Firefox users can use the excellent NoScript add-on for that, which takes care of both issues. Chrome users can install comparable solutions like NotScript or ScriptNo. Some may however feel that they interfere to much with day-to-day web browsing.

The Google Analytics Opt-out Add-on for the Chrome browser may not be the perfect solution, as it only tackles the tracking problem but not the loading of the script itself, but it does not interfere with other scripts running on the site. The Chrome extension has been created by Google, which may be the reason why the script is not blocked outright. According to information posted on the Chrome Web Store, the add-on “communicates with the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js) to indicate that information about the website visit should not be sent to Google Analytics”.

It basically means that the script is loaded, and that the add-on notifies the script that the visit should not be tracked.

Another solution that is working universally on the system would be to block Google Analytics in the hosts file. Simply add the following two lines to your hosts file:

• 127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com
• 127.0.0.1 ssl.google-analytics.com

On Windows, the hosts file is located in the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc directory. Just open it in a plain text editor like Notepad, and add the two rows to the end of it. This basically redirects requests that websites make to Google Analytics servers to the local system where the script can’t be found. Webmasters should keep in mind that this may prevent them from accessing the Google Analytics website.

Opera Software, which had a very strong q1 financially is known for the Opera desktop browser, one the two major browsers that is not backed by a multi-billion Dollar company (the other is Mozilla), the mobile versions of the browser. Recently, the company has also made further investments in the advertisement space, improving the impressions served to 86 billion in the first quarter of 2012.

A Facebook owned Opera browser would provide Facebook with additional revenue possibilities, and save it from creating a browser of their own. And Opera’s experience in the mobile market could improve Facebook’s presence here, both app-wise but also advertising-wise.

For Opera it could mean additional manpower and development funds to develop the browsers in a faster pace.

It is the users that may have issues with the acquisition, if the rumor should turn out to be true, considering that a Facebook browser would certainly make some changes that the devoted community may not be pleased with at all. One change could be the tight integration with Facebook, another that certain features of the browser may be modified or retired completely to streamline it further.

So how realistic is the rumor? Opera Software is a public company with a revenue of about 160 million in the last four quarters. It is definitely a possibility that Facebook would make an offer for the company if it is really interested in getting into the browser market. It is actually the only company with a market share of more than 1% that is available at all, as the top 4 remaining companies are owned by Microsoft, Apple, Google and Mozilla, who all would not even think of selling their browser to Facebook.

For now I’d say it is unlikely that Facebook will buy Opera Software, and the main reason for that is that the source has not been mentioned. For all I know, this could be some form of link-baiting. What is your take?

When it comes to DMCA complaints though,  Google displays each individual complaint separately on the results page. Individual complains may include one or multiple addresses that Google removed from the search results. An address in this case is always an individual page on a domain, and not a domain itself (even though it is possible that the main domain name has been removed, subpages may still be accessible).

Each entry links to two pages. The first links to Google’s DMCA Policy page where you find information about the proceedings when the company receives DMCA complaints, the second to the actual complaint that led to the removal of the result. And that’s where it begins to get interesting.

The second page displays the DMCA complaint, listing the sender of the complaint, the reason for the removal, and the allegedly infringing links. A complaint may list one, multiple, or hundreds of links that you can open in your web browser of choice, to access the results despite the fact that they have been removed from Google’s primary search page.

In Firefox, you can highlight the url, right-click it, and select open link, or open link in new tab. There are several reasons why you may want to take a look at the removed results on Google. Maybe you are researching a particular topic, or want to check out for yourself whether a web page is infringing on copyright or not.

While not the most comfortable way of accessing removed results on Google Search, it appears to be the only option for users who want to do just that.

In Germany, you have the right to make a private copy of media that you have bought, provided that you do not circumvent copy protection. And it is this right, that led to the extra payments. I have already mentioned that you pay extra even if you do not copy at all. But even if you want to copy, you may not be able to do so, as you are not allowed to make a private copy if the media is copy protected. This again means that you pay for a right that you may not be able to take advantage of.

Yesterday news broke that two collecting societies have announced plans to increase the fees Germans pay when they buy USB flash drives. From 0,10 Euro for each flash drive sold to a maximum of 1.56€ per device, and for memory cards to a maximum of 1.95€ per card. Remember, that is paid on top of the actual price of the drive. Cheap flash drives start at about 6 Euro, which would mean that you would have to pay about a third of the device’s price on top of it.

