Ajax APIs for RSS mashups by GoOgLe Finally out!

Google has announced a new Ajax Feed API makes it possible to extract information from multiple RSS feeds with only a few simple lines of JavaScript. The API—which allows web developers to retrieve RSS data as either XML or JSON—can be used to build mashups, unique web applications that leverage multiple sources of data and display the results in a useful or innovative manner.

Google's Feed API allows developers to circumvent the same-origin policy—a security mechanism designed to prevent JavaScript code from accessing content associated with a web page from a different domain—without having to manually implement complex server-side proxy mechanisms. The Feed API transparently leverages Google's server-side FeedFetcher, the RSS capture and cache mechanism used by Google Reader.

In order to use the Google Feed API, developers will need to sign up for a special API key that is tied to a specific URL. For instance, if a developer registers a key for http://mysite.com/mydirectory, that key can only be used in pages that are in that directory or its subdirectories. Developers will have to register additional keys for web pages that are stored in other directories or domains.

In my own experimentation with the Google Feed API, I found the performance satisfactory. I initially had some trouble getting the API to retrieve more than four elements at a time, until some developers at Google pointed out that I was neglecting to use the setNumEntries method to increase the maximum number of items. After fixing my test code, I had no problems using the Feed API to retrieve XML and JSON. The Google Feed API is a useful and effective tool for client-side Web 2.0 application development, but the key registration limitations seem like an inconvenience that could hinder adoption.

Source :: http://arstechnica.com/

Powerpoint - The Google Way

No PowerPoint? Google will offer a free alternative

JEFFERSON GRAHAM, USA TODAY
Google is adding another tool in its battle with Microsoft: A free version of presentation software.

The yet-to-be-named software will be included in Google Apps, an online suite that includes free word processing, spreadsheet and calendar programs. Users will work with the program online but will be able to save files and view them offline. It's expected to be available this summer.

Microsoft's PowerPoint, part of the Office suite, is one of the most-used applications for office meetings. Companies pay upward of $300 yearly for Office licenses, making it one of Microsoft's most lucrative franchises.

At the Web 2.0 Expo conference in San Francisco, Google CEO Eric Schmidt denied, as he has in the past, that the online tools are aimed at luring people away from Microsoft.

"We believe we can bring presentations to a new level of user satisfaction," he said. "We don't think it competes with Microsoft, because it doesn't have all the functionality of Office. It's a different way of sharing information, more casual, and a better fit to how people use the Web."

Mike McGuire, an analyst at researcher Gartner, doesn't buy it. He says "it's getting harder to take comments like that at face value. Of course Google is taking on Microsoft. Microsoft has lots to worry about."

McGuire doesn't think Microsoft's large base of corporate clients will immediately abandon Office, "but for individuals, Google is offering a strong, free alternative and people will look at it very seriously."

Google announced a deal Friday to buy online ad firm DoubleClick for $3.1 billion, which Microsoft contends violates antitrust rules. The deal is Google's biggest ever, following its $1.6 billion acquisition of video-sharing site YouTube last year.

On Monday, Google announced an alliance with radio broadcaster Clear Channel that lets users of Google's online advertising network buy radio ads directly from their computer.

Schmidt said he is delighted at having YouTube in the Google family, despite controversy over unauthorized video clips showing up on the service. Viacom has filed a $1 billion copyright infringement suit against Google. On Tuesday, Schmidt said he thinks the company is just "negotiating" to get a settlement. He said Google will soon introduce a tool to take down unauthorized clips automatically, "which will make all of this moot."

Source:: http://indystar.gns.gannett.com/

Attribute nightmare in IE

clipped from tobielangel.com I've had this article in mind for a while, as I have fiddling with Internet Explorer's crazy handling of attributes in order to patch Prototype's $$() utility. Well, fiddling wasn't cutting the deal, so I ended up doing some large scale testing (basically running thousands of test using a sample HTML 4.01 document from W3C) to try to figure out what was going on. element.foo === element.getAttribute('foo') Obviously, that is a completely broken implementation, as getAttribute('foo') is supposed to return the attribute as set in the document, not the corresponding DOM element's attribute. To exemplify: <a href="http://tobielangel.com/index.html" onclick="alert('Back home!')">Home</a> element.getAttribute('href'); // -> "http://tobielangel.com/index.html" in IE // -> "/index.html" in well behaved browsers If you read Internet Explorer's online documentation, you'll notice that it's implementation of getAttribute() is a bit particular, as it takes a second optional argument called an iFlag.

