#320 Gmail Hack -- Using your Gmail account you can convert files (doc, xls, ppt, rtf, pdf, etc.) to HTML. Simply compose a message, attach the file, and send it to yourself. Open the message and click the "View as HTML" link next to your attachment. The contents of your attachment appear as HTML in a new browser window without having to download the file. GMail will show the following types of files as HTML: .pdf, .doc, .xls, .ppt, .rtf, .sxw, .sxc, .sxi, .sdw, .sdc, .sdd, and .wml. You can extend this trick to extract text from PDF documents (PDF to Txt) or Convert Adobe PDF documents to Word (PDF to Doc conversion). First convert the Document to HTML with Gmail and then open the HTML file in Microsoft Word and choose Save as .doc. (HT: Digital Inspiration)
#321 Firefox Hack -- Google has a new Firefox extension called "Blogger Web Comments" which provides a pop-up window for any webpage you visit. The pop-up window contains all the blog posts that mention the page you are on. It also has some other options, like allowing you to add your own comment to your own blog about the page you are visiting. (HT: Prosthesis)
#322 Google School -- Some companies have a toll-free number that's buried deep on their website. One way to find the number more quickly is to search Google for the company name and the phrase "customer support." Like this: TiVo Customer Support. Another method is to search for the company name and the standard toll-free prefixes. That'll dig up some real gems. For example, "[company name] 800 OR 877 OR 888 OR 866". (HT: Google Blog)
#323 Know Your Fallacies -- Historian's fallacy -- a logical fallacy that occurs when one assumes that decision makers of the past viewed events from the same perspective and having the same information as those subsequently analyzing the decision. (Example: "Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor should have been predictable in the United States because of the many indications that an attack was imminent.")
#324 Travel Hack -- TripStalker is a new application that grabs the best online travel deals by constantly searching the Internet for you. You enter your travel details only once, saving you the trouble of having to re-enter the same information at multiple travel web sites. TripStalker also allows you to set a "notify" price. When your car, hotel or airfare stalk drops below your "notify" price, TripStalker will automatically alert you that the price you are looking for is available. You can be alerted via desktop pop-up, email message, or SMS text message to your phone. (HT: LifeHacker)
#325 HowTo -- Increase Your Credit Score
#326 Google Hack -- O’Reilly’s has posted instructions for using Google as a free proxy. What's the purpose for Google as a proxy? On some office/school/university connections, their servers are set to provide more safety, blocking the access to undesidered web sites (the "black list"). What you can do now is use Google translator service (language tools) as a proxy to bypass the restrictions set for our connection. All you do is type the following URL: http://www.google.com/translate?langpair=en|en&u=www.forbiddensite.com (www.forbiddensite.com stands for the URL you need to go to...)
1
congrats on the BBC interview. how did you snag that???
posted on 12.21.2005 8:14 AM2
congrats on the BBC interview. how did you snag that???
A couple of months ago an American producer for BBC Live Five noticed something I had written on Harriet Miers and asked me to be on a show called "Pods and Blogs." I guess they kept me in the rolodex under "crazed American fundies." Also, I suspect that they couldn't find anyone with real qualifications to speak and I was available.
posted on 12.21.2005 12:12 PM3
Joe,
Re Google as proxy.
Do you really think it is wise or right to tell people how to bypass the security of their own system administrators?
This sort of thing can be used to access all sorts of bad material, e.g. porn.
posted on 12.21.2005 5:44 PM4
Do you really think it is wise or right to tell people how to bypass the security of their own system administrators?
Having personally been in this situation, I can honestly say that I don't think it is a problem. For example, where I work the security was once set to block out almost all Typepad and Blogger blogs. If I needed information from one of those sites I had to call the IT desk and ask them to unblock it. The entire process usually took 15 minutes and was a huge hassle.
The fact is that the security systems are often overzealous in what they block. While a company might have a legitimate reason for using a proxy server, the moral requirement to avoid bad material rests with me, not with an electronic nanny.
5
Does the moral requirement to not allow access to bad material to minors also not rest with those providing access to the internet for their school Joe?
