Google Wave Revolution

Have you heard of Google Wave yet? You should be aware of this new web application from Google as it will revolutionize the way we work and perhaps even bring down the barriers that exist between teams and people within organizations. It is not just about people that are really close to you, Wave will enable seamless communication between co-workers, partners and even language is not a barrier any more. I have just signed up for a test run so hopefully I can try it before it is actually officially launched to the public. You want to know more about Google Wave? Watch the attached video and discover the magic!

Why I love Twitter?

Just a few months ago twitter used to be something completely unknown to me, something that only geeks would know how to use it properly. What has happened to me since? Well, as always it is lack of understanding on which fear grows best so I decided to conquer the fear and have a try with twitter. The rest is history but I've got to share some of the most peculiar experiences I have with twitter. It's the only social networking site that I am aware of that is truly liberating. You see unlike facebook or other similar sites twitter followers or following are predominantly random people from all over the globe. I mean stop and think – random people from all over the world I said! Can you see the revolution? Now think again, would you tap random people on a shoulder somewhere in London or New York and ask them what and how they're doing? Of course you wouldn't but that's exactly what twitter is all about. All of my followers on twitter apart from three are random people who share my interests. Even the three that I know have completely surprised me with their interests. I also managed to find excellent professional photographers, chefs, speakers, writers, architects, fashion designers, actors and many more. These people are there not to hide from the rest of the world, they are instead looking for interesting people like them who share their interests and are willing to connect with random people. This is far beyond facebook and many other similar sites and with only 140 characters allowed you cannot rant about nonsense forever though many over exploit twitter for marketing purposes with the use of various bots. But even that is in a way self-regulatory. You can simply unfollow or block abusers and start forming relations with, as I said, genuine random people from all over the world and god knows where this may lead! True revolution in my opinion.

Gathera + Firefox 3.5.3 + Vista = ?

For some time now I was searching for a web tool that could bring at least some of my major web accounts (including social networking sites) under the same roof. There are quite a few that promise to deliver what but I guess the real future in this segment is awaiting Google's Carnegie Mellon experiment with SocialStream to yield some meaningful results. Until then Gathera proved at least to me to be the closest you can get to integrating all of them… well not really as there is a limited number of sites they support but most of the main ones are there including AOL, digg, facebook, flickr, LinkedIN, myspace, twitter, youtube, windows live and Yahoo mail.

So off I went and first installed it (mind you, it is in the form of either IE or Firefox add on) on my wife's computer with WinXP. Installation completed, she registered and then one by one included all of her major sites. Excellent or so I thought! I hoped to achieve the same results on my monster with Vista. Ah, well, not really! The installation was spotless but then the problems appeared out of nowhere which is a kind of my usual experience with Vista. I restarted Firefox as instructed and clicked on the "G" button next to the address line and it simply reported "Gathera was not installed successfully". Oh come on, we all know this not to be true but it is Vista that complicates things by being smart – so much for the smart systems! I contacted Gathera developers and they suggested using IE instead but in an unprotected mode. Whatever the case, I didn't like the prospect of working in that mode and I also don't like IE. The decision was made in an instant, I've got to figure out how the whole thing works and so I did and now want to share this with you. By the way, make sure you clear cache in Firefox before installation. Here it is:

1. Do not click on "restart Firefox" when download is complete as prompted! Simply ignore it and close down Add-ons window and then close down Firefox as you usually do.

2. Believe it or not but you've got to restart
your computer, start Firefox and click "Allow" when prompted. Firefox will
start, so click on "G" for Gathera just next to the address line.

3. Gathera sidebar will open and you should then register and do the rest as instructed.

Here you go, simple and I have no idea why it doesn't work if you DO press "restart Firefox" button. Just one of many signs that Vista is already dead. I hope Windows 7 is really better. I shall report on that too.

Windows XP Hibernate/Standby greyed out problem

I have upgraded Windows XP Home to Windows XP Pro and suddenly there were only two options on the Start-Shut Down button, namely Shut Down and Restart. Stand By was greyed out and there was no Hibernate option. I looked and looked and Googled and read through various posts on the internet but there were only puzzles to be put together. However, after two hours I managed to find the solution. A lot of people claim that you've got to go to Power Options in the Control Panel and enable Hibernation there but my problem was that option was unavailable. There was nothing anywhere on Hibernation or Stand By. Should you have a problem like that then please take the following steps:

1. If you have Windows XP Pro SP2 then either upgrade to SP3 or download the KB893056 hotfix from Microsoft Support and follow instructions provided within to update Registry (be careful and do exactly as they suggest!!!). Please bear in mind that Microsoft will require your e-mail address as they will send you a download link separately but it is a straightforward process once you receive the link. Just download and extract it to your desktop and double-click the extracted files.

2. After you complete the above press Start button and then Turn Off your computer. You should see 4 options In the "Turn Off Your Computer" dialog box (Hibernate, Stand By, Shut Down and Restart).

3. If Hibernate and Stand By options are still greyed out open Control Panel -> System -> Hardware (tab) -> Device Manager and check if any of the listed devices are highlighted with a yellow questionmark. The greyed out problem is a result of a missing/inappropriate video driver so check Display Adapters and it should be highlighted (i.e. it will probably be Other Adapters at this stage). Leave Device Manager open once you identified highlighted Other Adapters as you will use this window for updating (step 5).

4. Check the support sites of the computer manufacturer and search for a video driver for your model. In my case the problem happened with Sony VAIO and I simply downloaded and extracted the 16MB ZIPPED video driver on the Desktop. Remember the location of extracted files as you will need this later in the Hardware update Wizard to locate your drivers (step 6).

5. Go back to device manager (the last sentence in step 3) right click on the "problematic" questionmark-highlighted Display Adapters (i.e. Other Adapters), use your mouse to right-click on one of them and select Update Driver.

6. This will open the Hardware Update Wizard where you first select "Yes, this time only" and click Next. Click "Install the Software Automatically" and select "Browse to locate the drivers". Select one of the sub-folders in the extracted  folder from step 4 and the Wizard will do all the rest. When finished you should not have any highlighted problems in your Device Manager and Other Adapters should now say Display Adapters.

7. Exit all applications and restart the machine. After restarting you will have all four options available but Hibernate will most probably still be greyed out.

8. If Hibernate is still greyed out but you wish to have it activated go to Power Options in the Control Panel (Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Power Options). You will suddenly see Hibernate tab where you can enable it but make sure that your "Free disk space" is much greater than "Disk space required to hibernate". You can then also set your laptop to Hibernate if you close the lid. This will allow you to go away but leave your files open and applications running. I like this option as it means I can safely leave my laptop without completely switching it off – prevents overheating and enables quickly starting where I finished earlier! To do this click on the Advanced tab and under "Power buttons" select Hibernate for "When I close the lid of my portable computer".

Voila, you're done. I know it appears as a lot of steps but in essence it took me less than 20 minutes to do all of the above once I knew what needs to be done.