How to Read the Complex URLs of Flickr Images

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/206/4763508_a2e6215b_m.jpg

Images and photographs uploaded on Flickr have slightly complicated and difficult-to-remember web page addresses but with little effort, we can reconstruct (or reverse engineer) Flickr image URLs and retrieve that same image in different sizes as it exists on Flickr servers.

Any Flickr picture URL has the following structure:

http://[farm].static.flickr.com/[server]/[photoID]_[secretCode]_[size].jpg

What follows is a real example of a Flickr Image [small size]

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/206/476361508_a2e625415b_m.jpg

From the above URL, the mail Flickr photo page will be located at the following location:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/476361508/ [476361508 is the PhotoID assigned by flickr.com]

To reconstruct other Flickr URLs pointing to different sizes of the same image, all we need to do is change the suffix as descibed here:

s for small square 75x75 http://static.flickr.com/206/476361508_a2e625415b_s.jpg

t for thumbnail, 100 on longest side
m for small, 240 on longest side
b for large, 1024 on longest side (only exists for very large original images)

If you omit the size prefix in the Flick URL, it will point to the medium sized image which has 500 pixels on the longest side.

Medium Size: http://static.flickr.com/206/476361508_a2e625415b.jpg

An important note - Flickr secures the original image with another secret code and it may not be possible to find the url of the Original size image without visiting the Flickr photo page.

The original image can have extensions like jpg, gif or png (depending on the source) but the resized flickr images alway have jpg as the extension.

Related: Flick Photo URLs have changed.

Turn Off the Computer Screen to Combat Global Warming

The severe threats posed by global warming are real and alarming but we (office workers, geeks, or anyone who uses a computer) can help make a difference without making any major changes to our work lifestyle.

Here are some essential tips for computer users (released by Tufts University) that will help in reducing the rate of climate change, if not reversing the damage already done. Take a printout and stick it on the wall.

» Turn off your monitor screen manually when you are not using your computer for 15 minutes or longer (e.g., during lunch hour or during meetings).

» Turn off your computer at night and when you are not using it for several hours. The same also applies to copiers, scanners, printers and fax machines.

One computer left on 24 hours a day will cost you $115 - 160 in electricity costs a year and dump 1,500 pounds of CO₂ into the atmosphere.

A tree absorbs between 3-15 lbs of CO₂ each year. That means that 100-500 trees would be needed to offset the yearly emissions of one computer left on all the time.

» If you buy a new computer, consider a laptop. Laptops use only 1/4 the energy.

» If you buy a new computer monitor for the desktop, consider a flat screen instead of a CRT monitor. LCD monitors use only 1/3 the energy.

» Enable the Power Management feature for your monitor.

Tufts Climate Initiative | Download Tufts Brochure [PDF]

Important: Do not put the computer in hibernation standby mode since your machine will still consume power. A PC or any other hardware device like TV or printer is always using energy unless it is totally switched off via the power mains.

Related: Shut Down the Computer via SMS and Outlook

Quiz Time: Identify this Famous Googler

Can you spot and identify a very popular Google Employee in these group photographs.



Answer coming soon. Hint: 20%, PDA

Previous Quiz: Identify Logos of Internet Companies

Update: That was Orkut Buyukkokten who wrote the Orkut service during his 20% time at Google when Googlers are free to work on projects of their interest. Orkut is pursuing PhD in Computer Science at Standford University and his research projects are focused on efficient usage of PDAs.

The folks who got that right are Nitin, Mitesh, Anand, Tom, Vivek, Piker and Haochi. Thanks for joining.

Convert PowerPoint Presentations into iPod or YouTube Video

Want to publish your Powerpoint PPT slideshows on Google Video or Youtube ? Or watch them without a computer on an iPod, mobile phones or your large TV screen using a DVD Player ?

Get PPTmovie, a conversion software that turns PowerPoint slides into movie formats like MP4, MPEG or AVI. The software will also record any background music or audio narrations through the microphone and sync it with the video slideshow.


The tool costs around $50 but you can have it absolutely free today courtesy GiveAway website. [The free download link expires at 11:59 PM PST]

Download PPT Movie at GiveAway of the Day.

While PPT Movie will help you burn those PPT slideshows on a DVD disc or publish them on the video sharing websites that accept AVI, you may consider SlideShare for embedding Powerpoint slides as Flash in webpages.

Related: Convert PPT to AVI or MPEG with VideoScout

HP Pavilion tx1000 Convertible Tablet PC

I have been using the HP Pavilion tx1000 Tablet Notebook for over a month now. It's my first experience with a Tablet PC and the going has been quite good and impressive so far.

The HP tx1000 tablet is a convertible notebook meaning it can used a normal laptop or swivel it 180° around the hinge, fold and use it as a slate. The tablet automatically senses the rotation and changes the display from landscape to portrait mode.

