ezCandlesticks' Google Gadget Home Page

What does it do? Well, it works with Google Desktop , so you'll have to have that first. Our Gadget will sit there and each day deliver a daily Japanese Candlestick definition, pulled fresh from our database straight to your desktop! In addition, there's a little button you can click to access our Specials channel. It's pretty much an advertising page, but it's only our stuff, and you only see it when you want to. The Gadget has some nifty features like user selectable opacity, text color, and background images. You can even load your own picture from your computer as a background! There's no gimmicks, it runs under Google's APIs (programming language stuff), it's free, and it performs as advertised.
So far, I can safely say it works on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux based machines.

Our Gadget is now featured on Google! After you get the Gadget and play with it a bit, it would be great if you would go to the Google page and comment on it. I'd love to see what folks have to say. :)
(And yes, they are listing an older version. They scan every few weeks, so it'll take them awhile to catch up.)
Just as some extra info, downloads from Google, and Download.com, do not increment the download counters on our download page.

Known bugs- will be addressed in the next release:

1. It has been reported that user selectable font colors and backgrounds do not work on Linux. I'll have to research that item. All else was said to work with no errors.
2. I have just discovered that some Macintosh machines may not be indentifying themselves to my gadget as expected. Please if you have a Mac and experience any issues tell me. I'm here, and I'll fix it, but I need to know details. email me: austin.gadget at gmail.

Planned Improvements:

1. For now, the gadget has a simple timer routine to check for new feeds every 4 hours. I'm working on a better sytem that will check local time upon install, and then schedule an update during the night (local time). One concern that has delayed this being implemented is I want to be certain that I have a good randomizing routine setup first. I'd hate for a whole lot of gadgets to decide to hit the server at the same time.
2. Along the same line of thinking... If the gadget tries to connect to the feed and is unsuccessful, it displays a message to the user. But that's all it can do. I think it would be more robust if, in addition to the message for the user, it at least retained the last successful feed. That way, even though the feed would be out of date, it would prevent the user from having an "empty" gadget. This may be appreciated by people that do not have an "Always On" Internet connection. The downside to this is the entire feed would have to be stored in memory, thus imposing a slight performance hit on the host pc, or stored in a file on the pc. File storage is only available on Windows based computers. Still thinking about this one.
3. I'm considering adding an additional channel to the gadget. The new channel will contain the "Known Bugs" and the "Planned Improvements", with a direct email link to me. I think this would enhance my ability to get feedback and fix issues quicker.
4. I still want to make the text color selection a slider bar instead of radio buttons. I just think it would make a nicer interface.

1. Gadget gets a daily definition via RSS from our Encyclopedia database (located in the Lounge).
2. Has an additional “Channel” accessed by clicking on “Specials” button (shows our advertising).
3. In normal state in the sidebar, gadget will display the term’s title and picture.
4. Clicking on the image will open a details window that will display content (either definition or specials ad).
5. When collapsed in sidebar, gadget will display the term and small icon image of the term (Windows systems only).
6. Gadget has a local Help File. Doesn’t require Internet access to read our Help File.
7. User can:
   • Select from 4 included backgrounds (including clear).
   • Select an image from their computer as a background (Windows systems only).
   • Change text color.
   • Select Gadget Opacity (limit set to 20 to prevent “losing” gadget).
8. When a new version is available, gadget will alert user.
9. Has a backup server feature, gadget will attempt to connect to a secondary feed server if first fails.
10. Gadget has smooth degradation- it will inform user if connection fails and give details. Gadget will then attempt to automatically reconnect every 10 minutes if left active.

1. Added a silent indicator of new content on Specials Channel:
   In the form of a "New" graphic that appears when there is new content on the Specials channel, and disappears after the user clicks on the button the first time.
2. Completely revamped the New Version alert system:
   Removed the popup. Now when a new version is available, the main title changes to "New Version Available". When the user clicks on the main title, it opens the details view and displays content from our "Version" RSS feed. Clicking on the details title will take the user directly to gadget download page.
3. Implemented a Stats System:
   When the gadget is opened, it sends the word "open", the version number, the operating system, and a random number based on the system clock to my database. When the gadget is closed is sends the word "closed" and the same random number. The word "closed" triggers a deletion of that entry in the database. The result is I can create a page based on this data to generate real-time stats of active gadgets. Note that even though I collect the name of the operating system, the number is purely random and unidentifiable. In addition, this number gets regenerated every time the gadget is opened. There is no historical data, only how many gadgets are active at any given time.
4. Added Image Resize:
   In the previous version, I failed to add image resizing to the image that shows up on the main window. This caused some image placement issues.
5. Reorganized contents of the gadget and cleaned up code.

1. Now, as long as an Internet connection is available, clicking on the title on the Help details window will open our Gadget Home Page.
2. Corrected a minor timer error that would make the spinning loading graphic appear to “stutter” when performing the backup server routine.
3. Sometimes on a slow or faulty connection, the gadget would connect to the server and think it had received data, but the data would be malformed. The result is the gadget would appear blank. In an effort to make the gadget more robust, I completely revamped the gadget’s RSS feed system. I created a completely new database dedicated to the gadgets, new server side scripts, and of course new code in the gadget. Now the Definitions, Ads, and Version Info channels are in one feed. Hopefully this will improve the delivery system. Time will tell.
4. Important to Know: It will be essential to get this updated version. As I said, it uses a new RSS feed. After a reasonable amount of time, the original feed will no longer be formatted for the gadgets and the result is any older gadgets will not work properly.

Gadget fully opened, with clear background