Blog of Small Things

Google Dashboard is Cool !

dinu — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:16:09 +0000

Are you using Gmail ? How many mails have you sent, or received so far ? How many chat conversations you had in Gmail ?

Find out more interesting stuff/stats like this using google’s new “dashboard“. The Google Dashboard offers a simple view into the data associated with your account — easily and concisely in one location. Login to Google.com/dashboard, and you can manage all your google accounts from a single page.

The Dashboard covers more than 20 products and services, including Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Web History, Orkut, YouTube, Picasa, Talk, Reader, Alerts, Latitude and many more. Hmm … I couldn’t see Google Wave in the list … You can change security and other settings of any of these google products from dashboard. Watch the video for more info !

Liked it ?

Source : Google Blog

Google Dashboard is Cool ! is a post from: Blog of Small Things - Google Wave Plugins

Google Wave Addon for Firefox

dinu — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:59:54 +0000

Wave Addon for Firefox

Hi people ! I am back after a small break. I was away from blogging and social networking for a couple of weeks and have more than 1000 unread items in google reader. So, it will take some time for me to reach your blogs and read your latest posts. Now, the real deal of the post.

Google Wave Notifier extension for firefox works like the gmail notifier plugin. Enter your wave login details, and you will be notified whenever there is a new Wave in your inbox. Simple !

Known Issues:

“Cookies Blocked” issue: If third-party cookies are blocked for all sites, an exception will have to be added for wave.google.com.

This is done by going to Tools -> Options -> Privacy -> Firefox will: Use custom settings for history -> Exceptions -> wave.google.com -> Allow.

This extension will work only with wave.google.com accounts, and not with sandbox accounts. It has been tested using Windows XP, Vista, 7, Ubuntu, and OS X.

The most interesting part about this plugin is that, support is given through a wave !!! So, here is someone who found another use for Google Wave. Product Support, or say, Customer Service ?

Download the plugin from here

Google Wave Addon for Firefox is a post from: Blog of Small Things - Google Wave Plugins

Google Wave has a Public Timeline, like Twitter

dinu — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:34:51 +0000

Listen, this is a pretty cool thing. Google Wave also has a public timeline, like twitter. It shows all wave created and updated if they are marked “public”, and this happens real-time. You can open these waves and join the conversation. To access it, all you need to do is, type “with:public” without quotes, in to the search bar.

Google Wave Public Timeline

One day after the beta account invites were sent out to thousands of users for preview, the wave public timeline is full of people excited about their new wave accounts. I can see new waves appearing every second.

If you’d like to make the contents of a wave public, add public@a.googlewave.com as a participant. This will let you publish the wave on blogposts etc. This may bring the wave in the public timeline. If that is not working, Add public@a.gwave.com as a contact from your contacts menu, and then add it as a user on the wave. This will publish wave to with:public timeline.

Trends on Public Timeline, Day two.

Find More People: The basic trend on wave now is simple. People need to know more wave users to connect to, so that they can actually try using wave. A wave account is useless if you do not know anyone else without a wave account. People are trying to find wave users from their geographical area, or their country. I saw a wave for people testing the upcoming version of ubuntu, 9.10 ( Karmic ).

Collect Information: See titles of few popular public waves, or wave groups : ” Anything About Photography” “Game Design Wave Group”, These waves are edited by many people, adding links and information about specific topics. Something similar to wikipedia ?

Advertising and Social Media Networking: People are creating waves to advertise their blog, or lets not call it advertising, but social media marketing using google wave ? I could see a wave with 99 responses, with the title, Public Wave of Mashable.com ( mashable is a popular social media blog )

The Best Part, Public Waves are searchable.

Yes, the best part about public waves, or wave groups, as some call it is, it can be searched. Type in with:public followed by your search term, and you will find waves with that keyword. In future. this will be a huge source of information, and also an revenue source for google, through advertising.

Google Wave is evolving in many new ways and forms, that is with only few thousands of users, and this is second day. I am excited !!

Google Wave has a Public Timeline, like Twitter is a post from: Blog of Small Things - Google Wave Plugins

How To Uninstall An Extension or Plugin on Google Wave

dinu — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:28:54 +0000

Here is a quick “How To” on Uninstalling extensions or plugins on Google wave, with Screenshots.

