Web Reader's Digest: Collection of useful articles, free softwares, life experiences, and ideas: 2009

If you have ever received or missed a call from a strange caller, you may look for it and related complaints from the list. They are, in most cases, telemarketers.

"This is a user supplied database of phone numbers of telemarketers, ..., SCAM artists..." (They are artists now)

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Refill your car tank WELL BEFORE the gas runs out

http://forums.finalgear.com/questions-and-answers/does-running-out-of-fuel-in-a-petrol-car-damage-the-engine-8549/

Because then the small particles at the tank bottom will find a way to enter the engine. Refill when the gas is depleted to one quater.

Never start the car engine when it is already running

http://autorepair.about.com/library/faqs/bl760g.htm

http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090120210126AAEi8aR

"you will damage both the starter and flywheel"

The simple rule: every time before starting the engine, look at the engine speed gauge. If it is more than zero, then it is running, and do not start the engine.

How to use Google Voice outside of USA

http://www.intjgeek.com/2009/07/google-voice-in-canada.html

If you get a Google Voice invitation, and are not in USA, above link may provide a solution.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

What is the effect on credit score when closing a credit card?

http://credit.about.com/od/creditreportscoring/qt/closecardscore.htm

According to the link, there is no effect when there is no balance on that card.

Contactless credit card payment

They are more and more popular.

http://www.ratecreditcards.ca/blog/visa-paywave-and-mastercard-paypass-gaining-popularity/

Are they compatible between the 3 credit card companies? There are dual reader now.

http://www.casauto.com.tw/en/in-products-03.aspx?id=P_00000039&cid=C_00000010&pname=EZPROX&cname=Contactless+Reader

(I am not advertising this product. It is searched from Google)

Are they secure and safe without leaking information over the air? Would the rader scan all your contactless credit cards in your wallet? Someone has already expressed the concerns.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/24/rfid_credit_card_hack/

TSMC laying off employees 5% annually

http://danielnenni.com/2009/07/14/blogging-from-taiwan-tsmc-and-40nm-yield/

"a portion of the 5 percent of company employees rated “improvement needed” or “unacceptable” and unable to reach performance targets, are let go."

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Internet radio list

http://www.radiotower.com/

Good to play as background music player, while working or browsing.

Collection of Old Computers

http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/

As old as 1975; good site to observe how computer evolved.

http://www.old-computers.com/news/default.asp

It has links to ebay links selling those olddies.

Use blog as an open bookmark

It is a good idea to use blog as an open bookmark, containing the links to the interesting and useful websites/pages, and with some short comments. This is what I am using.

It is easy to search the past blogs, from the search box at left top. It is also easy to read them from the Categories.

Google Bookmark (http://www.google.com/bookmarks) could do some job, but it's somewhat limited for this purpose.

Universities shall encourage Open Source Softwares

http://linuxlock.blogspot.com/2009/01/enough-is-enough-higher-education-wake.html

http://blog.linuxtoday.com/blog/2009/01/proprietary-bar.html

Dual-boot with Windows/Linux would be a good choice.

If the homeworks are required to be done in Word, you can use OpenOffice and save it in Word format. There is Word viewer for you to check if the format looks fine in Word's view.

Add a button to your blog or website for quick sharing

http://www.addtoany.com/

It is quick to generate the neccessary code by that website, and then you can insert to your blog.

Below is something more complicated, to add individual buttons to your blog.

http://www.wolf-howl.com/tools/social-bookmark-script-widget/

Student launched complicated rocket

http://psas.pdx.edu/news/2009-05-31/

This is the video captured by camera on the rocket

http://psas.pdx.edu/news/2009-05-31/launch_onboard.avi

It is dizzling:)

Free issues of Popular Science

http://books.google.com/books?id=cH2deQNd2yUC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0

Free issues of Popular Science, up to Feb. 2008, on Google Books.
Google Books also holds a lot more free books, or books for preview.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Qualities of Success

http://blog.iqmatrix.com/mind-map/indispensable-qualities-of-success-mind-map

Success is not the amount of money you earned, or the house or the car. Success is the quality of your being. In the above link, it evaluate the "qualities of success", among them there are some inspired me most:

"Patient, Self-Belief & Assurance, Humble, Forgiving, Living Passionately, Has Burning Desire (对明天有期待), Is Always Smiling, Is Not Concerned with Criticism, Living as an Optimistic Realist, Living Life as a Game (the Game of Life never ends as long as you keep playing), Always Reframes Negativity (re-interpret negative words or unfortunate events and circumstances...), Lives within the Flow of Life (taking action without resistance, judgment or regret), Lives within Present Moment (活在当下), Lives Detached from Outcomes (超然于世), Ambitious (become more than what you are today), Constantly Persevering Forward (永远向前), Learns from Adversity, Mistakes & Others, Always Growing."

