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H: How do I set Google Docs not always with https?
I use Google Chrome Browser. Is it possible to set Google Docs not always with https?
AI: No. Google requires SSL for their Google Docs service. |
H: How can I use Google as OpenID provider after Google +?
For Google+ users, the www.google.com/profiles/me URL redirects to the user's Google+ profile. How can I use Google as my OpenID provider now?
AI: If you mean you want to use your Google Account to login to sites using OpenID (like the Stack Exchange network) even if you don't have Google+ then you need to use the following URI:
https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id
If you are already signed in Google will recognise your account and perform the necessary actions. If you aren't already signed in to Google, you will be prompted to sign in before you can continue. |
H: What are the ramifications of deleting a tweet?
Say I want to make a correction to a tweet, if there's a typo or something. If I delete the old tweet, what happens when people have already seen it and/or replied to it?
Will most Twitter clients figure out that the tweet was deleted, or will two tweets (the typoed and the corrected) show up in the clients? What about on the website? What about in someone's mentions list? What happens if it's in the middle of a conversation chain?
If you click "reply" on a deleted tweet, either on the website or the client, what happens?
Basically, is it bad netiquette to delete a tweet, because most consumers expect them to be permanent? A lot of the bigger accounts I follow do corrections manually via a followup "oops, I meant X not Y" tweet, maybe for a reason. Or is this perfectly OK?
AI: If you delete a tweet it disappears for ever (although in some cases they may appear in Twitter search for a little while after)
Twitter and any clients using the streaming API will remove the tweet from a users stream almost immediately. Other clients using the REST API will remove the tweet once the timeline is refreshed.
I'm not 100% sure on what would happen mid-reply but I would have thought the reply will be sent successfully as the id of the now deleted tweet will have already been attached to the new tweet. I guess it would depend on how each client handled incoming and outgoing tweets. In any case the worst thing that would happen would be an error message being to displayed to the user.
Deleted tweets will disappear from a conversation chain.
I'm not sure if deleting tweets is frowned upon but if the information you have posted is incorrect or you no longer want to tweet it then it's entirely up to you as to whether you delete the tweet or not. |
H: Google Instant Keyboard Navigation stopped working
I just noticed that the keyboard navigation stopped working for me in Google Chrome. I tried to re-activate Google Instant and to re-login, but that didn't solve it. How can I reactivate it? Or do you experience the same problem?
AI: Press Tab after you perform a search. |
H: Is there a limit on shared documents on Google Docs?
I have an 800MB file that I need to share to multiple people. I'm guessing ~10,000 will download it.
I purchased extra space on Google Docs. Can Google Docs handle this or should I look into another service?
AI: Here's Google's response: Google Docs size limits.
As long as you upload the file as is (don't convert to Google format) you should be fine with a free account. |
H: Modifying YouTube "end of video" page
I would like to have an introductory video on my homepage, and I'm considering embedding a YouTube player.
A problem I see is that, at the end of the video, YouTube will be suggesting other videos. This is a good chance for users to "escape" the website.
Can I somehow modify this "end of video" page so that it displays a blank screen, or something?
AI: Yes. There's a rel=0 parameter for precisely this purpose, that was introduced in June 2007. Read the YouTube embedded player parameter documentation for details. |
H: Only have "replay" at the end of YouTube video
I've managed to remove the suggested related videos from the end of a YouTube video by using &rel=0.
However, I still have the permalink, and the HTML embedding code at the end. How can remove those?
AI: I assume you're talking about when embedding the video in your own site:
You can use the Chromeless player to accomplish this. You will have to set up your own play/pause, etc. controls, as well as your own replay button, but that's the trade-off for having full control.
See: http://code.google.com/apis/youtube/chromeless_example_1.html for an example. |
H: A way to programmatically add people to my Google+ circles
Back when Google+ was just launched, my friend and I started a service that works as a directory of Lithuanians using Google+. The Lithuanian Google+ community is small, yet rather vibrant and interesting. The website currently has around 1,400 people in 7 categories. I'd like to create 7 circles corresponding to those categories in my own Google+ account, and programmatically add all the listed people to one of them (adding them manually is a bit too much work).
Is there a way to do this? I tried playing with Chrome's JavaScript console to trigger mouse clicks on the Add to circles button, but that does not seem to work. Google+ API does not (at least currently) provide such a possibility either. And while unsure, I feel that any Chrome macros or Mac Automator scripts could not be used for clicking on a button within a website (in addition to that, the button is created with JavaScript).
AI: Apparently, there's a Chrome extension for this.
This extension allows you to easily add Google+ profiles listed on ANY webpage to your Google+ circles.
It first collects a listing of your circles and adds them to a dropdown box so you can choose which circle you would like the profiles to be added to. It then scans the current page you are on for Google+ Profile IDs and tries to add them to the given circle. Once it is able to do this it will give a listing of every person that has been added (by image and name.) |
H: How do I force Google Search to use the word I type with no "corrections"?
Many of the acronyms or scientific words I punch into Google seem to be silently auto-corrected to something more usual, e.g. "MAPB agarose" is turned into "map agarose" without the
Showing results for "fixed" word
Search instead for what I want
associated with the usual auto-corrections as perhaps it thinks my term was highly likely wrong.
Can I force Google to take my word that I know how to spell (some words)?
AI: Put + directly in front of the word or phrase. I use this all the time. For example
+"MAPB agarose"
Note: This is no longer true.
The + operator has been replaced.
To search for an exact word or phrase, use double quotation marks: hacker "news"
So you just need the quotes now. |
H: How do I delete a board in Trello?
Is it possible to delete a board in Trello? I see how to pin or unpin it, or add it to an organization. Best I can come up with is remove everyone else from it and set it to member visibility. Guess I could create a dummy user to assign deleted boards too.
AI: You can close a board from the board's menu: click on the icon next to the board's name, then select Close Board.
You can re-open a board from the Boards menu (this is a different menu): click on Boards near the upper right corner of the page, then select View Closed Boards. |
H: Is there a way to search using regular expressions?
It would be very useful if Google provided a regular expression search.
Is there a way to do this?
I am not talking about search operators like site:, filetype:, AND, OR or "Text". I would like to search with a regular expression like .+[]^).
For example, is there an application, a site or a Google tool to search things like *.stackexchange?
AI: This feature is not available in classic Google Search and it's not in Google's roadmap. You can learn more about this topic watching the Google video Will Google implement the ability to search with regular expressions?
However, there was one exception. Google Code Search (http://www.google.com/codesearch) supported regular expressions. Of course, the search target for this topic search engine was reduced to source code only.
It is worth mentioning that some Google search keywords can partially replace regular expressions. For example, if you want to search any two-word variation of "search TERM", you can use the wildcard operator.
search *
will find results for search and any other (one) word. I often use it to check basic English grammar rules or synonyms (e.g., "as easy as *"). |
H: Merging Google account with Gmail to another Google account without Gmail
Let's say a user creates a Google account using [email protected]
Soon after, the same user creates a new Google account, but instead of using the old email, creates a Gmail address. Now the user has two accounts, one logs in using [email protected], the other is [email protected]
Since the @gmail.com account only has Gmail, and everything else is on the @example.com account, is there a way to merge them?
AI: From Merging accounts FAQ on Google support site:
It isn't currently possible to merge separate Google Accounts.
However, if you'd like transfer your data from one account to another,
this may be done on a per product basis. Or, to start using a new
product, you don't have to create another Google Account. Just sign in
with your existing Google Account, and visit this list of products to
get started.
If you don't have Gmail, you can add it to your account at any time.
If you signed up for Gmail and didn't add it to your existing account,
now you have two separate accounts. |
H: Logging into a deceased relative's Facebook account
How can I gain access to a Facebook account of a deceased family member?
Is there a procedure or appropriate channels we must go through via Facebook in order to gain access to the account of a dead family member?
AI: Facebook will not allow anybody to access a deceased user's account.
Please note, to protect the privacy of our members, we cannot provide anyone with login information for accounts.
You can submit requests for deceased family members' accounts through Facebook's help center:
Deceased users - special requests allows for family members to make special requests for how a deceased person's account should be handled.
Report a deceased person's profile allows for users to request that a deceased member's account be memorialized. Memorialization entails:
When a user passes away, we memorialize their account to protect their privacy. Memorializing an account sets the account privacy so that only confirmed friends can see the profile (timeline) or locate it in search. Friends and family can leave posts in remembrance. Memorializing an account also prevents anyone from logging into the account.
If the deceased user is involved with an ongoing investigation, law enforcement can contact Facebook to request additional information relevant to the investigation. Most information requires a court order. |
H: How do I grab a Blogspot background image?
I saw a Blogspot blog where a user had a custom background that I would like to get a hold of for personal use.
