Annik Stahl, Meet the Microsoft Office Crabby Lady

Annik Stahl, the realy Crabby Office Lady columnist reveals her true identity as she publishes her 50th column and tells you a little bit about who she is and how the column came about.

Crabby Office Lady columns are popular with Microsoft Office users. You can also visit her personal blog Crabby’s Corner for some more pictures and Microsoft Office tips.

Annik visualised the Office Online’s Crabby Office Lady and Jim St. George actually created the wacky Crabby caricature.

Annik describes her Lady Dilbert Crabby Office Lady like a secretary from a bygone era. Her desk is littered with lipstick-marked foam cups of coffee, she’s the one who keeps the supply of sticky notes, and only she knows just where the bodies are buried (so to speak).

This is the lady every office can’t do without. While mumbling keyboard shortcuts under her breath, she can instruct you how to transpose a row of text into a column of text. She’s got a hard edge with a soft heart; she’s a swivel chair guru - the resident Office expert.

The Crabby Office Lady’s mission is to be useful, relevant, listen to customers, and put a human face on Microsoft.

Crabby’s reading audience is beginner, intermediate, and intermediate to advanced Office users who want to read something lighter than the usual dry Help files. Many of her readers work from home. Some are just people who are cruising the Internet and happen to come across her column.

Related Links:

» The Crabby Office Lady video archive

» Crabby Office Lady pictures at Microsoft Office in Redmond

» Meet Annik Stahl, Online Advice Columnist for the Microsoft Office Team

Replace find-and-replace with regular expressions in Microsoft Word

A regular expression is a combination of literal and wildcard characters that you use to find and replace patterns of text.

Microsoft Office Word provides a set of wildcard characters that you can use to build regular expressions, you can use regular expressions to find text that matches a given pattern and then replace those matches with new text.

Some example of using RE in MS Word:

w[io]n finds “win” and “won” but not “worn,” because the “r” is not specified.

[r-t]ight finds “right” and “sight.” The ranges you specify must be in ascending order. In other words, you can specify [a-m], but not [m-a].

fe{1,}d finds “fed” and “feed.” (At least n occurrences of the previous character or expression)

s?t finds “sat” and “set.” This character also finds the chosen combination of characters within a word. For example, it could locate “set” within “inset.”

Here’s a practical example of using regular expressions for transposing dates:

Search replaces 28th May, 2003 with May 28, 2003.

1. Copy and paste the following date into your document: 28th May 2003
2. Open the Find and Replace dialog box, and enter the following expression in the Find what box: ([0-9]{1,2})([dhnrst]{2}) () ([0-9]{4}) Make sure you insert a space between the following opening and closing parentheses: 2}) () ([0.
3. Enter the following expression in the Replace with box (make sure you insert a space between each set of characters), and then click Replace All: \3 \1, \4

More Resources on using Regular Expressions in Microsoft Office Word 97, 2000, and 2002:

 Putting regular expressions to work in Word
 Microsoft Office Assistance: Add power to Word searches with regular expressions
 Using regular expressions on the MVP FAQ site - Finding and replacing characters using wildcards.
 Jeffrey Friedl’s book Mastering Regular Expressions

Opera 8 registration code for free

Opera - The fastest browser on earth requires you to act fast, really fast.

Opera turns 10 this month. As part of the celebration, the Opera software company is offering no-ad version of Opera browser absolutely free but just for one day.

To get an ad-free version of Opera, just e-mail registerme@opera.com to obtain a registration code. This offer is valid from 12 a.m. Tuesday, August 30 to 12 a.m. Wednesday, August 31 2005 (PDT).

Download Download Opera 8.02 here. And send an email to opera to get your free Opera Registration Code.

The 10-year online anniversary party will be held at this location on Tuesday August 30th, 3PM CET.

By offering Opera absolutely free, Opera might see a increase in their user base. Let’s see how successful this campaign gets. Firefox ran a very successful ad campaign in the NyTimes featuring the names of the 10,000 donors.

To me, Opera is nice but Firefox is still the best. Opera requires Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP.

Autonomy succeeds where Yahoo Google MSN fail

Autonomy makes software for searching and cataloguing data such as e-mails, photos, and video footage. Blinkx, a popular video search engine and desktop search tool, works on Autonomy technology.

Autonomy uses voice recognition software that automatically catalogues and indexes every spoken word in video footages. The same technique is being used by the US agencies to eavesdrop on terrorists.

Google, MSN and Yahoo have not been hugely successful in China search market because their key-word based search engines struggle with the ideogram based alphabet. Since Autonomy relies on voice recognition and not on recognising keywords, it makes it more suitable for Chinese mulitimedia searches.

News Corp is looking to acquire Blinkx, a brainchild of Suranga Chandratillake, an-ex Autonomy employee. [via]

Google Video program requires you to upload a text transcript alongwith the video file, Autonomy would create that for you. And it would be much more accurate.

Update: Forbes is reporting that China’s Baidu.com, which listed on the Nasdaq earlier this month, has overtaken US rival Google in the key cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, which account for the majority of China’s Internet users. In Shanghai, Baidu held a 43.9 pct market share compared to a 38.2 pct share held by Google.

"Trying to index audio and video content using manual approaches like tagging is not only time-consuming, but thoroughly ineffective. blinkx’s automated approach to finding, transcribing and indexing content enables us to build our index as fast as we find content, providing our users with the largest and most current content store," said Suranga Chandratillake, CTO and founder of blinkx.

Because blinkx’s technology is entirely automated, it is extremely scalable, enabling blinkx to build a very large index including content from large media providers such as Reuters, Fox News and The New York Times Co., as well as user-generated content found in podcasts and videoblogs.

blinkx TV combines advanced speech recognition and transcription techniques with intelligent Context Clustering Technology (CCT) and a patented context prediction and synchronization technology to analyze and understand the actual content (spoken words) of an audio/video file, delivering unparalleled automation, accuracy and access to multimedia content from the web. The output of these analytical sub-processes are stored as further metadata tracks, alongside the digitally encoded content itself; not only does blinkx know what was said, blinkx knows exactly when it was said. [via]

Weblogs Inc vs the average Programmer

On July 19, the Weblogs Inc group posted their Adsense revenue for May, 2005. Jason Calacanis declared that WeblogsInc on an average earned $1,585.57 per day in May from Google Adsense.

And their staff comprises of 103 bloggers plus some 10 full time staffers.

A disgruntled Weblogs Inc recruit recently revealed that on an average, Weblogs Inc pays $4 per post and their bloggers are expected to write 4.2 posts per day on a average (125 posts per month else pro-rated at $4.00 per post)

So assuming the figures are true, Jason distributes some 4.2*4*103 = $1730 per day.

It is not difficult to assume that the average daily earning for July would be around $2000 since they broke the $2100 barrier in mid of July.

That leaves him with around $300 per day in which he also has to pay the webhosting fees, 10 full time staffers and other expenses (could even add upto $200).

So on an average, the “Weblogs Inc” company is earning some $100 per day. Is it the kind of amount to celebrate and tell the whole world (read, blogosphere).

An average programmer can make that kind of money by sitting at home and writing code for Elance or Rent-a-coder.

Why is Jason willing to declare their financials which are nothing great but actually poor if you calculate the ROI. And why would anybody want to work for Weblogs Inc at McDonalds Rates.

If you are really passionate about something, start your own blog and put adsense - believe me, your earning would be much much more.

