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Thursday, 23 June 2011

Send Your Notes To Google Docs From Firefox Using The QuickFox Add-on & A Simple Script

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/chrome-notes.jpg" alt="send to google docs"/>If you like working from anywhere, then Google Docs is one of the great sink holes you can pour everything into. Google Docs allows us to create and share in the cloud from any location, while keeping our document needs covered. The ‘software as a service’ has really taken off and we are richer for it. You can upload, store, archive, tag, and organize your documents. If you use it efficiently, 1GB of free storage also is adequate for most needs.

The here-there-and-everywhere nature of href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/google-docs/">Google Docs gives me an opportunity to use it as a brain dump for my impromptu notes. Most of us live in the browser; and if it’s Firefox then href="http://inbasic.mozdev.org/root/ext3/home/index.html">QuickFox is a must-install extension for those who ever loved Opera’s own Notes feature and do a lot of note-taking while browsing.

I wrote glowingly about it href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/quickfox-notes-%E2%80%93-write-and-save-notes-in-firefox/">previously and since then I have never taken it off my must-have extensions list. But QuickFox is browser based and in case you want to access it from any other computer, it presents a problem.

Not much because you can synchronize your notes using an online XMarks account and access it from anywhere. QuickFox also seamlessly works with the href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/simplenote-note-taking-utility/">SimpleNote app. There is a third way and it involves the interplay of QuickFox, Google Docs, and a very useful script. Please note that sending notes to Google Docs via QuickFox is not a sync but merely a save as the script does not enable synchronization between the two.

Send Notes to Google Docs With QuickFox

You can send all your notes saved on QuickFox to Google Docs by introducing a small script into the QuickFox add-on folder. The script extends the default feature set of QuickFox and enabling its integration with Google Docs. Download the Google Docs script href="http://downloads.mozdev.org/inbasic/scripts/extGoogleDocs.js">from here (right-click on the script page, and save it as a .js file).

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/021.jpg" alt="send to google docs" width="580" height="303" />

Then proceed to install it in the following directory:

For Windows XP:/> C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\68u8hfy4.default\qfn-scripts/> For Windows Vista and 7:/> C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\q9z0k4c5.default\qfn-scripts

Restart the browser for the change to take effect.

After restarting the browser, open a QuickFox Note. You will notice that a new icon for syncing with Google Docs has appeared alongside the other buttons. See the screenshot below.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/011.jpg" alt="send to google docs firefox" width="580" height="311" />

Compose a note and click on the button. A new window opens up and asks for your Google account username and password. The note gets saved to Google Docs as a text document with the same name as the QuickFox note. A small notification below says that the note has been clipped successfully.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/031.jpg" alt="send to google docs" width="580" height="326" />

Instead of using the bookmarking utility like XMarks, this tip proves really useful for picking up snippets from the web while browsing and saving or archiving them on Google Docs for later read. Of course, we can go into Google Docs and then share, organize, or collaborate on this note. I for example, create a bunch of notes and then organize them into collections. Later, I have Google Doc’s facility to download the saved notes as a PDF file.

Give us your opinion on this quick tip that allows you to save your browser notes to Google Docs.

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/send-notes-google-docs-firefox-quickfox-addon-simple-script/">Send Your Notes To Google Docs From Firefox Using The QuickFox Add-on & A Simple Script is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

More articles about: href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/backup/" title="backup" rel="tag">backup, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/browsing-tools/" title="browsing tools" rel="tag">browsing tools, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/firefox/" title="firefox" rel="tag">firefox, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/firefox-addons/" title="firefox addons" rel="tag">firefox addons, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/firefox-tips/" title="firefox tips" rel="tag">firefox tips, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/google-docs/" title="google docs" rel="tag">google docs, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/note-taking/" title="note taking" rel="tag">note taking, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/notes/" title="notes" rel="tag">notes/>

Share & Discover New Foursquare Places You Love Using Scoville

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/0_scoville.jpg" alt="foursquare places" />I’ve been using class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/check-mayor-favorite-venues-foursquare/">Foursquare for a while now, checking into the places I frequent and sharing my whereabouts with my followers on class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/twitter/">Twitter. Being that I live in New York City, which was recently class="vt-p" href="http://www.businessinsider.com/new-york-city-is-the-twitter-capital-of-the-world-2011-6">proclaimed Twitter capital of the world, Foursquare has become a necessity. The tandem of Twitter and Foursquare has helped me find great places to try out, as well as plenty of nice specials to take advantage of. I’ve checked in at some great spots so far.

