Archive for the ‘Innovation’ Category
Saturday, December 29th, 2007 |
I have often admired the looks of a Macintosh Computer. The sleek and minimalist looks of a Mac are a treat for your eyes. But no one can beat good old Windows. They say Mac is more stable and secure, but I believe, its is because its not as popular as the Windows OS. If it was as popular as Windows, people would have found out ways to mess with it and create viruses and spywares, targeted at a Mac.
There are several emulators that can make a Macintosh OS work and look like Windows, but I never found a good software that can act as a MAC emulator on my Windows OS.There are various ways by which you can make Windows look like MAC by changing one feature at a time, but I didnt know any software that did it all at one go. Yesterday I came across a software called as FlyakiteOSX, that can make a Windows XP computer look like MAC OS X. If you like the looks of Mac but prefer to stay with Windows, then you can install the software and combine the the looks and functionality together. It almost works like Windows-Blinds, which is a Theme changing software for Windows OS.
To harness the complete functionality, this software makes several changes on the computer, ranging from replacing the cursors to creating relevant system related files. At the beginning of the installation it prompts you to create a restore point so that if something goes wrong you can just restore your computer to pre- installation state and wouldn’t even know something went wrong. The installation takes up 191.8MB of space. However, you can also customize the installation yourself by ticking off the check boxes.
FlyakiteOSX is compatible with following versions of Windows:
- Windows XP (Home, Pro, RTM, SP1, SP2, Corporate)
- Windows 2003 (Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, Web, RTM, SP1)
- Windows Media Center Edition (2003, 2004, 2005)
- All Language Versions.(Available in 42 languages)
- Does NOT work with 64 bit versions of Windows!
Once you have installed the software and restarted the computer, you see the a new Mac look alike startup screen.
Even the Control Panel of Windows is converted into the System Preferences of MAC OS X. It looks just like a MAC, however you have all your regular Windows options like the Control Panel, Date and Times, Sounds, Printer etc.
One disadvantage is once installed this program would change the look for all the users on the computer. It cant be applied for just one user. But is you like the MAC interface, but are used to Windows OS, you can use this program.
The latest version can be downloaded from FlyaKiteOSX 3.5 from osx-e.com.
The author’s site has a list of mirrors for download.
Have you used any software like this in the past? Do you like the idea of combining the looks of MAC and the functionality of Windows on your computer? Let us know in the comments below.
[via:How To Geek]
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Posted in Innovation, Software, Tips and Tricks | 10 Comments »
Friday, November 30th, 2007 |
Before I proceed, if you are not aware,what Google Experiments are, let me tell you about it briefly. Google has a wonderful concept called as Google labs,which is basically a playground for all the “Beta” web applications that Google is currently developing. I am sure you must have heard about Google labs. “The Google experimental” is a part of Google Labs, where the latest ideas that Google is working on are displayed. Google has always preferred participation and feedback from the users for improvement of the services. All the latest projects in which users can participate are listed in Google Experimental.
Some of the Projects that are included and are under development in Google Labs are:
There is special note that tells us these Apps are under development can work erratically at times. It says:
Please note: These technologies are still in the beginning stages of development, so they may disappear without warning or perform erratically. If something’s not working on this page, please come back and try it again later.
On the right we see a list named as Google Graduates. These are projects started in Google Labs and now are fully operational. A few projects that have been completed are listed below.
Some Mega Google Web Applications which were developed by Google labs and are fully functional:
- Web Alerts
Find out about new web pages on a topic of interest
- Google Desktop
Find all your information, whether it’s on the web or stored on your computer, from one convenient location
- Google Scholar
Search through journal articles, abstracts and other scholarly literature
- Google Maps
View maps, get driving directions, and search for local businesses and services.
- iGoogle
Add information you care about to your Google homepage
- Google Docs & Spreadsheets
Create, store and share documents and spreadsheets on the web
- Google Reader
Use Google’s web-based feed reader to keep track of your favorite web sites
The Google Experimental Section:
As I have said above Google Experimental are the latest ideas in Google Labs and allow user participation. Most of these experiments are aimed at, you guess it, making Google search even better. The participation is optional. Guys who are really interested in checking these features should join in, and check them out. Also only one experiment can be joined at one time.Some of the latest projects in Google Experimental are:
1) Alternate views for search results
This is an interesting concept. If you join this experiment, you can alter the view of your search results. In this, you can view search results as a time-line or even on Maps. Also the third parameter is viewing additional information.
Time-line & map view works best for searches related to people, companies, events and places. Info view shows all the data found for each result, to help you select the best choice.
2) Keyword suggestions
If you sign on with this experiment Google displays different keywords to improve your search results. As you type your search query, Google’s technology provides alternative suggestions to your queries in real time. Other application that provide this feature are Google suggest and Google Labs itself.
