Article: Why iStockphoto embraced Google Gears

iStockphoto.com runs solely through the business of e-commerce. E-commerce is a type of interorganizational system because it links parties that buy goods and services with parties that sell goods and services (Gemino, Kroenke and Tingling, 2009, p. 217).  According to Gemino, Kroenke and Tingling (2009), there are three types of e-commerce companies: business-to-consumer, business-to-business and business-to-government (p. 217). iStockphoto sells stock photography, vectors, logos and audio tracks to both consumers and other businesses. However, iStockphoto uses the B2C (business-to-consumer) model of selling, i.e. a web storefront.  The system of e-commerce provides a competitive advantage to both parties involved in the transaction. By adopting Google Gears, iStockphoto has not only lowered their own operating costs, but also benefited the end-user—a win-win situation for both parties. Google Gears essentially has made their web storefront even faster, something that a consumer appreciates in an online store.

In a very assertive/decisive move on iStock’s end, they have announced that as of 2010, that they will no longer support Internet Explorer 6—however Kelly Thompson, (iStockphoto’s Chief Operating Officer) recognizes that as of 2010, IE6 will still be used and won’t go ahead with this.  On the iStock website, there are message boards to which users can post. This function allows iStock to keep in touch directly with their consumers and their contributors while maintaining and fostering the iStock community. If anyone has any problems—such as the announcement of IE6 support disappearing in 2010, iStock users can post on the message board. Direct interaction with customers/consumers/users in real time is an important function to have when operating an interorganizational system such e-commerce. If you use IE6, I highly suggest upgrading to Firefox or IE8 when it is released in March.

(UPDATE: Google says it’s figured out how to make Gears work in Firefox within Snow Leopard.)

Gmail’s extremely useful offline access feature has graduated from Labs and is now “a regular part of Gmail.” Users of Google’s mail service can now read, compose, and manage mail even when they don’t have a working Internet connection. Well, many folks can–but not Mac users who are running the current version of Apple’s operating system, OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Offline Gmail depends on Google’s Gears framework, and Gears doesn’t work in Snow Leopard.

I was hoping that Google’s announcement of offline Gmail’s formal debut would clarify the status of Gears in general and Gears on Snow Leopard in particular, ideally with an “Offline Gmail doesn’t work on Snow Leopard, but we’re working on it,” or at least with a “Sorry, Snow Leopard users, offline Gmail doesn’t work with your OS.” But nope–Snow Leopard isn’t mentioned.

Actually, Gears isn’t mentioned either. Which is kind of peculiar given that the blog post with the news explains how to enable offline Gmail. When I try to turn it on, I’m immediately told that Gears is a necessity.

That’s in Firefox–but when I try to install Gears, I get dumped at a page at the Gears page that explains the technology but doesn’t tell me I can’t install it on my OS. If I didn’t know about the compatibility issue, I’d still be staring bemusedly at my screen and wondering what was wrong. (In Safari, Gmail tells me that my browser doesn’t support offline access.)

I don’t think it’s paranoid to take this as the latest sign that Google is giving up on Gears in favor of HTML 5, which will (eventually) enable similar capabilities. I hope I’m wrong, though. I’d love to see a post at the Gears blog (which hasn’t been updated since May) serve as a definitive update on the state of Gears. Even if its state is…moribund.

Meanwhile, Gmail Offline Access is pretty darn neat, if you can get it…

Jolie O’Dell writes in ReadWriteWeb:
“It’s official: Google is ditching its homegrown Gears offline web app API in favor of backing HTML5 for the win.

Now that the Chrome browser is becoming available for Mac, and the Snow Leopard OS doesn’t play nicely with Gears, a Google rep confirmed the company has decided to trash the whole works and wait for HTML5, even though the spec isn’t yet ready and isn’t supported by commercially available browsers.”

Wikipedia explains:
HTML5 is the next major revision of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), the core markup language of the World Wide Web. The Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) started work on the specification in June 2004 under the name Web Applications 1.0. As of October 2009, the specification is in the “Last Call” state at the WHATWG
HTML5 is the proposed next standard for HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0 and DOM Level 2 HTML.

HTML5 aims to reduce the need for proprietary plug-in-based rich Internet application (RIA) technologies such as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, and Sun JavaFX, though it would take many years to do so.
The ideas behind HTML5, originally referred to as Web Applications 1.0, were pioneered in 2004 by the WHATWG; HTML5 incorporates Web Forms 2.0, another WHATWG specification. The HTML5 specification was adopted as the starting point of the work of the new HTML working group of the W3C in 2007. This working group published the First Public Working Draft of the specification on January 22, 2008. The specification is an ongoing work, and is expected to remain so for many years, although parts of HTML5 are going to be finished and implemented in browsers before the whole specification reaches final Recommendation status. The editors are Ian Hickson of Google, Inc. and David Hyatt of Apple, Inc.