But what can I do with all of my check-in data? I’d love to be able to not only see all of the places I’ve checked into, but mark certain ones as my favorites and then use that information to discover even more great venues. Is that too much to ask? I don’t think so, and neither does Scoville.

What Is Scoville?

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/1_scoville.png" alt="foursquare places" width="418" height="274" />

class="vt-p" href="http://www.goscoville.com/">Scoville is another one of those class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-great-applications-enhance-foursquare-experience/">great applications that will enhance your Foursquare experience. It gives you a fun way to remember, share, and discover places you love.

Our mission is to help our users discover at least one great new place every week. We’ll make it extremely simple for you to share the places you really love, the places you believe the community should know about.

Each and every week, Scoville will take all of the data you share with it and it will create an awesome list of cool places for you to discover. The list will be based on places you’ve already been to and have liked. By the way, this data isn’t just taken from your overall check-in count, it’s also taken from what Scoville calls #TopTuesday.

What Is #TopTuesday?

The first article I ever wrote for MUO covered the topic of class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-effectively-use-twitter-hashtags/">hashtags, and that’s what #TopTuesday essentially is. Here’s how it works.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/2_scoville.png" alt="find foursquare venues" width="509" height="162" />

Every Monday, you’ll use Scoville to look at all of your recent check-ins, and you can go through and pick the places you loved the most. On Tuesday, you can share your #TopTuesday with your friends and followers so they can see what you liked.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/3_scoville.png" alt="find foursquare venues" width="253" height="236" />

You can use your iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, or other smartphone to contribute to #TopTuesday on the go. Just append the #TopTuesday hashtag whenever you check in or add a tip to an awesome place. Following the hashtag can be a great way to discover places you should visit in your city!

How Do I Start Using Scoville?

To start using Scoville, just head over to their class="vt-p" href="http://www.goscoville.com/">website and sign up. The site is still in beta, but you can sign in with your Foursquare credentials or submit your email address to get on the invite list. Then just watch out for your invite email (I got mine relatively quickly).

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/4_scoville.png" alt="foursquare places" width="350" height="134" />

Once you’re in, you can pick your favorite places to be part of your next #TopTuesday, where you can connect via Twitter or Facebook to share them with your friends. As I stated earlier, you can just use the hashtag to automatically add a check-in to your next #TopTuesday.

Are you a Foursquare user? How often do you check in? Do you think Scoville will enhance your Foursquare experience? Let us know what you think in the comments.

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/share-discover-foursquare-places-love-scoville/">Share & Discover New Foursquare Places You Love Using Scoville is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

More articles about: href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/community/" title="community" rel="tag">community, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/discover/" title="discover" rel="tag">discover, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/foursquare/" title="foursquare" rel="tag">foursquare, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/location/" title="location" rel="tag">location, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/social-networks/" title="social networks" rel="tag">social networks, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/travel/" title="travel" rel="tag">travel/>

BitCoin – Buy, Sell & Trade Using Anonymous Peer-To-Peer Currency

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/intro6.jpg" alt="peer to peer currency" />Earlier this month two prominent US politicians (Senators Charles Schumer of New York and Joe Manchin of West Virginia) wrote to US Attorney General Eric Holder to express concerns about the rise of a new online currency – class="vt-p" href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin, abbreviated as BTC.

The anonymous, class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/p2p/">peer-to-peer currency has become very popular over the last few months, with websites popping up all over cyberspace enabling BitCoins to be exchanged or donated with nothing more than a unique, non-identifying public key.

What Is BitCoin?