"Success is more of a Journey rather than a Final Destination."

And one thought: There is no need to force ourselves to meet all the requirements from day one. We all have different points of view and different expectations of ourselves. We are not super-men; we would have some natural feelings and responses to negative circumstances, and would be excited and not kept calm when reaching material temporary "success". We could, along our life, to purify ourselves and spend our journey joyfully in heart.

English-Chinese online dictionary

http://www.dict.cn/

"本在线词典由在美国印第安纳大学的中国留学生创建"

More tips to avoid banking fees

I would like to add more options to the below link:

1) Sign on with a no-fee bank, in Canda, there are PC Financial and Citizensbank of Canada.

2) Use a Calendar software/website (e.g., Sunbird or GCal) to manage bill payment and fund transfer (Do not pack a large amount of money in checking account all the time)

3) Use a financial management website/software/speadsheet (there are plenty of them free, e.g., for spreadsheet you can use OpenOffice) to manage your account(s).

4) Enable overdraft for your checking account to prevent overdraft fee and bad credit due to that.

http://www.ineedmotivation.com/blog/2008/08/5-tips-to-avoid-paying-bank-fees/

Chinese language is popular now...

For example, http://www.chinese.cn/, "Confucius Institute", teaching Chinese online.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Copyright issues of blogs

For the contents placed in Google Blogger, we have to obey the Digital Millennium Copyright Act according to Google policy (http://www.google.com/adsense_dmca.html).

More details can be found in http://www.copyright.gov/. Especially in http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-fairuse.html#permission, "Under the fair use doctrine of the U.S. copyright statute, it is permissible to use limited portions of a work including quotes, for purposes such as commentary, criticism, news reporting, and scholarly reports." "Whether a particular use qualifies as fair use depends on all the circumstances."

In http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html, “quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment" is treated as fair use.

Google Calendar on Google Talk

http://www.ditii.com/2008/04/05/google-talk-labs-edition/

"it lets you launch Google Calendar, while including notifications for Google Calendar events"

However, it does not allow you to create events on GCal on desktop.

(Free) VOIP services information

http://voipguides.blogspot.com/

Including some free (new) services. Usually new services offer some free time to attract users.

Please search the Internet for review if you'd like to pay for a service.

Really dismiss reminders in Sunbird Reminder window

The Sunbird Reminder window is quite neat to pop up the reminders if the tasks/events are lapsed.

However, it is noticed that if you "Dismiss" the event, it will pop up later again. What I do is to click on the "Details" of the event in the Reminder window, bring up the "Edit event" window, and set the Reminder option as "No Reminder". Thus prevents the reminder from popping up again.

For the repeative events, you will need to "Edit just this occurance".

File sharing services

http://software-wikipedia.blogspot.com/2009/02/yahoo-briefcase-end-of-life-better-file.html

As large as 25 GB by Microsoft Windows Skydrive

Free website hosting service (2)

http://www.feloos.com/?p=2743

some offer offline editors, and some offer online ones.

Mirror Blog for Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=19519711192

"A blog writer supporting Live Spaces, Blogger.com, WordPress.com, WordPress powered blogs and many other blog services."

"Mirrors your external blog into a local blog in facebook"

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Updated preference for Email/Calendar/etc

Using Opera as:

- Web browsing (disabling cookie and Javescript etc, as far as you can)

- Email, using IMAP for Gmail, speed is good if using "Low bandwidth mode"; better than POP3 since you can selectively delete the emails on server using IMAP.

- RSS reader. It can recognize RSS/Atom/XML feed; it does not download ads.

Using Sunbird and GCALDaemon together to sync with Google Calendar

This is faster than using Sunbird directly connect to Google Calendar

Events can be scheduled on GCal as usual.

For tasks, you can treat them as all-day events. You can set the event's date as the task's deadline. By adjusting how early the reminder/alarm pops up, you can set up the starting date of the task.

