Utills Thoughts and Ideas

Moved Home

2007-02-25T21:56:00.000Z

Finally made the move from blogspot hosting to a hosted service. The main reason is so that I can add non-blog related info to my site such as current work, my CV etc.

Links:
The new home of Utills.
My Blog is hosted as subdomain of Utills.

If you have subscribed to the RSS feed please unsubscribe from here and link your feed reader to retreive this feed.

Link: Exploding Batteries

2006-10-25T19:04:00.000+01:00

Wired has an article on "Building a Better Battery". They mainly discuss Laptops but at the end of the day everyone wants their gadgets to have an unlimited supply of power. Whether it be a digital camera, a mobile phone or the iPod, no length of time is enough. What I'm surprised about is the fact that many of the devices we have are not very energy effecient. Laptops have a great deal of software built in and now have, with centrino, a hardware piece too, but phones for example have no need to display the screen at all when they are in your pocket.

We need some sort of clever system to put all of our apps on standby when they are idle but without waiting long for bootup. Consumers will always go for ease and comfort than energy saving measures so this system needs a balance of the two. Most mobiles I think have got it right with periods going into days before the battery runs out. Laptops, digital cameras, and other gadgets need to start becoming smarter about battery usage.

Link: Smart Sensors Find Floods

2006-10-24T15:57:00.000+01:00

A distributed approach to the problem of flooding. "During dry times sensors conserve power, but when the water starts flowing, they crank up their data stream. This involves waking up a bridge-mounted digital camera and shifting from Bluetooth to higher-bandwidth Wi-Fi so GridStix can take part in processing photos of the rising river.

By tracking ripples and flotsam, the network can estimate flow rates -- an economical alternative to ultrasound flow sensors -- and relay a single number back to Met along with an update to local residents."

Link: Experts create invisibility cloak

2006-10-23T16:31:00.000+01:00

Not made for human eyes yet! This device only masks microwaves for the time being. Why can't they have a camera that just takes a snapshot of the place it is occupying and then have a high res screen to mask it like a gecko does. [gecko 1, 2, 3]

Link: Fighting Talk

2006-10-23T16:30:00.000+01:00

If you enjoy football/sport then this is a funny show. You can podcast the show or listen live on Saturdays at 11am.

Link: Paint.NET

2006-10-23T14:54:00.000+01:00

A real alternative for basic photoshop techniques without the cost. Its 3.59Mb without .NET framework and 49Mb with framework.

Link: Excellent AJAX based timeline app

2006-10-23T14:53:00.000+01:00

A useful tool for remembering the chronological ordering of events. Especially good for small project notes to remember when coming to writing a final report. [ An example of a timeline]

Link: Avoiding becoming a false positive

2006-10-23T12:29:00.000+01:00

Lifehacker tips on how to avoid getting shoved into the place where the sun don't shine ....err.... I mean the spam folder. A few tips I would add:

Use the recipients first name if possible
Use plaintext (Change to plaintext if using Outlook/Thunderbird)
DONT attach docs, wmv's, gifs. Try to get them hosted on something like YouSendIt so if they wish they can download.
Have a "to the point" subject line. That way even if it does get consigned to the spam folder it can easily to seen.

How to stop a company from suing you(tube)

2006-10-23T12:28:00.000+01:00

Interesting. One way of avoiding getting sued is to make a music label dependant on your success. This way if they sue you they know they are just losing out in the long run. Of course they could just sell up and then sue you but at least you can see the selling of shares as a warning.

YouTube losing its appeal

2006-10-23T11:21:00.000+01:00

Google Blogoscoped talks about how YouTube may be losing its appeal after being bought by Google. It may be accurate but its nothing to do with who has bought it that will be the downfall of YouTube. The more YouTube starts to be aggressive against copyright infringers the more people will move away.

It is Google's responsibility to try and balance the desire of the user to view clips of films, football goals, news items, funny "oops" moments and whatever else that comes from copyrighted material but is considered in general society as being fair use, with the desire of big business to shut out their content for all but those who pay money.

For me a 30 secs highlight clip of a football (soccer) match is fair use since it is just showing a minimal amount compared to the original. Furthermore, it is more of an advert for the network that shows the original live. The same goes for a film clip or a music video.

As was the case with Napster, Kazaa and others, if a company puts obstacles in the way then people will just shift and move elsewhere. The only way to keep people in is to add value to a system whereby people are fearful of moving elsewhere due to the amount of effort required to transfer that value that has been added over time. The best case in this day and age is what Microsoft have done with Windows. Due to the amound of applications build for windows it is more or less impossible for many businesses to move to Linux or Mac due to the costs of finding alternative software or of rewriting in-house software.

I don't think that YouTube does this yet. Often if I see an embedded video on a site it takes an effort to discern which service the video comes from. For the publisher to change service is as easy as just uploading the video to a different provider.

One possible way of adding value is to provide functionality that no one else provides. This is getting more and more difficult. On the other hand, locking in the user is counter-productive as it drives away your users to more liberal sites.

I would recommend to Google to spend as much money as possible to try and convince the companies whose copyright is being infringed to place links/adverts next to the vidoes to an alternative service which has better quality and is provided much more immediately than the short clip.

By directly being the cause of sales will Google be able to keep both users and BigBadBusiness happy.

Gmail Thesaurus

2006-10-23T10:33:00.000+01:00

Isn't it time that Gmail added a simple thesaurus to their email client. I don't know why but for some reason it is very difficult to find dictionaries in applications on a desktop or within Web Applications. I know one can just use something like Answers.com or Dictionary.com but what if I am working offline?

So much so that even MS Word, to my knowledge, doesn't have a means of finding the meaning of a word (the true essence of a dictionary) by default. Google through social networking techniques may even be able to come up with what I would call a social dictionary whereby it learns from people's language like the search function's ability to suggest correct spellings.

Firefox search box

2006-10-23T10:23:00.000+01:00

I'm not sure why but I have this mental barrier of using the Firefox search box. If I wish to go to a site I'll either use the address bar which uses Google's Lucky Search or I'll manually type in google.com and then type in my query.

Firefox 2.0 when it is finally released is going to have a Google Suggest style AJAX search box that will autosuggest the search query. However, I dont think this is enough. I want something like a top 3 results automatically show up for a search query I put in without having to go to the Google.com site. This module does something similar which I'm sure can be hacked up to be used with the Firefox search bar/box.

Link:At last they realise

2006-10-23T10:22:00.000+01:00

A health authority becomes the first to take off smokers from their waiting list until they stop smoking. Next stop....obese people until they stop eating as much.

If it were upto me I would give everyone a score based on their lifestyle choices and then rank waiting lists based on this. Smokers and fat people often only have themselves to blame for the illnesses they get.

Of course I would only enforce this for directly related illnesses, not if a smoker had a car accident or whatever.

Link:The Ultimate Art Gallery

2006-10-23T10:21:00.000+01:00

Modern art can get no more contemporary than a gallery that is empty! Try telling the viewers with a straight face what the gallery contains after taking their money.

Tesco Launch New Site

2006-10-23T07:44:00.000+01:00

Tesco has launched a new online site in a bid to capture some of the Internet market share that they have lost to brands such as Amazon, Empire Direct and others. However, the site I've found doesn't seem to render properly under Firefox compared to IE. Check this page out to see how it renders in Firefox. It is designed much like other modern web sites with bright colours and lots of white space. It also has a RSS feed attached to it that contains the "Deal of the day".

For those who don't know how big Tesco are, they take approximately £1 in every £8 spent in the UK. In other words they account for a huge proportion of the UK's sales. I think they turned in profits of approx £2 Billion last year (which is about $4 Billion). The more competition the better I say.

Gmail with Google Reader

2006-10-18T18:17:00.000+01:00

Mihai of the Google Reader team and of persistent.info has written a cool Greasemonkey script to integrate Google Reader with Gmail . One of the problems I have with it is that it doesn't let you select a specific label from the GUI. It is possible to modify the script so that you can either view the entire interface or so that it selects just one label. However to select another label you would have to manually edit the script.

However, I've found a better way to do it. Just press "g t" when using the reader and a box containing your labels will pop up. You will have to use the arrow keys to navigate, and then press return to select the label you want. Using the shortcut "g a" will take you back to all items.

Update: In fact all of these shortcuts can be used (using 1 and 2 will switch between list and expanded view):

Tips and tricks

Here are some useful keyboard shortcuts:

j/k: next/previous item
space/shift + space: next/previous item or page
n/p: scan down/up (list only)
o/enter: expand/collapse (list only)
s: star item
shift + s: share item
v: view original
t: tag item
m: mark item as read
r: refresh
u: toggle full screen mode
shift + a: mark all as read
1: switch to expanded view
2: switch to list view
shift + n/p: next/previous subscription
shift + x: expand folder
shift + o: open subscription or folder
g then h: go home
g then a: go to all items
g then s: go to starred items
g then t: open tag selector
g then u: open subscription selector

Oh the irony!

2006-10-18T17:35:00.000+01:00

Google Notebook integrated into Google Office?

2006-10-18T16:51:00.000+01:00

Something that surprised me when Google released Google Docs and Spreadsheets was that there was no Google Notebook contained in the package. One of the simplest functions of the Google Docs is to use it to create simple notes, shopping lists and other non-professional documents that serve as a virtual scratchpad.

Google Notebook is designed with these users in mind and so it would be logical to place the notebook into the web application. The interface of the Google Office itself somewhat resembles Google Notebook and so would probably not require too much work to integrate the two together.

I think that Google have a broad range of products at the moment and just need to be able to create those synergies that make a website a place to stay rather than a place to visit. Gmail is an excellent example of this in that I usually just keep Gmail open in my browser all the time. Also with the new Greasemonkey script that integrates Google Reader with Gmail, I no longer need to have Google Reader open as I can see from the small "Feed" node how many unread feeds there are.

In terms of grouping Google's products together I see the following groups:

Communications/Organisation

Gmail
Google Calendar
Google Reader
Google Talk / Chat
Google Groups (maybe)

Productivity

Google Docs
Google Spreadsheets
Google Notebook

Web Stuff

Google PageCreator
Google Analytics
Google Webmaster Tools
Google Adwords
Google Adsense

Personal Files (not yet exploited enough)

Picasa
Google Video (more public oriented)
Google Drive ?
Google Audio ?

That leaves things to do with search such as Google Maps, Froogle, Google Co-op, Google Base and Google Groups, etc which all obviously are to be integrated with the main search functionality.

Link: Get Perpendicular

2006-10-18T16:27:00.000+01:00

Cool Flash advert about perpendicular drives. [via InsideGoogle]

Ads for Video/Audio by Google

2006-10-18T01:03:00.000+01:00

GigaOM writes about the lack of ads for Audio/Video by Google. They are the king of ads for text but nothing has really developed in the so called "rich media" environment of audio/podcasts and video clips(henceforth to be called media). Many companies seem to be focusing on writing software to recognise speech, fingerprint videos, and a whole host of other adsense for rich media programs.

However, I disagree with this approach. Sure you may get some extra information from the video or audio file that you eventually will watch when you visit the site, but you have to ask yourself how often do I blindly visit a site knowing nothing about what is contained in the file and then go forth and consume the media? Very unlikely right! Well that's because we generally infer things from our environment or context. We know the gist of what is going to be contained in the media before actually view it due not only to how we find it but the context around the content.

YouTube is probably a very easy place to advertise on. The best thing about YouTube as many have written about is not the technology, it is the community. In a paper for a module last year I wrote about how a company in this day and age needs to add value to their site to bring people back without making them jump through hoops. I talked about eBuyer as a classic example of a site that does this. Their excellent rating and review system that in some respect dictates the health of a product is both a convincer to buy the item and also a source of after sales assistance for technical problems. YouTube also adds value to their videos.

