Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

DreamHost Web Hosting Servers can be used for File Backup

Source: http://www.labnol.org/internet/backup-files-on-dreamhost-web-hosting-servers/4538/

dreamhost backup Most web hosting providers do not allow customers to use server space for storing file backups and there have been instances where personal files were deleted from the server without any warnings.

See "Never Use a Web Server for Online Backup."

Dreamhost, the company the hosts this site, was no different (see #6) but have recently changed policies and now allow customers to use their web servers for online backup.

Now to save your personal files like music, photos or videos on Dreamhost servers, you’ll need to create a new FTP user that is only to be used as an off-site backup - you cannot have websites associated with this ‘backup’ user.

Dreamhost gives 50 GB of disk space for your personal files and in case you exceed that limit, the cost is about 10¢ per GB per month.

Something important here - Dreamhost won’t keep a backup of your backup so please do not consider this option as a replacement of say, Mozy, Carbonite or Amazon S3. It’s just another safe-house for your files and sort of a guarantee that your web host won’t delete the personal files.

Also see: Do Not Depend on Free Storage Services

DreamHost Web Hosting Servers can be used for File Backup - Digital Inspiration

Google Speech Recognition Technology Is Now Called Google Audio Indexing

Source: http://www.labnol.org/internet/youtube-speech-recognition-called-google-audio-indexing/4551/

google audio indexing Sometime back, Google introduced speech recognition in YouTube that enables you to search for words spoken in the video and you could also directly jump to the portion where that word was said.

Initially you had to install an iGoogle gadget to experience YouTube’s speech recognition but now there’s a dedicated search page for this at Google Audio Indexing - this not just enables you to find spoken words in videos but also share that video portion.

google audio search

If you like to share a clip where that word was found (or uttered), just click that ‘people’ icon in the YouTube Video player and you’ll get a direct link to that particular video segment.

http://labs.google.com/gaudi?q=obama&start=0&num=10&longId=-5906960400639115923

video speech link

Like Blinkx, Google too has developed its own speech recognition system (called GAudi, for Google Audio Indexing), which powers both Google Audio Indexing and the Google Elections Video Search gadget.

Google Audio Indexing currently searches only videos related to US Elections that are uploaded on the YouTube political channels.

Google Speech Recognition Technology Is Now Called Google Audio Indexing - Digital Inspiration

Google Email Alerts Now Include Images

Source: http://www.labnol.org/internet/email/google-news-email-alerts-get-images/4560/

Google has slightly enhanced their email alerts system and the messages now include images next to stories that are either sourced from Google News or YouTube Videos (see screenshots).

To see these image thumbnails, make sure you are subscribed to HTML format email instead of plain text. Also read this Google Alerts tutorial to get more out of the service.

google alerts email
Google News Alerts inside Gmail

google alerts outlook
Google News Alerts email in Microsoft Outlook

Google Email Alerts Now Include Images - Digital Inspiration

How to Change User Agent String in Google Chrome Browser

Source: http://www.labnol.org/software/change-google-chrome-user-agent-string/4566/

iphone user agent for google chome You can do lot of interesting things on the web if you know how to modify the user-agent string of a web browser. For instance, change the Chrome user-agent string to that of iPhone Safari and you’ll be to read popular magazines for free.

Or change the user-agent to Googlebot and you get to read Wall St. Journal stories without subscribing. Or use the user-agent of Opera Mini phone browser and see mobile versions of web pages even on the desktop.

While it is relatively easy to edit the User-Agent string of Firefox, IE, Flock or Apple Safari through add-ons and registry hacks but you don’t have that luxury in Chrome since Google’s browser doesn’t support external add-ons yet.

google-chrome-magazines
iPhone version of Zinio Magazines in Google Chrome

It is however possible to change the user-agent of Google Chrome via the following hack - open Chrome.dll file inside a Hex viewer, search for the Chrome User Agent string and overwrite (not insert) that with the user-agent of another browser. Thanks Ramzalot.

chrome-agent

Here are the full steps involved:

0. Make a backup of chrome.dll file - the file is available in the 0.2.xx folder of your Chrome installation folder (refer to #2).

1. Open chrome.dll inside Xvi32 and search for a patten that matches the default user agent string for Google Chrome :

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/525.13 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/0.X.Y.Z Safari/525.13.

chrome-user-agent

2. Point the cursor to the letter M and choose Edit -> Overwrite String. Paste the user-agent of any other browser here. For instance, the strings for iPhone and Google spiders are:

Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/1A543 Safari/419.3

Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)

3. Close Google Chrome (if running) and then save the chrome.dll file inside the hex editor. Restart chrome.exe and type about: in the address bar to confirm if the user agent has changed. If you have trouble opening chrome after making the above changes, just delete the modified chrome.dll file and replace it with the old backup.

google-iphone-version
iPhone mobile version of Google Reader in Google Chrome

As an example, I change the user agent of Google Chrome to iPhone and that is the reason why Google opening the iPhone optimized version of Google Reader even inside Chrome.

If you plan to use this trick more frequently, a better option is that you create multiple copies of chrome.dll - one per user agent. Now if you want Chrome to emulate IE or Firefox, just make rename the chrome-firefox.dll or chrome-iphone.dll to chrome.dll.

How to Change User Agent String in Google Chrome Browser - Digital Inspiration

Trigano Coffee Table, DO WANT!

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/yankodesign/~3/394006006/

The Trigano Coffee Table designed by Michael Laut is an architectural piece of modern living for any space. It is made with a large piece of acrylic bent 90 degrees, suspended in place by a wooden brace. The innovative and dramatic design provides for expansive foot-room as well as a striking visual statement.

The transparent top makes anything placed on the table look “suspended” just like the table top itself. The Trigano has been produced in the transparent finish as well as a frosted alternative to help compliment its surroundings. I hope Michael Laut finds it in his heart to send Yanko Design his beautiful creation.