I have tried this and it helps in using the keywords in different and also helps one understand what other related keywords are popular.
3) Keyboard shortcuts
If you join this experiment you can navigate through the search results quickly and easily, minimizing the use of your mouse. Current keyboard shortcuts include:
| Key |
Action |
| J |
Selects the next result. |
| K |
Selects the previous result. |
| O |
Opens the selected result. |
| <Enter> |
Opens the selected result. |
| / |
Puts the cursor in the search box. |
| <Esc> |
Removes the cursor from the search box. |
4) Left-hand search navigation/ Right-hand contextual search navigation
As the names suggest, we have additional search options for any searches that we make once we join any of the two experiment. You can search deeper in a particular type of content—patents, products or news, for example. Google searches across all kinds of content, then ranks results by relevance.
These are a few new concepts that are being developed by Google for making the search even better and are good to join if you want first hand understanding about how the Google search is changing. Also I think every guy interested in SEO should join and try these out.
I would be joining these experiments and would provide a review of any of these on this blog. If you want to stay updated you can subscribe to the blogs feed.
Link for Google Labs is here. Link for Google Experimental is here.
So now that you know what the Google experiments are, which one interests you? Would you be willing to participate and know more about them?
Posted in Google, Innovation, SEO | 8 Comments »
Friday, November 30th, 2007 |
Today when I opened my Gmail Inbox I saw a new red link indicating addition of two new features on Gmail. One is Group chat and other is graphic emoticons.
Group Chat Feature:
This feature would allow anyone to start a chat with one of their contacts and then invite any number of people to join in.To start a group chat click on options at left bottom corner and select group chat. Similarly,to invite a person one needs to click options on left bottom corner of the chat window and select the option add a person to this chat.
There is no limit to the number of people that can join in. If you have 5 people in the group chat from your friends list, each one of them can then invite people from their list. So this can become something like a big chat room.
New Gmail Emoticons:
Keeping the popular trend in mind, Gmail has now adopted new set of emoticons. Previously Gmail only provided the regular smileys, though they were animated, they didnt look pretty. Now they have added an options to send emoticons. Two sets of different emoticons have been provided. One Circular and one Square.
The images above show the Original Gmail smiley set and the Two new Circular and Square Smiley sets added to the service. I am sure these two features may add some flavour and activity to our usual G-Talk sessions! Say Cheese - 
Posted in Google, Innovation, News | 4 Comments »
Friday, November 23rd, 2007 |
Nowadays we have seen a lot of new Web 2.0 betas coming up which let you join only on an Invite only basis. The invite only culture started with “Gmail Invites” and has been followed on since then. Using the Invite only option is a good thing for startups in many ways. Startups love this, of course. They create scarcity around a desired service and that creates buzz. These “beta invites” are targeted towards a certain group of people who would give the appropriate feedback for their service (mostly tech Savvy guys). These new members are then given some additional invites, so that they can invite friends or blog readers who share a similar interests.
Getting in early has some advantages. One gets to test the service and provide feedback.Bloggers can blog about this and this is exclusive as no one else has actual access. Active new users are given extra privileges and given some invites to share with more people. A blogger or a website owner can send out invitations on request to his most active users. Your readers would remember you for that and participate more actively in your blog.
Sometimes, however getting these invites is quite tough. If one know the founder(which is quite unlikely), or one of the early joiner(this is also rare),then you can get an invite.
If you want to stay ahead in this and grab some early invites, there are two ways of doing that:
1) Join this group on Facebook. This group is for bloggers who want to try out new web 2.0 beta services early on and blog about them, if they want.
2) Get invitations for latest Web 2.0 beta services at the Beta Invite exchange service : InviteShare. This service is quite popular and the waiting time can be long is the new beta service is very popular, but you would get an invite eventually.
This is a fairly simple service but does an excellent job of fetching the invitations. You have to list your email in the a queue and invitations are sent out on first come first server basis. People who send out more invitations get priority on the lists, so there is an incentive to participate. And in a nice touch, email addresses are shown in images, making it much more difficult for spam bots to grab the names. At this time the services that are in demand from Invite share are Pownce.com , 8apps.com and Grandcentral.com to name a few.
So if you are one of those who like to get an early start join in and Enjoy the status of Beta Tester!
Posted in Innovation, Online Services | 6 Comments »
Friday, November 2nd, 2007 |
Recently I discovered an interesting blog and one of its cool feature, I would like to share it with you guys and if you like you could give it a whirl.
Technosailor.com is an interesting blog. Its a professional blog by Aaron Brazell, Director of Technology at b5media. He is a respected blogger and voice in the topical area of blogging and an evangelist for the open source project WordPress. You never know how you would discover fantastic blogs like his.
