1diGiT

09 February 2007

Add Language Translation to your Website - Tutorial

How to make foreign visitors love your website even if they don't understand your language ? Add Language Translation to website and blogs - This is a simple Step by step guide to provide instant language translation in your website. Your site visitors can translate any webpage by clicking on the corresponding country flag and read your website in their native language.

Machine translation in blogs or websites is probably the easiest way of helping readers from different countries communicate. Even if a blogger writes in Spanish and a reader speaks English, or vice versa, both of them can still understand each other.

Today, people are blogging in multiple languages to create a conversation with readers outside the English Speaking blogosphere. Free language translation tools let bloggers post messages simultaneously in English, German, French, Spanish and other languages.

The most popular free Web-based language translation tools are offered by Google, AltaVista Babelfish and WorldLingo. Using these services, web audiences who speak English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Greek, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Japanese, Korean or Russian will be able to translate websites into their native language.

With over 65% of web users speaking a language other than English, providing the means of translating websites with English content to another language is very essential. Your multilingual website becomes more accessible and popular if users can translate your website content into their native language.

There are two methods to let your visitors easily translate your website:

Altavista Babelfish

Method ONE: All these services provide a translation box. To translate a webpage, you simply type in the URL of the website, choose the source and target language, and click the Translate button. [World Lingo, Google Translate, BabelFish Translate]

Method TWO: Here we will integrate the translation form in the website itself without requiring the user to visit any external page for translation. Your web visitors will be able to translate foreign language content into their native language by simply clicking the country flag icon. (Notice the top right corner of this page to see the various country flag icons). Simply cut and paste the code into your pages.

1. Alta Vista Babel Fish:
Babel Fish Translate is available in English, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese. Just add the following single line of JavaScript code to your website.

2. Google Translate: Available in English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean and Chinese (Simplified). Remember to replace the value of variable "u" with the URL of your website. The translated pages can even be bookmarked.

3. WorldLingo URL Translator: World Lingo is my favorite service since Google indexes the static URLs translated by World Lingo. Thus, my website can be found on Google even while searching for non-english terms. World Lingo supports English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Greek, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Japanese, Korean and Russian. The translated pages can even be bookmarked.

The above World Lingo Translation Code is customized for the Blogger Template. Since I have added translation to every page on my weblog, I have used wl_url=<$BlogItemPermalinkUrl$> in the URL. You will need to change this if your blog is hosted on another service like Typepad or Wordpress.

The <$BlogItemPermalinkUrl$> tag should be wrapped inside the tags.

These techniques can be applied for translating websites to English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Portuguese, Russian, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. Translation Support for Middle Eastern languages like Arabic, Urdu, Farsi, Persian, scripts like Hindi, Sanskrit, Telugu, Punjabi, Marathi, Konkani scripts are provided by professional translating services only.

A 20" LCD Screen vs a 20" CRT Monitor - Which is Bigger ?

As kids, we are often asked what would weigh more - a kilogram of cotton roll or a kilogram of stone - as you probably guessed, both would weigh the same.

The same logic may not apply to display sizes of computer screens. The viewable area of a 17" LCD monitor is not the same as that of a 17" CRT monitor or a 17" TV screen - it is generally much larger.

That's because the LCD screens are measured in a different way than CRT screens.

Though both screens are measured diagonally, the plastic case surrounding the monitor screen is included in the measurement for the CRT. Therefore, the actual viewable area is at least an inch less than the stated size of the screen.

LCD Display size refer to the actual screen dimensions or the viewable area and do not include the plastic edges.

Now you know why that 15.4" laptop screen looks about the same size as your old 17" CRT Monitor.
Source: Dell Support

Create a Movie of your Powerpoint Presentations with PPT To Video Scout

PPT To Video Scout is a Windows-only software to convert Powerpoint PPT presentations into AVI or MPEG Video files which you can later burn to a DVD or a VCD.

Though PPT To Video Scout is a commercial software, you can get it absolutely free (no strings attached) as part of the "Giveaway of the Day" project.

To convert your PPT slides into video, you will need to have a copy of Microsoft Powerpoint installed on your machine since the software can only run from the "Convert To AVI" command in Powerpoint File menu. No stand-alone version.

But hurry up - you should download and install the software today itself (Feb 9, 2007) else the offer expires. Check the readme.txt for instructions.

Download PPT To Video Scout

GiveAway of the Day

Home Delivery of e-Mail Messages via Snail Mail

Imagine sending an email to someone residing in a remote village who has never heard about computers or internet and there's not even an electricity connection in the house.

That's where ePost, a service of the Indian Postal Department, fits in. You can still reach that person via email.

Here's how the ePost service works - you send an email to ePost with the postal address of the recipient. The email message is then forwarded to the nearest Post office where it is printed, enveloped and delivered by the postman like other snail mail.

