Hotashi - Jack’s Blog

Google just finished digitizing newspapers that date back to early 1900s, for their news archives search.

For example, here’s an article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for the moon landing. Pretty cool eh?

So Globe & Mail’s archives search goes back to 2000, while Google’s goes back to early 1900s. And I think NY Times recently went back as far as 1800s? — or maybe early 1900s too. Globe and Fail!

I recently read an article about how the new generation of kids are replacing e-mails with facebook messages and text phone messages. Has it really come time for the e-mail to be retired in favour of the more “hip” alternatives? I think not.

Text messages and facebook (or any social network) are not replacement for e-mails. Yes, people use e-mails for a quick message here and there, but it offers a lot more than that. Have you ever tried to CC or BCC people on a facebook message? What about forwarding or including more people in future replies? What about sending a message with an attachment? You get the idea. IMO, what people use facebook and texting for now is more like what instant messengers (IM) does than what e-mails do. They’re fine for sending a quick message here and there. But if I’m starting a conversation that I might want to search for later on, I’ll stick to my Gmail with its awesome search engine. Even with my IMs I can archive chats on the filesystem, which I can use Google Desktop to search through later on.

I was browser around on lifehack today and found this entry for Google Experimental’s keyboard shortcuts. Of particular interest if the comment left Davosian that gives a way of adding the keyboard shortcut to your Firefox search bar.

From the post:

I added a new search engine to Firefox’s top right search field by adding the following xml file to

C:\Documents and Settings\[YOURUSERNAME]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[YOURPROFILENAME]\searchplugins:

—– googleext.xml start ————
<SearchPlugin xmlns=”http://www.mozilla.org/2006/browser/search/”>
<ShortName>Google Exp</ShortName>
<Description>Google Experimental Search</Description>
<InputEncoding>UTF-8</InputEncoding>
<Image width=”16″ height=”16″>data:image/x-icon;base64,R0lGODlhEAAQAPfLAAATVikwdA8SnxUfgAsWpAAilholjxw4jBc7kwAlvQQ2sRMsoBUqqhMzuhY/vxw4tSgmiyM1mSUztiQ6sTE3sQ4qyxMxxRoyxiAuxR1CtBxJsBxasSJuuTFguBte0Rlf2xVc9h9W9xVjzxVr0gdj6BRh4R1o5yBcyiZbyydT1i9b2Ddb1iFY6CJg2Vpor1dzvEJu20Z0yi23QDy1REi2OUy0O1WzOVC4PU+tVUe5Sk2xQU2zRUO4UE21Ula2SmKEqWWF2HyPx2+a6X6e6Xqk1m+s78sUDs4UGdEQB9YfDdwaANEfHd0YEscjAM4mAM0qANIoD9IkGdslGswuItYgL4aP0ImP2YGZ36Opzaq2wq/S+rzX/7/e8MrS1MLO/sTb48rT8snX/83c89PZ+crq+cH1/9Dl/9Ln/93r/9fy/+Hf7P/42eDm/O7u/+T29uX2/eT2/+f4/+f5/+j/9u//8+3/9u7/9ur5/+j//+n//+v//u3//+7//e7//+////b66/T/6vX/6/f/7f/07fj/4fv/4Pj/5v/45v7/4/r+7/3/6fDw+Pfx//D/9/X/8fT/8/f/8ff/8/D///H///L8/fL///P///X7//b6/ff/+/T///b9//f///v19//w9v/09P/29v/x+f/y///z///1+v/1///2///3//j79P/58/z/8/z99/z/9v7/9P7/9vn7//v6//j9//n9//j///n///v//vv////4+v/5+//6+P/4///6/P/6/v/6///7///9+P/8+v/9+v7/+Pz////8/f/9/f79///8///9//7//////////wAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACH5BAEAAMsALAAAAAAQABAAAAj/AEn4oIFjBw8bOnrMuJGjhowZM1T8UdYJUZ5ZcNRYWjSrVK5QU0DMmtUnzRAXEy4o6FCEy6NDTkQIq1MmRgM0eZTlCXMgQJtRSE4gmgUkwh1EiZTNUiamy6NUUExcuoJgDCdDjQg9KgVL2SNFT1hwEvKglLBWuixZ+jSrlSBdRlL04bBBkTBdpZTpIqWsFaBcTEr0QaEhl6dWlswKW6poDRUPlmAUQKWMkTJLc76QMQNGUZMWgIgkCFJnlq5WXigwkFClVZQQyuRgELAlk7JBymCZGYAF0ZEPrQixgUDAihxVdPpoAZAFUZIRfThxgvPCwAILDipk+OFG2ZIVoxApERtPfvwlvZ+kQFzPvv0MJQEBADs=</Image>
<Url type=”application/x-suggestions+json” method=”GET” template=”http://suggestqueries.google.com/complete/search?output=firefox&client=firefox&qu={searchTerms}”/>
<Url type=”text/html” method=”GET” template=”http://www.google.com/search”>
<Param name=”q” value=”{searchTerms}”/>
<Param name=”ie” value=”utf-8″/>
<Param name=”oe” value=”utf-8″/>
<Param name=”esrch” value=”BetaShortcuts”/>
<!– <Param name=”esrch” value=”RefinementBarLhsGradientPreview”/> –>
<!– Dynamic parameters –>
<Param name=”rls” value=”{moz:distributionID}:{moz:locale}:{moz:official}”/>
<MozParam name=”client” condition=”defaultEngine” trueValue=”firefox-a” falseValue=”firefox”/>
</Url>
<SearchForm>http://www.google.com/firefox</SearchForm>
</SearchPlugin>
—– googleext.xml end ————

You have to restart Firefox for this search engine (called Google Exp) to show up in the dropdown list.

D.

I found stumbled upon this page that shows some super-close zooms on Google Map. Isn’t it kinda freaky how close you can zoom in? In particular, this beach close-up is a bit sketchy. I know you can’t see anyone’s faces, but that seems a little too close for comfort. Are these satellite images?