As many of you know, the Internet is sometimes called the Information Superhighway. What most of you have not heard, is that the destination of this superhighway may not be what you had hoped. Where is it leading us?

What do you consider as threats to our privacy today?

• Cookie tracking
• Shopping data
• Search data
• Personal info from registrations
• Business info from credit agencies
• Medical data
• Government data
• Comments, Forums, Social sites
• GPS location tracking
• Cameras in Streets and Stoplights
• Cameras in Stores
• Cameras in Public Areas
• Nanny Cameras
• Home Security Cameras
• Satellite tracking cameras
• and more …

Doesn’t it make sense that someday, these will all be linked into the net and someone or something will be tracking your every movement? Who’s going to be watching? Governments are the obvious answer. For an example of this idea, watch “Enemy of the State“.

Another group to consider is the hacker community. They’ve discovered the profit in stealing your personal data.

If the governments and the hackers aren’t enough for you, let’s add more for you to worry about.

Your personal information is already a valuable commodity to businesses wanting to sell you products. What’s going to happen as those companies get access to ever more increasing amounts of data about you, where you are and what you are doing? Stephen Saunders at InformationWeek thinks the Internet will become:

… a sophisticated targeting system for companies to sell “stuff” to consumers, for governments to keep track of citizens, and for law enforcement to track illicit activity. In commercial terms, it will be an Internet where the user becomes the used.

I think Stephen may not be paranoid enough. After all, many are predicting the introduction of true machine intelligence by 2025. What could super-intelligent computers could do with all that information about us? I’m not afraid that Skynet will nuke us, but how long can we retain any illusion of freedom when our machines know everything about us and they’re smarter than we are? Watch the movie Eagle Eyefor a hint.

Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, expressed the same concerns ten years ago, in his post “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us“. I remember his question:

Can we doubt that knowledge has become a weapon we wield against ourselves?

Now you might understand why I’m a little paranoid about the future. I think we’ll have a choice to become “one with the machine”, like the Borg, or become useless slaves to our technology. The governments, corporations and hackers will be the least of our worries. Welcome to the machine.

Every time you come across a interesting site or information you may want to bookmark it so that you can visit that site at a later date. I tend to use more than one browser and more than 2 computers to do my work. It would always be great the bookmarks are same throughout all the computers and browsers so that you can quickly access them no matter which PC you use or which browser you use.

There are many tools that do this, I would like to bring to you some of the best bookmark synchronizing tools, some of these tools may not exactly synchronize your bookmarks but they can ensure that you manage the same set of bookmarks across all your computers and browsers.

Google Bookmarks

This is one my favorite book marking tool and I use it on all my browsers and PCs. The good thing about this is that It will synchronize all my new bookmarks on other the PC or browser without me having to do anything.

You have to first install the Google Toolbar on the browsers where you want to synchronize your bookmarks. Once you have done that you will see a Bookmarks button using which you can synchronize your bookmarks.

At first you may not see any bookmarks at all. Below is the screen shot for both Internet Explorer and Firefox on first install.

Note you need to be signed in with a Google Account before you will see the above options. To sign in you will need to click on the Settings button in the right hand corner and click on Sign In. Once you have signed in with your Google Account you can synchronize your bookmarks.

In both the browsers you can Import Favorites from the browser into Google Bookmarks, let’s start with Internet Explorer first and then check if it reflects on the Firefox. Once you click on the import button it will load a page from where you can choose all the bookmarks that need to be imported.

Once you have imported the bookmark clicking the refresh button will synchronize the bookmarks and I will be able to see all my IE favorites in Firefox.

You can repeat the same process and Import the Firefox bookmarks, now both your browsers are synchronized. If you are using a different PC you can simply sign into your Google Account and access all my bookmarks. To keep your Favorites synchronized with the browser you just need to click on Import bookmarks option for the browser and it will add the newer bookmarks to your Google Bookmarks.

To bookmark a page directly to your Google Bookmarks you can click on the bookmark button. Google Bookmarks also provides with tagging features which you can use to organize all your bookmarks. Since all your bookmarks are stored online you can access them from Google Bookmarks page.

Del.icio.us

This is another one of my favorite book marking service and I use it quite often to discover and find new bookmarks. The fact that Del.icio.us is a social book marking service means that you can share your bookmarks with the world. Also since it stores these bookmarks online it makes it easier to access the bookmarks from anywhere in the world on any computer.

You need to have A del.icio.us account so that you can store your bookmarks online. For Internet Explorer You can download the installer which will add a toolbar from where you can easily manage your bookmarks.

If you are using Firefox there is a extension available for adding those bookmarks from within Firefox to your del.icio.us account.

Zinkmo

Zinkmo is a desktop software that allows you to synchronize your bookmarks between Internet Explorer and Firefox. It also allows you synchronize all your bookmarks between multiple computers too. You will need to install the software on multiple PC in order to be able to synchronize the bookmarks between multiple computers.

