Worth a click

Mail hundreds of photo’s across the ocean with a few clicks

Paul Vereijken — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:00:45 +0000

E-mail of course is one of the best inventions since fire. But the one thing I can’t stand about it, is the limited size of attachments most e-mail services can handle. If you want to send a dozen of photo’s or a really nifty Powerpoint most services won’t let you and make you send multiple e-mails.

There are some solutions for this problem. YouSendIt.com is a web service where you can upload large files up to a 100mb. That is quite nice, but with if you want to mail like 20 to 30 photo’s that won’t do.

Last week I stumbled upon WeFransfer.com and it made my dream come true. This service allows you to send files up to 2gb – 20 times as much as YouSendIt.com. So if you ever want to mail hundreds photo’s or a large video to your family far away from here: try WeFransfer.com.

Read your hometown paper everywhere

Paul Vereijken — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:00:51 +0000

Last month I gave some tips on how to stay tuned on Dutch news. But since you are an international student you probably want to know what’s happening in your country and hometown too.

Yes, I know our generation isn’t newspaper minded anymore. What is the last time you bought one of those dead trees? But still, if you want to stay up to date on what is happening in your hometown and those newssites just aren’t enough, PressDisplay.com might come in handy. This websites has over a thousand newspapers from all over the world. You can select the papers you want to read, scan them for free for interesting headlines and if you want to read more, you need to pay a few bucks. Really easy to stay tuned on what is happening in your hometown.

Inspiring videos

Paul Vereijken — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:00:47 +0000

I’m a sucker for mind blowing ideas and inspiration.

Sometimes I spend hours watching videos of presentations held at the famous TED conference and whenever I turn on the tv, I always end up watching Discovery Channel.

When you watch as many TED videos and episodes on Discovery like I do, you eventually will have one question left: where can I find more of this drug called inspiration? Of course, you can read loads of books, but I like the effect of video. It makes me sit back, relax, listen to the story and it doesn’t make me start asking questions right away.

In my search for more inspiring stories, I went to the video heaven of the internet, YouTube. Within a few seconds, I had discovered the YouTube channels of Stanford University and MIT. Both are filled with hundreds of great videos and I’ll spend hours and hours watching them all. I’m sure they have a video on a topic that inspires you too.

How to stay tuned to Dutch news

Paul Vereijken — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:00:24 +0000

When you’re living in our cozy country for a few months you might want to read some Dutch news. But since you probably can’t read Dutch that will be quite a problem. Neither our national news nor the biggest news website offers an international edition. Using Google Translate isn’t much help either. Luckily, NRC Handelsblad, a daily newspaper, is an exception. At nrc.nl/international they offer you the most important news on current affairs. NRC also has some nice features on important topics. You can also subscribe to the free newsletter that Dutchnews.nl brings daily.

Besides these two media, Radio Netherlands Worldwide is definitely worth a click too. They don’t offer just the latest news, but also press reviews, video and radio shows. Even if you prefer to read the news in Spanish, Portuguese or another language, RNW probably will have the language you’re looking for.

Download YouTube videos straight in your mailbox

Paul Vereijken — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:00:51 +0000

Every day I watch some of my favorite John Cleese videos on YouTube. And when listening music, half of the time I use YouTube too. For quite a while I searched for a tool to download YouTube videos so I could watch the video’s and listen to my favorite tunes when I can’t go online. All the tools I found seemed quite a hassle.

A few days ago, A friend of mine tweeted about Zamzar. “With tools like Zamzar, it’s now possible to download the album of Them Crooked Vultures”, he tweeted. That sounded like the tool I’m looking for and it indeed is!

At their website, you just submit the url of the YouTube video, select if you want to download just the audio or the video too, enter your e-mailaddress and hit the button ‘Convert’. Zamzar will do its magic and the mp3 or video will be mailed to you. Can’t be simpler and it works great for downloading music or videos to use in a presentation.

