How to save and convert files from youtube

Downloading a video file from youtube was a very difficult operation some years ago. Now situations changed, several third party online portals offers such services like file conversion and downloading from youtube. Most portals requires the youtube video link to download the file. It's ok for one or two files. But when it comes to convert a playlist of videos, it becomes so difficult. Most of the third party services like keepvid and en.savfromnet.com sites give this feature for free. You have to pay for it. Why do you pay for it while, there is a better solution is at your reach? So Whats the solution?

It is youtube-dl

youtube-dl is a small piece of CLI (Command Line Interface) software mostly working in GNU/Linux platforms. But as of now, they have ported it to Windows too. So Windows users also can enjoy it. What I am explaining here is its Linux usage. Its very simple and easy to use. Even if you think you are not good in Command Line Interface, let it be the first step to understand what a Command Line experience is.

If you are Windows user, there is an executable file is available in the following site. Download it from here.
https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl.exe
If you are using, Ubuntu or Debian based Linux system use the following command to install the software from the Terminal.

apt-get install youtube-dl 

After the installation process done, please copy a youtube share link to do your first experiment. For an experiment, here is a link - https://youtu.be/L6-uJLteKek
We're now just going to download "Mr. Big - To Be With You (MV)"

youtube-dl https://youtu.be/L6-uJLteKek

After giving the command in the Terminal, just sit back and watch the verbose happening in the screen. Once the completion status reach 100%, check it in the current folder in the file manager.

Ok. You have downloaded the first Video file from youtube. Good. But when it will come to download multiple files and convert them into mp3 files, what will you do? The command is very simple. Now you are just going to copy a youtube play list link. Here is the example case. The Beatles collection - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9-cZf_sidpkzR4W_LxvZjh4F7YFo4WoG
And here is the command to download all the files as mp3.

youtube-dl -i --extract-audio --audio-format mp3 -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9-cZf_sidpkzR4W_LxvZjh4F7YFo4WoG

Now just sit back and relax. It will convert all the files to mp3. So easy, so simple.

Add contact form in Blogger

For so long, I was searching for a "contact form" gadget in blogger. Very coincidentally I got a clue that there is a method to add a fine contact form in google docs. Here is the step by step info to add the contact form in your blogger.

Prerequisite

1. You must have google docs with your google account
2. A blog. Or site

Now look at the screenshots and the captions

Step 00: Open your google docs > Create new > Form

Step 01: Define each field such as name, email, message etc

Step 02: Edit the fields by clicking this icon

Step03: Add each fields carefully. Click "Done"

Step04: In More action > Embed

Step05: Copy the embed link

Step06: Now open blogger and create a new page

Step07: In the EDIT HTML paste the embed link

Step08: Check it in the COMPOSE Mode

Step09: Now publish the page

Step10: Go back to Googledocs and open the file

Step11: Set up Tools > Notification rules

Step 12 : In blogger you can reduce the width.

In this section please tick against "Any changes are made" and "Email right away" after that "Save"
Yes you have almost set up the Contact form. Now just check yourself whether it is working or not. If everything works well, you will get a notification in your gmail inbox where the googledocs is associated with.

Cost effective Portable Broadband Internet

Many friends frequently asks about a smart / cost effective way to access internet in their laptop. There are lot of portable Broadband Internet Service Providers world wide. Here in Kerala there are Reliance, Tata Tele-services and lots of mobile service providers have introduced such broad band internet services. But when and performance matters, there is very little options in Portable Broadband Internet Services. Very recently I was happened to know a comparatively-good option in Portable Internet. This particular internet connection is based on EDGE technology in mobile phones.

What is EDGE

EDGE stands for Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution. It is a digital mobile phone technology that allows improved data transmission rates as a backward-compatible extension of GSM. It is also known as Enhanced GPRS (EGPRS). Basically EDGE is a superset to GPRS and can function on any network with GPRS deployed on it, provided the carrier implements the necessary upgrade.

TATA-DOCOMO's EDGE based internet plan

Yes. In Kerala, Docomos internet plans are so cheep. Rs. 48/- for 2 GB download per month. If you are using it with GNU/Linux operating system its performance is really great. A file can be downloaded 15-30 Kbps which means you have a bandwidth of 120-240 Kbps. And most amazing is, if you have a good signal strength, you will get a stable internet. Please do not compare the speed with leased lines and fixed DSL lines.

Instructions for TATA-DOCOMO internet using with Gnu/Linux
As the old times, what we did for dial up connections. We used wvdial. Yes! wvdial reloaded.