Indian Terrorists making P0RN movies

Earlier it was 0pium and now it is p0rn - the terrorists groups in north east india are making p0rn0graphic films to raise money for their separatist campaign.


Rebels are forcing captured tribal women, and some men, to take part in the films. Production houses say rebels give them good money for their work. The films are then dubbed to be sold in India and neighbouring countries. [via]

Online Touch Typing Speed Game

There’s a bunch of typing tutor progams and games available but nothing beats this addictive typing game LEtters 0.9.


The concept is old and simple but the game is wonderful - letters scroll across your desktop screen, you type them as fast as you can.


If you are still new to the QWERTY keyboard, try the free online touch typing course.


Happy Letter Hunting. [via Solution Watch]

Favorite desktop search tools: MSN, Copernic, dtSearch

The latest PCWorld desktop search tools comparison includes Blinkx, Copernic Desktop Search, Google Desktop Search, MSN Search Toolbar With Windows Desktop Search, and Yahoo Desktop Search (all free), and Dt Software’s $199 DtSearch.


MSN Search Toolbar With Windows Desktop Search is their favorites while Copernic Desktop Search is the easiest to use. But they clearly have no love for Google Desktop Search.

For searching only text files—and if you don’t mind spending $199—DtSearch is the most likely to find everything you’re looking for. A familiar interface wasn’t enough to win us over to Google Desktop Search, because it lacks the indexing and sorting options of competing tools.

Mac users are lucky to have the powerful Spotlight desktop search tool, built into Mac X OS 10.4 (aka Tiger) with some not-so-insignificant limitations.


X1, ISYS:Desktop and Filehand could not make a place in the PCW desktop search tool list. See the best desktop search tools comparison chart.


Tag: DS Blinkx Copernic

Stay on Top Pins for Windows and Folders

DeskPins is a tiny (just 96 kb) windows application for keeping a window on top of the other windows.

This pin has the same effect as the “always on top" function on programs like media players, but it can be quickly and easily applied to any folder or program.

The “on top” window is marked with a colored pin that can be quickly removed by simply clicking on it, returning the window to its normal state. In addition, you can also define rules that use the window title (with wildcard support) and can automatically keep any window on top that matches your rules.

Some users complained that Windows XP has “stealing focus” issues. DeskPins solves the focus stealing problem.

Downlaod DesktopPins - Available in English, Greek and Chinese interfaces.

The free tool requires negligible system resources - can run on even 386 PC with 4MB of RAM and 100 kb of hard-disk space, supports all versions of Windows starting from Windows 95.

Size does not matter, sometimes. [via]

Adobe says the killin's gotta stop

With all the media hype around Metro (PDF), Acrylic (Photoshop) and Microsoft Sparkle (Flash), Adobe folks are finally asking “Is the technology press so bored that they have to invent conflicts?”

And when they say Invent Conflicts - they are actually referring to these upcoming products from Microsoft that are sometimes referred to as Adobe Killers.

Adobe LiveMotion was never meant to to “kill” Flash? But soon LiveMotion got dubbed the “Flash Killer,” setting up conflict and disappointment. And in the race, Livemotion died unnoticed while Flash still lives a glorious life.

Interestingly, Adobe couldn’t kill Flash so they purchased Flash and also the company that develops it and all the products that company develops.

As Max Fischer would say, The killin’s gotta stop. Is he referring to Adobe that is killing Freehand ?

Adobe Photoshop CS3, Adobe Acrobat 3D

ThinkSecret has revealed details about Adobe Photoshop CS3 and other two upcoming Adobe products Adobe Acrobat 3D and Adobe Full Frame.

Taking hints from Corel Painter, Adobe Photoshop CS3 will support Tablet PC, with significant improvements to non-destructive image editing and an easily rotatable canvas along with a more intelligent Vanishing Point tool aimed at CAD users.

Adobe Acrobat 3D aimed at CAD users, such as engineers and architects, may extend the 3D functionality Adobe introduced with Acrobat 7.0 Professional. This could be bad news for companies like that develop software for creating interactive Adobe PDF files that include 3D objects (like Document3D)

Adobe Photo Pro might be geared towards photographers who handle numerous images regularly, offering extensive batch processing features and several automated features.

In other significant development, the shareholders of Adobe Systems and Macromedia overwhelming approved the merger of their companies. The $3.4 billion deal stills needs regulatory approval.

External Links:
Think Secret
Think Secret spills details on Adobe Photoshop CS3

Corel to Freehand users: Don't loose heart

Corel to Freehand users: Don’t loose heart - we’re there to help you.


Macromedia dropped Freehand from Studio8 leaving Macromedia Freehand loyalists angry and dissatisfied.


And Corel Corp. is trying to woo Freehand users by offering CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12 for $99 US. The Corel website is encouraging Freehand users to download Corel Draw to see the similarities between the two software.


To learn more about this special offer for FreeHand users, please visit www.corel.com/fhoffer.


CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12 supports FreeHand versions 7 and 8. FreeHand users of versions 9,10, and 11(MX) can save files as version 8 and import them into CorelDRAW via the FreeHand import dialogue box. Read Corel Press Release

Create interactive 3D content in Adobe PDF

QuadriSpace has launched a 3D desktop publishing packages for creating interactive PDF files that include 3D objects.


Document3D creates interactive 3D files and can import 3D CAD files directly into PDF documents, create exploded views, capture product information and create step-by-step instructions.


Audience will be able to view and interact with 3D content exactly as intended using Acrobat 7.0 or simply the free Adobe Reader 7.0.


via QuadriSpace launches 3D authoring tool for PDF

Don't read but listen to my articles

You might have noticed a small link “Listen to this article” near the title of each article in my blog. It’s actually a link to an MP3 file that will open in any audio player. And you don’t need an Apple IPod to listen to my podcasts.

Podcasting is a way to tell your personal computer to automatically download audio files onto your mp3 player.

Steve Bass clears the myths surrounding Podcasting. For him, Podcasts are nothing more than MP3 files that you play on your computer with Windows Media Player, or any other software audio player. If you want portability, you can copy a podcast to your MP3 player.

You need an aggregator to make it easier to find, download, organize, and ultimately send to your MP3 player the podcasts you’ve subscribed to. IPodder is free but it’ll still take you 20 minutes to understand how to use it. If IPodder’s not your cup of tea, read Tom Spring’s “Podcasts Go Mainstream" for more suggestions.

The content of podcasting ranges in quality. Talkr lets you listen to blogs on your IPod. If you have a blog and want to podcast your feed, Talkr is the best. Point to it an RSS feed and TalkR will convert it from text to speech. Talkr keeps tabs of your RSS feeds and sends audio to your computer as those audio files become available.

You might be ready to abandon working on your home page redesign and try your hand at creating a podcast. Read Dan Tynan’s “Radio Blogs?” for a better idea of how to podcast and what tools and applications you’ll need.

SkypeCasting - you can use Skype to create “great sounding audio recordings from interviews and conference calls” without, as the site proudly claims, “resorting to studios, or fancy gear.” It’s worth a look, especially if you don’t have either a studio or fancy gear.

If you want that fancy gear, take a look at the $2850 WorldVibrations Radio Station, a broadcasting, streaming, and podcasting appliance.

Sex, Whitehouse.gov and Google Images

Monica Lewinsky while working as an intern at the White House had a private sexual affair with U.S. President Bill Clinton.

The Bill Clinton Monica Lewinsky Scandal is long forgotton but it has left some traces on the Whitehouse website.

