Why Google can have a much better Social Networking Site than Facebook

To me, Social Networking is all about knowing whats happening with my friends and how the application engages me into more socially active activities. Going through this PDF, we come to know of how complex is the world behind social networking sites, all because of privacy & security. Let me not dwell into that. That article does too good a research of it. Let me try to attempt why a social networking site from Google can be more appealing and engaging than what we see today in Facebook. Let me call Google's Social Networking Site as GSN. And ya, it is for the Strong Ties. Weak and Temporary Ties may accordingly have these features or not.

1. Search by photograph
We have FB suggesting friends depending on the number of mutual friends and by an email id. But Google can give us a friend by face. If I have a friend's photograph, I can upload & Google will search for me all the people who match to that photograph. How is this possible and how can I say this? I can say this because of the superb Face Recognition implementation in Picasa Web. It automatically recognizes similar faces and suggests who that person may be, depending on the name tags which were provided earlier.

2. Travelling for work/vacation
If I were to use Google Latitude in GNS and say that I am travelling to so and so place, GNS would tell me

• What is the current climatic conditions of that place (Google Weather)
• What is the current time and timezone changes needed (Google Time)
• Currency conversion that would be required and what is the current conversion rate going on (Google Currency Conversions)
• What are the local businesses which I may be interested in (Google Local Business Search)
• What are the noted and well known restaurants / theme parks which are famous in that location alongwith their ratings (Google SideWiki / Google Places)
• Latest news about that place (Google News)
• What are the routes to go to these places, how much time it will take (Google Maps)
• Who are my friends who are currently located in that place (Simple search / Google Location)
• How many are my colleagues, how many are college-mates (Simple search aggregation over friend's profiles), their phones numbers with an option to call them immediately and talk or send an SMS (Google Voice / Google Voice & Video Chat). This would also provide a parameterized radius to include nearby friends and other friends who visited it earlier and the videos which they have uploaded of that place.
• Following this update, automatically my Vacation Responder gets created for those dates (like the one in Gmail), Google Chat status gets set (Google Talk) and event gets created in my Calendar so that I can invite friends. Also, these dates get blocked for others to know that I am out of station (Google Calendar).
• This data can also get created as a status update with an option for me to post.
• An option to view the demographics of the place from Google Public Data.
• In recent past, which all friends of mine visited that place, how they spent their time, where all they went, what all they did (Status updates), what they highlighted as a must watch, must do, etc.
• Similarly, who are the renowned artists/celebrities from that place? When they last visited and any other news.
• What is the local language and any translation that may be required (Google Translation).
• When flight number is stored as part of the travel details, it will keep track of the flight (Google Flight Tracker).
• Movies which are shown in that location on my dates of visit with their timings (Google Movie Times).
• Any sports which are undertaken in that location or within a radius (parametrized) and the current scores, depending on the sports interests that I have listed in my Google Profile (Google Sports Scores)
• All related Videos (from Youtube) for the above activities at relevant locations.

3. Info about my profile
I will know people from which part of the world, with what operating systems, through which browsers are viewing my profile and many more. Yes, integrated Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools to my Profile! Must be fun :)

4. Trends
What is the latest trend among my friends and their activities, category-wise. The feel of it.
Yup! Its Google Trends that would do this job

5. Profile Links

• From the profile, Google Books will be linked to the books that I have read or planning to read, which are part of my library, etc.
• Movies will be linked to Google Movie Times to give any updates on those movies, etc. 
• Sports info will be linked to Google Sports Scores & Schedules (from Google Calendar) for my current location & other locations, to update on any upcoming matches, etc. 
• Plus, features like favourites teams & settings on when to alert me (Google Alerts comes in!) with parameters of which teams, what place, what timings, etc. will help the person know if any relevant activity is around. Updates from friends on these set parameters will add to the interest of the user.
• Bookmark interesting profiles, links, events, etc. (an extension to Google Bookmarks).

6. Health
Though information regarding health is a very sensitive issue, GSN can give one an option to fill up the details & get to know a lot of related things - from within friends, from medical fraternity, from news, from standards practised, diet needed, personalized advice, etc. All this can straight come up from Google Health, but this time socialized.

GSN can provide all the above information in a clean & a pleasing interface.

Thus, with the existing services that Google provides and the engineering outlook it has, it can create a Social Networking experience which no Facebook has provided yet. I do understand that this is not the comprehensive and exhaustive listing but is surely a good starting point to build on.

You think you have some more/better ideas that can contribute to this list? Have  your say ...

Storage Area Network (SAN)

This is simple jot down of things related to Storage Area Network, some specific to HP's EVA 4400.

Components:

EVA – Enterprise Virtual Array
LUN – Logical Unit Number
HSV Controllers – Hierarchial Storage Virtualization Controllers (like VCS & XCS)
LS – Loop Switches
DAE – Disk Array Enclosures (Chassis)
DDE – Disk Drive Enclosures
EPB – Enhanced Port Bypass mode
PDU – Power Distribution Unit
PDM – Power Distribution Models
EAB – Enclosure Address Bus
EMU – Environmental Monitoring Unit
SMS – Storage Management Server
SSSU – Storage System Scripting Utility
EVA Perf – EVA Perfromance Monitoring
42U Rack – is a usual Rack with length of 42 RU. One RU (Rack Unit) or “U-Space” is unit for measuring length of a Server Rack. 1 U = 1.75inches (4.45 cm)

iLO – integrated Lights Out.
Controller contains – Control cache, Read cache, Write cache, Mirror cache

Softwares:

CA EVA – Continuous Access Enterprise Virtual Array (remote replication)
BC – Business Copy (local replication)
RSM – Replication Solution Manager (has GUI to manage CA, BC & features)
VCS – Virtual Controller Software
XCS – Xtensible Controller Software
Code Load – Controller Firmware

Concepts:

Has a pair of HSV Controllers to maintain redundancy at Controller level
Minimum of 8 physical disks are required for creating LUNs (constitutes one Disk Group)
SAN is called of configuration nCmD – n controllers, m Disks. eg. 2C4D = A SAN of 2 Controllers & 4 Disks
1 EMU for each DAE
SNS gives WWN to hosts
Snapshot – point-in-time backup, not continuous I/O. It is always delta data.
Snapclone – Continuous I/O. So, overhead. But is a exact replica. Can be presented as Vdisk.
Mirrorclone – It is at Container level. HP is getting rid of it.
Container – Space has to be specified while creating. This is not used for categorization
Folder – Space need not be specified while creating. This is used for categorization
Data replication is done at Container-level or Vdisk level.
For Mirrorclone, Container is a mandatory. But this concept is slowly going away from market.
Snapclone is a better solution.
EVA Backup is not possible with Command View EVA. Need to use SSSU.
Max LUN size is 2TB, min is 1GB.
Failover – Switches from A to B controller.
Failback – Switches back from B to A once A is alive again.

Options in LUN configuration:

Write Back – Acknowledges after writing to Controller Cache
Write Through – Acknowledges only after writing to hard disk
LUN Mapping – Visible, presented to Host
LUN Masking – Hidden, not presented to Host


Facts:

Battery life – 4 yrs expectancy
Customer cannot Code Load. It has to be with HP's support only.

Features:

One can install OS on one of the LUNs & boot all servers from SAN
Applications can be installed on SAN and servers can start applications from SAN

FC Switch:

Topologies: FC – AL (Arbitrated Loop), FC – SW, FC – P2P
Port types: N_port – on the host
F_port – on the FC Switch
E_port – port for linking to FC-Switches
EX_port – on the FC-Router
U_port – Universal Port


HBA – Host Bus Adapters
WWN – World Wide Network
WWNN – World Wide Node Number (This is the FC Switch number)
WWPN – World Wide Port Number (Port numbers on the FC Switch)

FC – Fibre Channel
FCP – Fibre Channel Protocol
FCIP – Fibre Channel Over IP
iFCP – internet Fibre Channel Protocol

Misc:

MPR – Multi-Protocol Router

IB – InfiniBand (faster speeds than FC)

Binary Prefixes

We know of kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, terabytes, etc.
In SI units, kilo represents 1000 (=10 power 3), whereas in computer world, it represents 1024, mega represents 1000000 (= 10 power 6) whereas in computer world it represents 1048567. This created ambiguity in their usage and practices. To get rid of this ambiguity, Binary prefixes, were created.

kilobinary = kibi
megabinary = mebi
gigabinary = gibi
terabinary = tebi and so on.

So, with this adoption these units were rewritten as kibibytes, mebibytes, gibibytes, tebibytes, etc. Similarly, the new representation exists for bits viz., kibibits, mebibits, gibibits, tebibits, etc.
This way, kilobytes, megabytes are supposed to be used as their SI counterparts representing 1000 bytes and 1000000 bytes.

Google SideWiki

Its one more 'provide-your-comments' application from Google. Sounds interesting but as pointed out by many, it may be another way of adding stuff about stuff on web.

Webmasters do NOT have an option to enable / disable this feature for their website, as of now. So, people can misuse to generate spam or write nonsense about a website and give a wrong impression. This becomes more dangerous because if you have a SideWiki enabled browser, comments are available right-away (if any, ofcourse) when you visit a webpage. One consolation is claiming a website on Google Webmasters Tools and projecting comments on SideWiki as Owner. This way, owners' comments will always appear at the top of others' comments on SideWiki.

As of now, it does not provide feeds which can be trapped and fed. But its possible to publish on Blogger and also to Share (after commenting) on Twitter, Facebook, etc. People are using round-about-way to create its feeds by publishing on a new invisible blog and taking feeds from that blog.

A con for its usage is, every webpage takes longer time to show up. The browser (I was using FF3.5.5 GTB6. GTB stands for Google Toolbar) hangs for good 3-5 secs. I disabled SideWiki, and it works fine.

SEO Tips & Techniques

I remember long back reading something about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and brushing it aside as something BIG. But as I see it now, after spending considerable amount of time on it, its all common sense.

Trouble with it was, when I searched about it, there was no one location to give all the information regarding it. And I landed up making a consolidated list for myself. So, below is the compilation of same.

• Title: Title of the page must be unique, indicative of page's content. This appears as the main link in Google Search
• Meta tags: Keywords - no use, can be ignored. Description - must exist briefly describing page's content. Googlebot - if you are biased towards Google :P
• Forward slash: While specifying homepage, do not explicitly state home.htm or default.htm or index.htm. Instead leave a trailing forward slash. Eg. http://domain.com/ instead of http://domain.com/index.htm
  
• WWW: site with www and without www are perceived as different sites. WWW is used when there are more than one services provided by a particular domain. Else, not preferred. Eg. http://www.domain.com/, http://service1.domain.com/, http://service2.domain.com/
• Canonical URLs: Clearly specify which is your home page so that there is a consistent single homepage url. Since, http://www.domain.com/, http://domain.com/, http://domain.com/index.htm, http://www.domain.com/index.htm - all point to same page. If clearly specified, search engine will take care of showing one single reference giving consolidated pagerank.
  
