Attractions In San Diego - Who's Watching You? Track The Trackers With New Web tool

Source         - http://www.nbcnews.com/
By                 - Devin Coldewey
Category   - Attractions In San Diego
Posted By - San Diego Hampton Inn

Attractions In San Diego

Between the NSA, Google, Facebook, and a few hundred advertisers, it's hard to know just who's tracking you, and where. Mozilla, the team behind the Firefox browser, just released a plug-in that lets you visualize the many trackers and cookies that dog your every step online — and it's pretty crazy.

Lightbeam, an extension for Firefox, keeps a record of all the sites that you visit, but also all the sites those sites call out to — from comment systems to video hosting services to dozens of advertisers and analytics services.

It presents all this info visually, with a web of icons representing who's connecting to whom, what sites have overlapping cookies and trackers, and so on.

We all know we're being tracked in some way or another, and expect sites to do it for their own purposes, but seeing it all in one place like this is sobering. 

Just a few minutes into my day, and I'm on the radar of several dozen trackers already!

Of course, some are fairly innocuous things like Google Analytics or , but it's still quite a lot. You can run your cursor over the shapes to identify them, and click on one to reveal its location and who it's trading data with.

However, for the purposes of this article I had deliberately disabled my usual privacy plug-ins, AdBlock and Ghostery. After re-enabling them, I reset my Lightbeam data and visited the same sites again.

Amazing, isn't it? Note that not only are the websites I visited calling out to fewer other sites (and only legitimate ones at that), but there are no connections between the sites I visited — no overarching advertising service can collude with multiple websites and track me all across the web.

Let it build up data from a few days of browsing and you will likely be surprised at the number of connections to and among websites and services you've never heard of. Of course, all this data is confidential, unless you choose to share it with Mozilla — there's a big "contribute data" switch at the top right — although the idea of someone who uses a tool like this then voluntarily sharing that information is a bit absurd.

And, it must be said, this won't detect any deep data-diving being done by the likes of the NSA — that's not something that shows up in the browser.

Hotels San Diego Downtown - Twitter: 15 Hidden Keyboard Shortcuts

Source         - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
By                 -  Radhika Sanghani
Category    - Hotels San Diego Downtown
Posted By  - San Diego Hampton Inn

Hotels San Diego Downtown

1. Homepage - 'g h'

If you want to return straight to the home page, you don't have to scroll the cursor up to the home icon on the left. You can just press 'g h' on your keyboard and it will take you straight to your home Twitter feed.

2. Your profile - 'g p' 
When you're surfing around on Twitter and find yourself seven degrees of separation away from your profile, press 'g p' and it will take you straight back to your profile.
 

3. Messages - 'g m'

The message icon can be hard to find on Twitter, so if you need to access your inbox, press 'g m' on your keyboard and it will take you straight there. 

4. Connect - 'g c'

When you want to get to your list of interactions, just press 'g c' on the keyboard. 

5. Mentions - 'g r'

To get to mentions you could then just click the tab on the left - but obviously the quicker shortcut would be to just type 'g r' and that will bring up any Tweets that mention you. 

6. Users' profiles - 'g u'

To get to someone else's profile you don't have to browse the search box. Instead you can type 'g u' and a box will pop up saying: "Go to a person's profile." Just type in their name to jump to a profile. 

7. New Tweet - 'n'

Wherever you are on the Twitter site, pressing 'n' on your keyboard will immediately pull up a 'What's happening?' box for you to type your Tweet into. 

8. DM - 'm'

If you want to send a DM (direct message), press 'm' and a new direct message box will appear on your screen. You can then type in the recipient's Twitter handle and send your message. 

9. Favourite - 'f'

If you come across a Tweet you want to favourite, simply pressing 'f' will favourite it for you. However - word of warning - this only works if you have opened up a new page for the Tweet. It won't work just on your homepage. 

10. Retweet - 't'

Just as with favouriting a Tweet, you need to have the Tweet fully open to do this. Once you have it up, just press 't' and it will ask you if you want to retweet it to your followers. 

11. Reply - 'r'

For those of you who were wondering why the code for retweeting is a 't', now you'll know why. The 'r' shortcut is reserved for replying to a Tweet. Again, make sure you have the Tweet open separately before you do this. If you press it whilst on the homepage, nothing will happen. 

