Firefox 3.5 and Safari 4

Both Mozilla and Apple have the latest versions of their browsers lined up on the block.
Mozilla is to launch Firefox 3.5 soon. It claims that Firefox 3.5 is the fastest Firefox ever. It is two times faster than 3.0 and ten times faster than 2.0, based on the results of a SunSpider test of JavaScript performance on a Windows XP machine. Check out this claim at http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/fastest/?utm_source=gsnippet&utm_content=fastfx&utm_campaign=s060109. Find about the SunSpider benchmark at http://www2.webkit.org/perf/sunspider-0.9/sunspider.html. I wonder why they used Windows XP machine for the test when nobody gives it pre-packaged with any desktop or laptop anymore and Microsoft is pushing Vista everywhere in the market. But I'm happy because I myself use XP and dont like Vista, however this is purely my personal opinion. Anyways, I havent downloaded and used it and dont plan to unless it is officially released, till then I'm happy using Firefox 3.0.*, right now 3.0.11.

Apple claims that Safari 4 is the world's fastest browser. Check this out at http://www.apple.com/safari/. Apple says it’s a browser, a platform and an open invitation to innovate. Whether on a Mac, PC, iPhone, or iPod touch, Safari continuously redefines the browser, providing the most enjoyable way to experience the Internet. I'm downloading it now and will surely try it, of course on my Windows XP, and will let you know how it works.

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Video Search

I talked about Social Bookmarking sites earlier, and I realized that I don't visit the hundreds of video sites either, YouTube rarely, others never! I researched them as well, and here's a list of them just for you...

Videonym- http://www.videonym.com/
YouTube- http://www.youtube.com/
Google Video- http://video.google.com/
Truveo- http://www.truveo.com/
Yahoo Video Search- http://video.search.yahoo.com/
Zuula- http://www.zuula.com/video_srch/video_index.html
Live.com Video Search- http://www.live.com/?scope=video
Blinkx- http://www.blinkx.com/
ClipBlast- http://clipblast.com/
VidSea- http://www.vidsea.com/
AOL Video- http://video.aol.com/
Clipta- http://www.clipta.com/
LeechVideo- http://www.leechvideo.com/
FilesTube- http://video.filestube.com/
VideoSearch.net- http://www.videosearch.net/
CastTV- http://www.casttv.com/

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Social Bookmarking

I often wonder why I don't use Social Bookmarking sites, they have been around for ages now. So I decided to first do some research on these sites. Following are some of these Social Bookmarking sites that I'm planning to use and you can start using them as well if you haven't done that so far...

Digg- http://digg.com
Delicious- http://delicious.com/
Mixx- http://www.mixx.com/
Google Bookmarks- http://www.google.com/bookmarks/
Blogmarks- http://blogmarks.net/
Del.irio.us- http://de.lirio.us/
Fark- http://www.fark.com/
IndianPad- http://www.indianpad.com/
Twitter- http://twitter.com/
MySpace- http://www.myspace.com/
Propeller- http://www.propeller.com/
Technorati- http://technorati.com/
Yahoo Bookmarks- http://bookmarks.yahoo.com
StumbleUpon- http://www.stumbleupon.com/
Reddit- http://www.reddit.com/
Sphinn- http://sphinn.com/

In the meantime I have registered on Digg, but not yet started using it. You may be wondering I'm so behind all other netizens, but so am I. Anyways, will keep you all posted...

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Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing is the hot topic these days. Below are some useful links that tell you about it-

* Linux.com's Cloud Computing knowledge base- http://www.linux.com/news/enterprise/cloud-computing
* Comparison with Grid Computing, an article on linux-mag.com titled Clouding Of The Grid- http://www.linux-mag.com/id/7332/
* Why is Linux being called the Operating System of the Cloud? Read it on linuxfoundation.org- http://www.linuxfoundation.org/publications/linuxincloud.html
* Read about the Eucalyptus project which provides open source infrastructure for Cloud Computing in this article on arstechnica.com- http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/04/researchers-to-commercialize-open-source-eucalyptus-project.ars
* On CSO Online, read why Cisco feels that Cloud Computing can be a Security Nightmare- http://www.csoonline.com/article/490368/Cisco_CEO_Cloud_Computing_a_Security_Nightmare_
* Another article on linux-mag.com about VMware vSphere which is being touted as a Cloud OS- http://www.linux-mag.com/id/7315/

These are just a few of the articles listed on linux.com, there might be hundreds of others, which I'll continue to post as and when I find them.

