Google Search, Punctuation Marks and Other Symbols

Google usually ignores punctuation and mathematical symbols from a query because it doesn't index them. They rarely change the meaning of a query and Google's index would have to grow a lot bigger, without improving the results too much. Some punctuation marks and mathematical symbols are used to provide advanced features (for example: colon, quotes, minus sign, plus sign).

I've recently noticed that Google started to show results for queries like [.], [,], [:], [;], [#], [%], [@], [^], [)], [~], [|], ["], [<], [$]. When you search for [%], Google shows the results for [percent sign] and that happens irrespective of the interface language, so it's not a synonym generated by Google's algorithms.


Search for [:] and you'll get the results for [colon]. Most results are about the colon from the human anatomy and they're not relevant.

A New iGoogle Interface

Google tests a new interface for iGoogle, the personalized homepage that lets you add gadgets and themes. The updated interface uses the design patterns that should be familiar by now from other Google services. Tabs are now available in a dropdown that's displayed below the search box, while the left sidebar is only used for the chat widget. There are two buttons for adding gadgets and changing the theme next to the options menu.





{ Thanks, Brinke. }

Picnik and Other Discontinued Google Services

If you thought that Google will no longer close other projects this year, you were wrong. Picnik, one of the best online photo editing service, will no longer be available starting from April 20. Until then, you can use all the features from the paid version of Picnik for free. Google will focus on adding more Picnik features to Google+ and that's the reason why Picnik is discontinued.


Social Graph API, a great way to find public profiles and connections between people, will no longer be available. The service was used by Google to find your social connections and show social search results. Unfortunately, "the API isn't experiencing the kind of adoption we'd like, and is being deprecated as of today. It will be fully retired on April 20, 2012."

Google will also discontinue Urchin (the installable version of Google Analytics), Google Message Continuity (an enterprise service that allowed Microsoft Exchange customers to back up emails to Google's servers), Needlebase (a data management platform acquired from ITA Software) and Sky Map (an Android app developed "to show off the amazing capabilities of the sensors in the first-generation Android phones and offer a window into the sky"). Sky Map was open sourced and will be developed by Carnegie Mellon University students.

Google promises to take "a hard look at products that replicate other features, haven't achieved the promise we had hoped for or can't be properly integrated into the overall Google experience," so I'm sure we'll see other discontinued projects. From Orkut to Google Talk (the Windows software), from Patent Search to Google Bookmarks and Translator Toolkit, from iGoogle to Picasa, there are many projects that might be discontinued. Moving from standalone applications to platforms, Google gets rid of many tools that solved only one problem and tries to convince users to join all-encompassing services like Google+ or Google Apps.

If Google Results Aren't Helpful, Ask on Google+

Sometimes Google's results aren't that useful and they don't answer your question. Maybe the query is imprecise or obscure, the results are outdated or you don't have the patience to check the first 100 results to find something helpful. Asking your Twitter followers or your Facebook friends could be a great idea. Google doesn't integrate with Twitter or Facebook, but it experiments with a new feature that shows a message below the list of results: "Want to ask your friends about [your query]? Ask on Google+".


Clicking the link opens a Google+ box that already includes a message: "Hi there! I have a question about [my query]..." Edit your message, click "Ask" and the first results could show up in a few seconds in Google's notification widget.


Maybe Google+ also will include a revamped version of Aardvark and you'll be able to send your question to the right people.

Internet Connection Sharing Windows 7

"OM Swastyastu"

Internet Connection Sharing yang biasa disingkat ICS adalah penggunaan perangkat (laptop, mobile phone, komputer, dll) dengan akses internet seperti layanan 3G, Wi-fi, dan internet gateway yang lainnya sebagai jalur akses internet untuk perangkat yang lainnya. Agak ribet yah saya jelasinnya?? kurang lebihnya itulah menurut saya :). Untuk menggunakan Internet Connection Sharing komputer host harus memiliki adapter jaringan yang dikonfigurasi untuk menyambungkan ke jaringan internal dan satu adapter jaringan atau modem dikonfigurasi untuk menyambungkan ke Internet (ribet lagi yah kata-katanya??). Intinya komputer host harus sudah konek internet dan memiliki adapter jaringan.
Berikut ini cara konfigurasi Internet Connection Sharing di Windows 7 :
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New Google Accounts Require Gmail and Google+

If you try to create a Google account from Google's homepage, you'll notice that Google redesigned the page, but that's not all. You'll now have to create a Gmail account, a Google Profile and you'll automatically join Google+.

