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I thought that is allready known by eryone, but no one is doing it, not even blog.largeheartedboy.com !!!

Usually, to be able to read articles from the NY Times, you need to be registrated. Which means, I have to go through an annoying process before I can read the article.

But !!!! there is a workaround. NO registration is required, if you are using the links provided by GOOGLE News. Instead of linking to the article directly (which only redistrated people can read), spend another minute at GOOGLE, go to the advanced news search, restrict your search to the New York Times and search for the headline of the article you would like to link.

By following the link provided by GOOGLE, no registration is needed.

For example:



( 0 ) 04.04.05    Tag: Tools


Since suprnova.org is down, I am still lookig for another good bittorrent webpage. I came acros isohunt and lately torrentspy, isohunt seems to be a pure search engine, while torrentspy is a regular tracker.

I am using the official bit torrent client, I also gave the azerus client a try, but any client besides the official one is using to much of my computers performance.

For lots of more info check the wikipedia entry:
en.wikipedia.org



( 1 ) 11.03.05    Tag: Tools


This page contains a lot of usefull hints



( 0 ) 06.03.05    Tag: Tools





Google Jobsuche Firefox/Mozilla Version

Als angehender Ingenieur bin ich gerade auf Jobsuche. Ich habe die Erfahrung gemacht, dass man per Google schneller Angebote findet, als z.B: über Portale wie Stepstone.
Hier ein kleines Bookmarklet, welches einem die Suche etwas erleichtert. Eigentlich ist es recht primitiv und nicht so clever wie mein MP3 bookmarklet. Alles was es macht ist, bei Goolge nach dem Stichwort, z.B. Hausmeister und einem der Wörter Jobs, Kariere und Stellenangebot zu suche.

Anleitung:
Funktioniert als Volltextsuche. Mann kann genaue Berufsbezeichnungen aber auch Bereiche oder sonst was eingeben. z.B.:
- Hausmeister
- Systemadministrator SAP

  • Photovoltaik
  • Maschinenbau Mannheim

    Wen es genauer interesiert, einfach mal testen und dann auf der Trefferseite auf "erweiterte Suche" klicken.

    Die ganze Geschichte ist natürlich noch ausbaufähig, für Tipps bin ich immer offen.


( 0 ) 15.01.05    Tag: Tools


Cowabunga dudes! I made a little update to the "google powered mp3 search bookmarklet" i did a while ago.

the new bookmarklet now uses google not only to search for mp3, but also for wma and ogg files. it's not yet properly tested, but i don't see why it shouldn't as it is supposed to. Right now, there is only the firefox/mozla version, but the new IE version will follow shortly.

i did a short test but it seems there aren't many ogg or wma files availible in open directories.

so check it out and feel free to write a comment.

go here for the google mp3 bookmarklet



( 0 ) 18.12.04    Tag: Tools


Very interesting article about Wikis. It's a good summery of the history of wikis and is also showing the future, namely becoming more "mainstream" by being the new weblogs and also becoming of interest for companis, which are selling wiki based products.

excerpts from the article: The biggest and most widely known wiki right now is Wikipedia, a public collaborative encyclopedia with more than 1.2 million articles in 160 languages. Its 400,000 English-language articles make it handily more than three times as big as its next largest competitor, Encyclopaedia Britannica. And who's the author? Could be anyone. Currently the site has about 10,000 regular contributors, and within, say, 30 seconds, you could be one, too.

Will Wikis ever hit the mainstream of Web usage? Blogs, once considered for "geeks only," are now being created by corporations, major media outlets and universities. In many ways, these collaborative sites offer a better way to share knowledge than the Internet has yet had. Wikis go a step further in democratizing the Web, making it possible for all of the fragments that individuals would normally contribute through personal Web pages and blog entries to combine as continuous living documents rather than stagnating as dead ends.

