Sameer Khan's BLOG

Best softwares to download complete websites and webpages

2009-08-05T11:06:00.000-07:00

I am writing this post on public demand on the request of some of my old readers who suggested me to write something about website grabbing or downloading. Well this hack or softwares work only with the websites and webpages which are not password protected or you if have password of HTTP and FTP servers. But this is very helpful for sites like wikipedia. Lets see how to do it.

Best softwares to download complete websites and webpages along with images, FLV files, flash, etc.

1. SurfOffline :

SurfOffline is a fast and convenient website download software. SurfOffline allows you to download entire websites and download web pages to your local hard drive. SurfOffline combines powerful features and a convenient interface. The SurfOffline wizard will allow you to quickly specify the website download settings. After the website has been downloaded, you can use SurfOffline as an offline browser and view downloaded web pages in it. In case you prefer viewing downloaded webpages in another browser, use the Export Wizard. Also the Surf Offline Export Wizard allows you to copy downloaded websites to other computers in order to view them later and prepares websites for burning them to a CD or DVD. You can download up to 400000 files in one project and entire websites (including images, video, audio, etc.).

2. Internet Download Manager :

I know most of you use IDM for downloading songs, videos, movies, softwares, etc. but you can also use IDM for downloading a website. IDM includes web site spider and grabber which allows you to do so. IDM downloads all required files that are specified with filters from
web sites, for example all pictures from a web site, or subsets of websites, or complete web sites for offline browsing. It's possible to schedule multiple grabber projects to run them once at a specified time, stop them at a specified time, or run periodically to synchronize changes.
To start IDM Website Grabber go to Tasks -> Run Site Grabber.

Best ebooks and documents library organizer softwares for windows platform

2009-08-04T15:59:00.000-07:00

Pdf, doc, chm, txt and ppt files have become a very integrated part of any computer user whether its his professional as well as personal life which he share with him PC. Every user has hundreds if not thousands of above listed files in the form of ebooks, documents, presentations, notes, help files and in many other forms. But to organize such a huge file base and to one particular file amongst a mess of thousands is really a tough task. Well this kind of hectic work can be eliminated by using ebook and documents managers. I am giving small list of some popular ebook documents managers and organizers.

List of Best ebook document library managers/organizers for windows :

1. Adobe Digital Editions :

Adobe Digital Editions is ebook reader software from Adobe Systems built using Adobe Flash. It is used for acquiring, managing and reading eBooks, digital newspapers, and other digital publications. The software supports PDF, XHTML (through the nonproprietary .epub file type specification), and Flash-based content. It implements a proprietary scheme of Digital Rights Management, which allows document sharing between multiple computers and user authentication through Adobe ID. Adobe Digital Editions software offers an engaging way to view and manage eBooks and other digital publications.

2. eBook Organizer :

eBook Organizer manages eBook files on your computer as well as your hard copy books. eBook Organizer allows you to manage eBook files (i.e. PDF, DOC, RTF, TXT, CHM, MP3, LIT, EBO, and any user-defined file types), support unlimited user-defined eBook document file types, scan computer for existing eBooks documents, support unlimited user-defined categories, support unlimited number of books in each category, support same book in multiple categories, monitor computer for new eBooks downloaded or created and add new eBooks to your library automatically, download book information (e.g. title, author, cover image, ISBN, publisher, publish date, etc.), search for books in library by key words.

3. eLib :

eLib is a new FREE tool which helps you categorize, view, catalog your ebook collection. It runs on Windows XP and Windows Vista.
Here is an overview of the eLib features:
- performs a scan of your folders and files with pre-defined or choosen extensions
- you can create as many collections as you wish, and even create subcollections
- you can drag/drop your collections
- generates the thumbnails for PDF, and some MsOffice files (XLS, DOC, PPT)
- you can manage several databases of your collections, create backups etc ...
- you can view PDF, XLS, DOC, TXT and some other files directly in the integrated viewer

For eLib to work with all its features MsOffice and Adobe Viewer must be installed.

4. My Ebook Library :

My Ebook Library is a free desktop application for organising and cataloguing your electronic book collection. It supports the most popular Ebook extensions: PDF, CHM, LIT, DOC, HTM, HTML, RTF, TXT, DJV, DJVU, PDB, PRC. It can catalogues Ebooks stored in multiple folder locations on your system. It uses an online book database that allows you to quickly download book information and cover-art for the books in your collection. It supports both 10 and 13 digit format ISBNs. It prevents duplicate Ebooks existing on disk, based upon the ISBN. You can create your own custom Ebook collections to group books by your current learning objectives. You can search the Ebook library by title to quickly locate matching entries. Auto-collection functionality displays the last read, most popular, and newest additions to the library.Ebooks can be removed from the library without being removed from disk. Can comfortably handle libraries of up to 5000 Ebooks.

5. Alfa Ebooks Manager :

Alfa Ebooks Manager allows you quickly scan your computer to find ebooks. You can select specific folders on your PC and file types. AlfaEbooks will automatically detect books, extract ISBN and create a book list that you can check, update and save to the database. It will also find duplicates if found file already exists in the database. You can also use this powerful tool to actualize your e-library when you move books to another drive or DVD. Update your books information with one click using world most popular Web Book Stores: Google Books, Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Oreilly etc. Moreover, our software will help you to compare and combine information from different sources, so that you can select the most comprehensive result.

