Sandarenu's Blog

Recently Blogger started providing different views for the blogs created in it. They are very cute way to view our blogs in different angles. Following is snapshot view of my blog.

• Labels:
• Google
• Tips and Tricks


• 0 comments
• Leave A Comment

 

If you are using Gmail this may the security feature that you were looking for ages... Now Google let you monitor your account activities and Sign out remotely. This is very good news for people like me because I access gmail from multiple computers, including from the computers at university labs.  Read more about this from

Gmail Blog >>>

• Labels:
• Google


• 0 comments
• Leave A Comment

 

Few weeks back I posted about that Sri Lanka being among the top ten counties in Google Summer of Codes 2008. But there is more good news. This time among top 10 universities. I'm very proud to see that University of Moratuwa(UOM) is the 1st among top 10 universities. This is a BIG BIG achievement for us.

Congratulations to all my friend at UOM.  

 

Read more about this....

• Labels:
• Google


• 1 comments
• Leave A Comment

 

Sri Lankan academic community is making its name more and more visible in the global arena. I saw this in the Google Open Source Blog which list out the top 10 countries at Google Summer of Codes 2008. It is very happy to see that Sri Lanka is among the top in both applicants and accepted project vise. 

See the full blog post at Google Open Source Blog...

• Labels:
• Google


• 0 comments
• Leave A Comment

 

There is only few days for the dawn of the new year, 2008. It is time to get organized for the new year. As with last year I thought of creating a Sri Lankan holiday list.

Outlook Holiday List

– – – – – – – – – Start Copy – – – – – – – – –

[Sri Lanka] 25
Tamil Thai Pongal Day(BPM),2008/1/15
Duruthu Full Moon Poya Day(BPM),2008/1/22
National Day(BPM),2008/2/4
Navam Full Moon Poya Day(BPM),2008/2/20
Mahasivarathri Day(BP),2008/3/6
Milad-Un-Nabi (Holy Prophet’s Birthday)(BPM),2008/3/20
Medin Full Moon Poya Day(BPM),2008/3/21
Good Friday(BP),2008/3/21
Day Prior to Sinhala & Tamil New Year Day(BPM),2008/4/12
Sinhala & Tamil New Year Day(BPM),2008/4/13
Bak Full Moon Poya Day(BPM),2008/4/19
May Day(BPM),2008/5/1
Vesak Full Moon Poya Day(BPM),2008/5/19
Day following Vesak Full Moon Poya Day(BPM),2008/5/20
Poson Full Moon Poya Day(BPM),2008/6/18
Esala Full Moon Poya Day(BPM),2008/7/17
Nikini Full Moon Poya Day(BPM),2008/8/16
Binara Full Moon Poya Day(BPM),2008/9/14
Id-Ul-Fitr (Ramazan Festival Day)(BP),2008/10/1
Vap Full Moon Poya Day(BPM),2008/10/14
Deepavali Festival Day(BP),2008/10/27
Il Full Moon Poya Day(BPM),2008/11/12
Id-Ul-Alha (Hadji Festival Day)(BP),2008/12/9
Unduvap Full Moon Poya Day(BPM),2008/12/12
Christmas Day(BPM),2007/12/25

– – – – – – End Copy – – – – – – –

Please follow the instructions given in my last post to add holiday list to outlook. Note that if you have last year’s list under Sri Lanka you will need to replace it with this year’s ones

Google Calendar

Click on the button to add the Holiday Calendar to your Google calendar.

• Labels:
• Google
• Microsoft
• Time Management


• 0 comments
• Leave A Comment

 

SyncMyCal is a simple plug in to MS Outlook which allows you to synchronize your Google calendar and Outlook calendar. Using this tool you can keep both your calendar up to date.