In fact, it is not recommended to synchronize everything to GCal; you can choose what to be put on GCal and what is only on local machine:

1) Set two Calendars, one named "GCal", the other Home; when creating a schedule, choose "GCal" as Calendar name if you wish the schedule to be on google;

2) Simply do not synchronize Sunbird to google; manually create those schedules which need to be accessed out of home.

A fake Gmail?

http://www.gmail.cn/

Is it a service provided by Google or NOT?

Home and Auto maintenance monthly checklist

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/06/05/save-time-effort-and-money-with-a-monthly-home-and-auto-maintenance-checklist/

A long and detailed list...

Facebook and Life

http://www.pcworld.com/article/167206/is_facebook_past_its_prime.html

"People Who Actually Have Lives Don't Use Facebook"

This is probably true for all the social networks which need constant updates and tremendous time.

Now Google is on Twitter

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/google-accounts-on-twitter.html

Twitter is more and more popular. Now Google is on Twitter.

Opera Feed Reader can filter out ads?

Opera Feed Reader can catch the Atom or XML links, and subscribe to desired blogs by simple clicking. Later you can read the feeds along with reading your emails.

Furthermore, it is noticed that the Feed Reader does not download the ads Google inserted.

Google vs. Microsoft

http://www.pcworld.com/article/168246/google_microsoft_invade_enemy_territory_who_wins.html?tk=nl_dnx_h_crawl

Chrome OS, Bing...

中国IC产业状况

http://www.kthr.com/blog/article.asp?id=81

"创业公司能否真正走向成功很大程度上取决于创始人的人格魅力"

Friday, July 10, 2009

A To-Do list website

Remember the Milk

http://www.rememberthemilk.com/

Related add-on for Thunderbird:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/7125

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Start VNC server on Linux allowing 2 users use the same PC

http://www.abdevelopment.ca/blog/start-vnc-server-ubuntu-boot

"In this case, my server runs MythTV on the normal X server connected to my TV, but starts up Azureus and K3B in a VNC session so I can access them without bothering those watching TV."

Free website hosting service

Having different names:

http://www.50megs.com/

http://www.mysite.com/

"Ads on your site; 50 MB disk space"

Hard Science Fiction

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_science_fiction

"Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific or technical detail, or on scientific accuracy, or on both."

Science Fiction based on true scientific theories?

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Sync local calendar with remote GCal (do not need online all the time)

http://gcaldaemon.sourceforge.net/usage.html

using "GCALDaemon (Java 1.5 required)".

"Notebook configuration - Dial-up Internet connection (offline-enabled mode)"

How to export Opera address book to CSV format

http://www.hallvord.com/opera/adr2tab.htm

You can use above link to do the conversion from Opera .adr format to .csv one. The later can be imported to other Email clients.

I did not try it so far, and I am worried about privacy since one needs to upload the address book to the website to do the conversion.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

A tool to migrate contacts to Opera Email

http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/coOpera-Download-52735.html

"All you need to do is export your Microsoft Outlook contacts to a CSV file, choose the contacts you would like to convert, and finally, import converted contacts to Opera browser. Everything else will be done automatically for you!"

This should also work for Google address book exported in CSV format.

How to fake Opera to other browsers

http://www.scss.com.au/family/andrew/opera/browserids/

It is sad that Opera has to pretend that it's other web browsers to work for some websites. The above link tells you how to do so.

Google Calendar: a Opera widgets

http://widgets.opera.com/widget/10241/

You can use it to access GCal from Opera in a quick manner.

It does not have a reminder window like Outlook or Sunbird though.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Another preference of Web/Email/Calendar

Opera: web browsing, Email (faster than Thunderbird)

Sunbird: linked to Google calendar through XML and Provider (stand-alone, more stable than using Lightning add-on in Thunderbird)

Note: I find that using CalDAV to connect to GCal is slow, and consuming 100% CPU.

FoxIt pdf reader with writing functionality

From menu Tools => Typewriter, you can write on the pdf file, even though the pdf file was not designed to fill in.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Tips of using Thunderbird

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Keep_it_working_(Thunderbird)

"Don't use the default profile name"

"Keep the Inbox empty" (Yes, it is. Read the above link for details)

"Regularly compact your Inbox folder"

电子版报纸

新民周刊

http://xmzk.xinmin.cn

新民晚报

http://xmwb.xinmin.cn

Hybrid cars vs. gas cars

http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/hybrid-vs-gasoline-vehicle-comparison-are-hybrids-worth-it.htm

It takes at least 6 years to get the price difference paid back, by assuming gas price as $1.30/L.

