Archive tweets & favorites with Google Reader

There are numerous ways to archive tweets but rather than use yet another tool, I prefer using Google Reader to preserve the tweets I mark as favorite on Twitter.  Google Reader can preserve your tweets, favorites or those of others from the time you subscribe to a corresponding Feed.  

You can access any individual public users timeline or their favorites in RSS, ATOM, XML and JSON formats:

https://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/<username>.rss

https://twitter.com/favorites/<username>.rss

Replace the username in the links above with the Twitter handle.

To track your own timeline with updates from your follower, try this -
https://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/following_timeline.rss?user=<username>

Search results for your keywords or hashtags can also be tracked.  

With Google Reader's "Send to" feature, you can post links from a subscribed Twitter feed to other social networking sites like Facebook, Reddit, Delicious etc.

Also see:

• HOW TO add hashtags while auto-publishing posts to Twitter
• Google Mobilizer Bookmarklet - view just text of web pages from Twitter links
• New hands-free Twitter interface: Brain-computer

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Cloud Computing - Questions & Answers

Compiled from multiple resources that I've gone through over the last few months:

* What is Cloud computing?

• Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices on-demand, like electricity.

* What are the key features of Cloud computing?

• Pooled resources - Available to any subscribing users
• Virtualization - High utilization of hardware assets
• Elasticity - Dynamic scale without CAPEX (capital or upfront expenses)
• Automation - Build, deploy, configure, provision, and move, all without manual intervention
• Metered billing - Per-usage business model; pay only for what you use

* What are the benefits of Cloud computing?

• Economic - shift of capital expenses (CAPEX) to operational expenses (OPEX), and the potential reduction in OPEX associated with operating the infrastructure.
• Agility benefits - not having to procure and provision servers
• Efficiency - time-to-market advantages
• Security

* What are the different types of Cloud Services?

• IaaS, Infrastructure as a Service  - Environment for building a native application. Users create Virtual Machines (VMs) on demand. Ex - Amazon EC2 (runs about 1 percent of the entire internet)
• PaaS or Platform as a Service - Environment for building a managed application with an IDE with a rich class library that xecutes in a runtime container. Ex - Google’s AppEngine, Windows Azure, SalesForce AppForce & Heroku (Ruby focussed)
• SaaS, Software as a Service - Packaged software application. Examples - Salesforce, Google Apps, Office 365, Zoho, IBM Lotus Live

* List some scenarios where Cloud computing can be utilized?

• Low-tech example: corporate website 
• Medium-tech example: backup and file-storage systems
• High-tech example: new product development 
• VMs for a Dev/Test lab
• Disaster recovery
• Deadline-driven, large compute problems. Ex - Washington Post
• Large data set, high-compute scenarios. Ex - Eli Lilly
• Online web presence and community. Ex -Virgin Atlantic

* In which scenarios is Cloud computing unfit?

• Legacy systems
• Applications involving real-time/mission-critical scenarios
• Applications dealing with confidential data

* List some concerns about adopting cloud computing

• Security
• Performance
• Availability
• Hard to integrate with in-house IT
• Not enough ability to customize
• Worry that on-demand will cost more
• Bringing it back in-house may be difficult
• Regulatory requirements prohibit cloud
• Not enough major suppliers yet

* What is a Private Cloud?

• Cloud platform used by a single organization

* What are the benefits of SaaS for users?

• Faster deployment
• Usage-based pricing
• Less financial risk
• Reduced need for on-premises resources
• Easier upgrades

* What are the risks of SaaS  for users?

• Requires trusting a SaaS provider
• Can raise legal/regulatory concerns
• Can limit customization
• Can be harder to integrate
• Can have lower performance

* What are the benefits of SaaS for Software Vendors?

• Offers potential to reach new customers
• Can sell directly to business decision makers
• Can provide more predicatable revenue
• Can lower support costs
• Provides more knowledge about how customers use the application

* What are the risks of SaaS for Software Vendors?

• Must demonstrate real value
• Revenue builds up more slowly
• May lessen ability to sell customization
• Requires significant business changes

* What are the computing paradigm shifts that led to the evolution of Cloud computing?

