ADP freedom is an online payroll management system, designed years ago and somehow still in use. It does not allow you to log in using any recent version of Firefox* or Chrome, and now also rejects IE10. So, if you're using Windows 8, you could be completely locked out of your own salary  and tax information. Almost. Fortunately, there's a trick.

Here's how to get past the utterly stupid "Unfortunately the browser you are using does not have a sufficient level of functionality to support this application" error.

UPDATE: Try opening this link: https://myfreedom.adp.com/ukWelcome.asp. IE10 should switch to IE5 emulation automatically. If not:

Open IE10 on the desktop. Click the settings cog icon on the right. Click 'F12 Developer Tools'**.

A Firebug-like panel will appear at the bottom of the browser. Click 'Browser Mode: IE10'. Choose Internet Explorer 7 from the list.

Instead of the usual login page, go to this link: https://myfreedom.adp.com/ukWelcome.asp

IE10 will now act like IE7, which will in turn switch into IE5-like quirks mode, and you'll be able to log in. In my experience it works well enough to get access to payslips, but you're entirely unable to book any time off work (brilliant). Once you're done, click 'Browser Mode: IE7' and put the browser back to normal IE10 behaviour.

* You can't even trick it using the Firefox User Agent Switcher plugin – this will get you past login, but nothing inside the website will work.

** This option may be disabled by group policy on some PCs. In which case, sorry :(

Something I'm working on – an app to download and view nautical wind forecasts for Greek waters.

Use the front page to select an area and time, and you can download either one map, or a whole day's worth:

The maps are stored offline for use when sailing and out of range of the internet. They can be browsed by forecast date:

.. or viewed full-screen, with pinch-zoom controls and the option to browse through the folder:

This is a work in progress.

Meet Viaziz. Or rather, http://www.viaziz.com/adtracking/39. How did I get there? Here's a nice advert that appeared on my Facebook page today. Save money on a Canon camera at www.saveonproducts.net.

Click it and, rather than the website listed, you'll land on the Viaziz page above. Looks interesting. You can't buy the camera, of course, but you can bid on various auctions with surprisingly low prices.

Once you've bought a 'bid package', that is:

So that's anything from £59 to £349. Before handing any money over, I wonder where the company is based? There's an address at the footer of the page:

London! Let's have a look on Google Street View, shall we?

Nice location. Busy, too – must be bustling with all those businesses inside. If you check the WHOIS records for viaziz.com, of course, you get some slightly different information:

Domain name: viaziz.com

Registrant Contact:

ViaZiz Domains ()

Fax:
1020 5th Street
Miami, STATE 33139
US

Status: Locked

Name Servers:
NS1.VODIEN.COM
NS2.VODIEN.COM
NS3.VODIEN.COM

Which is interesting. But in case you were worried, a quick Google search throws up the reassuring www.viazizscam.com:

Well, that seems clear. Check the WHOIS of that website, and note the nameservers:

Name Servers:
NS1.VODIEN.COM
NS2.VODIEN.COM
NS3.VODIEN.COM

Looks familiar somehow.

Incidentally, I recently wrote this about adverts on Facebook – always think before you click.

A little test from work using the GoPro HD2.

Since I'm thinking about all things WordPress, I've updated my Custom Captcha for WordPress into a proper plugin called Stop Registration Spam.

The idea is the same as before: to prevent automated registrations, and the spam that comes with them, by posing a question that will be simple for your visitors to answer, but impossible for a robot.

It now includes proper configuration via an options page in the WordPress Settings menu, where you can enter a unique question, answer and error message without altering the code.

You can download the plugin from the WordPress Plugin Directory, here.