Google rolls out new goodies

Today I noticed a couple of new additions made by google. First, is the addition of themes into gmail. The theme feature is cool, especially considering that I had been using stylish firefox extension along with a nice theme. For people familiar with the cool ninja theme easter egg in the google reader. Even that’s available!

Second is ranking in google search results. With this google is stepping further into the crowd oriented internet a la digg and friends.

The World of Desktop Widgets – Part 1

Back in 2003 when I still had enough time to follow up on the latest Linux applications, there was a new tool (or toolkit) developed called Karamba. It aimed to bring desktop widget functionality to KDE on Linux. Soon there was a new application called Superkaramba that improved on the old application and got a lot of attention. Curious as I was, I downloaded it, compiled it and was soon running it on my desktop.

Looks like the idea of using desktop widgets was catching on at the time. At the same time there was an application called Konfabulator (which got bought out by Yahoo and is now called Yahoo! Widgets). When I started working and was forced back on Windows, I started using konfabulator and liked it quite a lot. At around the same time Mac OS X had an application called Dashboard, which did all the things the other two were aiming for. With the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft entered the field and released native widgets called Gadgets. The final development – as far as my exposure lets me believe – was the development of Plasma in the new version KDE. There is also one other player in this game that introduced its own version of widgets. Google created the desktop search back in 2004, and soon after added a sidebar with gadgets and other plugins. As one would guess, these gadgets performed the same general tasks as all the other flavours and aimed to provide the same solutions.

I this article I will try and review each of these implementations both from a user perspective. Part 2 will carry reviews from a developer’s point of view.

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Large Hadron Collider Goes Online

After today science will have a chance at discovering great unknowns and proving or disproving some of the most fundamental theories in physics. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will go online in CERN. Although I have no expertise in this subject matter I will try my hand at a quick summary of the most important points. Follow the jump for a brief introduction and a very nice video explaining it all in rap!

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Where’s my PC?

So my laptop died this past Friday, and I have been slowly realizing how useful virtualization or cloud computing would be RIGHT NOW! I am by no means cut off from computers. I have access to a couple of them here at home, and all day at work I stare at various computers. And on top of all that, the laptop that I lost (oh, cruel fate!) didn’t even have many personal files on it. It was a work laptop, but I had gotten so used to having access that I’m in a mini-withdrawal right now.

I think most of all I miss the customization I had done on there, which made my day-to-day tasks easy. I’m beginning to think that if I had that level of customization on a cloud computer, I would never run this risk again. Something like igoogle or the upcoming Live Mesh.

Making money in the age of internet

I was having a chat with someone who is by no means a tech-savvy person. She had heard of google adsense and that someone she knew was making about a $100 a month from it. She wondered how she could do it. That got me thinking, why can’t I?

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