As Google Proceeds with the development of Chrome OS, the GoogleGazer sees this as an interesting development. He expects tha Gears with be “out” and HTML5 will be “in” the release code.

With December running, the I.T. world is always buzzing about the upcoming year rumored announcements and novelties. One of the most expected 2010 launch is actually already running the streets of San Francisco, California if we believe the app maker Pandav’s information in MacRumors. The next generation of iPhones, to be supposedly unveiled in June 2010, appears to be beta testing in the SF Bay Area. If you associate to this the Adobe Max 09 rumor that the 2010 release of the device could finally support Flash, iPhone and the Cupertino’s firm are keeping the buzz on-going.

–more–

Here is an interesting post that I got from an Retweet (thanks Julian): Google is shutting down the Gears project and citing the HTML5 standard as the new strong standard of the Internet.

More at the post: Google Letting Gears Go – Declares HTML5 As The Future

Linus Upson, the man in charge of both the Chrome browser and Chrome OS engineering teams has announced the death of Google Gears. Gears was launched by Google, Mozilla and Opera 3 years back to access web applications offline in browsers. PC Magazine quoted Upson, “We are not driving forward in any meaningful way [on Gears],”. The support wouldnot be drawn out so that applications continue working. Google has been pushing the HTML 5 for some time now. Interestingly as the plot unfolds, Google Gears was the precursor of HTML 5, literally and figuratively.

Quoting Upson “When we started the Gears project, three years ago… we did it because we couldn’t get the browser vendors interested in building offline applications.” He then details the mind trick: Google ships Gears, and suddenly browser vendors are “very interested in adding capabilities to build offline applications,” paving the way for the capabilities in the next version of HTML. Clever, Google. In the same interview, Upson stated the company’s plans to move all its apps to standards-based HTML 5 APIs”. Neat trick Google!!!

Much of the technology in Gears, including offline support and geolocation APIs, are being incorporated into the HTML5 spec as an open standard supported across browsers, and that is the logical next step for developers looking to include these features in their websites.Google is now pushing developers to use HTML5 for these features moving forward as it’s a standards-based approach that will be available across all browsers. The company wants to push HTML5 so that people use it to write web apps that match the quality of the native apps for its two emergent platforms: Android and Chrome OS.

Why HTML5 for Google?

Reason 1:
Google’s biggest problem with both of these mobile-oriented operating systems is that it has to work with hardware partners, which makes it difficult for the company to maintain a tight control on the ecosystem. Motorola, HTC, Sony Ericsson and Samsung have all come out with their own interfaces for the Android, which is already causing some developer dissatisfaction. Against such a backdrop, it makes perfect sense for Google to promote web-based apps, because it means there be will a unified experience for end users, regardless of the device (and the platform.)

Reason 2:
Blame Apple: As admitted by CEO Eric Schmidt, Google needs the open internet to take the fight to Apple in the apps space. While Apple builds up its path to the next big platform: The Superphone, it has effectively kept the Apps Store out of Google’s reach. Thus Apple is making the Mobile Apps device stationary.Google on the other hand is trying to put the apps on the internet with easy access such that it can access user activity in order to serve more targeted advertising. HTML 5 is Google’s weapon and key access to internet led apps activity. With web apps, Google can not only continue to have access to user data (public not private), it can also continue to serve advertising to those users. For developers, it would mean embedding Google ads in their web apps.

Thus the full story: Google Gears kindles interest in Offline Applications. It builds scale for HTML 5 to take over. HTML 5 serves Google’s dual need to make platform uniform and serve up ads to application heavy consumers.

Kudos to the thought and Google’s plan, except for one small thing: Web apps will need better wireless networks with much lower latency and higher bandwidth capabilities in order to meet (and beat) the native apps.

Earlier today, I wrote about the almost-here beta of Google’s Chrome browser for OS X, and mentioned that it doesn’t support Google’s Gears technology for making Web services such as Gmail, Google Docs, and Remember the Milk work without the Web. Turns out the bad news may have less to do with Chrome and more to do with Gears.

The L.A. Times’ Mark Milian has blogged about the lack of Gears in Mac Chrome, and the fact that the upcoming, still-unfinished HTML5 standard will feature Gears-like offline features. Milian got a quote from an unnamed Google spokesman:

We are excited that much of the technology in Gears, including offline support and geolocation APIs, are being incorporated into the HTML5 spec as an open standard supported across browsers, and see that as the logical next step for developers looking to include these features in their websites.

Um, that doesn’t sound good. It falls short of a formal abandonment of Gears–which is an open standard, so it might theoretically live on even if Google lost interest. But it does appear to say that developers who are excited by Gears’ features should look to HTML5, not to Gears. HTML5 isn’t complete, though, and isn’t fully supported by any existing browser. It’s a little like a landlord greeting a prospective tenant by pointing at an empty lot across the street and talking up the skyscraper planned for that space.

