google，春运交通图，google book，电子书

漫天的冰雪中，谷歌通过黑板报发布了春运交通图，被网友们誉为"雪中送图"，体现了一个成熟企业的社会责任，也是谷歌在中国本土少有的漂亮动作，无论从政府公关，产品宣传，还是用户口碑，谷歌赚得了满堂彩。

在这张图上，谷歌以图标的形式在原有的电子地图上增添了与天气信息相关的信息。点击春运沿线重要城市上方的天气图标，地图上就会弹出这个城市详细的天气、交通、道路和其它相关信息。

• 天气方面：以图标的形式在原有的电子地图上增添了与天气信息相关的内容。点击重要城市上方的天气图表，地图上就会弹出这个城市详细的天气情况。
• 交通方面：在重要的交通枢纽上方，大家还可以看到一些火车、汽车或飞机状的小图标，打开它们则能了解该地交通的最新情况，如停止售票、关闭机场和汽车停运的时间和原因，停运的车次，车站或机场滞留的旅客人数以及在何处退票等。
• 主要道路：春运交通图上还标出了主要的铁路、高速公路和国道，如果铁路或公路被"加红加粗"、那就说明它可能处于封路或受阻状态。点击后即可了解滞留人数、目前情况、持续时间。
• 其他内容：除了这些图标信息外，谷歌春运交通图左侧列出了和春运相关的、涉及天气及交通的标题，例如"上海停售长途火车票"或"南京机场关闭"，不必费力放大、缩小和拉动电子地图来寻找关注的城市和地区，只需点击这些标题，电子地图就会自动平移到相应的城市或地区，弹出详细的信息。

反观google的老对手百度，似乎对这场牵动亿万人心弦的雪灾十分冷漠，相反，其官方博客上洋溢着一种浓浓的节日喜庆气氛。至少在这次灾难面前，百度似乎慢了一点。

今天用google book浏览了一本书，在阅读过程中总想做成电子书，以便以后方便浏览。参考了很多方法，终于摸索出了一点门道。

1. 网上介绍的firefox浏览器+ScrapBook插件的方法，技术含量虽然很高，但实际操作性还是较差，主要是在后期制作时，通过scapbook采集的页面像素太低，pdf制作软件读不出来。
2. 最好的办法是用不同的用户名、在不同的时段登录，并用snagit软件截图，把每一个页面按顺序命名，存在一个文件夹里。我发现在不同的时段，用不同用户名登录时，google book显示的页面是不一样的，这样把几个浏览结果结合起来，就可以大大突破浏览限制。注意，google现在已经接受非google用户名登录，这样，大家就不用再申请新的google帐号，只要把自己以前申请的闲置不用的帐号，充分利用起来就可以了。另外，第一次采集页面的时候，尽量以游客身份浏览图书，因为我发现google给游客提供的页面，在数量上远远多于给注册用户的页面。想不通为什么。
3. 利用PDF gold软件，把保存的单个页面文件合并为pdf电子版图书。PDF gold完全可以作为adobe acrabat的替代品：文件小，功能全，集pdf文件的制作、阅读和编辑功能于一身。

今天就用这种方法，做了一本一百多页的几乎没有断页码的电子书，颇有成就感，感觉就像这本书就是自己写的。


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Google 十问

I've read two posts today, both of which are concerned with Google. One of them must have been around on the web for long but i am not informed of it until today. I read it from KDnet, It is ten things google finds to be true:

1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.

2. It's best to do one thing really, really well.

3. Fast is better than slow.

4. Democracy on the web works.

5. You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer.

6. You can make money without doing evil.

7. There's always more information out there.

8. The need for information crosses all borders.

9. You can be serious without a suit.

10. Great just isn't good enough.

I guess some of them are not attributable to google since they are self-evident for all of us, like quick is better than slow. but what makes google great is that it knows which philosophy can help it to make money.

The other post that interests me today is from dougbelshaw, He mentioned a wiki entry at wikispace that is intended to collect the questions to be asked by educators in U.K. in a forthcoming interview with a member of the Google Education Apps. At present, Google Education Apps are available for free for the educators in U.S, and this interview can be seen as a gesture that the UK educators will have a similar privilege to get the service pretty soon.

Some of the questions are exactly the ones I would ask Google:

1. Do Google anticipate launching a UK Educators program as Google currently organise the US? - KristianStill Jan 20, 2008 12:53 pm
2. Will Google be incorporating Jot wikis into their Google Apps packages anytime soon? - MrBariexca
3. Are there plans to bring other Google services into the Apps for Education package (notebook would be particularly useful) - mrstacey
4. Are you considering creating two tiers of user as quite a few schools have requested, one for students and one for teachers - mrstacey
5. I love Page Creator! Any chance on getting a table feature? (also, I'd like to work for Google! lol) - badger
   
6. Have the 'Google Apps Team' got plans to include Google Maps and Google Page Creator as part of the Google Apps package? (Richard Allaway via dougbelshaw.com) （Isn't GPC currently one components of Google Apps? )
7. What do Google Presentations offer that Slideshare, etc. does not? - mrbelshaw
8. Is Google planning an official mashup creator for its products (along with others) similar to Microsoft's Popfly? - mrbelshaw
9. As many of Google's products form the basics of a VLE, will Google be officially entering a targeted VLE solution over and above Google Apps for Educators? - mrbelshaw When will Google have their wiki (Jott) open? How will it integrate with the rest of the Gsuite? via Twitter @dkuropatwa
10. When will the Google Educator programme open in Canada? via Twitter @dkuropatwa

After reading questions, i have the sense that my colleagues in U.K. are far more fortunate than those in China, since they can appreciate the operation of google's phisophy without needing to worry some of the google services can not be accessed, which is exactly what's taking place in China.

If there is an interview between google apps team and chinese educators, I may ask these questions:

how can google improve its public relation with chinese government so that more people will appreciate the services that google provides for educators?

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