Google + Nutch Blogs

As the Blog revolution continues to expand, we are starting to see both companies and individuals, blogging about their work. Athough this is probably just an attempt to show how smart they are, It can make informative reading :)
Here are two blogs I have enjoyed reading:

Google Blog
- Google is a Search engine (you might have heard of it?). Their Blog seems to feature various examples of their cleverness, as well as other "Google Life" commentary.

Nutch Blog
- Nutch is an Open Source Project that is developing Search Software that aims to equal to google in quality. The Blog is written by Doug Cutting Nutch's Lead Developer.

AWAW Begins

For a while I have been thinking about starting "A Word A Week" email. Although there are many good "A Word A Day" emails, Recieving an email every day if often too much for a busy Schedule. I also want to focus my attention of useful words, but ones that aren't used very often.

I have started A new blog for this venture, go check it out at http://awaw.blogspot.com

Updated Gmail Program Policies

I just finished writing the short article (below) about gmail when I noticed the they had updated the Program Policies.
The change is very small just a few added words, that don't affect me.

But how do I know you say?
What I really thought was worth noteing is the "view changes" button Which just puts a line through and colors red things that have been deleted, and underlines in green text that has been added.
I assume that it is automated, and I like the simplicity of it.
Some thing to "borrow" for your own web site :)

See : Gmail Program Policies

Gmail, Tips and Suggestions

Gmail

I thought I'd wait a little bit before talking about Gmail.
As a lot of bloggers got free Gmail accounts they all talked about it at once. So I thought I'd wait :)

I have been using gmail for a while now, and really really like it. I don't even notice the ads, and I don't talk about anything sensitive enough
That I really care about google analyzing it. The best features are labels, and searching.

Labels

Labels are a little bit like folders, they help you sort and categorize your email. The advantage of labels is that the same email can have more than one label.
Labels work very well with Gmail's archive feature. They way I have been using them is to apply labels to emails I might want to find again, and then archiving them.
The emails stay under the label, and are very easy to find. If you were a very busy user who had enough email that you wanted to remove things from under you label, but still be able to find them, It would be good to be able to archive with label attached. Perhaps an archive from label button...

Searching

Normally when you want to search for an email it takes ages for the program sort through the data, but as Gmail indexes all your emails, It can instantly recall anything you want.
Also it searches all your email an once, no longer do you have to rerun searches in different folders to find the right thing. Of course you can restrict your searches to certain labels, and to key words in the subject vs. the body etc.
I have heard people talk about a theoretical filesystem where you don't store files in directories you just attach meta data, and search for it.
Having seen gmail, I not only think that it is possible I really wish to had it.

Suggestions

Although I love Gmail, I do have some Ideas for improvements.
I have submitted most of these to the gmail team so It will be interesting to see if any show up soon.

1) Spam/Not Spam marking in filters. If Gmail's spam filter decides an email is spam, it puts it in the spam folder.
Emails in the spam folder can have labels attached, but they don't show up under the label buttons. The spam folder doesn't give you any indication
that you have received any new spam, therefore if a message is misclassified it might go unnoticed. I think the best way to get around this problem would
be to allow filters to mark email as Spam, or as not spam. Thus you could make sure the important emails didn't get missed.
An indication somewhere of how many new "spam" messages have arrived (since last login?) would be useful.

2) I am sure everyone has talked about this, and the gmail team is working on it, but it would be nice to be able to merge conversations that gmail has missed.
They could also use this information to improve the automatic conversation merging feature.

3) Altogether the search function is brilliant, I often find my search results are cluttered up with emails that I have sent. It would be nice to be able to search just the received mail.
In the meantime, you can get around this by typing in your gmail address in to field, as all the received email comes to you :) However your email might have been in the cc or bcc fields, and you will get any emails that you sent your self. (yes I do send my self emails :)

4) Even though gmail focuses on searching not sorting, sometimes its good to be able to sort search results. You might like to reverse sort the arrival time, or sort by senders name so that you can easily access the different emails from that person. You could add that person's name to your search, but it's easier to just click 1 button. And if you are anything like you probably can't spell their name.

5) If gmail could add in a google style spell checker to the search it would be helpful.

Try it out

I still have a couple of gmail invitations if you want to try it out. Just send an email to james.brunskill@gmail.com and ask for one. First come first served...
Well I just published my gmail address on the net, so It should be interesting to see how the spam checker holds out :)

I am still using my other email address to most of my mail, so if you want to ask me a question, make a suggestion, or anything else please send it to james@jambe.cjb.net.


James

Picsearch: map isreal

I guess a lot of you will know about google's image search, but I just found out that they have competitor, picsearch.
Example search : Picsearch: map isreal

It seems to be very fast (probably due to low load :) and very accurate. It has built in family friendly features which is a bonus.

James

UPDATE: lots of people seem to be finding this page when searching for "map isreal", just so you know the correct spelling is 'Israel'.

Best of Crypto Gram

As usual I have been reading cryptogram, and found some stories you might like to read...

Penetration Testing Using Social Engineering (Part 1) | Lineman.Net

Why Windows is a security Nightmare

Rebuilding a 1960 code breaking machine

All worth reading...

Search: avg grisoft.com

MSN Search: avg grisoft.com
I just saw in my logs that someone visited my site from that site.
Suprisingly my site is number 2, for a search avg grisoft.com!

I wonder if I could get avg to sponser me...

James

WorldNetDaily: Sustainable oil?

WorldNetDaily: Sustainable oil?

This is an Interesting Article suggesting an alternative to the current theory of where oil came from.

This is in contrast to the latest National Geographic,
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0406/index_19.html
which predicts a shortage of oil soon...

