Blogger: Most visited posts widget script...

This script finds your most visited posts and gives you back theresult in html.I found this from bloggerbuster and it uses pipes.yahoo.com to get the ratings.
So now you don't need to put your features post links.Just put the script in new widget,change the url,change the number of posts you want to show, and done!

<script type="text/javascript">
function pipeCallback(obj) {
document.write('<font ><ol style="text-transform: capitalize;">');
var i;
for (i = 0; i < obj.count ; i++)
{
var href = "'" + obj.value.items[i].link + "'";
var item = "<li>" + "<a href=" + href + ">" + obj.value.items[i].title + "</a> </li>";
document.write(item);
}
document.write('</ol></font>');
}
</script>
<script src="http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_render=json&_callback=pipeCallback
&_id=1cf38ae68efbe859c4ba1ee239cec099&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.techlads.com&num=10" type="text/javascript"></script>

In the url, only below part is important. Change the url to your one and change the num param to what you want.I made it only top 10 posts.

url=http://www.techlads.com&num=10

Hack: Yahoo! CAPTCHA Cracked!

It has been suggested before that it would be a matter of time, but now it seems official: The Yahoo! CAPTCHA is no-more. A team of Russian hackers have found a way to read the CAPTCHA with 35% accuracy. Let there be no mistake: the CAPTCHA that Yahoo! deploys is believed one of the most difficult CAPTCHA's to crack. It utilizes bended alpha numeric characters and other features you might expect from a strong CAPTCHA, and still it's easy to solve by humans. I think this is a great leap in character recognition and the death punch to the Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. I have weak faith in CAPTCHA's these days, since there will always be a way to compute something that requires human interaction. Whether it be image CAPTCHA's, audible ones or simply Javascript based CAPTCHA's.

The Russian hackers had this to say about the Yahoo! CAPTCHA:

"The CAPTCHA has a vulnerability we'll discuss later. It's not necessary to achieve high degree of accuracy when designing automated recognition software. The accuracy of 15% is enough when attacker is able to run 100.000 tries per day, taking into the consideration the price of not automated recognition – one cent per one CAPTCHA." - which seems a plausible conclusion.

0x000000.com

Review: Digsby IM, multi-protocol IM client

Digsby is a newly launched multi-protocol instant messaging client.It is available for Windows, Linux and Mac. It works across AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Google Talk, Jabber and ICQ networks. It supports GMail, Yahoo Mail, Windows Live Mail, AOL, POP-based and IMAP-based mail services.

Digsby is one of the hottest apps currently available, and is currently invite-only. It works seamlessly across all the above-mentioned networks, and is more than just an IM client. Its ‘extra features’ include mail notifications, in-line email replies (without you touching the mail interface), and integration with social networking sites (MySpace and Facebook) to show messages, friend requests, invitations etc. In-line email replies mean that, when you are alerted of a new mail, you can immedeately reply to it from within Digsby.

Digsby has several extra features like:

1. Mail and social networking integration.
2. Inline email repying.

As you can see, inline email replying is quite new, and has some convenience factor going for it.

More @ techzilo.com

Miranda 0.8.0 Testing #9

Miranda IM is a multi protocol instant messenger client for Windows. Miranda IM uses very little memory and is extremely fast. It requires no installation and can be fitted on a single floppy disc. Its powerful plugin system makes Miranda IM very flexible. Only the most basic features are built in, but there are currently more than 350 free plugins available for download that allows users to extend the functionality of Miranda IM.

The major change in this 0.8 series is the new Plugin API. Expect that some of your plugins won't work anymore; most plugin authors already released compatible versions, though.

Changelog | Development website

Best Chat Client - Open Source and lightweight - Miranda IM

I have been using Miranda IM since 6 to 8 months or so. It is the best open source chat IM client. Its very light weight and supports many facilities.

It supports AIM, IRC, MSN, Yahoo, Jabber (XMPP protocol means gmail will work and any local LAN chat also works).

Basic architecture is plug in based. You can add different kinds of plug ins as per your needs.I will show here which plug ins you must have after installing it so it looks good and gives some good functions.

The most basic plug in is 'send/receive messages' which is in built and supports simple sending and receiving of messages. All protocol plug ins are also provided with the setup.You need to find more plug ins from add ons from Miranda site.

TabSRMM
This is very good plugin.
It supports

• tabbed message windows for multiple IMs.
• Log/history view of previous chat in the IM.
• Send message to multiple users at once.
  
• And many other cool things which are not in srmm.

This plug ins is very advanced version of SRMM you can say.I am suggesting this one only because with this, you can use it like any other. You can also find smilyadd plug in to add basic smilies to your chat. But this one is most needed.

History++ (History plus plus)
This is very advanced version of basic log viewer for all previous chat.
Basic log viewer shows all chat in listbox view. Means you need to select particular datetime to see the chat.

History++ will show you whole chat done for particular contact to till date in one view all text! isn't it great?You can also search in that log view.See the image below.

I will provide more good plug ins which may be of interest because of their usefulness. I generally avoid skinny things used for UI changes only :)

Please provide if you also find some new plug ins for it as i am not doing it now. This is what i am using and must have once.

so please leave comments and give your favorite plug ins.