Use wvdialconf to set up the modem.

nano /etc/wvdial.conf and add the following things

Init3 = AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","TATA.DOCOMO.INTERNET"
Phone = *99*# [ Phone = *99# for normal phones | *99***1# for Nokia phones]
Password = internet
Username = internet
Baud = 57600
stupid mode = 1

TATA-DOCOMO provide Linux support for GPRS!

Last time when I called TATA Docomo's call centre, they told me that they can support GPRS users in Gnu/Linux platform. However, there will be minimal issues you will face when you use such a connection through Gnu/Linux. Here is a list of the issues I faced

I am using a dual sim phone. There may be conflicts of default SIM.

The service provider has to send us a configuration sms which has to be installed in your handset. If the configuration file corrupted, you won't be able to connect the internet.

Here is a sample of /etc/wvdial.conf

[Dialer Defaults]

Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Init3 = AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","TATA.DOCOMO.INTERNET"
Modem Type = USB Modem
Baud = 57600
New PPPD = yes
Modem = /dev/ttyACM0
ISDN = 0
Phone = *991#
Password = internet
Username = internet

How to retrieve youtube videos from your browser's cache?

I'll tell you some working methods to download youtube videos withoug having any particular software. But before that just read about the main issues.

I know you have tried many ways to download your favourite youtube video to your hard drive. you may have used many tools for that. But suddenly on one day, your fav tools stop working. Why? Because, youtube changes their technology time to time in caching the videos in your browser. There are many Gnu/Linux based application to download youtube. Clive, gvdown are best examples. My favourite application was Clive. Anyway Clive is no longer works in my machine. To use Clive any longer, I have to upgrade it or re-install it. So I decided to get them without any software. How could I do that?

Whatever file to run in your computer from the internet, it has to cache it first in the local system. May it be a png or gif, flv or mp3 it has to do so. So the site, caches the file in the temp location of your system. In the case of youtube video, you have to find where the file is cached in your local system. Its that simple. Once you find where is the file is cached, you almost got the file. Before proceeding you have to understand the following things to operate.

1. Find out the way to view all cache files in your Mozilla Firefox browser
2. Find out the way to view all cache files in your Computer (Gnu/Linux or Windows or Mac etc)

As of today, you can retrieve the video simply if you correctly follow the following steps

1. Open Mozilla Firefox and in the address bar type as "about:cache" (without quotes)
2. In "Memory cache device", click on "List Cache Entries"
3. Using Firefox "Find" tool, locate your youtube video.
4. Click on a "Key" heavy file size. (say 3725647 bytes)
5. Then you will get enough info on that particular key. Just Right-click on the key and save to the hard disk
6. By default, the file name will be "videoplayback". Rename it with a .flv extension
7. Play it with Mplayer or vlc player
8. If you wish to convert as mp3 or any other formats, use ffmpg.
9. The command to convert as
   ffmpeg -i inpuvvideofile.flv outputaudiofile.mp3
   
10. Thats all. Any doubts?
    

Administrative privilege in DOS in Windows XP

There are two simple methods to get administrator access in DOS shell in Windows XP. Both methods are too simple and there is no confusions or complications in it. Quite simple. Here is the steps

Method 1

1. Start -> run -> type "cmd"
[DOS shell comes]
2. Type the following
runas /user:computername\administrative user name cmd
eg: if computer name is "system1" and administrative user name is "administrator" then the command will be
runas /user:system1\administrator cmd
[a new DOS Shell will appear and you can execute your administrative tasks]
;-) Too simple, eh?

Method 2

[May be you'll laugh when you read out this one!]
1. Go to c:\WINDOWS\system32\
[click on the "Show the contents of this folder"]
2. RIght-click on cmd.exe and select "Run as..."
[Give administrator user name and password]
Too too tooo simple... ;-) ...?

How to set first post on top in blogger

Here is some easy steps
1. Go to blogger.com to get your dashboard
2. Select the "Settings" in the desired blog
3. Click on the "Template" tab

4. In "Blog Archives", Select "Edit" Button
5. In options, check "Show oldest post last"6. Save changes Thus you can sort your first post in top and oldest post in bottom position. Happy blogging!

ORKUT; A FUNNY TROJAN ATTACKS!

