Audio Rippers & Intellectual Property
Ripping the audio from Youtube videos has been around for awhile. After testing one the other day it got me thinking: What is the difference between downloading a song that has a copyright from a bittorrent site and using a service to rip the same audio from a Youtube video? The answer is obvious, there is no difference. Although I do not think you should use the service I'm about to talk about to download songs with a copyright, that doesn't mean you cannot use the service to download songs which are in the public domain.
Dirpy is an impressive web based Youtube ripper. Not only can you use the service to download a video from Youtube, you can also rip the audio. What sets this service apart from similar sites is the ability to set Start/Stop times and add custom ID3 tags. ID3 tags include the title, artist, album, and track number.
Checking In?
Tweeting your location and using the Social Game App Foursquare is all the rage in recent months and is quickly gaining steam. For those of you who don't know, Twitter is a social site to "Let your friends know what you're doing now." Foursquare has a similar premise; to let users "check in" to venues around there city in order to unlock badges, gain points, become "mayor" (the person that visits a certain venue the most times), and see who else is at the venue with you. These aren't meant for any malicious purposes, but for entertainment... but could it be used for something bad?
Please Rob Me
The website Please Rob Me, is intended to raise awareness about privacy. Please Rob Me is a dressed up twitter search page which searchers and displays who check's in using Foursquare. Are you giving an open invitation to be robbed? Can you trust that person you just met during the last "tweetup" you attended? Although chances are slim, sites like this demonstrate how easy it is for anyone to use the information that you post publicly to the world against you.
Disable Google Buzz
After swarms of complaints about privacy issues with the release of Google Buzz last week, Google will finally let you choose if you want to be apart of the "hive". After talking with a few people, it seems as though the ability to change your settings is slowly being released (like all Google products) to it's users.
In the upper right hand corner of the Gmail web page there is a settings link. From here, you can change all your settings, now including "Buzz". From the Buzz tab, you will be able to control your follow lists, hiding Buzz in Gmail, and Disabling it completely. Below is a screen shot (in case it hasn't been rolled out to you yet). (Note: The color in the screen shot may vary from your account depending on which Theme you have installed.)
Google Buzz Settings
Is GDrive is around the corner?
Google announced today that in the next coming weeks it will be allowing people to upload any file type using the Google Docs website. Unfortunately this will not be a free for all (they have to make money somewhere right?). The Official Google Docs Blog reports that:
"... any file up to 250 MB. You'll have 1 GB of free storage for files you don't convert into one of the Google Docs formats (i.e. Google documents, spreadsheets, and presentations), and if you need more space, you can buy additional storage for $0.25 per GB per year."
For an average user, this will definitely be a good thing. There are alternatives, such as Dropbox (review here), which gives you more storage space for free.
Although this isn't exactly what I pictured for the GDrive, it is a step in the right direction.
New Computer? Need Apps? Enter Ninite.
If you're like me, you may have just purchased a Windows 7 machine. Once you find and buy a new computer, the "helpful" staff may suggest software you should buy to install on your new machine (and give them more commission). Before you splurge a few hundred dollars more, you should check out Ninite which lets you download several free and open source programs all at once.
The simple interface splits the software into several categories (Web Browsers, Messaging, Media, etc.). Just check off the programs that you wish to download and install and press the large green "Get Installer" button all the way at the bottom. Save the installer to your desktop and run it. It installs everything with no need for user input.
Ninite Easy PC Setup
I tried this to download three pieces of software and it worked seamlessly. This should be the first stop for anyone looking for new (free) applications for their systems.
Horror in the Public Domain?
Who doesn't like old campy horror movies from the 1950's to get in to the spirit of Halloween? The Internet Archive host a multitude of movies and television shows which have entered into the public domain. For those that don't know, "The Internet Archive (IA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to building and maintaining a free and openly accessible online digital library, including an archive of the World Wide Web." - Wikipedia
IA hosts about 49 titles in the "horror" category (some entries have been duplicated, some may be better quality uploads). 1968's Night of the Living Dead and 1962's The Brain That Wouldn't Die are two good examples of films in the library. These films have entered into the public domain and are available for free to download. If downloading isn't your thing, they also stream the movie on the site (akin to youtube, hulu, etc.).
Link to the Horror Movie Category!
Have a Spooky Safe and Haunted Happy Holiday!
Free Font Creator!?!
Update: This service is no longer free. Please refer to the following post for more information. http://www.novacharter.com/2010/09/free-no-more-font-capture/
I've wanted to create my own font for years... and I mean, who wouldn't want to make a font? I've looked into font creators and they can be pretty pricey, from around $100 to $300! I've looked into open source font creators but never found anything that really works. I follow @chrispirillo on twitter. There he introduced me to this FREE online font creator called Font Capture.
Font Capture is extremely easy to use. All you need is a printer, scanner, and an internet connection and you're ready to go. First, go to their website http://www.fontcapture.com to download and print out their supplied PDF file. This file is a grid like piece of paper that will be used to write in your letters and other characters (they recommend using a black marker pen). Make sure you pay special to the placement of your characters on the grid!
Next, scan the paper in as a PNG or a JPG. After a few moments, your font is processed and ready to download and install (Windows= Drag and drop into the C:\Windows\Fonts folder | Macs= Double click and click Install Font).
I was truly impressed with the results I received, even on a rushed demo, and plan to use this resource again in the future.
Quick example of Font Capture
Twitter Apps: Web
Until recently, the primary way I accessed Twitter was through the official website. Thanks to @trekkieb47, I have signed up for a service called Hootsuite. What makes this service so special? Hootsuite allows you to work with columns and tabs, making it easy to group various activities together. On twitter.com, to see @ Replies and Direct Messages, you would have to navigate away from the page you are on. Hootsuite eliminates this by allowing you to have all of these in separate columns on one page. You can create tabs for virtually anything (I have a tab for news and created a column under that with various tweets from several new agencies and a column for tech news). Creating columns are easy with the ability to type the name of the twitter accounts you want shown, dragging and dropping them into the column, having search terms displayed, among other options.
If you have multiple twitter accounts or you are a business with multiple people sending out tweets, this service is right up your ally. You can create multiple users via the settings options and add multiple accounts. Hootsuite allows you to choose the twitter account you want to tweet from or you can send the same tweet to all accounts at once. Another handy feature is “Send Later” which allows you to enter a tweet and select a time and date to send it... later. Every business likes to have statistics. Hootsuite allows you to track the links you post (Note: the statistics are only avilable for tweets using their url shortener Ow.ly).
For more information please check out their website @ http://hootsuite.com or check out their youtube video tour embedded below!
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