My new love: PotPlayer

My new love, oh no, I mean have felt in love with a new media player. PotPlayer is not new, but being outdated uncle, I was too lazy to change the media player once I found it is very stable for daily usage. I have been using KMPlayer for many years, with Media Player Classic as backup for daily usage.

PotPlayer is created by the same author (Mr Kang) that wrote KMPlayer. However KMPlayer has been sold to a commercial company, Pandora TV in 2007. After that, Mr Kang shifted his focus to create another player, hence PotPlayer is created.

Why I switch from KMPlayer to PotPlayer?

1. PotPlayer has the same functionality like KMPLayer. Therefore no problem at all from the time I switched.

2. KMPlayer is becoming bulky after being takeover by Pandora TV. It is not as light as I think anymore. From the setup file grow from ~14M at Sep 2010, to ~17M at Oct 2011, to ~22M for latest version of KMP 3.1. This is a very bad sign, the code should be optimized from time to time, but becoming another MS Windows. PotPlayer at softpedia right now is about ~8M only.

3. KMPlayer become slow in sync up the video and audio during play back of RMVB format. The problem appear when I try to skip to a certain time, or fast-forward or backward, especially I use the left and right arrow keys to fast-forward or backward. PotPlayer don't have this problem at all. Media Player Classic don't have this problem as well.

4. Portable version of PotPlayer is easily available compare to KMPlayer.

5. No additional codec is require to enable PotPlayer to play all major format. I don't need to install any codec to play RMVB, mkv, divx, xvid, etc etc.


PotPlayer also have it's disadvantages as well:
1. Original website is in Korean only, no other language. We also cannot feedback in it's forum if we found any bug if we don't know Korean language. However you can find the English version from softpedia.

2. I downloaded portable version from a Chinese website, that PotPlayer is completely in Chinese only. Not as friendly as KMPlayer that I can switch language on the fly.

Summary, more advantage than disadvantage using PotPlayer. I am going to remove KMPlayer from my computer in very near future. Lifehacker even has feature this player.

To download PotPlayer:
English version [don't download from softonic, it has very outdated version]
English version from videohelp.com
English version from portableapps.com
Official website (in Korean)
Portable version (in Chinese)



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source: I wrote this!

p/s: contact me at ahsiang888 at google mail for software review.

Which file sharing server still working?

With megaupload being shutdown, some file sharing server owners also shutting down and limiting the file sharing features, to avoid being arrest by authority. Personally I use file server a lot because I like to download files being shared in XDA forum to make my smartphone even better than stock ROM. These kind of file sharing activities are completely legal (unless commercial companies uses SOPA and PIPA to suppress this kind of creativity, if SOPA and PIPA being approved by US Senate).
Btw, XDA forum don't allow cracked apps (that supposed need to be pay in market/app store), therefore I think files shared in XDA forum is legal to download and use.

I listed down a list of file server that is working and non-working one just for reference. Please leave a comment if you found any of the info is outdated, I will try by best to update it.

Working:
filepost
hotfile
bitshare
115
fileape
uploaded.to
wupload
filerio (filekeen)
dbank
depositfiles
badongo
mediafire
gamefront
ifile
crocko
jumbofiles
sendspace
virtualdrive (Dump.ro)
rapidgator

Not-working (meaning not working for file sharing, including filesonic):
megaupload and all it's related file sharing servers
filejungle
filesonic (only allow download by the original uploader)
uploadstation
fileserve
zshare

Note: please make sure it is legal to download the files that being shared in any forum.


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source: I wrote this with research using Google :P

2012 CNY Waste Time post

Yes, another waste time post for 2012 CNY.

How do boots and cats hold up to each other? Watch the video.


I told you this is a waste time post, don't blame that I didn't tell you. :P


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source: youtube!

2012 CNY Waste Time post

I am still in CNY mode. In fact I am still in holiday. Therefore, I should continue posting waste time posts until I recover from holiday mode. Heheh.

Okay, for waste time post for today. Someone put up a website to show people how much video being uploaded to YouTube every second. While the video embedded in this post has its interesting facts, overdoing it in their website is really over doing it. Don't believe me? Click on the link after the video.


http://www.onehourpersecond.com/


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source: youtube!

