Free Video Editing Software for Producing Movies & Vlogs

Free Video Editing Software for Producing Movies & Vlogs

Ferrari fan, Prabhu Krishnamurthy, is on a hunt for some free movie making software. He writes:

We are coming up with a 12 minute movie for culturals. Do you know any good movie making software, that can be downloaded for free?

Our movie will be based on a news channel. So I am looking at a video editor/movie maker software that allows scrolling texts, subtitles and custom animations etc.

You want so many video editing features for free ? Well, it may be possible as here are some good options for editing that don't cost a dime.

But before you read this list, check the CDs that shipped with your handycam - most camera manufacturers like Sony, Canon and Panasonic generally provide a decent video editing software with the camera. OK, back to the list of free video editing software:

Windows Movie Maker - The best video editing tool for Windows that's absolutely free and chances are you already have it installed on your computer as part of XP SP2. Microsoft Movie Maker has all the basic video editing tools plus a good collection of transitions and video effects.

There's an in-built movie titler that lets add you styles to text titles including ticker taps, zoom and even the scroll effect. And if you are feeling lazy, just hit the AutoMovie command to have the entire video produced for you with intervention.

Avid Free DV - Avid Free DV, poor cousin of Avid Xpress Pro, has all the basic video and audio editing features and allow you to put video in two tracks simultaneously. They have an extensive collection of tutorials online to help you get started quickly.

Support both Mac OS and Windows XP platform. Infact, you can even play with keyframes for generating custom moves and transitions. Ships with the Avid Title tool.

JahShaka - An open source video editing software that is currently in Alpha stage but has features found only in expensive video editing software suites.

Works on Mac, Linux and Windows. The interface might take some time for you to get started otherwise the software is definitely the most powerful one out there. And the price is just right. $0. Also does 3D effects which you won't find in other free video editors.

Jumpcut.com - Jumpcut is a web based video editing software and now it's even part of the Yahoo! family. You upload a video or small clips just like importing inside a desktop software.

There are dozens of transitions and special effects. You can import photographs from your Flickr or Facebook account to mix them with the videos. The jumpcut editor is intuitive enough and there is good title support as well. And your movies are published online automatically. Perfect for quick vlogging and video podcasting.

Finally... While the above video editing software should satisfy the needs of most home movie makers, you can probably consider Adobe Premiere Elements or even Muvee AutoProducer for more features and better control over the final output. They have trial version to help you try out the software before actually buying it.

Convert PowerPoint Presentations into iPod or YouTube Video

Convert PowerPoint Presentations into iPod or YouTube Video

Want to publish your Powerpoint PPT slideshows on Google Video or Youtube ? Or watch them without a computer on an iPod, mobile phones or your large TV screen using a DVD Player ?

Get PPTmovie, a conversion software that turns PowerPoint slides into movie formats like MP4, MPEG or AVI. The software will also record any background music or audio narrations through the microphone and sync it with the video slideshow.


The tool costs around $50 but you can have it absolutely free today courtesy GiveAway website. [The free download link expires at 11:59 PM PST]

Download PPT Movie at GiveAway of the Day.

While PPT Movie will help you burn those PPT slideshows on a DVD disc or publish them on the video sharing websites that accept AVI, you may consider SlideShare for embedding Powerpoint slides as Flash in webpages.

Is anyone else reading your email ?

Is anyone else reading your email ?

Is your boss or even some coworker secretly reading your email ? Are the Federal agencies snooping your email messages ? Following are two simple techniques that can help you confirm your suspicion - it detects snoopers and can track the address of the computer that is watching your email.

Remember that for steps 3 & 4, you can create a free account on geocities.com, create a dummy HTML file that contains Statcounter or Google Analytics tracking script.