The community of YouTube have not only tagged/labelled the videos very well but also the comments beneath the videos are excellent for inferring a context. Get someone to load a random popular video and just show you the comments and you'll find that it is more or less a few key phrases that will have you understanding the content of the video straight away.

Therefore, Google can easily use all of this information to build up a map of how to base their current text based adsense on a site that just contains tags, names of videos, categorisation and comments. Furthermore, Google can use the videos on YouTube to try and create a relationship map between videos, people, categories and link all these to video and text adverts.

For example, there are many sports based clips on YouTube that are very easy to target. Now the word football has different meanings depending on which sport we are talking about. Google would use all of the surrounding contextual info such as the title of the video which invariably contains a team name or the comments that will have player names or different score systems to infer what type of sport is being talked about. Then they can easily link to text based stories on the web such as Newspapers, TV channels that show sports, and perhaps even a sponsored video paid for by someone like Sky for example to showcase their legit service on their site.

The trick is to vary ads as much as possible so users notice them, however, without forcing the issue that it becomes an annoyance.

Link: MySpace Predator Caught by Code

2006-10-17T11:57:00.000+01:00

Predators caught by digging into MySpace and cross checking against external databases. [Wired]

Back at uni

2006-10-17T11:18:00.000+01:00

Haven't blogged for ages. Hopefully will be blogging much more
frequently in the coming weeks. Just a test message using the email
post that Blogger offers.

Link:British parliament attacked using WMF exploit

2006-01-23T20:39:00.000Z

CNet reports that The British Parliament was attacked by Chinese hackers trying to exploit the WMF vulnerability.

The emails were individually tailored and pretended to come from a Governmental organisation. Spammers are trying harder everyday. The more information they gather on us through spyware, the easier they can beat spam filters since most spam filters work on the premise that spam and genuine email read completely differently and can be told apart easily by a human.

Btw..has anyone noticed Gmail's spam filter faultering lately. Its been letting quite a few spam emails into my inbox and it also produced a false positive the other day.

Link Posts

2006-01-23T20:19:00.000Z

I am starting to experiment with simple one sentence long posts linking to stuff that I have been reading about but doesn't really deserve sitting down and pouring my thoughts out. I think it will make this blog much fresher as it will be updated on a far more regular basis. The theme will however stay the same, with most topics being about Google, Firefox, gadgets and random tech or comp sci stuff.

I will of course migrate the whole thing to a del.ico.us style linkblog in the future, however, for the time being I want to leave the links open to simple thoughts from myself. In this way I can perhaps maintain the blog even when I am very busy during the week.

Link: Google Won't Hand Over Files

2006-01-23T20:15:00.000Z

Wired Magazine's take on the Google vs DoJ farce.

Link: Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview

2006-01-23T20:12:00.000Z

A comprehensive preview from Nathan Weinberg of InsideGoogle.

Colour Music

2006-01-19T20:30:00.000Z

An interesting concept by one of the people in my year at Uni is the link between Colour and Music. He is doing a final year project based on the link between how we associate different colours to different types of music. He has made a piece of software that plays music just like your average WinAMP, Windows Media Player, iTunes, etc with the unique feature that instead of sorting by the usual Artist, Genre or Album classification you can sort by your colour perception of the music. His software available for testing (exe) purposes and I think he welcomes downloads from as many people as possible to download and send back colour information so that he can enrich his database.

So what do I think about the idea? I think that the human brain will very quickly restrict the amount of colour variation of the music when presented with the music in that way. You will get clusters of brown, black, red and blue which really won't tell you any more than just looking at the Genre of the music. Also since the brain often needs premption the colours will come directly from the Album cover or the genre colour.

What I think would be cool is if all your music was automatically imported for you into the media player and then all the information about the music was retreived from sources on the internet (such as length of song, album covers, free music videos, etc) and this info was used to generate a classification based on some sort of complex formula then you could get some interesting "Party Shuffle" style playlists.

Google Buys Radio Ad Company

2006-01-17T18:14:00.000Z

And between the music here's an advert..... "ViAgRa...cheap Viagra", "Play 3D poker online for Free, Free Las Vegas poker trips, prizes"...

CNet reports that Google is to buy a radio ad company (DMarc Broadcasting) for $102 Million Dollars. They go on to say that with additional payments this may rise to $1.1 Billion Dollars. Ah here's a quote from Google...

"Google is committed to exploring new ways to extend targeted, measurable advertising to other forms of media," Tim Armstrong, Google's vice president of advertising sales, said in a release.

Personally I don't think it will work. Sure you can see where this is going. Targeted ads which are analysed through speech recognition and broken down into socio economic status, geography, time of day, etc and then depending on the type of person who listens to the station the correct ad is played back. It all sounds good but the reason why it wont work is because listening to the radio is different than coming across an ad on a website. When you see a Google Ad on a site you are ready to click on the next thing that catches your eye.

When a relevant advert from Google comes across you dont think twice and click on it as if it were a link from the article or from an email itself. However, the same cannot be said for radio stations, TV, etc. It's not possible in my view to use the advert to start off the long tail effect that Google has created through simple text based ads since Radio and TV advertisement is more of branding and awareness than of putting people through the front door. I'll prob be proved wrong but this my argument regardless.

Synergy - 2 Screens but 1 Mouse+Keyboard

2006-01-17T17:55:00.000Z

Ok so many of us have more than one computer. What's more is that often these computers are on the same desk and come with their own Keyboards, Mice and Screens as computers no doubt should. The combination is often a desktop computer fixed and the laptop that we use around the house.

Synergy is an open source project that allows you to use both computers with ONE set of mice and keyboards. The way it works is pretty simple, you designate one of the computers to be the server (meaning that it's mouse and keyboard become the ones you use) and the rest of the computers (can have up to 4 I think) to be clients. When you move your mouse to the left hand side of one screen it will reappear on the other screen and that computer will be allowed access to the mouse and keyboard.

It also does some more advanced things such as work across Linux and Windows, synchronise screensavers, lock screens simultaneously and some other stuff I'm sure that I have not discovered yet. All that is required of the user is to provide the machine name of the other computer across the network and the rest is done by running the Synergy service on both computers.

Gmail Web Clip Snippets

2006-01-17T17:36:00.000Z

One of the problems I have with the Gmail Web Clips is that just the heading of a post is not enough to get you to understand what the post is on about. More often than not the headings are obscure titles that only make sense in the context of the blog's other posts. What I would like to see is snippets from the post, in the same way that Gmail provides snippets for emails.

Since you provide the RSS feed to google they have at the very least a partial feed from the blog and so providing a one line snippet should represent no extra bandwidth for the blogs themselves.

Bluetooth --> Wifi

2006-01-17T17:27:00.000Z

Wouldn't it be useful if we were able to access the internet on our mobile phones in Wifi Hotspots. My idea is that we have some sort of device (like a wireless router) that takes in bluetooth signals and converts these into wifi and then sends them onto a wireless router. Obviously the process would be easier if the bluetooth convertion occurred within the router itself. If a wireless router had a bluetooth antenna attached then it could also connect with bluetooth phones. The signal would be processed into a web request which would be executed. The result of the request would have to be processed into a bluetooth signal again and transmitted to the device that sent the request.

I think devices that encourage multiple devices to perform the same action are the next in thing for our society. It is slightly different to what we imagine "Convergence" to be since that is about stuffing as much as you can into one device. What I suggest here is a way for these multiple devices to interact, though they may be on completely different technologies/protocols/implementations.

Cool Fonts Online

2006-01-16T22:54:00.000Z

If anyone is looking for some cool fonts to use for Logos, Menus, Pictures, etc I would suggest perusing through Vitaly Friedman's post on the 25 best licence free fonts or through the source of many of these fonts, a site known as DaFont. I used the "Pigiarniq Inuktitut font" for one of the menus I did and I think that the curvy letters look wonderful, especially the "l" in the word Blog.

First impressions count!

2006-01-16T20:08:00.000Z

A piece on the BBC reveals that people often make judgments about a site in an instant just by looking at it.

Internet users make up their minds about the quality of a website in the blink of an eye, a study shows. Researchers found that the brain makes decisions in just a twentieth of a second of viewing a webpage. They were surprised as they believed it would take at least 10 times longer to form an opinion. The study, published in the journal Behaviour and Information Technology, also suggests that first impressions have a lasting impact.

This adds to what I believe is one of the key constituents of a successful Web 2.0 project. I've written before that I think that a good start-up should focus on both usability and design (the arty type) so that users feel as comfortable as possible when trying out the new service/software/application. Don't forget that the person who has come up with the idea and has written the code is taking care of the functionality, but since users often use little of the powerful features of an application unless presented with a simple yet effective interface it is of paramount importance for a new company to focus on getting the powerful functionality in front of the user as simply as possible.

It is the very same reason why people who perhaps only a few years back would have laughed at the idea of having blogs and pontificating about their daily stresses and strains, but now contribute daily to what we call the blogosphere each day pouring their thoughts into Battelle's fictitious "Database of Intentions" ("The Search" by John Battelle).

For me Google was the fastest search engine and the most simple (without all the banner ads and flashing monkeys) and for this reason alone I started using Google over AlltheWeb.com. This was back in the day when we had a very slow connection. I think users at the end of the day want things done within two-three clicks without a complicated interface that requires them to learn anything.

Moving Site

2006-01-16T20:00:00.000Z

Over the weekend I finally managed to take the plunge and get my domain hosted. As of now the Utills.com has a place on the net, but so far I've kept it to forward the URL to this present location. However, I have installed Wordpress 1.5 on the server and configured it so that all my previous posts written here (except the very latest ones) have been imported with comments over to the new site. I used a brilliant script by Andy Skelton to import all of the files across along with a screenshot based tutorial written by Catsudon.

The Wordpress blog currently resides at www.utills.com/blog but so far I have left it at the default template. I plan to make a few design logos and templates which I'll try to put online until I settle on one that I am happy with. However, it looks like my Uni work will only allow me to work on it on Wednesdays and in the weekend since I am pretty much tied up with all the traveling and the assignments I need to do over the semester.

The host used is called CobraHosts and has a nice basic package of 50Mb Webspace and 2Gb traffic which should be more than enough for my purposes. The cost is pretty low also ($1 a month) and so it should be good for the short term while I learn my trade. On the horizon for me is learning PHP and MySQL to do general web functionality stuff, and XHTML + CSS + Javascript to learn how to improve on the display and usability aspect of web design.

A few of the logos I've come up with so far :-

A few menus that I've drawn :-

I need to start designing some simple templates and look into ways in which I can enhance the functionality provided on the blog as well as on the other sections I will introduce over time. One of the things that I would like to implement is to load the comments section through AJAX without needing to do any refresh. Also it might be an idea to add a "Add Comment" link which also works through AJAX so that any comments can be added without doing refreshes.

I guess as I get used to the web design world I will improve my skills and generate better ideas. For the time being just think of me as a programmer in a designer's world.

Linksys Wireless Router

2006-01-16T17:20:00.000Z

The joy of wireless. From the amount of nothingness (yes know it's not a word...or is it?) that I've achieved over the past month at least the setting up of a wireless network was a piece of cake. For once the whole process went completely flawlessly from the installation to the configuration of security and access settings.

The Linksys WAG354G is an excellent router and although one of my laptops had initial problems from accessing the internet two rooms away it has a powerful wireless connection. I solved that by using a cable for the USB wireless adapter on the laptop instead of directly plugging into the back of the laptop. Also I can access the net on my PSP all the way to the front door (my room is somewhere in the middle).

