fidzu : blog

01 Jan 1970 12:00am GMT

01 Jan 1970 12:00am GMT

Je dois avouer que j'avais un préjugé favorable envers Isabelle Juppé que je me préparais à aller rencontrer dans une librairie du quartier Outremont, à Montréal. Il faut dire que Claude et Philippe m'avaient vanté ses talents d'organisatrice et en plus, j'ai bien aimé son livre, «La Femme Digitale». Nous étions une bonne quarantaine de personnes venues à sa rencontre, dont une grande majorité de femmes puisque la thématique de son bouquin s'y prêtait bien. De fait, nous étions invités en grande partie parce qu'elle a elle-même blogué sur «Pourquoi bloguer dans un contexte d'affaires»!

Mme Juppé a d'abord parlé du grand rôle que son année à Montréal au côté de son mari de Maire avait joué dans l'écriture de son livre. Elle nous a donné l'impression que ce projet d'écriture n'aurait peut-être pas vu le jour sans l'éclairage nord-américain…

Ensuite, elle n'est pas tombée dans le piège qui guette tous les auteurs en compagnie de blogueurs: annoncer une conversation et se la faire dans un long monologue. Il y a bien eu une introduction de quelques minutes de sa part, mais rapidement, de multiples échanges ont ponctué cette agréable soirée. On peut parler d'une présence généreuse de sa part, très accessible et acceptant de livrer le fond de sa pensée sur les composantes de la révolution numérique en train de se faire. Elle a glissé quelques mots sur ses héroïnes du livre, elle a évoqué au passage quelques-unes de «ses îles» (transmission, engagement, business, amour, conversation et glamour), mais c'est sur la justification de son titre et de l'emploi du mot «digitale» que j'ai vraiment senti que le courant allait bien passer entre elle et son auditoire. Le dernier des quatre motifs invoqués pour le maintien de son choix était suave: «La digitale est une plante étrange, contenant une forme de poison, qui peut s'avérer très attirante, mais qui peut aussi vous mettre en danger! Sachant qu'au Québec le mot «digitale» sonne un eu anglo, c'était beau de l'entendre dire au terme de ses convaincantes explications, «Ce n'est pas très grave si ça ne vous plaît pas». J'aime cette façon qu'ont les Français de pouvoir échanger des points de vue divergents sans se rabattre systématiquement vers la recherche du consensus. Je n'ai vraiment pas senti de condescendance.

J'ai eu une autre preuve de sa grande ouverture d'esprit quand je lui ai fait remarquer, en petit groupe après la partie «officielle» de l'activité, qu'elle semblait vouloir cacher quelque peu le caractère féministe de son livre. C'est qu'à au moins trois reprises, nous l'avons entendu dire «Ce livre est bien davantage humaniste que féministe», comme s'il fallait s'excuser d'affirmer haut et fort la quête toute féminine pour «conquérir» et occuper l'espace numérique. Je lui ai fait part de ma déception. J'hésite à rapporter ici sa réaction, car je ne serais pas surpris du tout qu'elle vienne elle-même commenter mon point de vue quand elle aura du temps libre, aimant bien les conversations dans la blogosphère. Une chose est certaine, ce n'est pas par manque de conviction féministe qu'elle a voulu mettre de l'avant le caractère humaniste de son bouquin…

Pour elle, la conversation se continue chez nous, puisqu'à l'invitation officielle de la mairie de Québec (espace 400ème, le 2 juillet), elle interviendra sur le sujet des nouvelles technologies et de «l'émancipation de la femme». Je ne pourrai être présent, mais je sais qu'une autre jeune femme digitale couvrira l'événement. Je quitte Montréal en ayant en tête une de ses hypothèses pouvant expliquer la fulgurante progression des femmes qui tiennent pignon sur Web en France: «Le numérique est un facilitateur de vie compliquée parce qu'il faut le dire, les femmes ont tendance à vivre plusieurs vies en une!» Je n'ai pas manqué de lui rappeler que plusieurs jeunes étudiantes que j'initie aux blogues me disent souvent à quel point elles aiment «raconter» sur ce médium qui leur permet de mettre tous les détails des itinéraires de leur parcours, oubliant même parfois… la destination!

Vraiment, je suis ravi de ma soirée de femmes!

01 Jan 1970 12:00am GMT

« L'affaire Tapie ». Moi je vois ça de très très loin et avec une tout grand détachement même si, curieux, j'ai lu et entendu tout ce qui se passe, tout ce qui se dit, tout ce qui se pense au sujet de ce que je qualifierais - facile - de « nanard » de l'été. L'affaire qui nous [suite...]

