RHFtech™ Write on Tech » google

Help, please! Unhide Google Search “Everything” control

Richard Frisch — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 14:12:52 +0000

Does anyone know of an add-on, tweak or other method that overrides or disables the default hidden Google Search controls, exposing them automatically?

The latest design meme is to hide things designers think clutter the look of a webpage. If you want to see the hidden controls and their functions you need to click once, twice or more.

Google recently changed the search page to hide the left-hand, vertical controls under a drop-down menu labeled Everything. I use these controls all the time to filter out miscellaneous information and get better, more focused search results. It is irritating to constantly click one, twice, three times to see the controls I need to use.

You don’t see it.

Now you do.

And after two clicks even more!

Google Calendar meeting length enhancement

Richard Frisch — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 11:50:32 +0000

Google has updated the settings in Google Calendar to allow the user to set a default meeting length rather than use the standard half hour. Previously, we had to change each event if we wanted something different. Now we have choices.

Google also added a Speedy meetings option checkbox.

Speedy meetings let us set meetings that are shortened by 5 minutes for half hour meetings or 10 minutes for longer meetings.

Be the first to get a Chromebook.

Richard Frisch — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 20:43:43 +0000

I just received an offer to buy a Samsung Google Chromebook before it goes on sale to the general public. The cost is $499.

No thank you Google. I could buy an iPad 2 for that price (without the free sleeve) or an Asus Eee Pad Transformer for $50 less!

Why I am abandoning Windows and you will too

Richard Frisch — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 18:51:35 +0000

Microsoft recently released the final version of Window 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1). Thus far, my experience in updating 8 machines is: 2 succeeded, 5 failed, and one “succeeded” by force. This last one is my main Windows machine. It failed to install SP1 using Windows Update. SP1 installed when I used the Microsoft 2GB administrator’s download. The forced upgrade worked, but now the machine does not hibernate properly. It did before.

[Update 2011-03-20: Using Windows Update on 9 W7 machines: 2 succeeded, 7 have failed.]

I wasted over 10 hours trying to get Windows Update to install SP1 on my main machine, troubleshooting the failed update, downloading the DVD file, installing SP1 from the DVD, troubleshooting hibernate issues and unsuccessfully attempting to restore the machine to just before SP1 was installed.

Though Microsoft has improved over the years, this is still not an atypical experience. Issues like this also occur with Apple and Google. However, I have lost tolerance for Microsoft-induced problems. After three decades of these issues. Microsoft should know better. They do. They just don’t seem to care enough about their end-users.

In the past this would have been more than simply frustrating. It might even have been catastrophic. Today it doesn’t much matter.

I am slowly moving away from Microsoft platforms. As recently as five years ago, I spent 100% of my computing time on Microsoft Windows. Today is different. I spend about 50% of my time on Windows (mostly Windows 7), 30% on Mac OS X (mostly Snow Leopard), 15% on Apple iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV) and 5% on Google Android devices. I expect Android and iOS to grow within the next 2 years to more than half of my computing time. Truthfully, I am agnostic when it comes to operating systems or platforms. There are features to like and dislike about all of them.

Today we want and expect to do whatever we want, where we want, and when we want, without regard to OS or hardware. It should just work. And it often does because we are no longer dependent upon a single provider to satisfy our computing needs. Choice means we can use Microsoft if they fit our needs, Apple if they are best, Google when they dominate, or some other company.

I depend upon cloud computing more and more. Dropbox and Google services form the basis of much of my computing today. I use Microsoft Live services to a lesser degree. (This article was created and edited in the Microsoft Word Web App, part of the free Microsoft Live cloud-services. I wrote and edited it on both Windows and OS X machines. Since the file and the application are on Microsoft servers that I access via the Internet I am indifferent to the platform.)

I also maintain an Apple MobileMe account so that I can support customers foolish enough to want to use Apple cloud services. Apple has a long way to go before I will trust their cloud-based services.

Although this document was created on Microsoft Live SkyDrive using the Word Web App, I primarily depend upon Dropbox to make my active files available on whatever device I need them on. I depend upon Google email, contacts, calendar, documents and spreadsheets to augment that experience. I still use Microsoft Office on both Windows and OS X. But the times have changed. I could give up Microsoft Outlook but not Google calendar. In fact, the main reason I continue to use Outlook is to help me support my clients that depend upon it.

Your experience will vary from mine. But the handwriting is on the wall. Microsoft’s dominance is waning and no single company is ever likely to dominate computing like they once did.

Look what Google ebooks sent me

Richard Frisch — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 18:06:15 +0000

Bookmarks for real books arrived by regular mail today!

Google Voice is my secretary

Richard Frisch — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 14:13:39 +0000

Google Voice (GV) is a free service that has many features. A feature I often employ is to have GV make my calls for me.