1. Set up a Hotmail account in US and and a second email account with a non-U.S. provider. (eg. Rediff.com or IndiaTimes.com)
2. Send messages between the two email accounts which might be interesting to the email snooper or NSA who may be monitoring your email.
3. In each message, include a unique URL to a Web server (link to the dummy file on geocities.com containing the tracking code) that you have access to its server logs. This URL should only be known by you and not linked to from any other Web page. The text of the message should encourage an NSA monitor or email snooper to visit the URL.
4. If the server log file ever shows this URL being accessed, then you know that you are being snooped on. The IP address of the access can also provide clues about who is doing the snooping.

The other technique uses Google Analytics for tracking the email impressions.

1. Create an email email message such that Urchin with the following HTML code to embed the __utm.gif image anywhere in your email message.



The email impressions would be credited to the source "news1" and the medium "email". As soon as someone ones your email, the impression will be registered on Google Analytics server as the gif file is downloaded on the spying computer.

2. If the email recipient has disabled automatic downloading of internet images, you can create a campaign link to track the email referrals. Tag these links using the utm_ campaign variables.

Continuing with the example above of an email message which you track using the source "news1" and the medium "email," your tagged link might look like this:

< href="www.mywebsite.com/?utm_source=news1&utm_medium=email">

Update: According to NYT, the volume of information gathered from telephone and Internet communications by the National Security Agency without court-approved warrants was much larger than the White House has acknowledged.

Americans come to the program's attention only if they have received a call or e-mail message from a person overseas who is already suspected to be a member of certain terrorist groups or linked somehow to a member of such groups. And the agency still gets a warrant to intercept their calls or e-mail messages to other people in the United States.

Source: How do I track email campaigns? | Who is snooping on my email? - confirm if one's email messages are being read by someone else.

10 Interesting Things You Can Do with YouTube or Google Videos

10 Interesting Things You Can Do with YouTube or Google Videos

Unless you are staying in an underground cave for more than a year without an internet connection, there's a healthy chance that you have atleast watched, if not downloaded, an online video on Youtube or Google Videos.

The online video sharing space has exploded in the recent months with the entry of new players like Metacafe, Blip.tv, Revver, Yahoo Videos and so on. Millions of video clips, technology shows, music albums, movie trailers are available on these video sites for online viewing or they can also be downloaded to your hard drive for offline viewing.

The downloaded video files are generally in FLV format (Flash Video) which is an Adobe standard for video compression. It has fast becoming the web standard for delivering online video (replacing Apple QuickTime, AVI, Windows Media and Real rm formats) because Flash Video can be viewed inside Macromedia Flash Players which is shipped by default with most web browsers. [Flash Video Learning Guide]

A lot of us know how to download Google Videos or Youtube videos from the internet but what do we do next ? Can we make the FLV video files searchable ? How do you edit FLV files ? All your questions and concerns are answered here:

How do I download videos from Youtube or Google Videos or Metacafe ?

It's strange that none of the video sharing sites provide a simple one-click button to download videos. So we will have to take the help of easy workarounds to download the videos. Here are three different ways to download any video from the internet though internally, they employ the same hack (Right-click -> "Save Target As" OR copy the link into your download manager. but change the file extension to .flv)

Approach 1: The easiest way is to copy your video URL and paste it on KeepVid Lite. When you click submit, you will be provided with a link to save the video as an FLV file.

Approach 2: Bookmark this Link or drag it your browser links toolbar. When you want to download a certain video, open the link in your browser and click the KeepVid button.

Approach 3: For Firefox Users - Install the VideoDownloader Extension from Mozilla Addons website - It downloads all embedded objects on a webpage including the video clips.

What naming convention do I adopt for saving video files on my hard disk ?

With time, as the collection of FLV files on your computer grows in size, it may get impossible to keep a track of the video files. The drawback of flv files is that they are neither searchable nor indexed by media gallery software like Picasa or Apple iTunes. Hence, an intelligent approach would be save the files in such a manner that it becomes obvious even for a layman to understand what the video is all about.

Try to include a short context and duration of the video in the name. For instance, the Google Factory Tour video is 5hours, 39minutes and 41seconds long. You can save it as Google_Factory_Tour_053941.flv or GoogleFactoryTour_053941.flv.

