Tag: Internet

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Reviews

Foxmarks Added Support for Password Syncing

One of the most famous addon for Firefox browser, Foxmarks added support for password syncing. Originally developed for bookmark syncing, the addon was used in conjunction with Google’s now-out-of-development Browser Sync addon.

I posted long time back, how these two addons, Foxmarks and Browser Sync, together can help you synchronize your online data from anywhere on the web. Over the time, Google stopped development of Browser Sync and released its source code here. Since then, Firefox community was missing a really good addon to sync passwords, cookies, history, sessions and other sensitive data.

Those who are already using Foxmarks, just need to update it. Once its done, you can go to Foxmarks settings, and from Sync options turn-on password synchronization. By default, its turned off.

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If you like to know, how password synchronization works, please check this official wiki.

Foxmarks expected to have support for cookies, sessions and history sync in future versions. So if you are not using it or missing Google’s Browser Sync, start using Foxmarks.

The only thing that they need to change soon is their punch-line! It is no more just essential bookmarking addon! For me, its now essential Firefox addon… 🙂

Links: Download Foxmarks | Firefox

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News

Dreamhost to offer unlimited bandwidth and storage for all!

Dreamhost, our webhost, in their recent monthly newletter informed that they are moving all Dremhost customers to unlimited bandwidth and storage space plan over the next few months (or years).

Those who are already touching limit can choose to get transferred to unlimited plan early. There is a new link under billing section in Dreamhost control panel, which offers free and permanent upgrade to unlimited disk and bandwidth plan.

When you click link highlighted in above screenshot, you will be taken to a page which lists some of problems you may encounter during transition.

(click on above image to view full-size alternative)

Some of above mentioned points seems risky to me and as my bandwidth as well as disk consumption is still around 1%, I personally choose to wait for upgradation. But it looks sure that with time all Dreamhost accounts will be transferred on totally unlimited plan.

You may opt-in for free and early upgrade if you are already hitting limits… 😉

Link: Signup for Dreamhost (promo code included in link)

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Reviews

Browsershots – Online Web Design Testing in Different Browsers

This article is for web designers here. I recommend this articles to all bloggers as well. Many bloggers go for free third-party themes which may not follow standards all the time, so you can check if theme you are using is working fine in all major browsers.

Reason for highlighting major in above line is, no matter which theme you choose or code, it will not render properly in decade old browsers unless you are writing plain old HTML without any CSS or JavaScript.

As a (good) habit, I used to test any of my web design from Firefox 2/3, Internet Explorer 6/7, Safari 3.1, Opera 9.5 and Google Chrome. These browsers make most of the browser market share, so we can safely assume that our web design will render well from most of the browsers.

Now those who want to be sure about it, such for corporate projects or working on a platform where you can not install all famous browsers, like IE 6 and above on Mac, you can use Browsershots.

At Browsershots, you just need to specify URL of a webpage and select list of browsers. They have around 70+ browsers in total to select from and you can select them all if you are serious about your design.

I personally select only browsers which are important as larger list often take time upto 2/3 hours to process. You can download all screenshots captured by Browsershots at once or view them online as well.

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Downloading is recommended as they do not store them on their server for long time. This service is free and so it has limitations. You can capture around 100 screenshots only per day per site. Paid users get higher limit as well as more priority which means they don’t have to wait for hours to get their capturing job done.

Browsershots is a good service but you can not test many things like JavaScript effects, tabbed navigation using it. So use Browsershots alongwith few top browsers on your desktop to test your web design perfectly.

Links: Browsershots | Top 10 Browsers

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News

Problems with Google SMS Channels!

In my last post about Google SMS channels, I discussed its usefulness and also brought into light some of its pros and  cons. If you have already read the post, you can surely recall that, even after working hard we were unable to locate any disadvantages in this group messaging service. As a result more and more people started creating their own channels hastily.

Later on, it was discovered that many flaws and bugs were present in Google’s SMS service as well. In the Google help group, Sriganesh expressed how this service may be exploited and misused. He explained that, as Google SMS Channels are now opened only for Indian users, anyone can use the RSS feeds of foreign nation’s blogs like TechCrunch, lifehacker, etc and publish their contents via SMS, ultimately affecting the credibility of such web-sites. In response to this Google said someone can report the channels that are using others contents and stringent action would be taken.

Finally I was disappointed because this is not the only drawback, there are many others as well, some of them are listed below:

  • There is a cap to the number of channels that can be created, subscribed to and the number of customized SMS that can be sent per day.
  • Messages sent by channel owner will not be sent to his/her own mobile.
  • On the first day of its launch, the messages tend to get delivered within seconds but this is not the case now.
  • And the biggest drawback that Manoj Fracis suggested was, there is no option for channel owner to view the details of people subscribed to their channel. 🙁

So all these disadvantages are the basis of my disappointment, specially because the service is provided by Google. Can you ever imagine that the Internet giant like Google could come up with a service with so many flaws?