A search for pictures relating to se*x only from the White House official website on Google images (sex site:whitehouse.gov displays just one result. And no prizes for guessing, all you see is a picture of President Bill Clinton. [see google images website screenshot]

Link to Google PDA search

A similar query on Yahoo! and MSN image search do not show Mr Clinton.

Google Talk silences GMail Notifier

Google Talk makes the original Gmail Notifier obselete. Google Talk went to the extremes and uninstalled Gmail Notifier on my machine before installing Google Talk chat client. The GMail Notifier was in beta and it might never see light again.

Google talk itself is an excellent GMail Inbox notifier. Though the speed of notifying new messages in Gmail inbox is roughly the same, the new mail alert is enhanced with bigger fonts and a pleasing interface.

Google Talk enables Google users to connect to the Google Talk service and exchange IMs using any client that does the same, including Trillian, Adium, iChat, GAIM, and Psi.

Google Talk requires a Gmail username and password to use the Google IM service or for inviting friends and family to talk for free over email, IM or a voice call.

If you don’t have a GMail account, either get GMail Invite here or if you are in the US, visit http://gmail.com and enter your mobile phone number. Google will send you a GMail invite invitation code via a SMS text message. This code enables them to open an account.

Key Google Talk features include superior voice quality through just a computer microphone and speaker Simple and intuitive user interface - no clutter, pop-ups or ads Shared Gmail contacts list so there’s no need to maintain different contacts lists.

Google is currently working with EarthLink to federate with their Vling communications service and with Sipphone on federating their Gizmo Project.

Blogger Toolkit

Here are my 10 favorite software tools that I use for writing on this blog. What are your favorites ? Feel free to share them here.

1. Mozilla Firefox 1.0.6 with Sage and BlogThis extension - Favorite browser cum RSS feedreader

2. Vi - A lightning fast HTML and CSS editor. (WYSIWYG if used with Firefox CTRL+R)

3. w.Bloggar 4.0 - I compose all my articles in w.Bloggar, perform a spell check and then Post. Complete Blog Management Tool.

4. SnagIt and Camtasia Studio 3.0 - Use it extensively for illustrations and capturing screenshots. Courtesy Betsy Weber - SnagIt is the actual power behind the screenshots you see on my website.

5. Flashget 1.7 - Fantastic download manager - Integrates with Firefox with Flashgot extension.

6. Demo Builder 4.0 - For creating Flash movies like the Google Timeline. Courtesy Dan Tatomir

7. X1 5.2.2 - A perfect desktop search tool with built-in preview. Courtesy Stephan West

8. Google Picasa with Hello - For simple image editing and retouching, picture uploading

9. Flickr Uploader - For uploading and sharing pictures on Flickr or Blogger.

10. IE - Just to make sure my blog looks as expected if not better. I use FF extension “IE View” to open IE.

If you know of some tools that could make the life of bloggers simple, please share it here.

Marriage of Flickr with Firefox

These Mozilla Firefox extensions let you harness the full potential of Flickr photos in your firefox browser.

Flickbar is a toolbar for Firefox which allows quick and easy access to your Flickr account, as well as searching for photos by tags. (Requires Firefox 1.0) Download FlickrBar

FlickrFox is another extension for Firefox (version 1.0) that lets you browse your Flickr photostreams in a sidebar. The first time you start it up, you’ll be sent to a page at Flickr, where you can authorize flickrfox to read your photos. Flicr fox lets you search tagged photos. Download Flickrfox

Microsoft entering Adobe territory

Microsoft’s insatiable quest for software dominance continues. And this time, the target is Adobe Systems. Microsoft is not willing to concede the design market to Adobe/Macromedia. As a first step, they acquired Creature House to solidify its presence in the design market. And if Microsoft is successful, it will represent the most significant competitive threat Adobe/Macromedia has seen in many years.

Adobe PDF, Photoshop and Flash find themselves in Microsoft crosshairs.

Target I : Adobe PDF - Microsoft is working on a new XML based document format “Metro” that will challenge Adobe’s PostScript and PDF technologies. Microsoft Metro will be licensed royalty free and users will be able to open Metro files without a special client. It will be available around the time Visa is released. [read details]

Target II : Adobe Photoshop - Microsoft’s own illustration and graphic design tool Acrylic is actually an updated version of Creature House Expression bought by MS in 2003. Microsoft intends to offer Acrylic as an alternative to Adobe Photoshop, likely at a lower cost. Acrylic supports XAML format that will enable developers to take advantage of Windows Vista’s new graphics engine known as Avalon. [read details]

Target III : Adobe-Macromedia Flash - The Adobe-Macromedia merger will close this fall and Macromedia Flash is set to become Adobe’s baby. Infact, Flash received the maximum boost in recent announcement of Macromedia Studio 8. And Microsoft Sparkle is all set to challenge Flash dominance.

Update: Microsoft Sparkle has better 3D capabilities but requires Windows Vista. It might take few years before it actually makes a dent to Macromedia Flash’s marketshare.

The ubiquitous lightweight Flash player is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, handheld devices and cellular phones. And Flash Player is free while Sparkle would require users to upgrade to a completely new OS and even new hardware.

So what is Microsoft Sparkle ?

Sparkle is a vector graphics software (SVG) also based on Creature House Expression. It will automate XAML application development. XAML is the page/UI description language for Windows Vista. XAML is also integrated with the new Avalon graphics system of Vista, which talks directly to accelerated graphics cards. Some believe that Microsoft may offer the Sparkle/Avalon/XAML trio even for free.

More details on Microsft Sparkle are expected in the PDC 2005 conference.

At its upcoming Professional Developers Conference next month, Microsoft Corp. will divulge more details about its Expression Studio suite of design and developer tools for the Windows Presentation Foundation, formerly code-named Avalon.

Expression Studio will consist of Acrylic, Sparkle and other components. Microsoft is looking to push the Expression suite in lockstep with its Visual Studio developer tools suite to make designers key participants in the development process.

Sparkle, which has already created enough ripples and excitement in the Flash community, could also spell the demise of tools that convert Microsoft Powerpoint to Flash files. (read, Macromedia Breeze Presenter module). And Metro could impact the Adobe Acrobat share.

But why did Microsoft choose to target only Adobe Flash ? 3DS Max 8 and Alias Maya 7, recently unveiled at Siggraph 2005, are much more sophisticated design tools when compared to Flash. The fact that Sparkle will be embedded into the OS could mean faster rendering times and better graphics.

Microsoft to Automate Avalon Coding With Sparkle | Microsoft Buffs Sparkle Flash Killer | New Longhorn Graphics Tool Called Flashkiller | Microsoft Sparkle - Wikipedia definition

Everything about Google News Technology

Google News made the first public appearance in Dec 2001 sourcing news from only 100 websites. Today, Google News scans 4,500 different websites in real time, determines which news stories are related and then groups them based on importance. And there aren’t any journalists to work on the service, Google News is managed entirely by computer programs.

Google News started as a small demo created by one Google engineer on a weekend after he was frustrated trying to read news after Sept 11 event. More Googlers started to use it to read their news. Google then assigned 3 people (one was UI designer) and one PM to work on it. The rest is history.

Google News includes articles that have appeared within the past 30 days.

The inventor of Google News:

Krishna Bharat, the Google Principal Scientist, is the brain behind Google News.

John Burke covers the WEF conference where Krishna Bharat expressed his views about his own baby, Google News - “immune to local biases and constraints,” like a web site “hosting a conversation about stories in the news” where “all newspapers are invited” and the host “won’t take sides” and “won’t have a point of view.”