Read More



( 0 ) 17.12.04    Tag: Tools


There was only one IE option I was missing in Firefox. This was the capability to save whole webpages as a single file. But now there is a Firefox Plug-in for that purpose. I's a bit hard for me to explain the whole thing, so head over to the plug-in's webpage and read the whole story



( 1 ) 26.11.04    Tag: Tools


By Tim Higgins - October 13, 2004 It seems everywhere you turn, you're bombarded with pitches to dump your local phone company and make all your calls via your broadband connection. (Actually, the cell phone folks also make a similar pitch, but that's another article.)The thing that makes this all possible is a technology that's actually been around awhile called Voice over IP or VoIP. In this NTK series, I'll attempt to turn down the hype and give you information intended to help you to understand what VoIP will and won't do for you. I'll also show you how to choose the right solutions, should you decide to take the plunge. More



( 0 ) 22.10.04    Tag: Tools


Like posted before, I am a big fan of EC Brown's MP3 link archive. I'd like to be notified everytime his webpage is updated, but he doesn't offer a service like that.

If you are using the superior browser Firefox, then you are lucky, because firefox can keep track of updates made to webpages and notify you, if updates are made.

To do like so,
(1.) bookmark the specific webpage, right click on it and choose PROPERTIES
(2.) Select SCHEDULE and choose a time. During this time firefox will check the selected page for updates. The time span should be a span while you are usually online (of course)
(3.) Select NOTIFY and choose the notification method, I am using "display an alert", which will open a little window showing something like " webpage xyz.com has ben updated, would you like to go there?"

that's it.



( 2 ) 17.09.04    Tag: Tools



Search trough lots of mp3 weblogs Mozilla Version
Search trough lots of mp3 weblogs IE Version

Use this to search through many mp3-weblogs. This boobkmarklet is still in beta. Play with it, check if your own mp3 blog is covered and drop a line with your thoughts on this bookmarklet.

Why YAHOO ? Because the size of the query at GOOGLE is very limited, while at YAHOO it is "unlimited".

What this bookmarklet is doing is telling yahoo to search trough approximately 15 weblogs. The query is for example:
"XYZ" (site:tofuhut.blogspot OR site:swen.antville.org)

As you can see, the size of the query easely gets realy big. That's why you can't use GOOGLE.

The bookmarklet woud even be better if people used "better" captions for the postings in weblogs. Most weblogs are hosted at blogspot. The caption of a posting at blogspot ist transformed into an URL. For example this one: sixeyes.blogspot.com...mystical-and-magical.html
This is a very nice link collection of songs by Devendra Banhart. By giving the post a heading like " mystical and magical by Devendra Banhart", it would be much easier to search for songs/tracks of certain artists, because you can tell GOOGLE or YAHOO to look (for the word you are searching) into the URL and the title of the page of the single posting, which would make the search results yahoo/google much better.
But how to name the postings in your weblog is everyone ownes taste. But it would increase also the position at google.

Update #1
The best way to use this bookmarklet is to drag it to the link bo of your browser, so you don't of to come to my site to use it. But ofcourse I on't mind you comming to my site :-)
You can change the weblogs covered in the bookmarklet very easily:
1. Drag the bookmarklet to the link bar.
2. Open the properties of the bookmarklet by right-clicking on the link.
3. Copy the URL (firefox browser: "Location") into a text editor.
4. Look for .com (there are ofcourse mans .com endings, just choose one) and paste the following BEHIND it:
+OR+site%3XYZ.com
5. Replace XYZ.com with the URL of the blogg you want to add to the bookmarklet.
6. Copy the whole text (it's actually a small java script) back to the properties of the bookmarklet and the press OK. THAT'S IT!

Update #2
Sometimes you get YAHOO deliveres many results from the same webpage. Those results are weblogs running on the great antville software. I guess this is because every blog-entrie is "stored" on the frontpage , has it's own page and it's also stored in a category page. This means the results provided by YAHOO can easily be double. If this happens, go directly to the weblog and use the weblog internal search function. Antville weblogs are having a search function.



( 0 ) 19.08.04    Tag: Tools



THE GOOGLE AUDIO BOOKMARKLETS



First let me say, that the method to find "unsecured" folders on the net via Google (which I am using for this Bookmarklets) was, as far as I know, discovered by the guy behind breakingwindows.com in 2004. Read the original post. Recently I found lot's of webpages, claiming they have discovered this, BUT THEY HAVEN'T !



These bookmarklets were done before the "Goolge multimedia search device" (below). They are still handy, because you can drag the links into the link toolbar of your browser.

Update: I made a new version of the bookmarklet. Now it also searches for wma and ogg files.

