Amazon.ca Widgets

Please google, add a « global account search » utility

I use a lot of google services.  

Gmail, Notebook, Documents, Tasks, Calendar, Talk, and more.  In all these services, I can enter informations.  Sometimes, I want to find an information, I know that I wrote something about a subject somewhere, but I don't know where.  Is it in docs, notebook, tasks, or only in a talk conversation with a friend?

I suggest to Google to develop a global account search utility that will search all text of all my google services.  That could be very useful.

AOL finally did something great…

If you want to listen to the greatest online radio, with a huge different kind of music, including the best progressive rock channel (old and new, from TriumVirat to Dream Theater), take a look at the AOL – CBS Online Radio player.  This is awesome.

My favorites channels: progressive rock, and Rock Instrumentals.
If you want the best results, connect to this url with Google Chrome, and create an application from this url. You'll get a standalone player separated from the rest of the browser.

Je suis sur Google Street View!

Cet été lors d'un de mes retour à la maison dans le trafic, immobilisé à l'approche du pont Laporte, j'ai vu la voiture Google passer avec le bras sur le toit, la machine servant à prendre en photo les villes, pour l'application Google Street View.

Puisque leur travail est maintenant terminé dans le secteur de Québec, ils ont rendu disponible le fruit de leur travail.
Je me suis donc rendu au hasard à l'endroit où j'avais croisé la voiture Google… Surprise, elle était en action !
Je suis présent sur 5 photos, je suis tout content !  🙂  Le mec à moto, c'est moi!

Official end of Internet Explorer 6 support

There will be a big party on July 13 2010: That day will be very important for web developers.

On that date, Microsoft will officially end the Internet Explorer 6 support, meaning that no more security updates will be released for this web browser.
Will we be able to remove support for this browser from our application at this date?  
I hope that all retarted organisations will finally upgrade their browser to something else!
this month (september 2009), 49% of our visitors were using Internet Explorer.  And 31% of them are using IE6, that means that around 15% of our visitors are still using the 10 years old IE6.

The Great Windows 7 Mistake

I recently installed Windows 7 64 bits.  I was using Windows Vista 32 bits, so it was a great upgrade.  I can't say if the OS is really faster than Vista during my work process, but I am sure that the boot time is really faster.  I also really like the new taskbar, very useful and easy to use.

But, there is one thing that is really missing from Windows 7, that was included in Vista, and was a really great idea in vista.  This is the Sidebar.  I always work with 2 1600X1050 screens, and on the right side of my second screen, I started using the sidebar.  And after some months, I can say that I can't live without it.  Where I work, we planned to create some gadgets for this bar to integrate our tools with it.
Surprise, in Windows 7, Microsoft decided to change the gadgets behavior.  The Windows Gadgets can now go out of the bar, on the desktop.  But, the bar disappear !  We can't put the gadgets on the bar, there is no longer any sidebar!  What ?  If I put a gadget on the desktop, I will never see it.  If I put it "always on top", it will go over my application.  The sidebar was using a reserved place on the right of the screen, and no windows was going over or under it.  That was great.
You know what?  Because of this, I decided to look at some alternatives, and I realised that Google Desktop application provide a sidebar.  They have similar gadgets.  And, guess what, you can choose (listen to this Microsoft) to the place where you want your gadget, on the bar OR on the desktop.  You have the choice.  Why MS decided that the gadgets now go only on the desktop, and make the sidebar disappear?  That was a great mistake.  
Now our company is planning to create a Google Sidebar Gadget, and we are not sure if we will work on the MS gadget.  I can't believe that MS did that.  They open the door to Google for their sidebar. I plan that Google will really increase their sidebar during the following weeks. 
Suggestion to Google: Create a "stand alone" version of the gadget sidebar, without the indexer (google desktop engine).  I only want to use the sidebar, not the desktop search engine.  I disabled everything related to the indexing in the desktop options, keeping only the sidebar functionalities.

Why not use bing

Bing can be great.  It could be a new tool that will do a real concurrency for google, and concurrency is always good to make products evolve.  But, bing is hiding data.

I just found that, on the home bing.com page, if I type, I get suggestions, normal.  If I start typing "jeff fillion", (a local radio host from quebec), I see it in the suggestions.  If I type "Marissa Mayer", one of vice president of Google, I do not see its name as a suggestion.  But it is certainly one of the top searched name of the internet.  Is Bing hiding informations that come from google?

Windows Update

This morning, I got a new notification from Safari, that wants to install the latest version.  I clicked "install".  10 minutes later, I got a notification from FireFox who wants to do the same.  Yesterday, I got a Adobe Flash update notification.  And 2 days before, a Java update too.  Why do those software ask me my permission to update?  Why would I want to NOT update?  Where is the checkbox to tell those software to update my machine without notifying me?

The same thing is true for the Microsoft Update.  If a Windows Update is available that do NOT need the system to restart, please, just install it and do not notify me that you will install an update, and after, that the update had been installed.  I trust those companies, Sun, Adobe, Apple, Microsoft, and I am sure that they know more than me if the update is important for my machine.
My message to all the software developers in the world that produce updates of their application every month: ALWAYS let us activate an option that will do automatic update without any notification!

Climatiser sa maison en chauffant sa piscine

Cet été nous avons activé l'option "luxe" chez nous.  Pour la piscine, une thermopompe, pour la maison, un climatiseur, afin de se baigner entre 80F et 85F, et d'être à 23C sec à l'intérieur.  Du plaisir et du confort réuni.  Cependant je me demande si j'aurais pu tout faire avec seulement la thermopompe de piscine.  En effet, la température de l'air soufflée par la thermopompe est environ 10 degrés sous la température ambiante, et cet air est sec.  

C'est exactement le type d'air que je veux envoyer dans ma maison pour le confort en été.  Je n'ai rien trouvé pour le moment, mais je me demande bien s'il existe 1 système qui pourrait récupérer cet air froid et l'envoyer directement dans ma maison, au moins en partie, afin que je puisse en profiter, ainsi avoir 2 dans 1 avec un seul appareil.  

Il me semble que l'idée n'est pas si bête, je suis même surpris qu'aucun produit ne soit offert sur le marché pour combler ce besoin.  Comme c'est là, je refroidi l'air d'un côté avec ma piscine, et je la réchauffe de l'autre avec le climatiseur.  Bravo !

Locate Canadian and US AM, FM, TV, XM and Sirius antennas

I have created a very simple web application to help locate physical antennas in your area.

It is based on a public database provided by the Canadian government.  I only extracted the data and created some very simple lists, with links to google maps to see where the antennas are located.
The database contains information of all Canadian, and some Americans and Mexicans antennas, for AM, FM, Television and also Sirius and XM terrestrial repeaters.
The utility is located here: http://www.fredericmalenfant.com/antenna 
You will also get information on the power of the antenna and many other information.
I hope it may be useful to someone!
You can send me your comments on my contact  page.

Belle inspiration les québécois…

Tant qu’à faire une copie, ils auraient pu innnover un peu? Changer la caméra d’angle, ou encore mettre un gars au lieu d’une fille au début, qui ne marche pas de la même manière?

En tout cas… il y a 2 ans, les employés de la compagnie Connected Ventures ont parti 1 nouvelle mode avec ce vidéo., sur le son de la pièce Flagpole Sitta.

Aujourd’hui, notre bon gouvernement nous sort 1 publicité sur la consommation de légumes, sans aucune gêne de faire 1 copie de l’original.

Original: http://www.vimeo.com/173714
Copie: http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=ovplvvICd98