Although the picture does not seem to mention any copyright information, my only intention is to use it as my personal desktop wallpaper, and not to distribute it or upload it anywhere else on the internet.
How do I go about downloading or saving the image for my own use?
AI: The easiest way to do this is by investigating how it is that particular page is using that image. Depending on the browser, you can do this in a variety of ways.
In Internet Explorer, you can right-click the background and select Copy Background or Save Background as... (if it is actually a background image, otherwise there should be Save Image as...).
In Firefox, you can View Background Image and save if it's a background image, or View Image and save if it isn't.
There should be options like this for each browser, with verbiage and exact options varying by version. If not, you'll need to view the CSS or HTML and find the actual URL of the image, as descibed here. Again, by browser you will be provided with a variety of options in doing this (IE's Web Developer option, numerous extensions for Firefox, Chrome's Developer Tools, etc.). |
H: Sort Gmail by Date?
Possible Duplicate:
Is it possible to sort your email in GMail by something other than the date received?
Is there any way to sort Gmail by date in the web interface? The priority inbox is nice, but I would still like to have the feature of having the oldest messages on top. A Chrome extension or GreaseMonkey script that works would be fine.
AI: Click on View all (in your case) or ...more
Click on 1-50 of XXX
Click on Oldest
In some cases it doesn't work and I don't know why. Also, it doesn't work in Priority Inbox view, you have to go to each category - Important, Starred, Everything else - to be able to sort by Newest/Oldest. |
H: Facebook Business set up as a person, and a page. Can they be merged?
So I inherited a website that has 2 Facebook pages set up.
The business owners, not knowing any better, created a person page for the business. This "person" later went on to start, and adminsister another page for the business in the correct way.
The problem is, the "person" page has the username desired by the business page (fb.com/businessName), and they both have "likes" that I would not like to lose.
Update
I just found this link which explains how to convert a profile into a page. This gives me hope that I can keep the username, but brings up a new concerns.
Will this allow me to merge the 2 pages, keeping "likes" from each? The business page now has maybe 2x the "likes" as the profile page (~50 vs ~25). It would be a real bummer to loose any of these.
AI: I have two Facebook Pages for the same thing. Can I merge them?
Yes, you can merge duplicate pages and/or places. To merge one page
into another:
Go to the page you want to keep.
Click the Edit Page button in the top right corner.
From the left column menu, click Resources.
Click the Merge duplicate pages link.
A dialogue will show pages you admin that qualify to be merged. Select the page(s) you wish to merge to the page you're on. If you're
merging a place and a page, they must have the same address
information.
Please note: The page you merge will be removed from Facebook and you
will not be able to unmerge your pages.
Taken from this Facebook Help Article
It doesn't state whether this will work for a personal page and business page. I guess the only way to find out is to try it! :) |
H: When sharing a Google form, how can recipients see the form and not the spreadsheet?
I'm using Google Docs to build a survey as a form for various recipients to take. The form itself is built and, as a form, functions magnificently. (Seriously, it's a work of art. I'm really good at surveys.) I'm using my Google Enterprise account to make the form and collect the data.
I had set the privacy settings such that anyone with an @stackoverflow.com account could discover the spreadsheet. When I tried to send it to someone outside of @stackoverflow.com they kept having to request permission for the file, and then she would see the spreadsheet rather than the form. I altered the privacy settings (anyone with a link can view) but I'm worried that once I start sending this to the number of people that I need to, I'll continue to have the spreadsheet-visibility problem.
How do I send out the form so that survey-takers see only the form and not the spreadsheet? Will I need to "publish to web" or alter the privacy settings further?
I thought perhaps I could get around this by embedding the survey form in a website, a Google Sites page to be exact, that I made in my personal email account. However, when I tried that, copying the embed code from the app and everything, I see this:
Which is exactly the same error I get everywhere. If it's my form's privacy settings, how the heck do I alter those? Is it because I'm on Google Enterprise? Should I rebuild this form on my personal account?
AI: There are different ways you can view a document made in Google Apps
docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub
docs.google.com/a/domain.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=FORMID
docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=FORMID
Embed on domain of application
Where 2 redirects to 3. Option 1 is most likely what you want users to see.
Option 1 is found via File > Publish to Web. Here you should see the choice to let users sign in with their domain.com account. This is greyed out but we will deal with this a little later on Thus if I am no signed with a domain.com I will get the request page. You will need to go to Form > Edit Form and change the sign-in option to view the form (not the spreadsheet). Now depending on your visibility settings you may get a pop-up asking whether the form should be seen outside of domain.com.
If you wanted Option 4, don't deselect this option. You will need to get this on the domain itself so for example domain.com/form.html. Using a Google sites for example https://sites.google.com/a/domain.com/test/ to handle the form will not work.
If you selected the uncheck the sign-in to view form, Option 3 should now work.
To get Option 1 working the admin of the Apps account needs to go in the Dashboard settings and manually enable it. Note changes will take a while to propagate, be patient with this change in the dashboard |
H: Is down-dll safe?
I needed a specific DLL today that goes by the name libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll. The first Google result was to a site called down-dll.com
Is the site considered a relatively safe site (meaning, assuming there is a safe version of libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll out there somewhere, is the version offered by down-dll.com likely to be safe)?
AI: I can't comment on the contents of the dlls but the site didn't report any errors or warnings using McAfee SiteAdvisor, Norton Safe Web or Online Link Scan |
H: Is there any way to modify the mail headers in an outgoing message sent using Gmail?
I'm interested in doing this to add an "Approved:" header to a Mailman announcements-only list (reference).
AI: If you are using the Gmail web interface the answer is no, it's not an available option. However, you can bypass this restriction by sending an email using a script or any other tool where you can control the headers and using the Gmail SMTP to deliver the message.
Every programming language allows you to write a script to deliver an email. There's also a ton of pre-packaged scripts you can download, install and customize. Make sure to use Gmail SMTP so that the email will be stored in your Gmail account. |
H: How to get page www.facebook... for my apps.facebook...?
I have my app up and running via:
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=103297833078853
Now I want to claim a page such as http://www.facebook.com/mycyberspaceapp
Can you tell me how? I want the page http://www.facebook.com/mycyberspaceapp to lead to
my http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=103297833078853
...where I can click "Go to App"
Update:
I still can't do it. It says:
This page needs more fans Before you can set your username for your
page, your page needs more fans.
But my app has 32 likes; is that not enough?
AI: Getting the name is not enough for your apps. You'll end up at http://apps.facebook.com/<yourappname>
You can get the alias (http://www.facebook.com/<yourapp>) only if enough people "like" it (I think the minimum is 25 people). Works the same way for FB pages, I think. |
H: How do I stop Google Docs from opening documents in new tabs?
Is there any way to stop Google Docs from opening documents in new tabs?
For example, when I use Google Docs, and when I click on a document, the UI always opens a new tab. It's really frustrating (I would like it to open the new page on the same tab).
Is there anyway we can tell the browser that I would like documents not opened in new tabs?
AI: As noted by Felipe Alvarez, this is no longer available as an option. Therefore, while this answer was correct two years ago when the product was Google Docs, it no longer applies to the current Google Drive app.
Assuming you mean opening documents from your list, that's in the Google Docs settings on the "General" tab.
Where items open:
Your choices are:
In a new window
In the current window
Screen shot:
Select the latter for what you want. |
H: How can I search for friends who live in a particular place?
I'm going to be visiting a distant city in a few months, and want to start making plans with people I know there, some of whom I don't keep in touch with as regularly as perhaps one ought to. The major social networks have locations (and particularly, current residence) in peoples' profiles, but don't seem to have any search functionality coupled to that. When I search for a city on Google+, I find everyone I know who's ever lived there.
How can I do a search of "people I know living in city X"? I'm open to external utilities that hook into the sites' data, if that's the only way to do it.
AI: On Facebook, go to your profile/timeline and click on Friends, then use the drop-down list to choose "Search by Current City" and enter the name of the city. This will find your Facebook friends that list that city as their current city.
You can also find people you may know who live in a particular city but are not currently your Facebook friends. Click on Find Friends at the top of the window (not the one in the sidebar) and in the Current City field enter a city name.
If there is no "Current City" field, type a location and click the magnifier glass icon, or go to this link.
May 2013 Update: Surprise! Facebook has made some changes.
If you have Facebook Graph Search, find your friends that live in a particular city by entering "My friends who live in City" in the Facebook search bar. You can also enter "People who are not my friends and live in City" to find non-friends you may know or just "People who live in City" for both.
You can also find non-friends by going to your Timeline, click on Friends, then Find Friends, and enter the city under Current City. Or use this link. |
H: Correct way to post a YouTube video on Facebook
I seem to remember posting links to YouTube videos and having Facebook show it as an embedded video. Recently, when I tried the same, it displayed the link without embedding the video. Is there a way to have Facebook display YouTube videos as embedded videos?
