Google glitch

It seems everything on google is listed as "This site may harm your computer." right now.

For example a search on a popular 1974 UK children's television series Bagpuss has everything denied.


news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7862840.stm

Thoughts on Google's Chrome

No linux or mac build is out yet. So its off to windows xp *yay*.

On installing it offered to import stuff from firefox, although it didn't happen? It has a cool start page similar to that of opera 9.5. Basically it has your most visited pages and bookmarks. You can also search history from there.

Visually it offers nothing new from other browsers. Under the hood however there's a multi-threaded design offering speed and stability. I think Opera has something like it too. In theory a tab that crashes or stuck on a JavaScript run around wont crash the browser instead you can use its inbuilt task manager to close thread/tab.

Application shortcuts are a great idea. We've all read on Tech blogs and in newspaper columns that applications that solely sit on your hard drive like office or photoshop are going way of the dodo while the industry moves towards web based software. Using google gears you can add a application shortcut you desktop, start menu or launch bar. So you can start webpages like gmail or google spreadsheets easily.

Its great that google has something open source to challenge IE. I'm not hanging up firefox yet. Its long way off from that and too early to even discus.

There's a lot of linux users on the web trying to run chrome with wine with partial or no success. In a few days I bet someone will have a solution.

Creative writing tips

I was looking for short story tips for writing of course. This site has some really useful information.

Short Stories: 10 Tops for Creative Writers

What is a Short Story?

A short story begins as close to the conclusion as possible, and grabs the reader from the very first line. It conserves character and scenes, typically focuses on just one problem, and drives towards a sudden, unexpected revelation. (Kathy Kennedy and Dennis G. Jerz)

Update facebook status using twitter

You can use the twitter application on facebook to update your status.
In its settings you will find status update option. Enabling it allows anything you post on twitter to automatically be set as your status.



Once you have twitter and facebook connected you can start using your terminal to update your status. Using curl of course. (sudo apt-get install curl for ubuntu users)
curl -u username:password -d status="Your Post" http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml
Change user name and password obviously.

End of Netscape

Well its finally ending with AOL setting the support date set to 1st of March.

It recommends Flock or Firefox.
blog.netscape.com/2008/02/20/netscape-9-users-time

Weebly

For a few days now I've been playing around with weebly. It's a free personal website host and creator. Offers a sweet ajax editor with nice wordpress/blog-ish designs. You can create normal pages but theres also a blog function with rss and categories too. So you can have a blog and a few pages. I may move my junk website from google pages.
At the moment sadly, apart from adding header images, you cant edit the designs. Although they are working on that.

dnh500.weebly.com
weebly.com

Thoughts on ISPs warning BBC

" The explosion in popularity of online video could lead to increases in the cost of broadband for UK consumers.

Internet services providers, such as Tiscali, say that the raft of recently launched on-demand services will "undoubtedly" congest the network. "

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6944176.stm

The way I see it is that the "network" is already congested with uk ISPs gaining more and more new users than they can handle. Instead of raising the already high prices compared to the rest of Europe, why not invest in "network" instead of being greedy?

The fact is most, if not all, ISPs in the uk advertise speeds such as 2mb and 8mb when there service comes no where near those advertised speeds. Although no one will get an exact advertised speed there is no need for a 3 figured number (mb) loss of speed that your paying for.

If the BBC goes ahead with its iPlayer video service its not going to make a difference to an already poor network.

Epiphany web browser

I love Firefox just as much as any other open source geek, I like the Mozilla gecko engine, it renders pages fast and properly unlike IE. A few days ago I noticed a blog post on some blog (cant remember it) calling Mozilla for there to be a Firefox lite. Well if anyone really wants a lite Firefox there is Epiphany. Of course you will need gnome. Though I run it within fluxbox with gnome installed. I have used it once before along time ago and I wasn't impressed by it all. I guess I was stuck in my ways with Mozilla and Netscape navigator. After trying it today I am confidant to say I like it.

Its the fastest GUI browser I have working on a 1ghz, 256mb celeron. I think its a little quicker than Firefox to load but it defiantly beats Firefox on loading pages.

It features

• Gecko engine (used by FireFox)
• Smart address bar / Google search
  
• FireFox 2 like tabs
  
• Security / privacy options
• Extensions such as ad blocking and smart bookmarks
  
• Nice zoom feature
• Customizable toolbar
  

I just miss the search plugins for wikipedia and ubuntu packages. I haven't yet fully understood how the spell checker works if there is one. But hey generally I like this browser.
To install it look for the epiphany-browser package or
sudo apt-get install epiphany-browser

I'm on Fotolia

Well I signed up on Friday and started uploading pictures since, I have a around 10 ready to be verified. So let the sales being...

You can view them here:
http://en.fotolia.com/p/200381538

Why I like facebook over myspace

After much use of myspace, on and off, I think iv just about given up. I have deleted a lot of people in the past and put a big blank div on my profile (so no one would comment). Just in case I came back I didn't delete it, sadly I did now and then.

Anyways several reasons why I hate myspace:

1. The amount of silly bugs in myspace is enough to put me off full stop.
   
2. Poor profile design, who uses tables anymore! Very 90's, get real.
3. Spam, myspace is full of it. I don't want to see it. I don't even want to hear about it.
4. Intrusive annoying ads
5. Everything is a friends contest, attention seeking kids wanting comments.

Reasons why I prefer facebook:

1. Simplistic (though its adding stupid unwanted pointless features all the time)
2. A more grown up approach to networking
   
3. Great groups
4. Optional applications
5. News feed feature, see what friends have been up to.

A lot of people might disagree with me but generally most people who network use a lot of networking sites such as bebo, myspace and facebook together. I find that over the top. Even though I have all 3. I am ashamed. I have no use for bebo so maybe ill delete it.