Krishna further says “Our relationship with newspapers is symbiotic; we sent traffic directly to the content provider and we do not have special relationships, and we amplify the amount of news being read.” “I am hoping, he says,” to have all newspapers participate with Google News; for our readers we want an interesting debate that makes them think.”

Krishna, how does Google news plan to deal with Rumours, Humour and false stories ? Axis of Logic took the top spot on Google News when it reported about George Bush arrest in Ottawa. See Picture

List of Google News sources:

Though Google remains silent when it comes to disclosing the details of their news sources, Newsknife.com is tracking Google news since early 2004 and they recently released a list of ~ 3000 news sources which feature on Google news. Private Radio is another Google News Tracking site which released a list of some 5136 news sources grouped by country and frequency of update.

Is Google News Biased

At PrivateRadio, JohnnyMC reasons that there are some human editors working behind the scenes based on rankings of Chinese Xinhua’s and Voice of America. At the very least, their coders are weighting to favor certain sites. Eric Ulken of Online Journalism Review studied the 2004 US election and conclude that Google News results suggest a political bias and several relatively obscure, online-only news sources (read, weblogs) figure in the Google News sources list.

Google Patent Trustrank

Google is filing a patent for TrustRank, a technology that aims to sort Google news results by quality rather than simply by “date” and “relevance” to search terms.

Google database will be built by continually monitoring the number of stories from all news sources, along with average story length, number with bylines, and number of the bureaux cited, along with how long they have been in business, the number of staff a news source employs, the volume of internet traffic to its website and the number of countries accessing the site.

Google will take all these parameters, weight them according to formulae it is constructing, and distil them down to create a single value. This number will then be used to rank the results of any news search.

There are some interesting and valid points mentioned in the Google Research paper on Combating Web Spam with TrustRank.

Q. How is TrustRank different from applying a weighting to PageRank ?

A. It attempts to detect clusters of pages which have few inbound links, which also propagating “trust” scores to all other sites by using their linking structure. For sites that have many inbound links (high scroring in pagerank), the authors claim this modification tends to classify spam and reputable sites differently.

Q. What if such an owner decides to link to a page of commercial or spam links ?

A. The paper suggests using only highly reputable organizations with long-term stability for the seed pages. Government organizations, universities, very well known companies.

talk.google.com - Google IM based on Jabber

Google IM might use Jabber/XMPP.

After Meetro and Google IM Jabber screenshot, another interesting story is doing the rounds.

There’s a host responding at talk.google.com and is actually redirecting to http://www.google.com/talk. [see image]

Tom Servo, tried to connect to talk.google.com using his Trillian client. What he got was a secure XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol, alternatively known as Jabber) server waiting for connections. [see image]

And according to this post, Jabber server listening on port 5222 of ‘talk.google.com’ [see screenshot]

The server talk.google.com could even be for internal corporate messaging and not actually a public IM service. But since the browser redirects to another page, it doesn’t seem to be an internal service. Can some Google employee confirm this.

http://talk.google.com redirects to http://www.google.com/talk - you get a “Not found” error, but the fact the redirection is present means it’s going to be used.

If you type http://googleim.google.com, you get a browser error saying it doesn’t exist, but on writing http://talk.google.com you are redirected to a Google 404 404 page saying google.com/talk/ was not found on the server. So internally, the Google Talk page exists. via | via

Some possible google im subdomains:
messenger.google.com
gim.google.com
chat.google.com
communicate.google.com

Login credentials for Google Talk Instant Messenger:

Works on all clients supporting Jabber like Mirinda, AdiumX, Gaim.

Server: talk.google.com
Port: 5223
Username: youremail@gmail.com
Password: yourpassword
Turn off ‘Secure Messaging’ or ‘Encryption’

[see screenshot on Google Talk settings]

Google Talk already works with iChat. Just use your GMail credentials.

Display relevant Ads in Blogs: Just suggest Google

Google adsense folks have unveiled another useful feature for Adsense publishers - Section Targeting.

The concept is simple but the advantages and possibilities are endless.

Consider a possible scenario that could confuse Adsense Bot and serve irrelevant ads on your page. You have just written an article in your blog on “Web Hosting”. Great, but on the same page you have others sections like “Previous Posts”, “User Comments”, “RSS Web Feeds” and your “Profile”.

Your personal profile may say that you are a die-hard soccer fan, user comments might contain spam and links to Viagra stores, the Previous Posts may contain totally unrelated topics like “US Outsources Teachers” or “Google releases Dance 2005 pictures”.

Your article on “Web Hosting" may occupy just 50% of your precious blog Real estate while the rest is grabbed by everything else.

What do you do then. Here comes Google Adsense Section Targeting to your rescue. Just tweak your HTML a bit and force Googlebot to focus only on specific content.

Some things to note before implementing Google Tags:

1. Don’t cheat Google why targetting wrong content - Google is smart enough.
2. Though a bit risky but always include user comments in the Tags.
3. Don’t worry if your Google earning drop the first day, experiment for some time.
4. Always include the Title of post within the tags.

Here’s how you do it. Just open your Page HTML in notepad, point your cursor to the beginning of your article and insert the following line:



Then point your cursor where your story end and inser the following HTML line



Save your HTML and publish it to the web. You are done. It is so simple.

So it is just like saying - “Hey Google, please don’t read my entire page for determing the Ads that you want to serve. I want you to focus just here”.

You can use section targeting to make suggestions about as many sections of a page as you like. In Google jargon, you are making a suggestion to Google Adsense Bot. Google suggests that you need to include ’significant content’ in the tags or you’ll end up with irrelevant ads or PSAs.

Here’s a sample illustration of implementing Section Targeting in Blogger Templates. (Use at your own risk)

src=”http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js”>

Save to Del.icio.us
Furl It

The content between the Google comment tags is emphasized and the rest may be ignored while displaying Google Text Ads or adsense units. Remember to use this feature carefully. Double check that you have closed the Google Start tag. Incase you need further help on implementing section targeting in your Blogger template, feel free to contact me. Good luck.

Screen Capture OCR for Text and Graphics

First things first. This article is not about screencasting tools.


Using Optical Character Recognition (Screen OCR) technology, some text recognition and capture programs allow you to capture screen text, error messages, windows dialogs and text anywhere on the screen from any Windows program that otherwise cannot be saved or printed.


Structu Rise and Capture Text are the two leading names in Screen capture OCR programs offering similar programs - Kleptomania and Capture Text - both are priced at $29.95 for a single user license. (Trial versions available but no freeware)




These program let you select text anywhere on the screen, including areas that you cannot highlight with your mouse, such as columns of data from a word processor or error messages from any Windows program. Kleptomania keeps track of all of your Windows fonts and can capture text from folder trees, file lists, database reports, messages and dialog boxesm legacy systems or the windows console (like telnet screen). Capture Text recognizes letters, punctuation, and numbers. If you select graphics it translates it as letters and punctuation.


Capture Text is very similar to Kleptomania, has a similar UI and functionality. The above screenshot illustrates how Capture Text actually works. I am copying the Mozilla version to clipboard using CaptureText which would otherwise have been impossible. Can be of great use when writing email to software support.

Firefox launches bicycles in India

Firefox is opening showrooms across India to spread the “biking culture”. And the company calls its customers “Firefoxed”.

This company Firefox is actually a UK based bicycle manufacturer which recently launched Firefox in India. Seems like Mozilla has no stake in this bike company.

