Monday, January 07, 2008
Необходимые сайты
В продолжение предыдущей статьи, я хочу описать украинские сайты, без которых не мог бы прожить.
Internet applications I couldn't live without
Inspired by the list of Web 2.0 Companies I Couldn't Live Without by TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, I'd like to compile my own. I'll split this post into two. This one will be about international sites, and the next one (in Russian) will be dedicated to Ukrainian ones.
Completely agree with TechCrunch on the following websites:
- Delicious
- GMail
- Google Reader
- Skype (not really a website, but an Internet application)
I am also impressed by TripIt; if I traveled in the US, I would use it, and Kayak or Farecaster for flight booking. Now my own picks.
VoipDiscount
Skype is great for PC-to-PC calls, and probably for PC-to-phone calls in the Western world. Unforunately, here in Ukraine Skype has a severe limitation: for reasons that are hard to comprehend, Skype doesn't allow to buy Skype credit with a credit card from Ukraine, essentially making SkypeOut service unavailable for Ukrainian users. Given how expensive international calls from Ukraine are, there seems to be a great market for VoIP, yet Skype chose to ignore it. Luckily there are others to fill in the void. VoipDiscount readily takes payments from Ukraine, has reasonable sound quailty, is actually cheaper than Skype, what else could you wish for? Once you make a 10 euro deposit to your VoipDiscount account, you are given 120 days of free calls to major developed countries, and quite cheap to the rest of the world. Once your 120 days expire, normal rates apply to all destinations, but still this is really cheap, cheaper than Skype.Picasa Web Albums
Flickr may be great, but I prefer Picasa Web Albums by Google.Last.fm
Last.fm is the single best site to discover new music and do datamining on your music tastes.Slashdot
Digg and Reddit are so popular, but I prefer good old Slashdot. I mostly read it via Google Reader though.Blogger
Since I am writing this on Blogger, I definitely must add it to the list.Almost on the list
I joined LinkedIn and Facebook this year, but I'm yet to see their merits for a user like me.Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Ледяной городок в Харькове
На пл. Свободы в центре Харькова на Новый 2008-й год выстроили ледяной городок.
Last.fm ripping with TheLastRipper
TheLastRipper is a great, if legally questionable, way to download music from Last.fm as MP3 files.
It may be a little unclear how to enter the URL in the Radio station box to record a particular album. Follow these steps:
- Open your Last.fm page in your browser and go to Settings - Website page. In "Music Playback" section specify "Play everything in the Last.fm software".
- Now open Last.fm album page in your browser (it looks like http://www.last.fm/music/<artist>/<album>, e.g. http://www.last.fm/music/Beatles/Revolver).
- Locate the "Play this album in the Last.fm software" link on the page under the "Tracks on this Album" heading.
- Copy the URL that this link points to. It will look like this: lastfm://play/tracks/NNN,NNN,NNN, where NNN are numbers.
- Now paste this URL in the Radio station box in TheLastRipper and click "Tune in" button. Wait for the album to download, as it's going to take time.
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