Binary Turf

How To Tweak Google Chrome To Protect Your Privacy

ruchika — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:16:14 +0000

If you are the net-savvy kinds, web surfing and searching would be keeping you engaged all day. And your browser copes up to provide you with the relevant information. Your browser comes with certain default settings, while you can always alter those settings to improve your browsing experience. Here are a few settings for Google Chrome that may enhance your surfing experience. Click on the tools icon (to the right of address bar) and select the “Options” menu item. Under the “Options” click on the tab “Under the Hood” and you are all set to tweak the browser to your preferences. The following are the various services, features and settings which you can turn off to protect your privacy:

Suggestions From Navigation Errors: The browser sends Google the URL of the page you’re trying to reach in order to offer you suggestions of alternative or similar webpages. This setting comes in handy when the url entered by you is not available. But if you don’t want to send this information to Google because of privacy concerns, you may want to uncheck this box.
Address Bar Suggestions: If your default search engine uses Google’s suggestion service, Google Chrome sends the text you type in the address bar to Google in order to retrieve suggested searches and sites, which are then displayed in the address bar menu. Google records a random two percent of this info. It does save you keystrokes by providing suggestions from across your browsing history and popular sites, but turn it off to avoid contributing to these stats from your system.
DNS Pre-fetching: DNS stands for Domain Name System and refers to the IP address of links on a web page. The browser uses the IP address to load the web pages. When you turn on this feature, the browser looks up or pre-fetches the IP addresses of all links on the webpage. This way it enables your browser to load the web pages faster. But this does involve transmission of all the link information etc. to the Google DNS servers. Turning this option off stops the transmission of this information.
Phishing and Malware Protection: This is a security service that saves your system from getting infected by phishing and malware sites. So, if you visit any suspected site, the browser warns/alerts you. The browser sends a partial copy of the URL you’re visiting to Google to check it against a list of known phishing and malware sites.
Usage Statistics and Crash Reports: Permit the browser to send Google information about your installation of the browser and information from files, applications, and services that are running whenever you experience a browser crash. This actually can be a scary thought for some. And you never know when some statements are edited or jumbled in Google’s privacy policy to reflect this as a precondition or a valid data collection policy.
Content Settings: You can also set your preferences for cookies, images, JavaScript, pop-ups and plug-ins. All you need to do is to select the appropriate radio buttons. Cookies are files created by websites you’ve visited to store browsing information, such as your preferences for the website or profile information or even info about returning visits, visitors etc. Turning this off hurts your browsing experience but you can set it to clear coolies etc. on quitting the browser and to prompt when a site tries to set cookies (this can bug you almost every few seconds).

While privacy concerns can’t be termed paranoia, for those who have valid reasons to protect their information to transmit through public channels to a third party server for possible analysis, recording, tracking etc. it makes sense to tweak these settings for maximum privacy protection.

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Google Priority Inbox Breaks Google Chrome & Gmail

ruchika — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:54:39 +0000

Gmail recently in news for its Priority Inbox, has encountered an annoying bug. This bug is active only on Google Chrome and for those chosen ones to whom the new feature “Priority Inbox” is offered. When you try to log in your Gmail account using Google Chrome, it annoys the users with a music track that starts playing out of nowhere. While Google is working on its way to fix the problem, currently the only fix is to switch to other browsers or simply mute your system. You may find some solace in the fact that currently Gmail Priority Inbox is only offered to Google internal users for testing and is due release next week.

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Google Realtime Search: Searching Through Socialmedia

ruchika — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:06:39 +0000

Google, has moved a step ahead with its realtime search. The all new Google Realtime web page in fact is a standalone page for the updates subsection of Google Search Results page. The realtime search is a dedicated home page/service to help you dig your search results a little further. It lets you see updated social conversations, news articles and blog posts about latest topics around the world. Here’s a look at the features of Google Realtime:

Dynamic Streaming: Google Realtime has taken the competition a step further by providing real time information on any topic from any domain, be it social media sites, status updates, news alerts or blog posts. An effort of delivering information integrated from various sources sounds amazing. The page keeps on updating the live results as they stream through the search-index. An option to pause this activity is provided right under the search box.
Geographic Refinement: It facilitates the customization of search on the basis of location. Therefore, you can search and sort your results based on specific location by specifying it under “Custom Location” link.
View Full Conversations: It enables you to follow a discussion on the web real-time. With “full conversation” you can view the entire conversation thread at once.
Backed By Google Alerts: Every single search that you execute on Google Realtime offers you to create an email alert on the same query so that you can keep in touch with the advancements live, daily or weekly.
Replay Of Time: It organizes the search results on any topic in chronological order.

Get ready to experiment and experience the all new Google Realtime search and keep an eye on your social-media contacts.

