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Posts with tag testing

Filed under: Developer, Features, Linux, Open Source, Beta

Flipping the Linux switch: Enlightening experiences with window managers

e17 desktop screenDo you remember our youth? The good times we had, the games we played, and that great discussion we had about what makes a window manager different from a desktop environment? Then our relationship sort of got stuck on desktop environments.

It's understandable, of course. Most new Linux users feel more comfortable with something a little heavier than a window manager like Fluxbox or WindowMaker. The interesting thing, of course, is that many new users are either consciously or unconsciously playing the field of not only distributions, but desktops.

Rest assured, KDE will not text you a hundred times a day to beg, plead or curse if you switch desktops. GNOME will not mail you a dead fish from the opposite side of the country, book rate. In this relationship, it is always okay to have a wandering eye, not only for what is out there, but for what's on the horizon.

We like Enlightenment as it stands now. It's one of our favorite window managers. It doesn't feel too foreign to the new user, but it is still extremely lightweight. If there was a spectrum with the heaviest desktop environments on the right, and the lightest window managers on the left, just right of the middle would be the venerable Xfce, and just to the left of the middle would be Enlightenment.

But as for what's on the horizon for Enlightenment? We have seen e17. Right now it's an alpha release, and we're waiting not too patiently for the coming out party. We are smitten.

Read more →

Filed under: Business, Internet, Web services, Google, Beta, Search

Google testing new animated homepages

google testing animated homepagesGoogle has been experimenting with totally different homepages in both Taiwan and in Hong Kong than what other countries have experienced.

During a conference call the end of last week, Sergey Brin announced that Google has been testing another version of its homepage that adds a row of icons across the top of the search bar, and animated icons below it. The search giant has been taking advantage of the higher broadband speeds in these markets and pushing the types of content they can serve visitors.

Google has also been experimenting with the iGoogle homepages in both Hong Kong and Taiwan. Adding both tabbed content and animated icons for Google services. Will these experiments make their way to the U.S. and other countries in some form? Most likely not. Local culture and higher connection speeds allow for these types of additions in these regions.

What do you think; would you like to see these additions rolled out on Google in other countries?

[via pcworld]

Filed under: Design, Blogging, Productivity, Web services, Google

Google AdSense Preview Sandbox 1.0



Getting your website or blog ready for AdSense isn't always a picnic, and trying to peg the right keywords to generate the best ads for your audience can often prove to be a cryptic game of whack-a-mole. Sure, Google offers their own basic sandbox for building your ad units, but they don't really help you with either of the aforementioned tasks.

Thankfully, Amit Agarwal has stepped up to the plate and offered the Adsense Sandbox, a simple tool that allows you to quickly see 20 text ads, as well as Adlinks and Rich Text Ad results (images and videos) for a particular URL or keyword(s). As a particularly nice touch, Amit even included the ability to change your country to ensure the most accurate URL and keyword results for your neck of the woods.

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Web services, Freeware, Open Source

VirtualSafari: a web-based front end to Apple's browser

VirtualSafari: a web-based front end to Apple's browser
If you're building a website without a Mac on hand, but need to test how it performs in Apple's Safari web browser, a mere screenshot of how it renders might not be enough. Since a Mac isn't lying around for hands-on testing, what's a web designer to do? Why, install VirtualSafari on your own server, of course. VirtualSafari is a web-based front end to WebKit, the open source rendering engine behind Apple's browser. Setting this up to might not be for the faint of heart (instructions are included in the download), but if you follow through, you'll have the proper testing grounds for making sure your sites are ready for prime time on a Mac - sans the Mac. This could be a handy tool for designers who want or need to consider the Mac constituency, especially since Safari's market share is on the rise, and WebKit powers more popular Mac OS X browsers than just Safari; OmniWeb (random trivia: it beat Netscape by a year with image support) and Shiira also ride the WebKit wave.

VirtualSafari is provided free from Sveinbjorn Thordarson's site, where he (as you might expect) hosts a test copy.

Filed under: Web services, Google

Google comments on UI tests

It seems like every month there's talk of Google testing some new feature on a few randomly-selected users. Until now they've kept to themselves about these things, but today there's a post on the offical Google Blog that confirms and explains what's going on. There's no revelations, here, just what we already knew: "From time to time, we run live experiments on Google—tests visible to a relatively few people—to discover better ways to search. We do this because there’s no good substitute for understanding how real people, in real-world situations, actually operate." They do toss a little denial into the mix, though, passing off their recent job search move as just "testing new ways to refine searches." "There's no set schedule when we'll roll out these sorts of new ideas (if at all)," the post says, "but these tests help us to improve your search experience." In other words, expect these little tests to keep popping up from time to time.

Featured Time Waster

Forumwarz - a potentially offensive time waster

I pwn UAfter spending the better part of an hour on Forumwarz I still can't decide if it's just sick or if it's kind of fun. It's a bit like a car wreck on the highway. I know I shouldn't be looking but I can't quite turn away.

It's sick, it's twisted, it's the internet on it's worst level and darn it, it's kind of fun. At least for a little while.

Forumwarz is a parody role-playing game that takes place on the internet - or at least the Forumwarz version of it. Your goal is to complete missions that are given to you through a mock up of GoogleTalk called Sentrillion.

Your first "friend" is ShallowEsophagus who begins giving you missions to pwn various forums by being a troll. Depending on the character type you are assigned at start up, you have tools like drooling on the keyboard or bashing your head on the keyboard that you can use to destroy forum threads and eventually, pwn a forum.

Future missions involve buying illegal software from the Russians, pwning more difficult forums and other internet oddness.

Completing missions gives you cash, called Flezz in game, and items that you can pawn or use in other missions. The game is NOT for those easily offended. It's crass, coarse and there are frequent f-bombs in the fake chat sessions.

This is also a game for a more mature audience as it requires you to shop at the Drugs R Fun store to get various concoctions to improve your playing, engage in certain cyber activities to get more Flezz and just generally use a more adult perspective.

If you can get past that, here are the more enjoyable and time-wasting aspects.

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