"With all the extra electronics involved with a Hybrid, it’s also bound to have extra maintenance costs also, which is not accounted for."

Tips for Canada Tax

http://www.taxtips.ca/

How investment tax works

http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/how-investing-taxes-work-part-1.htm

The advices only work for Canada.

"The 50% inclusion rate is a reason why most financial gurus suggest that you keep investments for the purposes of capital appreciation/gain outside of your RRSP. "

"This is why you’ll read some tax strategies to sell your losing stocks at the end of the year. The losing amount will be deducted from your total winning amount and reduce your overall taxes."

"it simply means that if you sell a stock at a loss, you can’t repurchase the shares back again within 30 days and claim the loss against your gains. "

"Dividend’s received from Canadian public corporations are tax preferred, so you should consider keeping these dividends outside your RRSP."

"Interest income should be kept inside an RRSP b/c of it’s high taxation."

Beware of foreign currency conversion fees

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/Jul08_currency_conversion_fee_a1can.asp

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/Jul08_currency_conversion_fee_a2can.asp

usually 2% to 2.5%.

The best rate:

"Caisse Desjardins

Credit card purchase: No fee

Credit card cash advance: No fee"

I remember PayPal also has such conversion fees hidden in the conversion rate.

RSS feed by Opera

I was used to use email subscription to get notification of blog updates.

However, later I discovered that Opera can subscribe to RSS feed easily. This is better since I can go to the RSS feed directory in my Opera, and read only the desired blogs. And the downloaded contents in this way do not include ads etc.

Even Canada has 3% cash-back credit card

http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/mbna-smart-cash-credit-card-the-new-cash-back-king.htm

"3% cash back on the first $600 spent on groceries and/or gasoline each month, 1% afterward."

"Promotional rate 5% rebate on GAS and GROCERIES (registered gas, grocery business: Loblow, Safeway, etc.., Walmart, Canadian Tire are NOT) on first 6 months up to $600 per month, after that it is 1%."

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Alias of gmail: one gmail address means a lot ones

http://www.devilsworkshop.org/how-many-gmail-addresses-you-have-gmail-trick/

You can use alias gmail to sink junk email, e.g., me+junkmail@gmail.com. However, spamers will find out this, and extract your real gmail.

(Personal) preference of softwares for Internet

Browser:

Opera with every option turned off, e.g., Javascript, Java, Plug-in, and cookie.

Reason:

1. Most useful websites use plain HTML and hyperlink, so there is no need to turn on Javascript or Jave. Even Gmail provides a pure HTML version. Java(script) are turned off for security reason, and to reduce resources usage. They can be turned on only when neccessary.

2. Plug-in: If it for displaying pdf, then the pdf files can be downloaded and viewed by FoxIt; if it is for video, then it can be on only at that time.

3. Most websites do not ask for cookie. Some websites (which require you to log in) do not work before cookie is enabled. Enable when required.

4. IE is used only when needed. Some websites do not display or function well in Opera.

Email/Calendar:

Thunderbird using POP3, with Lightning add-on.

Feel like Outlook both for email and calendar.

POP3 is faster since it does not resync like IMAP (correct me if I am wrong).

Lightning can connect to GCal directly using XML link. Calendar data is small compared to email, resync is fine.

IMAP vs. POP3 in Thunderbird to access Gmail

1. When using POP3, deleting local emails cannot automatically delete emails in online Gmail account; IMAP can do this.

2. POP3 can be faster when using TB, since you can set in Gmail so that TB downloads only recent emails; IMAP resyncs all.

If network speed is slow, POP3 would be better.

Other operation systems, e.g., BeOS

There are lots of other operation systems existed, for example,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BeOS

However, if it is not commercially successful, or it did not open its sources in the right early time, it is usually unpopular, and limited to some small enthusiast group.

Receive hotmail using Thunderbird email client

http://email.about.com/od/windowslivehotmailtips/qt/et_pop_access.htm

Information includes pop3 server, port, etc.

Import calendar from Outlook to Lightning (calendar add-on for Thunderbird email client)

http://sysblogd.wordpress.com/2007/08/28/changing-from-outlook-to-thunderbird-calender-exportimport/

Basically, Outlook => csv file => Google calendar => Lightning calendar

It actually let Lightning to connect to Google calendar.

