Buying a portable music player: Sandisk's Sansa Clip Zip.

My 3rd generation iPod Nano died recently. I did my research to buy an iPod alternative, as always, to find the best deal. Thanks to a Lifehacker article, I decided to buy a 4GB Sansa Clip Zip. Why? It's an excellent music player and it's a lot cheaper than an iPod Nano. Not only cheaper but it has a feature that makes it stand apart, it is the ingenious idea to include a slot to expand its memory up to 32GB with a microSDHC flash memory card.

An image taken by an Amazon customer
But wait there's more. The Sansa Clip Zip can play MP3, WMA, (DRM-free) AAC, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, and Audible files. It also has built-in a FM radio, a stopwatch and a voice recorder. And it can be flashed with an open source firmware called RockBox to add a lot of more features and customizations.

There's another version that costs $57.59 that has an internal memory of 8GB. But why I wouldn't buy it, because I can assemble a 4GB blue Sansa Clip Zip together with a 32GB Sandisk microSDHC and protect it with a blue silicone case cover just for the total price of US$57.84 at Amazon (almost at the same price for the 8GB one). You just can't beat this deal.
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Thermal Compound comparison (August 3, 2012)

Cooling your CPU with thermal compound. Want to save some bucks for a better performance?

Arctic Silver 5 vs Arctic Cooling MX-2 vs Prolimatech PK-1 
Price, CPU Temperature and Performance comparison

TL;DR, winner: Prolimatech PK-1

Performance:
  1. Indigo Xtreme
  2. Prolimatech PK-1
  3. Artic Cooling MX-2
Source: http://skinneelabs.com/pk-1-asm-cmif/4/


CPU Temp (lower is better)
Source: http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/geek_tested_17_thermal_pastes_face


Price per gram
Source: Amazon

Conclusion: Not everything that's the most popular and shines is better. It's always a good idea to research what you are shopping, so you can get the best deal.
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Bing Desktop, a daily wallpaper for Windows

One of the smallest things in the world can make a big difference. I recently discovered an application made by Microsoft that's very simple, light and subtle. I always change my Windows Update option to include updates for other Microsoft software besides Windows'. And I found it, there, by the name of Bing Desktop. As you might know, Bing is Microsoft's web search engine, one of many others competing against Google Search's huge market share. So, this small application is another intent to get users to use Bing.

Cropped screenshot showing Bing Desktop and its settings. The background is Bing's image of the day (Fri, Jun 8, 2012).
 
The reason I write this article is because between the few number of features, there's just one that I find really nice. Bing, the search engine, showcases different images every day on its homepage. You have the option with Bing Desktop to change your wallpaper everyday with the same image Bing uses on its homepage. Simple as that. The best part is that Bing Desktop doesn't try to hog down your computer's resources with a bunch of heavy features. As I said, it's very simple, light and sublet. I'm not a fan of Bing, but this doesn't stop me appreciating this "tiny" Windows app. You can download it by clicking here.

TIP: If you don't want to keep it open, just close it after it finishes changing your wallpaper with the image of the day.
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Severn Cullis-Suzuki's speech at UN Earth Summit 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil [Video & Transcription]


“Hello, I am Severn Suzuki speaking for E.C.O – the Environmental Children’s Organization. We are a group of 12 and 13 year-olds trying to make a difference, Vanessa Suttie, Morgan Geisler, Michelle Quigg and me. We’ve raised all the money to come here ourselves, to come 5,000 miles to tell you adults you must change your ways. Coming up here today, I have no hidden agenda. I am fighting for my future. Losing my future is not like losing an election, or a few points on the stock market.

I am here to speak for all generations to come. I am here to speak on behalf of the starving children around the world whose cries go unheard. I am here to speak for the countless animals dying across this planet, because they have nowhere left to go. I am afraid to go out in the sun now, because of the holes in our ozone. I am afraid to breathe the air, because I don’t know what chemicals are in it. I used to go fishing in Vancouver, my home, with my Dad until, just a few years ago, we found a fish full of cancers. And now we hear of animals and plants going extinct every day, vanishing forever. In my life, I have dreamt of seeing the great herds of wild animals, jungles and rainforests full of birds and butterflies, but now I wonder if they will even exist for my children to see.

Did you have to worry of these things when you were my age? All this is happening before our eyes and yet we act as if we have all the time we want and all the solutions. I’m only a child and I don’t have all the solutions, but I want you to realize, neither do you. You don’t know how to fix the holes in our ozone layer. You don’t know how to bring the salmon back up a dead stream. You don’t know how to bring back an animal now extinct. And you can’t bring back the forest that once grew where there is now a desert. If you don’t know how to fix it, please stop breaking it.

Here you may be delegates of your governments, business people, organizers, reporters or politicians. But, really, you’re mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles and all of you are someone’s child. I’m only a child, yet I know we are all part of a family, 5 billion strong, in fact 30 million species strong. And borders and governments will never change that. I’m only a child, yet I know we are all in this together and should act as one single world towards one single goal.

In my anger, I am not blind and in my fear I am not afraid of telling the world how I feel. In my country we make so much waste, we buy and throw away, buy and throw away, buy and throw away and yet Northern countries will not share with the needy. Even when we have more than enough we are afraid to share, we are afraid to let go of some of our wealth. In Canada , we live the privileged life. We’ve plenty of food, water and shelter. We have watches, bicycles, computers and television sets. The list could go on for 2 days. Two days ago here in Brazil , we were shocked when we spent time with some children living on the streets. This is what one child told us, ‘I wish I was rich and if I were, I would give all the street children food, clothes, medicines, shelter and love and affection’. If a child on the street who has nothing is willing to share, why are we who have everything still so greedy? I can’t stop thinking that these are children my own age, that it makes a tremendous difference where you are born. And that I could be one of those children living in the favelas of Rio . I could be a child starving in Somalia , or a victim of war in the Middle East or a beggar in India . I am only a child, yet I know if all the money spent on war was spent on finding environmental answers ending poverty and in finding treaties, what a wonderful place this earth would be.