12. Next Tweet - 'j'

To move on to the next Tweet in a list, simply pressing 'j' will take you down to the next one and create a blue box around the Tweet. 

13. Previous Tweet - 'k'

To go back to a previous Tweet, press 'k'. 

14. Load more - '.'

If you have an old browser, or your Tweets are taking a while to load, pressing '.' will bring up the next set of Tweets for you, and take you straight to the top of your page. 

15. Keyboard shortcuts - '?'

When in doubt of all these shortcuts, just typing in a question mark will bring up Twitter's hidden menu of all the keyboard shortcuts available.

San Diego Hotel Meeting Space - Cosmetic Contacts Can Be Dangerous

Source        - http://www.coshoctontribune.com/
By                - Jessie Balmert
Category   - San Diego Hotel Meeting Space
Posted By - San Diego Hampton Inn

San Diego Hotel Meeting Space

Lady Gaga-inspired circle lenses or cat’s eye contacts might complete a Halloween look, but without a prescription, cosmetic lenses are illegal and can lead to eye infections or worse.

Federal law requires consumers to have a prescription from a licensed professional to obtain contact lenses, whether they are corrective or not. It’s illegal to sell cosmetic lenses, which the FDA monitors as medical devices, over-the-counter, said Nancy Manns, executive director of the Ohio Optical Dispensers Board.

Since mid-2012, the board’s investigator has served 15 businesses with cease and desist orders, warning them to stop selling cosmetic contacts. The businesses range from a Mexican grocery store in Defiance to a wig shop in Lima and a gas station in Columbus.

Most businesses stop after receiving a letter, but those that persist can face an injunction from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office and a fine, Manns said. With one investigator to review complaints about licenses in addition to roguecat-eye contacts, many businesses continue to sell lenses unchecked.

Without a prescription, the contacts can be dangerous. Using lenses not properly fitted to an eye can cause pain, infection, cornea ulcers and blindness, said Sherry Williams, president and CEO of Prevent Blindness Ohio.

Popular among teenagers and during Halloween, the lenses can cause irrevocable harm within a few hours, Williams said. Across the U.S., an estimated 200 people each year develop serious eye infections that warrant surgery because of improper use of contacts, according to Prevent Blindness Ohio.

“No amount of time is a safe amount of time to wear a black-market contact,” Williams said. “When you’re 13, 14 or 16 and having a corneal transplant, your visual quality is going to be impacted for life.”

Most cosmetic contact lenses are approved for use if obtained through an eye doctor. One exception is circle lenses, popularized by Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” music video because the FDA has not approved them for use.

“I’m certain (Lady Gaga) had no clue, but certainly children don’t understand that, and they want to emulate the celebrity,” Williams said.

Accommodation In San Diego - With Four New Domain Names, The Internet Goes Even More Multilingual

Source        - http://techland.time.com/
By                - Dan Kedmey
Category   - Accommodation In San Diego
Posted By - San Diego Hampton Inn

Accommodation In San Diego

For all of the talk about the internet erasing national borders and spanning the world, its domain names are, mostly, still Romanized. The presence of language-specific scripts expanded a little more on Wednesday when ICANN, the organization that sets domain name standards like “.com” and “.org,” decided to throw four new suffixes into the mix: شبكة, онлайн, сайт, 游戏. That’s Arabic for “web,” Cyrillic for “online” and “site,” and Chinese for “game.”

Akram Atallah, president of ICANN’s Generic Domains Division, called it “the biggest change to the Internet since its inception,” a dramatic claim to stake on four little suffixes. On the other hand, it marks the beginning of a gradual expansion of the naming system, from 22 English-denominated names to a projected 1,400 multilingual names. The worldwide web is about to sound a little more worldly.

Affordable Hotels In San Diego - How Do They Do It? Celebrity Anti-Aging Secret

Source         - http://www.lifecellskin.com/
By                 - Press Release
Category   - Affordable Hotels In San Diego
Posted By - San Diego Hampton Inn

Where did your wrinkles go?

LifeCell makes fine lines and wrinkles virtually invisible within 17 seconds of application, making you look younger almost instantly.

Almost nobody knows this...

but the human eye cannot see a wrinkle!

