How To Bypass Internet Censorship

If you live in a free and democratic society, the idea that someone can control your browsing choices probably is quite disturbing. Employers blocking Facebook during working hours may be acceptable. What a free society should completely oppose, however, is censorship based on someone else’s moral code, religious belief or political ideology. Irrespective of who does the censoring, the methods used are more or less the same. This article examines some of the most common methods used to filter content as well as emerging trends. In each case, I have provided a solution or practical workaround. The Current State Of...

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8 Great Movie Review Sites For Parents With Kids In Mind

You’re ready to put The Wolverine into the DVD player, then suddenly you wonder if this movie will be a problem for your 8-year-old. Well, will it? If you’re a parent with a family who loves movies, you’ve probably realised that you need to be able to get some reliable information on those movies before you show them to the family. But navigating the various movie sites to find child-friendly titles can be a chore. Today we’ll explore a few of the best movie review sites for kids so that you can choose the best go-to site for your family’s...

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Gmail Makes It Easier To Get Things Done With More Quick Action Buttons

Gmail has added more “Quick Action” buttons to the inbox which helps you carry out tasks with nothing more than a click. Quick action buttons were first incorporated in Gmail next to specific kinds of messages. They are located to the right of the subject while viewing your inbox, and at the top of an open message. These time-savers allow you to perform an action in response to the email without opening the said email. The quick action buttons were introduced in May this year. The first batch included a RSVP button that let you respond quickly to a party...

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The Art Of The Apology: How To Say Sorry With An Email (And Mean It)

Let’s face it; we all screw up from time to time. We’re humans. It’s part of what we do. Knowing how to display contrition and make amends is a very important skill to have. It allows the wronged party to move past any perceived slight, and more importantly it provides an opportunity for reflection on what caused you to upset another person. Email is a great medium for this. Although being a bit less personal than a face-to-face conversation, it allows you to compose your thoughts in a way which is unambiguous and direct, and reduces the need to be...

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Gmail's New Attachment UI, Powered by Google Drive

An hour after posting about Gmail's new attachment UI, Gmail's blog announced the new feature:



"With today's update to Gmail, (...) you can view attachments and save files directly to Google Drive without ever leaving Gmail, making it easy to access them later from whatever device you're on - computer, phone or tablet. The next time you open an email with attachments, you'll see new previews of the files at the bottom of the email, from photos and videos to spreadsheets and PDFs."

Gmail now shows thumbnails for many file formats. Mouse over an attachment to download it or save it to Google Drive.

Gmail shows a list of Google Drive folders, so you can save the file to the right folder directly from Gmail. You can also download all the attachments or save all of them to Google Drive.

Click the attachments to preview files inline using Google Drive. The nice thing is that Google Drive Preview opens inside Gmail.

"This new attachment experience is available on desktop and will be rolling out over the next week," informs Google, which also mentions that Google Drive has 120 million active users.



{ via Gmail's blog }

Background Color Experiment in Google Mobile Search

Google experiments with a slightly different mobile search interface that has a different background color to emphasize the cards. "In this experiment, they've made the background darker in colour to add more contrast and make the cards stand out more," says Lee Jarratt, who noticed the new interface.

{ Thanks, Lee. }

Gmail Tests a New Interface for Attachments

Google tests a new interface for attachments internally. A screenshot from a Google employee reveals a Gmail attachment, followed by "Dogfood confidential - submit feedback on the new attachments experience".

The attachment from the screenshot appears to be an Excel spreadsheet and Gmail shows a thumbnail, the title of the file and an icon that's also used in Google Drive for Excel files. Here's the standard interface:

As you can see, the new Gmail UI uses a different icon and no longer displays options like "View", "Open as a Google spreadsheet" or "Download". It's not clear what happens when you click the attachment, but I assume it sends you to Google Drive, where you can preview the file or download it.



It's likely that Google wants to move Gmail attachments to Google Drive. Now Gmail and Google Drive use shared storage and Google Drive provides better ways to manage, search and share files.



{ Thanks, Florian K. }

6 Ways To Get Busy People To Answer Your Emails

When you walk by someone on the street and say hi, how does it make you feel when they don’t say a hi back? It’s amazing how small a lack of acknowledgement can make a person feel, but it’s also amazing just how much you can do to encourage a response. The same is true with emails. Now, imagine the reverse scenario. You’re passing someone on the street and they briefly glance at you, say hi, and then quickly look away. How likely are you to say hi back? Now imagine a person looking you straight in the eyes, smiling...

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Yahoo Mail Gets Multitasking With Keyboard Shortcuts To Help Your Productivity

Yahoo Mail brings multitasking to the web email interface. Yahoo Mail will display three different types of activities you have performed in your inbox. Click on Recent View (located just below the Folders link) to reveal messages you’re composing, recently opened emails and your latest search. The Recent View will enable users to switch from one activity within the inbox to another without opening another browser tab. The Recent View is a simplified way to multitask while working on your emails. The introduction of this feature has come from user feedback and the realization that opening too many tabs hardly...

