Iain’s Blog

Like many people Google is my browser home page - it’s where I start almost every Internet search / browse from.

I might be a bit slow of the mark here - it’s possibly common knowledge - but here are a few useful things you can do with the Google search tool.

Calculator

To do some basic arithmetic just type your expression - hit search and Google will return a result.

Or something more advanced,

Units of Measure conversions

Convert gallons to litres, or acres to hectares, or bits to bytes,

Currency conversions

Or do a quick currency conversion,

Or how about a combination,

Pretty handy. Read more at the Google Guide.

Been using Google Reader for the last few months as my main RSS reader/aggregator - I was initially reluctant to go with a web based reader but have definitely gotten used to it with time. Having access from any machine at home, work, or when travelling is great.

This morning I lost the sidebar / panel thingy that usually lists your subscriptions on the left hand side of the screen - and in a bit of an airhead moment couldn’t quite work out how to turn it back on! I could still use the dropdown list but that’s a bit of a faff.

So, for all my fellow web thickos who have found this page - here’s how to turn on the missing panel.

Two options :

1. Click on the little arrow pointing to the right - this opens out the panel. It’s a bit on the pokey side which was how I missed it I guess. Doh!

2. Use the “u” shortcut key to toggle it back on again.

Incidentally - the Google Reader keyboard shortcuts are well worth a look - speeds up reading quite a lot. The ones I use most are :-

J - Next Item

K - Previous Item

S- Star Item

Shift-S - Share Item

Shift - A - Mark all as read

U - Hide / Show sidebar panel

And ……..

SHIFT-? to get a full list of shortcuts.

PS - Here’s an article from last year with some information on what RSS feeds are!