If you thought this was crazy, then wait until you see the following figures:

• Smartphones without touchscreen – 12 Euro extra
• Smartphones with touchscreen and memory < 8 GB – 16 Euro extra
• Smartphones with touchscreen and memory > 8 GB – 36 Euro extra

There seem to be fees on everything that you can store data on (yes paper included).  Many Germans cope with the situation by making their purchases in neighboring countries where people do not have to pay these extras.

Google provides a link to the DMCA complaint, which lists information about the sender as well as infringing urls. It is interesting to note that those urls may still be accessible, as they are only removed from the Google Search results, and not necessarily from the sites.

In response to a complaint we received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed 1 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read the DMCA complaint that caused the removal(s) at ChillingEffects.org.

Google today has updated the Google Transparency report, a report that aims to inform the public about the requests that Google receives.

You will now find information in the report about the top reporting organizations, the top copyright owners, and the top targeted domains. Here are the top 5 listings

Top reporting organizations in the last 30 days (April 24-May 24 2012)

Top copyright owners in the past month

Top targeted domains in the past month

Google has received more than 1.2 million removal requests in the past 30 days, of which almost 50% have targeted pages (allegedly) infringing on Microsoft’s copyright, followed by the British Record Industry and NBC Universal with about 10% of all requests each.

When it comes to reporting organizations, you will find Marketly IIC at the top which appears to work for Microsoft in this regard, and the BPI and NBC Universal again.

When it comes to sites targeted by the removal requests, you will notice that the top lists are made up of torrent and warez sizes, audio and file hosting sites. Even though I know my way around on the Internet, I have not heard of the majority of sites in that list.

Each organization, copyright owner and domain has its own index page on the Google site, that is revealing detailed information about it.

You can read more about the new features at the official Google Blog.

Google News is an aggregator that is collecting news articles from around the world to make them available as excerpts with links pointing to the source. Not every website is included into Google News as sites need to meet certain standards for a chance to be included into the Google News program. The benefit for site owners is that Google News can drive extra traffic – that is usually time-limited – to websites included in the program.

Google News Reader for the Google Chrome browser is an official extension that can display news in the browser directly.  The extension adds a single icon to Chrome’s address bar that you can click on to display news headlines.

Before you do that, you may want to open the preferences first to select topics that you are interested in. A right-click on the icon and the selection of options from the context menu opens the configuration screen.

It allows you to..

• change the target country for the news. A click on the pulldown menu displays dozens of countries that are supported besides the U.S. If you want localized news, this is the setting you need to modify.
• change the number of stories from five to a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 10.
• enable or disable popular topics, including national, sports or technological news.
• define up to 10 custom news topics that you are interested in

Google News Reader displays only one topic at a time in the news listing, which means that you may need to switch quite a bit depending on the number of topics that you monitor.

You can click on a topic to expand it in the popup, which displays an excerpt, additional news sources, and links pointing to those sources.

A click on a link opens the website the news was published on. The extension could use some polishing, for instance options to change font sizes, or a larger popup window that displays more news at once. Some users have also criticized Google for not synchronizing the setup with their custom Google account news setup. It is despite that a popular Chrome extension.

The extension is that good that it has been ported to the Google Chrome web browser by another author. Chromium Wheel Smooth Scroller is a highly recommended extension for Chrome users.

For most users, the default settings the extension ships with should be sufficient to notice a big difference to the Firefox browser’s default scrolling behavior. If you have noticed lags, jumps or abrupt stops when scrolling, it may fix those issues outright.

If it does not, you can tinker with the settings it provides for mouse wheel and keyboard scrolling to adjust the scrolling to your taste. The extension ships with three scrolling profiles for the mouse and keyboard that you can customize in the settings. To get there open the add-ons manager by loading about:addons in Firefox.

Here you can then customize the scrolling values for all three presets.

The values that you can change here are:

• Step size – the number of pixels that are scrolled with a single tick
• Smoothness (Forepart) – brake level in forepart of movement
• Smoothness – fade level at end of movement
• Acceleration Sensitivity – how much faster the page scrolls when you flick faster

I’d suggest to test the three default patterns the extension ships with first, before you start to make modifications to the settings. Yet Another Smooth Scrolling add-on adds an icon to Firefox’s status bar which you can click on to switch to another preference. Here you can also disable the extension for the time being, and access the preferences as well.