Such files are easy to find later using desktop search programs. Alternatively, if you have the time and energy, the FLV Meta Data Injector can insert additional meta data into FLV files. It's a free command line utility. [Watch Video Tutorial]

How can I play FLV files on my computer - They don't open with Windows Media Player or Winamp or iTunes ?

You can download free FLV players to watch FLV files locally. My favorite FLV player has a simple and easy-to-remember name - FLV Player. Another nice alternative is the Riva FLV player.

I download a large 30 minute video from Youtube but I am only interested in the last 10 minutes of the clip. How do I split a large FLV file into smaller playable video clips?

This is the most common question among video enthusiasts - they want to split a large FLV video file into smaller chunks for editing or resharing only the interesting tidbits on the internet. To break an FLV file, get the free FLV Parser - a tiny command-line tool to split FLVs into pieces. Its intended use is to convert a large FLV into a series of shorter FLVs based on a series of millisecond-based timecodes. Using the -s switch will split the audio and video of the outputted files; the audio track will be extracted as a series of MP3 files, and the short FLVs produced will have no audio track at all.

How do I convert FLV videos to Flash SWF or Windows AVI or Apple Quicktime mov formats ?

The free Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer software from Super can convert FLV files to practically any other video format including MP4, MOV H.264, AVI, ASF or Flash SWF animations. Download here.

How do I convert my AVI MPEG MOV 3GP movie clips back to FLV format ?

Say you complete editing your movie in Windows Movie Maker or Avid and now left with an MOV file that you want to convert to FLV. Just get the free Riva FLV encoder and relax. The Riva encoder even lets you select parts of the video that you want to convert to FLV and crop the rest.

I have three small video clips that I download from Google Videos and now want to join them into one single video - How do I merge FLV files ?

I am not aware of any free software that let you join FLV files other than the expensive Macromedia Flash Professional. However, here's a simple workaround to join several flv video file - convert individual flv files to avi using Super [as mentioned above], then join the multiple Avi files into a single avi file using free VirtualDub and finally convert this avi back to FLV using Riya FLV encoder.

How do I watch Youtube Video on my iPod, PSP or Television ?

Again we'll make use of the Super Video Encoder mentioned above. Just convert the FLV file into a corresponding format (like Apple iPod or Sony PSP or MPG) and transfer it to your gadget.

I want to add my own music and photos to a Youtube video clip but don't have the budget to buy Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Pro or Macromedia Flash. Can I still create my custom video for free ?

Chances are that your computer already has a full fledged video editing application installed by default - it's called Windows Movie Maker and should satisfy the needs of most hobbyist film makers. You can add titles, transitions and even certain video effects.

Here's how to edit a Youtube video inside WIndows Movie Maker - First convert the FLV to AVI format using Super Encoding software, then add your own pictures, music or video clips and finally export the completed file into any video format of your choice. It's that simple.

I don't like the FLV Video Player provided by Google Video. Can I create my custom skin for embedding the video clip ?

The problem with official video players, like the ones provided by YouTube or Metacafe, is that they cannot be customized and the embedded video content is completely contolled by the video hosting site. You cannot personalize the layout of the FLV players like the color settings, logos, etc.

Hence the best solution is to get your creative juices flowing and design the skin of the FLV player yourself. Instructions are available at Adobe Website. You may have to have to download trial version of Macromedia Dreamweaver and Flash Professional software for this trick to work.

Google Videos are not available in my country yet - Can I set download them or view them online ?

Absolutely, you can still watch and download Google Video - read workaround.

Capture Pictures from DVD Movie Scenes in Windows Media Player or Real

Capture Pictures from DVD Movie Scenes in Windows Media Player or Real

How to take Screenshots of Movies in Windows Media Player and prevent blank black Screen Captures

Quest: How do I capture still images from a movie playing in Microsoft Windows Media Player, Real Player, WinAmp or Apple QuickTime?

Some users try to grab the current video frame by pressing the standard Windows "Print Screen" key (next to F12 key on the QWERTY keyboard). But when the image screenshot from clipboard is pasted into an image editor, the capture is a black blank screen instead of the actual video.


