Testing...

This is a test of the blogging tool in SuSE Linux.

David Webb's Nature Photography Gallery

Nancy's Art Gallery

OnePointFive - The Acreage Lifestyle

Google Moves towards "Universal Search"

At the Google "Searchology" Press conference this weekend, Google announced a number of new innovations in it's search interface that will be unrolled this week. One of the major changes will be the new integration between Google's different search types.

Google has announced that they will be merging the results from Google Book, Blog, Image, Local News, and Video Searches into the organic search results. According to the official press release, Google's vision for universal search is to "ultimately search across all its content sources, compare and rank all the information in real time, and deliver a single, integrated set of search results that offers users precisely what they are looking for".

It's going to be interesting to see exactly how Google fulfils that goal in the future. We can already see an aggressive stance taken to update it's services recently, and we can look forward to more integrated and informative searches in the future.

To be continued....

Google Directions - Are those Google Guys really such good swimmers?

Google Maps - obviously an excellent and accurate service

Try this one.......

Follow the instructions below..

Google will probably find this out and fix it pretty quickly.

Follow these steps [in order of course]

1. 1. go to www.google.co.uk
2. 2. click on maps
3. 3. click on get directions
4. 4. go from "new york" to "london, england "
5. 5. scroll down in the directions to number 24
6. 6. laugh and then re-post this ASAP so other people can enjoy

Hitachi announces 1000GB Blu-ray Recorder

WOW! A 1 TB Blu-ray disc. That's bigger than most peoples hard drives! (and some 1TB HDDs do exist). Check this out - it might just be a step towards the end of the Blu-ray/HD-DVD standards battle.



read more | digg story

A Great Blog to Visit

Hi all,

Just telling you that I'm very busy right now, so I might not get to post anything for a while. Meanwhile, why not visit my other blog: David's Nature Photography Gallery

I should be back posting again soon.

David

Finally! A total switch to Linux

Previously, I haven't been able to rely totally on Linux because the only computers available to run it on have been old (Pentium II or earlier!), and therefore haven't been able to run KDE (or GNOME) smoothly. But now we have bought a new computer with Windows Vista installed, so that can be the only WIndows machine, and I can now install Linux on the old (Celeron 2.6Ghz, 750MB RAM, 80GB HDD) computer!

I'm going to be using SUSE running KDE as that is the best integrated and supported version (except for Ubuntu, the "beginners OS' in my point of view). I'm waiting in great anticipation for KDE4 to be released October this year (more about that one of these days), and using SUSE should guarantee a smooth upgrade process. So, stay posted, I'll be relating my experiences living in a Linux world as soon as I get it installed (a few days time hopefully).

Long Live Tux!

Links:
SUSE Linux
KDE Home
David's Nature Photography Gallery

Get Opera-like 'Speed Dial' Feature in Firefox

What's Speed Dial? Basically, Opera 9.2 provides you with screenshots for up to 9 websites when you load the browser. It's kind of like having 9 different homepages, which you can quick faster than you can pull up a bookmark toolbar. You can also refresh the screenshots.



read more | digg story

New Version of Google Analytics a huge improvement!

Today Google announced the new look of their popular Google Analytics tool for webmasters. The tour shows many improvements - the whole site design has been re-done to provide maximum usability and flexability. Check out the tour below - when Google activates the new look on your account later this week, I'm sure you'll like it!


Google Analytics Blog: New Version of Google Analytics!
Take the tour!

Dell sending mixed message by backing Microsoft-Novell alliance

Hardware vendor Dell has purchased SUSE Linux Enterprise Server license certificates from Microsoft. The certificates, which are one facet of a controversial deal between Microsoft and Novell, are intended to be used by customers who run mixed software environments with both Windows and Linux.



read more | digg story

Firefox CEO speaks out

A fascinating interview with Mozilla CEO Mitchell Baker about where Firefox came from and where it’s going. Baker talks about putting Firefox on mobile phones; how it will take on Flash and Silverlight and how Firefox makes $US55million a year!



read more | digg story

Vote for Dell to offer Linux worldwide!

Tell Dell that the rest of the world wants freedom too! At the moment, Dell only plans to release Ubuntu on US computers. This ideastorm post allows you to vote for freedom and equality for all! ;)



read more | digg story

Google's new design

Google is testing a new look for their search results page designed to increase functionality, as well as add some "eye candy". The major change that is immediately visible to users is the new "navigation bar" at the top of the screen. By default, this has links to Google Web, Image, and Video searches, as well as Google News, Mail and a "More" button. The standard account management links are still at the top right, although "Search History" has changed to "Web History" because of Google's recently implemented web tracking.

There are also other minor changes, such as the change from "center" alignment to "left justified" in some sections, and the search results number + speed indicator moving to the bottom of the page.

These new changes, althought they add little loading time to the page, increase the visiblity of the various Google services. They also genuinely help users to find the information they are searching for by presenting more of the available options on the screen. Let's hope Google continues to make changes for the better like this with it's other products.

Dell to ship Linux on computers soon - The dawn of Linux on the desktop?

It's official: Dell is going to be shipping Ubuntu Linux pre-installed on some of their computers soon, possibly even by the end of the month! This is great news for the Linux community - finally one of the major computer manufacturers has decided to support the open-source software in the best way it can - by bundling Linux with their computers.

This could well be the real dawn of Linux on the desktop. Over the past decade, many people have claimed that each successive year would be the "year of Linux on the desktop". However, many commercial and practical limitations have prevented the operating system from gaining sufficient momentum to overcome it's proprietary competitors and begin to exhibit itself as a layman's OS, not just a geek plaything. I believe that some factors are now coming into play that could change this state of affairs, allowing Linux to begin entering the desktop market it has so far been deprived of. In particular, 2 main issues are being visibly addressed right now:

1.) For many, the main limitation of Linux has been it's User-friendliness, or lack thereof. Sure, GNOME and KDE have advanced a lot over the years, but they still lack the polished and integrated feel of Mac OS, and yes, even Windows. Even if some of the basic functions are easy to use, the average user won't have a clue how to respond to an error message saying "init: Id "23" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes." This problem will be largely solved with the release of KDE4, which introduces a new era of Linux GUIs where usability is at a prime. Both the visual and functional status of KDE4 is excellent, and although it is not yet released, when it is finished in October/November this year it will be the best UI Linux has had yet. The problem of usablity also relates to the next one:

2.) Publicity. [Nearly] Everyone who is up-to-date with technology knows about Linux. However, most of the operating system market resides with inexperienced users, who know nothing about Linux, or even Mac OS. This problem is beginning to decrease, with commercial entities such as Red Hat and Novell taking up the development and marketing of Linux. This also has the added advantage of enhanced integration between OS components, as the various companies each try to produce the best distribution. With Dell beginning to distribute Linux with it's PCs, more of the public will be able to experience Linux without having to know how to rebuild the kernel, use yum, xterm, or restart the X server.

Is it the beginning of the "year of Linux"? It's a bit early to tell right now, but with Vista not delivering all that the public wants and Dell moving into Linux, I think that "Tux" the penguin has his best chance yet to put his best foot forward and show the world what Linux can do!