Thinkature ! IM meets Workspace Collaboration

Thinkature is a cross between an online chat and workspace utility

It brings the potential of chatting and using the workspace along with your mates.
Whats more is that u have unlimited workspaces and the workspaces are persistent so you dont need to save them. Also they are quite feature rich and extremely flexible.
You should definitely try this one out

Using Google Maps To Get Free Phone Calls

clipped from www.thesimpledollar.com Let’s say hypothetically that I’m sitting at work in the greater Des Moines, Iowa area and I want to pick up a delicious pizza from Papa Murphy’s on my way home from work. Unfortunately, though, I can’t call out from work to non-business numbers, though I can receive phone calls. Ah-ha! I go to Google Maps, type in “Papa Murphys West Des Moines IA and see the following: See the “call” link I have circled in red? If you click that link, you’ll be asked to enter your telephone number. As soon as you click submit, your telephone will ring. Pick it up, wait a few seconds, and you’re connected for free to the business. No charges to you at all, and no outgoing call charges. This is spectacularly useful if you have any sort of long distance charges or if you have outgoing call charges on your telephone, whether it be a land line or a cellular phone. What’s the drawback? So far, I haven’t found a drawback - it’s not always useful, but quite often it can save me some cash.

Windows v/s Linux

somethng cool that I found on the Internet

It's really hard to miss how Linux and Windows are relatively judged in the tech blogosphere. Consider the following attributes and their praise or criticism, completely based on what operating system they happen to accompany:

1. A free graphics program bundled with the system.
(a) On Windows: Cool! A free paint program! Hey, everybody, check out this awesome pixel-art I did!
(b) On Linux: The interface is completely wrong! It needs to be just like Photoshop!

2. The system has a command line.
(a) On Linux: It's this archaic dependency on outdated interfaces that is holding Linux back.
(b) On Windows: The new Windows Power Shell innovation is a bold leap forward that gives Windows more power! Order your copy for $100 today!

3. The system search feature.
(a) On Windows: It's easy, all you do is type "command line folder:interactions type:doc myfile" to quickly locate your file!
(b) On Linux: This is just the problem with the command line I'm talking about! "Locate myfile" will never be something the average person can remember to type in.

4. Lots of distros.
(a) On Linux: The lack of standardization is a huge stumble. Having too many choices is confusing for the end user. Even if it were narrowed down to just Ubuntu and Kubuntu, that's still too many.
(b) On Windows: The Vista editions run to Home Premium, Home Basic, Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate, or you can stay with XP or 2000, and even NT and Me and 98 SE are still out there. Giving a consumer their choice is what makes capitalism work!

5. Charity.
(a) On Windows: Gates gives away a portion of income to charity, so I know I'm doing something good for the community just by buying Windows.
(b) On Linux: The whole damned operating system is free in the first place so you can donate your own money how you want? Well, then, that just goes to show that they're all anti-establishment hippies, doesn't it?

6. Support.
(a) On Linux: Nobody knows it, nobody understands it, it's too difficult to learn.
(b) On Windows: Anybody with a copy of "Windows for Dummies", an MSCE certificate, and a paid-up per-incident MS Live support account can administer this baby.

7. User education.
(a) On Windows: Sure I had to re-learn how to do everything going from Word 2003 to Word 2007, but it's worth it for all the extra features and improvements in it.
(b) On Linux: It doesn't work just like Windows! Waaaahhhhhhh!

8. Tabbed Browsing.
(a) On Linux: Yeah, yeah, so Firefox has tabs. Can somebody get the fanboi out of here, please?
(b) On Windows: The IE 7 tab feature is a Microsoft innovation that changed my life forever.

9. Daylight Savings Time.
(a) On Windows: The heroic efforts of the developers and system administrators to apply all the patches in time was a touching moment in IT teamwork.
(b) On Linux: Yeah, yeah, so the system automatically corrected itself while you slept! Can somebody get the fanboi out of here, please?

10. Cost.
(a) On Linux: Mysteriously, the fact that the software is free somehow causes training and support costs to be 100x as much as for Windows, wherever it's reported.
(b) On Windows: Mysteriously, the additional cost for installing each piece of commercial software, having to upgrade hardware, lost productivity due to downtime, buying an anti-virus program, and taking the box to the shop every two weeks to clean it out is never mentioned anywhere.

UPDATE: A comment in the Ubuntu forums linking here does mention that the Daylight Savings Time change did have some glitches on some systems. All I can say is that my 3 installed Linux boxen (Slackware, grml, and Damn Small) handled the change nicely (I keep them updated). But then I just have a home set-up, not an enterprise-class network.

Cool Site Design

There are only a few websites on the web that make me go "Damn! Thats Sleeek!!!"