AI: You must be doing something wrong, here's the right way to share YouTube videos on Facebook wall, go to that video page on YouTube that you want to share, then click on Share button, you'll see a Facebook icon there, click on that icon, a small pop up window will open, Facebook will ask your login details, if you are already logged in Facebook then you'll see your video embedded in a post, just give a title to your post and then you'll see your video posted on your wall rather than links :) |
H: Is there a way to export data from a Twitter search to an Excel spreadsheet?
Say you have a saved search on Twitter. Is there a client that will allow me to export the data contained in that search into an Excel spreadsheet?
I am wondering if this will somehow involve the functionality Twitter provides of letting you subscribe to an RSS feed of a search. Is there an RSS reader that would do the exporting I'm looking for?
AI: SocialMention might be what you're looking for. You can export historical Tweets (and other mentins) to a .CSV.
Also, Topsy works well when it comes to searching for historical Tweets by keyword. |
H: How can a user re-join a secret Facebook group?
I created a secret group in Facebook where all of my friends can talk and chat about anything. If someone leaves the group and wants to join the group, what can they do?
I am the admin of that group, but when I try to add the user back, it prompts with the error:
You have no authority to add that person
I also have tried making the group open and asking him to search and join back in. But it also fails.
Since it is a secret group, nobody can search for it. He can neither join again nor admin (myself) can add him.
How do I solve this?
AI: My friend left my group. How can I send a second invitation?
Unfortunately, you will not be able to send a second group invitation to the same friend. The person will have to request to join the group again.
That's from Facebook Help, so my best suggestion is to make it open (or even closed, since one can ask to join a closed group) and let this take effect before your friend starts searching it. I could be wrong, but my guess is he could not find/join it because of the fact that the change is not instant. |
H: Internal wiki setup to create a book or export-to-PDF feature
Is there any tutorial to setup an internal intranet wiki to enable creation of a book or export-to-PDF as in wikipedia.org?
AI: You'll want to setup MediaWiki first and then install the PDF Book export extension. |
H: How do I get pages marked +1 in Google search results to rise to the top?
I've noticed that pages where I have marked with +1 have "You +1'd this" in Google search results.
However, it doesn't seem to affect the order of results, or there may be very small differences I can't see or notice.
How do I get pages marked +1 on top of other search results?
I was thinking of using it like a "read it later" or similar service. Like when I mark web pages "read it later", but never read them. If +1 marked pages appear on top of search result, it may be the time to read them.
AI: According to this WIRED article, +1 Google is investigating wether to consider it as a signal in future updates of the search engine.
Google confirmed its plans in an e-mail to Wired.com.
“Google will study the clicks on +1 buttons as a signal that influences the ranking and appearance of websites in search results,” a spokesman wrote. “The purpose of any ranking signal is to improve overall search quality. For +1’s and other social ranking signals, as with any new ranking signal, we’ll be starting carefully and learning how those signals are related to quality.”
So, for now at list, the pages you are +1-ing will not change ranking. |
H: Error in setting up Google Voice upgrade to use mobile phone number (outside the USA)
I receive the message:
Connection error. Please try again.
When in step 1 for the upgrade in Google Voice to use my mobile phone number. This error appears although I have inserted my phone number in various ways. This is being done from the UK. Is this service only for USA users possibly?
AI: Google Voice is a US only service for now.
Choosing an international number
It's not currently possible to select an international Google number or to forward your calls to an international number.
From Google Voice Help |
H: What is the terminology for service for calls from IP to static numbers not on IP? (eg Skype)
VoIP software says that it makes phone calls over the internet. But using Skype and Google Voice, calls can be made to landlines and mobile phones. What are these services termed as? What is the name for the technology that permits this?
AI: Both Google Voice and Skype Out, and similar services, are still VOIP.
Your voice gets digitized and "carried" from your computer over the internet, until it reaches a gateway server that knows how to contact a phone number and de-digitize the info back into voice etc. But your voice is definitely making its way over IP to get to its destination (as well as the voice of whomever you're talking to). |
H: How to have "block all sites from example.com" always displayed on Google
Sometimes I see a link added to Google search results to "block all results from example.com" except this link is never displayed for the domains which I actually want to block. Is there some way to have this link displayed for every result?
AI: While you are logged in to Google go to this address. It will let you block up to 500 sites from showing up in your search results. |
H: What is a straightforward way to send a signal to another app via IFTTT?
I've been doing some experimentation with If This Then That service.
This service is a web application that allows you to concoct "recipes" between different "channels," e.g., send all my Tweets from Twitter to Facebook (or Google Reader, Evernote, etc.).
Currently, there is a limited number of channels. I'd like to be able to send an alert to another custom application (even a desktop client, perhaps), but such a channel doesn't exist.
Aside from using an existing channel like email or Twitter, and triggering a special email or Tweet as output from IFTTT, with which the custom application could read the result by parsing the email or using the Twitter API, is there a more optimal way to make my own channel to control my custom application directly?
AI: How about creating a pipe on Yahoo Pipes? It will allow fine tuning input, output and options. Think of it as your own web service in the cloud, created through simple UI tools. |
H: How does Picasa relate to Google Plus Photos?
How do Google Plus Photos, and Picasa relate to each other? Are they different names for the same thing? Or different interfaces to the same photo albums?
http://picasaweb.google.com/ looks quite different than https://plus.google.com/${my account id}/photos, but they show the same photo albums, thus the question.
AI: These are the services/products provided by Google, both are completely different, it is just that they are linked with your common Google ID which you can use for any Google services: Google Docs, Translate, Blogger, Orkut, etc. To see more Click Here. So the photos you upload to Google Plus actually gets saved in Picasa. In short your account is linked with different Google services. |
H: Is it possible to associate an arbitrary email address with an existing Google account for accessing a shared document?
I have a Google Docs file that I want to share with my co-workers. Some of us have Google accounts but we would prefer to share the file using our business emails.
However those who already have Google accounts, usually keep themselves logged in all day and constant switching is a bit of a pain.
Is there some way to associate an arbitrary email address with an existing Google account so that the latter can access Docs shared to the former?
AI: You can create Google Account with any e-mail address you want. And from account settings->edit e-email you can add any e-mail to your google account. |
H: How to create a "restricted" group in Facebook that is NOT public?
Is there any way to create a group of people who can't see any posts in my profile except for what I explicitly share with them, without being forced to make those posts public to the entire world?
AI: I haven't tested this, but since the new lists feature, you are able to share your statuses with different groups of people.
When I share something, how do I choose who can see it?
Before you post, look at the audience selector. Use the dropdown menu to choose who you want to share a post with.
...
Custom (Includes specific groups, friend lists or people you’ve specified to include or exclude)
Taken from this help page.
So,
Create your list
Go to Privacy settings
Choose Custom as your default option
Choose Friends from the Make this visible to drop-down list
Insert the above created list in the Hide this from field
Click Save Setting
Now the default visibility for your posts will be Friends without the persons in the above created list (Custom), so they will not see your usual posts.
To include them also, click on the "audience selector" button (the one at the left of Post) and choose Friends
To post only for them, click on the "audience selector" button (the one at the left of Post) and:
Click on See all lists...
Click on the respective list(s)
However, please note that the persons in the respective group will see each other's names if they click on the post's sharing icon. |
H: Sharing a "public link" to a table in Google Fusion
When I press the Grab Link button (beside Share button) in Fusion tables, it gives me a link.
http://screenshoot.me/nEAt0B
However when I give my friend that link, it says that he does not have permission to view the table.
What's going on here?
How do we get a "public link" to the document that anyone with that link can view?
AI: To make a table public, click the Share button and select the Public radio button under Visibility options. The change will be applied immediately. Close the dialog box.
When the Visibility is Public, no authentication is required to view your table and visualizations embedded elsewhere can draw from your data table instantly. Access to query your data table through the API (read-only, no authentication) is also supported. Your table will be included in the Fusion Tables public table search, and may also be indexed for search engines such as Google.com.
From Google Fusion Tables Help. |
H: How can I list MediaWiki users added by date?
The Special:ListUsers page allows me to view all the users in MediaWiki. Is it possible to view them by date added?
(I'm sure I've done this before, but maybe it was via an extension.)
AI: It seems that the Special:ListUsers page is standard functionality but only with a later version of MediaWiki than what we currently have.
Wikipedia, for example, does have this particular functionality in place. |
H: Relatively painless way to merge email and Google accounts?
I've got into a bit of a mess with my email situation, and am looking for a way to resolve this as painlessly as possible!
I have one Hotmail account, and three Google account. Just to complicate things further, I have various Google services spread across the three Google accounts (Gmail of course, but also Documents, Reader, Chat, Shopping amongst other things) and my Hotmail details were leaked in the recent EA hack, which means despite me being relatively secure (I've changed my password) I am always getting the Captcha popping up when I login due to unsuccessful login attempts from other people.