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Find Out If Your Email Messages Include Your IP Address

Find out if your email provider is including your IP address in outgoing messages as the IP address can reveal your geographic location to the recipients.

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This story, Find Out If Your Email Messages Include Your IP Address, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 12/11/2013 under Email, Internet

Apple Spaceship, Amazon Sundays, Twitter Droids [Tech News Digest]

Today in Tech News Digest, Apple’s cult status is confirmed, Netflix and YouTube are shown to suck, Amazon announces plans to deliver on Sundays, Apple Maps steals users away from Google Maps, a new WoW expansion pack is revealed, WOT reaches 100 million downloads, Twitter turns from beta to alpha, and Blockbuster claims This Is The End. Apple’s Spaceship HQ Revealed Apple has, for a long time, faced claims that it’s some sort of cult. Not a real one, of course, but the fandom that the company elicits in its customers is reminiscent of that shown by followers to a...

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How To Open Windows Mobility Center In Windows 8.1

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This past weekend, I assisted one of my friends in upgrading Windows 7 installation to the recently released Windows 8.1 version. The upgrade was smooth, even though the operation doesn’t keep installed programs and one needs to install all programs all over again after completing the upgrade. After upgrading to Windows 8.1, we reinstalled all […]

The Story of Stuff: Where Exactly Does All Our Stuff Come From Anyway? [Stuff to Watch]

You’re reading MakeUseOf, so you’re probably a bit computer-inclined. Chances are you own more than one, and all the extras too – so, where does this stuff come from? That’s a question with more than one answer – the simplified version, and the “spent my whole life researching it” extended version. The Story of Stuff is a 2007 short film about the material economy. It’s a politically-charged challenging look at the state of consumerism, prompting critics like Glen Beck, formerly of Fox News, to refer to it as an “anti-capitalist tale that unfortunately has virtually no facts correct.” That means...

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Download Windows 8.1 ISO From Microsoft

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Microsoft has released Windows 8.1 RTM to the public and is available as a free update to existing Windows 8 users. While Windows 7, Vista, and XP users have to purchase Windows 8.1 in order to upgrade to newest version of Windows, Windows 8 users are eligible for the free upgrade and can upgrade to […]

Xbox One Leaks, iPhone 6 Rumors, YouTube Haters [Tech News Digest]

Today in Tech News Digest, an Xbox One escapes into the wild two weeks early, Intel acquires education startup Kno, Digg Video has arrived to waste your time, Prefundia leaves beta, Wikimedia launches Beta Features, new larger, curvier iPhones could be next for Apple, the new and improved Google Maps opens its doors, and Jawed Karim, co-founder of YouTube, launches a sweary attack on the new Google+ commenting system. Xbox One Spotted In The Wild The Xbox One is due to be released on Nov. 22 in most territories. And yet due to a monumental mess-up by someone at U.S....

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How to Add Sticky Posts Widget in Blogger Only on Homepage

If you notice my blog homepage I have recently added a sticky posts widget above all the posts.Which will show selected posts with custom Title and Description only on the homepage and it will be hided on Posts,Labels and Archive Pages.This can be implemented with a simply conditional tag in Blogger Blogs.

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Download New Themes For Windows 8.1

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As with the case of Windows 7 and Windows 8, the recently released Windows 8.1 also ships with a couple of good theme packs. If you have upgraded from Windows 7/8 to Windows 8.1 you would know that a theme pack comprises of desktop backgrounds, window borders colour, and might also contain desktop icons, screen […]

Answer Surveys To Receive Play Store Credit With The New Google Opinion Rewards App

Google has released a new app that allows you to earn Play Store credits by answering surveys. The Google Opinion Rewards app is U.S. only for now. Created by Google Consumer Surveys, it crowdsources consumer opinion with quick and easy to answer surveys in exchange for Play Store credit. The earned Play Store credit will be credited to the Google Wallet account of the user and can be used against any content on the online store. The pattern follows the basics of any survey process. After downloading the app, you have to answer a few rudimentary questions about yourself to...

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How Many Friends Do You Have On Google+? [MakeUseOf Poll]

Last week we asked you to choose which phone you’d rather have, the iPhone 5s or the Nexus 5. We expected a close call. We couldn’t have been further off the mark. With 1,894 votes in, the results speak for themselves. 27% of the voters would rather have an iPhone 5s, while a full 73% would rather have the Nexus 5. What do you think these results mean for Apple and Google’s future? Full results and this week’s poll after the jump. As promised, this week we have two best comments, both of them win an awesome MakeUseOf t-shirt! Check...

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Make Your Friends Wipe their Facebook Screen with Zalgo Text Generator Tool

I have wrote many facebook tricks at ATB.Here is one more cool Facebook trick using which you have have fun with your friends.You might have seen few of your friends status update which says "Wipe your Screen ", with some blurr which almost resembles like some dust or dirt over your screen.In this tutorial we will be seeing how you can update your facebook status with such funny text .

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