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Tuesday 24 April 2012

Listen to Pandora Music Station Without Using VPN

Update 7th May 2012: HTTPS enforcing to unblock Pandora is no longer works.

HTTPS offers better security by encrypting our communications on the internet. It is a good practice for everyone start practicing to use HTTPS for online browsing.

Few weeks after we shared how to listen to Pandora Music Station using Spotflux VPN, we found another way which can actually do the trick without using any VPN services.

This way pretty much simpler and easy to use. All you need is enforce Pandora to use HTTPS.


How?
Use HTTPS Everywhere


It offers both Firefox Plugin and Chrome Extension (Beta).

Many websites are already listed in the HTTPS Everywhere list, including Pandora. Therefore, you can just go to Pandora and listen to your favorite musics now without adding it into the list. Last but not least, users can add or remove websites from the enforcement list as they like.


Enjoy your favorite musics online at Pandora Music Station now. Cheers!


Behind the Scenes: 
Why Pandora is Accessible By Enforcing it to use HTTPS outside of USA?
Answer: Well, one of the reasons could be Pandora is not listening to the packet header in HTTPS therefore our IP address is unknown to them.. Pandora could have aware of this little "bug", they might fix it in anytime, just guessing. Anyway, enjoy Pandora Music Station!


Written by:
Eddy@CR

Tuesday 27 March 2012

Listen to Spotify Using Spotflux VPN

Good day.

Today I am going to share how to listen to Spotify music service using Spotflux VPN. Spotify limits user outside from United States from the registration to its service. To register, you need to use VPN to get yourself a United States IP address.



Simply refer to my previous post  regarding how to use a free for lifetime, no quota limitation VPN service - Spotflux VPN to listen to Pandora Online Radio Station.



One thing that Spotify made easier for its users is that it allows user to play the music outside from United States (in case its users travel to oversea) , which simply means you will not need to connect to Spotfiy using VPN every single time you want to listen to the musics from Spotify.

 But of course there is some limitation, a Spotify Free account only allow users to listen music outside from United States up to 14 days only. I guess you might need to reconnect your Spotflux VPN every 14 days. (I don't think there will be a problem since we can enjoy it all time)

The limitation does not apply to Spotify Unlimited and Spotify Premium Account. And with a simple email verification you can enjoy a Free 30 days Spotify Premium account Trial.

Once Your are Already Connected to Spotflux:



1. Register at Spotify, with Facebook account or create your own account.


2. After the registration has been done, go to this page to get a 30 days Free Spotify Premium Trial.
3. Complete the email verification and now you can enjoy unlimited free music from Spotify!

Finally, to listen to the music on Spotify, you will need to download and install Spotify desktop client. It has Mac and Windows platform ready, yet you can try it on your linux machine by running Spotify under Wine or try their Spotify for Linux Preview.
Download link: Here

Enjoy!

Written By:
Eddy@CR

Wednesday 21 March 2012

Use Spotflux VPN To Listen To Pandora Radio Station



Today I'm gonna share a useful tips for who is staying outside of USA but, want to listen to Pandora Radion Station. For your information, Pandora Radio Station is currently only available in United States.

And according to Pandora's Privacy Policy:
Consent to processing
Use of Pandora internet radio outside of the United States is a violation of our Terms of Use. Nevertheless, if you use the Service outside of the United States, you fully understand and unambiguously consent to the transfer of such personal information to, and the collection and processing of such personal information in the United States and other countries or territories. The laws on holding personal information in the United States may vary and be less stringent than laws of your state or country.
 Therefore, use this trick as your own risks :)

As title of this post, we will use VPN service to access to the Pandora Radio Station ie we will get ourselves a US IP Address. I tried to Google "free usa vpn" and it popped out a bunch of VPN service provider in the search results which most of them does not:

  • Offers a free vpn account or
  • Limited time for free account or
  • Have to reconnect every couple minutes or
  • Limited quota eg. 1Gb or 2Gb which definitely not suitable for radio streaming
 Eventually I manged to find a VPN service provider which offers a Totally FOC, Unlimited quota vpn service - Spotflux ( formerly RaptorVPN )

How to do the Setup:

1. First go to Spotflux, download and install their client. (There is MAC and Windows version)
2. After the installation you will be prompted to restart your windows
3. Launch the Spotflux launcher and you will see:


4. Click Enable button and wait for a few seconds for the client to connect to the server. 
5. After the connection to the server has been established, the client will be automatically minimized to the tray icon bar and you will be redirected to Spotflux's official website.


6. Now, go to Google and type "IP" you will see your IP is now changed. (Refer to this post)


7. Enjoy your Pandora Radio Station now! Cheers


 Written by:
Eddy@CR

Wednesday 22 February 2012

Create Alias Email To Avoid Spam Mails

I believe everyone has at least an email account, some people register a secondary email account just for forum registration, some for gaming accounts.

Multiple email accounts will get our main account spam free, but it has its bad too. We need to remember multiple email addresses and passwords. That is a pain for me.