I am well aware of overzealous security, but in all honesty, if the company you work for provides your access to the internet, they have the authority to decide which sites you are allowed to visit. They are paying for the link, not you. If they want to make it hard to do legitimate, work related research, that is their decision and their problem (as your work would be less profitable to them).
How is what you suggest any different to someone posting details of how to obtain illegal (but possibly useful) drugs on their website?
posted on 12.21.2005 6:30 PM6
Alan,
Does the moral requirement to not allow access to bad material to minors also not rest with those providing access to the internet for their school Joe?
Personally, I think the moral requirement is to imbue a sense of virtue into minors so that they will choose not to access illicit material. I also don’t believe we should be pawning off the responsibility to monitor kids' Internet access off to a proxy server. But if preventing access to kids is the issue, then a more effective means is to have the computer record every page that is accessed. When a teen knows that everything he sees can be found by the sysadmin they will be less inclined to stray off the safe path.
I am well aware of overzealous security, but in all honesty, if the company you work for provides your access to the internet, they have the authority to decide which sites you are allowed to visit. They are paying for the link, not you. If they want to make it hard to do legitimate, work related research, that is their decision and their problem (as your work would be less profitable to them).
Well, yes and no. In my particular situation (I work for a think-tank that resides on a university) we pay the school for our Internet access. Because we use the same servers as the students, though, we are affected by the same policies that apply to them. So the choice to view a site is not dependent on the school but on me (or my employer). In fact, if I told them to unblock an illicit site they would likely honor that request. The issue, at least in my situation, is not that they are legitimately controlling access, but that I have to go through them rather than use an easier method (i.e., Google).
How is what you suggest any different to someone posting details of how to obtain illegal (but possibly useful) drugs on their website?
The main difference is that it is neither illegal nor immoral to bypass a proxy server while it is both illegal and immoral to tell people how to obtain illegal drugs.
7
AG: How is what you suggest any different to someone posting details of how to obtain illegal (but possibly useful) drugs on their website?
JC: The main difference is that it is neither illegal nor immoral to bypass a proxy server while it is both illegal and immoral to tell people how to obtain illegal drugs.
I think you miss the point. As the provider of internet access they have the company has the proper authority to provide or restrict access to whatever sites they like. Much in the same way as the government has the authority to provide or restrict access to what drugs they like.
By bypassing their authority and showing others how to do so, you are doing the same violation of their authority as someone who provides information about how to get illicit drugs.
I could even use your logic in defending the illicit drugs information as it will imbue a sense of virtue to minors if they access to illegal drugs so they can choose not to take them.
On preventing being the issue, it is irrelevant if a particular method is relatively inneffective to morality. Just because it is easy to get mp3's and tv shows over the net does not mean that it is moral to provide the information about how to do so.
posted on 12.21.2005 7:29 PM8
Joe, I was thinking of posting a much better hack to avoid corporate security, but I'm not sure this is the audience for it.
Look folks, the vast amount of corporate web filtering is done to CTA (cover their um, tuchis). Rather than engage in the effort to make sure that they hire grownups, these companies would rather assume the lowest common denominator. Thus we lose not only the ability to view pr0n, but also the ability to look up breast cancer sites, while you recover from the shock of what your wife just told you about her mamograms. You lose the ability to check on a package sent to your parents in lieu of a visit because the project *has* to be completed before EOY.
Also, if you like O'Relly, take a look at this posting by Tim O'Relly about the services and productivity workers in Corporate America leave behind when they enter the workplace. (http://tinyurl.com/b3w87)
Luckily I work for myself, I'm an expert on networking and I'm a professional. I always leave my customers' networks stronger than I found them. If I need to see something they wouldn't like, I have a laptop, an EVDO card and a car in the parking lot.
Some friends of mine have none of these, and I provide them with a simple elegant way to get to where they need to go without tripping over corporate filtering. Too bad most of the folks out there running corporate networks really know nothng about TCP/IP.
posted on 12.21.2005 9:02 PM
9
That Google tip rules.
I hadn't thought of that and I am a tried and true Google user/abuser.
Good stuff.
Thanks, Joe.
posted on 12.22.2005 2:09 AM