. After educating myself on this field for a few year I was determined to prove that that was wrong and undervalued label.

Today Open Source is one of the leading streams of Information Technology and innovation in general. While most people disagreed I was determined to prove that Open Source is the next big thing and is here to stay. Numerous projects on this field brought me to numerous great opportunities that I am really pleased I was part of.

Bottom line: It’s all starts and ends with hard work and commitment. Even though people often doubted in me I made all my decisions predicated on the long term. I wanted to learn and gradually improve.

I was always driven to do more. It’s just my nature, I’m never satisfied with average.

Last two years were also challenging. I had to make some important decisions regarding my professional and also private life. On the career path I had three options. One was to continue my path on the field of Mobile. Second one was to continue in the field of Open Web and the third one was to try something tottaly new in the IT field. As you may guessed it I decided to broaden my horizons and went to a totally new field in IT connected with Life Sciences. Currently I work for Amplexor. I have probably chosen the hardest way. I really like challenges, this is the fuel that keep me going forward to improve.

Amplexor Life Sciences is the leading provider of end-to-end solutions. It enables life sciences companies replace manual work or obsolete siloed applications with automated single authoritative software product that helps users effectively tackle industry-specific challenges and problems.

Don’t get my wrong I don’t accept all challenges.

Steve Jobs was one of the people who followed path with set boundaries. He has been practicing the technic of saying “No” more often.

It might sound crazy at the start but according to the human psychology people are used to say “Yes” more often in the life.

The problem is that by saying “Yes” more often in life you will at some point get in the status where you will be stuck in the middle of nowhere and later on you will realize that you have made a mistake.

Because of saying “No” more often Apple has become one of the leading and  also well known companies with top-notch products.

Steve Jobs had a set frame of mind of what he wanted the product to look like. If something was not polished or did not fit within his boundaries he would simply cut it out by saying no to it.

Pre-empting might be the most difficult part about a decision, but it is the most effective means of letting other people know that you already have something on your plate. Saying “No” is a subtle art.

One of the most challenging parts my past year was an opportunity to publish a book with German publishing company.

They found me based on my research that I have done and were fascinated about my work. My academic research in 2016 highlighted how mobile devices operating with specific OS, in this case Firefox OS, are a perfect devices for performing illegal activities of organized crime. Why? Simply because commercial forensic tolls worth multi-thousand dollars do not fully capture all the data from this niche mobile operating system.

I open sourced 70% of the source code publicly (as much as I could) and also released a set of tools for free. At the time of writing this blog post none of the commercial “big money” forensic companies still don’t cover most of what this tools can do for a niche mobile operating system - Firefox OS.

While writing a book sounded exciting I said “No” I was not interested in making money out of my work or becoming a “famous hacker writer”. My work is already public and would not fit in my set of boundaries. Releasing tools and source code publicly was what I wanted to do and share it as a public good, this was in my set of boundaries.

One thing that was really hard to say “No” was the opportunity to act in a role of professor in the field of IT on the faculty. While I have wish to one day do that I could simply not give all passion and dedication into this opportunity, therefore the boundaries were out of my limits, for now. Hard to say it... but I had to do it - No.

Information Society and Web offers unlimited opportunities. If you do a good job opportunities will come. I did get a few jobs offers that I would not like to publicly disclose. I would like to say thank you for expressing an interest to all the people I shaked hands and offered me job or project. Who knows, maybe in few months/years our paths will cross...

This is, kind of, traditional recap that I usually post at the end of the year. But as we know being more available equates to having less time to focus on other things... like this blog post.

“As we become more mature and enlightened adults, we come to realize that if an opportunity is presented to us and it does not gain a near 100-percent enthusiasm and commitment from us, then the reply must be a 100-percent no.”  - Brendon Burchard

What I learned is that we are either being navigated by the flow of life which means we are becoming stagnant, hence going into “parked state” or pursuing to resonate our deepest self. I’m keen to keep pushing and exceeding the (yet) unknown limits.

Till next time ...