• URL Structures: It is very important that there is a structure to the way pages are stored and rendered. It makes site management easier and makes sense to the end-user while using it.
• Page name: If a page name has more than one word then
• separate them with a hyphen (best choice). Eg. http://domain.com/word1-word2-word3.htm
• separate them with a underscore (next best choice only if above is not possible). Eg. http://domain.com/word1_word2_word3.htm
• no space (worst choice) since searching with any of the individual words will never yield this page
• Alt tags: Alt tags must be given for images for only this text helps search engines know what a particular image is all about. When searched, these tags come into picture.
• Sitemap.xml: One must have a sitemap.xml in root directory. This sitemap can be submitted to search engines like Google (know more) or Yahoo (know more). (How to create one in Dreamweaver). This helps search engine know the complete structure of a website even if their automated crawlers fail to function and index accurately.
  
• Robots.txt: This is another kind of a file which must be present in root directory. This file talks to crawlers / bots which come for indexing our site. So, any specific instruction to the bots like 'do not index http://domain.htm/private.htm' can be given. A standard search engine listens to the instructions provided in this file. One can create this file using Google Webmasters Tools.
  
• .httaccess (for apache web server): This is next important file in root directory. It does not have any name, but the extension .htaccess. This is required for all 301 permanent redirects, 302 temporary redirects, Custom page for 404 not found, etc. and can be set up here. For IIS, these options exist in 'Right click ->  Properties'. .htaccess is a very powerful tool in apache. Unfortunately, its cumbersome to manage the same in IIS.
• Proper HTML tags: When its a header, give h1 tag so that search engine, while indexing, knows it is the header. If custom heading style is required, one can create h1 css and apply. Another example can be code tag for programming codes
• RSS feeds: RSS feeds, when provided, must be full. Partial feeds are not that appreciated.
• Favicon: Its nice to have it. (Also read Site Identity Button)
• Google's tips on SEO starter guide (pdf)

Tools to analyse, monitor and enhance:

• Google Analytics
• Google Webmasters tools
• Google Translate
• Google Custom Search (because search can be analyzed too!)
• Google Maps
• Page Speed 
  

I went through lots and lots of websites for this "short note on SEO". My references are all available on the public shared page of Google Reader ofcourse interspersed with many other reads of mine. Otherwise, my sources are ... rather my source is Internet :-). So, thanks to it!
My SEO subscriptions for further reading, if any useful.

Data Liberation Front

Google is centralizing (or starting as a concentrated effort) in Importing and Exporting data from Google Products. Their motto

Users should be able to control the data they store in any of Google's products.  Our team's goal is to make it easier to move data in and out.

Site: http://www.dataliberation.org/

They have listed import/export options against each google product on that website and are adding better options like the recent addition the "Convert, Zip and Download" feature in Google Docs

Add GBookmarks, GTranslate, etc. in GReader's Send-to option

Google Reader has got an option to Send to under a feed, in August, 2009. With this, one can share a particular post on any of the popular sites which many of the Sharing buttons give. A good thing is that they have provided an option to add custom Send-to options under Settings.

One can add Google Bookmarks to these sets of options by adding the following code:
Name: Google Bookmarks (or anything of your choice)
URL: http://www.google.com/bookmarks/mark?op=edit&output=popup&b
Icon URL: http://www.google.com/favicon.ico

To add Google Translate:
Name: Autotranslate
URL: http://translate.google.com/translate?u=${url}
Icon URL: http://translate.google.com/favicon.ico

To add Add-to-any:
Name: Add to any
URL: http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=${url}&linkname=${title}
Icon URL: http://www.addtoany.com/favicon.ico

It would be fun to get / add as many links to Send-to as needed.

Auto System Log Manager

We all know how our bosses keep on asking us to log our activities for the day. There are days when you are so occupied with activities that logging our activities itself becomes a huge over-head. Plus, we do feel at the back of our mind that our precious time is getting wasted in doing something which is undoubtedly good, but if only we had someone to log our activities!

Well, if not every activity of ours, atleast there should be a way to auto-log the activities which we do on system, right? Atleast some things which are very generic in nature. Fascinated I am to have found one such app on this website. This person is amazing, gets one (new) app a day and they are all simple ones. One of them is this Time Management app. One can download the app and also the Source Code!!! So that way one can customize it to their needs. What it does? From the website,

Time Management allows you to keep track of what you are doing on your PC. I plan on using it to help me fill out my timesheet at the office. The application resides in the systray, and writes to a CSV file each time you switch applications, or the title bar of the current app changes.

File format:
[date],[time],[process name],[window title],[duration used]

Find the total list of Apps Download page here.

I am sure, many of us would like it. Currently, using it on my system. I am damn impressed! :) Thanks Dana.

List of connected users in Oracle

To know the list of connected users to the Oracle Database, run the below sql

select distinct username, osuser, terminal, utl_inaddr.get_host_address(terminal) ip_address, status, logon_time
from v$session
where username is not null
order by username, osuser;

GChat tips

A word in GChat can be emphasized in many ways, most common being Bold, Italics & Underline.
Knew that adding * on either side of the word (eg. *word* = word) would make it bold, but learnt from the 10tip of Gmail NInja tips page that we can even italicize by adding _ on either side of the word (eg. _word_ = word) and with - on either side, it strikes the word (eg. -word- = word).[SOURCE]

Site Identity Button

We observe favicon for a site and with new firefox, even some text next to it. Firefox calls it Site Identity Button. It has three levels each with a different color:

• Grey: No information from site
• Blue: The connection is secure
• Green: Not only the connection is secure but it also comes with the owners information

Creating Sitemap in Dreamweaver

There was a need to create a Sitemap and submit it to Google Webmaster Tools. Surprisingly, I did not find an option of creating Sitemap in Dreamweaver 8. So, downloaded an extension Google Sitemap Generator and added it to Dreamweaver which created Sitemap very easily.

