DotJs – A GreaseMonkey alternative

If you love customizing pages on the web using user scripts, here is an alternative for GreaseMonkey. DotJs is a Google Chrome extension that executes JavaScript files in ~/.js based on their filename. To customize http://www.google.com/, you will have to create the userscript  ~/.js/google.com.js. The author originally built this for Chrome only but was later ported to other browsers Firefox, Safari and Fluid. Currently, it works **only on OSX**.

How to install?

Installation requires you to have Ruby 1.8 and rake installed. Follow the instructions below to install DotJs.

git clone http://github.com/defunkt/dotjs

cd dotjs

rake install

How does it work?

There is a security restriction in Chrome which prevents access to the local file system. To overcome this problem, DotJs runs a tiny web server on port 3131 which serves the files from ~/.js. Hence, the need for Ruby.

Is it better than GreaseMonkey?

DotJs is just an alternative technique which offers the same functionalities as GreaseMonkey offers. The userscripts in DotJs will not be able to use the GM_ functions which means not all your GM scripts will work directly here. However, you can implement the GM_ methods and make all the GM scripts compatible here. The userscripts in DotJs will have jQuery 1.6 loaded regardless of whether the site you're hacking uses jQuery. Also, it adds support for additional plug-ins and other helper functions.

-- Varun

[Screenshots] Google+

I got the chance to explore Google+ today. To me, it looks like Facebook with privacy concerns addressed. The interface looks simple and easy to use unlike Google Wave. The mobile version of Google+ looks equally impressive. Will it be a Facebook killer? I don’t see that happening anytime soon. Lets wait and watch. Check out the rest of the post for screenshots.

Hover over the images to know more about them.

 

 Google+ Android Native App

Google+ Mobile Web

Take an interactive demo here.

-- Varun

Make your Flash contents playable on iPhone with Swiffy

Ever since Steve Jobs termed Flash as a dying technology and confirmed that they don’t have any such plans of supporting Flash - “we don’t spend a lot of energy on old technology”, there were many attempts to make the flash content playable on devices running iOS. Some of them succeeded to some extent. Google has taken a step on this direction to promote open technologies. Google has pushed a new product into Google Labs – Swiffy, a SWF to HTML5 converter. This product from Google is definitely much better. This labs product allows you to upload a SWF file, and it will produce an HTML5 version which will run in modern browsers with a high level of SVG support such as Chrome and Safari.

Highlights

• Swiffy animations are almost as compact as that of the original SWF files. Swiffy uses a compact JSON representation of the animation, which is rendered using SVG and a bit of HTML5 and CSS3.
• Swiffy animations take advantage of the advancements in JavaScript execution speed and hardware accelerated 2D graphics.
• Supports a bunch of user interactions apart from the plain old animations.
• Wide range of browser support. Check out the browsers supporting SVG here.

Try it out yourself here. Check out the gallery of converted SWF files.

-- Varun

Pimped out Mercedes rat rod low rider art car

Its been a while since my last post and I wanted to post this multi-faceted unit I found on the 24 hour lemons facebook. This older stretch Mercedes is complex work of art complete with spoke rims, rusty flame job, low rider suspension and some checkers to complete the weirdness. Not sure were its headed but its weird enough that it ended up making me smile. Will the owner of this Mercedes step

Tartan Mobile For Sale - What a Bargain

This Tartan art car beauty is for sale for anyone looking to make a fashion statement this summer, here are the details:Selling my car in Texas while visiting 7-14 days from now (Austin, then Dallas). I've inherited a newer vehicle which I'll be driving back home to SF instead of the Plaid. Asking $1,000, 1986 Toyota Camry, 177K miles, two owners in 15 years. Lots of new parts, repairs, updates-

Me, Myself and I

Nah, this post is not about the tool that Google has announced recently to manage your identity on the web. Its about the site that I have built to manage my identity on the web. I have recently built this new personal site www.varunkumar.me to act as a landing page for all my activities on the web. I have taken up this exercise with the intension of learning something new out of this. The site may look simple but lots of cool features are hidden within it. This post is a summary of things I have learnt out of that piece of work.