Money Laundering and Reshipping Fraud

I subscribed to many newsletter, from IT to finance, just to improve my knowledge, hopefully. Recently I received invitation email to invest in some investment scheme. Undeniable that scheme is very interesting and the return is very good, but I am skeptical even thought it is through a very reliable website. So I did some google-ing. Unfortunately or fortunately for the scheme (and the owner), I can't find any information regarding the scheme on the internet, except the company website. Hopefully is a legitimate scheme. Good luck to those invested in the scheme.

While doing the research on the scheme, I found a interesting website. It is called Money Laundering and Reshipping Fraud, however the link is bobbear.co.uk. No body would know the content with the link name, anyway. bobbear.co.uk is a voluntary, non-profit website that dedicated to provide information on fake companies offering part-time, work from home job scams, money mule or money transfer fraud. The website also provide advice from the victim of these mentioned scams.

Even though the website looks like not updated since 2nd May 2010, it is still a very good reference. Those people that creating those kind of scam cannot be too creative enough, similar scams are always being created, it might be different name, but the ultimate goal is to cheat hard-earn money.

The website:
Money Laundering and Reshipping Fraud

Please do some research on internet before you invest in anything.



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source: I wrote this!

Waste time Wednesday

For those that back to work on 3rd day of CNY, "Welcome back to work!"
But are you sure you can really concentrate at work? Are you the only person in the office? Fear not, here is a song to keep you entertained.

zapatou user of youtube created this video, covering 71 clips of people singing "Rolling In The Deep" by Adele.


Enjoy the song now. If SOPA is being approve by US Senate, you will have a super boring Internet. Enjoy it while you can.


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source: youtube!

Free sms or text service

Not only Chinese celebrate it, Korean, Vietnamese, Tibetan, and Mongolian also celebrate this New Year. Since it is based on Lunar Calendar, therefore it is called Lunar New Year, but still commonly known as Chinese New Year.

Usually during celebration such as Christmas, New Year and Lunar New Year, most people will send sms/text to friends and relative to wish them, but in some countries sms/text is not cheap, especially if you need to send more than hundreds of them. Last time there was a few websites that provide free sms service, but not to all countries. Recently I found one that still providing this service. And it is really reliable after I tested a few times.

I found out this service from it's Android apps when I playing with BlueStacks. Introducing Pinger.

Sending a testing sms/text to my own phone. The sms/text appear in my HTC Elfin in a few seconds only, I am in Malaysia by the way.


Pinger works iOS(iPhone/iPod/iPad) and Android:
http://www.pinger.com/content/textfree/

Pinger also works with web browsers with Java support:
http://www.pinger.com/textfree/

How it works?
For iOS and Android, install the apps from AppStore/Market.
For Windows/Linux, go directly to the website.

During registration, Pinger will ask for zip code. Give your actual zip code for US user. For international users, give a favorite zip code, usually I use 90210, very easy to remember. :P
After that, Pinger will give you a list of phone number for you to choose, pick wisely, because you cannot change it later. It will ask your permission to share with your facebook friends, you can skip by clicking "cancel".

Then you can start sending text. The number is based on International Direct Dial code.

For smartphone (iOS and Android), try to use wifi as much as possible.

Since it is free service, you will have to "enjoy" some advertisement.


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pinger logo source: pinger's twitter
I wrote this post!

Why stop SOPA?

Happy Lunar New Year! Today is the first day of Water Dragon Lunar New Year.
To know more about Lunar New Year or Chinese New Year, check out these wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_New_Year
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year

However if SOPA being implemented, we might not getting website service like youtube and wiki. It will be an ice age of Internet.

Matthew Inman at The Oatmeal explains it, in a simple way [warning! not safe for kids]:


If SOPA being implemented, meaning you will not able to see any of this kind of video available at youtube and I will not able to write any waste time post anymore, sigh.

