Disable Chrome Print Preview

Disable Chrome Print Preview
Command: about:flags




- Search for 'Print Preview'
- Click 'Disable'
- Re-launch browser

That's it!

Using Google Calendar, Thunderbird and Lighting to full effect

Using Google Calendar, Thunderbird and Lighting to full effect

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One of the best apps available on Windows is MS Outlook, as a complete suite of apps to organize your life, with Mail, to do lists and a calendar application, which allows for scheduling of meetings, and your time, which will communicate happily with your Windows Mobile or Smartphone Device. Allowing you to know what you are doing while both at your PC or away from it. However, being a commercial application, this can be quite a pricey solution, especially, if your are looking for these features to manage yourself, or maybe just a few others.
However it is possible to archive similar results using Windows, or Linux for free.
Being the owner of an Orange M600 Smartphone, and a Linux user, I spent a long time looking over the Internet, as the best way to get the information shared between my Desktop and my PDA phone. and although there are projects out there , SynCE springs to mind, they are not easy to setup.
So I thought i would look at a different way of resolving the issue.. As always, this is not the only way, its just my way.
Issue

• Cross Platform Calendar Connectivity Windows, Linux, Windows Mobile
• Easy to use

How I managed it.

The key to my resolution is Google Calendar, which can be accessed easily enough, especially if you already have a gMail account. If however you don’t have a gMail account, you can create your self a Google Account here, which will give you access to the Calendar functionality. Its pretty self explanatory. Once this is setup, its time to look at your mail client, obviously you could just use google calendar, via the web browser in Windows or Linux, but it doesn’t display to well on a PDA.. Also the aim here, is to emulate some of the functionality of Outlook, which allows you to have access to multiple mail accounts in one location.

The Email Client

The software I use is Thunderbird, Its my preferred Mail client, as i use both POP and IMAP based mail accounts, this mail client doesn’t however come with any built in calendar function, which is a reason, so many people berate it, and state that “calendar functionality is required before this app can move forward”. One of Thunderbirds strengths however, is, like its cousin Firefox, it works on a plugin system. That is, people have written third party modules, which can be used to enhance the functionality of Thunderbird. And I use 2 of these pluginfrom has an old version, Try downloading Lightening from

Lightning Plugin for Thunderbird: http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/lightning/
Google Calendar Provider: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/4631

Quote:

Note: The version of the google provider at this time, requires Lightning version 0.7 or higher, and may not work with the one in the Gutsy repository under add/remove, so use the link above to download the latest version.

Quite simply, Lightning provides a calendar interface for Thunderbird, its part of the Mozilla Sunbird project, and helps provide the Schedule interface which standalone Thunderbird is missing.

Setup The Plugins

The magic here, however is the Provider for Google Calendar plugin, which, unlike just adding the necessary links to Thunderbird, to access Google Calendard, not only provides read access, it provides write access as well..
Install both plugins, and restart Thunderbird, you will then be shown, a Calendar in the left pane, this calendar has 3 tabs Agenda, Todo and Calendars. To setup Google Calendar, click on the Calendar tab.
Click on the New Button, in the Calendar Tab, and you will be given a choice, you need to select, On the Network. Click on Next, there is an option for Google Calendar, select this.
In the Text bar under the Google Calendar you will need to enter the Link URL which allows you to write to your Account, you can find this, buy logging into the Google Calendar account you created earlier.

Create a new Calendar, or if you already have a celedar created, click on the down arrow next to the calendar. And click on Share this Calendar.
You will be taken to a new page, where you will need to click on Calendar Details on the top of this page.

Then Select the XML button, next to the Private Address, this will allow you the read/write access to the calendar, if you need read only access, or wish to share calendards with read only access, use the XML button next to the Public Tab.

When you click on the XML button a URL will be displayed (i’ve edited the whole strin below for security reasons) Copy this URL , and paste it into the Thunderbird Text box, then click on Next.

Give the Calendar a name which you will use in Thunderbird to identify this calendar, and choose a colour, this is the colour which will identify your Google Calendar, if you are using multiple calendars. Then CLick on Next and then Finish.
You will then see your calendar listed as available. you should now be able to add an event in either Thunderbird, or the wEb Interface, and both will update to show the events. You can set reminders, repeat events, and all the usual type of Schedule details.

