For more information about what Google Voice is, how it works, etc, check out the official post on the Google Blog.
Almost a Compliment
11 years ago
For more information about what Google Voice is, how it works, etc, check out the official post on the Google Blog.
If you are using FireFox or Internet Explorer, these experiments probably won't run right. Why you ask? Chrome has a special and powerful JavaScript engine that makes it able to do cool things like in the links below.
If you have the latest FireFox beta (3.5), then you may be able to run some of these experiments, but they probably still won't look exactly right. The Chrome Experiments page has more links, but here are a few of my favorites, plus descriptions.
Bomomo - This is a cool randomizing drawing program. You can make tons of cool shapes and patterns. Select randomizing tools from the bottom of the page and hold down the mouse to draw. Play with the line and polygon tools located along the bottom of the tool bar on this page.
Fireworks - Spells out a message, (customized by the box at the top of the screen). Shoots line fireworks all over the screen.
Solitaire - Takes a little bit to load, but it an extensive solitaire game that runs entirely on the web. (Better than XP's default solitaire, I think).
Google Sphere Image Search - An awesome way to use Google Image Search. It may take a sec to load, but once it does, the page will rotate around the image search box. Perform a search and watch the images fly into orbit around the box. Do another search and the old images fly away replaced with the new results, all in a perfect, mouse-controlled orbit, around the search box. Very cool!
Depth of Field - A fun little way to watch a very well done 3-d depth of field demonstration. Camera x-y axis controlled with the mouse.
The coolest part of these experiments is that they are done with JavaScript and not Flash or Silverlight. What does that mean?
Its like somebody who can build a really nice car (Ferrari) with two screwdrivers. If he can build a Ferrari with that little, then imagine what all he can do with power tools. That's why Chrome is so cool, because it can do all the neat stuff in the above experiments with two screwdrivers, where other browsers need power tools.
But the point of this post is Skype. Most of my family/friends use Skype, and some portion of them read this blog. So if you haven't already, make sure you go download the Skype Beta. It's definitely worth it.
Just a couple of the cooler features include screen sharing (so no more demanding that you go to Tools -> options -> sound settings -> microphones and webcams -> advanced options -> manual configuration -> reset all). Plus its easier to share contacts, more stable (i.e. less crashes), and its just cool the LATEST VERSION.
If you didn't read any of the post, then use this link to download the Skype Beta. Talk to ya Sunday @ 7!
But before you Google Search "Google Wave" and "Google Squared," make sure to check out this fun page, for Google Chrome only.
It does work mostly in FireFox 3.5b4. But because Chrome has such a powerful Javascript engine, its really the only browser than can run this page. Move the mouse, watch the page fall, and make sure to use the search box to do a Google Search. The results drop down from the top of the page. Use your mouse to sling the objects willy-nilly.
The Google Docs Spreadsheet
"Her comments come a day after the UN unanimously condemned North Korea for conducting an underground nuclear test."
"'North Korea needs to understand that its actions have consequences,' she said."
This quote is my favorite. I completely believe that N Korea understands that their actions have consequences. The UN and political ambassadors have applied diplomatic pressure, and N Korea has consistently ignored the pressure, or escalated their nuclear/military arms race. This suggests one alternative. N Korea fully understands what it is doing and either doesn't care about the consequences, or is actually pleased with the consequences. Either way, it should be abundantly obvious that N Korea is not going to respond to diplomatic pressure, the UN (unanimously too) condemning their actions, or other such tactics.
If you are still not convinced, then make sure you've read that article thoroughly. The timeline is as follows:
- N Korea tests nuclear capabilities underground
- UN responds by unanimously condemning N Korea (what does that even mean/do?)
- US ambassador emphasized displeasure and consequences
- N Korea tests two short range missiles, hours later
It appears that N Korea is openly mocking the diplomatic pressure applied to them.
"Diplomats said they were seeking 'tough measures', including further sanctions."
Well, obviously the 'sanctions' thus far have failed. But what the h3ll, why not try more sanctions? I think the US foreign policy has failed to account for the possibility that a country might not respond to diplomatic pressure. Even more worrisome, there appears to be absolutely no plan to alter/change this approach foreign policy.
History has shown us that some countries, especially those with large amounts of power consolidated in few people (i.e. Dictatorship), can act irrationally at best and downright evil at worst. Until the US learns this concept and changes their approach to dealing with N Korea appropriately, I fear the pattern of escalation (we sanction more, they escalate their military testing) will continue with potentially devastating results.
So recently I got my Xbox 360 repaired. I did the request online and had to pay a fee since my Xbox 360 was out from under its Microsoft-extended 3 year warranty. I wrote a note along with the repair order expressing my displeasure in having to pay a repair fee. But I figured since I had done the order online, that there was little chance I'd get my money back.