Ping major search engines and RSS feed & blog directories together after updating blog

2009-06-17T10:54:00.000-07:00

I have been told my a lot of bloggers that there posts do not get indexed by major search engines like google and by major blog directories like technorati for a lot of days and sometimes even for weeks. Well for those who really face this problem this post can really help them to ping the search engines, blog directories and RSS feed directories all at once and hence to index their blog updates.

How to ping major search engines and blog directories and RSS feed directories together after updating your blog ?

1) Visit Feed Shark and Ping-o-matic pinging services.

2) Now enter your blog title, blog's homepage URL, and RSS URL . Entering RSS URL is optional but I always include it to ping RSS feed directories as shown in the screenshot below :

To ping up services which accept RSS feeds try to include RSS feed URL too.

3) Select the services you want to ping i.e. where you want your blog to get indexed. I prefer to select all the services as it increases the exposure of the blog posts.

4) Send the pings and your blog will get indexed all around the net within a day or two.

This problem of indexing occurs with new blogs or those blogs which are not regularly updated. But now you have a solution for it too.

Use Google Talk as an online English to Hindi Dictionary

2009-06-16T19:12:00.000-07:00

I have been using Google Talk for years now but never thought to use it in such a different and useful way until now. I saw one of my friends using Gtalk as a english to hindi dictionary and decided to share it with my blog readers. It really can help those who try to find out relation between words of the two languages or use hindi as a primary language.

How to use Google Talk as an online English to Hindi Dictionary Translator ?

1) Sign in to your Google talk IM.

2) Click 'Add' button in the lower part of the Gtalk as shown in the screenshot below :

3) Now enter the following address en2hi@bot.talk.google.com in the contact box and click next as shown in the screenshot below :

4) Now a bot will be added into your Gtalk friendlist just like your real friends. Whenever you type a word in english it will automatically reply back to return its meaning in hindi.
The screenshot below shows how the meaning of an english word is shown back in hindi instantaneously.

You may say it translation too but sometimes it really help especially in group chats that we are not explaining here now. You can also use different gtalk bots to translate more languages.

Track the keywords searched on your site using Google Analytics

2009-06-15T22:04:00.000-07:00

Its very important to track the taste of your site's visitors so that you can make out what you should write to make them more satisfied with your content and to make them to visit your site again. A tracking of the keywords searched by your visitors on your site using your site's search box can also provide enough idea about the taste of your visitors and what they search most on your blog or site. Now you can track all those searched keywords by using google analytics. Here is how..

How to track the keywords searched on your site or blog in detail using Google Analytics ?

1) Login to your Google Analytics account.

2) Click 'Edit' in the Website Profiles summary box for the profile you would like to enable Site Search for. As shown in the screenshot below :

3) Click 'Edit' from the 'Main Website Profile Information' section of the Profile Settings page. As shown in the screenshot below :

4) Select the 'Do Track Site Search' radio button in the Site Search section of the Edit Profile Information page. As shown in the screenshot below :

5) Enter your 'Query Parameter' in the field provided. Please enter only the word or words that designate an internal query parameter such as "term,search,query". Sometimes the word is just a letter, such as "s" or "q". You may provide up to five parameters, separated by a comma.
I would suggest to enter "term,search,query,s,q" as the five parameters. But also check your site's search parameter as it may be different from these five. As shown in the screenshot below :

6) Select whether or not you want Google Analytics to strip out the query parameter from your URL. Please note that this will only strip out the parameters you provided, and not any other parameters in the same URL. This has the same functionality as excluding URL Query Parameters in your Main Profile - if you strip the query parameters from your Site Search Profile, you don't have to exclude them again from your Main Profile.

A screenshot showing the details of keywords searched by my blog visitors using my site's search box :

7) Save the changes made and start tracking your the keywords searched by your site's visitors.

Share your favourite webpages, videos and photos with one click

2009-06-08T11:40:00.000-07:00

Whenever we find some nice news article, video or photo; the first thought that comes to our mind is to share it with our friends. But most of us couldn't do it because you have to open up your email or sign in to a social networking site and it takes time and effort. But now you can share your favourite discoveries on web with a single click among your friends on their favourite social networking and social bookmarking sites and through email.

How to share your favourite webpages, videos and photos among your friends with one click ?

Well this thing which I am going to show you is actually for the mozilla firefox users.

1) Go to Add This addon page on mozilla firefox's addons site.

2) Then click the Add to Firefox button; install the addon and click restart.

3) Now you will see a Add This button as shown below near your firefox's address bar.

4) Select the services you often use from a list of services given under the preferences option under the Add This button as shown below.

Now whenever you find a nice article, video, picture or anything that you liked on the web you just share it by a single click by clicking on the service icon under the add this button. So common share this article using the Addthis addon and tell about this addon to your friends so that they can also tell you about more wonderful things that they discover on the web and can share them easily.

