Save Any Blogger Blog as a PDF Document In One Click

There are several advantages of saving a blog website as a PDF file - you can read the blog posts offline, text search in PDF is very fast when compared with web search and above all, PDF will act as backup copy of your Blogger blog posts preserving even the blog images.

Related: Blogger Backup Software

To publish any blogspot blog into a PDF document (for free), we'll use a service called Blog2Print which is actually meant for converting blogger blogs into printed books - type the blog address, select all blog posts or the dates of the entries that you would like to include in the book, and choose whether the posts should appear in reverse-chronological or chronological order.

Though Blog2Print is a paid service, it generates a PDF preview copy of the selected blog entries that opens up inside the web browser - you just have to save this PDF file from the browser's cache to your hard drive.  

Internally, the Blog2Print services using the Blogger Data API requesting blog posts created or updated in a given date range. Blogger feeds are generally public so querying them does not require authentication.

www.blog2print.com [Blog printing for Blogger Platform]

Related: Print Blog as PDF with HP Printing Widget

Read More

Is Your Website Slow to Load ? Catch the Culprit with Pingdom

"4 seconds" - remember that magical number ? If a web page doesn't load within 4 seconds, lot of visitors are likely to leave the website.

Tricks to Make Your Webpages Load Faster

Now several elements of a web page (like CSS, Iframes, Flash, Javascript, graphics) can increase the page loading time but how do you pinpoint the exact culprit that slowing the site ? A normal HTML web page may have ad scripts being served from Google Adsense servers, Flash video player from YouTube, images from Blogger Photos and so on.

PingDom Full Page Test is a useful tool that mimics a web browser and generates a nice interactive graph detailing the load time of different objects (like CSS Files, Javascript, etc) which are included in the web page.

You can view the list of objects either in load order or as a hierarchy. The hierarchy view allows you to see which objects are linked to in for example a CSS file. Objects that fail to load are highlighted in red.

PingDom's tool is based on SiteTimer [read review] but with a sleek and more user-friendly interface. If you have Firebug extension on Firefox, goto the "Net" tab and it will also show similar data.

tools.pingdom.com | example | How fast your site loads ?]

Read More

Clean a Mouse with White Paper for Smooth Cursor Movements

An illustrated guide about cleaning a slow and sluggish mouse in 2 seconds with just a piece of white paper.

If you are using an external laser or optical mouse with your laptop or desktop computer, you probably know the problems that surface after using the mouse for couple of weeks - the mouse feels sticky or is hard to move especially when you are using it without the mouse pad, the pointer on the screen may not move smoothly with the mouse or jump.

Most of these mouse problem are because of the dust that sticks to the bottom of the mouse surface at points that are in constant touch with the table or the mouse pad - see the red arrows in the above picture - the white circles are actually made from accumulated dust that is disrupting the smooth movements of the mouse.

To solve this problem, hold the mouse over a piece of white paper and gently (but firmly) drag the mouse from the top edge of the paper to the bottom as shown in the picture below.

  

You will see a trail of grease like substance on the paper - you can also repeat the process sideways - just move the mouse on paper from left to right. You will enjoy using mouse once again as all the wax is transferred from the bottom of the mouse to the paper.

It is advisable that you also clean the grease or wax sticking to your mouse pad or table surface (when not using a pad) atlease once a week. Dip a piece of cloth in mild soap water solution and gently rub - wipe with a clean dry cloth or tissue paper.

The trick is illustrated using Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 8000 with Intellipoint software but should work just perfect with any mouse including those for the Mac.

Related: How to Clean Laptop LCD Screen

Read More

Vizu Answers Maybe Running Public Service Ads That Are Unpaid

Vizu Answers [detailed review] is an advertising network that helps you monetize blog content by running interactive polls.

Unlike the standard text link ads or banner advertising where visitors click the advertiser's URL and leave your website, Vizu Polls are in-place meaning visitors continue to stay on your web page even after participating in the poll.

But before you jump the bandwagon, there's one important thing you should know - if Vizu cannot find advertisers to run paid polls on your website, they will run in-house demographic polls (like what's your household income) and content polls (like would you buy an iPhone ?) that are unpaid very similar to the Public service ads of Google Adsense.

This news might surprise some of the existing Vizu Answers' Publishers who thought every research poll served by Vizu is generating revenue. These unpaid polls, which act as a filler when paid ad inventory is unavailable, were recently introduced by Vizu and are turned on by default for all publishers.

The not so exciting part is that you cannot turn off or disable serving of the demographic polls. Am not sure if Vizu publishers were separately informed of this policy change via email.

Vizu takes fifty percent (50%) of the net revenue generated from the polls. You are likely to find paying advertisers only when you set the CPM rates extremely low. In any case, I would recommend disabling Content polls by editing your individual zone settings else you'ld be wasting precious screen estate on your website for largely irrelevant polls.

Read More

The Perfect Handheld Photo Printer - No Computer Needed

Canon today introduced a new light-weight printer for your digital photographs that is very compact and prints photos directly from the memory card without requiring a computer.

Called the Canon Selphy CP740, this photo printer prints borderless photos from credit-card size to 4" x 8".

Plugin the camera card in the available memory card slots, select the pictures that you want to print using the LCD screen at the top and press the Print button. Canon Selphy also works with USB compatible cameras and Bluetooth enabled camera phones. 

Selphy CP740 [Official Canon Website] 

Read More

Why Are Blogs, Wikis Not Popular Than Email for Getting Things Done: Google Tech Talk

Social software expert Suw Charman recently gave a talk at Google on the use of blogs and wikis in corporate world.

Suw analyzed reasons that stop the employees from adopting blogs and wikis as a way of getting things done and what can be done to improve the adoption rate of these "social software tools" in organizations.

The biggest problem is about changing habits of employees as they are too happy and content with the old-school way of doing things (aka email). Stephanie has a good summary of Suw's talk at Google. Why are employees not writing blogs and wikis:

Low-level fear of social humiliation. How are they going to come across to their peers and bosses? Fear of making mistake. People don’t realize they’re afraid, they just feel a bit uncomfortable talking /publicly/ to their colleagues. E-mail is different because it feels private, it’s 1-1 communication. You’re not exposing yourself as much. People become "shy" when you give them a very public place to work.

Also, some people aren’t comfortable in writing. Some are better talkers than writers, and are not comfortable writing in a semi-formal environment. E-mail is more informal. Blogs and wikis are perceived as requiring a higher level of writing skill. Again, people don’t admit to this.

Suw's suggestion is to get the managers to use blogs and wikis in order to increase adoption rate among employees. "Use the tools regularly if possible. Easy to slip back into the old ways, but go back to using the tools."

Read More

How to Find the name of Web Hosting Company from the Site URL

Who Is Hosting This? - Ever wondered who is hosting those high-traffic websites like BoingBoing, TechCrunch or the Drudge Report ? Enter a website address and this cool tool will return name of the web host provider that's hosting that website or blog.

You may be also interested in the following domain name and DNS information tools:

Netcraft Web Server Query - Type a website URL and Netcraft will tell you the site's operating system, web server, and a graphical view of the time since last reboot for each of the computers serving the site.

DomJax [review] - Checks domain name availability and also runs an automatic whois report for any domain that's taken - hover the mouse over the domain name and DomJax pops up a neat "thought bubble" which has all the information about that domain like who owns it, when it will expire and how to contact the owner.

AJAX DNS - An excellent set of common DNS commands and tools packed in a non-geeky interface. See all DNS records and Reverse DNS records for a domain, HTTP headers, ping a domain or view the whois details for a domain.

Read More