Recently some of my friends called me to fix their orkut from some devil obsession!
I thought it might be something silly. But that was a Trojan activity. I found that there was an mp3 file which lets the sound is playing at the end of the Display of the following lines
" ORKUT IS BANNED,Orkut is banned you fool`,The
administrators didnt write this program guess who did?? "
:: REMOVAL INSTRUCTIONS ::• Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to open Task Manager. Then click on the Process tab.
• Delete the SVChost.exe file that comes with system's user name.
• Ignore the warning messages while doing that.
• Go to C:/Heap41a using RUN option and delete the contents of the folder.
• Now you will be able to use Orkut without any hassles.

Yousendit.com - wonderful file sharing service

One of the best services in file sharing. If you have a huge file - may it be a video file or high resolution tif file or pdf or mp3 or whatever, normally you cannot sent it as email attachment. There comes yousendit.com. A wonderful file hosting service available in the web. How big may your files be, dont worrry, you can send them via yousendIt, upto 100 downloads or 7 days whichever come earlier, the file will be deleted. A wonderul idea, the only thing is that you cannot permanently host a file. If thats not your intention, its ok ok.

YouSendIt lets businesses, professionals and consumers move big files. If you know how to use email, you can easily use the YouSendIt service. YouSendIt currently has over 3 million registered users across 220 countries and over 13,000 paid users. More than 400 million files have been transferred using the service and YouSendIt is transferring over 1 million files with 30,000 gigabytes daily.

PORTABLE APPS

I But now I got a permanent solution when I get info on Portable apps. Now I can carry my favourite computer programmes with all of my bookmarks, settings, plug-ins, anything and everything with that. All without leaving any personal data behind.
PortableApps.com provides a truly open platform that works with any hardware you like (USB flash drive, iPod, portable hard drive, etc). It's open source built around an open format that any hardware vendor or software developer can use.

I like to browse web pages in my favourite browser MFf - Mozilla Firefox. But the problem is that most of my friends and relatives has no MFf installed in their machines. Whenever I go to there, you know guys, how much I troubled with the damned IE.

I love Portable MFf more than the real Mff. Because, it has some additional features which real MFf lacks. The auto spell checking plug-in is an amazing feature of Portable MFf. The saved bookmarks will be saved permanently. Forget restrictions of your damned System Administrators.

Browse with Portable MFf, Chat with GAIM Portable, Upload with File Zilla Portable, mail with Thunderbird Portable… Everything.

The Portable Apps Suite™ is free. It contains no spyware. There are no advertisements. It isn't a limited or trial version. There is no additional hardware or software to buy. You don't even have to give out your email address. It's 100% free to use, free to copy and free to share.

There are lots of quality Portable Apps provided by PortableApps.com. Some of them are:

Development
• Nvu Portable & KompoZer Portable - The easy-to-use Nvu web editor
• XAMPP - Apache, mySQL, PHP, phpMyAdmin and more in an integrated package
Games
• Sudoku Portable - the wildly popular and addictive puzzle game
Graphics & Pictures
• GIMP Portable - Photo and Image Editor
Internet
• FileZilla Portable - the full-featured FTP client
• FireFTP Extension (for Firefox) - a lightweight extension
• Gaim Portable - chat with AOL, MSN and Yahoo users in an easy-to-use interface
• Miranda IM Portable - chat with AOL, MSN and Yahoo users in a customizable interface
• Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition - the award-winning web browser that's safe and secure
• Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition - the handy email client
• Nvu Portable & KompoZer Portable - the easy-to-use webpage editor
• PuTTY Portable - lightweight telnet and SSH client
• Sage Extension (for Firefox) - A full-featured RSS extension
Music & Video
• Audacity Portable - A simple audio editor and recorder
• VLC Media Player Portable - An easy to use media player that plays most audio and video formats
Office
• AbiWord Portable - a lightweight word processor compatible with Microsoft Word files.
• Lightning Extension (for Thunderbird) - A lightweight extension for your calendar and tasks.
• Mozilla Sunbird, Portable Edition - Calendar and task management with a familiar interface.
• Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition (Address Book) - Email client's built-in address book with import/export functions.
• OpenOffice.org Portable - word processor, spreadsheet, presentations with Microsoft compatibility.
• Sumatra PDF Portable - a lightweight PDF viewer.
Operating Systems
• Mac-on-Stick - Run Mac OS Classic 7 portably.
Utilities
• 7-Zip Portable - File archiver and compressor.
• ClamWin Portable - Antivirus on the go.
• KeePass Password Safe Portable - Secure, easy-to-use password manager.
• PortableApps.com Backup - integrated backup utility bundled with the platform.
• PortableApps.com Menu - integrated start menu bundled with the platform.
.... Amazing...? Go to the [world of portable apps]
• There is one major Mozilla product is missing in the portable world – SeaMonkey. I hope that Seamonkey will come soon in the family of portable apps