Reason: When the video plays, it is actually displayed on a different surface/layer called overlay that is produced by hardware acceleration. When you take a normal screen capture, you're taking it of the normal surface where the video isn't displayed. That's why it comes out black as it is invisible to the screen capture software.

Here are some common solutions to capture pictures from DVD movies currently playing with Windows Media Player Classic or other video players. It should also work for movies (wmv, mov, avi) embedded in a webpage.

1. Use another media player such as Power DVD, WinDVD or BSPlayer - it takes screenshots of the movie and stores them as jpegs images. Or you could try a video editor like VirtualDub.

2. Invest in a commercial screen capture software like Camtasia Studio or SnagIt (allows DirectX capture).

3. In WMP, at least since version 9, you can use Ctrl-I (EYE) to capture a frame, either when playing or when paused for greater accuracy. It brings up a Save Captured Image dialog which handily defaults to a jpeg. This works only if the video you are watching is using a Microsoft supported movie file.

4. Don't use Overlay

1. Open your Window Media Player and click Options on the Tools menu.
2. On the Performance tab, click on the Advanced... button.
3. Uncheck Use overlays from DVD video, click OK and restart the player.

Now you can capture images from any movies played in Windows Media Player using Print Screen (PrintScrn) key (or ALT + PrintScrn key). Once copied, the image can be pasted into Microsoft Paint (Start > All Programs > Accessories > Paint) or other image editor. If you have problems taking screenshots from a playing movie try to pause it first, then "print" the image.

5. Fix blank captures by turning off hardware acceleration. You can either disable hardware acceleration in the application that is playing the video, or disable hardware acceleration system wide.

To disable graphics hardware acceleration globally for all applications in Windows XP or Windows 2000, Select
Control Panel - Display - Properties - Settings - Advanced - Troubleshooting and slide the Hardware Acceleration slider from Full to None.

For Windows 98 or NT systems, the path is slightly different
Control Panel - System - Performance - Graphics - Advanced settings.
Now hit the OK button at the bottom of the window. This disables all accelerations. You may need to restart the machine for the change to take effect.

To turn Off Hardware Acceleration in Your Video Player Only:

In Windows Media Player:
1. In Media Player 7 or later, select Tools > Options > Performance tab. In Media Player v.6.4 and earlier, select View > Options > Playback.
2. Click and drag the Hardware Acceleration slider to the left, changing the setting from Full to None.

In RealOne Player:
1. Select Tools > Preferences > Hardware in the navigation pane
2 Click and drag the Playback Performance slider to the left, changing the setting from Best quality to Lowest CPU usage.

In Apple QuickTime (Standard and Pro):
1. Select Edit > Preferences > Streaming Transport. The QuickTime Settings dialog box displays.
2. From the drop-down list, select Video Settings. Click the Safe Mode (GDI Only) radio button.

In WinAmp
1. Click Options - Preferences - General Preferences, select Video.
2. Uncheck Allow hardware video overlay.

Don't forget to move the Video acceleration slider back to Full when you are done

For Windows Media Player 9, you can either turn off hardware acceleration, or use a slightly different solution that will allow you to leave hardware acceleration enabled during video capture. However, in order to capture RealPlayer or QuickTime videos, you must turn off your computer's hardware acceleration.

Capturing Still Images from a DVD Player using SnagIt - You can use SnagIt to capture still images directly from a DVD player if you are using a software DVD decoder, such as Intervideo's WinDVD or CyberLink's Power DVD. However, you may need to make the configuration changes mentioned above to your DVD player software in order to do take this type of capture. Windows Media Player cannot be used for this purpose because it does not use a standard DirectX layer to display DVD video.

How to Record & Save BBC Radio Shows as MP3 Audio Files

How to Record & Save BBC Radio Shows as MP3 Audio Files

Sakshi Juneja was recently interviewed on BBC Radio Five Live by Anita Anand for her views on the Big Brother Shilpa Shetty row.