Addons site for Miranda

Tracing An Email

The purpose of this guide is to show the process involved in tracing an email. The first step required to tracing an email is finding out the headers of the email. What are headers? Email headers are lines added at the top of an email message that are used by servers as the email goes on route to get delivered. Generally email clients only show the standard To, From, and Subject headers, but there are more.

Read more with pictures showing how to set options in gmail,hotmail and yahoo for this. And also explains email headers in detail @ onimoto.com

Yahoo! Messenger for Mac 3.0 Beta 2

A very good news for all Mac OS lovers.Yahoo has released the much awaited Yahoo! Messenger for Mac 3.0 Beta 2 .The new version has got many new features,although voice calling is still unavailable in this version but we can still hope that it will soon be in the coming versions. :-)


This new version includes:

Chat rooms: The chat rooms available to the windows yahoo messenger users,now the very same are available to the Mac users.

Tabbed IM windows: When you have two or more conversations going on, they appear as separate tabs in a single window. Less clutter for your desktop! Plus, you can drag a tab out and make it into its own window (or drag it back in to consolidate). Tabbed conversations are a preference, so if you prefer having one window per IM conversation, you still can.

Message archiving: All of your IM and chat room conversations can now be archived on your computer.

Improved stability for webcam and file transfer: There were issues with these in the past version so the team did a lot of bug fixes and under-the-hood work to improve them.

More emoticons:The additional emoticons that are in the other versions of Messenger are available to Mac users, so Mac users now have them all!

(The screenshot avaible has been taken from the official blog since I dont have a Mac)


System Requirements:This version of yahoo messenger Beta 2 only works on Mac OSX 10.4 or later.

---

Links:-
Download!
Go Home Page!
See Blog Post!


[via Technoworld]

Yahoo! Widgets 4.0.5 Build 184

Yahoo! Widgets are small, specific applications that you can run on your Windows or Mac OS desktop. A Widget can do almost anything from displaying a weather forecast to playing a game. Widgets generally sit on your desktop and don't look like applications as we're used to seeing them in a standard window. Instead, Widgets tend to look like small pictures or animations. Yahoo! Widgets help you save time and stay current by bringing an always-updated, at-a-glance view of your favorite Internet services right to your desktop. The Yahoo! Widget Gallery offers over 4,000 desktop Widgets - the most available anywhere online. Yahoo! Widgets is the only major desktop Widgets platform that works on both Windows and Mac OSes.

Changes in Version 4.0.5

* Fixed various issues with COM objects.
* Mac: Fixed a Japanese text input problem.
* Mac: Fixed a SQLite problem on Intel-based Macs.

Operating Systems Supported

* Windows XP SP2, 2000 SP4
* Windows Vista
* Mac OS X 10.3.9 and up


Yahoo! Widgets 4.0.5 Build 184

Bugs Discovered In Yahoo Messenger!

Yahoo is working on a patch for critical Yahoo Messenger vulnerabilities that could enable a remote hacker to take control of a user's system. eEye Digital Security's researchers found the bugs within the last few weeks and reported them to Yahoo on Wednesday, according to Marc Maiffret, co-founder and CTO of the security company. eEye's researchers say there actually are multiple flaws in Version 8 of Yahoo's instant messenger client software. Maiffret was careful not to give out too much information about the flaw until Yahoo can issue a patch for it.

InformationWeek

Yahoo! Music Launches Licensed Lyrics Service

Thanks to a new licensing deal between Yahoo! and Gracenote, song lyrics for hundreds of thousands of songs from major publishers will be incorporated into Yahoo! Music. Through the agreement, consumers can search for song lyrics from the Yahoo! Music Search bar, simply by entering even a partial lyric from the song. The database is, however, far from being complete. Yahoo! says it has lyrics for over 400,000 songs. Even having officially licensed lyrics does not guarantee accuracy - certain song lyrics still aren’t 100% accurate. Finally, in a time where DRM is, hopefully, on its way out the door, even the licensed lyrics come with their own version of DRM; you are not allowed to casually cut-and-paste any of the lyrics text.

DailyTech.com

SanDisk With Yahoo On Wi-Fi MP3 Player

SanDisk has released its $250 Sansa Connect, a new Wi-Fi-capable portable MP3 player featuring both free and subscription music service from Yahoo Music. Apple holds about 73% of the U.S. market for portable digital music players, while SanDisk is second with about 9%, according to market research firm NPD.

Sansa owners with a Yahoo ID will be able to listen to Launchcast Internet radio, browse Flickr photos, and send instant messages using Yahoo Messenger. Those with Yahoo Music Unlimited To Go subscriptions ($12 per month) will be able to download (but not burn to CD) an unlimited number of songs. Yahoo's music subscription service isn't available to Mac users. In answer to critics who might be tempted to complain about paying $12 a month, Ian Rogers on the Yahoo Music blog said the fee represented just compensation for the music industry.

