RarmaRadio: Listen to the World

Since early 20th century (a.k.a 19xx) when the first Radio station started broadcasting as a source of information and entertainment, it never looks back. Radio stations nowadays not only have to compete with the TV stations (local/cable/satellite/etc), but also the internet. Even though radio is lack of a screen to see, but it is still a great source of entertainment and information whenever I drive or traveling on public transport. It is dangerous to watch a show on LCD screen when we are driving, so radio still the best choice. :P

Most of the radio stations nowadays have put up their websites and allow us to listen to them through the internet. The problem with that is some of the website required us to register with your email first before you can listen to the radio stream. Before you know it, you have tons of ads or spam mails in your inbox. Not to say the radio station spam you, but having too many emails in inbox is certainly not a good thing. There are a few software out there that can locate the radio stations easily and let us listen to the radio online without the need to register for each station. RarmaRadio is one of my favourite.

There are a few ways to navigate for the radio station, such as genres, network, region(a.k.a. country).

Picture below showing I am listening to JP Hip from Japan. RarmaRadio will show the logo of the radio station if it can find it. RarmaRadio will also shows the type of audio stream, which usually either mp3 or wma or aac. The Bitrate column is a good reference because if you are on slower network, the best to avoid those high Bitrate station. I tried some radio stations with Bitrate of 128k on TM Streamyx 1Mbps, and the result is very bad, the sounds keep on breaking up.


Picture below showing I am listening to EKR from UK. If the station support the song name/artist name, it will show in the box below.


One is the great feature of RarmaRadio is I can record the station with few options:
1. continuously with auto split song or no split (into one big music file)
2. record with timer
3. record current song only


RarmaRadio did a good work to update the list as often as possible, if you find out a station you like to listen but it could not stream correctly, you can feedback to RarmaRadio.

The only disadvantage that I found on RarmaRadio is it will keep on streaming the station you listening to before you switch to another station, if you are on slow network, it will chock both station because RarmaRadio will continue stream the previous station. This feature is good only if you like to switch station very often. I would recommend to stop streaming first before switch to another station.

To download RarmaRadio, go to this link:
http://www.raimersoft.com/rarmaradio.aspx


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source: wild wild web

Get To Know Your Computer Better

No, it is not a date. You will not go out to movie and restaurant or jogging or hiking with your computer to know your computer better.

All you need is Speccy free version.

What went well?
1. While CPUz only give you the hardware information, Speccy give you even more detail of the hardware
2. While "System Information" on Windows give you the geeky information, Speccy can give you even more. (I really don't give the damn about Conflicts or DMA or IRQs information anyway)
3. It is free.
4. Portable version available from the official website (Portable version from unknown source could be dangerous!)
5. Made by the same company that created CCleaner.
6. Save the result into XML or text file.

I downloaded the portable version (link at end of post) and give it a try. It take a while to grab all the data, probably 1/2 minutes or more.


The summary is quite simple, just showing the type of OS, CPU, RAM, Motherboards, etc. The CPU temperature is being update on the fly.


Click on the items on left column or the blue color link on right column will give you more detail, I mean the really in-depth details.

One thing that catch my attention, is the Uptime and Downtime. The longest Uptime I ever have on my laptop is more than 20days, meaning I never ever reboot the laptop for more than 20 days! That is what I like about Sandy Bridge with Windows 7, I don't need to reboot so often compare to older version of Windows. All I need to do is either put it to sleep or hibernate mode.


Of course you can buy the Home or Business edition, which will cost US$19.95 and US$34.95, but I don't think it is necessary for normal usage since the information from free version is way too much already.

Download installation version:
http://www.piriform.com/speccy/download/standard

Download portable version:
http://www.piriform.com/speccy/download/portable


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source: I wrote this!

How to Measure Disk Drive Speed

Do you know how fast is your disk read and write speed? Usually we really no need to know about this, but disk read and write speed is crucial to determine the overall performance of your system. even though you have a Intel Core i3, i5 or i7, but you use only the normal (magnetic) hard disk, the performance is defenately slow down by the hard disk. Same as solid state hard disk, some solid state drive might not be as fast as the manufacturer claimed. Thumb drive (or known USB drive) is usually slow, I will show you in later part of this post.

There are a lot of free software out there to do disk read write speed accessment, but I found DiskMark is very simple and direct, or sometime I call it "no-nonsense".





As you can see in picture above, DiskMark interface is very simple, just a few buttons only. Buttons on left are the type of read and write test. Usually I just execute all of them (click "All" button).
As for the pull down options, you can choose to run how many times to run each test on first pull down option from left.
The second pull down option is to choose the file size of the test, 50MB to 4000MB, long bigger the file the longer the test time.
The pull down option on right is the choose which disk to run the test. It will not update automatically if I add in a new drive (on USB) after DiskMark is opened. I have close DiskMark and open it again.

