google

Use your Google Calendar while offline, well kinda

March 4, 2009 By Dan Perlman Leave a Comment

In their continuing effort to make their web service applications available offline through open source Gears technology, Google has now made Google Calendar accessible while you’re not on the network.

The catch is that your calendar will only be available as read-only and you won’t be able to make new entries edit existing entries, but you will be able to make new entries.

We could wonder why Google took this halfass halfway approach? They usually do better.

To enable, click Offline in the upper-right of the Google Calendar screen.

gcal-gears

Filed Under: google, Misses, Productivity

More fun with Google Search

February 12, 2009 By Dan Perlman Leave a Comment

LONDON - APRIL 13: (FILE PHOTO) In this photo...

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

When I was kid watching old sci-fi movies on television the plots often included super smart computers which allowed the scientist (or mad scientist) to type a question into a console, lights would flash and then the computer would spit the answer. I feel like Google is getting to be that computer.

Just typing queries into the Google search box will yield plenty of useful information, here a couple of my favorites, there are many more available.

Weather Palo Alto – type Weather and City name for local weather

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Filed Under: google

Recommended Reading – Five Memes of the Week

November 21, 2008 By Dan Perlman Leave a Comment

em-logo Here are our hot tech topics of the week.

PC Magazine paper-edition bites the dust – Ziff Davis Media, publishers of the 27-year old PC Magazine will stop printing it in January and only provide it digitally. Remember we told you about The Christian Science Monitor going the same way?

Gmail adds themes - If you use Gmail (and why wouldn’t you?), you can now jazz-up your Gmail reader with colorful themes.

Microsoft to give away Virus protection – Beginning in the 2d half of 2009 Microsoft is going to be giving away to consumers, “comprehensive, real-time anti-malware protection, covering such threats as viruses, spyware, rootkits, trojans, and other emerging threats, in a single, focused solution.” Bet Norton likes that.

Scared of Technology? You’re Old! - According to a Pew Study, if you’re over 30 and start to have problems with your computer, or a cell-phone kind of gadget, 52% of you will be discouraged, but not so if you’re younger – then 85% of you are confident you can fix it. Don’t worry if you’re over 30, that’s why you read Enquiring Mimes.

Order pizza through your Tivo – A deal between Tivo and Domino means you can order a pizza and only have to get off the couch to pay the driver in cash.

Filed Under: freeware, google, Memes, News, Technology

Google hosts Life Magazine Photos – They’re wonderful

November 21, 2008 By Dan Perlman Leave a Comment

Google is in the process of digitizing and hosting the entire Life magazine photo and engravings archive, that’s about ten million photos. Ten million images and they’re all wonderful.

I love photography and am old enough to remember the real years of weekly Life magazine. For me, this will not be a productivity booster since I expect to spend plenty of time digging through the images.

So far about 20% of the collection that dates back to the 1750s has been digitized, all will eventually be available. The photographs are being incorporated into Google Image Search and can be isolated in your search by including source:life in your query.

See the Life magazine search page.

Read about the collection on the Google blog.

I spent time yesterday browsing through the images, the photographs of Picasso particularly fascinated me. Give them a look.

The picture Google chose to feature in their blog post announcement is also one of my favorites, shot by Alfred Eisenstaedt.

Alfred snapped this in 1963, at the climax of Guignol’s “Saint George and the Dragon” in the Tuileries Garden in Paris. Just as the dragon is slain, some children cry out in a combination of horror and delight, while others are taken aback in shock. Every child is consumed with emotion, masterfully captured by Eisenstaedt’s camera. These amazing photos are now blended into our Image Search results along with other images from across the web.