tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64783321927998437532023-12-31T10:13:39.506+01:00dLux's blogdLuxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17945588980761020541noreply@blogger.comBlogger62125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6478332192799843753.post-46112846260351330142011-09-21T23:55:00.000+02:002011-09-21T23:55:02.912+02:00Organize life with Gmail, Calendar and your mobileGmail is more than just email, it can be a powerful way to organize your life if you know how to use it.<br />
<br />
In this blog post, I explain how to handle a few common tasks in order to be kept organized:<br />
<ul>
<li>Let's assume you have a quick idea while you are away from your computer and want to make sure you don't forget it. How would you do that?</li>
<li>You want to postpone an email with a few days in your desktop computer or on your mobile.</li>
<li>You want to get a notified that someone did not reply your email in a certain amount of time while you expected a reply.</li>
<li>You want to have reminders of periodic events so that you don't forget birthdays, to put out the garbage, file your tax return, etc.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>The main tool to organize your life around</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
That would be Gmail. Every task can be expressed as an email which shows up in your inbox. The solutions which I want to show you all based on the assumption that you read emails often and you can schedule your life around email. You can argue with this approach, there are pros and cons, but I leave it to the end of the post.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Smartphones are getting popular recently, they are part of the daily life of more and more people. I will show you how to use Gmail successfully (primarily <a href="http://www.google.com/phone">Android</a>, but an <a href="http://www.apple.com/iphone/">iPhone</a> will work, too) on them.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Use stars to mark tasks</b></div>
<div>
<br />
Gmail has a powerful and easily accessible function: you can mark an email starred with just a single click (on the star icon), a key press ('s') or a tap (on mobile).<br />
<br />
This makes the star very useful to denote tasks to work on.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Use Priority Inbox</b></div>
<div>
<br />
Now that you decided to use stars (at least I hope you did :) ), you probably want to show them in the most prominent place in your mailbox: in your Inbox page. With Priority Inbox, you can set it up easily.</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Go to the Inbox settings by clicking the cog icon at the top right, then select "Mail settings", then select "Inbox".</li>
<li>Select "Priority Inbox" in Inbox type.</li>
<li>Set "Unread" as the first section.</li>
<li>Set "All Starred" as the second section. You can do it by selecting the dropdown menu at the second row, then select "More options...", then select "Starred".</li>
<li>You will see a similar screen if you did everything as I said (check the arrows): </li>
</ul>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfDYn0PHmjksJV6gYrw2YqRA5M9oNGFgHxbLeRkdWlR2M7uBmC7Z-A1qkUsuZFyaZjFG0qQczAFytMe9g5PqNoqoMe8NM-sUXptUMRiTiCHj5ObgsJNinTWC73f8MfPweVQpXE67AyRio/s1600/Screen+shot+2011-09-11+at+18.55.47.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfDYn0PHmjksJV6gYrw2YqRA5M9oNGFgHxbLeRkdWlR2M7uBmC7Z-A1qkUsuZFyaZjFG0qQczAFytMe9g5PqNoqoMe8NM-sUXptUMRiTiCHj5ObgsJNinTWC73f8MfPweVQpXE67AyRio/s400/Screen+shot+2011-09-11+at+18.55.47.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
</div>
<ul>
<li>Save the settings if everything is OK.</li>
</ul>
<div>
With this setup, the first section of your inbox will be "Unread", here you can see all your incoming mails. The next section is going to be your task list (with the starred emails) and at the bottom, you will see the rest of your inbox.<br />
<br />
<b>Learn and use keyboard shortcuts</b><br />
<br />
This step is not necessary, but it makes email handling much faster. You can turn on keyboard shortcuts in the mail settings main page (general). Here is the list of all keyboard shortcuts Gmail uses: <a href="https://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=6594">Gmail keyboard shortcuts</a>. You should learn at least the basics (navigation, compose, send), those are very useful.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Use Gmail Snooze</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Ok, you have the daily tasks (starred messages) visible in your inbox, but you suddenly realized that you have too many things to do and you won't be able to get done everything today.<br />
<br />
This is when the Gmail Snooze script is found to be useful. Once you set it up, you'll have 30 new labels under the "Later" label, one for each day. If you label an email with the "Later/3 days" label, then it will show up in your starred list 3 days after you put it there.<br />
<br />
Here are the setup instructions: <a href="http://blog.dlux.hu/2011/09/gmail-snooze-updated.html">Gmail snooze</a>.</div>
<div>
<br />
Adding snooze labels to emails with the keyboard is very fast: press 'l' ("label"), then type the number of days you want to postpone the email to. If you don't have other labels with that number, then the first label will be the "Later/... days" label which is exactly what you want, and it will be selected. So you just need to press Enter and you are done. Otherwise you have to scroll down a little, find the label and then press Enter.<br />
<br />
You can do the same on mobile as well. The Android Gmail client supports adding/removing labels. Press the "Menu" button on your phone and select "Change labels".<br />
<br />
<b>Track sent emails</b><br />
<br />
One more use case for Gmail Snooze is to track the sent emails: when you send an email to someone to request something or expecting an answer, you can put a snooze label on it, so that you don't forget that you sent it. If the email ends up unanswered in your starred list, then you know that you have to ping that person again, or try another medium (phone, SMS, etc.).</div>
<div>
<br />
<b>Use drafts to create tasks</b><br />
<br />
Ok, by now you are starting to get organized. Let's see how would you jot down a quick note on your mobile what just came into your mind but you don't want to forget until you get back to your computer?<br />
<br />
Just open your Gmail app on your smartphone, hit Menu and then "Compose". Write your stuff into the subject line, then click "Save". Make sure you don't fill the recipients field so that you don't send out the email accidentally.<br />
<br />
You can do the same at your computer as well: you can create messages, write a quick summary in the subject line, maybe a longer explanation in the message body.<br />
<br />
Make sure that after you are ready with the new email, you either star the message or put a snooze label on it.<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Use the Star Drafts script</b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
What if you forget to apply a star or put a snooze label into a draft message? I've hidden my drafts folder from my main Gmail view (it always counts the messages and I don't like to see it), so it is possible that I just write a draft and I forget to star it.<br />
<br />
Fear not, the "Star Drafts" script is to the rescue. If set up correctly, it runs every night and stars your forgotten draft messages (the ones which don't have a snooze label).</div>
<div>
<br />
Here is how you can set it up: <a href="http://blog.dlux.hu/2011/09/star-drafts-script.html">Star Drafts script</a>.<br />
<br />
Now you can forget starring your drafts messages if they are not urgent, which makes these things very fast.<br />
<br />
<b>Use Calendar to send periodic reminders about repeating tasks</b><br />
<br />
Do you usually forget birthdays? Create a yearly repeating event in Calendar and set an email notification for it for 7 days. Then you have a week to prepare for that. You can handle a notification email as any other task you get in your inbox.<br />
<br />
Tax return deadline? Other repeating tasks? Handle them the same way.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Handling emails on the Deskop</b></div>
<div>
<br />
Now you are set up to handle emails effectively, here is how you use them when you are at your computer.<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
Your "unread" section is at the top of your Priority Inbox, so you won't miss new emails when they come in. When you handle a new email, you should do one of the following with it:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><b>Handle immediately</b>: you should do it if it only if it can be done fast. New emails can come any time and interrupt your work, so if you want to focus on what you are doing, don't start acting on each of them.</li>
<li><b>Star it</b> when you plan to act on it through the day.</li>
<li><b>Add a snooze label to it</b> if you want to postpone acting on that task with a few days. As I described earlier, it is just a few keypress.</li>
<li><b>Leave it</b> if the email is not actionable.</li>
<li><b>Add a note to it</b> by just forward the email without filling the recipient field (keyboard: 'f', then use Tab to go to the body).</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>Handling emails on Mobile</b></div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Your mobile phone has a smaller keyboard and screen, and it is harder to type a reply email than at your desktop, so the chance that the email is not handled immediately is larger.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Everything is possible on the mobile Gmail that I described above at the desktop section (starring, adding a snooze label, adding a note), but it is a little more cumbersome: you cannot use the very fast keyboard shortcuts. I propose using the mobile mostly to read and star things instead only rather than really acting on the items unless they are urgent. The good news is that all changes are synchronized, so you can use all your devices and your web browser together.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Other solutions</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
There are a lot of other task handling or note taking applications out there for desktop, web and for mobile as well. They might be easier to use, nicer, etc, but I still prefer this solution, and here are the reasons why:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Gmail has a super usable web UI with keyboard shortcuts, themes, etc. (believe me, we worked on it a lot to be that usable), a decent mobile app (on Android, but it is not hard to set up on any other platform either). These two work very nicely together.</li>
<li>You can use all of them offline (the offline webapp is <a href="http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/using-gmail-calendar-and-docs-without.html">launched recently</a>), they sync when they are online again.</li>
<li>Gmail being an email application is very tightly integrated with the email, which is the main communication platform and thus, there is no faster way to create a task from an email in either of the platforms.</li>
<li>You just need one place to manage your tasks and all your incoming communications. Every other communication system sends you a notification by email.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<b>Summary</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Now you have my version of a full blown workflow on handling tasks on a personal level. This might not be the best and probably not perfect, but I think that is good enough and scales pretty well with the tasks you need to handle and it works pretty well with a moderated number of incoming messages.<br />
<br />
Btw if you have suggestions for a Gmail feature which can improve this workflow, don't hesitate to comment on this blog post or on the G+ post about it.<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
Enjoy and be productive!</div>
dLuxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17945588980761020541noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6478332192799843753.post-84647002608795712632011-09-18T01:22:00.000+02:002011-09-18T01:22:22.624+02:00My very first lightning shot<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/CpuqnMDkVuwTxm0Xs5jhKuMEfKKj9KCTUMFLxAnprZw?feat=directlink"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMckKJqueMhJqg2Y5OAluaWNal7nYwAff8NyMVonUXThOOFGDHSXrfXWCGElzD5OyUqynGD84k_K0Xst-3RTwR_Ymqc-WiR70hZejh87TS4Q-KHVTToAvZ6bGurtGJFL7bEByOCz-DtjM/s400/_MG_5645.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/CpuqnMDkVuwTxm0Xs5jhKuMEfKKj9KCTUMFLxAnprZw?feat=directlink">Lightning over Zürisee</a></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
dLuxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17945588980761020541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6478332192799843753.post-29344169066117396872011-09-11T19:58:00.001+02:002011-09-11T19:58:07.633+02:00"Star Drafts" script<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB6kcv4NnLixT6pfRmsVup49MZzbDzTOKQmR1ezJN1Ud8YJOJt0ak6Rl-VZfalbgraO1fdfGUGmCoM6nZ8qb7PGdTzjDkx_us2nwroMFtT-YaeMv9iUPOE-fSXUqnyaHqFzIGPSWhSmNM/s1600/star.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB6kcv4NnLixT6pfRmsVup49MZzbDzTOKQmR1ezJN1Ud8YJOJt0ak6Rl-VZfalbgraO1fdfGUGmCoM6nZ8qb7PGdTzjDkx_us2nwroMFtT-YaeMv9iUPOE-fSXUqnyaHqFzIGPSWhSmNM/s1600/star.png" /></a></div>
This script is a productivity tool which I use to make me remember that I forgot to send an email or just started a draft message to note something down and did not act on it yet.<br />
<br />
If it is set up properly, then it runs once a day, and stars your draft messages which do not have certain labels.<br />
<br />
Here is how to install the script:<br />
<ul>
<li>Create a new spreadsheet in <a href="http://docs.google.com/">Google Docs</a>: "Create new" / "Spreadsheet".</li>
<li>Create a new script: "Tools" / "Script Manager" / "New...".</li>
<li>Copy-paste the following code into the editor:
<pre>// Config
var MAX_DRAFTS_PER_HOUR = 30;
var LABELS_PREFIXES_TO_SKIP = ['Snooze/', 'Later/', 'NoAction'];
var MOVE_TO_INBOX = false;
function starDrafts() {
var drafts = GmailApp.search("in:drafts", 0, MAX_DRAFTS_PER_HOUR);
for (var i = 0; i < drafts.length; i++) {
if(needsStarring(drafts[i])) {
starThread(drafts[i]);
if (MOVE_TO_INBOX) {
drafts[i].moveToInbox();
}
}
}
}
function needsStarring(thread) {
// The thread does not need starring if it already has a starred message.