If you type firefox.com in your browser, you have the option to choose either the Firefox browser page or the technology and services company Firefox.

Source: Business Standard

Pictures of Google Dance 2005 party

I discovered the Google Dance site by accident and Google are yet to announce it officially on their blog or website.

Google’s annual party brings together company engineers and internet entrepreneurs. Hoping to ease the tensions with webmasters, Google hatched the idea of its “dance” party during an annual search engine convention held in Silicon Valley, just a few miles from Google’s headquarters. The company invited some of the Black Hats, effectively welcoming the foxes into the hen house.

Google Dance — an annual summer party that’s become a metaphor for the behind-the-scenes twists and turns that can cause Web sites to rise and fall in Google’s search results. [via]

For the millions of Web sites without a well-known domain name, those rankings can mean the difference between success or failure because Google’s search engine drives so much of the Internet’s traffic.

See more photographs from the Google Dance 2005.

Ditch Microsoft Windows Update

One particularly important element of operating a secure system is staying up to date on security patches. It’s critical to know which patches have been applied to your system and, more importantly, which haven’t.

Shavlik Security have released HFNetChk.exe v. 3.86, a free command-line tool that scans and reports missing security patches on your Microsoft Windows Systems. (supports Windows NT Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003)

The HFNetChk tool does this by referring to an XML database that’s constantly updated by Microsoft. The tool downloads the security update XML file from http://xml.shavlik.com/mssecure.cab. You can however use the -ms switch to override and obtain XML file from Microsoft.

Install HFNetChk and open up Command Prompt (Start > Run > CMD). Change to the directory where HFNetChk is installed (Usually C:\Program Files\Shavlik Technologies\HFNetChk\), and type: hfnetchk -v

There are some shortcomings too. The tool is a console-mode program and only prints out a list of Knowledge Base article numbers; it doesn’t list URLs or take you to the Knowledge Base articles about the hotfixes. So Michael Dunn has developed a GUI front end to HFNetChk.

WHC runs Hfnetchk, captures its output, and shows a report on hotfixes that need to be installed. Once you’ve scanned for necessary hotfixes, WHC can also download them from Microsoft and then run them for you.

Download HFNetChk here. [via | via]

Preparing for the Next Internet Crisis

Poynter has a list of essential things to do before the next Internet worm strikes you. Better safe than sorry.

1. Maintain a hard copy printout of all your contacts.

2. Use a web based email service like GMail - Send copies of your contacts to a free, Web-based e-mail service so your most useful material is accessible wherever you go.

3. Backup your data - You can back up your files to various removable media or use an online backup service, which stores files remotely.

Just like to add a couple more points here.

1. Maintain a backup of your backup.

2. Invest in a decent firewall with an Antivirus (like ZoneAlarm or Norton Internet security)

3. Turn on Windows Update.

4. Use Firefox or Opera - They are less vulnerable.

5. Use software release tracking system like VersionTracker to get information on new updates and software patches.

6. Maintain a second PC that is not connected to the internet for offline work.

7. Subscribe to Microsoft security updates.

Software Piracy rules at Canada Universities

A survey released by the Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft (CAAST) and conducted by independent researcher Uthink measured the attitudes and behaviours of 3,000 college and university students across Canada, including 500 students who identified computer science as their major. The study reveals that Canadian students have double standards when it comes to protecting intellectual property rights.

96% students agree that stealing software from a store is serious or very serious.
47% students pirate software by downloading it online (from underground warez sites)
53% students swap computer disks among friends (software installers with serial numbers or keygens)
40% consider using pirated software to be a serious issue.
72% agree that using pirated software is unethical
16% consider software piracy an illegal activity that warrants punishment.
78% say they have received information about intellectual property rights or copyright laws from the media
63% say they have also obtained this information from a college or university course.

But when asked their views about someone plagiarizing their own work, 87% of Canadian students consider this to be serious or very serious..

Students who use school networks to pirate software may also be compromising their school’s computer security and safety, and should be aware that their school may be held liable for the actions of its students. This is also applicable to corporates and organizations where employees may indulge in software piracy thereby putting the senior management at legal risks. Read the issues associated with downloading warez, cracks and keygens from underground warez sites.

Results for a sample of this size are considered accurate to within +/- 3.1%, with a 95% confidence level. [via | via | via]

Microsoft Student 2006 finds few admirers

      

Microsoft Student 2006 is a homework helper for students ages 8 to 18 comprising of dozens of study tools for just about every subject, including math, science, writing, and foreign languages. Student 2006 adds student-oriented tools to Microsoft Office programs (Office XP or Office 2003) and comes with Microsoft Encarta Premium 2006 encyclopedia and limited-time access to Encarta online.

Microsoft Student 2006 also comes with Encarta Dictionary and Thesaurus and a Microsoft Student Graphing Calculator 2006 software that helps students visualize difficult problems in trigonometry, calculus, chemistry, and physics classes (though a little difficult to master). The World Atlas contains an interactive map of the Earth while the Book Summaries contain guides that explain themes, characters and settings of classic literature

Despite all the publicity, Microsoft Office Student has failed to impress many. Business Week says Do Your Homework, Microsoft. Student 2006 package seems like a hodgepodge. Parents would do better to spend the $100 on some books.

And even the graphing calculator may not be of much help for US students. Most U.S. high schools base much of their math curriculum on the use TI-83 Plus or 84 Plus calculatore. If students do their homework on Microsoft’s on-screen calculator, they not only will have to translate TI-specific instructions from school materials but also will not develop proficiency on the calculator they’ll have to use when it’s time to take the test.

Microsoft’s Student Misses the Grade according to the WP which sees Student a fine way to get future customers hooked on Microsoft’s products at an impressionable age. Student’s role as a gateway to Microsoft Office involves a lot of toggling between Student and Office, thanks to the way Student offers shortcuts, templates and tutorials for Microsoft’s productivity suite.

Microsoft Office Student and Teacher edition 2003 is not to be confused with Microsoft Student. Microsoft Student is sold separately from Microsoft Office and Microsoft Office applications. Microsoft Office Student and Teacher Edition includes Microsoft Office applications (for example, Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint) at a low price for approved students and teachers in grades K-12 or higher education institutions. Some of the tools in Microsoft Student work in conjunction with Microsoft Office 2003 and Microsoft Office XP to provide a student-friendly interface for Office.

Buy Microsoft Student 2006

Buy Microsoft Office Student and Teacher Edition 2003

Download Microsoft Student 2006 Graphing Calculator and create multi-dimensional graphics. Click here for a full size screenshot of Microsoft Graphing Calculator

Adobe prefers PDF over PostScript

Adobe explains why they offer two similar printing technologies PS and PDF. How these technologies differ from each other ? Adobe PostScript vs. Adobe PDF


When you hear people say that PDF is a “replacement” for PostScript, what they most likely mean is that PDF is a replacement for saved PostScript files and EPS files. PDF is not a replacement for the PostScript language or the PostScript processors that live inside of printers, imagesetters, and platesetters.


PDF can be used as a replacement file format for EPS, and that PDF can be used as a delivery format for sending complete publications to press. It is also suitable for soft-proofing, distribution on the Internet, and file archiving, as it is completely self-contained. But to print PDF, it is best to print to a device with true Adobe PostScript capabilities to get the highest quality output.

Install Adobe PDF Online service as a local printer

Create Adobe PDF Online Printer - Set up the Create Adobe PDF Online Printer and print documents directly from applications on your computer.

