Downloading FLV Files - URLSnooper 2

Most sites are now using Flash as the frontend, and Flash Video as the video file format. This is all good and well, but makes the task of getting the FLV file a little bit more tricky.

I've always looked at the source code, and from there figured out the location of the FLV file, but even this is difficult if the site embeds the video with references and not URL's.

Then I found URLSnooper 2 ( http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/urlsnooper/index.html ). This little utility installs the WinPcap libraries (also used by Ethereal - http://www.ethereal.com/) to literally sniff the packets passing through the Ethernet interface, and find all HTTP POST and GET requests.

It the summarizes that in the application, from where you can copy paste the once you want into your download manager.

Yes, that simple. Start the sniffer, surf the site you want, stop the sniffer and copy the links.

Netbook and Office

So, I have a Netbook, and there is no way I'm installing any Office Suite onto it. She already battles, so why add that load.

So let's look at the online office solutions:

Google Docs - http://docs.google.com

and

Zoho - http://www.zoho.com

I've been using Google Docs happily, then I got a Microsoft Excel 2007 price list from a supplier that is 2.5Mb in size. Google just will not load it because it is over the 1Mb size limit. Zoho tries, but then gives an error, no explanation, just an error. So now I had to look for a solution. I then tried opening the document on a Microsoft Office 2007 machine, removed all the fluf and saved it, still no luck. I even did the ZIP rename and removed the images from the file.

So of to Google we go, and there someone mentioned http://www.acrobat.com.

I registered for the free option (look for it in the signup screen), uploaded the original XLSX file as I got it from the supplier, and done. Very nice interface (Google Chrome) and the file is in a PDF format. Yes, some of the formatting isn't 100%, but I can view the file! You can then even share and download the file.

Give it a try.