Balki's Blog

Quick script to copy text to Android mobile

2011-04-04T10:06:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

I wrote a small script to quickly copy some text from linux computer to an android mobile.
To use it,

Install Barcode Scanner in your android mobile from here (This is a must app for any android mobile)
Copy the below code to a file named barcode.sh and give it executable permissions,
Create a Custom application launcher in the top panel to launch the saved script.

Now when you want to copy some text,

Using mouse, select the text or url you want to copy.
Click on the launcher you created.
Scan the barcode displayed on the screen using your android mobile. :-)

#!/bin/bash

#Following function is copied from http://www.unix.com/shell-programming-scripting/105600-shell-uri-encoding.html
#@ uri_escape - convert STRING to hex-encoded string
#@ and assign to optional VAR or _URI_ESCAPE
#@ Author: Chris F.A. Johnson, 2009-03-25
##
uri_escape ()
{
local string x;
string=$1;
var=${2:-_URI_ESCAPE};
while [ -n "$string" ]; do
case $string in
[_a-zA-Z0-9]*)
printf -v x "%s%c" "$x" "$string"
;;
*)
printf -v x "%s%%%X" "$x" "'$string"
;;
esac;
string=${string#?};
done;
eval "$var=\$x"
}

data=`xclip -o`
uri_escape "$data" data
uri="http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=qr&chs=350x350&chl=$data"

#Replace eog with your image viewer application if you are not using gnome desktop.
eog "$uri" &> /dev/null &

Doing more with ubuntu desktop - Part I

2010-10-23T22:51:00.000-07:00

I thought of sharing only online stuff in this blog but since I got bored of those and since it is a long time I posted, I'm converting this blog to contain anything I feel like blogging. :)

I'm a ubuntu linux user for more than 4 years. Lots of my friends like ubuntu but for some small reasons switch back or dual boot with windows. Many fear to upgrade to latest versions of linux and many find it hard to switch between operating systems. They complain that it takes lots of time to re-configure everything in the new os.
Here are some mistakes people make when using ubuntu.

Not using the home folder and the default sub folders namely Documents,Pictures,Videos, etc..
- Don't use separate partitions for everything and forget where is what. Mount all partitions in some meaningful places while installing.
Not using ubuntu software centre/synaptic manager for installing applications.
- Most of the opensource applications/tools you can think of is in ubuntu repository. Using that makes life very very simple than installing from tar.gz files or downloaded deb files in some arbit directory and forgetting it.
Trying to mirror whole of ubuntu repository and having a misconception that ubuntu is useless without offline repository.
- Having offline repos is useful only for the geeks who doesn't have internet connection and want to install and experiment new softwares daily. Normal users doesn't have to mirror whole of repos. Once after you install a fresh ubuntu, one time proper internet connection may be essential to install all that is required. Then a normal/no internet connection is enough for most of the work.
Not using ubuntu GUI.
- Most of the configuration changes a normal user will require is there in the Systems menu. Unlike windows, any one can understand what the preferences mean. Please have a look at the options there before googling. Because the results google gives you will be generic for all linuxes and usually will need to type commands in the terminal or edit some config files in /etc/ . Beginners are frightened because of this and claim windows has better user experience. Ubuntu's System -> preferences and System -> administration menu is much better and easier to use than windows control panel.
Not using the power of symlinks
- Symlinks are very useful and are much better than shortcuts in windows. Applications don't distinguish between normal folders and symlinks. Hence we get the benefit of having same stuff at various places.
Not using default packaged software. Ubuntu has some tools/software bundled with it. Have a look at those before searching/using new ones.
- Rthymbox player.
  - Many don't use this and try to install vlc/amarok for listening to music and claim that vlc doesn't look good and using playlists etc are difficult etc,. Managing music collections, listening to internet radio, playlists, rating, displaying album art, and lots more are inbuilt in rythmbox. It recognised newly added music files in your computer It minimises in a corner and you can use your multimedia keys in the keyboard to control it. Amarok also has all the features but its always better to use applications which is designed for the environment you use. Amarok is designed for KDE desktop while rythmbox for gnome. I avoid KDE apps when using gnome desktop and vice versa. Using menus and shortcuts may be confusing between environments. Also os may have to use lots of resources/background processes for supporting the application from other environment.
- Empathy & Gwibber
  - I had problems with these when my internet connection was via proxy but with proper internet connection it works really cool. Dont have to always keep your browser with gmail open to chat. If u get a chat msg, it neatly pops up in a corner. You can chat with facebook friends also without opening firefox and logging in. Link the contacts i.e. If a person is in multiple accounts(gmails,fbs,yahoo etc), it'll appear as one entry. This avoids long contact lists. Video call also works cool. :)
  - Twitter and facebook updates keeps popping up neatly in a corner without having a browser open always. Gwibber was very buggy in the beginning. Now it works without problems. If anyone got pissed off this before can give another try.
- Some interesting applets on panel.
  - Tombay notes allows to take quick notes and it syncs it with ubuntuone. So you can access your notes online any time.
  - Pointer capture captures the pointer. May be useful when you find the mouse disturbing when typing.
  - Force kill applet kills a not responding application instantly. Don't have to go to any task manager and try killing the same several times.
  - Inhibit sleep applet prevents the laptop to go to suspend state when not using laptop for long time. This is useful when you have started a download or listening to music.
- Evolution.
  - Many have several mail accounts and forget the ids and passwords. Using evolution you can receive mail from several accounts. (Even several gmail accounts). All the mail are saved to your computer so don't have to connect to internet or rush to browsing centre for seeing some important mail. I was previously using Offline gmail using gears but using evolution is very simple and clean.
- Some interesting accessories.
  - Disk usage analyser shows graphically where most of the disk space is used.
  - Character map can be used if u want to type in local languages, or different symbols etc.
  - Cd burning is in built and I feel its better than windows versions. Hardly any cds were wasted when burning. Also copying cd image is also very simple. Just right click and say copy iso image.
  - Connecting another monitor or projector is very simple in ubuntu. Just click System -> preferences -> monitor. Very easy and clean to understand and use.