I set up WPA-TKIP encryption with MAC authentication which is all done through a web interface making the whole process even easier. The Desktop computer and my Thinkpad are using Wired LAN and my brother's laptop and my PSP are using the wireless. I also managed to set up file sharing with the windows boxes and my linux box using Samba. This was suprisingly very easy to do.

About two weeks ago I started to use linux on my desktop so that I can learn how to use the shell. Ubuntu is an excellent distribution in my opinion as it has the ease of use of Windows and the power of Linux. Downloading and installing new packages is as easy as invoking a single command or using the powerful Application Manager interface.

Using the "apt-get install" command I basically downloaded and configured Samba. The only thing I had to do was run "smbpasswd" to change the default samba password so that I could share files with my laptop.

Overall, the router is excellent, does everything you'd ever need it to do and has a very simple setup procedure. The advanced settings allow you to set up access restrictions (ports, time, URLs, etc). However, I couldn't find anything for bandwidth control or a way to monitor the bandwidth of the overall network which is usually a must for anyone with more than two/three computers attached to the network.

Holidays are over

2006-01-13T17:45:00.000Z

Ah! The holidays. A time to reflect and recharge. All that being done, its time to start blogging again. I need to try and work out a schedule for my blog as currently I seem to only blog when I am bored and have nothing else to do....err...like now! Also since I seem to end up writing long posts I think I'll try and blog twice a week or something.

Anyways, on the agenda this semester at uni is Systems Programming, Distributed Systems, Principles of Programming Languages, Software Design Study and a few other boring modules. Most of these, the exception being Software Design Study, don't require much work since they are 80% exam and so I think I'll have much more time this semester to try out the things that I've always wanted to do.

I've jotted down a few ideas to write about which I'll try to blog this weekend. I may not publish all the posts I write this weekend since statistically blogging readership tails off in the weekend which is why start of the week and end of the week may be a good time to blog.

How Soon Before Gmail Releases Searchable Docs?

2005-12-13T21:28:00.000Z

The next thing I would like to see in Gmail is searchable documents. Attachments such as word documents, PDF, PS etc would be searchable just like the web search in Google.

A more advanced method that would really rock would work like this. You know the way Google Book Search shows pages of a book after you search for a string...Gmail should treat each document as if it was a book. This would be very easy to do since they already know exactly what text is contained within the document. When you search for something it would bring up a list of emails that contain the string. After clicking on the email instead of showing just the attachment ready to download it should show a link to the page on which this string occurs. Then you can click on the link and it would show the page in a similar format to Google Book Search with the ability to go to the next few pages.

However, with the ability to upload Warez Books to Gmail I think this would be something they would definitely not release since it would just lead to using Gmail as a store for tons of books and material that would just eat up disk space, CPU speed and bandwidth on Google's end.

Collaborative Learning - WikiNotes

2005-12-13T20:58:00.000Z

One of the wonderful things about wikis is the ability to edit what you want. From an educational perspective I think some sort of wiki should be set up by institutions for each module whereby students can add content to a fixed number of topics.

Instead of the traditional method whereby a lecturer/teacher gives out lecture notes, slides, or some other form of handout they should set up a wiki with a list of topics. As the term progresses and more topics are taught about students should be given certain pages as part of their homework to go and edit. This would give other students a fresh perspective on the subject and at the same time would enable the teacher to see if the student has understood the material.

Once it is published other students would have the ability to go and edit things that they think is inaccurate or pose questions to the class to get more information on a topic. The teacher would have to moderate the whole process to ensure that the correct material is put up and that students have not misunderstood a topic. However, given the nature of most modules this would be easily manageable. Also access would have to be restricted so that only students on the module list can edit...but of course the whole internet audience should be allowed to view the notes.

Why would such a system be needed? Well one of the best ways of learning a topic is to get info from a variety of sources. Allowing a person who is not an expert in a subject but has just understood a topic to explain something to you is often easier to get than some sort of professor talking about that same topic. Also it would form an excellent resource to come back to when you want to revise the subject.

From a search engine perspective it would be an excellent way of getting good easy to access info in an organised hierarchy. At the moment excellent info is hidden away in PDF and PPT lecture notes which are hard to access and often have valuable info hidden away in very concise slides. Getting that information through the social process of wikis would allow students all over the world to learn about topics in a much more digestible manner.

I often use Wikipedia to revise for Computer Science topics since the majority of early adopters of this wiki culture are technical computer guys. Therefore, the quality of info on Wikipedia on subjects like UNIX, Java, Compilers, Models of Computation, Pumping Lemma, Databases, etc are of a very good degree. The way of writing the info is very good to the layman since the info is organised into digestible topics.

However, the problem I have is that since it is written for a very wide audience, often the info is far above the amount that I need. Having a localised wiki which is specific for the course I am doing would be far more ideal since it would only feature things that have been covered so far.

Even for a smaller school this would be a good idea to try and engage the students to do research for themselves and be able to change other people's work. This of course can work for any subject and would work well for team based modules.

Busy!

2005-12-12T23:24:00.000Z

I've been really busy recently clearing up the backlog of work for uni and generally trying to sort out stuff in my life. I have a few things that I want to blog about...so this is just a heads up that I will be posting again in the next few days. My holidays have now started so I have a bit of time off to explore new programs and ideas. I am thinking about developing a few random programs in J2ME (Java for Mobiles).

Also I need to learn C/C++ since we are starting a new module next semester about UNIX programming, and I know nothing at all about UNIX or LINUX shell commands.

Start Gmail with a page other than Inbox

2005-12-08T23:36:00.000Z

Currently Gmail does not allow a user to change the folder that is started with. What happens at the moment when you log on is that the first page to be shown to you is the inbox. This may be useful for some people but what if you really want to see your starred folder instead or perhaps a specific label.

Now there is a way to achieve this by linking directly to the page that you want to see. I forward all of my university mail to my Gmail account as it becomes easier to check it in this way. When I am at uni I would like the ability to start Gmail off with my "Uni Mail" label so that I do not have to look at any of the non-uni related emails that I get.

Even better is that if I wish to open each label within a tab then I can also do this with this method. All I would need to do is put all of these in a folder in my bookmarks and using Firefox I would do open the whole folder of links in separate tabs.

So...you must be wondering how this is done. Okay here is the link that you want to bookmark which will give to the starred folder as your initial folder: -

https://mail.google.com/mail/?&ik=&search=starred&view=tl&start=0&init=1&zx=1g852n7uru5m&fs=1

So let us break this down to see exactly what is going on here. The "search" string clearly tells us the starting folder which I have changed from inbox to starred. But what happens if you want to refer to a specific label? The way this can be achieved is to change "starred" to "cat" and then create a new string called "&cat=" followed by the name of your label.

Therefore the link becomes: -

https://mail.google.com/mail/?&ik=&search=cat&cat=insertmylabelhere&view=tl&start=0&init=1&zx=1g852n7uru5m&fs=1

of course you have to change the place I have written "insertmylabelhere" with your specific label. You can include spaces right into the link which will automatically be converted to the "%20" by your browser and will count as a space in your label.

I couldn't actually find a string to do a direct compose, so if anyone knows how to do this then feel free to post the link.

This is a cool method to have multiple views all at once. Especially for those who use their Gmail for "Getting Things Done" and want to check their Gmail account just to reflect on what tasks are left to do and what has been completed.

Google Book Search

2005-12-07T17:32:00.000Z

I have been very busy with last minute reports and assignments to hand in this week and so have not had the chance to blog. I've found Google Book Search to be very useful for a variety of things as I used it over the weekend.

I've written about Google Book search before on here but I found a few more uses over the weekend when I played around with it. Scanning in images has always been a pain for me especially when you want to quote an image from a textbook. With Google Book Search all I had to do was type in a quote from the page (I had the book in front of me) and the page came up in the search engine. All I needed to do was a print screen and copy the image into my piece of work.

Something that would be cool is if Google provided ready made references for each of the books that they have scanned. A simple javascript that perhaps generates Harvard style or Vancouver style references or provides the LATEX style reference for the text that you have. This would be useful since the user would not have to manually find the right info and then format it into a reference.

Something else I noticed when I used Google Book Search was a flaw in their feedback system. When you click on the feedback button a hidden box shows up asking you to enter what is wrong with the page shown. However, there is no way to submit the feedback. Here is a picture: -

Until that is you scroll down using the mouse...yep the feedback container that shows up is too small to accomadate the whole feedback form and so hides the submit button. Here is the submit button: -

I'm guessing that they designed an original form and then added something in later but forgot to actually change the size of the container form.

Actually one of the most useful things that I found with Google Book Search (whether the content is copyright or not) is the searching facility. When you have a book in front of you it is very difficult to use the index for finding stuff that doesn't deserve a huge section in the book. This is where Google Book search comes in. You search the book using Google and it tells you the page number. Then you follow the page to see if its useful. If it happens to be restricted then you can just open up the book to that exact page and look at it, otherwise you have the page within Google to check if it is exactly what you want. This helps a great deal since indexes in the back of books are so old fashioned and difficult to use for obscure topics.

Oops...after using word so often over the last few days I accidently hit Ctrl+S without noticing...and it published a half written article. Hmm...why is "S" for publishing...surely it would be better to conform to standards and keep "S" for save.

Okay final thing before I go...lots more work to do...Is there any way of searching only for books that have content completely unrestricted? This means that I only want to return results for books out of copyright...I can't see any sort of licencing drop down box on the advanced search unlike the main Google web advanced search. Oh well...I'll have to dig around.

Gmail Mail Fetcher

2005-12-02T20:23:00.000Z

Yesterday a user mentioned on the Google Blogoscoped forums that Google had added a help page for a Mail Fetcher. I followed the link but it had no body to the help page. It seems that they have now removed the page but it still shows up in the Google cache. Here is a screenshot of the Google Cache version if they remove it: -

A Mail Fetcher could be the answer most professional/corporate people are looking for as an alternative to forwarding. I currently forward all of my university email to my gmail address so that I can get access to it when I am not at uni. If native support for IMAP or incoming POP is included in Gmail you could see a lot of people using Gmail as an alternative to Microsoft Outlook/Mozilla Thunderbird. Sure it would be nice to also have a offline browser based (XUL) Gmail interface but this could be a first step in trying to get a big chunk of the market who only have a pop based email account and have to use Outlook/Thunderbird as their interface.

In my view it would be good for Google to offer a different version of Gmail specialised for corporate use. This would mean that the email would be stored on the company's premises and would be completely searchable with a desktop interface. The web based interface would work in tandum with the desktop version in that they would sync together since the emails would be got directly from the company's server rather than Google's. Of course Gmail would probably need to provide a more secure version (all traffic would need to be encrypted not just the login) to encourage the swap over.

On that subject you can currently get all traffic to be encrypted by using https:// as the protocol. Therefore, instead of going to http://mail.google.com/mail bookmark the following URL to get all your traffic encrypted: -

https://mail.google.com/mail

I think they used to encrypt all the traffic but it caused too big an overhead in traffic to manage on a long term scale since their https protocol goes to a slower server. Now only if you specify the https header then the traffic is encrypted.