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Here’s A Site Allowing You To Compare The Differences Between…

ruchika — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:00:36 +0000

Human being’s quest for knowledge sometimes faces critical issues; the time when you need to know some differences right then and there. There can be a list of examples on this, like if there is a difference between ability and skill. Or, how is an iPad different from a Kindle?

DifferenceBetween.net helps you find the differences between various objects, business terms, gadgets, technology jargon and words from literature. This website comes handy when looking for contrasting features of similar terms or objects or even when comparing two products. So, next time you want to find the differences between Coke and Pepsi you know where to look for

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Gmail Priority Inbox: Important Mails First

ruchika — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:00:09 +0000

Priority Inbox, the newly added feature to your Gmail, attempts to automatically identify your important incoming messages and separates them out from everything else. So, Gmail seems to get smarter. It attempts to prioritize your inbox messages and lets you have a look at the important mails first. It uses a variety of signals to decide upon which messages are important to you- by observing your reading and replying patterns. You can also train it to work efficiently by using “mark as important” or “mark as not important” buttons provided to the left of the “Move To” and “Labels” drop-down menus. Also, you can customize it to work as per your wish by altering the settings at Gmail > Settings > Priority Inbox.

Want to give it a try? Well, you will have to wait till it is rolled out next week. Till then, struggle through your mail box

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How to try Firefox 4 beta in parallel with Firefox 3.6.*

Shivanand Sharma — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:02:10 +0000

Mozilla stopped distributing zipped builds of Firefox quite a while back. Since then it’s become difficult for the casual users to try new releases without installing them first. However, if you have downloaded the Firefox 4 installer, you can actually try out Firefox 4 without installing it. Just follow the below steps:

Use 7-zip to extract the installer into a directory of your choice.
Inside the extracted files, you’ll see three folders: localized, nonlocalized and optional.
Copy the contents of all these folders to a single folder (if prompted to overwrite, choose “Yes”).
Now you can double-click on Firefox.exe to start it.

Bonus Tip: Want to run Firefox 4 with Firefox 3.6 simultaneously? Here’s how:

Set an environment variable named moz_no_remote and set its value to “1″ (name and value both without quotes). Additionally create a shortcut to Firefox 4 with the “-p” argument appended to the end of the command. That should let you create a new profile specifically for use with Firefox 4 so that your main profile is left untouched.

Also if you want you can download optimized Firefox 4 zipped builds from the Blazing Fast Firefox download page.

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How To Disable Welcome Sound In Windows 7, Vista and XP

ruchika — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:22:19 +0000

Whenever you turn on our PC, your Windows OS welcomes you with a sound notification. If you find this distracting, here are the steps you can follow to disable the welcome note on Windows 7, Vista as well as XP.

Steps For Windows 7 or Vista

Follow the path, Start ->Control Panel->Hardware and Sound->Sound.
Select the “Sounds” tab on the Sound dialog box.
Uncheck “Play Windows Startup Sound” checkbox.
Click OK.

Steps For Windows XP

Click the start button and select the “Control Panel” from the start menu.
Click the “Sound and Audio Devices” icon.
Select the “Sounds” tab on the dialog box.
Under the Sounds tab, click through the “Program events” window, scroll down until you see “Start Windows” option.
Highlight “Start Windows” option and select “None” from the Sounds drop-down list.
Click “Windows Logon” entry in “Program events” and select “None” from Sounds drop-down.
Click OK.

The steps to enable it back are similar.

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H.264 license is now “forever free” against Google’s open codec

Shivanand Sharma — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 08:22:14 +0000

The organization behind the H.264 video codec — MPEG-LA — has announced that the license for H.264 codec is going to be forever free in response to Google’s open codec. MPEG-LA’s patent pool has patent holders like Apple and Microsoft. H.264 is a HD codec and very popular for use in online video/media. Earlier H.264 had decided to wave the royality fee till December 31, 2015.

Now that the codec is royalty free, it needs to be seen how it would stand against Google’s Open codec — VP8 for HTML5 which Google acquired earlier and made open-source. It’s most probably going to turn into a war like BlueRay against HD-DVD, but maybe on a smaller scale.

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Firefox: Search Multiple Gmail Accounts With CloudMagic

ruchika — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:15:54 +0000

Google has made internet an unusual and simplified experience and yet is adding more day by day. Its impressive feature is the way the Google search works as you start typing. The task of checking mails, notes, contacts, phone numbers could have simplified if the same technique was implemented in our mailing accounts. Well, the wish comes true and now you can actually get the feature of searching as you type in your Gmail accounts.

