sketch up your house

This tool is freaking amazing. It lets you draw 3D objects so easily it really does feel like sketching with a pencil.

Good ol' Google, finding stuff like this.

English (UK) means no Google Talk for you!

Like everyone, I use Gmail and Google Talk, and was looking forward to the latter being intergrated into the former.

Soon after hearing that it was happening, people I know started seeing GTalk come up in their Gmail window. After a couple of days I get this question when I log on to Gmail: "Do you want to see chat histories in your Gmail window?" or something. Hell yeah, I answer.. but still no chat stuff in my Gmail.

I wait and wait. Weeks later, I'm still not seeing any GTalk integration -- there is a page somewhere on Google's site saying that they're rolling out the update gradually. Hmm.

More weeks pass. Everyone I know has GTalk on their Gmail page except me, and my brother. Eventually, I really need to see history for a particular chat. I write to Google's help address.

After a bit to-and-fro-ing with boilerplate questions ("When does the problem occur?" Err, when ever I desire to see a chat history. "What firewalls are you running?" Err.. doesn't matter?) I get this:

1. Are you logging in from a supported browser? [snip]

2. Did you click 'standard without chat' at the bottom of your Gmail
account? If so.. [snip]

3. Did you select an interface language other than 'English (US)'? [snip]

Amazingly, it was the third thing that fixed it for me. I had my language set to English (UK), because americans for some reason can't spell colour properly.

I have to say that I'm somewhat surprised that English (UK) isn't supported by the chat-integrated version of Gmail. But there it is.. hope this helps someone else wondering when they're gonna get Google Talk in their Gmail window.

Video of Microsoft Office's new interface

In case you've been living in your bunker for the last year (or perhaps you just aren't as interested in the world of user interface design as certain Cynics you know..) you may not have heard that the next version of MS Office has forsaken menus and toolbars in favour of a sort of super-toolbar they call "The Ribbon".

Our Microsoft overlords have provided a nice video of it at their website. Sweet.

Death to Long Grass

Yesterday I used my new trimmer for the first time. I think it's a Troy-Bilt TB20CS, cost me A$189 or something, from Bunnings.

Holy crap! I've previously used an anaemic electric one that I bought for $29 or so, some years ago. This new one is a freakin' monster! It's like an invisible but lethal disk of cyclonic death on the end of a stick. I was worried for the trees I was trimming around.

It feels aggressive too. The engine noise has a real snarl to it, and when I put it on the ground with the engine running, it jiggers around a bit, like a caged animal.

It rained a bit while I was using it, and I started seeing what I thought was smoke coming from the business end. After a second I realised the grass my trimmer was butchering to death had some rainwater on it, and the trimmer end was turning it into mist fine enough to float up into the air.

I can replace the trimmer end with various other attachments too.. can't wait to try this chainsaw one.

I propose Troy-Bilt change the name "line trimmer" to something like "brutal grass anihilator".