Naveen's Blog

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

\\ tags: Firefox, Gmail, gmail redesign, plugins

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.

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

\\ tags: febe, Firefox, firefox backup

I am already using Andrew Spencer’s YouTube video downloader script to run my own YouTube video downloading site. Now this article shows you the way to download streaming video from LiveLeak in an FLV format.

What is LiveLeak?
Liveleak, based in the UK, is a website that lets users post and share videos, similar to sites like YouTube, but it allows some sexual content and emphasizes reality-based footage such as war scenes from various parts of the world, grisly accidents, executions, and crimes. – Wikipedia

Why I went to LiveLeak?
I was searching for educational autopsy videos in Google and I got link to a video shared on LiveLeak. I searched for the term “Autopsy” in LiveLeak and surprised to see number of videos, which aren’t available in any of video-sharing sites. Hey….don’t see the videos if you have a weak heart .

So….let’s start the hacking. We need Firefox (I forgot IE and permanently deleted it from my XP ), Greasemonkey Firefox extension, and LiveLeak Greasemonkey user script.

What is this Greasemonkey?
Greasemonkey is a Firefox extension that allows you to customize the way web pages look and function. It’s a tiny extension that does wonders. Just head over to userscripts.org to see what Greasemonkey can do.

First, install the Greasemonkey extension for Firefox from here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748

Official homepage of Greasemonkey: http://www.greasespot.net/

Restart the browser and you will see a monkey icon on the status bar of the Firefox.

Then, go the LiveLeak Greasemonkey user script page here: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/6442 On the right side, you will see the link “Install this script.” Click that and it will popup a screen like this:

Click the “Install” button, and you are done. Now, you are ready to download the videos from LiveLeak. Go to any video page and you will see a download link like this.

Right click on it and select the option “Save Link As” to save the video to your desktop. You can use Wimpy standalone tiny FLV player or VLC Player to play the FLV video.

Update: Now you can download all streaming videos easily with FlashGot extension of Firefox.  Check the post : Downloading Streaming Videos Got Easier-FlashGot

\\ tags: Firefox, FlashGot, LiveLeak, Streaming Video Download