Snakodus Blogg

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Mozilla Weave 0.2 released

The projected heir to Google Browser Sync has a new beta prototype out in the wild. Mozilla Weave 0.2 has just got out of the Mozilla Labs doors and into our Firefox 3 browsers. It still doesn't support Extension syncing but all others are there (Bookmarks, History, Saved Passwords, Saved Form Data, Tabs). One notable feature is that there is a server location box which means that the service can be run on servers other than Mozilla's which will be a big welcome for users with privacy concerns.

Release Notes
Download it

Monday, June 16, 2008

Goodbye Google Browser Sync

Google Browser Sync is one of the most useful firefox extensions ever made. It syncronises all your saved passwords, bookmarks, history and even opened tabed between different machines. So far it only supports FF2. Many users of firefox were postponing adopting FF3 until an updated version of Goolge Browser Sync arrives.
Unfortuanatly, Google decided to step on the hearts of thier fans and stop development on Google Browser Sync and even stopping the service by the end of 2008. source

Don't cry your eyes out, there is still some hope. Mozilla is working on "Mozilla Weave" which will feature almost all the features that Google Browser sync had. To add icing on top of the cake it is updated to FF3 and would lunch for public testing on Friday 20th June 2008. learn more

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Stand Alone Installers

OK this is getting irritating. It seems that there is a trend for shoving lots of software in a single installer. First, Microsoft with Windows Live Installer and now Google with Google Updater. I just want to give a small message to the guys working on those installers ("STOP WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING").

Fortunately there is still some hope, www.filehippo.com to the resuce. Just go there and search for your favorite freeware and you'll get all the standalone installers you need.

Example: Windows Live Messenger Standalone
http://www.filehippo.com/download_msn_messenger/2166/

Sunday, December 9, 2007

The General Formula for Informed Guesses

As I'm graduating from university pretty soon. It is necessary that I pass the knowledge I gained to the new generation. Don't think I'll give some study tips or anything like that. Instead I'll be focusing on the situation where you have to guess MCQs (happens all the time for me).

Lots of students go about guessing in different ways. The obvious way is to guess the same letter for all the questions that you don't know i.e all A's or B's etc. However this technique doesn't work when the number of questions you have to guess is small and non continuous.

Informed Guess Explanation:

After long discussions with fellow Informed Guess (IG) users (a.k.a my roomate), we have finally came to the General Formula for Informed Guesses. The formula goes this way:

1. Choose some kind of lyrics or childish song you used to like when you were a child. It has to be short so you don't waste much time. Examples) 7agrah Bagrah, Einy Meny etc..

2. Compute the starting choice by this equation
S = (Q mod N)+1 where
S is the starting choice number
Q is the question number
N is the number of choices (after elimination if you happen to know anything about the question)
mod is the remainder operation 1 mod 5 is 1 and 7 mod 5 is 2.

3. Apply the lyrics to the choices using 1 word for each choice starting from the choice number you got from step 2.

4. Circle the choice where the rhythm ends.

Example:

Q8. Do you think this article is useful?
A. Yes B. No C. Can't decide. D. I haven't read it.
E. choice D doesn't make sense since you are reading this.

To answer the question above (if you don't know the answer of course) let's follow the steps:
1. I choose a 4 word lyrics (undisclosed for security reasons).
2. S = (8 mod 5)+1 => S = 4.
3. I start from choice D going 4 steps since the lyrics is 4 words.
4. I circle choice C.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Firefox 3 major features: Preview

As Firefox 3 just started its beta phase, many of us (fanboys) want to know what to expect from this new version. I found this great post which explains the top five new features in FF3. Note that these are based on feature mockups (not final UI) they will probably get more polish before release.

http://ctrlaltweb.blogspot.com/2007/09/top-five-mozilla-firefox-3-features.html

Blogged with Flock

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Help End Poverty by Enhancing your English

OK let's take a break from IT and new programs and think about other people for a change. www.freerice.com is a website for charity it has a very interesting English Vocabulary game which you can play. Here is how to play:

Click on the answer that best defines the word.
If you get it right, you get a harder word. If wrong, you get an easier word.
For each word you get right, we donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program.

So, go now and see how good you are at English and help the world end poverty along the way.
www.freerice.com