URL redirection in Google searches...

It annoys me a lot when I search for a PDF document using Google because I need a link to the specific document and what I get is URL that is rewritten so that I can not right click and select Copy link location... Note that I disabled PDF opening within a browser, but PDFs are not the only thing I'm having a problem with. Sometimes, when links are short enough I can manually copy a link from beneath linked title, but in general links are too long, and thus shortened using three dots.

It took me some time to find a solution, but in the end it turned out to be relatively simple. What I had to do is turn off web history and the links were not obfuscated any more. To turn off Web history, when search results are shown, click on the wheel in the right upper corner and select Web History from drop down menu. Then again click on a wheel and now select Settings. Finally, click on the Turn off button.

Now, I would like to have a history of what I was doing (for my personal use, of course!) but when the price is this annoyance with links, I opted to turn it off.

UPDATE: It turns out that this doesn't help! Google still obfuscates links and I'm still searching for a solution...

I realized that, at first, it did help, but then again links become obfuscated. So, I continued search on the Internet and found the following page that explains what's going on (there is also another page for the same script). On the script's page you can click on the Install button in the upper right corner which will install Greasemonkey script that disables link obfuscation. Obviously, you have to have Greasemonkey installed. In case you are using Chrome, there is a link that takes you to extension's home page on a Chrome web store.

So, I think I finally solved this annoyance. And yes, I turned on Web history tracking on Google again.

Biseri naših neukih novinara 4...

Eto, upravo sam saznao za jedan novinski članak u jednim našim uopćenesenzacionalističkim novinama, u kojima se tvrdi kako je esej jednog građana RH oborio Google s nogu! Nisam siguran da li se je u međuvremenu Google oporavio od tog šoka i uspio ponovo ustati, ali ja svakako nisam i mislim da će mi trebati još dosta vremena da dođem k sebi.

Ostale postove iz ove "serije" možete pronaći ovdje.

Power supplies...

Have you ever asked yourself how the power supply within you computer works? How complicated it is? Or how did it develop? I never did. For me, it was a black box that takes 220V (or 110V, depending where you live) on input and produces 12V/5V on output. Basically, you don't notice that they exist, but now and then you have some problems caused by them, e.g. when they fail, or when they are not powerful enough.

Today I stumbled on this article about power supplies. I have to say that it is well research article about modern power supplies. It was motivated by Steve Jobs' claim that the power supply within Apple ][ was revolutionary and that the guy that designed it, Rod Holt, didn't get a credit for it. So, the blog's author did an extensive research and found out that Jobs wasn't right. Anyway, I recommend that you read that post, it's very good with a lots of references.

It's interesting how I came accross that post. Initially I stumbled upon a post on Hacker News about some guy that left Google and this Guy explains why. Now, there are different opinions about this topic and maybe I write about it in the future, in the mean time, I found this post about power supplies to be rather interesting.

One more thing. That guy that wrote post about power supplies also wrote a post about iPhone USB charger that he bought cheaply in eBay. What's interesting is that this charger almost certainly doesn't follow safety regulations which means that you can suffer electrical shock. So, don't save money on something that can endanger your life!

Trip to Australia...

So, finally I got a chance to visit Australia. This means two things. First, I'll be posting a bit less this month while I'm not at home, and second, my posts will be related to Australia, more specifically, my impressions about Australia. And two additional things for this post:

1. The trip to Australia is not a piece of cake. I was in USA several times, and when you compare that trip, with this one, then you can safely say it's nothing. :)
2. I just logged into GMail and was presented with a security question. It turns out that Google monitors from which location you sign in and in case you sign in from different one, it presents you with a security question (actually, you can choose between three questions). Now, what I wonder is, is the decision to present you with a security question influenced in any way by geographic distance. And if it is, what is the formula?

So much for now. :)

Promjena uvjeta korištenja Google usluga...

Google je nedavno promijenio uvjete korištenja svojih usluga i o tome je slao obavijesti na različite načine kako bi svatko mogao vidjeti koji su novi uvjeti. Međutim, tko uopće čita uvjete korištenja? ;) I onda se desi nekakav problem i ispadne da je nešto pisali sitnim slovima, ali tko čita uopće sitna slova?! Toliko puta ispričana priča u svakodnevnom životu, ne samo vezano za Internet i računala. Primjerice, oni famozni krediti gdje su se ljudi žalili na neke odredbe, a u stvari nisu čitali što piše. Uglavnom, zaključak je da je bitno znati što piše, bar okvirno.

Što se tiče Google-a malo je zakamuflirao promjene, međutim, nakon što im je par političara poslalo konkretno pitanje što je izmjenjeno, Google je jasno odgovorio. Ovdje imate sažetak na Engleskom jeziku, a ja ću ponoviti stvari na Hrvatskom. :)

Do sada Google je imao takve uvjete korištenja podataka da nije smio miješati podatke o korisnicima koje je prikupio, primjerice, na YouTubu ili tijekom pretraživanja s Google+ uslugom. To je značilo da ako bi korisnik pretraživao recepte putem tražilice, Google nije mogao korisniku ponuditi video isječke na YouTubu koji su vezani uz kuhanje, i to bez obzira što je korisnik bio prijavljen na oba servisa. Po novome, on će to moći. Ako netko ne želi da mu se miješaju podaci, tj. želi i dalje držati podatke razdvojenima, rješenje je otvaranje više korisničkih računa, za svaku uslugu po jedan.

iOS versus Android...

Well, there are two approaches to develop smart phone OS. The first one is Apple's way and that is to control everything. The other one is Google's way and that is to control (almost) nothing. My personal opinion is that Apple's way is better for people that don't know anything about computers and thus someone else has to make choices for them. Of course, Google's way is better for those that want freedom and/or know what they are doing. In the long term, I believe Google's approach is better, and for two reasons. The first one is that more companies (i.e. people) can innovate more. The second one is that anyone can develop applications for Android, while in case you want to develop for iOS you have to own Mac.

Currently Apple has larger stake and in long term this is not sustainable. So, the tactics it uses is sue everyone for patent infringements and keep monopolistic position. Do I need to say that I hate Apple because of that?! Oh yeah, and I hate software patents, too! Anyway, today I stumbled upon the following link where this gay lists what Apple took from Android. Great read...