Guess what, there is a new feature on Google Reader. It’s going offline. You now have an option to read your feeds in offline or online mode.

We’ve used the newly released Google Gears, a browser plugin that enables offline web applications. Once you’ve installed Google Gears, you can download your latest 2,000 items so they’re available even when you don’t have an internet connection. To get started, simply click the “Offline” link in the top right of Google Reader.

You’ll need to download the Google Gears Setup file (188kb) which then download and install the plugin directly. This would take a while if your connection is slow.

Google Gears (Beta) is an open source browser extension that enables web applications to provide offline functionality using following JavaScript APIs:
# Store and server application resources locally
# Store data locally in a fully-searchable relational database
# Run asynchronous Javascript to improve application responsiveness

Once it’s done, you need to restart your browser and allow the plugin on the site. You then have the option to download your feeds and save them for offline reading.

Enabling the Google Gears plugin for the site


Downloading Feeds for offline reading

Online and Offline modes can be easily switched through by clicking on the tiny button at the top. The reader will synchronize the feeds accordingly.

Reader in Offline mode

More Info Links:
# Developer Site
# Developer Knowledge Base

Isn’t just sweet?

Here is one interesting contest I come across.

Every month, we’ll design a web page in Photoshop and host a competition to see who can turn it into the best web page. The designs we release will present specific markup challenges, along with design and coding considerations for everyone from web newbies to experienced developers.

The point of CSS Off is to make you think critically about web design, and then execute it on a dime. You’ve got 12 24 hours to take our design and slice it up.

The first contest starts at 1st June 2007. Can’t wait to see how it turn out. If time favors, I like to give it a try too.
To do so…I need to install Photoshop. I’ve been using Firework too much that I’m forgetting how to use Photoshop.
May be I’ll convert their .psd file into .png and slice it up. Will see their design first. Read details here.
Join along?

I read this news, Going to school ‘not compulsory’, on BBC other day and am thinking about it since.

Parents in England are being reminded that they have the right to educate their children at home if they wish.

My school years were filled with memories and remembrances that would sink in for the rest of my life. I enjoyed everything about my school life. You can appreciate more once you finish school and getting away from school environment. People tend to say they hate schooling or studying and just want to get over with it but in reality every single one of us misses our school lives later in our life. My high school and Uni years are nothing extraordinary yet they are one of my treasured memories. I’ve never think of home schooling as any normal person’s choice and I only understand those who home-school are to be:

• people with redundant amount of cash (filthy rich who can afford private tutors/governors)
• popular/famous people, where their fame gets in the way of public study (such as high-classed families, celebrities)
• handicaps and disabled people who need special treatment and
• those with unfortunate circumstance that they cannot do regular schooling (eg. traveling families)

Apart from those people, the average normal family should send their children to school and make the schooling (study at school) compulsory. After reading the article, I got some thoughts of my owe. What would I do in this case? What if I am a parent and am given a choice to either home feed the kid or send them to school? My answers are quite obvious and simple. If it’s in any normal situations, I’ll send my kids to school and never let them stay at home. If they don’t want to go, I’ll make them go. For the age of 1 – 18 they are in my control and for that they must act as I say. So go to school or ELSE!!!
These are some of the reasons they gave for home schooling.

SOME REASONS FOR CHOOSING HOME EDUCATING

1. Distance or access to school
2. Religious, cultural or philosophical beliefs
3. Dissatisfaction with the system
4. Bullying
5. Short-term particular reason
6. Child’s unwillingness or inability to go to school
7. Special educational needs
8. Parents’ desire for closer relationship with children

The article mentioned the pros only. What about the cons? My response to the above given pros would be :

1. The first point is understandable and can be added to those exceptional cases.
2. The second point is unreasonable. I would think whichever religion or culture that would restrict a child from going to school and oppose social interaction to be a lame culture.
3. The third point itself is lame so no farther expression to add on it.
4. Dealing with Bullies, gang fights and normal peer pressures are necessary to thicken your skin. You will encounter numerous bullies and abuses in life. School is the best place to get your first experience of the first step to enter the real life.
5. Goes into those exceptional cases as well so it’s fine.
6. If you give yourself in to your child’s will, you child will be spoil little brat. It is a parent’s responsibility to guide them through inspite of their unwillingness. If you fail to do so, you are also a spoil little brat’s Mom and Pa – the bigger brats. Ok for the second part of “inability to go to sch” will go to special cases of disable and handicaps who need special cares so it’s alright for them to home school.
7. If your child is a genius or the other-way-round then he obviously needs to get special classes of his own. So I agree that home school in this case is the best for him.
8. I have nothing to say except that they are the biggest idiots of all.

Here are more of my thoughts on some quotes in the article.

