Naveen’s Blog

Do you download videos from Google Video or YouTube? I do. But, they will be in FLV (Flash Video) format. You might have read my post “Online YouTube Video Downloader”. It’s a way to get the direct download link for YouTube videos. Google Video offers download option for some files (Google Video Player compatible). Use VideoDownloader extension for Firefox to get the download link for Google videos. Both ways, you will get only FLV files.

Here comes the problem. If you want to watch that movie in Windows Media Player, you have to convert it to MPEG or AVI format. Though there are variety of commercial versions of software, I use FFmpeg, an open source free software. You have to download FFmpeg window binaries along with a GUI front end to convert it. It is somewhat time consuming and I will explain about converting FLV files to other media formats in another post.

I have tested freely available FLV players and Wimpy FLV Player seems to be the best one. There is no need of installation. It is a 2.44MB stand alone player. It also supports drag and drop. It is available for both Mac and Windows.

Download it here: http://www.wimpyplayer.com/products/wimpy_standalone_flv_player.html

These extensions are especially useful for webmasters. That’s why, I made another post for these three useful extensions.

MeasureIt: After installation, a button appears on the statusbar of the Firefox. Just click it and drag on the webpage to measure the width and height of a particular area. It is helpful for me while measuring the banners and images to be inserted.

Description: “Draw a ruler across any webpage to check the width, height, or alignment of page elements in pixels.”

ColorZilla: Another useful extension. It also makes a button on the statusbar of the Firefox. Click on it and click on the image or text to read the color of it. It also has eyedropper built in it. I use it in designing my blogs and sites.

Description: “Advanced Eyedropper, ColorPicker, Page Zoomer and other colorful goodies.

With ColorZilla you can get a color reading from any point in your browser, quickly adjust this color and paste it into another program. You can Zoom the page you are viewing and measure distances between any two points on the page. The built-in palette browser allows choosing colors from pre-defined color sets and saving the most used colors in custom palettes. DOM spying features allow getting various information about DOM elements quickly and easily. And there’s more…”

Adsense Notifier: Shows your Adsense earnings on the statusbar and updates the stats automatically at chosen interval.

Description: “Adsense Notifier simply shows your adsense stats on the status bar and updates the stats automatically. This is wonderful for anyone with OCD ( or GAD as some have called it ) who needs to check their stats every three seconds to see if they have gotten any more clicks :-p”

I have been using Firefox for the last one year and I like it. I have started using it because of tabbed browsing (now, new version of IE also has this feature). When I learned about extensions, I installed few and surprised at the extra features they add. I don’t think I will return to IE anymore. Extensions are small add-ons that add new functionality to Firefox, from a simple toolbar button to a completely new feature. They allow you to customize Firefox to fit your own needs and preferences, while letting Firefox itself light and lean. Below is a list of my favorite extensions:

VideoDownloader: I use it to download videos from Youtube and Google Video. Then I use an FLV to MPEG converter for viewing it in Media Player. You can also use VLC Player to play the FLV files directly. It’s an open source software and you can download it for free.

Description: “Download videos from Youtube, Google, Metacafe, iFilm, Dailymotion… and other 60+ video sites ! And all embedded objects on a webpage (movies, mp3s, flash, quicktime, etc) ! Directly !

VideoDownloader adds a small icon on the status bar at the bottom of your Firefox window, and a toolbar button. Just click that and download the video you are watching!”

Adblock Plus: I use it to avoid display of Ads in Rediffmail and Yahoo mail. It also blocks the images, banners, etc. You can add the ad servers list to it to block the ads shown from that particular server. For example: Google, Yahoo, Clicksor, Adbrite, Bidvertiser, etc.

Description: “ Ever been annoyed by all those ads and banners on the internet that often take longer to download than everything else on the page? Install Adblock Plus now and get rid of them.