Sync the PDA

The next step is to sync the Calendar with the PDA, this is done using the GMobileSync app for Windows Mobile or Smartphones. it requires .NET CF 2.0 which is available for download from the site, and provides not only read access to they Google Calendar, it also provides write access. This means as well as having PDA based access to your existing schedule, you can provide updates from your PDA to your calendar too. The application requires your login ID and password for the Google Calendar site. and works as far as i’m aware over both Wifi and GPRS networks, however i will confess, with UK prices as they are for Data over GPRS i’ve only tried Wifi. The Sync is a manual operation, and not automatic (yet)

Youtube email confirmation error

I figured out how to fix this. I was having this problem, too. I was logged into my YouTube account, but I couldn't subscribe to video feeds or forums. I always got the error, "You must confirm your email address to create a subscription."

Try this:
1) Go to your own user page. For example, mine is http://www.youtube.com/user/MuggsMcGinnis
2) In the "Connect with " (for example, Connect with
MuggsMcGinnis), select "Send Message" button.

When I did this, I got an error that the email address was invalid.
The address shown on the screen was "muggsmcginnis", not my correct email address. So, I changed that to the correct address and sent the message. I received the message in my email account:

Hi MuggsMcGinnis,

Please click here to confirm your email.

Once you confirm that this is your email address, you'll be able to
upload videos to YouTube.

Once I'd done that, the problem went away.
One of the odder aspects of this YouTube bug is that the system already had my correct email address. I used the option to reset my account password and it sent the confirmation email to my correct email address. Obviously, their account database could use some normalization"

Google Picasa 3 Beta Release

An outstanding image viewer by google.

There are the exciting new features in Google Picasa 3.