Improvements to GMail I would like to see

2005-12-02T18:37:00.000Z

With the competition concentrating on keeping up with Google its obvious that we are going to see Google try to explore new things with its Gmail service. These are some of the improvements I would like to see: -

Enable tabs for email -> Having more than one page to read email has always been something that people do especially with browsers like Firefox.
Allow RSS feeds for specific labels -> So if I have a label called "Uni", which I do for all forwards from my university inbox, I would like to subscribe to that label via the Live Bookmark system on Firefox. At least it would be a better way of knowing when I receive an email from a specific person or about a specific topic.
Add calendar or to-do list within Gmail -> I think that Gmail should allow a tight integration between email and some sort of calendar or to-do list. Some sort of right click option when you click on a date or highlight a piece of text within an email to allow for adding reminders for yourself.
Change right click to a context menu -> This links in with opening the link in a new tab, trashing a specific email. The menu should reflect exactly what is possible so if I right click on a message it should allow me to open the message in a new tab, in a new window, delete message, archive, apply a specific label, download its attachment(s), etc.
Allow drag and drop into a specific label/folder -> All the selected emails should be able to be dragged into a label. I'm not actually sure how much extra value this would have but as with all good interfaces there should be more than one method to do something.
Allow direct download of attachments -> First they need to remove the new window that keeps opening when you try to download an attachment. Thereafter from the page that displays all the messages they should enable the paperclip to allow access to direct download of the attachment.
Show a progress bar with size info when adding an attachment -> The current method (attaches in the background) of attaching the files to a new message is a big improvement on most systems. Even better would be to show the size of the file that is being attached and how much is done.
One-click preview -> Like one of the greasemonkey scripts written by a Google Employee there should be the ability to see a greater portion of the message just by right clicking on it.
Mailing List support -> currently there is a hack that I use to achieve Mailing Lists in Gmail. Native support for this would be very cool indeed.

These are the UI features I would like to see. In terms of raw features I would love support for IMAP, Google Calendar/To-Do List, and lots of other stuff that I wont go into detail for now. There is a lot of cool stuff going on in the background at Google, I just wish they could concentrate on some of their current services rather than trying to put their fingers in too many pies.

All the official Google Blogs in one place

2005-12-01T19:41:00.000Z

Philipp Lenssen over at Google Blogoscoped has posted a page and a feed that collects all of the offical Google blogs in one place. So far he has Blogger Buzz, Google Video, Inside AdSense, Inside AdWords, Inside Google Desktop, Google Blog, Google Base Blog, Matt Cutts SEO/Google related posts, Adwords API Blog, Google Reader, Google Code and Google TalkAbout.

It's an excellent idea since people like me who dont want to visit lots of different places can just go to one central location and get all of the news that I want. Note that currently the posts are out of order...but as of now only the latest posts will be appearing and so they will be in the correct order.

It would be good if he was able to generate a custom feed which generates a page depending on what blogs you want to read. I don't mean just the official Google product blogs but also some of the Google employees who blog about a certain product. For example, just say I don't want to read about Google Desktop but instead I want to read Fury.com by Kevin Fox then it should be able to generate a page that contains all of my blogs of preference possibly from his very own compiled list.

In terms of the URL to bookmark, the system could generate a special hash that refers to a specific combination of blogs. That hash would be stored in the database and a script would take the hash and go out and bring the necessary posts and then generate a HTML page. Of course the posts would probably need to be stored in the database too so that they are only parsed once from the RSS and all other times are just got straight from the database.

Gmail to introduce anti-virus

2005-12-01T09:43:00.000Z

Gmail has added a page to their help page describing how their anti-virus feature works. I don't see it in Gmail at the moment but I think they will start adding this in very soon. At present they block .exe files which to be honest blocks the majority of viruses.

I see Gmail's strategies for viruses /phishing/spam very good indeed. The notifications that are shown at the top for any email suspected of being intended for phishing credit card details or general fraud are accurate and well set out.

The blocking of images has also been a good move in that the whole page does not reload for any email that are not from trusted sources. Recently they did add the ability to permenantly allow images from a specific sender which seems to do the job since most people would only receive emails containing images from a mailing list or from friends.

RSS feeds

2005-11-30T19:36:00.000Z

As you may have noticed I have added an orange button to my blog for those who may want to subscribe to my feed using RSS. For those who want to know all about RSS (what it is? why is it useful?) go and check out a comprehensive tutorial by Les Bain.

I don't use any of the feed readers out there as I think it removes the personal touch of many blogs thus giving an almost sterile approach to the content. Moreover, I get bored very easily if everything looks the same. However, I won't stop you though if you want to subscribe to my feed so you get updated whenever I post something.

The main advantage for those that I know who use RSS is that they usually are subscribed to hundreds of feeds and therefore don't need to visit each site individually. I usually just load up all my bookmarks which I have split up into a "Usual Dig Around" and an "Every now and then" folder. So usually depending on how much time I have to scour the net...I load up the folder.

What I would love to see is some sort of highlighting extension for Firefox that basically goes away loads the page in the background and generates a hash for the page. If the hash is the same as the last hash of the site when the user accessed it then it would leave the bookmark as it is. However, if the page has changed...and thus the returned hash is different then it should colour it so that the user can easily see what has updated since last checking it. It would also be better than manually loading the page since only the HTML would be loaded hashed...the actual images, ads, etc would not be accessed and so bandwidth would be saved (although not as much as would be saved with RSS).

This would only be useful for blogs and sites that perhaps only update once a week or less frequently. Otherwise you would have to manually open everything to check if anything new has come up. An extension to this would be that it generates some sort of smart bookmarks folder where all updated sites are stored.

Even better would be RSS Stylesheets. A way of combining the natural feel of a blogger's site with a standard RSS reader. I know you can have XSL stylesheets for XML but I have no idea how they work or if they work to any advanced level other than just font styles. I would like to have a way to differentiate each RSS item for each author so that different sites look different but we still have all the benefits of RSS.

One of the major reasons for my not using RSS readers is that some of the sites I use only offer partial feeds (they want you to visit their site - ad revenue is better I expect) or that they strip out images. I found it very annoying when I tried it out and so I stopped using RSS readers and went back to just loading a bunch of bookmarks into tabs.

Google Calendar

2005-11-29T23:06:00.000Z

With tomorrow being wednesday there have been mutterings that Google is to release a calendar very soon. As noted by several people the calendar site of google redirects to their homepage.

The main reason why I have written this post is just to add my thoughts to what Google may bring to the table with a Calendar application. Being an AI company who excels in the mathematical side of AI (bayesian inference, evolutionary algorithms, machine learning, etc) I think that it may be something more to do with task scheduling rather than simple text searching. If google is able to create the right sort of tool to learn from what a user finds to be important then they can easily have an AI based todo list. They may even link this in with Gmail in that deadlines and meetings from emails can be sent directly to the calendar program. The idea I have in mind here is like the Google Maps integration where an address in an email allows one to find it on the map.

Since social tools are all the craze at the moment with RSS being part of it I guess people would be able to subscribe to other people's todo/wish lists and generate some sort of group calendar. I don't actually use any calendar applications so I dont know too much about this subject. I use post-it notes to do my calendaring :) and so a simple todo list app with Gmail integration would be fine for me.

More importantly integration with some sort of mobile interface would be a good idea and since Google have been looking for Mobile Developers then I'm guessing that mobile is the next platform they want to target.

Pro Evolution Soccer 5

2005-11-29T19:48:00.000Z

I got my copy PES 5 for PSP this morning. I took it on the train to Uni to get a feel for how it plays. I've read some mixed reviews online and so I wanted to test it for myself to see how it is.

Ok...so it has no Master League or commentary. Oh yeah...and no infrastructure mode either...but the rest of it is brilliant. All the tension and excitement from the PS2 is here. The crowd even gets more excited as chances are created. Its a shame really that they didn't try to put in any sort of commentary but I guess there just isn't any space in memory to do it. I found the controls really easy to use with intricate movements being recorded really well. The game itself has got more complex this time round with passes and crosses requiring the player to turn in the necessary direction before they can be pulled off.

It is an absolute pain to put this game down. I could have played it for hours had I not had to get off the train and walk home :( ! I don't have PES 5 for the PS2 and so I can't talk about the PS2 Link Cable to copy across PES5 data from the PS2 version to take away and play with a customised team. I also have to test the wireless gameplay, once my mate gets his copy, but that aside I think its an excellent game to kill time on the train. It's one of those traditional handheld games which can fit into a small time frame whilst waiting for the train or just generally sitting around.

The graphics are very good for a console with the players easily recognisable and the action fast and furious. With Pro Evo 5 there are much fewer in box opportunities with most of the play taking place in the middle of the pitch. But that's football for you...and it does feel much more realistic this time. More will come as I play it but this is from a hours worth of gameplay and so I haven't explored all the features like the training or league etc.

Although most people complain about no masterleague in PES 5 for the PSP I think the feature they left out that would have sent the PES up a notch is the infrastructure mode. Imagine sitting in a boring lecture and connecting up to the uni Wifi (they have lots of wifi at uni - don't know if they block PSPs though), and playing against some random guy on the other side of the globe who is playing on the PC or PS2. That would have been cool and would have given it a greater edge of something like FIFA. I know FIFA sux in terms of gameplay compared to PES but somehow or other they always manage to beat the PES in features and interesting add-ons.

I don't know if it is possible to update games, possibly adding something on your mem stick? but if it is then I think they need to add in this capability.

Firefox Referral Program

2005-11-29T17:27:00.000Z

As you may have noticed I now have a small ad for Firefox on the right hand side of the screen. Please feel free to try out Firefox if you are an Internet Explorer or Opera user. Whether you do so by clicking on the ad or by going straight to the site I don't mind. However, if you do click on the link then I get some money off Google! :o) ...so if you come to my site and want to know what this Firefox thing is about...give it a spin...you'll like it.

I have to write some stuff about cool tricks in Firefox...I'll do that soon. Too much work at uni atm....means less time to blog!

Firefox Marketing Push

2005-11-29T16:59:00.000Z

Firefox is to push its efforts on marketing the 1.5 version browser to new users...the BBC has more info.

Mr Beard said the user base tended to be concentrated among the biggest users of the net but now Mozilla was planning a push to get the software adopted by more consumers.
He said it was looking to work with net service firms and computer makers to get the browser in front of users who had not seen it before.
At the same time, it will step up efforts to spread the word about Firefox and is seeking videos from fans of the ways they use the software. [via BBC]

So it looks like they are trying to bundle the browser in with new PCs and with ISP disks. That may be a good move...along with the ads you see online (like my site) where Google sponsors each new download of Firefox on Windows with $1. Its a big drive to give consumers a taste of what they have to offer...

Other than what they are currently doing or what they are planning, what else can they do? : -

Add a Firefox CD and tutorial booklet to popular newspapers? Something like the Metro or the Independant would be ideal since most young people or people who commute to work read it.
Target big businesses with tools to deploy Firefox across the whole company...easy upgrades across a network...and all the other things a big business would want
Put advertisements in trains and other public transport
Sponsor Manchester United (err....get in excess of 50 million quid off Google ;) )
Develop some kind viral SMS/Mobile advertisement campaign...some sort of cool video that can be transferred across bluetooth would do it
Sell flash memory sticks with Firefox already on them (not sure if they do it already)
Give free flash sticks to some businesses

These are just a few random thoughts...please add your ideas.

PSP Firmware v2.6

2005-11-29T12:56:00.000Z

An excellent review of the new PSP firmware that introduces podcasting to the PSP. I haven't had a chance to update my firmware but read the review by Beattie to form your own view. For me it would be much better if they allowed news and podcasts to be downloaded rather than just streamed...but it seems they like doing things one at a time.

Google to sponsor Man U

2005-11-29T12:30:00.000Z

According to The Register...IBM, Google and a host of other blue chip companies are looking to sponsor Man Utd. Although this would be an excellent move for Google...i dont think they would look very good on the Man Utd shirt.