Google powered audio search Firefox/Mozilla

Google powered audio search IE Versio

The bookmarklet should work for later versions of Internet Explorer, but may not work for other browsers.

To keep the bookmarklet, Add it to your Bookmarks or Favorites<script src=\www.bookmarklets.com" language="Javascript"> IE

Tip:
This is a tip for the Mozilla/Firefox users. Should work the same for IE but I don't know. It doesn't improve the search results, but it makes the handling of the bookmark a little bit easier. Here it is:

Save the bookmark as one of your bookmarks in your bookmarkfolder. Right-click it -> Properties ->Keyword

Now enter something short like "mp3" (no quotes). Then enter "mp3" (no quotes) in the adress line of your browser. The "bookmarklet" should appear now. Ofcourse you can keep the bookmarklet in your link bar, but my linkbar is cluttered with links allready and space in this bar is very valuable

Audio and Video Search



Those bookmarklets do a Google search for Audio and Video files at the same time.

A Audio and Video Search Bookmarklet Firefox version
A audio and video Search Bookmarklet IE Version

GOOGLE POWERED MULTIMEDIA SEARCH



SEARCH



Info:
For some reason, this tool is not workin 100%. Everytime I do a search, all I see is a standard google start page. But when I hit the back button of my browser (Firefox) and do he search again, everything works fine.

Supported files:
Audio: mp3, wav, ogg, shn and flac
Video: avi, mpeg, mpg, mov
Archive: zip, rar, tar and gz
Torrent
Iso Images: iso, bin, nrg and cue

Also interesting:





( 8 ) 28.07.04    Tag: Tools



Very often blogs are linking to articles in the New York Post. But in order to read those articles you have to be registered.

But there is a method to get arround the registration process. By using the the google news search funtion to search for the headline of the specific article, the registration procedure will be needless. By following the links from the Google search results, you don't have to register.

For example, at www.coolfer.com I found an interessting sounding link to an article called Liberty, Technology, Duty: Where Peace Overlaps War. (normal link). By following this link, I only can read the first page and I can't use the "print" option. But by using this Google anhanced link Liberty, Technology, Duty: Where Peace Overlaps War, it is possible to read the whole story and use the print function without beeing registered.

When I googled for this article, two results were provided. An "anhanced" one and a normal one. To distinguish those links, put your mouse courser above the links provided by Google. By doing so, a little colored field should appear over the link, showing the URL, the anhanced one should end like this: partner=GOOGLE. If the colored field doesnt appear, look at the bootom of your browser window the URL should also be shown.



( 1 ) 12.05.04    Tag: Tools





Dear visitor, you reached the most visited entry on my weblog. This entry has generated hundreds of thousands visits since March 2004. In this entry I will write about the tools you need to download real media streams from the Internet and convert them into mp3 files.

But my weblog also offers many more interesting stuff, like a handy bookmarklet which enables you to find audio files (mp3, ogg...) via google. You will be surprised how much you can find. Here is also a list of the 25 most visited entries in my weblog. More info about me and the purpose of my weblog can be found here

Real Audio ?

I am going to reveal one of the biggest serects known to mankind:
How to download Real Audio Streams and convert Real Audio files to MP3.

A while ago I wrote about the same topic in german at phlow.net. This posting, here in my own weblog, contains some new links and will be updated from time to time.

Real Audio streams are used by most radio stations (for example wfmu.org) on the internet. Even using a dsl internet connection it is most common that the stream will break down from time to time. In most cases you can't download those streams. By downloading the stream to your computer, things like that will never happen. Another thing about Real Audio I don't like is that my portable mp3 player won't play them.

1. Listening to Real Audio files


First install the spyware free real player version from the BBC

Or try Real Alternative. Real Alternative will install a software called "Classic Media Player" (which has nothing to do with Microsoft) and some codex needed to play Real Audio files.

There is also a plugin which enables winamp to play Real Audio files. But Real Alternative has to be installed to use this plug in.

If you prefer the official Real Player, look here


2. Download Real Audio files


I know 3 methods to download Real Audio/Video files. The first one doesn't need any additional software, a downloadmanager would be handy, but isn't necessary. Actually method 2 and 3 require additional software, but therefore more streams can be downloaded, compared to method 1.

