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Storm tracker: Sites for following hurricanes

People up and down the East Coast are bracing for Hurricane Irene's arrival this weekend. When will she make landfall, and what damage might she bring to your area? Tracking a hurricane isn't an exact science, but thankfully there are a number of sites that can keep you informed.

The Queen Mother of hurricane-tracking sites is the National Hurricane Center. It serves up information straight from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), including current advisories, satellite photos, and a number of maps that show projections for wind speed and storm surge.

Weather.com is an obvious stop … Read more

How to block or ignore someone on Google+

One of the biggest complaints on Google+ is the amount of noise generated in your stream by people you don't necessarily want to hear from.

For example, when people add you to their Circles and share content with you, the notifications are overwhelming, notifying you each time someone has shared a post with you.

The annoyance is enough push you away from Google+, but now the Plus team has released a solution.

Ignoring someone on Google+ When you ignore people, their posts and anything they've shared in your "Incoming" stream will be removed. In addition, you … Read more

How to get notifications of changes to your Google documents

Google Docs makes collaboration simple, but if you are monitoring more than a couple of files (or your collaborators like to make lots of changes at random times), it can be a pain to keep track of it all. E-mail notifications are fine, but if you want to keep your inbox clean, there's a great Chrome extension that can make your life easier. Here's how to use it:

Download and install WatchDoc. Click the WatchDoc icon in your extension bar and then click Login. Tell Google Docs to grant access. (You only need … Read more

Post to your blog from mobile devices

Who wouldn't want to blog for a living? Low pay, even lower esteem among your publishing peers, and the scorn of anonymous readers who aren't shy about telling you and the rest of the world what an idiot you are.

Yes, blogging is a career of the future, right up there with correctional officer and bankruptcy attorney.

Cynical? Moi? Actually, I've been blogging now for almost four years and I love it. Maybe somebody not named Arianna Huffington or Perez Hilton is making beaucoup dolares from a blog, but I haven't met that person. Still, money … Read more

How to post directly to Facebook from Google+

Note: After some feedback, this method has been deemed unreliable. Posts more than 50 characters long are cut off. As an alternative, use Publish Sync extension for Chrome.

Another social network is here, Google+, making it even harder to keep all your profiles--Facebook, Google+, and Twitter--updated. Sometimes we get so engrossed by one (Google+), we end up neglecting another (Facebook).

To make things easier, there's a simple way to post directly from Google+ to Facebook without any extra extensions, or third-party apps.

Method: Go to Facebook.com/mobile and copy the e-mail address provided under "Upload via Email&… Read more

5 awesome Mozilla Firefox secrets

While Firefox might be your chosen browser for its speed, useful add-ons, and open-source culture, it's also packed with many useful built-in features.

We dug through Firefox's endless list of features to find you the best, little-known secrets you can start using right now.

1. Customize search with Smart Keywords A little-known Firefox feature lets you run searches within any given Web site from the browser's address bar. For example, to search for "TouchPad" within Amazon.com, all you'd have to do is type "amazon touchpad" in the Firefox bar.

To create … Read more

Track earthquakes with Android devices

Have you ever felt something and asked yourself, "Was that an earthquake?" If you live in an area with known fault lines, you're probably already aware of the United States Geological Survey's (USGS) earthquake Web site, earthquake.usgs.gov. If you have an Android device, you can track earthquakes easily with a couple of simple apps.

There are a few earthquake apps for Android devices, but we like Earthquake Alert and Earthquake. They are both easy to read and pull their data straight from the USGS. You can even create alerts so you'll know right … Read more

FileStork: Connecting Dropbox users and nonusers

Do you have clients, friends, or family members who you wished used Dropbox but don't? If your pleas to sign up for a Dropbox account have fallen on deaf ears, FileStock is an easy way to request files from these people. FileStork is free and doesn't require your Luddite friends to download and install a bit of software. Your friends won't even need to create a FileStork account.

Setting up Gmail's Vacation Responder

Let's face it, when you're on vacation the last thing you want on your mind is responding to e-mail. Wouldn't it be nice if Gmail could auto-respond to contacts while you're away? Well, it can! Follow these easy steps to set up the Vacation Responder:

Step 1: Log into your Gmail account through the Web interface.

Step 2: Select the cog wheel in the top right corner and go to Mail Settings.

Step 3: Scroll down to the bottom of the page and find the Vacation responder options.

Step 4: Enter the important information pertaining to … Read more

Secret file shows how Facebook ranks search results

Are you curious how Facebook orders your search results as you enter letters into the search box? Thanks to a developer stumbling upon a Facebook file and creating a bookmarklet, now you can view a hidden file that shows how Facebook ranks your friends.

As the developer, Jeremy Keeshin, explains on his site, thekeesh.com, he was working on autocomplete search functionality for a new Web site and was wondering how Facebook returned its results so quickly. What he found was a file that Facebook uses to rank a user's search results. He then created a bookmarklet that displays … Read more

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