Tutorial: How to make Google Translate beatbox

Thanks to the listen button on Google Translate, you can listen to a computer pronounce foreign languages.

What’s even more awesome about this button is, that with the right sequence of letters, you can turn it into a beatboxing machine. Here’s how:

1. Go to translate.google.com
2. Enter this text into the box:pv zk bschk pv zk pv bschk zk pv zk bschk pv zk pv bschk zk bschk pv bschk bschk pv kkkkkkkkkk bschk bschk bschk pv zk bschk pv zk pv bschk zk pv zk bschk pv zk pv bschk zk bschk pv bschk bschk pv kkkkkkkkkk bschk bschk bschk pv zk bschk pv zk pv bschk zk pv zk bschk pv zk pv bschk zk bschk pv bschk bschk pv kkkkkkkkkk bschk bschk bschk pv zk bschk pv zk pv bschk zk pv zk bschk pv zk pv bschk zk bschk pv bschk bschk pv kkkkkkkkkk bschk bschk bschk pv zk bschk pv zk pv bschk zk pv zk bschk pv zk pv bschk zk bschk pv bschk bschk pv kkkkkkkkkk bschk bschk bschk
3. Change “From” language to German. important.
4. Press the speaker icon.
5. Sit back and enjoy

Want to visualize your music? Try Synthesia!

A long time ago, I covered MuseScore, an application that can typeset your music as well as play it back.

And now, for something completely similar…

Originally developed as a game to train people how to play piano, Synthesia is equally adept at playing back your music. Instead of a bunch of notes on five-line staves, Synthesia uses a Guitar-Hero-esque approach, by translating notes in a MIDI file into colorful falling bars that strike a keyboard. The advantage of this visualization is that everyone, including non-musicians, can understand what’s going on in the music.

Take a look at the videos below:

Getting rid of the cobwebs

Over the span of four years, my bookmarks have become VERY cluttered. Like that picture on the left, my bookmarks were all haphazardly stuffed into one bulging folder. Luckily, I had the URLs and website names of my favorite websites memorized, but when time came to make use of a site that I had cached away in my bookmarks, it was nearly impossible to do so. Even with the search features of Firefox, the sheer amount of bookmarks hurt my eyes.

Quick tip: How to categorize school assignments in your email

If you constantly email assignments to yourself, you may have experienced what I call an “inbox nightmare.” Imagine you’re at school one day, working on a project, and you’re trying to look through your email for a Spanish assignment you emailed yourself one month ago. You can’t remember the subject line of the email, nor can you remember the name of the document. Now, all you can do is hopelessly scroll through page after page of subject lines that read “testasdf” or “PRINT THIS ASAP IF YOU DON’T YOUR GRADE WILL DROP TO AN F-!!!!” Where could the assignment be buried?

But never fear! There is a way to counter the inbox nightmare: stay organized! And you have options.

Make Firefox look like Internet Explorer

click to enlarge

I like the look of Internet Explorer 8 on Windows (NOT the browser itself) since it integrates well into the Windows UI. For me, Firefox’s UI was independent and not so coherent with the Windows UI, but luckily for IE lovers, there’s some modifications you can make that almost perfectly simulates IE8 on Windows 7 (note: Mac users may have trouble with this.)

Edit web pages on your browser!

No, seriously, you can edit web pages right from your browser. Just type in this code after you load up a web page:

javascript:document.body.contentEditable =’true’;document.designMode=’on’; void 0

You’ll be able to change images, type stuff, and move stuff around. It’s awesome!