if (thread.hasStarredMessages()) {
return false;
}
// If the thread has a snooze label, we don't need to star it either.
var labels = thread.getLabels();
for (var i = 0; i < labels.length; i++) {
if (labelNameToSkip(labels[i].getName())) {
return false;
}
}
// Ok, here is something to star.
return true;
}
function labelNameToSkip(labelName) {
for (var i = 0; i < LABELS_PREFIXES_TO_SKIP.length; i++) {
var l = LABELS_PREFIXES_TO_SKIP[i];
if (labelName.slice(0, l.length) == l) {
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
function starThread(thread) {
var messages = thread.getMessages();
messages[messages.length-1].star();
}
</pre>
</li>
<li>Save the script with the Disk (save) icon.</li>
<li>Try to run it once. Select the "starDrafts" function in the "select function" dropdown, then press the "Run" (play) icon. You can check how it works if you have a draft message in Gmail.</li>
<li>At the first run, you have to authorize the script to access your Gmail account. Just click through it once and then try to run it again, next time it would work.</li>
<li>You can tweak the script if you want in the config section.</li>
<li>If you are happy how it works, set it up to run every day: "Triggers" / "Current script's triggers" / "Add a new trigger". Select "starDrafts", "time driven", "Day timer", "4am to 5am" (or any other unlikely time you are up).</li>
</ul>
<div>
Now you are ready, happy starring!</div>
dLuxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17945588980761020541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6478332192799843753.post-71362450529554875952011-09-06T23:06:00.002+02:002011-09-11T19:38:57.821+02:00Gmail Snooze - updatedThe <a href="http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/gmail-snooze-with-apps-script.html">Gmail Snooze</a> script was introduced about two months ago in the <a href="http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/">Gmail Blog</a>. I had a very similar script for <a href="http://www.mutt.org/">mutt</a> about 4 years ago (just before I moved to Gmail), and I was very happy to see the Gmail version coming, this is an essential part of being productive.<br />
<br />
I extended a script a little, so that it have the following functionality also:<br />
<ul>
<li>It is extended to 30 days, so that you can postpone emails up to a month. Now that the <a href="https://plus.google.com/113390745456243234557/posts/2b9fpeAFjPW">label names are sorted numerically</a>, these label names are in the proper chronological order.</li>
<li>It allows you to star the messages which are returned to the inbox. Only the last email will be starred in each conversation.</li>
</ul>
<div>
To install the script, follow the video tutorial in the official announcement, except that you should paste the script below the video instead:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/p2MU5IoaveA" width="560"></iframe>
</div>
<param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" />
<br />
<div>
The modified script is the following:</div>
<blockquote>
<pre>var PAGE_SIZE = 100; // Don't use more than 100 because thats the max you can write
var MARK_UNREAD = true;
var STAR = true;
var DAYS = 30;
function getLabelName(i) {
return "Later/" + i + " days";
}
function setup() {
GmailApp.createLabel("Later");
for (var i = 1; i <= DAYS; ++i) {
GmailApp.createLabel(getLabelName(i));
}
}
function moveSnoozes() {
var oldLabel, newLabel, page;
for (var i = 1; i <= DAYS; ++i) {
newLabel = oldLabel;
oldLabel = GmailApp.getUserLabelByName(getLabelName(i));
page = null;
while(!page || page.length == PAGE_SIZE) {
page = oldLabel.getThreads(0, PAGE_SIZE);
if (page.length > 0) {
if (newLabel) {
newLabel.addToThreads(page);
} else {
GmailApp.moveThreadsToInbox(page);
if (MARK_UNREAD) {
GmailApp.markThreadsUnread(page);
}
if (STAR) {
var messagesToStar = [];
for (var i = 0; i < page.length; i++) {
var messages = page[i].getMessages();
if (messages.length > 0) {
var message = messages[messages.length - 1];
messagesToStar.push(message);
}
}
GmailApp.starMessages(messagesToStar);
}
}
oldLabel.removeFromThreads(page);
}
}
}
}
</pre>
</blockquote>
In the next blog posts I will write some more about how to use this for being productive (and not just procrastinate). :)dLuxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17945588980761020541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6478332192799843753.post-59321581744580509182011-08-11T00:41:00.003+02:002011-08-11T00:42:27.643+02:00Earphone test (Sony, Shure, Ultimate Ears, etc.)<br>
<b>The Sony earphones</b><br />
<br>
The story started when I've tried out my girlfriend's brand new earphones (<a href="http://www.sony.co.in/product/mdr-ex50lp">Sony MDR-EX50LP</a>). I was very much impressed how these small devices fit into the ear and how clear the bass was. I had good headphones by that time (<a href="http://www.sennheiser.com/sennheiser/home_en.nsf/root/professional_headphones-headsets_headphones_502188">Sennheiser HD 25-1 II</a>), but the bass in my ears sounded way better, so I immediately wanted to have good earphones for myself.<br />
<br />
I naively thought that if the cheap Sony is good, then a more expensive one is good, too, so I bought a pair of <a href="http://www.otest.co.uk/p/sony-tests/mdr-ex510-reviews.html">Sony MDR-EX510</a>s. I did a side-by-side comparison with the EX50s, and it turned out that these earphones have much better characterized highs and mids, but the bass is almost non-existing. Not to mention that the fit is less good than the EX50s even with the same tips.<br />
<br />
Basically the EX510 was a deep disappointment, which actually led to a research for good earphones. I started by browsing web forums about these topics, and sought help from my colleagues.<br />
<br />
<b>What did I test?</b><br />
<br />
My tests were entirely subjective. For the earphones which I had access just for a short time, I usually listened some of my favorite songs: <a href="http://youtu.be/w4s6H4ku6ZY">Like a G6</a>, <a href="http://youtu.be/__8OxLi81tM">Crash</a>, <a href="http://youtu.be/D4Y-AcLOSQg">Threshold</a>, <a href="http://youtu.be/t4H_Zoh7G5A">On the floor</a>, <a href="http://youtu.be/kHEQbRakzr0">God save the foolish kings</a>, etc. After listening for these songs, I was able to decide whether they worth more testing with other kinds of music or not.<br>
<br />
The songs had to sound good on two devices:<br />
<ul><li>On my MacBook Pro, in iTunes through <a href="http://www.rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/mac/">Airfoil</a>, with the equalizer set to enhance the bass and the highs.</li>
<li>On my <a href="http://www.google.com/nexus/">Nexus S</a> in the built-in Music app with some tuning in the <a href="http://www.cyanogenmod.com/">CyanogenMod</a> DSPManager: extra bass set to Medium and the equalizer set to enhance the bass and the highs.</li>
</ul>
On the Mac side, there was no problem with the volume for the earphones. On the Android side, the extra bass setting usually limited the maximum volume, because the distortion level became very high when I turned the volume up. I really like the punchy strong base, but I also like the clear mids, highs and the clear separation of the different instruments. This requirement actually very much limited the range of earphones (see below the results).<br />
<br />
<b>The devices which I did not manage to get hold of</b><br />
<br />
I've read some earphone reviews, especially on <a href="http://head-fi.org/">head-fi.org</a>, and based on that, I wanted to try out the following earphones, but I did not manage to get them:
<ul><li><a href="http://www.head-direct.com/product_detail.php?p=38">Head-direct RE0</a>: cheap, but it is told to be really good in his category. It does not seem to be available in Switzerland.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.westonemusicproducts.com/node/19269">Westone 3</a>: It is also told to be really good, still <a href="http://www.k55.ch/">k55</a> did not have it.</li>
<li><a href="http://ultimateears.com/en-us/products/triplefi-10">Ultimate Ears Triple.fi 10 Pro</a>: I was really curious about its quality based on my experiences with <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Ears-SuperFi-Isolating-Earphones/dp/B0009Q4PHO">Super.fi 5 Pro</a>.</li>
</ul>
<b>Tested, but failed</b><br />
<br />
These are the earphones that I managed to test but I did not find them particularly good. Most of them failed at the first criteria, the volume. I could not make my Android loud enough to have a decent base (with a WOW! factor) and have the rest of the spectrum sound well.<br />
<ul><li><a href="http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/er4.html">Etymotic ER4 PT</a></b>: I tested it only for a couple minutes in k55. It failed with the volume.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.sennheiser.com/sennheiser/home_en.nsf/root/private_headphones_portable-ie-8">Sennheiser IE8</a>: I did not find its sound particularly good. In my short test it had a little bit of a washed out sound, nothing spectacular, I expected much more. The bass was pretty strong, but the whole spectrum was not clear enough, I missed the good separation which I had in my HD-25 headphone. The idea of the bass fine-tuning looked like a good idea for me first, but the fact that you need to use a screwdriver for it made the whole thing useless (it is very hard to do it when its in your ear).</li>
<li><a href="http://www.monstercable.com/productdisplay.asp?pin=3959">Monster Turbine</a> and <a href="http://www.monstercable.com/productdisplay.asp?pin=5466">Monster Turbine Pro Gold</a>: I listened them once only for a short while. Their volume was not particularly good and their quality did not seem to be that great either. On the other hand they are the best-looking earphones I've tested.</b></li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shure-Se310-Sound-Isolating-Earphones/dp/B000POI5B2">Shure SE310</a>: The smaller sista' of the SE530. It was not too bad, but the difference between the 530 and 310 was very obvious.</b></b></li>
</ul>
<b>The winners</b>
<ul><li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Ears-SuperFi-Isolating-Earphones/dp/B0009Q4PHO">Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 Pro</a>: This is a pretty nice earphone with a lot of volume and a lot of bass. I even think that the bass is too much and the treble is not that super clear, but this earphone is definitely one of the best. On the aesthetics side, I think this is the most ugly of all I've tested (I tested the white one), but I think this is something which people can live with. Note, that the fit of the earphone can be problematic for some people, because the tube is pretty wide. I still did not find the perfect tips for this earphone, but so far the Sony's standard medium size tips are the best.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.stereophile.com/headphones/1207shure">Shure SE530</a>: The best of my tests. With 3 small speakers (2 bass and 1 treble), the sound of this earphone is wonderful. After using it for 2 days, I just fell in love with the clarity of the sound and the bass is exactly what I imagined: very strong, powerful but clear, and not too much in quantity. And it has a WOW! factor. The foam tips were also very comfortable, the most comfortable tips I've ever worn. Another thing which is interesting with Shures is that you can buy a PTH (push-to-hear) module for them, which allows you to listen in to the environment when you pushes a button. It is very useful with this level of sound-isolation that these kinds of earphones have.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.shure.com/americas/products/earphones-headphones/se-models/se535-sound-isolating-earphones">Shure SE535</a>: This is a newer model of the SE530. I did not manage to directly compare them, but I could say similar things about the sound quality. I tested it only for a few hours, but I did not find the fit as good as the 530: the medium foam is smaller and it is too small for me, the large one is too big. I also like the outside look of the 530 better than this. On the positive side, the replaceable cable makes the 535 less prone for cable errors.</li>
