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Google search by date indexed

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 20:37:14 GMT

There are still some searches for which Google isn't too brilliant. For example, you can't search for certain special characters and you can't look for files (other than images) by filesize. However, there is a fantastic new improvement - you can now find pages by the date they were added to the Google index. This is very useful because sometimes it's hard to tell when a page was written - not all pages are like press releases and have a date on them! So, if you want to filter out old news or maybe see which pages have been recently indexed for a particular site, you can by adding the "as_qdr" parameter. Append your seach with "&as_qdr=1d" for pages found in the last 24 hours, "&as_qdr=1w" for the past week and "&as_qdr=1y" for the last year. (The 1's can be adjusted to any number and therefore length of time you like).

For example, to find new pages that have been talking about a pagerank update, you might search: http://www.google.com/search?q=pagerank+update&as_qdr=d1 or what new software has been added to a download site in the last week: http://www.google.com/search?q=site:download.omani.ac&as_qdr=w1.

Tags: Google, hack

Premium rate numbers

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 11:30:11 GMT

Don't ring them! Instead take a quick look at SayNoTo0870.com and find an alternative number with which to call that company.

Tags: telephone, hack

Top tip for UK iTunes users

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 17:26:34 GMT

There's an offer available from the iTunes site until 28 September - send a text message (which for most people is at their standard rate, ie. costing roughly 10p) and you receive a voucher code for a free track from online music store iTunes, which normally cost 79p or 99p.

How? Text one of the following words - ROCK, POP, LIVE, or ITUNES to 85100, and you'll get a message back with a code. Log into the iTunes store, go to buy a music track and you'll have the option to enter a discount code. Pop the code you were sent in there, and the track will be free. You have until September 30 to use the voucher.

You'll need iTunes music player installed on your computer in order to purchase from iTunes store, so if you haven't got it, download it!

Anything else? Apparently you can do this multiple times, and receive multiple codes. While this may be possible, its important you're aware it's against the terms and conditions of the offer - you can read them in full at http://www.apple.com/uk/itunes/sms/

Tags: hack, music

How to cure a sore throat

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 19:48:49 GMT

I'm not a doctor, so I'm not sure if I believe it, but this guy claims that gargling with cayenne powder instantly heals a sore thoat. Worth a try I suppose!

Tags: health, hack

What is RSS?

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 19:26:05 GMT

Really Simple Syndication is a web feed format that, similar to a normal webpage starts with "http://" but is an xml file (i.e. usually ends in ".xml"). By subscribing to a website's RSS feed (via an RSS reader like Bloglines or Google Reader), you don't have to be constantly going to your favourite sites checking for new content. Instead the reader checks the feed for you and when it finds new content, it presents it to you. There are also certain benefits - the content (which is presumably what you're interested in) is all that's presented to you. So the extraneous images, strange font colours, sidebars etc are got rid of.

So this gives me a chance to plug the Nimisis.com RSS feed. (I might add feeds to each of the Wii in stock alert services too...) I must confess that I haven't used RSS feeds myself until very recently... I guess a combination of being quite impressed by the ease of use of Bloglines and Google Reader - then being pleasantly surprised at the amount of time I save when surfing has turned that around! So, if that sounds like you too, check it out!

Tags: RSS, hack

12 Books That Changed The World

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 10:37:30 GMT

Notable works from history have been featured in a very watchable series on TV recently. Surprising Ashley Cole's autobiography isn't one of the twelve. This TV series is based on Melvyn Bragg's book which can be found here.

Featuring:

Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1859
Marie Stopes, Married Love, 1918
William Wilberforce, Speech to the House of Commons, 1789
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 1792
Magna Carta, 1215
The King James Bible, 1611
Michael Faraday, Experimental Research in Electricity, 1855
The First Rule Book of the Football Association, 1863
Patent Specification for Arkwright's Spinning Machine, 1769
William Shakespeare, First Folio, 1623
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 1776
Issac Newton, Principia Mathematica, 1687

***Discount books***

Hmmm... I think I'm going to give this post the tag of "hack" as I'm recommending a book about 12 books. Isn't that efficient?

Tags: book, hack, history

Mine's a Peroni. Chilled, not warm

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 14:01:05 GMT

It's almost time for that New Year's house party and if you're hosting, an important task is to chill the bottles of white wine and cans of beer that guests bring with them. So, how to chill drinks quickly? Don't put them in the fridge/freezer!

Get a bucket or tub
Put ice in the bucket
Add (cold) tap water so that the contents are submerged
(And this is the secret). Put salt in there too
Put in the bottles and cans as they arrive

Salt is what you need to superquickify the process as it can lower the melting temp of water as low as -21°C (-6°F).

Tags: hack, science, beer

Learn the piano hack

Sun, 24 Sep 2006 21:38:46 GMT

Now I don't really read music, but I do enjoy being able to reel off a thing or two on the piano, sort of Bill-Murray-in-Groundhog-Day style (if you know what I mean). It's hard work... at least for me. So for a while now I've been thinking of adding to my list of homebrew projects a piece of software that could take midi files of piano pieces and highlight the piano keys being played on a keyboard during playback. It would be a kind of cheat for learning the piano.

Thankfully there's no need! I found this great little application that does the job handsomely. It's called MidiPiano and it's free. In fact the source code is available for those who want to tweak it.

The great thing about midi files is that unlike mp3s there's much less fuss over copyright and there are lots of databases online from which midi music files can be downloaded for free. Midi music is of much lower quality than mp3 but that's because it encodes individual notes. And it's because of its format that it can be replayed easily the way it is in this app. Have a go! You'll probably have to lug your piano keyboard in front of your monitor (or vice versa), but surely that's a small price to pay to become a budding pianist!

Tags: piano, software, hack, midi

Bypass automated phone answering services

Wed, 07 Jun 2006 22:16:42 GMT

Another real world hack (in addition to the elevator one and how to shortcut to a real person in automated phone system) -- how to bypass the "please leave a message after the beep" message.

Tags: hack, elevator, phone

Real World Hacks

Sun, 27 Nov 2005 21:10:34 GMT

Did you know that in most elevators, if you press "close door" and the floor you want to go to at the same time, all floors in between will be bypassed? Also that pressing "0" or "00" on most automated phone systems is a shortcut that gets you through to a real person? Even the human body has some useful cheats! If you know of a handy hack please write it in the comments.

Tags: hack