Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Google Input Tools revisited

Exploring New Technology - web services/features released long time back.

I want you to see what i installed just recently on my Android phone -
and


I dont understand why, but 
is incompatible with my device (s) [Includes an Android x86 installation and 2 Xperia M devices]
 
Google Input Tools was updated/enhanced long back in February 2013. adding support for 100 or 80 languages back then, see blogpost - 

This feature is accessible in Gmail since October 2012. 
Or earlier. See theNextWeb's post in August 2012

See Google Input Tools related links here-
Try it online
Original [Old] URL:
which redirects to 
or you can also use

Btw, we already had support for 5 Indian languages since 2009 on Gmail
the list of languages supported back then - Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam 
as per this blog post
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Thursday, September 26, 2013

Private Internet Addresses


Private Internet Addresses:
10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255
127.0.0.0 - 127.255.255.255
169.254.0.0 - 169.254.255.255
172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255
224.0.0.0 - 239.255.255.255
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Friday, August 9, 2013

Device Tracking, Location Sharing and Navigation Apps for Android

Android Device Manager is here! But unfortunately, not for all of you!
Wait! Dont trash your device! You dont need a Nexus or an HTC One to be able to track your phone!

[Even if you have a Windows Phone device, you are good to go - start right here if you lost one.]
iOS users dont worry at all - Apple thinks long term and has the Find My Phone app already, probably since 4 years plus a month by now. You are covered.

There are apps that can do the same for your current smartphone too.
If you have GPS [which I bet you do], you can track your family members, relatives and friends too.

List of Apps that track your Android device:
MyTracks By Google - here
  1. Wheres My Droid By Alienman Tech - here
  2. Real Time GPS Tracker By Greenalp - here
  3. Find My Phone By Mangobird & Lite version - here & there
  4. Locate My Droid
  5. Antivirus & Security By Lookout Mobile Security - here
  6. Android Phone Finder by shazlex - here
  7. Phone Finder by GeoLinx LLC - here
  8. Life 360 - Family Locator + Phone Tracker By Life360 - here
  9. T-Mobile FamilyWhere By Safety - here
  10. Sprint Family Locator By Safety - here
  11. Family Tracker By Fibercode - here
  12. Find My Friends! By Family Safety Production - here
  13. GPS Tracking Pro By Family Safety Production - here
  14. Find My Phone By Family Safety Production - here
  15. Find my droid By Security Dev Team - here
  16. Phone Locator By MobiUcare - here
  17. Plan B By Lookout Mobile Security - here
  18. WAY GPS Phone Tracking By QITLabs - here
  19. Cell Phone Tracker Lite By XIMAD - here
  20. Cell Tracker By Shreek - here
  21. Where Am I? By Shreek - here
  22. Family By Sygic - here
  23. GPS Locator By A.M.E Studio - here
  24. Locus Map Pro & Free By Asamm Software - here & there
  25. Maverick Pro By Code Sector - here
  26. Maverick GPS Navigation By Code Sector - here
  27. SpeedView GPS Speedometer By Code Sector - here
  28. Navfree: Free GPS Navigation By Navmii - here
  29. GPS Status & Toolbox By MobiWIA - EclipSim - here
  30. Maps With Me Pro & Lite, Offline Maps By MapsWithMe GmbH - here & there
  31. OruxMaps By jose vasquez -here
  32. MapQuest: Maps, GPS & Traffic By MapQuest - here
  33. My Tracks By Google - here
  34. RunKeeper By FitnessKeeper - here
  35. MapMyRun GPS Running By MapMyFitness - here
  36. Runtastic Running & Exercise - here

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Sunday, July 21, 2013

Bing Vs Google - Web Search History

Bing Search History can be accessed at this link.
Google Search History can be accessed at history.google.com or google.com/psearch!

Bing Search History lists pages and shows a live preview of the webpages you have visited so far in chronological order as tiles [something similar to the Windows 8 Metro interface]

Google Search History shows your search trends - most frequently used keywords -

Oh yes.



