This works even if you do not have new orkut theme feature enabled on your account like unfortunate me. Also there is no manual effort involved while using this script compared to using themes from unofficial orkut theme directory.
Once installed this script randomly switches between 11 themes listed in this theme directory. This script is direct extension of original greasemonkey script created by Digiok and Gautam.
With recent launch of orkut’s country specific sites, all greasemonkey scripts stopped working. The reason is most greasemonkey scripts are domain specific and at the time of writing them, they were coded for url http://www.orkut.com which is now changing to http://www.orkut.co.in and so on depending on users country.
So all greasemonkey scripts for orkut needs to be changed now to reflect this domain change. Listed below are steps need to be followed by users and developers to make your favorite greasemonkey scripts work again on orkut…
For GreaseMonkey Script Users…
Just go through following steps for each greasemonkey scripts you want to modify…
Open Manage User Scripts option from Tools >> Greasemonkey menu or right-clicking on small greasemonkey logo in bottom-right corner of your firefox.
A wizard will open like below. Then…
Click on a script you want to edit from left side menu.
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Then Click on right-sides included pages list.
Then click on Add button.
Clicking on Add button will open a pop-up. Put orkut’s domain name you have in your country their. Ex: http://www.orkut.co.in/* for Indian orkut users. Note /* at the end of domain name. You must not forget it!
Just click OK and the script will start working. 🙂
If you are a newbie greasemonkey script developer then you may be wondering about long list of orkut’s country-level domains.
But with one small change in your scripts you can make them work with all orkut sites. Here are the steps…
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Open your greasemonkey script is editor.
Go to @include line in ==UserScript== header.
Change http://*.orkut.com/* to http://*.orkut.*/*
This will make script work with all orkut domains plus few more domain like http://www.orkut.pk. But rather than listing all countries and making mistake on the way, this way is full-proof. Its also simple as all you need is to replace com in orkut urls with a * (asterisk).
You can do try-catch type nesting around your domain sensitive codes so that they will not clutter javascript error console in firefox. But this part is optional so don’t bother much if I sound like alien… 😉
About our greasemonkey scripts go, you can just update them by installing again from respective locations. I have updated all of them and you can find them at one place, thats here! 🙂
Long time back I wrote about greasemonkey scripts and userstyle themes for changing orkut background. Over the time as orkut changed many of those themes stopped working, but now orkut officially launched few orkut themes and more will be added soon. One such theme I like is shown at the top. More themes can be seen at orkut plus.
I guess Orkut is rolling this feature to few people at a time. So if you don’t see it then just wait. Even I can’t see it. Darnell also reports the same problem. He also asked a nice question as why don’t orkut create a theme directory where users can create and upload their own theme. I think this is a great suggestion and orkut will surely listen to it.
Once enabled, you can switch between different themes by going to Edit Profile option. Themes are available at this Orkut url.
Update:Official Orkut blog post says this themes are currently available for India. But a greasemonkey script is available which can make these themes work for you irrespective of your country. (Read More…) [June 2, 2008]
More than a year ago, I wrote a script to increase your fans on orkut. It was exploiting a bug, which over the time got fixed. But thanks to a new GreaseMonkey script, you can surely increase your orkut fan count to some extent, this time fully legally! 😉
This script is based on simple logic: you become fan of everyone on orkut and hopefully some of them will be your fan as well!
The script is for firefox users, and can be downloaded from here. If new are new to GreaseMonkey script, you may like to read this small guide.
Increasing Fan…
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After installing this script, go to your friends page. The script will make you fan of all users on that page within a second. Just go on clicking next link so that you visit all friends pages and become fan of all.
Automatically…
If you have, say 1000 friends, then you will have to go through 50 friend pages atleast as a single page shows at the max 20 friends. This means you need to click atleast 49 times next link.
Well do you think I will put you through so much pain? 😉
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Just copy-paste following javascript into firefox’s navigation bar and hot enter. It will take you through all 50 pages automatically in a single tab. It also takes a small break in between so that you won’t get noticed by Orkut team. Of-course, you have to install above script, before using following codes…
javascript: var l = 1 ; var s = "http://www.orkut.com/Friends.aspx?show=all&pno=" myWindow = window.open(s+ l , "_blank"); function rb() {l++; myWindow.location = s + l;}; void setInterval(rb, 2000);
Thats it! Once you done with this script & codes, hope to see rise in number of fans. 🙂
PCMover is a migration utility by Laplink softwares to transfer files, settings, installed software, etc from one Windows machine to another Windows machine. Here Windows machine can be a real PC or a virtual machine running on any platform e.g. XP/Vista via Parallels or BootCamp in Mac.