You can also send handwritten message through this service - walk into your nearest post office where the letter will be scanned as an image and transmitted through e-mail.

All this at a cost of ~20¢ per page per addressee. And the undelivered messages are physically returned to the sender by snail mail.

Now a company in Germany have taken that concept a step further - in addition to emails, they even deliver SMS text messages and printed copies of documents using the old-school postal system. This postman delivers email

Like ePost, you type the message online or upload a document, make the payment and PixelLetter will then print, fold and envelope your letter and deliver it the old fashioned way. Europe only.

The glorious days of the good-old postman are back again.

Want to Turn Google Talk Into an Internet Radio Station Without Any Software? Play Live Music right from your PC

I want to stand with you on a mountain.
I want to bathe with you in the sea.
I want to lay like this forever.
Until the sky falls down on me...

[Truly Madly Deeply by Savage Garden]

You guessed it right, this post is all about playing live music for your valentine (and friends) using Google Talk, Skype, Yahoo Messenger and other IM software.

With this trick, you should be able to do the following:

1. Play that huge song collection on your local computer using any media player like iTunes or Windows Media player and stream that music live to your IM buddies.

2. Send MP3 songs as voicemail to any of your contacts in GTalk that they can download as MP3 or directly play via the Google MP3 Player in GMail.

3. Dedicate a music video on Youtube to your valentine and it will stream live to her computer as audio via Google Talk.

The trick is to change your sound settings and set the recording device from Microphone to Stereo mix (or Wave Out Mix) as illustrated below:

1. Click that volume icon on your Windows system tray. Goto Options -> Properties and choose the appropriate mixing device from the drop down (it's Sigma Tel C-Major Audio in my case)

2. Now select "Adjust volume for Recording" and click the OK button. On the next screen tick the check box next to Stereo Mix (deselect the Microphone check box if it's selected).

That's it. Now start iTunes or open your favorite video on Youtube or any video sharing site.

Click on the GTalk contact who you want to dedicate that song to and click Call. Simultaneously hit the play button in your media player.

To send the song as a voicemail, click "Send Voicemail" in the Gtalk message box.

02 February 2007

Free Video Editing Software for Producing Movies & Vlogs

Ferrari fan, Prabhu Krishnamurthy, is on a hunt for some free movie making software. He writes:

We are coming up with a 12 minute movie for culturals. Do you know any good movie making software, that can be downloaded for free?

Our movie will be based on a news channel. So I am looking at a video editor/movie maker software that allows scrolling texts, subtitles and custom animations etc.

You want so many video editing features for free ? Well, it may be possible as here are some good options for editing that don't cost a dime.

But before you read this list, check the CDs that shipped with your handycam - most camera manufacturers like Sony, Canon and Panasonic generally provide a decent video editing software with the camera. OK, back to the list of free video editing software:

Windows Movie Maker - The best video editing tool for Windows that's absolutely free and chances are you already have it installed on your computer as part of XP SP2. Microsoft Movie Maker has all the basic video editing tools plus a good collection of transitions and video effects.

There's an in-built movie titler that lets add you styles to text titles including ticker taps, zoom and even the scroll effect. And if you are feeling lazy, just hit the AutoMovie command to have the entire video produced for you with intervention.

Avid Free DV - Avid Free DV, poor cousin of Avid Xpress Pro, has all the basic video and audio editing features and allow you to put video in two tracks simultaneously. They have an extensive collection of tutorials online to help you get started quickly.

Support both Mac OS and Windows XP platform. Infact, you can even play with keyframes for generating custom moves and transitions. Ships with the Avid Title tool.

JahShaka - An open source video editing software that is currently in Alpha stage but has features found only in expensive video editing software suites.

Works on Mac, Linux and Windows. The interface might take some time for you to get started otherwise the software is definitely the most powerful one out there. And the price is just right. $0. Also does 3D effects which you won't find in other free video editors.

Jumpcut.com - Jumpcut is a web based video editing software and now it's even part of the Yahoo! family. You upload a video or small clips just like importing inside a desktop software.

There are dozens of transitions and special effects. You can import photographs from your Flickr or Facebook account to mix them with the videos. The jumpcut editor is intuitive enough and there is good title support as well. And your movies are published online automatically. Perfect for quick vlogging and video podcasting.

Finally... While the above video editing software should satisfy the needs of most home movie makers, you can probably consider Adobe Premiere Elements or even Muvee AutoProducer for more features and better control over the final output. They have trial version to help you try out the software before actually buying it.

Extract Still Photographs from Wedding DVD Videos for Printing

There are tons of software for creating a slideshow DVD movie of your photographs but DI reader Pedro Almeida from Lisbon has a reverse requirement. He wants to extract still pictures from his Wedding video DVD for printing.

