On Plasma Globes and Laptops, or How do I fix my broken Trackpad?

A plasma globe is, of course, everyone's favourite toy:

However, it should never, ever be used near a laptop. I suppose, it can be OK, but not if you are stupid with it. I have one, and I was curious about what it could do, so I started experimenting.

First, I learned that if you put something metal on top of it like a coin, and then move your hand or anything that conducts electricity through you a few milimetres away from it, it will send out little lightning zaps; the electrical light-show you see inside the globe extends out onto whatever is conducting the electricity out of the globe.

I didn't stop here, however. I covered the top of it in aluminium foil, and the put a little piece of paper thereon. Holding a coin above the paper a little bit, I found, burned little holes in the paper. It was really quite fun, and non dangerous, seeing as the electrical zaps were not strong enough to make the paper burn for longer than it was turned on. I accidentally at one point burned a little hole through my fingernail, but fortunately, it was at the top, and it is already growing out.

Anyway, this was all really awesome, until I tried to use my laptop after that. I realised that wherever I moved my mouse, the cursor would immediately tend toward the bottom left. It was not too long before I realised that I must have magnetised the trackpad on my laptop (as you probably know, the trackpad is operated by the electrical conduction in you hand; that is why it doesn't work when you are wearing gloves, just like with iPods). I turned off the trackpad, and I was able to move the mouse around like normal, but this was not a good fix.

I spent a long time searching the Internet, for something that might fix my trackpad but found nothing at all. I suppose that nobody had been as stupid as I was to amplify the magnetic field of my plasma globe near my laptop. Anyway, long story short, I shut down my computer and let it cool down for a half-hour, and it was fine when I turned it back on.

However, I suppose I could have caused serious damage to my computer; anyway, I recommend all of you never to do what I did.

Q10: Writeroom for Windows, better than Darkroom

Q10 is a great alternative to Writeroom, on Windows. It lets you write in a clean, distraction-free environment, and it counts your words and stuff. It is very customizable and easy to use. It is much nicer than Darkroom, another similar program. Here is a screenshot:

If you click through the screenshot, you will see a great little bottom bar that shows you your document statistics. The only thing Darkroom does better is that it allows for window translucency, which can be helpful if you are using a resource and don't want to have to keep switching windows.

The best part about Q10 is that when you type, it makes typewriter sounds! It even has the classic "carriage-return" sound that we all know and love. It is a completely free download, and is very worth it. I am now using it as a draft editor for my writing.

http://baara.com/q10/

Enjoy!

It's time for Adobe Buzzword to go on AIR

I have been hearing a lot about Adobe's AIR platform recently (for instance, they have now released it for Linux). In case you don't already know, AIR is a system that lets you run certain web-programs on your desktop, offline. Sometimes it takes the form of a Flex/flash app from the net ported down, or an rich application using APIs of a web-application (such as all the various Twitter apps, Pownce, Finetune, or the Google Analytics Suite).

Anyway, Buzzword is supposed to at some point have a version that is installable on the desktop, and I am looking forward to this very much. The features I understand that it will have are as follows:

1. Launch from desktop
2. Run without using a bulky web-browser
3. Offline use (edit while not connected to the Internet, and then synchronize when reconnected)
4. Better integration with desktop filesystem (I seem remember something about drag-and-drop support in and out of Buzzword; if this feature is not planned, it should be)

There are probably some other great benefits of AIR, but those are the ones that stood out for me. The reason that offline support is so important to me is that there are tons of computers that have really bad resolution. How does this relate? I'll tell you.

Let's say that I was at a location where there was one of these said awful computers; when Buzzword loads thereon, only about half of the toolbar is visible because the screen is set to 800x600 when it could easily handle 1024x768. Unfortunately, I can't get the permissions to switch the resolution, so I am stuck with it. The only real solution is to bring my laptop. The problem then is that they are terrified that plugging in outside laptops into their Ethernet will somehow spread viruses, trojans, worms, you name it, into their massive network and kill their systems. Now, there is no solution: I can't use their computers because they suck, and I can't use mine because I can't get Internet.

The only way to solve this problem is with offline support, and from what I hear, it is not too far away.

What is Facebook for? Here is my take (or, Verani doesn't care about Scoble's personal life)

Facebook, as my readers know, is one of the most popular social-oriented websites ever. However, there has been a lot of controversy over how it should be used.

