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[PC Magazine] Can Google Compete Against Siri With Alfred?

noreply@blogger.com (Angga's pc) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 23:53:33 PST

by Chloe Albanesius @ PC Magazine

Google on Tuesday added to its acquisition arsenal with a company whose technology might take on Apple's Siri voice assistant.

The search giant purchased CleverSense, which developed Alfred, an app the company has designated as "your personal robot."

And while you can't speak to Alfred like you can with Siri, the app provides recommendations on restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and clubs based on your preferences, location, and other factors, eventually "learning" what you like over time.

"We built Alfred to create a simple, enjoyable, and powerful way to discover new places and help make decisions on the go," Babak Pahlavan, CleverSense co-founder and CEO, said in a note on its Web site. "It's exciting to see that our passion turned into something people around the world use regularly to make everyday decisions that are just right for them."

With Google, CleverSense said it will "start a new chapter in curating the world around us [and] accelerate our efforts toward this shared vision."

"Discovering local information is extremely important to both users and businesses, and the acquisition of Clever Sense will benefit both," Pahlavan continued.

Pahlavan didn't discuss the future of Alfred; the app is still available in the App Store and Android Market.

I downloaded the iOS app, and after agreeing to share my location, Alfred asked me to teach him about my favorite places for dinner, lunch, and drinks, offering up similar places in the area. For quick hits, I chose the "ideas" tab for popular locations in my neighborhood. But I could specify restaurants that were similar to a specific place, that served certain food, had specific prices, or met other requirements. There was also the option to connect to Facebook, where Alfred said he would "tune my recommendations to match everyone's tastes."

On its Web site, CleverSense said Alfred utilizes "extraction" and "serendipity" engines. The extraction engine trolls the Web and curates data via "natural language processing, statistical machine learning, and data mining algorithms." That creates an interest graph that is enhanced by social interactions like check-ins, likes, and ratings. The serendipity engine then incorporates a user's interests and context like location and intent to make it recommendations.

"The Serendipity Engine learns about the user's interests and preferences based on the user's interactions with various sources, including Clever Sense apps, Facebook, and Twitter," CleverSense said. "The user's interest data are stored anonymously and separate from any personally identifiable information, in order to ensure complete protection of privacy."

Apple's Siri is voice-activated and built into the iPhone 4S. But like Alfred, it improves the more people use it. Siri is collecting data from users, like their regional accents and dialects and common phrases that people use, and analyzing that information to improve. Additionally, the more you specifically use it, the better it understands your particular accent and characteristics of your speech.

For more, see Siri is Dumb. There, We Said It.

[PC Magazine] Is Google Chrome the New IE6?

noreply@blogger.com (Angga's pc) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:23:55 PST

by Michael Muchmore @ PC Magazine

Google Chrome

Let me tell you about a browser. An innovative browser that was the first to implement new Web technologies that allowed for greater interactivity. A browser with a striking new interface. Chrome? No: Internet Explorer 6.

There's a reason that Microsoft's browser took over 95 percent of the Web browser market from Netscape (Firefox's ancestor): IE6 could do things earlier browsers could not. There was dynamic HTML, CSS, and yes, it even had new security features.

But over the years, problems with all these unique capabilities reared its ugly head. Every major Web site started to target IE, to the point that the sites didn't function correctly or fully in other browsers.

Fast forward to 2011. The hot new browser is Google's Chrome, which has just overtaken former indie darling Firefox in global market share, according to StatCounter. Chrome can do things that no other browser can do, and Google now targets Chrome exclusively, meaning some Google sites only function fully when viewed in Chrome. Even today, you can read on the Google blog about some new Angry Birds levels that only work in Chrome.

This is disturbing, when you consider that Google has made a lot of hay about the openness of the Web; Google wouldn't exist if it weren't for truly open Web standards. But more and more, Chrome is becoming a conduit for Google services, to the exclusion of other browsers.

Sure, anyone can make a site that works in Chrome, so it is open in that sense. But if that site only works in Chrome and not in other major browsers, we have a lack of openness in the Web ecosystem. Anyone could produce a site that fully worked in IE6, too, but we would have the same problem: the site wouldn't function fully in other browsers.

Instances of Chrome-only Google services are starting to appear. Most recently, with the release Chrome 15, the Internet search leader has changed just one user-facing feature—the new tab page. And it did so in a way designed to promote the company's Chrome Web Store. This "app" store—the apps are really just Web sites—only works in Chrome. Before this, the company finally announced offline capability for its Gmail webmail service. And you guessed it, it only works if you use Chrome.

Those are far from the only cases of a Google service only working in Chrome alone; other examples include Google Instant Pages, Google Cloud Print, folder uploading and drag-and-drop in Google Docs, and Google Apps notifications for email and calendar events.

Another "standard," SPDY, could change the whole Web into the Google Wide Web. SPDY is an HTTP replacement that compresses header data and allows persistent connections between server and browsers. It turns out that some Google sites are already using SPDY when you browse with Chrome. As with Instant Pages, the technology is available to other Web publishers to implement, but again, Google itself is the only major player to support it. Great stuff, faster Web interactions, but let's not forget that that universal access using any software is why the Web took off in the first place.