You can directly create Adobe PDF files from the Create PDF online service from Adobe without uploading the source document to the web browsers using the Internet Printing Protocol or IPP. And you don’t even need the expensive Adobe Acrobat software.


To Print Directly From Your Computer, create a printer instance for “Create Adobe PDF Online” service on your Windows system (sorry Mac users) that points to the online service. Select File > Print, then choose “Create Adobe PDF Online” as the printer. Read full instructions on Installing and using Create PDF online service on your desktop. You must be connected to the Internet to print to the “Create Adobe PDF Online” printer. You will also be able to print pages from secure Web sites.

Following is the detailed procedure to add the Create Adobe PDF Online printer to your computer.

1. Click “Start” from the Windows Task Bar, then click “Control Panel”.
2. Select Printers and Faxes.
3. From the File menu, select “Add Printer”.
4. The Add Printer wizard will open. Click “Next” on the first screen.
5. Click the radio button for “A network printer, or a printer attached to another computer”, then click “Next”.
6. Click the radio button for “Connect to a printer on the Internet or on a home or office network”.
7. In the “URL” text box, enter https://pdf.adobe.com/cpdf/Printer?id=hlGqG09KgAQE49os then click “Next”.
8. Click the “No” radio button when asked whether to use this as the default printer, then click “Next”.
9. Click “Finish”.

In step 7, you will get your own unique id when your create an account with Adobe.

The service allows 5 free PDF conversions per user and then one can choose either the Monthly Subscription (US$9.99) or the Annual Subscription model for USD 99.99. If you cannot afford the Adobe PDF Online service, there are tons of free tools for pdf conversion.

Note: Currently, the Create Adobe PDF Online Printer is only available for Windows. The Macintosh platform does not currently offer an option to transfer files using a secure networking technology, such as SSL, when printing via Internet Printing Protocol (IPP). Because of this limitation, the Create Adobe PDF Online Printer is not available for use on Macintosh. [via]

Mark Cuban effect: Blogger adds new features

Blogger has recently enabled Word Verification for user comments. This will require an extra step in the commenting process, which will deter automated comment spamming systems.

Though this is option will be off by default, blog publishers can switch it on from the Blogger Settings panel -> Comments tab.



All links posted in the Blogger comments automagically use the rel=nofollow tag, so they receive no PageRank boost.

If you’ve ever received a comment that looked like an advertisement or a random link to an unrelated site, then you’ve encountered comment spam. A lot of this is done automatically by software which can’t pass the word verification, so enabling this option is a good way to prevent many such unwanted comments.

Is this announcement related to the recent warning by Mark Cuban which referred to Google’s Blogger being the “worst culprit” for spam blogs, or splogs

Blogger is by far the worst offender. Google seems to be working hard to adjust their relevancy indexes to exclude splog from having influence on search rankings, but they dont seem to be doing anything more than removing reported splogs. Kind of like going after the zombies one at a time with a shovel. Can we get some help on this Google ?

Mark also hints at banning Blogger users from the Icerocket blog search engine. Is Google planning to make the process of creating blogs a little more complicated ? Or will it simply ignore Mark’s warning. Only time will tell.

I feel Comment Word Verification is a nice feature to prevent robot spamming but it should be ON by default. People who aren’t aware of this feature might never turn it on and spend hours deleting comment span.



Blogger has introduced another new feature called “Flag As Objectionable" and it’s accessible via the Blogger Navbar. The "Flag?" button allows the blogging community to easily note questionable content, which in turn helps us take action when needed.

When a person visiting a blog clicks the “Flag?” button in the Blogger Navbar, it means they believe the content of the blog may be potentially offensive or illegal. Google tracks the number of times a blog has been flagged as objectionable and use this information to determine what action is needed. For spam blogs or sites engaging in illegal activity, Google could go upto removing content and deleting accounts when necessary.

Update: Featured at Slashdot.

Update: See a screenshot of a not so decent verification word generated by Google addurl page.

Microsoft Word add-on for Blogger

Deborah reveals the finer details of the new Blogger plugin for Microsoft Word that allows Blogger users to publish directly from inside Microsoft Word. Once the add-in is installed, three additional buttons appear on a user’s Word toolbar: Publish, Open Post, and Save As Draft. These allow users to publish new posts directly from the text document, open and edit their last 15 posts in Word, and save posts without publishing them.


Google has warned that users who don’t have the Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 Rollup, the latest Windows Installer, the latest Office Service Packs may have difficulty installing and using the plug-in. Users also may encounter problems with the plug in if they are running Outlook and Word at the same time (if Word is their e-mail editor), Google warned.


"After typing out a post, I clicked Save as Draft. Blogger for Word promoted me for my account and password and then loaded the post quickly and correctly," Gina Trapani blogged.


"We designed this for maximum compatibility with older version of Word going back to Word 2000 on Windows 2000," says Jason Shellen, Pyra Founder and Google product manager, on his Web log. "That means that this is a very simple toolbar, but once you try round-tripping a document (publish, view on the Web, make some changes, view again) you will see that it is powerful as well… The trade-off was that we couldn’t support images, tables, or some of the wackier formatting in Word."

DoubleTrust: Google and Yahoo intersect here

DoubleTrust is yet another approach to bring the best of both the worlds (read, Google and Yahoo) rolled into one.


In your preferences, you can specify your preference about Google and Yahoo called Trust-o-meter. Either show the cream of the results, which are ranked well by both or shows results not shown by Yahoo or shows results not shown by Google.


TrustRank = C * ( GoogleTrust / GoogleRank + YahooTrust / YahooRank )


Not only does the site return page results that are ranked high by both search leaders but it offers lists of “orphans” - Google results specifically not shown on Yahoo, and vice versa.

Google offers sample job resumes

Google India center is on a hiring spree and in yet another innovative approach, Google has posted some sample resumes of candidates they feel are ideal for the job. As expected, all the three profiles have brilliant academics.

According to the Google Jobs website, these sample resumes are to “understand the kind of experience we are looking for”.

View these Google Sample Resumes - Sample I, Sample II, Sample III

Watch the Google Recruiting Video for an inside look of Google. And you can even work for Google from home - All you need is a high speed internet connection.

Source: Google Bangalore Jobs

Phone Calls could get cheaper

According to BBC, the cost of landline telephone calls could fall by up to £400m over the next four years, thanks to price changes being put in place by regulator Ofcom.


From 1 October, Ofcom is introducing new limits to the price BT charges to carry calls and dial-up internet between the UK’s telephone exchanges.


If the vendors pass on the benifits to the consumers, it means cheaper phone calls and cheaper conference calls.

Copernic - the Mamma's boy

The deal struck in November last year between Mamma and Copernic is finally approved and Mamma.com would acquire Copernic Technologies.

This deal has had several ups and downs when Copernic killed the proposed agreement in April to be taken over by Mamma.com Inc. after the announcement that Mamma.com was the subject of a formal investigation by U.S. securities regulators. [via]

Mamma.com derives revenue from pay-per-click and graphic ads and this acquisition will certainly expose Mamma.com’s advertisers to a broader demographic.

Copernic recently unveiled Copernic Desktop Search 1.6 that allows desktop search features from withing the Firefox browser or IE through a toolbar.

In another development, News Corp. is in talks to acquire Blinkx, another popular desktop search tool.

View the official press release - Mamma.com and Copernic Technologies Sign New Letter of Intent

Transparent Laptop Wallpapers

All you need to make a transparent laptop screen is a digital camera and ofcourse, a laptop. And you don’t need the expensive Photoshop or Gimp for these magical screens.

