This helped me out when I needed a file that I had deleted. It might be helpful to you too... and remember, try every new gadget at your own risk! :)

 MozillaCacheView is a small utility that reads the cache folder of Firefox/Mozilla/Netscape Web browsers, and displays the list of all files currently stored in the cache. For each cache file, the following information is displayed: URL, Content type, File size, Last modified time, Last fetched time, Expiration time, Fetch count, Server name, and more.

You can easily select one or more items from the cache list, and then extract the files to another folder, or copy the URLs list to the clipboard.

If you want to view the cache files of Internet Explorer, you can use this Internet Explorer Cache Viewer

Read more...

Anyone who knows me knows I listen to books these days since my time is at a premium and I just do have the luxury of curling up to read a good book. If I did, I'd probably fall asleep anyway.  But long work days and lots of traveling mean I can leverage my time and still get in some good reads. Listening to my books means I get a lot of "reading" done even with my hectic schedule. I put them on my iPhone and am never without some good listening. Toss in all the podcasts I subscribe to and there is never a dull moment.

I picked up a couple of audiobooks on CD from a yard sale recently and wanted to add them to my playlist. The cool thing about the iPhone is that it bookmarks my listening so I can stop and start and pick up where I left off. If I just add my CDs to my iTunes, they are added in just like any other mp3, don't have the bookmarking and when music is shuffled I sometimes am served a chapter from Janet Evanovich.

But, you can add your audiobook CDs to iTunes and have them converted to audiobook format with bookmarking ability and everything. Basically, the steps are :

Import your audio tunes into iTunes

"Get Info" on your files and change options Media Kind to Audiobook,also skip them from shuffling, Remember position.

Change any label info you want (hint: if you have several CDs make a notation in the label which CD it is. The CD number doesn't always come up and you may listen to them out of order. GASP!)

Essentially, this takes the files out of your playlist as an MP3 and plops them into your audiobooks folder (make sure you have that folder displayed via the edit/settings options). Go to the Audiobooks section, look for your book and make sure the files are in the right order.

Sync your iPhone or iPod. Viola! Get step by step directions and photos from CNET, like I did.

Happy reading!

PS - Some of the great books I've listened in the past year are:

• Outlander
• Voyager
• Dragonfly in Amber
• Drums of Autumn
• Stargirl
• Love, Stargirl
• Into Thin Air
• Showdown
• The Next Thing On My List
• Black Beauty
• Flowers for Algernon
• A Dirty Job
• The Ruby in the Smoke
• The Thirteenth Tale
• Ten Big Ones
• Dairy Queen
• The Off Season
• Stranded
• Watchers
• Twilight
• Relentless
• Tribes
• A Prisoner of Birth
• The Knack
• Rules of Thumb
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
• The Snows of kilimanjaro
• Hard Eight
• The Discipline of Innovation
• What Makes An Executive
• Click
• Groundswell
• Tuned In
• The New Psycho-Cybernetics
• Three To Get Deadly
• The American Experience
• Telling Christina Goodbye
• The Art of Racing In The Rain
• Eat That Frog!
• The Art of Woo
• PIllars of the Earth
• World Without End
• Gift of Fear
• and more!

Ok, we all know I like sIFR. I don't like having to make the swf files. I just wanna get in there and sIFR... This great on line tool helps me to get styling without the hassle...

sIFR Generator

sIFR (or Scalable Inman Flash Replacement) is a technology that allows you to replace text elements on screen with Flash equivalents. Put simply, sIFR allows website headings, pull-quotes and other elements to be styled in whatever font the designer chooses - be that Foundry Monoline, Gill Sans, Impact, Frutiger or any other font - without the user having it installed on their machine.

sIFR is a great way for web designers to use fonts on their web pages without needing them to be installed on the users' computer, thus gathering full control over the way the font is rendered in the browser.

The big disadvantage of sIFR is that creating sIFR files is a tedious task that also requires Adobe Flash Studio in order to create a .swf file with the font of your choice. At least, that was the big disadvantage until now. sIFR Generator is an online tool that allows you to create sIFR .swf files with a few clicks of your mouse. Simply upload the TTF font of the font you want to convert, preview and download. It cannot be easier!

So go ahead and try to make some sIFR yourself!

 Recently I was having a "character building moment" trying to get some flash embedded in a page. In my quest for an answer I came across this handy dandy bit of info AND a very helpful link to a SWFObject 2 HTML and JavaScript generator v1.2  I hope this helps you out as much as it did for me...

