ManUtd Grabbed 3 Points with Nani Goal

Last week, Man Utd managed to take the full three points with Nani's winning goal. It was a difficult game for the United, mentally, since there has been a lot of pressure on them to win the match to keep on the title defense this season.

This Saturday, the United are going to host Sunderland which had a good start with 3 points but failed to get any point for the next two matches. This will also be a match for Roy Kean, once a ManUtd captain, to manage a team to play against his former home.

The video for ManU-Tottenham can be found here.

Technorati Tag: ManUtd

Gmail Video Final Version

After collecting quite a large number of Gmail videos from users, Google compiled them into a final version where the Gmail envelope is moving from the left to the right.

You can take a look at all the users submitted Gmail videos here.

Technorati Tag: Gmail

Orkut New Design

Orkut Blog has just announced the new redesign of the home page which reduces some blue color, introduces more whiteness, and adds rounded corners and icons. But, to me, the new design isn't much different from the old one and doesn't really look appealing.

Until then...

Justin

Update: Just a few minutes after I accessed the blog, it is not longer there. Somebody there removed it?

Technorati Tag: Orkut

Video Upload Now on Blogger

After being tested on Draft Blogger, the video upload feature is finally live on Blogger.

It allows you to upload videos which are related to your blog post and which you don't want to be available on a video site like YouTube. The videos are still hosted by Google but they won't appear in search results. This is good if you want to upload videos exclusively for your blog's use.

By the way, Blogger turned eight today.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Blogger

Microsoft Released New Search Engine Tafiti

Microsoft has released a new search engine called Tafiti which is powered by their Live Search and the Silverlight technology. Using Silverlight (which is Microsoft's answer to Flash), Microsoft makes the interface very decorated, a moved recently started by Ask.com. But there is no option to change the theme of the search interface yet.


The obvious new features of Tafiti are Save search result, Search term history, a Treeview of search results and a graphical search category.


You can label the saved search results and recall them when you need. You don't have to log in to save the search results, but if you clear your cookies, the saved results may disappear. There are five place holders and each of them can keep more than one search result.


The Search term history feature keeps a stack of your search terms so that you can access them back later. But, unlike a list, this stack doesn't allow you to go to any search term in any order. It is a stack—a last-in-first-out queue. So, if you searched 1)Google 2)Microsoft 3)Yahoo, you can go back to Microsoft but not to Google from your Yahoo search result page.


Tafiti also gives you a way to visualize the search results in a Treeview. But, it's too cluttered to be useful and readable.


There is also a graphical view of the Search categories each of which has distinct interface for showing the results. For example, the News search shows the results in a format akin to that of the newspaper.

Overall, Tafiti is a UI-enriched version of Windows Live Search, and the performance is unacceptably slow and it requires you to install Silverlight to use it.

This video takes you through the various features of Tafiti:

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Microsoft

Some Glitches with Blogger Poll

Just found this malfunctioning Blogger poll on a blog. Although a finished product released from Draft, it sometimes gets into trouble. Hmm...Minor glitches seem to be characteristics of Google's products.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Blogger

ManUtd Stuck with 2 Points after 3 Matches

Manchester United lost to their rival Man City by 1-0 although they managed to keep possession of the ball and dominated the match.


Now, after three opening matches, the United is still stuck with mere two points—short of a hefty seven points to the top of the table. Although Sir Alex doesn't seem worried, it will be quite some time (maybe a few months) for the United to catch up to the upper portion of the table and finally grab the first row, assuming they bounce back to keep winning in the following matches.

It is obvious that the United is severely lacking in goal scoring from the fact that they only scored one goal in the last three matches. Maybe that's because Rooney was injured and the new signings are still trying to adapt to the United's playing style. Hopefully, the forward will improve to start scoring goals.

This is the only goal scored last night against the Reds.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: ManUtd

Google Calendar Desktop Gadget Scrollbar is Annoying

It seems like I'm complaining too much about Google these days. But, this thing is really getting very annoying.

I use Google Calendar very much for my daily scheduling (out of Outlook and Sunbird). I also use Google Desktop, so it's pretty convenient to have a Google Calendar gadget on the desktop.


But, although it shows the calendar nicely, the scrollbar starts to cover part of the calendar when there are many agenda on a day and the calendar size cannot accommodate them. Why does the scrollbar have to cover the calendar? Couldn't it resize the mini-calendar so that the scrollbar is clear of it? I would much better like it that way.

Seriously, it is getting annoying to see it not being fixed although it doesn't really affect the functionality of the calendar.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Google Calendar

Blogger Template Edit Down

At 1:30am (SG Time), I cannot edit the template of any blog on Blogger. When I preview or save the template, it just shows me 404 error. What's wrong with Google these days?


Until then...

Justin

Update: It happens only when Expand Widget Templates is selected. If it is selected, no matter whether I make changes or not, I get that 404 page for previewing and saving the template.

Luckily, I can still write here when it's happening.

Technorati Tag: Blogger

Google Calendar Down Too Much

I have been seeing this error message when I was trying to access my Google Calendar. This is not just one or two times. It's getting annoying to see that message very often—when accessing it directly or when creating a new event.