With Zinkmo you can access all your favorites online. You will need to signup for a free account with Zinkmo before you can access your Online Link Manager. In addition to that you can Auto Sync all your bookmarks, check for duplicate bookmarks and verify if your bookmark links are still valid.

Overall seems like a power application in itself that will allow you to synchronize your bookmarks.

Browser Specific Bookmarks Synchronizers

If you are a Firefox user then you should definitely try out the Google Browser Sync which allows you synchronize your bookmarks and more between multiple computers.

For Internet Explorer there is the Windows Live Toolbar which allows you to synchronize your bookmarks between Internet Explorer and Live Favorites.

Other Worth mentionable tools are the Bookkit  (no longer available) for which you can download  (no longer available) synchronizers for both Internet Explorer as well as Firefox.

I usually end up using a mix of all the tools but re-synchronize everything with the Google Bookmarks which acts as a central repository for all my bookmarks. Which bookmark service do you use to synchronize between computers? Do let me know through your valuable comments.

I have used a couple of cool windows explorer replacements that adds tabs to to the regular explorer navigation. If you want to switch to a tabbed windows explorer experience then I recommend you one of these below.

QTTabbar

If you are one who opens more than a couple of windows to work with files from different folders then QTTabBar is the right software for you.

xplorer ²

xplorer ² lite is a very good alternative for your regular Explorer windows and performs better than QTTabBar. It is a lightweight version of xplorer ² software which is available for commercial usage. It is free for personal and academic use.

ExplorerXP

ExplorerXP is a very fast, small, compact and innovative FREEWARE (for non – commercial use) file manager for Windows 2000/XP. Unlike the regular Windows Explorer, it displays the total size of each folder and allows you to browse multiple folders from a tabbed interface.

Xplorer

XPlorer is a substitute for the Windows Explorer, adding multi tabbed features. So it is possible to have lots of locations opened at the same time, while we can manage them in an easy and eficient way.

All of the above softwares help you add tabs and make your navigation easiers I am currently using xplorer ² but have loved QTTabbar which is a awesome replacement for explorer, try out these and let me know how these work for you.

Do let me know your experiences with these softwares. If you have not used these then I definitely recommend you start using it.

Well for the past few days I have been reading quite a few interesting articles and here are some of them which you can feast your eyes on.

• Nirmal has a very interesting post on how Making your Gtalk status to Always Idle
• Raj from Technobuzz.net tells you more about Instant Eyedropper a color picking tool.
• Ram from Technology Bites showcases 13 Online Photo Editors you can use.
• Ashish tells you How To Create Symlinks in Vista.
• Shankar Ganesh tells you how to Stop Yahoo Messenger from starting up with Windows.
• Ashiwni has some information on how Widgetbucks outperforms AdSense.
• Shiva tells us how to View Google Calendar inside Outlook 2007.
• Kyles tells you about 10 Greasemonkey scripts for YouTube.
• Brown Baron has an interesting post on How To Extract Videos From Your Browser’s Cache.
• Madhur Kapoor tells us How to Watch the Sky with Stellarium.
• Mani Karthik has an interesting post on how to make your pages appear beneath snippets in Google SERPs.
• Rishi Raj has got some good tips on How to manage your feeds overload.
• Sarah from BlueJar has a interesting post on How to Attract Comments on Your Blog.
• Monika tells you about 3 Things Your Blog Readers Don’t Tell You.
• Aseem Kishore tell you how to Track your personal productivity, skills, and wealth using MyProgress.

Hope you enjoy this weeks links and have fun reading all these wonderful articles. Do let me know your comments.

If you studied hard at school you may remember Algebra well lets do some algebra magic out here to crack the solution for yesterday’s post on how I can figure out your age without you telling me, if you have not read that yet read it first and come back to view the solution.

The Answer

Assume ‘x’ to be any number that you want it may be a single digit number or a double digit number or a triple digit number. The final outcome would depend on the number of digits you choose so if you choose single digit number the final outcome will be a 3 digit number, for a double digit number the outcome will be a 4 digit number and so on.

Of course a 0 will result in an output of 2 digit number.

Next Step: Multiply it by 2
Output: 2x

Next Step: Add 5 to it
Output: 2x + 5

Next Step: Multiply it by 50
Output: 100x + 250

Let’s Ponder

At this stage it is quite certain that you will always get a result of 250 even if you have chosen 0 as the first age, lets keep the 100x aside for a bit and look at the numbers 1756 and 1757.

Adding up 250 and 1757 results to 2007 and adding up 250 and 1756 results to 2006, that is year lesser than this year.