Anyway, the Xbox got repaired in record time, and it came back with a one year warranty (instead of the typical 90 day warranty). I was checking my account and discovered that they had indeed refunded my money from the repair to me!
So in a situation where no one (besides myself of course) would ever know if no refund were issued, Microsoft took one for the team and repaired my out-of-warranty Xbox, gave me a long warranty, and refunded my money. (Plus a one month free trial of Xbox LIVE). Other issues aside, Microsoft's repair system is unmatched.
But in Chrome, when you get a popup that ought to be a new tab, you can set the situation right. Click on the Chrome icon in the top left corner of the new window and then select "Show as Tab." BOOM! You did it. Now you can drag the tab into your tab bar at the top, or leave it as a new window.
And in case you didn't know, any tab can be 'drug' into a new window, and windows can be drug, by their tab, into the tab bar. Enjoy!
Download the channel changer here and start getting the latest from Google Chrome. Plus, the new Dev version (and possibly the beta version), have some cool new features, and slightly updated UI (User Interface)
********************************* (Updated 5/15/2009 @ 10:03am)
Using the above download link will download and .exe file. And yes, running that .exe is what you need to do in order to get/use the Chrome beta. You can save this .exe and switch between the stable Chrome, the beta of Chrome, and the dev version of Chrome. Cool, huh?
*********************************
Both use a multi-process structure. What does that mean? Each program on your computer (iTunes, Your browser, etc) use a process. A process is basically a house. Each house has its own lot, with a default amount of acreage, which you can add to if you want. And each house/process has a certain number of people living there. And the acreage is the memory that the program can use or has access to.
So here is how firefox works:
Firefox runs in one process. So that is one house, with a default acreage (or memory). Every time you open a new tab, you still have just one house with one more resident. Maybe you add some land. Let's say you have 10 people living in that one house, or 10 tabs open in firefox. Sure you have more land, but eventually there is gonna be a conflict over who owns what and how much land each of them should have between them. This is known as a browser crash. And when all the tabs/residents are under one roof, when one blows up, it hurts everybody and crashes all your tabs. So running all the tabs in one process can be bad, especially if one of them crashes.
So Chrome and IE8 use a multi process approach. Each tab has its own house with its own land. So whenever a house/tab has a conflict, its pretty isolated and the other tabs are unaffected.
That is the theory. Chrome does this perfectly. My tabs rarely crash, but when they do, all my other tabs stay open and the browser putters along as if nothing happened. Well, IE8 needs to take a few lessons from Chrome.
A tab crashed in IE8, and I had three tabs total open. I tried to close the tab. No luck. I finished my business in the other tabs, and tried to close the browser. It 'hung' trying to close the problem tab. So then I go to the task manager (Ctrl + Alt + Del), and find the iexplorer.exe process. There are a couple of them, because, as I said earlier, this is a multi-process browser, so each tab gets its own process. Well, I do what I always do when a problem has a major meltdown. I kill the process. Thankfully, IE8 is soooo advanced, it knows when a tab is having a problem, so it reopens the process. So basically, I'm in the task manager, just trying to close the processes faster than IE8 can reopen them. Finally I close both processes, and manage to close the process before IE8 can fully reopen them, and finally close out my browser.
Stupid IE8. Chrome has a built in task manager just for Chrome (Right click on your chrome window and select 'Task Manager'). It allows you to see which tabs are doing what, how much bandwidth and processing power they are using. If a tab becomes completely unresponsive, you can easily find which tab and close it. With IE8, you have to use the windows task manager (Ctrl + Alt + Del) which offers ZERO assistance as to which process is related to which tab (each process and tab is named iexplorer.exe) Once again, I say BRILLIANT microsoft.
Sure IE8 is loads better than IE7 and lightyears beyond IE6. But in terms of speed and reliability, Chrome has got IE whooped! And a new study just came out that shows that 97% of Chrome users have the most recent (and most secure) version of Chrome, thanks to their super-silent update. Whereas Firefox is 84% and the other browsers are 15%-30% below firefox. So you tell me which browser is best.
Alright, you web devs out there. If you've ever used javascript-based mouse over effects, you usually want to preload the "moused over" images.
If you want an example, go to http://www.allcapnet.com and mouse over the buttons that are in place for a menu bar. When you mouse over the button javascript says "Hey, somebody just put their mouse over this button, so now I'm gonna swap the current button for this new button."
WHY YOU NEED PRELOADING:
It's like if you buy someone a Christmas present. It would be insane to wait to buy the Christmas present until Christmas day when someone asked you "Hey, where's my present?"