The strategy takes a page out of Microsoft's playbook for IE6 and magnifies it on a massive scale. Microsoft's Outlook Web Client (the first major example of an Ajax, app-like site) let you use the search feature in your inbox only if you ran Internet Explorer. That's exactly what Google has started doing: offer a Web service that almost works in all browsers, but requires the vendor's own browser to fully function. Thankfully, Microsoft has abandoned these IE-only features. Let's hope Google follows suit.

In a recent discussion I had with Hakum Lie, CTO of browser maker Opera Software, the Nordic exec expressed concern about Google's approach.

"It's often that [Google] launch[es] services without testing in all browsers. We sometimes wake up in the morning and see a new Google service with things we could have fixed if they'd worked with us during the development phase," Lie said. "Now that they have their own browser, they think less of making sure it works across the board, which is a concern, because Google wouldn't have existed if it hadn't been for open standards. We'd probably all live in Microsoft land."

But Lie acknowledged Google's contributions to Web standards, "Some of those experiments are great," he said. "We need to have experimentation going on, and we can't demand that everything works in all browsers. But you should test in major browsers."

Even more proprietary and locked down are the Chromebooks, which are pretty much just a browser in a box. "The problem we're having with the Chromebook is that it's a very closed platform," Lie said. "We complained about Microsoft all these years, but on Windows you could actually make a competing browser."

The same could be said for Apple iOS devices like iPads. Though Chromebooks isn't nearly as successful as the iPad, the day all computers are Chromebooks, browser choice and openness will be a thing of the past.

Like any multinational business, Google wants to dominate anywhere it can. It already does this in search. And don't get me wrong, Google has done a lot of fantastic work. Chrome wouldn't be as popular as it is if that weren’t the case. It's my PCMag Editors' Choice because it's orders of magnitude faster than its predecessors. The arrival of Chrome on the scene has made all other browsers get better, too. But I only hope that these improvements don't come at the price of true openness and interoperability.

[Fox News] Apple's Siri Is Not Anti-Abortion

noreply@blogger.com (Angga's pc) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 18:44:03 PST

If you plan to Siri, the assistant to Apple's iPhone voice 4S, as well as pro-life label, then you have to call her a racist and ethnocentric.
Yesterday evening I saw Steven Colbert clips to know the cultural differences is the Syrians. This prompted me to ask Siri, a kilt local save me. You could not do it. I do not think it was because it has a program to prevent me from wearing kilts. (Although it would be fair if they did.) Simply can not process this information.
Find the most recent history of Syrian inability to have an abortion clinic in New York City is one of the most successful technology stories in the recent past. This has led to spread pro-choice activist outrage and accusations of the Apple device with a conservative agenda. In my opinion this is a stretch.

While there are things that the Syrians will not participate, are sworn in as, I do not think that this failure means that the device has a political stance on a woman's right to choose.
Apple claims that this inability, because of the service in beta that is true. Syrians can only provide information from a limited number of resources, including Yelp, Google Maps, and Wolfram Alpha. The only one of these databases, you want to know anything about the local abortion clinics, Google Maps and even this is not foolproof. Google Maps will take you directly to women's health clinics, searching for "abortion clinics" and not all women's health centers provide pregnancy termination.
Syrians do not require other specific medical assistance.
"I need an enema," I explained to the device to test this theory.
"Ok," she said. That's all he said. "Ok". Siri is against intestinal health?
Siri is not a search engine. This is a portal for research in a finite number of resources.
When I ask the Syrians, "Web Search" to abortion clinics, they could do and find local resources through Google Maps. So the outrage is that it can not do this natively. But once again, is not a search engine and can not look at one of the parties to the enema. Because hospitals are not always the name of their successes in the title or meta data. There are hats enema. Abortions or R Us.
While the notion of singularity with a social agenda is scary, actually, I do not think this is the anecdote to jump on. Especially since Apple has stated that the company together in later versions of the program.
There are many players to go wild if you really want to get into a debate pro-life/pro-choice. Real players. Real people. With real agendas. Siri is none of these things.

Online piracy bills in Congress wrong: Google exec

noreply@blogger.com (Angga's pc) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 05:18:33 PST

MINNEAPOLIS: Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said on Wednesday it would be a mistake for Congress to fight for Hollywood-backed legislation on online piracy, because it is ineffective and fundamentally change how the Internet works, to approve.

Companion bills in the House and Senate would allow rights holders to credit card companies and online advertising businesses, including cutting off Google, Web sites around the distribution of pirated material force court. The prosecutors would be able to force a court order to search the pages are always.

The house is stop online piracy law the Senate IP Act by the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America and the American Chamber of Commerce, the cost of online piracy is estimated at $ 135 million one years support Protect. Internet giant Google, Yahoo, Facebook was against the law.

In response to a question after the meeting Wednesday at the University of Minnesota, Schmidt said there are an error for the bills would "approach to combat piracy. `` The problem with the two bills is that they go to the wrong problems ,''Schmidt said.

Schmidt said that certain provisions in the accounts technically difficult, including the holder the right to remove links from the Internet and the criminalization of the indexing of content by search engines now.

`` There are a lot of things involved in breaking the Internet and how it works,''he said.

Another big problem, he said, was that the bills do not work. He said the criminal activity to immediately move to different sites and on.

`` The right solution, we are told again and again to follow the money,''said Schmidt. `` So that it specifically prohibits this type of content is to earn, what we recommend.''