</ul>
<br />I decided to buy an UE Super.fi 5 Pro as a secondary earphone, and I'm still trying to get a Shure SE530 for a primary one.<br />
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<b>Other qualities</b><br>
<br/>
I did not test other qualities of the earphones, like sound isolation and cable noise, because I've found the winners pretty good in them. Some of my colleagues mentioned that these can be real issues with some earphones, but I did not have this experience with any of the winners.<br>
<br/>
<b>To be continued?</b><br>
<br />
There might be more tests following this one, because I've ordered a very small amplifier (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001P9EQH8">FiiO E5</a>), and I might rethink testing the low-volume earphones, including my own Sony SE510. I'll also get a <a href="http://www.head-direct.com/product_detail.php?p=38">Head-direct RE0</a> in the next days, which I've read very good reviews about.<br />
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Stay tuned, send feedback!<br>dLuxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17945588980761020541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6478332192799843753.post-23441368225094140922011-08-01T20:16:00.000+02:002011-08-01T20:16:41.967+02:00Google+ startup guide<i>New week, new blog entry. In the future, I try to post some interesting stuff on a weekly basis in the topic of photography, technology, or something else that comes into my mind.</i><br />
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Google+ is the new hotness in the social network scene. It is just a few weeks old, but it is growing very rapidly. According to Paul Allen, it <a href="https://plus.google.com/117388252776312694644/posts/CPvrWa4mmup">reached 18 million users in the first 2 weeks</a>.<br />
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Why it is interesting? Watch the following video, and you will see it:<br />
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<center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hC_M6PzXS9g" width="560"></iframe></center><br />
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The conclusion of the video is that if you are a Google user already (Blogger, Gmail, Search, Maps, etc.) then Google+ will make your experience better in the long run in these products.<br />
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Ok, but how can I know more about it? How can I start?<br />
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Here is a very nice presentation for this. Click through and see how to set up your circles and how to start a video chat with friends. If you want to see it in a bigger resolution, click <a href="https://plus.google.com/photos/114831291174925522786/albums/5632463702608817169">here</a>.<br />
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<center><embed flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&noautoplay&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fastroid1512%2Falbumid%2F5632463702608817169%3Fkind%3Dphoto%26alt%3Drss" height="350" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" wmode="transparent"></embed></center><br />
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Now you know how to set up circles, you just need some friends. The following article will give you a nice overview on how to import all your data (friends, photos, videos) from Facebook to Google+. I migrated my friends this way, but I did not bother migrating other things, because I can always re-upload my photos from my computer and my videos are already in YouTube.<br />
<br />
<center><b><a href="http://lifehacker.com/5824769/how-to-migrate-all-your-facebook-data-to-google%252B">How to Migrate Your Facebook Account and Data to Google+</a></b></center><br />
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Now you have your friends invited and you are ready to socialize. Until they join, you can try something: find a Hangout (a group video chat) that you are interested in in the global list of hangouts. Everyone can register his own hangout there, you can browse them and join if something looks interesting. There are also scheduled hangouts in the list:<br />
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<center><b><a href="http://gphangouts.com/">Where to hangout at Google+</a></b></center><br />
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To get some more information about the project:<br />
<ul><li>Here is <a href="http://profiles.google.com/dlux.hu">my profile</a>, you can follow me if you found this tutorial interesting. You can find some interesting people to follow there, too.</li>
<li><a href="https://plus.google.com/107117483540235115863/posts">Vic Gundotra</a> and <a href="https://plus.google.com/113116318008017777871/posts"> Bradley Horowitz</a> are good to follow if you want to know what are the latest informations in Google+.</li>
<li>There is also a webpage with the latest changes: <a href="http://www.google.com/support/profiles/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=release_notes.cs&rd=1">What's new in Google+</a>.</li>
</ul><br />
If you use <a href="http://www.google.com/chrome/">Google Chrome</a>, then you can find useful helper extensions in the following article:<br />
<br />
<center><b><a href="http://googlepluses.blogspot.com/2011/07/top-15-chrome-extensions-for-google.html">Top 15 Chrome Extensions For Google Plus | 15 Most Used Chrome Extensions For Google Plus</a></b></center><br />
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I personally suggest the following extensions from the list:<br />
<ul><li><a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hbgcgahdbgbdenffckohanhobdcnkoip">SGPlus</a> - Allows you to share to Facebook (and Twitter) directly from G+. A must have if you did not convince all your friends to go to G+ yet. It can also merge your Twitter and Facebook stream into G+, but it caused a slowdown, so I turned it off.</li>
<li><a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dkcppcocablbakkaboahjmljpodddkcp">Usability Boost for Google Plus</a> - Changes the layout of Google+, for example the top notification bar is kept always visible so that you can share even when you are in the middle of the stream and you will never miss a notification. It is also makes you be able to star posts to read them later, which is very useful.</li>
<li><a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/njoglkofocgopmdfjnbifnicbickbola">+Photo Zoom</a> - to enhance your photo viewing experience in Google+.</li>
<li><a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hehfpbphnjppmganambkgdnkfliaipgd">Helper for Google+</a> -Multifunctional extension. I use it for the Translate link only, because it slowed down G+ very much if I used the other features.</li>
</ul><br />
If you went through this article by this far and went through all the links, then you are a Google+ expert now, you can probably get more information about the project yourself.<br />
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For technically and business oriented people, there is an interview with Vic Gundotra and Bradley Horowitz in TechCrunct TV when they talk about <a href="http://www.techcrunch.tv/show/keen-on/IzdDdvMjoArIu8Cs5Xfsmucc8bJO7VPk">Google+, the past, present and the goal of the project</a>. Worth watching.<br />
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I hope this link collection was useful, and, as usual, feedback is always welcome!dLuxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17945588980761020541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6478332192799843753.post-15188632263388202362011-07-24T22:54:00.004+02:002011-07-24T23:10:38.887+02:00Flyin' on Business ClassLast month I had an opportunity to try out how flying on business works. I flew a few times back and forth to the US earlier, but I always took the Economy seats. It is possible to survive such a travel, but usually hard to sleep on the not too comfortable seats and the space is not really much for a 1.93m tall person with long legs like me. Not to mention the amount of attention you get from the flight attendants throughout the flight.<br /><br />This time I did not complain about the available space, food, nor the service.<br /><br />I flew from Budapest to San Francisco, through New York and from Los Angeles to Zürich through Atlanta. These 4 flights were all operated by <a href="http://www.delta.com/">Delta</a> this time.<br /><br />The check-in experience was not that really great in Budapest: I had to wait for about 10-15 minutes in the priority check-in line. Well, there were a lot of people even for Business class. The security was fast and when I arrived to the gate, I took the priority line to the airplane, so I could settle very fast.<br /><br />Leg space: more than enough. There were a lot of thing stuffed into the back pocket in front of me. Menu, blanket, pillow, magazines, headphones and a nice small bag of useful stuff for a long flight:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/vHkyC6I5LK4zZVyZ-bl8Rg?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwroPwhXOGNmHh8z7IOHS7mnuwFZGPhicPN8dwNlPneL_m92hvEezPFDMJmzGiZlX8cPV6mguPdn8eQj0rlt_mfPLe1hhiXsxadJAK_cy1cATzQLft2utPFZVV1-uIBOU33K-nc3tzKJc/s400/_MG_5422.jpg" height="267" width="400" /></a></div><br />The stuff in the bag were the following:<br /><ul><li>Socks: the A/C was on full throttle of course, so it was pretty useful.</li><li>Eyeshade: I think I've used it, pretty practical.</li><li>A Delta discount flyer: useless.</li><li>Toothpaste and toothbrush: nice touch.</li><li>A pen: well, good for a swag.</li><li>Earplugs: practical for someone who needs these kind of things.</li><li>Tissues.</li><li>Various creams: my girlfriend liked them, she told this is a <a href="http://www.korres.com/">good brand</a>. I am not a cream-geek, so I don't know.</li><li><a href="http://hintmint.com/">HintMint</a>: I did not really like it. :)</li></ul><div>Nice pack, I kept it.<br /><br />I could not complain to the menu either. There were 4 courses, the main course could be chosen from a couple options. I chose some chicken. The portion was big enough. The last course was the dessert. This time, it was a chocolate cake:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/2dWA5p9fU111XOGLqW2rhg?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC1ml0RZnI9Es5AzYooZ03ygBFkYowZxEy7hRZ8gCno9VaFNuKgHHiDYgkFCck5vVdr1mKbZFT2oMm1V7n7t0YZSG5gGDqMaMH4A4RZGNRD-BpYvIuyq7r1pq39ruuNdUSuUIhsxsrj6I/s400/IMG_20110626_151356.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br />In this photo, you can also observe the amount of leg space available...</div><div><br /></div><div>But back to the desserts. This was the selection:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/UsyE8oh6tY0EChOwdBYcEA?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG6GxjDmiLjyzVsKd4z0gx05FUbqELEbEyhfKRcnzCh-tyYqyD8YnolzLXKN_dLeqMur_yFq7zK8ryzIa9cjJvjYTOCbbLs5nL33F_e4gLVxw9LrTfoK7YX8_tDiXI1ut3OlpRugQRw2c/s400/IMG_20110626_151217.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/M2JRKcdJtN6PQ4IJPAJbcw?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBS2JMhfuJMDotmMVpBY9QPshTpMw2EJHReo5IWKoEnDLMLYdvcqpIuSHcZbU340DCthsUMNNkXHq4VHG6goiy4ppDJRLUkdy3f88iqH0MUeY16yLk3Siw0d5QeLpP5IO4BUlcP59rB6k/s400/IMG_20110626_151150.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div><br />Cheese-cake, ice cream sundae, chocolate cake, fruits. Not bad. :)</div><div><br /></div><div>30 minutes after I finished with my portion, the flight attendant asked if I asked for strawberries. She was very sorry to forget who was it. I said to not worry I could take it, so she left it to me:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/WVQeMDiHzK-OTv2xefVayA?