23 Jul 2008 10:15pm GMT

Je suis en train de regarder le live de la conférence Facebook et le moins que l'on puisse dire, c'est que Zuckerberg et ses potes ont compris pas mal de choses … et vont encore nous en mettre plein les mirettes (et s'en mettre, eux, plein les poches). En (très) gros, il s'agit de décentraliser [...]

23 Jul 2008 9:49pm GMT

Grôôsse journée au taf aujourd'hui. Pour les ceussent qui suivent, ça se passe là. Il y a encore 8.012 trucs à améliorer avant que ça ne commence à devenir vraiment bien mais l'outil (du Drupal) est bigrement flexible et augure de biens belles chevauchées quand ça chauffera. J'ai même presque hâte qu'un big brol arrive, [...]

23 Jul 2008 9:02pm GMT

Squared

Squared is a very simple theme, two columns, widget ready, and valid XHTML 1.0

Simple

A two column colorful theme

Rateka

Two column theme comes widget ready. Custom sidebar ad widgets. Also has 3 color schemes incorporated. Allows you to add subscription by email from admin panel. Easy to manage ads from php file.

Scruffy

Scruffy is a WordPress theme with a standard two column layout and all the basic WP features. What makes this theme special is it's unique "grunge" design.

Web 2.0 Blue

Great web 2.0 looking, Great use of colors, Simple, Plain, Minimalist theme, Hemingway Style, Can be customized easily through detailed CSS. Support all plugins that Hemingway supports, Huge space for Widget lovers as it is 3 Column theme, Can customize images for blockquotes and so on…

iF

iF is a clean, simple theme with a left sidebar.

FunkyZine

2 Columns, Wood Design, Rounded Corners, Dark, Banner Ad Ready, Tested on WordPress 2.5, Fixed Width, PSD logo Attached.

23 Jul 2008 8:45pm GMT

Google went live with Knol, a platform to read and write articles on all kinds of subject. Knol was being tested privately since some time and had been pre-announced back in 2007. The address is knol.google.com, but notably not knol.com or knol.org or even googleknol.com. This project is somewhat reminiscent of Wikipedia, though there are many differences as well. You may also think of this as an alternative to creating a small info website if your aim is to cover only a single subject. When you log-in within your Google account to write an article on a subject you're familiar with, you ...

23 Jul 2008 8:36pm GMT

Knol is a new Google service created for sharing knowledge. The service has been announced in December 2007 and it's now publicly available.

While you may find some similarities between Knol and Wikipedia, it's important to notice that Knol is centered around authors. Each Knol article displays the name of its author and links to a small biography. Google even lets you verify your identity, but this only works if you live on the US.


Knol doesn't intend to become an encyclopedia, so there's no single article about a topic. An author can write about almost any topic, but it's recommended to write authoritative content.

There are three levels of collaboration in Knol:

* open collaboration (any Knol user can edit the article)
* moderate collaboration (any Knol user can suggest changes to the article - enabled by default)
* closed collaboration (only the co-authors can edit the article)

Google uses a rich-text editor borrowed from Page Creator, so it's much easier to edit knols than Wikipedia articles. Users can rate the articles, add comments and write reviews, much like for scholarly works.


By default, articles are licensed as Creative Commons Attribution, but you can change the license in the settings. It's nice to see that Google encourages the use of flexible licenses that allow content reuse.

Like in Blogger, Google provides an option to monetize your articles using Google AdSense, but the ads are displayed in a fixed position. Knol doesn't let you customize the layout of the page and you can't add JavaScript code, objects or iframes.

Search Engine Land says that Knol is a service created by Google's search quality team. "I do believe [Knol] does solve a search problem. The problem we have, unlocking what people know and bringing it online. This is another tool to help release some of this knowledge," explains Cedric Dupont, the product manager for Knol.

While Google has many other services that allow people to share their knowledge (Blogger, Google Docs, Google Sites), Knol encourages experts to make the search results better by sharing what they know. After all, Knol articles are indexed by search engines and Google promises to not give them preferential treatment.

"Your name is behind your knol, and it should reflect your unique point of view. Be succinct, but comprehensive on your topic of choice. Provide references, and display your credentials. Readers will want to know who you are and gain context on the knols you are writing." - these are some of the guidelines for writing good Knol articles.

I think that Google managed to develop a very solid service with a lot of interesting features that encourage originality (a list of web pages with similar content), a sense of ownership (your name is included even in the URL) and information accuracy (peer reviews and suggested edits).

23 Jul 2008 7:22pm GMT

The Google App Engine currently supports Python, but now Google employee and creator of blogging community LiveJournal Brad Fitzpatrick posts this bit: I'm happy to announce that the Google App Engine team has given me permission to talk about a 20% project inside Google to to add Perl support to App Engine. To be clear: I'm not a member of the App Engine team and the App Engine team is not promising to add Perl support. They're just saying that I (along with other Perl hackers here at Google) are now allowed to work on this 20% project of ours out in the open where other Perl hackers can help us out, should you be so inclined. Why is Google making this open? Turns out, according to Google, th ...