There seem to be two schools of thought. The first is that Facebook is a great way to connect with people you already know, to organize events with friends; it is rather like Email's more successful cousin.

The other school of thought is that Facebook is a new kind of Internet rolodex. These people add anyone and everyone as a friend. That way they can keep in contact with many people they don't know, but maybe wish they did. Of course, if this is the case, on the other end are the celebrities, who have thousands of friends who wish they knew them, like Robert Scoble of Scobleizer.com.

When I first decided to see what all the Facebook buzz was about, I fell in with the "rolodex crowd". I made the mistake of using my identity as a blogger, and adding other bloggers and technology people whom I didn't know personally, but greatly admired. So, I had Robert Scoble, Mike Arrington, Jason Calacanis, Sridhar Vembu, &c. on my friends list, but no one whom I actually knew in real life. I was able to keep tabs on the numerous events, product releases, &c. from these people, but nothing personal. Maybe I should rephrase that. I was able to keep up on their personal lives, but I frankly don't give a care about Scoble's personal life, because he is not someone whom I know personally.

When I am friends with someone whom I don't know in real life on Facebook, it makes me feel like an eavesdropper, or a peeping Tom. At that point, all Facebook helped me with was networking, and that is not really the point of it. If I were interested in that, I would have looked at something like LinkedIn.

Facebook began to bore me to death, so I stopped using it (my account is still there, but I don't use it). Then, I noticed that one of my real friends was using it. So, I decided to open up a new account (I know, against the Terms of Use, don't tell anyone...) in my real identity, the ones that my real friends know. I added all the people I personally know, joined my school network, joined my city network, and then started experimenting with various applications and stuff.

I have found that most applications are annoying. The stupidest things are apps that let you "Throw a cow at so-and-so", &c. So, I only use a few apps that actually help me to network with my friends. I find that the most important thing about Facebook is the wall. I use it to communicate back and forth with my friends more than Email. I find that I only use email now to communicate with friends who are not using Facebook, my parents, and various companies.

Now that I use Facebook to augment my relationships with existing friends and not to make new friends (I do that in the real world, not online), I find myself visiting it more and more often, and actually updating my status often.

Another thing Facebook has done for me is help me get into contact with old friends. Several years ago, I moved out of town and lost a dear friend in the process. His email and phone numbers have changed more than once since we last saw each other, and I have had no way of communicating with him. Then, I thought to look for him on Facebook, and of course, he was there. Now, we have been able to communicate for the first time since the year 2001.

If you use it how it was meant to be, Facebook doesn't have to be part of the Narcissystem.

I got accepted to Text Link Ads

I finally got my blog accepted to Text Link Ads. I hope that I can make some money on the content I post here at some point. They said that it is $10 to $25 per advert per month. If anyone buys ads on this site, I could be making a smallish, but fun bit of money here.

I will most definitely be making more money from this than from Google Adsense, which has been a total disaster. If TLA works out, I will probably end up removing all my Google Ads. They take up valuable space on this site, and I would probably be better off without them.

I am a bit confused as to how TLA works. Is it a given that someone will buy ads here, or is it only a possibility?

I think I will be posting more regularly here in the future, so don't remove me from your bookmarks yet...

Google Docs Redesign, and Presentations in Safari

There are a few changes in Google Docs and Spreadsheets. First of all, there is the toolbar; it has now the same colour-scheme and background image as Google Presentations. Also, the buttons have been rearranged a bit: the save, discard, &c. buttons have been removed from the top of the page. Now there is a single save button in the toolbar; to discard, I suppose you just close out the window, or revert changes. I kind of miss those buttons, but the change does get rid of some unnecessary clutter. There is also a “print” button, which uses PDF to print better-looking documents. Here is a screenshot:

Also, Google Presentations seems to have limited support in Safari. Before, you couldn’t even open it in Safari, but now it opens fine, and I think that the performance is superior to that of it in Firefox or Internet Explorer.

Using Brijit to make money online

I have been using a product called “Brijit” to make a few bucks online. All you have to do is write abstracts, or 100-word summaries, to various articles that it chooses for you, and it will pool your’s with a few other users and pick which one is the best. Whoever is chosen to have their abstract published on the Brijit web site will be given either $5 (for abstracts text-based articles) or $8 (for abstracts of audio or video content). Right now, I am getting about a third to a half of all the abstracts I submit published, and am enjoying getting a little bit of money in the mail every month. So, try out Brijit!