Cheers,

How do you keep employees engaged to stay?

It's obvious that big tech companies have a problem in retention rate. Despite of the high pay and jaw-dropping "startup like" perks. Employee turnover is costly, it affects the performance of an organization, and it becomes increasingly difficult to manage.

Half the number of recruits in any one year may be lost over the next five years, unless something can be done about the factors causing wastage. This is called a survival curve.

According to Peter R. Garber, Human Resource professional, turnovers can cost anywhere from 25% to 200% of the salary for the position if it needs to be filled for advertising, training, orientation, loss of productivity, and so on. Hidden expenses of a turnover can account for up to 80% more.

In my opinion here is the list of top things you should work on:

1) Cultivate a sense of ownership in employees by showing them how their role directly affects others in the company and client success.

2) Offer perks employees really want. Talk to them, it's not all about money.

3) Company culture is like an unspoken code among team members. Build a strong company culture, a culture of freedom.

4) Offer growth opportunities, as this is a major psychological factor in job satisfaction.

5) Pay competitively. Paying fair wages and providing competitive benefits are crucial elements of improving retention, especially if you want team members to trust your organization. It goes without saying that having competitive, market-level wages is the first step. The next step is getting to know your employees, their motivations, and their goals.

6) On-boarding and trainings, conferences and feeling of belonging to the vision and path the company is pursuing. Tools, time and training are the easiest problems to solve and affect employee retention the most.

7) Employees seek to use their talent and skills in the workplace. A motivated employee wants to contribute to work areas outside of his specific job description. Give them options to grow.

8) Clear lines of communication is a must. Last but definitely not least, unambiguous communication should be the cornerstone of foundation for all your other employee engagement strategies. People want to feel they’re a key part of the organization and that they play a role in upcoming plans. Keep your employees in the loop when it comes to the latest developments at your company. Have regular one to one meetings.

Employees stay for things they get uniquely from you.

These things might be tangible, like being able to walk to work, a four-day/ten-hour schedule, feeling aligned with the company.

Or they might be intangible things like learning new skills, working with a trusted supervisor, great team, or performing a service that helps others. Some of these stay reasons may come via policies or programs, whereas others occur during the course of doing work.

With that being said, retention and engagement is not a one time job, it’s a continuous loop of ongoing improvements.

Till next time ...

This week I meet with my friend, who also happened to be my first “official” mentor, Brian. I asked him if he can recommend me someone for our team at my current company. His response was, sure I can share the news just send me a link. The next step was logical and this is the result of it - blog post explaining why this is an excellent opportunity to join our team at Amplexor Adriatic in Slovenia.

So let’s start with basic information. Amplexor Adriatic is a member of the AMPLEXOR International group with clients in more than 20 countries worldwide. The group has 40 offices in 22 countries on 4 continents and more than 1900 employees and the best part is that our business is expanding so we are looking for new employees.

Amplexor Adriatic has two offices in Slovenia (Novo mesto) and Croatia (Zagreb) and we provide state-of-the art solutions in the field of life sciences. We have also been labeled as business stars and trendsetters in the field of Information Technology for Pharmaceutical companies.

Check out recent news about us in media (Slovenian language):

- Postavljavci trendov iz Novega mesta

- Delove podjetniške zvezde: Amplexor Adriatic

We are currently looking for multiple positions that you can check on Amplexor Workable.

Photo: Uroš Hočevar/Delo

In Slovenia, more specifically in my department, we are currently looking for:

- Consultants for Lifescience Solution Implementation

- System Engineers for Lifescience Solution Implementation

... and some other positions so check out Amplexor Workable.

Why should you join us?

- Pioneers on the field of Information Systems for content management in pharma.

- Working in international environment with the biggest pharma, biotech and medical device companies.

- We offer competitive pay with bonuses.

- Ability to work using the latest hardware (Laptops, Mobile devices, etc.) and software of your preferred choice.

- Regular travels to clients and visiting beautiful cities all around the World.

