Google Related

Google spreadsheets images

CodeCanvas — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 12:46:00 GMT

Blogspot IM setting - missing Google talk selection option

codecanvas — Sat, 03 Sep 2005 12:22:00 GMT

'Personally' google feed reader works and yahoo does not!

codecanvas — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 19:18:00 GMT

[Update 8th Sep 2005, 1835 hrs IST (GMT + 0530 hrs)]: Yahoo 360 works fine with the given URL ( http://vganesh.geekswithblogs.net/Rss.aspx ), and now I am able to get the feeds. Thanks Yahoo!

Okay, currently i am using both the personalization option offered by google and yahoo. The first thing I noticed on both of them is the difference in ability to parse my feed in their feed aggregators. While google has no problem in parsing http://vganesh.geekswithblogs.net/Rss.aspx but yahoo 360 (Feeds (via RSS)) complains (Error: We were unable to fetch the feeds you requested. Please check the URL's and try again.)and does not parse the given URL. I tried even my blogspot feed, uhhmm! it doesn't work. Do anybody have experience with making yahoo feed reader work?

Let's welcome the move

codecanvas — Fri, 26 Aug 2005 17:50:00 GMT

I tried posting a comment on the respective post, but the page just seemed to refresh ignoring the comment (I made sure the Image Code was correct; including preserving the case). So I am giving my feedback as a post.

I would like to give a feedback on recent Tariq's post on Google Talk. Google has made a right move here. Instead of creating an altogether new IM protocol, they have considered and implemented an existing open platform server for the purpose and this only means even more extensibility.

In the FAQ page named "Google talk and open communication" they have presented an open invitation to other service providers to unite and bring a federation of communication services to the end user.

This just comes to show that they are not releasing a IM just for the sake of it, but to make the first step in unifying communication.

Just my 10 cents. Have a nice day.

Gmail 'Unread' label tip

codecanvas — Thu, 25 Aug 2005 16:16:00 GMT

I was recently going through a nice list of Gmail Tips maintained by Jim Barr, it has a lot of useful tips out of which tip 25 tells you how you can create a label named "Unread" which automatically displays all the mails which are not yet read by you (not just in inbox or just in one label, but in your full email account). But when I tried creating such a label gmail didn't allow me, so I tried creating a label named "Unread2" and then tried renaming it to "Unread" that's when I got a message saying "System specific label names are not allowed. Please try another label".

Workaround for this problem at present would be to just type "label:Unread" in your gmail search box and hit enter. This will give you the complete list of emails which you have not read till now.

It would be a lot convenient if Gmail guys add such a link near the system folders / labels (I mean near Inbox, Sent Mail).

Google / Gmail gets IMed

codecanvas — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 11:59:00 GMT

Update [26th Aug 2005]: Google has given the configuration details for third party applications in their help center. Have fun.

Happy happy!! Google has entered the instant messaging race as well. I downloaded the Google talk client and instantly logged in to my account, only to remember that I don’t have any of my friends online on this network yet. So, an alternate would be to download a Jabber-compatible client which also supports other IM networks like MSN and Yahoo! I choose GAIM, it is a cool multi-protocol open source messaging client. You can get the info on configuring GAIM to use Google talk network from smash’s world, but I will give a brief configuration overview for GAIM below anyway:

Install GAIM and its plug-ins as per your need (I installed spell check and systray icon plug-ins)
In the new account addition dialog provide the following details:
- Screen name: <<your gmail email id without '@gmail.com'>>
- Server: gmail.com
- Resource: Gaim
- Password: <<your gmail account password>>
- Alias: <<your display name>>
- Click “show more options”
- Check Use TLS if available
- Uncheck Force Old SSL
- Uncheck Allow plaintext auth over unencrypted streams
- Port: 5222
- Connect server: talk.google.com

That’s it! You are all set for checking out the Google Talk!