	Sync your Picasa 3 and Picasa Web Albums edits Tired of having to manually re-upload your photos after making further edits? By enabling 'Sync to Web,' edits made to your photos in Picasa 3 are automatically transferred to your corresponding online albums. You can sync the following changes: Picasa 3 edits (Basic Fixes, Tuning, and Effects) Photos added or deleted in Picasa 3 Captions, tags, or geotags Getting started The Sync to Web button is located on the right side of each folder or album header. When you click this button, you'll first be prompted to upload the photos in that folder or album to Picasa Web Albums. You can change the upload size, album privacy setting, or even add a watermark to your uploaded photos. When the upload is complete, any subsequent Picasa 3 edits to those photos will automatically transfer to your online album. Troubleshooting You can disable the sync feature at any time by clicking the Sync to Web button again, or by selecting Disable Sync in the drop-down menu to the right of the Share button in the folder or album header. All your photos and their edits up to this point remain online, but any new edits and changes will no longer be synchronized. The following changes don't transfer to your online albums: Reordering photos Changes made to folder or album properties Changes made to filenames
	Retouch your images Always want to be airbrushed? Use the Retouch tool to remove unsightly blemishes and improve photo quality. It can also help you to restore old photos with marks, water stains, and scratches to excellent condition. When editing any photo, just click the Retouch button on the 'Basic Fixes' tab. Adjust the size of your brush, and use the mouse scroll wheel to zoom in and out of the photo for precise edits. Click once to highlight the area you'd like to retouch, and then find another portion of the picture that should take the place of your highlighted area. Hover over this replacement area and click a second time.
	Preview image files with Picasa Photo Viewer The photo viewer is a fast, lightweight application for viewing images on your desktop or through Windows Explorer. Installed with Picasa 3, it lets you to take a quick look at images without having to fully open the Picasa 3 program. What you can do with the photo viewer: Add stars, zoom in and out with your mouse scroll wheel, rotate, or proceed to Picasa 3 to make more extensive edits. Upload directly from the photo viewer to Picasa Web Albums or Blogger. Jump right into emailing or printing as well. From your computer desktop or from within Windows Explorer, just double-click any image file to launch the Picasa Photo Viewer. You can reconfigure the file types that the photo viewer will display by clicking the Tools menu in Picasa 3 and selecting Configure Photo Viewer. If you'd prefer to use a different application to view certain file types, deselect the file types that the photo viewer shouldn't open. To disable the Picasa Photo Viewer entirely, click the 'Don't use Picasa Photo Viewer' option.
	Make a movie Combine your photos, videos, and music into a movie, and create a Windows Media file. Share it with friends by uploading it directly to YouTube. About the movie maker: Supported audio formats include mp3 and .wma. You have complete creative control - change the music sync, the slide duration, and slide transition style, among other things. Add text slides: Create a title slide or a divider to provide some context. You can choose to include your photo captions as well. When playing any video in Picasa 3, explore these two features: Use the Take Snapshot button to capture a single frame of the video. Use the In and Out buttons in the lower-right corner to trim a shorter clip. Click Export Clip to finalize your selection. There are two ways to launch the movie creation screen: Create a movie for all photos in a folder or album by clicking the Create Movie Presentation button in the folder or album header. If you'd like to pick and choose photos from different collections, place them in the Photo Tray and click the larger Movie button in the Photo Tray. Use the Movie, Slide, and Clips tabs to alter movie settings, add text to slides, and insert new images, respectively. When you're satisfied, click Create Movie. Once created, use the Upload to YouTube button to share your creation with family and friends. Depending on the number of images and size of your audio file, the movie creation process can take a significant amount of time. Can't create the entire movie in one sitting? No problem, just click the Close button, and you'll be prompted to Save Draft. You can pick up your work at any time in the 'Movies' folder.
	Capture your screen Instantly take and import your screen captures and webcam captures into Picasa 3. Screen captures Press PrtScn to capture a shot of your entire screen. Ctrl+PrtScn will capture the highlighted window. These images will be placed in the 'Screen captures' folder. If you're having trouble importing screen captures, make sure Picasa 3 is open. Screen captures won't be imported if the application is closed. Webcam capture This is webcam importing made simple: Capture video or stills from within Picasa 3, and import them in the same instant. Make sure your webcam is operational, and then click the Webcam Capture button on the top button bar. The Capture tool will let you take and import video and stills. If the Webcam Capture button is inactive, first make sure your webcam is set to go. Then try closing Picasa 3 and opening it back up.
	Add text or watermarks to your photos You can easily personalize your photos using the Watermark and Text tools. Watermarks Help protect your images by stamping a watermark on all images that you export or upload. The watermark signature will be placed in the lower right-hand corner. Upload photos with watermarks Click the Tools menu in Picasa 3, select Options, then click the Web Albums tab. Select the option labeled 'Add a watermark for all uploads.' Type the text for the watermark in the field below the option. Export photos with watermarks When you click the Export button in the Photo Tray, you can select the 'Add a watermark' checkbox to include a watermark on your exported images. Type the text for the watermark in the field below the option. Text Use the Text tool to add text quickly and easily to your photographs; you can even print the result. You can edit the style, size, color, and alignment of the text, as well as drag it to your desired location on the photo. When editing a photo, click the Text button on the 'Basic Fixes' tab to access the tool. Do you want to add the same text to multiple photos? From the main Library view, click the Edit menu and select Copy Text to copy the text you've placed on one photo. Then select Paste text to apply it to all other selected photos. The text change isn't permanent. Once you've added your text, you'll see a 'Show Text' checkbox on the 'Basic Fixes' tab for that image. Deselect the checkbox and the text will disappear.
	Print captions Your captions are about to see a little more action. You can now print your captions or photo file names on or below your photos. Control the style and color of your printed caption, in addition to the width and color of the printed photo border. After you've selected the photos you'd like to print, click the Print button in the Photo Tray. Click the Border and Text Options button to add borders and adjust the style and placement of your printed text. Click Apply to preview your work, and OK to accept the changes.
	Upload easily to Picasa Web Albums Use the Drop Box to hold quick uploads and upload throttling to multi-task during your upload. Drop-box upload The Drop Box is an online album that serves as a holding pen for your quick uploads. Click the Upload to your Web Albums DropBox button located above your photo on the 'Edit Photo' screen to upload a single picture directly to your Picasa Web Albums Drop Box. Upload throttling You can choose to have Picasa 3 reserve some of your Internet bandwidth for surfing the Web while you're doing large uploads to Picasa Web Albums. During your upload, the dialog box will have an option labeled 'Don't eat all my bandwidth.' Just select this checkbox, and then continue multi-tasking.
	Control your Picasa Web Albums settings If you have an online album in Picasa Web Albums, you can now control the online settings through the corresponding folder or album in Picasa 3. There are a few different controls located in the drop-down menu to the right of the Share button in the folder or album header: Adjust the privacy of your online album. Change the online image size. Delete an online album. Sync your edits to your online album. You can also choose to apply 'Sync to Web' to starred photos only. Troubleshooting The button's only available for folders or albums that have been uploaded to Picasa Web Albums. You must be signed in to your Google Account for Picasa Web Albums. You can sign in by clicking Sign in to Web Albums in the upper-right corner of Picasa 3. You will only be able to adjust the online image size if you have enabled 'Sync to Web.'
	Manage folders on your computer It's now possible to move entire folders around on your hard drive from within Picasa 3. From the folder list, right-click the folder you'd like to move, and select Move folder. Choose your desired destination or create a new folder altogether. These moves are permanent on your hard drive, so make sure you properly stow your folders.
	Get more information about your photos We've added new icons and tools to the Library view to quickly communicate useful information about your photos.