You may need to spend some time adjusting the values to your liking, but it is definitely worth it as it makes the scrolling experience that much smoother in the end.

If you notice a site that is not behaving properly with the new scrolling settings, you can add it to the blacklist, so that Firefox’s default scrolling values are used instead. The preferences allow you furthermore to activate smooth scrolling for the arrow keys (on by default), and the pageup/down, and home/end keys (both off by default).

All in all an excellent Firefox add-on for users who want to improve the scrolling in the browser.

We have also seen the native integration of Adobe Flash in Google Chrome, and if recent leaks are anything to go by, Internet Explorer 10 will also have Adobe Flash natively built-in. Internet Explorer 10 is expected to be released with Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system that will launch in the fourth quarter of 2012.  The operating system will feature two versions of Internet Explorer: first the desktop version that is the successor of Internet Explorer 9, and then a specially designed version for the Metro UI version.

What makes this interesting is the announcement that Internet Explorer 10′s Metro version will ship without plugin support. Up until now this meant all plugins, including Adobe Flash, Java or the company’s own Silverlight. With Flash integrated natively in the browser, Microsoft would stay true to the past announcement, while allowing Metro users access to Flash-based contents at the same time.

image courtesy of Rafael Rivera

A member of the Winunleaked forum spotted Flash Player in the control panel after installation of the operating system, and that both the desktop version and the Metro version were able to make use of it. Windows 8 furthermore blocked the installation of the regular Internet Explorer Flash plugin.

According to Rafael Rivera Microsoft brokered a deal with Adobe to get access to the Flash source code, in a similar fashion that Google managed to do earlier on. It appears that both companies will benefit from the integration. Adobe for one ensures that Flash installations stay on a high level, and Microsoft enables its Metro browser to access Flash contents after all.

It is not really clear yet if users have options to disable native Flash in Windows to improve the security of the system. I guess we have to wait until the release of the Release Preview version that is expected for June 1.

What’s your take on this development? Great move, or another security risk that users have to deal with?

The very same process is imitated when you use the browser’s search bar instead, with the difference that you do not have to open the search engine’s web page manually to use the form there.

Yahoo Axis is a search experiment that tries to redefine web search. It is available for a number of platforms, including Apple’s iOS operating system, but also for the desktop in form of add-ons and plugins for popular browsers such as Firefox, Google Chrome or Internet Explorer.

In Firefox, Yahoo Axis places a small search bar at the bottom left corner of the screen, right above the browser’s status bar if you have enabled it. When you enter a search term there, you will notice that results are automatically displayed as thumbnails in the lower screen area.

You see a list of suggestions on the far left that let you refine the search term, and then the actual search results that you have to scroll horizontally. You can use the mouse wheel for that comfortably, or click on the left and right buttons to scroll to the results instead.

Each result represents a website, which is displayed with a thumbnail screenshot, the title of the page, and part of the url. When you hover over the thumbnail, you will see the full url being displayed in the browser’s lower left corner. A left-click opens the result’s page in the same browser tab, a middle-click in a new tab, at least in Firefox.

When you look at how Axis has been designed, you will probably notice that it is seems optimized for touch. You can flip right through the results on your Apple devices with a flick of the finger, and selections are improved as it is easier to hit a thumbnail link than a standard text link.

For desktop users, the add-on may be a bit on the annoying side of things, considering that it is displayed in the lower left screen corner all the time. I’d expect Yahoo to implement at least an on and off switch for each supported browser to turn it on or off easily. I’d also like to see customization options, for instance to increase the size of the thumbnail area, or even have the add-on display two rows of thumbnail results at once.

Users who log into their Yahoo account get automatic synchronization of history and settings, so that the data is available on all supported devices, so that you can continue your browsing session on another device.

When you look at the different versions, you will notice some core differences. You can generally say that stability declines while features increase from the stable branch of the browser to the nightly versions. Another difference is the frequency of updates. Stable versions get updated every six weeks, and only sporadically in between, while nightly versions may receive updates multiple times a day.

