Important Things 1999

Today,  new change of iGoogle was found.

I searched google’s help in order to find how can go back old tab style. No answer was found.

This change makes iGoogle displaying with more compact content, it is very difficult to browse now. And, there is a large margin left when scrolling down the page. It’s more like a personal web site, maybe like Laotudou.com. Hehe…………

Left nav bar takes more space and gives little information, make it a failure change according  to google adsense’s view.

Google did NOT consider user’s feeling, release such nasty style. It’s NOT google’s style. What happened in Google?

Maybe we should try to use MS’ bing, or other simple search engine, to avoid google imposing more garbage in our little screen in future.

The following information is copied for google

URL: http://www.google.com/help/ig/landing/index.html

… …

Left navigation bar

These new features made it important to look more closely at how we help you find and use content on iGoogle.

The new left navigation shows you all your subject tabs (for Sports, News, Music, etc), neatly organized with the gadgets for each tab listed underneath. We think this new format makes it much easier to find specific gadgets (especially as your number of gadgets on your page grows) and quickly click them in and out of canvas view.

In addition, the chat feature is located on the left navigation bar, to give you easy, instant access to your friends.

Gmail begins to support offline function as google lab announced today.

To use offline Gmail, you must,

1. install google gear.

http://gears.google.com/

2. visit gmail lab tab URL, and enable offline option.

http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&fs=1&view=pu&st=labs

I have pasted the two URLs above, if you want more details, please read following introduction copied from google, or visit : http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-in-labs-offline-gmail.html

New in Labs: Offline Gmail

Tuesday, January 27, 2009 4:00 PM

Posted by Andy Palay, Gmail engineer

Web-based email is great because you can check it from any computer, but there’s one little catch: it’s inherently limited by your internet connection. From public WiFi to smartphones equipped with 3G, from mobile broadband cards to fledgling in-flight wireless on airplanes, Internet access is becoming more and more ubiquitous — but there are still times when you can’t access your webmail because of an unreliable or unavailable connection.

Today we’re starting to roll out an experimental feature in Gmail Labs that should help fill in those gaps: offline Gmail. So even if you’re offline, you can open your web browser, go to gmail.com, and get to your mail just like you’re used to.

Once you turn on this feature, Gmail uses Gears to download a local cache of your mail. As long as you’re connected to the network, that cache is synchronized with Gmail’s servers. When you lose your connection, Gmail automatically switches to offline mode, and uses the data stored on your computer’s hard drive instead of the information sent across the network. You can read messages, star and label them, and do all of the things you’re used to doing while reading your webmail online. Any messages you send while offline will be placed in your outbox and automatically sent the next time Gmail detects a connection. And if you’re on an unreliable or slow connection (like when you’re “borrowing” your neighbor’s wireless), you can choose to use “flaky connection mode,” which is somewhere in between: it uses the local cache as if you were disconnected, but still synchronizes your mail with the server in the background. Our goal is to provide nearly the same browser-based Gmail experience whether you’re using the data cached on your computer or talking directly to the server.”

Offline Gmail is still an early experimental feature, so don’t be surprised if you run into some kinks that haven’t been completely ironed out yet. We’ve been using offline Gmail internally at Google for quite a while (I’ve read thousands of messages and answered hundreds en route to visit my son and my daughter). And it’s saved me more than once when my home network connection ran into issues (we have squirrels at home that love to chew through outside cable wires). Now we’re ready to have a larger set of people try it out, so we’re making it available in Gmail Labs for those of you who want to test out Gmail’s latest and greatest and send us your feedback.

We’re making offline Gmail available to everyone who uses Gmail in US or UK English over the next couple of days, so if you don’t see it under the Labs tab yet, it should be there soon. Once you see it, just follow these steps to get started:

1. Click Settings and click the Labs tab.
2. Select Enable next to Offline Gmail.
3. Click Save Changes.
4. After your browser reloads, you’ll see a new “Offline^0.1” link in the upper righthand corner of your account, next to your username. Click this link to start the offline set up process and download Gears if you don’t already have it.

