Offline Gmail

Finally!
I've had Google Gears installed for over 1^1/2 years, and now I can use it with Gmail. I predicted Gmail and Google Calendar would be available offline in 2007! Better late than never...

There are rumours about Gears for Google Calendar... I hope those are true also!


[Offline Gmail]

The Most Ticketed Cars on the Road

Ever wonder what type of cars get ticketed the most? Wonder no more!


[VIA]

Creative Coffee Mugs

Who would have known, that in the last 6 months I'd grow fond of coffee? At least I'm not the only one.









I know the last two aren't "coffee" mugs.

Click here for some more creative mug designs.

Obama's Inauguration Live

Watch President Obama's Inauguration Live at benbarth.com.

Mindflex: Play(s) with your mind

Anyone who is big into consumer electronics has probably heard about this already. It's a game called Mindflex, and you play the game... with your mind.

Don't believe me? Watch the video.

A little midweek humour

Things to learn from the following comics.

• Marshmallow guns are cool. Don't shoot them at work.


• SSH is awesome.


• Exploring new Languages, Libraries, Frameworks and SDKs are all valuable assets.

iTunes: DRM-free, but they can track you.

Yay!
iTunes will be completely DRM-free by Spring.

But...

Be warned: your account information is stored in every file

They didn't "give up", and drop DRM. They just changed their strategy. DRM prevented you from sharing the mp3. Now, they let you share it... but they might know if you do.

I should get my hands on an iTunes DRM-free mp3 and see if I can write an app to get rid of the tracking information. That could be fun.

Either way, I'm still a fan of records.

Skype for Android

With CES starting yesterday, there has been a flood of news. One of the most exciting announcements was Skype Lite for the Android platform. This allows Android users (like myself), to make phone calls using Skype from their mobile phone.

Why is this useful?
The greatest incentive (if not the only), is that you can make international and long distance calls for just a few cents. Lets see you make a call to Australia for 2 cents a minute on your mobile phone. Traveling with your mobile phone won't cost you an arm and a leg anymore. (Just the price of an Android phone. If you don't already have one.)

Native Client

Once again, Google takes things to a higher playing field. Native Client, a revolutionary idea that allows you to run x86 native code within your browser. This brings the web to a whole new level, allowing you to run rich web applications. Native Client is even powerful enough to play Quake. Sorry ActiveX, you're just not cross platform.

MacBook Wheel

The best asset seems to be the battery life. I've never purchased an apple product before, but this is definitely worth the switch. Farewell Linux. I bet it's much more intuitive to use Xcode now. I can hardly wait.

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

Firefox Tips and Tricks

There are a couple of Firefox "tips and tricks" that I use fairly often. I figured I'd pass them along.

1. This tip/trick allows you to edit the web page you are looking at. It's great for making a quick change before you print. Right click here, and select "Bookmark This Link".

2. Most people have highspeed or broadband connections so you can use pipelining to speed up your page loads. This allows Firefox to load multiple things at once.

First type "about:config" into the address bar and hit Enter.
(You might need to click "I'll be careful, I promise!")
Next type "network.http" into the filter field.
Set "network.http.pipelining" to true.
Set "network.http.proxy.pipelining" to true.
Set "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to any number, I use at least 25.

For a little extra speed you can right click and select New -> Integer. Name it "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and set its value to 0. This allows Firefox to display elements on the webpage as soon as it is received.

I hope these were helpful. Feel free to check out some of my other posts as well as previous Firefox tips.

SSL (md5) deemed unsafe

I've been in Montreal for the past while so it's nice to be back and cover a large story that I've missed.

Some people are up in arms because SSL has been broken! That's not the case. Only md5 hashed certificates are effected. Since md5 has known to be vulnerable for quite some time, this is not much of a surprise. You can try out their live demo if you set your clock back to a date before August 2004. If you are looking for more information regarding this project you can check out their project page, as well as a detailed write up. Beware, it's pretty technical.