What your eye actually sees is the shadow made by the wrinkle. So once natural light is bounced into a wrinkle, its shadow appears almost invisible. LifeCell contains light-reflecting micro-technology. So when you use LifeCell there are virtually no shadows to see.

Everyone Will Notice The Difference

Your new smooth, youthful-looking, baby-soft-skin doesn't wash off once you wash your face. A ground-breaking series of studies have demonstrated the amazing long- term effectiveness of the active ingredients in LifeCell. Most of the research on these independent ingredients has been conducted by Harvard University, Yale University, Cornell University and Oxford University's medical departments. 

The genius of this anti-aging formula is it works "synergistically." Which means just as talent can win games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. Similarly LifeCell involves the simultaneous action of separate super-powerful anti-wrinkle and anti-aging ingredients which together end up having... a greater total powerful effect. 

LifeCell's "all natural formula" contains 6 of the most potently effective, (yet completely harmless), scientifically proven anti-aging ingredients to dramatically revive your youthful appearance, possibly completely erase the appearance of wrinkles, tighten your skin, zap 10 to 15 years off your appearance, and get you a glowing radiant complexion for life. 

Trip To San Diego - Nokia World Reveals Phablets And Tablets In Abu Dhabi

Source         - http://www.bbc.co.uk/
By                 - Leo Kelion
Category  - Trip To San Diego
Posted By - San Diego Hampton Inn

Trip To San Diego

The Windows Phone handsets introduce the ability to change which objects in a photo are in focus after it is taken. 

The Windows RT tablet has a 4G data chip, unlike Microsoft's recently announced Surface 2.

Nokia World in Abu Dhabi is likely to be remembered as the Finnish firm's last major event before it completes the sale of its hardware unit.

Microsoft agreed to buy the business for 5.4bn euros ($7.4bn; £4.6bn) in a deal which the companies have said should be finalised by early 2014.

One analyst said the sale should aid the US firm's efforts to promote its mobile platforms against the market leaders, Android and iOS.

"For the last two years Microsoft and Nokia's marketing efforts have jarred against each other at times - having one big effort should be better than two smaller ones," said Martin Garner, from the consultancy CCS Insight.

"Microsoft can also spend a lot more marketing the devices than Nokia could. That does seem to be a key criteria - both Samsung and Apple's spends are very high indeed."

Microsoft's share of the handset and tablet markets is growing but from a relatively low level, according to market research firm Gartner.

Windows Phone took a 3.3% share of smartphone sales in the April-to-June quarter, said the firm, with Nokia proving the most popular brand.

It also forecast that about 1.7% of all tablets shipped over 2013 as a whole would be powered by either Windows RT or the full Windows 8 operating system.

Big phones

Nokia showed off two phablets at the UAE launch. Both the Lumia 1520 and Lumia 1320 feature 6in (15.2cm) displays, allowing extra rows of apps to be displayed on their home screens than possible on smaller models.

The firm said that the extra space would also make it easier to use the phones' touchscreen keyboards, suggesting this would appeal to business users who used productivity software. 

Nokia added that the inclusion of four microphones in the higher-end 1520 should appeal to consumers interested in making recordings of school concerts and other events with multiple sources of sound.

In addition, a new Beamer app will allow the phones to stream the contents of their screens onto to a web browser on a separate display. It works by sending data via Nokia's computer servers. 

Another new app - Refocus - lets owners determine which parts of a photograph are in focus and which are blurred after it is taken. The phones achieve this by taking a series of images in quick succession at different focus lengths rather than replicating the light field effect captured by a Lytro camera.

Blackberry is among the other companies to have recently launched a phablet, but one expert said doubts about the Canadian firm's future meant that its existing users might be tempted to switch.

"There's definitely a chance for Nokia to gain ground, of course everyone else is interested in that space too," said Mr Garner.

"It's not a slam dunk, but Microsoft is as well placed as others - better in some respects."

First tablet

The Lumia 2520 becomes the only Windows RT tablet made by a manufacturer other than Microsoft. 

Dell, Asus, Lenovo, Acer and Samsung had all initially backed the platform only to later change tack.

The operating system runs on an ARM-based chip allowing it to offer superior battery life to the full Windows 8 system running on tablets powered by x86 processors, but it does not support as many programs.