So now I need to try and fix this. I do like the idea of having two email accounts - one for personal emails, and one that I can happily sign up to sites randomly on, but I find Google's interface of linking Gmail accounts (IE having a tab for your other accounts, and also having limited access) to be far from ideal.
With that in mind, I was wondering:
Is there a way to quickly merge my Google accounts, within reason? So documents, checkout, chat and everything else will just run through a single account.
Is there a web interface (or piece of desktop software) that will let me easily check both of my Gmail accounts, all from one place, whilst still keeping them relatively separate? (IE an option to switch between view both accounts, or just a single one)
My Hotmail account, what can I do about that? I'm not kidding when I say I have probably signed up to hundreds, probably thousands of sites over the past 10 years using this account.
Any suggestions very welcome.
AI: Is there a way to quickly merge my Google accounts
No. I actually emailed Google about this one after migrating my domain email to Google Apps, since I'd had another Google account set up. They don't offer any services for merging Google Accounts.
let me easily check both of my Gmail accounts, all from one place, whilst still keeping them relatively separate
Is Google's own Multiple Sign-In enough?
My Hotmail account, what can I do about that?
Sadly, not much. Start the painful process of switching those accounts on various sites over to one of your new accounts. Crap like this is the #1 reason I bought my own domain: So my email address would never have to change again. |
H: Receive/Send Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access email (non-Gmail mail) from a Gmail account?
I have a Gmail account that I would like to use to view my emails from a Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access account.
How can this be done?
Can the emails directed to the Gmail account be separated into a
different folder from the Outlook account?
Is it possible to send an email from the Gmail account then as
if I sent it from the Outlook account?
And how can this be done?
AI: QUESTION 1-In the case of Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access, it does not look possible for gmail to access them. Gmail appears to need POP available, and my administrator says that without IMAP or better it is a waste of time. So you have to use microsoft explorer to access the web mail for the full set of options to appear and then set up a rule for forwarding or redirecting email to an address (instructions).
QUESTION 2-There are filters to add tags for organising the mails according to the to/from (etc) features or the emails.
QUESTION 3-Yes
QUESTION 4
Top right click on the cogwheel and on the parts that open below click on account settings
Below the word SETTINGS, click on the tab 'Accounts and Settings'
The section 'Send mail as' is the relevant section
click on 'Add another email address you own'
input the name you have on registered on your other email account (non-gmail) and the email address and click next
click on 'Send through strath.ac.uk SMTP servers'
you will need to put the username and password you use to access the non-gmail account and the SMTP Server address which may not be the default. The smtp address is usuall known to you if you set it up, or ask the admin somehow or the institution that set it up might have a webpage listing it, search it. I have left the port and security connection as default.
If the information is correct it should work, and when you send an email for a new composition there is a list of addresses you can choose from, the default and the new one. When the new one is chosen the previous/default is not visible.
Google help here for question 3 and 4. |
H: Click statistics with Twitter's t.co URL shortener?
Now that Twitter automatically shortens urls with its t.co service, 3rd party services like bit.ly / j.mp have become somewhat superfluous (for Twitter use).
However, bit.ly provides nice click stats for each shortened link (example). Is there anything similar available for t.co shortened links? (I've tried the bit.ly way of appending + to the url to get to the info/stats page, but that, at least, does not work.)
AI: Doesn't look like Twitter provides any additional services other than URL shortening, but this can change fast. In the meantime, I use the Google shortener goo.gl - great analytics, same as their usual web analytics. It uses your Google ID btw, although you can use it signed out (and give up the analytics) |
H: Fax to email service?
I have a fax machine which faxes to phone numbers. I want to use it as a scanner where I get the scanned page as an electronic image
Is there a way to fax to a number and that number/online service forwards the fax as an email attachment?
Addition:
Looking for a free service. I will use it like 1-2 times a month so paying seems like an overkill.
AI: FAX to Email (and Email to FAX) is a small industry, with many players.
You most certainly can get a "virtual" FAX #, which then results in received FAXes emailed to you as PDF files.
Google for "virtual FAX number" and you will see many vendors providing this service.
I believe most of them will charge some monthly fee, commonly around $10/month.
There may be free ones, with perhaps some limited features.
I recommend you review the various services - and most of them have some type of free trial period - and decide which is the best fit for you. |
H: How to add filter and label to group in Gmail contacts?
I have my Gmail contacts sorted into groups. In my mail I also have labels associated with filters-for specific people I have a filter associated with a label.
For the filter creation, how do I associate a filter with a group in the 'contacts'. In other words, 'family' which is a group label in my contacts; rather than the list of email addresses?
AI: I don't think Google supports this feature, but I found a workaround from 2008 that might still work:
Create the group in My Contacts
Compose an email to said group
Copy the "To:" field
Paste into the "Convert" textbox here
Copy the the "Convert" output into a new filter
Try it and let us know if it does what you're looking for. |
H: Can I host my own instance of Trello?
I like using Trello, but my company might block the site at any time so I am uncomfortable really depending on it. Is there anyway to buy a version to host within my company?
AI: No, currently there is no ability to do that and there are no plans to provide something like this either.
Quote from the Common Questions post on the Trello blog:
Can I install this on my own server?
No. I can say with a lot of certainty that we don’t plan on doing
this. We believe that the majority of people are becoming more
comfortable hosting their services and the boost in dev productivity
we get by only having one platform to test on is immense. |
H: Does Trello support the idea of Tags?
I see that I can add blank color labels to cards but does Trello support the ability to have Tags. I see on the Trello team's board there are cards that say "Bug" or "Feature" but I can't figure out if they are doing this through Tags and if so, how I can do this on my Trello Board.
AI: You can give the coloured labels meaningful names, which I've found really helps.
It's not entirely obvious how to do this, at first:
When viewing a board, click on the grey Icon just to the left of the board's name
Select "Preferences"
You'll see the labels with names like "Green (default)"
Click on the name of a label, a type in something meaningful, and save it.
Now, when you click on a card, and then "Labels...", the name you specified is displayed on top of the Colour swatch.
This at least saves people from having to remember the meaning you've ascribed to the different colours.
You still only get 6 colours to play with, though, and I don't believe that you can change the colours themselves.
Other nice tricks
If you are hovering over a card, and hit the letter L on the keyboard, it pops up the list Labels, which is rather convenient.
The "Filter Cards..." option at top-right allows you to use these labels for filtering.
Edit 2011-11-19
I've just noticed that there's now a shorter route to renaming labels: At the bottom of the list of labels, there is now a link to "Edit labels (sic) titles": |
H: Is it possible for there to be multiple labels to emails in gmail?
If an email applies to more than one filter (with associated label) will the email display all the labels for the relevant filters?
AI: Yes, it will display all that apply.
For each filter you're able to assign one label. If you happen to have multiple filters catch the same email, they will each label the incoming mail accordingly. |
H: Stop receiving friend's status updates as notifications
I'm having problems with Facebook since the latest update (subscriptions, I think.) On the web application, I now receive status updates from certain friends as notifications. I don't need to see them as notifications because I can see them plain as day on my news feed.
This is particularly a problem in iPhone. My iPhone stated this morning I had 6 notifications, but when I opened the notifications, there were no new ones. The iPhone counts them like the web application does, but only displays notifications for comments, likes, etc.
I'm sick of seeing false notifications. How can I prevent Facebook from creating notifications from status updates?
AI: Never mind, I finally found the setting.
Press the Facebook logo to the Facebook Home page.
On the left-hand side, under Lists, press Close Friends. You may need to press More first.
In the top-right corner, press the Notifications button and select Off.
So they hid the option in a place that usually never contains options. How ever so intuitive... </rant> |
H: What, exactly, is a Flickr collection and why is it better than a set of sets?
This is what Flickr's FAQs have to say about collections:
How is a collection different than a set?
A set contains photos. A collection can contain sets (or other
collections).
Isn't this just sets of sets?
Yes, but no. It's better.
Can anyone clarify for me why it's better? I'm sure everyone uses them differently; I'm just having a hard time figuring out why you'd need them, and the FAQ is not exactly helpful.
AI: If going deeper and wider is better, then that's why it's better. That's really all there is to it.
A collection can contain sets and other collections, going down as five (5) deep. That is you can have the following nests/groups:
Animals collection
Four-legged set
Domestic pets set
Winged creatures collection
Winged creatures collection
Pegasus set
Birds of prey set
Edible collection
Animals collection
Winged creatures collection
Think of them like Gmail labels. An email can have multiple labels as can Flickr sets/collections be in more than one collection.
It's a superset of another way to organise your Flickr photos. |
H: Is there a way to use the NOT operator on Amazon?
Is there a way to use the NOT operator on Amazon?
