Venture Beat: Early pictures: Google Chrome on the Mac

Great post by Paul Boag over at BoagWorld.com entitled 10 things a web designer would never tell you

#7 is my favorite:

Fit as much on the homepage as possible

Without a doubt the homepage is by far the most important page on your site. If I look at my own website statistics the majority of people who come to my site never get further than the homepage (I have no idea why this is the case!) This is a problem. - Paul Boag from 10 things a web designer would never tell you

Whenever I come across a site that adheres to this “rule”, I’m halted, my sub-conscience broken, and I begin to explore all that the site has to offer.

Ha! Funny stuff…

On my PowerBook I run quite a few sharing services, things like Web Sharing, Bonjour for file sharing and Screen Sharing. But the thing is, I only need these services running when I am at home; I’d rather not “publish” theses services when I am surfing at my local Internet cafe.

I’d also like to enable some sort of password protection for when I walk away from my PowerBook momentarily.

Enter MarcoPolo

MarcoPolo lets you switch your Mac between locations; Which it can do automatically or you can manually switch it. This means that when I am at home, I can switch to my “Home” location profile have any password protection disabled and all my services flipped on. When I am at a cafe, I can switch to my “Public” profile I can enable a screensaver password protection and have all my services flipped off.

Rules enable automatic switching between locations.

The only problem I found with MarcoPolo was the poor help documentation and poor verbage within the app itself. So, here is…

How to use MarcoPolo to enable a screensaver password

Once downloaded and installed, click the compass icon on the menu bar and select “Preferences…”.

1. Click the context tab and then the plus symbol and add a profile named “Public”.

2. Click the actions tab, then the plus symbol and select “Add ScreenSaver Password Action…” and enter info as below:

3. You will now want to create another “Add ScreenSaver Password Action…”, but with the context set to “Automatic” that is set to disable the screensaver password so you don’t have the password prompt when at home.

That’s it. Now when you flip to your “Public” location there will be a password that flips on when your screensaver kicks in.

There are actually quite a few actions your Mac can take, based on your location:

• Setting your default printer
• Changing your desktop background
• Enable or disable particular firewall rules
• Setting iChat status message
• Setting the default IMAP or SMTP server for Mail.app
• Mounting network shares (smb://, afp://, etc.)
• Muting or Unmuting system audio
• Changing OS X network location
• Opening a file (an application, a document, etc.)
• Quit an application
• Enabling or disabling screen saver password
• Start/stop screen saver
• Changing screen saver idle timeout
• Running a shell script (or any other kind of script, via Platypus)
• Turning on or off Bluetooth
• Turning on or off WiFi (AirPort)
• Establish or disconnect VPN

You can also set you Mac to automatically switch between locations automatically based on quite a few rules

• Visible WiFi networks
• Current Audio Output device (headphones/internal speakers)
• Discoverable Bluetooth devices
• Advertised Bonjour (Zeroconf) services
• Attached FireWire devices
• Assigned IP addresses
• Ambient Light level
• Attached Monitors
• Active Network Links
• Power source (power adapter/battery)
• Running Applications
• Current Time Of Day
• Attached USB devices

You can even run AppleScript or shell script actions when switching between locations…

Very cool!

Great interview with Brian Greenstone of Pangea Software on NPR’s The Story this afternoon. Topics include games, software development and the iPhone.

http://thestory.org/archive/the_story_703_iPhone_Apps.mp3/view

Feedly is a website+browser-plugin that creates a customized newspaper-like start page based on your media subscriptions; RSS, Google Reader, Flickr, Twitter, FriendFeed, etc.

So basically you install the Firefox plugin, tell feedly about the various subscriptions you have scattered around the web and presto! A custom news feed. From there you can do things like share articles to your Twitter or FriendFeed account, etc.

What I like the most is the clean design and layout; Full articles are pulled in to the software so flipping between articles is fast and not as jaunting when moving from site to site. (Of course you lose the aesthetic of the site the article belongs to)

I’ve only just begun using it, but so far I love it.

VentureBeat has a fascinating interview with Nvidia exec Jen-Hsun Huang which focuses on what Huang asks, “what is the soul of a new PC?”.