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Swine Flu a.k.a H1N1 Influenza

The Swine Flu, now rechristened as H1N1 Influenza virus has taken the world by storm, even as more than 150 are dead by this disease and a few more elsewhere in the world, including the U.S. I found a very nice article on TIME about the same which you can read here. This article also talks about two more systems which are pathbreakers in the help for detection which could lead to the prevention of this pandemic, and not just this specific but also similar events if they were to happen in the future. These are the Google Flu Trends and Veratect. Go visit these sites and find out a lot about these organizations are using science and technology for the benefit of the human race.

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Firefox 3.0.10

Firefox released the latest update to its web browser 3.0.10 on April 27, 2009. To get this browser for any Operating System and/or any language, go here. To know what's new in this release of Firefox 3.0.10, checkout the Release Notes. Mainly fixed in this version was a security issue, details of which you can find here.

If you are still interested in the older version Firefox 2.0, you can find the latest release of that version Firefox 2.0.0.20 here

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Flash and Shockwave Players

To enhance your experience of browsing websites, you can install the Adobe Flash Player. The latest version 10.0.22.87 for Windows which works on Firefox, Safari and Opera, and is of 1.7 MB in size can be found here. For other browsers and/or operating systems, you can get it here.

Additionally you can get the 3.33 MB of Adobe Shockwave Player 11.5.0.595 for Windows English version here. For other OS and/or browsers, you can take a look here.

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Mozilla Firefox 3.0.9 released

Mozilla Firefox 3.0.9 recently got released - April 21, 2009 to be precise. You can get the 7.1 MB installer for Firefox 3.0.9 for US English language on MS Windows here. For all systems like mac/linux and/or other languages, take a look here. You can get the Release Notes here.

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More email scams on CommonEmailScams

I have posted a few more email scams on my other blog http://commonemailscams.blogspot.com. I have also begun to add references from a few other sites which also have filed these emails as scams or frauds. Some of these sites are ScamRadar.com, ComplaintsBoard and Fraud Watchers. If you know of more such sites, just post a comment here. If you receive lots of such email scams in your mailbox, then also please post them as comments here, I'll include them in my blog. Thanks!

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April Fool's Worm

Today's 1st of April and the day for the April Fool's Worm. Just came across a nice article on April Fool's Worm on CNN, you can read it here. It's named Conficker and has different strains. It activates on 1st on April and can steal your private information and steal your money using that. Nobody knows who created this worm. If your computer is properly updated with the latest Windows updates and if your anti-virus program has its latest updates you need not worry. Further to free yourself from all worries, use Linux.

More information can also be had from Symantec at this page. They also provide a worm removal tool to keep you safe and protected.

Microsoft also has a site devoted to safety of Windows based computers where you can check your computer for viruses and clean your computer if it's infected. This site lists Conficker C as a current threat.

McAfee also has a details on its web page about Conficker and how to save your computer systems from this worm.

Common Email Scams

Just came to my mind that there could be hundreds of instances of common email scams, so why not create a new blog altogether dedicated to these email scams? So the first thing that I did today morning was create a blog named Common Email Scams. You can also use the url http://commonemailscams.blogspot.com to visit that blog.

I'll be moving all the blog posts related to email scams in this blog to my new blog. So remember to visit both blogs for information that helps you. I'll also be posting notifications in this blog whenever I add more email scams in my other blog so you need not worry that you missed out anything.

More Internet Browsers

This is in continuation to my earlier post about Internet Browsers.

The major browser that I left out earlier is Chrome from our very own Google. If you are looking to download it for Windows Vista or Windows XP SP2, click here. If you are more adventurous and wish to install their upcoming version, download the Beta version for Windows Vista and Windows XP SP2+ from here. Also an interesting article on why Google built this browser in the first place.