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWYOB5_2ZqvNCnJCzIHzTkXfQ03bboPAoT2kxx-t1e8JU4qZ8BdaPP7G3GncMmNb2yxNbGrcaeBAhrWodg2tJYUXcX67tjFrISzVK3PSGRoJ5ygm5t8-X1-5cr4bQ9vJtUplCsKB2pGO8/s400/IMG_20110626_154358.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>I expected to have a plug for my laptop, but unfortunately it was not working. First of all, it was very hard to plug the Apple charger to the socket due to the limited space around it. After I managed to force it in, it turned out that there is no power in my seat. The flight attendants couldn't help. Argh! Next time I'll bring an extension cable which will eliminate at least that part of the problem.<br /><br />The seat was very comfortable, though. The economy seats usually have one button to change the tilt of the back, but here there were about 20 different buttons to change everything: the tilt of the back, the feet position, the length of the footrest, etc. It was definitely more comfortable than the economy ones.<br /><br /></div><div>The headphones were noise-canceling ones, watching movies was nice with them. My program was: <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1385826/">Adjustment Bureau</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1401152/">Unknown</a>, and the first half of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480687/">Hall Pass</a>.<br /></div><div><br />After the movies, I made some work in the computer (until the juice lasted), and then got some food before landing, then we arrived in NY in time. I tried not to sleep on this flight, because this was an in-day flight (from noon to afternoon).</div><div><br /></div><div>Oh, btw, there was <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000623/">Rene Russo</a> on the plane. She looked much younger than she is.<br /><br />At JFK, I was the second person out of the airplane and I had 0 waiting time at the immigration office. The luggage waiting time was slightly longer, but there were no real issues, I managed to catch my next flight to SF.<br /><br />In the JFK - SF flight, there were no "Business" class, just "1st" class. Fancy! At least the plug worked there, and I could use the interwebs for a $10 fee. It was funny posting to FB in 30k feet high. Well, this is not really a Business Class benefit, everyone could do that, only they did not have power plugs or just on selected seats. The leg space was big enough here as well, though no stuffed bag this time. The noise-canceling headphones were there as well.<br /><br />The food was really good this time, too. I was really tired this flight (it was 4am in Budapest time when we took off), so that after doing some internet browsing and finishing Hall Pass (it was not that bad as I expected), I got some sleep. It was around 11:30pm local time by the time I arrived to SFO.</div><div><br />The way back was similar, with minor changes: internet in the first flight, sleep on the second. They asked me if they would wake me up for breakfast. After consuming the dessert (cheesecake), I managed to sleep about 6 hours.</div><div><br />So this was my "Business experience". I was appreciated it, I can tell that the seats were much more comfortable. It is also true that the ticket was not cheap.<br /><br />As a side note, the best economy experience I had was in a flight from Zürich to Sydney through Dubai. Can you guess which airlines? Yes, <a href="http://www.emirates.com/">Emirates</a>. I flew on the <a href="http://www.emirates.com/english/flying/our_fleet/emirates_a380/emirates_a380.aspx">Airbus A380</a> between Dubai and Sydney. There was an on-demand video with all the new titles, slightly bigger legroom than the usual economy standard, and I got two stickers which I could stick into your seat to indicate whether or not you wanted to get woken up for breakfast. The linked video introduces the first and the business class in the A380, I suggest taking a look at it. Pretty funny. Well, one time, maybe...</div>dLuxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17945588980761020541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6478332192799843753.post-77147126669325415932011-07-19T00:41:00.005+02:002011-07-19T00:51:20.035+02:00Business website and personal email with Network Solutions<i>This is a guest post by David Jackson from TotalMarketing.com.</i><br /><br />Starting a website for your business can be a tricky process. However, if you decide to work through a professional website hosting company such as Network Solutions, the process can become a lot more simple, and your website will look all the more professional. You will be able to purchase a legitimate domain name upon which to build your site, and from there you can create just about any type of website you want to, with all of the features that you deem necessary or helpful. One thing that you may want to consider among these features is setting up a <a href="http://www.networksolutions.com/email-account/index.jsp">personalized email</a> account that coincides with your business and its new website.<br /><br />What this means is that rather than trying to run a business online and using your private email account (for example, myemail@gmail.com), you will become the owner of an email account that coincides directly with your business (something like myemail@mybusiness.com, for example). This gains you instant credibility in the eyes of your website’s visitors and those you do business with, as it simply provides you with a more professional image, and also helps to separate your private life from your business life. With an email account that exactly matches your business site’s domain name, you will simply be taken more seriously, and you will have a separate email account for all of your business concerns.<br /><br />You can also feel good about your business email account as a reliable and hassle-free management system for your business-related emails. To begin with, your account format will be easy to manage. Additionally, however, you can set up the highest levels of virus and spam protection, meaning that your account will remain free of the annoyances of spammers or hackers. You will not receive emails that you won’t need, or that aren’t directly connected to your business dealings.<br /><br />Securing an email address that matches your business domain is just one of the many perks offered by professional web hosting companies when it comes to setting up a site for your small business. With just a little work and a few small fees, you will be able to set up a site that is both professional and interactive, allowing you to run a thorough and legitimate business online. In the end, the benefits you pay for are up to you, but it is beyond a doubt that a professional web hosting company can help you to build a site you and your business can be proud of.dLuxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17945588980761020541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6478332192799843753.post-89665810144031382762011-07-10T00:21:00.002+02:002011-07-11T00:35:14.767+02:00Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 impressionsI managed to put my hands on to a Galaxy Tab 10.1 last week and I was happy to try it out. Thanks for the device for Slava.<br /><br />After the package arrived, I removed the Amazon wrapping, and a nice box unveiled itself:<br /><center><br /><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/9KtSjAS0DXiW91M6cimYwPFV3F27UUsF6nqy1x_FSvE?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWWVfvLZJIjeERPfTXLvoTtAWheqp1ohnZtRBJt61sGIMnhPvn-st2oMra4xsRbfJ1EyfQ-BOlYP53VA0ZAFrZ4WRpljZeXVxFZURU5rbVAFyQpOaG-o46-Rx_d5mIWSHRlL2EpQnVYWg/s400/_MG_5355.jpg" height="267" width="400" /></a><br /></center><br />This is a 32GB Wi-fi only version, with 1280x800 TFT touch screen, Dual-core 2 x 1GHz CPU as I learned it after turning the box upside down.<br /><br />I removed the serial numbers and other identifying numbers from the photo. I was too lazy, so I did it in Lightroom, these are the visible smudges at the side of the box. I was also lazy on taking the photos: I did not have my lights with me when I made the shots, and the indoor lighting was just enough for these. The built-in flash would have been even more lame, so after taking some test shots, I quickly abandoned it. Nevertheless I hope these photos and my experience will be useful for some.<br /><center><br /><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/QOVhR6iVJK3WXK0dC_B60vFV3F27UUsF6nqy1x_FSvE?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0GDvRLcAm16BclfVe1jlLHMpx5s3LVPiS3wbFAt4IATtGBdgfRLwtSlrIsZ_7NBU4bqexoJn1hkSzHYjpoA8bhQ8fhHLR0c3ggnxSSAI26kFuwHUdnDvh0HxEwSNv8ddQSMhzTyc1r5E/s400/_MG_5360.jpg" height="267" width="400" /></a><br /></center><br />The device is pretty nice, it smiled to me right after opening the box:<br /><center><br /><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ERbuzTVh8VqpszXuFG6gI_FV3F27UUsF6nqy1x_FSvE?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihDjC_V7_xn8hqexzsDByvxEE_5bDEo6RWFKSB8E22bKooFvF702NYrywDdN2Za18iJbJOZ5-_jHmSavW2Z-9Y8EAX8fpUuFB1OOCyXd-jcVtM3XNV8B1MabzeDRMkvGyoxmGRTcmhIZE/s400/_MG_5363.jpg" height="365" width="400" /></a><br /></center><br />The box contained the charger with a US plug, the Samsung standard earphones (similar ones were given to the Galaxy S and Nexus S and the old Galaxy Tab), a small brochure about the device and the cable. This is not a micro-USB cable as it is usual among the phones. Samsung had its own style.<br /><center><br /><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/QYaVn2KEYrR3qTyoLhn_ivFV3F27UUsF6nqy1x_FSvE?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFIA9Nh54wRXUw-mLCc0By9mRKLIJ5Mzrbste47yFydNuBCE04nFkJ31ahD1B8Z6PcjTW2hOIAZ4N7p1IcdBfIcbziksvcJ4ImLjEqHAv89-Hr3NFjcO5lcKf2g9J1o_cZD1Lp3LWM9Yc/s400/_MG_5367.jpg" height="267" width="400" /></a><br /><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/bj5HuSe_F_anTYc4oQuboPFV3F27UUsF6nqy1x_FSvE?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmZQALsYxva0aNfBvACH1NPxzoa-deoVodgi07qHtb6cZLh8Y5wsOnSoPWA-Ew1_1CGpYwy8-sQmiC6ur5u3SBdne7TOMETsO-5vjyEPHwQkkkoqSTQi0K-N4-sTCF4nBO_q6bvqmMKRY/s400/_MG_5370.jpg" height="267" width="400" /></a><br /><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/P5gsw6JPatXNGElTo0iMtPFV3F27UUsF6nqy1x_FSvE?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3c4JVctGVy0SdFSObA1VxvO8s4jyaf_cyLZ_EUEeXAMpBcwyLwv7g1g41nVM0LQ8Lc5KWBwX1GDZ4mBKrRhzgEHA6DI6b8TmlzhkjePB6lkcvsz9AvRhvI-ulc97rosZU_4L0Iw4jFqM/s400/_MG_5373.jpg" height="267" width="400" /></a><br /></center><br />The device itself is really sleek. Very thin, and just simply beautiful. It is easy to hold in hand and not too heavy to carry around.<br /><center><br /><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/fq_4iif9HZAuBoaN3owsC_FV3F27UUsF6nqy1x_FSvE?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHM5r9Gxnv-eYqNYGUFjzY7BZTiduCE1_xdLtqSH_2A5aS1kYvr8_39f3SS0i_M5WerGnt5W_VtBQoEeEfBrlAPJpZjNZ4vPaibtBTTbwOmkMvgQEufI8veB4t0OaQl51Xh-qljsbPNnU/s400/_MG_5377.jpg" height="267" width="400" /></a><br /></center><br />The USB cable connects at the bottom of the device. It charges over USB, unlike the <a href="http://www.motorola.com/staticfiles/Consumers/xoom-android-tablet/us-en/overview.html">Motorola Xoom</a>.<br /><center><br /><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/B69FAuMrtqiv701-bR8-zPFV3F27UUsF6nqy1x_FSvE?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMGn1DvtOPH_vXin8lz9kLHPtqsyWEvNAN86kWGf1lze8t0e2Ar1HO5j_Whj9cFE5RmRNE-t2qQp0fysQzTgZq6RkKaGTLbFi_6T0vjsSJgNNmb6gxBUB8Gm4oThQbr7riAmGrcaNVdZA/s400/_MG_5380.