When I checked the nightly version installed on my system today, I noticed that it stated that the version was up to date. The date of the version however was 2012-05-17, which was almost a week ago.

I knew that it was highly unlikely that Nightly had not been updated for over a week, and figured that the automatic updater was broken somehow.  First thing that I wanted to try out to fix the nightly version of Firefox was to download and install the latest version from the official download site. I made sure to install it in the same directory as the original Nightly installation, and started the browser afterwards.

First thing I did was to check the version of the browser under Nightly > Help > About Nightly, which thankfully showed today’s date, indicating that Firefox had in deed been updated to the latest version. The manual installation did fix the stuck updating issue that I experienced. I hope this helps other users who may experience a similar issue now or in the future.

While it is quite possible for a new browser to succeed in the market by handling some of the things differently, it is the unique features that may make a bigger difference. Maxthon for instance supports two rendering engines, and excels when it comes to the HTML5 test.

Lunascape on the other hand, a browser that has been around for quite some time, ups that by integrating three browser engines into the program. The web browser supports the rendering engines of Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome / Safari.

When you first start the browser you may feel that it is a bit on the messy side of things interface wise. It starts with lots of icons in the main header, and even a news ticker that is automatically displaying headlines from sites like the New York Times, CNN or the BBC. When you look closer at the interface, you will notice that the developers have taken inspiration from a couple of browsers. The panel on the left for instance resembles that of the Opera browser, while the header itself looks more like that of the Firefox web browser.

Bookmarks, add-ons and settings can be imported at any time from web browsers like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, and a handful of lesser known browsers like Maxthon or Sleipnir.

Please note that Firefox imports are only supported for versions 3 or older, and not from newer versions of the browser. The reliance on three engines opens up some interesting options. You can for instance install Firefox add-ons in the browser and use them, provided that you have set it to use the Gecko engine. The add-ons simply become unavailable when you switch to WebKit or Trident instead. Once you switch back, they are available again.

You can customize the interface of the browser, for instance by adding or removing buttons or toolbars in the browser. If you feel the menubar is missing, you can add it right away to have it displayed all the time. Virtually every button or toolbar can be moved or removed from the browser.

The browser handles several actions different from other browsers. It is for instance opening websites that you enter in the browser’s address bar in a new tab automatically, leaving the active page untouched in the process. Another interesting feature are the extensive customizations that it makes available. You can for instance configure mouse actions on tabs extensively in the browser settings.

The very same options are available for links, and clicks in the browser interface. Other interesting features are:

• Automatic and manual profile backups
• Options to switch engines automatically based on the page you are visiting
• Ships with myriads of bookmarklets and scripts
• Define tab behavior extensively, for instance when a new tab should be opened, when to show the tab-title bar, or if you want to display multiple rows automatically when the number of tabs exceed the space.

Check out this video for a short introduction:

Three browser engines may feel like overkill, but it makes sense after all. You have got the IE rendering engine for pages that only display properly in that browser, you got Firefox and Chrome which both provide speed and performance, with Firefox’s Gecko engine even supporting the incredible add-on system of that browser. It is definitely a solid browser with some interesting features that other browsers do not offer (yet). It has a few quirks here and there, but nothing that one can’t get used to after a while of working with the browser. All in all an interesting alternative to the established five.

We have also looked at MiPony, a viable alternative that is featuring much of what JDownloader is offering but without the Java requirement.

And now there is ochDownloader, a alternative for Windows and Linux. The program is not as sophisticated as JDownloader or MiPony yet, and you will notice that it only supports a handful of file hosts. The list does read like the who is who though, with Mediafire, Rapidshare, Filefactory, Depositfiles and Oron all supported by the program. Another restriction is that support is limited currently to anonymous accounts. If you want to make use of premium accounts, you can’t use the software for that.

Once you start the application you will see a clean interface. The adding of files works exactly like in other programs of its kind. You can copy individual links to the Clipboard from where they are picked up automatically, or paste a list of files that you want to download into the application’s add links window directly. From there you can start the downloads directly and enter the captcha codes if required.

The program lets you configure a download slots limited (to a maximum of 20), and a speed limit. A click on the settings icon displays options to configure IP renewals, the auto extraction of contents and shutdown settings. Other than that there is only the option to configure a proxy that you want the program to use when connecting to and downloading from file hosts.

