It is such a good deal, considering most other DVD ripping programs are not free(MacTheRipper is free, but it has not been updated for several years). Besides, WinX DVD Ripper for Mac not only rips DVDs but converts them into different formats. So, I will give it a try. Maybe you should, too.

So, if you have been dying to read Freud but could not afford to buy his books, then it’s time to download them for free and read it.

As most people know, Paypal is an online payment system. By using paypal, you do not have to use your credit card number to buy products online. But most people do not use the money transfer service of Paypal. It can be useful if you have to send your money abroad, especially to countries like South Korea.

It is quite simple to do. First, you need an US bank account in the US and an US Paypal account. Once you created a Paypal account, go to My Account>Profile>Add/Edit Bank Account and Add your bank account. I have a Bank of America account, and I had to use BOA online ID and password to connect it to my Paypal account.

Now, assuming you have a Korean Paypal account(or, the person that you want to send the money to has one), you need to send money from your US account. It is simple and straightforward. Go to Send Money>Send Money Online, enter the email address of the recipient, and the amount you want to send. On Personal payments tab, choose Shared expenses(I honestly don’t know what difference it makes, but it sounds the least problematic). During the confirmation process, make sure you are using your bank account, and not your credit card(if you use credit card, you will have to pay credit card charge). It will take one week for the money to be transferred.

Now, to draw the money out of the Paypal account into the bank account, you or your recipient should go to the Korean paypal account, and add Korean bank account. Go to My Account>Profile>Add/Edit Bank Account and add the Korean bank account. Even though Korea bank accounts are combination of checking account and savings account, I chose Checking account and it worked.

So, it took a week for the money to be transferred from my US Paypal account to Korean Paypal account, and a few days more for the money to be transferred from my Korean Paypal account to my Korean bank account. It costed me $2.75 to transfer $500 between Paypal accounts, and there was no fee to draw money to my bank account(if it the amount is less than KRW150,000, there is KRW1,500  fee). I think paypal is a good alternative to bank transfer if you want to send money from the US to Korea or other countries.

Here are some of the recent German movies I enjoyed watching.

1. Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others)

2. Vaya con Dios

3. Der Untergang

4. Bella Martha (Mostly Martha)

5. Der Baader Meinhof Komplex

6. Gloomy Sunday - Ein Lied von Liebe und Tod

7. Wer früher stirbt, ist länger tot

Blood Pressure Reducer(iTunes link) is a simple app, but does its job quite well. It helps you to reduce your blood pressure by regulating your breathing speed. You start by setting your target speed(in my case, I set 3 BPM/20 mins) then tapping the screen according to your breathing speed. After 10 taps, it starts generate sound according to which you need to breathe in and out. I found that after one session, the blood pressure is usually reduced by 5-10mm Hg. It is not much, but it helps. If you combine it with other lifestyle changes(diet, exercise etc), you may be able to keep your blood pressure under control.

By the way, one of the benefits of using this app is that I am aware of my breathing better now, so when I am stressed, I can take deep breathes, which helps me to relax more. I think it is definitely worth 2.99 price tag.

Then, I accidentally turned off the wifi on the setting menu, then the blue tooth signal got very strong. I think the wifi somehow interfere with bluetooth, and that’s why the signal was so weak. Now I can put the iPod Touch on my pocket but still get excellent sound quality.

I don’t know if it works on iPhone, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t.

It is very easy to use Alpecin. Since it is a shampoo, use just wash your hair with it(but you need to wait for a couple of minutes before you rinse, because it takes some time for the caffeine to be absorbed into your scalp). After that, you dry your hair and apply Alpecin After Shampoo Liquid.

After half a year of using both Minoxidil and Alpecin Shampoo/Liquid, I noticed more hair on my forehead. It is not a big change, but clearly noticeable to me. When I used Minoxidil only, I felt I am losing hair little by little, but that feeling is gone now.

I don’t  think Alpecin is a miracle cure, but just a little bit of help in the long struggle against hair loss. At some point, most guys will go bald. But you don’t want it to lose your hair prematurely. Alpecin will help you to prevent that to happen.

