Tweeter saves the day

University of California-Berkeley graduate student James Karl Buck helped free himself from an Egyptian jail through a one-word blog post he made with his cell phone. The blog post was written and published with the social networking blog site Twitter.

Buck was in Mahalla, Egypt, to cover an anti-government protest when he and his translator, Mohammed Maree, were arrested. Finding himself police station-bound, Buck took out his cell phone and sent a message to his friends and contacts using the micro-blogging site Twitter.

Very brief and effective, the message cum blog post only had a single word: "Arrested."

Buck only learned about Twitter a week earlier, having been taught by blogger-friends in Egypt. Almost instantaneously, the Twitter message Buck sent alerted  colleagues in the United States and friends in Egypt.

Well, just one proof of the many ways technology and social networking help...

New Opera browser comes with a URL lookup function

The latest version of Opera Software's 9.5 Beta browser enables users to easily fetch URLs for visited web addresses. It's called Quick Find and it's available for the Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms.

Basically, Quick Find integrates keyword search functionality into the Opera browser's address field. The address field provides a list of URLs upon typing in a few keywords. Users who are familiar with Opera Mini may identify Quick Find as the sister to the "find in page" feature in Opera Mini 4.1.

Fans of the Opera browser may expect other updates in the beta build. Quick Find, however, remains the sole new featured that may directly interest users.

The official Opera announcement states faster e-mail rendering for its built-in email client, support for EV (extended validation) SSL certificates, and improved antiphishing protection (thanks to the collaboration Opera has with PhishTank and NetCraft's databases).

Stylish lets Firefox impose aesthetics

Stylish is a user styles manager that gives web browsers who use Firefox the power to fix ugly websites. It is comparable to CSS just as what Greasemonkey is to JavaScript. If aesthetics matter to you when net surfing, click here to download and install Stylish.

Stylish simplifies the management of user styles but it doesn't only fix ugly websites, it also allows users to customize the look of their browsers and mail clients. Moreover, a set of pre-created user styles can be easily accessed at userstyles.org, so you may not need to learn how to write styles yourself. Simply choose a style, do a couple more clicks and see your preference put up that refreshing new look.

Check out Stylish's user guide here, or report bugs by following this link.

CrossLoop simplifies remote PC access (with permission)

CrossLoop is a freeware application designed to facilitate a secure single-serving of remote access. It enables complete remote access to a PC once permitted, until connection is severed.

CrossLoop furthers the benefits offered by traditional screen sharing by enabling non-technical users to get connected from anywhere on the Internet in seconds without changing any firewall or router settings. It can be used by people of all technical skill levels. Installation is quick and the security features that come with the app seems fair enough.

The program encrypts session data at the end-points before being sent using a 128-bit encryption algorithm. It also assigns a randomly generated 12-digit access code to computers. CrossLoop is a good tool for technical support or getting assistance in various desktop related issues where more "hands-on" help is needed. Simplicity is CrossLoop's main attraction but it also claims to offer fast connection and a fair enough security system. CrossLoop is designed not to operate without explicit permission from the host.