For now, ochDownloader is mainly limited by its low number of supported hosting sites. This is not an issue for users who only download from supported hosts. If you switch between many different hosts, you may however find the program not suitable for your situation. For now, it is a program to keep an eye on, especially since it is regularly updated by its developer.

Microsoft notes that Visual Studio 11 will only be available for Windows 7 or higher (which at the time of writing means Windows 8), and not for Vista, XP or other Windows operating systems.  According to the official announcement, this is due to the leveraging of core capabilities that only those operating systems offer. Microsoft unfortunately fails to mention what these core capabilities are.

The company notes further that the default target for applications will be set to .Net Framework 4.5 when it comes to managed apps, which means that those will run on Windows Vista or higher, and not on Windows XP or Windows Server 2003. If compatibility is an issue, developers can target new or existing applications to the .NET Framework 4.0 to ensure compatibility with those operating systems. I guess that is also official confirmation that the next iteration of the .Net Framework will not be compatible with Windows XP or Windows Server 2003.

But that is far from the only changes that will affect lots of Visual Studio users. Microsoft is a bit ambiguous in the blog post when it comes to Visual Studio 11 Express, and its support for desktop app development.

For example, the Express edition for Windows 8 allows developers to use C#, Visual Basic, C++ and JavaScript. It also provides best-in-class tools for creating Metro style apps for Windows 8, including tools such as Blend, app profiling, unit testing and more.

The Visual Studio 11 Express website on the other hand offers the following information that make it a lot clearer:

Visual Studio 11 Express for Windows 8 provides tools for Metro style app development. To create desktop apps, you need to use Visual Studio 11 Professional, or higher. In addition, Visual Studio 2010 Express products – Visual Basic 2010 Express, Visual C++ 2010 Express, and Visual C# 2010 Express – will remain available for free download.

This basically means that Windows 8 users who install Visual Studio 11 Express will only be able to develop Metro apps with it. And Windows 7 users? It is likely that they can continue developing desktop applications with the programming environment, as it would not really make much sense to only give them the option to create Metro apps – which they can’t test or use on the system – in Visual Studio Express 11.

Update: It seems that Windows 7 users won’t be able to use Visual Studio 11 Express at all, only Express for Web and Team Foundation Server Express.

Users who want to stick with Visual Studio when it comes to developing applications need to download and use the previous versions of the program which have been available for a while.

What’s your take on this?

If you have a shortcut of your own that you hit by accident, or that you wish would be mapped differently, then you may be interested in the Customizable Shortcuts extension for the Internet browser. The add-on gives you full power over the browser’s keyboard shortcuts. While I have not checked if it is making available all, the list of shortcuts that you can change is long and feels complete.

The Firefox add-on Customizable Shortcuts adds a new entry to the Firefox preferences as you can see on the screenshot above. Please note that it is only compatible with the original preferences menu, and not the new in-content preferences feature. If you have enabled it, you need to disable it to access the Shortcuts tab in the preferences. You can then easily switch back to the new preferences style once you have finished editing the browser shortcuts.

You can either go through the list of shortcuts manually, or use the search at the top to find a specific shortcut or function. The shortcuts are divided into actions that make navigation a tad easier. A double-click on a shortcut lets you change the shortcut right away. Just tap on the new keyboard combination that you want to use and watch how it appears in the field afterwards. The new shortcuts are active right away and I would suggest to test them to make sure that they work as intended.

Modified shortcuts are highlighted with bold text, making them easier to spot, and modify or reset.  The reset option lets you reset individual shortcuts to their default value. It is however not possible to reset all modified shortcuts at once.

The extension handles conflicts by disabling the shortcut for the existing action, so that the new action is triggered exclusively. Disabled shortcuts are marked in the listing, but not brought to the top. It is therefor a good idea to look through the listing after changing shortcuts to make sure that you have not disabled a feature accidentally.

You can however use this to your advantage, for instance if you want a shortcut to be disabled. Just assign the same shortcut to another action to disable the original shortcut. While you may still trigger an action, you may select one that is not interrupting your workflow at all.

Proxy use has increased significantly in those countries, and rather surprisingly, The Piratebay’s traffic has actually increased when it comes to users from those countries. The political Pirate parties in the U.K and the Netherlands have for instance created proxies that users can use to access the Piratebay website.

