Play FLAC files in Windows Media Player

FLAC (Free Loseless Audio Codec) is a great a way to store music if you don't want to lose the quality of the original source. But unfortunately, Windows Media Player does not support the flac format. There are lot of players available, which can play flac music, like Winamp, VLC and the previously mentioned XMPlay. But many people still use the Windows Media Player (WMP) that comes bundled with the Microsoft Operating System. Here's what they should do, to get flac music played in their Windows Media Player.

• Download madFlac
• Unzip the package and run install.bat to install the codec.
• Open your .flac file in Windows Media Player .
• Click "Yes" on the dialog box that appears . Select the "Don't ask again for this extension" if you don't to see this dialog again.
• Now your flac music can be played in Windows Media Player without any problem.

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Encrypt your IM Conversations in Pidgin

Pidgin is IM (chat) client that supports multiple IM protocols including Gtalk, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ and many more. It also allows you to encrypt your IM conversations with the help of a plugin - "Pidgin-Encryption".

After installing the plugin just enable it by going to Tools > Plguins. Now your Pidgin is ready to secure your IM chat sessions. The plugin is available for various operating systems.

Features:

• Automatically creates a public/private key pair for you upon loading the plugin
• Automatically transmits your public key to other users.
• Supports 512 - 4096 bit keys.
• Saves keys of known users, and warns you if their public key has changed.
• Embeds all encryption and keys inside HTML, so if the other user doesn't have the plugin, they will get a little message telling them about the plugin, and won't get a screen full of garbage.
• Stores keys in human readable files in your .gaim/.pidgin directory, in case you ever need to copy/edit them by hand. Which you really shouldn't have to do.
• Automatically recognizes if you are chatting with someone who has the plugin- see the Preferences dialog.
• Available for the Windows version of Pidgin.
• Modular and extensible. If you want to define a different type of encryption, you can use this plugin as a wrapper to take care of transporting the encrypted binary over the IM pipe.

Download the plug-in from Pidgin-Encryption
Happy Chatting :)
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Shorten URLs in ubiquity with is.gd

Start shrinking your URLs in ubiquity with is.gd service. Ubiquity, by default, comes with a command "tinyurl" to shrink your URL's. But I feel that TinyUrl is no more 'tiny' (as the domain itself is longer). So I created my own command to shorten the URL's using is.gd (another URL shortening service but with a short domain name).

If you don't know what ubiquity is , then take a look at the note below.


Adding the command to your command list:

• Goto http://arunsonnet.googlepages.com/ubiquityis.gdcommand
  
• If Ubiquity is already installed on you browser, you will notice a information bar with "Subscribe" button at the top right corner of that page. (If ubiquity is not installed, grab it from Mozilla Labs)
• Click on the "Subscribe" button
• A new page with the Command's source will appear.
  
• Click "I know what I'm doing. Subscribe to it!" ( I assure you that there is no malicious code . The source code is before you! )

Usage:

• Select the URL you want to shorten (or you can give it with the command)
• Now open Ubiquity and type is.gd and press 'Tab' to auto-fill the selection (You can also enter the URL here)
• Press 'Enter'.
  
• Now your original longURL will be replaced by shrinked URL from is.gd. The shortened URL is also copied to the Clipboard.

Happy Shrinking! :)

The Project is hosted on Google Code . Visit the project page to know more about this command.

Note: Ubiquity is an extension for firefox that makes your online life easier. You can perform searches, send emails and a lot using ubiquity. Know more about it here.

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