Google incorporates user voting in its search results

The last time I searched for a topic in Google, the first ten results for the topic were pointing to sites with useless information and numerous ads, whose sole purpose of existence was to make money for its owners. I am not claiming that all search in Google provide the same results but spam sites which fight to the top of the heap of search results are a big nuisance for the search engines as well as users alike.

So what are the alternatives at hand ? There are directory services like dmoz.org and Yahoo directories which provide results that are constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors. Then there are social bookmarking tools like del.icio.us which allow you to bookmark all the useful content you come across while browsing as well as share it with others.

Google has now embraced and extended the features of directory services and social bookmarking sites into its search results by allowing users to vote for a result and even bookmark them. Here is what Google has to say about this new experiment (And I quote) ...

This experiment lets you influence your search experience by adding, moving, and removing search results. When you search for the same keywords again, you'll continue to see those changes. If you later want to revert your changes, you can undo any modifications you've made.

To use this new feature, you have to be logged in to your Google account while searching for a topic in Google Search. You can vote up a search result by clicking on a "up-arrow" sign and remove it from your search by clicking on a "X" (X sign). When you vote up a result, Google will insert an orange asterix (*) besides it and for the search terms related to the sites these will filter to the top.

So start voting for your favorite articles in Google from within your personalized Google search. Now you have got the best of both social bookmarking and directory services incorporated into your Google search results.

A guide to Ubuntu customization

Would you like to customize your Ubuntu to look like Windows Vista ? Or may be you are more of an Apple fan boy with not enough moolah to buy yourselves a Mac. Either way, there is hope around the horizon. The beauty of Linux is that it is so customizable, you can make it look and feel like any other operating system.

Fig: Ubuntu in Windows Vista theme

If you are by any chance running Ubuntu and wish to customize it to your hearts content, then head over to tuxenclave which features a detailed Ubuntu customization guide. Besides that also take a look at how you can transform KDE to look like MacOSX.

An in depth look at gOS

I had recently written a post on the gPC running gOS. Now here is an in depth review of the gOS which is honest,

Despite not being created by Google, the focus of gOS is Google's online applications such as GMail, Google News, Google Maps, Google Calendar, YouTube, etc. It's a neat concept for a Linux distribution.

funny,

... there seems to be no "recycling bin" available on the desktop. I looked in the FAQs and found that apparently the recycling bin is still in development—somewhat ironic given the nature/green theme of gOS.

and quite focused.

The downloadable version of gOS doesn't include what's necessary to play DVDs and MP3s. For that you need to install it yourself or get gOS by buying a gOS-based computer.

Written by Jim Lynch at Extremetech, this review gives a very good insight into what you can expect from gOS without taking it for a spin. Has a couple of screenshots too. Read the whole review.

Play a Chess game in Linux

Chess has been a passion for me. I used to play Chess in my younger days and used to love it. I still remember the excitement in the air when the international chess championships were held then, especially when Anatoly Karpov and Gary Kasparov used to play each other. These two Russians were adversaries not only on the game but off it too. And then there was this tournament where Gary Kasparov played against Deep Blue (a 32-node IBM RS/6000 SP high-performance computer) ... and lost in a re-match. Now a days I am a big fan of grandmaster Viswanathan Anand - the current world chess champion.

Linux especially Ubuntu and others which have GNOME 2.20 desktop come bundled with a Chess game called glChess. glChess is a 2D/3D chess game, where games can be played between a combination of human and computer players. glChess detects known third party chess engines for computer players. The game was originally developed by Robert Ancell, now the game is included in gnome-games. The 3D view can be enabled provided you have installed the propritery graphics drivers (ATI / Nvidia) as it makes use of OpenGL. You may also have to install the OpenGL python and GtkGLExt python bindings.

Fig: A glChess game in progress - 2D view

Fig: 3D view of the game glChess

I have found it quite tough to beat the computer the numerous times I played the game. Did I mention that while I am an avid chess enthusiast, I am a mediocre player at the best? Any way, you should try playing it some time if only to exercise your grey cells. It is also a great way to kill time.

But if your favorite Linux distribution doesn't yet have this chess game installed, then you can also try your hand with an online chess game where you play chess against Shredder - the chess game bot. There are three modes of play namely easy, medium and hard and you can choose the level depending upon your skill in playing the game.