Of course, Google has been dropping loud hints that Gears was a goner for awhile now. Apple’s Snow Leopard OS has been out for three months now, but as Milian notes, the standalone version of Gears for use with Firefox and Safari still doesn’t work in it. When I go to the Gears site on my Snow Leopard MacBook Pro, I don’t even get an acknowledgement that there’s a compatibility issue–the “Install Now” button just isn’t there.

Then there was week before last’s unveiling of Google’s Chrome OS. During the Q&A session at the end, I asked about the OS’s offline capabilities, and specifically asked about Gears support. I got a polite answer that didn’t address the Gears portion of my query.

In retrospect, Gears has been a dead technology walking for most of its existence. Back in 2007, when it debuted at the Wall Street Journal’s D conference, I was captivated by its potential. I helped choose it as PC World’s #1 innovation of the year and wrote a piece for Slate hailing it as a landmark. (Disclaimer: The bit in the headline about it possibly killing Microsoft was my editor’s work.)

By April of 2008, though, I was worried about the small number of services–from Google or anyone else–that used Gears, and beginning to conclude that it was less magical than I’d hoped. I was still dejected in July of this year, since very little had happened in the interim except for the addition of Gears support to Gmail.

The funny thing is, the world needs Gears–or something like Gears–more than ever. Many of us are doing a high percentage of our work in Web-based services, and their single greatest limitation is their unavailability when the Web isn’t present. With Chrome OS, Google itself is contending that the time is right for computing devices that are almost completely dependent on the Web. If Gears had matured more over the past two and a half years, and gained more support within and outside of Google, it coulda been a principal part of making all this make sense.

But apparently it won’t be. So I’m giving up rooting for it. Like Google recommends, I’m pinning my hope on HTML5. Maybe its offline support will be everything Gears could have been, but never was.

Let me start off with an apology: I have been pushy recently about Dropbox and how useful it is, even posting referral links that will snag me (and whoever signs up using them) more free space. In fact, I still use Dropbox (I’ll explain how later in this post), and still love them. Bu their pricing models aren’t a good fit for me and they lack a few features I find are vital to any comprehensive cloud-based backup solution.

But that doesn’t mean I can just give up on the idea. After all, the recent news that Sidekick’s backup provider, Danger, Inc. (a subsidiary of Microsoft) almost lost all of their users’ data illustrates the importance of backup.

Click through to read why a combination of Dropbox, SpiderOak Backup, and Google Docs is the right solution for me, and why it may be for you, too.

Working And Playing With The Cloud

There are plenty of articles in the blogosphere about cloud computing, so I’m not going to go crazy describing it. I’ll say that cloud computing involves working with data, whether personal, professional, or creative, that is stored on a remote server, and accessed directly via the internet. Some popular examples include:

• Flickr: Photo editing, organization, and storage
• Box.net: Professional-grade file collaboration
• Evernote: Cross-platform note-taking solution, including optical character recognition and voice memos
• Google Docs: A Google offering that allows for creation, editing, conversion, and sharing of documents in popular formats like ODF, DOC, PPT, and XLS. Also includes a PDF view.

All of these include some form of folder and tagging organization, a sharing component, and web interface. Which makes sense, since they all want to replicate and improve upon, if not replace, the experience of manipulating files on a local hard drive.

I’m an avid Evernote user and I have a professional Flickr account (although I cop to no photo talent of any kind). But what I’m going to focus on in this post is Google Docs, because it has a few interesting connections to my backup “masterplan.”

Drawing Down The Moon Cloud

Google Docs is wonderful. I use it for letters, fiction, and even for law school. In fact, I like it so much that it is my primary repository of class notes and case briefs. Even without my trust 16gb Corsair Flash Voyager, I can hop on any internet connection and pull up my notes and my briefs for reference, editing, or collaboration. Google provides an amazing revision-tracking component that allows you to return to any one of potentially hundreds of versions of your document. Coupled with a simple autosave feature and a convenient folder structure, it gets the job done.

But my one complaint is that there is no integrated way to download your documents en masse. Yes, some can use the wonderful magic of Google Gears, but it has its limitations. For example, Linux integration is still buggy. And you can’t save everything to a flash drive. I needed a more robust option if I was going to stick with Docs.

And I found it in Google Docs: Download (GDD). Check out the site for the not-so-secret recipe to download your Docs. As far as I know, the browser version requires Firefox, but there is also a command line script for you nerds out there. GDD allows you to download all your Google Docs from your browser with the help of the DownloadThemAll and Greasemonkey addons.

So, once a week or so, I download all of my Google Docs onto the Dropbox folder on my flash drive and sync them to all of my other Dropboxes.

Dropbox Does It Well…

So, now that my Google Docs are in my Dropbox, let me tell you why Dropbox rules, and why I still use it even though I have discovered a more comprehensive solution.