Also the Google Calendar Gadget for iGoogle also has performance issues on my computer.

I really hope this situation improves.

By the way, the multilingual error page is not bad. :D

Until then...

Justin

Update: Yet another error message. This appears quite often.

Technorati Tag: Google Calendar

Disappointing Draw for ManU again

ManU played against Portsmouth on Wednesday and much to the dismay, they were held to another draw in a row. What is worse is that they have Ronaldo red-carded in the match, which means he will miss three matches.


Now without Rooney who will be out for about two months and Ronaldo who is for sure gonna miss out three matches, and losing a hefty four points just after two opening games at the start of the season, the United are going to have a hard time to recover from this trauma to defend their title this season. Chelsea are still enjoying yet another win against Reading last night who held the United to a goalless draw on the opening match.

Videos are on DivShare and you can follow the links to watch them. Please take note that DivShare videos are not as fast as YouTube.

• First Goal
• Second Goal

The season is long and hopefully the United will come up with more wins later.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: ManUtd, Soccer

Burmese Former Goalkeeper Sentenced to Jail

The Burmese former goalkeeper, Aung Kyaw Kyaw, who played for Customs Football Club and was a member of Myanmar National Team, was sentenced to jail in fourteen years. He was arrested in last January and charged with bribery while he served as a customs officer.

Below is an excerpt from BBC Burmese channel. The language is in Burmese.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Myanmar

ManUtd Suffered Goalless Draw against Reading

Manchester United hosted Reading at Old Trafford for the opening match of the season, but were unlucky to get a goalless draw and more impotantly, lost Wayne Rooney at half time. Although United lost two points on their first match, Sir Alex is still optimistic about the club's future matches.

While United got an unexpected result, Chelsea were fortunate to escape from a draw against Birmingham.



Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: ManUtd, Chelsea

StarOffice now on Google Pack

Google Pack starts to include Sun's StarOffice in the download list. It is a Java-based desktop office suite which can be used in place of Microsoft Office.

As it may be clear, the move is thought to be an attack on Microsoft Office, and it has high potential to win when Google includes a plug-in to sync Google Docs online files with those from the user's hard disk.

The installer size for StarOffice is pretty big, so Google recommends a broadband connection to download it:

Because the StarOffice installer is such a large file (up to 210MB depending on your language), we recommend a broadband connection for faster installation. If you have a dial-up connection, it may take several hours to download. However, during that time, Google Updater will manage the download so you can still surf the Web and use your computer for other tasks.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Google Pack, StarOffice

Windows Vista Updates

Microsoft released two updates for Windows Vista. They are meant to improve reliability and performance of the Vista system dramatically.

Although they are not yet on Windows Update, you can download them at the links below (require Validation) and install manually.

Update 1 (64bit here)
Update 2 (64bit here)

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Vista

Google Selling Online Storage Space

Google announced on the Official Google Blog that they will be selling out more spaces to be used with Google services. Currently, the only two services that are capable of using the purchased storage are Gmail and Picasa Web, but there can be more services—Google Page Creator and Google Docs—joining the team.


While Yahoo Mail has offered unlimited storage for FREE, it is interesting why Google is selling more space for Gmail. But, the difference here is Yahoo unlimited storage is for mail only while Google's purchased storage can be shared by many services.

You can buy more storage space for Google at this link.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Google, Online Storage

Windows Live Folders is now SkyDrive

Microsoft Live Folder is now open as SkyDrive beta. Although there was no thumbnail view in Live Folder, SkyDrive now shows thumbnail preview of pictures. But, there is no flash player for WMA and MP3 files (DivShare has it).


Storage capacity has not increased from 500MB yet.

Technorati Tag: SkyDrive, Online Storage

Google's Video on Search Privacy

Google released a video explaining about the privacy concerns users may have when using Google Search. It talks about what information Google collects about its users and how it is almost impossible to match the collected information with the real persons.

But, Google didn't mention about the Personalized Search and their Web History, and why they are pushing them a lot.



Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Google, Privacy

Google Local Business Referral Program

Google launched a program called Google Local Business Referrals where you can sign up to collect information and pictures on local businesses. For each business, you will be rewarded USD10 for your time and energy.

As a Google Business Referral Representative, you'll visit local businesses to collect information (such as hours of operation, types of payment accepted, etc.) for Google Maps, and tell them about Google Maps and Google AdWords. You'll also take a few digital photos of the business that will appear on the Google Maps listing along with the business information. (more...)

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Google

Kaleidoscope Painter for the Bored

This, which I came across by Google Recommend, is a pretty cool Java Appalet that will draw various shapes seen in a kaleidoscope. Since it's a Java Appalet, you will need to enable Java in your browser though.

Try it out if you are bored.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Kaleidoscope

Man Utd Won FA Community Shield

Manchester United played against Chelsea at Wembley Stadium for the FA Community Shield. After drawing 1-1 at the end of the match, Man Utd goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar superbly saved three penalty kicks to entitle the United as the winner.

Take a look at the video below and be amazed at Edwin's saves!