23 Jul 2008 6:46pm GMT

A few months ago we announced that we were testing a new product called Knol. Knols are authoritative articles about specific topics, written by people who know about those subjects. Today, we're making Knol available to everyone.

The web contains vast amounts of information, but not everything worth knowing is on the web. An enormous amount of information resides in people's heads: millions of people know useful things and billions more could benefit from that knowledge. Knol will encourage these people to contribute their knowledge online and make it accessible to everyone.

23 Jul 2008 5:31pm GMT

Pourquoi le mouvement des rampes d'escalators n'est-il jamais synchronisé avec les escalators eux-mêmes ?

23 Jul 2008 5:09pm GMT

Streetsblog There are no hard data yet, but lots more people are out on bikes this summer, and lots more novice cyclists are ending up in hospital. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Cycling advocates say this could be the Summer of Splat on local roads. Take the area's dearth of bike paths, add aggressive Atlanta motorists, then toss in bikers who haven't been on the roads for decades. Presto - the buns are busting all over town. "We're seeing more peopl...

23 Jul 2008 4:57pm GMT

Most feed readers let you import and export subscriptions using the OPML format. For Google Reader, you'll find this option in Settings > Import/Export.

But what happens when you need to export the feeds from a single folder so you can share them with a friend or upload them to a site? Google Reader lets you export the feeds from a folder:

http://www.google.com/reader/public/subscriptions/user/-/label/FOLDER
(you should replace FOLDER with the actual name of the folder)

Another way to share the subscriptions from a folder is to make it public and to use this link for the OPML file:

http://www.google.com/reader/public/subscriptions/user/USERID/label/FOLDER
(USERID can be obtained from the public page created by Google Reader)

This also works if someone shares with you the page of a public folder and you want to obtain the list of subscriptions from that folder. If I share with you my Googlers folder:

http://www.google.com/reader/shared/user/13577231804381328821/label/googlers

you can easily obtain the link to the corresponding OPML file by replacing shared with public/subscriptions:

http://www.google.com/reader/public/subscriptions/user/13577231804381328821/label/googlers

{ Inspired by Abhijeet M. }

23 Jul 2008 4:37pm GMT

In the ongoing food versus fuel discussion, using waste products from agriculture or municipal waste is often cited as being the solution as to how to produce liquid biofuels without impacting available agricultural land and increasing food prices. Producing liquid biofuels from wood waste is promising from the standpoint of availability, but is more difficult to turn into usable fuel than other products. However, a new breakthrough from China, reported on in New Scientist, offers a potential solution to this problem.

23 Jul 2008 4:23pm GMT

We often talk about the benefits of local, fresh food, but here is another we have not thought about before: the footprint of refrigeration. So many processed foods move from reefer trailer to refrigerated case in the store to the freezer in your house, what does that use in energy? Over at the Ethicurian, Marc crunched the numbers and found that the entire food industry uses 1.02.10¹⁶ BTUs of energy per year, the equivalent of 1,760,000 barrels of oil. Refrigeration uses up 14.9% of that (the hatched part of the graph above) or 262,000 barrels of oil, or 464,546, MWhr....

23 Jul 2008 4:03pm GMT

TechCrunch reiterates the rumor that Google is about to acquire Digg. "The two companies have reportedly signed a letter of intent and are close to a deal that will bring Digg under the Google News property. The acquisition price is in the $200 million range, says one source." While I don't find too many reasons why Google would buy Digg, it's clear that Digg and Google News don't have almost anything in common.

Google hand-picked more than 4500 sources and used them to cluster news articles. The idea behind Google News was to display different perspectives on the same subject and to rank them algorithmically. Even the homepage is generated automatically, based on the editorial decisions of the publication included in Google News. Last year, when Google News added comments, the feature surprised many people: the comments could only come from "people or organizations who were actual participants in the story in question".

Digg gets the stories from users, who have to manually submit each item. To be promoted on the homepage, a story has to be voted by a sufficient number of users, who can also post comments. "Digg is democratizing digital media. As a user, you participate in determining all site content by discovering, selecting, sharing, and discussing the news, videos, and podcasts that appeal to you," explains the site. Launched as an alternative to Slashdot, Digg expanded from technology news to general news.

To integrate Google News with Digg, Google would have to radically change its news site and this is unlikely. Besides, Google News could easily add a voting system and user comments like in the recent Google search experiment, without needing a site like Digg. If Google does acquire Digg, I think it's for mining a big amount of votes and detecting patterns that could be used to improve features like "edit search results". Digg is also a good platform for experimenting with filtering information, news recommendations and could be helpful in Google's new social quests.