It has some great features:

• 2gb free space when you sign up;
• More space for a price (although I’ll tell you why you shouldn’t pay for more space with Dropbox in a little bit);
• Integration into the native folder structure of your OS, whether you are on Windows, Mac, or Linux;
• Portability, in that you can store a copy of the Windows version on your USB stick (instructions here – you’ll need a Dropbox forum account, but that’s free, too);
• A “Public” folder, for convenient file sharing with friends, family, clients, and colleagues (read the how-to file in mine)
• Clean, simple web interface for accessing your files from any connected browser;
• Proxy configuration support (useful on college campuses);
• Version protection, in that when 2 copies conflict somehow, Dropbox will save each version and append the name of the device (Desktop, Laptop, USB, etc.) to the new file name, so you can decide for yourself which one you want to keep

I may have missed a few things, but the above list sums up why Dropbox is so damn useful. Essentially, it replaces the “My Documents” folder on each machine I use, so everything is always synced and available on the net. Yes, there are security issues with storing stuff with a service that lacks robust security capabilities.  No, I don’t put anything in my Dropbox account that I wouldn’t want anyone to see.

So, as you can see, Dropbox is a good option because it’s a low-impact, no-learning-curve, take-it-anywhere solution for those who don’t have much to store or sync and aren’t paranoid about security. But it isn’t the only option.

…But SpiderOak Does It Better

I’m going to throw more bullet points at you. SpiderOak Backup is similar to Dropbox, in that they offer cloud-based storage, starting off for free at 2gb, provide a cross-platform client for managing, synchronizing, and sharing your files, and have a tiered payment program. But there, the similarities stop.

Here’s the joy of SpiderOak:

• Encrypted file transfers: uploads and downloads are encrypted during transfer by their cross-platform software
• Encrypted storage: your data is encrypted on their storage servers in such a way that not even employees can access it
• Redundancy: they do not put all of your data in one basket, instead, it is spread and copied over multiple, geographically-diverse servers

These are the three huge reasons their approach appeals so much to me. However, the pricing plan is where they deal the death blow to the competition. They offer 100gb for $10 per month—half the price of Dropbox’s 100gb account—and those who sign up for a SpiderOak account using their student (blahblah@blah.edu) email address will pay only $5 per month to back up and sync 100gb of data.

At that price, I won’t even exceed the cost of a 1tb hard drive for about 2 years, give or take. Even still, once I have my own dedicated backup hardware, I’ll probably maintain my SpiderOak account to ensure that extra level of backup, sync, and access.

After all, at the dawn of the cloud era, content may be king, but if you lose it and don’t have a backup, you’ve lost the kingdom altogether.

Google Gears allows web applications–such as Zoho, Google Docs, or WordPress– to seamlessly interact with your desktop by storing data locally. It allows you to continue working with these apps even when you’re offline.

Application Site: http://gears.google.com/

Prerequisite: Required browsers [1]

Steps:

Step-1: Go to the Application Site.

Step-2: Press the “Install Gears” button. If you’re using Safari, click on the Safari link first.

Step-3. Press “Agree and Download” on the Terms of Service.

Step-4. Google Gears will start downloading. Once complete, run or execute the downloaded file.

Step-5. Desktop will install the application.

Step-6. Restart your browser.

Notes:

[1] Google Gears is available for Windows, Windows Mobile (IE Mobile, Opera Mobile), Mac (Firefox, Safari), Linux and Android.

Related: Enable Google Gears for WordPress.

Google Gears let web applications store data locally and interact naturally with your desktop. It runs JavaScript in the background to improve app performance.

Application Site: http://YourAccount.wordpress.com/wp-admin/tools.php

Prerequisites: WordPress Account, Google Gears Installation, Required Browsers [1].

Steps:

Step-1. Go to Application Site.

Step-2. Under Tools section, press “Enable Gears”. A pop-up screen will notify [2] the use of Gears.

Step-3. Mark a check on item “I trust this site. Allow it to use Gears.”

Step-4. Press “Allow”.

Step-5. Browser will update files. Once complete, local storage status will indicate “Update completed”. Google Gears is now set up for your WordPress account.

Process Time: 5 seconds + File Update time [3]

Compare: 15 Apps That Use Google Gears.

Notes:

[1] Google Gears is available for Windows, Windows Mobile (IE Mobile, Opera Mobile), Mac (Firefox, Safari), Linux, and Android.

[2] Notification reads: The website below wants to store information on your computer using Gears.

[3] Depending on the number of files to be updated, time to process may vary, from seconds to a minute.

معمولا برای استفاده از سرویس های تحت وب مانند جی میل و گوگل ریدر شما نیاز به یک اتصال اینترنت دارید. یکی از راههای که می توان بدون اتصال دائم از این سرویس های استفاده کرد استفاده از برنامه Google Gears هست. روش کار این برنامه به این صورت است که با ورود به جی میل یا گوگل ریدر با فعال کردن Offline فایل های مورد نیاز را دانلود کرده و با قطع ارتباط با اینترنت باز هم می توانید از این سرویس ها استفاده کنید.