Finally, Schmidt said she violated the protected rights to free speech in the First Amendment. Senator Patrick Leahy, the Senate author of the bill disputed that in a statement from his office Wednesday afternoon.

`` There is no First Amendment right to steal,''he said. `` This (bill) to protect U.S. intellectual property rights, which in turn strengthens our economy and promotes American jobs.''

Sen. Amy Klobuchar has a separate bill, the federal government update the current copyright law would make clear that streaming can be prosecuted by copyright-protected material for commercial purposes a felony.

Klobuchar office not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Schmidt spoke at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs University. The University is one of the biggest users of Google's free applications in the field of higher education in the United States, with more than 90,000 Gmail accounts.

[PC World] Microsoft Talks Games at Gamescom

noreply@blogger.com (Angga's pc) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 05:12:00 PDT

Windows Phone 7: Microsoft Talks Games at Gamescom

PC World

- Aug 19, 2010

- 6 hours ago

This week Gamescom is going on in Cologne and Microsoft took the opportunity to talk about gaming on their new mobile platform. ...

Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse Details Leaked

InformationWeek

- Aug 19, 2010

- 6 hours ago

A German consumer electronics website displayed photos and a product description of the new mouse that is expected to include Microsoft's BlueTrack advanced ...

Microsoft: "It's time for us to come back to PC"

Neoseeker

- Aug 19, 2010

- 7 hours ago

Microsoft had backed off of PC gaming around 2007, after they released a string of excellent titles like Fable: The Lost Chapters, Age of Empires III, ...

Microsoft Bing's Search Share Is Flat Against Google

eWeek

- Aug 19, 2010

- 5 hours ago

Microsoft Bing experienced largely flat growth in July, according to Experian Hitwise. That could mean the Microsoft search engine is holding the line ...

[Reuters] Google Chrome Web Store

noreply@blogger.com (Angga's pc) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:06:00 PDT

Google Chrome Web Store to Debut in October

Reuters

- Aug 19, 2010

- 3 hours ago

By Sarah Jacobsson Purewal at PC World Google's Chrome Web Store is likely to be up and running this October, reports 1Up.com. The online app store will ...

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal

[huffingtonpost] Apple Manager Arrested For Money Laundering

noreply@blogger.com (Angga's pc) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:00:00 PDT

An Apple employee has been accused of leaking company secrets to Asian accessory manufacturers. ...
The indictment describes a scheme in which Devine used his position at Apple to obtain confidential information, which he transmitted to Apple suppliers, including [Andrew] Ang. In return, the suppliers and manufacturers paid Devine kickbacks, which he shared with Ang. The information enabled the suppliers to negotiate favorable contracts with Apple, according to the indictment.
go: huffingtonpost

[BBC News Technology] Google boss warns on social media

noreply@blogger.com (Angga's pc) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 08:32:14 PDT

18 August 2010 Last updated at 13:38 GMT

Google boss warns on social media

Chief Executive Eric Schmidt says people will change their names to distance themselves from embarrassing content on the net.

India orders Blackberry deadline

India sends formal notices to mobile operators telling them they must have equipment to monitor Blackberry services by 31 August.
Sony revamps PlayStation 3 lineup

The electronics giant unveils two new models of its PlayStation 3 console at the Gamescom video games conference in Cologne. Newsbeat
Realtime games company collapses
Nine held over global iPhone scam
Spain investigates Google wi-fi
Facebook 'dislike' scam warning
Kinect gets UK release date Newsbeat
Israeli denies Facebook mistake
Net neutrality protest at Google

China's Censorship Laws for Google

noreply@blogger.com (Angga's pc) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:07:22 PST

China's top internet official has warned that Google will "pay the consequences" if it continues to go against Chinese law.

Google announced in January that it would no longer comply with China's internet censorship laws.

It warned that it may shut down google.cn because of censorship and a hacking attack on the portal.

Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong was speaking at China's annual legislation session.

"We need to preserve our nation's interest, our people's interest, we cannot be relaxed with any information that will cause harm to the stability of our society, to our system, and to the health of our under-age young people," he said.

"So, of course, what needs to be shut down will be shut down, what needs to be blocked will be blocked.",

bbc news, 12 March 2010.

Google Updates Translator Toolkit

noreply@blogger.com (Angga's pc) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 03:11:00 PST

by: Melanie Saxe
Google has added new features to its Translator Toolkit, making it easier for users to collaborate on translations through chat. Similar to the features in Gmail, users can now send instant messages to colleagues, friends, family and groups and can even save translation chats in Gmail.

Among other features is the ability to display language and set the toolkit tabs to open or close by default. Google has also expanded the dictionary tab to include parts of speech and alternate definitions.

"For example, if you're translating the word cancer into Chinese you will find alternate translations for cancer as a disease and cancer as a quickly-spreading danger so you can find just the right word for your translation," said Kartik Singh, software engineer at Google.

Real-Time Search Engine OneRiot Creates Ad Network for Social Media Apps

noreply@blogger.com (Angga's pc) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 03:09:00 PST

Search Engine Watch reports that real-time search engine OneRiot is attempting to unlock the Holy Grail for developers of social media applications – give them a way to make money off of their free apps. One Riot has recently launched RiotWise Trending Ads, a real-time ad network that allows Web and mobile app developers a chance to earn money through ad clicks.