Google is also working on bringing it's Chrome browser to Linux. You can go here and register your email address. Google will let you know the progress and when they release this version of Chrome. Same is the case for Mac operating system. If you are interested, register your email address here.

Mozilla had a suite of softwares including a browser in what was called the Mozilla Suite which worked on Windows, Mac as well as Linux. However it is not officially supported now, if you still want to try it out, go here.

Mozilla now has brought a group of softwares including a browser in what is called the SeaMonkey Project. The latest version for Windows, Mac and Linux can be obtained here.

Sun had its own browser till a few years back called HotJava. Though it has stopped support for this browser, you can get the last supported version 3.0 for Windows, Mac, Solaris and Linux here

After trying out all these browsers, you may want to know how these browsers fare against each other in terms of its global usage, as also how they fared in the past history. All you need to do is go here for the Browser statistics.

Internet Browsers

Mozilla released the latest version of their Firefox browser 3.0.7 on March 4th, 2009. To know what's new in Firefox 3.0.7 click here. To download the English (US) language version of Firefox 3.0.7 for Windows OS (7.1 MB) click here. To download Firefox 3.0.7 for other localizations/languages and all supported operating systems (Windows/Mac/Linux) click here.

If you are still glued to Microsoft, get Internet Explorer 7 here or the latest Internet Explorer 8 here. If you are still stuck on the older Internet Explorer 6 get it here.

If you are a Safari freak, get the latest version Safari 4 Beta for Windows and Mac here. If you are looking to download the older versions of Safari, take a look here.

There's another browser Opera, you can get the English version of Opera 9.64 for Windows here. Also get the Opera Mini browser for your mobile phone here. For Smartphones and PDAs use Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta from here.

There are a lot many other browsers about which we can talk some other time...

Google Blog Search

I really admire what google does. Take the case of Google's Blog Search. Few years ago, who would have thought that thousands of users would be writing millions of blogs and we would a search engine to search through blogs! But it happened and Google, the eternal Search God, was there to help us out and gave us Google Blog Search. http://blogsearch.google.com is just what you need.

You can search blogs from around the world on any topic you want, you will find my blog on it too one day :).

Now how do you tell Google to list your blog on it's search service? Simple. Use the Google Blog Search Ping Service. http://blogsearch.google.com/ping?hl=en is just what you need. Enter the url of your blog and Google will index your blog so that it can be found in it's search results. What an idea! Hats off to Google!

I'll keep coming back and telling you more about Google...

PTC - Paid To Click

What is PTC? PTC is Paid To Click. These are websites that show you advertisements (hereinafter referred to as ads), ask you to click on these ads for some duration and pay for it.

You have to register on these sites and then view these ads after logging in. If you click and view these ads without logging in, you won't get paid any money.

You may also get a sign-in bonus when you register on these sites. This bonus ranges from $0.01 to $0.5.

After logging in, you are shown a list of links grouped into various categories. Clicking on these links opens the actual ad in a new window/tab of your browser. You have to wait till the complete ad loads in the browser and then wait for 30 seconds which generally is the time duration that you have to view the ad in order to earn money.

Each ad view generally earns you $0.01 or 1 cent. However there are sites which pay you $0.005 only, which means you need to click on a lot many number of ads to earn the amount which you can cashout.

You can click on an ad only once in 24 hours. It means if your ptc site shows 10 ads, you can view only 10 ads everyday.

You may request for a cashout when the amount that you have earned reaches a minimum amount specified by the site. This amount ranges from $2 to $10. The number of ads that are shown is related to the cashout. $2 cashout sites would generally show around 4 ads, which will earn you 4 cents everyday. $10 cashout sites generally show upto 30 ads everyday.

There are also concepts like referrals and premium memberships.

I myself am trying on a few of these ptc sites, but have not yet reached the minimum cashout amount in any of these. I have heard that some of these ptc sites may not actually pay out the earned money after you request your cashout. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that I'll earn some dollars.