Imagine that your emailing, blogging, media sharing, planning, project managing, discussing, socializing, and all communications actions could compressed and optimally organized together in one tool. That tool, my friends, is the upcoming Google Wave [See Video Below].

With the announcement of Google Wave at this year’s 2009 Google I/O, we are as excited as ever for the amazing work that Google repeatedly displays. From one point of view, it’s hard to even figure out where to begin talking about Google Wave, seeing that it literally revolutionizes the way we communicate online by changing our old digital snail mail methods to something that one would expect if Email was reinvented in the 21st century – oh wait… Google Wave DID REINVENT the Email system.

So exactly how is Google Wave so revolutionary? Will for starters, rather than having a traditional email system that basically emulates snail mail except through the Internet, all communications in Google Wave exists on a so called “Wave.” This Wave is basically one (1) and only one instance of data that lives either on the Google Wave server (similar to how your Gmail mails are also hosted on Google’s servers) but can be accessed and edited by different participants of a that Wave. This way, people can communicate in real time and any edits, comments, messages, remarks, inserts, uploads, links, etc that a participant of a Wave makes, everyone else of that Wave with eligibility will also see, instantaneously. Sounds confusing? You should be, seeing that, once again, Google Wave is changing everything about the way we communicate.

Just speaking of the surface of this new platform, there are many new features and functions of Google Wave. For instance, rather than your traditional email with a Reply or Forward mode to carry on a message or conversations, Google Wave offers messaging with a different perspective. Anyone of a single Wave can edit the message and text anywhere he or she desires, whether it’s at the end of a Wave message, like in the case of a Email reply, or it’s directly in the middle of a Wave. The good news is that all this commenting and editing is stored in one Google Wave to prevent syncing problems with multiple instances of Waves.

However, there are a gazillion more features. So to make this simpler, I have found a set of summarizations of the different features of Google Wave graciously explained by Gina Trapani of [Lifehacker]:

Inline Replies
First the simple stuff. Google says Wave is what email would be if it were invented today, so it looks a whole lot like Gmail. But all editing and commenting happen on a single copy of a given wave (that is, message or document). You can comment on a wave below it, or inline. Check it out.

As-You-Type Live Updates Over the Internet Between Users
Thanks to the new HTML 5 standard and some client-server magic Wave has going on, you can watch your recipient live-type a response in your browser across the internet, much like instant messaging. (If that gives you the creeps, you’ll have the option to disable live as-you-type updating.)

Wave Revision Playback
When you add someone to a Wave after it’s been chopped up, commented on, and edited by others, that person can see the evolution of that wave using the super-cool playback feature. Imagine watching Wikipedia page revisions happen in sequence. Here’s a taste of playback in Wave.

Private Replies
Like a group email you forward to an individual person to have a “private” conversation, you can restrict access to a sub-Wave to certain people.

Embed Waves into Web Pages
Bloggers will go nuts for this: you can embed waves in web pages and collect replies and edits to those waves in your Wave client, as well as on the page itself.

Live Collaboration on a Single Wave
Several people can edit a wave at the same time and watch one another’s cursors dance across the page as it happens.

Live-Updating Search Results
Keyword search results live-update as others type, too.

Contextual Spellcheck
This was the ultimate OMGPONIES! moment for me in the Wave demo. Using a natural language model, Google Wave’s spellchecker makes smart corrections based on the context of your word. For example, Google Wave auto-corrects the sentence “Icland is an icland” to “Iceland is an island.” (Guess all those billions of web pages can really come in handy.)

Google Wave explained by its developers at the 2009 Google I/O:
Google Wave Developer Preview at Google I/O 2009

Before we dive into this discussion, I want to first say that I will try to be more objective and less subjective about this particular topic. Personally for me, the larger the bitrate, the better sounding the music, of course. However, the purpose of this article is to explore the optimization of MP3 bitrates in accordance to their quality and file sizes.

First of all, if you don’t already know, there are two main types of bitrates: Constant BitRate (CBR) and Variable BitRate (VBR). As their names imply, CBR is basically MP3 encoding that has a consistent bitrate of data, no matter the situation and quality of the music/audio. In this form even the simplest silences and rests in music will be played back at the same bitrate as the most complex segments in a symphony. Thus, the general result is that CBR is simply non-efficient in memory usage.

Thus, to increase music encoding efficiency and to optimize MP3 file sizes, there is another form of audio encoding that follows the form of a Variable BitRate (VBR). To simply put it, VBR has a dynamic set of bitrates that change depending on the complexity of the music. Thus, the simpler the music form, the lower the bitrate as less data is needed to code for silence as opposed to high bitrates for many instruments and sounds being generated at once. To quote Wikipedia, “VBR allows a higher bitrate (and therefore more storage space) to be allocated to the more complex segments of media files while less space is allocated to less complex segments.” In general, when we encode MP3s as VBRs, the VBR that we select will be based on the average VBR as the mean of a music selection with actual bitrates oscillating above and below that value depending on sound complexities.

