Google has seen the customer service light and is promising full credit card refunds to anyone who ever purchased a soon-to-be defunct Google Video in addition to the lame Google Checkout credit they already handed out. More »
The popular non-Google web-based word processor Zoho Writer now supports an offline mode with Google Gears. By default, Zoho Writer downloads 15 documents for offline viewing, but you can specify more if you want. Yes, that’s offline viewing, not editing, though Zoho says that offline editing will be available in the next few weeks. Just think, if only Google had a web-based word processor that could take advantage of Gears. Oh wait…
Offline Support & Comments in Zoho Writer [Zoho Blogs]MySpace is claiming that local registrations have more than doubled since they launched their Australian site two weeks ago.
Australian signups to MySpace increased from 3000 users a day to 7000 since the launch of the local site, MySpace Australia director of marketing and content Rebekah Horne told the Australian newspaper today.
Confusingly for this MySpace newbie, the local site isn’t located at www.myspace.com.au – in fact it doesn’t even rate a redirect from that URL. Australians visiting www.myspace.com are automatically sent to the local site.
Perhaps even more frightening was the news that the MySpace video site managed to attract 4 million more visitors than YouTube earlier this month, according to Score Media Metrix.
Localisation boosts users of MySpace [The Australian] More »
I made a discovery today which early adopters of 64-bit Vista probably already knew about if they were using IE7. My excuse is I usually use Firefox, so it was a new problem to me. :)
It turns out that Adobe haven’t put out a Flash plugin for 64-bit computing yet – so IE7 couldn’t display videos for me.
Anyway, in case it helps anyone else, here’s the problem and workaround!
I’m running Vista in 64-bit mode, and when I started using IE7, I couldn’t get videos to display. Upon visiting the Adobe site to see if I needed to upgrade my Flash player, I found the culprit:
“Flash Player is not supported for playback in a 64-bit browser. However, you can run Flash Player in a 32-bit browser running on a 64-bit operating system.”
After pausing for a moment to boggle at the fact that a plugin as ubiquitous as Flash isn’t available for a 64-bit browser yet…
I consulted some friends (and friendly search engines) and while I could find a few workarounds for Adobe’s lack of 64-bit browser support for Safari/Linux users, I didn’t see anything helpful for IE/Vista.
Fortunately, a friend came to the rescue with a very easy solution. Turns out that Vista ships with both the 64-bit IE7 and 32-bit IE7. So I didn’t even need to uninstall/reinstall anything – opening the Start bar showed me both versions of IE, so I just deleted the 64-bit version (which is pretty useless without Flash, I think) leaving the 32-bit version of IE as my default.
Thanks Darren! More »
Google has announced a new feature of Google Maps that enables users to easily embed maps directly into web pages.
Google Maps users can now add a map to their website just by copying and pasting a snippet of HTML. It’s now about as easy as embedding YouTube videos – you no longer need an API key or knowledge of Java Script to put a Google Map on your site.
The “Link to this page” button on the top right hand corner of the Google Maps screen lets you choose the size of the map (small, medium, large or custom), and generates HTML for you to copy and paste into your website or blog.
The embedded map will be fully interactive, like the Google Maps API, so users can drag and click or zoom in on a location, and view it in map, satellite, and hybrid modes, all within your own website or blog.
One small niggle was that the custom size doesn’t allow you to automatically keep the aspect ratio when entering a custom size – you need to specify both height and width manually.
Used well, IM chat can be a real time saver and let you get answers fast from co-workers anywhere in the world. But even Google, makers of Google Talk and GMail Chat, admits its staff are prone to the occasional IM stuffup, says Google’s Christine Knight on the Google Australia blog.
Besides the easy-to-do accidental IM-ing disasters (“I pinged the wrong person!†is a common moan heard around the office), the instant, casual nature of instant messaging applications has brought with it a minefield of questions as to IM etiquette.
She offers a list of tips for using IM in the office “straight from the Australian Googlers’ mouths”.
To ping or not to ping [Official Google Australia Blog] More »
There are two types of PC users in the world – those who don’t mind the deafening roar of their overclocked monster, and those who aspire to the quiet PC. CNET Australia has a detailed guide on how to build the ultimate quiet PC. It goes through component choices, as well as offering alternatives to buying everything new if budget’s a concern. It also offers some maintenance tips to ensure that your PC stays as quiet as possible. Build the ultimate quiet PC [via CNET Australia] More »
You may know Quicksilver as the universal command interface, data manipulation tool, and application launcher that you invoke from anywhere to do your wicked and powerful bidding. Although you can cut down on a lot of keystrokes and work using Quicksilver through its main interface, you can cut down repetitive Quicksilver actions even further by assigning triggers to common tasks. From installing applications and controlling iTunes to creating quick timers or opening common folders, the often unexplored Quicksilver triggers are a bullet train to productivity. More »
Windows/Mac/Linux: Temporarily turn your computer into a home theatre with the GeeXboX live CD. All you need to do is drop the GeeXbox CD into your drive and restart. When you are done with GeeXbox, remove the CD, restart your computer and you will return to your existing operating system. Originally created just to play DivX videos, GeeXboX can now play virtually any file format you throw at it. GeeXbox has extremely low requirements and can be used to turn an old computer into a media center. Linux users who don’t have the libdvdcss2 codec installed can boot into GeeXboX and watch DVDs without any setup. GeeXboX is a free download for Windows, Mac and Linux.
GeeXboX