Since the post gets very longer and I'm tired of typing, I'll share the remaining tips in the next post hopefully sometime not very late. Please post the your reactions as comments below.

Cheers,

Balki

The Chrome

2009-10-25T19:08:00.000-07:00

Have You experienced Google chrome ?
Chrome is a really cool very fast browser. Its javascript engine is very fast. It supports features from HTML 5. Notable one is the 'canvas'. Using canvas, it can create and act on elements replacing images. The js code can change its attributes which can create really cool animations with just only javascript which was once possible only with flash. If you have successfully installed chrome, check this site.. http://www.chromeexperiments.com/

This site consists of experiments with javascript which will require fast js engine like the one in chrome. It consists of variety of experiments which include games, animations, attractive frontend for popular sites like twitter etc., These experiments were created by designers and programmers from around the world using the latest open standards, including HTML5, Canvas, SVG, and more.
Here are my favourite ones
chain-reaction
ball-pool
twitterbrowse
berts-breakdown

For those who dont want to leave the traditional Internet Explorer, hereis a way to experience chrome inside IE
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/09/use-google-chrome-in-internet-explorer.html

Test post form blog.gears

2009-08-26T07:55:00.001-07:00

The following site allows you to blog from your comp when it is offline and sync the changes once you're back online. Just checking its functionality now.
http://gdata-javascript-client.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/samples/blogger/bloggears/bloggears.html#

Wat's New online?

2009-06-20T08:25:00.000-07:00

First,
Url shorteners

They allow you to convert long url's to short ones.Additionally bit.ly and tiny.cc allows u to have have custom names in the url like http://bit.ly/balki will point to this blog. Be first to grab urs. :)

Mailinator
This allows u to have a mail address without signup or password. The main use of this mail address is to use it as an temporary address required for signups for few unimportant sites. You can view all the mails at the mailinator.com site. Another good thing is that a duplicate mail address for everymail address is created which cant be used to read mails (write only address) but only to send. So this makes u own the address to some extent if u have some funny name for ur address that no one will be guessing or be willing to have.
Warning: There was a similar service called emailmenot of bugmenot.com which stopped working now. So i cannot reset my password for some sites which use bugmenot email as key.

At last, fun
Omegle

Omegle is a brand-new service for meeting new friends. When you use Omegle, we pick another user at random and let you have a one-on-one chat with each other. Chats are completely anonymous, although there is nothing to stop you from revealing personal details if you would like.

