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Check your Hard Drive Space
Curious to see just how much hard drive space you have left on your computer?
In either Windows XP or Vista, click Start>Computer (My Computer for XP users). Right-click on the drive that you'd like to check and select "properties". A window will pop up with a pie-chart that details how much space you have left to work with.
Alternatively, you can just go Start>Computer and single left click on the drive you want to check. Depending on which version of Windows you have, you should see a sidebar with the HDD info.
Now you know your storage limitations!
New Google Maps Features
So, I was going to look up an address on Google Maps the other day and I noticed the special "Labs" icon in the upper-right had corner.
It looks like this:
Naturally, I clicked on it. (How could I not?)
To my surprise, and delight, I found that Google had added a host of new features for use in Google Maps. There's an option for a distance measurement tool, interface navigation tweaks, aerial imagery (a'la Bing.com) and even an option to shorten a Google Maps URL, so you're no pasting a link the length of a book to anyone.
Just put dot in the Enable/Disable radio button and hit Save Changes to start enjoying these advanced features! If you find you don't like them, just follow the same steps and put a dot next to Disable.
Personally, I think it's all pretty neat!
Safely Remove Hardware
If you work a lot with different USB devices, you probably use the "safely remove hardware" icon quite a bit. Am I right? See, even though USB devices are labeled as "Plug & Play"—that is, they're ready to go upon being plugged in—you shouldn't just unplug them. A USB port has current running through it, so the power jolt caused by unplugging a "hot" connection can corrupt data on a storage device, camera, or mp3 player.
In other words, don't just yank your USB device out, use the Safely Remove Hardware icon, Instead. It shows up down near the clock on your task bar.
In Windows Vista and 7 it looks like this: 
So, next time you're ready to remove your USB device from your system, just click the icon and select to "Eject" the device. Here's an example:
Windows will let you know when it's safe to proceed.
It only takes a second and could save potential headaches later!
Side Note: If you're still using Windows XP and your Safely Remove Hardware icon has gone missing, check this tip out to get it back.
The Week in Technology
Access Multiple Gmail Accounts
Do you have more than one Gmail account? I know I do: One for personal use, and another which I use when I register for a website (to ensure my personal email is not spammed till the end of time). Previously, Gmail accounts have only allowed users to access a single account at a single time when using the same web browser. Last Thursday, however, Google changed that by enabling multiple account sign-in, allowing users to access multiple Gmail accounts at the same time within the same browser. To enable multiple account sign-in, log in at http://google.com/accounts and under "profile" select "Multiple sign-in". At the moment, this feature is only available for desktop browsers and not all Google Services currently support multiple account sign-in.
The Google Street View Pedestrian Remover
In March, I mentioned in my article that the European Union's Data Protection Directive had ordered Google to delete their Street View pictures after six months, because retaining those images for a year may violate individual privacy laws inside the European Union. It appears as though one computer science graduate student in California has developed a possible solution for Google, though. Graduate student Arturo Flores, at the University of California, San Diego, has written a paper titled, "Removing pedestrians from Google Street View images" and has created a proof-of-concept computer system. The system removes pedestrians from Google Street View images and replaces the holes with an image of what may have appeared behind the pedestrian. Although the system is not yet perfect, it does provide a basis for removing individuals from Google Street View images, as well as other online pictures to ensure better online privacy.
I Like That One!
So, if you've done an image search on Google lately, you've probably noticed that they've changed their format around a little bit. Instead of just thumbnail images, if you put your mouse over an image it expands a bit, giving you a larger view.
You may also notice a link that says "Similar".
How this comes in handy is if you're looking for a particular image, but want to see what else is out there that has like traits. So, if the image in question has a color scheme you like or the picture is taken at a certain angle, you can just click Similar and bring up more results that fit your criteria.
For example, I found a picture of a laptop:
Then I clicked Similar:
Quite useful!