There is skin option which I think is the only nonsense thing on DiskMark. Why need skin when what is needed is the test result.

The help is very simple and direct as well. Disk Mark is available in 32 and 64 bits, if you have 64bits Windows 7, you should use 64bits version.

There are the result of some of my SSD, thumb drive and external HDD:

Intel Solid State Drive on my sandy bridge laptop:


Samsung Solid State Drive on Dell ST tablet (which I will post of review of it soon!)
If you compare it with Intel Solid State above, the Seq write and 512k read/write on this drive is faster than Intel SSD.


Kingston DT101 G2 8GB thumb drive
Not only limited by the USB2 port speed, but also the common problem on USB thumb drive, which that write speed is super slow. The Seq write speed at ~4MB is about the same when I use it to copy HD movies to this drive. Therefore this DiskMark is ready giving me the result as close as possible to the real usage.


Normal HD (magnetic) on external casing, connected over USB2 port
The read and write speed are limited by the USB2 port if not mistaken. These non-solid state HD will have higher read and write speed if it is install inside PC/USB and connected though P-ATA or S-ATA.


To download DiskMark, go to this link:
http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskMark/index-e.html
The latest version is CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1c. Portable version also available, therefore you can put it in thumb drive and run it on any PC/laptop you wish to test the HD/SDD/flash/memory card.


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Free software: Space Sniffer

Happy Valentine Day!

There are a lot of software out there that can show us the disk utilization and also how much disk space each folder consume, but either some of them cost a high fee or cannot meeting my requirement.
Treesize Professional and SpaceMonger are two famous software for this kind of function, however I don't think it should cost so much. Treesize Prefessional cost US$52.95 for single user license, and SpaceMonger cost US$24.95 for single user license. That is too expensive!

Thanks to Google, I found this free software that can do the same job like Treesize and SpaceMonger.

SpaceSniffer is using Treemap concept that invented by Prof. Ben Shneiderman.

Not only Space Sniffer will show the file size graphically, you can also apply filter and check for certain file type only (example: *.mp3). You can also exclude file type as well.

The filter will also works for time, type the condition (Example: >5years), the view will be updated accordingly. Combine filters is allow.

Other advantages that the author mentioned in the website:
Fast and easy to use
Supports drag and drop
Export module lets you produce customizable textual reports
Intuitive structure layout, multiple views for different media
Zoomable elements, navigate like a web browser
The Windows folders and file popup menu is accessible by right mouse click
It's possible to restrict the view content by typing simple yet powerful filtering criteria
Lets you temporary tag files with four different colors and perform filtering on them
Different views of the same media can show differently filtered elements
Customizable in geometry, colors, behaviors
You can navigate even during the scan
Smart cached scanning engine, multiple views, single scan
You can refine a zoomed area by a secondary scan process, even with main scan active
Reacts to file system events, keeps always in synch, warns you by blinking elements
Can scan NTFS Alternate Data Streams
It doesn't clutter your registry, only a plain XML configuration file
It's portable, no installation required, just put the executable somewhere and let's go

Best of all, it is free!
You can donate to the author to help the development of this software.

Why not install this software on your girl friend or wife or spouse's PC or laptop on this valentine? Not only they will appreciate your effort (this add points!), this will reduce the number of times of they call you for help because out of diskspace on their PC/laptop.

To download, go to this link:
http://www.uderzo.it/main_products/space_sniffer/download.html


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source: I wrote this software review!

Made-in-China WinRar - HaoZip

90% (or more?) of goods in this world are Made-in-China. Even your iPhone 4S and iPad 2 are made in China. Therefore Made-in-China does not mean it is low quality, it can be high quality as well. When torrent and file server being shutdown world wide, China still have a lot of good quality servers. How about PPStream, Thunder and Qvod? Can't deny that China will be the center of the world as the name in Chinese say so (中国, direct translate is middle-country).

So here is a Made-in-China WinRar, HaoZip. In Chinese it means Good Zip. Well, the Chinese name is 好压, which mean Good Compression, but zip is more common name than compression right? Do you tell your friend to compress a file or zip a file?

Even the logo is somewhat similar to WinRar. Above picture is the icons showed in Chrome tab, left hand side is HaoZip, right hand side is WinRar.

Best of all it is free, contradict to the original WinRar, which cost $29 excluding VAT. I don't care it is Canadian dolar or Singapore dolar, don't think it is US dolar because of VAT, it still cost too much. Therefore I am using 7zip, which is free as well.