There is some lazy people like me, used to be use only one universal email account for everything, including online banking, forum, gaming, facebook and etc.

Using one universal email account for everything online actually has pros and cons.
The pros are you don't need to sign in into multiple email accounts, don't need to remember so many email accounts and passwords. (sometimes it can be very confusing)
The cons  you will get a lot of spam mails which come out from nowhere you know. And it is very annoying.
Today I'm gonna share an alternative which combines the pro of using multiple email accounts and the pro of using one universal email account - ALIAS EMAIL.

Hotmail has decided to make a new move after they allowed users to use Hotmail with any email address. In February 2011, it introduces alias email. It allows user to create an alias email without signing up any new account. And the incoming email for the alias email can be sent to a specified folder. Besides, the email accounts also can be removed easily.

This is how it works:
1. First log into your hotmail account.
2. Then click on the Settings icon next to Inbox.
3. Select Create a Hotmail Alias like the picture shown below:




4. You will be prompted to input your email account password again for security purpose.
5. Enter the email address of your alias email and click create an alias.

6. Now the last step is your will be given an option to put your alias email's incoming mail to a specified Folder or just put them in the regular Inbox.

It is recommended that always put your alias email's incoming email into a specified Folder. It can helps to avoid spam mails to show in your mail Inbox and can be managed easily. (delete,etc)

You can send emails from the alias by just clicking on your email address and select the alias email when you are composing your new email messages.

There are only few options for the domain, I believe that it is shown based on user's country. For example I got @hotmail.com, @hotmail.my and @live.com.my because I am staying in Malaysia.

Remember, you can't sign in with alias email :D

Enjoy spam free email environment!

Written By:
Eddy@CR

Tuesday 17 January 2012

Securely Sign In Your Google Account on Public Without Typing

Nowadays smartphone is very common, I bought one android phone for myself as well in year 2011. Today I am gonna share a way to sign in our Google Account in public (eg. cyber cafe, shared computers and etc.) without typing anything. Hence, we don't need to worry about any keyloggers.

This is how it works:

First, We need a smartphone, Android or Iphone, with a QR code scanner application installed and you already sign in your Google Account on your phone. (Android user can find Barcode Scanner in Market, it is free. Iphone user can download Scan on Apple Apps Store and it is free as well.

On the public computer, go to Sesame - Google Accounts. You will see a QR code picture, scan the picture with your barcode scanner.


Select "Open Browser" 



You will be redirected to this page:

Select either "Start with Gmail" or "Start with iGoogle" and you can see magically your web browser on public/shared computer is now logged in.

Cheers!

Written by Eddy@CR






Monday 16 January 2012

Sharing Free Wondershare 1-Click PC Care Giveaway

Just find out there is a free Wondershare 1-Click PC Care giveaway today. And the time is limited >_< it is valid until 16-1-2012 1200AM PST / 3PM GMT+8 in Malaysia.

What Wondershare 1-Click PC Care can do?
Quote from the Official Website:
Revive your PC life with just 1-click.
Speed up PC, clean up junk files, and fix errors.
Increase PC stability and protect your privacy.
360° PC health and performance check.
Eliminate PC Crashes & Freezes.


How To Get the Free Giveaway:

  1. Go to Here.
  2. Click the Link to play a mini game on Youtube to get the free code or go to Step 4.
  3. There are few parts in the video, find the right answer to rescue santa from the evil goblin. (Pretty easy, spend few minutes you will get the code)
  4. Alternatively you can just type the code "happy new year" but there is no fun if we do this, spend some time to give support to Wondershare will not be so hard :) 
  5. Finally you can enter the free code and you will be redirected into the download page.
  6. Fill in your personal details and the code will be sent to your mailbox.
  7. Enjoy Wondershare 1-Click PC Care.
Download the installer HERE.

Cheers.

Written By Charles@CR

Friday 13 January 2012

Firefox Use NoScriot To Enjoy Ads-Free Browsing Experience

I believe most of the people hates annoying pop up ads and in-line ads. In fact, ads slows down our internet browsing speed.

Today I would like to introduce a way to give us a better browsing experience. Yes, Ads-Free, Safer Browsing, Faster Browsing Speed, and Clean Browsing.

NoScript, a powerful Firefox addon which will do the job for us. Install NoScript here.

Once you are prompted to restart your browser, NoScript is ready.

How to Use NoScript:
  1. By default all the scripts are disabled on every website you go, in this case it simply means you are already enjoying ads-free and faster browsing experience.
  2. But you wouldn't want to disabled all scripts to be disabled. The reason why is because some contents of the website might not be viewable or some javascript function might no be able to function properly.
  3. So the next thing to do is enable the non-ads scripts.
  4. Go to the top left and click on NoScript icon. Select "Allow" or "Temporary Allow" your trusted scripts.

In order to save your time, simply add your favorite websites into the whitelist.
Click Options and go to Whitelist Tab and enter your favorite websites. Enjoy fast and cleaning browsing now.

