Google Tools

Ok, I discovered this a while ago but haven't used it much or discovered how powerful it is until recently. Google has a list of products that are very useful. Some of those that I have been experimenting with are Gmail, Google Docs, Reader, and Calendar.
Gmail is a very popular web based e-mail system. It is pretty comparable to other web based e-mail systems out there (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc). I haven't used Gmail extensively but it works. I don't know why it's still in beta, but it will probably be in beta forever. Don't let that stop you from using it, as far as I can tell it's fully feature complete.
Google Docs is really the tool that I think is so cool. With Docs you can upload an array of files or create your own files right on the web. With Docs you can store Documents, Spreadsheets, and Presentations. You can upload files of type DOC, RTF, ODT, SXW, TXT, PPT, PPS, CSV, XLS, ODS, PDF, and more. After you upload the files you can view and edit them online. You can also create Documents, Spreadsheets, and Presentations online. After you create or edit your uploaded files you can download them in any of the different formats that apply. You no longer need Microsoft Word to create a word document and send to your professor. You can create a document online and download it as a .DOC file and send it to your teacher. You could also upload an Open Office document and download it as a Microsoft Office document or vice-versa with any of the types.
Reader is an RSS reader just like the one integrated into your web browser or e-mail program. An RSS reader is something that is really lacking from Google's Chrome browser but they do have a web service for it. Google reader is a straight forward RSS reader. When you pull it up it will show all of the posts agregated and sorted by date. All of the different feeds are listed down the left side and clicking on one will show the posts for that feed sorted by date.
Calendar works similarly to the calendar that is built into Microsoft Outlook. You can add events, set reminders, and repeat events in a multitude of ways. The whole experience is very intuitive. You can embed the calendar in your website or export it to iCal, XML, or HTML formats. You can also add multiple calendars and share calendars with friends.
There are many more tools on Google's product site. All of these tools are great and useful. One thing that I would like to see would be these services integrated into Google's Browser. How great would it be if I could actually read my RSS feeds when I'm offline which I currently can't do with Chrome. Also it would be awesome to open and edit documents while offline because Chrome cached them. I would also like to be able to check my calendar without logging in to Google to do so. I'm just saying that would be a super nice feature. The really great thing about all these services is that you can use them from any computer when you log into Google.

Google Chrome

Well, Google Chrome has been out for a few days now and I have to say I like it. If you've been keeping up with my posts you should know that I regularly use Opera as my web browser. So far I don't think that has changed. Chrome is laking some very important features that Opera includes, such as syncing bookmarks, no Mac support, and a built in RSS reader just to name a few. I do like how the bookmarks are set up similar to Safari. As far as the RSS feeds go I've been getting by using Google Reader online, but sometimes I'm not connected to the internet (Shock!) and I would like to be able to read previous posts on some blogs. With Opera I can go back and reread blog posts because it download the feed to the hard disk and I can read them when not connected. Google Reader requires a connection to the internet to load. At first I downloaded Chrome on my work computer and as soon as I tried to run it an error message came up saying that the program failed to initialize in memory and nothing would happen. So, I installed the browser on my laptop and it worked just fine. After a couple of days a solution arose on the internet. Chrome does not play well with Symantec programs. See Chrome runs each tab in a sandbox so that if one tab crashes then it will get rid of that tab and it's instance in ram, allowing the other tabs to run smoothly. Symantec doesn't like this feature and thinks that Chrome is trying to do something funny to your memory so it blocks it. How do you get Chrome to run with Symantec? Well you turn the sandbox feature off. Can you do this through the setup or options? Sadly Chrome doesn't have an option for turning off sandbox, so you have to edit the shortcut icon that links to Chrome. In the target box you have to add a space and --no-sandbox after the last quotation mark.



This will turn off the sandbox feature and allow Google Chrome to run alongside Symantec programs.
Overall I really like where Google is taking the browser experience, especially with the search feature built right into the address bar (Opera will search Google if you type in g and then the search terms). I acknowledge that Chrome is still in beta and being developed, but I can really see this going places. Is Chrome going to be my default browser, no. Will I use it and keep an eye on updates, yes.

You can download Google Chrome at Google.com/chrome

Kids In Mind

Today I bring you Kids-In-Mind.com. If you have children, take children to movies or just like to know what the movie is rated for then this is your site. I like to know what kind of content is in a movie before I watch it, sometimes I can tell by the trailer, sometimes I can't. At Kids in Mind there is a listing of movies currently out in theaters. With a quick glance you can see the ratings for sex, violence and profanity. When you click on the movie title you can read a synopsis of the movie, and then detailed offenses in each catagory.
Under the sex category anything from kissing, touching, lovemaking or displays of skin are recorded. The good thing about the review is that it doesn't specify which characters offend or when so you don't know who is kissing who, you just know that somewhere in the movie someone kisses. If you haven't seen the movie this really shouldn't spoil it for you.
The violence/gore catagory is just as strict, any kind of physical violence or general gore (blood, guts, etc) counts. The same spoiler rules count here also so you don't know who got their head chopped off.
The profanity category simply counts the number of times certain words are used, and also catalog gestures and explain what the gestures were mentioning. This usually goes into even categorizing name calling and steryotypes.
There are also additional sections for substance use, discussion topics, and message. In the substance use section they discuss any alocohol or other drugs used or mentioned in the film. Discussion topics are a list of moral or values that are displayed or challenged in the film. Topics range from what did the character do right, how could the character have made the situation better to simple moral issues discussed in the film. The message section simply talks about the movies message and tones about certain subjects.
There are also links to the movie's official site, IMDB listing and critics.com.
The site's design is very clean and functional. There are adds on the site, but they don't get in the way and are minimal. Overal this site is very enjoyable and the best I've come across so far, if you're iffy about whether or not to see a movie I would check out this site for a content rating first.