با اتصال مجدد به اینترنت تغییراتی که به صورت آفلاین انجام داده اید آپدیت می شود.

شرکت گوگل ایران را برای استفاده از این برنامه تحریم کرده است، بنابراین برای استفاده می‌ توانید از افزونه مخصوص برای فایرفاکس استفاده کنید.

برای دیدن لیست افزونه Google Gears برای لینوکس و ویندوز می توانید به اینجا بروید و برای لینوکس این افزونه و برای ویندوز این افزونه را دانلود کنید.

حجم فایل ها برای لینوکس ۴ و ویندوز کمتر از ۳ مگابایت می باشد.

در ضمن با استفاده کردن از این افزونه ها سرعت لود نیز افزایش می یابد

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https://docs.google.com, when used with Google Gears turned on and allowed, will result in some kind of unreported error in the Gears backend, leaving its users with a blank page. I have a feeling that Gears cannot handle HTTPS connections, but I’m not sure. It could be just a Safari and/or OSX issue.

Others have reported endless authentication redirection, which makes sense if you study the URL that the HTTPS version always gets stuck on. (There’s a “redirect” parameter which points to https://docs.google.com/?pli=1, which, if followed manually, simply circles back around through the authentication again and sticks back at the same old blank page.) Hopefully Google takes notice and fixes this soon.

Ultimamente mi sono ritrovato a usare Firefox su un portatile non mio. È un paio di anni che uso Epiphany e tornare a Firefox mi sarebbe sembrato strano.

Eppure l’ho fatto.

Epiphany o Firefox? Per ora io sto col panda...

Piccola introduzione

Firefox nasce come spinoff di Mozilla Suite (discendente di Netscape). È completamente basato su gecko. Anche i menu e l’interfaccia sono renderizzati da XULrunner.

Epiphany è l’evoluzione naturale di Galeon. Galeon è stato un altro programma derivato dalla Mozilla Suite, ma con interfaccia GTK1. Nel momento in cui sono uscite le GTK2 Galeon è risultato un po’ difficile da riadattare, per cui è stata fatta una riscrittura in GTK2, che poi ha assorbito Galeon. Epiphany.
Il motore di rendering delle pagine è ancora gecko (infatti è basato su XULrunner) solo che l’interfaccia grafica è in GTK2. Ne consegue che in ambiente Gnome ci sia un consumo minore di memoria, visto che le librerie probabilmente sono già usate da altri applicativi; in altri ambienti risulta un po’ più efficiente rispetto a Firefox, visto che le librerie compilate sono leggermente più efficienti di un menu in XUL.

Questi due sono stati i motivi principali del mio passaggio da Firefox a Epiphany.

Cosa c’è di migliore in Firefox

In una sola parola: estensioni.

Una delle varie proposte per il logo di Firefox

Ce ne sono di ogni tipo. Alcune in puro XUL, altre corredate di eseguibili. Faccio un piccolo elenco di quelle che ho installato io:

• Adblock Plus, un classico. Rimuove la pubblicità e vari elementi multimediali che si vogliono eliminare.
• Add to Search bar, estensione che aggiunge qualsiasi barra di ricerca di un sito nella Search Bar (comodo se i siti non sono già predisposti)
• AutoPager, carica in automatico alla fine di una pagina la pagina successiva (se rileva un sito compatibile). È un po’ uno spreco di banda, ma mi sembra che il tempo guadagnato valga la banda sprecata.
• Better GReader, raccolta di Tweak per Google Reader.
• Boost for Facebook, simile al precedente. Per Facebook.
• Classic Compact Options, sarebbe da usare solo con il tema “Classic Compact”, ma io lo uso con quello base di Firefox. Permette di comprimere un po’ il menu per avere una zona di navigazione più espansa.
• Cooliris, segnalato sul blog di Ulisse “Che ne so?” Perusin, un metodo alternativo per navigare in gruppi di immagini e video sul web.
  Un piano 3D dove sono appoggiate le anteprime, che scorre trascinandolo sul mouse. Io lo trovo terribilmente comodo, tanto che i video i Youtube e le immagini di Deviantart li cerco solo con quello, ormai…
• Customize Google, un estensione che migliora la visualizzazione dei risultati di ricerca con Google e aggiunge un po’ di tweak alle varie applicazioni di Google.
• Google Gears, un’estensione che permette di usare in offline alcuni contenuti online (io lo uso per velocizzare il caricamento di wordpress ).
• Google Icon, aggiunge la favicon dei siti trovati nella ricerca di Google.
• Googlepedia, affianca alle ricerche di Google l’articolo di wikipedia che c’azzecca ( ) di più. A volte funziona, altre consuma solo la banda di wikipedia. Adesso che l’ho descritto mi sembra una cosa molto stupida…
• GooglePreview, affianca una schermata del sito che si sta cercando nelle ricerche di google e di yahoo.
• iGoogle Tab Remover, rimuove la fastidiosissima colonna laterale che è stata aggiunta ultimamente su iGoogle.
• Remove New Tab Button, come dice il nome rimuove il tastino “+” che aggiunge un nuovo tab. Preferisco il tasto centrale o la scorciatoia CONTROL+T.
• TargetKiller, evita che i target impostati nei link facciano aprire i link in nuovi tab o finestre. Io odio i target! (cit. puffo Brontolone)
• TinEye Image Search, per usare il motore di ricerca di immagini simili TinEye con immagini dei siti che si sta visitando.
• Toolbar Buttons, permette di aggiungere alcuni bottoni (da una lista abbastanza ricca) nella barra degli strumenti.