It is not an ideal solution though, which may be one of the reasons why another IP address was added to the Piratebay’s server. This, at least for the time being, allows anyone to access the site again normally. It is likely that the ISPs will catch up eventually and block that new IP address along with the existing ones.

Users then need to go back to using proxy servers to connect to the website in question, which is the main reason why the site administrators have made changes to the Piratebay website to better serve users who are using a proxy to connect.

This includes hiding login, register, comment and upload functionality due to security concerns, and the exclusive display of magnet links. Since every bit is send through the proxy, the maintainers of the proxy have theoretically options to record or analyze the traffic. While that’s not the case with the majority of servers out there, there may be some malicious ones that have been set up for exactly that purpose.

The blocking of member functionality may however impact Piratebay users who only connect to the site through proxies as a security precaution of their own.

Recap: The music/movie industry probably did not expect the Piratebay’s traffic to increase after being blocked by major ISPs (with the remaining to block before June 1 in the UK). It is actually now the top 50 site in the UK, according to Alexa in front of BT, eBay or ITV.

With thousands of web proxies available, and the site optimized for them, it is unlikely that people from countries where the Piratebay is blocked will run out of options any time soon to access it.  (read more at Torrentfreak)

Windows 8 users have 200ms to hit that key during boot. If they miss by one second, Windows 8 will skip the advanced boot menu and boot right into the operating system. To put this into perspective, users who type fast manage to hit four times the F8 key in a second, which results in individual key press intervals of 250ms. If you do not get the timing perfectly right, you will bypass the boot menu.

That’s obviously an issue that Windows 8 users will have to deal with, and Microsoft has decided to change the boot experience to reflect those changes.

Probably the biggest change is how the new boot menu is launched. While you can still press the F8 key frantically on boot, you may need multiple times to get the timing right.

When your in Windows 8, you have multiple options to configure the operating system to display the advanced boot menu on startup.

You can click open the Settings charm and load the PC settings here to configure the option. You reach the Settings charm for instance by moving the mouse in the lower right corner of the screen.

You can alternatively hold down the Shift key before you click on the system’s Restart option, or run the command shutdown /r /o for the same effect.

Microsoft furthermore has integrated automatic options to display the boot menu, for instance when errors are noted during boot, or when the operating system is running.

This in itself is a pretty big change, but that’s not all of it. The advanced boot menu has been redesigned completely, to match the Windows 8 theme.

As you can see, the menu looks completely different from the advanced boot menu in previous operating systems. From here you can reach the repair and recovery options, as well as configuration options. The menu is now divided into multiple screens, which veteran Windows users will have to get used to at first.

What’s your take on the new boot menu, and the options to load it? (via Everything Microsoft)

System Security Guard is a free portable program for the Windows operating system that you can run to check core system processes and files for security issues. The program requires an Internet connection though as it checks the files using a remote server.

I’d like to point out at this stage that the program is developed by the same company that brings you System Explorer, a great program that provides a task manager, process explorer and startup manager capabilities. You will actually notice that what System Security Guard has to offer, is also included in System Explorer. If you start System Explorer, you can have the program perform the same security check (or a very similar one).  So, if you use that program, there is not really the need to run System Security Guard as well on your system.

When you start the program the program loads the results of the last scan, if a scan has been performed previously. You can click on the start security check button to run a new scan, which usually takes less than a minute to complete. Once that is done you will receive a summary report in the program interface, just like the one on the screenshot above.

The program rates all scanned files into safe, suspicious, threat and unknown files. It does not list them in the program window though, which is bit of a nuisance. You can click on the show file report link to open a detailed report on the System Security Guard website.  Here you finally see a list of all files that have been scanned, their rating, and an option to display details about the file.

It is a good idea to concentrate on threats first, then suspicious files, and finally the unknown files.  You may be able to eliminate some files right away, for instance browser files or other applications that you are confident about.

The detailed file information use the System Explorer process library, which is another indicator that both programs share the same technology.

I personally prefer to use System Explorer over System Security Guard. Both programs are available as portable versions, with System Explorer providing access to a larger feature set that is actually pretty useful in itself. Still, if for one reason or the other you do not want to use that program, System Security Guard may be an alternative to have your files checked out.