The revenue-sharing model sees OneRiot deliver ad content related to topics that users are discussing at any given moment. The theory is that by making the ad content as fresh and topical as possible they could appeal Facebook and Twitter users who otherwise eschew clicking on ads.

"RiotWise is grounded on the premise that users of realtime web apps are trying to find out what's going on right now," said Tobias Peggs, General Manger, OneRiot. "Our ads directly match that intent. RiotWise Trending Ads offers another exciting option for developers to monetize their social web applications."

- Richard Manfredi

Yelp Walks Away from $550 Million Google Deal

noreply@blogger.com (Angga's pc) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:07:00 PST

Tech Crunch is reporting that Yelp has walked away from a proposed deal to be acquired by Google — a deal that many people had assumed was all but signed just days earlier. Yelp is a review site currently operating in almost every major metropolitan area of the country that lets the public vote and gives their feedback on a wide range of stores and services within a local area. For example, a person could go to the local Yelp site for Portland and search to find different listings for Indian restaurants. They could find the best-rated sites or the ones within walking distance of their current location, and read reviews posted by various "Yelpers" on the pluses and minuses of each.

The report in Tech Crunch states that Yelp and Google had progressed to the point of reaching a price of $550 million plus buyouts for the acquisition and were working through the final details when Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppleman backed away from the deal this past weekend. Tech Crunch is reporting that according to multiple sources, Yelp does not have a current second suitor in place for acquisition. The report speculates that another company such as Apple or Microsoft may have "came to Yelp with an offer for a strategic deal gave Stoppleman the confidence to say no to Google."

- Richard Manfredi

Google Expands Fast Flip with 55 Major Publishers

noreply@blogger.com (Angga's pc) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:36:46 PST

Google announced through its blog on Wednesday that it is expanding Google Fast Flip, a news reading service that aims to make the experience of reading newspapers and magazines online similar to reading hard copy versions. Fast Flip launched three months ago with a small handful of publications including the New York Times and Washington Post. The recent announcement adds 55 top-flight publishers to the project including newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and the Miami Herald, magazines including U.S. News & World Report and leading online sites The Huffington Post, Mashable and POLITICO.

Fast Flip is designed to let Web surfers "flip" through multiple pages of content at once, theoretically making it easier to browse through a publisher's site and find interesting material. While Fast Flip is still only available in Google Labs, the service has evidentially been successful enough that publishers are interested in experimenting with it.

Newspapers are continuing to search for ways to generate revenue from online content, and Google is touting Fast Flip as a potential answer. Google has said that the "majority" of revenue generated by Fast Flip will go back to publishers but has not given specifics.

"Readers of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and the rest of our newspaper brands operate in a multimedia universe, and our goal is to ensure our content is available on the platforms they choose," Marc Chase, president of Tribune Co.'s interactive division, told the Los Angeles Times. "We're always looking for new technologies to help us reach an even wider audience."

- Richard Manfredi

Desktop Google Calendar

noreply@blogger.com (Angga's pc) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 09:31:23 PST

The Google Calendar Gadget for Desktops will help you keep track of your appointments from your desktop, new improvements to the gadget include a cleaner interface, support for Google Apps calendar and three different viewing modes.

Clicking on the event will show you details which include a map of the location, list of attendees and start and end times. The Google Calendar gadget also allows you to quickly add events, without leaving your desktop.

Google Calendar Desktop gadget requires you to have Google Desktop 5 or above. You can download it here. You will have to remove the old Google Calendar gadget before you can install this one.

Download Google Calendar Desktop

techie buzz.com

The Power User's Guide to Google Chrome

noreply@blogger.com (Angga's pc) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 08:04:00 PST

Now that you've been enjoying Google Chrome's headliner features and speed for almost a week now, it's time to dig into the less obvious functionality and options you don't already know about. Become a keyboard shortcut master, take a peek under the hood, and customize its behavior and skin with some of the best shortcuts, bookmarklets, themes, add-ons, and subtle functionality in Google Chrome.

Mousing Around Chrome

Despite its marketing as a minimalistic browser that forgoes all the extras, Chrome's interface actually sports quite a few useful features. Here are a few that will speed up your browsing with the mouse even more:

Click and hold (or right-click) the Back or Forward button to go directly to a page far behind or forward in your browsing history.
When you've got a URL on your clipboard, right-click Chrome's address bar to Paste and go to your destination (and save yourself an extra tap on the Enter key).
Click and drag any textarea corner to resize it to your liking; great for blog comments, web email, or forums with textareas that aren't big enough to accommodate your masterpiece.
Ctrl+Mousewheel to zoom in or out of pages in Chrome.
Drag and drop downloads out of Chrome's status bar and onto your desktop to save them there, or into any Explorer window to save them there. (You already know you can drag and drop a Chrome tab out into a new window, or back into an existing Chrome window to dock it there.)