This task can be accomplished by simply downloading the Firefox plugin developed by a web start up company named CloudMagic. Available for Mac and Windows platform, this extension helps you forget tabs as everything you search works in snaps (inline pop-up). Its highlight feature is that it lets you unify your search across various Gmail accounts. The catch is that you have to offer your credentials for the accounts you want to add to CloudMagic. This addon stores the index of the search data locally on it’s servers. But since this is a third-party addon and not reviewed by Mozilla the word of caution is to be careful.

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5 Cool Sites For WordPress Header Images

ruchika — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:23:05 +0000

Header image adds to the visual experience of your blog or website. It is a graphic image at the top of the web page that gives a unique identity to your blog/website. Here is a collection of 5 sites that offer beautiful header images for free.

Free Webpage Headers: This site provides a large collection of user submitted header graphics that may be used free of charge under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License. Nice and well categorized collection.
Smashing Magazine: We can find as many as 45 beautiful blog header designs that can be used for free. These designs are the most interesting, creative and beautiful works submitted in the Header Graphics Contest held by Smashing Magazine.
Noupe(70 visually impressing header graphics): Inspired by Smashing Magazine’s Header Graphics Contest, this site offers a small showcase of 70 outstanding header graphics with excellent use of visual elements and interface design.
Photobucket: Simple, artistic, creative and unusual headers from the photographer’s niche.
Flickr: Here you can find creative and self-defining headers, expressing the viewpoints of the people who have uploaded the images.You can search for images licensed for reuse.

Additionally, you can use Google Image search to find images licensed for reuse. Take your pick from these beautiful headers and brand your web page.

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Personas : Personalize The Look Of Your Firefox

ruchika — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 11:36:29 +0000

What’s your browser wearing today?
Dress-up your browser with persona.

Persona is a free, lightweight and easy-to-install Firefox add-on that enables you to change the look of your Firefox browser in just one click. You can choose from thousands of skins across various categories that of arts, abstract, music, nature, films and tv and so on to reflect your moods. Here is the preview of few of them.

So,what do you want it to look like today? Go ahead and have a look at collection of persona offered by Firefox to smartly dress-up your browser.

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Person Arrested For Reviewing Electronic Voting Machine

poonam — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:05:04 +0000

Election Commission of India has continuously stated that EVM’s are “temper-proof”. But when Hari Prasad and his team reviewed the machine they revealed several serious security flaws with EVM’s. The flaws are mainly related to the hacking of electronics.

The story took a sudden unpleasant turn, when Hari Prasad got arrested by the police officers in the morning (of August 21st) without any cause and charges. Hari still awaits access to a lawyer. To get a full background on the issue visit http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/blog. Also read The “Ugly face” of the ECI: Arrest of Hari Prasad for “sting demonstration”. You can retweet this post to show support for Hari or visit the last link to participate in the discussion.

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Chip-Maker Intel Enters Into The Deal With The Security-Firm McAfee

ruchika — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 10:34:14 +0000

Intel’s president and CEO Paul Otellin announced to acquire the security giant McAfee for $7.68 billion. The largest of all the deals in his company’s 42-year history, this merger eventually highlights the fact that Intel realizes the importance of security on computing platforms.

The way the tech industry is rapidly accelerating towards smart-phones and consumer electronics market, security is the major issue that is being brought to the fore fronts. This seems to be a smart move for Intel and McAfee to jointly produce and market hardware based security products thus providing a security solution at a hardware level.

Intel’s president remarked “It’s not just the opportunity to co-sell, it’s the opportunity to deeply integrate these into the architecture of our products.” Both the companies plan to create tight links between Intel’s chips and McAfee’s security technology to offer more computing horsepower and access to the Web. Additionally, McAfee’s investment into cloud computing and Global Threat Intelligence lab also seem to assert Intel’s move.

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Google Eric Schmidt Warns Users On Privacy Implications Of Social Media Networking

poonam — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 09:56:45 +0000

Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt comments on the privacy implications of social media seems to have caused a stir. While the cyberlaws are still evolving, the amount of personal information divulged on social media sites carry their own implications on the lives of individuals. As social media evolves into one of the strongest medium for interaction, communication and socializing, Eric observes “I don’t believe society understands what happens when everything is available, knowable and recorded by everyone all the time… I mean we really have to think about these things as a society”. The next time you update your status messages with personal information just remember that they are out there visible to everyone on the world wide web and Google Cache is storing it. There’s no returning back from it when you want to (maybe) a few months or years down the line.

Firefox: 5 Lively Themes For Your Favorite Browser

ruchika — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 09:17:35 +0000

You feel the way you look, so why not add this attitude to your browser as well? Here is the list of 5 amazing themes from Mozilla Firefox. Try using these cool Firefox Themes to transform the look and feel of your browser to your taste.

