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Free as in speech…

December 26, 2006 | No comments

The open source movement’s motto has long been “Free as in speech, not as in beer.” Of course, I go for both as I am poor :-)

After reading Features vs Freedom, I realized that I use mostly non-free software. I had thought myself big on free software, but had not considered the fact that web apps aren’t really free. I use a lot of Google’s web apps. Nearly all of them, in fact. I am trying to change that.

I am still using GMail because my web host’s POP and IMAP servers don’t seem to work. However, I have weaned myself from my favorite Google app, Reader, for Vienna, a desktop aggregator. I am also using the bookmarks built into my browser (Camino), instead of Google’s bookmarks.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love the way Google makes their stuff, I just want to have as much freedom as possible. This is my computer, after all. Shouldn’t I be able to control the stuff on it?

Bonus tip: If you use Privoxy (which you should) try enabling user.filter (in Privoxy/config then paste these two lines in it: 

FILTER: noscripts Kill all <script> tags
s@(</?)(script)[^>]*>@$1no$2>@gU

Combine that with the build in filter for JS events and you can disable JS on a site by site basis. Comes in handy.

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Google Reader, Blogging for Bucks

November 24, 2006 | 1 comment

Yikes! Been a while. I don’t really have much to say today, as I am tired as hell from working two shifts on Wednesday getting ready for Black Friday, then stuffing myself yesterday for Thanksgiving and not sleeping since.

Fortunately, I am on vacation next week so I will have some time to recover.

I just wanted to share a quick tip for Google Reader for people with lots of subscriptions. Read the rest of this entry »

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Google Homepage with Tabs!

September 14, 2006 | No comments

A while back there was a “rumor” circulated via digg that Google Personalized Homepage was going to be offering tabs soon. I just refreshed my page and saw this!

There was a tab (in Google blue, naturally) marked “Home” with a link marked “Add a tab”. Unfortunately, I didn’t grab a screenshot before I tried to add one, which just reloaded my page and the whole thing went away. I have been wanting this for a while now, and am glad that it is coming soon.

Edit

Just came back. Here are screenshots.

Google homepage with tabs

Adding a tab

If you don’t have this and I am a lucky beta tester, just so everyone knows, the modules can be drag ‘n’ dropped onto tabs. Much nicer than existing hacks.

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Overnight

May 9, 2006 | 1 comment

I was supposed to be off both yesterday and today, but yesterday afternoon I got a call from our HR manager asking if I could transfer to overnight garden recovery. I jumped all over it. From now until August, I will be working overnight, cleaning up all the mess and stuff from all the customers we get every day.

Sadly, while part of the reason I accepted was that I thought it would please my wife, she told me that she doesn’t want me to work overnight. She liked it while I worked at Shell and 7-Eleven because she had lots of friends that she could go hang out with while I was at work, but her main friend is working the same shift as I am now. I feel bad now, but I have already said okay to Laura. I will try to see if I can get out of it sometime before August.

In a previous post I stated that Google Reader was needing a “Mark all Read” button. I have made a bookmarklet that does the same thing, but after having some stuff explained to me, it turns out it isn’t really needed (and actually makes Reader less functional) Check out the discussion over at the Google Reader group

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Google

April 16, 2006 | 1 comment

I use Google products religiously. There. I said it.

Any mail I am receive is procmail-ed to GMail. I read everyone’s blog through Google Reader. I manage my bookmarks through Google Bookmarks. I even have a recipe or two saved on Google Base.

Why do I use Google? Simplicity. With a broadband connection, even with my slow computer, Google’s apps are faster than something running locally more often than not. And since my information is saved to Google’s computers, I don’t have anything to back up other than my music.

I do have a couple of issues with these products. Reader needs a “Mark all read” button, though this can be hacked around with Greasemonkey (and Geekmonkey) Calendar seems to have problems keeping the event bars lined up with the times in the grid, which I can forgive for now since it is three days old. Edit: I was using a Camino nightly build. I am now using the stable and this problem went away. Bookmarks should be exportable.

But other than these couple of issues, I love Google’s services. I could use another reader, but then I would have another site to remember to visit, another password to remember, my personal information on some other company’s computers. It just isn’t worth it for small quibbles.

As for privacy, I am not worried. Google refused a government order to turn over search results that didn’t even ask for user names. They use my search history to give me ads I will want to click. So? I found ThinkGeek from a banner ad and it is now my favorite shopping site online. Privacy nuts should be more worried about their ISPs who have ALL your information pass through their pipes.

Lay off Google.

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