- Family friendly company: flexible working time, occasional working from home, regular team buildings and other benefits. Family first! :)

- We support your sport activities with yearly financing budget for each employee. Healthy body is happy body! :)

- We support your cultural engagement with yearly financing budget for each employee. Because we all enjoy great concerts, movies or other activities that spur our imagination! :)

- Work you do has impact on hundred of million of people around the world, do you need any additional motivation? Doing meaningful work not just for Pharma industry but also for well-being of people is a big motivation for all of us. So be prepared to see a lot of smiling faces in our offices! :)

- Relaxing working environment with a blend of young talented people and experienced experts willing to help you to achieve our goals.

Who are we looking for?

We are looking for people with can-do attitude willing to face daily challenges in a thriving working environment. We are looking for juniors (students, recent graduates, etc.) and also experienced experts. If you have a good work ethic and you are willing to learn new things...  this is your chance!

Contact me for any additional info, I’m happy to help you, or just apply at Amplexor Workable.

Till next time ...

Cheers,

We live in Information Society in which the creation and distribution of information has become the most significant economic and cultural activity. Right now a satellite or a passing drone might snap your picture. In other words, there is essentially no such thing as total privacy, online or otherwise.

Personally I like sharing thoughts and opinions with a wider audience online. And I like the convenience of using my computer, phone, or tablet to communicate, find directions, and make purchases anywhere in the world.

On the contrary, common-sense strategies, the Internet equivalent of drawing the curtains and locking your door, can significantly reduce the risk of having your personal information fall into unwelcome hands.

Many times I have heard the phrase: “I have nothing to hide”, it’s just an absurd statement. I’m sure you’re an honest, moral, law-abiding citizen. But if you tell me you have nothing to hide, I’m going to laugh in your face.

We all have secrets, and that’s as it should be. But you may not realize how much you want to keep private and how you might inadvertently give it away online.

I’m sure your are aware that every Web site you visit, every Web search, every video you watch, and every file you download leaves a trail, which includes information about your location, your device, and your browser, among other things. Parts of this trail are stored on your own computer or mobile devices as histories, caches, and cookies. Some parts are stored on the servers of search providers, advertisers, and other entities.

You should be aware that browsing the Web typically results in at least the following information being stored, for each browser you use:

- Browsing history: A list of every Web page you’ve visited, in each browser.

- Download history: A list of every file you’ve downloaded again, in each browser.

- Cookies: Textual information stored on your device by the sites you visit, or by the companies who place ads or other code on those sites. Cookies are most often simple settings or random-looking strings of characters that identify your browser uniquely, but they can also include your username, password, loca­tion, or any number of other details.

- Zombie cookies: Conventional HTTP cookies aren’t the only way browsers can store persistent data about your behavior. Records similar to cookies can be stored separately when you visit sites with content that uses Flash, Silverlight, HTML5 Web storage, etc. In some cases, the effect is to recreate cookies even after you’ve deleted them so that’s why we call them by nickname “zombie cookies”.

- Web cache(s): The contents of pages you’ve visited recently, especially images (so the page can load more quickly if you return to it) and favicons (the little icons that appear in your browser’s address bar next to the URL). Some browsers also store thumbnail images of the pages you’ve visited and similar data.

The above is only a partial list. Some sites use even sneakier techniques to squirrel away various information about you in a variety of places. In addition to all these things, your device may store a global cache of recent DNS lookups - somewhere outside your browser there may be a list of the domain names you (or your apps) most recently visited along with their IP addresses.

Web activities can follow you everywhere. That’s why the big corporate companies like Google, Microsoft, Facebook and others want to track you across accounts and devices (to get the most information about their users).

Mozilla on the other hand is a non-profit organization striving to fight for Open Web. We recently introduced Firefox Focus, private mobile browser. Firefox Focus is already available for iPhone users on App Store. Firefox Focus for Android is also close to being released.

So how is Firefox Focus different from any other mobile browser?

Focus automatically blocks trackers that follow you around the web. You can browser freely for that engagement rings, flights to Las Vegas or expensive cigars that you don’t want anybody to know about.