Here are example of video that will be banned if SOPA being implemented:
Empire Strike Back songs by dogs:


Farting Squirrel commercial:


Reddit user made this video:



Btw, Megaupload has been shutdown by FBI, and SOPA was not even being use for the shutdown.


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source: video from youtube, animated gif from theoatmeal.com

Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year! I will away from this blog for a few days, but I have line up posting for these few days. So keep coming for more fun stuffs. :)

Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year is always about family reunion, this TV commercial is from Malaysian National Petroleum company, talking about reunion.


Have a safe trip home.
Drive safe for those that driving.
Happy holiday to Malaysian, Singaporean, Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, and many more. :)


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source:TARGET="_blank"

Consult Virtual Doctors

Warning: this website that I going to introduce is not for replacing the real doctors. It can acts as a second opinion or reference for medical students.

I found this website from some other blogs. Don't ask which one, because I read more than 100 blogs (weekly, not daily!), lost track of which one that I found it.



Beside many medical topic being discuss here, you can also try to diagnose based on symptom or injury. Example I tried here is the knee pain. You have to answer a series of questions, there is a video of the doctor being playback to ask the same question, somewhat annoying for me. :P


At the end of diagnose, there will be some results with picture and explanation. Then recommended actions, such as hospital or specialist or just some doctor. There are also some recommendation of what can be done at home to take care of the symptom or injury or disease. Finally there is a report of the diagnose that you can copy and send to your doctor.

As I said it cannot be replacing the real doctor, just for second opinion.

The website:
http://www.freemd.com/


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source: I wrote this article!

Mashup Video - Queen and Beatles

What do Queen and Beatles have in common? Yes, they are famous people, but what else?
Both of them sang "Fat Bottomed Girls Come Together" before. But did they sing it together physically? No. But how did they have this video?
This video is made by a Dutch mashup artist, MadMixMustang. He not only mix the video, he also blended the sounds, which sounds like both Queen and Beatles are singing the song together.

Watch the video:


Nice? You also can do it. Find out the tools/scripts/software that you need to do this at:
Videohelp

I got my solution on how to extract mkv from this website as well.

Btw, the mp3 of this video is available freely from MadMixMustang website:
http://www.madmixmustang.nl/mp3/Fat%20Bottomed%20Girls%20Come%20Together.mp3

Lastly, the website:
http://www.madmixmustang.nl/



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source: I wrote this. Video is from YouTube.

iPad3 in March 2012?

There was a lot of rumors and news about iPad3. Today I read somewhere that iPad3 will be LTE compatible. Why on iPad3 first before iPhone5? Because LTE is battery juice sucker, putting it on iPad3 first is a better choice before they can manage it on iPhone.

Anyway, everyone is waiting for the engineer of Apple to "forgot" his iPad3 prototype at some crappy bar. :P
Or maybe leaking photos from suppliers of iPad3.


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source: WWW for the news and I wrote the rest of this post, hahah!

Angry Birds Season - Dragon Year

Another evident of every company in this world is trying to make some business from China, and all the Chinese around the world. Not convinced? Watch the Angry Birds Season for Dragon Year teaser:



Available on Jan 20, a few days before the Lunar New Year.
Angry Birds is still my favorite casual game, even though I am playing Chicken Invader recently. :P


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source: youtube!

Samsung Smart Window

First, there was smartphone, then smart TV and now smart Window? Initially when I read the title of the youtube video, I thought just another OS. I was wrong, this Window is not the OS Windows, it is a real window, just that you can do your normal touch screen stuffs. Watch the video:



Even though the reported mentioned that people cannot see from the other side of the window, but what if someone find out how to do it? Don't think it is safe to surf all the rated websites on this window. :P

What do you think?


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source:youtube!

New usage of PVC - waste time post :P

Even though PVC has been slowly remove from certain parts of the world, it is still popular in many developing countries, because it is very cheap to manufacture and many other politically advantages.