Until now, creating a Google account was quite simple. You could either use an existing email address or create a Gmail account. The redesigned form includes new fields: name, gender (required for Google+) and mobile phone number (not required).



"Your Google Account is more than just Search. Talk, chat, share, schedule, store, organize, collaborate, discover and create. Use Google products from Gmail to Google+ to YouTube, view your search history, all with one username and password, all backed up all the time and easy to find at (you guessed it) Google.com," informs the page.

You can still delete your Google profile, the Google+ content and also your Gmail account.

New users no longer have to manually create a profile and join Google+, while Google found another way to increase the number of Google+ users (currently at 90 million) and the number of Gmail users (currently at 350 million). I've always wondered why Google never offered the option to create a Gmail account when you sign up for a Google account and now that's the only way to create a Google account.

Update: You can still use the old form if you know the URL or if you click "Sign up for a new Google Account" in Google Calendar, Blogger and probably a few other Google products.



Google Docs, Google Sites and Google Groups use a different page that lets you sign up using a Gmail address or a different email account. Just click "use a different email" and you'll see the old form.


Update 2. A Google spokesperson sent the following statement: "We're working to develop a consistent sign-up flow across our different products as part of our efforts to create an intuitive, beautifully simple, Google-wide user experience. Making it quick and easy to create a Google Account and a Google profile enables new users to take advantage of everything Google can offer."

{ Thanks, Herin. }

Highlight Areas in Google Maps

Rodney G., a reader of this blog noticed a new feature in Google Maps. "When you search for a city or a county or a ZIP Code, Google Maps now highlights the boundaries of what you searched for. If you are zoomed out, the whole area is shaded pink. If you zoom in a bit, it has just a big pink border with grey shading. Zoom in even more and it's a dashed boundary with grey shading."




It's a really useful feature and the nice thing is that's enabled by default. Just search for a country, a city, a state or a ZIP code and Google Maps will automatically highlight it.

{ Thanks, Rodney. }

Google Code Search, Still Available

Google closed a lot of useful services to focus on Google+ and other core offerings. One of the best services that was recently shut down is Code Search, a search engine for open source code. If you go to google.com/codesearch, you'll see the following message:

"Sorry! Sadly, this service has been shut down. Much of Code Search's functionality is available at Google Code Hosting including search for Chromium. We're very sorry for the inconvenience."


Even though Google says that the service has been shut down, it hasn't. Just go to http://code.google.com/codesearch and you'll see the old homepage. All of the old features are still available and the results aren't restricted to Google Code Hosting projects.

Tips Agar Apache Bisa Membaca Htaccess

"Om Swastiastu"

Bagi kalian yang ingin menggunakan htaccess dalam sebuah website, tentunya kalian harus mengetest htaccess tersebut di localhost. Dengan kata lain, web server apache kalian harus bisa membaca file htaccess yang kalian buat. Disini saya hanya akan menjelaskan bagaimana membuat web server apache dari Xampp bisa membaca htaccess. Saya tidak akan menjelaskan web server lainnya seperti appserv karena saya tidak menggunakannya.

Saat kalian pertama kali menginstall xampp, web server ini belum bisa langsung membaca file htaccess. Maka dari itu, ketika kalian menjalan file yang telah diisi htaccess pada browser maka akan keluar pesan server error. Padahal kalian telah mengetikkan alamat web dengan benar beserta htaccessnya. Misalkan saja, alamat url ini
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Google's Censored Logo

Google censored its homepage logo in the US to protest against two bills that could damage the Internet and destroy its core values. "Two bills before Congress, known as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American business. Millions of Internet users and entrepreneurs already oppose SOPA and PIPA," explains Google.

Google's homepage also includes a link that asks users to "tell Congress: please don't censor the Internet." The censored logo is only available in the US, but the link is also displayed outside US.


While the new bills may seem to be well-intended, they're easy to abuse and they'll not stop piracy. "These bills would grant new powers to law enforcement to filter the Internet and block access to tools to get around those filters. We know from experience that these powers are on the wish list of oppressive regimes throughout the world. SOPA and PIPA also eliminate due process. They provide incentives for American companies to shut down, block access to and stop servicing U.S. and foreign websites that copyright and trademark owners allege are illegal without any due process or ability of a wrongfully targeted website to seek restitution," mentions a Google blog post.

Google's suggestion is to cut the funding for pirate sites. For example, ad services would be required to stop providing ads for sites created to infringe copyright and payment services would no longer be allowed to intermediate transactions between US residents and the company that owns the pirate site. I'm not sure that's a great idea because this law could also be abused.