• Shift from mainframes to client-server to web
• Data center evolution through hardware & networking improvements
• SOA - Things that humans did through browsers that interacted with a web server are now done machine-to-machine using the same web-based standard protocols
• Virtualization - Server virtualization transforms or virtualizes the hardware resources of a computer including the CPU, RAM, hard disk, and network controller—to create a fully functional virtual machine that can run its own operating system and applications like a physical computer. 
• SaaS - business model innovation

Resources:

The Cloud at Your Service

Pluralsight: Cloud Computing: The Big Picture

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Browser Developer Tools - Tips, Tricks, Documentation

These days all popular browsers - IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari, come with Developer Tools that help web developers debug HTML, JavaScript & CSS issues & build better web pages.

It's probably the Netscape browser that first started helping developers with the Error Console option that would specify on which line a script error occurred & the possible cause. Firefox inherited that option while Firebug, the Firefox add-on, extended debugging facilities within Firefox to a different level. Firebug's feature-set is so comprehensive, it is possibly the inspiration for all the Developer Tools within popular browsers. Each browser's Dev Tools have some special features & they are continously evolving, thanks to the competition among themselves. The Developer Tools option can be invoked with the keyboard shortcut F12.

Here is a compilation of links to the official documentation, tips & tricks for the Developer Tools -

Internet Explorer:

• How to use F12 Developer Tools to Debug your Webpages (IE9, MSDN)
• F12 Developer Tools (IE8, MSDN)
• IE9 Developer Tools: Network Tab (IEBlog)
• Discover F12 Developer Tools in IE9(Net Magazine)

Firefox/Firebug:

• Firebug Wiki

Chrome:

• Google Chrome Developer Tools
• A Re-introduction to the Chrome Developer Tools (by Paul Irish).
• Chrome Developer Tools for Speed (by Paul Irish).
• Google Chrome Developer Tools: 12 Tricks to Develop Quicker (by Paul Irish).
• 25 Secrets of the Browser Developer Tools (Andi Smith).
• A Summary of the WebKit Developer Tools (Adobe blog)

Opera:

• Opera Dragonfly Field Guide

Safari:

• Safari Developer Tools

Work in progress...

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Iframe facts

Key takeaways from Chapter 13: Using Iframes Sparingly of "Even Faster Websites", a guide for performance vigilantes -

• Relative URLs inside the iframe are resolved relative to the iframe’s base URI, not the parent’s.
• JavaScript included in the iframe has limited access to the parent. 
• An iframe from a different domain can’t access the parent’s cookies.
• Iframes are one to two orders of magnitude more expensive to create than other types of DOM elements.
• An alternative way to insert ads with better performance would be for the main page to create a DIV to hold the contents of the ad. 
• We want the onload event to fire as quickly as possible. Iframes block Onload.
• A workaround to blocking behavior in Safari and Chrome is to set the iframe’s URL dynamically with JavaScript instead of setting it with the HTML SRC attribute.
• Resources in an iframe are downloaded in parallel with resources in the main page. 
• Using an iframe does not increase the number of parallel downloads for a given hostname.
• The connection pool is shared across tabs and windows for all these browsers.

HTML5 has some new attributes, and some HTML 4.01 attributes are not supported in HTML5. 

TODO: Update SearchLite v2, my 2002 script that uses IFrames & give it a makeover

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Hotmail's sign-up page uses...Google's ReCAPTCHA service...whose images are sometimes unreadable

CAPTCHA or Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart, is a technique to to stop bots from signing up for online accounts or automatically filling up forms. It works on the assumption that Humans can understand distorted text presented in a CAPTCHA image but not bots which may have a basic training in OCR (Optical Character Recognition)

Hotmail's sign-up page uses Google's ReCAPTCHA service -

I found the words in the image-text that Google's reCAPTCHA presents so complicatedly warped that it felt like taking an eye test. Check these samples -

Does beating bots have to be such a big deal?

...and what's more Microsoft & we may unknowingly have become part of a Google's "experiment that involves using its reCAPTCHA spam-fighting system to improve data in Google Maps by having users identify things like street names and business addresses."

TechCrunch reports that some of the new reCAPTCHAs present an image where one side contains the warped text users are familiar with, while the other side shows a somewhat blurry (as if zoomed in) photo of numbers which may be as street names and traffic signs from Street View imagery.

Related:
Deciphering Old Texts, One Woozy, Curvy Word at a Time

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Google Mobilizer Bookmarklet - view just text of web pages

You can use Google Mobilizer application, when you need a mobile-friendly version of webpage. If you are on a low-bandwith Internet connection, Google Mobilizer can be used on a PC or laptop to view just the text (and optionally images).

