Social Icons

> URL Hacks or URL language

 URL: - Uniform Resourse Locator is a string of characters that mark an address of a webpage on the world wide web (WWW). It also defines some tasks for a Web browser.

The slashes,  question marks, dots etc. that you see in URL are not just random characters. They tell the browser, where to go & what to do when it gets there.

There are 5 of some cool tricks developed around URLs. These are generally refered to as URL Hacks or URL language. Practically all these tricks can be implemented using alternate methods, but still doing it through your Browser (Address bar) is quite unique.

Downloading a YouTube Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nesQa4U8Y1w
http://www.pwnyoutube.com/watch?v=nesQa4U8Y1w

At the beginning of any YouTube link, before the word “you”, add three letters: “pwn”, without the quotes. That will take you to a page letting you download any YouTube video, in a variety of formats.

Taking Screenshot of a Webpage

http://www.google.com
Aviary.com/http://www.google.com

Just adding “Aviary.com” to the very beginning of any URL takes a screenshot of that URL, and then opens it in the Aviary editing interface – one of the best online image editors out there.

Searching Google images by Color

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=monkeys&btn
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=monkeys&btnG&imgcolor=red

In Google Images, adding the phrase “&imgcolor=whatevercoloryouwant” filters the Google results to images only of that particular color – and does it impressively well.

Jump to a Point in a Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nesQa4U8Y1w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nesQa4U8Y1w#t=1m1s

To jump to a specific moment in a given YouTube video, just add this to the end of the URL: “#t=*m*s” with the * signs meaning minutes and seconds, respectively. The video will then jump to and begin from the exact point you want. In Google Video, add #*m*s to the end for the same result.

Filter Google Results by Date

http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&=&q=flashdance&btn
http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&=&q=flashdance&btn&as_qdr=d

In a Google search, adding “@as_qdr=d” to the end of the URL will sort your results by date, only showing you the new stuff. Great for reviews or news, and for getting rid of all the static pages that tend to float to the top of Google results.

These are just few of the known tricks. You may find some more. If you do, let me know, I will add them to this list.

> All Google Products in 1 page

There might be some rare species around who knows about Internet but hasn’t heard or used Google in some way or the other. Still there are some great things about Google that not many of us are familiar with. It's worth knowing.

If you wish to know about every Google product, just visit Simply Google.
Simply Google is an initiative to expose the hidden google information architecture. It lists all Google Products & endeavours in a single page. The original version of page was created by Chris McEvoy in April 2006 & since then its regularly updated.

 
 

You can reach Simply Google here

> Saving Flash in IE & Firefox

Many times, we come across some good animated sites, some cool games or some nice greeting cards all made in flash. If you again wish to access this content later, you probably go online, follow the same route & get to the content. You won't have to do all this if you follow some simple steps. The best part is, you can also download some online flash games to be played offline :)

As soon as you visit a site, most or all of the site content gets saved on your system cache memory. This memory can then be accessed according to your need.

For Internet Explorer users: (also for Opera users)
1. Play the complete flash file online.
2. Under 'Tools' menu click 'Internet Options' and then 'General' Tab. Under "Browsing History" or "Temporary Internet Files" click Settings
3. Once you hit "Settings", it opens a new popup.
4. Here click "View files" to open your temporary internet files folder. Every file you opened through your browser is saved here (by default)
5. If you see large icons, the folder may be on "Thumbnails" view. Change the folder to "Details" view.
6. Right click & arrange icons by "Internet Address"
7. Once you find the required flash file, Copy it. Then paste it anywhere to access it later
8. The file will be available offline.

For Fiefox users:
1. Play the complete flash file online.
2. On your Firefox go to "Tools" menu then "Page Info". Here click on "Media Tab".
3. The media tab has a complete list (with preview) of Images, Shockwave Flash files that were downloaded by your browser.
4. Scroll down the list and locate your required swf file.
5. Click the "Save As" button to save the file on our system.
6. So this file can be accessed offline.

If you further wish to reduce your above efforts, just consider installing the flash saving plugins. Plugins are small utilities that reside in your browser & can make your task easy.

Download Plugin for Firefox
Download Plugin for IE

> Google Phone Search

For those of you who don't know, Google has come up with a new Phone Search service.

Google Phone Search is a new pilot service that makes information on the web, like local business listings, movie showtimes, real time cricket score and railway information accessible from any phone.
This service combines the power of advance Speech recognition & Google Search & delivers the information whenever you need it.

1) Dial 1-800-41-999-999 from any landline or mobile (Toll Free)
2) Just speak out your requirement at the IVR (interactive voice recognition)
3) Once you find the required information, you can get it sent to you as sms or have it read to you.


Note: Google Phone Search is still in its pilot stage and is available in English to users in Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, India only.

> Change Gtalk status to Idle

Once you log in to Gtalk, there is no way you can go invisible to others. Even if this is a major drawback for gtalk, its popularity is not affected. Google may come out with a solution to this later, but for now we will try an alternate means to solve this issue.

Gtalk monitors your activity on your PC & if you are inactive for a long time, it sets your Gtalk status to "Idle".
Since almost everyone is familiar with Gtalk now, it's much likely that they will not disturb you, if your status shows "Idle".

Let’s say if you are busy with some important work & wish to communicate only with a few people from your gtalk list. You will probably want to change your Gtalk status to “Idle” so that others won’t disturb you. This is possible with a small utility called “galwaysidle”.