That aside...this could be an indirect move at attacking China, Japan and generally the far east. Forming a strategic alliance with the likes of United would give them a good brand to jump onto the back of to win the support of the far eastern supporters. Dont forget that Man Utd is such a global brand that some people give support to the sponsor just because they are fans of utd.

However, it must be noted that sponsoring Manchester United did no good to Vodafone in the far eastern markets...but that was mostly due to lack of understanding of the gadget culture of the far east.

PSP Rumble Pack

2005-11-28T23:06:00.000Z

How cool would it be if the PSP had a rumble pack at the back. It would add so much to some of the games...like imagine something like GTA...every time you crash or are shot...it would send a small sharp vibrate to the console. Of course it would work better for some games than others...I only mention GTA cos thats the only game that I have at the moment.

Just a thought!

Joystiq launches PSP Fanboy

2005-11-28T22:35:00.000Z

Joystiq has launched a site dedicated just to the PSP. It features all the latest info on the PSP with game info... reviews.... previews.... cheats... and all the rest a PSP Fanboy would want.

Cool!

Xooglers

2005-11-28T22:15:00.000Z

An extremely informative blog by a couple of ex-google employees who talk about the 'old days from when Google was just one of many internet start-ups.

The posts are slightly strange in that....you have to start from the bottom...and work up...but I'll leave you to it. Most of the posts are long...so go grab a coffee...and start reading!

Snow!

2005-11-28T21:07:00.000Z

Plenty of snow outside...and I was nice and warm inside! lol!!

PSP Power Switch

2005-11-28T20:54:00.000Z

I find the power switch on the PSP pretty confusing. When it is off I have no idea as to whether it is in standby mode or if it has been fully turned off. You see, the designers made the switch do both depending on how long you hold the switch up for. So a quick push up means it gets put into standby...eating up battery but giving quicker playback...and holding it for 2 secs puts the whole machine off.

Why they couldn't have a small switch at the back to make sure the user knows its switched off I do not know. With a different button the user would be able to understand exactly what is going on when they switch off the system. Actually to tell you the truth when I first got the PSP...I assumed that switching it off just involved switching the power switch up once. I didn't know how to switch it off properly...till I read it in the manual.

Oh yeh...they have no hibernate feature on the PSP as far as I am aware. I'm guessing they don't want to support something which involves writing huge files to the Memory Stick...they would probably have to copy over the whole RAM and CPU stacks...too much of a risk I guess for a handheld console. Plus if the battery happens to die while it is in standby then tough luck...you lose your game position. I think they should update the firmware to allow hibernate for people with 1gb mem sticks...It probably wouldn't be too difficult to implement..and on top of that the mem sticks are pretty fast.

Back to the PSP

2005-11-28T20:29:00.000Z

Couple of things that I wanted to mention in the last post on the PSP I did...but it got too long and so I decided to save it for a rainy day. One exception...with the rain came snow...yup...been snowing like mad here...I will post a couple of pics later on.

So first things first. I've mentioned the onscreen keyboard numerous times but I had an idea flash into my mind the other day.

Above is the PSP keyboard if you haven't seen it. Its a strange beast in many ways. It is useful in some ways but since no other interface has ever designed a keyboard like this it is very difficult to use. I am assured by my PSP buddies that you get used to it. So anyway the idea...it goes like this. Imagine an elastic band...If you were to break the band and put it in a single line and then you were to fix one end...then no matter how or where you pulled the unfixed end...it would always come back towards the fixed position.

That is the principle behind my idea. Rather than having to press the right, left, up and down buttons to navigate the interface they should fix the buttons in such a way that clicking to any direction AND HOLDING takes the user to that key...they can then do the necessary keypresses to get to the correct letter. No sooner do they let go...it should spring back to the middle key.

The R and L keys should of course be back and forth...with the rest of the keys remaining the same. I have no idea how it would work in practice...or whether something like this already exists. The drawbacks to this concept would of course be that there are no diagonal keys on the PSP and so it might prove to be slightly difficult to key in an upper right for example without extra effort.

Woohoo!

2005-11-28T15:15:00.000Z

Dear Usman,

Thank you for recently completing the IBM online aptitude test.

We are pleased to inform you that you have met or exceeded the minimum score required on the IBM Information Processing Aptitude Test Online (IPATO) and as such we will shortly be inviting you to the next stage in our process.

So...maybe I did better than I thought....or their boundary is pretty low! :)) Now comes the harder part I guess...interviews...etc

Google is getting more relevant

2005-11-28T10:04:00.000Z

It seems that Google is getting more and more relevant for information searches. I'm guessing that they use the data that people enter into Google to refine their queries. For example, I searched for Poseidon UML (a UML drawing tool) and it came up with the correct page. But more importantly it had direct links to things which most users may want for such a query. Downloads, Screenshots, Support...are all things that would most probably be entered next into Google in the past when such a feature was not available.

IBM Aptitude Test

2005-11-26T10:24:00.000Z

As part of some interview process I had to take an aptitude test for IBM. Needless to say....but it was HARD! The questions themselves I don't think were difficult...but the time given to answer all the questions was so minimal that you have no time to double check an answer or go back at the end. In fact you have to work through them very fast...trying to do the easy questions first to make sure that you have more time to do the harder Qs on the page.

Just to give an idea of exactly what is asked I will describe the type of Qs that are asked. I'm not quoting from the test...OK IBM...so don't come and sue me! Anyway, you have 3 separate tests that you need to complete. The first is on a subject called Data Matrices...where they give you a table with 5 columns and 5 rows of data...each column has like one character in it...from a total selection of 5 chars. Then they ask you some weirdly worded Qs....like "Going Anti-clockwise across the grid starting from the intersection between row 2 and column 5, what is the second character after the third B that occurs?" (made up Q).

You have to think pretty fast...tracing by hand exactly what occurs where...how many chars have passed...etc. You get three different matrices with five questions each and you have exactly 13 minutes to do the test in. So you can see that getting less than a minute per question means that you can hardly afford to waste time on checking answers.

This part of the test was fine for me...I just rushed the final Q for this one. The next test was a killer! Again the questions were pretty easy. Even easier than the first test I thought. You have something like 6-7 questions per page...with 3 pages in total..making about 20+ questions. Now before I tell you the amount of time given let me describe the nature of the questions. They were all number questions where you have to give the next number in the series (something I am very good at usually) like "1,0,1,2,1,5,1" and you have to give the next number in the series...thats something I made up...but as you can see its pretty easy. (btw...the answer is 9).

Here's the killer...to do 20+ Qs you are given a mere 4 minutes to the do the whole test in. I managed to do about 15-16...before I had about 10 secs left...so I guessed the rest with random answers. This is probably the only test I've ever done where they dont expect you to answer all the questions...and so that itself was a major challenge in addition to answering each Q. Luckily I didn't get any sort of mental block that some people get when they are under pressure and so was able to do each question in a pretty calm manner.

The third test was the hardest for me anyway...and it was the longest at 15 minutes for about 15 questions. It was to do with percentages/fractions that you need to derive using deduction etc....Example Q : "If a firm buys two photocopiers A and B. If A costs 1/4 more than 4/5 of B and the total comes to $125,500 then wot is the cost of A"...(made up Q). When you have only a minute per Q....then even questions like that can spin you out.

All in all...I think that I probably didn't do too well on this test...but I blame the time constraints. In general though...I found it enjoyable. Just will have to wait and see what IBM say.

First Thoughts on PSP

2005-11-26T09:51:00.000Z

Ok...my first thought since getting GTA yesterday are quite positive. I think the PSP is a wonderfully powerful device capable of pulling off what no other handheld has managed to do thus far. A little like the PS1 did to the other consoles of its time (Mega Drive/Dreamcast, N64). The technical achievement that GTA has pulled off on the PSP is absolutely amazing...the whole city from GTA 3 is contained with no load up problems at all. Sure, the graphics are not as sharp as they could be but its a handheld and so should be examined in that light.

Anywayz...getting back to the PSP. I first thought that the analog stick was some sort of speaker. I was like woah...the speaker on here is dodgy...it moves about. Then when I couldn't move the car in GTA...I tried it and was surprised that it allowed me to make moves using it. I think it would have been better if they had designed the analog stick in such a way that it hides inside the hole that it is currently in. Then when someone wants to play a game with the analog stick they would press it down...and out would pop up a small joystick. Something like a miniature version of the PS2 analog stick...but with a bigger sized head would be more useful than what they currently offer. At least with something like that...the user would get feedback on exactly how far across they have pushed the analog stick.

The screen is of a very high quality...the colour of the games really comes out well. I found that the graphics at the start of GTA...the cartoon style graphics...show up really well. I'd love to see a cell shader game like XIII from the PC. Although I doubt very much if something like that can be rendered...or even pre-rendered for the PSP. As with most people I absolutely love the 16:9 widescreen...It adds to the game in a very positive way....you have the feeling like you are in some sort of interactive movie.

The control I think sux for a handheld. The direction buttons are too far apart from each other to get any proper direction. What I mean by that is that if I want to go in the up-right direction you find that you can't do it easily. The up and right buttons are too far apart from each other to do it. Perhaps its just that I have smaller hands than most people...but since Sony often design consoles for japs (who have small hands) they usually make these things work for people like me. A better design would have been to had a 8 way directional pad where the entire circle is a big connected group of buttons. That would make turning in GTA much easier. I'm not sure if there is any controller feedback in the PSP...like the PS2 where pressing it harder is different from just tapping it. Would be a useful addition.

That's all for now...I will write more...must rush off...must...play....GTA.... :)

What a good idea needs to succeed

2005-11-24T19:39:00.000Z

In my view a good functional idea needs two additional people to succeed (in addition to the obvious implementation issues) : -

A very good UI designer
A HCI expert

Those two can be the same person...but what I am trying to get across is that people can only use functionality if it is "usable". You only need to look at some of the most successful companies out there...and you see that they did not succeed because of a unique idea..but usually because they made it usable for the masses.

Flickr was not the first photo sharing app on the net....skype was not the first PC-Phone or PC-PC talking app on the net. All of these recent startups need to get that one idea in their heads. If you can get a really good designer to draw your site and logo...and you can get someone to make sure your software is usable then you can hope to get end users to like your software. The more comfortable someone feels with your site the more they are likely to find it useful.

One of the keys is presenting your functionality in such a way that users can use at least 80% of the functionality without any help. If there is a steep learning curve...then people will give up. That means utilising technology for the sake of usability NOT for the cool factor. (Who can remember all those scrolling ticker tapes and java applets...spinning logos etc - those were NOT cool!).

One of the key successes of brands like Yahoo!, Google, and Firefox have been their youthful perception. Someone was mentioning (Scoble or Zawodny - can't remember) about how important it is to have a happy feeling to using your site. I've noticed that Yahoo! have started replacing dull logins with all sorts of smiling faces and general pictures to make it feel like a community. Google on the other hand go for the more boyish cheeky approach with cool looking doodles which try to give off the same sort of happy vibe.

Something that I've noticed most is that the majority of the good looking start-ups, are from people who use Macs to design and publish their site. These guys are I suppose the creative element of the geek society and so this usability and design advantage seems to bring the functional aspect of the idea right to the surface. 37 Signals create the same sort of simple design but it brings out the functionality very clearly, which I think illustrates my point exactly.

So...If u have an idea....hire a web artist/designer to create some cool looking stuff for you. Since most of us programming type can get the idea working functionally...it only needs a design minded person to take your idea to the next level. Remember...most people did not use Google initially cos it was the best...but because it was the fastest search engine on the net. (At least thats how I came to start using Google...i used to use AllTheWeb.com)

Thanksgiving Doodles

2005-11-24T18:45:00.000Z

Weinberg has some doodles that feature in the various search engines. I dont see any of them as I'm in the UK but even the Google.com site doesn't show them for me.