HP Pavilion tx1000 specs are pretty solid - 2 GB of RAM, AMD Turion 64X2 Dual core processor and an NVIDIA graphics card. Though it ships with Home Vista Premium, the machine is powerful enough to run the Ultimate edition of Vista without problems.

The tablet has a unique touchpad (with hollow dots arranged in a grid) which is very different from the smooth pads that we see in most laptops. This gives you an extra grip and better control over the mouse pointer.

The unit weighs around 4 pounds with the standard battery that lasted around 2 hours in tablet or slate mode. It ships with an additional battery that is supposed to last double that time.

You can write / scribble on the 12.1" bright touch screen using any stylus or even with your finger. Operating the Vista Start Menu or opening and closing Windows via your hand is too much fun but make sure you are not wearing any rings as the tablet screen is very responsive.

The HP Pavilion tx1000 Entertainment Tablet is an ideal choice if you travelling with your partner. It comes with two headphone jacks conveniently located at the front so no more sharing of earphones while listening to music or watching DVDs in an airplane.


The Altec Lansing speakers are attached at the base of the screen on either sides of the hinge. There are two split-microphones on either sides of the 1.3 MP webcam which helps in picking up most of the sounds.

The Media Center can be accessed using a remote that otherwise slips neatly inside the tablet body. The remote can also turn-off the computer or put it in standby/hibernation mode.

There's also an in-built digital card reader and DVD writer with LightScribe meaning it can etch labels on the DVD surface. And if you are using the HP tx1000 tablet in a non Wi-Fi zone, the wireless network scanning can disabled with a slider located near the headphone jacks - that's a nice and easy way to prolong tablet battery life.

I was not very pleased with the location of the fingerprint reader and there were lot of instances when I unintentionally swiped the thing especially while using Microsoft OneNote and Corel Painter.

Overall, an excellent tablet notebook with a unique touchpad, responsive screen and dual headphones. And it looks very sleek and stylish too. The battery life could have been better especially since the HP Pavilion tx1000 tablet notebook is meant for computing cum entertainment on the go.

Read some more first-hand reviews of HP tx1000 by TabletPC2, GearLive, GottaBeMobile, TabletPC and Chris.

Convert Long, Complicated Web Addresses Into Small URLs

The web addresses at places like Google Maps, Amazon.com, Expedia, eBay Auctions, Digg.com or even Google Searches are often long, cryptic and almost impossible to remember.

Thankfully, there exists more than a dozen URL shortening services on the Internet that convert them these extra long URLs into short and sweet links that you can easily copy-paste in emails, Usenet groups, IM's or even SMS text messages.

Here's a quick review of the most popular URL redirection servicesto help you pick the right one for your job.

TinyURL.com - This is a name synonymous with URL redirection with maximum number of users. You can drag their bookmarklet in your browser and create short URLs in a single click. The advantage is that users can preview the web address embedded in TinyURL before visiting the actual website. With Preview, Without Preview

urlTea.com - A relatively new but promising URL shortening service. It allows you to describe or annotate the destination website in the short URL itself. For instance, http://urltea.com/g20 is the same as http://urltea.com/g20?my_site but the latter makes more sense to the visitor. And you can also use Google Talk or Yahoo! Messenger to create short URLs through a buddy called teabot@urltea.com.


SnipURL.com - With SnipURL, you can choose your own web address with some meaningful text instead of using random addresses generated by tinyurl.com. This will help visitors get an idea of what they are about to click. It is possible to modify the underlying URL without changing the existing SnipURL address. Best of all, SnipURL can generate private URLs that can only be accessed after providing a password.

Shorl.com - This may well be the favorite URL redirect service for bloggers and website owners since it provides usage statistics of your short URLs (i.e., Number of Hits). When a user clicks a URL created by shorl.com, he is shown the web address of the destination for few seconds before the actual redirection.

Now that's an intelligent design since users can opt-out even after clicking the short URL. Nothing deceptive about it.

Final Thoughts - Shorl.com gives control in the hands of the user and automatically increases the level of trust. SnipURL gives you click through stats and more control over URL text so that makes it my favorite URL shortening service.

[I personally use these services for sharing hyperlinks in my newspaper columns that are published in the Hindustan Times and Financial Express.]

Read: How to Copy-Paste Text Notes Among Computers

Technorati Favorites: Not Worth It Anymore

The Technorati Favorite Blogs list that showcases the top 100 most favorited blogs on Technorati (out of 75.2 million blogs) has now lost much of it's original charm.

Ever since the "Technorati Favorites Exchange" meme gained popularity among bloggers, tons of relatively lesser-known blogs have managed an entry into the Technorati list displacing several popular bloggers including Dave Winer and Doc Searls.

