Naveen’s Blog

My post on downloading videos from video-sharing sites like YouTube, Vimeo, Metcafe, etc. using Real Player has become more popular as it was an easy way and supported almost all video-sharing websites.  When I learned this feature in Real Player, I have ignored every other trick and stick to Real Player to download the videos.

Now downloading these streaming videos has become even more simple and easier with FlashGot.  Install this tiny plugin in Firefox and you are done.  Now go to any streaming video site and play the video and you will see a video frame icon in the status bar prompting you that it has got the link to the video.

Actually, FlastGot is used to download multiple files from the webpages at a single click.  FlashGot sends all the files and images in a webpage to an external download manager or to the Firefox’s internal download manager.  This video downloading facility is an extra feature it has.

FlashGot instantly recognizes the streaming video we are playing in the browser and shows a video frame icon in the status bar.  When you hover the mouse onto it, it shows available formats of the video along with the FLV file.  Just click on one of the format you need.  Keep in mind that FLV files downloaded using FlashGot will not have the extension.  You can just drag and drop it into VLC Player or Wimpy to play the video.

Get FlashGot and start downloading your favorite videos.

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This week I have worked on a project, which required me to categorize few websites and show screenshots of those websites arranged neatly.  Special requirement was dynamic creation of website screenshots because if the administrator wants, he will just add the URL and the screenshot need to be generated automatically.

I have searched for few solutions and ended up using Websnapr.  It has very simple API to fetch the screenshots of websites.  If it does not have the screenshot for the website we need, it will update it in few seconds after the first request made for it.

There are free and premium services available.  Free service allows 100,000 requests per month and if your site needs more than that, then you need to upgrade.  It is around $45 per month.  Website screenshots will be updated once in a month.

Go to Websnapr and register for a free account with the domain where you want to implement their service.  It will give you an API key, which looks like “123ABc1abcdA.”  Then, edit HTML of your website and use the following code to render the dynamic web screenshots.

<img src=”http://images.websnapr.com/?size=Size&key=YourAPIKeyHere&url=http://www.DomainURL.com” />

“Size” parameters: Use “T” for 92×70 pixel screenshots and “S” for 202×152 pixel screenshots.

If your site requests are more than 100,000, either you need to upgrade to their premium service or you can use tiny Firefox extensions to manually grab the screenshots.  Use Screengab, Abduction!, or FireShot if you are looking for advanced editing features.

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I see a lot of newbie webmasters asking how to know whether a link is DoFollow or NoFollow in the webmaster forums.  Some people say just see the source code to see whether there is a “NoFollow” attribute to the link.  If it is not there, it is a DoFollow.  But what if you are checking a group of websites for link building.  It is tedious and time taking task, right!

What is DoFollow attribute?
It is a hyperlink attribute which tells search engines not to pass any significance or value to the outbound links.  If your site has a Google Pagerank (PR) of 5 and a DoFollow link goes to another site, which has zero PR, it is going to get some PR when Google updates the Pagerank.  NoFollow also prevents spammers spamming the high PR sites with their spam links.

So, what is the easy way to check whether a site is DoFollow or NoFollow easily?  Here comes the tiny Firefox plugin, NoDoFollow, which makes it pretty easier.  Get the plugin here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5687

Once, it is installed you can see the option of “NoDoFollow” in the right click context menu.  Now launch a webpage, right click, and select the option.  That’s all, the plugin will turn all the DoFollow links to light blue and NoFollow links to light red.  It is so simple.  Isn’t it!

Plugin in action

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Though Gmail has built-in feature to theme your Gmail, you will me amazed to see this metallic theme achieved through a tiny Firefox extension called, Google Redesigned.  It not only redesigns the Gmail look, but also the login form, Google Calendar, and Google Reader.  If you have a login ID at Mozilla, you can download the extension from Mozilla Add-Ons Repository here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8434/.  Otherwise you can go to the author’s site and directly download it.

Description from Mozilla:
“Google Redesigned is a Mozilla Firefox extension designed by Globex Designs that aims to fully redesign the look and feel of popular Google services. This is achieved with Cascading StyleSheet (CSS) files which are loaded on the client’s browser. The extension simplifies the use of these styles by providing auto-updates, easy management and notifications of changes. You can also download and use the styles individually by going to their respective pages.”