What the company claim on this HaoZip? [my opinion in square bracket and italic]
1. Better compression, 10% to 30% better [didn't mention which type of file]
2. Intelligently filter files to compress, increase throughput time [yes, there is no need to compress jpeg anymore]
3. Directly support zip, 7z and tar without external plugin [7z also have this]
4. Compatible on Win2k to Win7 [can you not support Win7?]
5. Compressed files guarantee can be unzip by other industry standard compression software [who does not?]
6. Repair damaged header on files download from Internet [can try this]
7. Skins [er... what for?]
8. Support Chinese characters encryption [good for Chinese Companies]
9. No ads, no plugin, free forever [yes, this is what a software should be, free forever]

To download setup files:
http://www.haozip.com/Eng/index_en.htm
To download other language:
http://www.haozip.com/Eng/download.htm
Download page in Chinese:
http://www.haozip.com/download.htm


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source: I wrote this!

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.

Play LEGO without buying LEGO

Excuse me? How to play LEGO without buying LEGO?
Imagination in my brain?
Not really, we are really able to play or design LEGO with need to buy the LEGO first.

Introducing LEGO Digital Designer.

The downloaded setup file size is about 140MB and installation need about 200MB only.

Here is the interface (from Lego website, I don't need to explain it again here, haha):


It will calculate how many of each type blocks that you need to build a Lego project, which is very convenient when you going to buy the real physical Lego to build the real Lego project.
It also include the Lego with micro computer, Lego Power Function, which make it a is a very good planning tool to plan for a Lego project, either huge or big or small.

Talking about Lego, I posted a few video showing Lego projects that people built using Lego:
How to waste 8mins on Tuesday
Build film projector with LEGO
Predict eclipses with LEGO
ARM that solves Rubik's Cube

To download this software, go this this link, choose either Windows or Mac OSX. Supported Windows version are Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.
http://ldd.lego.com/download/default.aspx

And yes, it is absolutely free!


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pix source: LEGO website
video source: http://ldd.lego.com/getstarted/default.aspx

Extend Windows desktop to 4 desktops

Why would someone extend a Windows desktop to 4 desktop? For those that used to Linux would know that that help to organize the Windows, you can put some jobs in one desktop and another jobs in another. By doing that you don't always have to look into every Windows just find the MS office or MathLab or Chrome.

I could put all personal web browsing in one desktop and work related Windows into another desktop. So when your boss drop by your cubicle, he/she would see your clean desktop with just work related stuffs. ;-)

There are a few similar software that have this kind of function. Today I would want to introduce Dexpot. It is free of charge for personal use.

It supports older version of Windows such as Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME and Windows NT4, but upto version 1.4 only.

It also have portable version, which I like it very much!

You can configure different wallpapers and screen saver for each desktop. However I didn't try the password. One Windows login password is enough, why want to have so many password? I would think this is very useful if you are sharing one computer with another person, there is no need to login and logout every time want to change user. Just use Dexpot to assign each Desktop to each user. By doing this it can be share with 4 persons!

There is a powerful component in Dexpot that automatically distribute the Windows into different Desktop. By configure it correctly, you can always make sure your facebook page is not same desktop with simulation windows.

There are many more features, but it would be super long post. So I leave it to you to explorer. :)

Dexpot download page

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pix source: http://dexpot.de
Source: I wrote this!

Super fast find file for Windows

For most of the Windows users, they use the default "search" function on Windows to find their file. There are a few problems with it.

For older Windows, the search function just not doing the job right, meaning it cannot find the file I want, even though I gave the right keyword. This happen a lot during Windows XP time. So I use cygwin to search file.

For Windows 7, the search function become better and faster. Why it can become faster? It is because it keep on indexing all the files (including emails). The problem with this is that it create a huge index file on hard-disk  Although hard-disk (non-solid-state type) are very cheap nowadays, no problem with Windows creating a Gig or two on a 500G or 1T hard-disk. But this will be a problem for solid-state type hard-disk, because solid-state hard-disk still very expensive. So in order to save the disk space on my laptop (I use solid-state hard-disk, hehe), I disable the indexing but search function become super slow.

Luckily I found a software that search files as fast as Windows 7 search (with indexing turn on), but without the huge indexing file! Introducing FileLocator Lite. The same company also selling the pro version, named "FileLocator Pro", but this cost US$39!

Anyway, you can download the setup file for lite version here:
http://mythicsoft.com/Page.aspx?type=filelocatorlite&page=download

I found out the lite version is good enough for me for daily usage. Search with asterisk (*something*) always give me the right file. You can also search by modified, created, or last accessed date of a particular file(s).

Actually this software also called "Agent Ransack" but the name seems like not really suitable for work (NSFW), so the company compile the same code with different product name.


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pix source: http://mythicsoft.com
source: I wrote this review!

Contact me for software review at: ahsiang888 at gmail dot com