The radio programme is available as streaming audio [in Real Media or Windows Media] via the BBC Radio Player but there're no direct URLs to download the entire radio show as an MP3 file.

Sakshi wants to save the BBC radio stream on her computer and is looking for some simple method to do this. [download rm file from BBC and then convert real audio to mp3]

So here's a simple trick that uses a free software called Audacity to download any streaming radio from the internet to your hard drive as a WAV or MP3 file.

[Disclaimer: Always read the copyright policies of the content provider, make sure you’re not breaching copyright by downloading their streaming audio streams.]

Step 1: Download Audacity here. [Free download, available for Windows, Mac and Linux]

Step 2: Start Audacity and choose View -> Float Mixer Toolbar. In the drop-down menu on Audacity's mixer toolbar, choose "Wave Out" or "Stereo Mix" as the input source.



Step 3: Open the BBC Radio Player [or any streaming music website], choose the radio station you want to listen (or record) and hit the Play button.

[The technique work with RealOne player, Windows Media, Quicktime or any other player- Audacity just captures the sound coming from your speakers]

Step 4. As the radio player starts to buffer audio content, switch to Audacity and hit the Record button (it's in red color). You'll see a moving waveform indicating that the recording is ON.



When the radio show is over or you want to stop the recording, just hit the Stop button inside Audacity. Save the recording as a WAV file or get the Lame MP3 encoder to save the streaming radio as an MP3 file which you can even carry in the iPod or burn it to a CD.

Update: If the streaming file URL uses rtsp:// instead of http://, you can even try using Flashget to download the audio / video file.

Help Google Improve Adsense, Get an Apple iPod in Return

Help Google Improve Adsense, Get an Apple iPod in Return

Google is inviting Adsense publishers to participate in a "Adsense Satisfaction survey" and offering them a chance to win an 80 GB video iPod in return. Four Adsense users per billing country will be randomly selected on 15 June 2007.

Other than the attractive prize, this Adsense Satisfaction survey offers an insight into the upcoming features and the future direction of Adsense program.

Google is trying to find what percentage of your online advertising revenue is coming from Adsense, what other ad networds are you a part of and what kind of page-views does your site receive every month.

Here are a couple of questions from the Adense survey that are particularly interesting:
How interested would you be in the following capabilities if they were offered within Google AdSense?

Managing other publishers' AdSense accounts for them
Paying for phone support
Selecting the types of advertisers that appear on your site
Applying AdSense earnings towards AdWords marketing
Specifying your own ad formats and sizes
Gathering information about your visitors
Selecting ad categories to appear on your site

Site targeting is a feature that enables AdWords advertisers to list specific sites on which they would like to advertise. Which (if any) of the following new features would most increase your satisfaction with site targeting? Being able to:

Give advertisers more information about your site
Allow advertisers to see how their ads perform specifically on your site
Choose which advertisers can appear on your site
Offer your website inventory at a more granular level than domain
Set a minimum CPM for ads on your site

Of your ONLINE ADVERTISING revenue, what percentage comes from each of the following sources? Your answers should sum to 100%.
% from AdSense
% from Other contextual/text ads
% from Banners/Pop-ups/rich media
% from Site sponsorships
% from Referral/affiliate programmes
% from Other (please specify)

The email came from the Global Customer Insights Team at the Google Ireland office. If may be reaching your inbox shortly.

Turn Pictures into Interactive Puzzles and Flash Games

Turn Pictures into Interactive Puzzles and Flash Games

Pictogame is an online tool that will make you a Flash game designer with no effort - it converts yous favorite digital photographs into some nice Flash games that you can embed in your blog or share with friends over email.

Creating a game is easy - upload an image, zoom it (optional) and select the puzzle type from the various options.

That's it. You can also resize the Flash game to fit that in your site layout.

Here's a sample puzzle that requires you to arrange the pieces in the right order. Solve it as fast as you can and notice the time in the right corner.

Since the game is based in Flash, you can use it on any site including MySpace, Friendster and Blogger. Time to entertain everyone.