Note:

1. "select the calendar “Outlook” and at the very bottom copy the XML Link Private Address", you may want to copy the ICAL address instead of XML one. Thus will let you access Google Calendar from PC in read-only mode.

2. If you follow the original steps in the post, make sure to install "Provider" (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/4631) first, then you will be able to find option to create GCal in Lightning. This allow writing directly to GCal from Lightning.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminator:_The_Sarah_Connor_Chronicles

"Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly announced Fox would not renew the show for a third season."

"There are still several fan campaigns being held in order to 'save' the show." "This campaign has currently raised more than $1500 over two days."

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Techniques of using LinkedIn

http://susanstrayer.com/2009/06/inside-track-compuware-what-do-recruiters-look-for-on-linkedin.html#more

Companies are starting to recruit on Twitters!

http://susanstrayer.com/2009/05/companies-recruiting-on-twitter-updated.html

Though I have a Twitter account, I never really wrote anything on it. Feel it is too short to say something clearly.

A blog for EE (especially analog IC) career

http://ieee-jbdavid.blogspot.com/

especially this article "Breaking into Analog IC":
http://ieee-jbdavid.blogspot.com/2009/05/breaking-into-analog-ic.html

Keep Learning new knowledge through the whole life

http://www.planetanalog.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217701386&cid=NL_planet

An board level principle engineer is learning analog IC design. He even designed his own course:
http://www.tronola.com/files/Download/M501%20Syllabus%20Basic%20BiCMOS%20Analog%20IC%20Design.txt

He had to learn himself, from book, website, but fellow IC design engineers. Congratulations to his first tape-out.

Importance to protect your online fame

http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/55772/

Your history can be googled in full.

Ways to reduce memory usage of Ubuntu

http://michkhoo.blogspot.com/2009/01/ubuntu-how-to-reduce-memory-usage.html

In a word, do not load any process which you do not need.

Lightweighted Linux, suitable for old PC

http://lxde.org/

""Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment", is an extremely fast, performing and energy saving desktop environment."

Having USB version.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Some Gmail desktop clients

GeeMail, GMDesk, Mailplane(for Mac), etc.

However, in my opinion, it is better to find a general email client instead of those targeted only at Gmail.

Email/Calendar softwares testing

Thunderbird with Lightening add-on (winner):

Email - Thunderbird is quite similar to Outlook interface; can set it to fetch only the email headers before deciding to download the desired emails.
Problem: though can use right-click to save email to .eml format, by double-clicking .eml, it does not show pictures.

Calendar - Lightening add-on, also quite similar to Outlook calendar, having pop-up reminder window;
Problem: cannot drag a file or an email and put it into a schedule. This feature would be quite useful to provide some background for a schedule.

Opera:

Email - POP3 works fine, can choose to download only the first short portion of email, then I can decide if I need to download the full email. Problem: does not show images (might because of setup issues).

Calendar - NA, except several not fully functional Widgets.

Evolution: Does not work well on my WinXP;

Email - Works, though complaining xxx-exchange.exe halted (?);

Calendar - does not work; when I wanted to add a schedule, it terminates.

Zimbra: cannot start on WinXP; works fine on Linux.

Reduce Linux memory usuage

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-linux-memory.html?ca=dgr-lnxw01ReduceLinuxMemory

World restaurant list

http://chefmoz.org/

compiled and maintained by volunteers.

Digital 3D movie at home?

http://www.digdia.com/3d/dc3d09_main.htm

"This report covers the value chain from the production, distribution and exhibition of 3D movies to the ways companies are planning and sometimes offering 3D to the home. "

Monday, June 29, 2009

How to install Ubuntu onto a flash disk

http://www.debuntu.org/how-to-install-ubuntu-linux-on-usb-bar

Financial Advisor?

http://news.wenxuecity.com/messages/200906/news-gb2312-877965.html

"2007年的牛市，让金亮重新对股票市场产生了兴趣。当时他的130多万美元账户，已在汇丰的推荐下购入了债券等低风险的票据资产，仍剩余两三万港元的现金。这时，汇丰私人银行为他配置的私人顾问，一位姓李而自称汤太太的汇丰私人银行的客户经理，在2007年10月12日用10分钟的时间，在电话里游说他购买了Accumulator（累计股票期权）——尽管金亮以为自己仅仅是在H股市场购入了1000股中国铝业。