When I was small, I did play with PVC to make some noise, but someone could make music out of it. Don't believe? Watch this Angry Birds music:


Kent Jenkins made the PVC instrument and play some nice music with it. See more music made by him:


And if you think you have time to waste on Tuesday, there is another one:


Go to his YouTube channel to see more:
http://www.youtube.com/user/snubbyj/

If you have notice, he has his faux-twin to play with him. Meaning not a real twin, but using video editing software to combine 2 separate video files into one and sort of create a twin for himself. There are a lot of powerful software out there that can do this thing, let me do some planning to write something about free video editing software. Stay tune!

To know more about PVC, go to wiki:
Polyvinyl chloride


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source: read the news from http://pvc-innovation.wonderhowto.com

Recuva - Another File Recovery Freeware

Recently I found another file recovery software, and yes, it is free. Recuva is made by the same company that made CCleaner. I used to use CCleaner a lot on older systems to make sure they are working as good as the new system.

No need to talk again about the file recovery on this software. But I wanted to point out that it can display the files that it can recover in different modes: tree view, file list view and best of all, thumbnail view.

Tree view:

File list view:

Thumbnail view:

Personally I think thumbnail view is the best to quickly find the files we want to recover, but there is a problem. What if family member or friend you are helping have some pictures that they don't want anyone to find out. That would be very awkward. You know what I mean. ;-)

Anyway, to completely remove a file from your harddisk, memory card or thumb drive, use this, all of these file recovery software should not able to recover it.
Get rid of file from PC/laptop forever

To download Recuva, go to this link:
http://www.piriform.com/recuva
For portable version, go to this link:
http://07hd.com/yb5f3su8awi2/RecuvaPortable_1.42.544_azo.exe.htm
Portable version is being provided by azo-freeware.blogspot.com

Here is a list of other file recover software and they are free.
PC Inspector
File Recovery Freeware by Brian Kato
PhotoRec

One thing to note: if you want to have a better chance of recovering file that you deleted accidentally, do not do anything (copy file, save file, download file, shutdown, etc), because the empty space that being use by the file you just deleted might be overwritten with new data. So make sure you have Recuva or other file recovery software ready in your PC/laptop.


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pix source: http://www.piriform.com/recuva/screenshots

Windows7 flaw or network driver error?

Something wrong with my network card or Windows 7 or network driver.

Sometime I like to check Task Manager just to make sure my network is working. Or at least to make sure I am fully utilizing the broadband unlimited download. Even though it is a very slow broadband, 512k, yes, not even 1M, but at full speed, theoretically I can download 5G plus of files in one full day. Of course it is not always that case, but nevertheless, usually I can get about 3 to 4G of download in just 24 hours.

At one of the night recently, I was doing my usual habit (after I offline), but found out there are a long list of numbers in the Task Manager's Networking tab. See picture:


Don't get it? Let me zoom in:


Get it? No photoshop being use here, it is being cut from print screen only using IrfanView.

By looking at the above pictures, and assume Windows 7 or the network driver didn't go cockoo, there has been ? Of xxxByte going thru the network card. Here is the calculation:
Bytes Sent or Bytes Received (about the same, I round up the last 9 numbers of least significant numbers)
= 18,446,744,073,000000000

18446744073000000000/1024=18014398508789.0625 kilobytes (KB)

18014398508789.0625/1024=17592186043.74 megabytes (MB) [round up the decimal to 2 digits only]

17592186043.74/1024=17179869.18 gigabytes (GB) [round up the decimal to 2 digits only]

17179869.18/1024=16777.21 terabytes (TB) [round up the decimal to 2 digits only]

16777.21/1024=16.38 petabytes (PT) [round up the decimal to 2 digits only]

16.38 petabytes of data has been flow in and out through the network card, how is that possible?

Is that possible? I would think it is just Windows 7 flaw or driver problem. What do you think?
Have you seen this before on your PC?



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source: I wrote this!

Fake likes in YouTube?

Recently I watched a youtube video which supposedly sang by an artist called Jason D Chen from California. It is a Chinese song adapted from some English songs. The singing was okay, but I can't helped to notice that the "likes" is more than "views". Is that possible? Can YouTube visitors "like" the video without "view" it? Could YouTube being manipulated? Or I am just too sensitive or outdated?



The original youtube video link:
http://youtu.be/-8MmL_wqUeE



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source:I wrote this!

