Technology – Page 26

Browsing With Flock For A Change

January 18, 2010 by Raj Agrawal Leave a Comment

The Social Web Browser

Both Flock and Firefox are powered by the same technology, Mozilla. Flock is very close to the structure of Firefox but, there are somethings that make Flock better, especially for ‘Social Media’ users. A better provision of user-friendliness and convenience is what Flock serves. I’m not saying that Firefox is not good enough. It’s just vintage! Why don’t you try something new? It’s a same browser with better features.

So you are thinking, what exactly are those features that make Flock better than ‘my Firefox’?

Highlights (Considering Firefox 3 and Flock 2):

Flock and Firefox both have larger memory footprints than earlier versions, but memory management has improved greatly. The good news is that Flock and Firefox do a much better ‘house-keeping’ job managing memory over time. This means that Flock will consume the most memory only on it’s first run. On subsequent start-ups, Flock will require a relatively flat amount of memory, rather than increasing its consumption over time. This also means that less memory will be consumed when multiple tabs are open and when extensions are installed. Flock has a number of powerful features built on top of the Firefox architecture that allow you to have a truly unique browsing experience. These features come with a price, and that price is a slightly larger memory footprint. Comparing Flock to Firefox with no extensions installed is like comparing apples with oranges. In order to enjoy any advanced functionality in Firefox you need to install extensions, unlike Flock which has lots of advanced features built right in. Firefox extensions will increase both the memory footprint, and the risk of memory leaks over time. That said, all of the memory improvements in Firefox (including many memory leak fixes and much better memory management ‘housekeeping’ practices) apply to Flock , so you should experience notably improved browsing performance with Flock than you’ve experienced in prior versions,
Flock quickly integrates with each Firefox security update,
With my personal experience, i found Flock more stable than Firefox,
The first thing you’ll notice is the blue Flock Star within the Media Bar instead of Flock 1’s grey star. Clicking this star will favorite the current stream and turn it orange, just like when favoriting a web page. Clicking an orange star in the Media Bar will, for the first time, provide a collection of options for this favorite media stream. The first is an option to delete said stream, as many people found it difficult to delete a favorite media stream in Flock 1. This dialog will also offer options to rename the favorite media stream and to place it in a folder (folders being yet another new feature). These combine to allow a brand new level of organization for favorite media streams, saving even more of your valuable time, Data Source: Flock
Flock helps you stay connected on social media websites through ‘People’ sidebar.

Have you tried it yet? Do it if haven’t, because it’s not a crime to try something new, isn’t it? You have the right to share your opinions in the comment section, so please add a comment!

Converting Mercury To Gold

January 11, 2010 by Raj Agrawal 745 Comments

The Truth

You might have heard about the Alchemists and their job. If not, Alchemy is the process of changing the nature of things. Like transforming base metals (metals that corrode easily) into metals of higher value like Gold. In ancient times, common men found this activity of Alchemists magical because of the lack of awareness. If you suddenly see a man teleporting from place to place, then you will find that magical as teleportation is something that is still a theoretical idea and something impractical in the books of present science. It is said that modern chemistry is a successor of ancient Alchemy.

Structural and procedural representation

But, is it really possible to transform mercury into gold? Theoretically, yes. According to an article at herebeanswers.com, the atomic number of Mercury is 80 and that of Gold is 79. Mercury has one extra proton in it’s nucleus and an electron in the corresponding outer orbit. So, kicking one proton out of Mercury’s atomic structure will lead to a successful conversion of Mercury into Gold. But, again, it is a theoretical concept. A tremendous amount of energy is required to make this happen and the attempts has been unsuccessful in commercial state.

As of now, all is known that Mercury is used to quicken the extraction of gold from rocks. If you think about the whole idea, it would be hard to believe that it’s ‘still’ impractical to implement this theoretical concept. Scientists have already built a working model of a ‘close to’ or ‘may be an exact replica’ of a flying saucer (so called as a ‘ UFO’) a long time ago. If you don’t believe it, do a research on it. You will be astonished to grasp the fact. So, wouldn’t it be possible for the scientists to extract gold from mercury in the present era of nuclear development? The answer may be yes or no. If it’s a yes, then no wonder the ‘how to’ is still a secret.

What do you think? Is the fact being hidden to common man that gold is being manufactured or do you think that there are enough gold mines to serve the consistent growth in demand for gold?

Tricking Google Search With Scroogle

January 7, 2010 by Raj Agrawal 6 Comments

Update as on 17th November, 2015 – Scroogle.com no longer exists.

No cookies. No search-term records. Access log deletes within 48 hours

It’s a quite difficult to obtain and maintain privacy on the web. With the various intentions of collecting user data, it’s really hard to be anonym us all the time. Google Search collects the user’s IP address, search items along with the date and time which can be avoided by using proxy anonymizers and even better, by using a search engine called Scroogle.

Wikipedia reveals:

Google originally placed a cookie on each registered user’s computer, which can be used to track that person’s search history, and that cookie was not set to expire until 2038. As of 2007, Google’s cookie now expires in two years but renews itself when a Google service is used. There is no evidence that Google turns over information to the FBI or the NSA, though some users remain anxious about the possibility. In response, Google claims cookies are necessary to maintain user preferences between sessions and offer other search features.
In early 2005, the United States Department of justice filed a motion in federal court to force Google to comply with a subpoena for, “the text of each search string entered onto Google’s search engine over a two-month period (absent any information identifying the person who entered such query).” Google fought the subpoena, due to concerns about users’ privacy. In March 2006, the court ruled partially in Google’s favor, recognizing the privacy implications of turning over search terms and re-using to grant access.

Who is Scroogle? How does Scroogle work?

Scroogle, a Mozilla Foundation, is a nonprofit organization with a history of activism on privacy issues. For more info visit: Link

When you enter a search term through Scroogle Search, Scroogle randonly grabs an IP from a pool of it’s IP addresses called Goo IPs. It uses SSL to encrypt your search activity.Then Google issues a new cookie with a new ID, and sends the search results. Scroogle deletes the cookie and saves the results in a file which is also deleted within hour. Google records Sroogle’s IP address, search items and the date and time.

Is there a Firefox, Flock, Microsoft IE7 / IE8, Opera or a Chrome extension available for Scroogle?

Yes. A short tutorial on ‘how to’ is available on the website. www.scroogle.org

So, if you have used this service, do share your experiences in the comments section.