23 Jul 2008 2:25pm GMT

Ne craignez rien, vous aurez encore de nombreuses occasions de vous empoigner, mais maintenant il est grand temps de reprendre ses esprits et de retrouver un minimum de sérénité. Je doute que cela soit encore possible en Ubuland mais voici de quoi vous y aider un tout petit peu. C'est ma modeste contribution. Asseyez-vous tranquillement, fermez les yeux [suite...]

23 Jul 2008 9:55am GMT

Distribuer gratuitement des fruits dans les écoles plutôt que de les détruire dans le but de soutenir les prix? Cette idée nous vient en droite ligne de la Commission européenne. Afin de lutter contre la malbouffe et les dangers de l'obésité (22 millions d'enfants souffrent de surpoids dans l'Union européenne, dont 5 millions de [...]

22 Jul 2008 9:46pm GMT

Pendant 15 jours, j'ai cherché à m'en tordre les neurones les mots les plus justes pour expliquer aux vacanciers Français pourquoi et comment on en était arrivé à un tel bordel en Belgique. Alors qu'il aurait tout simplement suffit de leur montrer à quelle source l'on abreuvait nos ménagères de moins de 50 ans. (thanx [...]

22 Jul 2008 9:31pm GMT

Google Maps walking directions had been spotted by some users before, and now they're being rolled out for everyone, as Search Engine Roundtable reports. Try this directions search in New York, for instance, and you'll see the "Walking" link on top activated (though this isn't just restricted to US locations, as a test search in Ge ...

22 Jul 2008 7:38pm GMT

WordPress for iPhone Available Now. :)! Reviews coming in: WordPress app hits the iPhone fashionably late.

22 Jul 2008 7:30pm GMT

Our aim here at Weblog Tools Collection is to provide a platform for authors of themes and plugins and at the same time provide WordPress users a single place to keep up-to-date with the WordPress world.

We try to keep abreast with both plugin and theme releases. The first place that we look for releases is the WLTC News Forum and in this post I'll try to cover some of the points that you should keep in mind to facilitate your listing.

1. Post in the appropriate category

The forum has been divided into several categories for different content. The two primary categories that you should be looking at are the New Wordpress Plugins category and the New Wordpress Themes category for plugins and themes respectively. We also have a Premium WordPress Themes category for those themes which require payment to use.

2. Writing your post

This is the most important part of the process. Remember that the key to attracting a user to visit your plugin or theme page is a good detailed description. I, for one, would like to gather as much information about the plugin or theme from the post. Browsing to your site and then making a search for the right post / page is a big big no no!

Plugin Authors should ensure the following is present in the post.

1. Plugin Name: short forms are OK, however the full form of the name is ideal
2. Plugin URL: This should be the direct url to the plugin page and not your site. Ideally keep a separate page for each plugin. It provides for a single interface to interact with users, as well helps in SEO.
3. Description: Let me iterate; provide a detailed description. Mention what exactly your plugin does. Elaborate on some of the features that the plugin has. Ask for suggestions. State what plans you have for the future of the plugin. Optionally, add information on installing and using the plugin. This information should also be present on the plugin page on your site.
4. License

Theme Authors should ensure the following is present in the post.

1. Theme Name: same rule to follow as that of plugin authors above
2. Theme URL: Once again, link to the url of the theme page. Putting several themes on a single page only serves as a distraction to a person looking for that specific theme.
3. Description: A detailed description for the theme should come here. Mention if your theme is widget ready, or if supports gravatars. Does it have an options page? Is it a one, two or three column theme? What colors is it available in? Is the header customizable?
4. Demo URL: Every theme should have a demo for a user to see what their site will look like. It is a pain to download and install a theme to check if it looks good, only to find that this is not the case.
5. Screenshot: This is optional but again highly recommended. A screenshot is the first view that a potential user sees.
6. License

The points I have made above are not just pertaining to our News forum. In fact this should something that you should follow strictly whenever you are looking to get listed at any site announcing releases.

3. Other methods to inform us about your release

The News forum is the preferred method to bring your creation to our attention. Not only does it bring your theme / plugin to our attention but it also ensures that you reach out to our regular readers even before our daily release posts.

You could also use the contact form to inform us about the release. However, this is a much slower method to get listed. Remember to provide as many details as you would if you were to make a post in the News forum. Also, change the Subject line to Plugin Release: your theme/plugin name.

Happy posting

22 Jul 2008 6:42pm GMT

Il y avait les majorettes, il y avait la troisième édition de l'Iron Brussels Beer Marathon, il y avait une chorégraphie de Bal Moderne sur une fort appropriée chanson à boire, il y avait le mot d'excuse de François Vincent, remplacé par Rémy Bricka, il y avait Eddy Wally et ses danseuses et leurs nombreux [...]

