Filsh.Net Converts Web Video For Playback Anywhere

Plenty of good software exists for capturing audio or video from YouTube and other such sites, but I’m always on the look for portable apps or web services that offer the same features.

Filsh.net offers an extremely easy-to-use way to convert clips before downloading. It’s so easy, in fact, that I barely noticed the German interface whilst creating a Nintendo-DS compatible version of some kid setting his pants on fire. Nice!

Drop in your target URL and select your desired format from options including AVI, MPG, MP4, DPG (the DS format), 3GP, OGG, or MP3 and Filsh goes to work. Multiple sites are supported, including YouTube, Google Video, Break, MyspaceTV, and Veoh. I was unable to grab from Vimeo, but Filsh does support uploading – so I could save a clip first and then send it back up to Filsh for conversion.

Conversions are fairly fast, and I didn’t notice any quality problems. Videos remained clear, and audio extracted from clips to MP3 sounded just as good as the original.

Filsh works well, and though it doesn’t handle the variety of conversions that Zamzar does it’s still a useful site to keep in your bookmarks.

5 Free Apps to Clone Your Hard Drive

Hard drive prices are so low now that it really makes sense to use an imaging program. That way you’ve got a perfectly cloned backup of your system exactly the way you have it configured in case of a crash, which is much more convenient than reinstalling Windows, activating, and loading all your applications all over again.

Here are four great apps to get the job done – without spending a dime!

DriveImage XML. Runtime Software has never placed too much importance on looks, and it’s for a very good reason. Their software works really, really well. DriveImage was the first software I used to create images within Windows. Scheduled backups can be created with the Windows Task Scheduler and command line switches. DriveImage is free for private, home use only. Yes, Macrium Reflect does the same thing and looks nicer, but it’s $39.99.

For a straight-up, drive-to-drive clone, you can use Runtime’s Shadow Copy. Shadow copy is free for everyone, not just home users.

Like DriveImage, XXClone runs in Windows. It has an extremely simple interface, and gives you the option to copy volume ID to your destination and make it bootable. The interface also provides quick access to the Windows disk manager, in case you need to perform some quick drive tasks prior to cloning. XXClone is free for personal, private use.

Those who, like me, prefer imaging from the command prompt should try EaseUs Disk Copy. It’s interface looks a bit like a Ghost/Partition Magic mashup. It’s very easy to use, handles all types of internal and external drives, and will even work with dynamic disks. DiskCopy is free for everyone.

Linux buffs will urge you to try PING, which I mention in 5 Apps for a Painless Reformat. Ping can clone drives, create bootable recovery media, back up BIOS data, reset passwords, and clean your cat’s litter box. Ok, not really, but it’s got more tricks up its sleeve than any other free cloning solution.

Did I miss your imaging app of choice? Comment it!

DVD Ripper Tools

Fair Use Wizard
RatDVD
Handbrake
DVD Catalyst Free

24 Killer Portable Apps For Your USB Flash Drive

My flash drive works pretty hard, so I’ve spent a lot of time gathering a reliable, powerful set of portable tools that allow me to work hard and play hard, even if I can’t do it on my own PC. Here are two dozen apps that I always have at the ready.

Encryption

Truecrypt – Why is TrueCrypt first on the list? Simple. A multi-gig, easy-to-lose, unencrypted drive with your data on it is a terrible security risk. Truecrypt helps me keep all my private stuff locked down. Read the “traveller mode” documentation for help setting it up.

Web and Internet

Operator – I’m not an Opera fanboy by any stretch, but if I’ve got to surf on a public computer, I’m using Operator. It’s got Tor anonymous browsing built in to keep you safe. You can read more about it in my previous post. If I’m on a trusted computer, I’ll go for Portable Firefox.

Pidgin – I don’t usually need to IM from a client’s site, but just in case I need to stay in touch I bring Pidgin with me. For portable multi-network chat, it’s the best option out there. Add the encryption plugin to keep it secure.

Filezilla – Half the time I need Notepad++, it’s because I’m editing files on my FTP server from the road. Filezilla portable keeps all my sites accesible from wherever I am.

Peer-to-Peer

μTorrent – Yet another recurring frustration is not being able to find a torrent client on a PC when I need it. I run μTorrent on all my PCs anyways, so it’s got a home on my flash drive as well.

Frostwire – What’s worse than getting a song stuck in your head and not being able to hear it? Take Frostwire with you and make sure that doesn’t happen.

Maintenance and Support

CCleaner – A lot of the computers I work on look like they’ve never had a single file deleted from them. CCleaner makes short work of dumping gigs of trash files from them, and it tidies up the registry, too.