Update: I did get to see a way to view Sitemap in DMW. Can save it as an image. But, yet to know if Dreamweaver has an option inbuilt, to save it as .xml

META tags for improved search

Came across this webpage on why we need not use META Tags in our Webpages. Truly, no search engine will completely depend on META Tags for their indexing else, by now Search Results would have shown only spammed results.

Never use META tag in html, syntax.

Surprisingly, Google claims to be considering META tags (a bit strongly too!) for a webpage. Google talks about it here.

Update 25th Sept, 2009: Thanks to the comment posted by Vitaly, came to know of the latest blogspot made by Google on their Google Webmaster Central blog on 21st Sept, 2009 where they very clearly mention that Google does not use "keywords"  meta tag for their Web search. Occasionally, when needed, they use "description" meta tag. Their Custom Search Engine does consider meta tags though.

Thin Clients

My new fascination is Thin Client Systems. Read about it only today and tell you, the number and kind of advantages it gives are numerous, specifically so in the area of maintenance. The below pps gives very precise and to-the-point FAQs.

Need to study the traffic that it will generate on the network. If that goes fine and 1GBps of network bandwidth safices the need, then we are on a go! :)



If you wish to download this pps as ppt or pdf, click on the Open in a new window icon in the menubar of the presentation. It will open up in a new window where you will be able to do multiple things with the presentation. In any case, this is the direct link to new window

Screens of Death

Screens of death are of different color, like Yellow, Red, Black, Green, Purple, Blue, etc.

Some of the applications have improved. They display images like Sad Mac, Google Chrome Sad tab, etc.

OpenID

Now a days, we see OpenID on so many websites. Wanted to know what this concept was about.

In simple terms, OpenID is a Universal ID (specifically a URL) which once created, can be used on an OpenID complaint website for a specific activity. For eg. on Blogger (OpenID compliant website), one can comment (specific activity) using an OpenID. One need not create a separate OpenID if one already has a Gmail id (or Google Accounts ID), Yahoo id, a blog on Blogger, etc. Best part about OpenID is that it is not dependent on any single OpenID provider. One can switch to any OpenID provider as one wishes, without monopoly of any specific company. It is an open standard with decentralized server.

So, next thing to know is which all are the OpenID providers. The list is here as well as here.

I wanted to use Gmail as an OpenID. To create an OpenID URL for Google Account ID or Gmail ID go here [SOURCE]. To use your Blog URL as an OpenID, details are given here.

Know how to run your own OpenID here.

Go here to get to know about having your own OpenID.

More on OpenID:

Spread OpenID

OpenID Foundation

Information on Diseases

Google Health, happens to be a place where one can enter medical health care data so that it can be accessed across the globe, avoiding our carrying health records physically alongwith us during our journeys.

With added features like Import Medical Records (from selected hospitals, as yet), Graph test results, Share profile, Upload images, print wallet-size Health Profile, etc. it is doing more than just giving us an option to enter data like what Excel gives :). One thing among all these that is striking is the More Info option next to each Diagnosis Condition which one can link to their profile.

Here is one example on Acne

Very impressive. It contains all the information that one (as a patient) needs to know on Acne. They are adding for other conditions too! The complete list appears here. I doubt anywhere else it is given in such a complete fashion. I checked on Wiki for information on Acne. The info given on Google's Reference page is more comprehensive, clean and informative.

Interestingly, there is a post on Google blog saying SNOMED-CT is a better way of coding diseases than International Classificaton of Diseases (ICD-9) (New versions: ICD-10 CM / PCS). When Google makes such statement, its implications can be huge especially when whole of USA uses ICD coding!

Lets wait and see, if in any way, this influences the type of diseases coding system adopted by the hospitals across the globe.

Chrome Malware detection

I had clicked to go to http://www.gmail-backup.com/gmail-backup-0-105 to download a freeware for Gmail backup. Chrome threw this screen up warning against malware from site my-dom.info on this webpage

It provides one link to know more about my-dom.info. On clicking Google gives this information

Cool! I mean, I am impressed by the amount of useful information they are providing.

I tried the same site with Firefox and it took me straight to the webpage without any warning :)

Dumb Microsoft!

Cant imagine that Microsoft can go so dumb. [Source]

QR Code & Microsoft Tags

Heard about QR codes (QR stands for Quick Response) today at this post on Google Docs Blog. QR Code is another way of storing information, like Bar Code, through 2-D images developed and popularly used in Japan.

One can create an image like the one shown aside. This image is for this very blog.There are QR Readers available (most of the phones now a days are coming with QR Reader embedded). When the reader scans this QR Code on their cell phone (with GPRS enabled), it will get one to this blog.





The fields & patterns correspond and convey a particular information. The image beside gives some insight into it.

Wiki has got all the information in short and crisp fashion, worth a read.

One can create this code by using Google API.

URL for creating code for this blog was: http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?chs=250x250&cht=qr&chl=http://robadilavoro.blogspot.com/

Change the url and have yours! :)

This template is the QR Code Gadget template available in Google docs. They say

Make a QR code of your data. Just put in the data and instantly a QR code is created matching a comma separated list of your data.

Surely worth a try.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Microsoft has got a similar one called Microsoft Tags


Signup, Create Tags and share them. Need not worry if you dont have a Windows Live login id. One can Signup with Gmail Id as Windows Live ID and use it for all future purposes.