22 Jul 2008 11:26am GMT

From the recipe archive for the hot days of summer.

With the warm days of summer upon us, a great way to cool off is with ceviche. Ceviche is typically made with red snapper that is "cooked" by the acidity of lime and lemon juice (see this ceviche recipe.) This version is prepared with shrimp, which is first lightly cooked, and then marinated in the citrus juice. My father, who generally doesn't really like shrimp that much, loved this ceviche. (Gotta love it when they eat it up and ask for more.)

Continue reading "Shrimp Ceviche" »

22 Jul 2008 8:40am GMT

From the recipe archive.

My friend Steve-Anna recently sent me this wonderful recipe for ginger chicken and claimed that it was one of her all time favorites. My father doesn't eat ginger if he can avoid it, so when I made it I just warned dad ahead of time that he might have to settle for yesterday's leftovers if he couldn't bring himself to touch it. Well, everyone loved it, even dad. Strips of boneless, skinless chicken breasts are briefly marinated in ground coriander, ground ginger, vinegar and oil, then they are stir-fried with scallions and julienned ginger. The are mixed with a little mango chutney and sprinkled with toasted almonds before serving.

The whole dish can be made in half an hour, especially if you do a lot of the prep while the chicken is marinating.

Continue reading "Ginger Chicken with Almonds" »

22 Jul 2008 1:45am GMT

First let me say this is not a post about the weather in San Francisco. I am currently working on a new recipe development project that involves freezing. My assignment is to create recipes that can be prepared in multiple individual portions, then frozen and cooked before serving. Each recipe is like a fun little puzzle to try and solve.

The real challenge is finding things that actually benefit from this treatment. If you read the widely circulated recipe for chocolate chip cookies in the New York Times recently, then you know that letting cookie dough rest, makes for a better cookie. I have it on good authority that freezing gnocchi dough also improves the final product. In the past I've frozen things like crepes and dumplings very successfully.

So far my list of completed recipes consists of chicken apple sausage patties, chocolate chip cookies, jerk-rubbed chicken wings, and sesame ginger beef and I plan to try using ice cube trays and muffin tins to make individual portions. Ideas I am pursuing include herb biscuits, calzones, meat pies, puff pastry turnovers, pesto and variations, stuffed mushrooms, gnocchi, spaetzle, ravioli, dumplings, spanakopita, blintzes, meatballs, stuffed peppers, crepes, and veggie burgers.

But I'd like to hear from you. Is there anything you freeze in individual portions for serving another time? Links to posts, recipes or pictures would be great too. I look forward to your comments!

21 Jul 2008 3:32pm GMT

Je vous ai déjà parlé du bazar intégral qu'est mon pays dont c'est justement la fête nationale aujourd'hui (bonne fête Belgiom). Il se trouve que, un an après les élections, mon pays traverse pas mal de problèmes. La raison ? Une partie du pays réclame son indépendance sous prétexte qu'ils parlent une autre langue. Et bien, ils ont parfaitement raison.

21 Jul 2008 3:12pm GMT

I still like my last start-up idea about converting MP3 music collections to be legal and cleaning up mangled/ugly filenames. As Amazon and others start to sell MP3s, a startup could easily offer some interesting services. For example, I just saw that a new product called TuneUp will clean up your filenames, metadata, and cover [...]

21 Jul 2008 5:53am GMT

Aujourd'hui, 21 juillet, c'est bien sûr la Saint Victor mais c'est aussi la « fête nationale » en Belgique. Nationale, oui, officiellement, mais dans les faits c'est loin d'être le cas malgré un pseudo engouement populaire à Bruxelles où, ne nous leurrons pas, ce sont surtout les touristes et les badauds qui font la claque. [suite...]

20 Jul 2008 8:45pm GMT

Tiens, c'est marrant, j'allais justement faire un post un de ces quatre sur mes conventions de programmation, histoire de vous demander votre avis et pour voir quelles sont les vôtres. Même si je n'ai pas été invité à la fête, cette chaîne initiée par Godefroy et relayée par Babozor tombe à point nommé et je [...]

20 Jul 2008 8:09pm GMT

Lundi-AC/DC, Highway to Hell: Je sais bien quel jour on est; mais n'est-ce pas un peu mélodramatique? Mardi - Queen, The Show Must Go On: Jusqu'à la fin de la semaine en tout cas! Mercredi - Mory Kante, Yeke Yeke: La pause exotique du milieu de la semaine! Jeudi - Marvin Gaye, What's Goin' On?: On se le [...]