By the way, Alpecin is cheapest in Germany(4 euros for basic shampoo, 8 euros for after shampoo liquid), and it can be quite expensive in some countries. Do not be fooled by high price tag. It is not top of the line fancy product. It is just a reasonably priced product for ordinary people like you and me.

First, British movie critic Chris Tookey analyzed other critics’ ratings and came up with the list of The Top 100 Average critic Rating Movies. On his Web site, you can also find several interesting movie lists, like Top movies by genre etc.

Here are top ten movies from the list.

Singin’ In The Rain (1952)
Casablanca  (1942)
High Noon  (1952)
His Girl Friday (1940)
Grapes Of Wrath (1940)
Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Grand Illusion / La Grande Illusion (1937)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)
Third Man (1949)

Roger Ebert is a famous film critic and author. His book Great Movies I and II contain his in depth review of some of the greatest movies in history. On his Web site, you can find the list of the complete Great Movies(which is much larger than the list in the books). Since he doesn’t believe you can line up movies according to their merits, I will not list top ten movies from his list.

On IMDB site, you can find the top 250 movies according to user ratings. As you can see from the top 10 list below, the visitors to the IMDB seems to share a certain taste. But if you are fed up with those critics that recommend arty boring movies, you may want to have a look at this list.

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
The Godfather (1972)
The Godfather: Part II (1974)
Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo. (1966)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Schindler’s List (1993)
12 Angry Men (1957)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
The Dark Knight (2008)
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Filmsite.org published 100 great movies, which is focused more on Hollywood classics(even though some recent movies and British movies are also included). If you want to watch only English language movies, have a look at this list.

On Filmsite.org, you can also find the 100 Best Films of the 20th Century chosen by Village Voice Critics’ Poll. Here are top 10 movies from the list.

1. Citizen Kane (1941, Orson Welles)

2. The Rules of the Game (1939, Jean Renoir)

3. Vertigo (1958, Alfred Hitchcock)

4. The Searchers (1956, John Ford)

5. The Man With a Movie Camera (1929, Dziga Vertov)

6. Sunrise (1927, F.W. Murnau)

7. L’Atalante (1934, Jean Vigo)

8. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928, Carl Theodor Dreyer)

9. Au Hasard Balthazar (1966, Robert Bresson)

10. Rashomon (1950, Akira Kurosawa)

Sight & Sound, a British film magazine publishes 10 great movies each decade since 1962. In 2002, they published its largest poll to date. You can find more data here. The list itself is rather boring with usual suspects like Citizen Kane and La Règle du jeu. But the list of candidate, with more than 800 movies, can be useful.

in 2005, TIME Magazine published All-Time 100 movies list. Since the list is prepared by two in-house TIME critics (Richard Corliss and Richard Schickel), it shows some movies that are usually not on other lists, like The Fly(1986).

1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die is a book with 1001 short review of 1001 movies(You can find the list here). It is one of the largest movie list, but don’t be disappointed if your favorite film is not listed there. There are plenty of movies that are not in the list. Interestingly, they update the list by dropping some of the movies that were in the book before. You wonder, “Do I have to watch those movies before I die or not?”

Now, you know which movie to watch. The problem is to find time to watch them all. You may have to make a plan, like watching 50 movies each year. If you follow this plan, and avoid any dangerous activities, and take care of your body well, you may manage to watch 1000 great movies. That would be something to be proud about…

Then it dawned on me that the problem might be caused by NetBarrier X5, which blocks certain kinds of information from appearing on the web browser(for example, if you do not want to see Internet ads, it is the easiest solution). What happened was that BetBarrier X5 considered certain links as “undesirable”, and block them from the web page. That’s why I could not use those links.

So I went to NetBarrier X5, and clicked Surf button, then unchecked Filter banners. Then the links became alive again. It is a clumsy solution, but a solution nonetheless.

By the way, there are several ways that you can block Internet ads, and they will block certain information on your web browser. If the setting is wrong, you will not get certain information. So, if you think you do not get all that you want on web site, check your setting.