Here is just one of them
Its a very neatly designed site plus has a great concept have a go.

http://specials.washingtonpost.com/onbeing/

For The Google Map Addicts

I was strolling the web when i found this blog. For all the avid enthusiasts of google maps and those who want to follow it very closely heres a very neat blog. I have no idea who the author of the blog is but he really is crazy about google maps i reckon. I enjoyed my visit on the blog and i am sure you would too.

http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com

BeleniX

clipped from www.genunix.org BeleniX is an OpenSolaris Distribution with a Live CD (runs directly off the CD). It includes all the features of OpenSolaris and adds a whole variety of opensource packages. It can be installed to harddisk as well. BeleniX is free to use, modify and distribute. The BeleniX LiveCD allows you to test drive OpenSolaris in less than 2 minutes. BeleniX can also be installed to USB thumb drive allowing you to carry your operating environment, apps and data in your pocket. The LiveUSB boots even faster than the CD ! BeleniX 0.5.1 DVD Edition Released! belenix.org: Website Revamped BeleniX 0.5.1 Released Belenix boots from a USB drive ! BeleniX 0.5 Released BeleniX is released under the CDDL license version 1. However all the software in BeleniX are covered by their respective licenses (eg. GPL, LGPL, BSD etc).

Funniest Post I Ever Saw

Another desperate guys attempt to prove why linux can never overtake Windows

As quoted by him
"Are you saying that this linux can run on a computer without windows underneath it, at all ? As in, without a boot disk, without any drivers, and without any services ?

That sounds preposterous to me.

If it were true (and I doubt it), then companies would be selling computers without a windows. This clearly is not happening, so there must be some error in your calculations. I hope you realise that windows is more than just Office ? Its a whole system that runs the computer from start to finish, and that is a very difficult thing to acheive. A lot of people dont realise this.

Microsoft just spent $9 billion and many years to create Vista, so it does not sound reasonable that some new alternative could just snap into existence overnight like that. It would take billions of dollars and a massive effort to achieve. IBM tried, and spent a huge amount of money developing OS/2 but could never keep up with Windows. Apple tried to create their own system for years, but finally gave up recently and moved to Intel and Microsoft.

Its just not possible that a freeware like the Linux could be extended to the point where it runs the entire computer fron start to finish, without using some of the more critical parts of windows. Not possible.

I think you need to re-examine your assumptions.
Posted by: jerryleecooper Posted on: 03/14/07 "

CryoPID - Linux Process Freezer

clipped from cryopid.berlios.de CryoPID allows you to capture the state of a running process in Linux and save it to a file. This file can then be used to resume the process later on, either after a reboot or even on another machine. CryoPID consists of a program called freeze that captures the state of a running process and writes it into a file. The file is self-executing and self-extracting, so to resume a process, you simply run that file. See the table below for more details on what is supported. Current features are: Can run as an ordinary user! (no root privileges needed) Works on both 2.4 and 2.6. Works on x86 and AMD64. Can start & stop a process multiple times Can migrate processes between machines and between kernel versions (tested between 2.4 to 2.6 and 2.6 to 2.4). Latest version: [i386] http://dagobah.ucc.asn.au/wacky/cryopid-0.5.9.1-i386.tar.gz [x86_64] http://dagobah.ucc.asn.au/wacky/cryopid-0.5.9.1-x86_64.tar.gz PAX must be turned off if you have it (chpax -xperms <target program>) Very undocumented.

Speed Up Your Mozilla FireFox

Mozila’s Firefox browser can browse much faster than other browsers. Why wouldn’t you make it even faster? To speed up Firefox you have to make a little minor tweaking. You can make Firefox perform up to 40% faster for page transfers. With just a few clicks and some typing, you can experience faster browsing and surfing Firefox.

1. Open the Firefox “config” page: click into the Firefox address location bar, and type about:config , press Enter.

2. The “Config” file will appear in the Firefox browser as a page with hundreds of lines of code in it. Now, we start by enabling some advanced tabbed options:

3. Locate the line browser.tabs.showSingleWindowModePrefs . (tip: press “b” on your keyboard to quick scroll).

4. Double click on browser.tabs.showSingleWindowModePrefs . This will set its toggle to “true”. Now your advanced and enhanced tabbing should be set.

5. Next: we will increase the “pipeline” RAM ability for Firefox to accomodate more packet transfer. In the same config document, scroll down to the line that says network.http.pipelining . Double click this line to set it to “true”.

6. Lastly, we will increase the maximum pipeline requests to 100. Find the line that says network.http.pipelining.maxrequests . Double click on it, and a dialog box will pop up. Change the setting from 4 to 100.

7. No need to save this file. Simply close and restart Firefox, and you should see an immediate 10% to 40% increase in web page transfer speed, and faster opening of your tabbed windows! Enjoy!

