The voice over IP client Skype never got off the radar of privacy activists. There were always rumors about backdoors in the voice communication software and that several organizations were able to record calls made by Skype users although Skype claimed otherwise.

Skype messages were in the focus of privacy groups since first news about text filtering messages in China became known to the public. Back then Skype released an official statement that the text filter applied by the Chinese Skype partner Tom Online would not affect security and encryption mechanisms of Skype, that people’s privacy would not be compromised and calls, chats and other forms of communication on Skype would continue to be encrypted and secure.

Researchers and privacy activists of the University of Toronto discovered files on unprotected Chinese computers that contained filtered Skype messages that were recorded in China.

continue reading "Time To Look For A Skype Alternative"

Tag Galaxy is one of the Flickr Tools that visualizes Flickr image browsing utilizing tags and planetary constellations to show their related tags. A search for night for instance displays the related tags light, sky, dark and city rotating around the central tag. The interesting aspect of this display is that a click on any other tag other than the main tag will combine the old tag with the new tag to include only pictures that have been tagged with all tags.

Clicking on the central “star” will close in on that star and fill it with exactly 235 picture thumbnails. The planet can be rotated with the left mouse button and zoomed with the mouse wheel. A click on a preview image will load that image in front, another click will load information about the picture like the name of the artist, a description and a link to the Flickr page.

The Flickr page of the selected photo are loaded in a new tab. The user can use the navigation on top of the screen to load another batch of thumbnail pictures from Flickr which replace the old photos shown on the planet.

continue reading "Flickr Tools Tag Galaxy"

Keeping up with web proxy servers on the Internet can be a time consuming task. Proxies come and go that quickly that one could say it is nearly impossible to keep up unless someone would use scripts to check the web proxies automatically. The web proxy server list posted on Ghacks dates back two years and the main reason it was not updated is the fact that updating the servers would have to be done dynamically to provide visitors with a working list of proxy servers.

That is probably the same line of thought that the developer of Prime Proxies had when he created his website. The website publishes an up to date list of working web proxy servers which are checked regularly so that the chance of encountering a non working proxy server is slim.

Proxies are divided into three categories that are named after the proxy script that is being used on the proxy websites. The three main scripts are PHP Proxy, CGI Proxy and Glyph. Some proxy scripts work better on specific websites than others and it comes down to finding the web proxy server script that displays the favorite websites properly.

continue reading "Web Proxy Server List"

Ever wondered about the actual size of an object and how it would compare to everyday items like a sheet of paper? Do the additional 6.4mm depth of the HTC Touch Pro in comparison to Apple’s iPhone really matter? It is easy to compare the values and see which device is larger or thicker but it’s difficulty to actually know how that size difference looks in real life.

Sure you could use a ruler to get an understanding of how the objects compare to each other; Or you could visit Sized Up, a website that visualizes objects in 3D. Working with the service is a breeze. All that is needed are the height, width and depth of at least one object in millimeters or inches which will then be generated by the service and displayed as a 3D object.

It is possible to enter multiple items to compare them against each other or pick one of the default items from the service like a box of matches, a CD case or different paper sizes.

continue reading "Compare Object Sizes Online"

Offering the biggest storage capacities of all the file hosts on the Internet will surely drive some traffic to a file hoster’s website. Oosah did just that with the announcement that they would offer 1 Terabyte - that is 1024 Gigabytes - to everyone signing up for their file hosting service. And while they surely have calculated with a mean storage usage instead of the maximum it would still be apparent that a free file host would have serious troubles coping with the demand.

The upload limits are 250 Megabytes for video files and 50 Megabytes for mp3 and images. The user guide is still speaking of a 2 Gigabyte limit per user which contradicts the information on the homepage of the service most likely because the user guide has not been updated with the new information.

The options offered by Oosah surely look nice. Besides the storage capacities the service offered Flickr, Youtube, Facebook and Picasa integration, an iPhone client, playlists, galleries, slideshows, public and private sharing and a easy to use web interface.

continue reading "Is It Reasonable To Offer 1 Terabyte of Storage As A File Hoster?"