Archive for the 'Internet' Category

Next Entries »

Greasemonkey and Stylish to control webpages

January 26th, 2008

I finally got around to installing Greasemonkey and Stylish for my Firefox. For those that don’t know, Greasemonkey is an extension that allows you to run custom Javascript scripts for pages that render in your browser. Stylish is basically the same thing, but for CSS not Javascript.

I haven’t gotten around to doing anything with Greasemonkey yet, but I’m pretty sure a week from now I’ll have a bunch of scripts running. :P The very first thing I did with Stylish is to hide all ads on the website. I think the social ads was a horrible idea for facebook. I’m so tired of seeing an ad in my newsfeed that tells me so and so is a fan of x and y. This little script below will eradicate all known ads on facebook!

@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);

@-moz-document domain(”facebook.com”) {

#ad_0, #ad_1, #ad_2, #ad_3, #ad_4,
#ad_5, #ad_6, #ad_7, #ad_8, #ad_9,
#ssponsor, .advert, .ad_body,
.ad_capsule, .ad_media,
.comments_ad_image, .sponsors,
.sponsor_absolute, .social_ad,
#new_stuff_content, .nextstep { display:none !important; }

}

Quick and dirty does it! Goodbye facebook ads!

Posted in Computers, Internet at 7:17 PM by Jack | 2 Comments »

Navigate Google search results via keyboard shortcuts

November 29th, 2007

I was browser around on lifehack today and found this entry for Google Experimental’s keyboard shortcuts. Of particular interest if the comment left Davosian that gives a way of adding the keyboard shortcut to your Firefox search bar.

From the post:

I added a new search engine to Firefox’s top right search field by adding the following xml file to

C:\Documents and Settings\[YOURUSERNAME]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[YOURPROFILENAME]\searchplugins:

—– googleext.xml start ————
<SearchPlugin xmlns=”http://www.mozilla.org/2006/browser/search/”>
<ShortName>Google Exp</ShortName>
<Description>Google Experimental Search</Description>
<InputEncoding>UTF-8</InputEncoding>
<Image width=”16″ height=”16″>data:image/x-icon;base64,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</Image>
<Url type=”application/x-suggestions+json” method=”GET” template=”http://suggestqueries.google.com/complete/search?output=firefox&client=firefox&qu={searchTerms}”/>
<Url type=”text/html” method=”GET” template=”http://www.google.com/search”>
<Param name=”q” value=”{searchTerms}”/>
<Param name=”ie” value=”utf-8″/>
<Param name=”oe” value=”utf-8″/>
<Param name=”esrch” value=”BetaShortcuts”/>
<!– <Param name=”esrch” value=”RefinementBarLhsGradientPreview”/> –>
<!– Dynamic parameters –>
<Param name=”rls” value=”{moz:distributionID}:{moz:locale}:{moz:official}”/>
<MozParam name=”client” condition=”defaultEngine” trueValue=”firefox-a” falseValue=”firefox”/>
</Url>
<SearchForm>http://www.google.com/firefox</SearchForm>
</SearchPlugin>
—– googleext.xml end ————

You have to restart Firefox for this search engine (called Google Exp) to show up in the dropdown list.

D.

Posted in Computers, Google, Internet at 9:28 PM by Jack | No Comments »

Beating Captchas

November 23rd, 2007

I was just reading an article on Coding Horror on captchas. It talked about sites using bad captchas (like ticketmaster), so that even humans cannot read them. Oh, if you don’t know, captchas are those little images that contain distorted text in which users must fill out before submit a form. You’ll see them on a lot of blogging sites so prevent bots from spamming the comments. Google also uses it for Gmail to prevent bots from signing up spam accounts.

Anyway, back to the topic, I was thinking whether I can develop some sort of algorithm to beat even the most advanced captchas currently deployed on the web. I mean, if humans can read them, then there has to be a way to do image analysis to recognize text, right? Maybe I should try making such a program, and then selling it on the underground markets in Russia. I’m just joking — about the selling part.

Posted in Computers, Internet at 3:11 PM by Jack | No Comments »

Google is Watching You!

March 15th, 2007

I found stumbled upon this page that shows some super-close zooms on Google Map. Isn’t it kinda freaky how close you can zoom in? In particular, this beach close-up is a bit sketchy. I know you can’t see anyone’s faces, but that seems a little too close for comfort. Are these satellite images?

Posted in Google, Interesting, Internet at 10:20 PM by Jack | 2 Comments »

Next Entries »