What is Google OneBox?
Sometimes the very first result Google shows, is in a nice formatted stand out type of box called OneBox. For e.g. try “1KWD to USD”. Google instantly gives you the conversion of 1 Kuwaiti Dinar to US dollars. Other similar uses include finding the local time: “time kuwait” gives this OneBox result :
A new option of Google OneBox that has been doing the rounds now, is finding the time of Sunrise and Sunset of your location. For e.g check the screenshots I took for Sunrise and Sunset times in Chennai:
I live in Kuwait and so tried “Sunrise Kuwait”, unfortunately the option didn’t seem to work. But a little more digging and trial-error resulted in this:
Google OneBox stands most relevant for the State/City rather than the Country. Kuwait is a pretty small country and doesn’t have very clearly defined “states/cities”. But the capital of Kuwait is supposed to be “Kuwait City” which is basically like an area, hence the mild confusion. So try your Google OneBox searches against the City/State rather than the country.
What am I going to do knowing the timing of Sunrise and Sunset :P ?
Other Cool Google OneBox queries
The Google Operating System blog has a comprehensive post on some of the other useful Google OneBox searches.
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I’ve managed to convert both my Brother and Dad to the Androidian ways. Only Mom left now :) . Mobile apps are quite selective and would differ based on your needs and customizations. So I’ve tried to cook up an exhaustive list of awesome apps for the Android Mobile platform. You will most definitely benefit from these apps, whatever your required level of customization.
To help quickly install all your apps at one go, take a look at the Android app “AppBrain Market Sync”.
Click here for the complete list
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After much desperation,depression and waiting, GCal-SMS alerts is back for Kuwait cellphone users. For those unaware of this feature, sign in to Gcal –> Click Settings (RHS top) –> Click the Mobile Setup tab –> enter your mobile number and wait for the verification message. The rest is self-explanatory (make sure you pick the right country, the ISD code gets prefixed appropriately).
What this gold nugget of a feature does is essentially send you a reminder of any event by way of SMS. I practically lived with this feature up until 3 months back when the wonderful state of Kuwait decided to convert all telephone numbers to 8 digits. Gcal took sometime to reflect these changes. It is now back and I am a marginally more productive man as of today :D. Surprised the Google help group didn’t notify us of this update earlier!
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I was recently looking for a program that would easily backup all my emails from Gmail, without the hassle of setting up the POP3 and outlook express settings. Hold on, I know I’m not in my glog. I came across g-archiver. A tool that seemed perfect for my requirements. Upon further probing, I also came across this:
JESUS BREAK-DANCING CHRIST!*
PROPHET MOON-WALKING MUHAMMAD!*
SRI KATHAK-DANCING KRISHNA!*
This is like saying:- We regret to inform you, we just passed out your most important information on free annoying fliers stuck to the windshield wipers of a 100 cars.
- We regret to inform you, due to the incompetency of one of our sleep and coffee deprived under-paid IT developers, all your important passwords is just a click away from Wikipedia.
- more succinctly: We regret to inform you, you have just been totally screwed!
Bizarre as it may sound though, I will trust G-archiver’s future release.If you see the best tv serial there is currently on the planet – House, In “The Right Stuff” Season 4 episode 2, he says ….
….She’s going to be the safest astronaut up there. Certainly more vigilant than the guy next to her who’s got no clue about the aneurysm in his head ready to pop.
Courtesy: Wikipedia**
I’ve worked in IT for quite some time now and Colleagues have told me that in their previous IT-Banking experience, getting one’s bank balance was as simple as asking your friendly DBA(Data base administrator) to shoot an SQL search query. Trust me, what you see in the movie-”Changing Lanes“which is a really nice movie btw, but movie-review someother time-where Ben Affleck asks Dylan Baker to do the erase/restore bank account shit of Samuel Jackson- isn’t too difficult to achieve. A simple delete all could basically ruin your life altogether. The system is that nebulous. The mistakes you can make are so small yet unimaginably costly. If a software company is so bold as to come out and admit they’ve made a colossal mistake, I think they’ve made it a point to be extra careful next time. They ain’t going to be repeating such a blunder again.People who have been that close to disaster, wouldn’t dare to make the same mistake again.
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*No offense intended to anyone through this message of exasperation. I like to think of myself as a religious person, despite the message appearing to point otherwise.
**Wikipedia has this copyright message: “to provide critical commentary on the film, event, etc. in question or of the poster itself, not solely for illustration”. So I don’t suppose I’m violating any copyrights here?
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