Thanks Deepesh for the tip… 🙂

Categories
Tips

Use Google Search as it was in 2001!

In honor of their 10th Birthday, Google put oldest search engine index available online for use which dates back to 2001. This means you can use Google search as it was in 2001. It is not just home page or logo but also search result will be served from 2001.

Just out of curiosity I tried searching “Rahul Bansal” but I failed to get any result pointing to me! This is quite expected as in 2001, I did not know much about computers and Internet. I got my first computer at the end of 2002 and it was 2006, when I created this blog and my first web presence. More about this is posted on about page.

It was nice searching back in time. I experienced true time-travel as it was entirely different world. Of course, I could not follow most of the result. Search results are served from wayback machines archives.

If you are a techie or student of computer science/engineering, you will also like this powerpoint presentation which describes Google’s System Architecture. I had case study of Google as part of my M.Tech. course. Unfortunately, I failed to find other presentations which have details about Pagerank algorithm and general working of Search engine. Anyway below is what I found, rest you can always Google! 😉

If you are a Google fan, I am sure you will enjoy it.  Just out of curiosity, wanted to know if anyone here used Google Search back in 2001. 🙂

Link: Google search in 2001

Related: Interactive Timeline of Google History

Categories
Tips

6 Things To Consider When Selecting SEO Experts

Manpreet Singh at Digital World posted an excellent article which lists 6 things you should consider when selecting Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts/firms/companies.

6 points are worth noting:

  1. Old is Gold – Experience matters!
  2. Check their Page Rank
  3. Avoid Black Hats
  4. Search Company Feedback
  5. Judge their Ability
  6. Ask the King of Jungle

Detailed information on above points can be found in Manpreet’s post here.

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Even though I personally believe SEO is something you can do on your own if you have just patience and some technical skills, SEO experts can prove good for non-tech-savvy bloggers/website owners.

Just in case, if you are using any popular CMS or blogging platform, then please try to go through its documentation or community forums. All popular CMSes and blogging platform supports SEO friendly website structure in core or via plugins. We also listed 4 plugins for better SEO of wordpress blogs, which can do wonders for your blog as part of our first wordpress plugin series.

Link: 6 Excellent tips to select a SEO Consultants or Companies

Related: Get higher Google pagerank by selecting post titles optimally

Categories
Tips

Create free “Group SMS” service using Google SMS Channels

Did you ever wish for an SMS service similar to Yahoo Groups or Google Groups???

A service that you could help you send your one SMS to all your friends and if any one of them reply to it… the reply goes back as an SMS to mobile phone of all you friends in the group.

Well here is a cool usage of Google SMS Channels to create a similar service…..but before going into details…

Catch this situation…

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One lazy Sunday afternoon in Pune, sitting at home you feel like planning to watch a late night movie show….You type an SMS and send it to 6 of your friends to check who is interested to join you. Minutes later you start getting all types of queries.. one wants to watch “Drona” the other friend is ok with any movie but only in “Inox” … the third one can watch any movie but only in “Rahul cinema”…. while you start trying to collaborate using only SMS (as its only 10 paise per SMS) you actually end up doing 2-3 round robin of calling everyone to bring all to a conclusion…… Total time taken : 30 minutes

Now the same situation using “Group SMS”…

One lazy Sunday afternoon in Pune, sitting at home you feel like planning to watch a late night movie show….You type an SMS and post it to your “Google SMS channel”. All your friends receive this message (as an SMS on their mobile) as they have subscribed to your channel… now everyone post back to the channel (reply the SMS) what their preference is (You have set up your Google SMS channel in such a way that it allow its subscribers to post messages).

Everyone’ s SMS is further relayed to all other friend’s mobile handsets..  and after 2-3 iterations (posting back SMS on the group)  you come to a unanimous plan. Total time taken : 5 minutes

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Before winding up here are few simple steps you need to take to create your own cool SMS group!!!!!