Now, onto actual differences in music qualities as a function of bitrates.

In the world of music encoding, there is a phrase know as “Near-CD Quality,” which basically refers to the fact that a piece of audio is encoded so well (and perhaps encoded to be lossless) that it sounds like music from a CD, which has very high qualities. Personally, I would say that MP3s coded around 320Kbps (CBR or VBR) is pretty much near-CD quality and pretty much sounds exactly like a CD. However, unless we’re all audiophiles, there’s not really a need to have all our songs stored with 320Kbps. However, we do want to obtain high audio quality while optimizing file sizes. Thus, after doing much research and speaking from personal experience, these are some of the basic MP3 audio bitrates and their experiences:

• 128–160 Kbit/s: Standard Bitrate quality – I personally use this for portable music devices to reduce file sizes.
• 192 Kbit/s: DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) quality – This is what I use for the MP3s in my music library. In my opinion, this strikes the perfect balance between size and quality.
• 224–320 Kbit/s: Near CD quality – Obviously, this has a really high quality, but is not optimal in terms of file sizes.

After reviewing through other articles online and polls about this topic, I believe that the general consensus is that A.) 320Kbps (CBR or VBR) is simply not worth the extra memory. However, 192 VBR and anything from 192Kbits to 256Kbits gives unnoticeable differences while improving file sizes.

[Do Higher MO3 Bit Rates Pay Off]

[Poll: What is the best MP3 bitrate for good quality with small file size?]

The license agreement is the part that most people ignore during an installation, but I tend to read them on principle.

Then I saw this.

Following last night’s post about the soon-to-be-released-in-a-few-hours Google Chrome browser, we’ve found screenshots of this exciting new software.

Here are some screenshots of Google’s own web browser software: Chrome, which is speculated to be released for Microsoft Windows XP/Vista today at 14:00 EST.

Google Chrome Screenshots [Google Blogoscoped]
A fresh take on the browser [Official Google Blog]
Google Chrome Comic Book [Google Books]
Google Chrome, Google’s Browser Project [Google Blogoscoped]

Wow, leave it up to Google to publically announce the release of its new Web Browser program: Chrome the day before it is released. That’s right! Google will release Google Chrome, a Googlified version of a tabbed web browser based on Firefox 3 and Apple’s WebKit. Not surprisingly, Google decided to announce its release by publishing a 38 pages long comic book featuring techies discussing about the feature of the new Google Chrome.

Here’s some point-to-point features of this new Google Chrome browser software:

• Open Source
• Tabs located above the address URL bar, not below it
• URL auto-completion feature called ‘Omnibox.’
• Super “Incognito Windows” where any browsing that occurs will never be logged and will remain private
• Phishing defender
• Auto web-application launch feature without the need of a URL based application address.

Now, Firefox 3, Opera, and Safari are all great web browsers applications. (Actually, most tech-savvy people would no doubt prefer Firefox.) But come on… this is Google we’re talking about. Just the title “Google Browser” will make you dance in your chair and well, OMG. Like I said, leave it up to Google to sparkle us with wonder.

A fresh take on the browser [Official Google Blog]
Google Chrome Comic Book [Google Books]
Google Chrome, Google’s Browser Project [Google Blogoscoped]

Most of the time, when an article or advertisement tells information about real free credit or free cash, it’s most likely false. In fact, such scammers and advertisers would be telling you that while other people are scammers, they, themselves, aren’t. Now, seriously, the information that I am about to mention is truly a form of free money: credit based cash. However, you do have to do something, but not any of the obligation or financial stuff. You only have to do one type of action, something that most of us perform all the time: Search. That’s right, we use search engines to gather information and to ‘Google’ about data all the time. However, this specific service, known as SwagBucks, actually gives you random, but frequent opportunities to make gain credit money from simply searching. Here’s how it works.

SwagBucks is basically an online search engine tool that uses both the Google platform and that of Ask (AskJeeves). During the first 20 searches of the day, every search will give you an opporunity to win 1 to 5 SwagBucks, which is the form of credit that this program uses. On average, I make about 3 SwagBucks a day and when I’m lucky, 5+. After you’ve registered these credits into your account, you can then visit the SwagBucks store to purchase items such as $5 Amazon gift cards, $5 Subway gift cards, PSPs, Nintendo DS systems, iPods, $10 Barns and Noble gift cards, iPhones, and so many more different prizes and options.