Few screenshots:

Google Login Page

Gmail Inbox

Google Calendar

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My system has been giving problems lately with the hardware and at anytime, it can crash.  So, I have purchased a WD Elements Portable 160GB USB hard drive and uploaded all the data onto it. Whenever I download a software, I keep a copy on my hard disk, so now I am having all the software copies.  What I am missing is Firefox data.  I use a number of extensions, tweaks, and themes and has huge number of usernames and passwords stored in it. So, this Sunday, I have searched and implemented few backup options and found FEBE as the best extension for it. Here is my review of this little useful extension that relieved my tension of being missing very important data:

FEBE (Firefox Environment Backup Extension) allows Firefox users to quickly and easily backup extensions, themes, bookmarks, preferences, search plugins, and browser history. Before backing up, it will rebuild all the extensions individually into installable .xpi files, so you can sync the Firefox browser in your office and home.  It also has option of scheduling the backups. Another useful feature in FEBE is backing up the data onto your Box.net’s free storage account, which makes this extension hot.  I used to export the username and passwords list using Password Exporter plugin and then uploading them into Box.net account.  Now, I don’t need to worry about manually uploading them. Just a click takes backup of all the data and stores a copy in your system as well as on Box account.

It also has quick backup option from which you can select few or only one item to be backed up saving your time.

FEBE Options Tab

Taking backup and uploading them into Box.net account

Showing progress of upload into Box.net account

Restoring the files is also easy.  By going through Tools>FEBE>Restore option, you can restore all the data one by one.

Restore options

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A new extension is added to my favorite Firefox extensions, Screengrab. Screengrab lets you save anything that is visible in the browser window as an image. You can either save the page or save the selection to clipboard, so that you can paste it into documents or emails. You can also save the entire scrollable webpage as an image. Try it!

Screegrab Homepage: http://www.screengrab.org/

Below is the image I have screengrabbed with this extension:

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Few days after writing the post “Write Orkut scraps in Indian languages” using Greasemonkey script, Google has introduced that feature and now it is inbuilt in Orkut. Now, I will show you the way to embed Yahoo emoticons into your Orkut scraps. A little emoticon can express your feeling much better than words.

For this, we need, as usual, Firefox, GreaseMonkey extension for Firefox, and Yahoo Emoticons User Script.

Read my previous post about installing GreaseMonkey in Firefox. If you know how to install an extension in Firefox, just click here and install GreaseMonkey.  Restart the Firefox and click here to get the user script, which GreaseMonkey instantly recognizes and comes up with a window asking for confirmation. Click “Install” and you are done. Now go to your scrapbook and you will see Yahoo and MSN emoticons appearing below the scrap box. Whenever you need an emoticon to be attached to the scrap, just click on the appropriate icon and a link will be inserted into your scrap that turns into an emoticon when it is posted. Enjoy!!!

Update: May 30, 2008

Modified the script to work for orkut.co.in.

Update: July 17, 2009

PhotoBucket account was inactive and showing up “inactive msg blocks” in place of emoticons.  Moved all emoticons to ImageShack for better service.

Update: September 6, 2009

Orkut changed the scrap book path.  Modified the script to work with the new path.

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These days I am heavily experimenting with GreaseMonkey scripts. This week I found few good scripts. I have already started explaining these scripts with my LiveLeak post.

Second in the series is an Orkut Indic transliteration script, which enables writing scraps in Telugu, Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, and Malyalam. This script actually calls the Google’s Indic Transliteration module and shows the tool below the scrap box. It is very nice and transliterates almost exactly.

For this we need Firefox, GreaseMonkey extension for Firefox, and Scrapbook Transliteration script.

Read my previous post about installing GreaseMonkey in Firefox. Now go to the Scrapbook Transliteration Script on Userscripts.org and click on the black button “Install this script.” GreaseMonkey instantly recognizes it and comes up with a window asking for confirmation. Click “Install” and you are done. Now go to your scrapbook and you will see “Show Indic Transliteration” link below the scrap box.

Click to open the window and go on typing the words in English and it will on the fly converts them into the selected language.

When you finish typing, copy and paste it into the scrapbox and hit “Post Scrap.”

Update Dec 06, 2008: Orkut now supports typing in Indic languages.  No need of this extension.

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