Chrome is all about speed and packing in loads of features but maximising window space. It has turned some common browser traits upside down literally, like placing the tab bar at the very top of the screen.

Some cool features include:

One box for everything. Web search. Web history. Address bar. Suggestions as you type. One unified box serves all your browsing needs.

New Tab Page. Every time you open a new tab, you’ll see a visual sampling of your most visited sites, most used search engines, and recently bookmarked pages and closed tabs.

Application Shortcuts. Use web apps without opening your browser. Application shortcuts can directly load your favorite online apps.

Crash Control. Every tab you’re using is run independently in the browser, so if one app crashes it won’t take anything else down.

Incognito Mode. Don’t want pages you visit to show up in your web history? Choose incognito mode for private browsing.

Simpler Downloads. No intrusive download manager; you see your downloads status at the bottom of your current window.

The only drawback I can see at the moment is that the screen text looks a little rough around the edges, but hey, this is still only a beta version. From using it for just an hour you can tell the level of thought that has been put into the development. Could it overtake Internet Explorer in the future? It certainly should, maybe the masses are just in need of a little education.

Foundem is a vertical search engine, that claims to have a deeper understanding of the categories in which you are searching. Traditional search engines seemingly broad but superficial (shallow), while vertical search engines tend to be deep but narrow (highly specialised).

Foundem’s patented WebSentient™ technology provides the World’s first and only general-purpose vertical search engine. Their patented WebSentient technology can provide accurate, timely, and highly-detailed parametric search within any single domain.

Foundem is not directly responsible for any products bought through any of the suppliers featured on their site. They don’t have a record of your transaction, so if you have any queries relating to your purchases are the concern of the supplier directly via their website.

Foundem has been tested using Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox on PCs, and Mozilla Firefox on Macs. JavaScript and Cookies must be enabled for our site to work properly.

Check it out at: www.foundem.co.uk

This is one common struggle that most parents will face at some time or other  as most kids will turn up their nose at the site of anything green. So how do you get around this issue? Here are some cool and easy ways to get your kids to eat their veggies:

Books at Amazon.co.uk

The Art of Hiding Vegetables -Bali, Child

Sneaky Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Foods -Jessica Seinfeld

After School Meal Planner – Annabel Karmel

Lunch Boxes – Jennifer Joyce

Healthy Eating for Kids – Anita Bean

Healthy Cooking for Children – Mandy Francis

Web site resources:

Getting Kids to Eat Vegetables – Food Fun

8 Fun Ideas to Get Your Kids to Eat Their Veggies – At Squidoo

Getting Kids to Eat Vegetables and Fruits – Keep Kids Healthy

10 ways to make your kids turn green – iVillage

How to Get Kids to Eat Vegetables: 6 Easy Tips – MomScape

Encouraging Toddlers to Eat Vegetables – Kids and Nutrition

Get your Children to Eat Vegetables – Yahoo Health

How to Get Kids to Eat Their Vegetables – Helium

Kids and Nutrition – Busy Cooks

Click here to see a gallery of the gadgets at MSN Tech.

For an alternative spin, see the clip below from megawhat.tv.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqutOXvgNY0[/youtube]

So I wanted to make a wireless network (using Windows XP) that had a desktop PC as the main unit and 2 laptops that all shared a printer and external hard drive.

Overview

As I was doing some more research via Google I came across this article from a couple of years ago: How to Network your Livebox, It can be done that explained it in simple terms.

The Livebox is actually a router in itself, and will allow 6 PC’s to share the wireless Internet connection. On this very same network you can also share other resources like the printer, hard drive and just about anything else.

Tweaks

I followed the steps explained and just had to make a few small adjustments:

1.    I had to drag and drop the whole external hard drive volume into ‘My Shared Docs’ folder. Doing this makes it accessible to the network.

2.    One of the laptops was running Vista. So I changed the workgroup name on this machine to ‘MSHOME’ which is the default setting for XP. The default for Vista is ‘WORKGROUP’.

3.    I had Norton Internet Security running, but I just put the network into the ‘Trusted Zone’ in the setting panel.

Now I had a fully functioning wireless network with shared resources and it took 15 mins to enable and cost me nothing. Bargain.

This search engine pulls results from a hoard of environmentally friendly Web sites and news stories to help you narrow it down, whether you’re looking for vegetable-tanned leather pumps or a green moving company.

Other features (like categories) include News, Videos, Directory, Widgets, Jobs board and green products. You can sign up for a weekly newsletter and also download a Green Maven Firefox search plugin. I have a feeling that this will become the homepage for a great many people.