Scusate la lista prolissa… Ma sono le estensioni che attualmente uso.

I vantaggi di Epiphany

Ovvero perché avevo fatto il passaggio da Firefox a Epiphany.

È il browser predefinito di Gnome. Più integrato nel sistema, uso maggiore di librerie GTK2 ed estensioni in python (oltre che in XUL). Insomma è un browser leggero e rende i caratteri a schermo in modo più nitido rispetto a Firefox.

Il correttore ortografico non funziona, purtroppo, e non ha la quantità abnorme di estensioni tipica di Firefox. Questi sono i motivi per cui sono tornato a Mozilla “Macigno” Firefox. Consiglio Epiphany a:

• chi non usa le estensioni
• chi ha un pc un po’ datato ma ci usa Gnome lo stesso (si può usare Epiphany anche su fluxbox o xfce, comunque…)
• chi comunque voglia risparmiare un po’ di memoria in ambiente Gnome

Non che non ci siano le estensioni in Epiphany. Anzi è più facile crearle, visto che si possono fare anche in python. Solo che sono poche… Probabilmente perché è l’utenza di Epiphany è scarsa.

Poi adesso c’è pure un utente in meno…

Fonte: Wikipedia per la storia dei due browser.

Per chi volesse il sorgente SVG della prima immagine la può trovare nel mio box.net a destra. O per far prima a questo collegamento.

Increasingly I am using more and more online tools, in both a work and personal capacity that really help me in terms of productivity and efficiency.  I therefore thought I would share my favorite online applications.

WordPress - I have now been using WP for the 3 different blogs that I produce.  It’s easy to set up with the choice of  WP hosting the blog, giving you a domain such as http://kupr.wordpress.com, or you can host it yourself, which allows you to install the blog on your own web-server and under your own domain, e.g. www.mywebsite.com/blog.  It is also very easy to use, and has a number of great features, such as the widgets, blog stats and the library.

Mindmeister - This is an online mind mapping tool.  Mindmaps are something I am using more and more instead of just making standard lists, which I find I have to go back to and squeeze extra lines in as I think of something later.  Mindmaps are just a better way of laying out your not so organised thoughts.  Mindmaps is very useful, as it’s a pretty lightweight tool, but does has have good features like sharing, and working offline through Google Gears.

Remember the Milk – RTM as it’s often known is basically a task list manager.  You can create reminders etc, but also tag tasks and even save a location for them, although I’ve not found a use for that yet.  You are also able to create a number of tabs (categories) so you can organise your tasks into sub groups.  Useful if you are going to use this for work and home.  I also have an application on my Android phone called Astrid, which can sync with RTM so I have my up to date tasks always available.

Get Satisfaction – Not that I have used this in a work capacity yet, only on a couple of personal projects, I have started to see some great benefits of the service.  The site serves as a community/support forum, where employees and customers can share and resolve issues, give praise and feedback, and also suggest ideas.

Rich Internet Application – RIA - وتترجم تطبيقات الويب الغنية، هو الإسم الذي يطلق على تطبيقات الويب التي تحاكي تطبيقات سطح المكتب في سهولة الوصول، طرق إتصالات متقدمة، كبر وتعقيد النظام، إمكانية العمل بدون إنترنت “كلياً أو جزئياً”، الأمان، السرعة، واجهات المستخدم الغنية. قد يكون الجزء تشابه واجهات هذه التطبيقات مع تطبيقات سطح المكتب هو الأكثر أهمية لدى المستخدم النهائي، لكن مطور تطبيقات الإنترنت يجب أن يلم بالموضوع بشكل أكبر!