Try some typical Dutch kitchen classics this winter

Paul Vereijken — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:00:39 +0000

It’s getting colder outside and with the winter just a few months ahead of us, it’s time for some typical Dutch dishes. Of course most of the Dutch students you know are eating a lot of pastas and other foreign food. But ask them about stamppot, erwtensoep and speculaas and they’ll definitely know what you’re talking about. The only problem is that most of them don’t know how to cook those dishes. That is why I surfed the web for you and found the best recipes to cook some typical Dutch food.
At dutchfood.about.com you’ll find a large collection of recipes and if you can’t chose what to cook you should check this list with “10 Dutch recipies you simply must try”. Want to cook a winter classical? Try the split pea soup with bacon (erwtensoep) or a mash of potatoes and cabbage with smoked pork sausage (stamppot met rookworst) I found at www.recipezaar.com.

How to make your student life a bit easier

Paul Vereijken — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:00:13 +0000

Ever wondered how to roast coffee with a popcorn popper? Of course you didn’t. But you probably scratched your head a hundred times when you couldn’t find that lost Word document. The next time you are cursing your laptop because an important file disappeared you should make sure to try these ten tips from HackCollege.com.

HackCollege is filled with useful (and weird) tips for students. Like thirteen caffeine-free ways to get more energy and five tips to keep your head in the books. Or some posts on how to save money: sharpen razors with jeans, a guide how to ask your parents for more money and 117 ways to save money for beer. They even made a series of (nerdy) video’s. And when all those articles on HackCollege aren’t enough: there is even more at StudySuccessful.com.

Organize your ideas with online mindmapping

Paul Vereijken — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:00:42 +0000

Whenever your head is filled with ideas it might starts to feel like it’s spinning around. I had that feeling last Monday during a brainstorm and afterwards I could remember just about half of my ideas. I should’ve made a mindmap during the session to organize my thoughts.

Mindmapping is something I really dig. It organizes my mind, gives me more and better ideas and helps me out when I’m stuck in my thoughts. I used to draw mindmaps on paper but since I discovered MindMeister I’m hooked to online mindmapping. With a few clicks I can build a mindmap and without any hassle I can rearrange everything. But it gets even better. I can share every map with friends or colleagues and they can work on the mindmap while I do. Surf to www.mindmeister.com and signup for a free account.

An online hotspot for science news

Paul Vereijken — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:00:55 +0000

Lots of researchers blog about their projects. But most of those weblogs are pretty hard to find, especially if you don’t know which university they’re at. Luckily, Duke University, Stanford University, and the University of Rochester launched Futurity a few weeks ago. This portal searches for the very best research news and publishes pieces about it on www.futurity.org. And, indeed, the website is filled with posts about all kinds of research. Clicking through Futurity, I watched scientists using Lego to visualize life at nano size and read about shower heads making people possibly sick instead of clean. But it ain’t all beta. You’ll also find blog posts from a psychological, sociological or cultural angle. Like this post on a study that tried to understand why women have sex – it ain’t just for love or having babies. Or much more serious: can a public opinion poll predict terrorism?

If you don’t want to get fat: get a good night of sleep

Paul Vereijken — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:00:06 +0000

Although it’s a cliche, there is no doubt that students don’t sleep much. Chatting at the bar far past midnight or getting through those 300 pages of literature you need to read before tomorrow’s test – all of those things keep you from sleeping those 7 or 8 hours a day. Of course you know that a lack of sleep is bad for your health. But did you know that it can make you fat? Researchers have found that a lack of sleep influences two hormones: leptin and ghrelin. Ghrelin is the hormone which stimulates you to eat, and leptin suppresses hunger. “When sleep is restricted to four hours a night, ghrelin levels go up and leptin levels go down,” says president William Orr (National Sleep Foundation) at Health.com. Because of this unbalance, you not only will have a greater appetite, but you’ll also eat more. Now you know why a beauty sleep is called a beauty sleep.