Wikipedia and WordPress were a lot braver: they decided to make it more difficult to access their content. "For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia." That's the message you'll see today when you visit a page from the English Wikipedia (unless you press Escape before the page loads, you disable JavaScript, you visit Google's cached pages or use a plugin like Readability). Probably Google didn't want to divert all its search traffic to Bing and other search engines, but many top search results are Wikipedia pages, so Wikipedia's blackout will affect Google users.

Script Printer Kasir dengan PHP

"Om Swastiastu"

Jika ada diantara kalian yang mengembangkan sebuah aplikasi stok barang offline menggunakan PHP. Dan dalam aplikasi tersebut harus ada bukti pembayaran, maka kita perlu melakukan print pada setiap transaksi yang dilakukan. Biasanya untuk melakukan print pada web browser, kita menggunakan sintaks window.print() pada javascript. Nah, sekarang kita tidak akan menggunakan perintah javascript tersebut, tetapi langsung menggunakan sintaks PHP untuk melakukan print. Salah satu printer kasir yang banyak digunakan adalah printer kasir LX300 atau yang terbaru mungkin dari Matrix Point ataupun dari EPSON.

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Cara Sharing Printer di Windows 7

"OM Swastyastu"

Selamat pagi semua. Di pagi yang cerah ini saya mau berbagi cara sharing printer di windows 7 menggunakan LAN. Pastinya banyak dari kalian sudah kenal dengan LAN, untuk yang belum kenal LAN adalah singkatan Local Area Network yaitu jaringan komputer yang mencakup wilayah kecil seperti jaringan komputer kantor, kampus, gedung, maupun dalam rumah kalian. Saat ini, kebanyakan LAN berbasis pada teknologi IEEE 802.3 Ethernet menggunakan perangkat switch, yang mempunyai kecepatan transfer data 10, 100, atau 1000 Mbit/s.

Kembali ke topik utama, Jika di perusahaan anda terdapat lebih dari 1unit komputer dan setiap komputer terhubung dengan 1 unit printer tentunya tidak jadi masalah. Namun apabila di perusahaan anda hanya terdapat 1 atau beberapa printer tentu akan jadi masalah untuk mengeluarkan biaya lebih untuk membeli printer baru. Solusi yang tepat dari permasalahan itu adalah membuatkan jaringan/network sehingga sebuah printer bisa di sharing untuk semua komputer. hal ini tentunya akan menghemat pengeluaran kan???
Mau tau caranya????

Berikut langkah-langkah Sharing Printer :

• Pastikan semua komputer berada berada dalam satu network atau jaringan dengan nama group / workgroup yang sama. (Misal: ITPROGRAMMER). jadi semua komputer dalam satu network nama workgroupnya ITPROGRAMMER.

• Setting di komputer yang terdapat printer -- Buka Start -- Control Panel  -- Network and Sharing Center -- klik Change advanced sharing settings (ada di sidebar kiri) kemudian aktifkan Turn on network discovery, Turn on file and printer sharing dan Turn off password protected sharing.

• Kemudian buka Start -- Device and Printers -- klik kanan printer yang akan di sharing -- pilih Printer Properties -- klik tab "Sharing" -- isi centang pada "Share this printer" -- kemudian OK.

• Agar bisa diakses oleh komputer dengan OS berbeda (Misal: XP) klik “Additionel drivers” centang x64 dan x86 -- OK. 

Selanjutnya lakukan setting pada komputer Client. Caranya sebagai berikut :

• Install terlebih dahulu Driver Printer tersebut.
• Buka Start -- Device and Printers
• Klik Add a printer.

• Pilih Add network, wireless, or Bluetooth printer, lalu Next.

• Jika komputer, printer, dan jaringan berjalan dengan baik, maka secara otomatis printer akan muncul di daftar.

Pastikan :

"Komputer yang ada printer harus menyala dan sudah membuat sharing dengan printer

Printer juga harus dalam keadaan menyala (ON)

Jaringan yang di gunakan harus dalam keadaan baik."

•  Kemudian klik Next sampai Finish 

Sekian sharing saya di pagi ini. semoga bermanfaat. Salam IT Programmer

"OM Santhi, Santhi, Santhi OM"

Google Account Authentication Using Your Phone

How do you login to your Google account on a computer you don't trust? When you type your username and password, a keylogger could capture them and save them. If you have a phone or a tablet with you, there's a better way:

1. Just go to accounts.google.com/sesame on your computer (Open Sesame helps you remember the address) and you'll see a QR code for a special URL generated by Google.