No one would actually do this. We all buy the present 1 year/1 month/1 week/1 day early. Then we wrap it and hide it. That is exactly what preloading is. When the page opens, we know there are some images and stuff we'll need later. So using one of the methods below, we get the image early, while the user isn't looking (metaphorically speaking), so that when the user DOES need the image (like a navbar mouseover), we already have the image.
So preloading get the image early and when the user wants to access the picture (aka a navbar mouseover), we don't have to wait while javascript panics and loads the image — because we preloaded the image it is now instantaneously available to the end user.
However, if the image hasn't been preloaded, then the menu will appear to lag because javascript has to load the image, and then perform the swap. But if the image is preloaded, then when javascript performs the swap, it will be instantaneuous to the end user and they won't notice any menu lag.
So here are two methods for preloading images. One uses pure CSS and one uses javascript. Right now I'm using both together and have been pleased with the results.
CSS Method:
#div-preloader{
width: 0px;
height: 0px;
visibility: hidden;
background-image: url(image-mouseover.gif);
background-image: url(image-mouseover2.gif);
}
Then put this html code soomewhere on your site:
EXPLAINED:
This puts an invisible div on your site. But it has the images you need preloaded set as the background. So the browser downloads the images and then they are available for javascript to swap as needed. The second method involves using javascript:
<script type="text/javascript">
function preloader(){//created by Adam at summerbreak.blogspot.com
var imgToPreload = new Image();
imgToPreload.src = "image-mouseover.gif";
}
</script>
You would call this function via a body onload command. Like this:
<body onload="preloader()">
EXPLAINED:
The javascript method creates an image object, and then loads the image. The downside is that not all users support javascript, or have it enabled. Plus the onload command doesn't execute until the rest of the page has loaded. But both essentially do the same thing. Experiment on your own site and find out what works best for you.
As the title says, my computer was loosing time, and would be off by as much as an hour or two. Completely unacceptable.
So what do I do? Let me tell you. A couple of registry edits, and task schedulers later, my computer should by syncing so often that it'll never lose a second again.
Normally, your windows PC (I'm assuming your running XP or later) syncs time with an internet server once a week. Apparently for me, this wasn't often enough. So first, how do we tell windows how frequently to schedule a time sync? The registry of course. If you don't know what the registry is and still want to make windows sync time more frequently, just follow these following steps exactly.
Registry Edit for increasing (or decreasing) the frequency with which windows syncs time:
- Click Start
- Click on "Run"
- type "regedit" (without quotes) and hit enter
- Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\w32time\TimeProviders\NtpClient
- Double click on "SpecialPollInterval" (if that doesn't exist, go to "Edit -> New -> DWORDS" and create a DWORD called SpecialPollInterval
- Click on the radio button "Decimal" and enter a value
- That is the frequency with which windows will sync time with an internet time server (in seconds). So if you enter a value of 1440 would be .4 hours and 14400 would be 4 hours.
But your not finished. You still want to setup a scheduled task to run often enough that to keep your time synced often.
Go to the control panel, go to task scheduler and make a new task.
When it asks you for a program, tell it to run w32tm.exe (click browse and go to c:\windows\system32)
In the command line for w32tm.exe add the following additions so your command line looks like this:
"c:\windows\system32\w32tm.exe /resync /rediscover"
That will force windows to resync time, regardless of previous errors. Then setup a schedule that runs this at Logon and after the computer has been idle for 5-30 minutes. Or run it whenever you think it good for your system and your available system resources. You can even tell the computer to "wake up" from standby to perform the sync.
ENJOY!
You can read the full article here.
If you want my opinion on whether Google is actually guilty of anti-trust whateverness, my opinion is no. Microsoft, when it got hit with its anti trust lawsuit back in the 90s, was guilty. Why? They controlled the computer OS market, with 90% of machines running Windows. So they put software on their that users couldn't choose. So when you got a computer, you had to use Internet Explorer. Because that was all that was installed on the computer.
The inefficiency of IE6 and IE7 are direct results of the lack of competition back in the 90s for IE 5, IE 5.5 and IE6.
So why is Google not guilty? Because there is a huge difference between being forced to use IE, and choosing to use IE because its vastly superior to all competing products (its not, but for the sake of the analogy I said it).
Its the same with Google. Sure I could search with Yahoo. Or Ask.com. Or Microsoft's search (what is it, live something?). But each time I choose to use Google because its the superior search engine. Its faster, its more reliable. It delivers more accurate results, with the information I need usually in the top three results.
So thats why I think Google isn't guilty of anti-trust. Aside from that, Google has been very consistent in making sure that all their products are easy to start using and easy to leave. Gmail, for example, allows contacts to be exported/imported (a feature lacking in competitors like Hotmail, Yahoo Mail), e-mail forwarding, POP access, and other features which are lacking in the free versions of many of Gmail's competitors.