Galwaysidle: - Once installed will create 3 new options for the system tray gtalk icon.

As the name suggests:
1) Normal Idle: This will work the same way as you currently use it.
2) Always Idle: You can keep working & your gtalk status will be shown Idle to all
3) Never Idle: Your status will always show “Available” to everyone.


Download GAlwaysIdle

> Compress large webpages

While reading a newspaper or article online, wouldn’t it be great if you could avoid the unnecessary adverts or images that consume a lot of your bandwidth, which ultimately results in slow browsing. If you wish to read something quickly & move on to the next, why waste your time waiting for something you haven’t asked for.

As always, there may be multiple solutions to solve this issue, but I would rather use an online option at http://www.squeezr.net












The above site can compress a page in 2 modes:

1) Text mode: - It eliminates all images on the page, thus reducing the page size & the loading time.
2) Compress Image mode: - It compresses the image file to a lower quality, thus keeping the page elements same, but reducing the page loading time.

Doing this, you can save a lot of browsing time, which would finally help your pockets.

> Shortcuts for Shutdown/Restart

Certain main functions of your PC can be made into shortcuts for easier access.
This includes: shutdown, restart, logoff, hibernation mode…etc







Just right click on your Desktop and create a new shortcut by selecting New > Shortcut.
In the Type the location of the item box, enter shutdown.exe -s -t 00
You can name this shortcut as “Shutdown”. Clicking this icon, will do the same function as the name suggests.
To customize it, you can change the icon assigned to it by right-clicking the shortcut and selecting Properties. In the Properties window that pops-up, click on Change icon. Here you can select whatever icon you want & the shortcut is ready to use.

Similarly you can create shortcuts for other functions

> For Restart shortcut, use shutdown.exe -r -t 00
> For Logoff shortcut, type shutdown -l -t 00
> For Switching Users shortcut, use Rundll32.exe User32.dll, LockWorkStation
> For Standby/Hibernation shortcut use Rundll32.exe PowrProf.dll, SetSuspendState

> Move/Copy files faster in Windows.

Just imagine, if one day you wish to copy large files like movies/games or even more, you have to take a backup of your system in your hard drive or other PC/Laptop. You should see your face when you notice the speed at which the files are being copied/moved :)
To add to this, if you're almost at the end of your task & there is an adamant file which snubs to be copied....most probably, you will need to start all over again.

Reason:-  In Windows, a standard copy/move function uses a complex algorithm, which is fine if you are copying/moving smaller files, but it slows down the process for large files.

Solution:-  There are several software that can make your job easier. I've listed some of them below.
1) TeraCopy (Personal Favorite)
2) Talent Copy
3) Copy Handler
4) Super Copy
5) Fast Copy

Each of these software almost have similar features(+/-)
1) small file size
2) compact design
3) Pause/Resume feature
4) Skip files & continue
5) Provide logs....etc

I've tried all these software but my personal recommendation will be TeraCopy.









Even now I use it as my default copy manager. It has a simple interface, easy to understand. Copy/Move speed reaches around 14 - 25 MB/s (May increase or decrease according to system in use). It also has a portable version, which can be induced in Pen/flash drive or external HD.

> Notepad Trick

Many of you would probably know it. For those who dont, quickly open your notepad.

Type the phrase "bush hid the facts"
Do not press enter
Save the file.
Open the file & see whats written.

Surprised!!! .....LOL

Reason: There is no magic in the above phrase. This trick will mostly work with combination 4 - 3 - 3 - 5 letters. (bush has 4 letters, hid has 3 letters and so on). It happens due to some conflict in chinese & english encoding for text.
In simple words.....there are several encodings available but unfortunately for chinese & english encoders there are certain things common. Since notepad analyses any text file as a combination of bytes, it fails to encode the combination and gives out a garbage value.

This error is not observed if:
1) The system has the required encoder OR
2) The text is longer, so that it's easier for Notepad to judge which encoder to be used.

> Multiple gtalk logins

Do you wish to use multiple gtalk IDs to chat with seperate Work groups? If yes, then this is trick for you. Its very simple & you won't need to download anything.



Requiremet: Gtalk installed on your windows system :)



Procedure:
1) Go to Start Menu > All Programs & locate Google Talk
2) Right click on the Icon.....Send To > Desktop (create shortcut)
3) On the desktop shortcut, right click & hit Properties




4) Once the Properties window pops up, you'll need to modify Target location
5) Add text "/nomutex" after the location
eg: You will see something like "C:\Program Files\...\googletalk.exe"
Change it to "C:\Program Files\...\googletalk.exe" /nomutex
6) Add a space before the new word, else the system will not accept the change.
7) Once done, you are all set
8) Click on the desktop icon & login with all your gtalk IDs :)

> Intro

Hi Guys,

It's nice to write on a topic I love so much. I love software, hacks, tips, tricks that can make my life easier. Its always said, "If you have some hard work, give it to a lazy person". He'd be the one to find the easiest & quickest way out.
In that case if you wish to call me lazy...then be it :)

Just to summarize this blog: It's a way to keep whatever I've learnt, in one place, where I can refer to whenever I wish. In addition to this, I've also kept it public...maybe someone else could benefit from this.

Thanks in advance, for your valuable comments.

Statutory Warning:- 
All material legible or downloadable, is inspired from whats already available on the net. I take no responsibility for the way you use the material. Please use at your own risk.