Google Moon

codecanvas — Sat, 23 Jul 2005 11:22:00 GMT

While Microsoft is busy launching Windows Vista, google is venturing into areas where no mapping application has gone before ;) check out Google Moon

Gmail attachment filetype restriction :: Executables not allowed

codecanvas — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 16:18:00 GMT

Gmail seems to not allow files of type extension .exe, .dll and so on which are executable. This is a reasonable step towards cribbing virus, but what about users who want to trade .net libraries? Well, initially I thought we can put in the needed files in a zipped format and then send them. That seemed to be a failed effort as gmail seems to scan inside the zip file contents. Next I tried to encrypt the zip file and then send it as an attachment, it also failed as gmail was able to enumerate the file names and then block the transfer. Finally, instead of compressing the content as zip, I did is as rar (winrar) and also encrypted the filenames in the rar file, only after doing that gmail allowed the transfer of file.

I personally think that currently users are quite aware of not to execute executable files that are sent over the email and it is kind of inconvenient to block the type of files that can be transferred.

GMail space dilemma? Get GMail Drive !

codecanvas — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 22:21:00 GMT

I was having a nagging feeling that I am not making use of the GMail's space that's allocated to me effectively. Thats when I came across GMail Drive which allows you to use your GMail space as a virtual online storage medium.

The creator had mentioned that the program breaks whenever GMail makes modifications, but the when I checked with latest version it was working fine.

Just to make sure, I had written to gmail support asking them if this particular software is allowed to be used along with their service, but all I got was a very generic reply from gmail as follows:

Hello,

Thank you for your message.

To learn more about all of Gmail's features, you can visit the Help Center at http://gmail.google.com/support/, or by clicking 'Help' at the top of any Gmail page within your account. The Help Center offers answers to frequently asked questions, and explains our product's features in detail.

If you'd like help with a technical issue, visit: http://gmail.google.com/support/bin/request.py?troubleshoot=1&ctx=troubleshoot to find solutions.

We hope you enjoy Google's approach to email.

Sincerely,

The Gmail Team

Well … that didn't help really. I have had written them back stating that it didn't help me, for which they haven't replied yet.

So, if or not the software usage is allowed by GMail still remains a mystery. But what the heck, I am going to use it anyway.

Google testimonials

codecanvas — Thu, 16 Jun 2005 16:22:00 GMT

Loads of impressive stories about how google helped people, read them at http://www.google.co.in/press/testimonials.html

Some samples:

I just wanted to let you know that Google may well have saved my life. My sons and I were walking home from having eaten out. A half block from my house, I felt this pressure building in my chest. Immediately, I thought, 'heart attack' and ran through how I'd been feeling that the day (I had been nauseated). My first thought was, 'confirm suspicions,' and immediately, upon arriving home, I went to Google and typed in 'heart attack.' I kept thinking, 'you only have minutes...' I found a site that listed symptoms. Indeed, I was having a heart attack. I was at the Albany fire station within minutes. Five baby aspirin later, and a few squirts of nitro and I was in the ambulance on my way to the hospital. The good news is, I have no residual damage. My heart is back to normal. Thank you for providing the Google search engine. I'm sure my recovery was complete because of the speed within which I was able to get help.

I'm a musician, and I've had my guitars for years. Recently, I had the misfortune of having my guitars stolen. The next morning, sad but not defeated, I began to hunt for them using Google. I was amazed to actually find them online! I alerted the police as soon as possible, and thanks to their help I'm going to get them back! Google helped me track them down.

I bought our miniature dachshund some new treats and instead of chewing them, he swallowed one whole and it got caught in his throat. He was choking and couldn't breathe. My husband was on the computer and I called him in the room to help. We were unable to dislodge the treat and the dog was obviously in trouble. My husband told me to do a Google Search on choking dog. I ran to the computer, clicked on the Google icon, typed in 'chocking dog', got a return 'Did you mean: "choking dog"' and I clicked on that to have the first selection be 'How to perform the Heimlich maneuver on a dog'. After accessing that site, I read it to my husband who followed the directions. Poof! The treat shot across the room and our dog was saved! The dog was fine, we were a wreck and Google saved the day. Thank you Google!

Now thats something you can do with search technology!