Switching Search Engine from Google to Duck Duck Go

Today I read about a new search engine on Lifehacker [ link ], and I have switched since then. Partly because of the fact that Google is indeed watching you, but mostly because it has some nifty features that Google hasn’t or hasn’t implemented as well.

The name is Duck Duck Go. Like any modern online entity, you can find them at multiple spots: on their site, on Twitter, on the founder’s blog, on Facebook.

Things I like most:

• Absence of clutter, much like how Google first started out. There is literally no advertising to be found.
• Less spam results. Searching for very general keywords typically results in pages that exist solely to redirect you to other link sites. Not the case here !
• Disambiguation, like we know it from searching Wikipedia for example, but this time ’round with search keywords. So it goes further than the obligatory and simple “Did you mean?”-functionality.
• Zero-click info: automatic recognition of keyword subject. Other search engines do this as well in some form, but Duck Duck Go takes it up a notch.
• !bang-searching: handy stuff. Read more.
• Keyboard ninja features: navigate the results etc. by keyboard.

Things I would like:

• Better recognition of (international) addresses: searching for my home address in Google works as expected (showing a map result), this does not (yet?) work in Duck Duck Go for my Belgian style address.

Take a look for yourself or compare with the common search engines.

Browsera: Simultaneously Test Your Web Design in Multiple Browsers

Browsera is an online service that will show you how your web site is rendered by the different browser engines, as to expose compatibility issues. It will also analyze your design and show you the parts which are prone to errors.

 

Too bad I’m not into web design at the moment, this tool would have saved me some time back in the day.

No more trying to install a legacy IE6 version or messing around with virtual machines etc…

 

As read on Lifehacker.

Panda Cloud Antivirus

Cool idea that actually uses the principle of cloud computing effectively. Analysis is done by the cloud, and no more updating required.

Result: light weight virus scanner without all that other junk: webblocker, scriptblocker, firewall, adware filter, network scanner, IM scanner, …

Just virus and rootkit protection is what I need. And preferably at a low system resource cost. And preferably for freez

< currently in beta >

Panda Cloud Antivirus FREE – The first free cloud antivirus against viruses, spyware, rootkits and adware

Disabling Advertisement Popup of Avira Antivir

Very simple: go to your install folder – default = C:\Program Files\Avira\Antivir Desktop\ -, right click the file avnotify.exe -> Properties. Go to the security tab and deny Read & Execute permission for SYSTEM user.

There ya go !

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Facebook: How To Avoid Photos Tagged Of You Showing Up Where You Don’t Want Them To. And Test It Out Yourself !

How’s that for a post title !

Seriously though, this might be one of my more important posts, as it concerns privacy in Facebook. I wanted to do a separate post, as the inspiration for it – chapter 4 of quoted source below – was a bit low on clear instructions and screenshots, and might be too advanced for basic Facebook users.

As the article describes, it is a classic Facebook problem. It is the reason why many people stop using FB, or don’t use it like it’s meant to be, just because the user doesn’t understand it or doesn’t want to spend time trying to. Although one might argue that the default settings of FB are too ‘loose’.
So anyway, one of the biggest problems is that people suddenly see themselves appear on a photo uploaded by someone else. Not only that, it got tagged, so depending on your privacy settings, the whole world can see it. And that might be a bad thing if the photo depicts something you would rather have kept hidden, aside from a select group of friends.

People have been fired over stuff like that, and the option is hard to find, so here’s how you do it.

1) Go to your profile privacy page.

2) Click the option “Photos Tagged of You” and select “Customize…”. This box will show.

3) Here is where the magic happens. Depending on what situation you wish to create, you combine the options in this box. For me, I would like all photos tagged of me to be visible to all my friends, but not the friends that are related to me professionally. To do that, I select “Only Friends”, “None of My Networks”, and I exclude the friends list I created in the past to which I added all my professional contacts.

That’s it. You can even check this (and other settings) by viewing your profile as one of your friends ! To do this, follow these simple steps:
1) Go to your profile privacy page (which might still be open from previous action).
2) Click on the “Contact Information” tab.

3) In the text box at the top, type the name of a friend to test it out. For the example above, I can type the name of one of my professional contacts, and I can instantly verify that this friend can no longer see any photos ‘tagged of me’. Only my private albums in which I had photos not tagged of me were visible to this person.

It goes to show that friends lists are a great way of managing privacy in Facebook. It also makes it more practical to keep up to date of your friends of you have a lot of them. Make sure you read the mentioned article below for tips on public visibility (not just inside of Facebook).

___
Inspired by this great article.

Elsewares – Independent Art & Design aka The Cool Stuff Store

My wife pointed me to a site called Elsewares. I’m just now looking through their catalog, and I must say I’m loving it. Lots (if not all) of their products are recycled, and all of them are very creatively designed.
Prices range from under $25 to over $100, ranging from small jewelry to big wall clocks.

A few examples:

* Pine Lumen (oil lamp): very simple in design, but the projected shadow makes for an amazing effect in a dark room.
* Recycled Rubber Coasters: coasters made from recycled car tires. Eco & funny !
* Socktopus (toy): handmade from recycled sweaters.
* Nooka Zub Zot 38 (wristwatch): personal taste, but I love the design.

ELSEWARES // Independent Art & Design

Ketarin – Keeping Your Install Packages Updated

Another great find by said source blog: Ketarin.
Extremely handy if you maintain an emergency USB stick with all sorts of system tools. Click the source link for a detailed description.

Source: Confessions of a Freeware Junkie

E-book Search Engine

Self-explanatory: http://pdfse.com/

Source: Confessions of a Freeware Junkie

Marriage

This is it, I’m getting married this Saturday !!

Hope all goes well, and we didn’t mess up the invites or forgot anything :s

My next post will be written as a husband :]  – I’ll have to get used to that.

For those of you in the neighbourhoud: the wedding will take place at 11h30 at ‘t Landhuis in Bornem (no church wedding). Feel free to come take a looksie.

VS 2005 App_Code bug

Lost some time over the following bug in Visual Studio 2005, so hopefully this post will prevent someone else doing the same.

When you manually create an App_Code folder in a VS2005 project, and you add a class to it, it probably won’t show up in IntelliSense. Don’t worry, it’s not you, it’s MS.

Every class you add to that folder, will have its Build Action property set to ‘Content’. Change this to ‘Compile’ and problem solved.

I suppose MS will think of this as a feature, because of the fact you created the folder manually, and like the Global Resources folder, might contain mostly icons, images, etc… Then ‘Content’ would be right. But then if they recognize the ‘App_Code’ folder automatically (VS even sets the code-icon for it), they might as well put the default Build Action property to ‘Compile’, dang it.

I do not know if this also occurs with a brand new project, to which App_Code was added on the moment of creation.