The Sansa Connect has an internal speaker and 4GB of Flash memory. Its storage capacity can be expanded using a microSD card in the built-in slot. The device supports a variety of digital audio formats such as MP3 and Windows Media Audio. In addition to Yahoo's music service, the device works with Microsoft PlaysForSure subscriptions. Available now in the U.S., the Sansa Connect is scheduled for release in Canada later this year.

source: InformationWeek

Yahoo opens up e-mail APIs to outsiders

Yahoo on Wednesday is expected to release software that will allow third-party developers to write applications using Yahoo Mail. The move to open up the application programming interfaces (APIs) to Yahoo Mail is meant to encourage Web developers to build applications that use the mail service. The company expects these third-party "mashups," hybrid software that combines content from more than one source, will bring in more customers. "There is tremendous potential for additional usage of Mail. By providing more user experiences, we believe we will increase engagement and utilization of the platform," said John Kraemer, vice president of Yahoo Mail.

Yahoo is also providing financial incentive to developers, offering $10 for every new Yahoo Mail premium account that third parties bring in during a trial period. The APIs will be available either via the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) or JSON, a JavaScript-based method. One new application that was built by an outside developer creates a connection between Yahoo Mail and Yahoo's Flickr photo-sharing site. Each time a new e-mail comes in, the service looks at the subject line and retrieves a photo from Flickr based on the words of a subject line. E-mail pertaining to a trip to France, for example, could automatically generate photos of the Eiffel Tower, explained Chad Dickerson, senior director of the Yahoo Developer Network.

Source: News.com

Gmail, Yahoo, MSN Passwords Exposed By Entertainment Site

Los Angeles Splash Magazines Worldwide, which publishes local versions of its magazines under URLs like NYCSplash.com and LASplash.com, has exposed the personal e-mail addresses and passwords for hundreds of its subscribers. The list of e-mail addresses and passwords for members' Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, and other accounts would turn up in the results of unrelated Google searches Monday if those searches happened to contain at least two keywords that matched the names of Splash members. Splash founder Larry Davis said in an interview that he was not aware of the security problem and did not know how it could have occurred.

Splash's servers are co-located at a Los Angeles Internet hosting company called Calpop. However, Calpop co-founder Lynn Hoover said his company simply rents floor space and bandwidth to Splash and is not involved with the maintenance or operation of its Web sites. Hoover theorizes that the information could have been inadvertently exposed to the Web if the Google search spider happened to be crawling Splash's sites at a time when password-protected pages were open for editing or maintenance. Versions of the pages held in Google's cache would then be publicly available. Understandably, some Splash members are now worried they're going to get soaked by cybercriminals. It's definitely an issue Splash will be dealing with for quite a while. If you're a member, make sure to change your password before you go and write them an angry e-mail.

Source: InformationWeek

Yahoo To Offer Unlimited E-mail Storage

Yahoo Inc. plans to offer unlimited e-mail storage to its roughly quarter of a billion users, starting in May, it said on Tuesday. The world's biggest e-mail service is scrapping its free e-mail storage limit of 1 gigabyte, or about a billion bytes of data, responding to explosive growth in attachment sizes as people share ever more photos, music and videos via e-mail. Microsoft has a 2 gigabyte free e-mail storage limit, while Google caps its Gmail service at 2.8 gigabytes. "We are giving them no reason to ever have to delete old e-mails," Yahoo co-founder David Filo said in a phone interview. "You can keep stuff forever."

Officials said the decision to remove e-mail storage limits reflects the plunging cost of storage as new personal computers store up to a trillion bytes of data and owners of 80-gigabyte iPods can carry 100 hours of video in their pockets. By contrast, when Yahoo first introduced its e-mail service a little under a decade ago, it capped individual storage at 4 megabytes per user. At that time, an "ultra high-density" floppy disk for personal computers then held 144 megabytes. "People should think about e-mail as something where they are archiving their lives," said Filo, who remains active in managing technical operations at the Sunnyvale, California, company and carries the honorific title of Chief Yahoo. Starting in May, the changeover to unlimited storage should take a month, said John Kremer, vice president of Yahoo Mail.

Source: Yahoo News

Yahoo's mobile search now available to all

Yahoo has opened up its mobile oneSearch service to anyone with a phone who can access the Internet. The offering was previously available as part of Yahoo Go for Mobile, a mobile phone-optimized content only compatible with certain handsets. Yahoo claims 85% of mobile phones on the market can use the service. OneSearch is initially available to users in the U.S., and Yahoo plans to roll it out in additional languages and countries in the coming months.

In a bold move, Yahoo has placed a button called "Dare to Compare" on the oneSearch Web site which opens a 21-page document containing screen shots that compare the results of a Google mobile search with a Yahoo oneSearch mobile search. Rather than displaying lists of links as search results, oneSearch pulls up a range of results, including news headlines, images, business listings, and reviews. The service is designed to make searching for and finding information as quick as possible, Yahoo said.

Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft have all begun offering search services tailored to mobile-phone users, all of which deliver advertisements in their search results. The online giants are competing against handset makers like Nokia that often include their own search mechanisms in phones as well as startups like Medio Systems that offer search services that mobile operators can self-brand.

Source: InfoWorld