One Password. All of Google.
One username and password is all you need to unlock more features from services you use every day, like Gmail, Maps, Google+, and YouTube.
Just stay signed in. Enjoy all of Google's services.

Wait. The story is the same for your Live account. So change your outlook. No need to move to outlook.
Even your Hotmail and MSN ids conform to this universal account specification. Anyone knows ColdMail?
Hence. One Account. All of Microsoft [Not really]!

One of the most intriguing thing regarding web search engines ever discussed is privacy and customization.
Some people have made a mess out of it and same have made a career out of it.
See DuckDuckGo and DogPile!

Dont talk to me about the NSA PRISM scandal. Thank you! ex-CIA Mr. Edward Snowden!
Forget, privacy and sniffing and scams and scandals, focus on Search History.

Many a times it happens that i begin a search. And then it sparks another search. And the keyword list keeps expanding on and on. Or it may happen you accidentally closed the tab for that long phrase you just typed.
Dont recollect it? Dont wanna type again. Being as lazy as me or at least a little less lazy than me, use Search History. Almost all popular search engines provide this feature. Yahoo's similar facility is hidden in the Search Pad somewhere. I never tried.

Web Search History is a powerful database! Must be used with caution!
So, now onwards, never forget or lose anything you searched for ever in your past
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Thursday, July 4, 2013

An emerging App Store - The Windows Store - Pre 8.1 Experience

Before i say anything else, Windows 8 crashed once again on my PC but got back!
Its been an improved experience with time. As time progressed, better releases came up, and issues got fixed. But Windows Update still causes system crash and fatal failure. See this:


The fantastic app since ages- Now 5 years old! The Evernote Touch app for Windows 8 is just too cool. I wish Catch Notes too had their app. OneNote comes preinstalled on Win8 and thats cool too!

Its sad I have been so biased towards OneNote, i really wanna try it. I have known it syncs to SkyDrive, which is really cool. So i m gonna try out soon. It has great apps for iOS and Android and probably other platforms too. Go check it out! Till then, I am gonna go fix my Win8 [Pro]! "Refresh the PC" option mostly!
But, in reality, I was just playing around with Linux. And rebooted the PC about 10 times. On the last attempt. it suddenly worked - Configuring updates and back to the Lock Screen! So now formatting or Refreshing. No data loss [I had taken a backup of course] Wait i tried OneNote! And here are some bits.



Naturally, the Google Search app is the first app installed from the Store as i fire Internet Explorer to Download Chrome and a header popup message takes me to the Google Search App for Windows 8 Page on the Windows Store.

And trust me, it is your gateway to heaven. Now more integrated with your google account. Direct Access to Search History. Voice Search in-built and lots more.
I just wish they added Blogging Support right from there. After all Windows 8 supports in-app Browsing. The Twitter app makes good use of it. [There is a little lag while it loads though] - The Logo loaded in two different sizes for me at once.

 That seemed so disgusting. As isay Twitter, the closest word that strikes my mind and yours' too i believe is Facebook. Unfortunately, there is NO official Facebook app for Windows 8 yet. Although a lot of 3rd-party apps do exist. I dont trust them whatsoever. i do trust Klout though. How foolish of me.
On one hand, i have given CloudMagic full access to my Gmail,Google Drive, DropBox, SkyDrive and Box accounts. And on the other hand, i cry about Facebook privacy. Stuff thats hosted by a brand must be accessed via legal means only i believe. Facebook is so spammed with apps and interfaces.

Like every other Windows installation i have ever made, Windows 8 too crashed thrice yet in my life. Once on the Developer Preview, next on the Consumer Preview and just today on the RTM one. Release Preview was overthrown as i had to install XP for some reason. I am sure that would have crashed too one day.

okay the cause of crash, probably Windows Update!