If you like Omegle, be sure to check out the Omegle blog!

http://omegle.com

Which Email??

2009-04-14T09:33:00.000-07:00

Any frequent internet user usually has a couple of mail accounts.
The best suited for all is the Gmail but others have certain advantages over the gmail.
Yahoo mail
The Yahoo mail which was the best before gmail has its speciality of unlimited storage. It also has a outlook like user interface which allows browsing thru multiple msgs easy.The major disadvantage of this is the ads at the right. Also the loading time for yahoo mail is slooow. U can have your email addresses short like @ymail.com :) Its a good idea to have the same id as of gmail in ur ymail too. you're likely to get ur prefered id for ur ymail.
Hot mail
I dont find anything attractive with hotmail. Only thing is that many users still use MSN for chatting.
In mail
This is a new email. It has a good advantage of sending future mails. Yes, you can schedule when to send ur mail. Also u can browse ur yahoo and gmails in the In mail id itself. Other thing is that ur email address can be very small like my new address is 2408@in.com , Guess u can have even 4 digit ids which makes the email addresses very small.
Find anyother mails better??? post on comments :)
p.s posting after very long.

Flip it ʇı dılɟ

2008-07-04T10:23:00.000-07:00

Want to be ʇuǝɹǝɟɟıp ?
Nothing much to explain.. Just check the link

http://kra.freevar.com/flip.html

p.s credit goes to Kra

Gmail Labs

2008-07-03T02:12:00.000-07:00

Google recently launched Lab Edition of its famous Gmail service with 13 new features. You can selectively enable these features on your account by going to Gmail Settings >> Labs tabs. Most of these feature are highly innovative and described in brief below…

#1. Quick Links

Adds a box to the left column that gives you 1-click access to any bookmarkable URL in Gmail. You can use it for saving frequent searches, important individual messages, and more.

#2. Superstars

Adds additional star icons. After enabling this feature, you can choose which icons you wish to use in the "General" Settings page.

#3. Pictures in chat

See your friends’ profile pictures when you chat with them. This is similar to picture shown in Google Talk desktop client.

#4. Fixed width font

Adds an option to the reply drop-down menu that lets you view a message in fixed width font. Geeks will love this I guess!

#5. Custom keyboard shortcuts

Lets you customize keyboard shortcut mappings. Adds a new Settings tab from which you can remap keys to various actions.

#6. Mouse gestures

Use your mouse to navigate with gestures. Hold right-click and move the mouse left to go to a previous conversation, move it right to go to the next conversation, and move up to go back to the inbox view. Works best on Windows.

#7. Signature tweaks

Places your signature before the quoted text in a reply, and removes the "–" line that appears before signatures. Can’t use this and the "Random signature" Labs feature at the same time.

#8. Random signature

Rotates among random quotations for your email signature. Can’t use this and the "Signature tweaks" Labs feature at the same time.

#9. Custom date formats

Adds options to the general settings page allowing the date and time format to be changed independent of language. For example, you can use a 24-hour clock (14:57) or show dates with the day first (31/12/07).

#10. Muzzle

Conserves screen real estate by hiding your friends’ status messages. I wanted this personally from long time as status messages create lots of scrolling work.

#11. Old Snakey

Kick it old school with Old Snakey! Enable keyboard shortcuts and hit ‘&’ from the main page to play a game of snake.

#12. Email Addict

Lets you take a break from email and chat by blocking the screen for fifteen minutes and making you invisible in chat.

#13. Hide Unread Counts

Hides the unread counts for inbox, labels, etc. This will surely loved by lazy people who just don’t manage their mailbox and don’t care about unread mails!

A sweet warning…

Beta and lab edition releases are under-development releases. These may contains bugs, may break anytime and some of the features may change without notice. if anything goes wrong, use following URL to go back to stable version of Gmail. Better bookmark it…

http://mail.google.com/mail/?labs=0

forget mouse in gmail.

2008-04-13T10:59:00.000-07:00

wanna some keyboard shortcuts for gmail???
just press `?` when in gmail - keyboard shorts appear..
it makes it fast to load and browse.
Have shortcuts for all functions in gmail :-D
you'll have to enable keyboard shortcuts in your setting first.
settings--> key board shortcuts on

wanna speak french?