How to choose the best digital camera ? : Buying Guide

2009-06-07T12:24:00.000-07:00

Digital Cameras are the best and latest ways to capture the best of our life times into pictures. But whenever we think of buying a digital camera a lot of things comes in our mind regarding the company, colours, type and features. We take advices from friends and camera users and then make a decision about a digital camera. Well now you don't need to do all this as I am introducing you to a camera buying guide here...

How to choose, select and buy the best digital camera as per your needs and budget ?

You can buy the best digital camera as per your needs if you follow the following steps carefully.

1) Budget : Decide the amount of money you want to spent i.e. first decide a budget for your digital camera. Deciding the money before can really help as it will keep you focused and don't eyes run behind everything it sees in the shop.

2) Purpose : Define the usages in which you want to use your camera for. Choose from the following options : travelling, young children or pets, low light, action, interiors or wildlife.

3) Features : Choose the features that you want to have in your camera. Remember that sometimes a camera feature which is even worthless for our use can increase the camera price significantly. So choose those features which are essential for the purpose you want to use the camera for.

4) Now after deciding the budget, purpose or usage and features you want in your camera, just write them down and move forward to Best Digital Camera Guide and select and enter the price, purpose and features you have already decided.

5) After you have entered everything, just click the View Recommendations button and it will show you the list of cameras along with its range of prices and best buy price. Choose the camera you like most in the recommendation list.

See how a webpage looked at a particular time in the past

2009-06-06T00:53:00.000-07:00

I have been wondering for long time to see how Google's homepage would have looked 6 or 7 years back. And finally I found just what i was looking for a long time. Before that I tried google's cache but they keep the most latest of the webpages, so stopped looking there. I have never expected that there would be someone else who would be doing something like storing webpages according to the months and years in their archives. The web is full of surprises.

Here is how you can see how a webpage looked at a particular time in the past ?

1) Go to Way Back Machine .

2) Enter the web address (URL) of the page and click Take me Back! button.

It will automatically show you its archive sorted according to the dates at which a screenshot of that webpage have been taken. I have taken some screenshots of google's homepage using wayback machine archives. I am sharing them with you. Here :

One IM client for Gtalk, Yahoo, Facebook Chat, MSN, AIM, Jabber, ICQ

2009-06-05T23:02:00.000-07:00

I have been asked by some chatty users how to use yahoo messenger and Google Talk using a same client at the same time. I really appreciate it as this is really useful for someone who has friends on different platforms such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook, MSN, AIM etc. Well good news for everyone of you as you can now login and use all of these Instant messengers (IM) at the same time by using a single client.

How to access Gtalk, Yahoo, Facebook Chat, MSN, AIM, Jabber, ICQ using only one Instant Messenger(IM) client ?

Well you can access all of these Instant Messengers along with Twitter, Myspace, LinkedIn, Gmail, AOL mail, MSN mail and Yahoo mail all by one client called Digsby .
Digsby is really a very cool and very useful application. It allows all kind of customizations as well as provides a wide range of applications as I have already mentioned.

Digsby is completely free to use application and can be downloaded from Digsby download page . It is available for Windows, MAC and Linux as well. So there is no need to worry if it will work on your computer just select your OS and download Digsby.

To add an IM account to digsby desktop client just follow the following steps :

1) Create a Digsby account; login to digsby desktop client.

2) In the top menu: select Tools -> Preferences or just press Ctrl + P as shown below :

3) Then select the Accounts tab, an click Add IM Account button and choose the IM you want to use as shown in the screenshot below:

If you want you can add all of them and even add two of the same accounts. I mean you can even add two Gtalks for different google accounts.

4) Now just enter that IM account's username and password and you are good to go.

Now you can use Gtalk, Yahoo, Facebook Chat, MSN, AIM, Jabber or ICQ chat all at once. For any query on digsby just type your query in the comment box below.

How to add an email signature within all outgoing emails in gmail ?

2009-06-04T23:31:00.000-07:00

For those who don't know, an email signature is a block of text appended to the end of an email message often containing the sender's name, address, phone number, disclaimer or other contact information. Email signatures are very useful if you are a blogger or own a website, just add your blog or website's address and this really can bring some good, genuine and loyal traffic to your site.

How to add or attach an email signature within emails in gmail ?

1) Go to Gmail ; sign in with your gmail id.

2) Now go to the settings tab , and search for signature (use Ctrl + F to make the search fast)

3) Now when the signature is found, just select the button in front of the textbox in front of signature instead of No Signature (default) as shown below.

4) In the textbox write your email signature that you want to append at the end of every outgoing email from your gmail account as shown in the screenshot below :

You can type text or links in the textbox as your signature. For bloggers I would suggest to attach a link to their blogs so as to fetch more traffic to their blogs. You can also attach a link to your social media profiles such as twitter, facebook, myspace, orkut, youtube, etc and even a link to your RSS feeds.

