Google Gears

Google Gears is an open source browser extension that lets developers create web applications that can run offline. Gears provides three key features:

* A local server, to cache and serve application resources (HTML, JavaScript, images, etc.) without needing to contact a server
* A database, to store and access data from within the browser
* A worker thread pool, to make web applications more responsive by performing expensive operations in the background

Google Gears is currently an early-access developers' release. It is not yet intended for use by real users in production applications at this time.

To take advantage of the offline features provided by Google Gears, you'll need to add or change code in your web application.

There are three core modules provided by Gears: a LocalServer for storing and accessing application pages offline, a Database for storing and accessing application data on the user's computer, and a WorkerPool for performing long-running tasks (such as the code that synchronizes data between your server and users' computers).

Surprise Yahoo! Messenger Friends Who Pretend to be Offline

You want to chat with a buddy on Yahoo! Messenger but his status on Yahoo! says Off-Line.

There are two possibilities here - your friend could be really offline or he may have logged into Yahoo! Messenger in “Invisible Mode” to avoid interruptions.

(Yahoo! Messenger has a Stealth settings feature that lets you choose the people who see you as online and offline.)

You can however beat that mask easily with services like Xeeber or VNGrabber that reveal the exact status of your Yahoo! Messenger friends or any other Yahoo! user.

All you have to do is type the Yahoo! Messenger username and you will instantly know the exact online status of that person. Time to put on your detective gloves.

Visit XeeBer.com and VNGrabber.com