Right-click on a banner and choose “Adblock” from the context menu - the banner won’t be downloaded again. Maybe even replace parts of the banner address with star symbols to block similar banners as well. Or you select a filter subscription when Adblock Plus starts up the first time, then even this simple task will usually be unnecessary: the filter subscription will block most advertisements fully automatically.”

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When I was in medical transcription training, we were provided with Quick Look Drug Reference for medicine search and its dosage details.  I was surprised to see its features.  It was extensive with all the drug names, brand and generic names, therapeutic category, usage, dose, and dosage forms.  We learned that a generic drug can be sold with different brand names produced by different companies.  For example: aspirin is a generic drug (original formula), which is available under brand names of Ascriptin, Bayer® Aspirin, Easprin, Ecotrin, Halfprin, ZORprin, etc (in USA).

After looking at this electronic drug reference for American drugs, I thought that there will be an Indian electronic drug reference.  I searched a lot over the net for nearly one month, but was unable to find it. After passing through class training and on-job training, I was put on regular roles and started searching again.  While searching the Indian Medical Association website, I came to know about the site MedCLIK, which provides an online drug reference for Indian medicines.

Go to http://www.medclik.com/ and look for MedCLIK drug reference.  Click on the “ONLINE” link.  It will ask for user id and password.  Below that you can find a link to register as a new user.

In MedCLIK, besides the above information, they also indicate the manufacturers’ name and price.  I think it is very helpful.  If you know a brand, just key in and you can find the generic name of the drug and the list of brands available for that with price and company information.

You can see the below screenshot I have taken for brand search for “gentamicin,” an eye drops preparation.

Note: I am not a pharma student to answer your complex pharmaceutical questions.  Please do not ask me to provide some brands data names in excel sheet or the copy of electronic drug reference.  Please go to the above site and purchase it.  Whatever I can provide, I have provided here.  Need more? Then, log into MedCLIK and explore.  Thanks in advance!

I have seen a nice and free YouTube video downloader script on Qoogle. Wanted to run this script and create a mini site. So, went to GoDaddy, purchased an info domain for $1.21 (approximately Rs. 60….very cheap), and hosted. Now, my experimental YouTube video downloader site is ready.

Bookmark my mini site http://www.YouTubeVideoDownloader.info/ (very long domain name….I think, but it is easy to remember) by visiting it and pressing Ctrl+D.

For a post on my blog yesterday, I needed to download an icon and from my bookmarks, I went to a site which was offering free icons for websites. There, all the icons were put on a webpage and if you need an icon, right click on it and use the option “Save Image As….” (Save Picture As…if you are using IE). If you want to download all, then it takes minutes. Very tedious. Also, if you get a mail with lot of images embedded in it and want to save them to your system, it’s time consuming. You have to right click on every image and save it to the system.

How to download them at one click without wasting our precious time?

If you are using Firefox, there is an extension called “DownThemAll.” Simply install the plugin and whenever you right click on a page, it shows a “DownThemAll” option. Just click it and you will see a window showing all images in it. You can even filter them by selecting jpg, gif, and png. Select the folder to save the files, click Start, and you are done. You can also specify archives (zip, rar, etc.) and videos.

If you are using Internet Explorer, I have another trick. Save the webpage by clicking File>Save As and then change “Save as Type” to “Webpage, Complete.” It creates an HTML file and a folder. You can find all the images in that folder.

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I liked the WordPress theme GreenDog by Alexander, but it was in Russian language. I have also seen that few more also looking at the English version of that theme. As an experiment, I have tried to translate it. I took the help of Google Translate. Google translated all the words correctly except one or two.

Hey…do you think that I know the Russian language. No, looking at the English theme, I have done it. If you like it and use it, please post it in the comments with your site address.

Download the theme

Found this interesting post on Al Lowe’s website. He has listed a number of Windows errors that are humorous on his site. Hey…they are not true errors or messages. Some of them, which I liked very much, are posted here and you can go through the original article to have more fun!