The info below is from Best Method of Embedding Flash

One of the most common issues with Flash is how to properly embed it into a website. While several methods are available, my preferred method is by using SWFObject. It will try to display Flash using the best method it can based on the browser ability and type. There are two versions, 1.5 and 2.0. 1.5 is a little bit simpler to use, but 2.0 is recommended for its extended abilities and will be explained here.

There are two methods which you can use. They are called Static or Dynamic. From SWFObject:
Quote:
1. The static publishing method embeds both Flash content and alternative content using standards compliant markup, and uses JavaScript to resolve the issues that markup alone cannot solve
2. The dynamic publishing method is based on marked up alternative content and uses JavaScript to replace this content with Flash content if the minimal Flash Player version is installed and enough JavaScript support is available (similar like previous versions of SWFObject and UFO)

The advantages of the static publishing method are:
1. The actual authoring of standards compliant markup is promoted
2. The mechanism of embedding Flash content does not rely on a scripting language, so your Flash content can reach a significant bigger audience:
o If you have the Flash plug-in installed, but have JavaScript disabled or a use a browser that doesn't support JavaScript, you will still be able to see your Flash content
o Flash will now also run on a device like Sony PSP, which has very poor JavaScript support
o Automated tools like RSS readers are able to pick up Flash content
The advantages of the dynamic publishing method are:
1. It avoids click-to-activate mechanisms to activate active content in Internet Explorer 6/7 and Opera 9+. Please note that Microsoft is currently phasing out all active content from its Internet Explorer browsers [ http://www.swffix.org/devblog/?p=19 ]
2. It integrates very well with scripted applications

Read more....

sIFR, or scalable Inman Flash Replacement is a technique for displaying typography on the web, without requiring your visitors to install the font you’d like to use.

I really like sIFR + the Dynamic Rendering module. It gives you an opportunity to add some extra style and creativity with fonts in your design. Just don't use it too much, since its Flash.

So I was setting up sIFR on a site today and could'nt get it working for the life of me.  I had it all set up, uploaded my fonts, set up my rules, didn't work. Added other fonts I knew worked on this site... still no go. So, when all else fails consult d.o. Found out by reading the issues for the Dynamic Rendering module that if a font file has a hyphen in it, it crashes the sIFR javascript.  Just deleted the fonts via the font manager, changed the file name and re-uploaed, and it worked. I love simple solutions!

Here are some more sIFR tips to help you along the way...

You'll need to turn your True Type Fonts into an swf file so that sIFR can render them. Use this online tool to generate the swf: http://www.sifrgenerator.com.  You can download a tool here: http://www.coffeecup.com/sifr-font-maker/

Your fonts also need to be True Type Fonts, ttf. Here is an online converter: http://onlinefontconverter.com/  Also checkout Font Forge: http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/

Here is a treasure! You can download a bunch of fonts already converted to an swf movies from these sIFR font libraries: http://www.isarie.com/?p=17 & the best repository I've found is sIFR Vault - http://sifrvault.com/

If you are finding that the width or height needs to be adjusted, try adjusting the fitExactly argument in the js... check out JavaScript Methods. There are lots of links to other useful pages there too.

A biggie here... if you have a font that is wider than it is tall you may end up with problems such as the last couple of characters wrapping. Add letter-spacing via css. In the same vein, if you find that the last couple of letters are totally disappearing and you have the wide fonts going on, check to see if you  have the margin set via the module. That could throw it off too.

This go around sIFR was kicking my butt... but... we made it through. Its never good to look outside the relationship when things get rocky, but I have to admit that I did. Check out the Signwriter module as one of the many options to Dynamic Rendering & sIFR. Here is a list of ten others from SmashingMagazine.com.

Give sIFR a try and let me know how it goes. If you have any problems or if you have questions hit me up - if I can't help you, I will commiserate with you!

Here are some helpful links...

sIFR Tutorials
   http://www.wakeuplater.com/website-building/use-your-own-fonts-a-simple-sifr-guide.aspx
Download the latest release and a helpful blog
   http://novemberborn.net/sifr3
For a full description visit the project page:
  http://drupal.org/project/render
Bug reports, feature suggestions and latest developments:
  http://drupal.org/project/issues/render

Other tools that help things go smoother...
Chocolate and Stella!   :)