LapLink Software is celebrating their 25th anniversary by giving this $49.95 software free. Also their partner firms are offering many softwares at unbelievable prices.
Simply install PCmover on both your old and PCmover will determine which programs, files, and settings need to be moved, and when the transfer is complete, your new computer will have the personality and functionality of your old PC plus all of its own pre-installed software.
I will personally give it try as I have a Windows XP desktop computer and also XP on my Mac using BootCamp as well as Parallels.
One of the oldest firefox extension I am using from long time is Google’s browser sync. If you access internet from multiple location like home, college, office, etc, you can install this firefox extension at all places.
Once installed it keeps synchronizing your firefox bookmarks, history, saved passwords, cookies & session (i.e. tabs & windows).
Do not worry much about security. The extension itself is protected by your Google account login and password plus a 4-digit PIN. Also sensitive data like cookies and password are by default encrypted.
The extension is free as like most Google services. If you have large number of bookmarks you may notice slight delay at first synchronization, but after that it works like a charm! 🙂
Additionally, if you have a dual-boot machine with any OS combination you can use this extension to sync firefox in every OS. Although on dual-boot machine there is slightly geekish way to do this which also sync installed add-ons, greasemonkey scripts and anything else which this extension skips.
Started as orkut messenger, scrapboy improved over the time. After myspace, they now added support for facebook.
Long list of supported features and appealing user interface will make scrapboy your sweetheart. Designed with keeping minor details in mind, scrapboy take care of missing feature on individual social networks. So do not think it as another desktop-way to access few online sites.
As a simple example, have a look at facebooks’ birthday reminder feature enhanced in scrapboy…
Still latest facebook chat feature is not available in scrapboy as it is integrated into Digsby. But on the other hand scrapboy is much more centered around social networking sites while digsby is yet to support orkut.
Long time back we reviewed desktop, cellphone and web-based multiprotocol messengers i.e. messengers which supports multiple IM network like Yahoo, MSN, Google Talk, AIM, etc.
Now in desktop category my long time favorite pidgin got serious competition from digsby which not only operates across multiple IM network and do email notification job but also makes your life easy on social networks like facebook, myspace & twitter. Surprisingly there is no donut for orkut users at this time! 🙁
One option that will surely beat other desktop IMs is compulsion to create digsby account. With this option you will have all your accounts’ information stored on digsby server.
This is good as you don’t need to re-enter multiple account info every-time you install digsby on a new machine. For people like me who uses atleast 5 PC’s in daily routine, this is something I want from long time. Also its good from security point of view as you will need to enter only digsby login info from unsecure places like public cyber-cafes!
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Other Notable Features:
Simple and clean interface. With option to change skins.
Adding accounts is too easy. You will only see field that are necessary unlike pidgin where advance options confuses you!
Better privacy control at global level as well as per account basis.
Option to hide Mobile contacts. This is good as a lot of Yahoo users are always stay online from their mobile via SMS.
The only thing I am not sure about its chat-history feature. Its there but it will be great if they maintain chat-history on server-side like IM History does.
As of now its available for Windows only. But Mac & Linux versions are also on the way. So cheer up! 🙂
In past we have written about varioushacks to download videos from YouTube, Metacafe and other video sharing sites. After receiving good response to all of them, I have decided to compile a complete list of alternatives for every possible ways and here is the outcome.
We have tested more than 60 alternatives. To limit our testing efforts, we eliminated all candidates who offers trial/paid service or forces to register user. Next of course ease of use and support for multiple video sharing site has been considered. Enough chit-chat, enjoy the list… 🙂
The list is organized across different categories like web based, desktop version , etc.
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Web Based
1.KeepVid – It supports almost all popular sites like YouTube, Metacafe, etc. Have bookmarklet option to download videos in one-click. You have to rename downloaded file to add .flv extension. You can use VLC media player to play flv files. Read More…
2.Flashload – Replica of Keepvid, but also available in Deutsche language. Supports 50 video sites. Maintains list of last 20 videos downloaded on homepage.
3.videodownloadx – Same like keepvid but have option to convert video online into 12 different formats. They ask for email address in conversion option. In case you have concern about it try next..
