When you were young, did you participate in a school science fair? I remember my paper mache volcano – seemingly a popular choice for kids – into which I mixed vinegar, baking soda, and food coloring. We now live in a global community, and, fittingly, Google is hosting a global science fair. If your child is between 13-18 years of age, he or she is eligible to enter the contest.
One of the great features of the Amazon Kindle is the ability for users to loan books to each other. Eligible Kindle books can be loaned once for a 14 day period. The borrower doesn’t even need to own a Kindle, as long as he or she has a device that supports the Kindle app. This includes PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, and Android devices. If you don’t have enough friends with Kindle eBooks to make borrowing worthwhile, you’re in luck, as the Kindle Lending Club is an online service where you can lend and borrow Kindle eBooks to and from complete strangers.
Cookies. We have a love hate relationship with them. They track what we do and report all kinds of information back to the site that generated them — and to third parties as well, in many cases. But they also often provide a better user experience, keeping track of our preferences and removing small annoyances like having to sign in to a website every single time we open it up. Unfortunately, as is the case with most things on the internet regarding your privacy and security, the only completely effective way to protect yourself is to simply turn the potential problem off. The only problem with this course of action is that turning off cookies also has the effect of making a huge part of the web practically unusable.
So what to do about it? Well, if you use Google Chrome, try out Disconnect.
Disconnect, which was created by a former Google employee, is a Google Chrome Extension that helps you to keep your personal data safe while still maintaining the ability to work effectively with sites like Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, and others. You may run into a few issues now and again, but overall, the experience is fairly seamless. All you need to do is install the Disconnect extension in your Google Chrome browser, make sure the extension is turned on, then watch as the tally of daily attempted intrusions upon your privacy climbs. The basic functionality, and much of the more advanced uses, of the webapps should work without problems, helping you to do what you like, and search for what you like, without passing along any personally identifiable data. If you have need to unblock a service, say to do something like play Facebook games, it’s a simple matter of a click on the extension’s dropdown menu (which includes Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Yahoo, and Google).
Disconnect is open source software. Download it for Google Chrome here.
Disconnect for Chrome Disables Third-Party Tracking While Keeping Webapps Operational [Lifehacker]
Less than two months after our last update on Springpad — one of our hottest topics on 40Tech — the tool to save and organize pretty much anything has sent out another press release full of updated goodness. Goodness to the tune of more than 250,000 new users in the month of January alone, 4 million new bookmarks via the Delicious bookmark importer, new saved-search filters, delete and archive support, and an overhaul to what was already one of the better Google Chrome extensions out there.
Faster Ways to Get Organized with Springpad on the Web
Enhanced Springpad Extension
Springpad’s upgraded Chrome Browser Extension makes it fast and easy to add a note, create a task or look up something without leaving the site you’re browsing. When you use the extension to clip content, the new item is automatically categorized (recipe, movie, restaurant, book, etc.) and you can create or select a notebook for more efficient organization. To install the extension, click here.
Springpad has been moving in leaps and bounds lately, and its progress is impressive. If you’re looking for a tool to help you organize your life on the web, you should check it out. You can get a feel for the product here, check out their massive overhaul update here (with promo video, if you don’t feel like reading), and get all kinds of tips on how best to use Springpad from the Springpad Blog.
How are you liking the new Springpad?
Springpad Ends Record-Breaking Month with Over 250,000 New Subscribers [CEO Jeff Janer’s Springpad]
If you’re getting a tax refund this year in the U.S., and want to track the status of the refund, you can do so on your iPhone, iPad, or Android Device with an official IRS app, IRS2Go. The app is available as a free download in the iTunes App Store, and in the Android Market. Read more