The Tag created for this blog by Microsoft Tag looks like the one shown aside





If these were not enough, Wiki gives a list of other types of codes existing. The list is as below:

• Aztec Code
• Barcode
• Data Matrix
• E-Reader
• CueCat
• High Capacity Color Barcode
• PDF417
• Semacode
• ShotCode

Friend Feed's SSP

This is what I find today when I log into FriendFeed to add My Library notifications to its feeds.
It is an advertisement of FriendFeed itself amidst feeds that were displaying the latest happenings (Click on the image to see it as it is).
The best part is what is written in light grey to the right-side-top of the advertisement. It reads

Shameless self-promotion

 Wow! Atleast someone knows it is! ;)

Google insisted for secure Gmail & Docs

This piece of article from Security Watch on Google is intriguing. Google has been asked to secure the complete Gmail and GDocs sessions. Though Gmail already has a feature to optionally choose it but not defaulted, these security safeguarders and law makers felt it is not safe to leave it without HTTPS and have urged Google to secure it completely.

These people have not questioned Yahoo, Rediff or for that matter any other mail provider. Gmail was the first one to introduce HTTPS into free mailing environment and they only are questioned for not having it mandatorily put up throughout! Its ridiculous.

Surprisingly, Google is going to work on securing the whole session from next tuesday onwards, on a selected user's base

IEAK

We needed an option to customize IE on over 160 systems in our institution which has standard settings, to let our applications run. Everytime a system crashes, we re-install WinXP and we have to manually change settings to achieve its compatibility with our application. This becomes tedious as we grow by years, still doing the same stuff.

Thanks to Channa, IEAK - Internet Explorer Administration Kit made its appearance and now we dont struggle manually making custom settings changes in IE.

• Firstly, download the package from this site depending on whether you want to deploy on IE6 or IE7 or IE8. We downloaded for IE6 (soon we will for IE7 too!)
  
• Once downloaded, install it.
• Go to Internet Explorer Customization Wizard from All Program. It is here that all the settings are changed and profiles are created. Only place where one can get stuck in the process is at Automatic Version Synchronization (AVS) where it shows the current version of IE on system and asks for updating it through Internet. We will need Internet Connection only during this time of the configuration. It stores these downloaded files in \IEAK-Program-Folder\IEAK6\Downloads\EN\
• Once, all the components are up-to-date, then one can proceed step-by-step and customize the standard values which one wants on each system in the organization.
• In the end, it creates the profile build in the Build folder of the IEAK Program Folder. One has to click on the IE Setup file in the FLAT folder of this Build folder on the client system. On this, it will restart the client system and while startup, it customizes the IE settings.

Quite useful.

ATI Catalyst (CCC)

ATI Catalyst alias Catalyst Control Center (CCC) is a front end to tweak the hardware functions like monitor settings, 3D settings, etc.
Similarly, Intel too has Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) Driver [FROM INTEL] which gives options to tweak the settings thru a GUI.

Google Waves Web Elements & Showcases Fusion

New announcements from Google:

• Google Web Elements: http://www.google.com/webelements/ 
• Google Showcase: http://www.google.com/help/ig/showcase/ 
• Google Fusion: http://tables.googlelabs.com/ Manage Online Database with collaborative tools of chatting, sharing, tracking changes, etc. FAQs 
• Google Translation Toolkit: http://translate.google.com/toolkit/ FAQs 
• The Next Big Thing from Google - Google Wave: http://wave.google.com/ 

Password encryption: Salt & Nonce

Salt Cryptography and Cryptography Nonce (Nonce: number used once) are added layers of security while storing passwords (Salt) and transacting passwords to-&-fro between the client and server (Nonce). A good read at Wiki.

GTasks in GCal

Google Tasks have been integrated with Google Calendar (finally! Expected this to be the first step than following its integration with Gmail). Features are awesome.

• Once a Task is added to GTasks with a due date, it becomes a day's event in GCalendar.
• One can create a Tasks from Calendar (only in All Day and Month views only).
• Using Sort option in Actions of Tasks, one can finish in the order of due date
  

Things expected in future:

• Assigning Priorities to Tasks (Its available in standalone GTasks app).
  
• Adding Time aspect to the due date. Currently, its only at the Date level and not at Date & Time level
• Default Calendar Notifications to get applicable to the Task (as in a Calendar event).

Access Calendar events through SMS:

Similar to SMS events usage in Google SMS Channels, one can create an event, know which is the next event for the day, total agenda for the day, next day's schedule - all through sms! Number: 48368 (GVENT). Its currently available only for US citizens. How to create using SMS? They give an example (Source):

"Send a message with something like "Shopping with Sarah at Monterey Market 5pm Saturday," Google Calendar can figure out what you mean and pop the new event into your calendar."

Horoscope Calendar:

 I personally liked the Horoscope Public Calendar. So, if one is interested, just click on the links below and get the respective zodiac sign's calendar added to your list of calendars (Source)

"For some cosmic direction, get your daily horoscope directly in Google Calendar. Just click the icon showing your sign in the upper-left corner of the day to read your overview, courtesy of tarot.com.
To subscribe to your horoscope calendar, click the appropriate link in the following table:

Horoscope Calendars
	Aries		Libra
	Taurus		Scorpio
	Gemini		Sagittarius
	Cancer		Capricorn
	Leo		Aquarius
	Virgo		Pisces

 "

Google Contacts

This thought had been there for quite a while that there should be a Birthday field in GContacts. And when we enter it, it should automatically create an event in GCal [or give a choice whether we want to create or not] with Recurring type, Repeating Annually and stuff like that. Who doesnt have! Even a simple 14 field contacts manager in a Sony Ericsson mobile phone has it [including setting a custom ringtone for each user! :)] which at the end of adding a birthday prompts whether we want to add reminder to the calendar. This reminder in SE automatically reminds every year!

