Archive for March, 2008

Offline access to Google Docs

Monday, March 31st, 2008

Our team has a real affinity for free-spirited types, and so we spend a lot of time thinking up ways to make Google Docs friendlier even to people on the go. If you’re one of those, you already know how you can access your Google Docs from anywhere, how nice it is to avoid having to email yourself files or back up docs with a thumbdrive, and how easily you can collaborate with others.

Of course there was a teeny thing missing: you needed an Internet connection to make Google Docs work for you. Now, for documents, that’s no longer true. As you’ll read on the Google Docs blog, starting today and over the coming weeks we’re rolling out offline editing access to word processing documents to Google Docs users. You no longer need an Internet connection when inspiration strikes. Whether you’re working on an airplane or in a cafe, you can automatically access all your docs on your own computer.

To see how offline access works, watch this video:

Cruise Control

Monday, March 31st, 2008

I was close to putting some kind of melodramatic title like “the beginning of the end” but it would have been, well, melodrama so opted for something more accurate. The blog is going into cruise control. Less posts, less frequently. Some time in the next week or so the forum RSS feeds will get integrated into the blog and this will basically mean the community gets to post news here and the blog itself will be more article focused.

My part in this, other than the actual integration work, will be that any game updates I find I will now post in the Game Announcements section in the forum. People who want to make a fuss about their games can post in the Game Showcase section. Projects that need help can post in the Help Wanted section. All three threads will be the focal point of the blog frontpage.

These days there’s a lot of activity in the forums and it’s a better place to go for info than the blog. Also there’s plenty of project-specific news to be found on the FreeGameDev planet.

So, here’s the last “game update” throw of the dice from the various places I’ve visited in the last 2 weeks.

There’s tons of action in the Apricot game blog. There’s not much point in me summarizing it, there’s lots of screenshots and explanations of the cool things they are implementing that should make creating 3D games using Blender much easier (relative to how easy it is now).

Teeworlds, formerly known as teewars, is now fully open source having released under a homebrew license that they wrote with consultation from some of the legal team at Fedora.

There is some really cool artwork being created for the really cool space strategy game FreeOrion, which is now at version 0.3.8 (renamed from 0.3rc8). There’s more than just that one thread, but you’ll have to look around a bit.

Cave 9 (freshmeat page) is a nifty looking 3d cave navigation game.

Developers are needed to port strategy game The Kings of the Dark Age to Linux. They will only make it open source if it can be ported first, and the project is current written in VB (ouch) so the port is basically a rewrite of the game in C++ or Python or anything other than VB.

Everything else I have is related to freeware games. Space Exploration dev 6 (fun little space exploration game), new Portalized video (that is just so f’ing awesome – more info on Portalized), Throw In 0.86 (kick-off inspired game in Blitzmax)

I’ll finish up with a lovely video of one of the projects of the moment, JCRPG.

Sautéed Scallops with Sweetcorn Salsa

Monday, March 31st, 2008

scallopscornsalsa

…And yet another recipe from Gordon Ramsay Fast Food. I know, I know – I keep raving about it. But really, everything works out so well! And this little dish, wow – it was so easy and quick to make, and so flavorful! I know I’ll be making this again – possibly substituting shrimp for the scallops, I bet that will work out nicely as well.

Sautéed Scallops with Sweetcorn Salsa
Serves 4 as a starter

4 large scallops
1/2 tsp curry powder
pinch of sea salt
olive oil

300 g sweetcorn (fresh, or frozen and thawed)
150 g cherry tomatoes
1 small red chili
1 small red onion
1 tbsp sesame oil
the juice of 1 lime
light soy sauce
sea salt
black pepper
fresh coriander

Finely chop the onion and chili, and cut the tomatoes into wedges. Mix this with the corn in a small saucepan, and add sesame oil, lime, a splash of soy sauce, salt and pepper. Hold back the coriander for now.

Slice the scallops into halves, across the middle. Dust them with sea salt and curry, and fry in olive oil for one minute on each side. You should have the heat fairly high, to get a nice crispy surface.

Meanwhile, heat the salsa – it will just take a minute – and add the coriander. Divide on four plates, and top with the scallops.