Now let me try fix it. i am running Linux Live currently. And here's proof: [i had set 100 MB persistent storage - and that was a really bad idea as you can see - i often got warning messages - low disk space ]
File Sync/Cloud Storage Apps worth trying on Windows 8 - DropBox, SugarSync!
Also try Skype, Notes Classic, PowerNote, CloudNotes [dont know whether it syncs somewhere, but nice app], Asus Web Storage, and lots more (i dont remember). i am running Ubuntu you see. makes you forget everything about the rest, and focus on the current task, whereas Windows always loves to issue popups regularly to distract users. I hate those People-app notifications. Mail is fine.

I am not planning to test the Windows Update Pre-Release 8.1 since i dont have a pendrive that can house the 3.8 GB en-us/gb x64 ISO [thats big], but if you wish to, then head straight here and use this key:

NTTX3-RV7VB-T7X7F-WQYYY-9Y92F 

And here's the Catch Notes' inspired Circular UI found on OneNote for the Context Menu

The Hierarchical Organization of Notebooks, Sections and Pages makes it so productive. EverNote too has similar stuff. It supports and endorses tagging.

Today i made a multi-boot USB and tested it - Fedora 18 and Ubuntu 13.04, both x64, using YUMI.



Fedora 19 was just released - 2nd July 2013. So I am running an old version now. Gotta update my image archives. Next, I m gonna try OpenSUSE soon [for the first time ever]. Till then experimenting with W8, before 8.1 is public. 

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Tuesday, June 18, 2013

TPB AFK

i just watched this long-pending movie ThePirateBay - Away From Keyboard & here's my review. not really. its just what i felt like (m/t)aking a note of.
IRL [in Real Life], TPB [the world-famous Swedish file sharing platform] is embroiled in a legal battle with Hollywood. At stake is the future of the Internet. See how Subject and Predicate positioning makes a difference. Napster was going down and TPB was just under construction.
Founders of The Pirate Bay :

  • Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi [brokep],
  • Hans Fredrik Lennart Neij [TiAMO]
  • Per Gottfrid Svartholm Warg [anakata]
Seeing themselves as technicians whose aim is to run the world's largest web platform, they claim indignantly that their actions are about freedom, not money
They are not hard-nosed rip-off merchants but rather unworldly nerds, whose social skills and ability to comprehend the analogue world are somewhat limited.

 Of course, i took screenshots while i was watching the movie and here are two of them! my favorite ones.



The movie explores the issues the new generation of media consumers has brought into question: free Internet, free speech and the future of creativity in the digital age.
For poster, see this mediawiki file --> Image

I did a quick Who.is on the following

[All above URLS redirect to thepiratebay.sx/]

This is 3rd-party unrelated stuff i guess - piratebay.com - Just performs Google Custom Search
whois? The site was registered December 19, 2003 and updated December 06, 2012
and then their co-website.

  • flattr.com - registered April 5,2007 & updated March 14,2013
  • flattr.org {says "Welcome to nginx" [so we know what software they use]} - registered Sep 14,2007 & updated March 23,2011
  • flattr.net [redirects to flattr.com] - registered Sep 14,2007 & updated March 14,2013.


And above (to the right) - are the results - the domain owners [ad per registrar info]
Host-country: Sweden [supporter]
The Judge Norstrom was clean - no conflicts - no political associations.
Just some mutual publications - newspapers and magazines - and journals doesn't make enough for proof.
Countries that blame TPB for copyright infringement:
US, UK, Italy, Holland, Denmark, Kuwait, Ireland
Countries involved somehow: Cambodia, Thailand, Finland
Locations worth exploring: Stockholm,Sweden [esp. the HackSpace, maybe without the camelHump and hence just plain text in lower case, that i have been following for long, i always thought it was HackerSpace though, now its clear]

Find something on The Pirate Party, The Pirate Bureau, Pionen, TorrentFreak, PRQ & Flattr
I even tried wikileaks. It is dead as i already knew. Julian Assange et al.
All - com,org,net - are dead/redirect to unrelated stuff.