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a><br /></center><br />The volume buttons and the power switch is at the other side. If you hold the tab in landscape mode, then it is at the top left, if you hold it in portrait mode, it is on the top right. This is also some kind of Samsung standard, Nexus S and Galaxy S also suffers from it. Can anyone explain the logic behind it? I think that the on/off switch belongs to the narrower side of the tablet/phone and while HTC, Apple and even Nokia seems to understand this, Samsung seems to deliberately go against it.<br /><center><br /><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/g1cDjswM8x7aqbihdoD88_FV3F27UUsF6nqy1x_FSvE?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3D7yH2a2Iwj5pHoerD5bax-Ztwevj-d5drTzZnNjeiv_ip6R1vDlXSi3Bmnw1vCBznbeI_XMP9a6UY11ScDPR7zySxT_zg8wuWz6vl7cRisgjBmM14cxhwq9H7yfyA9HnEedmcO9s9yo/s400/_MG_5382.jpg" height="267" width="400" /></a><br /></center><br />The earphone jack is located at the top, close to the front-facing camera:<br /><center><br /><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/UGyO5ChTAfrer8flVyz9zPFV3F27UUsF6nqy1x_FSvE?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTgOWvqF-S0Egkex5VRP01v0cugwvcGjJk_O03CStx_rr1QRqHy46KXk98RP2qa-_nFCswgYRufL52uPgTNyF-eC0TYu4mTAdAA9mdbJZJIatgoVB2I0h9OcKmqCS9wQRjtG_PinBnRo8/s400/_MG_5389.jpg" height="267" width="400" /></a><br /></center><br />The back of the device is nice and smooth. The front and the back camera is located at the top in landscape mode, which is better if you prefer taking photos and video-chatting in landscape. Note, that the iPad has the front-facing camera at the narrower side, which is good for portrait-video chat, but in landscape mode it is strange. Just imagine videochatting with someone who always look left or right of you. Interestingly Apple promotes the iPad with a landscape videochat in their <a href="http://www.apple.com/ipad">iPad landing page (4th picture)</a>. I have no clear opinion on which one is better, probably putting the cameras to the longer side makes it less off the center, so the videochat does not seem that unnatural then.<br /><center><br /><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/G5JjWz9Axc1YvtTstC5fRPFV3F27UUsF6nqy1x_FSvE?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggP8Xg6o4xla_OVMgTdqbaaxTJx-rfcML1_NaR7tIUAexpkvqa_fO_5dVy3P_a_wtqppoK1kt9nlyeOyYZUykyoDo51ULQxvfSvbTyLZ1WjUIPul9ZLXXRqCJfX81ri5n6fuWaTzKbbJk/s400/_MG_5390.jpg" height="267" width="400" /></a><br /></center><br /><center><br /><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/dY05fAmMnCfrIqSdP-7rYvFV3F27UUsF6nqy1x_FSvE?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSEbpEzpQEEFec9gt0f8tnA1Qg43J4bSMQNtYV_N3613O0z1ygIYIYJF08No61Gjb18ZP2pihCRDIzZJD3TmBPjgfZa1tfFnXAYIqGvaW4O8aRs9JPE2IFH43Xej0X7m11PL0seY0mbs8/s400/_MG_5397.jpg" height="267" width="400" /></a><br /></center><br />After unpacking, I started using the device. My first impression was that the screen quality became much better over the 7" Galaxy Tab, even the automatic brightness seemed to be pretty usable. It is also better than the Motorola Xoom, of which I had a washed-out feeling when I compared them directly. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is also lighter and thinner than the Xoom: 565g vs. 708g and 8.6mm vs. 12.9mm.<br /><br />I was satisfied with the battery life, I only needed to charge the device in roughly every 3 days.<br /><br />I was slightly worried about the build quality, though. I did have it only for a week and managed to make a scratch at the edge and I felt that it is too thin to be durable.<br /><br />I don't want to introduce the Android 3 Honeycomb OS, the UI basically the same as other devices which recently hit the market, Samsung did not do too much customization there. After a few hours of usage, the browser seemed to be pretty fast, the operating system seemed snappy, the gaming experience was good, the Market app looked really nice, Gmail was like a charm and the overall usability of this device was more than satisfactory. Oh, well, if I set up my <a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=fishnoodle.asteroid_free">favorite live wallpaper</a>, the home screen started to slow down significantly, but, well, this wallpaper is not designed for the 1280x800 resolution I assume.<br /><br />Overall I really liked that device and I recommend it. Personally I always carry my laptop around, so another device would not make sense in this large form factor. A 7" or a 8.9" version would be much better for my taste, so I'm looking forward to try out those when they come out!dLuxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17945588980761020541noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6478332192799843753.post-72129563292799923212010-08-31T17:14:00.012+02:002011-11-10T22:11:29.208+01:00Run Multiple Google Chromes with different profiles on a Mac<blockquote>
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<i>UPDATE: Google Chrome Beta (starting from v16) now supports multiple profiles. It allows almost the same thing that this article describes below. See the announcement about it in the <a href="http://chrome.blogspot.com/2011/11/take-your-chrome-stuff-with-you-in-new.html">Google Chrome blog</a>.</i><br />
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If you have multiple accounts in different sites (<a href="http://www.gmail.com/">GMail</a>, <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/">Picasaweb</a>, etc) and ever wondered how you can be logged in into both in your favourite <a href="http://www.google.com/chrome">Google Chrome</a> browser, then I have a nice solution for you.<br />
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Of course you can use the <a href="http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95464">Incognito mode</a> to enter the credentials of a second account, but it is not preserved accross sessions. After a while providing the credentials over and over becomes boring. </div>
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I've read a little on how to run multiple <a href="http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95464">Google Chrome</a> instances on a Mac and found <a href="http://wiki.unto.net/google-chrome-profiles-on-osx">this</a> wiki. I used it for myself and shared the link. While this is a good starting point, my friends started to complain that things did not work as they expected, so I decided to write my own tutorial on how to run multiple Google Chrome instances on one Mac:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_af-yzFnDxpOYHwIwtJM_SYYiVj1u0VbHvne2LEy2FXDuZrRINSGa4s6C_377qaX-1GDsJIO6mR0rV16GUs238ucOJ4Ljauc_9ohhWZa_1bGIooitxYGglnWHuoZQvqc0ViVsVv47Izxg/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-08-31+at+16.00.23.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5511573775029681250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_af-yzFnDxpOYHwIwtJM_SYYiVj1u0VbHvne2LEy2FXDuZrRINSGa4s6C_377qaX-1GDsJIO6mR0rV16GUs238ucOJ4Ljauc_9ohhWZa_1bGIooitxYGglnWHuoZQvqc0ViVsVv47Izxg/s400/Screen+shot+2010-08-31+at+16.00.23.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 89px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 257px;" /></a></div>
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<b>Step 0: Install Google Chrome</b></div>
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I guess you already have Google Chrome installed. If not, install it from <a href="http://www.google.com/chrome">here</a>. From now I will assume that it is in your <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'courier new';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">/Applications</span></span> folder.</div>
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<b>Step 1: Create a shell script to launch a custom Chrome instance</b></div>
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Copy the following text into a file and name it as <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'courier new';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">/usr/local/bin/custom_chrome.sh</span></span> (or download it from <a href="http://patches-dlux.googlecode.com/files/custom_chrome.sh">here</a>):</div>
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<pre>#!/bin/sh
if [ -z "$1" ]; then
echo "Usage: $0 profile_name"
exit 1
fi
PROFILE_NAME="$1"
GOOGLE_CHROME="/Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome"
USER_DIR="/Users/$USER/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/${PROFILE_NAME}"
exec "$GOOGLE_CHROME" \
--enable-udd-profiles \
--user-data-dir="$USER_DIR"</pre>
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Make this file executable: in Terminal, run: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'courier new';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/custom_chrome.sh</span></span></div>
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<b>Step 2: Create your own Google Chrome application</b></div>
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Let's create a new profile "corp" and name your new application "Google Chrome (corp)".</div>
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For this, you have to open the terminal and do the following steps:</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'courier new';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">$ sudo bash</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'courier new';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Password: your_password</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'courier new';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"># cd /Applications</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'courier new';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"># APPNAME="Google Chrome (corp)"</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'courier new';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"># mkdir -p "$APPNAME.app/Contents/MacOS"</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'courier new';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"># cd "$_"</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'courier new';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"># echo -e '#!/bin/sh\nexec /usr/local/bin/custom_chrome.sh corp' > "$APPNAME"</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'courier new';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"># chmod +x "$APPNAME"</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'courier new';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"># cd /Applications</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'courier new';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"># chown -R your_username "$APPNAME.app"</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'courier new';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"># exit</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'courier new';"><br /></span></div>
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Now you have another Chrome instance with a profile which is independent of the main application profile!</div>
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<b>Step 3: Make a custom icon for this application</b></div>
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The default icon of a new application is not really nice, so you can either copy the icon from Chrome, or download a custom one.</div>
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Google Image Search for "<a href="http://www.google.com/images?q=chrome+icon">chrome icon</a>" gives you a bunch of beautiful icons. In this article, I used the <a href="http://www.scaine.net/site/tag/chromium/">Chromium logo</a>, the image from <a href="http://techreviews.in/google-chrome-alpha-on-ubuntu-a-step-by-step-installation-guide/">this techreviews</a> page, a <a href="http://georgia.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=8599251">neon-style icon</a> and an icon from <a href="http://chromespot.com/forum/google-chrome-tips-and-tricks/2049-google-chrome-icon.html">this forum</a> post.</div>