How to install or add a Favicon in a blog or website : Full Tutorial

2009-06-04T11:27:00.000-07:00

A favicon (short for favorites icon), also known as a website icon, shortcut icon, url icon, or bookmark icon is a 16x16 pixel square icon associated with a particular website, blog or webpage. Some of my friends asked about installing or adding a favicon to their blogs and stuff related to it. I have tried to include every point related to favicon in this post. So here it is ..

What is a Favicon ?

As I have already mentioned the definition but still the following pictures will make it more clear.

The icons marked in the screenshot above are known as Favicon. The image shows favicon of Blogger. These favicon are shown inside the address bar and on the tabbar whenever a site is shown in the browser.

How to create a favicon for your blog or website ?

There are two ways to create a favicon either you can convert an already existing image to a favicon or you can create a favicon directly.

If you want to create a favicon directly you can use Favicon.cc , it allows you to design a favicon using your imagination. It also allows animation to be included into your favicon.

If you want to create a favicon using a pre existing image, you can use these images to icon services , to create a 16 x 16 icon file which can be used as a favicon.

How to install or add a Favicon(16x16 icon) in a blog or website ?

Now that you have created your favicon, you have to install it in your blog or website. To install or add a favicon you have to include a code in the your blog or website. Before installing the code you should upload the 16 x 16 favicon that you already created. You can use these services to upload your favicon for free. Upload the favicon.

After uploading, copy the URL of the icon file you have uploaded and paste it somewhere, it will be used further in the process.

Copy the following code and paste it between <head> and </head> tags.

<link href='YOUR-ICON-URL' rel='shortcut icon'/>

NOTE: Don't forget to replace the YOUR-ICON-URL with the URL of uploaded icon file. Thats all you have installed a favicon in your blog or website.

Embed Picasa album pictures as slideshow in a blog or website

2009-06-02T23:42:00.000-07:00

Well embedding your photo album as a slideshow in blogs is preferable over uploading photos individually due to many reasons such as it avoids others to copy or download your photos, its easy and fast to embedd a slideshow than uploading photos individually and it provides more functionality to your blog or website. Here is how to embedd a picasa album slideshow in a blog or website.

How to embed Picasa album pictures' as slideshow in a blog or website ?

1) Go to Picasa Web Albums ; login with your Google account.

2) Once login to picasa web albums, go to My Photos ; choose an album you want to embed in blog or website. Open the album.

3) Now in the right navigation area, click Link to this album.

4) After clicking the link, a list of options will open up, one of them saying Embed Slideshow. Click the Embed Slideshow and a popup window will open up.

5) In the pop-up window choose the size of the slideshow you want to embed; select or deselect the autoplay option. After customizing the slideshow, copy the embed code given in the same pop-up window.

6) Paste the copied code in your blog or website where you want to show up the slideshow. I have embedded the following slideshow (600 x 400) using my picasa album just like that.

Google Wave preview with presentation, demo and features explained - FULL VIDEO

2009-05-29T12:55:00.000-07:00

Google Wave is a new tool for communication and collaboration on the web, coming later this year. A "wave" is equal parts conversation and document, where people can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more. Google Wave was revealed before a developer community and developers are really motivated and looking forward to develop more applications for Google Wave. Google Wave will change the way we interact with people atleast a little bit.

Here's how it works: In Google Wave you create a wave and add people to it. Everyone on your wave can use richly formatted text, photos, gadgets, and even feeds from other sources on the web. They can insert a reply or edit the wave directly.

It's concurrent rich-text editing, where you see on your screen nearly instantly what your fellow collaborators are typing in your wave. That means Google Wave is just as well suited for quick messages as for persistent content — it allows for both collaboration and communication. You can also use "playback" to rewind the wave and see how it evolved. Watch the video to learn more about Google wave.

Google Wave was presented and explained by Lars Rasmussen, Jens Rasmussen and Stephanie Hannon, the lead product manager for Google Wave.

This is a full preview and demo video of Google wave with presentation, features and APIs explained :

If you'd like to be notified when Google Wave will be launched as a public product, you can sign up at Google Wave. Google don't have a specific timeframe for public release, but they are planning to continue working on Google Wave for a number of months more as a developer preview. I am really looking forward to it.

Reduce the booting time of your computer : Windows XP & Vista

2009-05-29T12:30:00.000-07:00

Today's post is very important for those who are just fed up with the time that windows XP takes when booting up the computer. I have seen computers having Windows XP which takes more than 1 or 2 minute to boot up. I can't hold myself that long. So here I am sharing a tip to reduce the booting time of your computer which can reduce system's booting time to almost half that it used to take before.

I must tell you that this trick works only on multicore processeors. The idea is that by default windows XP uses only one core of your processor, we are just going to change the settings to let it use all cores. I have tried it on dual core processor, it works fine and boots up really fast. So here we go:

How to reduce the booting time of your computer with Windows XP ?

1) Go to Start -> RUN ; or just press Ctrl + R. Type MSCONFIG in it and press enter as shown in the screenshot below :

This will open up the System Configuration Utility window.

2) In the System Configuration Utility window, choose the BOOT.INI tab and click Advanced Options as shown in the screenshot below:

3) On clicking Advanced Options, the BOOT.INI Advanced Options window will pop-up. In this window choose the /NUMPROC = 2 as shown in the screenshot below :

4) Click OK ; Restart the system and see the change in the booting time of your system.

