How to configure Pidgin for Google Talk

Pidgin is an easy to use and free chat client that can connect to many chat networks all at once. The supported chat networks are AIM, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, Groupwise, ICQ, IRC, MSN, MySpaceIM, QQ, SILC, SIMPLE, Sametime, XMPP, Yahoo! and Zephyr.

But, sometimes Pidgin just don't work with Google Talk. You need to tweak Pidgin in order to make it works.

Here are the steps (as shown in Figure 1):

1. Click on Account > Manage Accounts, add new Google Talk account. Fill in the Username and Password.
2. Click to the Advance tab.
3. Make sure that "Require SSL/TLS" and "Force old (port 5223) SSL are selected.
4. Type 443 for "Connect port".
5. Type "talk.google.com" for "Connect Server".
6. Click on the "Save" button.

Pidgin should now works with Google Talk. By the way, I also figured out that sometimes I need to remove these settings, in order to connect to Google Talk, when I move to different place.

How to format memory card using Nokia 5800

Here are the steps to format memory card using Nokia 5800. You do not need to take out the memory card, or connect the phone to your PC.

Step 1.

Press the white menu button.

Step 2.

Select “Applications”.

Step 3.

Select “File mgr.”.

Step 4.

Double-click on “E: Memory Card”.

Step 5.

Select “Options”.

Step 6.

Select “Memory Card Options” and then “Format”.

Replace y with 3 to download YouTube Video

3outube.com provides an easy way to download YouTube videos to your PC. The video could be downloaded in MP4 or FLV formats. The service is provided for free.

Figure 1: Replace letter "y" with number "3"

In order to download the video, replace the letter “y” with number “3” of the YouTube video link that you want to download as shown in Figure 1. Finally, choose the format of the video to download (Figure 2).

You can also go to their website and enter the YouTube video link directly inside a text box at the bottom of the page.

Figure 2: Choose between .MP4 or .FLV video format. 

I know there are other similar service exist, but replacing letter “y” with the number “3” to download the video is such an awesome idea.

How to create word cloud for free

Word cloud also known as tag cloud is a generated tags based on the words of a web site. In other words, we can say that it is a visual picture of a web site.

Wordle is a free web application to create word cloud. It has the capability to create word cloud from a bunch of pasted text, from a blog or web site with Atom or RSS feed enabled, and from del.icio.us user tags.

Word cloud created with Wordle

According to Wordle, word cloud created with Wordle can be used for anything, even if you are making profit of it, as long as the credit goes back to http://www.wordle.net/. Images created by the Wordle.net web application are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. Examples of usage include book cover, t-shirt or even as blog header like the one used by WordPress Foundation blog, which was made public today. Read WordPress Foundation first article.

What is your opinion about word cloud? Is it a good way to describe your blog? Please leave your comment.

Firefox 3.6 keyboard shortcuts

Mozilla Firefox 3.6 (codename Namoroka) was released yesterday. Mozilla claims that Firefox 3.6, which was built on Mozilla's Gecko 1.9.2 web rendering platform, is faster and more responsive than the previous version.

Table 1 listed the Firefox keyboard shortcuts that will help you use Firefox expeditiously.

Table 1: List of Firefox keyboard shortcuts.

Keyboard shortcut	Function
ctrl + T	Open a new empty tab
ctrl + W	Close a tab
ctrl + shift + T	Reopen a closed tab
ctrl + +	Zoom in
ctrl + -	Zoom out
ctrl + 0	Zoom reset
ctrl + L	Move cursor to the location bar
ctrl + K	Move cursor to the search box
space bar	Scroll down the page
shift + space bar	Scroll up the page
ctrl + R	Refresh the page
alt + left arrow	Back
alt + right arrow	Forward
ctrl + 1	Switch to the first tab
ctrl + 2	Switch to the second tab
ctrl + 3	Switch to the third tab
ctrl + 4	Switch to the forth tab
ctrl + 5	Switch to the fifth tab
ctrl + 6	Switch to the sixth tab
ctrl + 7	Switch to the seventh tab
ctrl + 8	Switch to the eight tab
ctrl + 9	Switch to the last tab

As an addition, the mouse middle button is also useful. Click the middle mouse button on a tab will close it. Click the middle mouse button on a link will open the link in a new window.

You can also make the middle mouse button to paste copied text, as in Linux. However, you need to tweak Firefox a bit.

This are the steps to enable the middle mouse button as a paste command.

1. Move the cursor to the location bar by using your mouse or ctrl + L shortcut key.


2. Type about:config in the location bar and press Enter.


3. Click on “I’ll be careful, I promise!”.


4. Type middlemouse in the Filter bar. A list of commands will appear.


5. Double click command middlemouse.paste. Note that it’s value will now turns to True.

I have listed some useful Firefox keyboard shortcuts that help me browse the Web efficiently. If you know other keyboard shortcuts that I have missed, please leave a comment.

Windows 7 GodMode: Access all Windows settings

Windows 7 GodMode

Windows 7 GodMode enable you to access all Windows settings from one place.

To enable Windows 7 GodMode:

1. Create a new folder.
2. Rename it to the following: GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

If you do it right, the icon of that new folder will change to resemble the control panel icon.

How to disable wp.me shortlink

WordPress 2.9 provides wp.me shortlink for each post for free. However, if you don't like it, you can disable it easily.

To disable it, copy and paste the following code into your theme's functions.php file.

/* Disable Auto Adding of wp.me Shortlink */
remove_action('wp_head', 'shortlink_wp_head');