 Highlights

• HTML5 Semantics. HTML5 introduces lots of new semantic elements – section, nav, header, footer, etc. I have implemented the various techniques described here to add semantics to different sections of the site. Bots / screen readers can easily understand the contents of the site. View page source to know more about this.
• Offline access. The site is available for access in offline mode as well. Honestly there is no real need for offline access here but how else one can learn things. I have used Application Cache to offer this feature. It is a very straight forward technique but the real challenge is with detecting the connectivity and updating the content whenever it changes. The key is to update the manifest file whenever a static file changes. I am using maven to auto-increment the version number on manifest to serve a fresh copy whenever the content changes. For detecting the network connectivity, I have used the techniques described here.

• Spam-proofing email address. This is a by-product of another hobby project (I am working on) which requires spam-proofing of email addresses. Two things to be considered while spam-proofing email address: 1. It should be clickable 2. It should be easy to copy the address. I can secure the email address (to some extent) like this: varunkumar(dot)n(at)gmail(dot)com but the usability is not so good. I have implemented two out of the ten techniques discussed here to spam-proof the email address. It uses hidden garbage text and ROT13 encoding techniques. Inspect the email address shown on the site to know more. More details about the implementation of this can be found here.

• CSS3. Most of the animations and styling on the page are achieved using CSS3. The following properties are employed to get the visual style on the page: box-shadow, transform, transition, etc. Page curl effect. Polaroid effect.
• Deliberate vulnerabilities. The site features a link to my complete profile but it is not open to all. It is password protected. However, I have introduced deliberate vulnerabilities to the system. There are at least three different techniques using which you can break into my profile page. And, they are not really hard. If you are able to reach my profile page, take a screenshot and post it on the comments section along with the technique applied.

• Smartphone friendly layout using ‘Media Queries’. The site is built as a set of sections and depending on the real estate of the screen I am attaching / detaching the sections. This is done via the media queries. If you are accessing from your desktop browser, keep reducing the width of your browser to see how the layout changes.
• Browser support. The site is best viewed on the following browsers: Chrome 4+, Firefox 4+, Safari 5+, IE 9+, Opera 10+, Safari Mobile, Android webkit browser. I have not tested the site on other browsers.

The site is hosted on Google App Engine and I have setup a local git repo for this project. You can view the page source to know more about the things described above. Smart developers always do so. Pass on your comments / feedback about the site.

-- Varun

VW Art Car Tent For Sale - Get your Camping on!!!

Get ready for this years camping trip with a super 65 VW Camper Tent Art Car on sale at Firebox.com. Its an Officially licensed, four-person tent, full-size replica of the iconic 1965 VW Camper Van that will be sure to turn heads when you set it up. It comes in Red, Yellow and Blue but who says you have to settle, so go ahead and turn into an Art Car Tent.

Bowling Pin Art Car Strikes Out - 1785 Bowling Ball Pyramid

I hope the guy who owns this cute little bowling pin covered art car never has a run in with this giant 1785 bowling ball pyramid.What is the sound of 1785 bowling balls striking a pin car? If it happens in the woods and no one is around does it make a sound?

GreaseMonkey for Android via TamperMonkey

If you love customizing pages on the web using GreaseMonkey (GM) scripts, here is a good news for you. TamperMonkey, originally a Chrome extension which provides enhanced userscript support on Google Chrome and Chromium browsers,  has been ported to Android. The Android app is still in beta and it comes with all the functionalities provided by TamperMonkey. TamperMonkey Android app comes along with a browser where in you can use the userscripts you have installed.

How to use TamperMonkey Android app?

• Install the beta version of the app from Android market. 
• Launch the application. It will open a browser which acts as the host for the scripts.
• Click on Menu –> “Context” –> “Get new scripts…” to add new scripts from Userscripts.org
• Browser through the pages and the installed userscripts will be activated by TamperMonkey.
• TamperMonkey will take care of updating the scripts as well. 

The app is still in beta and it seems to be slow on my Nexus One. More info here.

-- Varun

Help Charlie The Unicorn Art Car Go to Burning Man

Ken and friends are building an art car for Burning Man 2011 based on the legendary video “Charlie The Unicorn”. They have setup a Kickstarter project to help raise funds for its completion and a Charlie Camp group on Facebook.