When I'm on Twitter, I don't have a good feeling about clicking URL shortened links as they don't reveal the domain name and can lead you to spam. Ocassionally, I'm directed to web pages that have more ads than content. I also learnt the creepy fact that any site can find out if you are logged into social web sites.

http://datatransparency.wsj.com/

Considering these privacy, security & readability issues I faced, I wished there was a way to open all links in a web page with Mobilizer so that I can view a minimalist, text-only version of a web page. I wrote the Google Mobilizer Bookmarklet to scratch this itch.

The "prettified" code looks like this -
javascript:(function() {
    a = document.getElementsByTagName('a');
    for (i = 0; i < a.length; i++) {
        a[i].href = 'http://www.google.com/gwt/x?noimg=1&btnGo=Go&source=wax&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&u=' + encodeURIComponent(a[i].href);
        a[i].style.backgroundColor = '#f0f0f0';
    }
}())

To use the bookmarklet, drag & drop the following link to you Bookmarklet/Favorites bar - Mobilizer

Once you're on a page that has a lot of links (like Twitter), click on the Mobilizer bookmarklet & it will then set a light grey background color to all hyperlinks on that page & prepend the Google Mobilizer URL to them.

As the Google Mobilizer application works by taking a querystring as an input, it can be adapted to work like a search provider in Chrome & Opera, to simplify its use.  The string to use for configuring it is -
http://www.google.com/gwt/x?noimg=1&btnGo=Go&source=wax&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&u=%s

If you assign a letter like M to this app, you can type M in the Chrome address bar/omnibox & then the type the URL you would like to see via Google Mobilizer.

Related:
The Joy of Bookmarklets
View clutter-free web pages with TidyRead, Safari Reader
HOW TO block images/image ads originating from a specific domain in Firefox 4 & above
HOW TO block IFRAME based ads

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Get the ATVM card if you are a frequent traveller on Hyderabad MMTS

The local trains in Hyderabad, also referred as MMTS (Multi-Modal Transport System), are one of the best modes of transport within the city. There are often long queues for the tickets. I noticed that though the Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVM) are present at almost all local stations  (introduced in February, 2010), they  are not patronized due to lack of awareness and inadequate advertising.

ATVM Smart Cards can be used to purchase Platform Tickets, first & second class tickets for MMTS trains and unreserved Tickets for express / ordinary trains for travel from the station of issue to any station in the South Central Railway zone.

The cost of the ATVM Smart Card keeps changing once in a while (I bought mine for Rs 100). The cost includes a refundable security deposit & ticket value. Smart Cards can be topped up to a maximum of Rs.1000, in multiples of Rs 50. It is valid for one year.

Ironically, these cards are sold at the same booking counters at MMTS stations where they sell unreserved/local train tickets and have long queues. So pick an off-peak time when the queue is shorter to avoid being stared at angrily by impatient people in the queue. The process of getting the ATVM Smart Card for me took the booking clerk about 2 minutes.

For more details, click on the images below -

click to enlarge images

I concur with Praveen who has commented below that the requirement to recharge the card once every 6 months to avoid deactivation of the card, is very frustrating.  

Related:

Hyderabad MMTS local train timings

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JavaScript Performance tips

Excerpted from "Chapter 7: Writing Efficient JavaScript" of the book "Even Faster Websites":