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To install a custom icon, the first, you have to select the application in Finder, then click on "Get Info":</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmUqIENdXE9Jk2q-eUal0A-5-BzockgEhyphenhyphenAhuJNblUXbAsGVMc3JlUIu4fkQuKehdRO2vnmI4yWvvi5sEMApVlIN9R7KBDScPTVuuq7dNUEt43eicu6B3OGByTtOn_M1tf5DkgzJz0egA0/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-08-31+at+16.39.30.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5511583906229730418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmUqIENdXE9Jk2q-eUal0A-5-BzockgEhyphenhyphenAhuJNblUXbAsGVMc3JlUIu4fkQuKehdRO2vnmI4yWvvi5sEMApVlIN9R7KBDScPTVuuq7dNUEt43eicu6B3OGByTtOn_M1tf5DkgzJz0egA0/s400/Screen+shot+2010-08-31+at+16.39.30.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 283px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a></div>
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Now open your selcted icon with your browser, and drag the image into the Icon in the "Get Info" page:</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjesoQIu4OC5miEkHP_Zucr-qpT62Lg3EufcX8r5RwhCTrsZh3JuJ8YnV6NY_-Pp_1L-11clUPK_iUjXTbDb6WH-0QaNyBfbhoaNrZRK7QiRoWx57fHisGgG0BvnlTnPXRqbseridJvDv9m/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-08-31+at+16.50.52.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5511589668913616082" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjesoQIu4OC5miEkHP_Zucr-qpT62Lg3EufcX8r5RwhCTrsZh3JuJ8YnV6NY_-Pp_1L-11clUPK_iUjXTbDb6WH-0QaNyBfbhoaNrZRK7QiRoWx57fHisGgG0BvnlTnPXRqbseridJvDv9m/s400/Screen+shot+2010-08-31+at+16.50.52.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 306px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a></div>
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Note, that Google Chrome sometimes changes its icon back to the original icon when it is running and as far as I know the only way to change it back is to restart the browser.</div>
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<b>Step 4: Enjoy the result of your work</b></div>
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Now you can drag your new <i>Google Chrome (corp) </i>application to your Dock and watch it running parallelly with the original application.</div>Balázs Szabóhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06024610564591844697noreply@blogger.com42tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6478332192799843753.post-14094921121751391262010-08-15T13:18:00.005+02:002010-08-15T15:02:16.044+02:00Parallel::ForkManager 0.7.6 (#perl, #forkmanager) and publicityI've put out a new <a href="http://hacks.dlux.hu/Parallel-ForkManager">Parallel::ForkManager</a> release: 0.7.6 with small changes:<div><ul><li>Added datastructure retrieval from child processes. (Ken Clarke)</li><li>Using CORE::exit() instead of exit() for mod_perl compatibility.</li></ul><div>The new version is available in the <a href="http://code.google.com/p/perl-parallel-forkmanager/downloads/list">project page</a> and (sooner or later) from CPAN.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>I did some <a href="http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=parallel+forkmanager">research</a> about the module publicity and found the following things:</div><div><ul><li>The most interesting story is that Nathan Patwardhan <a href="http://rubyforge.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=35407">ported this module to ruby</a>.</li><li>It is mentioned in the <a href="http://search.cpan.org/~jesse/perl-5.12.1/pod/perlfaq8.pod">perfaq8</a> man page.</li><li>An introduction article about it in <a href="http://www.perlmonks.org/index.pl?node_id=291446">www.perlmonks.org</a> from 2003.</li><li>An article and discussion: <a href="http://www.go4expert.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9083">Use Parallel Processing For Faster Perl Scripts</a>.</li><li>A blog post about <a href="http://www.aggiegeeks.com/wordpress/?p=94">Parallelization in PERL</a> by Michael S. Williamson.</li><li>The following RPM-based Linux distros have <a href="http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat/3/srodzaj/1/search/perl-Parallel-ForkManager">packages</a>: Fedora, AltLinux, Redhat EL, Mandrake, Mandriva, PCLinuxOS, PLD.</li><li>The following Linux distros also have packages: <a href="http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/hardy/man3/Parallel::ForkManager.3pm.html">Ubuntu</a>, <a href="http://packages.debian.org/lenny/all/libparallel-forkmanager-perl/filelist">Debian</a>, <a href="http://www.gentoo-portage.com/dev-perl/Parallel-ForkManager/ChangeLog">Gentoo</a>.</li><li><a href="http://www.gentoo-portage.com/dev-perl/Parallel-ForkManager/ChangeLog"></a>Other unix packages: <a href="http://openports.se/devel/p5-Parallel-ForkManager">OpenBSD</a>, <a href="http://ftp2.br.freebsd.org/local/cvs/CVSROOT/modules">FreeBSD</a>.</li><li>Someone actually had a <a href="http://www.madmongers.org/calendar/parallelforkmanager">talk</a> about it in Madison, WI.</li><li><a href="http://search.cpan.org/~holly/App-CLI-Plugin-Parallel-ForkManager-1.01/lib/App/CLI/Plugin/Parallel/ForkManager.pm">There is a module</a> which plugs in P::FM to <a href="http://search.cpan.org/dist/App-CLI/lib/App/CLI.pm">App:CLI</a>. I don't exactly know what it is, but seems cool. :)</li><li>Still in <a href="http://www.cpan.org/">CPAN</a>, there is a project called <a href="http://search.cpan.org/~tokuhirom/Archer-0.06/">Archer</a>, which seems to <a href="http://search.cpan.org/~tokuhirom/Archer-0.06/lib/Archer/Parallel/ForkManager.pm">support it</a>, too.</li><li>Other modules popped up which uses P::FM or mention it in their doc: <a href="http://search.cpan.org/~kazuho/Parallel-Prefork-0.08/lib/Parallel/Prefork.pm">Parallel::Prefork</a> and <a href="http://search.cpan.org/~wsnyder/Parallel-Forker-1.231/lib/Parallel/Forker.pm">Parallel::Forker</a>, <a href="http://search.cpan.org/~blhotsky/Parallel-ForkControl-0.04/lib/Parallel/ForkControl.pm">Parallel::ForkControl</a>, <a href="http://search.cpan.org/~salva/Proc-Queue-1.23/lib/Proc/Queue.pm">Proc::Queue</a>, <a href="http://search.cpan.org/~pmorch/Parallel-Loops-0.03/lib/Parallel/Loops.pm">Parallel::Loops</a>, <a href="http://search.cpan.org/~bdfoy/MyCPAN-Indexer-1.28_01/lib/Dispatcher/Parallel.pm">MyCPAN::Indexer::Dispatcher::Parallel</a>, <a href="http://search.cpan.org/~odigity/Parallel-Simple-0.01/lib/Parallel/Simple.pm">Parallel::Simple</a> (the author even wrote a review of the module, scroll down to the <a href="http://search.cpan.org/~odigity/Parallel-Simple-0.01/lib/Parallel/Simple.pm#SEE_ALSO">SEE ALSO </a>section).</li><li>A hell lot of other discussion threads in <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=site:perlmonks.org+parallel+forkmanager&hl=en&ei=jNpnTNfuKZihOKiLrLgF&start=0&sa=N">www.perlmonks.org</a></li></ul><div>Enjoy!</div></div>Balázs Szabóhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06024610564591844697noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6478332192799843753.post-49050425237830342122010-07-26T19:09:00.004+02:002010-07-27T00:53:40.905+02:00Emaily 0.7.1: Simplified email delivery, more stability (#emaily #googlewave)Emaily 0.7 was <a href="http://blog.dlux.hu/2010/07/emaily-release-07-stability.html">announced last week</a>, and it turned out that there are some cases where it still does not behave the way like it should. Today I'm happy to announce the fruits of some hard fixing and planning work, Emaily 0.7.1. The changes are the following:<div><br /></div><div><b>Incoming emails are not distributed</b></div><div><br /></div><div>In earlier versions, when a wave received a reply from an email user, and it has more than one email users and the incoming email did not have all email recipients listed in Cc: or the To: fields, then Emaily decided to deliver the email to the missing recipients. This was intended to be a feature, but it is very annoying in some cases, so we decided to disable the incoming email-distribution entirely. If a reply comes to a wave from email, it is not sent to any other email recipient (unless it is edited by a wave participant, in that case, it behaves like a new and edited blip).</div><div><br /></div><div>This is not a problem if the communication is between one wave user and one email user, and less disturbing in some cases when there are more email users, especially when one participant is a mailing list.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Emails are sent out to every participant at once</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Previously we sent out emails to each recipient separately, so that email participants did not see the participants of the conversation. The spirit of the wave is that every participant is visible for the others, so now we've changed this behavior. Every outgoing email now has all email and wave participants in their To: field.</div><div><br /></div><div>An advantage of this is that combined with the previous feature is that if email participants use the "reply all" feature of their email client, then everyone will get every part of the conversation in a multi-participant conversation without the need of control from Emaily.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Manual send is disabled</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Manual send will require some rework, and is more confusing than helpful, so we removed it temporarily. Now every message you finish in a wave will get delivered automatically after about 30 seconds.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Redirecting emails, mailing lists</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b></b>With these changes, it is now safe to redirect your emails to wave: you don't need to worry that your nice wave robot sends out emails when you did not want to.</div><div><br /></div><div>You can even subscribe to a mailing list with your emaily email address. If some other Emaily user is a member of the same mailing list, then you'll have a common wave created from the emails coming from the mailing list, so you can even discuss things faster (realtime), than members of the mailing list.</div><div><br /></div><div>Enjoy the newest version of Emaily!</div>Balázs Szabóhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06024610564591844697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6478332192799843753.post-83163673665649810702010-07-19T16:07:00.001+02:002010-07-19T16:09:03.129+02:00Emaily release: 0.7: Stability improvements (#emaily)Emaily has reached its new milestone today: 0.7. We've been working on Emaily for a long time with no announced release, so I thought an update would be due.<div><br /></div><div>Recently our efforts was split into developing and extending Emaily as a robot and working with the Wave team on some other cool thing which I cannot tell right now. But yes, it is related to emails. ;)</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Stabilization</b></div><div><br /></div><div>On the Robot side, we managed to finally stabilize it, so that we feel it is now reliable and usable with basic functionality. We think that we fixed all the errors we saw recently in our console and for now, you have a reliable email to Wave and Wave to email gateway. We do expect standard emails to arrive properly (normal means not too big, not specially crafted, etc.) and that wave updates are sent out reliably.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Email recipient handling vs. Wave participants</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Email is different than Wave on how it deals with recipients/participants. Thus, any integration effort between these systems has to have tradeoffs. We figured out our way of handling email recipients, and we think that this approach handles some very common cases, though definitely not all.