If only the new Obama-DOJ saw things my way.
Or just watch the embedded version beneath this post.
3D Computer Interface from Free Flow on Vimeo.
The features are amazing. It may actually replace my cell phone!
You can "subscribe" to the stable release, the beta release, or the dev release (dev is short for developer). The stable release usually sees quarterly updates (According to Google), the beta release sees monthly updates and the Dev release sees weekly updates.
I would recommend the beta branch to pretty much anybody as its a good way to use and test new features. If you understand/recognize the following info, then the dev branch is for you:
- You understand the difference between server side and client side scripting
- You regularly write snippets of code
- You scoff at people who call HTML "coding"
- The warning you get when trying to terminate a process from the Task Manager doesn't scare you in the slightest.
Anyway, here is a direct download link to the Chrome channel changer, which let you "tap" into the beta, stable, or dev version of Chrome. Enjoy!
I have used AVG free, AVG security whatever, and currently BitDefender. I've looked at some reviews online, and some of the top names appear to be Kapersky, Norton (Specifically 2009), BitDefender, and another one that I forgot.
So far, from my own personal experience, BitDefender appears to be superior to AVG. I really like the control that BitDefender gives me. I can even control which websites are allowed to write/read cookies, store scripts on my computer, etc. Plus their antivirus appears to be top-notch.
However, I have only tried these two antiviruses. What do you guys think is best? Any good reviews or tech tips from tech-y friends? Let me know in the comments.
Well no longer. With a $25 add-on, I turned my iPod Touch into an iPhone (almost). I already have a skype account, with accompanying skype number and skype plan (8.95/3mo + $30/yr). Well, iTunes App store has a free skype app download. The $25 microphone (an iVoiceIII) allows me to use the skype app, and effectively turns my iPod Touch into a phone.
And let me say, the Skype app is top notch. An excellent interface, quick load times, and not buggy, like many apps are.
So with a little tech savyness, an iPod Touch, and the Skype app, you can use your iPod Touch like an iPhone. Even better, trip out your friends when you start making calls on your iPod Touch. The iVoiceIII (from Macally) is pictured below.
If you haven't been keeping up with the browser wars, now might be a good time to start paying attention. The biggest contenders right now are Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome (and Opera, recently upstaged by Chrome).
****Browser War Recap*****
Internet Explorer was released on all Windows OS platforms, and was able to get their browser usage high enough (around 98%) to run Netscape into the ground. Netscape is no longer a supported browsing platform. Webpages were built just for IE6 and web development reached a standstill.
Then Firefox was introduced, and now commands 22% market share. Microsoft responded, by releasing IE7, nearly 5 years after releasing IE6. IE7 failed to deliver, and firefox continued to gain market share. Two years after the release of IE7, IE8 is now a final release. As a sidenote, Safari's popularity shows similarity to the increase in mac sales, as safari is the default browser for that OS.
So the big question is, what browser is best?
Well, if add-ons are your thing, then firefox is still the way to go. If prefer speed to all else, then Chrome is where its at. So where does IE8 fit into all this?
Personally, I use a mix of Chrome/Firefox. But after using IE8, I think IE8 may replace firefox on my personal PC. IE8 is significantly faster than previous Internet Explorers, and I feel sure it is faster than Firefox 3.0.7 (current FF version).
I rarely rave about Microsoft products, but IE8 is worth raving about. No matter which browser you use, the good news is that the increased competition from Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera, has forced all web browsers to become better, faster, and less obtrusive on your system. So for end users everywhere, this is great news.
So yeah, I just wanted to post a quick picture of me at work. The coolest thing I've done lately is hook up an extra monitor to my laptop and use the Extended Desktop functionality.Now, instead of having to constantly switch between windows, I can have two displays, cutting out a lot of needless window switching.
Right now I've got the MLS (Realtor's search engine thingy) and Raleigh Craigslist open on my computer.
If you have an extra monitor, hook it up to the VGA port on your laptop, then right click on the desktop and select "Graphic Options -> Output to ->Extended Desktop -> Notebook+Monitor"
This will create a second desktop which you can use just like your first. For me, I have to do alot of transferring data from .pdf files into online forms. It gets pretty tiring to constantly switch between windows. This solution has definitely streamlined the process. Yay!
Color Paper
About
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My name is Adam. I have been blogging sporadically since 2005 and have always enjoyed the connectedness of it. I'm preparing to serve a full time, 2 year mission for my Church. I work at a Real Estate company as a catch-all IT guy. I love watching movies, I don't read a ton of books but when I start one I can't put it down until I finish. More to come!
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