View some more Transparent Screens on Flickr.

Computer for $10 per month in India

Microsoft India, state owned BSNL and HCL Infosystems have come together in an effort to provide low cost computing and internet connectivity within the reach of even the common man.

The new deal offers a HCL PC bundled with Microsoft software and a BSNL broadband connection at just around $10 per month. The monthly payments will go on for about 30 months, after which the consumer pays only for the internet connection.

As part of the deal, HCL Infosystems will provide the hardware loaded with software from Microsoft and internet broadband connection from BSNL.

Microsoft already has a OEM deal with HCL. BSNL, the governent owned telecom giant, has a huge landline and cellular phone subscriber base in India with presence in every corner of the country. The recently launced BSNL Dataone Broadband service in India has been largely popular due to the low cost.

"Subscription Computing" model is relatively a new concept in India. Earlier Tata Indicom had partnered with AMD to provide a "internet only" PC box for around $200.

The HCL BSNL PC is loaded with Microsoft ® Windows ® XP Professional. It comes in two models, one with Intel Celeron D processor 320 (2.4 GHz, 256 KB, 533 MHz FSB)and the another one with Intel Pentium 4 processor 2.26 GHz, 512 KB, 533 MHz FSB.

You also get Anti Virus Software (Valid for 12 Months), Microsoft Encarta Standard 2005 and SCHOOL WHIZ education software from Classteacher.com.

The higher end HCL Microsoft BSNL PC is powered by Intel Pentium 4 processor 515 (2.93 GHz, 1 MB, 533 MHz FSB), Microsoft ® Windows ® XP Media Center Editon OS, Intel Chipset 915GV motherboard.

Download Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0.3

Adobe has released another patch Adobe Reader 7.0.3 for the Adobe Acrobate reader, the free PDF file reader.

This update requires that Adobe Reader 7.0.2 is installed on your system. The Adobe® Reader® 7.0.3 update addresses a buffer overflow issue in Adobe Reader 7.0-7.0.2 software and provides improved security.

This multilingual update can be applied to any language version of Adobe Reader 7.0.2. Adobe recommends that all users of Adobe Reader 7.0, 7.0.1, or 7.0.2 apply this update as a proactive measure.

Related links:
 Download Adobe Acrobat Reader update 7.0.3 (Acro-Reader_703_Update.exe 1.2 MB)
 Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Review
 Adobe Reader 6.0.3 update information
 Issues with Adobe Acrobat 7.0 and Adobe Reader 7.0 - Adobe Reader 7.0.2 and Adobe Acrobat 7.02
 Adobe Reader Speed Launch - Adobe Reader Speed-Up significantly decreases the amount of time required for Adobe Reader to start by disabling most of the least used plugins. Acrobat 7.0 has its own SpeederUpper (launch reader_sl.exe)

Adobe has enhanced Acrobat security via its policy server. Adobe Designer - previously a separate forms design product - is now bundled with Acrobat Professional. Adobe’s “Intelligent Document Platform,” credible strategy to do for documents what Web sites have done: move from static to interactive information integrated with business data and processes inside and outside the firewall. Like benevolent Trojan horses, Adobe has given away Adobe Reader and included the forms designer with Adobe Professional.

I think of documents as content ranging from free-form (unstructured) office documents to structured forms and robustly structured XML. Microsoft owns the left portion of the spectrum and provides basic XML support in Office 2003 and XML forms with InfoPath. Adobe’s comfort zone has always been with more technical users and rich presentation. Its genius in combining rich presentation with XML- its own forms specification called XML Forms Architecture - gives it clout with IT and assurance to business people interested in the middle of the spectrum.

Originally Acrobat’s value proposition was simple: create a visually faithful, electronic rendition of what you would see if you printed an original. Since large groups of computer users ran on different machines, using different applications, Acrobat provided a great way to exchange electronic “printouts,” which were essentially static, client-side files. I’m Adobe, and I’ll Be Your Server

Rupert Murdoch planning a smart move

Blinkx, founded by Suranga Chandratillake, a Cambridge computer science graduate, is a multimedia search engine that indexes the web for video and audio clips and organizes them automatically into Smart Folders. Once a “smart folder” on a particular subject is created, the service will continue to compile relevant material in that folder and to update it, even when the computer is off.

Recently Blinkx introduced RSS feeds for audio and video search. So you don’t need to Google every hour for the Latest Simpsons show, Blinkx will automatically inform you as soon as it gets available over the web. Blinkx engines searches even podcasts and all audio / video formats. Google and Yahoo! seem to the main competitors of Blinkx.

According to the by The LA Times, The News Corporation controlled by Keith Rupert Murdoch is in discussions to acquire Blinkx and even Rupert has made clear that his company is eager to build its presence on the Internet. [via]

But what will be the future of desktop search that comes integrated in Blinkx ? Rupert may no longer be interested in adding new desktop search features and focus primarily on Multimedia search features. Could this deal mark the demise of the popular desktop search tool ? Only time will tell.

News Corporation would not comment on a possible deal with Blinkx. If reports pan out and News Corp. does buy the San Francisco-based Blinkx, it will be in a position to leverage the strong content of its in-house brands, including material from cable channels Fox Sports and Fox News. [via]

News Corp. this summer launched Fox Interactive Media, a new Internet division that includes all of News Corp.’s Web properties. That division has already bought sports Web site operator Scout Media for an undisclosed fee and announced a planned $580 million acquisition of Intermix Media, operator of social networking site MySpace.com, a social networking Web site boasting a hip young cadre of chatters and music bloggers. [via]

Photographs of Macromedia Studio8 Launch Party

Dominic has pictures of the Macromedia Studio 8 Launch party held at San Francisco. The image above contains Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 Cookies based on the Dreamweaver 8 logo theme.



The image above contains cookies based on the individual programs of Macromedia Studio 8 ( Flash, Dreamweaver, Contribute, Flashpaper ) - Looks like the Fireworks cookies were quite popular as none are available in the picture though Fireworks is a part of the Macromedia Suite.

The image on the left is the cake with the Studio 8 Suite logo. Flickr too has an interesting Macromedia Clusters page. [via]

Freehand was finally dropped from the Macromedia Suite 8 though Freehand MXa was part of the Macromedia MX 2004 bundle of products. Looks like it’s time for Freehand developers to take Adobe Illustrator CS2 training sessions.

Meetro won't be Google Messenger

The Google Meetro deal is not happening, atleast in the near future. Randy had an interview with a Meetro guy and he left a link to the interview in my post on Meetro - Google Instant Messenger.

Well, as for the rumors, I hope to hell that they are true! We love Google, and I can certainly see why people might think that Meetro would fit in with their product line. We’ve talked with some people there — they were aware of us before the story broke — but the fact of the matter is that no acquisition is taking place.

So time to focus on the Google Instant Messenger based on Jabber. Is that real ?

Download Firefox 1.5

The Firefox Roadmap states that Firefox fans would be able to download Firefox 1.5 beta Alpha 2 Release - Deer Park in August 2005 while the final release of Firefox 1.5 would hit the shelves in September.

Firefox is asking users to report about websites which are not working properly in Firefox. (From the Help menu, select Report Broken Web Site). The new Firefox 1.5 features faster browser navigation with improvements to back and forward button performance, drag-and-drop reordering for browser tabs and some Improvements to popup blocking. But most of the Firefox extensions still are not compatible with Firefox 1.5. And this might prove a bottleneck for consumers planning to make an upgrade from Firefox 1.0.6 to Firefox 1.5. Personally, I cannot imagine web surfing without the BlogThis, Adblock and Tabbrowser Preferences extensions. As long as these extensions are not updated to support Firefox 1.5, I am not downloading it.