Please note that the program’s scan is limited to select files and locations, and that you should use another program that is providing ongoing protection of the system.

I recently had a chat with a friend of mine about this and he told me that he was using Windows 7′s snap feature to snap two windows next to each other on the operating system. He did that either by moving the windows to the left or right side of the screen, or activating the windows individually, and using the Windows-left arrow or Windows-right arrow shortcut to place them in those locations.

When I told him that there was another way to do that, one that would even work with more than two windows, he was puzzled at first. Take a look at the following screenshot and see for yourself.

A right-click on a blank spot on the taskbar displays the context menu that you see above. When you select show windows side by side all windows that are currently not in minimized state will be aligned next to each other, so that each window gets the same amount of screen estate on the desktop. If you have two windows, each gets 50% and is displayed next to each other vertically. Three windows get 33.3% each, and are displayed vertically on the system, and four windows vertically again with each getting 25% of the available screen estate.

All you need to do therefor is to open the program windows that you want to displayed side by side, right-click the taskbar, and select the show windows side by side option. It may not be much faster for two windows if you run Windows 7, but it is definitely faster if you want to display three or more windows side by side instead.

This option should be available – maybe under a different name – in previous versions of Windows as well.

And this is but one of the advantages that MediaPlus gives you once you have installed it in the Google Chrome browser. You will notice that it adds an icon to Chrome’s address bar, which you need to click on to activate the extension’s feature set on the active page. When you do that, it will automatically scan the page for Flash or HTML5 elements, to display its context menu when you hover the mouse cursor over them.

It offers the following features:

• Close this panel
• Resize the element, or move it on the page
• Turn off the lights, darken every other element on the page
• Maximize the element to full screen (and hide all other elements as a consequence)
• Remove the element from the page
• Pop out the element to a new window. This moves the selected element, a game or video for instance, into its own window.
• Download contents on the page to the local computer. This links to a page pointing to three free online services that you can use to download the element.

While you may have seen some of the functionality in other browser add-ons, like the recently reviewed lmnpop for Firefox, you usually do not find extensions that add all of the functionality to a browser. It is especially interesting to note that it will work not only with Flash contents, but also some HTML5 contents, like HTML5 videos that some sites use of.

It is a pretty useful extension for Chrome users who regularly come into contact with Flash or HTML5 elements and prefer to have more control over the element and its surroundings. If you want to play flash games in full screen, now you can. The same is true for web videos or apps that may not offer those options.

The core benefit here is privacy and full control over the data. This can be extremely useful for businesses who do not want to or can’t host files on third party services, and individual users who want full control over the whole hosting and synchronization service.

The developers have just released a new version of ownCloud which raises the version of the program to 4. The new version introduces several requested features that improve the service significantly.

• Versioning – With this feature enabled, it is possible to restore an older version of a file. A core advantage here is that you can configure the versioninig feature, which you can’t do at third party cloud hosting and synchronization services.
• Encryption – You can now configure file encryption so that all files stored on the server are encrypted, and thus only accessible with the correct password.
• Drag and drop upload – The ownCloud web service now supports the dragging and dropping of local files to a directory on the server.
• ODF Viewer – Open Document Format files are now supported by the viewer, and can be read right in the web browser without the need for plugins or programs.
• Themes – If you do not like the look and feel of the ownCloud site, you can now theme and style it yourself, or install a theme created by others.
• Application Store – This makes it easier to install new applications, like the encryption or versioning application on the server.

There is more though to the new version. Here is a list of additional changes and improvements:

• External Storage – This is an experimental feature that allows you to mount Google Drive and Dropbox storage as folders inside the ownCloud structure
• Syslog support – OwnCloud can now write to syslog log files, and of course the service’s own log files
• LDAP / Active Directory – Admins can manage users and groups from LDAP and AD.
• Migration – Options to migrate user accounts between different ownCloud instances, for instance between a primary and backup server.
• Tasks – A to do list that is synchronized automatically.
• Share Calendars – You can now share your own calendar with other users or groups
• File Notifications – Users can now be notified when files are shared with them.
• Galleries – Control over galleries have been improved, including sharing per email options and sort oders.

You can check out the version 4.0 feature overview here on this page. All in all some excellent new features. Have you tried ownCloud yet? If so, what is your impression so far? (via Caschy)