NASA Night Launch: This theme is for those who appreciate elegant dark.
Charamel: The theme that gives a soothing and rich effect also available in silver tone.
Chromifox Basic: A very simple theme which provides a Google Chrome like look to your browser.
Kempelton: A very elegant theme with simple yet beautiful icons, Kempelton decorates your browser without being intrusive or distracting.
Gradient iCool(Blue): Theme with the captivating beauty of icy cool blue.

We hope you like our selection and enjoy using these themes. Which ones do you use?

Thermometer For Visual Performance: Now Test Your Eyes With SmartPhone

poonam — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 11:59:33 +0000

Technology is making lives simple and this is yet another one – NETRA (Near Eye Tool for Refractive Assessment). It is name of a new technique developed for hassles free eye test. It is a very portable self optometry solution requiring only two items(Smartphone and a plastic eyepiece) to check the refractive errors of the eye.

This eye testing accessory is clipped on to the screen of your phone. The patient has to look through the lens in the device so as to see red and green lines that are used to diagnose the patient’s eye. The patient need to press the phone’s arrow keys until the lines overlap each other. This is repeated at different angles for about eight times for each eye. The whole process takes less than two minutes after which the software loaded onto the phone provides the prescription data. Time to bid good bye to your optometrist. You may want to visit NETRA’s for more info and video demo too.

10 Essential Softwares For You Need On A New PC

ruchika — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 11:18:26 +0000

Here’s a list of 10 must haves for your new PC. This list would come in handy if you assemble your own PC or in case you re-format your system.

Anti-Virus: Security comes first and before you start surfing the net or download other software, make sure you have an anti-virus to protect your system.Two popular anti-virus solutions are Avast (free) and Kaspersky.
Browser: The next essential software you need is a browser. You can go for any standards-complaint browser like Firefox or Google Chrome which are lightweight and customizable.
Office-suite: Microsoft Office being one of the most popular office-suites does share the market with its rivals like OpenOffice and Google Docs which is an online service.
Instant Messenger: One of the basics an instant messenger is the first thing that you look for on your system. You can go for Google Talk that supports multiple protocols or anything else like Skype or Yahoo Messenger.
Plug-ins: You will also need browser plug-ins like flash, pdf reader, etc.
Media Player: While the built-in media player suffices for most of the tasks; a media player like VLC provides more options and customization. You may also want to install a codec pack like K-Lite which comes with Media Player Classic allowing you to play almost any video or audio format.
Media Manager: A photo and video manager like Picasa or Adobe Lightroom comes in handy to keep your media organized.
File Archiving Utility: A file archiver like 7-Zip or WinRAR comes in handy to save hard drive space while allowing you to create backups.
DVD/CD Burner: Nero Burning ROM is a free download. Another option is ImgBurn which is quite popular.
Text/Image Editor: If you are the computer savvy types you may not be contended with Notepad and MSPaint so, you can give a try to Notepad++ or EditPlus and an image editor like GIMP or Paint.net.

You can visit Google Pack to download some other common software. What tops your list?

Gmail: How To Lookup Unread Mails Exclusively From The Inbox

poonam — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 10:27:07 +0000

Have you ever tried to search for unread emails in the Gmail inbox and been returned with unread emails from all labels instead? This happened to us, when we were trying to lookup all the unread emails in the inbox.

Well, there actually is a very simple solution to this. You can use Gmail’s search box with specific keywords to achieve this. For this particular task the keywords we need to use are in:inbox is:unread. That makes sure that all the unread mails that show up in the results are exclusively from the inbox and the ones from other labels are left out.

Epic Browser — The web-browser with a built-in antivirus

Shivanand Sharma — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 06:18:10 +0000

Developed by Hidden Reflex, Epic browser is the one that comes with a unique concept — an anti-virus that’s built into the browser itself. The browser is targeted specifically at the Indian market and thus comes with a transliteration feature for multiple Indic languages. The browser also features an amazing sidebar containing quick-links to all your favorite sites which comes in real-handy and saves you from going to the address-bar.

The feature that distinguishes it from the masses is its inbuilt anti-virus scanner that effectively attempts to filter the biggest source of malware — the internet itself. You can get the Epic browser from its homepage which is a mere 10MB download. This should be a browser for anyone who doesn’t want to take the trouble hunting or buying an anti-virus solution.

Second Shocker from Paypal: No Electronic Transfers, Only cheques

Shivanand Sharma — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 05:06:22 +0000

Another shocker from Paypal. Paypal has announced that it will stop Electronic Funds Transfer to Indian Paypal Accounts and will only issue cheques. Here’s a screenshot of an email notification. Click to see full-size.

The last time Paypal automatically started refunding Paypal balance to the payers and Indian users faced huge losses. Be warned.

Update: For now PayPal has announced (via another email) that electronic funds transfer are to continue.