Remove Google Blogspot Blogger Navbar

Look at my blog. There's no Blogger Navbar right? :)

This great article teaches how to remove the Google Blogspot Blogger Navbar.

Article Source Link
"

First off, what is the Blogger Navbar?
The Blogger Navbar appears by default at the top of every Blogger-powered blog. It is available in several colors, and is configured in the Template tab in Blogger’s interface. If you are using a classic template, you’ll see a menu from which you can select a color. For blogs using Layouts, just click the “edit” link on the Navbar page element. Blogger gives a more detailed explanation of this here.

There are several reasons why I think it’s important to remove the Blogger nav bar but I’ll name my two most important reasons. First one being that it’s an eye sore and makes your blog look less professional. Secondly, when you click on the “next blog” button you never know what type of blog you might stumble upon. There are so many spam blogs with adult content or other information you don’t want young people to read. When you do block the navbar on your own blog, you prevent others from also easily leaving your site and accidentally heading to one of these spam sites.

Unfortunately Blogger doesn’t give you the option to remove the navbar easily but this simple modification to your template allows us to hide it. The good news is that it’s not against Blogger’s TOS so it’s not illegal to do. I read a post recently by Blogger Support that stated

While it’s not officially against our TOS, we discourage folks from removing it because we think it’s a great feature with more improvements to come. Follow the above instructions at your own peril, as Blogger controls the TOS and has been known to change it.

So the change you want to make is to the stylesheet. First make sure you backup your current template just in case you make a mistake. Click on the “Download Full Template” link ( go to “Template” => “Edit HTML”) and save it locally. Next, from within your template code you want to scroll down until you find ]]> and stop. Then you’ll want to add this line of code right above this line.

#navbar-iframe {height:0px;visibility:hidden;display:none}

So once you’re done, it should look like this:

#navbar-iframe {height:0px;visibility:hidden;display:none}

]]>

After that, save your template and view your blog. The top Blogger navbar should have disappeared! Looks much better now doesn’t it? If you ever want to add the navbar back, it’s simple. Just remove the line of code we just added. Also, if you ever switch templates, make sure to follow these instructions again because it needs to be done with each new template you use.

"

HOWTO: Exclude your visits from Google Analytics

Often i find the Google Analytics not able to differentiate my visit with real visitors. After surfing around, i finally found the solution.

Article Source Link
"

Introduction

In my view, one of the minuses of Google Analytics (GA) is the difficulty of excluding our own traffic (aka internal traffic) from the reports. As per this help article, there are two methods of achieving this. One is to set up a filter to exclude traffic from a given IP address or a range of addresses. This method is undesirable if you are using a connection that assigns dynamic addresses for each session.

The other method is to filter using a cookie installed in your browser. This method is more reliable and safer than using the first method. But the caveat is installing the cookie as it is not straight forward. And the second method described in the help page is flawed according to this discussion.

The Steps

Here are the tried and tested steps to exclude your traffic from GA.