The next major version of Firefox will contain more new features than originally specified. Firefox 1.5 would include features such as the software update functionality, an improved extensions system and support for technologies like SVG (similar to Macromedia Flash).

In an attempt to dissuade end-users from downloading the preview versions, “Deer Park” versions do not use the standard Mozilla Firefox branding. The most recent version of Firefox like Firefox 1.5 will be referred to as “Mozilla Firefox”. Firefox 2.0 will be called “Mozilla Firefox 2”.

But even Firefox 1.5 may not be ready yet for Corporate consumers. Businesses have been slow to adopt the alternative browser because of worries about compatibility issues. According to Nate L. Root at Forrester Research, the recent moves by Mozilla to form a for-profit corporation will bring Firefox one step closer to being something CIOs can consider. “Right now it is largely viewed as an experimental product - and rightly so - and is not yet ready for prime time,” said Root.

With some many drastic features planned for Firefox 1.5, why is not Mozilla calling it Firefox 2.0 ? Download Firefox 1.5 here (Alpha 2 Release)

The lockdown for “Firefox 1.5 Beta 1? will occur at 11:59pm on Tuesday, Sept 6 in preparation for release on Thursday, Sept 8. There will be a further lockdown on Monday 3rd October in preparation for a second 1.5 Beta release (Firefox 1.5 Beta 2) on Wednesday 5th October. Another lockdown will occur on Wednesday 26th October, leading to the availability of the first Firefox 1.5 release candidate on Friday 28th October. However, these later dates are subject to change.

How to Remove Duplicate Emails in Microsoft Outlook

If you download emails from POP3 accounts or synchronize Outlook with your phone, you would have faced a problem of too many duplicate emails in your Inbox. It is rather tedious and takes lot of time finding and deleting duplicate email messages manually.

Unfortunately, Microsoft Outlook doesn’t provide any built-in feature to help your find and remove duplicate email messages from one or several Outlook folders.

How to Delete Duplicate Outlook Mails

Use the following steps to delete duplicate email messages in Outlook:

1. Launch Outlook and in the View menu, point to Current View, and then click to change the folder view to a table type view. Choose Inbox-Messages
2. Right-click a column heading, click Field Chooser.
3. From the list at the top of the Field Chooser, click to select the All item name fields.
4. Drag the Modified field to the table heading.
5. Verify that the duplicate items have a unique date from the original set of items. If it is unique, click the Modified heading so that the items are sorted by this field.
6. Click the first item in the set that you want to delete, scroll to the last item in the set that you want to delete, and then click the last item while you hold down the SHIFT key.
7. Press DELETE to permanently delete all selected items.

When you import items into Microsoft Outlook and you add the contact as a duplicate, or if duplicate detection is turned off, there is not an option to remove duplicate items after you import. The above trick explains the method to delete duplicate items after you complete the import process.

While searching for tools to delete duplicate emails from Outlooks, I also stumbled upon a completely free tool called Outlook Duplicates Remover that does exactly what it is supposed to do - it removes duplicate items from Calendar, Tasks, Contacts, Notes, and mail folders in Microsoft Outlook. It’s no longer free though.

Looking for Warez : Just Google It

Search for appz and warez with Google

China has way too many warez sites run by individuals, and Google is so far still crawling and indexing them. The high number of warez sites makes Google to usually return links to warez sites on the first page of the results, some even get to ranked first. And of course, this technique can be used for searching warez and appz with Google Russia too.

This guide illustrates how to use Google China to search for warez. Finding pirated software is surprisingly easy with Google. Yes, we have astalavista to find the serial numbers and key generators, but it might take you a little more time to find the original setup files, and software that do not use serial numbers to validate the license.

Enter Google. Google China, to be exact. It’s okay if you don’t read chinese. You just have to know some keywords (with trasnlation below) to download any files successfully, with the success rate of as high as 100%. Believe it.

Though I am not encouraging you to use Google for searching cracks and warez, but it is a pretty long guide more inclined towards translation. After reading the full post, it look more like a guide to translate Chinese to English than a Guide to finding warez on Google.

Using another Google service, you can open the Google China page in English. Just enter the search terms here, and the all the resulting pages, links will also be translated into english.

Again, don’t download unlicensed software (reads: warez). If you can’t afford a software, find a free or open source alternative.

Patent on Tabbed Palettes : Adobe sues Macromedia

The Register is reporting that Adobe is suing Macromedia over the use of user interface elements it claims are covered by a patent Adobe filed in 1994.


See the Adobe Patent on Tabbed Palettes


The Adobe Macromedia merger is expected to close soon and Macromedia has just announced Studio8. That makes me wonder about the timing of the above story.


The Register carries a link to website Adobe Facts which it says, Adobe has created to defend its use of the patent. I am not sure if this points to the right website.

Soldier in Iraq sees wife's delivery live in US

A US soldier posted in Iraq saw live birth of his daughter who was 6,000 miles away in US via live Internet video and satellite audio link.

The 25-year-old soldier Sgt. William Hamrick II could see and hear everything as it happened in the hospital room. The satellite audio link let him talk his wife through the contractions. And at 4:04 p.m. in West Virginia, just after midnight in Baghdad, he was able to watch as Elaina Jo Hamrick came into the world.

Soldier in Iraq Sees Daughter’s U.S. Birth

Google finally embraces syndicated feeds

I never need to visit the Google News page again. I’ll just subscribe them as RSS and have Google automatically push the relevant stories to my feedreader. This is one big feature I had been waiting for since I starting using Google News. MSN and Yahoo! News were quick to jump into the RSS bandwagon but Google took a while. But better late than never.

Google News now officially provides XML feeds (RSS | Atom) for both standard and custom news stories. First do any search on Google News, then simply use the Atom or RSS link on the left-hand side of your search results page to generate the feed. This was announced by Chris DiBona who is an Open source program manager at Google Inc.

This feature could also be a final nail in the coffin for services like Google News RSS XML Generator, Google News RSS Scraper, ScrappGoo, GNews2RSS and a million others.

Right now, Google News supports Atom 0.3 and RSS 2.0. You are free to make any noncommercial use of Google’s RSS and Atom feeds on your website.

Related: Everything you didn’t knew about Google News

Meetro - Google Instant Messenger coming soon

This could well end the rumours rumours pertaining to the developement of Google Instant Messenger based on Jabber.

According to internetnews.com, Google is expected to announce the acquisition of Meetroduction popularly known for Meetro, location-aware social networking software. The idea of Meetro is to find people to hang out with in the physical world.

Meetro software is compatible with AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and ICQ, adding the ability to find people outside of one’s personal buddy lists. Before the acquisition, the company planned to eventually support MSN Messenger and Jabber as well.

Technically speaking, Meetro is radius and proximity based software. Untechnically speaking, it finds like-minded people around you instantly. Wherever you are. So whether you’re in-town or out of town, Meetro gets you on the town with old friends or new acquaintances.

"The beauty of Meetro is the direct way in which you connect with people nearby," Paul Bragiel, CEO of Meetroduction, said in a statement about the software release. "Just run Meetro, double-click on a person and begin chatting immediately. It’s all real-time, which means you see and communicate with local people who are online right now."

The above GIM illustration was taken from WebproNews