Direct Links to Multiple Google Accounts

I have a few different Google accounts that I use regularly. For Gmail, I mostly have it set up to send email from one inbox. However, there are times when I want to open up a specific inbox without having to open up the main account, click my address, and then click my other account. The same thing applies for multiple calendars, drive/docs, etc.

I set up some bookmarks to directly link to the accounts and here are the formats.

In all cases, you need to be signed in to each of your accounts. And the order you signed in matters. The number (0, 1, 2) corresponds to the order in which you signed in (starting at 0)

Here is the format of the URLs:

Gmail:
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0 (or just https://mail.google.com)
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/2

Google Calendar:
https://www.google.com/calendar?tab=mc&authuser=0
https://www.google.com/calendar?tab=mc&authuser=1
https://www.google.com/calendar?tab=mc&authuser=2

Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/?tab=mo&authuser=0
https://drive.google.com/?tab=mo&authuser=1
https://drive.google.com/?tab=mo&authuser=2

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Other Blog Posts

Here are some recent posts I wrote on a different blog:

Creating an in-memory cache in a Grails/Groovy application using Google's Guava cache library:
http://refactr.com/blog/2012/05/grails-in-memory-cache-using-googles-guava-library/

Using Google fusion tables and GPS data from my Garmin running watch to easily create a heat-map of most-visited locations:
http://refactr.com/blog/2012/04/create-a-heat-map-using-google-docs/

Using Eclipse/STS for Grails development. Why you should switch and some common errors/remedies:
http://refactr.com/blog/2012/04/switch-to-sts/

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Extract Audio from YouTube Videos

I wanted to get an mp3 of a video on YouTube. There are sites that will do it for you, but I wanted a little more control.

Turns out it was pretty easy with free software.

1) Download the flv video

I used the open-source YouTube Downloader from Sourceforge. With that Java application I just needed to drag the URL from my browser onto the application and it would start downloading. I could even download multiple videos at once.

2) Extract the audio

ffmpeg was all I needed in this case. The command I used was:

ffmpeg -i youtubevideo.flv output.mp3

Simple as that!

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Calibre and Kindle Collections

I recently bought a Kindle. Even though I didn't think I would like it, I really do. Maybe it is the computer scientist in me, but I want to control how books are organized and displayed from my computer instead of from the Kindle. Enter Calibre (http://calibre-ebook.com/). If you don't know, Calibre is to ebooks as iTunes is to mp3s. It is great at organizing and converting books. However, out-of-the-box it doesn't support collections on the Kindle.

It was pretty easy to set up:

1. Install the "Kindle Collections" plugin (instructions here)
2. Create a custom column by going to Preferences > Change calibre behavior > Interface > Add your own columns. Click the "Add custom column" button
3. Give it a lookup name (kindlecollections), Column heading (Kindle Collections), and choose the "Text, column shown in tag browser"
4. Fill in that new column with whatever collections you want on your Kindle. You can also go to Edit metadata > Custom metadata to add the name of the collections
5. Plug in your Kindle (if you haven't already) so you can use the Kindle Collections plugin
6. Go to Kindle Collections > Customize collections to create from Calibre...
7. Select "Create" in the Action dropdown for your new column
8. Go to Kindle Collections > Create collections on the Kindle from Calibre
9. Eject and Restart your Kindle

It sounds more complicated than it really is. I know there are other tips out there for using existing columns like Series for Kindle Collections, but that didn't make sense to me as much as creating a new column.

Also, I don't like that you have to restart your Kindle every time, but I think that is a Kindle limitation, not Calibre or the plugin.

Let me know if you have any other Kindle/Calibre/Collections tips!

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Convert 2-Column PDF to eBook

I recently bought a Kindle and have started loading it with techy books/papers/etc. that I can find for free. I am using the free calibre (http://calibre-ebook.com) software to do the conversion since pretty much everything I find is in PDF format.

It works OK for 1-column PDFs, but for 2-column the conversion does not work at all. I can read PDFs on my Kindle, but it is not as nice as reading an actual ebook.

I found one way to convert them in case anyone else is interested:

1) Upload the PDF to Google Docs

2) Choose to "Make a Google Docs Copy" which will convert it into the Google Docs document format that you can edit

3) Tweak as needed

4) Download as HTML

5) Load into Calibre and convert to your book type (mobi, epub, etc)

This will only convert the first 10 pages though, so you might need to split the original PDF (with a site like http://foxyutils.com/splitpdf). However, if it gets too long this method will get pretty tedious.

If you have any questions or thoughts, let me know.

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