1. Click on “Settings” on the Navigation Panel. Or, you can type “with:settie” in the search bar.

Uninstall Wave Extensions

2. Open the Wave “Extension Settings”

Uninstall Wave Gadgets

3. Find the gadget you want to uninstall or remove, and click on “Unintall” or “Remove”

Uinstall Wave Addon

Done !!

How To Uninstall An Extension or Plugin on Google Wave is a post from: Blog of Small Things - Google Wave Plugins

Webcam Video Chat and Much More on Google Wave with 6rounds

dinu — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:41:14 +0000

6rounds is a featured Google Wave Extension for Video Chat and Collaboration. It lets you chat with your friends using webcam, and do many other things together, real time.

With Google Wave + 6rounds, you can

Chat
View friends’ webcam
Play games together
Edit Documents together
Watch the same video together
Browse together
Browse Facebook together

What is Real-Time C0llaboration

All this happen, real-time. If you are unsure of what “real-time” collaboration is, let me explain that real quick.

A collaborative editor is a software application that allows several people to edit a computer file using different computers. There are two types of collaborative editors, real-time and non-real-time. Real-time collaborative editors allow users to edit the same file at the same time. ( wikipedia )

So, when you say watch one video, in real-time, you are watching the same video, on two different computers, two different locations. Suppose you pause the video on your computer, same will happen on your friend’s computer too. Your friend can see every mouse movement every click you make.

If you are browsing the web together, real-time again, you are opening the same page at the same time, viewing the same page, same image, etc, and you are sharing the browser with your friend or “collaborator”.

6rounds is in private beta right now. I got an account yesterday, and I am waiting for my google wave account to test this. Wait for more on this ….

For more information Visit 6rounds.

Webcam Video Chat and Much More on Google Wave with 6rounds is a post from: Blog of Small Things - Google Wave Plugins

Wave.google.com has a new Design

dinu — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:35:15 +0000

Because a picture is worth 1000 words …

wave.google.com redesigned

click on the image to zoom in

wave.google.com has been redesigned, adding login window, since they are giving access to more beta testers today. Don’t forget to check out our google wave plugins, if you already have an account !

Wave.google.com has a new Design is a post from: Blog of Small Things - Google Wave Plugins

‘Emoticony’ A Google Wave Plugin for adding Smielys and Emoticons

dinu — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:28:59 +0000

Emoticons for Google Wave

Can you imagine emails and chat messages without emitocons or smileys ? I can’t .. I even use them while chatting with customers and clients. When Google wave is released, we will start searching for cool smiles and emoticons for Wave conversations too. I started that search early and found a nice plugin for all of us !!

Emoticony Robot for Google Wave

Emoticony is a robot for Google Wave which replaces text representations of emoticons with the relevant image. There are currently over 50 different emoticons available, with this number continuing to grow. They are planning to release emoticons focused around specific events (Halloween, Christmas etc.)

In order to enable the plugin, all you need to do is, add emoticonbot@appspot.com to your wave. Enjoy ! For More Plugins, click here

‘Emoticony’ A Google Wave Plugin for adding Smielys and Emoticons is a post from: Blog of Small Things - Google Wave Plugins

Live Blogging With Google Wave, iDEA

dinu — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:59:11 +0000

Want to cover an event through Live Blogging ? Google Wave is all you need for Live blogging using Wordpress (or any other blogging or CMS platform like Drupal and Joomla ). Read on, to know how this can be done.

The Solution in Simple Words

Install a Wordpress Plugin that embeds Google Wave in to your Blogpost, and then publish your wave on your blog, and you are ready for the show ! Now all you need to do is updating the wave, which will automatically update your blog post, real time.

Now, Those Simple Steps

Find the right Google Wave Plugin for you. If you are using Wordpress, there are three plugins, wp-wave-shortcode, and wavepressthis. But the best wordpress plugin for Wave is, Wavr. It provides one click integration of Wave to Wordpress.

If you are using Drupal on your website, “Drupal Waves” plugin will help you embed waves to your webpages. Find the details about Drupal wave and 7 more useful google wave plugins here. If you are using Joomla, you can download the Joomla Wave Plugin from here.