Google Space

2005-11-24T18:43:00.000Z

Google may already be dominant on the web but now it is stretching its wings to the physical world as well. Google Space, at Terminal One of London's Heathrow airport, will allow people to log onto the net and check e-mail while they wait for flights. For Google, the space will be used to test its myriad product launches on the public.

"We see it as a huge focus group," said Lorraine Twohill, Google's European director of marketing. "For many of our users, we have always been something in their computers and they have never actually met us," she said. [via bbc]

Google will also have staff on hand to actually monitor the guinea pigs..err..the users to see how they use Google's products. I think this is a pretty good idea not cos of what it is but where it is! If you think about it...people who browse the web at airports or quickly check their mail usually have other stuff on their minds meaning that interfaces that are even slightly difficult to use cause annoyance. Think about it from a pressure point of view. The more pressure a person is put under (time, resource, etc) the more they tend to start using their natural instinct.

Now that is what the whole experiment will be about. By analysing (most probably by some AI...the human helpers are just for show) they can get exact figures for people on the move of how many words per line for example should be shown to a busy user...the amount of time spent per page...how many emails they read in 5 mins, etc. I think this is all to do with the mobile space...the way it links is the time and busy factor. By getting good data on how people respond when in a hurry they can tailor their next mobile solution (mail, maps, google local) to a much better degree giving users exactly what they want.

Gmail works as HTTP now too

2005-11-24T18:42:00.000Z

Not sure if this has been enabled for a long time now...but if you try and access gmail using a standard http unsecure connection it doesn't redirect you to the SSL connection. I just noticed it today...when I saw no padlock in the corner. When you first log in it still takes you to the secure one...but if you just type in www.gmail.com then it will take you to the http **non-secure** version (at least in Firefox).

My thoughts are that Google are trying to cut down on the number of secure services that they release. Since the https header requires a huge amount of bandwidth more than http...and Google's slower servers are the https ones then I'm guessing that to get stability with all the new services they are going to move some of them over to the simple http protocol. For email however, I think https make more sense...I mean for Google Feed Reader or something like that it doesn't actually matter but for most people Gmail needs to allow for a secure connection.

Strange Fix! Suspending Power Supply fixes crashing

2005-11-24T18:41:00.000Z

According to a forum on Gamespot suspending your power supply in the air seems to fix the problem of the new Xbox crashing. If its just the power supply again then its another worry for Micrsoft although tis probably more of a relief at this moment in time since they would be more than happy to replace a power supply than an Xbox. The original Xbox power supply caused fires due to a faulty cable or something which initiated a complete recall of all power supplies by MS to be on the safe side. It might have to do the same thing here.

W00t!! My PSP arrived this morning

2005-11-23T17:45:00.000Z

My PSP arrived this morning. It said it would arrive by Friday...so I was quite surprised when it arrived so soon. I mean I only ordered it on Monday. Anywayz...my thoughts. It exudes quality as do most Sony products. Even taking the memory card out of the small pouch makes you think that they have spent extra money on a throw away pouch. The shiny surface gets smudged very easily but I guess that comes with the territory. What I would have really liked would have been a really really dull looking black titanium style black. You know like the brushed metal approach of the previous iTunes...but in black. That would have looked much cooler than shiny smudgy black. Oh well! I was going to go for the white one...but then I decided against it since I think the black version looks better.

If any of you has a PSP...and have used software on it (not homebrew)..like the PSP web browser let me know what it supports...Can I for example download by RSS a list of news stories and emails...as well as podcasts or videos in the morning before I commute. Is it easy to do...or do I have to manually copy and paste files into strange folders to put my own content on it? Does the music playing feature allow for custom playlists? Can I sync a playlist from my computer to the PSP...so any changes made on my computer are automatically changed onto my PSP?

As I dont have any games at the moment (GTA and Pro Evo 5 are in the post - well Pro Evo 5 will eb in the post from tomorrow) I can't test the game playing aspect for the time being. The firmware on the PSP says 1.51 so I'm not sure if that means I can play homebrew games on it but I dont wanna touch any of that till I get used to the console. I will be getting a 1gb card soon for it so that I can transfer some music and vids onto it to consume on the way to uni. That shall mean I need to learn how to use PSP Video 9 and possibly the PSP Media Manager.

I will post more info once I start playing a few games on it. The only design flaw which came in front of me today was entering text on the PSP...they've got this stupid txt msg style keyboard which means u have to click a few time to get a char to come up. It suck in all respects of HCI that I wont even bother talking about it.

Some interesting titles coming out...I think GTA and Pro Evolution Soccer 5 will do me for now...well for at least the next few months. The multi-player aspect of these two games is for me the most exciting thing. Most of the people online dont seem to have any friends or something...cos I haven't read even one review which goes into detail into the multi-player aspect of these games. They talk about it from a very theoretical point of view..but then again the chance of getting two+ people in the same room for a long period of time with the same game is prob quite limited.

Oh well...I'll have to write the multi-player review when I get my pro evo game.

Google Click to Call

2005-11-23T16:54:00.000Z

Pretty cool idea...but not something that would take off except for perhaps older people. For a limited amount of companies this may be useful but I dont see it taking off for the average Google Adwords Advertiser. One of the big ideas behind this is the anonymous calling that happens. When you call...you actually call Google..who then call the company involved. They dont see your number but you can see the companies number.

Google of course takes your privacy very seriously and deletes the number after a "short period" of time....like 4 months...wait for the but.....4 months "after the last time you used the service". Which basically means that regular user's numbers are stored on Google for like forever (2038 - I think thats the expiry date of the whole internet...like the y2k bug but delayed by 38 years).

Cheap Online Storage

2005-11-23T14:52:00.000Z

Zawodny talks about storage solutions moving online and InsideGoogle speculates on conspiracies that Google is investing in boxes that allow petabytes (3.5) to be stored in a 20-40 foot box...with about 5000 Opteron processors inside...

This could lean towards Google capturing the market seeming as they have the technology in place (Google FS) to store data redundantly so that data loss does not occur when systems/hdd/racks crash. Google Base is the start of this in my opinion of getting businesses to store backups and other data online. Imagine at the end of each day you can just send Google a RSS feed of all new transactions and Google would do all the hard work of keeping the data neat and tidy and easily accessible.

Conspiracy Theorists can come out now and play...

Xbox 360's crashing! Ooops! :)

2005-11-23T14:38:00.000Z

Looks like the Microsoft name is to be dragged through the dodgy release mud again. True to most PC software releases there is a philosophy of releasing early and fixing bugs later. Unfortunately (for them) this does really work in the console market where they can't really fix problems easily. (Or can they? Does Xbox Live have some sort of fix bugs feature?).

Some pics that have turned up online. A vid is also available!

Thats why its better to wait till all the faults are ironed out. (Xbox 360 generation #5 anyone?)

Update: Best slashdot comment :

Project Gotham Racing 3 crashes before finishing the first lap

Sounds like someone needs to improve their driving skills and stop blaming the system.

Popup in Firefox?

2005-11-23T14:27:00.000Z

Does anyone else get a pop-up in firefox (version 1.5) when they go to the following link: -

http://www.methodshop.com/psp/support/firmware/index.shtml

Strange...its the first pop-up i've seen in a long time!

Microsoft losing $126 on every sold Xbox 360?

2005-11-23T10:27:00.000Z

This time though they may capture a greater market share cos they are at least 6 months earlier than Sony. If you think about the original price of the PS2 in the UK...over £400...then the Xbox 360 pricing strategy is clearly a market penetration policy where in the long run they will make more money if there are a greater number of users.

Just speculating here but I think the Xbox 360 is low in price on purpose but not due to gamers but to try and capture what I call the "Tivo" market. What I mean by that is people wanting to buy a DVD player/recorder or media center may click on that actually the Xbox allows streaming from a PC as well as a lot of other cool Media Center functions. If they get the Xbox for this reason (a bit like people buying the PSP for video and music) then this could in the long run boost Microsoft's position in the home market for Media Center devices and perhaps allow them to do what they do best (or have done in past) and give the consumer what they want instead of bowing to tv networks like Tivo is doing.

[via Joystiq]

Hehe - Brilliant Cartoon

2005-11-21T23:42:00.000Z

I came across this wonderful cartoon on the web....check it out...

By the way, the article from which it comes from is extremely interesting...so give it a read if you have time. Thats my saying thank you for stealing your cartoon...nice one!

Are Google shooting themselves in the foot

2005-11-21T22:42:00.000Z

Google are backing Firefox, so much so that they are even giving away $1 per referral to each adsense publisher. My thoughts are that most of the people I know...download extensions to Firefox such as Adblock as soon as they install Firefox. This is one of the selling points of Firefox that no longer do we have to see big flashy annoying ads, which gives us as the user the control to see what we want.

In the long run if more and more users take up Adblock they would be denying Google a large chunk of their revenue since their stream of revenue comes from context based advertising. Since Adblock blocks the javascript ads from Google it means that Firefox users with Adblock are less likely to be earning money for Google. I'm sure it would be trivial for Google to compute...but it would be very interesting to see stats for the click through rate dependant on browser type. I guess a popular site could compute the same figures which may be common across many sites to see who exactly (the type of user) that generates the most amount of money.

Pro Evo 5 for PSP

2005-11-21T22:04:00.000Z

An interesting review in the Guardian Blog on the new upcoming Pro Evo 5 for the PSP (3 days remaining) . It discusses the technical problems of the game (since it is new for the PSP) but in general is quite positive. To quote the flaws that are highlighted: -

There are other flaws too - the widest camera angle doesn't offer quite enough view to fully measure your through-balls, while loading times and occasional slowdown are a pain. Also, criminally, there isn't a master league option, which will disappoint the die-hards.

But it's the controls that annoy the most, with many promising situations thwarted by the stodgy controller or shoulder buttons rather than the opposition. [emphasis mine]

Not having a master league takes out a lot of the fun from this version in my opinion. This is one of the keys to PES's success for single player mode. Since the PSP on the whole is more a single player console (its after all a handheld console) this may prove to be fatal for this version. Let's hope they release a new version soon containing the master league too.

PES on the PS2 has proven time and time again how good it is both as a single player game (master-league + realistic CPU) and as a multi-player game (playing knockout cups etc). The one thing that brings in down slightly is the random player names (Orange 1, Orange 2, Orange 3.... rofl) and the lackluster commentary. They need to get in Motty and Gray. That would liven the thing up.

N e howz...will still prob buy after I get a PSP...since this is the game I can play multi-player over wireless with other people I know (Billy u ready for some action ;) )

Billy = Bilal Dukandar ....lol let's see if Google picks this one up ;)

Update : GamesRadar says there is no commentary for the PSP?? That sure is strange...can you play music instead then?

PSP fun

2005-11-21T21:17:00.000Z

I am hoping to get a PSP soon...so that I can basically get an all in one device to play music, videos and games of course. You see I travel quite a lot and so something like this would be the best possible device to have. If I can use it as a RSS/email reader as well as a music and video device along with the ability to play games it means that rather than carrying multiple devices all I need is this one pocket sized PSP. I hope PSP Video 9 or the other video conversion software runs well enough to convert movies/tv shows very quickly(maybe a couple of hours) so that I can basically choose something to watch in the night and have it ready to watch in the morning.