The professional wedding photographer who produced the photo DVD has the source images but he's probably charging lot of money for the service. Pedro writes:

The Wedding DVD was sold to me by a photographer and has cost me a great deal of money.

One of the DVD menu choices is to view all the wedding photos as a slideshow presentation. The photographer will take an additional charge of 3,5 euros for printing each photo.

Can we split this DVD photos presentation into separate image files like GIF or JPG. Then I will be able to print the photos myself and it would just cost me 0,5 euros each photo!!

Pedro, there are two solutions to your problem as explained here:

Solution A: - Play the DVD movie inside a media player and capture the scenes (or video frames) that you would like to print. A word of caution - normal screen capture commands like Print Screen won't work with capturing DVD videos and all you will get is a blank screen.

Read our previous guide on on how to screen capture scenes from DVD movies.

Solution B: - The second solution involves ripping the slideshow DVD into AVI or WMV files and then using a video extractor software to convert that ripped video into still photographs.

Use a DVD backup software like DVDx to convert your Wedding DVD vob files into AVI format. Then download AVCutty to extract picture frames from this AVI video.

AVCutty is smart and can automatically detect the scene changes in video files. Open the extracted photographs in an software like Picasa and select the ones that you like to print. Burn them onto a CD from Picasa and just walk into your nearest photo printing shop.

And yes, all the software mentioned above are absolutely free. The quality of extracted images may not match that of original pictures but they would still be good enough.

Create Audio CD Music Videos hosted on You tube

You just finished watching a bunch of some excellent music videos on Youtube that you wish to save as MP3 files for listening on the iPod or ever better, burn them to an Audio CD [minus the video].

DI Reader Erica Gardner knows how to download videos from Youtube or Google Video but she would love to see a much-simpler solution to make Audio CDs of her favorite Indie rock bands from Youtube.

The popular solution is to download the Youtube video using sites like KeepVid as FLV files and then convert these FLV files to MP3 audio using SUPER, a free encoding software.

But that's a two step process and might even confuse some not-so-geeky users.

Therefore, another elegant solution is vixy.net - you just type in the address of the Youtube video page and vixy will convert that video file into a .MP3 file containing just the audio. No encoding required.

Now pop in the blank CD and hit the Burn button or start iTunes to transfer the Mp3 to your iPod.

You tube User below the radar linked to Nick Denton's Gawker

Some may label this as a fight between the old media [CNet] and the rising new media represented by Gawker which also owns popular web properties like FleshBot, Valleywag and Gizmodo.

A Youtube user (alias belowtheradar) has posted atleast 60 copyright videos (from NBC, ABC, Apple, etc) on Youtube that show pre-roll ads for Gawker properties such as Valleywag and Gizmodo. And lot of these video clips have already hit the Youtube popularity charts.

The Gawker media ads appear before the actual video clip or sometimes as overlay graphics during the entire duration of the video.

CNet, who's sort playing the role of an investigator here, has tried contacting representatives from Gawker, including owner Nick Denton for an official comment but there's no confirmation whether belowtheradar is associated with Gawker Media or just a fan of the blog network.

The fact that links user belowtheradar with Gawker is that some of these videos with embedded advertising have actually been displayed on Gawker blogs. And the videos were posted on Youtube the same day they appeared on Gawker sites further hinting the association.

This story is likely to gather lot of steam in the coming days for lot of reasons. Gawker is a rising force and old king CNet is feeling the heat. CNet has also posted an image gallery of some unauthorized Gawker Ads on Youtube videos.

It will be interesting to read Nick Denton's take on the whole episode.

Has Your FeedBurner RSS Subscriber Count Gone Down ? Do Not Worry

You are a happy owner of some blog that has 1500 RSS subscribers as reported by the Feedburner Chicklet. But the next morning, you discover that this subscriber count has dipped by a few hundreds.

This is surely a disappointing news for bloggers especially when it takes so much effort to build a reader base.

Why did these "hundreds of subscribers" unsubscribe from your blog in one single day ? The first thought that strikes your mind is "Did I write something bad that offended readers and so they unsubscribed in a fit ?"

Well, it's none of your fault in most cases.

It is normal to see minor fluctuations in subscriber numbers reported by Feedburner but if you notice a large variation (in three figures or more), the problem lies somewhere with the feed readers and RSS aggregators such as MyYahoo, Bloglines, Rojo, etc.

These aggregators are either returning incorrect subscriber count to Feedburner or not reporting the count at all and hence Feedburner may not be accounting for those readers. A similar issue happened recently when Feedburner removed the count of Rojo subscribers.

Rojo numbers could soon be back but the other good news is that Feedburner will now include MyYahoo! numbers in your subscriber Chicklet.

Your blog's RSS subscriber count is bound to travel north as MyYahoo! is one of the very popular readers out there.