عندما بدأت التفكير بعقد مقارنة بين التقنيات المختلفة التي تمكنك من إنشاء RIA apps كنت أفكر في Flex و Silverlight و javaFX. ولكن ما أن بدأت البحث والمقارنة حتى وجدت تقنيات أخرى جديرة بالذكر، وهو ما أجبرني على فصل هذا الموضوع كمقدمة بسيطة وسريعة لكتابة تعريف سريع عن كل تقنية، وفتح باب النقاش لمن لديه الخبرة في أي واحدة منها، لنصل معاً إلى مقارنة منطقية قائمة على أسس واضحة وسليمة.
لنبدأ ؟

Curl: الغريب أنني لم أجد مصادر عربية تتحدث عن هذه المنصة رغم أنها صدرت عام 1998 من قبل Curl, Inc. & Sumisho Computer Systems Corp، المنصة قوية وسهلة في ذات الوقت قريبة من HTML في كتابة البيانات، ومن JavaSc.ript في لغتها البرمجية، تعمل باستخدام Applet خاص عبر المتصفح، كما أنه يمكن إستخدامها لبرمجة تطبيقات لسطح المكتب. يمكنكم تحميل Curl IDE للمطورين، أو تحميل Curl RTE لتجربة الأمثلة الموجودة في الموقع.

JavaFX: أحدث المنصات عهداً ما زالت في نسخها الأولى 1.2، وهي منصة RIA المطورة كجزء من Java من قبل Sun، تستخدم Sc.ripting language خاص يسمى JavaFX Sc.ript، المشكلة الأساسية في هذه المنصة أنها لا تمتلك أداة تحرير رسومية حتى الآن، يمكنك مشاهدة بعضها من هذه الأمثلة، المميز أنه يكفي وجود JRE على جهازك لتستخدم التطبيقات المبنية عبر هذه المنصة، ويمكنك تحميل الأدوات المستخدمة للتطوير لتجربتها، ستجد في الصفحة أداة ReportMill JFXBuilder وهي أداة تحرير رسومية لـJavaFX.

Adobe Flex & Adobe AIR: أما الجزء الأول وهو Flex فهو جزء مفتوح المصدر من منصة Adobe Flash الشهيرة مخصص لتطوير RIA apps، وبالتالي فإن هذه التطبيقات تعمل بمجرد وجود Flash player على المتصفح لديك، ويمكن تطوير تطبيقاتها باستخدام Flex Builder 3 ، أما الجزء الثاني AIR فهو عبارة عن بيئة مساعدة لتشغيل التطبيقات السابقة خارج المتصفح وكأنها تطبيقات سطح مكتب إعتيادية، كالعادة الجميع يحاول إغراءك بالأمثلة فتفضل بمشاهدة بعضها.

MS Silverlight: منصة Microsoft الخاصة لتطوير RIA apps، يستخدام XAML لتمثيل الوجاهات الرسومية، كما يستفيد من الخصائص المختلفة في .NET Framework مثل LINQ ويرها، يمكن تطوير تطبيقاتها باستخدام الأداة الأكثر إنتشاراً بين مطوري الشركة Visual Studio أو من خلال Microsoft Expression Blend 3 ، لتشغيل هذه التطبيقات يتوجب عليك تحميل إضافة خاصة، مرة أخرى الأمثلة

OpenLaszlo:منصة مفتوحة المصدر لتطوير RIA apps، وهي الأخرى تفتقر إلى الإهتمام العربي ( ربما العالمي أيضاً :× )، تمتلك ميزة رائعة وهي أنك تقوم بكتابة الكود المصدري مرة واحدة، ولكنك تستطيع إخراج العمل إما عن طريق الـAjax وإما عن طريق Flash player، أيضاً هذه المنصة تدعم تشغيل تطبيقات الإنترنت الغنية من خارج المتصفح من خلال Laszlo Webtop، يمكنك تحميل إداة التطوير لتجربتها، كما يمكنك المرور على الأمثلة ومشاهدة بعض التطبيقات

المنصات والتقنيات السابقة معظمها يعمل بشكل مشابه للـFlash أي أنها تعتمد على Player أو Runtime Environment خاصة يتم تحميلها من قبل المستخدم، وبالتالي تعمل بشكل متطابق وبسهولة عبر أي OS أو Web browser، في المقابل هناك طريقة أخرى لتطوير RIA apps دون الحاجة لأي من هذه الإضافات، وهي عن طريق الـAjax لكن المشكلة التي سيواجهها المطور هنا أنه بحاجة للتأكد من أن التطبيق الخاص به يعمل بشكل صحيح على المتصفحات المختلفة، بل وعليه أيضاً أن يتحقق من هذا الأمر بعد كل إصدار جديد من المتصفح. الآن يتم تطوير HTML5 لتتناسب مع هذا التطور المستمر تطبيقات الإنترنت، وتحاول W3C من خلالها طرح الطرق الموحدة لدعم العديد من الخصائص الهامة نذكر منها على سبيل المثال canvas tag للرسم ثنائي الأبعاد، وخاصة السحب والإفلات (Drag and Drop)، وحفظ المعلومات للعمل دون إتصال، و SVG كطريقة موحدة لحفظ الرسومات المتجهة، أضف لذلك العديد من المكتبات والمنصات وأطر العمل التي تسهل التعامل مع هذه الاللغات والأدوات مثل Google GWT، jQuery، Prototype، Ext وغيرها الكثير الكثير.