Techincal stuff and imagery noticed [worth mentioning or not]: trackers, servers, racks, RJ45 LAN cords, Ubuntu, Live Streaming, special and well-known Volume Up and Down Beeps on Ubuntu for media playback control via an audio system, Tunneling Servers, Konami, Nonami, Anagram

Line 1: Sex, drugs and industry
Line 2: Terror, piracy and drugs.

Think xenophobia!
Worth a watch!
Get ready to pirate the pirates — legally

 IMDB puts it simply as - "An intellectual freedoms documentary based around the interpersonal triumphs, and defeats of the three main characters against the largest industry in the known universe - The media industry."

This one is a documentary film with the real life characters themselves posing as actors. Just one of a kind. Share the movie online with friends and family and FOAFs too. Spread the love! Watch here.

I have a TPB account. Do you?
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Monday, May 13, 2013

HTML Scraping - Stack Overflow - Time Machine Backup

I somehow want to crawl over a website at the click of a button using simple HTML and Javascript just to find simple information and make my own sitemap for the website.Like Accessing the website's Copyright year information. Thats it! But cross-site scripting access privileges and security measures in use dont allow me to do so. I come across javascript Error Messages like "XMLHttpRequest Exception 101" and "Origin null is not allowed by Access-Control-Allow-Origin".

So i google around and come across a concept called "HTML Scraping" described in the last paragraph.
And as i crawl for a Javascript-based crawler, i get to a StackOverflow page and extract its important contents to this post. So that i can read anytime later. 

I'm thinking of trying Beautiful Soup, a Python package for HTML scraping. Are there any other HTML scraping packages I should be looking at? Python is not a requirement, I'm actually interested in hearing about other languages as well.
The story so far:
If you want to see a scraper application, check out Grant's Stack Overflow user page monitor. Nifty!
The Ruby world's equivalent to Beautiful Soup is why_the_lucky_stiff's Hpricot
In the .NET world, I recommend the HTML Agility Pack. Not near as simple as some of the above options (like HTMLSQL), but it's very flexible. It lets you maniuplate poorly formed HTML as if it were well formed XML, so you can use XPATH or just itereate over nodes.
Python has several options for HTML scraping in addition to Beatiful Soup. Here are some others:
  • mechanize: similar to perl WWW:Mechanize. Gives you a browser like object to ineract with web pages
  • lxml: Python binding to libwww. Supports various options to traverse and select elements (e.g.XPath and CSS selection)
  • scrapemark: high level library using templates to extract informations from HTML.
  • pyquery: allows you to make jQuery like queries on XML documents.
  • scrapy: an high level scraping and web crawling framework. It can be used to write spiders, for data mining and for monitoring and automated testing.
Scraping Stack Overflow is especially easy with Shoes and Hpricot

I've had some success with HtmlUnit, in Java. It's a simple framework for writing unit tests on web UI's, but equally useful for HTML scraping.

The templatemaker utility from Adrian Holovaty (of Django fame) uses a very interesting approach: You feed it variations of the same page and it "learns" where the "holes" for variable data are. It's not HTML specific, so it would be good for scraping any other plaintext content as well. I've used it also for PDFs and HTML converted to plaintext (with pdftotext and lynx, respectively).

I know and love Screen-Scraper.
Screen-Scraper is a tool for extracting data from websites. Screen-Scraper automates:
* Clicking links on websites
* Entering data into forms and submitting
* Iterating through search result pages
* Downloading files (PDF, MS Word, images, etc.)
Common uses:
* Download all products, records from a website
* Build a shopping comparison site
* Perform market research
* Integrate or migrate data
Technical:
* Graphical interface--easy automation
* Cross platform (Linux, Mac, Windows, etc.)
* Integrates with most programming languages (Java, PHP, .NET, ASP, Ruby, etc.)
* Runs on workstations or servers
Three editions of screen-scraper:
* Enterprise: The most feature-rich edition of screen-scraper. All capabilities are enabled.
* Professional: Designed to be capable of handling most common scraping projects.
* Basic: Works great for simple projects, but not nearly as many features as its two older brothers.
Try Yahoo! Query Language or YQL can be used alongwith jQuery, AJAX, JSONP to screen scrape web pages

Another option for Perl would be Web::Scraper which is based on Ruby's Scrapi. In a nutshell, with nice and concise syntax, you can get a robust scraper directly into data structures.