It is the legal right of parents to educate their children at home if they so wish and the Department for Education and Skills supports the right of parents to make this choice for their children.

It’s unspoken yet always there as one of the parents’ rights. There is no need to emphasize that it is a legal right. But since it has been legalized, it is better for those who needs an acknowledgement.

It really is so heart-warming to families to have their choices recognized in this way.

Sometimes having too many choices make you go stray. You get confused what to choose. Sometimes I wonder why can’t we all be given one best choice and just follow that? I always have a great difficulty making decisions. What if the one you choose is the wrong choice for you? You’ll be regretted for the rest of your life. Too many choices make me go nuts!

But the authorities have no right to enter people’s homes or make routine checks on children’s progress.

Again, too much freedom can be very dangerous if it is being misused. In this case, how can one monitor the progress of a child?

“Children learn in different ways and at different times and speeds.”

That is true, but IMHO they learn more in the presence of competitions and social interactions. They speed up their abilities in the presence of friendship and team work, provided that they are with a good peer group. Competition is a catalyst for personal improvement. Depending on how a person handles it, competition can either boost your goals or put you in misery and self depression. But for me, every competition is a good competition whether you win or lose. If you have the ability and strength to stand up for the competition then you are already a winner.

Home-schooled kid is like a little bug in a cocoon where he thinks the cocoon is the only world he know of and he exists around his little world.
# It restricts the social and mental development of your child. For eg. They might not know how to communicate with their peer group, how to handle different mind-sets.
# They lack social experiences such as school trips, parties, sports events etc.
# They most probably become a mommy/daddy boy, who don’t know how to grow up and always sticking to the parents.
# Time management problems. No good concentration at home, you can never do something properly at home in one sitting cos’ there is always too much distractions around.

Also there are some points that the article didn’t explained on which I wonder over.

# What about the home-school course work compare to proper school curriculum?
# What would they do for the tests and exams?
# Who would decide whether those home-school kids are qualify for the level?
# Which grades or reports they show to enter universities? (what are the prove of their qualifications?)
# Who would design/decide on those grade reports ie. which grade to give them? (since the educators are the parents themselves and no interference from outside is allowed)
# Will the employers accept those home-feed kids as qualify people for the job?
and so on……….So, if you are given that kind of option to either send your kids to sch or home-sch, what would you do/choose? Now it’s your turn. Let’s think it through and share with me.

Link: Going to school ‘not compulsory’

A good reading articles for all blogger. It’s long but good to take note. Here are the main points:

1. Whether to Disclose Paid Posts
2. Is Deep Linking Legal
3. The Legal Use of Images and Thumbnails
4. Laws that Protect You From Stolen Content
5. Domain Name Trademark Issues
6. Handling Private Data About Your Readers
7. Who Owns User-Developed Content and Can You Delete It
8. The Duty to Monitor Your Blog Comments, and Liability
9. Basic Tax Law Issues in Blogging
10. Limited Liability Laws and Incorporating
11. Spam Laws and Which Unsolicited Emails are Legal
12. Are Bloggers Protected from Journalism Shield Laws

Read full article here: 12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know

Over at WordPress.com, 3 new features have been added. Out of them, “Contact Form” features is very higly awaited feature and now it’s been out.

Here’s how: put

[contact-form]
in any post, and a simple contact form asking for the sender’s name, email address, website and comment will be inserted. When someone submits a message through the form, you receive that message in an email.

Other two include:
# Box.net Filesharing Widget
# More Slideshows

Personally, I don’t like slideshows so won’t be of much use for me but contact form is definitely a yes and the filesharing widget too. There are some more widget goodies under “Presentation Sidebar Widget” tab so check them out yarrh.

My work mates “SSP“, “Strange Pants“, “Kiti” and “The Boss” team up to write a new blog called “Lunch in Suva“.

“Humans exchanging money for food in Suva between 1200 and 1430, and writing about it.”

It’s not a cooking/recipe blog, it’s about the lunches – the venue, menu, price and the verdicts. So just roll it along and for you next lunch, you can try out one of the places they mentioned.

Just informing my readers and the rest that I’ve been invited to join GlobalVoicesOnline.org site as a regional author for South East Asia – Myanmar.

Motto: The world is talking. Are you listing?
It’s been a while they sent me the invitation; since the crisis about my “Populating mmBlog Gene Pool” post last year. Due to the event, I’ve turn down the request that time. Myanmar blogs have been blooming with a great speed these days and most of them post in Myanmar language so GV team in need of someone who is bilingual to help out rolling Myanmar feeds. I’ve already been rolling hundreds of Myanmar feeds so not a problem for me to collect news from the community. So for this re-invitation, I’m accepting it.

I’ll make sure…Myanmar Voices shall be heard!