The occasional scribbler's blog

get a “better than chrome” firefox with peers

nb — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 19:05:10 +0000

The only feature that excited me about chrome was the iSuggest aware location bar (or omni-bar as google wishes to call) .. and firefox lovers ( me included ) can now enjoy better than isuggest search with peers. The peers addon makes suggestions and provides search results not just from Google, but Wikipedia, YouTube, Amazon, Last.fm, IMDb, eBay and more, all on the fly. The reason why I used “better than iSuggest” is the highly intuitive keyword based suggest feature (refer screenshot – fm prefix to search last.fm – customizable), which chrome failed to put in (possibly because they (chrome guys) want all results routed through google) . I used peers with FF some years back..but this new version is just too good, and many many times better than chrome’s om’e'nibar ( the google way of life logging ). Also, peers is light on memory (again beating chrome). Do try this and pour in your comments. Firefox is the best – always

Peers homepage: http://www.peersbros.com/

Firefox addon page: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6589

searchbar rigged with peers - image

Yahoo! Inquisitor – Search assist for Firefox

nb — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 07:56:26 +0000

I checked out firefox recommended addons recently and found the inquisitor. The inquisitor, a popular search assist tool built for the safari web browser was recently acquired by Yahoo..and now they’ve come up with similar tools for firefox and IE both in beta stages…I tried using and its working pretty good except for minor graphical flaws (maybe cos Im running it on ubuntu).

It provides the search assist function now present in google and yahoo right into FFs searchbar, taking you right to the website skipping the results page..

Heres the FF addon link

An interview with Tim O’Reilly – Web 2.0 Expo – Berlin

nb — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 08:21:55 +0000

A very informative interview on web 2.0 with Tim O’Reilly at the web 2.0 Expo Berlin. O’Reilly gives his views as to what is, whats not and what is thought of, as web 2.0.

Link to video

ubuntu beryl and windows aero

nb — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 05:31:08 +0000

Well if you are someone who thinks…why is the hype always about open source stuff, I’ve got wonderful vista and I love watching all the transparent windows..you need to watch this video. I shouldnt say its the vista counterpart…as the aero model is nowhere close to what the beryl does..spare some time and watch the video… HAPPY FOSS

bumptop beta

nb — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 01:35:42 +0000

For those of you who don’t know what the bumtop is..its a tool which modifies the windows desktop into a 3d environment complete with walls..where icons can be bumped on each other, nailed on the “walls” of the desktop, organised into piles, and more.

Anand Agarwala, an interface designer proposed this idea a year back in a ted talk. Thanks to this lifehacker post on bumptop, I came to know that bumptop’s been rolling out beta releases for the past few months..

I signed up for beta last week..and now im using it and loving it..mine is a vista 32 bit with just 1 gig of RAM..and this beauty of a thing doesnt hog a bit !! . Visit www.bumptop.com and sign up for a beta invite now.

Grab your free Mozilla Certificate

nb — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:19:29 +0000

You helped spread firefox for the third time now..so go get a personalized certificate as an honor for your contribution to the Server Crashing World Record

here is wat i got

FREE gmail sms notifications to any Indian mobile

nb — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:11:23 +0000

to put it in a line..gmail rss + freemyfeed + mytoday = free sms gmail notifications

rss, if u donno is short for really simple syndication (used for publishing frequently updated content through the www). many sites provide rss feeds …check out http://www.ibnlive.com/rss.html for top stories from ibn.

now getting back to this blog..

step 1. retrieving (rather unlocking) your gmail rss content

visit http://freemyfeed.com/

enter http://mail.google.com/mail/feed/atom as the feed URL followed by ur gmail credentials

On submitting you should get a page with something like this on the bottom

copy the feed link

step 2. add the generated rss link to your mytoday subscriptions

this step should be easy if u have already registered on mytoday..if not, just visit this devil’s workshop blog on customizing your mytoday account

step 3. Get gnotified

P.S. applicable for any locked rss content (not just gmail)