Well, GContacts has come out as a separate service from Google. It does contain the Birthday field, an Anniversary too, plus Other option [good news! :)]. Though integration with GCal is yet a feature to look at [bad news:(]. Now, one can maintain quite good amount of data here. It is better managed than Gmail Contacts. Though some fields here are duplicated from GProfile. The service is available even in GApps [after admin enables it. Steps given here].

Hoping a day comes when we will have to enter our information only once, and it will get reflected in all possible places.

Sharing Content

RSS feeds is the most common way of sharing content on web. Almost all the blogs and relevant websites have this enabled. With RSS feed agregators, one can subscribe and be upto date.

With the popularization of Socializing websites, one wants to share what one reads or likes with his/her friends on social networks (like facebook, stumble, digg, tweet, etc.) or email it to them. Thats when the concept of sharing using button came up and became popular.

One can give these options to the readers as text (using FeedBurner), or as button (using Tell-A-Friend or Add-this). They add themselves up at the bottom of each post (in blogs) or can be placed according to one's own wish.

These utilities give added features of multiple ways of subscribing, sharing and analysing the traffic/crowd that is visiting the site.

Print Odd and Even pages in Excel

In Microsoft Word, we have an option of printing Even and Odd pages which helps in saving paper by printing on both sides. But the same option does not exist in Excel.

One can add the following VBScript in Macros of the Excel workboook and print Odd or Even pages.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub printalterantepages()
    Dim Totalpages As Long
    Dim StartPage As Long
    Dim Page As Integer

    StartPage = 1  '1 = Odd and 2 = Even

    'Or use the InputBox suggestion from Gord Dibben
    'StartPage = InputBox("Enter 1 for Odd, 2 for Even")

    Totalpages = Application.ExecuteExcel4Macro("GET.DOCUMENT(50)")
    For Page = StartPage To Totalpages Step 2
        ActiveSheet.PrintOut from:=Page, To:=Page, _
                             Copies:=1, Collate:=True
    Next
End Sub
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As stated in the code, one has to change the StartPage value from 1 to 2 to print Odd and then Even pages.

IM commands for FriendFeed

@me text - post to your feed
@room text - post to room
@room - list entries in room
@N text - comment on entry N
@user - list entries in user's feed
like N - like entry N
pause - Pause notifications
resume - Resume notifications
list - List recent entries

These are some of the commands that we can use in GTalk / GChat to post to FriendFeed.


Here is the complete list

IMEI - International Mobile Equipment Identity

With announcement against all mobiles carrying invalid or no IMEI numbers (an article by Techtree), there was a need to know if we were owning a cell phone with correct IMEI number or not. So, here is the site where one can verify if a particular IMEI is valid or not: http://www.numberingplans.com/?page=analysis&sub=imeinr

From this page, one can analyse Phone, IMSI, IMEI, SIM, ISPC

More on IMSI

EMR - Electromagnetic Radiation

We all have heard about the hazards of radiations coming out of cell phones and other electronic devices and that we have to guard ourselves against them by reducing our exposure to them, or completely eliminating them from our life-styles.

Here is a website where they present products, specific to the items that we use in our daily life, which will remove / reduce radiation effects on our body.

http://cogentemr.com/

Price of a Cell phone chip is about $19 on average and of a cell phone pouch ranges from $15 to 65$. Pick your choice!

HTML Signatures in Gmail

Now one can create HTML signatures in Gmail and insert them using a Greasemonkey script: User Script 


In Gmail, it creates a box (shown aside) where one can create a signature.





Firefox Add-on: Black Canvas Gmail Signatures

In their own words,
Automatically inserts HTML signatures into your Gmail messages based on which address you are sending from. Supports up to four signatures for each address you have set up. Works for Compose Message and Reply/Forward.

SMS Notification for a mail in Gmail

Now one can get an sms notification for

• any mail that appears into Gmail / Yahoo
  
• a specific mail that appears into Gmail / Yahoo
  

How? Answer is Way2SMS.com

Way2SMS has come long way from its preliminary old. Their UI resembles the AJAX technology and has its similarities with Gmail UI. As in 160by2, one will get the 'A message from Recipient's Name' instead of 'A message from WAY2SMS.COM' which is common for all the free web sms websites.

It provides with 110 characters as against 90 of 160by2.com and Indyarocks.com

One can set a mail alerts for Gmail and Yahoo. The funda is: Whenever a mail appears in the inbox of Way2SMS.com, one can activate an alert, which will send an sms for every mail that appears in way2sms.com. So, to get an alert for all mails that appear in Gmail or Yahoo, create a filter (to suit the needs) and say Forward to your Way2SMS.com mail id and Woah! You get an sms whenever a mail meeting those conditions appears in Gmail or Yahoo! Help of Way2SMS for Gmail Configuration and Yahoo Configuration.

Chat with both Yahoo and Gmail users simultaneously.

For other features, sign up for Way2SMS.com and check out.

gaiald in Gmail

Today, as I was updated contacts in Gmail, there was some value appearing against a legend gaiald. I initially tried finding out from where it was picking, but could not make out. It was part of More Information -> Other -> Drop-down (Home, Work, Custom, gaiald)
Tried googling, nothing worth showed what it was.