Now if your birthday hasn’t passed it is quite obvious that your age is that as of 2006 and if it has passed it is that as of 2007. Now the claim that this will only work in 2007 is partly correct. This will work in any year if you change the number 1756 and 1757 to a number that on adding to 250 give you the current year and previous year.

So assuming its 2010 the numbers would be 2010 – 250 = 1760, for those whose birthdays have not yet passed you have subtract one from 1760, so the two numbers to be used in 2010 will be 1759 and 1760.

Example for year 2010

3 x 2 = 6 + 5 = 11 * 50 = 550 + 1759 = 2309 – 1982 = 327

Now the last two numbers is my age in 2010.

You need to use 5 and 50 because the other two numbers 1757 and 1756 add up to give you a result which is the current year or the previous year for those whose birthday’s are not yet passed for the year. 

You can use practically any numbers to get the same results that end up in showing you your current age. For example using 6 as the base and 10 as the multiplier the other two numbers that would be used is 1947 and 1946 which is subtracted from the current year by 60.

Converting this logic into a simple algebra expression

Current year = c, basenum = b, multiple = m, x is the number to subract, y is the number to subtract if the birthday has not passed this year

x = c – (b * m)

y = c – (b * m) – 1

Simple isn’t it.

Now the mystery 100x?

What we learnt above is the base of solving the mystery, but the bigger mystery is how can any random number fetch accurate results. That part of the mystery is the 100x formula.

The number you choose does not make and difference, the outcome will always be 100x, so if you choose 2 the outcome would be 200, if you choose 3 the outcome would be 300 and so on.

Lets analyze the trend with the final results.

If you chose 1. Outcome will be 2107
If you chose 2. Outcome will be 2207
If you chose 3. Outcome will be 2307
If you chose 4. Outcome will be 2407
If you chose 5. Outcome will be 2507
If you chose 6. Outcome will be 2607
If you chose 7. Outcome will be 2707
If you chose 8. Outcome will be 2807
If you chose 9. Outcome will be 2907

Now there are two trends out here which we will look at one is that subtracting the 100x output will from the final output will always give you the current year, here is how the simplified formula looks like assuming x is the number you choose and current year is y and z is your final output after doing all the above calculation.

y = z – 100x;

Another trend that you will notice is that since it is multiplying x by 100 the resultant output would be x00 always.

The age guessing trick

When you subtract your birth year from the output you are always left with a output similar to xYY where x is the number you chose and YY is your age, since we already know that 100x will always result in multiples of 100 the subtraction of your birth year is always performed on the current year adding up your age to 100x.

The final formula is assuming z is your birth year

YY = ( ((x * 2) + 5 + 1757) + 100x ) – z;

The result of the formula will always be xYY, where x is the number you chose and YY is your current age.

Simple isn’t it, no wonder there are so many maths fanatics around. I loved solving this trick and it turned out to be a interesting thing after all. Ashish from Technospot.net came very close to the actual formula.

Well do let me know your thoughts on it by adding your valuable comments.

Just follow this cool little trick and I will be able to ascertain your actual age without you telling me

1. How many times do you eat your dinner in a restaurant in a week.
2. Now take this answer and multiply it with 2.
3. Add 5 to it.
4. Multiply the result with 50.
5. If this year your birthday has already passed this year add 1756 to the total, if it has already passed add 1757.
6. Now subtract the year you were born in from the total, so if you were born in 1960, subtract 1960 from the above total.

If you do not eat your dinner out at all you will only see a 2 digit number as the final results. If you go outside at least once a week to have your dinner you will get a three digit number as the final output.

Examples

Your birthday hasn’t passed this year yet and you eat dinner 3 times a week outside

now 3 x 2 = 6 + 5 = 11 * 50 = 550 + 1756 = 2306 – 1982 = 324

Your birthday has passed this year and you do not eat dinner outside at all

now 0 x 2 = 0 + 5 = 5 * 5- = 550 + 1757 = 2007 – 1982 = 25

The Surprise

Ok now the surprise, in the first example the first number out of the 3 digit number is the number of times you go out for dinner in a restaurant in a week and the last two digits is your current age.

In the second example since you do not eat my dinner out even once a week you got only two digits as the final result and the two digits that come up is your current age.

Go ahead do it yourself and tell me if it works or not.

Awesome isn’t it, well this was forwarded to me as a email but I figured out how this is able to figure out the exact age, well though the suspense will not be revealed today it will be done tomorrow, till then you have time to rack up your brain and think of the answer.

This trick is supposed to work only in the year 2007 but I have figured out how to do it for other forthcoming years too.

Do not forget to tell me your thoughts or answers on how this is done with your comments. Tomorrow I will reveal the answers.

Techie Buzz has been doing quite well over past few months and I have decided to spread the goodwill, as a part of my goodwill sharing I am announcing a new contest at Techie Buzz.

The contest is simple and does not need much efforts. You just have to link back to Techie Buzz once and talk about the Free RapidShare Premium Account Giveaway contest.