Chrome's Keyboard Shortcuts

If you're not much for the mouse, you're in luck: Google Chrome has lots of built-in keyboard shortcuts, many of which mirror Firefox's—so you don't have to retrain your fingers. Here are a few of our favorites:

(Chrome only) Ctrl+B toggles the bookmarks bar on and off.
(Chrome only) Shift+Escape opens Google Chrome's Task Manager.
Ctrl+L to move your cursor to the address bar.
Ctrl+K moves your cursor to the address bar to enter a Google search.
Ctrl+T opens a new tab.
Ctrl+N opens a new window.
Ctrl+Shift+T opens the last closed tab.
(Chrome only) Ctrl+Shift+N opens a new window in "Incognito Mode."
Ctrl+Tab cycles through open tabs; Ctrl+Shift+Tab reverse cycles through open tabs.
Ctrl+J opens the Downloads tab.
Ctrl+W closes the current tab.
Ctrl+R refreshes the current page.
Ctrl+H opens the History tab.
Alt+Home loads your homepage.
Ctrl+1 through 9 switches to a particular open tab position.
Ctrl++, Ctrl+-, Ctrl+0 Enlarges, reduces, and restores default text sizes, respectively.

Tweak Your Options

Hit up Chrome's Options dialog (click on the wrench, and choose Options) to customize Chrome's behavior even more.

Set multiple tab as your home page. While Chrome's default thumbnail page of your most visited sites is pretty cool, you might want to just skip that step and set the browser to open certain tabs every time. Like Firefox, Chrome can set several tabs as your homepage. In the Options' dialog Basics area, under "Open the following pages," enter the URLs.
Open the last session's tabs automatically. Also like Firefox, Chrome can automatically restore the tabs from your last browser session. In that same Options area as above, just select "Restore the pages that were open last."
Add the home button to your toolbar. Chrome's toolbar is pretty sparse by design, but once you've set your homepage(s), you might want to get to them in one click. In the Options dialog's Basics tab, you can also check off "Show Home button on the toolbar."
Set your default Downloads save location. Also in Options—but under the "Minor Tweaks" tab—you can set Chrome's default download location to something other than the "My Documents" folder.

Master Chrome's Startup Switches

Like all good open source software, Chrome comes with a long list of "startup switches"—that is, parameters you can use when you launch the program to customize its behavior. While most of the switches are only useful to developers, a handful let power users do some handy stuff.

Quick primer: To use a startup switch, create a new Chrome shortcut on your desktop (or elsewhere). Right-click it and choose Properties. In the Target field, add the switch in question immediately following the path to chrome.exe. For example, your target using a -disable-java switch might look like:

"C:\Documents and Settings\gina\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" -disable-java

Here are some things you can do with Chrome's startup switches.

Tweak the number of suggestions the address bar offers. Increase or reduce the number of suggestions in the address bar drop-down using the -omnibox-popup-count switch. For example, to increase it to 10 suggestions, use -omnibox-popup-count=10. [via The How-To Geek]

Create and maintain multiple user profiles. Since Chrome learns so much from your usage patterns, you might want to create more than one user personality based on the task at hand. For example, you can set up a "work Chrome" and a "play Chrome" user profile (like you can with Firefox's user profiles). While Chrome doesn't offer a handy utility to create new profiles like Firefox does, all it takes is creating a new user directory, and then using Chrome's --user-data-dir startup switch to point it there. The Digital Inspiration blog runs down how to create and use multiple profiles in Chrome.

Speed up browsing by disabling functionality. When you want to surf Flash-free, Java-free, or even Javascript-free (even though that's not really the point of Chrome, but whatever), there's a list of -disable Chrome startup switches that can block plug-ins, content, or features you don't want, like:

-disable-dev-tools
-disable-hang-monitor
-disable-images
-disable-java
-disable-javascript
-disable-logging
-disable-metrics
-disable-metrics-reporting
-disable-plugins
-disable-popup-blocking
-disable-prompt-on-repost

Always start Chrome in a maximized window. Take advantage of all that screen real estate you've got with Chrome. Using the -start-maximized startup switch, the browser will fill your screen on launch, automatically.

Themes

Dress up Google Chrome to your liking by downloading a Chrome theme and saving its default.dll file into the application's Themes directory. Update, 9/9/2008: Link to Chrome theme download source updated.

For Windows XP users, by default that folder is:

C:\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application.2.149.29\Themes\

In Windows Vista it's:

C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\0.2.149.29\Themes\

(Note if Google Chrome updates, you may have to change the version number in this path.)

Reveal Chrome's Secret Diagnostic Info

While Chrome doesn't have Firefox's super-handy about:config area, it does have several about: pages that show you all sorts of interesting information about what's going on behind the scenes. Check out Google Chrome's full list of hidden about: pages here.

Get Extras: Bookmarklets, AutoHotkey Scripts, and More Chrome-Related Downloads

While Google Chrome doesn't support extensions (yet), several macros, bookmarklets, and other third-party extras can make working with Chrome easier. Here's a quick list.

