3 Tips for Choosing a Usenet Provider

Guest post by Jared. There are a number of factors you need to consider when choosing a Usenet provider. When you think of Usenet chances are good that pictures of dial-up modems and black screens with green text pop into your mind. And who could blame you. Usenet had already been around for 10 years by the time the World Wide Web came into existence.

But the years have been kind to Usenet. Far from being tossed in the scrap heap of history, in many ways, Usenet is more popular than ever. The recent shift from Usenet service provided by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or local University to premium Usenet providers has brought both more choice and more confusion.

Upload / Download

If you download a lot from the Internet, there is nothing better than downloading from Usenet. Here are three tips for choosing the Usenet provider that’s right for you.
1. How Long is Their Binary Retention?

Retention refers to the amount of time text messages or files (a.k.a. binaries) are stored on the Usenet server. For example, if you are looking for a file that was uploaded 365 days ago, but the server only has retention of 300 days, you won’t be able to find and/or download that file.

Any good Usenet provider is going to offer binary retention of at least 1,000 days with text retention at 1,500 days or more.
2. What Kind of Security is Offered?

When you think of security on Usenet, there are really two things to consider. First, do they offer a secure SSL connection to the Usenet server? An SSL connection creates a direct link between you and the Usenet server making it impossible for prying eyes to see what is happening inside the connection.

The second security issue to consider is server logs. Does the server keep a log of the transactions? No server log means there is no record of that transaction. True Usenet security is 256-bit SSL encryption with no server logs.
3. Are There Any Speed or Data Caps?

One of the major benefits of Usenet is speed. A premium Usenet connection should allow you to download at speeds as fast as your internet connection will allow. Some providers may cap the speed at which you can download in order to limit the strain on their servers. Likewise, some providers may also cap the amount you can download each month. Real unlimited Usenet will allow both unlimited speed and downloads.

There are a number of good Usenet providers available. Sites like Comparere and NewsGroupReviews do an excellent job of giving you the pros and cons of each. Retention, security and speed are three important pieces that allow you to get the most out of your premium Usenet connection. Make sure your provider is meeting your needs.

Google Doubling Google+ Population

The Google+ team, facing strong demand for the new social-networking service, has expansion on its mind.

Google briefly let Google+ users invite new members last night in a plan to double the social network's population. And Google has begun detailing its plans for letting business users, not just individuals, use the service starting later this year.

Google has been limiting the individual sign-up rate, leading to frustration among many who want to get in. But Dave Besbris, the Google+ engineering director, said last night it was time for another growth spurt.

"Things are going well with the systems right now so we feel comfortable enough to open up invites for a brief period. Our goal is to double the user base in the field trial from its initial group," he said in a Google+ post.

Apparently the moment was indeed fleeting, because I couldn't find an invitation mechanism by the time I woke up here in England. That means Lutz Beyer's amusing cartoon about Google+ exclusivity remains relevant.

Google had opened invitations briefly last week, shortly after the mostly-closed beta test began. I've had success getting quite a few people in by a somewhat circuitous Google+ invitation route that involves sharing a Google+ post by e-mail with their Gmail addresses.

It's been an irregular process: some people told me they never got an invitation, and sometimes the message took days to arrive. And because Google throttles the sign-up rate, many of those I've invited had to check back several times before they happened to click when the window was open.

In a comment, Besbris apologized for the sporadic availability.

"We are also ensuring, as we grow, things keep working well, so occasionally we may have to pause/slow down/speed up the signup rate to keep the service smooth and fast. The combo can make it seem unpredictable," he said. "I'm sorry [about] that and thanks for your patience."

An official invitation clearly would be a far better way to handle this than the e-mail technique. Google, though, is proceeding cautiously.

"I wanted to take a moment to explain why we're growing the system slowly," Besbris said. "First, we want to make sure our infrastructure scales so the service remains fast and reliable. Second, we want to ensure that bugs are fixed while there are still a relatively few people in the field trial."

Google has made a couple tweaks--shutting down the ability to publicly share an initially private post last week, for one thing. Another change came yesterday involving profile pictures. "Changing your public profile picture or scrapbook photos will no longer generate a public post to the stream, just to the people you have in your circles. So only people in your circles will engage in discussions about the photos you post," Google+ product manager Shimrit Ben-Yair said in a Google+ post.

Backlit keyboards returning to MacBook Air

It's not unusual for Apple to remove features in new versions of things. It happens in software, and it happens in the company's computers, too. One notable removal that accompanied the MacBook Air's overhaul last October was the nixing of the backlit keyboard--the feature that lights up the keys so you can see them in the dark.