How to burn mp3 music playlists on CD and DVD using Nero ?

2009-05-28T11:39:00.000-07:00

I have created a lots of music playlists on my computer according to my moods and genres; and I know that you also must be having lots of playlists. But I don't want to start up my computer everytime I want to listen to my favourite playlist, I prefer my music system. So I decided to burn one of my favourite playlist, here is how to do it.

How to burn saved mp3 music playlists on CD and DVD using Nero ?

Before beginning with the tutorial, you must have nero. If you don't have one get it from Nero Downlaods . Install Nero and get started.

1) Open Nero and go to the Audio tab, and choose Make MP3 CD or Make MP3 DVD whichever you want to burn as shown in the screenshot below.

2) On clicking Make a CD option a window will popup; in the window click Add button; and browse the folder containing your saved music playlists. It will automatically detect the playlists(.m3u format), as shown in the screenshot below :

Note: Make sure that the playlist format is .m3u. If it is not in .m3u format open the playlist in windows media player; go to file -> save as and save it in .m3u format in the same folder and replace your old playlist with the new .m3u playlist file.

3) Now when you see that your .m3u playlist has been detected after following step 2. Then choose your playlist you want to burn on CD. Now nero will check all that all the songs in the playlist have an active path and is working properly.

4) Once playlist checking is finished click Finished. Now Click Next and burn it as a usual CD. Once burning is finished you are good to play it on any Disc player.

How to add text to header and footer in a pdf file format document ?

2009-05-28T10:16:00.000-07:00

The header and footer of a pdf file can be used as an important place to display an information which is really related with the book such as book's title or chapter title or small summary of the text written on that page of that pdf. You can also use this space for dispalying date or page number. May be help you to do something more innovative, see how its done.

How to add text to header and footer in a pdf file format document ?

For adding header and footer you should be having either Adobe Acrobat 3D or Adobe Acrobat professional on your computer. If you already have it on your computer, continue further.

1) Open the pdf file, to which you want to add a header and footer to using either Adobe Acrobat 3D or Adobe Acrobat professional.

2) Go to Document tab given in upper menu bar of the software. then go to Header & Footer and click Add as shown in the screenshot given below :

3) When you will click Add , a window will open up just above your pdf file, and will ask for the text you want to add to the header and footer of the document. You can add page numbers or dates to each page of the pdf document, if you want it. it has a one click option for it. You can add text, page number or date on selected pages or on all pages(default); or in left, right or center of the pages of your document as shown in the screenshot below :

It also shows a preview of the header and footer as you are start adding the text. You can also choose the font color, font style and font size of the text you want to add to the header and footer. As you can see I have done for you in the screenshot below as an example :

4) Save the changes you have made to header and footer and you are done. If you find any problem doing this, just let me know.

Read all subscribed RSS Feeds using Google Reader gadget on Google Desktop

2009-05-26T22:42:00.000-07:00

Until now, there hasn't been a good way to combine all your feeds into a single gadget on Google Desktop. But now Google Reader has recently being added as a gadget in the Google Desktop directory. It is one of the most desired, important and demanded gadget by the users who love to read their favourite site's content right from their desktop using RSS Feeds.

How to Read your favorite RSS Feeds using Google Reader gadget on Google Desktop ?

1) To install Google Reader gadget you must have installed Google Desktop first. Get your Google Desktop installation file from Google Desktop site. Install Google desktop. Those who are already using Google Desktop go to next step.

2) Once you have installed Google desktop on your computer. Go to Google Reader gadget download page; download and install the gadget;

3) After installation a window will pop up asking for your Google Reader username and password. Enter your Google Reader username and password and allow it to be added on your google desktop sidebar.

4) once you have added it to you Google Desktop sidebar now your RSS feeds will automatically be shown in your Google Desktop sidebar.

You can choose to see updated feeds or all of your subscribed feeds. If you select a subscription, your gadget will update automatically with new posts. Clicking an item opens a larger view where you can see the item preview and perform familiar actions such as star, share, and email.

The Google Reader gadget runs with the latest Linux and Windows releases of Google Desktop gadgets and is open sourced under the Apache 2.0 license.

Most essential Mozilla firefox addons which a blogger should never escape

2009-05-26T10:47:00.000-07:00

I have been blogging on several blogs and topics from about 2 years and I mostly use mozilla firefox as my browser. In this time I spent on blogging, I found some really useful addons for mozilla firefox which really helped me as a blogger and allowed me to blog with greater efficiency, clearity, ease and effectiveness. Now I am releasing a small list of Mozilla firefox addons which a blogger should give a try.

Here is a list of essential Mozilla firefox addons which a blogger should never escape :

Search Status :

Search Status allows you to see how any and every website in the world is performing. Designed for the highly specialised needs of search engine marketers, this toolbar provides extensive search-related information about a site, all conveniently displayed in one discreet and compact toolbar. Search Status displays the Google PageRank, Alexa rank, Compete ranking and SEOmoz Linkscape mozRank anywhere in your browser, along with fast keyword density analyser, keyword/nofollow highlighting, backward/related links, Alexa info, Google cache of the page, related links and more. The best place to put it is below right of your status bar in firefox.

