I was trying to get Google Gears working on my computer. Not that I would really need it, but I like the idea to be able to read my feeds offline. That comes really handy when you are travelling and you do not have any internet connection. You could easily get up to date by reading through the latest posts on your favourite blogs and news sites.

However, when I click on the link Google is offering (”Offline New!”) in the upper right corner of Google Reader it opens a window, gives me the opportunity to install the plug-in. The plug-in installs, but after restarting Firefox the “Offline” links still shows up and I can not download the feeds to my computer.

Is anyone running Google Gears with Firefox and Ubuntu 7.04? Any idea how to fix the problem?

[UPDATE|22.11.07] Google Gears works now on my notebook! Read the story “Finally Google Gears works on Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn)” to know more.

Beside that I still do not get how a company could pay such an amount for a business which yet has to find it’s business model, I start to like YouTube. I still consider 99% of the videos on YouTube total crap. But there are some nice, funny and interesting videos out there.
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Puh, finally the iPhone is in the stores. At least in the US. Maybe within the next few weeks the amount of news and blog posts on this gadget is going down. I just can’t stand it anymore.

If people are standing in line for your product you know that you are on a good way. The Apple mania is growing every day since the first iPod was published. And I have to admit, they have nice products. But I am always wondering what drives people to stand in line for a product that is not exceptional cheap (for what it is offering), nor incredibly advanced (no 3G), it is limited (no 3rd party software, only with one network, requires iTunes), nor is it limited on mid term (soon you will just walk into a shop and buy it). And as a early adopter you will have to cope with a few bugs (yes, also Apple is using early adopters as Beta-Testers).

I read about investment bankers standing in line for hours. I just can’t understand it. What makes people doing stuff they would never do for any other product?

I am sure it is a good product. But why would I stand in line for hours just to be among the first to own it? Especially with a not really attractive contract attached to it. AND: no one really knows, if the product works well. OK, Apple is known for fairly good products from the beginning, but lately (see the disaster of Safari for Windows) it seems that with the growing audiences the problems are growing, too.

So could anyone of you Apple fans tell me, why I should stand in line once the product comes to Germany? (not that I would, but…).