Visit: www.greenmaven.com

[tags]green, environment, search engine[/tags]

A website was launched a couple of years ago called itsmypost.com, which allows users to target the firms they don’t want to receive junk mail from, either by post or by email. The UK law is simple; if you communicate directly with these companies and tell them you do not want their mail, then they must stop.

Junk Mail

The Mailing Preference Service provides a way of limiting junk mail which is addressed to you. If you write to them, they will send you a simple application form and returning this will enable you to remove your name from most mailing lists. Write to:

Mailing Preference Service (MPS)
Freepost 22
London, W1E 7EZ
Tel: 0207 766 4410 or visit:

http://www.mpsonline.org.uk

For new mothers that are receiving high junk volumes then visit: http://mpsonline.org.uk/bmpsr/

You can email the Royal Mail at optout@royalmail.co.uk with your name and address you can request they stop posting addressed door-to-door mail to your home. Alternatively, write to your local delivery office, the address of which you can find by calling 08457 740 740.

You can also cut down on unlabelled junk mail delivered through your letterbox. The Association of Household Distribution is promoting a similar scheme. Just write to:

Royal Mail Door-to-Door
Streamline House
Sandy Lane West
Oxford, OX4 5BR

Unwanted E-mails

There are lots of technical ways that you can stop emails reaching your inbox using filters, rules and firewalls but that is a subject on it’s own. However if you want to reduce the number of sales e-mails you receive, you can reduce that number significantly by registering with the e-Mail preference service. To register, simply visit www.dma.org.uk and click on the e-MPS logo.

Unwanted Telephone Calls

You may also be subjected to unwanted sale calls by phone. Similar to the system for mailing, the telephone companies provide a Telephone Preference Service. Just contact the following freephone number and ask for a TPS registration form and explanatory leaflet:

0845 0700707
NB This number is for all telephone companies, for both landlines and mobile numbers.

http://www.tpsonline.org.uk

Unwanted Faxes

If you receive too many unwanted advertising faxes, you can cut down on those too. The Fax Preference Service, set up by the Direct Marketing Association can help. Just contact them on 0845 0700702 (charged at the National Rate). This applies to domestic telephone lines, sole traders and partnerships.
Limited companies should contact:

Fax Preference Service
5th Floor Haymarket House
1 Oxendon Street
London, SW1Y 4EE
Tel: 0171 766 4422 or visit:

http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/fps

For more information on anything mentioned in this article contact Consumer Direct.

The One Hundred Push Ups programme will steer you from zero to the magical 100 in 6 weekly stages via the web site. The weekly programmes are broken down and available to print off or you can download the complete programme as a .PDF file. The commitment is about 30 minutes per week if you were concerned that you may no have the time to complete this.

Don’t worry if you are unsure what a push up constitutes. You are informed of the exact technique and some ‘alternatives’ to help your training.

Well you have nothing to lose. You can get your achievement listed on the ‘did the hundred‘ page and could even earn yourself a nice little badge.

[tags]exercise, fitness, push ups[/tags]

People have been using web applications like Facebook and MySpace for this kind of thing for what seems like ages now but Ning powers the largest number of social networks on the Internet.

Overview

Ning offers the latest social networking features, all infinitely customizable to meet your unique needs. The Ning Platform makes this possible. As a platform, you don’t have to appeal to Ning for the features you want. If you have the time and the inclination, you can build them yourself. It’s the software equivalent of Home Depot. Unlike other services that offer a “one-size-fits-all” offering, your social network on Ning runs on a programmable platform.

Features

With Ning you can:

• Fully customize the look and feel of your page, including the colour scheme and logo.
• Add special widgets for promotions and announcements.
• Create groups inside your social network.
• Schedule events, invite people and keep track of attendees.
• Administer network members and see how they have contributed.
• Start a discussion forum about any topic.
• Add photo galleries and slideshows.

and much more…

And the Cost?

Ning is free, however with most things these days it costs to get the most out of it. It currently stands at (per month): $7.95 to remove Ning promotion links, $19.95 to gain full advertising control, $4.95 to use your own domain name and $9.95 to get more storage space.

Visit: www.ning.com

[tags]Social Networking[/tags]

Here is the idea: Just select the text you wish to check and hit the shortcut key. Domain Lookup (from Quality Nonsense) checks availability at your favourite domain registrar ASAP. It’s free forever and takes just sixty seconds to install.

Domain Lookup supports many of the worlds top registrars and you can suggest more to the software authors (a huge list already on the website). Well, enough said. Check out the website and this clip for more lots more information.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LQTGM42El0[/youtube]

[tags]Domain Names[/tags]