Well, for a normal contact, this option does not appear at all. Only Home, Work, Custom appears. But it was appearing for mail ids to which mails were sent for the first time from mobile phone. As I was getting convinced that the mail ids which were sent for the first from mobile phone were getting that particular id added, I checked for one more person for whom a mail was sent through mobile phone. This contact was under Suggested Contacts and that value did not exist! Added this contact to My Contacts group. Yet it did not appear.

Though for most part of it, it seems to be due to automatic addition of mail id when a mail was sent through mobile phone, this one exception is still a mystery.

Greasemonkey

I am sure many of us heard a lot about the terminology Greasemonkey but did not understand what it is all about.

Greasemonkey is an add-on onto Firefox. There are reports of it working even on Opera, Safari, IE to limited extent though. This is the master add-on which is like a container for all the 'User-scripts' which gets installed into Greasemonkey.
User-scripts are javascripts (extended-AJAX too) created to customize look, feel and functionalities of a webpage.
There are thousands of existing User-scripts available at the official website of User-scripts
Greasespot is Greasemonkey's homepage

Popular list of user-scripts:
by online-tech-tips
by Firefox facts
by Life-hacker

Extract Day, Hour, Time from Date Datatype in Oracle

There was a need to write a query which would give output for data which took place between two specific hours in a day, in a particular a month, for a set of departments.

Set of departments - group by function
for a month - simple between and to_date conversion

for specific hours, day, time - Extract function

Extract(year from to_timestamp(to_char(column_name,'dd-Mon-yyyy HH:MI:SS AM')))
Extract(month from to_timestamp(to_char(column_name,'dd-Mon-yyyy HH:MI:SS AM')))
Extract(day from to_timestamp(to_char(column_name,'dd-Mon-yyyy HH:MI:SS AM')))

Extract(hour from to_timestamp(to_char(column_name,'dd-Mon-yyyy HH:MI:SS AM')))
Extract(minute from to_timestamp(to_char(column_name,'dd-Mon-yyyy HH:MI:SS AM')))
Extract(sec from to_timestamp(to_char(column_name,'dd-Mon-yyyy HH:MI:SS AM'))) 

There was some bit of struggle in finding the correct format. If column is of the datatype DATE then, one has to to_char it. Without to_charing it, it invariably returns only 0 (zero)

Download Flash in Firefox, without any software

One can download Flash or for that matter any media element in a webpage when viewed in Firefox, without any additional tool, or software or add-on to Firefox. How?

Well, say there is a flash file (Shockwave File with extension .swf) on a webpage and you want to download it. Then,

• Open that particular webpage
• Click on Tools in the top Menu bar
• Then, from the list of options, click on Page Info. This option is one of the least explored option in Firefox. It gives all the information about the current web page that is open in Firefox.
  
• Go to the second tab - Media
• Under Address heading, it will show the location of the flash media object
• Below, on the same screen, there would be an option as Save As..., using which one can save the flash as it is from the webpage!

Ofcourse, this is useful when one wants to download only one Flash file from a webpage. Plus, one has to open the webpage where this Flash would be 'active'. If there are only links to Flash objects on a webpage, one cannot download them. Media info does not show them as part of flash objects, but as image objects.

If one needs to download multiple flash objects from a webpage, then one can download softwares which do this work for us.

P.S: Interestingly, found a site which details multiple ways of tweaking FF and IE to download flash objects.

Firefox Add-ons

Finally, this post has become a reality. I had mentioned in an earlier post that soon there would be a post on my favourite add-ons from firefox. There would surely be more than these, but currently these Add-ons are actively decorating my Firefox. In Firefox's own words:

"You spend more time online than on the road, but you probably think more about avoiding traffic than enjoying the best of the Web.

So, why not customize your Firefox for the things you really love to do? Take your browser from simple to spectacular.

Firefox add-ons are little extras that allow you to add a personal touch to your browser. Select your favorites from the categories to accessorize your Web!"

So, here is the list of 9 add-ons for firefox:

• Lock the Fox - password protect Firefox window
• Server Spy - know which brand of HTTP server runs a particular site
• Tamper Data - view and modify http/https headers and post parameters
• TestGen4Web - Record/Store/Play Firefox sessions
• FormFox - Displays the Form action
• Event Spy - can watch Javascript events as they occur
• Add n Edit Cookies - name conveys all
• Cache Status - Easy cache management
• Cookie Swap - Swap Cookies to log into multiple Gmail accounts
  

Hope you would find them useful, as much as I enjoyed in finding them and trying them out.

Update: Forgot to add one more add-on - PDF Convertor - convert any webpage into a pdf then and there.

Card holder travels with me

Card holder
All cards get held there, at one shot. Other green notes find a corner enough within this holder to exist or go straight to my open pocket. Apart from these, my specs cleaning cloth, bike-pass, a memstick and maybe a to-do list...

Gmail Access & Plinky

If one forgets Gmail password, one can get it reset either by answering the security question or by requesting a reset password link to the secondary mail id. But, if these do not work. Say, the account has been taken over and security question & secondary mail id are changed to something else, then how to recover? Well Gmail has an Account Recovery Form where they ask for some information so that the account is made available only to the correct person.

Blogger through SMS: Now, one can enable posting through mobile phone, currently available only to USian's

Plinky: Well, its another website where one can add up blogs, or Facebook, Twitter accounts and by answering the prompts, automatically all the linked services would get updated! Its surely good. This is created by one the original blogger team-members - Jason Shellen. Anyone wanna follow me there, here is the URL (First time I got a profile URL without a need for additional numerals or surname initials... that shows no other Rampy has yet signed up there :) )

Doodles for Google

Google has announced a Doodle competition for US Schools with the theme:

Interesting part of that is the Doodle History. A good simple read.