الآن ما رأيكم!؟ أليست تطبيقات الإنترنت الغنية فعلاً غنية ؟ ما نحن بحاجته الآن بعد هذه المقدمة هو أسس علمية وعملية لمقارنة هذه المنصات ( هناك المزيد منها بالمناسبة ) والطرق لتطوير RIA apps، وبحاجة أيضاً لوضع خبراتنا العملية والنظرية العامة حول أي من الأمور السابقة الذكر للمساهمة في المقارنة بمعلومات جديدة، يمكننا الحديث بشكل سريع عن بعض جوانب المقارنة الهامة مثل: دعم المتصفحات وأنظمة التشغيل، سهولة التعلم والتطوير، الأدوات المتوفرة، المصادر المتوفرة للدروس والأمثلة، القوة، الأمان، المتطلبات السابقة ….. سأترك البقية للردود القادمة، ولإقتراحاتكم.

أتمنى أن أكون قد أضفت جديداً، ودمتم بود

Google Gears nos permite potenciar ciertas aplicaciones web. Es un proyecto open source de Google. Gears se encuentra disponible para Windows, Windows Mobile (IE Mobile, Opera Mobile), Mac (Firefox, Safari), Linux y Android. Puedes descargarlo en:

http://gears.google.com/intl/es/

Más informacion en:

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Gears
http://gears.google.com/
http://gears.google.com/support/
http://code.google.com/apis/gears/

Google has launched a tool designed to make it easier for computer users to use online applications offline. One of the key limitations of web services such as e-mail, word processing and calendars, is that they require a net connection to function.
Gears http://gears. google.com/ [still in beta] allows access to online data and applications inside the web browser when offline.
The tool was launched at Google’s global developer day, with 5,000 coders attending seminars worldwide. Google Gears is an open source plug-in for browsers, which the firm hopes will lead to the creation of new web standards.
The firm wants many of the people attending its developers conference to use the Gears tools, which are free to use, to adapt their own applications for offline usage.
Using Gears, online data that is usually held on web servers can be stored offline on an individual’s computer, and then synchronised when the user logs back on to the web.

I persist in believing that we don’t know enough about Google’s Chrome OS to either love the idea or hate it. But this I know: If Chrome OS netbooks only work when they’ve got an active Internet connection, they’ll make no sense at all. The day may come when Internet access is available everywhere and everywhere. But for now, computers need to provide some level of functionality even when they’re cut off from the Net.

I’m assuming that Google wouldn’t dispute that and is building a Chrome OS that will work offline in one fashion or another. Which got me thinking about a Google project that’s both one of my favorites and a major disappointment: Gears.

When Google announced in 2007 that it was developing a framework to help Web services run even when the Web wasn’t available, my PC World pals and I got so excited that we named Gears as the year’s most innovative product. Then another few months passed, and I got worried that the Web wasn’t jumping on the Gears bandwagon as quickly as I’d hoped it would.

Gears is now more than two years old, and the list of services that support it remains remarkably short. Actually, I’m not sure if there is an official list of Gears-friendly services: Google’s Gears site refers to a “select group” of services, but doesn’t mention them. In this case, “select” is presumably a synonym for “short.”  The Wikipedia page for Gears mentions fifteen Gears-enabled services, six of which are from Google itself. For the most part, they don’t replicate all their Web functionality within an offline browser–even Gmail, which may have the neatest Gears implementation to date, offers a reduced set of features.

Making Web services work sans Web is, clearly, really hard. Even for a company with as many smart people and resources as Google (and Gears is an open-source project, so it’s not even limited by the amount of attention Google is able to devote to it). I’m still a Gears fan, and I’m still hopeful that Gears will turn out to be a late bloomer rather than a cool idea that never caught on. For now, though, it’s proof that Web technologies still benefit mightily from having access to the Web.

As far as I know, Google hasn’t said what role Gears plays in Chrome OS. It’s a safe bet that it’s part of the OS, and that Gears-enabled services will work on Chrome OS netbooks. But does it provide Chrome OS with its only offline features? We just don’t know. Chrome OS is based on a Linux kernel, so it’s also entirely possible that it’ll have some level of support for Linux apps. Any guesses?

Acabo de instalarlo. Estaba escuchando algo de música y vi que el cartelito del update parpadeaba. No recuerdo que Firefox lanzara una nueva versión en tan poco tiempo. Me pase al 3.5 hace tan sólo unos días. Aparentemente se debe a algunos dolores de cabeza que tuvieron la gente de Mozilla.

Pregunta tonta: acaso Firefox no estará convirtiéndose, a medida que crece su uso, en un Internet Exlorer? Me refiero a que siempre dicen que las cosas que no tienen virus es porque no son de uso masivo: es decir, el caso contrario es Windows e Internet Explorer.

Update acerca del Update: efectivamente se trata de una corrección de seguridad.

Gears: que bueno sería que la gente de Mozilla le avise a la de Google cuando va a actualizar. Cada dos por tres me quedo sin copia de mis mails!