In 2007 a supposedly Japanese programmer began working on BitCoin under the pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto” with the technology officially released in 2009. The currency is currently breaking new ground, and has already been heralded as one of the first working implementations of a crypto-currency.

By using class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/cryptography/">cryptography (the act of hiding information) to both generate and transfer the currency, “Nakamoto” created a theoretically anonymous and self-contained economy. The idea was to cut out middlemen, denying a central authority the ability to issue currency or track transactions. Instead, these tasks are handled by the network of connected peers and no identifying information is recorded (try class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-mask-yourself-online-use-a-fake-ip-address/">masking your IP for total peace of mind).

style="text-align: center;">width="580" height="430">name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Um63OQz3bjo?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0" />name="allowFullScreen" value="true" />name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" />type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="580" height="430" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Um63OQz3bjo?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true">

Here’s an example of how it all works – you want to send your friend (let’s call him Mark) a BitCoin. On your side, Mark’s public key is added to the coin and this is signed on your end via a personal private code. Mark now owns the BitCoin, and you’re prevented from using it again thanks to the BitCoin network, which records and verifies transactions.

Luckily none of this is done by hand, but by free software which handles your BitCoin banking. This software is available for Windows, OS X and Linux and only requires a user’s public key to make a payment. You can download a version for your operating system and learn about storing your BitCoins on the class="vt-p" href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin website.

How Do I Get BitCoins?

There are a couple of ways to acquire BitCoins, with the easiest way being simply buying them. Using a BitCoin exchange like class="vt-p" href="https://www.mtgox.com/">Mt. Gox or class="vt-p" href="http://www.bitcoin-otc.com/">#bitcoin-otc on class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/irc/">IRC or by finding a BitCoin trader on class="vt-p" href="http://tradebitcoin.com/">TradeBitCoin.com. For asking prices you can check out how the BitCoin markets are doing on class="vt-p" href="http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/">BitCoin Charts.

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/markets.png" alt="peer to peer currency" width="575" height="406" />

It may also surprise you that you can generate your own BitCoins – a process known as mining. This is essentially a way of processing and verifying transactions, by generating “blocks” which are permanent records of BitCoin activity on the network (a block includes all recent transactions, a random number and the preceding block’s hash) and new BitCoins.

These blocks are then added to the “block chain” in chronological order, and once added to the chain a block is very difficult to modify (making it hard to “double spend” your BTC) as each subsequent block must also be modified.

Once a block has been created, a bounty (currently 50BTC) is awarded to the individual who created it. This bounty halves every 210,000 blocks, and it is estimated that by the year 2140 the maximum number of BitCoins – 20,999,999.9769 BTC – will have been generated. The fact that transaction “fees” can be added to BitCoin transactions means that mining can remain profitable, even when the maximum number has been reached.

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/bitcoinminer.jpg" alt="peer to peer currency trading" width="580" height="437" />

If you’re thinking of mining for BTC then you’ll need the right hardware and the right software. Mining using your PC’s processor (CPU) is inefficient and likely to be removed from BitCoin altogether, according to the official wiki, so you won’t need to spend lots on a speedy quad core chip. Instead you’ll have more joy using a graphics processor (GPU) on a high-end graphics card. Why? The BitCoin wiki class="vt-p" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Why_a_GPU_mines_faster_than_a_CPU">explains:

style="padding-left: 30px;">A CPU core can execute 4 32-bit instructions per clock (using a 128-bit SSE instruction) or 8 via AVX (256-Bit), whereas a GPU like the Radeon HD 5970 can execute 3200 32-bit instructions per clock (using its 3200 ALUs or shaders). This is a difference of 800 (or 400 in case of AVX) times more instructions per clock. As of 2011, the fastest CPUs have up to 6, 8, or 12 cores and a somewhat higher frequency clock (2000-3000 MHz vs. 725 MHz for the Radeon HD 5970), but one HD5970 is still more than five times faster than four 12-core CPUs at 2.3GHz.

You can find suitable software to become a BitCoin miner on class="vt-p" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Category:Miners">this software page. If you have reduced grunt in your mining rig then you might want to consider class="vt-p" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Pooled_mining">pooled mining.

