Although I am still getting use to the idea of video chat (it seems weird looking at ugly faces) I am enjoying talking to European, Middle Eastern and American minds from around the world about the common topics that makes everyone…nervous.

I have just joined a skypecast regarding middle eastern topics regarding everything from Jihadism to Iran to whether the US is evil (or not) to nuclear weapons.

Despite the fact everyone walks away with the same opinions that they had, this exchange is refreshing as it gets all sides (even if they start to yell).

So after experiencing even more problems with Firefox (see previous post for details) and testing out several different browsers, I have decided to go with Maxthon browser, with IE7 as a backup.

Maxthon seems to combine the best of the three most popular browsers online:

It has the the speed of Firefox
It has the security of Opera
And last, it displays the glory of the web like IE7

But the main reason for converting over was this:

Unlike the other browsers, Maxthon has a built in measure to prevent it from consuming too many resources.

I think IE7 has something similar (although not quite as effective) while Opera and Firefox both simply continue to grow, although the latter at an alarming rate.

Now if only I could convert my GreaseMonkey hacks and Firefox extensions over, then I would be perfect!

Note: Maxthon is a little weird in Blogger WYSIWYG, although I’ll have to troubleshoot it some more.

Warning: You are about to enter the geek zone. You’ve been warned.

So PC World did a review of the top 100 best products in technology today, which includes everything from game consoles to software to music platforms to more geek toys!

Google Apps seems to have killed off all of their competitors, taking the top spot, something the Googlers seem to be really excited about.

There were also a few surprises along the way including:

• Yahoo! Mail Beta (27) beating Google’s Gmail (31)
• Paint.net (19) beating Google’s Picasa (36)
• Nintendo Wii (3) beating Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Elite (18)
• Pandora.com (17) beats Apples 80 GB Ipod (26)

This really has been a very interesting year in technology. I’m disappointed that OQO did not make the list, neither did several other applications as well. Oh well, better luck next time I suppose!

For those of you who are wondering, this video may help explain it all…

Still confused? You may need a translation.

It looks like I am going to be putting more of my life on Google’s servers, this time future business projects (as long as it is legal that is).

(Google Docs & Spreadsheets Blog) Whenever those of you who use Gmail receive a spreadsheet or a document in an email, you will see a new link next to the “Download” link that says “Open as a Google document.” Click on that and the attachment will automatically be imported into Docs & Spreadsheets and added to your personal document list where you can make changes, invite collaborators and search for it later. We hope you like it.

If they continue doing cool things like this, Google will end up being a portal–that is if they are not one already.

Note: Is it me, or did Google finally open up comments on their blog?

Apparently their is a site stealing content from one of my weblogs, Inside Orkut.

I am not going to mention the site here (or the host) but I hope to resolve this issue privately in order to spare the hosting company bad media that can be picked up by the ever vigilant Google bots (aka Google spiders).

I’ve ran into this problem before, but thankfully the person in question last time apologized and complied (in essence, removed the offending posts as well as the site).

Hopefully a peaceful solution can be found as I have better things to do than dealing with content theft.

Update (1/11): Problem was resolved. Thanks Mr. [Host Company]!