… …

More information, please visit: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-in-labs-offline-gmail.html, where also has a vedio introduction.

After login,  there is a “Turbo” link on the right-top corner before the link of  “Log Out” in your siteadmin page. If you never click it, you should read the follow content I’ve written today(Jan. 11, 2009).

Part I: turbo of admin pages

First, click “Turbo” will lead you to install Google Gear. If you don’t know what’s it, let the dog(Google’s nickname) find it.  Turbo will accelerate your web browser, because it will download and cache the pages you often visit. This “Turbo” link is for turboing your admin pages.

Second,  after installation of Google Gear, restart your web browser, re-login siteadmin page, click “Turbo” again(maybe different), and enable the Gear, mark your website trust. Now, the content will be updating. Waiting, waiting and waiting…, don’t quit before it finish. We’ve finished the part one, siteadmin pages’ turbo.

Third, this is an option, bookmark “Press This” in your tools page. The URL maybe like this

javascript:var%20d=document,w=window,e=w.getSelection,k=d.getSelection,x=d.selection,s=(e?e():(k)?k():(x?x.createRange().text:0)),f=’http://www.yourwebsite.com/wp-admin/press-this.php’,l=d.location,e=encodeURIComponent,g=f+’?u=’+e(l.href)+’&t=’+e(d.title)+’&s=’+e(s)+’&v=2′;function%20a(){if(!w.open(g,’t',’toolbar=0,resizable=0,scrollbars=1,status=1,width=720,height=570′)){l.href=g;}}setTimeout(a,0);void(0);

Part II: turbo of website pages

Fourth, let’s turbo webpage part using a plugin named “WP Turbo”, which is written by a Chinese. The following “Read the rest of this entry »” content is copied from his website.

Refer: http://blog.istef.info/wp-turbo/

Fifth, Go to admin page, modify theme according the guide, add code

<?php if (function_exists(‘wp_turbo_button’)) wp_turbo_button(‘Turbo!’); ?>

in your header or menu php source file.

Congratulation! You’ve turboed your WordPress. If you want know the effect, please click “TURBO!” on this blog’s menu.

Read more…

Google has finally released the full version of Google Chrome browser and yanked the ‘beta’ label off it. Google Chrome 1.0 is available for download and installation on Windows.

Meanwhile, Google is reportedly working for Chrome support on Mac OSX and Linux platform.

It may be termed as an achievement for Google engineers who managed to release the first finished version in a span of 100 days even as its major product, Gmail, is still in the beta stage.

Google has rolled out 14 updates since its launch. Post-launch we shared Chrome’s first impressions.

In terms of browser market share, Chrome’s market still remains under 1 percent as per Net Application s reports. Now that it is out of beta phase, PC makers might be swarming Google for deals to sell their system with Chrome pre-installed.

…………

More: http://www.techtree.com/techtree/jsp/article.jsp?article_id=96448&cat_id=643

IT1999:

I use Firefox, and find no reason to replace it with Google Chrome, althought installed one in my laptop for test.

If Google opens more, and more Addons, maybe it’s a competitor to Firefox.

The most considerable reason that I use Firefox is two Addons, one is Foxmarks, the other is IE Tab.

Can Google do same thing?

The answer is YES to the first one, but Google abandoned similar project(I remembered).

The answer is NO to the second one. Why? Why does Google generate a web browser?

Can Google Chrome do same thing as IE6? It’s a dream, and need application vendors support it.

Maybe Google Chrome need beat Firefox first, then something will change, and we’ll not need IE6 any more. This is what I’ve wished.

Thunderbird with Lighting plugin can be used as schedule.

Download Thunderbird from mozilla.org, or http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/

After installation, find Lighting plugin for Thunderbird, then begin to write your schedule in Thunderbird.

If you have a gmail.com account, you can also write a Google Calendar using Thunderbird.

1. Thunderbird+Lighting plugin ready

2. find another plugin: Provider for Google Calendar

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/sunbird/addon/4631

Read more…