20 Jul 2008 4:42pm GMT

Here are some of the applications that I'm trying out right now: What applications do you like on the iPhone 3G?

19 Jul 2008 9:00pm GMT

Il devient difficile de comprendre où veut en venir la presse belge. Après des mois de procès contre Google dans l'affaire Copie Presse, La Libre Belgique fait de la publicité pour ses articles via … Google Adsense : C'est peut-être pour compenser la perte de liens sur news.google.be ?

19 Jul 2008 7:22pm GMT

Sometimes people think that the Google Toolbar led to Google indexing a page. Here's a recent such story, for example, which speculates how urls with the substring "mms2legacy" got indexed. Here's where I started to disagree: The reason for this [supposedly unlisted urls getting crawled --Matt], explained Ken Simpson, CEO of anti-spam company MailChannels, is that [...]

19 Jul 2008 7:30am GMT

One of our goals is to give everyone using Google the information they want, wherever they are, in whatever language they speak, and through whatever device they're using. A huge part of that goal is making our services available in as many languages as possible. And as I'm sure you can imagine, that isn't as easy as simply as translating a few lines of text.

Take Hebrew or Arabic, which are written from right to left. An Arabic speaker may search for [world cup football 2008] [كأس العالم 2008 لكرة القدم]. Part of the query will be written from right to left in Arabic, while the numbers will be written left to right. Sometimes the right-to-left difference can mean having to change the entire layout of a page, as with Gmail.

Or take Russian, where words change depending on their placement and role in a sentence. In Russian, for example [pizza in Moscow] is [пицца в Москве] but [pizza near Moscow] is [пицца рядом с Москвой].

Then there's the whole challenge of ensuring that results are locally relevant. While many Australians searching for [freedom] are looking for the Australian furniture chain, UK and US users are often looking for the definition of the word itself. Our search results, then, have to take into account these local differences.

Our efforts to make Google products available in as many languages as possible dates to 2001, when we started Google in Your Language, which lets volunteers translate and edit translations of Google products in their native languages.

As more and more users, advertisers, and partners interact with Google across the world, the need for local products has become even more obvious. In 2007, we undertook a company-wide initiative to increase the availability of our products in multiple languages. We picked the 40 languages read by over 98% of Internet users and got going, relying heavily on open source libraries such as ICU and other internationalization technologies to design products. Do you need web search in Chinese or AdWords online support in Spanish? Perhaps Google News in Hindi or Google Scholar in Korean? Not a problem.

Here's a taste of how far we've come.

Growth in local language versions.

• 30 in 30: Today we have more than 30 products in more than 30 languages, up from 5 products in 30 languages just a year ago.
• In 2004, we had 150 local-language versions of various products (e.g. a product local to the UK, not just the English-speaking world); today we're at more than 1500.
• From January to March of 2008, we launched 256 local-language versions of various products, compared to 55 in the same period of 2007.
• We've upgraded to Unicode 5.1 to make sure that we can handle any characters people read or write in.

The web is only useful - or utile, 便利, pożyteczny, or nyttig, depending on what language you speak - to the degree it can be accessible in your language. That's why we're so excited about how far we've come - and why we know there's still a lot of work to be done.

Posted by Mario Queiroz, Vice President, Product Management, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Latin America

18 Jul 2008 2:01pm GMT

Please welcome guest author Garrett McCord of Vanilla Garlic who turned a few of our ripe plums into a "wow-that's-good" sorbet. ~Elise

I developed this recipe out of necessity rather than noble ingenuity. Every summer Elise's mother loads me up with so many plums I can't eat them all in time, and many begin to get a bit over ripe, their skins bursting at the slightest touch sending their juice down my arms and onto my clothes and floor.

Taking these plums and churning them into a magenta hued sorbet just seemed like the most logical thing to do in this heat. Sweet, tart, and smooth it's a wonderful way to enjoy fresh plums at the height of their season. This sorbet is just sweetened enough in my opinion, but taste as you go and add more or less sugar accordingly as some of the plums we used were very tart. In addition, this recipe could easily be adapted to overripe apricots or pluots as well.

Continue reading "Plum Sorbet" »

18 Jul 2008 6:35am GMT

Last week, the ten grand prize winners for the first Google Highly Open Participation Contest, our initiative to get pre-university students involved in open source development. We were very excited to welcome these burgeoning computer scientists and their families to Silicon Valley in a celebration of their many accomplishments.

Chosen from more than 350 students worldwide, our winners created software, documentation and marketing materials for ten different open source projects, getting all this work accomplished in just over two months. For more details, including interviews with the winners and their mentors, check out the Google Open Source Blog.