</div><div><br /></div><div>One of the goals of the robot is to be as transparent as possible without being confusing. Starting from this release, when someone answers to an email which was sent out from Emaily and adds more email recipients to the reply email, then the robot will add these people to the conversation. Starting from that point, these people will get all updates on that wave and they can even reply. There is no current way of unsubscribing from a wave from email, but wave participants can remove any email participant, so you just need to ask someone.</div><div><br /></div><div>The same works if this is a new email which arrives to your Wave. If there were more recipients, you will see them as wave participants, so when you answer, everyone will get the answer.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Future</b></div><div><br /></div><div>There has been a lot of work done recently on the most requested features also: rich text emails and attachments. Actually they are almost ready.</div><div><br /></div><div>Two weeks ago, we had a 4-day <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackathon">hackaton</a>, where a team of 6 people worked on Emaily, and the biggest achievement was the development of these features. They require some polishing before release, but they are definitely around the corner!</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/YkURdZKOzujUd3CWUA4PMw?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf1Ap4ANLI-vqceFYEgjKgS4iAmdi9Y5iiwCs80KMghlCJpSLv7fafQktj_XdKY3HruG9aOwx0SqZGXRVAyith8nvVxjNVPKIKG_fp1rBdw8EPHBE_XLvIxHGQ3YzrUA2TYTo-WHd9Yfg/s400/_MG_3446.jpg" /></a><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The Emaily Team in the Hackathon</span><br /></div>Balázs Szabóhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06024610564591844697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6478332192799843753.post-29944742701302867972010-07-18T15:39:00.003+02:002010-07-18T15:43:16.603+02:00Class::Date 1.1.10Class::Date 1.1.10 is released. This is a new release after a long time. (You don't need to change something which is perfect do you? :) )<br /><br />Project link: <a href="http://code.google.com/p/perl-class-date">http://code.google.com/p/perl-class-date</a><br /><br />Changelog entry:<br /><pre><br />1.1.10 Sun Jul 18 13:27:39 CEST 2010<br /> - Remove the deprecated UNIVERSAL::import (Vladimir Timofeev)<br /></pre>dLuxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17945588980761020541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6478332192799843753.post-79031123309577277292010-05-14T13:51:00.001+02:002010-05-14T13:53:07.557+02:00RITMO 2010, a Google Wave based conference, Email integration panelRecently there was a Google Wave based conference called <a href="http://sbvirtual.com/hightides/agenda-for-ritmo-2010/">RITMO 2010</a>. You can imagine it like a virtual conference, where people are not gathered in crowded rooms, but sit in their comfortable chair in their home or workplace and discuss the conference topics through Google Wave.<br /><br />This conference had a panel about Wave-Email integration. Mr. Ray and Emaily was invited. Here is the wave, you have to scroll down to 75% if you are interested in the past, present and future of Emaily:<br /><br /><center><div id="wave_qF7rmYS9A" style="width: 450px; height: 600px; "></div></center>dLuxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17945588980761020541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6478332192799843753.post-8938710684677790762010-01-23T23:31:00.003+01:002010-01-23T23:42:04.979+01:00Happy New Year and state report from the HQ #emaily #googlewave #waveHappy New Year (well, better late than never) and Hi everyone who is interested in what's up with <a href="http://emaily.dlux.hu/">Emaily</a> recently:<div><div><ul><li>As you might know, we, the developers of Emaily are Google Employees, we are doing Emaily in our 20% time. (GURU is helping us, he is not :) )</li><li>We are back from Christmas Holidays.</li><li>I am back from Sydney, where I met the Google Wave team, and we established a very good relationship.</li><li>We are now testing an upcoming version of the Wave API in Emaily and because it is not released yet, we cannot share the source code from the point where started using it. This requires a big work, so please don't expect bugfixes in the meantime. Once we ported to the new API, many strange bugs will disappear at once (like phantom people on the wave which is created form an email, receiving email inconsistencies, etc.). So you probably won't see the progress, but there is!</li><li>AppEngine is pretty limited for what we want to achieve, so we are thinking of rearchitecting Emaily into an application, which uses more of the internal Google services. For example if we run on AppEngine, we are not allowed to send and receive emails from your GMail account, just with a strangely encoded email address. We cannot use your GMail profile avatar in waves when you receive an email, etc. The consequence of that is that we once we start doing that, we probably won't continue the open-source version of Emaily. We simply don't have enough people to support the open source version. We prefer using our time to develop new features instead.</li><li>Wave itself is very heavily under development, and we also need to rewrite our code sometimes, which leads to inefficiency in our developmet and that also make the progress slow.</li><li>The good news is that more and more people are interested in the project inside Google, and we now have 4 developers working on the project. </li></ul></div><div>Thanks for everyone who participated in the development by helping us or reporting bugs, or even testing features! We very appreciates that, and we hope that Emaily will deliver a much better user experience that it delivers today!</div><div><br /></div><div>Cheers,</div><div><br /></div><div>Balázs</div></div>dLuxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17945588980761020541noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6478332192799843753.post-23082904890915594732010-01-07T00:19:00.003+01:002010-01-07T00:22:38.530+01:00Magyar billentyűzetkiosztás Androidhoz (Nexus One-hoz is)Sziasztok!<div><br /></div><div>Az <a href="http://code.google.com/p/softkeyboard/">AnySoftKeyboard</a> fejlesztői elkészítették nekünk a magyar billentyűzetkiosztást Android telefonokhoz. Egyelőre még csak teszt verzióban létezik, de <a href="http://code.google.com/p/softkeyboard/issues/detail?id=208">innen</a> letölthető. Nálam működik.</div>dLuxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17945588980761020541noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6478332192799843753.post-39700926085871773002009-12-02T23:41:00.005+01:002009-12-02T23:58:15.048+01:00Emaily stability fixes, ~6000 email per day, SydneySince the release of <a href="http://emaily.dlux.hu">Emaily</a> 0.3, the usage skyrocketed. On the Monday after Thanksgiving, many people started to use it. As I am writing now, it is expected to send out about 6000 emails per day.<div><br /></div><div>When I first reported that <a href="http://blog.dlux.hu/2009/11/emaily-release-011-bugfix-1500-emails.html">Emaily sends out 1500 emails per day</a> that number was wrong, the real number was much lower. The cause of the false report was a software bug, which tried to send an email in every minute, but it failed and it counted as email sending. When I fixed the bug, the daily number fell to ~300. But now, the 6000 seems to be a real number, as no bugs are known which is about resending. :)</div><div><br /></div><div>In the last days, we made a lot of efforts to stabilize the system. We got many concurrency-related errors, some people complained about duplicated waves from emails, etc. Now it seems that the most severe problems are solved, we got barely a few errors because of the underlying datastore, nothing else.</div><div><br /></div><div>The focus of the near future is to refine the send and receive logic (how exactly we will add recipients to the blips, wavelets), fix how a new incoming email appears, fix of resending the arrived blip to the sender, etc. Soon you'll see changes for these.</div><div><br /></div><div>From next week, I'll be in Sydney and work with the Google Wave team to make Emaily and Google Wave better. Are you interested? Just stay tuned!</div>dLuxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17945588980761020541noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6478332192799843753.post-73169293641463200972009-11-30T11:09:00.002+01:002009-11-30T11:43:01.525+01:00New #Emaily release: 0.3 - manual send, incoming email threading, new participant icon. #googlewave #waveFinally, <a href="http://emaily.dlux.hu/">Emaily</a> 0.3 and some long-awaited changes are ready! In the last month, we have improved Emaily by:<br /><ul><li>Adding the possibility of manual sending (blip-by-blip, no automatic emails). You just have to uncheck the "Automatic send" checkbox, and in the new or edited blips, a "Send" button will appear. By clicking it, it will initiate the email sending.</li><li>Fixing the bug with accented, cyrillic, chinese, etc. (not plain US) e-mail subject encoding problem. (now you'll see "УРА, работает" instead of "???, ????????").</li><li>Support for threading of incoming emails. Your emails will appear as a new blip if they are answered by the email recipients. They won't always open new waves from now. (Credits for this goes to Christophe!)</li><li>Changing icon for email participants (to make it easier for you to distinguish email recipients from the robot itself). Note, that it is not the final icon, but better than the previous one.</li><li>Reduced the database and CPU usage of emaily when you have multiple email users on a wave.</li></ul><div>Please take a look at the <a href="http://code.google.com/p/emaily/issues/list">open issues page</a>, vote for your favorite feature (or bug), and then they'll be implemented/fixed earlier.</div><div><br /></div><div>We know that Emaily is still in an early stage, there are some missing features which we would like to address. There are also known issues, especially sometimes strange participants appear in the waves which Emaily creates (vote for this bug <a href="http://code.google.com/p/emaily/issues/detail?id=29">here</a>).</div><div><br /></div><div>Besides these, we have plans for improvements, too:</div><div><ul><li>Adding the possibility to autocomplete email addresses from the user's addressbook. This is not that easy that it seems (vote for this <a href="http://code.google.com/p/emaily/issues/detail?id=18">here</a>).</li><li>Add HTML email support for receiving and for sending also (vote for this <a href="http://code.google.com/p/emaily/issues/detail?id=22">here</a>).</li><li>Add attachment sending/receiving (vote for this <a href="http://code.google.com/p/emaily/issues/detail?id=27">here</a>).</li></ul></div><div>If you did not find your favorite feature or you encountered a bug, please open a <a href="http://code.google.com/p/emaily/issues/list">new issue</a>.</div><div><br /></div>We express our deeeeeeep gratitude to all who helped us in finding bugs and using Emaily. Guys, without you we would not have had such progress! Thanks all of you and keep going!<br /><br />Enjoy using Emaily!<br /><br />Best regards,<br /><br />Guru & Balázs<div>representing the Emaily team.</div>dLuxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17945588980761020541noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6478332192799843753.post-26836083785148010842009-11-17T23:25:00.001+01:002009-11-18T10:22:35.053+01:00Emaily short news: version 0.2.2: bugfix release; publicity, community; in the works #emaily #googlewave #waveI'm happy to announce the new version of <a href="http://emaily.dlux.hu/">Emaily</a>: 0.2.2, the new homepage, some community news, and what are in the works.