Nokia's tablet is slightly more compact than Microsoft's version and also distinguishes itself by supporting an optional 4G Sim card.

However, bearing in mind Microsoft has already taken a $900m writedown after weak sales of its original Surface RT tablet, one analyst questioned whether the firm would want to produce two competing models.

"I don't think that having two devices in that space makes a lot of sense," said Carolina Milanesi, consumer devices analyst at Gartner.

"I believe Microsoft may keep the Nokia model on as a cheaper consumer-targeted device focused on media consumption and gaming in order to capture more market share, and also keep on the more expensive Intel-based Surface Pro - but it will phase out the Surface 2 RT model."

Place To Visit In San Diego - Test Your Phone's Mettle With Benchmark & Tuning

Source        - http://www.technewsworld.com/
By                - Patrick Nelson
Category   - Place To Visit In San Diego
Posted By - San Diego Hampton Inn

Place To Visit In San Diego

Here's a novel way to find out if you do indeed need a new phone. It's a benchmarking app that will test components and provide a comparison with crowdsourced benchmarks from other common devices out there.

If your 2-year-old, or so, phone or tablet seems a bit sluggish compared with the speed at which your colleagues and friends whizz through their smartphone-related tasks, the answer is that it probably is.

As we know, devices are frankly dinosaurs at a year old, and this app will conveniently prove it so that you can comfortably go to the store and buy a new device -- guilt free and with no spousal recriminations. After all, you have documented evidence. How's that for $2.99?

Benchmark & Tuning is actually a geek's dream because it tests the phone's CPU along with memory and input/output capabilities -- your device's power, in other words.

If you ever dreamed of being as a space rocket engineer, surrounded by dials and meters in the lab, calculating optimum thrusts and so on, this will do for you the same thing, but it's for us, the smartphone wielding proletariat.

The Features

Benchmark & Tuning (Full) works by crowdsourcing benchmark comparisons. This means comparison data comes from fellow users, rather than from possibly inflated benchmarking stats from phone marketing departments.

There's been a flurry of accusations aimed at phone makers in the media recently. Suggestions are that their numbers are inflated. The use of this app for comparisons means that you're not using that dubious, and conceivably rigged, data.

The second key feature is that rooted users can set a governor too. Rooting is a process that Android enthusiasts use to gain control over the operating system. Ordinarily, you'd need two apps to do all this. One app for benchmarking, and one for tuning. 

Test Results

I had a blast playing with the app and was delighted to find that all of the devices I tested performed poorly. This means that I'm gathering ammunition for eventual upgrades cross-gadgets.

Unfortunately, because I, along with vast numbers of other U.S. consumers, have moved over to a prepaid smartphone plan -- I'm using Sprint MVNO Ting in the city and Verizon Prepay in rural areas -- I don't have the benefit of subsidized handsets anymore.

It's no longer a case of waiting for a two-year upgrade and automatically getting the latest, fastest phone. It's now a two-to-three year, or maybe longer full-cost proposition, so it involves some thought and research. This app fits the arsenal nicely.

I tested three of my devices. One device, a Motorola Photon 4G, came in 19th out of 25 overall; a Toshiba tablet came in 15th; and a cheap Galaxy Y miniphone came in at a super-bad 23rd. The Galaxy Y was purchased to function as a wireless hotspot only, so I expected lame results. However, I was quite surprised about the poor performance of my other devices.

If you're interested, as of the day I tested, the HTC One S came in first overall, Samsung's Galaxy SIII second and the Asus Transformer Prime TF201 third.

A Must-Have

This being a geek's plaything, you'll see when you run tests that some stock devices have been reported with better this-than-that -- processor power than memory, for example.

Interestingly, the top seven -- which included the HTC One X, 5.3-inch Samsung Galaxy Note N7000 and two 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tabs -- all had roughly the same I/O results.

All the same performance in the real world?

Peculiarly, there wasn't a Samsung Galaxy S IV result on the list. The S IV is Samsung's latest and greatest. I don't know why it was omitted, but it skewed the results somewhat.

Overall, though, this app is a must-have if you're contemplating a new-phone investment and don't trust the manufacturer's numbers.

Want to Suggest an Android App for Review?

Is there an Android app you'd like to suggest for review? Something you think other Android users would love to know about? Something you find intriguing but aren't sure it's worth your time or money?