Grand Paradise

nb — Tue, 20 May 2008 08:54:00 +0000

Currently testing Firefox 3 beta 3 RC1..when FF3 beta 1 was released..tried a hand at it..not many addons were supported and i had to revert back to FF2..but for d past 2 days..all blogs(downloadsquad, techcrunch and lifehacker) r creating much ado bout RC1..so went straight to mozilla base and downloaded dis truly wonderful browser ..which has forced me to turn back 2 my blog..FF3 with d newer gecko engine is truly d fastest ive seen.Trust me..ders blaring speed difference

check out performance related release notes of the gran paradiso here

..and ive learnt a lesson..FF luks better w/o addons

orkut trends: Who sends scraps?

nb — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 12:40:46 +0000

Posted by Ellen Spertus, Research Scientist and Torsten Nelson, Software Engineer

When orkut launched, we had no idea that scrapbooks would be the primary way members would interact. Billions of scraps later, we’ve learned that scraps are a huge hit, and have added ways to make them even more fun by enabling you to add videos, photos and HTML.

We’ve been wondering (and perhaps you have too): Which orkut users are scrappiest? In our recent sample, members from the island nation of Grenada had the highest scrap counts at an average of 1877 scraps. Of the biggest orkut nations, Pakistanis came in first, followed by Americans, Indians, and Brazilians. (All of these statistics are based on current scraps that have not been deleted by the recipients.)

Women receive just under half (48%) of all scraps. Women from the Cayman Islands receive the most, followed by those from the British Virgin Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, San Marino, and the Northern Mariana Islands. (What is it about those islanders?) Albanian women had the fewest scraps (81) — still a pretty substantial number when you think about it.

On the male side, islanders still rule: men from Grenada averaged a whopping 2569 scraps each. Here’s the full chart:

Country (gender)	Scraps received	Scraps received (women)	Scraps received (men)
Grenada	1877	557	2569
Cayman Islands	861	1093	715
Pakistan	758	717	779
United States	423	249	578
India	345	443	301
Brazil	267	272	263

Who’s sending these scraps? The scrappiest users hail from Pakistan, followed immediately by Madagascar and the Central African Republic. Among women, the most scraps come from Jamaica, then Madagascar, followed by the nation of St. Pierre and Miquelon. Among men, Pakistanis sent the most, then Qatar.

And what are people saying in scraps? Some messages occurred again and again. Out of a sample of 1,000,000 short scraps, the following were among the most common:

scrap	# of occurrences
hi	1131
oi [hi]	689
ok	298
parabens [congratulations]	273
.	187
hello	184
=]	146
vlw [thx]	135
^^	133
blz [ok]	132
=)	124
	117
[:p]	115
=D	115

Not only was the word “hi” common, it also appeared frequently followed by extra “i”s. For example, “hiiiiiiiii”, “hiiiiiiiiiiiii”, and “hiiiiiiiiiii” each occurred more than 90 times in our 1,000,000 scrap sample.

Until next time, our 46th most popular scrap: “bye”!

source: official orkut blog

valuing ur possessions..

nb — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 11:43:35 +0000

got dis thru mail…d importance of important things portrayed in beautiful lines
d last line was a bit cunning though..
read on..

To realize
The value of a sister
Ask someone
Who doesn’t have one.

To realize
The value of ten years:
Ask a newly
Divorced couple.

To realize
The value of four years:
Ask a graduate.

To realize
The value of one year:
Ask a student who
Has failed a final exam.

To realize
The value of nine months:
Ask a mother who gave birth to a still born.

To realize
The value of one month:
Ask a mother
who has given birth to
A premature baby.

To realize
The value of one week:
Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize
The value of one hour:
Ask the lovers who are waiting to Meet.

To realize
The value of one minute:
Ask a person
Who has missed the train, bus or plane.

To realize
The value of one-second:
Ask a person
Who has survived an accident…

To! realize
The value of one millisecond:
Ask the person who has won a silver medal in the Olympics

Time waits for no one.

Treasure every moment you have.
You will treasure it even more when

you can share it with someone special.

To realize the value of a friend:
Lose one.