I'm trying to find books, and am finding it very frustrating to be unable to filter out books I don't want based on author or subject.
AI: UPDATE: This feature does NOT work as of June 2019.
You can use the minus sign (-) in front of the terms you want to exclude from the search results.
For example: stephen king -dark
I found that adding the item to be excluded wrapped in () makes the NOT operator work
i.e. gem (-rocks) will return a search where rocks was excluded
above would be: stephen king (-dark) |
H: See song's license on Soundcloud
Is it possible to see what license an individual song has on Soundcloud? Some of the songs have Creative Commons but others appear to not have any license.
AI: Artists of songs without a CC license have opted for all rights to be reserved.
So if you do not see something similar to the following (Creative Commons license icons below the genre):
Then all rights are reserved. |
H: How do I leave Google feedback about one of its features?
I'd like to leave Google some feedback on 2-step verification, but I can't find an obvious place to do so.
Where should I leave this feedback? More generally, where does one give Google feedback about one of its products?
AI: For most products, go to the product's Known Issues help page. For example, Known Issues for Google Accounts (which includes 2-step verification) is at http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/static.py?page=known_issues.cs.
There you can either vote for a known issue by expanding the issue and clicking "Report", or submit a new issue by clicking on the "let us know" link at the bottom. |
H: How to use a wildcard in the middle of an URL when querying a site-specific search in Google?
I commonly use the Google wildcard asterisk (*) term. One of my favorites uses is searching with site:*.edu. But I recently tried site:csu*.edu in order to search California State University domains, which begin with csu. So it should search for sites that start with csu like csulb.edu, csus.edu, etc.
This returned zero results. Is there a way to search for only sites that start with specific characters?
AI: The direct answer to your question is no. What you are asking for is a stemming wildcard operator, and Google Search does not currently offer one. A stemming wildcard lets you identify a group of search keywords having a common stem (prefix). In other words, a stemming wildcard stands for part of a search term. The asterisk is not a stemming wildcard. It stands for a whole search term.
Interpreting your question more broadly, how could you get as close as possible to the search results you are looking for? There are two ways you could go.
Exact equivalent to site:csu*.edu, using stemming
It is possible to get exactly the Google search results that would be provided if the stemming operator was available. You must collect a list of domains and manually string them together with the OR operator:
keyword1 keyword2 [...] site:csu.edu OR site:csub.edu OR site:csubak.edu [...]
For EDU domains, use http://whois.educause.net/ to collect the list. At that site, enter the search csu%.edu (% is a stemming operator there).
This does exactly what the stemming operator would do. It would be useful, for example, to webmasters and others for whom nothing but a strict stemming of CSU will do.
You can copy and paste the resulting list into the Google search box, but you will still have to add the site: operator to each domain name, and the OR operator between each domain name. So one drawback of this approach is the tedious and error prone nature of the process.
Another drawback is that there is no guarantee that domains with the CSU stem are relevant. For example, csufresno.edu is a domain of Cal State, but csu.edu is a domain of Chicago State University, and csuniv.edu is a domain of Charleston Southern University. Furthermore, fullerton.edu is a Cal State domain, but would not be included in search results because it does not have the CSU stem.
Near equivalent to site:csu*.edu, using relevance
The other approach you can take is:
keyword1 keyword2 [...] "california state university" site:edu
This approach relies on Google to provide results within the EDU domain which are relevant to Cal State. It turns out that Google is actually very good at relevance. So, if you are not strictly interested in stemming but are more interested in relevance, that is the way to go.
For example, the search "student handbook" "california state university" site:edu returns results relevant to CSU student handbooks, even in CSU domains which do not have the CSU prefix, such as fullerton.edu.
Note
The site: operator adds an implied wildcard to the start of the domain that matches any number of keywords. This means that site:edu, site:.edu, and site:*.edu are equivalent. It also means that they will return not only results for csu.edu but also (for example) wcsu.csu.edu and origin.wcsu.csu.edu. |
H: How to use YouTube fully with HTTPS?
I have to use YouTube with an HTTPS connection, because YouTube is banned here (I need it for watching some specific videos from Stanford University). But it seems it uses an HTTP connection for loading videos from the server, so I get this error when I play videos:
An error occurred, please try again later
Isn't there a way for using an HTTPS connection for loading videos too?
(I have no idea why it is banned in my country; it is banned because it is. I hope you understand me.)
AI: If you're on Firefox, you can try the Electronic Frontier Foundation's HTTPS Everywhere extension.
It uses a customizable list of URL matches to hijack the browser's page-loading process and redirect to equivalent HTTPS URLs before the network request goes out. YouTube is included and enabled by default.
Otherwise, you may be out of luck. Chrome doesn't allow extensions to do that sort of thing and apparently Google is rolling out SSL gradually, so YouTube doesn't yet seem to have an equivalent to GMail's "always use SSL" option.
Video-loading may or may not be available via SSL, but HTTPS Everywhere generally gives you as much SSL as is possible without breaking the site. If that doesn't work, you may have to either use a VPN service or ask a friend in another country to download the video for you using something like Video DownloadHelper. |
H: Is there any way to preview the URL of a t.co link on Twitter?
They've basically taken over the URL shortening game, but without offering the features the other shorteners do. For instance, http://is.gd allows you to set a setting which will show you the link you're being sent to, allowing you to click through after you've checked it out.
t.co seems to require me to blindly follow links, even though they've obscured what the link is.
AI: Rex Swain's HTTP Viewer isn't specifically for unshortening URLs, but is a general purpose tool to view what an HTTP request returns. It can be used to examine what a shortened URL will redirect to.
Unfurlr is an experimental service from MailChimp for untangling shortened URLs.
Where Does This Link Go is specially purposed for this, but doesn't provide as much information. It does, however, offer its code on GitHub. (h/t Dragomok) |
H: Manage bookmarks within Gmail
Is it possible to have some kind of bookmarks management within the Gmail webapp?
My problem is that I use several computers that are not my own: I cannot manage my bookmarks within the web browsing app (Firefox, Safari, etc.). I would like to have them inside Gmail "desktop" somewhere, without having to install anything (no plugin or other stuff).
Is there an easy/idiot proof way to store a bunch of bookmarks (highly accessible) on the Gmail home page?
AI: Google bookmarks http://www.google.com/bookmarks |
H: Can I attach one of my Google docs to an email?
I have a Gmail account. I think it would be convenient to store some documents as Google docs and then include them as attachments in my emails.
Can this be done?
AI: https://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=58225
Open the doc or file you'd like to share.
Go to the File menu, and select Email as attachment....
Select a file type from the drop-down menu.
Enter the email address of the people to whom you'd like to send the doc or file. If you'd like, you can also add a subject and a message.
Click Send. People to whom you're emailing this doc will receive it as a downloadable attachment in the file format you selected in Step 2. |
H: Formatting C# code for wiki syntax
How can I format my C# code so it displays correctly in our internal Wiki?
We are using MediaWiki although I assume most wiki syntax is the same.
AI: If you are using the GeShi syntax highlighting extension to MediaWiki, then you can just insert your C♯ code as-is, enclosed within a <syntaxhighlight/> element. (This is, as you can see from the syntax highlighting extensions category, one of several such MediaWiki extensions.)
The MediaWiki wikis used, by the Wikimedia Foundation, for Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikiquote, et al. all have this extension enabled. Here is some wikitext taken directly from the current (at the time of writing) Wikipedia article for C♯ (q.v.) that exemplifies what the wikitext looks like:
<syntaxhighlight lang=CSharp>
// Declare the generic class.
public class GenericList<T>
{
void Add(T input) { }
}
class TestGenericList
{
private class ExampleClass { }
static void Main()
{
// Declare a list of type int.
GenericList<int> list1 = new GenericList<int>();
// Declare a list of type string.
GenericList<string> list2 = new GenericList<string>();
// Declare a list of type ExampleClass.
GenericList<ExampleClass> list3 = new GenericList<ExampleClass>();
}
}
</syntaxhighlight>
See the Wikipedia article for how this wikitext is rendered. |
H: Listing all articles on Wikitravel.org (excluding redirects)
Here is the list of all articles on the excellent guide Wikitravel.org:
http://wikitravel.org/en/Special:Allpages/A1GP
PROBLEM: It also includes redirects.
For each real article there are tens of redirects, so the list linked above is unusable.
I could click each link to check whether it is a redirect or not, but that would hit their server too hard, or take weeks.
QUESTION: Is there an URL option or other trick, to filter out redirect pages?
For the curious: Wikitravel's data is copyleft, but they do not provide database dumps.
AI: It appears that in the list of all articles (linked above), each link to a redirect is in a <div class="allpagesredirect"> ... </div> tag.
That makes it easy to filter out redirects. |
H: How to see my profile from a friends of friends perspective on Facebook?