Firefox Focus is super simple: no tabs, no bookmarks, no pop-ups - just URL bar and extremely fast and user friendly browsing experience.

Browse like no one’s watching. The new Firefox Focus automatically blocks a wide range of online trackers — from the moment you launch it to the second you leave it. Easily erase your history, passwords and cookies, so you won’t get followed by things like unwanted ads.

Accessibility of information is one of the most powerful aspects of the Web. It is all the more powerful when anonymity is protected.

We know from copious user research and constant community feedback that being able to browse the web without stressing about being tracked or served unwanted ads is a big deal.

For the last few weeks I have been using Firefox Focus on daily basis on Android device. I’m really happy to see that even pre-release version is stable and extremely fast. Here is a sneak peak of Firefox Focus localized for Slovenian market.

On iOS Firefox Focus is already available in more than 27 languages, covering billions of users around the world.

Be sure to follow me for more updates about Firefox Focus for Android and the date when it will be released on Google Play.

Till next time ...

Cheers,

The digital revolution is now part of our everyday life. Much of the digital change has happened at such a dazzling pace, especially over the past decade.

Technological innovations have been powered by ubiquitous connectivity and consumers have constantly increased their dependence on it. On one side we have the fast innovative and creative technological pace and on the other side we have contrasting slow pace of the legislative and regulatory process. Much of the standardization, legalization or any kind of regulation especially in the tech sector is always in inevitable risk of being out of date by the time it hits the statue book, or even so vague that it offers nothing new of any real value.

In many cases the digital world has delivered considerable benefits for consumers in terms of choice and plurality. Connectivity has unlocked other forms of creativity too. One of the key points was the role of the Web in this digital revolution.

Over the years we have seen rise of multiple new technologies which now allow us to create interactive and diverse Web pages. In all these years the Web has become like one bacteria - It’s schematic but still complex.

Diagram of Mycoplasma pneumoniae’s metabolic pathway reminds me of the Web today.

I’m sure you can spot the complexity of this diagram. But still this diagram is detailed enough to trace a path from glucose to ethanol. We can draw a few analogies between the digital (Web) and organic (biological) worlds.

Let’s make an assumption that the components of the novel H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, are similar as computers.

If organism are like computers with IP addresses, each functional group of cells in the organism listens to the environment through its own active port. As port 25 maps specifically to SMTP services on a computer, port H1 maps specifically to the windpipe region on a human. Interestingly, the same port H1 maps to the intestinal tract on a bird. Thus, the same H1N1 virus will attack the respiratory system of a human and the gut of a bird. In contrast, H5 the variety of hemagglutinin protein found in H5N1, the deadly bird flu specifies the port for your inner lungs. As a result, H5N1 is much deadlier than H1N1 because it attacks your inner lung tissue, causing severe pneumonia.

In theory we could hack the virus (make a variation) and modify the virus sequence to make it deadlier.

Wait... how does the Web relate to that?

Well the situation is similar. We have many Web browsers which are based on rendering engines. Rendering engine is a component that draws text and images that the user can see on the screen.

Like many variants of flu, no vaccine can target all types of the virus. So if we have one killer virus we could wipe out most of the humanity, maybe one small group of people would survive it (because of ability to confer immunity).

With multiple rendering engines (variants) we can ensure that the web cannot be hurt by one “killer virus” in the form of only one rendering engine.

We still have different browsers but we can see that lots of browsers are adapting same rendering engines. Safari and Chrome are using WebKit and even Opera abandoned it’s own rendering engine to use WebKit. On the other hand Microsoft cleared legacy code of their Trident rendering engine and introduced EdgeHTML - rendering engine which is used in Microsoft Edge. Firefox is based on it’s own Gecko rendering engine.

In the words of “killer virus” - one rendering engine or even one browser to rule them all. That would be disastrous.

So does it matter to have diversity (of rendering engines) on the web? Yes.