Fig: Play this chess game online

Enabling Directx 9.0 in Linux using Wine

It is a foregone conclusion that Linux has made deep inroads into the Windows arena and has succeeded in providing a robust user friendly Desktop which any lay person can use. But there are still a few areas where Linux lags way behind Windows.One of them is Games.

The problem is that most commercial games worth their name are developed using a proprietary technology developed by Microsoft called DirectX. It is a collection of application programming interfaces for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video. And as with all things Microsoft, DirectX too runs only on the Windows platform.

The latest version of DirectX is ver 10. But there is hope around the horizon for those die-hard gamers who would love to run their favorite game in Linux. Now it is possible to install DirectX libraries albeit version 9.0 in Linux using Wine.

The Wine review blog has an elaborate article giving step-by-step details of how to install DirectX 9.0c in Linux under Wine. Finally you will be able to play those fabulous games which you have stored in your attic by installing them in Linux.

Announcing the winners of the Oxygen Wallpaper Contest

In August this year, the Oxygen team which are behind the famed Oxygen icons unveiled the Oxygen wallpaper contest. And the formal results are out. The response of the contest was supposedly overwhelming with over 2000 stunning photographs submitted by numerous KDE enthusiasts.

In an earlier post, I had talked about the work of Vlad Gerasimov and his stunning wallpapers. Well two of his entries (EOS and Emotion) have been selected to be included in the default set of wallpapers to be shipped with KDE 4.0. And of the two he submitted, one of them (EOS) has been chosen as the winning wallpaper. Um... I like the other one (Emotion) better, though I am happy the color is blue because blue is pleasing to the human eyes.

Fig: Winning wallpaper which will be the default in KDE 4.0

Many wallpapers in the final selection are stunning photographs of nature, flowers and animals. Do check out the complete selection of wallpapers destined to be shipped with KDE 4.0. Boy, I am brimming with anticipation of the treat that is in store for Open Source enthusiasts when KDE 4.0 is finally released.

gPC - $199 C7 powered PC at Wal-Mart running gOS

In this day and age when each and everyone of us are to be affected by the adverse effects of global warming, it definitely makes sense to bring necessary changes to our lifestyles and make it more environmentally friendly. And a good way to take a positive step towards being more green is to conserve the power or energy you consume at home.

And talking about power consumption, did you know that an average desktop PC is a major source of power consumption ? And if you consider many households now a days owning more than one PC, it definitely pays to buy energy efficient computers; those which consume less power.

This is where gPC or "Green PC" comes into the picture. Everex's TC2502 gPC is the first mass-market sub $200 PC which comes installed with gOS which is a customized version of Ubuntu Linux running Enlightenment window manager. The specifications of gPC are quite modest but acceptable. The TC2502 is powered by 1.5GHz VIA C7-D processor, 512MB DDR2 RAM, 80GB IDE hard drive and a CDRW/DVD combo drive. Apart from that it also comes bundled with a keyboard, a mouse, speakers and microphone though no monitor. The gPC consumes modest power when compared to other desktop PCs running the same operating system which gives it the name Green PC.

Fig: Sub $200 Everex gPC

Fig: gPC contains a variant of the 17cm x 17cm Mini-ITX motherboard

Now gOS the OS powering the gPC is a unique OS. While I said it is a customized version of Ubuntu, the word 'customized' is an understatement. gOS highlights and encourages users to use web applications instead of the traditional software for their day to day computing tasks. Google applications have a heavy presence in the gOS such as the Google Docs, Gmail, Gtalk, Calendar, Maps, Youtube, Blogger and so on and they can be accessed right from the desktop with the click of a button (assuming you are connected to the net). So it can be safely said that gPC aka Green PC runs gOS aka Google OS.

Fig: gOS aka Google OS

But Google applications are not all that you will find in gOS, there is Facebook, Wikipedia, Skype and many more web applications. Of course you will also find traditional software like OpenOffice.org, Gimp and so on installed with the option of installing any software you want which will run in Ubuntu which makes it pretty exciting.

Fig: gPC also can be bought with 1 GB RAM and 80GB SATA Hard disk for $100 more.

At present the gPC is marketed exclusively by Wal-Mart and can be bought from here. Those of us who live outside America need not be despondent because the gOS has been made available as a free download by the team behind this customized Ubuntu Linux distribution - Think gOS.

I think this is a very bold but positive move to eventually shift all computing to the internet thus giving a strong push to the term "Network is the computer" and in the process giving new life to energy efficient devices thus perhaps saving tons of energy.