BlueStacks on Windows 8

These few days a lot of tech companies have been busy showing off their latest and concept gadgets at CES 2012 at Las Vegas. BlueStacks is one of them. They are showing off BlueStacks on Windows 8. The promo video below showed that after a new android apps being install on BlueStacks on Windows 8, an shortcut will appear automatically on the metro GUI.



BlueStacks for Windows8 will be available in Feb 2012. While waiting for that, why not install BlueStacks on your Windows 7 now and enjoy many Android apps on Windows 7, see see posts on how to do it:
How to install apk into BlueStacks
Rearrange apps list on BlueStacks
How to enable Android Market for BlueStacks


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source: saw this video on youtube

Mario in HTML5

I was messing around with JoliCloud on the other day and found this website. The author of this webpage converted Mario from somewhere else into HTML5, probably the original game is in flash.

Mario is a never dying casual game, man and woman from 3 to 93 years old also like it (or hate it) somehow, either on Nintendo, to flash on internet, to iPad/iPhone apps, at some point of their life.



The loading is quit fast. And game play was very smooth. To find if your web browser can support it, go to this link to try out:
http://arcade.rawrbitrary.com/mario/

I tried it on Chrome (rev 16), FireFox 8.0 and FireFox 9.0.1, all of them no problem with this HTML5. However IE8 unable to support it.


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source: I wrote this!

PC that cost 25 dolar only

Would you buy a PC that just the size of a credit card (thicker than credit card of course!) and it only cost you 25 dollar? Yes, 25 US Dollar. Better still, this PC can connect to TV/monitor/other display via USB2.0 or HDMI, capable of playing Quake and 1080p HD video. I don't mind to try it out.

Raspberry Pi (Pi is π ) is being developed by a NGO which is called Raspberry Pi. Got you, haha. Anyway, back to the topic.

This ultra-low-cost PC recently won an award at ARM TechCon, which aim to solve most of the costly PC problem in this world (sort of).

They are not selling the PC for making profit, all the money being put back into the business. And they don't mind other copy the design with hope that everyone and every company could develop clone of Raspberry Pi.

Here is a video of Eben, the Executive Director of Raspberry Pi Foundation explaining the product:


Personally I would think this is a very good product for education since conventional PC until nowadays still more than 100 dollar. If going forward all school can get this Raspberry Pi or clone with cost less than 25 dollar, more school kids can benefit from that.

Go to the website find out more detail:
http://www.raspberrypi.org/


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source: saw this at EE times

iPhone 4S vs Nokia Lumia 800

Someone (yes, someone) has posted side-by-side comparison of iPhone4, Nokia Lumia 800 and iPhone 4S. I don't want to look at iPhone4 because it is on iOS4, make no-sense whatsoever to compare iOS4.



Looks like Nokia Lumia 800 WP7.5 is slower then iPhone4S, in most of the tests, but bear in mind that iPhone 4S is on dual-core processors, while Nokia Lumia is on single core processors.

Comparison on GSMArena:
http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=4240&idPhone2=4212

Don't think this is useful when someone is considering to buy iPhone or WP7, unless he/she is very geeky. :D Therefore I categorized this post as waste time posts.

btw, I don't know why on the earth they put the music on this video, the finger gesture apparently showed that the person who did this video is talking about the comparison/result.


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source: youtube!

PS Vita Teardown

I posted PS Vita Unboxing few weeks ago, and now to see what is inside of PS Vita, hence PS Vita Teardwon. This round of teardown is not from iFixIt, but from UBM TechInsights.

The teardown images (no detail like iFixIt, my comment in square brackets, click on the image to see in full size):

[unscrewing]

[more unscrewing]

[open with some forces?]

[battery attached on back cover?]