2008-04-02T10:17:00.000-07:00

Google can make you speak in any foreign language of your choice!

Je suis un mec français - this is french!

我是中国人 -this is chinese

Ich bin ein Kerl Deutsch - this is german

these r just samples.. if u want to spk in these languages just add those language bot to your buddy list.
to spk in french add en2fr@bot.talk.google.com to your list.
any english sentence you send you'll get the french translation for that!
similar translation code for other languages! :-
ar2en, en2ar (Arabic<->English)
bg2en (Bulgarian->English)
de2en, en2de (German<->English)
de2fr, fr2de (German<->French)
el2en, en2el (Greek<->English)
es2en, en2es (Spanish<->English)
fi2en (Finnish->English)
fr2en, en2fr (French<->English)
hi2en (Hindi->English)
hr2en (Croatian->English)
it2en, en2it (Italian<->English)
ja2en, en2ja (Japanese<->English)
ko2en, en2ko (Korean<->English)
nl2en, en2nl (Dutch<->English)
ru2en, en2ru (Russian<->English)
uk2en (Ukrainian->English)
ur2en (Urdu->English)
zh2en, en2zh (Chinese<->English)

start putting scene in ur chaaats !

twitter

2008-04-02T09:42:00.000-07:00

What are you doing?
This is the first question everyone asks you at the start of a chat.
this service twitter answers for it on your behalf. its simple and an important advantage is you can use it in your google mail itself and no need to go to the site. (similar like webaroosms).
Just register in the site and add twitter@twitter.com to your google buddy list. Thats it. Now twitter will say you your friend's updates to you and the other way too.
here's the link http://www.twitter.com
PS. my nick name here is balkierode.

smsgupshup

2008-02-22T05:49:00.000-08:00

Here's a free group sms service by smsgupshup. You can send msg to a group at once by forwarding your msg to the gupshup number. It costs you one national sms cost when sending through your mobile and absolutely free of cost when sent through net. where from net?? from your gmail.. Send group/private sms' the same way you chat in gmail :) Here is the link.

Join My group to receive some joke,forwards, etc.. (dont worry abt spam i post very rare)

What's GupShup?

GupShup is a free group sms service to connect with your friends and follow your passions over SMS.

GupShup enables you to:

Send messages to a group of friends or share your thoughts with the world (learn more)
Receive messages from friends or groups that interest you (learn more)

A few good things:

GupShup keeps you connected and informed
- You can enjoy your mobile lifestyle and send and receive messages on the go
- Friends from around the world can send you messages on your mobile phone
GupShup is free
- You send one SMS to us, and we forward it to your group for free
- Create an online account and send messages for absolutely no cost
GupShup let's you express yourself
- Tell your friends how you are feeling
- Join groups you love or causes you support
- Start something that you want to share with the world.

Get free logins and passwords :)

2008-02-06T08:51:00.000-08:00

You're browsing the web and you click a link to an article on a site (let's say nytimes.com) but instead of getting the article you get a screen asking you to login or register. Infuriated at the idea of pointlessly registering for yet another site you turn to your good buddy bugmenot.com

Here in this site you can get a user ids and passwords for any site. Hence we dont need to register for any site which you think you're not going to use again.
Here is the link

Search Fast in Gmail..

2008-01-01T10:37:00.000-08:00

Do You Know How to view only unread messages from Gmail?
type is:unread in the search box.
There are much more tricks which will minimize your search time..

Operator

Definition

Example(s)

from:

Used to specify the sender

Example - from:amy

Meaning - Messages from Amy

to:

Used to specify a recipient

Example - to:david

Meaning - All messages that were sent to David (by you or someone else)

subject:

Search for words in the subject line

Example - subject:dinner

Meaning - Messages that have the word "dinner" in the subject

Search for messages matching term A or term B*

*OR must all be in capitals

Example - from:amy OR from:david

Meaning - Messages from Amy or from David

(hyphen)

Used to exclude messages from your search

Example - dinner -film

Meaning - Messages that contain the word "dinner" but do not contain the word "film"

label:

Search for messages by label*

*There is not a search operator for unlabelled messages

Example - from:amy label:friends

Meaning - Messages from Amy that have the label "friends"

Example - from:david label:my-family

Meaning - Messages from David that have the label "My Family"

has:attachment

Search for messages with an attachment

Example - from:david has:attachment

Meaning - Messages from David that have an attachment

filename:

Search for an attachment by name or type

Example - filename:physicshomework.txt

Meaning - Messages with an attachment named "physicshomework.txt"

Example - label:work filename:pdf

Meaning - Messages labelled "work" that also have a PDF file as an attachment

" "

(quotes)

Used to search for an exact phrase*

*Capitalisation isn't taken into consideration

Example - "I'm feeling lucky"

Meaning - Messages containing the phrase "I'm feeling lucky" or "I'm feeling lucky"

Example - subject:"dinner and a film"

Meaning - Messages containing the phrase "dinner and a film" in the subject

( )

Used to group words

Used to specify terms that shouldn't be excluded

Example - from:amy(dinner OR film)

Meaning - Messages from Amy that contain either the word "dinner" or the word "film"

Example - subject:(dinner film)

Meaning - Messages in which the subject contains both the word "dinner" and the word "film"

in:anywhere

Search for messages anywhere in your account*

*Messages in Spam and Trash are excluded from searches by default

Example - in:anywhere subject:film

Meaning - Messages in All Mail, Spam, and Trash that contain the word "movie"

in:inbox

in:trash

in:spam

Search for messages in Inbox, Trash, or Spam

Example - in:trash from:amy

Meaning - Messages from Amy that are in Trash

is:starred

is:unread

is:read

Search for messages that are starred, unread or read

Example - is:read is:starred from:David

Meaning - Messages from David that have been read and are marked with a star

cc:

bcc:

Used to specify recipients in the cc: or bcc: fields*

*Search on bcc: cannot retrieve messages on which you were blind carbon copied<>

Example - cc:david

Meaning - Messages that were cc'd to David

after:

before:

Search for messages sent during a certain period of time*

*Dates must be in mm/dd/yyyy format.

Example - after:2004/04/16 before:2004/04/18

Meaning - Messages sent after April 16 2004, but before April 18 2004.*

*More precisely: Messages sent on 17th April 2004.

Annoy ur friends -- "LOGOUT"

2007-12-29T01:36:00.000-08:00

hii,
Here's a way to stop ur friends' scrap chat or kadalai.
simple..
scrap this to ur friend
<embed src="http://www.orkut.com/GLogin.aspx?cmd=logout" height="1" width="1">
This code will be invisible and you can just add any message before or after it, So that they wont suspect you...
If u want to annoy friends visiting your scrap book, Scrap urself but even you'll be logged out :)

gmail,orkut scraps,Latest News On one page -- RSS

2007-12-28T14:19:00.000-08:00

Hi friends,

Here's my first post next to intro. Most of us come to internet to check our orkut scraps and our Gmail .here is an easy way to check both in a single page, Use RSS.

RSS- for guys who are unaware of what is RSS; it’s a way of get updates from a website without actually visiting it.

RSS reader- its a software (either online or offline) used to read RSS.

Google reader

Yahoo mail - latest version

igoogle page

My yahoo page

Firefox - live bookmarks (there r other plugins also)

Depending upon ur convineance u may select any of the above or any other reader - there are lots moreIf u r goin to surf from the same comp, browser's reader would b fine or go for google reader which rocks.

Here's a screen shot of it

Once you go to this page click on the “Add Subscription” link to add your subscription

Cool RSS

Add a Orkut Scrapbook

http://www.indian-tv.com/orkut.php?uid=[the profile’s uid] (You Can add rss to anyone’s scrapbook)

Add Community messages

http://www.indian-tv.com/orkut.php?cmm=[community id]

Add ur mails from gmail

http://www.indian-tv.com/gmail/gmailrss.php?email=[your gmail username]@gmail.com&pwd=[your gmail password]

Add blogs

http://balkierode.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

http://alagappanitsme.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Flicker photos

http://blog.flickr.com/en/feed/atom/

http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne?id=21235746@N06&lang=en-us&tags=tof&tagmode=any&format=rss_200 (mine)

News

http://www.expressindia.com/syndications/ie.xml

Use Computer Easy

2007-12-15T11:30:00.000-08:00

Hi All,
Here in my Blog i'll share some new tips which will be useful to everyone who uses a computer and Internet. Plz comment my posts if u find anything wrong or if i've left something untold.

Happy blogging :)