Free NBA Radio

I'm a huge basketball fan. My favorite team is the LA Lakers or "Lakeshow" as some Laker fans like to call them. For this year, the NBA Audio League Pass is free. Just register and you can listen to every single NBA game live.

Free Software

Here's a list of my favorite free programs:

Crap Cleaner
This cleans up your hard drive. Deletes useless files and can clean your registry as well. Most of the time when you uninstall a program, there will be remaining "crap" to clean. When installing, do not install the Yahoo toolbar.

Disk Defragmenter by Auslogics.
This will defragment your hard drive in minutes and speed up your computer. Who doesn't want more speed?

Firewall by Comodo
This firewall was highly rated by PC Magazine. It's much better than the Windows firewall.

Anti-virus by Avast
This program works better than most because you can scan your computer before Windows boots up with the "boot time scan." Must register to get the registration code. Duh!

Audacity
This is a great audio editor. I often use this to edit mp3 files, etc. You will need the lame audio decoder as well. Just google "lame encoder.dll"

Foxit Reader
I don't like large programs that take a lot of space on my hard drive. Adobe Reader takes up way too much space. Foxit Reader is a small file only about 2mb.

uTorrent

Again, I love small software. If you download torrent files, this is the one for you. It's less than 1mb. Only 214kb to be exact. =)

TaxAct

If you're an American citizen, you must file income taxes regardless of where you live, breath, earn money, or sleep. I've been using TaxAct because it's user-friendly, quick, and painless.

VirtualDubMod

This is a great little video editing program.

That's it for now. What's your favorite free program?

Free Education

Stanford eliminates tuition for some students

Students whose families make less than $100,000 will attend school free; about a third of students will be helped.

February 20 2008: 3:29 PM EST

PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) -- Attending Stanford University next year will be a lot more affordable for some undergraduate students.

The university said Wednesday it plans to eliminate tuition for students with annual family incomes totaling less than $100,000. It also will pay most room and board for students with families making less than $60,000.

Financial aid director Karen Cooper says the move comes as middle-income parents express concern about paying for a Stanford education.

Stanford tuition is expected to rise to $36,000 in the fall. Room and board will cost about $11,000. About a third of the university's 6,700 undergraduates are expected to qualify for the tuition break.

Free Book

Suze Orman is giving away her book Women and Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny. You can download a free copy here:

Link

If you don't know, Suze Orman is a financial expert and hosts a financial planning show.

Why I love my protein...

If you've seen my previous post about my fridge, you know I like protein (meat, fish, etc.). Usually, I'll drink a protein shake after exercising. =)

Here's an interesting article today about protein from Reuters:

Study explains how protein keeps hunger at bay

By Julie Steenhuysen Thu Jan 17, 7:20 PM ET

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Diets high in protein may be the best way to keep hunger in check, U.S. researchers said on Thursday in a study that offers insight into how diets work.

They found that protein does the best job at keeping a hunger hormone in check, while carbohydrates and fats may well deserve their current nasty reputation.

The study, which will appear in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, looked at the effectiveness of different nutrients at suppressing ghrelin, a hormone secreted by the stomach that stimulates appetite.

"Suppression of ghrelin is one of the ways that you lose your appetite as you begin to eat and become sated," said Dr. David Cummings of the University of Washington in Seattle, who worked on the study.

The researchers gave 16 people three different beverages, each with varying levels of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. They took blood samples before the first beverage, then every 20 minutes for six hours afterward, measuring ghrelin levels in each sample.

"The interesting findings were that fats suppress ghrelin quite poorly," Cummings said in a telephone interview. They fared the poorest overall.

"Proteins were the best suppressor of ghrelin in terms of the combination of the depth and duration of suppression," he said. "That is truly satisfying because high proteins are essentially common to almost all of the popular diets."

They also found that eating carbohydrates resulted in a strong ghrelin suppression at first, but ghrelin levels rebounded with a vengeance, rising to an even higher level.

Basically, the carbohydrates eventually made people even hungrier than before they had eaten.

Cummings said the findings may aid in future research on the effectiveness of different diets.

And the study likely means that nightly bowl of ice cream is out. "That is a bad idea no matter what," he said.

In a nutshell, protein suppresses hunger, which means you'll eat less.

My Favorite Breakfast

Although I'm a big fan of the typical American breakfast, this is my personal favorite. Cantonese style Dim Sum. Going clockwise from the bottom left we have shrimp dumplings with glass noodle wraps (really hard to make), chicken feet (braised in black bean/curry sauce), beef tripe (don't knock it until you try it), pan-fried turnip cakes, and porridge (with pork and thousand-year-old eggs.) What could be better? =)

L.A. weather

Of all the places I've visited, nothing beats L.A. weather. First of all, it hardly ever rains. There's so little rain that two songs have been written about it. Here are a few lyrics from one of them.

I haven't seen your face in a year
I can't wait till I get there
Just to kiss and squeeze and hug
Girl you know the rest 'cause they tell me

It never rains in southern California
It never rains in southern California

Maybe I'll take the flight out tonight and you can pick me up about 8
I don't know what airline girl but I know it won't be late 'cause they tell me

It never rains in southern California
It never rains in southern California

Also, it's a very mild winter. I was wearing short sleeves and almost turned on my car's a/c. The temperatures averaged about 70F (23C) during the day in January.