2. Use a QR reader app like QR Reader for iPhone, Barcode Scanner for Android, Google Goggles, Google Shopper or Google Search for iOS. Scan the QR code on your phone or tablet and type the username and password of your Google account.

3. Now you can click "Start with Gmail" or "Start with iGoogle" and the corresponding service will automatically load in the desktop browser. Obviously, you can use any other Google service.



Update: Apparently, it was just an experiment and it no longer works. "Thanks for your interest in our phone-based login experiment. While we have concluded this particular experiment, we constantly experiment with new and more secure authentication mechanisms. Stay tuned for something even better," says Dirk Balfanz from the Google Security Team.

{ Thanks, Petros. }

Membuat Dropdown List Provinsi Di Indonesia dengan PHP

"Om Swastiastu"

Setelah sebelumnya saya memberikan artikel mengenai cara membuat dropdown list negara-negara di dunia dengan PHP, sekarang saya akan memberikan artikel mengenai dropdown list provinsi di Indonesia. List propinsi ini sangat berguna bagi kalian yang ingin membuat website yang mengharuskan kalian mengetahui lokasi dari user. Misalkan saja reservasi nasional atau membuat web seperti tokobagus dimana ada barang-barang yang diatur sesuai letak propinsinya, sehingga memudahkan orang-orang yang ingin mencari barang.

Disini saya akan membuat list dengan array, sama seperti sebelumnya, tapi list yang saya buat sekarang dalam array adalah acak. Jadi bisa saja negara dengan huruf S ada diawal sedangkan propinsi dengan huruf B mungkin dibelakang. Tapi saat sudah menjadi dropdown, maka list tersebut akan terurut secara alpabet.

Untuk mengurutkan array tersebut kita menggunakan fungsi sort dalam PHP.

$propinsi = array("Aceh", "Sumatera Utara", "Sumatera Barat", "Riau", "Jambi", "Sumatera Selatan", "Lampung", "Bengkulu", "Bangka Belitung", "Kepulauan Riau", "Jakarta", "Jawa Barat", "Jawa Tengah", "Yogyakarta", "Jawa Timur", "Banten", "Bali", "Nusa Tenggara Barat", "Nusa Tenggara Timur", "Kalimantan Barat", "Kalimantan Timur", "Kalimantan Tengah", "Kalimantan Selatan", "Sulawesi Utara", "Sulawesi Tengah", "Sulawesi Selatan", "Sulawesi Tenggara", "Gorontalo", "Sulawesi Barat", "Maluku", "Maluku Utara", "Papua", "Papua Barat");
sort($propinsi);

Diatas terlihat list array yang acak, kemudian saya lakukan pengurutan dengan fungsi sort. Jika sudah, selanjutnya kita buat dropdownnya dengan tag select dalam HTML.

<select name="provinsiuser" id="provinsiuser" class="inputbrg">
   <option value="">Pilih Provinsi</option>
      <?php for($i = 0; $i<count($propinsi); $i++){?>
         <option value="<?= $propinsi[$i]?>"><?= $propinsi[$i]?></option>
      <?php }?>
</select>

Sekarang jika digabungkan, maka akan terlihat seperti ini

$propinsi = array("Aceh", "Sumatera Utara", "Sumatera Barat", "Riau", "Jambi", "Sumatera Selatan", "Lampung", "Bengkulu", "Bangka Belitung", "Kepulauan Riau", "Jakarta", "Jawa Barat", "Jawa Tengah", "Yogyakarta", "Jawa Timur", "Banten", "Bali", "Nusa Tenggara Barat", "Nusa Tenggara Timur", "Kalimantan Barat", "Kalimantan Timur", "Kalimantan Tengah", "Kalimantan Selatan", "Sulawesi Utara", "Sulawesi Tengah", "Sulawesi Selatan", "Sulawesi Tenggara", "Gorontalo", "Sulawesi Barat", "Maluku", "Maluku Utara", "Papua", "Papua Barat");
sort($propinsi);

<select name="provinsiuser" id="provinsiuser" class="inputbrg">
   <option value="">Pilih Provinsi</option>
      <?php for($i = 0; $i<count($propinsi); $i++){?>
         <option value="<?= $propinsi[$i]?>"><?= $propinsi[$i]?></option>
      <?php }?>
</select>

"Om Santhi, Santhi, Santhi, Om"