Archive for the ‘Google’ Category
Where’s Google?
I can’t log into gmail. Waaaaaa waaaaaa waaaaa!
A new collaboration…
And so unexpected!
Google and Virgin are collaborating over at Virgle. Check it out!
Adios Writely
Anybody going to www.writely.com from today will be directed to the new ‘Documents and Spreadsheets’ Google page.
Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Discuss.
Google Earth
First they brought out Picasa for Linux.
Now they’re giving out Google Earth 4 for Linux too.
Sweet.
Spreadsheets online
http://macdo10.free.fr/wordpress/?p=177
Reread that post, and then, in the comments, tell me how amazingly right I am.
Thank you.
(and I’ve already got my invite. hehe.)
Ten points to consider
- What do you think of the new header? Credits to the GF…
- I’ve installed Picasa for Linux, that you can get if you go to http://picasa.google.com/linux (If you’re not in the USA, use an american proxy, or you’ll get a 404 - I used www.hidemyass.com - EDIT: you don’t have to use a proxy any more…). It’s quite a good app, based on Wine. I don’t know if I’ll keep on using it though…
- Over the next few months, blogging is going to be even less regular than usual: I have 2 1/2 camps to prepare, so I’ll be rather busy. I’m also and concurrently moving. Email is still working, though…
- I’ll be up near Preston for a month during the summer (see item above).
- The website was AWOL for a half hour last night. I know, and I apologise. I was trying to integrate PHPWebgallery and wordpress, with a plugin called Photon, but it all went horribly wrong. Luckily, I had backed up.
- This is a fun link
- So far, May has the largest average of visits per day. Hello to all you new visitors.
- I’m looking for English speakers who want to do some paid work for a couple weeks in August, on a summer camp for French 11 to 14 year olds. Speaking French is not necessary, but some knowledge is a plus. You can reach me here
- I’ve written a new script, called jpgshrink, that automagically reduces all the jpgs in a folder by 50% and renames them using a suffix. If anyone’s interested, you can get it here. It’s very modifiable: just open it in your preferred text editor, and change size, image type, previous file extension…
- This point is pointless - but “Ten points to consider” sounded better than “Nine points to consider”.
Note this!
I said a few months ago that google disappointed me when they didn’t produce Linux apps at the same time as Windows apps (if, indeed, at all). Well, they have just brought out a new service, Google Notebook, that says, and I quote: “Window or Linux (Mac OSX may crash).” Okay, so it’s a Firefox extension, but even so…
As for the service itself, it looks quite good. I feel that it does actually fulfil a need (unlike pictures in a chat client…). The million-dollar question, however, is whether or not that need is general, or only a niche market, for people like me who often search for things like grammar points, where different webpages have different points, presentation and exercices. (I think that Yahoo had a service like that - no doubt m’learned friend over at InsideYahoo.net will be able to enlighten us).
Interestingly enough - but no, I’ll post about that another time: tea is becoming essential!
Yellow maps
So you want to see an arial photo of somewhere-in-France?
Easy, I hear you cry. Just type maps.google.com into your browser, and you’re sorted!
Well, yes - unless your address ends in anything except for a major town… in which case, you don’t get much zoom.
Instead of Google, try www.pagesjaunes.fr It’s in French, but you can get wonderful photos! (scale of 1/800, when you zoom in all the way.)
(Caveat: the address is not always too precise - my house seems to have crossed the street, for example…)
A tip for GChat
In Google Chat, if you type a word surronded by *stars*, it is shown in bold: stars.
edit: and if you do _this_, it becomes this.
Happy Easter
It’s been a good day.
The G/f and I went off to the kite festival at Berck-sur-Mer - utterly amazing! We took a few (typically, no spare batteries…) photos. There was an international kite-flying event, (2006 World Sport Kite Championships, to be pedantic) with teams from all over the world -and if you like dancing or synchronised swimming, you’d love that. The one that really freaked us was the American team (Cutting Edge), who won with an awesome aerial dance. We laughed most with somebody’s kite adaptation of Elmer Fudd singing opera - including the famous “That’s All, Folks” jingle. No link, but check this out instead! And the largest kite in the world was also present…
So we bought a kite and had some fun on the beach too.
Then home to a guinea-fowl supper and an Easter Basket. Guinea-fowl is roasted like chicken, in case you were wondering, but it needs some moisture because the meat can be rather dry. So a glass of wine or some chicken broth in the pan, and some bacon strips over the top, and you’re laughing!