4.vixy.net – Supports less number of site than keepvid and less number of conversion formats than videodownloadx but simplest to use. Also they don’t ask for your email address. Read More…
5.Media Converter – Supports many video sites. Conversion options gives nice compression ratio. It have too many options and wizards. Good for advance users, bad if your looking for quickie. Converter is also available for download as windows only version.
6.Zamzar – It also feature reach like Media Convertor but instead of giving their convertor away they offers online tool where you can upload existing flv videos for conversion. Good for Linux & Mac users as they don’t have desktop software to do the same.
7.kcoolonline – List of 211 video site they supports is eye-catcher. They do have a convertor but no bookmarklet option.
8.TubeG – Supports search and download from YouTube. Flagged video is available for download. Have bookmarklet as well as many interesting section to browse.
9.ilikeyoutube – Ability to search and download videos using top tags. As name suggest its only for YouTube.
10.YouTubia – YouTube only. Offers keyword based as well as user name based search option.
There are literally hundred of sites providing similar services, thanks to cost-effective web hosts like Dreamhost. Still if we missed any deserving site please let us know.
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Firefox Add-ons
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11.Video Download Helper – It is second most popular firefox addon with 234,815+ downloads. It supports adult sites. They also have dedicated tutorial section which is curtsey users of this addon only. Do I need to say more about it? 😉
12.Video Ook – Supports less number of site but better customization options. Most important feature – file renaming after video title. Yep, all you tube video get downloaded with file name get_video so this extension is
13.GreaseMonkey Script – Those who love to do it GreaseMonkey way can use this script. Its for YouTube only. It adds a direct download link on all YouTube pages as shown in image. (New To GreaseMonkey?)
14.ByWiFi – You can search, watch & download video from YouTube & Metacafe. Registration is optional but useful to track you usage history across site. It will be great if they add support for more video site. Read More..
Unfortunate I do not have more options for mobile users this time. But I will surely add in future. If you have one, please share it via comments. 🙂
Windows Users
15.Orbit Downloader – Integrates nicely with many video sharing sites. Just hover the mouse on video and a "Grab It" button will pop up immediately! Available in 30+ languages.
16.Vdownloader – It can download and convert videos from many video sharing sites, saving them in AVI or MPG format. Supports few adult sites too!
17.KeepV – It also supports download as well as conversion. Conversion to MP4 format may catch iPod users. You need to manually copy-paste video URLs – Bad integration! Requires Microsoft .NET Framework.
18.Youtube Grabber – Very lightweight, but works for YouTube only as its name suggests!
For windows we got many softwares but most of them were paid. I don’t see any reason to pay for things when there are better alternative in freewares.
Linux Users
19.Youtube-dl – This is a shell script. After installing you can use command like youtube-dl URL to download and play video automatically. Videos played using VLC player.
Again I failed to get any complete software for Linux. So personally I will go for web-based or firefox alternatives. Still if you are addicted to shell you can try the script above.
Mac OS Users
20.GetTube – Only option I found for Mac OS. Only youtube is supported as you might have guessed it. Good thing supports conversion to MP4, MOV and AVI formats.
Additionally script mentioned for Linux users can be used from terminal.
PHP Script
21.Youtube Rippin – Finally if you are a coder and this large list impressed you, you can think of starting a site using this PHP script. Moreover if you have a PHP interpreter on your system, you can run this locally. Details are here…
Thats it! here we reach the end of this is a long list. I tried to cover all possible options but to err is human and if you think any deserving candidate is missing from list, feel free to comment! 🙂
By default Gmail doesn’t allow HTML signature in outgoing emails. Means all tags you put into signature will appear as it is.
There are multiple ways to overcome this problem. Simplest is too have a HTML editor and copying HTML signature into Gmail, thanks to Gmail’s WYSIWYG editor. This method is good for one or two mails everyday.
Next you can do this using a Greasemonkey script either. As greasemonkey is for firefox only, other user can still follow method described above.
After installation, script will create a HTML signature box in left sidebar. There you can put as many signature as you want and also set which signature to be used by default (in case of multiple signature).
Also each signature can be assigned a memorable name as shown in screenshot below which appears when you add new or edit existing signatures!
Once done, every time you compose a new email as well as reply to any, your signature will be be appended automatically.
if you are using plain-text signature in Gmail, that will be also added to new mails. You can either use both or remove old signature by going to Settings >> General >> Signature!
