Track Specific Portions of any Web Page with FireClip

In this screenshot, I am tracking portions of multiple web pages from a single location. The portions include the top headlines from WSJ.com, latest currency rate from Google, topics that are currently popular on Twitter and weather forecast again using Google search.

A lot of this information may not be available as RSS feeds but I can still check for updates across all the above web pages by simple reloading the above start page.

This was made possible through Fireclip, a Firefox plug-in that lets you select and slice out specific portions of any web page and puts them all on a single page.

You can later reload this page to track all clipped portions in one go without having to go to those sites to check for changes or new information.

For example, I can go to Google to determine the current exchange rate (e.g 1 USD in INR) and then clip out just the relevant portion, that lies between the search box and results, with Firelip. Watch video.

Video Screencast: How to Track Web Pages with FireClip

Microsoft introduced the concept of Web Slices in Internet Explorer 8 to help you monitor web sites from the browser itself but with a small limitation - it the website owner who actually decides what parts of his or her website can be subscribed to as a slice.

FireClip, as the video demonstrates, lets you clip any portion of any web page. Geeks may also want to try this Ubiquity tutorial to access portions of another webpage from anywhere else in Firefox.

Find Images from a Specific Country with Google

The advanced search page for Google Image Search has been totally revamped and, while this is mostly a cosmetic change, it does have one new option – search by region.

You can pick a country from the drop-down and Google search will give preference to images that are either physically hosted in that part of the world or are served from a country-specific top-level domain (like .in or .co.uk).

To give you an example, a search for “movie posters” on Google Image Search with the region set as United States is likely to display posters from Hollywood movies while the results would be very different if the region were set to another country while leaving every other search parameter same.

Screenshot A: Search for Movies (region: United States)

Screenshot B: Search for Movies (region: India)

Internally, search by region adds a new “cr” parameter to image search URL with the value equal to the country code.

Google Chromebooks go on Sale at Amazon

Google Chromebooks are now available for purchase at Amazon.com. They won’t ship them to non-US locations but if you can’t wait to get one, use a package forwarding service.

The base model - Acer Cromia ($380) - features a 11.6” display with a dual-core Intel Processor and 2GB RAM while the slightly-bigger Samsung Series 5 model ($430) sports a 12.1” display with an Intel Atom processor and the 2GB RAM.

Google notebooks, or a better word is netbooks, are light and seem to have an impressive battery life but am still not sold on the concept of “everything running from the cloud.”

How do you sync your phone or tablet when you can’t install the necessary software (like iTunes) on the computer. Will your exiting hardware - like printers, external hard drive or your wireless mouse - work with a Chromebook when there are no compatible drivers? Will it let you work if the Google Cloud itself is down?

Google will be adding offline support for Google Docs and Gmail to the future releases of Chrome OS. They could be useful as your second computer that you primarily use for browsing the web or for watching vidoes but in the current state, I think these $250 netbooks probably offer better value for money. Yes, they won’t boot in 20 seconds but you get to do everything else that's possible on a Chromebook and much more.

Here's an impressive promo video of Google Chrome Notebook in case you missed it before.

Use your Browser Address Bar as a Calculator

You know this, right? If you have set Google as your default search provider, you can use the browser’s address bar as an instant calculator.

Simply enter the calculation in the address bar, Google will compute the answer on its own servers and will send you the result as a “search suggestion.” You don’t even have to press the Enter key.

This works with IE and Google Chrome while in the case of Firefox, you’ll have to type the expression in the browser’s search box instead of the address bar.

Your Browser as a Calculator without Google

You can also perform calculations inside the browser offline without requiring Google.

Go to your browser’s address bar, type javascript: followed by any calculation and hit Enter. The calculation will happen inside the browser itself as shown in the screencast:

Axel Rauschmayer, who first wrote about this technique on 2ality.com, suggests that you can even perform complex calculations with JavaScript, something which is not possible with the Google Calculator.

Here are some examples that you may try or check Mozilla Docs for a complete list of Maths functions that are supported in JavaScript.

1. javascript:Math.random() [Find random number between 0 & 1]
2. javascript:Math.pow(3,9) [What is x to the power of y]
3. javascript:Math.sqrt(32) [Find the square root of a positive number]

Tumblr Blogs Can No Longer Import RSS Feeds

Maybe this is more ammunition for people who think that RSS is dead.

Since its early days, Tumblr has offered a useful import feed feature to help you bring content from other sites – like Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Blogger, etc. – into your main Tumblr blog. Technically, you could import content from just about any external site into Tumblr as long as there was an RSS feed available.

Unfortunately, as @Shripriya first noticed, Tumblr has quietly dropped support for importing RSS feeds into their system. Tumblr’s support site still has a page on how to use Import feed but the feature itself has been removed, thus denying you the ability to use Tumblr has a lifestreaming service.

The last auto-fetch request into my Tumblr blog was made during the first week of June and that may be the date when they dropped support for RSS imports (you can still export your Tumblr blog as an RSS feed though).

I am little surprised at Tumblr’s approach here but that doesn’t mean you can’t bring your external content into Tumblr – they do offer a simple API that can write anything, including RSS feeds, to a Tumblr blog but you’ll have to take the help of a developer to get that thing working for your blog.

The Most Disliked Videos on YouTube Ever

Nathan Yau at FlowingData has created a reference poster that highlights the most disliked videos on YouTube of all time. I have added an image map to Nathan’s poster so you can click on the video thumbnails to watch the corresponding video directly on YouTube.

There are five music videos of Justin Bieber that make it to the hate list but the award for the most disliked video on YouTube, and thus on the entire Internet, goes to Rebecca Black for Friday – 81 million views and 1.6 million dislikes.

Charging

Here’s a device that could be useful to millions of households in India and elsewhere who have mobile phones but sometimes not get enough electricity to charge their phones.

TES NewEnergy, a company based in Japan, has created a new USB based charger that can charge your mobile phone without requiring electricity – all it needs is a heat source which could be as simple as a pan of boiling water or even a campfire.

The device, known as Pan Charger, converts heat into electric energy and that can charge any cellphone, MP3 player or other mobile device over a USB connection in 3-5 hours. Thetech specs say that the USB connection also has a built-in radio and a lantern – things that you often need when there’s no power.

Pan Charger is already available for purchase in Japan according to an AFP report but, at $299 a unit, it is not a very affordable option. That could however change as the company does have plans to introduce the device in other developing countries.

Pan Charger isn’t the only device that can charge mobile phones without a power outlet. There’s Yogen, a hand-powered charger that works like a Yo-yo. You attach the cell phone to Yogen over USB and pull/release the cord for a few minutes to charge the phone.

The best idea however comes from Kenya. They have turned a bicycle into a mobile phone charger – ride your bike for a few kilometers, which most villagers do anyway, and your phone is charged.