I use GV on my computer to place outgoing calls from my landline. (If AT&T cell reception was better in my house, I might also use GV to call from my iPhone.) I am always in front of or near a computer when I am in my office. I use the Google Voice web page to dial for me.

Here is how it is done:

Click on the webpage’s Call button.
Type or paste the phone number in the Number to call field.
Select the phone you wish to call from in the Number to call with field.
Click the Connect button.

GV rings my phone. I pick it up and it calls the number I entered in step 2, above.

Using GV to make calls is very easy. I make most of calls this way. I can quickly copy and paste a phone number from Outlook, my Gmail Contacts, a website or somewhere else on my computer. I rarely dial a wrong number this way.

Google Voice keeps track of the people I called so I can quickly see who I called when and easily redial if I want.

If you have a GV number and have not used this feature I suggest you give it try. If you don’t have a GV number go and get one. It’s free and available to anyone in the United States.

Google Apps and Gmail – multiple sign ins

Richard Frisch — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 14:38:52 +0000

Recent changes to Google Apps made it impossible to open both a Gmail account and a Google Apps account in a single browser, simultaneously. I didn’t like that as it would mean a major change to the way I work with my computers. So I went on a hunt and…

I discovered there is a way to sign onto both a Google Apps and a Gmail account simultaneously in a single web-browser. It requires re-configuring your Google Accounts.

Enable Sign in to Multiple Google Accounts for each account, for example both johndoe@gmail.com and support@rhftech.

Do this at https://www.google.com/accounts/b/0/MultipleSessions for each account.
Sign out and then sign in to one of the accounts. You should see a dropdown arrow next to your account name that lets you select the account to display in that tab or window.

It is now possible to have two browser tabs or browser windows open that point to each of the accounts’ inbox.

I suspect that the reason Google created this convoluted process is that they are trying to use the same log in screen for both Gmail and Google Apps. I would guess the underlying reason is to tie our personal and corporate browsing histories together to better data mine information (from Google’s perspective.)

Google Chrome 104 error

Richard Frisch — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 16:54:42 +0000

I ran into an unresolvable problem with Google Chrome on a client’s XP machine this week. They use Chrome as their browser, on my recommendation. The computer was an underpowered eMachines T3120 model. Chrome is faster and less of a memory hog than other options so it made sense to me to use it on this slow box.

The error presented as a Google Chrome 104 error, "Chrome is unable to load the requested webpage." We couldn’t access any webpage. Oddly, other browsers—IE6, IE8, Firefox 3.6.6 and AOL 9.1—could access the Internet while Chrome would not.

Although new to me, this is not a new issue for Chrome. See http://bit.ly/bkU4xc . None of the various solutions that worked for others beset with this issue worked here. After wasting several hours trying to fix it, I gave up.

I reinstalled Windows XP and the applications. Fortunately, there weren’t many. I discovered on the reinstall that the Windows XP product key, which had been in use on the machine, failed the Windows Genuine Advantage tests and differed from the product key on the sticker affixed to the computer.

I wasted almost an hour of my time dealing with the product key problem. This reminded me that I NEVER have to waste time with this issue when reinstalling the operating system on a Mac. There are many reasons that consumers are moving away from Microsoft. This is one of them.

That solved the problem. I added Firefox to the reinstalled Windows XP applications list, in case the Chrome problem recurs. I also added 1GB of RAM, which made for a huge improvement in the computer’s usability.

Google abandoning IE 6 support

Richard Frisch — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 12:47:14 +0000

I received the following email from the Google Apps team:

Dear Google Apps admin,

In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology. This includes faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5. As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.

We plan to begin phasing out support of these older browsers on the Google Docs suite and the Google Sites editor on March 1, 2010. After that point, certain functionality within these applications may have higher latency and may not work correctly in these older browsers. Later in 2010, we will start to phase out support for these browsers for Google Mail and Google Calendar.

Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above.

Starting next week, users on these older browsers will see a message in Google Docs and the Google Sites editor explaining this change and asking them to upgrade their browser. We will also alert you again closer to March 1 to remind you of this change.

In 2009, the Google Apps team delivered more than 100 improvements to enhance your product experience. We are aiming to beat that in 2010 and continue to deliver the best and most innovative collaboration products for businesses.

Thank you for your continued support!

Sincerely,
The Google Apps team

Google Calendar Labs

Richard Frisch — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:03:20 +0000

The busy Google software engineers have added extra features to the Google Calendar which are not enabled by default. You need to go Calendar Labs and enable the ones that appeal to you.

They recently added a Year View button (its on the right side of my calendar web page). Once you select the year and click the Go button a full year view shows up that looks like this.