At school, even in kindergarten, you teach us how to behave in the world. You teach us to not to fight with others, to work things out, to respect others and to clean up our mess, not to hurt other creatures, to share, not be greedy. Then, why do you go out and do the things you tell us not to do? Do not forget why you are attending these conferences, who you are doing this for. We are your own children. You are deciding what kind of a world we are growing up in. Parents should be able to comfort their children by saying ‘Everything is going to be all right, it’s not the end of the world, and we are doing the best we can’. But I don’t think you can say that to us anymore. Are we even on your list of priorities? My dad always says, ‘You are what you do, not what you say’. Well, what you do makes me cry at night. You grown-ups say you love us. But I challenge you, please, make your actions reflect your words. Thank you.”

Cullis-Suzuki speaking at the University of Alberta
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PA109664_leveled.JPG
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Set any video file as a Windows screensaver

One of the most awesome things about the internet are videos. Videos of any kind... musical, scientific, artful, astronomical, cinematographic, etc. And there are many ways to download these videos for your later pleasure. So, now you have these beautiful videos saved in your computer, wouldn't be awesome to use one of these as a screensaver? Well, I asked myself the same question, and I found a solution that just can do that. It's a very simple, as its name, yet very cool piece of freeware that can play almost any type of video as a Windows screensaver. Its name is Video Screensaver. It even works with Windows 8. The developer, rodflash.com, says that it can play avi, mpg, mov, mp4, m4v, 3gp, wmv, or rmvb files. But, if you can play any other type of video files with your VFW/ACM codecs or DirectShow filters, it will work with Video Screensaver.


In my personal experience, I prefer multimedia codecs and dshow filters because I find they tend to have higher fidelity and better performance. My only and favourite codec/filter pack is K-lite Mega Codec Pack accompanied with its 64-bit counterpart. You can download it at Codec Guide. I have use it for years and I haven't had a problem with it.
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Wolfcrane Says

Hey! Give a visit to my friend's blog: Wolfcrane Says. You'll find a lot of cool content. A collection of very interesting links.

He has interests in technology, internet. animals (specially dogs), health (disabilities, diabetes...), organizations (charities, non profits...) and much more. Go over there, now! Start exploring his website!
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How-to: Change the language of GIMP

This mini tutorial is for bilingual speakers who want GIMP in a language different from their Windows' regional language preference. If you haven't you heard about this application, GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program and It's one of the most popular free and open source software (FOSS) used by graphic designers. It's cross platform, it works with Linux, Mac, Windows and many other operating systems.



My Windows regional language preference is "Spanish (Dominican Republic)." When I install GIMP, it automatically changes the user interface locale to Spanish, but I prefer English. Although I'll explain how I change GIMP into English, you can use this guide for your own preferred language.

Make sure you have fully closed GIMP. Go to the directory were you have installed it (which it's mostly, "C:\Program Files\GIMP-2.0\" but, if you are using a 64 bit version of Windows: "C:\Program Files (x86)\GIMP-2.0\". Inside this directory, open the folder "share" and then "locale". Here you will find many folders in which each one contains the files used by GIMP for a specific language locale. All folders starting with "en" are for English. Now here's the main job, all I do is delete all folders except the ones starting with "en". Next, when I open GIMP, it will automatically select English, because there's no other option (no other directory representing other language besides English). You can find which language each other folder represents by opening, with a text editor, the file named: "locale.alias".
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Print articles into beautiful PDFs

Joliprint is an online service that converts articles into simpler and more legible PDFs that you can save for later. You can go to its homepage or use its bookmarklet. Joliprint has many other features, but it really shines doing its main job, which it's also great for printing.

As an example, here is a screen-shot of a PDF created with this page:


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The Humblest Bundle

Edit: This humble bundle finished. Keep your eyes open for the next one!

Name your price and get five indie games while supporting the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Child's Play, the indie developers of the games and the people that bring you The Humble Bundle.

All games are cross-platform, Linux, Mac, Windows and Android.



The Electronic Frontier Foundation

www.eff.org
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a non-profit that defends your rights in the digital world. The world-class team of tech-savvy attorneys, activists, and technologists fight in courtrooms and Congress to protect privacy and free expression online and throughout the world.

Child’s Play Charity

www.childsplaycharity.org
The Child’s Play Charity works to channel the goodwill of the worldwide gaming community into video games and game systems for sick children in hospitals. Child’s Play works directly with hospitals worldwide to identify what kinds of games and systems can be installed in hospital wards and distributed “for keeps” to child patients. Since 2003, Child’s Play has coordinated the donation of millions of dollars of games and game systems, making them a premier charity for helping children in need of the joy that games can bring.

Here are some sneak peeks from the games!

 

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The Youtube super userscript

YousableTubeFix is one of the best scripts for maximizing the Youtube experience. It has been ported to work with Firefox (greasemonkey), Google Chrome and Opera.



You can really tell that how much effort has been put into the development of this userscript: a polished configuration panel, plenty number of options, beautiful buttons rendered below the video player and it's updated constantly. You can find a very detailed overview of its features and options at its homepage.
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Scroogle is down

Now that Scroogle was taken down definitely by decision of its owner after the site received a DDOS attack past this month, I have asked myself now what?

"Startpage offers the Web search results from Google in complete privacy!"

I made a search looking for an alternative and found a search engine that it's powered by Google, but according to the site, it doesn't track you. It's also noticeable that it has a domain name with common words that makes it very easy to remember. The web site is startpage.com.

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