If you ever tried to download a Real file, you surely came across different file types: The .rm is the one you are looking for, the .ram or .smil files usually don't contain any audio information, they usually contains a link to the .rm file.

1. Method
So, in order to download the radio broadcast, or whatever you are after, download the file which, by clicking on it, opens your real audio player. In most of the cases, it's a .ram file. Now open the file with a simple text editor. There should be a link to a .rm file. Copy that link into the address bar of your browser and hit RETURN. Your download should start right on. BUT... this method is only working with links like http://...music.rm, a web browser can't download files like rtsp://...music.rm .

To download a file via the rstp protocol, one needs additional software. The "best" tools for this task are Flashget and Streambox VCR. I recommend Flashgot, if something doesn't work then you might try VCR Streambox.

2. Method

Flashget
Flashget is downloadmanager which is capable of handling the rstp protocol. A very simple but effective tool. Users of the Firefox Browser should also have a look at Flashgot. Flashgot is a plug-in to use many downloadmanagers, like flashget, directly via Firefox.

Drop the link into Flashget. If the link leads to the .rm file (the one which contains the actual audio data) via the rtsp protocol, Flashget will download it instantly. If not, one has to open the downloaded file (using a text editor), which is than somewhere between 1 and 20kb, look for the link to the .rm file and then use flashget again, but this time using the new link.

3. Method

Download Streambox vcr. If you need help with this software, go to the The Streambox VCR Forum. There seems to be a problem when using Real Player 10 and Streambox, the problem and the solution is described here . Someone wrote a little script to automatically convert the downloaded real audio files. Get it here

note:
sometimes you find files like pnm://...music.rm , the pnm protocol was used before rtsp, if the software you are using to download real audio files won't download it, try renaming the link to rtsp://...music.rm . If this doesn't work, have a look here and here. I encountered the pnm protocol only ones.

3. Convert Real Audio to MP3


I came across two programs which can convert Real Audio files in other audio files. - dBpowerAMP - SUPER (Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer)

The first a found was dBpowerAMP, as far as I can remember it was free in the beginning, but they are charging money now. But it can be tested free of cost for 30 days. Recently I discovered SUPER. Basically SUPER is free, easy to use and fast, dBpowerAMP is a commercial software, more complicated and slow. It can also be used to ripp sound from video files.

SUPER


To finally convert Real Audio file to MP3 (or many other file types), download SUPER

erightsoft.net: "SUPER © Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer. A GUI to ffmpeg, mencoder, mplayer, x264, mppenc, ffmpeg2theora & the theora/vorbis RealProducer plugIn."

So what does this mean? Basically Super is a very easy to use software, which is capable of converting ANY video file in absolutely any other video format. All you have to do is drop the file into SUPER, select the output format and that's it! Best thing is, no extra codecs are needed !!!

SUPER can also be used for extracting the sound of a video file or convert audio only files.

- More info on SUPER - Download SUPER here

Instructions:
In order to convert a Real Audio file to a MP3 file, 1. drop the Real Audio file in the program, it doesn't matter where. 2. Select Disable Video and 3. select MP3 in the Output Container menu. 4. Press encode. By default the output files are located in the OutPut folder of SUPER.

Problems:
Here is an error which occurred when I was using the program for the first time. From the official FAQ: Q: The dropdown boxes are empty. I can't select any format or container. what can i do? A. Right-click to open the menu, Un-Check the "Stay On Top Of All".

Two tips: Sometimes SUPER won't convert files which are part of a big job list. So instead of trying to convert 5 files in a row, try converting one file after another.
If this won't do the trick, try to check/uncheck "Use Direct Show"
These tips are referring to SUPER version 2006.build 19 (4.26.2006)

Advantages:
Advantages SUPER has over dbPower Amp (see below): - no extra codecs are needed - convertion is faster the real time - SUPER is free, as in free beer

And you are done! This is a very short guide, but all the needed software is pretty easy to handle and help can be found on all the homepages which are offering the software downloads.

Some people are reporting problems using SUPER. One user suggest using Switch +. Nice commercial software. Handy for basic transformations, like converting real audio streams, but SUPER is cost free and can do more complex things like ripping the sound from a real media video and convert it to a mp3 file.

Here are a few hints on how to find out about the quality of a real audio file.

I found a German tutorial on how to use SUPER for converting video files so they can be watched on a iPod or a mobile phone.