Create PictoGame | Bruno Carsenti

Create Web 2.0 Buttons Online Without Photoshop

Create Web 2.0 Buttons Online Without Photoshop

My Cool Button is an excellent online tool for creating Web 2.0 style aqua buttons with rounded corners and color gradients. It generates the final image in PNG format.

This button generator is so simple and intuitive that even a three year old can produce professional looking Web 2.0 buttons in seconds. Do add it to your Web 2.0 designer toolchest.

Sorry Mr John Edwards, You are Sending Spam

Sorry Mr John Edwards, You are Sending Spam

Just got an email invitation from Mary Jo Codey for a fundraiser campaign which will be attended by Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of 2008 Presidential candidate John Edwards. Read invitation in PDF.

I have neither visited the "John Edwards for President" website before nor registered with them for event updates so such email messages asking for contributions to the Edwards' campaign can be classified as spam.

Not a good idea especially when it comes from the marketing team of a wannabe US President.

Download Videos from CNN IBN or CNBC TV18

Download Videos from CNN IBN or CNBC TV18

Parveen Sibal from Canada is looking for a method to download CNN IBN news videos to his hard drive just like he can save from YouTube and Google Video.

News videos from CNN IBN or CNBC TV18 (Moneycontrol) are served as streaming Flash Video FLV but the actual URL of the video is hidden inside some complex javascript. No problems, we can still download and save CNN or CNBC videos using the following steps:

1. Get URL Snooper from DonationCoder.com - it's a tiny utility that reveals the hidden locations of music and video files as they stream from the web onto your computer.


2. Start URL Snooper and type video.tv18online.com in the Keyword Filter text box. Now click the Sniff Network button. [Not for NDTV 24x7 Videos]

3. Open the CNN IBN or Moneycontrol.com video webpage that you wish to download locally. As soon as the video starts to play in your browser, the URL Snooper will show a URL that resembles the following pattern:

video.tv18online.com.edgesuite.net/cnnibn/flvstore/ [for CNN IBN]

video.tv18online.com/cnbctv18/ [for CNBC Stock News]

Right click, copy the FLV video URL to the clipboard and download it inside Flashget or any other internet download manager.

You can play the FLV file using the free FLV player. [Related: Embed FLV Videos in Web pages]

This post is relevant for the CNN IBN site at ibnlive.com or CNBC TV18 site at Moneycontrol.com. For downloading videos from international news websites like CNN Pipeline, ABC News, CBS News, AP, TMZ and Reuters, use AOL videos website instead.

Disclaimer: Please check the Terms of Service before downloading videos from websites. Some sites may not permit users to download content on their computers.

Track Your Favorite Topics and Blogs with Particls Desktop Alerts

Track Your Favorite Topics and Blogs with Particls Desktop Alerts - It's Great na!

Particls is a new desktop alert software to help you keep track of news, blogs and other RSS feeds right from the comfort of your desktop - Particls does it in style.

Getting started is simple - just specific a list of keywords or topics that you would like to track and you are ready to go. If you want more control, there's an option to specify stop-words that will block items containing specific words.


Like the new email notification box in Google Talk or Microsoft Outlook, Particls will show an unobtrusive system-tray alert in the right corner of the desktop when there's a news item or blog post related to your favorite subjects.

The alert window fades away after few seconds. The unique feature here is that Particls will also display blog images in the alerts, not just the text excerpts. The alert window is automatically resized depending on the dimensions of the image.

You can drag alerts on to your desktop and they stay there like post-it notes. The are known as Pebbles in Particls jargon.


Particls will try to learn from your reading habits - if you like a particular news item, you can instruct Particls to show more news from that source or even vice versa.

Particls Desktop Alerts are also available in the form of a scrolling news ticker that can be docked anywhere on the desktop screen. Hover the mouse over any news item in the ticker, the ticker stops scrolling and you can read more details or save that to your desktop as a sticky note.

And you can have both the ticker and system alerts running at the same time. They suggest that general information might be displayed on a news ticker while important or urgent stuff might appear on a popup alert.