• Performance .. is not just about how long it takes for the page to load, but also about how it responds as it’s being used.
• Out-of-scope variables take longer to access than local variables.
• A very common mistake that leads to performance issues is to omit the var keyword when assigning a variable’s value for the first time. 
• If an array item or object property is used more than once, store it in a local variable to speed up access to the value.
• Generally speaking, interacting with DOM objects is always more expensive than interacting with non-DOM objects.
• The if statement is best used with a small number of discrete values or a range of values; the switch statement is best used when there are between 3 and 10 discrete values to test for; array lookup is most efficient for a larger number of discrete values.
• To make a loop the most efficient, reverse the order in which you process the items so that the control condition compares the iterator to zero.
• Trimming strings may be expensive, depending on the size of the string. 
• Steven Levithan's optimized string trimming function:
  function trim(text){
  text = text.replace(/^\s+/, "");
  for (var i = text.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
  if (/\S/.test(text.charAt(i))) {
  text = text.substring(0, i + 1);
  break;
  }
  }
  return text;
  }
• Array processing is one of the most frequent causes of long-running scripts.
• Generally speaking, no single continuous script execution should take longer than 100 milliseconds...
• Because JavaScript is a single-threaded language, only one script can be run at a time per window or tab.
• Exactly what causes the browser to display the long-running script dialog varies depending on the vendor:
  • Internet Explorer displays it when 5 million (by default) statements have been executed. 
  • Firefox shows it when a script takes longer than 10 seconds (default).
  • Safari displays it when the execution time exceeds default timeout of five seconds
  • Chrome (as of version 1.0) has no set limit on how long JavaScript is allowed to run. The process will crash when it has run out of memory.
  • Opera is the only browser that doesn’t protect against long-running scripts. Scripts are allowed to continue until execution is complete

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Getting started with SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)

Notes on SSRS from the Pluralsight course SQL Server Business Intelligence Overview and other online resources -

* SSRS is a server based reporting platform

* When you install SSRS it creates Report Server Databases in your SQL Server Instance. These databases are ReportServer and ReportServerTempDB

* Features:

• Can report from a variety of data sources - Relational databases, XML files & feeds, multidimenstional data (OLAP), any ODBC or OLE-DB compliant source
• Visualize data into a variety of formats - Tabular, matrix & free form reports, Charting & interactivity capabilities, Export to PDF, Excel, text, XML
• Extensibility - Extend with managed code, Add new data sources, report logic & render formats

* SSRS is made up of 3 server components:

• Report Manager – manages permissions, data sources, authorization settings
• Report Server – Report processor/brain of SSRS, manages scheduling (auto generated reports) & delivery, URL access reports, provides Web Service API
• SSRS Database – contains metadata, Report catalog & settings

* Report Server & Report Manager are bundled within a Windows Service, ReportingServicesService.exe

* Visual Studio Reporting Projects & Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS), a VS shell installed by SQL Server installation can both be used to design & deploy reports.

* RDL (stores query information) & RDS (data source) files created during report generation are XML-based.

* To changing Report data in BIDS, use the menu option – View > Report data. Report data displays parameters & fields for report to consume

* Add new items on the Report with View > Toolbox > Report Items

* Report Items lists controls & regions to place on a report:

• Textbox – to display static or data bound text. Use expressions to manipulate text
• Line
• Table - can be associated with a data set.
• Matrix  – pivot table
• Rectangle
• List 
• Image
• Subreport
• Chart 
• Gauge

* SSRS supports the reporting life cycle:

• Author reports
• Manage reports
• Deliver reports
• Secure reports

MSDN & BeyondRelational have friendly step-by-step tutorials to implement basic SSRS tasks.

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Low bandwidth? Try mobile version of popular websites on PC/laptop

There may be times when you have to make do with a low bandwidth internet connection. Don't despair for that may be a good time to discover how fast & clutter-free the mobile version of popular sites are on your PC/laptop.

Here is a list of such mobile sites:

Popular:

• YouTube
• Wikipedia
• Yahoo
• Slideshare

Social media:

• Twitter
• Facebook

Search Engines:

• Bing  (~4.3KB)
• WolframAlpha

Utility:

• GMail (login page 1.3KB, Inbox 4.2KB)
• Google Reader  (~8.3KB)
• Google Mobilizer - converts websites to mobile-friendly format
• IRCTC

Newspapers:

• The New York Times
• Economic Times
• Times of India (city editions)
• The Hindu Business Line
• The Hindu

Magazines:

• The Atlantic

Others:

• ESPNcricinfo

(work in progress..)

Related:
HOW TO access web pages faster on a slow Internet connection
HOW TO extract subtitles from a YouTube video
Google Mobilizer Bookmarklet - view just text of web pages

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There is an app for that?

All these days I've been thinking of writing a location-aware app that would tell me about interesting sights & news-worthy facts about places that fall in the way of a train journey.

It turns out @codepo8 already has a sample app on something similar WITH source that I can adapt.

There are also a host of other demos of the Geolocation API, with source, on the Mozilla Demo Studio site.

Related links:
12 Cool HTML5 Geolocation Ideas
MSDN: How to Create a Location-Aware Webpage

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