HOW TO SAVE SWF FILES FROM MOZILLA FIREFOX

For so many months I wasn't able to save some cute swf files from my Mozilla FireFox. I could save it easily from Tools -> Page Info earlier, but due to some unknow reasons I was unable to save that method. I got that golden days back again with the help or the following site:
http://labnol.blogspot.com/2005/11/save-flash-from-firefox-and-ie.html
Their method is simple very simple to geeks and Power Users. Just have a look:

a. Type about:blank in the Firefox address bar
b. Now click List cache entries or directly type about:cache?device=disk (Disk cache device)
c. Press Ctrl+F and try to location the flash file by typing some part of website URL or the flash file name or just .swf. After some hit and trial, you should be able to locate the swf file URL
d. Click the SWF URL to open the Cache Entry Information page. Right click on the link and choose "Save link as"

GET YOUR DOMAIN DETAILS

If you are a domain owner, it’s very important that you keep the domain record up-to-date. It’s really important. There are lots of tools available in internet. You can check your MX Record, CNAME entries, A Record NS Record and everything. Here is some useful list of URLs: Have a look at them:

http://www.dnsstuff.com/
http://www.bigbiz.com/domain.html
http://www.mailenable.com/dnstools
Have fun. Go!

FREE FILE HOSTING @ FILE LODGE

Want to upload your favourite files to shaer with outhers even without paying? Yes, there is solutions. Just register @ http://filelodge.bolt.com/main.php

Its FILELODGE. A true lodge for your files. May it be light or huge, they lodge your files.
File Lodge is a free file hosting provider especially designed to look after you and your files. They offer a huge 500MB of file storage and support almost all file extensions, such as jpg, gif, mpg, avi, wmv, doc, pdf, mp3 etc. Bandwidth is unlimited.

What is a file host? A file host is a website that allows you to upload files to its servers, you are then provided with links for you to post on your favourite forums / webpages / blogs / auctions / in emails, anywhere you wish!

Perfect for sharing photos/images, music, and video with friends and family. They also provide hyperlinks of the uploaded files too. This allows you to quickly and easily get your files live wherever you are using them.A detailed FAQ is availabe in the site and if your questions remain un-answered, you can email them too.

Here, in this blog I used their services to host some of the pdf files for downloads. [But still I am reviewing the site and their services.]

ASCII TEXT

Do these crazy characters say something? Can you ever imagine that I have such patience in keying in such crazy characters to form such a self portrait? Probably no. Then how did I create it? There is some online software to convert an image to ASCII formatted text! All you need to do is to create a 60 x 50 pixel file and upload to the following site:

http://www.typorganism.com/asciiomatic/
It will transform the image to ASCII text. Wanna try?

ULTRASHOCK.COM - FLASH DESIGN ENGINE

www.ultrashock.com
See. One of my favourite web site in flash technology.
Just see the bottom of this blog now. Its a ticker from ultrashock. A very sexy flash ticker I ever saw. The most sexiest. Do you want to have this ticker in your website? Just add the iframe in the appopriate place. Get the page source and copy the iframe code in your site. From now on the latest Ultrashock News Headlines, Hot Forum Topics & Ultra Statistics are available inside this banner. All headlines are clickable and go directly to the corresponding url on Ultrashock.com. This banner is mainly a result of the hard work by Peter Elst (killer coding dude of Ultrashock) and Peter Van den Wyngaert (graphics) and the mySQL headaches cleared by some Miko.
AND YOU SAY HOWZ IT :-)
From Ultrashock.com, you can download uncountable fla sourse files and some killer tutorials. If you are a flash developer, ultrashock is your final resourse. The forum @ ultrashock will clear most of your doubt and will make you confident.

WIKIMAPIA - A NEW MILESTONE IN EARTH MAPING

Wikimapia. A fantastic projects using google maps API. As they describe themselves it's really "a project to describe the whole planet Earth."You can create hotspots on your favourate landmarks in wikimapia maps. But they humbly request you to avoid adding hotspots like "This my house" stuff marks. The site got attention of the global internet community's attention without making any ad campaigns or any propoganda hypes. Its because of only quality in the stuff. You need using it for only once to understand its userfriendliness. Even any beginner can use that very instantly.

In the early times no search engines brought me any sites with the keyword "wikimapia". But after a couple of days, I got about 47,400 pages with the same keyword. It's growth is really amazing.

