Google mail engineer Jon Perlow, has created Mail Goggles for Gmail.
The feature's name comes from the famous "beer goggles". When one enables Mail Goggles, it checks whether you really want to send that e-mail by prompting you to solve a few simple math problems after you click "send."
In his own words, "Sometimes I send messages I shouldn't send. Like the time I told that girl I had a crush on her over text message. Or the time I sent that late night email to my ex-girlfriend that we should get back together. Gmail can't always prevent you from sending messages you might later regret, but today we're launching a new Labs feature I wrote called Mail Goggles which may help."
"When you enable Mail Goggles, it will check that you're really sure you want to send that late night Friday email. And what better way to check than by making you solve a few simple math problems after you click send to verify you're in the right state of mind?" says Jon Perlow on his blog post on the Gmail Blog.
By default, Mail Goggles is only active late night on the weekend as that is the time you're most likely to need it. However, once enabled, you can adjust when it's active in the General settings.
"Hopefully Mail Goggles will prevent many of you out there from sending messages you wish you hadn't. Like that late night memo -- I mean mission statement -- to the entire firm," he added.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Thursday, October 9, 2008
'Unbreakable' encryption unveiled
According to BBC, unbreakable encryption has been unvieled in Vienna where a network consisting of six locations across Vienna and in the nearby town of St Poelten, using 200 km of standard commercial fibre optic cables has been setup.
Quantum systems use the laws of quantum theory, which have been shown to be inherently unbreakable. "All quantum security schemes are based on the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, on the fact that you cannot measure quantum information without disturbing it," Gilles Brassard of Montreal University explained. "Because of that, one can have a communications channel between two users on which it's impossible to eavesdrop without creating a disturbance. An eavesdropper would create a mark on it. That was the key idea."
Albert Einstein, who discovered the quantum properties of photons of light - indeed, discovered the very concept of the photon - always resisted quantum theory's spooky behaviour, "God does not play dice", being among his oft-quoted objections. But experiments eventually proved that he apparently does, and also laid the technical foundations for today's quantum information revolution - cryptography, teleportation, and computation.
Quantum systems use the laws of quantum theory, which have been shown to be inherently unbreakable. "All quantum security schemes are based on the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, on the fact that you cannot measure quantum information without disturbing it," Gilles Brassard of Montreal University explained. "Because of that, one can have a communications channel between two users on which it's impossible to eavesdrop without creating a disturbance. An eavesdropper would create a mark on it. That was the key idea."
Albert Einstein, who discovered the quantum properties of photons of light - indeed, discovered the very concept of the photon - always resisted quantum theory's spooky behaviour, "God does not play dice", being among his oft-quoted objections. But experiments eventually proved that he apparently does, and also laid the technical foundations for today's quantum information revolution - cryptography, teleportation, and computation.
Friday, October 3, 2008
The XML page cannot be displayed
This is a very common error people face when installing ASP.Net applications.
You finish installing the app and go to the corresponding URL in the browser and you see this error message "The XML page cannot be displayed. Cannot view XML input using XSL style sheet. Please correct the error and then click Refresh button, or try again later. A name was started with an invalid character. Error processing resource 'http://servername/applicationname/'."
This is caused due to the fact that the .aspx and .asmx extensions are not registered in your IIS website properly. Perform the following steps to remedy the solution:
1) Open IIS (Start->Run->inetmgr)
2) Right click your website (virtual directory) and select properties.
3) Click the configuration button.
4) In the Application Configuration screen, click add and browse to the path 'C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_isapi.dll' and in the Extension box type '.aspx' and click ok. Perform this step again for the .asmx extension pointing to the same executable file.
5) Click OK and close the properties box.
Now test your website and it should work fine. Please note that the above steps are for IIS 5.1, but the steps in IIS 6.0 mimic these closely.
Hope this helps!
You finish installing the app and go to the corresponding URL in the browser and you see this error message "The XML page cannot be displayed. Cannot view XML input using XSL style sheet. Please correct the error and then click Refresh button, or try again later. A name was started with an invalid character. Error processing resource 'http://servername/applicationname/'."
This is caused due to the fact that the .aspx and .asmx extensions are not registered in your IIS website properly. Perform the following steps to remedy the solution:
1) Open IIS (Start->Run->inetmgr)
2) Right click your website (virtual directory) and select properties.
3) Click the configuration button.