Here is an English SUPER tutorial


Update:
I am currently using Format Factory. I've used it several times, mostly to convert video to audio files and converted one or maybe two real audio files to mp3. It is very simple to use and the results are very good. Try this one first!



Maybe try also


If you followed steps 1 - 3 you should be able to download and convert real audio streams into mp3 files. The software mentioned bellow isn't necessary, but maybe in some special cases, like ripping sounds from video games, they can be handy. I guess this little tutorial is very Windows focused, but maybe the links bellow will be usefull for Linux or Mac users.

Messer
A free tool which grabs the output from the soundcard. Development stopped in 2000.

Total Recorder

  • Also grabs the output from the sound card.
  • Commercial Product (12 US$), stil updated

    air2mp3
  • German webpage, so maybe only available in German language?
  • records from radio stations via a tv-card

    Those are very handy tools, but they aren't converting or downloading streams, those programs are "recording" every sound your soundcard is making. The interface of the programs are very simple (at least the Windows /Apple ones), like a vcr. Press the record buttom, and the sound of the radiostation/game or whatever you are listening currently is saved as wav/mp3.

    Net Transport
    This is a download manager which is capable to download real audio streams. I don't know much about it, but i will give it a try sometime.

    Switch
    Switch is also a tool to convert real audio files into other file types. I didn't tested it, but it looks promising.

    Nero
    Plug-in for Nero to burn Real Audio as usual audio CDs

Radiosites.de
Lots of links to handy software. GERMAN language only :-(

JetAudio
JetAudio is another mediaplayer that supports Real Audio files

Phonostar Player
phonostar.com: "Get the phonostar-Player and listen via the internet to thousands of radio stations from all over the world. Listen to it and even record it as MP3"

For Apple User:

"By using a few freely available UNIX command line tools, and codecs from the OS X version of Real Player, one can easily and quickly convert Real Audio to MP3. What follows is a tutorial, including a shell script to automate the conversion process." Read the rest


Apple user shoud also check out:
- Switch +
- Audio Recorder
- WireTap

Linux only Software


Music File Processing on Linux
This website covers a lot of topics. For example:

  • Converting Real Audio Streams to MP3
  • Creating a Music CD from MP3 Files
  • Creating MP3 Files from a Music CD

VSOUND

  • Linux command line software
  • This program allows you to record the output of any standard OSS program
  • convert real audio files to some other format

    Recording streaming audio with MPlayer
    grimthing.com: "Well for one, MPlayer can play almost any file format. Since we’re concerned with streaming audio, however, we’re only going to have to deal with, primarily, three formats: MP3, Real Audio and Windows Media."

UPDATES TO THIS "TUTORIAL"


How to Convert Digital Audio Files
oreilly.com: "There are so many types of audio files out there that it's all too easy to end up with the wrong one. Maybe you converted your CD collection to Real Audio or WMA and now want to convert the songs to a nonproprietary format, such as MP3, so you can play them with iTunes. Or maybe you purchased songs in a copy-protected AAC format from the iTunes Music Store and need to convert them to MP3 so they'll work in your portable player, handheld computer, home network, or competing jukebox program, such as Musicmatch Jukebox.

Fortunately, any audio that you can hear on your computer can be converted to another format. How easy that conversion will be depends on whether the files are copy-protected. If they are, you won't be able to convert them directly. However, you can use one of the indirect conversion methods described later in this article. If the files are not copy-protected and are in a format supported by your jukebox or audio-editing program, it's fairly straightforward to convert them to another format, and I'll cover that too." Read the whole article

How to download certain radio shows:

Something different:


How to download videos (from sites like youtube) from the web: here: http://keepvid.com/

Big list of video tools


( 96 ) 25.03.04    Tag: Tools


URL shorteners are a very handy tool. Let's say you want to send a very link to a friend. For example a link to a certain ebay item. usually very long links a broken into two parts in an email.

On the webpage of URL shorteners you can enter that long link (cut'n paste) and it will be transfered into a very short one. Some of them (like tinyurl.com) also offer a bookmarklet so you don't have to enter the link manually.

At the webpage of Research Buzz I found the link to this resource list of URL shorteners



( 0 ) 24.01.04    Tag: Tools


 
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