Posted by Leslie Hawthorn, Program Manager - Open Source

17 Jul 2008 8:30pm GMT

Comme Xavier semble y tenir, voici un petit post à propos du t-shirt RestoTendances que j'ai reçu lors du dernier Yulbiz. C'est déjà le douzième ! Honnêtement, je ne suis pas fan du t-shirt… Par contre, je vous recommande d'aller voir le site ! La partie bouffe était déjà ma préférée sur BlogTendances, je trouve que [...]

16 Jul 2008 7:18pm GMT

This year the BlogHer conference is being held in San Francisco and many food bloggers will be coming to town. I'm excited to attend and get a chance to meet other bloggers. But attending the conference isn't the only way to meet up with food bloggers.

Local food bloggers and food blogger conference attendees are invited to meet at the Americano patio at the Hotel Vitale this coming Sunday July 20th at 1 pm. It's just a block or so from the Ferry Plaza at the foot of Market street along the Embarcadero. No RSVP necessary and you can order a drink or food, as you wish. Since it's attached to a hotel you can also check your bags or get a cab to the airport.

I hope to see you there!

What: San Francisco Food Blogger Meet Up

Where: Patio at Americano @ the Hotel Vitale, 8 Mission St, San Francisco

When: Sunday July 20th, from 1 pm till whenever

See photos from this event:

Cookie Madness

Bunrabs

14 Jul 2008 3:47pm GMT

Il s'agissait d'un questionnaire difficile (surtout la dernière question qui était une "attrape") et seules seize personnes ont osés s'y mesurer. Cela veut dire qu'un seul participant seulement n'aura pas la chance de gagner un cadeau (vu qu'il y a quinze lots). Premièrement, voyons les réponses : L'Expo 58, c'était à Bruxelles, mais où a lieu l'Expo [...]

13 Jul 2008 11:22am GMT

Cette nuit, j'ai vécu un phénomène extrêmement intéressant : j'ai vu un OVNI. Non, sérieux, ce n'est pas un énième billet avec en conclusion un jeu de mot à deux balles impliquant des ornithorynques. J'ai réellement vu un objet non-identifié dans le ciel. Pour un scientifique ultra-rationnel comme moi, ce fût une expérience très enrichissante.

12 Jul 2008 11:30am GMT

It hasn't opened yet, but I'm already excited about the Clock Bar at the Westin St. Francis. Union Square could use a cool rendezvous and I love the romantic tradition of couples meeting under the circa 1907 clock tower in the lobby. I like that the bar is looking to focus on traditional cocktails such as the Pisco Sour and Pimm's Cup and I get a kick out of the coasters printed up with old fashioned bar tricks.


Speaking with Marco Dionysos, the head bartender, I learned that they'll avoid molecular gastronomy but utilize the restaurant kitchen to make fruit purees, homemade grenadine with hibiscus and more. Of course I'm curious about the food. I do know they'll be doing nibbles like charcuterie, truffled popcorn and steamed mussels. As soon as I get a chance to try it I'll report back.

The Clock Bar officially opens Tuesday, July 15th.

Clock Bar in the lobby of The Westin St. Francis hotel
335 Powell Street @ Geary
San Francisco

12 Jul 2008 12:17am GMT

Bonjour mes adorables lecteurs. Vous allez bien ? Ça fait longtemps hein ? Et bien outre le fait que je négligeais ce blog au profit des quelques jours ensoleillés (suivi d'un temps de chien, hihi, jeu de mot anticipatif), je me dois de vous raconter une petite histoire. Pour la première fois depuis 10 jours, je retape sur mon clavier à deux mains. Et cette première fois, je vous la dédie. C'est pas gentil ça ? Rien à battre ? Allez, je vous raconte quand même, c'est mon blog après tout, j'y fais un peu ce que je veux même si ça devient la rubrique des chiens écrasés.

11 Jul 2008 12:08am GMT

Certains mordus du référencement vous diront qu'il faut absolument créer des liens internes dans vos pages pour garder vos visiteurs et faire monter votre visibilité dans les moteurs de recherche. Et pour vous faciliter le travail, des outils automatiques permettent de créer du lien interne. Elle est pas belle la vie ! WordPress dispose déjà d'une extension [...]

09 Jul 2008 11:49pm GMT

La saga Cyberclasse semble enfin terminée. Le Conseil d'Etat a en effet débouté le recours de Computerland, concrétisant du même coup le choix de Priminfo comme société qui équipera les écoles wallonnes d'ordinateurs. Il confirme ainsi la décision du Ministre Tarabella du 9 juin, pour qui : cette décision du Conseil d'Etat est importante car elle va [...]

07 Jul 2008 10:01pm GMT

L'icône de Firebug 1.2b n'est pas très visible dans la barre de status. Une petite modification du fichier CSS permet de restaurer l'ancienne icône.

