Google Questions and Answers

After Google shut down its Answer service late last year, they have released a similar service in Russia called Otvety (Eng Translation). But, this time it is not paid and Google is using point system: you gain points if your answer is good, and if you ask questions, you need to have some points to spend and those points will be awarded to the person who answer best your question.


This reminds me of Microsoft Live QnA and Yahoo! Answers. Whether Google's Questions and Answers will surpass the two rivals and whether Google can effectively control junk-questions like "Hello Everyone!!! How are you all doing tonight or today?" (from Live QnA) remain to be seen. Also, I don't know why Google doesn't release an English version and why they particularly chose Russia.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Google, Otvety

Vista Basic and Standard - My Frustration

I can understand that Microsoft only gives the ugly interface to Vista Home Basic edition users. But, it seems unfair that Microsoft also gives that same ugly interface to those who use other Vista editions but without the graphic requirement to run Aero. There's Vista Standard interface for those who can run Aero but disable the transparency effect (but this Vista Standard UI is rendered by hardware).


I think Microsoft can give something similar to Vista Standard UI (rendered by software) to those who use non-Home-Basic editions but cannot run Aero. I can see that Microsoft shows the Vista Standard UI-like interface during the Windows installation on my computer, but I can only see the ugly interface after the installation. I use Vista Business edition and the only "defect" is my Intel GMA 900 which cannot run Aero.


If Microsoft can show Vista Standard UI during installation on my computer, why can't they show it instead of the ugly interface?

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Microsoft, Vista

Google Desktop for Linux

After releasing a Mac version of Desktop, Google now has released the Linux version. It seems like Google wants the Desktop to be on all desktops.

I haven't tried it yet on my Ubuntu, and the screenshots available do not show any sign of the Google Desktop Sidebar. But, it is very likely that Google will include the sidebar if this version doesn't have one.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Google, Google Desktop

Google to Release New Docs List

Google announced on the blog and on Groups that they are going to release a new version of Google Docs which will feature "includes new ways to keep your docs organized, and find your old docs too".

That's right, very soon we're going to launch a new Docs list -- a
wish fulfilled for those of us who've wanted an easier way to organize
and manage our documents and spreadsheets.

I use Google Docs heavily and am really glad that they are constantly improving it. The current way to organize the documents using tags is already pretty good but it can take some time for me to search for some old files. I am looking forward to the new Docs list, wondering how it will improve the document organization.

Until then...

Justin

Update: This is how the new Docs List looks like. Apart from its nice look and Windows-Explorer-like (and better?) organization, the search has become more intelligent and Google-Suggest-like.

Technorati Tag: Google, Google Docs

Vista Transformation Pack 7.0

Windows X has finally released the much awaited Vista Transformation Pack 7.0 which includes ViStart in the package. If you don't know ViStart, it is a utility that changes the XP Start Menu to something almost identical to Vista Start Menu.

You can now download it at this link. I have nothing to say about it yet since I got the screen below when I tried to install it (many times).



Windows X will release another update version 7.0.1 in a week. So, if you can't use the current version, wait one more week and try again.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Windows X, Vista Transformation Pack

Image View on Google News

Google News now releases a new version, called Image View, where you can view current news in pictures. When you pause on a thumbnail, the related news message will be selected and you can read it on.


In the screenshot, I pause the mouse on Alan Smith and the news about its transfer Middlesbrough is selected.

The new Image View interface can be accessed here.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Google, Image View

Group Chat in Gtalk Gadget

The much requested Group Chat feature in Google Talk is now available in the Gadget version of Gtalk.


Just launch the Gtalk Gadget and open a group chat conversation by inviting your friends. But, to be in the group chat, your friends also need to be using the Gadget. So, if one of your friends is not using it, he/she will receive a link to open the Gtalk Gadget and join the conversation.

This year, the Gtalk Gadget gets updates like smiley and now group chat. I do expect the desktop client to get more powerful updates soon since nothing much has changed for the Gtalk desktop client.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Google, Gtalk, Group Chat

iPhone to Include YouTube Player

The new iPhone ad just reveals that it will also include a YouTube player. This piece of surprise (as Apple ad calls the feature) news comes soon after Google has released the mobile version of YouTube.