I can see my profile from the perspective of a 1st level friend, but I would like to see how my profile looks for a specific friend of a friend, or even from a general "friends of friends" perspective.
Is this possible?
AI: You can view from a public perspective or a friend's perspective - but not from a friend of friend's perspective.
To do this, head over to your profile page & Click on View as... |
H: Why did Google replace the "+" operator?
Google no longer accepts the + operator. If I attempt to use the + operator, I get the following message:
The + operator has been replaced.
To search for an exact word or phrase, use double quotation marks: <query>
Why has Google replaced the + operator, now requiring double quotes to search for an exact word or phrase instead?
Related, but not a duplicate: Forced words in Google search query are being ignored, plus no longer working as explicit inclusion
Edit: Google now silently ignores the +, producing results that are no different than without the +. A warning is no longer issued.
AI: Perhaps this is because when linking to Google+ members the + is a prefix to the member name.
See, e.g, Google Kills Its Other Plus, and How to Bring It Back on Wired:
Google wouldn’t disclose exactly why they phased it out, though it seems obvious that they’re paving the way for Google+ profile searches. When Google+ launched, instead of adopting Twitter’s @reply syntax, they coined their own format for mentioning people — adding a plus to the beginning of a name — triggering the future conflict with the + operator. |
H: Can I browse all the public Trello boards available?
Is there a way to browse public boards on Trello?
I would be interested in how other users set up their boards and what they use it for.
AI: There is not currently a way to browse all public boards. |
H: Is there a way to store some files in Gmail?
I'd like to store some files in Gmail, in order to easily attach them to letters, without the need to upload them over and over again. Maybe you know of such a service? Of course there are always file hosters.
AI: Google Docs provides the facility to store files of any1 type by uploading them to Google Docs. From there it would be possible to email the files appending the letter text you also wanted to include into the email.
It is also possible to directly link to a file stored in Google Docs, but you might find people can't access the link due to system restrictions on which website they can access and etc.
1. I don't think this includes .exe files, unfortunately. |
H: QR link use statistics
I want to create a QR code for a given link to a website I don't own, but wish to promote. Mainly due to curiosity I want to track how many sites that link was visited from my code (and anything that can be provided by Google Analytics). Is there a website like tiny.cc or similar that would allow me to create links to other websites while still providing me with in-depth usage statistics, or would I have to create my own redirection website and embed Analytics code in it to get such information?
AI: This being a QR code doesn't make it any different to any other URL you might want to track.
Create a page on your own website that does a redirect to the other site, and and make a QR code to the URL on your website.
So people click the QR, go to your site, and end up at the target site. Then you can measure the hits to the URL. Use a meta-refresh redirect if you want to use google analytics.
Or create a short url at tiny.cc that the QR code points to and track it there. |
H: Google search "keyboard selector" disappeared
For me, the little arrow discussed here has disappeared. Is there an easy way to select the first answer using the keyboard now? Is it possible to have those arrows back?
AI: Just hit the Tab key, the arrow will be back & you can select the result. |
H: How do I delete my Ohloh profile?
How do I go about deleting my Ohloh profile?
I have two Ohloh profiles. I want to delete one of them so that the profile that remains may use the email and username of the deleted profile.
AI: You can't really. Or at least it's not available unless you email support. And even then, who knows if they'll oblige.
If you need to swap around what username and email address is used, you can easily change them around.
You'll just need to set up a third username and email pair that will be used in the triage.
Say the account you want to delete/remove/no longer use is using [email protected] and the one you want to keep is [email protected], change the profiles around like this:
[email protected] → [email protected]
Make sure you also change the username to something that doesn't exist. Now the [email protected] email and its username is available to use since it's no longer tied to an account.
[email protected] → [email protected]
Edit the username and the email of the account you want to keep with the email and username you want to use from the account you don't want to use anymore. |
H: Facebook notification: "XYZ downloaded a photo of you"
I am a bit surprised by this screenshot I have just found on the Internet:
Is it fake?
This discussion seems to imply that there is no such notification.
Would be surprising but never know what Facebook will come up with next...
AI: I'm also a bit worried about this. I assume these notifications simply don't exist, because I can't find any proof it does.
But it's not really nice to see this when you just downloaded someone else's photo to get a bit closer look at something in the background.
If these notifications do happen, then someone is going to think I am a big creep. O man. |
H: Can I see the list of people I've invited to Facebook?
A friend of mine relayed me a mail that said I invited him to Facebook, which I'm pretty sure I didn't do. Now, I'm worried that there are other people I've unexpectedly invited to join Facebook.
Is there a way for me to see the list of people I've invited to Facebook?
AI: You can see the list of people you have invited to join Facebook in your Invite History.
While there, you can delete any pending invites that you might have accidentally sent or no longer want. |
H: Where did the Google Sets feature go?
Where did Google Sets go? I can't find it.
Did it move to another Google app or within one of the options inside Google Docs?
AI: Google Sets was shut down in September 2011.
You can closely recreate this feature using Google Docs Spreadsheets when you build a keyword list.
Follow these sets after opening up a fresh document in Google Spreadsheets:
Enter values in a single column
Select all values in this column
Hold down Ctrl or Cmd
Click and drag the blue dot that appears lower bottom right of this selection
The rest of the list will now be filled in with extended guesses using the Google Sets Labs. |
H: My Gmail Account Accessed From Microsoft's IP address, Account Hacked?
Gmail just alerted me that my Gmail account was accessed from this IP address "70.37.102.156" and that leads to Redmond, Washington, USA and the ISP (owner) is Microsoft.
How can this happen? It's really weird.
AI: Please try the Gmail Security Checklist. In particular, make sure your account isn't compromised. Also, there are instructions to check for authorized applications. If you are using an addon, extension, or other third-party application that you gave access to your Gmail account, you might see strange activity. |
H: Map website where I can copy a village's name (ex:麻布十番, want text form, not image)
I am preparing an itinerary with Google Maps, and have spot a village on the way where it would be convenient to stay. To look for hosting in that village, I need to copy paste this village's name into a booking search engine.
PROBLEM: The village's name is in Japanese with a complex character I can not read.
The name is in the image. Switching to Google Maps in English gives a transliterated string that is not useful because it collides with hundreds of other places with a different name but same pronunciation.
How to get this village's name in text form?
Note: Most Japanese can not read all villages names, so it would be useful to a bunch of people, not just me.
AI: If you right-click and choose "What's here?", it should show you an approximation of the address (in text) on the left, including the city's name. At least this works for me in the U.S. and Mexico, the two places where I travel and use Google Maps for precisely the same thing. |
H: How to avoid Twitter's URL shortening
I want to post an URL in Twitter, but I don't want it to be shortened - the domain is a 3 letter word so it doesn't even make sense to shorten it. However, when I am writing the tweet in the website I see the message "Link will appear shortened" and I don't find an option to disable that.
AI: This is not possible. Twitter API will automatically shorten any URL.
Earlier, there was a way to go about disabling the URL wrapping - create a custom twitter app(example: a hosted dabr install) and disable URL shortening at the API settings. But now this option is no longer available |
H: Why does Google Translate think that so many cities are "London"?
I've noticed with many city names, when I translate a phrase from Spanish to English using Google Translate, it often thinks the city name should be translated to "London." Why London of all places?
A couple examples... Each of the following translate the same:
Voy a guadalajara.
Voy a guanajuato.
Becomes:
I'm going to london.
I'm going to london.
If I properly capitalize the city names, the translation is more correct:
Voy a Guadalajara.
Voy a Guanajuato.
Becomes:
I am going to Guadalajara.
I'm going to Guanajuato.
When I translate:
I'm going to London.
I get:
Me voy a Londres.
And there aren't any other options for "Londres," so this curiosity appears to only happen in one direction.
AI: A few months ago, this issue was on TV news and it was also a trending topic in Turkiye. Turkish to English translations of some famous Turkish people were shocking. Here are some examples:
Turkish English
----------- --------------
Hande Yener Marilyn Manson
Ferhat Göçer Justin Timberlake
Mahmut Tuncer Jennifer Lopez
Demir Demirkan Iron Maiden
Edip Akbayram Slipknot
... ...
They said it was because of some mischievous collaborators who like abusing Google's translating system through Google Translate API. This got to be the same case for your London example. |
H: What is the YouTube flyout in Google+?
I just noticed a side-ribbon flyout of YouTube that, when the logo is clicked, expands to ask "What would you like to play?" I don't recall adding any extension to Google+ or Chrome that would add this. What is it for? Can it be removed?
AI: This is Google shipping Google in your Google.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/shipping-google-in-google.html
Similar to the Facebook inspired Ticker meme
yo dawg, i heard you like facebook so we put a facebook in your facebook so you can facebook while you facebook
Or as Google puts it,
We wanted to bring YouTube directly into Google+—as well as make it easier to watch and share your favorites—so we're launching a YouTube "slider" in the stream.