Overall, the software is impressive and not very heavy on system resources. If you like to stay ahead of the curve, Particls software is a good tool for your desktop.

It may not be a replacement for your RSS reader but Particls can certainly help you reduce some of your email overload especially those "as-it-happens" news alerts from Google that pop-up in your inbox every now and then.

Particls opens for public on Monday but if are willing to try it now, leave a comment and I'll pass on the download details. Windows only but a Mac version is coming.

Particls.com | Screencast Demo of Particls | Thanks M

20% Free Time - The Biggest Threat to Google ?

20% Free Time - The Biggest Threat to Google ?

The bright Googlers get 20 percent time in which they're free to pursue projects of their choice. Some immensely popular projects from the Googleplex like Orkut, Google News, Google Suggest and even AdSense were conceptualized and developed by Google engineers during their "20% Time".

But according to Robert Cringely (remember Nerd TV), this 20% time is a terribly fatally flawed strategy and will ultimately kill the company.


Bob's arguement is that thousand of ideas are brewing in the minds of intelligent Googlers, some of them are stunning but the management may not turn all of them into live projects.

And these Google Geeks who are feeling bitter because their ideas were turned down may be cooking with up with peers:

By design each worker is no more than 100 feet from a bathroom or food and drink. This creates an environment where people tend not to go home, which Microsoft discovered and leveraged decades ago.

But nobody works every minute they are AT work, which means the Google Geeks are constantly talking with each other, team building, bonding, and goofing off.

And for 20 percent of that goofing-off time I'll guarantee you that many of these people are discussing their pet projects, which have been REJECTED by the company.

The Final Days of Google

While Robert has given an interesting perspective, the problem he mentions is almost universal to every big organization - some disgruntled employees will leave when their ideas go unrecognized but a whole bunch of smarter people are waiting outside the Googleplex gates to fill the vacant seats.

CAPTCHAs can protect Your EMail Address from Spam

CAPTCHAs can protect Your EMail Address from Spam

reCAPTCHA MailHide is a very innovative online tool that helps your protect your email address from spam through the use of CAPTCHAs.

This free service from Carnegie Mellon University requires others to answer a two word puzzle before revealing your email address to them. There's also an audio option for visually impaired users.


Other than protecting your email from spam bots, you will do a great service to the community by using the reCAPTCHA service.

When someone solves the distorted text image to access your email address, he is helping digitize text from old printed books that was not deciphered correctly by the OCR software and required human intervention.

reCAPTCHA.net | Mail Hide | Wordpress Plugin

OCR doesn't always work on text that is older, faded or distorted and the only option is to manually type them into a computer. reCAPTCHA is sending words that cannot be read by computers to the Web in the form of CAPTCHAs for humans to decipher.

Each new word that cannot be read correctly by OCR is given to a user in conjunction with another word for which the answer is already known. The user is then asked to read both words.

If they solve the one for which the answer is known, the system assumes their answer is correct for the new one. The system then gives the new image to a number of other people to determine, with higher confidence, whether the original answer was correct.

Screen Capture a Long and Scrolling Web page Online

Screen Capture a Long and Scrolling Web page Online

Picnik.com, one of the favorite Flash-based tool for editing images online just keeps getting better and more useful.

They have a excellent add-on for Firefox 2.0+ that will help you grab a screenshot of any webpage with a simple right click and it will automatically export the image to Picnik image editor for further editing (like resizing, including borders, overlay text, rounded corners, etc)

For instance, this page from Steve Rubel was enhanced using the Vignette / Matte effect and it's trasformed from a boring screenshot into something that immediately invites attention.

screen capture webpage online
You can screen capture either the visible portion of the webpage or the entire webpage even if extends several folds. Very handy for saving snapshots of webpages (like an ebay paypment receipt) or for creating thumbnail images of your websites for MyBlogLog, Facebook or other services.


Picnik Firefox Add-on | Picnik.com

for IE. And some more The Picnik Screen capture extension is Firefox only but here are some screen-capture options Firefox extensions for taking screen capture of websites and HTML web pages.