Mono-cultures are brittle, vulnerable, and difficult to change. This statement was already confirmed in the past when the Internet Explorer 6 was introduced. Lack of competition brought a lot of stagnation in that period. In some cases rendering engine monoculture or “killer virus” already exists on Apple mobile devices. You can download any browser on App Store but they all use the same WebKit rendering engine. This means that the innovation curve and vulnerabilities can be more easily exploited.

If you would attempted to recreate the Web in some really clean, monoculture code written for specific rendering engine you would have something that would impress the heck out of your programming peers but no one would ever use it.

Web in the form of “one rendering engine to rule them all” would become boring and uncreative.

The dream of a single rendering engine is the dream of someone who fails to understand the most fundamental thing about the Web. Web is polymorphism. It’s diverse, flexible and messy, but it’s beautiful just because of that.

The diversity sustains the Web. I have one pledge for the future, whether you are Web developer, hacker, creator or decision maker, please don’t support the creation of “the killer virus” and don’t let the Web become a vulnerable monoculture. Diversity is better than a monoculture. For everybody who believes in diversity, polymorphism might be the right thing. Polymorphism is the art of making one thing appear in many different facets and in many different ways. Only that way innovation can happen.

Till next time ...

Cheers,

Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia has recently (3th of March 2017) published important notice that their service “eDavki” will no longer support Mozilla Firefox browser.

Web service “eDavki” is e-commerce portal which allows Slovenian citizens (and companies) to electronically submit tax documents, communicate with tax administration and basically solve all other electronic tax operations.

Tomorrow (7th of March 2017) Mozilla will release Firefox 52 which will be the first version of Firefox which will not support NPAPI plugins.

What is a plugin?

Plugin(s) is/are shared libraries that are/were used to display the content that Web browser can’t/couldn’t display natively.

Plugins are written using NPAPI (Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface), the cross-browser Application Program Interface (API) for plugins.

Back in the days we had to install Adobe Reader plugin to open PDF files directly inside the browser. Open Web standards have allowed us to develop technologies like PDF.js, Web standards based platform for parsing and rendering PDFs inside the Web browser. Most of modern browser already implemented this or similar technology to open PDF files natively. This shows that Open Web as platform is constantly improving and innovating. Plugin based solution was vulnerable and had a lot of security issues. Other known examples were also QuickTime and RealPlayer plugins that were used to play special format videos in Web page.

NPAPI was first developed for Netscape browser back in the 1995.

Plugins are now a legacy technology. They are not available on most mobile devices. For years, Mozilla has aimed to make the Web plug-in-free by supporting open standards instead of obsolete and often dangerous plugins.

Plugins are negatively affecting the browser performance, security and user experience.

Browser plugins have proven to be the most insecure part of Web browsers. Flash and Java are some of the biggest attack vectors on the Web. No matter what operating system or browser do you use you still have the same Java or Flash plugin version. This means that an attack on the plugin should work across every browser and operating system. 

Plugins have also been a leading cause of crashes, especially when their crashes brought down the entire Web browser. That was partially solved with plugin sandboxing (plugin isolation), which allowed that only plugin was crashed.

All the security issues and struggles (that came with plugins) are now being solved thanks to much healthier environment of rapid browser development and Web standards.

Microsoft has deprecated Silverlight. Oracle has also announced the deprecation of the Java browser plug-in. As of April 2016, QuickTime for Windows is no longer supported by Apple. The QuickTime plug-in for OS X has already been disabled since 10.9 Mavericks.

Mozilla announced the end of support for NPAPI in 2015 and is the last major browser that ends support for plugins. Google ended support for NPAPI plugins in Chrome 45 (back in September 2015). Therefore, the legacy NPAPI plug-in support in Firefox, deprecated since October 2015, will be removed from Firefox 52 with the exception of still-popular Adobe Flash Player (but there is also plan to discontinue the support).

Instead of developing more secure and user friendly experience for end users Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia is now suggesting to block Firefox updates to keep on using the “eDavki” services.