Key Features

• Two-way calendar synchronization – Outlook to Google and Google to Outlook
• Selective event synchronization through date range selection
• Flexibility of publishing/not publishing private events information in Outlook Calendar to Google Calendar
• Multiple Google Calendars can be connected to single Outlook Calendar and vice versa
• Works with Outlook 2007
  

It has two versions SyncMyCal Lite and Pro. Lite version is free and it has all the features to get things done except Auto Sync and Synchronization Date Range Selection.
Download SyncMyCal here >>

• Labels:
• Google
• Microsoft
• Utilities


• 1 comments
• Leave A Comment

 

With new Google tool bar you can easily create custom buttons. Creating buttons is very easy, you just have to create a

simple XML file. Most common use of the custom button is to view the RSS feeds of a site. Here is how to do it;

• Create an XML file called yourname.xml
• In that file use the following template
  

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<custombuttons xmlns="http://toolbar.google.com/custombuttons/">
<button>
<title>Name of Button</title>
<description>
What that button does or what the site is about.
</description>
<site>URL of tool or homepage </site>
<feed refresh-interval="900" refresh-onclick="true">feed location</feed>
<icon mode="base64" type="image/x-icon">base 64 version of your icon - not needed but it looks nice to use.
</icon>
</button>
</custombuttons>

The feed refresh # is in seconds, and the refresh onclick ensures you have the most recent version of that feed when you click it.
you can also have a icon in you custom button. To add an icon you have to have it on base64 mode.
Find small 16x16 icon.
You can find thousands of small png, jpeg pictures from famfamfam.com
Convert selected png,jpeg file into *.ico using this site.
Convert your *.ico file in to base64 form using this online tool.
Copy and paste the base64 text for the icon within <icon> </icon> tag.

That's it... Now you have the XML file for the custom button. Next you have to install it to the tool bar. To do that replace the file path of the following URL with the actual path where you have saved the file, and copy and paste it in FF address bar and hit enter.
http://toolbar.google.com/buttons/add?url=file:///<File Path>
eg: http://toolbar.google.com/buttons/add?url=file:///D:\Temp\Custom Buttons\SandarenuBlog.xml





After installing the button you will be able to see it in the tool bar.

I've created a simple button to get RSS feed of my blog. Using it you can see the updates of my blog in a single click. You can try it here.

See Google Custom button API for more details.

• Labels:
• Google
• Utilities


• 0 comments
• Leave A Comment

 

I previously posted about how to add Sri Lankan holiday list to MS Outlook. After that I though how wonderful would it be if I can add those holidays to my Google calendar.
So I did exactly that. Itwas not that difficult. I exported my Outlook holiday calendar to iCal file and import it from Google calendar. I made my holiday calendar public so you also can add it to you google calendar.

Click on the button to add the Holiday Calendar to your google calendar.

• Labels:
• Google
• Time Management


• 3 comments
• Leave A Comment

 

Did you check out the new feature in Gmail that enable us to fetch mails from up to 5 different pop3 servers. You will find the mail fetcher in Settings / Accounts. With 3 easy steps you can view mails from your other mail accounts using Gmail itself. I just added my other mail accounts to gmail. This is really cool... Now I can use Gmail as universal mail account where I can access all my mail accounts form one place. It's really fast as well. But I read that this feature is not yet available for all the gmail accounts. Don't be late, check out your Gmail settings now...

• Labels:
• Google


• 1 comments
• Leave A Comment

 

Beta version of the new Google tool bar 3 has been released yesterday. The new version of Google Toolbar for Firefox adds the features that were available only in the IE toolbar and a special bonus.

The latest version of Google Toolbar makes it easy to send snippets from web pages by email, SMS. It's also easy to have a blog without actually writing too much original content.


you can download and install the new beta version from here.

• Labels:
• Google
• Utilities


• 0 comments
• Leave A Comment

 

Google have introduced a new Geographic Web layer to Goolge Earth. Now you can see content from;

• the Wikipedia encyclopedia,
  
• Panoramio, which links photos to the exact places where they were taken, and
  
• the Google Earth Community - comments by users of the Community, including Flickr photos of the place

while you using GE.




The places described in those site will be shown in small wikipedia globe or blue Panoramio star or Google Earth Community yellow i icon. Simply by clicking on that icon you can view that content.




Cool...

• Labels:
• Google


• 0 comments
• Leave A Comment