Silk Road, Spending & Safety

The two US Senators who initially class="vt-p" href="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-06/09/us-bitcoin-crackdown">raised the Attorney General’s attention to the BitCoin phenomena had noticed the popularity of a certain anonymous trading place called class="vt-p" href="http://silkroadmarket.org/">Silk Road. As BitCoins are also anonymous, they are currently Silk Road’s currency of choice for the sale and purchase of illicit drugs and other such illegal products.

The website requires class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/surf-the-web-anonymously-and-securely-with-tor/">Tor, a security tool which ensures visitors do not leave a trace on the website and uses BTC exclusively for all trades. It is likely that much of the negative press that has attached itself to BitCoin has come from Silk Road. The website operates both as a reputation system and as an internal escrow, though this doesn’t make it safe (all purchases are sent by snail mail, after all).

style="text-align: left;">If you’d rather buy legal things with your BitCoins then check out the class="vt-p" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade">exhaustive list of merchants on the official BitCoin wiki. You might also want to visit class="vt-p" href="http://www.weusecoins.com/">weusecoins.com, which has plenty of class="vt-p" href="http://www.weusecoins.com/privacy-security.php">privacy and security advice for newbies interested in BitCoin.

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/merchants.png" alt="peer to peer currency" width="580" height="318" />

If you are going to invest time, money and effort into BitCoin mining or trading then beware that much like any risky financial venture the markets can crash and lose you a lot of money. This class="vt-p" href="http://www.dailytech.com/Digital+Black+Friday+First+Bitcoin+Depression+Hits/article21877.htm">has already happened once, with the value of a single BTC falling more than 30% in a day, eventually recovering by 15%.

Physical safety is also a concern, especially if you’re intending on buying a lot of mining rigs and leaving them on 24/7. class="vt-p" href="http://www.bitcoinminingaccidents.com/">BitCoin Mining Accidents is a tongue-in-cheek website dedicated to reports of injury from around the mining world. According to the website one anonymous miner now has a touch of class="vt-p" href="http://www.bitcoinminingaccidents.com/?p=271">permanent brain damage due to his mining operation, and he warns you not to make the same mistakes.

Oh, and your class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-ways-to-reduce-the-power-consumption-of-your-computer/">electricity bill is bound to suffer too!

Conclusion

It remains to be seen whether BitCoins will be a total success, though early signs suggest that merchants are at least receptive to the new currency. The BitCoin wiki has a class="vt-p" href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Myths">Myths page that runs through many misconceptions and sceptical statements, though it is naturally weighted towards the currency and thus biased. Only time will tell if BitCoin really is a viable, sustainable and usable decentralised currency.

What do you think of BitCoin? What do you think of Silk Road? Tried mining your own? Massive fad that’ll burn out? The future of online trade? Everyone’s got an opinion, and yours belongs in the comments box below this post.

Image Credits: class="vt-p" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/brocktice/5143440063/">BitCoin Miner PC

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/bitcoin-buy-sell-trade-anonymous-peertopeer-currency/">BitCoin – Buy, Sell & Trade Using Anonymous Peer-To-Peer Currency is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

More articles about: href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/banking/" title="banking" rel="tag">banking, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/buy-sell/" title="buy & sell" rel="tag">buy & sell, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/money/" title="money" rel="tag">money, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/p2p/" title="p2p" rel="tag">p2p, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/trading/" title="trading" rel="tag">trading/>

Green

Thursday, 23 June 2011

Send Your Notes To Google Docs From Firefox Using The QuickFox Add-on & A Simple Script

Send Notes to Google Docs With QuickFox

Similar articles:

Share & Discover New Foursquare Places You Love Using Scoville

What Is Scoville?

What Is #TopTuesday?

How Do I Start Using Scoville?

Similar articles:

BitCoin – Buy, Sell & Trade Using Anonymous Peer-To-Peer Currency

What Is BitCoin?

How Do I Get BitCoins?

Silk Road, Spending & Safety

Conclusion

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