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2009-01-30

A list of FREE online services that can make your life easier

Here's a list I made of FREE online services I use and can thoroughly recommend. Enjoy!


(Last updated 20/9-2010.)





FREE ONLINE SERVICES I USE:
*
Google GMail
(simply the best online/offline email solution)
* Google Calendar
(very good online/offline calendar that can notify you by SMS, emails and pop-ups - never miss an appoinment again. Can be sync'ed with many different calendar programs, including Outlook and Sunbird/Lightning.)
* Syncplicity
(great synchronization/backup software that automatically backs up 2GB for free, and then lets you keep several computers synchronized. Great if you work on documents/data from different places. You can of course buy more space if you need it.)
*
FlickR
(a good place to put your pictures - mine are here)
*
Blogger
(a nice blog-service - my blog is here)
* Twitter
(tell the world what you are doing in max 140 characters - my Twitter is here)
*
Facebook
(the definitive social networking site - just be aware of the fact that Facebook overtakes copyright of everything uploaded and can use all your information for anything they want)
*
Couchsurfing and Hospitality Club
(amazing sites to find people to meet and/or stay with for free when you travel or go to places)
* Deezer and
Spotify
(great places to stream music, no need for downloading)
*
KCRW Music
(excellent radio station that plays only quality music)
*
EZTV
(nice site to keep track of what's released on the TV-scene, see this post for recommended TV-series)
*
Google Translate
(pretty good automated translations in many languages)
*
Rotten Tomatoes
(collects critics' opinions of movies and gives it a total score, along with quotes from the reviews)
*
Metacritic
(the same, but for other things as well: TV, music, literature)
*
OpenSubtitles
(great place to find and upload subtitles for most movies and TV-shows)
*
Gulesider
(Norwegian official site for Yellow and White Pages)
*
Universal Currency Converter
(convert currencies here)
*
Weather Underground
(cool site where you can register and keep track of the weather around the globe)
*
Bash
(people submit funny quotes from IM- or IRC-conversations)
* Sickipedia
(a huge archive where people, and you, can upload sick jokes in absolutely all genres)


INTERNET SERVICES I USE THAT ARE NOT FREE:
*
Skandiabanken
(the best bank in Norway, without any hidden costs or fees for use)
*
Telio
(no doubt the best IP-phone company in Norway, enables you to bring your Norwegian phone number wherever you are in the world)
*
Megaupload
(get a Premium account to be able to mass download a world of content blazingly fast, plus backup unlimited amounts of data)

And if you have any ideas for better solutions, please let me know in the comments-field...

A list of FREE Windows-software that can make your life easier

Here's a list I made of FREE software I use for Windows, and I can thoroughly recommend everything here. Enjoy!

(Last updated 20/9-2010.)




OFFICE:
*
OpenOffice
(perfect replacement for Microsoft Office for 99.9% of the users)



WEB BROWSER:
*
Google Chrome
(I recently switched to this, it's by far the fastest browser I've used, plus it consumes MUCH less resources than both Micro$oft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox)
(I used this before, it has a lot of addons and functionality that Micro$oft Internet Explorer doesn't have)

Very useful add-ons for Firefox (and Chrome):
(automatically copy selected text to clipboard, no need to click Ctrl-C)
-
Clone Window
(makes new windows and tabs in Firefox inherit the history and URL of the current window)
-
Cooliris
("fly" through hundreds of pictures in a short time)
-
Copy Plain Text
(removes formatting from the text you copy)
-
DownThemAll!
(a very good mass downloader)
-
Flashblock
(automatically blocks Flash-objects in pages and lets you decide which you want to see - removes 99% of the advertising on the net as you surf)
-
IE View
(gives you a right-click option for opening the current page in an Internet Explorer-window)
-
Image Toolbar
(toolbar for actions for images, like saving, copying and printing)
-
Text Link
(allows URLs written as plain text in webpages to be loaded by just double clicking on them, no need to copy and paste)

CALENDAR/TASKS:
(one of the best calendar programs. Also available as Lightning, an addon for Thunderbird.)

Very useful add-ons for Sunbird:
- MinimizeToTray Plus
(minimizes Sunbird into the system tray)
- Provider for Google Calendar

(let's you automatically synchronize your Sunbird/Lightning with Google Calendar, you can find instructions for setting it up here. If you get any problems with appointments in Google Calendar showing ahead or behind Sunbird/Lightning, adjust your time zone in Google Calendar by that amount.)


EMAIL:
(really good email program, and much safer and less bloaty than Micro$oft Outlook)

Very useful add-ons for Thunderbird:
-
GMailUI
(add concepts inspired by GMail, like archiving mail and powerful message searching across all folders)
-
MinimizeToTray Plus
(minimizes Thunderbird into the system tray, the enhancer gives it additional functionality)
-
Contacts Sidebar
(displays the address books in a sidebar in Thunderbirds 3-pane-window)
-
Mail Redirect
(redirect, or "bounce", mail messages to other recipients without forwarding it)


OTHER INTERNET SOFTWARE:
*
Yahoo! Messenger
(nice and feature-packed IM-software, also lets you add and talk to MSN/Windows Live-users - alternately use the webmessenger when you're not on your PC)
*
µTorrent
(torrent program that is fast, versatile and uses few resources)
*
Soulseek
(absolutely brilliant program for downloading amazing amounts of music from other music lovers)
*
JDownloader
(the best mass downloader)
*
Skype
(VoIP-software for speaking with others over the net)


VIDEO PLAYER:
*
Media Player Classic
(much better than Windows Media Player for all kinds of video: DVD, AVI, MKV, FLV, MPG, MOV etc. Also plays tons of audio files.)

Very useful codecs for Windows:
* FFDSHOW
(the best and only decoder you need for XviD, DivX, x264, AC3, subtitles etc.)
*
QuickTime Alternative
(play QuickTime without installing QuickTime player)
*
Real Alternative
(play RealAudio and RealVideo without installing RealOne Player)


MULTIMEDIA:
*
WinAmp
(classic player for MP3, WAV, OGG, AAC, APE, FLAC etc.)
*
XnView
(good image viewer)
*
Google Picasa
(good image editor and viewer)
*
Subtitle Workshop
(nice program for editing and re-synchronising downloaded subtitles, use v2.51 if you can)
*
LAME
(great MP3-encoder, use RazorLame for the user interface)
*
EAC
(the best audio grabber for CD's)
*
Audacity
(good software for recording and editing audio)
* Mp3 Tag Tools

(good software for mass editing tags in music files, a little easier to use than WinAmp's library editing function)


MISCELLANEOUS:
* CDBurnerXP
(burns audio- and data-CD's, DVD's, ISO-images etc.)
*
DAEMON Tools
(virtual CD/DVD-ROM emulator)
*
7-Zip
(decompress RAR, ZIP and more, compress ZIP etc.)
*
Gmail Drive
(a very useful way of making backup of files to a Gmail-account within Windows Explorer)
*
File Renamer Basic
(nice little batch renamer for files and folders)
*
MozBackup
(an easy way to backup and share your Mozilla Firefox/Thunderbird/Sunbird profiles)


MUSIC CREATION SOFTWARE:
* Free Music Software is a page with an extremely good list of software and plugins for creating music.


If you have any ideas for better software or solutions, please let me know in the comments-field. Thanks!