I had just signed on to twitter and looking around my when I discovered his blog. Immediately after I became his follower on twitter he returned the gesture by following me. He has a dedicated page on his Blog for his followers Twitter feeds, Now if I twitter something that is displayed on that page and I get a few new visitors if the tweet is interesting enough! Now thats what I call social networking at its best.
You might have heard of IQ tests, Self Improvement tests etc, however there is an interesting test on TechnoSailor. Its The Self Importance test. Its has some specific questions that understand your Psyche and after you have answered them, they show how similar you ar to one of todays famous ProBloggers. As for me I hit the Jack Pot. TechnoSailor says I am most like Darren Rowse.
For a new blogger like me, its good to know that I have some qualities similar to those of Darren’s. Go ahead take the test and check who are you most similar to. Maybe John Chow or Yaro Starak.
So Which Blogger would you liked to be compared to or who is your favorite blogger?
Posted in Blogging, Innovation | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 |
An important aspect of any blog is its design and placement of elements. Good content and bad design don’t go well together and also vice versa. At times some elements need to be adjusted to fit in a widget that you like or design needs to be tweaked, may be a request for a specific size of an advertisement.
But every time this change is made we need to make sure that the blog or the website is being rendered properly on various browsers used on the Internet. May it be Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera or Safari or the Konqueror used in Linux. When we think about checking this, every user has some limitations. For example, I use a Windows PC and do not have access to a Apple PC with Mac OS which uses Safari, neither have access to Linux that uses Konqueror as the default browser. I would never know how my website looks in those browsers and if I can make any change that would make my Blog look better in those browsers too.
Well, here Browsershots.com helps us out!
What is Browsershots?
Browsershots makes Screenshots of your web design in different browsers. It is a free open-source online service created by Johann C. Rocholl. When you submit your web address, it will be added to the job queue. A number of distributed computers will open your website in their browser. Then they will make Screenshots and upload them to the central server here.
Its a wonderful service. It gives you a chance to look at your blog the way it would on various browsers on different Operating systems. Its Open Source and is constantly improving.
I for one have never got a chance to work on a Linux computer, lest work on the Konqueror browser. However there are about 10-15 visitors everyday who use a Linux machine. I need to know if they see my blog the way I intended. Same is the case with MAC OS. With this service I am now able to see how my blog looks on these two Operating Systems on Safari and Konqueror.
Below are the Screenshots from Safari 2.0 and Konqueror 3.5 for Digital-Musings.com
Also the primary aspect of rendering of the blog is taken care of. After looking at 13 screen shots of my blog on 3 Operating systems on browsers like Firefox( Versions 1.5,2.0) , Internet Explorer ( Versions6,7) , Opera (9.23, 9.24) , Safari( 2.0 ,3.0) and Konqueror 3.5, I came to know that the Side Bar in my blog break only for one Browser, i.e Internet Explorer 6.0. Except that in every Browser things are looking great. So after this analysis, you know your website is rendering properly for 12 out of 13 browsers, and the only one that isnt working is IE 6.0, which isnt used much nowadays. This is pretty good.
In this way your design is now tested in almost every browser used by your visitors, and you know the Blog is being rendered properly. Any new changes can be checked as and when required and we have an idea how is it functioning on various browsers.
Highly recommended because of the ease of use and application it has, especially if you have recently changed or modified your Blog design !
Posted in Blogging Tools, Innovation, Online Services, Tips and Tricks | No Comments »
Thursday, October 18th, 2007 |
Lately I have been looking around the web for plug-ins that would allow me to get feedback from the visitors. Comments are a good way to get feedback or get into a discussions, but for new bloggers like me, comments are hard to come by. So getting a Plug-in or a widget to that allows visitors to give instant feedback was my best bet.
Among the ones I read about I found the Outbrain Rating Widget to be the best. Its simple compact look and quick response while rating makes it a must have for any blogger who wants to understand if the visitors like what they are reading. Visitors just need to hover the mouse on the five starts that are displayed and rate the post they are currently reading immediately.
The OutBrain Rating widget lets everyone know how many people have rated the current post and If one reads the post that he has already rated, it shows how had the person rated the post previously. The widget is available for all major Blogging platforms like WordPress, Blogger and Typepad.
A few points about the Outbrain Rating Widget:
- No registration required
- Installation is super-easy… we adjust the widget’s design to your blog’s look& feel automatically
- It’s absolutely FREE
You can get the Ratings Widget here. And the Developer Blog is here.
And yes, Dont forget to Rate this Article! 
Update: I temporarily needed to remove the Out Brain plugin, as it may be conflicting with a new plugin I have installed. After running a few tests, if the new plugin works well , I would put the rating widget back on.
Posted in Blogging Tools, Innovation, WordPress | 4 Comments »