Animated Favicons

Now a days, many sites are displaying animated favicons (like this site on Email trace). How do they do that? Its simple. Create an animated gif file but with the size of Favicon (i.e. 16px by 16px). Then rename this favicon.gif to favicon.ico (.ico is the extension for favicons). Firefox renders these animated favicons, but not IE. IE displays only the first frame

Google Language

Anyone around feeling like they can help Google in translating web pages from regional languages to English, then one can sign in here. (Google Language style guide)

Found this interesting listing of popular blogs, category-wise.

A knol on importing contacts from excel to Gmail / Hotmail Contacts

A security flaw in Google Apps discovered last year, now fixed.

Google's Privacy Policy

Google has recently updated its privacy policy:

Before (see Google Cache):
When you access Google services, our servers automatically record information that your browser sends whenever you visit a website. These server logs may include information such as your web request, Internet Protocol address, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your request and one or more cookies that may uniquely identify your browser.

After (see current version)
When you access Google services, our servers automatically record information that your browser sends whenever you visit a website. These server logs may include information such as your web request, Internet Protocol address, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your request and one or more cookies that may uniquely identify your browser. Also, in order to protect you from fraud, phishing, and other misconduct, we may collect information about your interaction with our services. Any such information we collect will only be used to detect and prevent fraud or other misconduct.

*The content in italics was added today [SOURCE]

• An interesting read on why Google does not want to put up 'Privacy Policy' link on their Google Homepage.
  
• This read is on how to not allow search engines gather the user's information and their online activity.
• Data privacy day celebrated on 28th of Jan 2009.
  

Browsers powered by user choice?

As one may wonder how does this question exist, there is this interesting post on Google Public Policy Blog: Browsers powered by user choice where they have come out with some interesting statements... Dont miss reading the comments following it... Google got a run for its hypocrisy!

Google Web Servers

Google has got its own web servers which are currently running the web for Google ranked 3rd by Netcraft Web Server Survey. Heard its a modified version of Apache Web Server. The whole list of web servers running each of the Google product is given below:

(*) - denotes encrypted page

• (GWS: Google Web Server)
• Main Search: GWS/2.1
• Google Accounts: GFE/1.3*
• Google AdSense: GFE/1.3*
• Google AdWords: GFE/1.3*
• Google Hosted(mail for your domain) : GWS/2.1
• Google Analytics (Login Page): GWS/2.1
• Google Analytics (Auth Page): GFE/1.3*
• Google Analytics (Other Pages): ucfe*
• Google Analytics (Analysis Image and JS): ucfe
• Google Analytics (Images/JS/CSS/Flash): ga-reporting-fe
• Google Answers: GFE/1.3
• Google Base: asfe
• Blogger: Apache
• Google Book Search: OFE/0.1
• Google Calendar: GFE/1.3
• Google Catalogs: OFE/0.1
• Google Checkout: GFE/1.3*
• Google Code: codesite/2750796
• Google Co-Op: pfe
• Google Desktop: GFE/1.3
• Google Directory: DFE/1.0
• Google Downloads: GWS/2.1
• Google Finance: SFE/0.8
• Google Finance Stock Charts (Images): FTS (C)1997-2006 IS.Teledata AG
• Froogle: cffe
• Google Groups: GWS-GRFE/0.50
• Hello: Apache/2.0.53
• Google Help Pages: TrakhelpServer/1.0a
• Google Images: GWS/2.1
• Google Labs: Apache
• Google Local / Maps: mfe
• Google Local/Maps (Images): Keyhole Server 2.4
• Google Mail: GFE/1.3
• Google Mobile: GWS/2.1
• Google Moon: mfe
• Google Moon (Images): Keyhole Server 2.4
• Google Music Search: mws
• Google News: NFE/1.0
• Google Notebook GFE/1.3
• Orkut: GFE/1.3*
• Google Pack: COMINST/1.0
• Picasa (.com): Apache/2.0.53
• Picasa (.google.com): GWS/2.1
• Picasa Web Album: GFE/1.3
• Picasa Web Album (Static Images): staticfe
• Picasa Web Album (Uploaded Images): cachefe:image
• Google Page Creator (Sign-up page): GFE/1.3*
• Google Page Creator (User pages): GFE/1.3
• Google Personalized Homepage: igfe
• Google Scholar: GWS/2.1
• Google Search History: Search-History HTTP Server
• Google Sets: Apache
• Google Site-Flavored: GWS/2.1
• Google Sitemaps: GFE/1.3
• Google SMS: GWS/2.1
• Google SMS Search Requests: SMPP server 1.0
• Google SMS (GMail Registration): GFE/1.3*
• Google SMS (Page Viewer): GFE/1.3
• Google Spreadsheet: GFE/1.3
• Google Suggest: Auto-Completion Server
• Google Transit: mfe
• Google Translate: TWS/0.9
• Google Trends: Google Trends
• Google Video: GFE/1.3
• Google Video (Thumbnails): thumbnail_server.cc version 1.0
• Google Reader: GFE/1.3
• Google Ride Finder: Apache
• Google Talk: GWS/2.1
• Google Toolbar: GFE/1.3
• Google Toolbar (PR Lookup): GWS/2.1
• Google Web Accelerator: GFE/1.3
• Google Web Alerts: PSFE/4.0
• Writely: GFE/1.3

 How did I come to know of this? Well. There is a add-on in Firefox which displays the web server that rendered the current web page. Its name is Server Spy. Await for yet another list of useful add-ons to Firefox in the next post.

Source 1

Source 2