[more unscrewing to take out the PCB]

Okay, now the PCB boards:

[red: Sony's quad-core processors based on ARM Cortex-9]

Okay, that's it. :D

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source: http://www.ubmtechinsights.com/teardowns/sony-playstation-vita-teardown/

How to Fix Cannot Install Apps on Chrome Problem

Recently I wanted to install JoliCloud on Chrome, so I go to the JoliCloud page on Chrome Web Store, and click the "+ ADD TO CHROME" button, the button changed to "CHECKING..." and there is a pop-up asking for confirmation, I clicked on "Install" button to proceed. However nothing happen after I clicked the "Install" button. I keep on waiting and waiting and waiting for quite a while. So I quite the page and try again, and it showed that "+ ADD TO CHROME" again, meaning the apps was not being installed. How could this happen?

So I go to ask Google, and after some trial and error on a few solutions being offered by nice people out there, finally I found the solution and it is very easy.

The solution:
1. Go to My Documents.
2. Create a new folder or directory called "Downloads" (without the double quote).
3. Go back Chrome to install apps, you should able to install apps now. :-)

No restart PC/Windows is needed. I have confirmed this again by removing the "Downloads" directory and I cannot install apps on Chrome again.

This solution is for Windows (XP until 7) only, I am not yet confirm for Mac.

When the Downloads folder is missing from My Documents, it keep on waiting for the folder to be created. As soon as the folder being created, it can proceed. I checked on the folder during downloading the crx (Chrome apps file format), the crx has to be downloaded into the Downloads before being install into Chrome and the crx will be remove after installation completed.
Obviously this is something that Google Chrome engineers should fix it in seconds. 

If you have move to another PC, to check what apps you have added previously on Chrome (provided you login using google account on Chrome on older PC), you can do this on your Chrome on new PC:
1. Start a new tab
2. Switch the Apps if you always using "Most visited"
3. Click on Chrome Web Store
4. On top right, click on the setting button next to your google login name (usually an email).
5. Click "Your Apps"
I found out on old PC I installed some Chrome apps that I never use or just use once right after I installed them. :P

p/s: I removed that Downloads folder at first place during hard disk clean up, thinking that this folder have no use since I changed Chrome default download folder to somewhere else.


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source: I wrote this, found the solution at http://www.google.ms/support/forum/p/Chrome/thread?tid=66a6d85590718eb0&hl=en&fid=66a6d85590718eb00004b5c4b41c5dc8

Free Angry Birds Rio for Windows is back again! - expired

Intel AppUp is giving away Angry Birds Rio for Windows for free! Limited period only, until January 15 (or while supplies last). I am not sure what this mean, software is just a soft copied, it can be download unlimited time right? Probably they have limited number of downloads. Anyway, this is for new registration only. So this is too bad for me, because I already got my Angry Birds Rio for Windows for free back in September last year.

Intel AppUp also added Chicken Invaders 4 Christmas as the freebie for new registration. Meaning you get US$11.99 worth of games for free!

Intel AppUp recently have being revamped and it looks much better than old version. One of the reason is to make sure Ultrabooks users also have a good user experience with AppUp. The old version of AppUp was actually created for netbook segment, however other Windows based PC also can use it.

The red arrow in picture below showing I already have Angry Birds Rio installed.


The best part about Intel AppUp is I can retain the free software for very long time. Even though I changed to new laptop, I still can download and install the Angry Birds Rio from AppUp for free on new laptop, as long as I use the same user id on AppUp. Another good thing about AppUp is you can try the software for 24 hours before you decide to buy or not. This is very good because you don't need to go through all the process just to get refund in case you find out you don't like the software.

To get your free legal version of Angry Birds Rio and Chicken Invaders 4 Christmas, go to download Intel AppUp now:
http://www.appup.com

Find out how to avoid credit card info on Intel AppUp in this post:
Free Angry Birds Rio For Windows



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source: I wrote this!

What kind of Facebook Friends you have?

Friends on Facebook. There are really good friends, there are annoying friends who you wish you never accepted. See what kind of Facebook Friends you would have. I have 9 out of 10 listed here, sigh.

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source: http://dailyinfographic.com

Captcha.Trader for JDownloader and MiPony

File-server services always being linked to piracy. A lot of songs, video, apk (Android setup file), software, PDF that supposedly need to be pay first before download legally from the original or authorized websites, but they are being cracked and put in to file-server and share publicly and the link being distribute worldwide. File-server actually being serve as temporary storage to send huge files for research and development in many area, from universities to private sectors.

