FTI: Graph my Reader

For users of Google Reader, there are times where your Reader subscription would grow to unmanageable amounts. When Google launched the trends page last year, it helped readers see users see how data is consumed and which subscribed feed is read most often, and thus help in users in reducing feed amount.

However, even with the pruning, I am sure there are times when you notice that you are visiting Google Reader more often because you don’t know when feeds will be coming in. In order to solve this problem, Google Reader has added statistics on when the posts are coming in.

Furthermore, it is now possible to view a particular subscription’s trends on the subscription page itself. The “show details”  link,  can be found near the top right hand corner of the page. It will be a good way to view your own reading habits for the individual feed as well as the posting pattern and cycle of the website.

Hopefully, this will help me further trim my feeds subscription and better manage my reading patterns…

Google Reader Individual Stats Screenshot

[via Google Reader Blog]

FTI: Wikipedia DVD

hmm.. My blogging schedule a bit screwed this week… Got a few events to take care of this week…. Should be back to normal by next week though.. Anyway, recently, a DVD of “free, hand-checked, non-commercial selection from Wikipedia” was launched. The DVD, a release by SOS Children UK, in coordination with the Wikimedia Foundation. According to the website, the DVD has

about 5500 articles (as much as can be fitted on a DVD with good size images) and is about the size of a twenty volume encyclopaedia (34,000 images and 20 million words).

The DVD is available for download via bittorrent only.

I must say it is a good idea to keep a local copy of some of the Wikipedia contents especially if you are not always online. Though it doesn’t contain the entire wikipedia, I am sure most articles will have been included in it. Not just wikipedia, I find it really useful to actually store my online files locally for easy access or when I am in places where there are no wi-fi access.

Wikipedia Selection for Schools [Download]

FTI: Google Reader, Mail and Calendar integration

For users like me who depend a lot on this three Google services, finding all in one page saves a lot of “Ctrl-Tabs” or mouse work.

One solution is to create an igoogle page at http://www.google.com/ig and link the three services in your main tab. Since Reader just got integrated as an igoogle widget, this may be a good solution.

The second solution requires the use of Firefox with the greasemonkey extension. With the extension, it is also possible to integrate all three services in one page without the use of igoogle.

Depending on which services you use, either two or 3 scripts are needed.. The links are as follows:

1. GCal/GReader- Header Removal in IFrames [Userscripts.org]
2. Gmail – Google Reader Seamless Integration [Userscripts.org] Refer to edits below
3. Gmail – Google Calendar Seamless Integration [Userscripts.org] Refer to edits below

The first script is recommended if you want to install the two other scripts. A screenshot of the result  (from Lifehacker) is shown below:

Integrated GReader, GCal, Gmail screenshot (via Lifehacker)

Alternatively, if you just want your Google Calendar agendas instead of the full calendar in beside your inbox, the Greasemonkey script, GmailAgenda [Userscripts.org] is also worth a try… A screenshot of the config is shown below…

Google Calendar Agenda and Gmail Integrated

However, I would suggest not to use the GmailAgenda script in a shared Firefox browser as some data is saved in Firefox’s about:config page.

As for me, I prefer using the Gmail and GmailAgenda combination while keeping my Google Reader separate. Although I need to switch a few tabs this way, I find it much neater…

EDIT:

The developer has updated his script. Now it is able to collapse your inbox for easy calendar and feed browsing, and work with Google Apps accounts. Furthermore, he has combined the reader and calendar script as well as add support for Picasa, Google Notebook, Groups, Sites, News, Maps and Finance.

• Gmail w/ Collapsible & Minimalist Inbox plus Google Calendar, Reader, Notebook, etc… Seamless Integration [Userscripts.org]

Opinion: Web Browsers

Last week there was news on Firefox 3.1 beta as well as the release of version 2 of Flock (a Firefox based browser)…

Flock has been dubbed a Social Networking Browser, and Version 2 of it doesn’t disappoint. However, much of the features can be replicated in Firefox via countless addons, but having Flock support so many services “out of the box” and having tighter integration is definitely a much needed bonus.

That said, isn’t the browser market getting crowded? Current commonly used browsers are Opera, Firefox (Versions 2.0 and 3.0), Internet Explorer (Versions 5.5, 6.0, 7.0), Safari and Konqueror.
With the recent entry of Chrome (coupled with Google’s brand name) into the foray, the browser usage distribution may change yet again.

It is said that:

Competition may be good for the progress of oneself, but too much competition may be detrimental instead.