The PSP to me looks like the ultimate portable media device but I guess Sony being uptight like they always are don't want users to run away and do what they want with their hardware. I mean how can a company try to stifle innovation which in the long run would lead to more sales due to a greater amount of interest and a wider base of people's needs/wants/lusts being met. If they don't want people to run home-brew code that's understandable since from there stems the root of piracy...but they should at the very least give developers some sort of API to play with so that useful (i.e. stuff that applies to non-hardcore gamers) applications can be written for it.

The way Apple have branded the iPod to basically appeal to non-hardcore music fans illustrates the point of how marketing can be done to change a geek need to a consumer want. Think about the iPod in the most basic terms...if I said to you 5 years ago that you will in 5 years time have a device in your pocket capable of storing 15,000 songs or 25,000 photos you would have laughed and said...why the hell would someone want to carry their entire collection with them. However, Apple have done their marketing right and now people seriously think they need 40gb or 60gb to carry round with them. Realistically 2-3 gb is more than fine for the amount of time between access to a computer. Sony need to learn...they have the technical prowess to take on any company...they lack the ability to collaborate between departments to create the necessary synergies to give the consumer what they want...or to create a want.

I will write a small review...when I manage to get hold of one. Until then, like the rest of the guys/gals I think I'll just drool...

GooglePlex comes to London

2005-11-21T21:12:00.000Z

Check these pictures of the new London Googleplex. Looks cool from inside...I like the way they create a balance between work and pleasure...trying to get their employees to basically chill out at work thus getting better productivity and less stress.

Cool Picture Change

2005-11-19T20:58:00.000Z

I like this simple idea of changing pictures very quickly without any refresh and almost instant due to the small picture size. Click on any of the numbers and very quickly you see the whole gallery of photos disappear and reappear with new ones.

The main thing I like about it is the desktop feel you get when you click. Its almost like an instant change with no wait. I know lots of sites implement this but popular ones like Flickr still don't do it. It would be good if the small preview of the next and previous items (highlighted below) could be done using javascript so that no refresh would be necessary to view say a photo 2-3 photos down.

Even more advanced stuff like only loading comments if a user wanted them...via AJAX of course...would also be quite cool. The fewer page refreshes that you need the more responsive the UI will feel and the greater the usability of the site will become.

Complete Flash Site

2005-11-19T19:58:00.000Z

I was quite surprised when I went to the River Island site today and found that they now have a site designed completely in Flash. Most sites that offer some sort of commercial product often go through a lot of trouble to make sure that they offer a static page so that it is searchable by the big search engines. Often people will first go to a search engine, a generic one like Google or Yahoo, or perhaps a more specialist one such as technorati or kelkoo. Even the traditional database based sites now are searchable as they realise how much commerce they can generate through consumers looking for a good deal.

Companies need to make sure that their cheapest products appear in these search engines as this is how they will attract new customers to their site. By limiting your site to a Flash based solution you not only deny people the ability to link to any product, you more importantly deny search engines access to spidering your site. There are many alternatives to getting a similar degree of design by using the latest AJAX technologies. Most of the stuff out there that uses Flash can be done using AJAX.

My main concern here is not actually with the company themselves. I mean they are a clothes/retail company, what do they know about web technology. The concern is with their IT consultants who have designed them the new site. What objective did they design the site to? Have a beautiful looking alternative to their previous site? Increase sales?

If the objective was to increase sales then why would a key component to this objective (attracting the new customers through search engines) not have featured in the debate. At least the minimum they could do is provide a HTML alternative to the site so that a search engine can at least pick that up.

Companies in my view will learn a lot as consumers start to move online more and more often. Many major corporations have moved on from the "its cool to have a website" to a more supplementary approach to allow people to go and look at products/news stories/interesting things in more detail online after getting exposure through the companies main channel. In the next 4-5 years I believe that companies will wake up to the sheer amount of commerce taking place online and you'll probably see even more powerful search engines than kelkoo coming out to meet consumer's needs. At the moment most shopping sites are inadequately designed and therefore the shopping search engines have a hard time getting fresh up to date data.

Why Microsoft going down the ad route is stupid

2005-11-18T17:45:00.000Z

I find the notion that somehow Microsoft should suddenly start giving away their software (office) for free and replace their whole revenue stream through ads quite laughable. Even more amusing is the reasons presented by various commentators on the internet.

Some of the points made in the article I think are not very well thought out...like the following : -

Neutralizes piracy: Piracy exists for a simple reason: people want a product, and they don't want to pay for it (or at least, don't want to pay full price). By offering an ad-supported version of their leading products, Microsoft would give these people what they want AND make money from them

How about this...people who usually go down the piracy route will just download a crack removing the ads leaving Microsoft in a worse position than before since now they are giving away their product away for free. Business users don't like ads...people who are working (read: office apps) don't like ads...people who have a laptop and are mobile or don't have a 24-7 connection can't make Microsoft money.

The option of people paying for the software for an ad-free version doesn't really work either since only larger companies would do this due to the massive difference in price between the two. All other businesses and individuals would probably just prevent the application from being able to access the net...since a desktop application like Word can be (and must be) able to be used offline denying access to ads would be easy and could not possibly be a requirement by Microsoft since users should be able to have access offline.

So what is the solution then? Well my suggestion would be to branch out their products to the usage of different people. What they need is a very simple package that is perhaps only 100Mb big...and caters for 80% of the users out there. Many of us only use the Word and Powerpoint application in MS Office for example...This sort of simplified version should cost no more than £10-15 to buy..andd be built around simplicity and speed.

Supporting this should be a system where MS allows users to store documents online and do simple but cool stuff like collaborate with other users and access documents from anywhere. Settings/Profiles etc should also be allowed to be stored online to allow users to be anywhere and access all their work.

Since users often need info from the net when doing work MS should release a research tool that acts as a browser/search engine but works specifically for finding statistics and "knowledge". Here is where they need to enable context matching ads. Since people are actually looking for something, this is where users will be more likely to actually click on an ad. A bit like Google Scholar but with lots of added stuff like Textbooks (out of copyright??), novels (Gutenberg?), wikipedia, encarta articles, more info related sites, uni and school lecture notes, etc.

Some of their apps could be removed from the desktop and taken online, for example Microsoft Money is something that just begs for AI skills matched with context related ads. This is a service which could even work in the background on MS servers in that banks link to MS money online...giving users the ability to safely log into a site just to view their account info without the ability to spend from their account. This may be far safer than logging into a bank site where once you are in you could virtually do anything.

Just my thoughts...add yours!

Google Books (aka Print)

2005-11-18T16:10:00.000Z

Today was the first time I actually used Google Books. Surprisingly it is very useful. You know when you are studying and you think to yourself...I wonder how this data structure works...or what does this algorithm do? Well as part of a databases homework...I was quickly scanning through Google to look for lecture notes from other universties on B+ Trees. Well I saw the small Google Link for Google Books...so I thought...lets give it a try.

Lo and behold it bought up a tonne of Database Management System books of which one was the recommended textbook for our course. I clicked on it and it gave me a list of pages where the search terms appear on. I read through a bunch of them looking for what I wanted and clicked on a page. Wow...it actually showed the exact page I was looking for allowing you to see 5 pages in total...2 before the page u found and 2 after...and of course the page you are looking at.

What I find amazing about this is that its such an amazing reference section for those of us who dont want to have a library of books at home and only ever need stuff to quote from or to look up small algorithms.

Amazon by the looks of it seem to be taking a slightly different approach trying to sell pages at a time as well as the ability to "upgrade" your purchase to view the entire book online. This may be more appealing to publishers since they are more likely to see this as being in their favour compared to what Google are doing in showing stuff online with no direct payments to any of the publishers (Although publishers will sell more books due to this service in the long run...if someone keeps finding a book useful).

How many items on Google Base

2005-11-17T22:38:00.000Z

The most i can get at the moment is 1,003,285. The search query used is here, can anyone get a higher number using something else....btw this query was done at 10:37pm UK time...so dont count the small additions people keep making to Google Base.

On a more technical note....does Google Base make use of that BigTable technology built in-house by Google. Another article tries to explain the main details behind this. I think this is the sort of thing that Google excels at. Sorting out data...general computer science style architectures and algorithms...but scaled up like a million times.

Whats next for this technology...would small businesses trust Google enough to allow their complete business to be backed up into Google's Database in exchange for perhaps free hosting and faster searches? Is this the moment that Google runs away from all its competing Search Engines by getting users to do the most important thing in search...identify context and relevance?

Firefox Idea: Highlight unread tabs

2005-11-17T19:52:00.000Z

One suggestion that I have about Firefox tabs is that coupled with my earlier suggestions about a sideways stacked tabbing experience, any tabs that have been opened in the background should be highlighted as being unread. This would help the user to understand their next move and remove any confusion in the moving about of tabs.

Wow!! Firefox trick

2005-11-17T18:13:00.000Z

I just accidentally discovered a trick in Firefox. If you hold down Ctrl and click a number then it will autoswitch to that tab. E.g. if I have 6 tabs open and I click Ctrl+4 then it will switch to the 4th tab. Neat!!

Wired Article about Digg and Slashdot

2005-11-17T18:02:00.000Z

A Wired article goes into some detail on the new social editing site Digg.com. It discusses the history of the two sites and the effect Digg is having on the sites it links to. Everyone is aware of the slashdot effect, crippling smaller sites but this seems to also be happening to the links in Digg.com. A much greater volume of stories are submitted to Digg compared to Slashdot but these are filtered through a social thumbs up system.

As I discussed in a previous post...this has its negative effects but on the whole popular stories get pushed to the top very quickly. Only time will tell whether people will still flock to these social websites or whether this craze dies down and something more like a hybrid of the two (digg and slashdot) comes out.

Matt Cutts Interview

2005-11-17T16:57:00.000Z

A wonderfully open interview with Google's SEO whitehat Matt Cutts. Credit must be given to bloggers who don't just end up being an advertisement for their company but instead constructively analyse products for what they are. I think Matt Cutts is an example of such a person...if you read his site he writes in an open way not scared of serving criticism where it may be due.

An example of his openness : -

Q: Daniel Brandt of Google-Watch.org claims you worked for the NSA before, and that you have “a top-secret clearance.” Any comments on him and his statements?

"...You’re probably more curious about whether I, Matt Cutts, am a secret connection between Google and the Military-Industrial Complex, the Illuminati, or any other shadow government and their black helicopters. And the answer is no. :)..."

Then he goes onto explain exactly why someone may think this (answer: work experience).

Transfer Hosts

2005-11-17T09:28:00.000Z

I'm thinking about transferring hosts and going to something that will allow me to use my own domain Utills.com to host my blog. I need to add some other stuff too so I'm looking for suggestions on what host to go to and how to do it so that it reads from my Blogger database?

Does anyone know if I lose my pagerank ranking even though in majority of places online my domain Utills.com is linked rather than utills.blogspot.com?

I've noticed that majority of the blog search engines do not have any of my latest posts...are they slow in updating? or have they started to ignore blogspot due to the large number of splogs (spam blogs)?

GoogleNet

2005-11-17T08:59:00.000Z

Wow!! This is a cool idea... Google are implementing wi-fi by basically attaching wireless hubs on the top of select lamp-posts. They've been given access to rent 400 posts to allow for wireless access for the people of Mountain View.

This is another traffic analysing strategy of Google together with Web Accelerator and Google Analytics to try to get a better understanding of what people access online and the behaviour of online users. Obviously they are going to use an AI to do it so that they can better place their ads and get a much better match to what people are interested in.

I haven't read their privacy policy for this wi-fi network but I read somewhere that although they dont store traffic data...they DO store the list of sites that people access. Please correct me if i'm wrong.

