Advertisers and other third parties track, clutter, and slow down your web browsing. Disconnect makes the web your business not theirs.

"Everyone should know that many aspects of your online behavior are visible to others. This data is essential for all businesses with a presence on the Web; it enables them to determine how, where, and when to attract your attention, thus leading to smarter, targeted, and increasingly personalized Internet marketing. As more and more commercial entities turn to the Internet for customers, those potential customers unwittingly share personal information with a vast array of online parties through HTTP cookies. In this article, you will learn the function of third-party cookies, ad tracking, and how to block internet ad tracking."

"Upon reading recent news stories about how Facebook tracks almost everywhere he goes on the Internet, Jim Kress grew outraged. Consumers are increasingly taking online privacy into their own hands. The consultant from Northville, Mich., subsequently learned Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Adobe and many other companies also exhaustively track his online activities. "I was very unnerved to discover the extent of all the other tracking that was done by nearly every site on the Web," he says."

How to avoid mistakes with photography

Lighting is one of the most important elements of any picture, and understanding the color, direction, quantity, and quality of the light you use is one of the surest ways to improve your photos. We'll show you how to use lighting to your advantage-and give you some helpful rules for when and when not to use your camera's flash.

There are no fixed rules in photography, but there are guidelines which can often help you to enhance the impact of your photos.

Photo essays rely on a simple truth: Telling stories with pictures can be more evocative and moving than using words. A photo essay engages the viewer at a very personal level. While people can respond to written stories intellectually, photography essays often create an instant emotion within the viewer.

"Check out MakeUseOf cheat sheets that list shortcuts for a number of essential programs that you probably use on a daily basis. Those will definitely make you more productive. All free. Enjoy! Share them with everyone! To download them you just need a password. Simply subscribe to MakeUseOf Newsletter using your email below to get it. The password will be instantly emailed to you once you have confirmed your subscription."

"Google has launched a new site called Search Education aimed at educators who want to teach online search strategies. The site includes lesson plans geared at different levels of expertise - beginner, intermediate and advanced- as well as training videos that walk through different strategies for subjects like using Creative Commons and Google maps."

"Making citation easy. Cite and store books or journal references. Add books automatically from amazon book pages. Cite books, journals and sites with this handy little extension. Leave a message if you found it useful or if there are any more features you'd like to see. FEATURES * Cite books, journals and websites (More to come). * Automatically formats references to the correct style. * Have the references stored in your browser. * Automatically retrieve and store references from any amazon.com book page. The source link is stored for later viewing."

from the BBC - animated Shakespeare

"Enter some text or a URL in a spreadsheet and a QR code will be automatically created - all with the help of a little formula that you'll learn about in this tip of the week. This is a great way to create lots of QR codes very quickly and easily! "

"Operation Ghost Click International Cyber Ring That Infected Millions of Computers Dismantled"

"The FBI is encouraging users to visit a website run by its security partner, http://www.dcwg.org , that will inform them whether they're infected and explain how to fix the problem. After July 9, infected users won't be able to connect to the Internet"

"The 2011 Horizon Report " - brief overview of coming trends in education

from NSF