Even Jeff Jarvis, John Battelle and Gawker are on the exit route though guys like Michael Arrington, Darron Rowse, Merlin Mann and Frank Warren are still way up in the Technorati ladder.

It takes almost 150 votes to get on Technorati Favorites list and that number is easy to achieve once you participate in any these Technorati link exchange programs.

By swapping Technorati votes, you not only get to displace the legitimate members of the Technorati list (like the ones mentioned above) but your site even derives some Google Juice (read, backlinks) similar to the 2000 Bloggers project. That makes this Technorati Exchange meme all the more popular.

To prevent users from gaming Technorati, what David Sifry and his team needs is a Digg like system - if the same set of users are mass favoriting similar blogs, step in. Else the list will soon lose credibility.

Also on Technorati - How Technorati Calculates Blog Rank

Track Visitors on Your MySpace or Flickr Profile

Who's viewing your MySpace profile page ? How many people have checked your Flickr or Yahoo! 360° page ? Where are these MySpace visitors coming from ? These are some very common questions among myspace.com users.

While there are stats companies like SiteMeter or Statcounter to track visitors on websites, their solutions cannot be used for snooping MySpace or Flickr visitors as these social sites do not permit javascript codes.

Here's a workaround - use MyBlogLog which is owned by Yahoo!

MyBlogLog now has an easy HTML-only solution to track your MySpace profile visitors for free. It will also help you track Flickr, Wordpress.com or Yahoo! 360 users.

Create a new community on MyBlogLog (if you don't have one already) and open the Get Widgets link in your MBL community. There you'll see a link that says "Have a Wordpress, Flickr, Yahoo! 360, or Myspace Blog?"

Click that link and copy-paste the HTML tracking code in your myspace.com profile page. If a MyBlogLog visitors comes to your Myspace or Flickr profile page, his avatar will show up else it will just register a hit in MyBlogLog stats. Simple but useful.

Create an Organization Chart Without Visio or Powerpoint

Forbes has a new website where anyone can create org charts for their company or browse through the organizational charts of other publicly listed U.S. companies like Google, Microsoft, Dell, Yahoo!, etc.

The org chart software is completely web based and free but can help you create professional looking organization charts via a simple Flash based drag-n-drop interface just like Microsoft Visio or SmartDraw.

To make a connection, drag a person over his/her boss, wait for the boss to turn orange and then release. To make an unconnected employee the boss of someone already on the chart, drag the boss over the employee and wait for the flash. Once it flashes, move the boss above the employee and release.

Wait, there's something even more useful. You can search the Forbes org charts database for company names or even individual employees in a manner similar to Google Finance (search as you type). Clicking the employee name will show his current status / position in the organization.

You can navigate the org charts using a Google Maps like navigation controls. The charts can later be printed as picture diagrams or text outlines.

Forbes Org Charts - Corporate Org Chart Wiki

Related: Create Family Tree in Microsoft Word

Online Advertising Rates for Cost-Per-Click Ads (CPC)

    

Popular websites like Forbes, ESPN, LA Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Lonely Planet, Chicago Tribune, Seattle Times, etc. offer pay-per-click or CPC based advertising programs through Quigo.

Unlike text links, these CPC text ads are javascript based (like Adsense / Adwords) and therefore do not bring any Google juice for advertisers. You pay only when a visitor clicks your ad.

Website Advertising Rates (Blogs - Text Links)
As the CPC rate chart below indicates, the bid amounts can vary anywhere between $0.20 and $6.00 for displaying CPC ads on these high traffic web properties related to TV, magazines and newspapers. The bids are likely to go up during events like holidays, elections, etc.

Forbes.com Home Page    $1.50-5.51
ComputerWorld.com       $3.00-4.03 
InfoWorld.com           $3.00-6.02  
USATODAY.com Home Page  $1.00-6.54
FoxNews.com             $0.50-3.12 
ABC News - Home Page    $1.00-4.03
ABC News - Technology   $0.40-1.53
chicagotribune.com      $0.40-2.21
Los Angeles Times       $0.40-2.16
SFGate.com Home Page    $0.75-3.25
LonelyPlanet.com        $0.50-1.30  
JavaWorld.com           $3.00-4.00   
LinuxWorld.com          $3.00-4.00  
ESPN.com                $0.75-1.68
SeattleTimes.com        $0.75-4.54
Seattle Times Tech      $0.30-2.34
Houston Chronicle       $1.00-2.26

While the above numbers are a good indication of the ongoing adverting rates for content targeted ads, they nowhere match the high rates of keyword targeted ads. Some keywords like "Student Loans", "Mesothelioma" or "tax attorney" are known to cost advertisers in excess of $20.00 per click.

Related: How to Determine Your Blog Advertising Rates