your man on the ground

Google Dashboard - See What Data Google is Storing about You

Log in to the Google Dashboard to take a look at what data Google is storing about you in different accounts (gmail, blogger, picasa, documents, calendar, search history, etc.).

I appreciate this move by Google - it's certainly an improvement in transparency, since you can now log into one place and see (almost) everything Google knows about you.

From the Official Google Blog: Transparency, choice and control — now complete with a Dashboard!: "Today, we are excited to announce the launch of Google Dashboard. Have you ever wondered what data is stored with your Google Account? The Google Dashboard offers a simple view into the data associated with your account — easily and concisely in one location.

via: Metafilter

Acer Aspire AS 1410 / 1810t 11.6" Notebook Review

I received my Acer 1410 (aka 1810t in Europe) from Amazon a few weeks ago. So far I've been very pleased with it, and have no complaints. I had shopped netbooks in the past, but the undersized screens, low resolutions, underpowered processors and small keyboards had always turned me off. The idea and price of the netbooks were right, but the execution was lacking.

The 1410 addresses all of the problems of the typical netbook while maintaining an affordable price - it's truly the best of both worlds. As soon as I saw it, I knew I'd found the machine I was looking for.

The 11.6" screen with a full high definition (1366x768) resolution makes a real difference in screen landscape. 11.6" may not seem that much bigger than 8.9" or 10.1", but the difference is remarkable. No more side-scrolling and less vertical scrolling is required when viewing most web pages.

The Intel Core2 processor is much quicker than the Atom processors found in most netbooks. I bought an extra 2GB of RAM, for a total of 4GB of RAM. I'll install 64 bit Windows 7 soon, to take full advantage of the RAM.

The machine's footprint is a little smaller than an 8.5"x11" (A4) sheet of paper, and it's just over an inch tall at its thickest point. Its size, along with the weight of just a over 3 pounds makes it truly portable.

I'm also very pleased with the keyboard. Acer's stuffed a full-sized keyboard in this tiny package. The keys are completely flat, and there's not much space between them. This means it might take a little time and practice to get used to the keyboard completely, but after a couple of weeks, I'm touch-typing just as quickly on it as I do on a normal PC keyboard.

I haven't gotten a full 6 hours of life out of the battery. I'm getting closer to 5.5 hours in my informal testing, but that's also while performing some disk-drive intensive operations or playing games that tax the system. I imagine I could get 6 hours out of it with Wi-Fi disabled and performing less taxing operations.

I have no problem with the glossy screen, nor with the trackpad. The glossy case does attract lots of fingerprints, and the internal speaker is pretty quiet but that's a small price to pay for such a great little machine.

I give this machine five out of five stars - the current price at Amazon.com is $399.99. I'm pretty sure there's nothing else on the market that comes close to the 1410 anywhere near that price.

Further information, check out the customer reviews at Amazon.com, check out this giant discussion thread at netbookreview.com, and if you purchase this PC, check out the Acer 1410 Tips and Tweaks discussion at notebookreview.com for tips on increasing performance, updating drivers and fixing known issues.

Why Facebook asks to install Quicktime on Firefox, and how to make it stop

What: Maybe you've experienced this when you have Facebook open in Firefox - every once in awhile the "Additional plugins are required to display all the media on this page" bar pops up and prompts you to install Quicktime. You think to yourself, "why would I need to have Quicktime installed in order to view Facebook, and what can I do to make it stop?"

Why: You know the Facebook chat notification sound - the one you hear when someone sends you a message over Facebook chat? Well, Facebook sends that sound as an .mp3 and asks your system to open it with Quicktime. The .mp3 file that Facebook is sending as I write this post is located at http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/sound/pop.mp3 . If you don't have Quicktime installed on your system (and I refuse to install it, since there are better, less intrusive options to Quicktime out there), Firefox will prompt you to install it.

How to make it stop:

Update 12.05.2009:

There may be a simpler way to fix this issue without having to resort to the more drastic steps listed below. I haven't tested it yet, but will update as soon as I get the chance.

While logged in to Facebook, click to open the 'Chat' Menu on the bottom, right of the page
Now, click the 'Options' button
Uncheck the 'Play Sound for New Messages' checkbox

Firefox:

Option 1. If you want to hear the chat notification sound: Install Quicktime. Personally, I prefer not to install Quicktime, and I don't really care about the sound. If it's important to you to hear the chat notification, this may be your only option.

Option 2: If you don't want to install Quicktime, don't need the notification sound, and you have the AdBlock Plus Add-On nstalled, you can simply add a new filter for http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/sound/pop.mp3 . You won't hear the sound any more, and you won't be prompted to install Quicktime. If you want the nuclear option, which will block all potential future sounds from that Facebook directory, add the following filter to AdBlock Plus: http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/sound/* . I chose the nuclear option :)

Google Chrome:

If you're having similar problems in Chrome, you can install the AdSweep extension / user script and add a filter either for the individual file or for the entire /sound/ directory, as I showed you for Firefox.

Other Browsers & Other Methods:

If anyone has tips for dealing with this annoyance in other browsers, or has other methods for dealing with the annoyance, please feel free to share.

Hope this was helpful for someone.   

Visual Studio 2005: Web Site Projects vs. Web Application Projects

Introduction
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 (VS05) offers two models of web projects to its users. The project models are appropriately named – the Web Site Project (WSP) is suitable for web developers building web sites with (perhaps) some application functionality included, while the Web Application Project (WAP) is more suitable for application developers focusing on applications that happen to have web-based interfaces. Microsoft is committed to supporting both models into the future.

Noise Reduction Examples (Using Neat Image)

Neat Image is a tool that belongs in every digital photographer's collection. This program does an excellent job of removing noise from digital photographs and grain from scanned film photographs that are taken using high ISO settings. It's easy to use, and the results are outstanding. You can download Neat Image for free, as long as you don't use it for commercial purposes.

Following are a few photos taken by "Sleepy" John, a friend of mine from Manchester who's now living in Vienna and teaching English. The pictures were taken with a pocket Canon digital over the past few days (I'll ask him for the model number). The images displayed here have already been processed by Neat Image. Mouseover each image to see the unprocessed version. After each photo is a link to the full size processed and unprocessed image, so you can better see the difference made by Neat Image.

Me on a "chopper" at Mountain Biker (unprocessed / processed)

l-r: Me and Anna (unprocessed / processed)

l-r: Emma, Anna, Carmen, me, Sleepy John (unprocessed / processed)