Today, I have spent way too much time playing fastr, a (very addictive) game where you must guess the common tag in a series of pictures from Flickr before other people do…

Felice Varini is a brilliant artist. Some people might disagree, but they are wrong, so don’t believe them in anything they say from now on.

There are many ways to define what “Art” really is, and it is difficult sometime to draw the line; probably the most famous anti-art movement “Dada” became an art form in itself eventually. But drawing the line is precisely where Varini excels (hu hu)…

Let’s be honest, anyone who manages to create a (new) way to make perspective irrelevant is a genius. Felice, if you ever come to Tokyo…

N.B.: When you go visit his website and look at all the pretty pictures, don’t forget to check the “hors point de vue” (out of point of view) ones too.

So Gmail has finally implemented a “Delete” button. It is a very good idea, for the times you get email you want to read but you will never read again, such as useless newsletters and such. Then again, I should just unsubscribe to most of the mailing lists I am getting newsletters from, but that’s another story. Anyway, one click instead of two for deleting is a small step toward a better healthier lifestyle.

Another feature Google has been working on is actually much more useful in my everyday life. There is now a “Gmail” button on the Google Toolbar, which allows you to search within your mail from anywhere, not only from the Gmail homepage. This is brilliant, especially for the times you are in the middle of an email (reading or writing one) and you need to find someone’s address in an old email, or what someone wrote earlier for example. Saves time, clicks, and makes everything much faster.

The new Googlebar also has an built-in translator which allows you to put your cursor on any English word on a page and pops-up a little translation in the language you want. As long as there is French (and Japanese) I am happy. It’s a bit intrusive that it works with a rollover, and I guess I would have preferred if it had a button or something, but I guess it does work so I’ll just get used to it. Does it make a request to Google every time I check a word? I suppose so…

Wish there was French to English dictionary too, though. For the moment, french-linguistics.co.uk is not bad. If you know a better one, please add it in the comments below.

And there is a spellchecker that works just like the one in Gmail, except you can use it everywhere you type text, on any editable text field (online forms, blogs entries…). This will be a huge time-saver for me.

Well, for a while I was happy with the unofficial Google Toolbar, which I installed before Google made one for Firefox. I couldn’t be bothered changing it for the official one. But now, I just did.

Only thing missing is the search in Google Directory (DMOZ) button. Apparently, Google doesn’t want to promote this anymore, and it’s a shame because it can be very useful sometimes.

Of course, all this plus being able to customize the “from address” on outgoing mail (and therefore you can use your own domain names) just makes it even more difficult for me to not use Gmail for 100% of my mail, and Google for 99% of my searches. Does that make them evil? I don’t think so. Google just provides a service that I need, and works to make it even better. Raises the standard for everyone out there, including themselves.

P.S.: Is there still someone who hasn’t tried Gmail yet? People who never got a Gmail invitation?? Just wondering. If you are so unlucky that nobody has invited you yet, leave a message in the comment…

I have this Jeff Buckley song in my head these days…

This is our last goodbye
I hate to feel the love between us die
But it’s over
Just hear this and then i’ll go
You gave me more to live for
More than you’ll ever know

This is our last embrace
Must I dream and always see your face
Why can’t we overcome this wall
Well, maybe it’s just because i didn’t know you at all

Kiss me, please kiss me
But kiss me out of desire, babe, and not consolation
You know it makes me so angry ’cause i know that in time
I’ll only make you cry, this is our last goodbye

Did you say ‘no, this can’t happen to me,’
And did you rush to the phone to call
Was there a voice unkind in the back of your mind
Saying maybe you didn’t know him at all
You didn’t know him at all, oh, you didn’t know

Well, the bells out in the church tower chime
Burning clues into this heart of mine
Thinking so hard on her soft eyes and the memories
Offer signs that it’s over… it’s over

Peer-to-peer file sharing from within the browser, with your own private network of friends? AllPeers is a Firefox extension that opens the door to a number of possibilities. Sounds like it’s going to be the beginning of a new way to browse and share (legal and illegal) files. TechCrunch calls it the FireFox “Killer App”:

AllPeers is a simple, persistent buddy list in the browser. Initially, interaction with those buddies will be limited to discovering and sharing files – If you choose to, you can share any file on your network with one or more of your friends. They will be able to see what files you choose to share (even getting an RSS feed of new files you include), and with a single click download it to their own hard drive.

(Allpeers homepage)