Block ads in Google Chrome with Privoxy. Using free web proxy and ad-blocking software Privoxy, you can block distracting advertisements in Google Chrome.
Create Custom Chrome keyboard shortcuts with AutoHotKey. Our favorite Windows macro scripting language, AutoHotKey, can make browsing with Chrome via the keyboard even easier. Here's a full Chrome shortcut AHK file that adds nine keyboard shortcuts (including the much-needed "Paste and go" shortcut).
Preview a web site's RSS feeds, or print a page in one click with bookmarklets. Without toolbars or extensions, plain old bookmarklets come in very hand. Here's a bookmarklet that auto-detects and previews a web site's feed. Here's one that will print the current page. (You can also just hit the Ctrl+P keyboard shortcut).
Open pages from Firefox in Chrome. If you're browsing in both Firefox and Chrome and like to use Chrome for certain pages, the Open in Google Chrome Firefox extension does just that. With it installed, set certain links to open in Chrome, or select a link and choose "Open in Chrome" manually from the context menu.
Run Chrome from your thumb drive. When you're in IT lockdown or traveling from computer to computer (but want to keep your Chrome settings), you want the portable, standalone version of Chrome (free download).
Anonymize your Chrome surfing. Chrome Anonymizer scrambles your unique ID and makes it impossible for anyone to track what you're doing in Chrome.

Shuck off Google's Branding and Go Open Source with Chromium

Switch to the more frequently updated and open source version of the Chrome browser, called Chromium. Google expert ~~Phillip Lennsen~~ Ionut Alex Chitu explains:

Do you want Google Chrome without Google's branding and with an open source license (BSD license)? Check out Chromium, the open source project created for Google Chrome. You can install the latest snapshots for Windows or download the code and build it in Windows, Mac, Linux.

To install Chromium in Windows, go to the most recent directory from this page (it should be at the top) and download mini_installer.exe. Note that these snapshots could be less stable than the version available at google.com/chrome and you may need to manually update Chromium.

Speaking of updating, you can keep on top of frequent Chromium builds using the Chrome Nightly Builds Updater utility.

Look Forward to What's Coming

Word on the street is that Chrome is coming for Mac and Linux users, as are extensions—plus it'll be in Google's upcoming mobile phone operating system, Android. (Linux users, if you can't want for Chrome and don't want to build Chromium yourself, here's how to run Google Chrome in Ubuntu with WINE.)

this article is republish from http://lifehacker.com

What are your favorite Google Chrome tips and tricks? Shout 'em out in the comments.

TOP 5 FREE Screen Capturing Softwares

noreply@blogger.com (Angga's pc) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 07:17:00 PST

As you know an Image is more worthy than a thousand words. Then what will be the video worth of? Simple! Multiplies by the number of frames in a video :D. Okay this is going quite mathematical so we will not go into the deep, rather what I am going to show you is the list of 5 best of the best video capturing softwares.

Video capturing software is useful in many ways. Suppose, you and your overseas friend are chatting, suddenly he gets a problem in his PC and you have to help him. What would be the more convenient option?

1-Briefing him through text in instant messenger? Boo

2-Over phone call? Then wait for the bill mate

3-Via screenshots? naaa :S

4-With a brief video tutorial explaining every thing as if you both were in the same room? Yay!

So as you have seen, the most convenient method of explaining anything is video. No doubt that’s why online video sites like Youtube are that much popular.

That’s just one example, the list is long, so we should skip the benefits and carry on towards the list:

1-Cam Studio

CamStudio is a good video capturing tool to create video screencasts of lossless quality. The video output will be of AVI format, however, you can shrink its size by converting it to SWF without compromise in quality. And further more, you can: choose whether to record a section or the whole screen, increase or decrease quality of the recorded video etc.

Download Link

2-Jing Project

Another excellent program from TechSmith which quickly became famous like their previous products {Snagit and Camtasia}. What makes Jing Project stand out from the crowd is the sharing facilities it got. See the video rather than reading my explanation.

File Size: 8MB

Download Link

3-Debut

Another one in the line, is the Debut Video Recording Software. It does more or less the same things as above tools, but its specialty lies in a range of formats it can provide the output in, including 3GP, AVI, ASF, FLV, MOV, MP4, MPG, WMV etc. A detailed review of this awesome tool can be found here.

Download Link

4-TipCam

In addition to record what is going on the screen, TipCam has also some unique features. It can trim the unwanted and no-no slides from the video and adjust the narration to get in sync with the video. Meaning, if you want to record a video separately, then want to attach audio file separately, TipCam does it for you.

Download Link

5-Free Video Capture Factory

The last one is the software from Small Video Soft named Freez Screen Video Capture. You can start, pause and stop recording with shortcut keys. It also supports different output codecs (like Microsoft Video 1, MPEG-4, DivX etc.). Some other video related freeware are also available at the websites’ home page.

Download Link

Although all of the tools mentioned above are good and can do the work for which they are built. But I suggest you to try all of these and choose from them, which suits your needs best. Start Recording!

republish from http://www.nazjam.com

New header images for Lazyman bloggers..

noreply@blogger.com (Angga's pc) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 07:15:59 PST

Well, today i'm looking for free header images to changes this blog look and feel. as a lazy-bloggers, i don't want to create this task by myself. so, i'd try to search an images header by free from the outside.
Amazing, when i put "free header images" on search engine, indo-trans show me a lot of places that share images header for blog by free! . Here is the site that provide free images:

- smashing magazine, there are a lot of list compilation. some header using .psd files that you can edit with photoshop , macromedia fireworks, etc.

- freewebpageheaders.com, a hundred collection of background header images with 800x200 that can use for bloggers. categorical images help you to search easily.

- dreamstime, Just click “Free Images” tab on this site.

- www.sxc.hu, Looks like nothing inside. but there are a lot of images that you can see free to download. You can also use it for your blogs.

