Ubuntu doesn’t play DVD from a fresh install. You need to install a few programs and codecs first. Here is how to do it: sudo apt-get install totem-xine libxine1-ffmpeg libdvdread3 sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh That’s it! Enjoy your movie! (source: tech-recipes.com)

When you have a shopping list of various items, do you ever wonder how you can get the best deals from the grocery stores around you? Wanting to find the weekly deals newsletters from your junk mail pile but to no avail? Most likely you may end up simply going to the same grocery store that’s nearby. Even worse sometimes you find out that there were crazy deals you missed simply because you didn’t know about. Well, that’s where technology comes in to help! myGroceryDeals.com will first ask for your shopping list, then goes through all the grocery stores around you to find the cheapest deals for you to go get your groceries. Sounds good huh? Give it a try! ...

Do you sometimes wonder why certain web pages look a little odd to you? You know, it may be that the browser that you are using does not render the web page correctly. ;) Try using this acid3 test to see how well your web browser performs! I hope your web browser gets close to 100. Sadly many of them are not even close. The correct display of the test should look like this! ...

FYI, I recently set up my personal wordpress site at birdchan.com . It’s fun to tweak the code when you have your own server. ;)

When I came across this site, I was stunned. In short, you play a vocabulary game to earn rice for donation to the poor. Here is their “How to Play” instructions: Click on the answer that best defines the word. If you get it right, you get a harder word. If wrong, you get an easier word. For each word you get right, we donate 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. This game can really test your vocabulary, and at the same time you get to donate rice. What an idea! ...

One of my friends sent me this air ticket deals site. I have seen some really good deals from this site before, so I will just post it here so that this site can be known as well. (Just try to be fair…)

Another place to buy last minute air tickets. I haven’t tried to use this yet but it looks quite simple to use without all the junk ads. Just like any other bargain sites for air tickets, the tickets are non-refundable or will charge you extra for date change. If you have a chance to give this site a try, please let me know of your experience with it. Good luck! ...

America has written reviews on the human rights issues of many countries, but not of its own. China this time wrote a human rights record of America. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-03-13-china-us-human-rights_N.htm This is the original 2006 human rights record of America written in Chinese. http://www.sepc.edu.cn/data/news/2007391533142.htm America is not doing any better than other countries on human rights. This is saddening and worrisome.

Have you ever gotten trapped in the answering machine world? All the options given to you are just not what you want! Wish you could simple talk to a human? Well, this website will save you hours. It lists most of the major companies’ human customer service phone numbers. No more wasting time with the answering machines!

This thing is amazing! You know how when you go to youTube the flash thing embeds the video file right? Scribd iPaper basically embeds any word, excel, powerpoint, or pdf document on a flash player. Image you can view a pdf document online without waiting for your acrobat app to load, or view a word doc without downloading and opening with MS word. What’s even cooler is that, you can sign up and use this tool on your own website, much like any other web APIs. Check out their demo video! ...