You can take a look at the ad here.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Apple, iPhone, YouTube

Google Translation Dictionary

Google Translate, after releasing search-in-other-languages, now lets you translate short words and phrases from English to French, German, Spanish, Italian and Korean, and vice versa.


This is a stripped-down version of Google Translate (Text and Web) but in this version, Google also shows related phrases at the end of the translation page, which is quite useful to those language learners.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Google, Translate

Microsoft to Change Vista

It seems like Microsoft got another blow from Google. Google complained a few months ago that Microsoft Windows Vista doesn't provide an easy way to turn off its default Instant Search so that users of Google Desktop will not be wasting system resources.

Now Microsoft has agreed to change their Vista system to let users to turn off its default indexing service and will also provide links in Internet Explorer and Start menu to the user's default indexing service of choice. Microsoft will implement the change in a service pack (SP1 is expected to be ready by late 2007) or will release an updated version of Windows Vista.

Until then...

Justin

{From Google Blogoscoped, Reuters}

Technorati Tag: Google, Microsoft, Vista, Desktop Search

YouTube Now in 10 Languages

Google released nine localized versions of its video site YouTube. The first ten countries (including the US) for which localized version is available are:


I expect the list of the countries to get longer sooner or later, and the interface for selecting one may also change.

Until then...

Justin

{Official Google Blog}

Technorati Tag: Google, YouTube

Menu for iGoogle Tabs

Google added a shortcut menu for renaming and deleting tabs in iGoogle. Before that, to rename a tab, you just click on the name of the tab and an editable text box appears (you can still do it now). But, with this menu, it's become easy to delete a tab in iGoogle homepage. I forgot how I deleted the tabs in my iGoogle after testing them out.

Until then...

Justin

Update: Google added a menu item for sharing the iGoogle tab with friends. Sharing is by email.

Technorati Tag: Google, iGoogle

Cool Pic: Multi-exposure of Airplane Taking Off

A multi-exposure picture taken while an airplane was taking off. A magnificent picture and a great idea to have taken it. This is one of the best multi-exposures I have ever seen.

Until then...

Justin

{From Airliners.net}

Technorati Tag: Multi-exposure

Mobile YouTube

YouTube released a mobile version last week where you can watch a subset of YouTube videos on your mobile phone. Since the mobile data transfer is currently very expensive, YouTube shows a warning and a suggestion to subscribe to unlimited data plan if you go to http://m.youtube.com.


After you select the video, it will play using RealPlayer or QuickTime.

But, in my own opinion, I don't think mobile YouTube will rock any time soon unless the mobile data plan gets cheaper and more people get to use wider-screen mobile phones.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: YouTube, YouTube Mobile

Performance Gadgets for Google Desktop

I have some recommendations for performance gadgets to be used with Google Desktop Sidebar. I do hope that you might like them.

1. Performance Meter - This is a Vista-like sidebar gadget that show the CPU and RAM loading with an appealing gauge meter.



2. HDDLife - A tool for keeping track the health of Hard disks on your computer. It not only monitors the status (read/write) of the HDD but also detects the temperature and health of each disk and alarms you when threshold is reached. It also uses an appealing gauge meter to show the status.



3. System Monitor - A gadget by Google which can be added by Google Desktop's Add Gadget; search for System Monitor and add the one shown in the picture. It uses graph-like interface that is less appealing, but it shows more detail for HDD read/write and Network IO. There's another gadget called System Monitor too but it doesn't work on my computer. Also, I can't find a link to this gadget on Google Desktop website.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Google, Google Desktop

SiCKO Removed from Google Video

Recently, the movie named SiCKO by Michael Moore was uploaded to Google Video in full, 2 hours and 3 minutes. In fact, the movie is set to be released only on June 29, 2007.


But, I'm glad that Google has quickly removed the video by the time of this writing after a lot of people (including DIGG) hailed about it over the net.

At least Google by now should have known who has (or have) uploaded the yet-to-be-released movie in full. Is Google going to do something with their account now that they have clearly broken the Terms of Use of Google Video?

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Google, Google Video, SiCKO, Michael Moore

Cool Pics: Hotel Hello Kitty

For Hello Kitty lovers!

Album Link

I won't love to stay one night at this hotel though; all pink makes me sick.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Picasa, Pics

Embed MP3 Using Gmail's Player

You can easily embed mp3 files using Gmail's built-in mp3 player so that your visitors can listen to the music or speech without having to wait until the download finishes and without having to open it with a media player.

