If you have a Google account and use the Google search while logged in, the search engine will try to improve your results by relying on keywords you searched for before and on the websites you visited. In the official help file, they describe this personalized search as follows:

When you search using Google, you get more relevant, useful search results, recommendations, and other personalized features. By personalizing your results, we hope to deliver you the most useful, relevant information on the Internet.

If you use personalized search and have the new beta search interface enabled (enable the new Google Search Interface), Google will show this message on the bottom of each search results page:

For some time, the developers at Google were working at a solution to make their search engine faster. Now you can test the new search architecture called “Caffeine” yourself.

Obviously, they reached their goal of increasing the search speed, but didn’t change the search behavior. When searching for normal terms, you can feel a speed increase of up to 75% in my tests, but when using more complex searches with quotes, there is almost no difference.

You can test the new Caffeine search here: http://www2.sandbox.google.com/

Some speed tests:

As you can see, when using quotes, the difference is not that big.

Just a few weeks ago Futuremark, a company known for creating benchmark programs for Windows computers (3DMark and PCMark), released a new benchmark called “Peacekeeper“. Peacekeeper tests various browser functions such as JavaScript arrays, DOM functionality, rendering and other things often used by today’s modern websites like YouTube, Facebook and GMail.

Why would you need a browser benchmark? The better a browser performs on your system, the faster websites are shown and can interactively been used. This is especially needed when browsing Web 2.0 websites, and on low-end PCs such as netbooks the difference can really be a barrier. I experienced this using my favourite browser Firefox 3.0 on my Asus Eee PC 900: When typing and address into the address bar, the “intelligent search” feature needs so much computing power that the whole browser is stuck. Also using GMail or Facebook doesn’t make fun when you have to wait for a second before you can click, scroll, type, etc… That’s why I switched to Google Chrome. Jukka Mäkinen, Head of PC Products and Services at Futuremark, said:

“People have more choice now in how they experience the internet than ever before. But they may not realize that performance between browsers can vary dramatically, especially on lower-end PCs. With Peacekeeper, it’s simple to compare different browsers and see which one offers the best performance on your PC.”

Benchmark your browser now using Peacekeeper!

I compared all the major browsers on my computer (Pentium 4 3.2GHz with Hyper-Threading, onboard S3 graphics) and got quite interesting results:

[poll id="6"]

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I created a C# class that allows you to use more than one mouse in your XNA game. Of course this is also working with normal Windows applications, but I specially prepared it to work with XNA. This gives you new possibilities for multiplayer games on a single computer! Currently, it’s only working for mice, but I will add keyboard support soon.

Download MultiInput.dll Version 0.1

I also created a game demonstrating how to use this class and what multiple mice can be used for. I think there are many games that could make use of more than one mouse to enable a cool multiplayer mode. Currently the game is in Alpha stage and doesn’t have many features. It supports up to 6 players (if that many mice are plugged in) who have to stop zeppelins from reaching the other side of the screen by shooting them down. Although there isn’t much to do except shooting the zeppelins, it’s quite funny already.

UPDATE: NEW VERSION AVAILABLE: Download Airship Assault here!

Download MultiInput Sample Game Alpha Version 0.1

Download and install the necessary XNA Framework 3.0 here

Each crosshair can be controlled by one mouse/player. The number in brackets on the bottom is the amout of shots you’ve left in your magazine. Leftclick to shoot, rightclick to reload. When a zeppelin reaches the other side, you will lose a life.

I tested the game only with USB mice, they’re working fine, but it should also work with PS2 mice. If you encounter any errors, please tell me!

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Hey guys,

Just yesterday I started a new site with the best receipes for milkshakes and cocktails. I write it only in German, but the Google Translation isn’t that bad actually. I hope you like it and enjoy the drinks!

Original (German) site: http://www.multimolti.com/rezepte/

English Google Translation: Link

Hi guys,

Today I’ll show you how to build a remote trigger with your old cell phone. You don’t need much stuff and the trigger will be useful for all kind of stuff that I’ll show later.

Requirements:

• Old cell phone, must support silent mode with vibration
• Old SIM card (working)
• 2 wires
• Screwdriver
• Diagonal pliers
• Small block of wood/rubber/plastic
• second, working cell phone to trigger the other one

WARNING: YOU ARE DOING THIS EXPERIMENT ON YOUR ON RISK! I WON’T BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE CAUSED TO YOUR PROPERTY!

Here I’m using my old Nokia 3200, but you can apply this tutorial to any other cell phone model.

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After installing Windows XP Professional on my Asus Eee PC 900, I could finally play some games!

Isn’t it amazing, that all these games, requiring quite good computers, run on a laptop with really spare hardware?

Processor: Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor 900MHz
Memory: 1 GB DDR2-400 DDR2 SDRAM
Graphics: Mobile Intel(R) 915GM/GMS,910GML Express Chipset 64 MB
Hard Disc: ASUS-PHISON OB SSD, 4GB + 16GB

Click here for Full Asus Eee PC 900 Hardware Report

That so many games are running is due to the fact, that the Asus hardware isn’t as weak as it seems. Normal game requirements are optimized for a Intel Pentium 4 processor, but the Celeron is a lot more powerful, so even games requiring 1.2 GHz on a P4 can run on a 900 MHz Celeron.

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