《21世纪经济报道》对金亮的遭遇进行了报道之后，今年5月金亮应汇丰（香港）私人银行的要求，再次到香港中环与汇丰当面质询，同时记录下了汇丰一直不肯向他提供的10分钟的电话录音内容。这致命的10分钟销售电话内容，被金亮完整地记录在网上，并于本月初在《中国证券报》等媒体或多或少地转载。

Accumulator是一种专业金融投资产品，是一种复杂的，带有对赌性质的协议。“这种产品即使在国外，风险管理经理见到都会皱眉头，”伦敦Constellation energy的风险评估经理张雅星对记者说，“这不是一般人可以把握的产品，一般不向非专业投资者推荐。”

金亮认为，在这次游说里，汤太太没有明确指出金亮购买的是Accumulator，也没有明确列举这种交易的高风险（可能导致金亮的130多万美元资产输光并倒欠银行）。直到金亮在一年前被通知变成了“负翁”，金亮才明白，他当时买下来的，不是 1000股按打折价售卖的中国铝业，而是一个风险巨大的对赌协议。

“我是一边聊MSN一边与她通电话。我认为自己是买1000股而已，根本不知道她在促销一个我当时并不知道的金融产品。”金亮回忆说，“才两三万港币股票嘛，我何必花那么多心思呢？一年后才发现自己买了50万股。”

直到去年1月，知道账户发生了巨亏，金亮才赶紧开始了解究竟发生了什么。他这才发现，自己买的竟然是一个每天都要进行1000或2000股交易的一年期Accumulator投资合同，是一只高风险的金融衍生品。

有的法律界朋友鼓励他控告汇丰。“那1000股以外的都是银行超越了双方的口头约定而擅自购入的，这个责任不应该由金先生承担。所以我一直给他打气。”一位陈姓知情人对记者说，“且不管胜与负，一旦在国内起诉，我觉得就是标志性的，给那些外资银行一个信号，就是中国司法系统可以管辖这些事。” "

Comments: It would be always wise to take care of own money by self. It worths the time spent on learning how to invest.

Similarly, for decisions in life, "As advice from everyone, but take your own decision."

Google version of wikipedia?

http://knol.google.com

Different from wiki, each article is authored by only one person.

Similar websites:

http://www.squidoo.com

http://www.eHow.com

Yahoo's Site Explorer

https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/

See which websites are linked to your website or webpage.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Free TV shows?

http://www.itv.com/ITVPlayer/Video/default.html?ViewType=5&Filter=44112

Currently "having technical difficulty", will check back later.

Recycle your old PCs

e.g., http://ca.geocities.com/that_computerguy/index2.html

"That Computer Guy has since the fall of 2001 has been collecting old PC's and parts from the people of the Ottawa area. Since then has fixed and found homes for over two hundred used computer systems, and has donated countless hours of computer help and repair."

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Reduce windows XP footprint

http://www.litepc.com/xppreview.html

make XP smaller and faster

A collection of photos and descriptions of CPUs

http://www.cpu-world.com/

Including common ones (Intel and AMD) and some rare ones.

Calls to US for free through Google Voice

From http://www.pcworld.com/article/167449/hands_on_with_google_voice_this_is_really_cool.html?tk=nl_dnx_h_crawl

Features:

Google Voice provides a single phone number, for all your cell, home, and work numbers, and lets you manage your voice services online.

Vary personalized greetings by caller.

Phone U.S. numbers for free. (Drawback: web-based, no SIP support)

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Good Opera Widget

http://widgets.opera.com/widget/8081/

dotoo v2.04

creating to-do list.

Opera consumes less resourses than IE, Firefox, Google Chrome, from my experience.

What is the best free solution for email/calendar purpose, especially with the similar functionality of Outlook? Opera can do email; with dotoo, it can also do the work performed by Outlook calendar (such as schedule, and to-do list reminder through the pop-up alarms). dotoo can also be a real calendar, because it records the starting time of a event.

The issue is that it cannot import/outport to standard calendar format. Can it?

How about Evolution or Zimbra? Will try.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Gaia's evil twin: Is life its own worst enemy? - life - 17 June 2009 - New Scientist

Gaia's evil twin: Is life its own worst enemy? - life - 17 June 2009 - New Scientist

Shared via AddThis

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Monday, July 27, 2009

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Friday, July 17, 2009