Weekly Google Code Roundup for June 25-29th
By Dion
Almaer, Google Developer ProgramsIt has been a great
week. From the new Google Gadget Ventures, to the new ability to click and drag locations on
Google Maps, and beyond with some fantastic talks that were given on campus.
In API and developer-product news...
Do you like
developing gadgets? Have you started to make a business around the ones you have developed? We
want to help, and we announced the
Google
Gadget Ventures program which allows you to apply for grants, and even seed
investments.
The
Google Mashup Gallery is a mashup
itself, that allows you to add your mashup to the mix. Now, everyone will be able to find your
Britney vs. Christina mashup!
AppleScripting
Google Desktop means that you can
tell the Google Desktop
application to do things for you via script. Boss around the system from your own applications
and scripts.
The new Google Earth Outreach program has some tutorials
such as showing you how to
create KML from a
spreadsheet.
Around Google
Instead of statically working with points on Google Maps. Now you can
click and
drag points around, which results in your driving directions redrawing on the fly.
This can be addicting.
Docs
and Spreadsheets just got easier with a new look and feel, and a new folder view.
Don't worry though, it is still tags behind the scenes.
Google
Desktop is now available for Linux: Since some Linux users are program developers,
Google Desktop was designed with the ability to search source code and information contained
in .pdf, .ps, .man and .info documents. It also features the Quick Search Box ,which you can
call up by pressing the Ctrl key twice. Type a few letters or words into the search box and
your top results pop up instantly.
Put
your photos on a map, and Picasa on your phone.
Featured Projects
Facebook Gadget Receive your latest
notifications on Facebook, check out your friends' latest updates, view photos, and even
launch searches all from your Google Homepage.
Fill That Hole has a new
Pothole
Mapplet that keeps you in the know as you choose your biking routes.
Google Tech Talks
Simon Willison gave a talk
on the
the
implications of OpenID and placed his slides
online for
your pleasure.
Raph Levien came to talk to us about
his lessons from
Advogato, the community blog for free software developers.
Cameron Purdy discussed
getting
Coherence discussing data grids and what they can do for you.
Philippe Mougin, the project lead of
FScript - a scripting
solution for Mac OS X / Cocoa, discussed the project which "is much more than just a
scripting language, like smalltalk it provides a set of high level exploration, browsing and
development tools which let you explore Objective C libraries as easily as FScript
ones."
View
more tech talks.Podcasts
Summer
of Coders at Google: Desmond ElliottDesmond Elliott visited a few weeks
ago and I got to catch up with him about his work on the
Camino
project for SoC 2006 and his
plans for
working with OpenMRS this year. Desmond also has the usual sage advice for would-be
Summer of Code students and some thoughts on
our first
SoC podcast with Angie Byron from the Drupal project.