I am afraid there is no way to prevent/remove it that I am aware of, I will look out for extensions in the meantime. |
H: How do I search for "do a barrel roll" without Google ... doing a barrel roll?
My brother and I used to play Star Fox 64 when we were kids, and when we did dog fights, we always loved doing barrel rolls
so I decided to search for the quote that they always said the game in tutorial. So I start typing
"do a"
and well Google started auto-completing it for me. That's good so before I move to the suggested item Google decides it is going to make me sick.
I know Easter eggs are all good and great but now I am afraid for when I need to search Google that something happens unexpectedly. I didn't even type in the full query. I just want to search Google.. you know without all the fireworks and barrel rolls.
I love Google Search so is there an option/extension to stop these features?
AI: You can avoid Google doing a barrel roll by encapsulating your query in quotation marks: "do a barrel roll" will not, ironically enough, do a barrel roll.
This should work for all easter egg queries: quotation marks signal to Google that it should search for the literal string instead of interpreting it to mean something else.
Compare:
tilt vs. "tilt"
askew vs. "askew"
once in a blue moon vs. "once in a blue moon"
This of course doesn't work when Google Instant is turned on, as Google will submit the search query before you can finish encapsulating the query in quotation marks. Unfortunately, this is a limitation/"feature" of Google Instant: to prevent Google from submitting the query before you're finished typing it, you'd have to disable Google Instant.
Beyond this, it's possible to disable certain types of Easter eggs, provided you know the nature of the Easter egg beforehand. You could, for instance, prevent the do a barrel roll Easter egg by adding the following snippet to your browser's custom stylesheet:
body {
-webkit-animation-name: none;
-moz-animation-name: none;
}
But since this would affect every <body> tag on every webpage, it's not ideal either.
You could get around this by using Stylish, which allows you to specify site-specific custom stylesheets ("userstyles"). Creating a userstyle with the following should work:
@-moz-document: domain("google.com")
@-webkit-document: domain("google.com")
@document: domain("google.com")
body {
-webkit-animation-name: none;
-moz-animation-name: none;
}
Of course, while this would allow you to disable this specific Easter egg, Google can and most likely will come up with new ones that do unexpected things in the name of being quirky. Without disabling JavaScript or Google Instant, it'd be nigh impossible to prevent them from happening at least once. |
H: How do I get Trello to re-send my confirmation email?
I signed up, checked my spam filter, and cannot find the confirmation email anywhere. What do I do now?
AI: First, try resending the email via https://trello.com/resendValidate. If you still don't get an email after a few minutes (and you're sure it's not simply spam-filtered), contact [email protected] . |
H: Can I remove a '.' from my Gmail username?
I know it doesn't make much of a difference, as Gmail forwards all messages to "john.doe" and "johndoe" to the same inbox, but I don't want it there anymore. The . shows up whenever my Gmail username is displayed across Google products.
AI: According to Google, it is not possible:
You can't change the email address on your account to an existing
Gmail address, but we invite you to add a new Gmail address to your
Google Account. |
H: How to create a named Google profile?
According to Google Offers Named OpenIDs blog entry I should be able to create a named Google profile. However, going to http://www.google.com/profiles redirects me to my Google+ profile with 21 digits in the url and I don't see any option to change it.
AI: If you have a Google+ account, Google Profiles redirects automatically to G+ and you are not able anymore to create/set a profile. Even if you have/had a named profile, it redirects to the 21-digit Google+ profile for now. Google said it will allow Google+ named profiles in the future, but for now this option is not available. |
H: How do I set up Gmail to block me from checking more than once a day?
I want to limit the number of times a day I check my e-mail (for many reasons, finding balance with technology, improving my personal productivity, etc). However, I lack the self control to check only once a day.
Is there a technical way or a setting in Gmail to limit my checking of Gmail to once a day?
I currently use Google Apps for my domain, through which I use Gmail for my e-mail.
AI: There is no option like that in Gmail itself, but you can achieve what you want with browser plugins such as StayFocusd for Chrome. There are equivalents for Firefox as well, though I'm not entirely sure about Internet Explorer or other browsers.
This specific plugin doesn't let you set up a specific number of allowed visits and goes for limiting time spent on the sites instead, though you could visit Gmail and just use the plugin to block the site for the rest of the day, but you get the idea. |
H: Is there a webapp for tracking my sleep patterns/habits?
Is there an app that some way can track the times I go to sleep and more importantly log the times at which I (assumably) awake every day?
For instance, install a small script to Ubuntu or a webapp that logs my activity from different accounts and can say that I must have been awake at least at 6 AM day before yesterday even if I didn't take a note.
Or just some app that lets me manually keep a diary over my sleeping schedule?
AI: There is YawnLog but I haven't used it. |
H: How do I use shortcut keys in Gmail?
I want to start using shortcut keys in Gmail. Where are they documented? Can I just start using them, or do I need to activate a feature for them somehow?
There are lots of questions in this Webapps SO site about specific Gmail shortcuts, but this more general question doesn't seem to have been asked!
AI: A quicker way to view (and enable shortcuts if they are disabled) is to simply press
SHIFT + ?
This will display a popup with all the keyboards and also a toggle to enable or disable them. |
H: Is it possible to automatically add people to a Google+ circle by their Google Profile ID?
I have exported a list of profile IDs I've been following on Google Reader. Is it possible to import them as a circle in Google+?
AI: Nicolla Barozzi answered this on Quora:
Get your reader friends back - Obtain one circle from your old Google Reader interface
Go to the import/export page Google let you to get a JSON file with the people you followed (following.json) and with the people were following you (followers.json). The link is here and download the two last ones that you see in the following image to your computer
Create a "Reader" Circle (or similar name) in Google+ so you can import these contacts in it.
If you use Google Chrome, there is an extension that it is very useful. You will obtain from this page a series of profiles links to G+ for those people. The extension Circle+ (Link to Chrome Store) will be able to add all those links automagically to any circle you have in G+. If you don't use Chrome you can follow all the links one by one to add them to a G+ circle, so I encourage you to download Google Chrome and Circle+ |
H: What's the simplest way to find someone's Facebook profile by their email address?
As the title says, is it possible to look up the Facebook profile which corresponds to a particular email address, if there is one? What's the simplest way to do so?
I know there is (or used to be) a feature where you could provide your email account login credentials and Facebook would read the email addresses in your contact list and show you any corresponding profiles. But there are plenty of privacy concerns inherent in that model, so I'd rather not do that (though if that is indeed the only way, I'd like to know). Besides, I'm just interested in searching for a single email address, not an entire list.
AI: As the title says, is it possible to look up the Facebook profile which corresponds to a particular email address, if there is one? What's the simplest way to do so?
Yeah, just enter the email address in to the search box. If that's known to facebook then it'll bring up that person. |
H: Is there any way to receive email notifications when someone accepts/merges my pull requests?
Is there any way to receive email notifications when someone accepts/merges my pull requests?
AI: Github doesn't provide for such an option yet in their accounts/notifications page.
perhaps you can contact the repo admin to setup a service hook |
H: Formatting bullet lists in Trello
The cards description field in Trello says they are supposed to accept markdown. However, I can't seem to be able to use stars to format a bullet list.
All my text is put on a single line, with alternate italics. That's understandable, but still, not the behavior I expected.
Is there a way to format bullet lists in Trello?
AI: I'm unable to replicate this behavior. Are you sure you are including a blank line at the top of the bullet list? If not, you'll get something like this:
List 1
* foo
* bar
* baz
List 2
foo
bar
baz |
H: Online PDF Creator/Editor
Possible Duplicate:
Convert uploaded file to PDF
Is there any free, open-source, online PDF Creator/Editor which can convert a document/image of any dimensions(A4,A3..etc) into a PDF?
AI: There are quite a few websites that can handle documents and convert to PDFs. However, while there are many open source PDF converter applications, I have not seen an open source PDF converter web sites. Here are a few of the free sites I've come across:
PDF Converter - per the site:
Convert Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Images, Web Pages and other files to PDF
Primo PDF Online - per the site:
PrimoPDF's free Web-based PDF converter, PrimoOnline, is the simple
and fast way to create PDF files, online, without installing a thing.
Just upload your file or enter a URL, provide your email address, and
our server-based PDF creator will quickly convert it, and deliver the
PDF straight to your inbox.
PDF Online - Word to PDF only
DocuPub - per the site:
Convert many of the file formats (doc, docx, xls, ppt..) that are used daily to PDF or Image.
Adobe CreatePDF - per the site:
Just upload a file and create a PDF document with one click... [and] Upload two or more files. Get a single PDF file with the documents in the order you want to show them. |
H: How can I tell which programs have access to my Dropbox?