James

Google Job Opportunities: Google Copernicus Center is hiring

Google Job Opportunities: Google Copernicus Center is hiring

No doubt thousands of bloggers around the world have already commented on this. If you have a few minutes spare for a laugh you should take a look. I am applying today!

Howstuffworks "How Power Grids Work"

Howstuffworks "How Power Grids Work"

I have just spent a few minutes browsing about the howstuffworks site. It is fascinating to find out thing from how to pick a lock to how GPS works. If you have a couple of hours spare you should check it out. www.howstuffworks.com

JAMBE Enterprises HQ - www.jambe.co.nz

JAMBE Enterprises HQ - www.jambe.co.nz

I have moved my entire site over to my new server and my old pages now point to the new site.
Now that I have the extra space the bible pages are now on the server as well.
Online KJV Bible

Now I just have to start updating it more often and doing a redesign...

James

www.jambe.co.nz : DNS Issues

I am having a few teething problems as you might has found out with my DNS. Two of my dns servers are resolveing to the wrong address for somereason...

Should be fixed shortly

James

JAMBE Enterprises HQ - www.jambe.co.nz

JAMBE Enterprises HQ - www.jambe.co.nz

Hey Everyone,
I just wanted to tell you all about my new domain. www.jambe.co.nz
I have a new server from rimuhosting (who I now work for)

The site is still that same, but expect some changes soon.

James

Bens Homepage

Hey Everyone,
I just thought I'd let you all know that my brother has just reopened his websiter. Check it out on http://www.bbrunskill.cjb.net/

Soviets and Venus

Just stumbled across this website today. http://www.mentallandscape.com/V_Venus
It talks all about the Soviet missions to Venus, mars, and the dark side of the moon. It looks to me like they often had better technology than NASA!
I find it Interesting that you never hear about it... Is it some kind of left over from western propaganda?

Anyway It's very interesting reading,

Mars Again

Less than half an hour ago, nasa got its first pictures back from the opportunity lander sitting on Mars. It was amazing to hear the shouts and cheers as each new image came through.
And what an amazing site! The landing spot looks totally different from anything seen before on mars, as can see in this photo HERE as opposed to the other lander HERE

It appears to have some kind of fine dust floor, and there is an outcrop of bedrock on the horizon!
The people in the port landing nasa briefing discribed the location as better than what they imagined in their wildest dreams.
Finding a place that is wildly different to the other lander is extreamly significant as it lets the scientists compare and contrast the data.(as they both have indentical instruments)
Also Bedrock is very useful because its anchored in place, unlike smaller rockst that could be moved about or thrown from a crater.

Well thats it from me.

James
PS : Check out http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/ for all the information.

NASA TV - Opportunity has Landed

For the past couple of days I have been watching NASA TV, and following the progress of nasa's latest mission, landing 2 rovers on mars. (Yes I know I should be doing other work!)
If you have been following it at all you will know that nasa has had trouble contacting/controlling its first Rover "Spirit".
Just today they have started to make progress with diagnosed the fault. Putting the errors down to some type of flash memory issue.
But perhaps more exiting is that just recently the second rover "Opportunity" landed, and it was all covered on NASA TV live! Unfortunately I missed it as I was helping with sound at my church. (if you are interested a band called Iron + Clay were playing).
despite missing the live event, there are a lot of briefings happening, where mars rover technicians talk about what has happened and answer questions from the media.
Highly worth listening to...

Its also interesting from a personal perspective, as you hear reporter ask questions, and then can go on the internet (eg Space.com) and read the stories they wrote. This is goes to prove how truely revolutionary the internet is. Never in the history of Man has this sort of thing been possible.

Anyway I'm going back to watch more!

James

What did you buy people for Christmas?

Interesting Question isn't it?
How often do we ask that?
I know for me by far the best part about Christmas is buying the presents and giving the presents.
What wouldn't you give to see your little sisters face light up as she unwraps your gift! Or how your mum cries as a
present just touches her heart...

Too often at Christmas we are focused on what we got, and how it compares to others.
How can we do this !
Christmas is the celebration of Christ's Gift to the world. Eternal Salvation.
Through his death we can have a life full of joy and happiness, because we are content and secure in his love.
And Its Free for the asking, all you have to do is turn from the things he doesn't want you to do, and agree to follow him.
Its not rocket science! But it does require a sacrifice, turning you life over to him.
(please email me if you want to talk about this : james@jambe.cjb.net)

But Getting back to the question I asked at the start,
I want it to do two things, firstly I want to ask that question to you. What did you get for your friends and family? In answering that question you should look at yourself.
What are you focused on? Do you care about the gifts you got them, or are you just hanging out to receive your own?

Secondly I suggest that we should all ask that to others, giving them the opportunity so share with you the joy they have received from giving.
They can tell you the stories of how they found each item, of the recipients face as they received it, etc.

Now isn't that better than asking each other what we got?
Choosing to focus on giving will also help you to enjoy receiving, because you can see the love that's gone into your grandma's jar of Jam she gives you, or the hand knitted sweater from your aunt. As you may have heard before, its the thought that counts. You will love the gift because the giver loves you!

Well that's my 2 cents on Christmas ...

Remember the Focus is Jesus not ourselves,
Remember the recipe for JOY:
J esus
O thers
Y ou

Have an amazing Christ-Centered holiday,

Blessings to all,

James

Are Books Dead and Gone?

This is a very interesting article about the history and future of books :
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/665/bo3.htm
Its a bit philosophical but I quite like that sort of stuff :)

Well worth a read,

The Back Pew - Christian Cartoons ( Student Prayer )

The Back Pew - Christian Cartoons ( Student Prayer )

This is a great image of how I feel at the moment :)
No not quite I studing so that this won't be me...