07 Jul 2008 6:39pm GMT

Même durant les vacances, les enseignants n'hésitent pas à découvrir de nouveaux ouvrages susceptibles d'améliorer leur pratique. La liste suivante, nous la devons à Jacques Nimier. Spécialiste des "facteurs humains dans l'enseignement", il nous propose une sélection pertinente et passionnée.1 Le redoublement : pour ou contre? Et si on parlait de la violence? Un projet pour enseigner le travail [...]

06 Jul 2008 3:02pm GMT

Et bien voila…. comme des vacances, cette semaine sans écran était trop courte! Je continuerais bien encore une semaine, même deux, même davantage. Evidemment, nous étions deux, c'est plus facile qu'en étant seul. Il est 21h25 et j'allume seulement mon ordinateur maintenant. La TV n'a pas encore été allumée depuis le matin et Ced a [...]

05 Jul 2008 7:34pm GMT

Je profite de l'été pour consommer quelques ouvrages, espérant faire diminuer la haute pile de bouquins non lus sur mon bureau. Des bouquins achetés compulsivement, reçus bien gentiment ou dont on m'a dit grand bien. Ce matin, je viens de terminer "Web et dirigeants", écrit par Dominique...

05 Jul 2008 1:30pm GMT

Le laboratoire de recherche en ergonomie de l'Université du Wichita n'en est pas à sa première étude concernant l'impact des choix typographiques sur la lisibilité et sur la crédibilité des contenus. Dernièrement, ce laboratoire a étudié l'impact des choix typographiques sur la...

03 Jul 2008 12:16pm GMT

Firefox 3 est sorti depuis deux, on a pu remarquer quelques comportements bizarres dont un bug de rendu sur les background-images. Suite des statistiques sur le taux de pénétration de Firefox 3.

02 Jul 2008 8:52pm GMT

Les objets Flash sont enfin indexables (« crawlable » comme on dit dans le jargon) par Google (tout de suite) et Yahoo (bientôt). Cela a été annoncé officiellement par les acteurs. Ce qui met fin à un cauchemar pour les designers et éditeurs de site. La note sur le blog de Google nous donne quelques précisions [...]

02 Jul 2008 7:55am GMT

Une chouette video qui explique très bien ce qu'est l'ergonomie web. Tournée par la RTBF dans le cadre de l'émission « Matière grise » et postée sur ce blog. Je ne suis pas revanchard : dans la note qui précède(Eyetracking: tool to convince or expert tool?), je me fais attaquer sur un des mes articles par [...]

01 Jul 2008 11:53am GMT

Matt fait le tour du monde pour enregistrer quelques secondes d'une danse ridicule dans les endroits les plus reculés, les plus connus et les plus incongrus. Cette vidéo est probablement le buzz de l'été 2008. Un truc con comme la lune mais après quelques secondes on se suprend à regarder cette vidéo avec un sourire idiot [...]

30 Jun 2008 7:56pm GMT

C'est Ced qui a lancé l'idée. Je ne sais pas si c'est une entreprise de désintoxication ou si c'est juste pour le fun ou pour la science… va t'il me mettre des électrodes sur le front la semaine prochaine? Enfin voila, on quitte le monde web-tv-gsm pendant une semaine. On va monter un tipi dans le [...]

26 Jun 2008 3:31pm GMT

Le but de la tentative de record du monde était surtout de faire changer beaucoup de monde de Firefox 2 à Firefox 3. Je vous propose d'afficher les statistiques des visites de mon blog ainsi que d'un site 'grand public' et de pouvoir les comparer semaine après semaine.

25 Jun 2008 9:01pm GMT

Le Soir consacre la Une de son journal aux effets nocifs des ondes GSM. Le sujet n'est pas nouveau et pourtant rien ne semble vraiment bouger dans la pratique. Certaines études sérieuses tirent la sonnette d'alarme sur le rayonnement électromagnétique néfaste pour notre santé. Dans le même temps, d'autres études infirment ces résultats. Pour le moment, [...]

24 Jun 2008 8:26pm GMT

C'est le sujet du jour. L'Icann, autorité de régulation des noms de domaine sur Internet, vient d'annoncer la libéralisation des suffixes dès le premier trimestre 2009. En clair, la liste des suffixes ne serait plus fermée aux seuls .com, .net, .org et autres .fr et .be. Des noms de...

24 Jun 2008 2:23pm GMT

J'écris mes billets dans l'éditeur HTML de WordPress. Ça me permet d'avoir un meilleur contrôle sur le contenu. Là où ça devient casse-pieds, c'est lorsque je dois ajouter une portion de code. Non seulement il faut convertir les caractères problématiques mais aussi ajouter un minimum de mise en page pour ne pas avoir quelque chose [...]

22 Jun 2008 7:39pm GMT