The founders of Wikimapia are Alexandre Koriakine and Evgeniy Saveliev, "inspired by Google maps and Wikipedia."

TEMPORARY INBOX & ANONYMOUS OUTBOX

Once there was a world. An internetless world! A googleless world! A boring world! Very slow world... A world without fun... A world without information... We are lucky today. We have all the fun. We have all we wanted. What’s more, whatever we wish for, we will get that from net. These days I had been searching in Mozilla Firefox's extensions. I got a hell of stuff more than I expected. The most interesting extensions I got were something amazing.

TEMPORARY INBOX

If you are a regular internet user, you may have troubled in sometimes to give your own email address to some sites because you fear of spam attack or your privacy Those times, I bet, you would be praying for another email address to submit. You may probably had one, but the usage of it would be very rare so that you forget passwords regularly. Isn't it? So the solution is a temporary inbox. Without logging in to get your inbox. An inbox without password. A handy inbox anybody can use. Easy inbox. A good disposable inbox. yourname@temporaryinbox.com.
Directly go to the site:[Click on the button below]

One of the main drawbacks of this service is, it does not support attachments. And you cannot send a mail from it.

ANONYMOUS OUTBOX

I said earlier that you cannot send mail from temporaryinbox.com. So what should you do for an anonymous sending? You wish to send an anonymous mail sending to some of your friends. And there is site for anonymous mail sending. https://www.anonymousspeech.com. As a matter of fact, it is not possible completely, because anybody can trace your ISP's IP address and track you down. But if you are sending anonymous mail just for a fun, nothing will happen. IP address tracking and such tracking will be done only by advanced users and Intelligence agencies. But you will get basic anonymity. And that’s all. After sending a mail in this site, you will get a note like this: This email was sent without our Anonymity Guarantee! AnonymousSpeech.com receives daily inquiries from people, requesting information about sent emails. If you need complete anonymity, please upgrade your account. I dont know what they will give additional options in paid service. I think for basic use free service is enough. Thats all. So, whats the moral? If you have a wish, submit it to google, it will tell you who will satisfy you, irrespective of subjects.

A minimal registration is required in this site. After the registration, you will get access to send mails from a temporary mail id. Bet, you will love it. Start anonymous sending. But never use this service for illegal purpose. That is very important

Do you hate spam? Yes? So do I!

But sometimes you have to give away your own email address for example at registrations just to activate your account. Now, that's no more a problem! Just enter a temporary email address from temporaryinbox.com and check the inbox on the site to read the mails. After 6 hours the mail will be deleted. Get your free temporary spam email address NOW and you will never have spam in your private account again.

Temporary Inbox 1.2, by pascal, released on Jul 2, 2006

This extension generates random disposable email addresses. Use those email addresses for registration at forums, adult sites or whatever. The email addresses don't need registration. This is an easy way to avoid spam, because the spamer never knows your private email address .. only the temporaryinbox.com email address. And there the mails will be deleted after 6 hours.
Avoiding spam is sooo easy!

Here is a small instruction:



FIRST! There is no registration required!!

1. The situation: You want to signup at a website or whatever. You are at the registration formular and you have to enter your private email address. 2. You don't want to give away your private email address. So you choose to use an email address from temporaryinbox.com. 3. Now click the "random email" button at the temporaryinbox firefox extension toolbar. 4. A random temporary email address has been generated now. 5. Copy it from the toolbar to the email address field in the registration formular. 6. Enter the other things and submit. 7. Now you can check the inbox of your email address on temporaryinbox.com. But it's easier to use the firefox extension. Just enter the email account name you used before and press "Check" 8. Now you were redirected directly to the inbox of your temporaryinbox account. 9. Open the email and click the activation link or copy the password... or whatever. 10. Delete the mail or let it be. However the mail will be deleted after 6 hours.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Nearly every content site on the Web requires “free” registration these days, which usually means you need to supply a working email address. All too often, that email address begins to attract spam as companies sell mailing lists to each other or crackers help themselves to poorly guarded customer information.

You can’t protect an inbox completely, but you can reduce your chances of facing a spamfest by being a little selective in handing out your email address. Many users keep an alternate email account on hand for throwaway registrations and other situations where privacy protection looks a little murky.

A free account at a Web-based email service such as Yahoo! Mail or Hotmail does the trick by protecting your “real” email address from unnecessary exposure. However, logging in and navigating through full-blown email sites can be a tiresome way to pick up a new password or confirm a registration; a more efficient method is using a fully disposable email address - Dive into http://www.temporaryinbox.com. And have a nice time