Scribe Fire Blog Editor :

ScribeFire is a full-featured blog editor that integrates with your browser and lets you easily post to your blog. You can drag and drop formatted text from pages you are browsing, take notes, upload images, and post to multiple blogs. It makes blogging superfast..Yeah I mean superfast. You don't have to visit your blog each time you want to write a post.

The currently supported blogging platforms on ScribeFire are:

WordPress
Movable Type
Drupal
Textpattern
Roller
Blogger
MetaWeblog API (Any blogging software that implements this API)

Fire Shot :

FireShot is a Firefox extension that creates screenshots of web pages (entirely or just visible part). Unlike other extensions, this plugin provides a set of editing and
annotation tools, which let users quickly modify web captures and insert text annotations and graphical annotations. Such functionality will be especially useful for web designers, testers and content reviewers.

The captures taken and edited by Fireshot can be:

- uploaded to FREE public screenshot hosting
- saved to disk (PNG, GIF, JPEG, BMP)
- printed
- copied to clipboard
- e-mailed
- sent to configurable external editor for further processing.

You can watch a demo of Fireshot in action.

Cool Iris :

Search superfast the image you are looking for your post. Cooliris is simply the fastest and most stunning way to browse photos and videos from the Web or your desktop. Effortlessly scroll a "3D Wall" of your content from Facebook, Google Images, YouTube, Flickr, and hundreds more. Enjoy a lightning fast, cinematic way to browse photos and videos from the Web or your desktop. Launch Cooliris from your browser toolbar, or visit a supported site and click the Cooliris icon that appears as you mouseover images and videos.

Cooliris works on hundreds of websites including:
Google Images, YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, Photobucket, DeviantArt, KodakGallery, Picasa Web Albums, Smugmug, FotoTime, Fotki Getty Images, Bebo, Hi5, Friendster, Yahoo Image Search, Ask Image Search, Live Image Search, AOL Image Search, etc

Color Zilla :

ColorZilla is very much helpful when you are designing a template of editing it. It is also very helpful when you are creating a adsense unit to put into your website. Colorzilla has an 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.

ResizR :

ResizR is a nifty, free and very useful little helper. ResizR allows you to resize an image from your local computer or the web. Often you do not need more than just resizing an image on the fly.
Before ResizR you required a desktop software to do this - heavy applications which can do much more than just resizing an image. ResizR changes the game - it's much easier. Select an image - choose the width - rotate optionally.

FeedBurner Subscribers :

FeedBurner Subscribers is a handy add-on for monitoring your RSS
readers and hits to your RSS feed. Bloggers will find this add-on
extremely valuable because you can track feed readers right from your
browser. Best place to put this addon is in firefox's status bar.

Google Bookmarks Button Reloaded :

Bookmarks play a key role in a blogger's life and most of us use an online bookmark manager like google bookmarks. So if you have installed google toolbar in mozilla firefox, just because you want to access google bookmarks. Try this addon. It is the best google bookmark add-on ever: neat, clean and simple.

Read It Later :

The Read It Later Firefox extension allows you to save pages of interest to read later.
It eliminates cluttering of bookmarks with sites that are merely of a one-time interest. Save pages to a reading list to read when you have time. Offline Reading Mode - Read the items you’ve saved for later on the plane, train, or anywhere. Access Anywhere - Manage your list in any browser, on any device.
Your list is saved on readitlaterlist.com for web access. RSS Feeds - View your list from anywhere with automatic rss feeds of your items. Sync Between Computers - Sync your reading list with any number of computers, work or home. After reading, bookmark pages on your preferred bookmarking service. Click to Save Mode - Quickly batch a reading list just by clicking on interesting links. Here is a demo video for Read It Later which can help you to understand it better.

So here is my list for Most essential Mozilla addons for a blogger. If you know any other gadget which you think should also be on this list, please name it in the comment box.

How to add a Google Friend Connect Recommendation Gadget in blogger or blogspot blogs ?

2009-05-25T10:17:00.000-07:00

Well Google Connect has released a wonderful gadget called Recommendation Gadget, which allows the blog's followers and members to recommend a post to your blog readers. Their recommendation is counted and is displayed under the aggregation gadget which you have to place in your blog's sidebar.

Each recommended post is shown along with the number of recommendations to it and on clicking the number of recommendations link, you can see the profile pictures of the persons who recommended that post. Most recommended post is shown on top; you can decide the number of recommended posts to show under the aggregation gadget, placed in your blog's sidebar. It helps your readers to interact more with your blog's content and with other blog followers and members. The picture below will make it more clear.

How to add a Google Friend Connect Recommendation Gadget in blogger or blogspot blogs ?

Before starting the tutorial I should tell you that Google Connect Recommendation Gadget consists of two components :
i) Recommendation button - users will click it to recommend your post to other readers.
ii) Aggregation gadget or Recommendation List - it displays the recommended posts in decreasing order of number of recommendations given to each post.