- stock vault, This site is know as 'the stock photo sharing website' where designers and photographers sharing their files. good for beutify your blog.

- freefoto.com, The last is also good for searching some images for your blog header.

After surfing for a minutes,i choose the one that suitable for my blog header, "two cups of tea". Designed by María from Spain that publish in smashing zone.

Step by Step Spread a Feed Feed Burner

noreply@blogger.com (Angga's pc) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 23:03:03 PST

Here is my today pratice how to publish a feed to feedburner. first, i read this tutorial from yadi's log. Btw, thank's for all great blogger that guide me to using feedburner / feed subscriptions with their blog :).

lets start!
- join feedburner.com . if you already have an account, login with your username .
- enter your url feed, and click "activate".

Optimize your feedBurner:
-click optimize tab. you can setting your feed performance here. for the first, just activate your SmartFeed.

publicize feedburner:
- click publisize tab and get HTML code for FeedCount feature. don't forget to copy this code.
- select PindShot menu. check a Ping-O-Matic and Newsgator. in dorpdown menu, add to 5 other ping service.
- activate mail subscription. to activate, click email subscribtion form the left menu,select FeedBurner option, click activate,and get html code for email subscription.

Just try It and Share It!
reference: "http://jnet99.wordpress.com"

I Support "Busby SEO Test" contestant!

noreply@blogger.com (Angga's pc) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 10:52:47 PST

As a blogger, SEO or Search Engine Optimization is one important part to increase your blog rank from the Search Engines.

To support SEO Master wins the Busby SEO Test Search Engine Optimization World Cup, here is simple things what i doing to increase my favorites Busby SEO Test participants:

- Create a relevant article about Busby SEO Test,
- Build a relevant links to your favorites SEO Test participant,
- Be careful!, search engines like to increase ranking naturally. don't force to much. The most relevant article from the keywords phrase must be number one.
- open links for Busby SEO Test that you like every day. See result link for "Busby SEO Test".

Support your SEO MASTER:

1. Enticegth
2. Kang Noval
3. Gladioolers
4. Imfreakz
5. Izandi
6. Ianimaru
7. Abibakar
8. Dewaji
9. Brokencode
10. SEO SEM
11. Kabonfootprint
12. Hakim Tea

I support Busby HakimTea SEO Test (SEO Master from Indonesia) and all seo master above. How about YOU?

Test Read More for the first time

noreply@blogger.com (Angga's pc) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:22:14 PST

hello there, This is first time using "read more" link at Angga's PC.

by editing html of template, i can show my posting with headline & body. your blog will have a simple Look & Feel that makes visitors happy.
next, older post 'll have read more links too.

bumimulya: Mafia Magic Weapon Mobile Fire

noreply@blogger.com (Angga's pc) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 05:15:07 PST

bumimulya: Mafia Magic Weapon Mobile Fire
lihat aja deh sendiri ;)

How to use telnet

noreply@blogger.com (Angga's pc) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:33:29 PST

try this example,

telnet example.com 80
then enter in this text:
HEAD / HTTP/1.0

(notice, that's 'hit return twice after you're done')

Then you get back some headers.
Here's an example:

> telnet webmasterworld.com 80
Trying 64.33.51.156...
Connected to webmasterworld.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
HEAD / HTTP/1.0

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2002 01:09:46 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.26 (Unix) FrontPage/5.0.2.2510
Cache-Control: max-age=0
X-Powered-By: BestBBS v3.043
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html

Connection closed by foreign host.

track back this:

http://ratdix.blogs.ie/2006/05/29/kirim-mail-menggunakan-telnet/

how to build a fantastic website, all the elements you need to consider

noreply@blogger.com (Angga's pc) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:35:02 PST

It can be done.

I’m almost certain that many people reading this Ecourse have no technical skills at all? I’m not embarrassed to let you know that I don't have great technical skills… I've learned how to build really basic websites, but nothing fancy.

The fact is you don't need to have great technical skills to make a good website. In some ways having limited web design abilities gives you an advantage because you won't get caught up in, what can sometimes be, confusing details. As a novice you'll be able to focus on what counts … That is; making money, marketing your site and getting visitors.

If you have no money, then you will need to learn how to do all of these things yourself which will slow you down considerably. If you can afford to pay someone else to design your site, then you can get a great site designed at a tiny fraction of the cost (compared with what it would cost to start a “real” bricks and mortar business in the offline world).

Web design can be a be a bit overwhelming when you are starting out, especially if you haven't done it before - it's hard to know what you should do and where to start. However, once you've been through the initial process it gets easier and easier.

To start with, let's look at all the “technical” elements that you need to
include for consideration on your new site. We will be covering several of these aspects in more depth in later issues, but for now, I'll provide an overview of the things you will need to get started:

Domain name - you need a domain name for your site (E.g. www.yoursite.com)

Web hosting - you need to get your site hosted somewhere so other people can see it.

An auto-responder email service - you probably want to have some kind of email auto-responder set up. This is can help communicate effectively with your audience by send them a series of emails from you automatically.

Copy (i.e. words).

Design - you need to get a template designed for your site.

Audio - audio has proven to generate more sales and interest to visitors.

A shopping cart service - if you are planning an ecommerce site and want to be able to accept online payments, you will need a shopping cart service where you can accept credit cards via a secure server.