<div><br /></div><div><b>Emaily 0.2.2:</b></div><div><br /></div><div>There are not too many user visible changes in this release, it is mainly about bugfixing. If you are interested about the technical details, here they are:</div><div><ul><li>We did not store the wave-id to the wavelets, just the wavelet-id. I assumed it is unique, but it turned out that there are many wavelet ids that are the same, so we actually ended up an almost unusable database. Now in this release, we will start storing the wave-id, so each wavelet is actually unique.</li><li>Some cleanup happened in the email-receiving code.</li><li>The datastore tricked me a little: I assumed that if I set a field to <i>null</i>, then it won't match a given numeric query (less than a number), but I was wrong. The result of this mistake was that every time the robot checked for emails to send, it looked through the whole database. Over time, one call consumed more and more CPU, and became slower and slower. The fix was easy, and now it works well.</li><li>There was a bug in the robot API, which made the robot fail and forget to record the changes in its state when a blip is deleted. This was probably caused by some recent change, because earlier we did not have this problem. I made a workaround for that, so this is also working fine.</li><li>Added an empty robot page in <a href="http://emaily-wave.appspot.com/">http://emaily-wave.appspot.com</a>, which redirects to the homepage (<a href="http://emaily.dlux.hu/">http://emaily.dlux.hu</a>).</li></ul><div>I hope this release will be much more stable than before.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>New homepage</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Well, not actually new, but the informations are updated. I hope the usage is easy enough now for most people to use it.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Publicity, community</b></div><div><br /></div><div>I opened a wave for questions and feature requests. If you did not know about that yet, check the new <a href="http://emaily.dlux.hu/">homepage</a> for the link. (I don't want to write the link here, because it might change in the future. The reason is that it is getting pretty slow to load: 132 blips currently). Feel free to contribute!</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://blog.arpitnext.com/about-techraga">Arpit</a> wrote a nice review about Emaily, you can check it <a href="http://blog.arpitnext.com/2009/11/send-and-receive-email-in-google-wave-emaily-robot.html">here</a>! Thank you very much!</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://l3reak.blogspot.com/">l3reak</a> has a step by step description of <a href="http://l3reak.blogspot.com/2009/11/making-google-wave-work-with-e-mail.html">Making Google Wave work with E-mail & facebook</a>. Very extensive description on how to use Emaily! Good work, thank you!</div><div><br /></div><div><b>In the works</b></div><div><br /></div><div>We are working on two major things, and I hope we can get it done soon:</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Manual sending:</i></div><div><br /></div><div>Emaily currently sends unedited blips after about one minute, but some people prefer pressing the "Send" button instead.</div><div><br /></div><div>Maybe you want to write a very important email to your love, your landlord or your boss: you don't want Emaily to rush you, do you?</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Threading:</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div>Now Emaily creates a new wave from all your incoming messages, but a conversation-like user experience would be much better: We'll create a new blip instead of a new wave when a reply comes from an email user.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you are interested in the updates about emaily, subscribe to <a href="http://twitter.com/dluxhu">my twitter (dluxhu)</a> or to the <a href="http://blog.dlux.hu/search/label/emaily">"emaily" label</a> in <a href="http://blog.dlux.hu/">my blog</a>.</div></div>dLuxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17945588980761020541noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6478332192799843753.post-89469131071211254162009-11-09T15:57:00.004+01:002009-11-09T16:12:18.176+01:00Emaily 0.2.1: Easier to use email sending in Wave #emaily #googlewave #waveThis weekend was pretty busy in the <a href="http://emaily.dlux.hu/">Emaily</a> world!<div><br /></div><div>Christophe and me also worked on things, and we incorporated the first change from Karan, too. Some of them you can see already, some of them are coming in the next week(s)!</div><div><br /></div><div>The biggest news is that you don't need to manually encode the email address anymore if you want to send an email to someone with Emaily.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here is how to use Emaily now:</div><div><ul><li>Add emaily-wave@appspot.com to your contact list.</li><li>Click on the contact entry, select "New Wave".</li><li>It will create a new wave with you and Emaily in it.</li><li>The robot will add a blip at the end of the Wave, and an input box where you can add email participants with their email address. It will do the hard work for you to convert their email address to Wave participants. No more manual work. You will see that the new recipients will show up in the recipients list.</li><li>After you finished, you can leave the blip as is, or you can even remove it.</li></ul><div>Features to come in the next releases:</div><div><ul><li>Make Emaily an extension: how about a "New Email" button to make things even easier?</li><li>Threading: do you want the answers in the same wave as you sent the first email from? We want that, too!</li></ul><div>Enjoy!</div></div></div>dLuxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17945588980761020541noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6478332192799843753.post-26673316731042682022009-11-07T22:52:00.008+01:002009-11-09T10:40:54.712+01:00Emaily release: 0.1.1: Bugfix. ~1500 emails are sent out daily. #wave #googlewaveNew weekend, new <a href="http://emaily.dlux.hu/">Emaily</a> release. Not too much visible change in version 0.1.1, just a small bugfix, which made emails queue up. If you just got your email which you sent a couple of days ago, then this is why it happened. :)<div><br /></div><div>About ~1500 emails are sent out daily with Emaily now. This is a big number given that it is just a very early version!</div><div><br /></div><div>Spread the word, use this robot!</div><div><br /></div><div>In the next weeks we're going to work on more usability features. If you have a feature request, feel free to send it!</div>dLuxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17945588980761020541noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6478332192799843753.post-13418196595845026722009-11-01T12:47:00.003+01:002009-11-01T13:12:22.321+01:00Emaily 0.1: Google #wave now sends and receives email #googlewaveWe are sending and receiving emails, too!<div><br /></div><div>This is a major breakthrough even if the code is in a very early stage.</div><div><br /></div><div>Changes:</div><div><ul><li>Now it does not send emails right after you submit a blip, it intelligently waits a little before sending. It even collects multiple blip changes into one email.</li><li>Email receiving is activated. You will get new waves from emails which are answered to your wave outgoing email address. (which is: <i>yourusername</i>+googlewave.com@emaily-wave.appspotmail.com). The code for this is made by Christophe.</li></ul><div>Please note that the version number is 0.1, so many things are still not working, but we are working on them. These are:</div><div><ul><li>Threading: incoming emails always create a new wavelet. In the future versions, if you get an email answer to a wave, then it will just create a blip.</li><li>Answering to the wavelet's address. Every wavelet has an email address, and whenever someone answers to that address, it is currently not working. Emaily uses it as an outgoing email address if an email contains changes from multiple people.</li><li>HTML emails.</li><li>Receiving emails automatically. Currently wave creation is triggered only when someone does something in a wave where the robot is a participant. This is the limitation of the API, but if many people will use the robot, it is not going to be a problem. So if you are testing Emaily, and trying to receive emails, just open a wave which contained an email recipient, edit a blip and press "Done" without changing the content. It will trigger creating wavelets from emails.</li><li>Sending emails from your <i>username</i>@googlewave.com. We cannot send emails from your email address currently because of security. We're trying to figure out how it would be possible.</li></ul><div><b>Redirecting emails to your wave box email address</b></div><div><br /></div><div>If you are brave enough, you can redirect all your emails to your wavebox. In GMail, go to Settings / Forwarding and POP/IMAP, select "Forward a copy of incoming mail to ...", write your wave incoming email address there: <i>yourusername</i>+ googlewave.com@emaily-wave.appspotmail.com. Select "keep GMail's copy in inbox" if it was not selected.</div><div><br /></div><div>Note, that I DO NOT suggest this yet, but you can give it a try.</div><div><br /></div><div>Happy Waving!</div><div><br /></div><div>Balázs & Christophe</div></div></div>dLuxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17945588980761020541noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6478332192799843753.post-39387202582677334852009-10-18T15:24:00.005+02:002009-10-18T15:40:16.439+02:00Emaily approved for the Wave Samples GalleryWhile we are still working on <a href="http://emaily.dlux.hu/">Emaily</a> to make it usable for many people, I submitted it to the <a href="http://wave-samples-gallery.appspot.com/">Wave Samples Gallery</a>, because it can contain some code which would be usable for others, for example usage of <a href="http://code.google.com/p/google-guice/">guice</a> in a robot and using the "proxyingFor" request field to determine the email address of an email user. The submission is just accepted a couple of minutes ago. Here is the entry for Emaily: <a href="http://wave-samples-gallery.appspot.com/about_app?app_id=46003">http://wave-samples-gallery.appspot.com/about_app?app_id=46003</a><br /><br />For people who want to use it: it can send emails, but it cannot receive answer yet. See my <a href="http://blog.dlux.hu/2009/10/emaily-002-google-wave-now-sends-email.html">previous blog post</a> on the usage.dLuxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17945588980761020541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6478332192799843753.post-62673083283875181172009-10-14T15:02:00.006+02:002009-10-14T15:09:32.268+02:00St Maarten airport (2004)In St. Maarten, there is a beach behind the airport. We had a couple of hours there. The airplanes are landing just about 20 meters above our head.<br /><br />But the takeoff is also interesting. I tried to record it into video (with a Fuji FinePix 5000), but the hot sand was so burning so that I had to hide behind the car after a couple of a second, so the end of the video resembles to a disaster-movie:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qeACI9RqLcc&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qeACI9RqLcc&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></div><br />Another movie from the same place (landing, no my video):<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zAfQwDizpRo&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zAfQwDizpRo&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></div>dLuxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17945588980761020541noreply@blogger.com3