Blog

  • Google Earth: Impact Structures Goodness

    Impact IconA few of you noticed that I’ve released some more impact structures/craters for your enjoyment in Google Earth. For those who don’t… I’ve released all 172 impact structures on earth, nicely categorised by continent or, if you want, just the top 25. Take your pick from the box on the right.

    So what do you get? An overview of all the confirmed impact structures on this planet’s surface, including a description (with link to Wikipedia) and an indicator of the estimated size.

    How to enjoy?

    1. Download Google Earth and install.
    2. Click on a ‘view’ of your choice. (box on the right)
    3. Wait a little for GE to show the craters and then select details from the newfound impact structures folder.

    Feedback is welcome and be sure to keep an eye on the Google Earth page here.

  • Firefox 1.0.7 released

    Mozilla Firefox 1.0.7 According to the release notes:

    Firefox 1.0.7 is a security and stability release. We strongly recommend that all users upgrade to this latest version.

    This version includes several security and stability fixes, including a fix for a reported buffer overflow vulnerability and a fix for a Linux shell command vulnerability.

    Get Firefox

    On a sidenote. This is already the seventh iteration of Firefox in almost a year. On november 9th it will be exactly a year ago that Firefox went ‘public’. Already the browser has been downloaded 90 million times! So if you download/update there’s a chance you’ll contribute to make it to the 100 milllion download mark well before its anniversary.
    Now, couldn’t November 9th 2005 be a more symbolic date to release Firefox 1.5?

  • Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar Beta vs Web Developer toolbar extension

    “Imitation the Sincerest Form of Flattery.” Or so they say. But I don’t know if this holds true when the imitating party is… Microsoft. Sorry Chris, it’s about time to move on to greener pastures. πŸ˜‰

    Why the sarcasm? Well, Microsoft released a beta of their Developer Toolbar for Internet Explorer. So? Well, that’s what I thought. Why would I install a beta toolbar for IE when my main developement tool is Firefox with the Web Developer toolbar. Among others.
    Just out of curiosity I gave it a go. You can download the developer toolbar beta for IE here. Don’t! If you are running Vista as it seems to crash the system.

    So here are my first impressions.

    (more…)

  • Opera giving away their browser for free

    Opera logoYou could have gotten a free copy of Opera on their 10th birthday already. But if you’ve missed that opportunity there’s some great news from Norway. Opera announced today it will be offering Opera for free! No more ad-banners and licensing fees. They will only charge you money for Premium Support.

    “Today we invite the entire Internet community to use Opera and experience Web browsing as it should be,” said Jon S. von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. “Removing the ad banner and licensing fee will encourage many new users to discover the speed, security and unmatched usability of the Opera browser.”

    Cutting through the marketing bull: its free now and it’s marketshare will probably rise as it is another good alternative to Internet Explorer. Which is rapidly becoming archaic. I encourage people to at least try it once (or take a look at firefox ;-)).

    Get your free copy of Opera now.

    (more…)

  • PocketMod: Not everything needs to be digital

    Why should you need a several hundred dollar/euro pocket organiser that’ll last for just one day on batterypower? Why not rethink paper? It’s been used for a few hundred years and still going strong. If you accidently drop or sit on it the interface it’s still readable and writable. No need to go look for that damn adapter. If you don’t need it anymore, just chuck it in the bin. πŸ™‚

    Start PocketMod Enter PocketMod: The Free Disposable Personal Organizer! The all-in-one organizer you need. Containing among others: “Dots game, 2007 calendar, food diary, tip tables, music staff sheets, story boards and more.”

    Many things make this little personal organizer special, here is a list.

    1. It fits easily in your back pocket or purse.
    2. It’s as cheap as one piece of paper (Because that’s all it is!)
    3. It opens like a book. Leading to easier to find, more organized notes.
    4. The first page has a pouch, big enough to carry a business card!
    5. Customizable with “Mods” tailored to your needs.
    6. It’s free and fun!