Not only that they did not develop alternative and more safe solution in the last 2 years. They also suggest to completely turn off the updates of popular browser among Slovenian users. The rapid development cycle produces new version of Firefox every 6 weeks. New versions include security patches and features which improve users safety and user experience (UX) on the World Wide Web.

Therefore, they (Financial Administration) are sending very clear sign that they don’t care about user safety while using their services.

Recently (9th of February 2017) government related Web based service called “AJPES” was cracked (Hacking vs Cracking). “AJPES” manages the Slovenian Business Register as a central public database on all business entities, their subsidiaries, and other organization segments located in Slovenia which perform profitable or non-profitable activities. Attackers managed to get to personal data, which should be hidden. This confirms that security is not the strong point of government related services.

Using (NPAPI) plugins is dangerous because (most) plugins have unrestricted access to local machine. If your plugin contains a vulnerability, an attacker might be able to exploit that vulnerability to install malicious software on the user's machine.

When can we expect that government portal and services are renovated and accessible to all citizens using the latest, safest and more user friendly solutions that the Open Web platform offers?

Mozilla, as non-profit organization which supports the principles that guide our mission to promote openness, innovation & opportunity on the Web, encourages website developers to avoid using plugins wherever possible and use standard Web APIs instead.

Till next time ...

Cheers,

Another year is slowly coming to an end. This is a regular type of post which I post at the end of each year.

To tell you the truth 2016 was full of challenges.

This year was the year of getting back on the right track. Life brings you ups and downs and 2016 was all about getting better and improving myself.

On the personal note I have accomplished a lot of “small victories”. Life is all about your legacy. If you improve as a person and people around you tell you that... you know you are on the right path. On the other side your legacy is also being written by yourself. Make the right decisions and results will come. It’s easy to dream, but much harder to execute. You must chase your happiness.

I figured out that we (as people) are not really good at knowing what we want. We (as humans) are quickly disappointed and we easily give up... but path to something better, greater may just be one step ahead. So my advice for you is: be patient!

It’s about being patient. It’s about going an extra mile. It’s about going out of your comfort zone. This was my philosophy this year and I will continue to embrace it in the future.

This was the year when I successfully finished my Master’s degree (with honors). I’ve met a lot of new people and I’m really grateful to be able to cooperate with them on multiple projects. There will be doubters, there will be haters, there will be non-believers, and there will be me (and you) proving them wrong. Like each year this year also included a few travel journeys.

Big part of this year was also change of my professional path. I can’t say how grateful I am for all the interviews and honest talks during the last 6 months.

Thanks to all the people that got in contact with me and offered me a helping hand when I was looking for a new challenge. I would also like to thank you for all your (job) offers (and your valuable time). I’ve made a decision to try something outside of my “comfort area” but still I decided to stay in Information Technology sector. Something to advance my professional career, a big challenge indeed. Only time will tell if this was the right decision, but for now I’m really committed to learn and become more competent in my new role.

I’ve shaken many hands this year and met wonderful people. I’m sure our paths will cross again in the future either on professional or friendly level.

Thanks for a great year!

Till next time ...

Cheers,

Last week I had the pleasure to be a guest of FOSS Force. FOSS Force is a news site offering insight into the goings on in the IT world, focusing on the interests of the Open Source community.

They mostly publishes analysis of news pertaining to free and open source software. It was an honor to be invited and discuss the current state of Open Source in Europe.

Interested to find out more? Watch the video below.

Till next time ...

Cheers,

Basic copyright laws and enforcements have been in effect for hundreds of years.

Let’s go back in the history: First Industrial Revolution was based on water and steam power to mechanize production. The second was all about electricity which helped create mass production. The third, connected electronics and information technology to automate production. Now we live in “Fourth Industrial Revolution” which we also call the digital revolution.

Digital revolution is characterized by a fusion of technology and society. It is also blurring the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres.

But this is only the beginning, as we are constantly developing new technologies on the fields such as Internet of Things, 3D printing, AR & VR, quantum computing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, autonomous vehicles, etc.

