Google Docs Translation

WOW 42 - Google Docs Translation

Good Afternoon Friends,

Today I will be talking about one of the Google's technology which was integrated with another. Without puzzling you any more let me say what I'm talking about. I'm talking about integration of Google Translation with Google Docs.

These two were integrated on 27th August. Below is the text that I have typed out in Google Docs. Also see the translation (not transliteration). There are still a few funny words like "Hi there" translated to "Wahan hai", but this is a developing technology and there is still a large area for improvement.

My Text:

Hi there,

This is a sample document to test the functionality of Google's Automatic Translation which was released as a feature to Google Docs.

Thanks,

Danish

Screenshot of Translated text in Hindi:

Danish :)

Worry

WOW 41 - Worry

Today, I'm going with a one liner again; something I came up with yesterday after something which happened with me yesterday.

Don't bother/ worry about things that happens/ going to happpen. Either step in and make some changes (the +ve part) or stand aside (the -ve side) and let it happen.

Danish :)

Licensing "Copyright and Copyleft"

WOW 40 - Licensing "Copyright and Copyleft"

Good Afternoon Friends,

Today let us discuss about a few licensing terms. Everyone will be well aware of the term "Copyright".

Copyright gives the author of an original work an exclusive right for a certain time period in relation to that work, including its publication, distribution and adaptation, after which time the work is said to enter the public domain. Copyright applies to any expressible form of an idea or information that is substantive and discrete and fixed in a medium. Some jurisdictions also recognize "moral rights" of the creator of a work, such as the right to be credited for the work. Copyright is described under the umbrella term intellectual property along with patents and trademarks.

Copyleft on the other hand is opposite to Copyright. Copyleft removes the restrictions on distributing copies and modified versions of a work for others and requiring that the same freedoms be preserved in modified versions.

Copyleft is a form of licensing and can be used to modify copyrights for works such as computer software, documents, music and art. In general, copyright law allows an author to prohibit others from reproducing, adapting, or distributing copies of the author's work. In contrast, an author may, through a copyleft licensing scheme, give every person who receives a copy of a work permission to reproduce, adapt or distribute the work as long as any resulting copies or adaptations are also bound by the same copyleft licensing scheme.

Like Copyleft, there are a few other licenses which supports opensource. Check the following Wikipedia link to follow them and compare the list of available licenses.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_free_software_licences

Thanks,

Danish

WOW 39

WOW 39 - Ringxiety

Good Afternoon Friends,

In today WOW, we will be learning about Ringxiety. Equivalent terms for Ringxiety include phantom ring effect and fauxcellarm. Below is the article from Wiki on Ringxiety.

Ringxiety is a portmanteau neologism formed from the words "ringtone" and "anxiety." It was first coined by David Laramie, a doctoral student at the California School of Professional Psychology, whose dissertation concerned the effects of cell phones on behavior. Ringxiety is described as the sensation and the false belief that one can hear his or her mobile phone ringing or feel it vibrating, when in fact the telephone is not doing so. Other terms for this concept include phantom ring effect and fauxcellarm. It can also be generalized to describe the sensation of hearing one's phone or doorbell ring while doing such things as taking a shower, watching television, or using a noisy device. The reasoning for this relates partially to the idea that humans are particularly sensitive to auditory tones between 1,000 and 6,000 hertz, and basic mobile phone ringers often fall within this range. This frequency range can generally be more difficult to locate spatially, thus allowing for potential confusion when heard from a distance. False vibrations are less well understood, however, and could have psychological or neurological sources.

The phantom ring is a pop culture term used to define the act of hearing a sound similar to one's cell phone's ringtone and mistakenly believing its one's cell phone ringing. It may occur while a person is listening to the radio or watching television.

Danish :)

WOW 38

WOW 38 - FileSystem

Good Afternoon Friends,

Today I'm going to talk about Filesystems. Many may ask "Filesystem; what is that thing?". Well, heads up; you are reading this message which is stored in a Filesystem.

Filesystem means "A way of organizing files" or the hierarchical arrangement of directories. This applies to a network, a computer, a disk, or a partition (i.e., a logically independent section of a disk). A filesystem in the second sense can contain multiple filesystems in the first sense. Thus, for example, a HDD, computer or network can contain multiple types of filesystems. However, a partition can contain only a single type of filesystem.

There is a huge number of filesystem(s) available throughout. A few popular ones include:

1) Windows:

a) FAT (FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT)

b) NTFS

c) WinFS (coming up)

2) Linux:

a) EXT (ext2, ext3, ext4)

b) HPFS

c) GFS

d) XFS

3) Mac:

a) HFS

b) HFS Plus

4) Optical Media:

a) CDFS

b) UDF/ UDFS

5) GMail:

a) GmailFS/ GFS (refer: http://labs.google.com/papers/gfs.html)

Check out this Wiki page to find information about the huge number of file system and their comparison.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_file_systems

Danish :)

WOW 37

WOW 37 - Google Insights

Good Afternoon Friends,

Today I'll be talking about Google Insights (still in Beta) which is similar to Google Trends but only better. Before looking into what Google Insights are, I'll give you an overview about Trends. Both Trends and Insights gives us an idea of:

1) What the user searches for?

