Rose and Crown Refurbishment

Google Desktop Search is flawed

I use Google Desktop Search (GDS) and find it invaluable. The "Browse Timeline" option is really useful but I find that I have to organize my work to suit GDS because it's missing some really basic configuration options.

I only want GDS to index data files, so I have set up a drive just for data and I exclude all other drives from the GDS search crawler. GDS can't recognize some of my data files yet they are still indexed and they'll never be found in any search except by filename - an option to exclude specific file extensions would solve this.

The other problem is email. I have to have Microsoft Outlook switched off when I'm not using it. If I leave it on I get spam (which spambayes takes care of) then GDS indexes the spam. So, to suit GDS, I stop GDS indexing, check my emails, delete the spam, then start GDS indexing. If I'm unlucky I'll get some spam delivered while I've left Outlook on with GDS running (so it can index the email) - an option to exclude specific email folders would solve this.

Because GDS is so valuable to me I change the way I work to suit the software. I imagine that the two (fixes?) enhancements I require wouldn't be too much trouble to implement. How do you get software improved when it's free?

Blunkett-Evans

Blunkett-Evans

Added new domain blunkett-evans.com

Magrathea in ARC 2007

Added some new pages to http://yacht-magrathea.com including news and ARC 2007

Torpedo Dolphins

Life is just not fair. The owner's wife travelled all the way over to Las Palmas to wave us off from the dock and wish us God's speed. She also endured ages waiting on the shoreline trying to identify us among the hundreds of yachts milling around to capture the ultimate startline photo. Despite all that she has not yet seen any dolphins nor any phosphorescence - and last night we saw both simultaneously! In the dark early evening yet another pod of them arrived and zoomed up both sides of us. In the dark we could see nothing in the water but the phosphorescence churned up by their bodies and air bubbles. It looked like a series of green torpedoes streaking down the side of the boat. Quite spectacular.

Nothing much else is spectacular. The wind has wobbled around 13 knots with a moderate swell. We cannot carry the spinnaker very well in these light winds - and in any case we cannot hold the course we want so we are back to main and poled out genoa. It can be quite pleasant for whole minutes at a time before the boat succumbs to a pendulum attack and we have to put up with five or six major swings with all the associated clashing and flapping of sails. We've talked to a few boats on the VHF and know that they have tried everything like us and are suffering in the same way. Apart from that the sky is clear blue, the sun is hot and the sea is relatively flat. Some might call it champagne sailing - but you would not keep your champagne inside the glass for long in these conditions. No pictures so far today. The crew have been streaming fishing lines again and managed to hook what they say was a big dorado - enough for about two evenings dinners. Chef was a little more sceptical -something along the lines of "I'll believe that when they have got it on board". Chicken it is tonight - the fish managed to escape and so no photographs of the triumphant fisherman with the catch. We are assured it is just a matter of time. Hmmmm!