1) Open your template in the Edit HTML mode and scroll right to the end where your tracking code is installed. Locate the script shown below and add the line shown in red.

Replace the variable passed to the _setVar() function with something applicable to you. The string you provide here ("exclude_ids_bguide" in this case) is called the filter pattern and it will be used later when we create the filter.

2) Save the template and visit your blog from all the browsers that you want this cookie installed. For example, if you are using Firefox and IE, visit your blog's homepage from both the browsers. If the page is already loaded, make sure that you do a page refresh.

The next step is VERY IMPORTANT!

3) Go back immediately and remove the line added (i.e. the line shown in red) in step (1), from your blog template and save it again. If you leave this line, all visitors to your blog will also get the cookie installed and you will not have any visits. That's the danger here. Make sure that you remove it immediately after step (2)

4) Login to GA and create a Custom Filter for this cookie. Provide the values as shown in the figure below and select the profile (i.e. your blog address) that you want to exclude. Make sure that you copy the exact filter pattern that you gave in step (1) above.


You will have to wait about a day until you confirm that your visits are now excluded.
"

Open Source Google Analytics Alternative

Found a nice article on an Open Source Google Analytics Alternative

Article Source Link
"

Google Analytics may be free, but it is still based on proprietary technology - which means you only ever get reports on the things that Google thinks are necessary and some of those reports are aimed at people using Google's other services (managing campaigns on AdWords, for example). Further, using Google Analytics means that you're tied to Google's TOS. Enter Piwik, which aims to be an open source alternative to Google Analytics. It is closely affiliated with OpenX, the open source ad server alternative to Google Ad Manager [Ed: which we just started using on RWW].

While OpenX has been around a while and has good traction, Piwik is fairly new and under the radar. It surfaced first as PHPMyVisites and is only at version 0.1.5, which is a sign that it is still for the highly committed.

Piwik originates from France and almost all the attention so far has been from outside USA. It seems to be catching on in Japan and China, as well as in Europe. The team responsible for Piwik seems to be made up of interns from big companies such as Amazon, Intel and even Google.

You need PHP and MySQL to use Piwik, which is no problem for techies but any widespread adoption will need a hosted version. Some entrepreneur is likely to offer that. Plug-ins to WordPress and other blogging platforms will also be needed, but cannot be that hard.

Open source products usually get traction, even when they are raw, when the alternative is too expensive or restrictive. Google Analytics is free, so it is hard to see rapid adoption by bloggers and small media companies. It is possible that Piwik will get better traction in companies that already use one of the expensive web analytics services from companies such as Coremetrics, Omniture and Visual Sciences/Websidestory.

Larger companies may have some pause for concern before switching to Google Analytics, because of the service's Terms of Service. An analyst in the IT department is likely to point out two clauses (yes big companies DO read this stuff):

"2. FEES AND SERVICES . Subject to Section 15 herein, the Service is provided without charge to You for up to 5 million pageviews per month per account, and if You have an active Adwords campaign in good standing, the Service is provided without charge to You without a pageview limitation.

Google may change its fees and payment policies for the Service from time to time including but not limited to the addition of costs for geographic data, the importing of cost data from search engines, or other fees charged to Google or its wholly-owned subsidiaries by 3rd party vendors for the inclusion of data in the Service reports."

So, don't go above 5 million page views without paying something to Google via AdWords. That may make one a bit uneasy, but it is the "Google may change its fees and payment policies" that will have both IT and Legal aiming to nix the deal.

Then a bit later on you get:

"6. INFORMATION RIGHTS AND PUBLICITY . Google and its wholly owned subsidiaries may retain and use, subject to the terms of its Privacy Policy (located at http://www.google.com/privacy.html , or such other URL as Google may provide from time to time), information collected in Your use of the Service. Google will not share information associated with You or your Site with any third parties unless Google (i) has Your consent; (ii) concludes that it is required by law or has a good faith belief that access, preservation or disclosure of such information is reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of Google, its users or the public; or (iii) provides such information in certain limited circumstances to third parties to carry out tasks on Google's behalf (e.g., billing or data storage) with strict restrictions that prevent the data from being used or shared except as directed by Google . When this is done, it is subject to agreements that oblige those parties to process such information only on Google's instructions and in compliance with this Agreement and appropriate confidentiality and security measures."

