Privacy Concerns for Google Targeted Ads

Two online privacy groups have slammed Google for launching a behavioral advertising program, with one of them calling the plan a privacy "disaster."

Google's proposal would bring user tracking to the world's largest ad network, said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "It's a disaster," he said. "It's about whether the most dominant Internet media firm should be able to exploit its access to Internet user data for advertising purposes. Google long maintained it would not do this type of advertising. Indeed, they claimed they didn't need to and they went after others who did."

More at PC World

Google Ads - Opt Out - Targeted ads

You can opt out of Google Ads which may be targeted based on your internet behaviour.

Here is a video from Google



Opt out of the Google Targeted Behaviour here

Linux tips that every geek should know

Tuxradar has a list of over 50 tips that every geek should know

I have used most of them - what about you?

See the full list here

Rocky Mountain News - Final Edition

Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.

Cloud - the new dotcom ?

via Techcrunch

Google Ads everywhere

After Toolbar, now its Google News, Google is splattering ads everywhere it can.

via Mashable

Google Friend Connect now on Blogger

Google has integrateed the Followers gadget with Friend Connect. Here is a video on how you would be able to use your Google, Yahoo, AIM or any other OpenId to follow a blog

Google Sponsored ads on Toolbar suggest

Google has released Google Toolbar 6 for IE and that has a suggest feature!

What's more, it also lists out sponsored ads in the suggestion box

Looks like the marketing team is getting to work finally, pushing ads almost everywhere possible!

via Arstechnica

Twitter Tips: Finding a job with Twitter

Linkedin was the top social networking site to look for jobs - However, you can use Twitter as well.

CIO has tips on how to find a job using twitter -

Firstly, you know who you should follow - basically, you follow people who are in your industry, interact with them and see what types of projects interests them most

Secondly, think about what you say in your twit! Avoid being trivial

Thirdly, Have your profile updated, put a URL - maybe your linkedin profile and have a biography in less than 160 characters

and Tweet it forward - help recruiters by referring candidates

Via CIO

Top Social Networking Sites to find jobs

1. Linkedin
2. Plaxo with Simply Hired
3. Twitter with Blog or Linkedin URL
4. Jobster
5. Facebook
6. Craigslist
7. MyWorkster with Indeed
8. VisualCV
9. JobFox
10. Ecademy

via Mashable

Ubuntu 9.04 - new login screen

Laid Off ? tell your story anonymously

Telonu is a website that lets people anonymously report on their employers, and has a specific section called Layoff Talk for that!

To tell your experience, go to the Layoff section and find your ex-employer and add your review on the layoff.

Telonu claims to be completely anonymous, though it does ask for the relationship that you had with the company

Go here

Web2Expo Contests!

Web2Expo organizers are running contests and you could win discounts, schwag and maybe even passes!

This week's question would give you 40% off on the Expo Pass

Q. Who could once whistle at the exact pitch of a 1200 band modem?

More details over here

The Twenty Five Most Valuable Blogs

24/7 Wall street has put out a list of 25 most valuable blogs - which are not owned by big companies

The list among others includes Gawker Properties, Huffington Post, Drudge Report, Sugar Inc and TechCrunch

To see the complete list - go here

India in Pakistan?

(CLICK on the IMAGE to view FULL SIZE)

One of things that I noticed on the visitor logs of this blog. A Pakistani visitor searching for India v Srilanka Live Commentary!

Pakistan and Srilanka are currently involved in a Test Match series.

Twitter Music!

Techcrunch has an interesting article on how to use Twitter to find and listen to Music !

Among the sites mentioned are Blip, Twiturm, Twisten and more

Find the entire list here

YUI released on 3rd year anniversary

The YUI Library turned three years old this month and we’d like to invite you — our community of developers and implementers — to come out and celebrate! To celebrate our third birthday (and our 2.7.0 release), we’ll be hosting a recession-chic happy hour at the Blue Chalk Cafe in downtown Palo Alto, Thursday, February 26 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. Nothing too fancy, but we’ll have fun goodies to give away and the first few rounds of drinks are on us (until the tab runs out). Details and signups are at Upcoming. Hope to see you there!

YUI 2.7.0 release is here

Watch Oscars on Facebook

Jaman will offer a live stream with Facebook chat: you can comment live on the event with just your friends, or everyone on the site. Your commentary will posted to Facebook as a status update through Facebook Connect!

See it here

phMyID - provide OpenID support to your site

phpMyID is a pair of PHP files that allow you to easily use your domain name for authentication to OpenID-supporting sites.

phpMyID is a single user (though, if you were so inclined, you could easily turn it into a multi-user setup) IdP, or "Identity Provider" for the OpenID framework. It's a single PHP script with minimal dependancies. You don't need a database, you don't need to make your filesystem writable, you don't need to download any libraries, and you don't need to recompile PHP.

Check it out here

New Mac Mini 2009 Edition - Video

Mac Mini 2009 Edition - video powered by Metacafe

Stupid things not do when you steal a laptop

DownloadSquad has a article on things not do if you steal a laptop :-) . We are not telling you to steal!

Here are the ones that you shouldn't do

• Don't take pictures of yourself with the built-in webcam
• Don't download and install a chat program, then log in to it
• Don't sign into social networking sites
• Don't update your statuses with giveaway details
• Don't let your browser store any passwords
• Don't register yourself as the owner of the laptop

Read it in detail here

Facebook - fastest to 150 million users

Fortune has a story on Facebook and how its the fastest to the 150 million user mark. Click on the above image to see a interesting graph on how long the other technologies took.

Fortune's full article is here

Ditch your first iPhone

Brian Caulfield in Forbes has a interesting piece of why you should ditch your iPhone. If you were the first few who went and bought an iPhone when it came out - the two year contract is expiring in June. There are many options from Verizon and Sprint

More here

Ubuntu 9.10 named Karmic Koala

Ubuntu 9.10 (releasing October 2009) would be named as Karmic Koala!

The release is expected to boost startup performance on the desktop. Boot performance and beautification will be focussed and target boot time for Jaunty (9.04) is 25 seconds and this would be improved even further for 9.10. They might also adopt Red Hat's Plymouth framework to give flicker free animation. One could probably expect inclusion of Ubuntu's experimental face browser login screen.

And maybe, we could get a non-brown look finally!

Change font for adsense ?

Google Adsense now allows you to change the Fonts for your ads!

There are currently three options available - Arial, Times and Verdana font faces

It may not appear in your adsense account immediately

Click on the above image to see how it looks!

Just as with color and placement optimizations, we encourage you to test these new font options to find the best combination for your sites. For instance, you can try matching the font face of your ads to that of your sites. Enjoy the new font faces, and feel free to leave feedback in our comments field below.

Facebook launches social widgets

Facebook has launched a social widget for Facebook Connect - its called the Comments Box.

The Comments Box can be used by any website, blog or photo gallery to add social comments to their page in just a minute with a few lines of code. The social widgets make it easier for users to communicate and share across your site and with their friends on Facebook.

For more on how to use Facebook Connect and Comments Box - see here