Some of us need to download homework or huge result files from file-server that being upload by a friend at another side of the planet. Of course it is convenient to download directly using web browser, it is good for small file, but for huge file like a few GB, there is no way we can wait for days for the download to complete. Furthermore, some web browsers will time out, so we have to start the download all over again.

So some nice people out there wrote some nice softwares for us to manage these download, example MiPony and JDownloader. We can put all the links to the files we want to download and let the software manage them. However the captcha still has to be key-in manually by human (a.k.a. us). If your counterpart at Brazil uploaded 100 files, then you have to key-in 100 times the captcha and not once, but every time before the download begin on each file. We should be focusing on our the real work, not on downloading. So Captcha.Trader come to the picture.

I can download the Captcha.Trader plugins and then add into JDownloader and MiPony, so that Captcha.Trader will solve the captcha for me. You can either buy some credits or start resolve some captcha and earn credits before you want to use it for download purpose.

Captcha.Trader also works for Android (CaptchaDroid), WP7 (CaptchaToGo), and iOS (MobiCaptcha).

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source: I wrote this

Google Chinese Input - offline English to Chinese

Google knows that China is a huge market. If add in Chinese population outside of China, that is even huge. There is saying you can find China Town in every major city around the globe, well, not all, but most of them. I can even find Chinese Restaurant at somewhere of nowhere in Utah, believe it or not, I did stop by to have dinner in that restaurant, since my friends insisted. :P

Okay, enough of non-sense. I have been using Google Chinese Input as alternative for default Chinese Input from Microsoft. As a known fact, MS's stuffs simply okay only, if you want something better, you have to find another software, hence Google Chinese Input. Since I was grown up in China's PinYin system (Malaysia Chinese Education system uses PinYin system, so as Singapore), I am too used to PinYin system. Google Chinese Input is actually Google PinYin Input System.

To understand PinYin System, read this wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin

The most important feature of Google PinYin Input System is that I can key-in only first character of PinYin of the Chinese phrase (usually from 2 to 4 Chinese characters, sometimes more than that), it will show me the right Chinese phrase. This is super fast compare to MS Chinese input.

Google Chinese Input has been there for few years, recently I noticed that Google Chinese Input have released version 3. Actually the latest version was on Jan 2011, boy, I am really outdated. :P Even though the software is not updated so frequent, the dictionary is being updated weekly, if not daily.

What so special about version 3? It included an offline English to Chinese dictionary. That is the dictionary that I mentioned in paragraph above. This is very useful for English educated people that start to learn Chinese or people like me which has been away from Chinese for too long. When you switch on Google Chinese Input, if you press "shift" key once, it will allow you to type in English directly, press "shift" again, it will go back to detect PinYin input. While writing English, it will start translate the English to Chinese.

Even I have problem spell an English word, it will try to suggest the correct answer.

It will also suggests synonym of the English word.

More synonym can be find in another tab.

You can turn this feature off in setting if you find it annoying or no use for you.

Set your preference on how many characters you key-in before Google Chinese Input start to suggest.

To download Google Chinese Input version 3 with English to Chinese Translation:
http://www.google.com/intl/zh-CN/ime/english/

To download Google Chinese Input version 2, the classic:
http://www.google.com/intl/zh-CN/ime/pinyin/

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picture source: google [I don't need to recreate the wheel :P ]

Replace PhotoShop with PhotoCap

I would think PhotoCap can replace PhotoShop for personal usage and/or family usage. Normally we don't need super special features that being use by professional. Features that we usually use are layers and filters, lighting or exposure, or maybe just red eye remover.

PhotoCap is like the primary level of PhotoShop, all basic functions of PhotoShop are available on PhotoCap. I did try PhotoShop on my computer last year, but at the end it just waste the time to download, install and use it. I go back to GIMP, or most of the time I just use Irfanview if no fancy editing is required.