2) Where do they belong to?

3) What are the hot Searches? and so on.

Using Trends and Insights, we would be able to find the popularity of an item.

Google Trends:

Google Trends shows how often a particular search-term is entered relative to the total search-volume across various regions of the world, and in various languages. In the graphical result, the horizontal axis of the main graph represents time (starting from some time in 2004), and the vertical is how often a term is searched for relative to the total number of searches, globally.

Google Insights:

Google Insights is similar to but more advanced than Google Trends. In Google Insights, in addition to the features offered by Google Trends, we also have:

1) The Categories info.

2) The region info. in the form of a Heat Map.

3) Rising Trends in Search.

4) Download results in Excel.

I have highlighted these areas in the Screenshot. The feature I liked most is the link under the Heat Map named "View change over time". Expand it and press on play to see the change in the search results over time.

Link:

1) Google Insights (http://www.google.com/insights/search/)

2) Google Trends (http://www.google.com/trends/)

3) Google Hot Trends (http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends)

Thanks,

Danish

WOW 36

WOW 36 - Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Good Afternoon Friends,
Today lets enter the world of Psychology. People who study Psychology for sure study about Abraham Maslow and his Hierarchy of Needs.
In this he included his observations of humans' innate curiosity and studied people like Albert Einstein, Jane Addams, Eleanor Roosevelt, Frederick Douglass and many others. Maslow also studied the healthiest one percent of the college student population.

It is often depicted as a pyramid consisting of five levels: the lowest level is associated with physiological needs, while the uppermost level is associated with self-actualization needs, particularly those related to identity and purpose. The higher needs in this hierarchy only come into focus when the lower needs in the pyramid are met.

The five levels are:

1. Physiological needs
2. Safety needs
3. Social needs
4. Esteem
5. Self-Actualization

Check out the link given to read and understand more about this. You will never regret the time spent on this.

Link: http://www.abraham-maslow.com/m_motivation/Hierarchy_of_Needs.asp

Danish :)

WOW 35

WOW 35 - From My Diary 01

Good Afternoon Friends,
Just to change the mood of WOW. Today I'll be sharing a page from my Diary. This is from the page which read August 14, 2009.

It started raining in Neyveli sometime around 21:30. My Dad was out at work and is expected back @ 22:00. Normally, he'll be back by 22:15 but today it would be an exception; exception coz it is raining like hell. My Dad left his bike for me (to roam around) and took his moped to work. Mom, mom... where are you?? Hmmmm.. so you are out here.
Ok folks, this is my Mom, she knows a lot about Love. Think why I say so; She's been out there at the doorstep with the gates open and watching out for my Dad waiting to return from work.
"C'mon Mom", I said to her. "How do ou expect Dad to reurn in such heavy rains? Go, take some rest; I'll watch the door."
She's my Mom. No amount of persuading will make her budge. I'm her son and am much more determined. Well, atleast now she's not standing at the doorstep; she's reclining on the cot which we have in the hall.

Folks, this is Love, she could have done many things like watching her Favorite TV show, take rest after a day's work, do anything else..... but..... she preferred to wait.

There is one thing that makes me wonder: "Do we mean all these things when we say someone 'I Love You'?"

Danish :)

WOW 34

WOW 34 - Google Caffeine

Good Afternoon Friends,

In recent years, we have seen several search engines crawling all over the Internet. A few of them I liked include Cuil and Bing.

When Bing was launched in June 2009, it challenged Google by giving bigger and better search results. Google with its new Search Engine "Sandbox" named "Google Caffeine" now threatens Bing. I have given the link for all the search engines below. Do try and compare search results from each of these search engines and you will find the difference yourself. Comparison between Old and New Google Search engine is as follows:

Link:

1) Google : http://www.google.com/

2) Caffeine : http://www2.sandbox.google.com/

3) Bing : http://www.bing.com/

4) Cuil : http://www.cuil.com/

Thanks,

Danish

WOW 33

WOW 33 - iGoogle (Social Gadgets)

Good Afternoon Friends,
Most of you who use Google Services would be well aware of iGoogle (A personalized Google homepage) which was launched a long time ago. We would be able to add a few gadgets to our homepage and personalize it. We also had a smart tab feature in iGoogle using which you would be able to add related Gadgets to a single tab. I have attached a screenshot of adding the smart tab facility in case you need it.

Last Thursday, in addition to the existing features provided by iGoogle, Google added a list of new gadgets; calling it Social Gadgets. There is a big list to choose from. This includes games like Chess, Crossword, Scrabble among which a few of them could be played with your friends. Comics, Horoscope, Sharing Photos, messages, etc.

Why don't you visit the site "http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/help/ig/social/" to learn more about the features that were added or head directly to your iGoogle page to add these gadgets.

Danish :)