In addition, you can go green and also make SwagBucks credits by donating your cell phone through the SwagBucks cell phone recycling program. Now I’ve never used this cell phone program, since I love my cell phone. But the point is simple, to get SwagBucks, you can: Search, Invite Friends, or Go Green. And all in all, this form of credit cash is absolutely, no obligation, FREE!

Please use my promotion links to help me gain more SwagBucks. I, personally, am saving up to get a free iPhone

SwagBucks Registration [SwagBucks.com]

Many bloggers have attempted to give information on how to watch the 2008 Beijing Olympics online for free. However, most of them, sadly, either loads way too slowly or simply doesn’t work. However, there is one website that does offer many diverse broadcasts of the 2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony that does work.

Justin.tv offers many channels to choose from. Among them are many foreign based live broadcasts of the 2008 Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony.

Here are some working links to watching the 2008 Beijing Olympics live feeds online for free:

http://www.justin.tv/directory/sports [Justin.tv] (Sports section featuring many Olympic live feeds)

http://www.justin.tv/anfoctv2 [Justin.tv] (A Brazilian channel currently showing the Opening Ceremony)
http://www.justin.tv/olimpiada [Justin.tv] (Another foreign channel with free live tv feeds)

Back then, there was a software known as iPhony. It attempted to imitate the design of an iPhone for the Palm OS. However, while the design was cool, it lacked practical usability. Recently, however, a new application known as iPhoneImitation has been released. It combines the coolness of the iPhone home screen design with a practical engine that can function as a Palm base launcher.

The iPhoneImitation can be set as the default launcher so that whenever the home screen button is pressed, the iPhoneImitation launcher automatically starts. In addition to the various launch buttons, this emulator also sports a side panel for media playback control. Combine this with the Palm OS and you get a practical Palm-iPhone emulator. Best of all, it’s completely free!

Requirements:

• Any Hardware
• Palm OS v5.0 HiRes

Main Features:

• Support for Treo 680,650,700p (I’ve tested this on the Palm Centro and it works.)
• Default Launcher option
• Bluetooth and Carrier signal for Treo support
• Animation Support (This option allows for animated transitions while starting applications.)

iPhoneImitation v1.2D [Freeware Palm OS]
Download iPhoneImitation [Softpedia]

There are tons of free proxy servers. From web based services to desktop softwares, proxy servers are the norm to hide our trails. However, they are not secure. A normal proxy server configuration would only hide your identity and information. It, however, does not block 3rd party access to view the data being sent. This is where SSH servers come into play. An SSH server is basically a server that interfaces incoming and outgoing traffic through the SSH protocol. Unlike raw proxy server data, SSH-2 protocol is extremely secure. Normal Sniffers can, at most, steal some data from SSH-1 connections. However, SSH-2 has a much higher security configurations, making it an idea way to transfer data and information. To achieve this, “SSH Tunneling” is performed to connect a client to a server and to let the server forward specific ports required by the client’s internet usage.

This allows 2 main advantages:

1. The client’s IP Address will be masked by the SSH server’s IP Address, allowing anonymity.
2. The connection between the client and server is extremely secure, allowing a safe browsing experience.

Now, getting to the point… Wordpress blogger, Phreakaholic, has generously setup a Free SSH Server for public use. This is extremely rare. There are countless free proxy servers, but near zero free SSH servers. Thus, use this wisely and DO NOT abuse it. The server’s connection information is constantly changing and its data is posted by Phreakaholic.

Free SSH Account [Phreakaholic]

In Ubuntu, there is an infamous issue with the Gnome clipboard manager. (Actually, it’s not even decent enough to be called a “clipboard manager.”) Many people face extremely annoying problems of losing data when copying and pasting, especially when the copied source is closed. Ironically, this problem has not been fixed in the recently released 8.04 Hardy Heron.

The Symptoms

• Pasting from a copy returns empty.
• Clipboard empties when the copied source is closed.
• The user yells in annoyance as the system clipboard fails.

To solve the main issue of clipboard data loss, install Glipper for Ubuntu.

Glipper is a GNOME based clipboard manager. It is basically the GNOME counterpart of the KDE Klipper. Because Glipper is written in Python, it is customizable with many different Add-Ons and extensions. However, Glipper lacks the ability to handle image copy pastes.

How to Install:

Open the Synaptic Package Manager
System > Administration > Synaptic Lackage Manager

Search for ‘Glipper’ and mark it for installation. Afterwards, apply the installation.

Add Glipper to your GNOME Panel.
Right Clip Panel > Add to Panel > Drag “Clipboard manager” to an appropriate place in your panel.