Google has just introduced a new background for their search engine and it seems like it’s now set to default for everybody who’s not logged in. Unfortunately, people were used to Google’s simplicity and they just hate the new background. Fortunately, there are two ways to get rid of this annoying background.

One way to get rid of the background is to log into your Google account, but this only works if you have one or you don’t want to browse the web being logged out.

The other way is to click the bottom left-hand side button which says “Remove background image”.

Hopefully Google is going to disable their background as a default option because it’s very annoying and it seems inspired very much from Bing.

System administrators can easily filter chat messages on their internal corporate networks. It’s pretty common for this information to end up in the hands of managers that use the data to spy on employees.

You can avoid this by using Pidgin as your chat client. It works with most popular chat networks:

• Google Talk (GTalk)
• AIM
• Yahoo Messenger
• IRC
• Windows Messenger (MSN)

Simply download Pidgin and then install the Pidgin Encryption plugin. The people you chat with will also need Pidgin and the encryption plugin as well if you want your chat to be private. Otherwise you can communicate normally with anybody else using Pidgin.

Once you’ve installed both of these items, run Pidgin and setup the chat accounts you wish to use. Then go to Tools > Plugins and check Pidgin Encryption 3.0.

Now you can encrypt your conversation by clicking the lock at the top of the chat window.

Users on the other end that do not have the encryption plugin installed will get a message telling them about it so they can install it and have secure conversations too.

In Outlook 2010, you can easily export your email, Calendar, Contacts, Tasks or other data. This comes in handy when you would like to backup your data or move your data to another computer.

1. Click the Office button in the upper-left corner.
2. Click Saving.
3. Click Export.
4. Click Export on the right side.
   
5. Select Export to a file and click Next.
   
6. . Select Outlook Data File (.pst) and click Next.
   
7. Choose what you would like to backup. Calendar, all Personal Folders, Inbox, etc. Click Next when ready.
   
8. Provide a location and filename to backup to. Click Finish.
   

There is an Addon for Firefox that I really like called Session Manager.  All it does is add the option to restore all of the tabs you have open when you close Firefox.  I like this because I could just leave up all of the pages I go to frequently, and there they were the next time I opened the browser without having to bookmark everything.

Google Chrome does this by default with no extra addons.  Simply click on the Wrench in the top right and select Options.  On the Basics tab, the top section called On Startup is what controls how Chrome acts when it’s opened.

The option you’re looking for is called Restore the pages that were open last.

Nokia and Intel have decided to merge Maemo and Moblin months ago, but a few days ago the companies have released MeeGo 1.0 for the Nokia N900 and Atom-powered netbooks. Nothing much, but developers now have something to work with and a lot of MeeGo apps will be available at the launch of the first MeeGo OS device. If you were thinking that the first MeeGo device will be powered by an Intel processor, then you would be wrong as reports claim thatNokia will release an ARM-based smartphone in the near future.

Currently Intel cannot find the right recipe to scale-down the Atom processors so that they can be used in smartphones thereforeNokia is going to pick ARM chipsets for the moment. Although the release date of the first MeeGo device is not specified, the Finnish-based company will definitely release such product before 2010 will end, while Intel is waiting for MeeGo to become a more complete OS before developing a netbook/booklet for the masses.