I remember giving some program access to my Dropbox account, but I don't remember which program.
How can I see which programs have read/write power on my account?
AI: Head over to Accounts/Applications page to check out which apps have what kind of access. |
H: WordPress or Joomla for company's intranet?
My boss asked me to create a new intranet for the company. I like WordPress (also for its simplicity) but I think Joomla is more a CMS "intranet" oriented.
Am I wrong?
The needs are:
Publish company information
Publish link to services (ticketing system, address book)
Publish documentation
Is WordPress suitable for company intranet?
AI: I would recommend Joomla or even Drupal. From my experience Joomla is easier to configure but Drupal is more powerful but harder to learn. They both have tons of free plugins / addons that can do what you need. Both also have tons of free templates / themes to make your site look the way you want.
Wordpress would be great if you just want to post status updates and information but I'm not certain it would fare well with ticketing and other types of functions. |
H: Is there a hot key to delete one message from a conversation thread in Gmail?
Is there a hot key to delete one message from a conversation thread in Gmail?
It is convenient to delete email by using #, but it doesn't delete one message from a conversation thread?
See https://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=7401 .
AI: It doesn't look possible right now to delete a single message using a hotkey.
The most promising route seems to be to create a custom Gmail hotkey, but the current Custom Keyboard Shortcut from the Google Labs doesn't support the delete single message command that you're looking for. You may want to try to petition the creator of the Lab to add that command as an option - there's a Send Feedback link. |
H: Change e-mail address tied to account
Possible Duplicate:
How do I change or update the email address used in Trello?
I don't see a way to change the e-mail address Trello has for my account. Now that Notifications are working.
I need to change the address associated with my account, is this not possible, or am I somehow looking right past where to change it?
AI: No, it is not possible to change your email address.
This has been listed as a bug and is on their Trello Development Board, which you can view here. |
H: How do you Facebook tag you and your friends in photos on an external website?
How do you Facebook tag you and your friends in photos on an external website?
This is an example of it in action, but not sure how they did it:
http://mlb.mlb.com/photos/gigapan/?gpId=e9652024f103d4cd414e286ce041a419&c_id=tex
Basically I want people to be able to tag themselves and their Facebook friends in photos on my website. Surely it must be possible since they did it here. Any ideas how this is done?
AI: This is accomplished through the Facebook Graph API.
At Facebook's core is the social graph; people and the connections
they have to everything they care about. The Graph API presents a
simple, consistent view of the Facebook social graph, uniformly
representing objects in the graph (e.g., people, photos, events, and
pages) and the connections between them (e.g., friend relationships,
shared content, and photo tags).
…
The connections supported for people and pages include:
Friends: https://graph.facebook.com/me/friends?access_token=...
Photo Tags: https://graph.facebook.com/me/photos?access_token=...
Photo Albums: https://graph.facebook.com/me/albums?access_token=...
Video Tags: https://graph.facebook.com/me/videos?access_token=...
…among others. |
H: What is Twitter.rs ? Is it the same as Twitter.com?
I accidentally came across twitter.rs while googling. Is it the same as twitter.com? What is the purpose of it? What does .rs stand for?
AI: .rs is the Top Level Domain for Serbia.
Performing a trace route on both the Twitter.com & Twitter.rs domains both resolve to the same IP schema and the same domain.
Domain: xe-10-0-0.smf1-er2.twttr.com
IP: 199.16.159.53
I can only imagine that Twitter have registered the domain as a play on words for "Twitterers" and/or "Twitters" or something of that ilk. |
H: Search recipes by name on Gojee
I know the name of a particular drink I want (Strawberry Wallbanger) and would like to see if Gojee has the recipe for it. Is this possible?
AI: The only way is to search by ingredients. Insert the respective ingredient(s) into the I Crave field and it will give you a list of drinks related to it/them.
The only "Wallbanger" they have is Harvey Wallbanger. |
H: How do I exclude results with the .php file extension in Google search?
I spend a lot of time searching for resources about PHP. As the search narrows and the results get fewer, I begin to get a lot of noise from pages unrelated to my research, simply appearing there because they end with ".php".
If I do
-".php"
it works, but also hides the pages that are relevant but end in .php
How do I search Google and ignore as relevant to my search, but not remove those entries containing ".php" from the results?
AI: intext:php or allintext: your php query may work. |
H: How do I make a PayPal donate button default to an amount?
How do I make a PayPal donate button default to $10 but enable users to change the amount?
AI: Using this tutorial I made a textbox where the user is able to specify the amount they want to pay on a form I have complete control over, before I send them to a PayPal webpage to complete the transaction.
My gemfile:
gem 'paypal-sdk-adaptivepayments'
My Ruby payment code
p = PayPalPayer.new
amt = @buyamount.to_f
trackingId = SecureRandom.uuid
senderEmail = '[email protected]'
receiverEmail = '[email protected]'
url = 'http://redirectotohereafterpaymentcomplets'
pay = p.pay(senderEmail, receiverEmail, amt, url, trackingId)
redirect pay[:url] //this takes the user to a page to complete the payment |
H: Does Diigo have a way to merge tags?
I've got too many tags in Diigo. Is there anyway to merge tags that have been displayed only once, into other tags that you've used many more times?
AI: Hopefully I get this because I am not sure I understand whether you want this done automatically.
Manually you can just rename the less used tag to the more used tag. |
H: How do I select my city in Drumo?
I am not sure I understand what is going on with Drumo, I signed up but it seems only two cities are offered:
Sydney
Singapore
I am not from any of these cities. I decided to select one just to see if that's how the app operated. Then I was redirected to
singapore.drumo.com
Okay so I see cities at the top:
Maybe I can change it there? But all I see there are:
Australia
Japan
China
Singapore
Taiwan
How can I add a new city and select it?
AI: They are offering only Sydney (Australia), Singapore and Tokyo (Japan) for now. And they will expand to Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth (Australia), Osaka (Japan), Hong Kong, Shanghai (China), Taipei (Taiwan), or so it seems.
The company is based in Sydney, Australia, so that's most likely why it started with that part of the world. |
H: Can I get a Google street view from a Google Maps using the API?
I created a Google map with 100+ markers using the API V3. Could I get the street view for every marker by clicking on it (in another map or in the same one) or something similar (not using the yellow man)?
AI: There exists a Streetview API that you can make use of
http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/streetview?size=400x400&location=40.720032,%20-73.988354&fov=90&heading=235&pitch=10&sensor=false |
H: Online RSS notifications via email
I'm looking for an online RSS notifier that will send me an email when there is a specific text (like a location; "Tokyo") within a news.
AI: Check out the If This Then That service. You can convert an RSS stimulus to a custom email, or you can use that same RSS data to stimulate other events (e.g., a Twitter posting) as an added bonus. |
H: Import maps in Google Maps
It's possible to export and import maps from one google's account to another? I had an account in google maps and when I changed my e-mail, I started to use Google Maps associated with this new login. I would like to import the maps of the old account to this new one. It's possible?
AI: You can share maps from your old account to your new account by using the Collaboration feature. I don't believe it's possible to share all of them at once; you'd have to do them individually.
Go to Google Maps, and click on "My places" on the left sidebar. Find the map you want to move over. Click on it, then click the "collaborate" link. From there, invite yourself as the collaborator, then send the invitation. You'll then be able to access the map from your new account. |
H: Unable to see textbox in Gmail chat window
I logged into Gmail this morning and opened the chat and was stunned to see that the textbox in the chat window is not visible at all. Even if I pop out the chat window, I still cannot see the textbox. I tested in Firefox, Chrome and IE and the issue persists.
Here are the screenshots. The highlight in the images is to obfuscate the names. The issue is that I can't see the textbox to type my chat messages in.
Inside Gmail:
Popped out chat window:
Any ideas of why this might be happening?
Edit:: I have tried changing screen resolution and dragging the chat window, but it did not help.
AI: According to the official Google chat forums, this thread specifically, I found that this might be due to adblockplus. However, I have had adblockplus turned on in gmail all the while and did not face the issue until now. Now the issue has resolved itself somehow. |
H: Friendship page in Facebook
I want to see the Facebook friendship page between me and my friend.
How can I see that page?
AI: Quick and dirty:
https://www.facebook.com/YOUR_ID?and=YOUR_FRIENDS_ID
Or
https://www.facebook.com/friendship/YOUR_ID/YOUR_FRIENDS_ID/
Where the IDs can be either the numeric ID or the chosen username. It works also if you are not friends with the respective person. You need only the id of his/her profile.
Otherwise:
Go to your friend's page
Click on the "three-dots" icon in the upper-right corner
Click on See Friendship |
H: How do I tag all my friends in a Facebook photo album?
I have uploaded several photos to Facebook with friends in them and want to tag them all.
How do I tag all my friends to a particular album?
AI: You have to do it manually.... |
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