Cheers!

This post is only available to Firefox Users. For Google Chrome users, refer my another post Here.

Written By Charles@CR

Chrome Use ScriptNo To Block Ads And Speed Up Browsing

Ever browse any site that always pop out many advertisements? Flash ads, pop up windows, Google Ads, Baidu Ads (China)... In the other way, it slows down the browsing speed of the website.
Feel very annoying? I bet many of you have the same feeling as I did.

I used to install an Addon/Extension named AdBlock Plus in both Google Chrome and Firefox to avoid the ads. But sometimes we need to manually create the filter to block the ads and that is a lot of work to do for me.

Ads pop up in browser are control by javascript. Therefore, I was thinking why don't I just disabled the scripts which controlling the ads.

I try to search in the Google Extension for something like "no script". Eventually I found ScriptNo and I decided to give it a try.

First, go to Chrome Web Store and search for ScriptNo and click Add To Chrome to install it. It is very easy to use, by default it will try to block all script in the site which you browse.

The website I used for testing purposes was Raymond's Blog , a famous information sharing website I used to visit.

There are some ads in between of his blog post. (In this post I have already allowed the ads scripts to run for demo purposes)

How to Use ScriptNo:
1. Simply click on the ScriptNo button on the top right of your chrome browser and the blocked scripts and trusted scripts will be shown.
2. Click Trust under the domain name of the website will allow all the scripts under this domain name like example in this post is Raymond's Blog. We can see that a lot of scripts were blocked.


3. Now just select "Deny" to block the script or select "Distrust" to block the whole domain of the script.
(I would suggest to just Deny the script to ensure the other contents of the same domain can be displayed)

4. After the configuration has been done, the webpage will be refreshed automatically and you will not see the ads anymore. Same thing will happens on the flash ads if you have blocked the correct scripts.



5. The browsing speed now is significantly faster because advertisements are not loaded now.

You can also add your trusted websites into the whitelist or add your blacklisted website into ScriptNo. Simply click on Options and scroll down for to check your whitelisted and blacklisted sites.



Enjoy faster and ad-free browsing experience. Cheers!

For Firefox Users, kindly refer to this post HERE

Written By  Charles@CR


Wednesday 11 January 2012

Simple Ways To Find Your IP Address

Sometimes, we want to know what is the IP address that we are using. There are several ways to know it.

The First method is the most simplest one to me:
Go to Google and Type "IP" in the search bar. Your IP address will show up in few mili seconds.

 The Second method are pretty easy as well:
Go to Whatismyip and you can see your IP address directly from the web page.



Now, which one do you prefer? Leave your comments. :)

Written by Eddy@CR

Friday 6 January 2012

Adobe SendNow - An Alternative Way to Send Big File Sizes Files

Ever encountered the problem when you trying to attach a file in your email but the file size was too big? Every email clients has its email attachment limits, such as Google and Hotmail offer maximum 25MB file size of attachment in a single email.

Usually we can use some famous online file sharing service websites such as Media FireMega UploadRapid Share and etc. We can upload our files and just include the file links in the email. Our email recipients just need to click on the link and download the files we share.

There are pros and cons of using free online file sharing services:
Pros:
1. Free account is allow to upload files
2. Download links can be shared

Cons:
1. Free account always come with ads
2. Upload speed and download speed limitation
3. Waiting time for free account
4. And more

Here is an alternative: Adobe SendNow

It offers:
1. 500MB space for free accounts
2. Maximum 100MB file size
3. Audio and Video files supported
4. Constant download speed from server (around 255KB/s when I try to download file)


How to use it? It is very simple. Simply sign up for a free account by clicking on "Try for free" button.


Then select "Try now" and fill everything to sign up yourself to a free account. Verify your account and then you are ready to use Adobe Sendnow.



To use Adobe Sendnow, you can choose to log in from web browser at https://sendnow.acrobat.com/SignIn.html
OR
Download the Outlook Plugin to enable it in your Outlook email client.
OR

Download its Desktop Application at
https://www.acrobat.com/sendnow/en/desktop-download.html


Besides, with desktop app, you can:
  • Get direct access to SendNow without a browser.
  • Transfer large files with drag and drop.
  • Save the settings you last used.
  • Available at no extra charge.

Moreover, large document you received or sent, can be convert into pdf by just one-click.

However, the are some limitations for free account:
- Only one file can be uploaded or downloaded per transaction
- File expiration at 7 days

To have full features, simply sign up the Basic Plan at $9.99 per month and Plus Plan at $15.83 per month.

But it has one constraint that it doesn't support compressed files, and many file types.

.7z .cpl .hlp .jse .pif .sit .ws
.bash .crt .hta .ksh .rar .tcsh .zsh
.bat .csh .inf .lnk .retg .tgz
.cab .dat .ins .mdb .scr .ttf
.chm .dfont .isp .ms .sct .vb
.cmd .dll .jar .otf .sh .vy1
.com .exe .js .pcd .shs .war

Written by:
Eddy@CRs