We are facing new challenges and endless opportunities. We cannot foresee in which direction this revolution will go, but the history suggest that this could be combination or even multiplication of existing technologies (and of course people). As we are moving more and more in the “Digital Era” we are facing laws that are old and outdated.

Copyright started with publishing industry that have been historically influenced by the socio-political and legal frameworks. Jurgen Habermas created the term “public sphere”, which is shaped by sociology, politics, economics and laws.

This theory can be really useful in understanding any future modern copyright law.

In this context, writers as a group historically played an important role in the development of copyright laws. With the rise of Web and Internet electronic media have transformed the public sphere by changing the models of public discourse. Internet has inevitably expanded the ambits of the public sphere within the authors create in global space, instead of limited public places.

We are facing online revolution where every user is not only consumer but also the creator of content on the Web. The Internet has become a platform for Innovation, opportunity and creativity.

This is the place where artists, coders, hackers, entrepreneurs, educators, researchers and all Web users create, share, read and collaborate.

European Commission is trying to frame a modern more European copyright framework, which will modernize EU copyright rules. But they are failing to deliver that. Certain laws in EU haven’t caught up with digital revolution. One of them is Copyright legal framework which is outdated and prevents or even legally prohibits (depends on the country) the basics of Open Web platform - collaboration and openness. This framework was written even before Internet changed the way we live.

Copyright law clashes with the life in 21st century!

It’s illegal to share a picture of the Eiffel Tower light display at night. The display is copyrighted — and tourists don’t have the artists express permission.

In some parts of the EU, making a meme is technically unlawful. There is no EU-wide fair use exception.

In some parts of the EU, educators can’t screen films or share teaching materials in the classroom due to restrictive copyright law.

Think that’s absurd?

It’s even worse. EU Commission just proposed (14th of September 2016) proposal which buries the hope for a modern, flexible and technologically neutral copyright framework. They are trying to brake the Internet and the Web as we know it. Instead they support geo-blocking and censoring of content which shows that they don’t embrace the digitization and innovation. We (as Europeans) deserve better and should fight for our rights.

This new proposal could have substantial implications for any Web user. Outdated media publishers are successfully lobbying all over the world to restrict linking on the Internet.

Spain and Germany have recently changed their laws to apply charges to link to news websites. Independent news media and bloggers can’t do their jobs, aggregators are struggling, small presses find their websites unlisted, and access to knowledge is restricted. Now, old media firms have been pressuring lawmakers to apply link censorship laws to the whole EU.

Internet users and companies should be able to freely link to content and services of their choosing.

Links are essential to freedom of expression online, and experts warn that censoring links will “Broke the Web” as we know it.

The Commission’s rules include invasive and costly methods for monitoring and filtering user content. This means censoring some of your favorite content, which could literally disappear from search engines and the Web. Not only EU users... users all over the world will be impacted!

Do you think that’s even more absurd?

Let’s fix copyright together. Here are three things that can help fix copyright:

Let’s fight for laws that make sense in 21st century. Laws that support creativity, inclusion, diversity and collaboration in our digital lives.

Tell the EU that we need better more modern copyright law which supports the basics of Open Web.

Are you with me?

Sign the petition today: https://www.changecopyright.org/

Till next time ...

Cheers,

In recent months I have published two posts which were well recieved by public.

First one is my extended article about smartphone security in popular science magazine “Life and Science” (Original: Življenje in tehnika).

The article was published in LXVII edition, July - Avgust 2016. You can buy this edition of magazine here (It’s in Slovenian language).

Other publication was made for Mozilla Open Mic program. Mozilla Open Mic program is a great example of new decentralized communications program that is pushing transparency and participation to new level. It’s build around the principles of collaboration and participation. It brings together PR, Social and Support (SUMO) to create a total communications program powered by enablement. Part of this program is also Mozilla's newly created Medium channel called Mozilla Open Mic.

I have recently published my first publication for Mozilla Open Mic: Doing things in the Open, Mozilla style.