Firefox tabs should be stacked (sideways)

2005-11-16T22:12:00.000Z

The way firefox tabs work at the moment is that basically if you open a link in a new tab or open a new tab it goes to the right-most side of your window. However, in terms of usability that does not really fit in with what the user wants.

The user wants the tabs to be the next logical position from where he came from. If you are confused...then bare with me. When I open a bunch of tags from my bookmarks I usually start from tab #1. This means that if I open a link from that tab I dont want to have to click all the way to the end to see what I clicked on. I should be able to scroll to the next tab which should contain what i clicked on.

Now I looked for an extension that does this...but the closest I came to finding something similar to what I'm thinking of is an extension that opens ALL tabs next to the current tab in focus. This does not however, satisfy my need.

What I want is something that if I have Tab A open and open two links then it puts them in this order : -

Tab A | Link 1 | Link 2

The clever bit now is that if I go to Link 1 and click on two links it should look like this (these links are I and II): -

Tab A | Link 1 | Link I | Link II | Link 2

I'm sure you understand what I'm on about now...

The main reason for this is to do with what happens when you close a tab. What should happen is that it takes you to the tab where you came from which would be much better in terms of usability than what currently happens. Does anyone want to build this? or know how long it takes to learn how to build extensions? If so let me know...I may try to build it myself if its not too time consuming.

Just as a last thought...It may also be a better idea to create all new tabs in this system like a thread and so make them just slightly lower than the top tab. Not sure if it would cut into the web page (how many links deep does any tab go?) but these are the sorts of things you would need to throw out to early adopters and see what the feedback is.

Nuke Anything for Firefox 1.5

2005-11-16T21:54:00.000Z

I used to use a wonderful extension called Nuke Anything with Firefox 1.0. However, when I upgraded to the Beta versions some of its features stopped working so I got rid of it.

But good news!! I've found a version that works with Firefox 1.5. Its called Nuke Anything Enhanced and basically carries on from where Nuke Anything left off. Its allows you to albeit temporarily remove anything from the screen, and I mean anything! Its brilliant when you want to print something off and there are annoying ads or other things in the way which you don't want to print.

For example once I printed something off Google Cache but I didn't want the top bar on the page to be printed. So I just selected the whole top and did remove selection. Bam! it got rid of it.

Google Base Officially launched

2005-11-16T15:32:00.000Z

Google Base has launched officially launched. It is basically a huge database of information but stuff that the public enters. For example, people add lots of stuff like jobs, recipes, etc which is then searchable for other people.

Check this picture out : -

It's a recipe for Chicken Tikka Masala which is something that has been added by a user. This opens up all sorts of possibilities for Google since now they dont have to get an AI to decide what is a recipe and what isn't. Instead their own users will do the work for them.

It is the next stage in the development process of the internet with programs such as Amazon's Mechanical Turk doing a similar thing with their Artificial Artificial Intelligence. Getting real people to enter information is far more useful since Google can start categorising info into a much richer level of categories. One of the problems with the web and AI is contextual awareness. The semantic web is meant to be able to get information out which is helpful to the user to understand the context. E.g. if 18 is printed on a page is it an age, or housenumber, etc. This system allows them to be able to get that context out of the information by getting users to enter information into specific boxes.

More info can be found here.

Wow!! Capped numbers for Online Shopping

2005-11-16T14:32:00.000Z

This is the first time that I've ever seen an online store actually cap the number of people viewing their site online. The Debenhams' website stops you at a holding page where they basically show the above message telling you that there are way too many people online at the moment.

I've seen it before for bandwidth hungry sites (e.g. Video, Images, etc) but never for a site trying to sell you stuff. Due to the nature of the people trying to access the site (people trying to grab a bargain), I guess that in this circumstance it is a valid application of imposing a cap on the number of people able to access the site.

I wonder what actually happens to people already in? Do they get a fixed amount of time before they are told to bugger off and shown the holding page? Are they sent direct to the basket or shopping cart and told to complete their purchases and do no more? Otherwise there could be a lot of annoyed customers who just before purchasing something are whisked away and not allowed to complete their purchase.

Wot really pisses me off!

2005-11-15T23:16:00.000Z

I really hate it when a site that requires a log-in for some specific feature gets you to log in and then forgets about where you previously were or why you wanted to log in and takes you to the home page!! GRRR!!!

The two high-profile sites that do that are Digg.com....which if you click on a Digg This! button and are not signed in will get you to sign in and then take you to the front page. Ultimately this leaves me (the user) with no idea as to what the system has just done and gives me no incentive in future to log-in since I have extra work to just digg an item!!

The other site is IMDB.com which requires a log-in to view forums. Once you log in it seems to take you to the front page requiring you to basically find you way all the way back to that specific page. Often this means that users will just give up and go elsewhere if it isn't important enough. For a website that is selling stuff or wants to retain viewers this is a complete no no. The user must be able to see exactly where in the system (contextually) they are and what the system is doing or has done. Feedback is very important not only in the real world (body language) but also from an application's perspective. The user will react to the feedback given to the extent that in some studies (Google for "The Media Equation") it was shown that certain users (children and submissive people) were actually more likely to follow the advice of the computer than those who have a more dominant personality.

The only way to get around this is to use the back button on your browser to take you back where you were. This back button has lost quite a bit of functionality in recent months with the web apps that have been coming out and so I hope that system designers will keep in mind the user feedback guidelines that are necessary to make sure the user feels in control and is aware of all changes made by the system.

Google Analytics

2005-11-15T22:31:00.000Z

Google have released a product not in BETA for once. It is called Google Analytics and is basically the product of one of Google's company buy outs. The company that this product comes from was known as Urchin who used to charge as much as $200 (a month?) for using the software.

It's completely free to use so go give it a try. Once you insert the necessary code into your site it takes quite some time (about 6-7 hours for me) to actually verify that your tracking code has successfully been logged. After this it needs to wait another 12 hours at least to actually gather enough data to feed into its engine. For me its still in the gathering data stage so I can't say how useful it is.

The interface has been cleaned up by Google but the main data is still presented in Flash from the Urchin days. I hope Google release a DHTML version of the screens for users who prefer not using flash. There are a lot of analysis tools which try to optimise your site to get the best out of all that traffic (It isn't called Analytics for no reason ;) ). I dont think any of this will come in use for me since I dont get huge amounts of traffic nor do I try to sell stuff on my site.

One of the side-effects of the service being free is that unless you are an adwords customer you are limited to 5 million pageviews a month which means that you are basically tied into Google's service if you really want to use the service to its potential. This is the main revenue stream for Google at the end of the day and is the way they will make money from this, rather than getting individual sites to pay a monthly fee. I wonder what happens if you were previously a paying customer who didn't use AdWords but were allowed to use it for more than 5 Million Pageviews a month. Are you forced to use adwords? Do Google have a different strategy for previously paying customers?

This not only gives Google the ability to further market its AdWords and AdSense revenue generators but moreover it gives them the ability to analyse mass market traffic information. They have actually tried to go down various routes with this idea in mind. Their main aim, in my opinion, is to basically data mine the web trends and behaviours of individuals so that they can tune their advertisements to the people in a much more effective fashion.

Google Web Accelerator and the Wi-Fi network it seems to me was exactly about that. How can Google get data from the average user on general sites and the behaviour of users in clicking links? They wish to do this not from a typical user study but more a data mining or AI perspective I think. This will in the long run enable them to become an even bigger marketing agency who know everything about everything. Google's services are all related to their strength's in AI and information mining and so it seems this is just another piece in the larger "Tools for marketing" jigsaw that Google is heading towards.

Xbox 360 - Out for some peep

2005-11-15T22:09:00.000Z

This guy has received his Xbox 360 a few days early...go check out the pics!

It still looks a bit big for me....similar height to the original Xbox just a little thinner! The controller is huge...but then again I think Americans have bigger hands than us Europeans.

"Microsoft included batteries for the wireless controller & remote. Energizer alkalines (AA size). good quality but I'm using my own rechargable nimh's instead."

My main concern here would be how quickly do the batteries run out and how responsive is the wireless signal. Most gamers that i know refuse to use wireless mice for gaming since they say a wired optical mouse is much more responsive and feels better. Will this wireless gimmick backfire on M$...and if it does will they be able to add a wired controller to their current setup?

Lets see if people switch to Microsoft or wait for the PS3 to come out....

one thing i'm not sure about....does the Xbox 360 have HD-DVD??? anyone know?

Firefox Address Bar

2005-11-15T17:44:00.000Z

Not sure if there is an extension that does this, but I think the Address bar should allow a more inline search. This would help in cases where you may want to access a specific extension to a URL and you dont want to type in the whole URL or go to google to get the page. For example google feed reader is a few folders down from the google domain. All you would want to do is type in reader and it would bring a list of all URLs that had the term reader in it. This would be much more useful that the old left to right matching of addresses. Ranking of the results could also be done in a clever fashion based on perhaps the number of times I have typed in that link or by some other metric.

The example of what the iTunes search does is a wonderful demonstration of how easy search should be and what can be achieved in usability when we sit down and think about what a typical user wants. People dont like doing tedious things such as typing in www all the time and so a wonderful trick to circumvent this is to type in the name of the site (e.g. yahoo) and then press Ctrl+Enter to get a "www" and a ".com" inserted in the right places. I even found an extension to do this for ".co.uk" addresses but I dont think it works anymore on Firefox 1.5.

I do find a few problems still with the address bar even in the latest version. For example it doesn't prefix the "www" to the start of the URL even when the URL has a "www" in it in the address bar history. This means that a site like www.cs.bham.ac.uk doesn't work from the address bar if I wish to add something to the URL. For example if I want to add a bit onto the URL I have to manually type in the "www" every time after adding the bit at the end. Its these small things that need to be addressed at the moment to take Firefox to the next stage and make it a completely user friendly application.

It might even be a good idea to try and integrate the bookmarks with the address bar like in IE where you can start typing a name and if it happens to be a bookmark it will come up in the address bar regardless of whether there is any other stuff in the address bar history (i.e. even after deleting history).

Digg vs Shoutwire

2005-11-14T22:44:00.000Z

Which is better? Digg or Shoutwire.

FYI Digg came first and shoutwire is a copy of Digg. However, it attempts to fork its development into areas not covered by Digg yet.

However, there are still many problems that both of them share. For example how do you guard against fanboys just pushing up the rating of something that is about Apple or Digg. One method could be to have a "Don't Digg This" button where you can get the right balance between the views of the whole community.

Some rubbish still seems to get into the front page and so it may be an idea that people who are regular posters and get a good Digg rating...their digg's count more than just one digg. This could let the more active members to stamp out those who just post to cause trouble getting a much better quality of editing in the long run.

They also need a system of getting users to develop their comments so that they are as informative as say something like Slashdot. The classic would be to also digg the comments so that the best comments are highlighted and the ones with the least diggs are somehow made less visible (perhaps collapsed or smaller font).

Just a few ideas...

comment on your own ideas.

Application Architectures

2005-11-14T22:37:00.000Z

I will start writing a few random ideas on Application architectures for the next week... this is mainly to do with one of my modules but also it is something I find interesting. They will be based on specialist architectures such as systems with real time processing needs and other sorts of things.

I may also delve into algorithms specific to these architectures but that may come at a later date.

Kayak - Google Mashup

2005-11-12T15:49:00.000Z

A cool new service from Kayak who have presented their most popular searches from any city in a visual way using Google Maps.

Using AJAX and DHTML to provide as interactive a service as possible they have a nice simple method of getting a list of possible destinations. The way their slider and sort by columns are implemented has a nice desktop application feel to it. This coupled with the Google Maps integration I think is an excellent way of presenting to the user something that they are unsure of.