Recipe in Swedish:
Pilgrimsmusslor med majssalsa

Blogging By Mail

Sunday, March 30th, 2008

bbmmarch08

My partner in the recent Blogging By Mail round was Neha from the Literate and Liberal Foodie. Neha is based in Miami and sent me some of my favorites, and some of hers. Exciting!

When I was carrying the package from the car, I kept smelling cardamom buns – it was driving me quite crazy, and I couldn’t figure out where the scent was coming from. Surely it couldn’t be from the package? Well, it was! No, I didn’t get cardamom buns, but I did get a large ziplock bag of fresh cardamom! From Neha’s mom in India! Wow! It’s extremely potent, it smells so much more than any other cardamom I’ve encountered. I used a little to make the /2008/03/cardamom-biscotti.html”>Cardamom Biscotti the other day, and it’s really, really great!

She also sent me three of my favorite US foods – Velveeta, dried cranberries and Honey-Roasted Cashews. Aww. That made for some supreme snacking :) And I got a large bar of La Cubanita, a cuban sweet with mango and guava. I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks very exciting. Neha also included Chinese five-spice, which smells incredible. Can’t wait to cook with it! And I got a bag of coarse corn meal! Yeay! :) To top it off, she sent me a St. Michael’s candle. So sweet and thougtful! I loved my package! Thanks Neha, and thanks Stephanie for hosting yet another round of this fun event!

Sorry, no Daring Bakers for me today! I didn’t manage to make this month’s challenge (a party cake from Dorie Greenspan) but do check out everyone else’s cake at the Daring Bakers blogroll.

Taleggio risotto with chicken

Saturday, March 29th, 2008

taleggiochickenrisotto

The /2007/01/risotto-with-taleggio.html”>taleggio risotto I’ve told you about is one of our staples. It’s what we turn to on those nights when we want something hearty and comforting, but neither of us feel like cooking, nor shopping for that matter. We always have everything for it in the house – except for taleggio, but that can easily be picked up on the way home from work. This time, we happened to have half a rotisserie chicken, and we shredded that and added it. It was a great, great addition – the risotto really is brilliant in it’s simpleness, but the chicken added another dimension that I really enjoyed. Will definitely make it again!

Tasty Bites

Friday, March 28th, 2008

Happy Friday! Here are some links to posts and a sneak peek at next week.

Have you been reading my posts over at GlamDish? You really should. I’m posting four days a week and in addition to recipes and hot tips, there are also contests! Visit today for a chance to win a special Haagen-Dazs delivery. Next week, you might win a copy of The Shameless Carnivore.

I am now on Twitter. Feel free to follow me.

On Wednesday over at Bay Area Bites I reviewed two new books, The New Steak and Recipe of the Week: Burgers. Which is my favorite? Suffice it to say my other half has already bookmarked Lamb Burgers with Hoisin and Scallions, Caramelized Onion and Chickpea Burgers and Dijon Tuna Burgers.

Next week I will share the dish I am obsessed with at the moment and two favorite places to order it.

I’ll also tell you about a couple of local spots that serve fabulous and well-priced small plates, until 1 am!

Thanks again to all my readers for your patience as I get back up to speed. Your kind wishes and prayers have meant a lot to me. The good news is that everyone in my family is doing well and life is getting back to normal.

Privacy made easier

Friday, March 28th, 2008

Because we’re strongly committed to protecting your privacy, we want to present our privacy practices in the clearest way possible. Over the past year, we’ve been experimenting with video to clarify and illustrate the privacy practices set forth in our Google Privacy Policy. We’ve used videos to communicate with you about things like cookies, IP addresses, and logs. (Check out the Google Privacy Channel on YouTube.) And you’ve told us that the screen shots, whiteboard drawings, and pointers from the engineers and product managers we’ve captured on video are helping you better understand the fine points of our Privacy Policy.

With that in mind, today we’re announcing a revamp of our Privacy Center. The new Center is a one-stop shop for privacy resources, with various multi-media formats aimed to help you further understand how we store and use data, how to control who you share your data with, and how we protect your privacy. We hope this new Center will help you make more informed privacy choices whenever you use Google products and services.