To embed the player, you just enter the following code to the place on your page where you would like it to appear, replacing URL with the actual url of your mp3 file:

<iframe
src="http://mail.google.com/mail/html/audio.swf?audioUrl=http%3A//URL"
style="border: 1px dotted #e0e0e0; width: 500px; height: 27px;">
</iframe>

You can also change the width of the player to any value you like but you should keep the height at 27px if you don't want to affect the looks of your player.

Below you can see how it looks like. I embedded Baba Yetu from Civilization and for faster loading, the music is converted to 64kbps, so the quality will suck a little bit.

Until then...

Justin

Update: Alex came up with an embed code which doesn't need iframe. If you don't like the use of iframes, you can use the code below;

<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://mail.google.com/mail/html/audio.swf?audioUrl=[MP3_file]" height="27" width="320"></embed>

30 July 2007: Just found out that the player is no longer working. Google could have done something to prevent it from playing mp3 files outside Gmail.

Technorati Tag: Embed Mp3

Google Video Search Now Uses Frame

Google Video Search, which can search across many video hosting sites, now uses a frame above the target page, much like Google Image Search. The frame appears when you click on a video result (not preview). The frame shows the related videos and also allows you to move back and forth among the search results using the arrow buttons on the upper right corner. If you don't like, you can also minimize the frame by clicking Collapse Frame.

I find it more annoying than it is useful for me to browse the related videos which I can do on the target page itself.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Google, Video

New YouTube Layout

After Blogger in Draft, YouTube also got its share of new features. First of all, YouTube video has got a new version of page layout which can be seen by adding &v3 at the end of the video URL. The new layout places the video information below the video itself and show subscriber's videos on the right-hand side which are followed by the related videos. The embed code will also give option to choose the new player or the old one.


The new page layout can be seen by clicking the button above too.


Another feature is that YouTube introduced the thumbnail view for its video search in addition to cleaning up the normal search result page. Also, the search box is aligned center above the page, with a Google logo on its right side.


Also, on the homepage, YouTube also shows the current videos being watched which is a good place to start watching videos for a bored user.

Last but not least, YouTube accounts will soon be integrated with Google accounts.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Google, YouTube

Blogger in Draft

Blogger has released a draft version where experimental features can be tested out before their final release to the public. Apart from additional experimental features, the draft blogger and the normal blogger are the same.


The first experimental feature in Blogger in Draft is the video upload feature where you can upload your own video files to be attached with your blog post. The video will be hosted by Google Video but will not be searchable in Google. I'm not very excited about this feature though since I'm not in the habit of uploading videos.

Until then...

Justin

{Official Google Blog}

Technorati Tag: Google, Blogger

Apple Mac OS X Leopard

This video showcases the new features that will be included in Mac OS X Leopard (coming soon).

After failing to impress a wide range of users with their Vista, is Microsoft doing something secret and revolutionary for their Windows 7 (formerly called Windows Vienna)? I heard that Microsoft is calling the Office 12 UI team to the Windows 7 development. So, I really hope that Microsoft would be able to do something exciting as they did for Office 12.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Apple, Mac, Microsoft, Windows

Beryl vs Windows Aero

A pretty good demonstration of Linux Beryl in comparison against Microsoft's Windows Aero effects. It's a pity that Microsoft, after 5 years of development, could only come up with something even less exciting than Beryl.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Linux, Beryl, Microsoft, Vista, Aero

iPhone Coming on June 29

Apple's commercials about iPhone are all saying that the much awaited iPhone is finally coming out on June 29. But there's not much hope that it will sold in retail any time soon. Also, I have to worry if I can afford it too. :D

Watch the ads here at YouTube.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Apple, iPhone

RealPlayer 11 Beta

Real is about to release a new version for its RealPlayer. The new version, v11, has a sleeker design than the old version and also will include an important feature that lets you download online videos easily, including (but not limited to) Google Video, YouTube and Metacafe.



YouTube prohibits downloading and copying of its video content, and it will be interesting to see how Real did or is going to do the deal with YouTube.

For those who want to test the beta of RealPlayer version 11, you can download it here.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: RealPlayer

PowerPoint Preview in Gmail

PowerPoint files can now be previewed as slideshow right from Gmail. This comes as a natural addition to the preview capabilities of .doc and .xls files in Gmail for a long time.