After the plugin is installed and activated, all you need to do is embed a wave in your blog post, and start updating the wave, which will be updated on the blog as well, real time. People can read things while you are typing those words, you can share images, videos, etc, by simply adding them to wave. Your blog post or webpage with the wave will work like a charm, providing live streaming of the session you are covering !!

What do you think ?

ps: photo by Ben30

Live Blogging With Google Wave, iDEA is a post from: Blog of Small Things - Google Wave Plugins

Orkut Adds Video Chat

dinu — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:38:16 +0000

Orkut Video Chat

Orkut has added a new feature today, Video Chat. It’s 3 am and I am half sleepy, but I won’t get sleep without spreading this good news, I guess.

I know that many people are searching for Video Chat for Gmail and Google talk. Which btw, is the most popular post on my blog, as far as search engine traffic is concerned. Now, we should wait and see if Orkut video chat becomes popular too. ( no, not the post, I meant the video chat )

How to Enable

If you have a webcam connected to your computer, just take a few seconds to download a small plugin, install it, and you’ll be all set to go. When you are ready, a green camera icon will be displayed on your profile picture, to let other friends know that you are ready for video chat. You can understand the same thing from your friends’ status sign too.

How to Use Video Chat

When you find a friend you want to chat with, open a chat window and click on the “Start video chat” link in the “Actions” menu. If you want to get a better view of your friend, you can pop out your chat window and increase the size all the way up to full-screen.

Enjoy !!

Source : Orkut Blog

Orkut Adds Video Chat is a post from: Blog of Small Things - Google Wave Plugins

“Amen” Autobiography of an (ex) nun

dinu — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 18:08:00 +0000

Amen by Sister Jesme

Sister Jesme, ( name made from, “Jesus and Me” she says ). Served as a nun in the CMC congregation for about 33 years. On August 31st, 2008, she decided to leave the congregation and life there. If you are saying “that’s crazy”, read this ; she has PhD in English Literature, and was principal for two colleges in Kerala, 3 years each.

Oh, I see a big WHY on your face now. The same “why” that made me buy the book and finish reading it the next day (178 pages, it was not tough).

This book is not a complete autobiography, since it tells only her life inside the convent and why she left that place. And I felt that the book was written in “hurry” since the language was not “polished” enough for someone with great knowledge in English literature.

So, again, why did she leave ? There are many reasons, and most of the times I felt, ” If I was in her position, I would have left the place right then and there”. But when she finally decided to leave, the authorities were trying to give her Psychiatric treatment saying she has gone insane. ( Remember the movie Changeling ? ) What did she do ? she raised voice against them doing illegal things in college run by them where she was Principal.

There were things like homosexual advances from a fellow nun, “special love” between many nuns, I don’t even feel like writing about it here.

If your curiosity goes beyond homosexual activities among nuns, and that kind of stuff, there are some serious points that Sister Jesme wants us to start thinking about. Basically, Nuns are human beings too, or, they are women too. There is no point in considering them inferior to Priests. They also require little bit of freedom, some financial security, etc etc.

If you are not from Kerala, you probably may not know about Sr. Abhya (found dead in a well in her convent) murder case, and Sr. Anupama Mary (found hanged in her convent room). Read about these incidents too, if you are serious about this issue.

Women’s commission in Kerala recently suggested a new law, so that no girl will be allowed to join a convent to be a nun, before she is 18 years of age. But it never happened, thanks to protests from many corners, including the Church. This book will bring more supporters to that concept.

At least, I believe in that now. Because, if you, at some point, feel that you made a wrong decision, or, you find yourself in something similar to what Sr. Jesme has described, it will be tough to go back, and if you do, the family and society will treat you like you are a convict escaped from prison.

This was not a book review, and I don’t think this book needs one. But let me just say, that this is a “must read”

Related Reading : review at dancewithshadows.com

I know that I didn’t write this post well, I am upset after reading the book. I too have friends and relatives, as nuns, and Priests, Is this the kind of life that are going through ?

“Amen” Autobiography of an (ex) nun is a post from: Blog of Small Things - Google Wave Plugins