Source :http://www.mozila.pl/blog/speed-up/

ForstWire - P2P extended!

Frostwire is a new P2P utility in town it features a lot of features along with its better speed promise. So does it satisfy you needs is a question. Why not give it a shot.



Features:

	Completely free & open-source		Firewall-to-firewall transfers		Built-in community chat
	No bundled software of any kind!		Connects to more sources		Creative commons license support
	Max. speed network connections		Junk result filters		Turbo-Charged download speeds
	iTunes integration		BitTorrent support		Proxy Support

Want to Cancel Your AOL Account - Think twice!!!

Heres how Vincent Ferrari, a user who wanted to cancel his account had to go thru!

Play Any Media You Want

Rules Player is the new player on the block, which promises to play any media under the sun. Well obviously the known ones.

Quoting of what the site has to say about it

"RulesPlayer is a clean and easy-to-use GUI for MPlayer under Windows, written in D and DWT. rulesPlayer supports most popular media files (AVI, 3gp, ASF, FLV, Matroska, MOV QuickTime, MP4, NUT, Ogg, OGM, RealMedia, DivX plus many more ) supported by many native, XAnim, and Win32 DLL codecs. You can watch VideoCD, SVCD, DVD, 3ivx, DivX 3/4/5 and even can watch video files while you are downloading them!rulesPlayer also has an onscreen display (OSD) for status information, nice big antialiased shaded subtitles and visual feedback for keyboard controls. European/ISO 8859-1,2 (Hungarian, English, Czech, etc), Cyrillic and Korean fonts are supported along with 12 subtitle formats (MicroDVD, SubRip, OGM, SubViewer, Sami, VPlayer, RT, SSA, AQTitle, JACOsub, PJS and our own: MPsub). DVD subtitles (SPU streams, VOBsub and Closed Captions) are supported as well."

You can get a copy for free yourself here!

Changing Your Mac Address In Window XP/Vista, Linux And Mac OS X

I am sure many of you are desperately hopping around to find this, but fear not. Heres a walkthru as to how you can change your Mac Address on Windows XP/Vista, Linux and Mac OS X

The resource is meant only for educational and informative purposes, any malusage of this resource is strictly forbidden.

Click here!

Googles Fool Day Announcement ... umm yet again

N. Nagaraj

The Hindu

Chennai, April 1.: Google has announced two new services: Gmail Paper for Gmail users; and, Google TiSP for internet users.

Gmail Paper was announced in the Gmail home page. It is a new facility through which one can request paper prints of specific email that one has received. Google will (snail) mail the prints to you. Just choose the messages you want printed out and click the “Paper Archive” button in the menu and allow 2-4 business days for the prints to arrive. Picture attachments are printed on photo-quality paper.

The company is forthright about the revenue model: non-intrusive targeted ads printed on the back of the sheets in red bold 36 pt Helvetica. The messages are printed on eco-friendly paper and the company encourages one to recycle. For more details, please see the Gmail Paper page (http://mail.google.com/mail/help/paper/more.html).

For technophobes who took it seriously and immediately logged in to their accounts to request copies of email (like this correspondent), it was a cruel prank to play: one is disappointed just trying to find the “Paper Archive” button.

The second announcement, made in the google home page, is for a free in-home wireless broadband service, called TiSP (Toilet internet Service Provider). The press release says: `For years, data carriers have confronted the "last hundred yards" problem for delivering data from local networks into individual homes. Now Google has successfully devised a "last hundred smelly yards" solution that takes advantage of preexisting plumbing and sewage systems and their related hydraulic data-transmission capabilities.’

Users who sign up online for the TiSP system will receive a full home self-installation kit, which includes a spindle of fiber-optic cable, a TiSP wireless router, installation CD and setup guide. Fore more details, see the TiSP overview page (http://www.google.com/tisp/)

This is not the first time that Google is making new service announcements on Fool’s Day: Last year, it was Google Romance (http://www.google.com/romance/), which encouraged you to “Pin all your romantic hopes on Google”. In 2005, it was the Google Gulp (http://www.google.com/googlegulp/) to “Quench your thirst for knowledge.”; It was also the year they announced unlimited storage in Gmail. In 2004, it was the advertising of jobs in the Google Copernicus Center (http://www.google.com/jobs/lunar_job.html) in the moon. In 2002, it revealed the secrets of its search engine (http://www.google.com/technology/pigeonrank.html) and PageRank. And in 2000, it unveiled a revolutionary MentalPlex search technology (http://www.google.com/intl/en/mentalplex/) that read the user’s mind about the search query so one wouldn’t have to type it in.