Some Greasemonkey scripts can really improve the usability on specific websites. We have reviewed several popular scripts before including Greasemonkey scripts for IMDB, Twitter, 4Chan, Youtube or Google Search. Greasemonkey scripts require the Firefox Greasemonkey extension before they can be installed. Users who want to be notified about userscript updates need to install another userscript to do so (read Greasemonkey Updater).

The Greasemonkey Compiler is an online tool that can be used to convert Greasemonkey userscripts into Firefox add-ons. One of the main advantages of Firefox add-ons is that they do not require the Greasemonkey extension to be installed. This makes it also easier to distribute the script.

(more…)

Tags: firefox, firefox-add on, firefox-extension, greasemonkey, greasemonkey compiler, userscripts, web browser
Categories: Browsing, firefox

Over the past month I have made it my goal to stop using the proprietary MP3 format for audio in favor of the free, open standard Ogg Vorbis format. The primary reasons for doing this is 1) Modern Linux distributions do not ship with mp3 support built in (due to licensing constraints) and 2) My Sanza Fuze supports ogg format. Add these two elements the fact that ripping a CD into ogg format is far faster than ripping it into mp3 format, and you can see why I would choose to migrate to ogg.

Now the problem lies in the fact that I have a fairly large collection of music files that are all in mp3 format. Having to convert 5,000+ files, one by one, via command line would cause even me to pull out my hair. So I decided it was time to search for a tool that would handle the conversion for me. The criteria for this conversion was that the tool had to be easily installed and easily used. My goal is to try to convince new users to shy away from either DRM formats or closed formats. And we all know, when dealing with new users, the easier the better. And so with that in mind, my hunt for the perfect tool landed me with Sound Converter.

(more…)

Tags: audio conversion, mp3 conversion, mp3 to ogg conversion
Categories: Advice, Linux, Music and Video, Open Source, Tutorials Basic, software

Offering computer translations of documents seems to be a one of the features that Google wants to introduce in many of their services. You might remember that they have added automatic translations of RSS feed items in Google Reader a while ago. A super useful feature for users who follow foreign blogs. A few days ago document translations were added to Google Docs as well which allows users of the document hosting and managing service to translate documents that are available in Google Docs easily.

The new option to translate a document becomes available after clicking on Tools > Translate Document in the header menu while viewing a single document in Google Docs.

(more…)

Tags: document hosting, documents, Google, google docs, google documents, google translate, translate documents
Categories: Google, The Web

Even solid well programmed applications crash from time to time. This might not be a huge problem most of the time but it can be one in specific situations. This is especially true in a server environment where some processes, like a mail server, ftp server or streaming media server, have to be running all the time to provide access to their functionality to clients that are connected to it.

Most servers come with tools to restart crashed applications or to notify a system administrator to fix the problem. Home servers or single user computers on the other hand do not have these tools on board. That’s where Restarter comes into play.

(more…)

Tags: restart processes, restarter, windows processes, windows software
Categories: Windows, software

One of the many misconceptions about file deletion is the fact that files can be recovered even if they are deleted on the computer system by the user. Deleting files normally moves them to the recycle bin from where they can be recovered easily. But even deleting them in there or pressing the Shift key during deletion will not remove the file completely from the computer system. The Windows operating system for instance will only enable write operations on the data sector the file was stored in. This means that file recovery tools can recover these files with chances being better the less time has passed since the deletion and recovery attempt.

(more…)

Tags: data shredding, delete files, file deletion, secure deletion, windows software
Categories: Security, Windows, software

Webmasters have to make sure that the code of their website is excaping several characters correctly. Failure to do so can lead to all kinds of problems from display errors to functions that are not working correctly because of this (check out The XML Page Cannot Be Displayed article for an example of things that can happen if characters are not escaped properly).

The relevant characters that need to be escaped are ', ", &, < and >. (I had to escape them while writing this article to avoid xml errors on the page. Webmasters have several options to escape these characters. They can escape them manually, use an online tool to convert them (see How To Display Valid Markup Code In Websites) or a software program like the XML Escape Tool.

(more…)

Tags: html, webmaster, windows software, xhtml, xml, xml escape tool
Categories: Windows, software

In March, Martin discussed QR codes, a form of 2D barcode that phone cameras can rapidly decode, with appropiate software (which can be found easily on Google). The practical uses are for phone numbers to be quickly entered or websites to be quickly launched; QR codes can feature in magazines, websites or on packaging, for example, to take users to related mobile websites.

QR codes can also feature in much less conventional mediums, a few of which I will highlight.

© Nicolas1981, 2009, under a CC-BY-SA 3.0 licence

In Japan, most phones come with integrated QR code readers and, as such, QR codes are slightly more prominent than they are in the EU and US. When you read Wikipedia’s article on QR codes, one of the first things you see is a picture of a billboard that features a QR code. Whilst this is definitely an interesting concept, I don’t know if I’d feel comfortable pointing my phone at random objects in the middle of a large city at night!

(more…)

Tags: barcode, barcodes, densawave, design qr, qr barcodes, qr code, qr codes, quick response code
Categories: Misc