4) In the Application Configuration screen, click add and browse to the path 'C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_isapi.dll' and in the Extension box type '.aspx' and click ok. Perform this step again for the .asmx extension pointing to the same executable file.
5) Click OK and close the properties box.
Now test your website and it should work fine. Please note that the above steps are for IIS 5.1, but the steps in IIS 6.0 mimic these closely.
Hope this helps!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Put your labels to the right in Gmail
A Google engineer came up with a new utility that allows you to see the list of all your labels to the right of your email list which helps you if you have a long list of email to display and do not want to scroll up or down to select a label.
Read more about this feature here.
Read more about this feature here.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Google to dump user data faster
Google is to halve the amount of time it stores users' personal search data. The search provider said it will anonymize identifiable IP addresses on its server logs after 9 months.
Google currently collects and stores information from each search query, holding information about the search query itself, the unique IP address and details about how a user makes their searches, such as the web browser that is being used.
The company says it needs this information to improve its various services and to help fight threats such as fraud, spam and malicious attacks, and to aid "valid legal orders" from law enforcement agencies.
In June last year, Google announced it was cutting the amount of time such data was stored from 24 to 18 months.
Google currently collects and stores information from each search query, holding information about the search query itself, the unique IP address and details about how a user makes their searches, such as the web browser that is being used.
The company says it needs this information to improve its various services and to help fight threats such as fraud, spam and malicious attacks, and to aid "valid legal orders" from law enforcement agencies.
In June last year, Google announced it was cutting the amount of time such data was stored from 24 to 18 months.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Microsoft slashes Xbox prices
Microsoft announced that it is slashing prices of its flagship gaming device, XBOX 360, in the US. This will take the price of the basic model down to $199, approximately $50 cheaper than Nintendo Wii. It said that prices for the other Xbox models will drop by $50.
The US cut follows a similar move in Japan. In late August Microsoft announced that Japanese prices of the Xbox 360 would fall in September. The cut meant an Xbox Arcade will cost 19,800 yen ($182), also cheaper than the Wii. Earlier this year, in March Microsoft cut European prices making the recommended price for the Arcade £159.99, lower than the European price for a Wii.
The US cut follows a similar move in Japan. In late August Microsoft announced that Japanese prices of the Xbox 360 would fall in September. The cut meant an Xbox Arcade will cost 19,800 yen ($182), also cheaper than the Wii. Earlier this year, in March Microsoft cut European prices making the recommended price for the Arcade £159.99, lower than the European price for a Wii.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
IE8 Beta 2 Launched
The IE team launched IE8 Beta 2 which can be downloaded at http://www.microsoft.com/ie8.
You can watch videos of IE8 at http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-us&user=-3161786097973413883 and http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/beta/videos.aspx. IE8 is a very developer friendly browser. You can download add-ons for IE8 at http://www.ieaddons.com/. Some of my favorite add ons include Web Slices and Accelerators.
Some cool features of IE8 Beta 2 include color-coded tabbed-browsing and accelerator support. Accelerators are services that you access directly from the webpage in the context of what you’re doing, letting you bookmark, define, email, map and more with a simple selection. Even your search providers are available as Accelerators. Some Accelerators provide previews so that you can view the result without having to leave the current webpage. Clicking on an Accelerator opens a new tab with the full result. You can download accelerators from http://www.ieaddons.com/en/accelerators/
Also, there is better support for when website you are viewing in a tab crashes - now instead of closing the whole IE window along with other tabs open in the same window, only the tab with the crashing website will close!
You can watch videos of IE8 at http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-us&user=-3161786097973413883 and http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/beta/videos.aspx. IE8 is a very developer friendly browser. You can download add-ons for IE8 at http://www.ieaddons.com/. Some of my favorite add ons include Web Slices and Accelerators.
Some cool features of IE8 Beta 2 include color-coded tabbed-browsing and accelerator support. Accelerators are services that you access directly from the webpage in the context of what you’re doing, letting you bookmark, define, email, map and more with a simple selection. Even your search providers are available as Accelerators. Some Accelerators provide previews so that you can view the result without having to leave the current webpage. Clicking on an Accelerator opens a new tab with the full result. You can download accelerators from http://www.ieaddons.com/en/accelerators/
Also, there is better support for when website you are viewing in a tab crashes - now instead of closing the whole IE window along with other tabs open in the same window, only the tab with the crashing website will close!
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