TechLifeWeb

I really like the new Beach theme in Gmail. The problem I have with it is that the scroll bar on the right becomes invisible in Google Chrome.  On the right is a snip from my screen.

Fortunately, we can fix this with an extension and some script.

First, go get the Stylish extension and install it.

Then go to this page where my script is: New Gmail – Visible Scroll Bar and click the Install with Stylish button. Once you do that and go to Gmail, the scroll bar will be a nice blue color. And it will stay blue no matter which theme you try.

If you don’t like my choice of blue, you can right-click on the Stylish icon at the top of your browser and then click Options. Then you click the Edit button under the name of the script.  You’ll then see a line that says rgba(0, 122, 255, 0.7) The first 3 variables are RGB code (search around the web for help with finding the code to a color you like). The 0.7 part has to do with transparency so you can experiment with that. Just click save and go back to Gmail (or, easier, open Gmail in another tab).

Hope that helps some people out.

I’ve started reading RSS feeds again.  Recently, most links and news I’ve been finding has been through social services like Twitter and Google+.  I decided to declare ‘RSS bankruptcy’. By this I mean I went to Google Reader,  deleted all the feeds I never read and marked everything as read. Blindly. Face it, life is too short to go in there and get all worried that you missed some scoop or something fascinating. If the news is that big, you’ll hear about it elsewhere.

I’m not sure what prompted my return to RSS but I can tell you what has helped a lot. It is no secret that I am a huge fan of Google+ and recently I started using an extension for Google Chrome that makes sharing within Google Reader a breeze. It is called RSS Share for Google Plus™ and Google Reader™.  It is great, but but I’m not a fan of the defaults.

Be default, the extension creates entries on the left side of your Google+ to your various Google Reader Feeds and shows the ones that have unread entries.  This lets you stay in Google+ and read new Google Reader entries as they come in.  Sounds great on the surface but I happen to like keeping all my feeds over in Reader and I think actually slows down and messes with the Google+ experience. Thankfully, this is an option you can  easily turn off.  To do that, click the wrench in the upper right of Chrome. Then go to Tools, then Extensions and find the RSS Share for Google Plus and Google Reader extension and click options. Deselect ‘Add Google Reader to Google+’ and ‘Show Read Items on Google+’.  After that, all the integration is over on the Google Reader side and nothing is messed with in your Google+ experience.

Now, when you go to your Google Reader, you’ll have a new option under each article called ‘Share on Google+’

Clicking that link with give you the standard sharing box you are used to if you use Google+.  The box appears in the upper right of your browser, lets you choose who you are sharing with and gives you to opportunity to add some text of your own.

Read more. Share more.