According to AppleInsider, the eyeball-friendly feature is making a comeback in the much-expected refresh of the MacBook Air line, which is the same update that's expected to bring Intel's Sandy Bridge Core i series processors, along with a Thunderbolt port to bring high-speed I/O connectivity. The MacBook Pro and iMac lines already received those last two features in updates earlier this year.

Apple first introduced its backlit keyboard technology as a top-of-the-line feature in the 17-inch model of its PowerBook G4 notebook, later adding it to the rest of the Pro notebook line. The original MacBook Air, which made its debut at the Macworld expo in 2008, came with the feature from the get-go.

In a poll last month, CNET readers voted it the second-most wanted feature in an updated Air, beating out Thunderbolt, a black version, and a mobile broadband antenna.

Alleged part numbers for the new MacBook Air models, along with new versions of Apple's Mac Pro desktop towers, popped up yesterday. New versions of those products are expected to coincide with Lion, Apple's upcoming Mac OS X update, scheduled for release this month.

How to Block Facebook, Twitter, Email for Few Hours Daily

So you want to block Facebook, Twitter, Email for a few hours so you can stop wasting time and do some productive work. Well it is a simple task if you want to block users on your computers, or want to save distraction time for yourself.

I was trying to access Facebook at a friend’s computer, and as I browsed to the website, I got this alert and Facebook was blocked.

I tried Twitter.com and same for Twitter! Same for email… my entire social interaction was blocked.

My friend chuckled and informed that he had manually blocked social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and all his email accounts so that he could concentrate on his work productivity and not waste time. The blocked urls were released after a few hours (as per his settings) when he was relaxed and free to interact on these sites.

I really like the idea. How many times do we get started to work, and get hooked to chat or Facebook on the way.

How to Block Facebook, Twitter, Email

I hope you are using the Google Chrome browser (its the best out there), and install the Website Blocker extension. Edit some settings and you can block any website for as many hours as you want.

Choose the settings wisely and the extension provides a simple interface to block websites, as many as you want and at custom times you want. You can also type an optional message.

For example, this code will block access to Facebook.com urls from 0900 to 1700 (9am-5 pm). I have been trying this for a few days and I assure you it is worth your time to use this – and get on Facebook, Twitter and email when you really want to.

How to Block Any Website for Employees / Users

This extension works well if you want to prevent access of social media sites by your employees. Simply block the sites during working hours and they will never know how to access them.

1. Hide the Website Blocker icon from the Chrome toolbar. Right click the icon and click “Hide button”

2. Disable the link from showing in the block message alert which can guide people to disable the options. Also disable the ability to edit settings from the popup alert options

Unless people really know how to browse around into Chrome settings, identify the website blocker, experiment with its settings and disable it – it should work to block websites for most people. Just keep Chrome as default and only browser on the computer.

5 Best Chrome Extensions for Google+ Power Users

Power Google+ users can install these best Google+ Chrome extensions and improve usage and navigation around Google+ social interactions for a richer experience. We believe these 5 extensions you must install on your Google chrome browser right now. Tested to work as intended.

Best Google+ Chrome Extensions

Replies and more for Google+– the most useful feature it will add is “Reply’ and “Reply to Author” links for easily replying and mentioning other users (hopefully these features will become default in Google+). It will also badges the favicon with a number when you have new messages. You can use shortcut like Ctrl+Enter and Shift+Enter to submit a comment or post. The header bar floats down as you scroll and a dropdown will allow you to share with additional sharing options (Twitter/Facebook/Email). Must get this.

Photo Zoom- provides fast zooming for photos inside your Google+ Stream. Just hover over the image you wish to zoom and +Photo Zoom will load the enlarged version of the picture. You can choose to zoom only when a key is pressed as well as decided the zoom delay time. Choose if you want to zoom profile images on Google+, Picassa images or all external images – all without clicking open any image!

Surplus- Will put the notification icon alongside other icon in the browser bar itself (instead of only the Google+ page), which allows you to see Google+ notification alerts while you are on any page and interact with your friends without visiting the Google+ profile page or stream. Not only can you post or respond from within the popup, but also get Desktop Notifications, notification sounds and switch between multiple Google accounts.

So though there are many Google+ chrome extensions, I hope you like our choice of these must have Google+ extensions.

Plus One Anything - It will let you +1 any page on the web, even if there is no +1 button installed on the page. The +1 icon is loaded in the browser bar along with all other extensions. Simply click on it and a new +1 icon loads with url. Click to confirm and you have shared the page on Google+ easily.

+Comment Toggle – is a simple extension that hides any comments to posts within your Google+ Stream and makes them available if and when you actually want to see them. If you have a crowded comment stream, it can give quite a cluttered look. It collapses all comments and make the stream clean, so that you can click to see comments.

Share some other useful Google+ Chrome extensions below and we might add them here.