Now that Gmail can now preview PPT files without having to install any software, we can pretty well expect the sooner-or-later launch of Google Presentation to complete the Google Online Office Suite.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Google, Gmail, PowerPoint, Google Office, Google Docs

Safari Browser for Windows

Apple has released their Safari browser for Windows users, saying to:

Experience the web, Apple style, with Safari: the fastest, easiest-to-use web browser in the world. With its simple, elegant interface, Safari gets out of your way and lets you enjoy the web — up to 2 times faster than Internet Explorer.

To test Safari on my machine, I went to the download page and was greeted to download Safari and QuickTime (the default option). Why is Apple pushing me to download and install QuickTime when all I wanted is Safari alone? This is not the first time Apple is doing such a thing: when I went to QuickTime download page, I was defaulted to download and install iTune too.

After the installation, I fired up Safari wondering how on earth Apple has made it the easiest-to-use web browser. So, I typed google and pressed Ctrl + Enter. Nothing happened. It doesn't support Ctrl + Enter. But, when I just pressed Enter, it correctly sent me to www.google.com. And, it did a good job to send me to popular web pages without me having to type complete address and to press Ctrl + Enter. But, for not-so-famous sites, it is really a pain to have to type the complete address. So, this is not the easiest-to-use.

After I got to Google, I wanted to open my email. So, I typed www.gmail.com and pressed Alt + Enter. Nothing happened again. I can't open a new tab in a way that both Firefox and IE (and probably Opera too) support. To open my email, I had to press Ctrl + T and then type the address. So, where is the easiest-to-use factor of Safari?


Now, having opened two tabs in Safari, I wanted to check the memory consumption. I opened Task Manager and it is elegantly eating up 100+ MB of RAM. It happened in Firefox only when more than 10 tabs are open at the same time. Is Safari the best web browser then?


After being disappointed by its memory usage, I tried to close my email and suddenly a UI inconsistency appeared. Apple seemed to have forgotten that they were doing it now for Windows users where the minimize, maximize and close buttons are always on the right hand side of the UI elements. They did remember it when they created the standard windows buttons on the upper right hand corner of the Safari window. But, they put the close-tab button on the left hand side of the tab, which is a surprise factor in UI and which means bad. The best web browser would not confuse the users with such inconsistencies in the user interface.

But, I will be fair on this issue. The browser is still in beta, so it can have glitches that we can hope will be fixed in the final version. (Just hope that Apple will not keep Safari for Windows in perpetual Beta like Google is doing.)

Until then...

Justin

Update: In Safari, Ctrl + Mouse Scroll Wheel to adjust the font size of pages doesn't work too. Both IE and Firefox support it although the way to increase the font size is opposite in each of them.

Technorati Tag: Apple, Safari

Google Search UI Changed Again

Google Search User Interface has got a minor change since Google introduced the new UI for Universal Search.


In the new style, Google re-introduced the blue bar in place of the white color bar that Google adopted when Universal Search was released.

Personally speaking, I prefer the white color bar of the now-old universal search user interface.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Google, User Interface

Messi, the Hand of God 2

Barcelona was lucky in their last match where Messi managed to score a goal by hand, who is, after Maradona, the second Hand of God in soccer now. Were it not for the goal by Messi's left hand, Real Madrid would have been lifting the trophy by now and ManU also would have pocketed £1m due to the clause included when van Nistelrooy was sold to Madrid.

Compare it with Maradona's hand ball years ago:



Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Barcelona, Real Madrid, Messi, Maradona, Soccer

Winter in Switzerland

Album Link

Has your screen already freezed by now...?

Until then...

Justin

{From Hmmm}

Technorati Tag: Switzerland, Winter

Duty-Free at Columbo Airport

These people do seem to be really duty-free. :D

Album Link

Until then...

Justin

{From Hmmm}

Technorati Tag: Duty-Free

What a Good English

This, as you can read yourself, is a good example of English in Japan. The original author said it is from Japan, but I don't know why it is all Chinese there although I also know that Japanese contains some Chinese words with completely different meanings. But, for the English part, I'm sure it is supposed to mean to keep the tables clean after dining.

If you like to see more of such examples of Japanese English, you can visit this page and you'll have a hard time holding your laughter.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Japan

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