"Promoting open source values in different areas is what makes Mozilla different.” - @ninovranesic from @MozillaSI https://t.co/EKJJsZYxeH

— Mozilla (@mozilla)

August 3, 2016

It’s been a long time since my last post of this kind. Three years have passed and it’s time to recap achievements. In 2013 I have successfully finished my Bachelors Degree and I was determined to continue my career development.

Later that year I have joined Firefox Marketplace (ex. Add-ons and Marketplace Management Operations team) in my role as App Reviewer. In 2015 I got promoted to Senior App Reviewer. With the sunset of Firefox Marketplace I’m now ready to jump in new challenge.

I’ve also been active in bunch of other projects in the IT world. But I was still missing something... I decided to go back to college.

Last few years in my life were like a rollercoaster ride, full of ups and downs. During that time I have matured and gained a lot of knowledge and wisdom. In my opinion human beings have so much hidden potential within them, we just need to be supportive to each other. World is filled with opportunities, and each opportunity can be turned into source of wealth.

Wealth is not limited to money. All of our positive achievements can be considered wealth. Knowledge is kind of wealth, as are happiness and love.

I’m really ambitious person. Ambition can bring you lots of friends and fans because of the continuous achievements you make in your life which usually impresses others.

On the other side you always attract someone who is jealous of your achievements, but that’s normal. I call them “secret admirers” and not “haters”.

We all have love/hate relationship with change. If things are always the same we become to stagnant. If there are to many changes all at once, we desperately seek comfort. Have you ever felt that way? But look on the bright side; changes make you smarter. If things would never change, you would never learn anything new. With every change you learn a new skill... even if it’s just how to adapt to your current life situation.

Let’s get back to the point. Last week I have successfully defended my Master’s Degree thesis titled: Development of method for the implementation of forensic activities on mobile operating system Firefox OS.

Photo by : Faculty of information studies.

We are all aware that in information society mobile phone has become an indispensable tool. Development of new smartphones and mobile operating systems has created new opportunities for the execution of criminal act. Mobile phone can be a valuable source of data in the digital forensic investigation. In my master thesis, we have developed a new forensic method to acquire and analyze data from Firefox OS mobile devices. Through the research, we have also developed adequate tools, which together with new method represent a bundle to perform forensic analysis. The method was applied to different versions of Firefox OS operating system and demonstrated in practical examples.

My work was graded 10 (A). I’ve passed with honors and now I hold a professional title: Master of Social and Information Science. This was one of the goals I wanted to achieve and I’m really proud of that. It was an honor to be mentored by a world esteemed expert Full Prof. Miroslav Bača, Ph.D., he is currently a Head of Centre for Forensics, Biometrics and Privacy at Faculty of Organization and Informatics, University of Zagreb.

He was the reason I decide to research and digg deeper in topics like:

- Computer Forensics, - Biometrics, - Multimedia Systems, - Information Security.

His teaching and mentoring style is really unique; he supports open-minded and practical approach which is often overlooked at universities.

Gaining confidence and self-esteem is important on your journey to success. Your entire character is shaped by your self-esteem, which is a prerequisite for self-confidence. Self-confidence is the manifestation and expression of self-esteem to the outside world.

Self-esteem is the value and worth you assign to yourself and how much you cherish yourself. Feelings of admiration, greatness, and belief in yourself define your self-esteem. Tell me how you feel about yourself; Do you feel a sense of greatness and importance within you? Your future success both in your life and your career absolutely depend on this feeling.

So what’s next? There are some opportunities, but let’s wait and see what comes next. I’m more motivated than ever. I still have some ongoing freelance projects which I would like to finish and then I will try to reach my next goal.

I’m always open for interesting opportunities, so let’s get in touch here ( or over email: nino.vranesic[at]elnino.si ).

No matter what stage you’re currently, keep being positive. You’re living a creative journey and I wish all of you a great success as you share your gifts and passions with those around you.

I'm grateful for your wishes and greetings that I have recieved, thanks for all the support!

Till next time ...