Even though this is not a great match, it always feels good to win and it gives the United the confidence for the coming season to grab another Premier League cup again.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: ManUtd

Windows Live Folders Now Open

Microsoft has finally opened up Windows Live Folder to the public beta testing after releasing it to a limited beta test a few months ago.


The service gives you 500MB of online storage and by default, you will have three main folders: one for yourself, one for sharing with friends and one for public access.

It is still not up to the expectations. There are quite a number of stupid things about this Live Folder:

First, there is no upload indicator, so you don't know how much of your files have been uploaded and at what rate; what you see instead is a flash object where you can play with a bouncing ball with your mouse if you are bored while waiting for the uploading.

Second, after uploading a JPG file, I was hoping that I will see a nice preview of it when I clicked on it. But, what I saw was just a default icon for an image file and there is no way to preview the pictures before downloading them. Also there is no way to create a picture gallery or a slide show of the pictures uploaded.


In fact, there is no preview option for whatsoever file you upload, be they MP3, WMA or Doc. You will nonetheless see "Preview" when you hover your mouse on the icon of the file but you will have to download in order to preview it. Downloading the full file is not at all previewing, however.

Third, sharing is not what it initially seems like to be. You have a public folder but there is no public address for that folder. That means you can't just share your public folder. You are confined to the file level sharing only even if you put your file inside the Public Folder.

One good thing about sharing is you can set who can download your file so that only your friends that you selected can see and download it. This is different from setting a password to the file or folder containing it and giving that password and the file link to your friend to let him/her download it.

MediaFire and DivShare, file hosting sites, have folder level sharing but they don't have a better way to share a file with some particular friends only.

Last but not least, there is no storage limit for other file hosting services which you can pretty much use like Live Folder. MediaFire limits maximum file size to 100MB while DivShare raises it up to 200MB. Both of them do not have maximum storage limit. But, in Live Folder, the maximum file size is just half of that of MediaFire and if all your files are of maximum size allowed, then you can only upload a maximum of 10 files of them before your quota is reached.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Live Folder, MediaFire, DivShare

Recover HDD Space in Windows

If you have a large hard drive on your computer and if you have enabled System Restore and never changed the Recycle Bin settings, you may be wasting a lot of your hard drive space which you can otherwise recover for your own use.

First, in Windows XP, each System Restore point takes about 50MB of space, so unless you need hundreds of restore points, a reserve amount of about 500MB is pretty enough for your Windows System Restore. To change the amount to be used by System Restore, go to Start and right-click on My Computer > Properties.


You will see the System Properties dialog window and go to System Restore tab. There you can configure the setting for all the volumes or partitions on your computer. Select a volume and click Settings and use the slider to change the default amount. For large drives, a mere 1% should be enough.


After System Restore, you should also configure Recycle Bin to use less space to store your deleted files. To do this, right-click on Recycle Bin on the desktop and go to Properties. You will see a dialog window and there you can choose to configure for all your partitions from one single tab or to configure each partition separately. It's always better to configure the drives separately if the sizes vary significantly. It's up to you how much space is to be reserved for Recycle Bin. The maximum allowed is 3.99GB.

After these two configurations, you will find that you have actually recovered some gigabytes on your hard drive which you can use to store hundreds of music files.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Windows, System Restore, Recycle Bin

Firefox Update 2.0.0.6

Firefox 2 got a new update to version 2.0.0.6 which fixes two security issues one of which is critical.


If you have not set your Firefox to get updates automatically, please update it by downloading the latest release here.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Firefox

USA Collapsed Bridge in Pictures

This is a collection of a few pictures of the collapsed bridge in the United States. As of this writing, why the bridge collapsed is still unclear yet.

Until then...

Justin

{From: Static}

Technorati Tag: Mississippi Bridge

Goolge Page Creator Gets Updates

Google Page Creator has been neglected for quite a while, but a notification email from the GPC team announced yesterday that there were a few updates.

The first update is to allow users to delete the "home" page of their site, and with the second update, users who have more than one page for their site can now choose one from them to set as the home page for that site.

To change your home page, click on the "Site settings" link in site
manager. Under the "Homepage" option you will see a drop down menu
listing all of the pages you've created. Click on the one you wish to
be your homepage and it will be changed.

Although there is now option to delete the home page, there is still no option to delete the whole site. This is really a disappointment, and there are a whole lot of people out there who just created test sites in their GPC out of excitement when the feature to create more than one site was first released.

The second disappointment is that there is still no "file manager" like other hosting sites like 50webs. Google could have made it possible for users to choose WYSIWYG interface or advanced one; now the Google Page Creator is no more than a toy to create "templated" pages only.

Also if a user chooses the advanced interface, Google should give him/her the option to choose the ability to create five sites with 100MB of storage each or have 500MB of unified storage for just a single site.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Google Page Creator

Rhain Davis Invited to Manchester United

Manchester United has invited Rhain Davis, a nine-year-old kid, to train at the Youth Academy which has historically produced real talents like David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and many others who have won United a sensational treble in 1999.

Take a look at the video below and you'll see why in a few years' time he will become the new star of the United.

Until then...

Justin

Technorati Tag: Rhain Davis