In short, they have the right to use your data. We have lived for a long time in a world where Microsoft and others charged for the software and kept it under a tight IP control, but did not try to take any use of the data. Google reversed that. Google is happy to let you use anything for free, as long as they get to use your data. That is OK for most individuals and small businesses, but totally unacceptable for large companies.

Piwik is working hard to be developer-friendly, not just relying on open source. They claim 4 big advantages:

1. Open API
2. Plug in architecture
3. Data abstraction layer
4. Customizable dashboard

But the nub of the issue for most big companies will be the data ownership issue. That is why Piwik is really a Google Analytics alternative, even if they will see few firms switching from GA initially. IT groups, under pressure to cut costs, will look at Google Analytics as an alternative to their current analytics software and reject the option based on TOS restrictions. Then some bright spark will Google the term "open source alternative google analytics" and see Piwik on top of the organic listings.

"

Follow-up on Gmail Search

Below is the advance search operators that you could use on Gmail.

Source Link

Operator	Definition	Example(s)
from:	Used to specify the sender	Example - from:amy Meaning - Messages from Amy
to:	Used to specify a recipient	Example - to:david Meaning - All messages that were sent to David (by you or someone else)
subject:	Search for words in the subject line	Example - subject:dinner Meaning - Messages that have the word "dinner" in the subject
OR	Search for messages matching term A or term B* *OR must be in all caps	Example - from:amy OR from:david Meaning - Messages from Amy or from David
- (hyphen)	Used to exclude messages from your search	Example - dinner -movie Meaning - Messages that contain the word "dinner" but do not contain the word "movie"
label:	Search for messages by label* *There isn't a search operator for unlabeled messages	Example - from:amy label:friends Meaning - Messages from Amy that have the label "friends" Example - from:david label:my-family Meaning - Messages from David that have the label "My Family"
has:attachment	Search for messages with an attachment	Example - from:david has:attachment Meaning - Messages from David that have an attachment
filename:	Search for an attachment by name or type	Example - filename:physicshomework.txt Meaning - Messages with an attachment named "physicshomework.txt" Example - label:work filename:pdf Meaning - Messages labeled "work" that also have a PDF file as an attachment
" " (quotes)	Used to search for an exact phrase* *Capitalization isn't taken into consideration	Example - "i'm feeling lucky" Meaning - Messages containing the phrase "i'm feeling lucky" or "I'm feeling lucky" Example - subject:"dinner and a movie" Meaning - Messages containing the phrase "dinner and a movie" in the subject
( )	Used to group words Used to specify terms that shouldn't be excluded	Example - from:amy(dinner OR movie) Meaning - Messages from Amy that contain either the word "dinner" or the word "movie" Example - subject:(dinner movie) Meaning - Messages in which the subject contains both the word "dinner" and the word "movie"
in:anywhere	Search for messages anywhere in your account* *Messages in Spam and Trash are excluded from searches by default	Example - in:anywhere movie Meaning - Messages in All Mail, Spam, and Trash that contain the word "movie"
in:inbox in:trash in:spam	Search for messages in Inbox, Trash, or Spam	Example - in:trash from:amy Meaning - Messages from Amy that are in Trash
is:starred is:unread is:read	Search for messages that are starred, unread or read	Example - is:read is:starred from:David Meaning - Messages from David that have been read and are marked with a star
cc: bcc:	Used to specify recipients in the cc: or bcc: fields* *Search on bcc: cannot retrieve messages on which you were blind carbon copied	Example - cc:david Meaning - Messages that were cc-ed to David
after: before:	Search for messages sent during a certain period of time* *Dates must be in yyyy/mm/dd format.	Example - after:2004/04/16 before:2004/04/18 Meaning - Messages sent after April 16, 2004, but before April 18, 2004.* *More precisely: Messages sent on April 17, 2004.
is:chat	Search for chat messages	Example - is:chat monkey Meaning - Any chat message including the word "monkey".

Search Unread Mail in Gmail

To search unread mails in Gmail, simply type

is:unread

into the search box and it will list out all the unread mail.