I plan to continue this contest every month based on the response but yes I am giving away 2 Free RapidShare Premium Accounts this month as a celebration that Techie Buzz has been rising in popularity and with that a bonus of 4 RapidShare accounts (which equals to $50) to a surprise contestant this month.

To win the any one of the prizes all you need to do is enter your post to get qualified for the contest 5 points. You can win 5 months of free RapidShare Premium Account all at once (or $50). So just enter and you could win either 1 or 4 or at the max 5 RapidShare Premium Accounts.

The contest winners who win the Premium RapidShare account will also be in the draw to win the other 4 accounts (or $50).

It’s still time for Christmas but still I want to be generous, so the super surprise of the event is that one of the contestants will get $150 cash (via paypal)  subject to being a entry in the contest :-). So a total of around $230 on the line, small for starters but I believe in start small and grow big.

The blog post can be as simple as this to be considered as a entry

Techie Buzz is organizing a contest where two users will get free RapidShare Premium Accounts on writing a post about the Free RapidShare Premium Account Giveaway contest. It’s nothing more than writing less than 50 words and you are in.

If you are interested in getting a free RapidShare Account or the other prizes, you can do so by the following ways

• Write a blog post about Techie Buzz and the contest. (5 points)
• Favorite this blog at Technorati and leave a comment here. (1 point)
• Add this blog to your feed reader and leave a comment here. (1 point)
• Join MyBlogLog community and leave a comment here. (1 point)

You just have to leave a comment when you have done anything of the above and can start earning points plus you never know if you can win the $150 or  Free RapidShare Premium Accounts the choice is yours.

The contest ends on October 5th and no entries will be accepted after this, the results will be declared on my birthday ( :-) ) October 8th, so hurry now.

I have seen lots and lots of link trains so thought I should start one with a difference. This train is not a link train but a train that wants to get thoughts from others on what changes they would like to see in things that they use on a day to day basis.

It could include anything that you use from a software that makes things better for you or your television which needs certain improvements. The only criteria is you have to talk about what changes you would like in it to make it better. You can additionally link to original site from where you downloaded or purchased from so that they can read your views and make it better.

At the end of the post you have to tag as many friends or blogger’s who you would like to, whose opinions you would like to read about the things that they would like to see improvements to.

Making Windows Live Writer Better

I would like to see improvements in Windows Live Writer. They could add in features such as auto spell correction so I do not have to go and correct commonly typo errors, and a feature where I can set up the common typo errors just like Microsoft word has the option. They are running on a Microsoft base so it is quite easy to do this.

I would also like the feature using which I can download the comments to the live writer and respond to it from my desktop including approving and disapproving comments.

I would like to have Windows Live Writer integrate with my history and bookmarks to allow me to add hyper links without having to type it in every time.

Having Live Writer as a portable software would be a additional advantage that would make posting better at-least on Windows based systems.

The make things better train

Suggestions to make windows live better – Techie Buzz

I want to learn which things can be made better from

Shankar Ganesh
Kyles Clove
Garry Conn
Nirmal
Madhur Kapoor
DJ Flush

If you consider this as worthwhile then please go ahead and write about this and leave a comment here. I will add it to the train.

Here are some good reads you can start your week with.

It’s cool to know that I could do this. CyberNet News tells you how to use Microsoft Word to Publish posts to your blogs.

Are you fedup of spam landing in your inbox. DJ Flush from Sizlopedia has a list of 20 temporary and disposable email services so go ahead and use them to stay away from spam.

I had recently clicked on my own Google Ad by mistake and being a honest publisher had reported it to Google Adsense Team, they sent me a email saying that you do not have to report accidental clicks anymore, surprise of surprise a few days later they came out with a official post on the Adsense blog, repeating the email word by word. Check out Accidents Happen on the official Adsense blog.

If you are fed up chatting the normal way then Madhur has the right option for you. Try 3D chat with IMVU to get a different chat experience.

Nirmal has a knack of coming up with posts on useful softwares. If you keep on changing your cellphone and install softwares to connect it on your Pc then don’t do that. MOBILedit- The Mobile Manager allows you to manage more than 353 phone models from 12 manufacturers.

Kyles tells you how to add Social Bookmarking Links with Icons to WordPress.

Hope you enjoy reading this. Have a great week.

Start your week by reading these cool articles.

Cool things you can do with Google

Lifehack talks about the cool things you can do with Google

Hard Drive Crashes… Put it a freezer

Cybernet news tells you more about recovering from hard drive crashes

Better Gcal

Another nifty firefox extension from the folks at Lifehacker which will make the Google Calendar more easy to use

Trick to hide files in jpg images

A cool tip which I never knew was possible

Send fax via using a Email

Digital Inspiration tells you how you can send a fax using email