For Huang it is not a question of when the recession will lift, getting things back to normal, but what will the landscape look like. Specifically the PC and chip industries.

Better, smaller, faster, more efficient chips and computers.

But the core change: Cheaper computing instruments.

Q: What is the next-generation user interface?
A: I may sound old fashioned. I want a MacBook Air with battery life that lasts forever for $199. I like that big keyboard. - http://venturebeat.com/2009/01/28/jen-hsun-huangs-quest-to-spread-graphics-beyond-pcs/

Bringing up Apple is very interesting. They are off in their own world and if the rest of the world changes, what does that mean for them?

Sales of netbooks are growing.

Maybe it’s better for Apple; Creating more value for them.

I’m often asked, “are those cheap Acer laptops really any good?”; Questioning their intention, going ahead the purchase no matter what my answer.

Honestly, as long as PCs and Laptops start coming stripped down, no unnecessary 3rd party software, all will be good.

But I really want one of these: TechCrunch Tablet

Have an EML file that you want to import into your Outlook mailbox? No problem.

It’s real easy and everything you need is already built into all versions of Windows. Here’s how:

1. Open the folder with the EML file in it. Set aside.
2. Open Outlook Express. (Does not need to be a “real” account so if you get any prompts, just fill it with some bogus info. Consequentially, if Outlook Express does have emails in the inbox, you will need to remove them if you do not want them added to Outlook.)
3. Drag the EML messages in question over into the Inbox of Outlook Express. (Hint: If you want any of the messages to be marked as “un-read” within Outlook you will need to mark them as “un-read” within Outlook Express)
4. Open Outlook, select File > Import > Import Internet Mail and Addresses > Select Outlook Express 4.x, 5.x, 6.x (Remove Check marks from Address Book and Rules) > Click OK (Not Save in Inbox)

Done.

Mark Cubin has a wonderful post explaining his decision to vote for Barack Obama, the President-elect - Proud To Be An American.

What Obama brings:

“Its simple. Having an elected black President will do more to energize this country than any economic or social policy ever could. In a single day of voting, our amazing country once again reinvigorated the dream that any child in this country, no matter what circumstances they are born into, can grow up to be anything they want, including President of the United States.

That dream, staying viable, being reinvigorated, will do more for this country than any economic policy or any legislation that could ever be passed.

I have said it before, the power of the American Spirit is what separates our country from every other. We have been able to overcome the stupidity that politicians do every year, and will do for ever more. The election of Barack Obama is a shot of adrenaline for those who felt they could never participate in the American Dream.

This is the very reason why so many young voters made it out to the polls, to cast their voice. They felt a part of this system of ours, something they have a say in, a direction they could choose.

While Cubin does not agree, or like, the Economic plan Obama has laid out, he argues that it is not nearly as important as what he truly brings to the table:

“As any successful CEO will tell you, leadership, vision and motivation has far more impact on results than any tax cut or increase. While I prefer lower taxes, I can tell you that no entrepreneur or CEO worth a damn in this country gives up or works less because of a change in tax policy. In this country you work harder to achieve your dreams and goals.

One should not run their life or business based on taxes. Would someone passionate about their business close down their doors simply because of tax increases? No. Would they re-evaluate things? Sure. But that is business as usual. You have to be nimble and agile.

It is time to ignore the lies and realize that we control our fate. No system or individual can stop us from doing as we please or dictating the direction we wish to proceed in.

I too agree that Obama’s Economic plan may be unsettling, but what Cubin notes is true - Obama is awe inspiring.

I took a photo of this picture which was in the window of a Nepalese restaurant in Madison, WI. I have absolutely no idea what to make of it, or its context…

*Captions Welcome*

I don’t know about you, but I do not understand “no-reply@_____.com” email addresses.

Common uses of this you see are with account validation and report summaries. So, for example, when RescueTime emails my weekly efficiency report to me, I cannot reply to the email. Should I have a question or even a suggestion for them, my reply, presumably, will go into oblivion.

How high could the cost be to “deal” with people replying to such an email? Why would you want to miss out an opportunity to interact with your customer?