Although it was designed for .NET web-testing, I've been using the WatiN framework for this purpose. Since it is DOM-based, it is pretty easy to capture HTML, text, or images. Recentely, I used it to dump a list of links from a MediaWiki All Pages namespace query into an Excel spreadsheet. The followingVB.NET code fragement is pretty crude, but it works.

Another tool for .NET is MhtBuilder

There is this solution too: netty HttpClient

You would be a fool not to use Perl.. Here come the flames..
Bone up on the following modules and ginsu any scrape around.
use LWP
use HTML::TableExtract
use HTML::TreeBuilder
use HTML::Form
use Data::Dumper

I have used LWP and HTML::TreeBuilder with Perl and have found them very useful.
LWP (short for libwww-perl) lets you connect to websites and scrape the HTML, you can get the module here and the O'Reilly book seems to be online here.
There might be too much heavy-lifting still to do with something like this approach though. I have not looked at the Mechanize module suggested by another answer, so I may well do that.
Well if you want it done from client side using only a browser you have jcrawl.com. After having designed your scrapping service from the web app (http://www.jcrawl.com/app.html), you only need to add the generated script to an html page to start using/presenting your data. All the scrapping logic happens on the the browser via javascript. Hope you find it useful. 
I've had mixed results in .NET using SgmlReader which was originally started by Chris Lovett and appears to have been updated by MindTouch.
Implementations of the HTML5 parsing algorithm: html5lib (Python, Ruby), Validator.nu HTML Parser(Java, JavaScript; C++ in development), Hubbub (C), Twintsam (C#; upcoming).
I've used Beautiful Soup a lot with Python. It is much better than regular expression checking, because it works like using the DOM, even if the HTML is poorly formatted. You can quickly find HTML tags and text with simpler syntax than regular expressions. Once you find an element, you can iterate over it and its children, which is more useful for understanding the contents in code than it is with regular expressions. I wish Beautiful Soup existed years ago when I had to do a lot of screenscraping -- it would have saved me a lot of time and headache since HTML structure was so poor before people started validating it.
I've also had great success using Aptana's Jaxer + jQuery to parse pages. It's not as fast or 'script-like' in nature, but jQuery selectors + real JavaScript/DOM is a lifesaver on more complicated (or malformed) pages.
Regular expressions work pretty well for HTML scraping as well ;-) Though after looking at Beautiful Soup, I can see why this would be a valuable tool.
You probably have as much already, but I think this is what you are trying to do:
from __future__ import with_statement
import re, os

profile = ""

os.system('wget --no-cookies --header "Cookie: soba=(SeCreTCODe)" http://stackoverflow.com/users/30/myProfile.html')
with open("myProfile.html") as f:
    for line in f:
        profile = profile + line
f.close()
p = re.compile('summarycount">(\d+)</div>') #Rep is found here
print p
m = p.search(profile)
print m
print m.group(1)
os.system("espeak \"Rep is at " + m.group(1) + " points\""
os.remove("myProfile.html")

In Java, you can use TagSoup.
Web scraping is the act of programmatically harvesting data from a webpage. It consists of finding a way to format the URLs to pages containing useful information, and then parsing the DOM tree to get at the data. It’s a bit finicky, but our experience is that this is easier than it sounds.
See http://blog.hartleybrody.com/web-scraping/

Still looking around for a workaround. If someone has some live code and examples. then please help me out. Take me to ShiftEdit/PasteBin/JSFiddle/SourceKit. Dont tell me i/we can't t do this task!

Its just accessing the HTML code of a webpage like we do using Java, via Javascript.
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