Step 1

  • Start your own SMS channel
  • Click on “Try now>>” under “Create your own channel” on http://labs.google.co.in/smschannels/browse
  • Give name to your channel say “CoolGroup”
  • Do not select any Data Source
  • Set ‘Allow publishing by’ to ‘Any subscriber’
  • Set ‘Who can subscribe’ to ‘By invitation only’

Step 2

  • Invite your friends using “Invite others”
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Step 3

  • All your friends will receive an invitation SMS from Google on your behalf
  • They need to send an SMS ‘ON CoolGroup’ to 9870807070
  • and later ‘accept’ to 9870807070 to accept the terms and conditions

Step 4

  • To post a message to the channel (sending SMS to all your friends) any of the members can send an SMS <channel_name> <message>  to 9870807070
  • In this case it will be sending an SMS ‘CoolGroup Hi all wanna go 4 any movie 2nite?’ to 9870807070
  • This message will reach everyone’s mobile to which they can further reply back using the same method

Google SMS channels are poised to bring a complete revolution in the way we exchange information today!  People are already exploring ways to innovate cool applications using Google SMS channels….

So keep exploring the countless possibilities and do keep me posted…

D-So-D

Deepesh Sodhi

Related: Google SMS Channels with TinyUrl Links

[Editor Note: This is first post by Deepesh Sodhi on this blog. Deepesh works on innovative product based business opportunities in IT, Telecom and Personal finance management space for the Indian market.

If you like to write for Devils Workshop, please check this. Details about our revenue sharing programs are here.]

Categories
News

Google SMS Channels with Links

Without a doubt, Google SMS Channels is really a good service. Many bloggers are creating SMS channels dedicated for their blog, so that their readers can follow their blog from mobile.

I have created Devils Workshop SMS channel last night and started receiving SMS for each post as it was getting published. But I was disappointed to see that there was no link to article in SMS I received. Links could help people having GPRS/wi-fi enabled cellphones browse articles from their handset.

I tried finding such option first, but I failed. So I created a small script which accept your original feed URL and give you link to a new feed which:

  1. First shorten links to your article using famous service TinyUrl. This takes care of 160 character limit of SMS.
  2. Next it append such shortened link to your feeds title.
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Now when Google SMS channel will fetch such converted link, they will send short urls to articles in SMS updates.

Below is screenshot which highlights this difference:


How to use:

1. Getting a converted link

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  • You can either get converted link using web interface provided at Google SMS Channels with TinyUrl
  • OR simply prefix http://gsmslinks.rtcamp.com/ to your feed URL.

Example: http://feeds.devilsworkshop.rsites.dev6.rt.gw/rb286 will become http://gsmslinks.rtcamp.com/http://feeds.devilsworkshop.rsites.dev6.rt.gw/rb286

2. Modifying Existing Channel

  • Just edit RSS/Atom feed URL. If you are creating a new channel, enter converted feed link here otherwise replace old link with converted link. Please DO NOT forget to remove prefix http:// from links as it is added by Google by default.

  • Next better click on Preview button to check if desired results are coming in mobile emulator screen on page. If yes, click Update Channel button below.

If you have any question, please ask via comments only. If there exist option to do this, please let me know. 🙂

Link: Google SMS Channels with TinyUrl Links

Categories
Tips

Using Tata Plug-2-Surf USB Modem on Mac OS X Leopard

This is for all Mac users in India who are using Tata’s plug-2-surf USB internet or planning to buy it.

Although there is no official support from Tata to use plug-2-surf on Mac, it is fairly simple. Just follow steps listed below…

1. Just plug your USB modem to any USB port available on MAC. Wait for green light to turn on.

(image via: Techie Cocktail)

2. Next open Mac’s System Preferences. Select Network settings.

3. Under Network settings, for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies MSM connection, use following values:

  • Telephone Number: #777
  • Account Name: internet
  • Password: internet

After this, go to “Advanced” Settings.

4. In Advanced settings, modify two fields:

That’s it, hit OK.  Click Connect on next screen (Step #3).

I am experiencing a lot with Mac and quite comfortable with it. So if you guys have any general questions related to Mac, please feel free to ask them here.

I do not code apps for Mac as of now, but hope to do that someday. 🙂

Related: Enabling Bluetooth File Transfer on Mac OS X Leopard

Categories
News

Interactive Timeline of Google History

During last few weeks, many blogs posted about Google’s 10th official anniversary. Surprisingly, Google did very little to mark an event, compared to the enthusiasm they usually show for not-so-big events.

May be its debate on Google’s actual anniversary date, or may be Google, as usual, decided to do it differently by keeping entire event low profile.

Technically Google.com was registered on September 15, 1997 (whois data). Many Googlers posted nice articles as part of 10th anniversary celebration. But thing I liked most, is interactive timeline of Google history.

Google fan will surely love this time travel. Also for those who are lazy enough to read best book on Google history, “The Google Story“, can take this tour. Of course, it doesn’t have drama that book unfolds but still an experience to remember! Thanks Dion Almaer. 🙂

Link: Start Time Travel of Google History