A merchant account - to accept credit cards you need to have your own, or a third party merchant account.

An affiliate program - you may want to have your own affiliate program. We'll talk about this in future issues of the Ecourse.

If you can combine the above elements and put them together effectively, you'll have the essence of a great website. Keep in mind that you may not need the shopping cart service, the merchant account, or the affiliate program if you are not actually selling your own product.

Below, I've provided valuable information about how to build the 9 most important elements of a successful website:

The Domain name and Web hosting

I will be examining domain names in more detail in a later issue of the Ecourse, but for now, I'll assume that you need a new domain name for your site. A goodplace to start is somewhere like http://www.mydomainfriend.com/ - this is a great keyword combination tool that I built for researching and finding new domain names. My Domain Friend helps to simplify, what can be, a quite often lengthy and tiresome process. When you find a suitable domain, there are number of cheap services where you can register it for under $10. For more info on domain names and web hosting check out http://www.profitpuppy.com/hosting.htm

An Auto-responder service

If you want to build a profitable site you should definitely consider an
auto-responder service. If you get someone to your website, there's a good chance they may never come back. By using an auto-responder you can build a valuable relationship with you your visitors and increase the likelihood that that they will visit your site again (unless they unsubscribe!).

There are many different ways you can use auto-responders. For example, you might start an Ecourse, or remind your visitors of upcoming events or product developments in a newsletter. Auto-responders are crucial if you want to maximize the profits from website. In a later issue of the Ecourse, I'll be showing you how to put together great sounding newsletters to help you get more bang for your buck.

So, how do you set up an auto-responder? The best (and easiest) option is to go with one of the many third party services that are available on the web. For more information and a list of the best auto-responder services visit: http://www.profitpuppy.com/compare-autoresponder.htm

Writing copy for your site

Words are the MOST important element of your site: Effective copy is the one factor that will ensure that visitors react in a way that you want them to (whether it's to buy something or simply to browse the information available on your site).

Of course, the way you write for your site depends on what type of site you are building and what you want to achieve. If you are building a site with sales in mind, you’re going to need a copywriter to carefully draft a great sales pitch.

If you’re not a confident writer, you’re going to have to find someone to do it for you. The bad news is, a good copywriter is hard to find. However, if you fancy yourself as writer, you should start out by trying to develop the content yourself (other sites are always a good reference point!).

If you are building an affiliate marketing site you should concentrate on well worded copy to highlight the programs and products that you are promoting. General writing tasks, like this, are a much easier undertaking as there is usually a wealth of available existing information about your products or programs (sometime affiliate programs will even provide you with useful copy for you site). “General” (as opposed to specialist) writers are usually much easier to find.

In my experience, you can provide much more powerful content if you can afford to outsource your writing tasks to an experienced copy writer with a great understanding of your product or service. By taking this approach, you will have more free time to spend researching new opportunities and managing the other elements of your site which could be making you money.

To find a good copywriter, have a look at the services on:

http://www.profitpuppy.com/freelance-sites.htm

In general, you can expect to pay around $15-30 per page (around 400 words). It's possible employ writers for around $5 per page, but don't expect polished copy for that price. For a reasonable copywriter you will be looking at a minimum of $50 per page. Not surprisingly, great copywriters charge hundreds or even thousands of dollars per page.

Designing the site

As with the other elements of your site, there are a few options here; you can learn how to do design a site yourself (if you don't already have the skills). The disadvantage of this method is that designing a nice looking site can be quite a lengthy process. Again, if you have the budget for it, I would recommend outsourcing the work, especially if you are just getting started.

Freelance web designers (unlike good copy writers) are everywhere. Contracting your web design tasks to a freelancer is usually an inexpensive and sound option. For more information about hiring a freelance web designer, check out the list of resources at: http://www.profitpuppy.com/freelance-sites.htm

Another (and less appealing option) is to get a local firm to design a site for you. If you reside in the USA or UK this is likely to be an expensive proposition (sometimes up to 500% on what you can pay for a freelancer) - I wouldn't recommend this option unless you have money falling out of your pockets : )

If you would prefer to talk to the person that is designing the site, think about alternatives like hiring a university student or someway studying graphic design. You can often find someone who has great web design skills and is relatively inexpensive.

Also, don't be afraid to ask for some examples of work before employing someone. It's important to know that they can create site design that you are going to be happy with.

The last option for designing a site is to buy a premade website from somewhere like http://www.templatemonster.com/ - they have hundreds of web templates that you can download and use for your own site.

Audio, shopping, merchant accounts and more…

For a comparison of shopping cart services:
http://www.profitpuppy.com/shopping-cart.htm.

For information on setting up a merchant account (so that you can accept onlinepayments) have a look at http://www.profitpuppy.com/accepting-payment.htm

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Look Forward to What's Coming

TOP 5 FREE Screen Capturing Softwares

1-Cam Studio

2-Jing Project

3-Debut

4-TipCam

5-Free Video Capture Factory

New header images for Lazyman bloggers..

Step by Step Spread a Feed Feed Burner

I Support "Busby SEO Test" contestant!

Test Read More for the first time

bumimulya: Mafia Magic Weapon Mobile Fire

How to use telnet

how to build a fantastic website, all the elements you need to consider