Now we start the tutorial to add a Google Connect Recommendation Gadget in blogger or blogspot blogs :

1) Go to Google Friend Connect ; login using your google account. If you haven't setup your blog yet, click set up a new site and you are good to go.

2) Once you have setup your site, click "Your Site's Title Link", a set of expanded links will be shown. Among those links shown under your site's title, click "Social Gadgets" link as shown in the screenshot below.

3) A new page will open showing all available social gadgets. Search for "Recommendation" ; use " Ctrl + F " to find it faster.

4) Once found "Recommendation" gadget, click "Get this gadget" link as shown in the screenshot below.

5) Now under the configuration of the gadget :

a. Configure the recommendation list or Aggregation gadget : Add a header text you want to display as a title in your recommendation list; select number of recommended items you want to show in the gadget; enter the width of the recommendation list gadget (try to put it equal to your blog's sidebar width).

b. Configure the recommendation button : Select the button style :

i) a compact recommendation button :

ii) a modular recommendation button (also shows the number of recommendations);

Choose an icon and enter a text which will be dispalyed on the button itself.

6) Once the configuration of the gadget is complete; Click "Generate Code" button and it will display two sets of HTML codes: one for the Aggregation gadget or the recommendation list gadget and other for the recommendation button.

Now we have HTML codes for the gadgets and we need to install them in blogger template. I will explain installation of each gadget's code individually.

# For installing Aggregation or Recommendation List gadget :

7) First copy the friend connect code generated for Aggregation or Recommendation List gadget. Now go to your blogger blog's "Layout " ; In the sidebar or wherever you want to show the Recommendation List, click "Add a Gadget"; select "Add HTML/ Javascript " and paste the code in it. Save the code and layout.

# For installing recommendation button :

8) First copy the friend connect code generated for recommendation button. Now go to your blogger blog's "Layout -> Edit HTML" ; select the "Expand Widget Templates" checkbox and search for <data:post.body/>
To search faster and easily try " Ctrl + F ". Once you have found <data:post.body/> paste the copied code just below this line. Save the template and you have successfully installed Google Connect Recommendation Gadget in your blog. This step will show the button after each post of every page and you don't have to paste the code for each post individually.

Create beautiful iPhone or iPod Touch like icons online for blogs & websites favicon

2009-05-25T04:53:00.000-07:00

I think everyone of us are familiar with the uniqueness, design and beauty of Apple iPhone or iPod Touch application icons. And think what if you can create one of such icons for yourself using your own favourite pictures and images. Well now you can create beautiful iPhone or iPod Touch applications like icons and can use them on your blog or wherever you want. Here is how to create one:

How to create beautiful iPhone or iPod Touch like icons online for blog or website favicon ?

1) Go to iphone icon generator and click "Upload Image" tab.

2) Choose your buttonstyle : high gloss, low gloss, high gloss with frame and low gloss with frame.

3) Choose the image manipulation : do you want to pad image or crop image.

4) Upload your image.

After clicking "Upload Your Image" it will automatically gets uploaded and converted into 48x48 PNG, 32x32 PNG, 16x16 PNG, 60x60 PNG(with transparency) and a zipped file containing 60x60 PNG, 256x256 PNG and an iphone style icon(.ico) file.

Use these images as favicon for your blog and website or as an icon for your iphone.
To use them as Favicon: upload 16x16 icon at the server of your blog and embed the following code in the template code of your blog or site as :

<link href='put your uploaded 16x16 icon url here' rel='SHORTCUT ICON'/>

and you have just added a iphone icon as your blog's favicon.

Extract audio (.mp3) from your favourite youtube videos or music videos online

2009-05-24T04:35:00.000-07:00

There are many videos which we love to watch on youtube especially from live shows like American idol, Britain's got Talent, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa and many others where you like the songs performed by the participants in the competitions. But what is available of those magical performances is the videos on youtube. Think what if those videos can be converted into mp3s and can be downloaded on your computer so that you can enjoy them whenever you like to. Well this is what I am going to tell you...

How to convert your favourite youtube videos or music videos online into audio MP3 files and download them ?

Method - I:

1) Copy the URL of the youtube video you want to convert into .mp3 audio file.

2) Go to video2mp3 , enter the youtube video URL in the conversion box space.

3) Select the quality of the audio you want to convert your video into : Standard Quality or High Quality. The high quality is available for videos for which HQ is available on youtube.

4) After selecting the audio quality, just press "Convert" button and it will quickly convert the video into audio and generate a download link for the audio file. Download the audio file and you are done.

Method - II: (Fast ; needs Firefox)

This method will show a "Convert and Download as MP3" link just below the video description and you can automatically download the MP3 of the videos you love to watch on youtube.

1) If you are mozilla firefox user just install this addon called "Youtube to MP3" . Restart the Firefox.

2) Go to any youtube video, a "Convert and Download as MP3" link will now be shown just below the video description. Click it and it will automatically convert the video into an mp3 file which you can download.