However, taking the quote into the context of this browser war, browsers have, (without any doubt) came a long way since the first Netscape browser. But is adding so many browsers desirable to the overall online demography? I am really doubtful…

Anyway, on a sidenote, Hitwise also released the Top 20 websites in the U.S. for September…

Listed by Rank.
Market Share is in brackets.

1. www.google.com ( 6% )
2. mail.yahoo.com ( 4.7% )
3. www.myspace.com ( 4.01% )
4. www.yahoo.com 3.88% )
5. mail.live.com ( 2.14% )
6. www.ebay.com ( 1.61% )
7. search.yahoo.com ( 1.48% )
8. www.facebook.com ( 1.2% )
9. www.msn.com ( 1.08% )
10. www.youtube.com ( 0.93% )
11. www.gmail.com ( 0.79% )
12. www.wikipedia.org ( 0.53% )
13. images.google.com ( 0.52% )
14. mail.aol.com ( 0.42% )
15. search.msn.com ( 0.41% )
16. news.yahoo.com( 0.41% )
17. my.yahoo.com ( 0.4% )
18. address.yahoo.com ( 0.4% )
19. www.pogo.com ( 0.37% )
20. www.craigslist.org ( 0.33% )

Not surprisingly, Google is leading the race.

I.N. Surfing Internet Good?

I saw this on a NYTimes blog:

Surfing the Internet Boosts Aging Brains

According to that entry, dated 16 October 2008,

Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, have shown that searching the Internet triggers key centers in the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning. The findings, to be published in the upcoming issue of The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, suggest that searching the Web helps to stimulate and may even improve brain function.

So now people will have an extra excuse to go online….
However, although its nice to hear an alternative argument for a change, it is good to take such studies with a pinch of salt.

Oh. And that reminds me… A commentary in a newspaper (forgot which), threw up a very interesting question:

If a Tobacco company puts out a study showing that we need to do more on educating the young about side-effects of Tobacco use, we question their underlying motives.

However, if a contraceptive company puts out a study showing that more has to be done to educate the young on the use of contraceptives, we fail to question the motives..

(Note: the above is not verbatim, but translated from the best of my memories)

So are we being bias here? Or just a common response that years in society has given rise to?

Humour: 365 Days not enough for Students To Study

Received this via email.. Thought it was quite funny…

Quoted verbatim from the email:

It’s not the fault of student if he/she fails. Because, the year ONLY has 365 days…

Typical academic year for a student:

• Sundays – 52 Sundays in a year, you know Sundays are for rest.
  Days left 313.
• Summer holidays – 50 where weather is very hot and difficult to study.
  Days left 263.
• 8 hours daily sleep – 130 days GONE.
  Days left 141.
• 1 hour for daily playing- (good for health) means 15 days.
  Days left 126.
• 2 hours daily for food & other delicacies (chewing properly & swallowing) – means 30 days.
  Days left 96.
• 1 hour for talking (man is a social animal) – means 15 days.
  Days left 81.
• Exam days – per year at least 35 days.
  Days left 46.
• Quarterly, half yearly and festival (holidays) – 40 days.
  Days left 6.
• For sickness – at least 3 days.
  Days left 3.
• Movies and functions- at least 2 days.
  1 day left.
• That 1 day is your birthday.
  How can you study on that day ?!?!?!?!?!

Balance = 0
So? How can a student pass ?????

Haha.. Hope that loosens some tense shoulders.. now time to get back to studying!!…

FTI: Backup and Email Security

Was looking through my Google reader archives for something when these two entries caught my eye and I thought I’ll share…

Email Security:

In an October 8, 2008 article, CNET’s Michael Horowitz talks about being smart about Web mail, and securing your access to mail services like Google mail, Yahoo Mail, or Windows Live Mail. Especially with the recent example of Sarah Palin’s Yahoo Mail being hijacked, securing your mail isn’t a paranoid thought..

Anyone involved in backing up computer files knows the importance of testing the recovery process and the same applies with Web mail. The best way to insure that you can recover or reset your password is try it.

very Web mail system asks for personal information as a means of identification should you lose your password. The problem is that this personal information can also be used by a bad guy to learn your password.

So no harm to take a look.. probably users can pick up a few pointers….

Backup

For those looking to syncronise files or backup, can try the free open-source software, Synkron, which is available for all the Windows/Mac/Linux platforms. The interface seems simple enough and according to online reviews, does its job properly. Being cross-platform is definitely an asset. Features include being restore files, which were overwritten during the synchronization and add files and folders to black list to make sure they won’t be synchronized in the future.

Definitely worth a look..

Ciao.