PhotoCap also can use for:

1. Print large image to multiple pages [I wrote this similar tutorial before, but now I can use PhotoCap to deal with it]
   
2. Double sided printing: help you to align the pictures/images, for double sided name card or poker cards
3. Create collage: collection of photos
4. Add frame
5. Create your own frames.
6. Create puzzles
7. Create texture from photos
8. Create template, and use it
9. Create photobook
10. Create poker cards: import 52 pictures and you have your new set of poker cards.
11. Create name card, including double sided name card
12. Create greeting cards

etc etc......

PhotoCap also can do tasks in bulk:

1. resize photos
2. rename photos
3. change date on photos' exif [I had a similar post, but using other software]
4. convert to another file type
5. add frame in bulk

etc etc....

PhotoCap is free for personal use or for educational usage. It will cost 1000 Taiwan Dollars or about US$33 (at exchange rate on Jan 1, 2012) for commercial usage. It still consider super cheap compare to Photoshop CS5 that selling at US$650 on Amazon.

Supported Windows version: Windows XP to Windows 7 (including 64 bits), not supporting Windows 98/ME

To download full version, go to link below for different languages (multiple link available, choose either one will do:

Traditional Chinese [正體中文版]	下載點1	下載點2	下載點3	下載點4	下載點5	進入 PC Home 下載
Simplify Chinese [简体中文版]	下载点1	下载点2	下载点3	下载点4	下载点5	进入 PC Home 下载
English	Download1	Donwload2	Download3	Download4	Download5	Download from PC Home

The setup file is 13.6MB, but main execution file is 1.9MB only, the rest are plug-ins or add-ons.

Consider donate to help the development of PhotoCap:
http://www.photocap.com.tw/donate/donate.htm

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source: I wrote and also translate some from PhotoCap website.

Convert Your Typing Skill into Money with Captcha.Trader

Happy New Year Everyone! By the time this post is out in public, most of the countries in Eastern Hemisphere are in 2012, while the rest of countries are still in 2011.

Let's this blog start off with a making money post. A lot of us have somehow, somewhere and sometime in our life have played or seen Typing game or Typing training software. Either a freeware or a paid game or Facebook game, they are not really fun anyway, well, it was fun at beginning, but somehow we get bored and never touch the game or software again, unlike Angry Birds which can be pick up after long but still feel excited for it. :)

The service (or a product??) that I want to introduce to you is Captcha.Trader.

Let's understand Captcha first. Captcha has been widely use in file-server services, to prevent machine/robot or automatic scripts being use to occupied all the download bandwidth. Captcha also being use on some website to prevent spam comments by robot/scripts.

Captcha.Trader can be use in JDownloader and MiPony to help to automatically resolve captcha. I will cover JDownloader and Mipony in future post(s). Captcha.Trader also available for Android, WP7 and iOS!

Since captcha need human eye to solve it, so Captcha.Trader need real people to solve the captcha for they customers. Here's how it work:
1. We open an account at Captcha.Trader.
2. We earn credits by solving captcha for Captcha.Trader. Captcha.Trader will give us the captcha and we type the answer into Captcha.Trader.
3. Captcha.Trader allow us to cash the credit.

100 Captcha.Trader credit is equivalent to 1 cent (US Dolar). You can choose to cash out by Amazon gift card (minimum $5), or Paypal (minimum $2.50, or AlertPay (minimum $1).
Even though the money is small, but here a calculation you can refer to:
1. Every captcha that Captcha.Trader send is around 20 to 30 seconds. Let's take 30 seconds as worst case.
2. Average users need 7 seconds to solve it. Let's take 10 seconds into calculation as worst case.
3. If a person work at home, in front of computer for 8 hours, he or she can key-in 720 captcha.
[ (8*60*60)/(30+10) = 720 ]
4. Usually one captcha worth 7 credits. So 5040 credits.
[ 720 * 7 = 5040 ]
5. 5000 credits is worth $0.50. Looks small but by doing that for 20 days only, we can get around $10.

Since we going to surf net and facebook-ing anyway, why not make use of the time to earn some extra money? Beside earning money, there is another good thing to have Captcha.Trader. I will write about it in future.

To sign up, go to link below:
Captcha.Trader.

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source: I wrote this!