Super Fast tool for windows to search and find files and folders instantly

2009-05-21T08:48:00.000-07:00

Hey windows users are you satisfied with windows default file and folder search's speed, accuracy and time taken by it to search a file on your computer. If not then this post is definitely for you as what I am going to show you is amazingly fast and almost instantaneous in terms of searching a file or a folder on your computer. And if you are satisfied with windows default search then you must remember that windows default search doesnot display the results instantaneously while what I am telling you about is small, takes almost no resources and is super fast.

Browsing through the windows will take more time compared to searching using this software. I think now want to know what it is ?

It is a software called Everything search engine .having :

Size : 334 KB

Compatibility : Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 2008 and Windows 7

Other features :

Small installation file
Clean and simple user interface
Quick file indexing
Quick searching
Minimal resource usage
Share files with others easily
Real-time updating

To download Everything search engine just click here. Search and excess files and folders instantly without wasting a second.

How to embed only a part of youtube video in your blog or site ?

2009-05-21T07:28:00.000-07:00

If you want to embed a YouTube video in which only a part of it is interesting somewhere in the middle, there's a simple way to skip the boring part and to embed only the interesting part of the video. YouTube's embedded player has a parameter that lets you specify the number of seconds that should be skipped before starting to play the video and also where the playing should stop in the video. Here is how..

How to embed only a part of youtube video in your blog or site ?

Here is the embed code for a part of a song called "Her Morning Elegance" by Oren Lavie where the code in bold is what we have to add into the original code from youtube to embed only a part of the video as I have done here:

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/2_HXUhShhmY&hl=en&fs=1&start=38&end=100"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/2_HXUhShhmY&hl=en&fs=1&start=38&end=100" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

Here's how you should edit the code:
&start=[number of seconds from the start of the video] - starting time of the embeded part of the video
&end=[number of seconds from the start of the video] - ending time of the embeded part of the video

If you find it hard to deal with the code or in seconds, you can use a service specifically for this purpose called Splicd which can easily help you to choose a part of video from between to embed in your blog or website. It also deals in minutes : seconds standard format hence easier to use.

Transfer your gmail contacts to outlook, apple address book or another google account

2009-05-20T03:36:00.000-07:00

Many of us have most of our contacts on a Gmail account and we continue using Gmail and avoid using other email clients like Microsoft Outlook and Apple Address Book for MAC users just because we don't have all of our old contacts available on these clients. Some of my friends have always even avoided changing their Gmail id, just because they don't couldnot get their contacts of old gmail id back into the new one. But now you can use any client and can change your gmail id if the fear of not retrieving old contacts was stopping you. Here is how...

How to transfer your gmail contacts to outlook, apple address book or another google account ?

STEP 1: Go to Google Contacts , and login to your gmail account which has all of your contacts.

STEP 2: Click the Export tab located in the upper right, on the blue bar as shown in the screenshot below:

STEP 3: Now choose what do you want to export : All contacts or just a group of your contacts. Select the one you want to export.

STEP 4: Now in which format you want to export your conatcts :

i) For importing your contacts into another google account :

Choose Google CSV format for importing your contacts into another google or gmail account and click Export. Save the file on your computer. For importing into another gmail account, again visit Google Contacts , login with the Gmail id in which you want to import those contacts. For importing just click the Import tab and browse the exported CSV file from your computer and click Import button. You can also add the imported contacts into a group.

ii) For importing your contacts into Outlook or another application :

Choose Outlook CSV format for importing your contacts into Outlook or another application and click Export. Save the file on your computer. Import the saved file into Outlook.

iii) For importing your contacts into Apple Address Book or other application :

Choose vCard format for importing your contacts into Apple Address Book or other application and click Export. Save the file on your computer. Import the saved file into Apple Address Book.

Hack : How to download Apple.com movie trailers on your computer ?

2009-05-19T08:32:00.000-07:00

This is one of the most demanded thing in the community of movie and trailer lovers as apple doesnot provides an option to download its trailers. There are many movie freaks in my college too and some of them asked me to find a way to download Apple.com movie trailers. Though I found it very hard to find a hack for downloading Apple.com movie trailers on your computer harddisk. I tried several downloading softwares like internet download manager (idm), Download accelerator plus (dap) and several others, but nothing worked. But I finally I found one way to get it done. Here it is..

How to download Apple.com movie trailers on your computer's harddisk ?

STEP 1 : This trick works only with mozilla firefox web browser, so if don't have firefox get it from here.

STEP 2 : After installing Firefox, Install a firefox addon called Greasemonkey into your firefox. Get Greasemonkey .

STEP 3 : Once you have installed firefox and added Greasemonkey to it, now download Apple Trailer download script from userscripts and install it. When you will click install, the above script should open a greasemonkey dialog box asking if you would like to install this script. Just say YES
and install it.

STEP 4 : Just make sure that grease monkey is active or on by clicking over the monkey icon. Now go to Apple's trailer page, choose any movie's trailer and whenever grease monkey will detect any .mov trailer file a small window (as shown here) will popup in the below-right corner of your browser. Just select any of the desired resolution and right click -> save link as, to save it to your computer.
Now you can download any trailer of any resolution from apple.com, enjoy downloading and watching trailers.