    Get yourself a PocketMod right here and impress your friends with your latest gadget. Paper, printer & scissors not included.

    Anyway, it’s one of nicest Flash RIA’s i’ve seen in a while. There even is an offline Win/Mac version. Nice!

    (Found at Fredscapes.nl)

  • Google Earth for Mac

    What’s keeping you (Google) guys?

    I know, 5% of an audience isn’t much of an audience to reckon with. And I could just whip out my Dell to play with GE. But as mentioned at launch:

    Apple Macintosh computers are not supported at this time (but we are working on it).

    I know 1,5 months isn’t a lot of time, but is there any sight of an alpha or preview or ‘proof of concept’? It’s just that I am becoming a little impatient. πŸ™‚ (I also know that it’s Googles practice to be silent untill beta-release :-()

    I’m becoming even more impatient seeing a new release of Google Earth (for Win) every other week:

    There is a new installer available as of Saturday night, Sept 17th. It will be made available via check-for-updates on Monday:

    GoogleEarth-0616.exe (works for both Plus and Free)

    GoogleEarthPro-0616.exe


    Feedback is appreciated

    (Lifted from the Keyhole Community)

    BTW: I think I’ve blogged Google quite enough already. Time to spend some time on Microsoft or Adobe/Macromedia… Or maybe Yahoo’s GMail killer.

    Update (12/9/05 23:45 GMT+1): This post is officially obsolete. As of today there’s definite proof Google is working on a Mac OS X version. The non-public beta version has been circling the internet pretty much all day. See Google Earth for Mac OS X around the cornerÒ€¦

  • Commercial ads inside Google Earth

    Here’s something I noticed lately. Advertisement through placemarks.
    I saw a few of these placemarks passing by on Googleearthhacks.com. What struck me was that they are blatant commercial placemarks. Whether they were put together by GE enthousiasts or not.

    A few examples:

    Although their info is on a board (GEH), the same info is not included in the placemark itself. A missed opportunity if you ask me.

    Anyway. I’m not saying this is bad perse. Maybe someone travelling around asia needs a place to sleep or somebody wants to dive off a dam. Who knows. But this makes me wonder what else you could do to use GE to ones commercial advantage. Please don’t let it be spam.

  • Google Blog Search fixes referral keywords

    During the first ’24 hours’ of live beta, Google’s Blog Search was a nightmare for keyword tracking. Some of you noticed some weird referers showing up in their counter-tools. All this was caused by the redirects from the search results from Blog Search. This meant that anyone entering your site was leaving a referal from the redirect from Blog Search (are you following me still?)

    Simply put. Most statistical packages are keen to intercept the referring (‘How did you get here’) page. Especially the search parameters of Google that come with it. Google’s Blog Search simply masked its existence by replacing the keywords (?q=my+search) with the destination (?q=http://www.thinklemon.com/). Throwing off your tracker.

    See the rumblings.
    But as promised by Blogger Buzz the redirect would be gone. And eventually it did. πŸ™‚

  • Macromedia Studio 8 Trial software available

    Macromedia Studio 8 The all new trial version of Studio 8 is available for download. As well as version 8 of Dreamweaver, Flash Basic & Pro and Fireworks.

  • Google Blogsearch & Webfeeds

    At first look there are no orange XML/RSS chicklets in Google Blogsearch. But if you look at the bottom of the page just above the pagination there’s this line where you can subscribe to either an Atom or RSS feed for the search results.

    E.g.: “Thinklemon” search results in Atom and “Thinklemon” search results in RSS.

    This is great stuff for some ‘egosurfing‘. πŸ™‚ But I have to give it to MSN Search. As a search engine they were there first.
    If it weren’t for Firefox’s Live Bookmarks I would just have missed this option.

    Update: It seems that the feeds are ordered by relevance per default. You’ll need to sort your results on date first (top right) and then subscribe to get a feed ordered on post date.