Revo Uninstaller – Phase two in the purging of filth from client machines is ridding them of unwanted apps. Revo is way better than add/remove programs, and the “hunter mode” uproots stubborn apps.

Nirsoft Apps – I have to group these, because they’d eat up half my list otherwise. Dialupass, Mailpassview, Currports, Netresview, and several other of their apps are must-haves for any technician.

Treesize Free – To find where all of someone’s drive space is going in a hurry, fire up Treesize. It makes drive cleanup a snap.

Teamviewer – Zero config remote control that’s portable? Yes, I’ll have that. Teamviewer kicks so much ass that it was an easy sell to my boss, who makes Mr. Crabs look like a big spender.

Multimedia

CDBurner XP – Customer’s don’t always have good – or any – burning software installed. CD Burner XP solves that problem. I switched from InfraRecorder, but it’s a good option as well.

Screamer – I tried screamer out a while ago for a post on DLS, and it’s earned a spot on my drive. For quick access to tons of internet radio streams, you can’t beat it.

Faststone Capture – Whether I need a screencap for a blog post or to prove something to someone, Faststone is my app of choice. The included editing features are great, and mean that I don’t need a photo editor for quick jobs. The link is to the last free version (at Portable Freeware Collection), as Faststone is now trialware.

VDownloader – You never know when you’re going to stumble across a YouTube video that you just have to save. VDownloader will save in a number of video formats, or the audio only as MP3.

Irfanview – For image viewing and basic edits (crop, rotate, resize, etc.) , it’s Irfanview all the way. The homepage is here, but the portable version is over at Smithtech.

VLC – Videolan wins as my portable media player because it supports so many formats and doesn’t require outside codecs. Can 100 million downloaders really be wrong? Ok, sure they can. But I still love VLC.

Document Handlers

Notepad++ – It never hurts to have a good text editor at your disposal, and portable Notepad++ is an excellent option. Tons of great features, like macro recording, syntax highlighting, tabbed interface, and much, much more.

Abiword – Some may opt for OpenOffice, but I choose Abiword because I’ve got Zoho and Google Docs accounts for out-of-office chores that require heavy lifting. Abiword is small, fast, compatible, and has all the features I need for quick document production. The portable version is here.

Foxit PDF Reader – I hate trying to open a manual on a customer’s PC only to learn they don’t have an Acrobat viewer installed. Foxit is my reader of choice, so I take it with me.

File Management

Total Commander – Not only is Total Commander a rockin’ dual-pane, tabbed Explorer replacement, but it also handles all kinds of archive files. That eliminates the need for two more apps just to handle syncs and file extraction. Until someone resurrects Google browser sync or Mozilla Weave handles all my Firefox settings and customizations I’ll just let TC do it for me. Yes, it also has an FTP client and text editor, but FileZilla and Notepad++ are better.

Portable Launcher

PStart – It’s nice to have quick access to the tools on your flash drive, and PStart gives you that by adding an icon/menu in the system tray. It’s searchable, and there’s even a tab to store quick notes for yourself.

There’s my list. Would my flash drive cut the mustard for you, or did I miss your favorite app?

8 Apps For Painless Windows Reformats

Thanks to customers who can’t avoid spyware and Trojans to save their lives, I’ve gotten pretty quick at backing up, reformatting, and finishing off Windows installs. I’ve got five core tools that I use to get the job done, and here they are.

1. DriverMax. After going through the install process, the first thing I shoot for is a complete set of functional drivers. Running DriverMax before the format lets you back up all the drivers on a system. It’s a great app, and it even loads drivers for non-present devices – meaning my customers don’t have to fight with a printer or webcam install CD when they get their computer home.

2. Migwiz. Oh god, I can hear the screams. Truth be told, I’ve only had three problems with migwiz, and they were my entire fault. Microsoft’s file and settings transfer utility works extremely well, and I’ve never had a problem since changing my method.
Copy the USMT folder from the computer’s c:\windows\system32\ and save it to a USB drive. Alternatively, does what the wizard wants you do and create a wizard disk. Run the exe from there both before and after the reformat. It’s critical to use the exact same version of the executable to avoid problems.

3. Nlite. I don’t like being forced to babysit a Windows install, so I’m a big fan of NLite (or VLite for Vista). Extract your CD’s contents to a folder, run N/VLite on it, fill in the blanks, and grab some application add-ons from Winaddons. Burn your disc and presto, you’ve got a silent Windows install!

4. WPI. The Windows post install makes post-reformat application installs a breeze. Throw your favorite apps in a folder and set up their silent switches in the WPI configuration page. Reinstalling them is as easy as checking some boxes and clicking a button.
The tutorial at the WPIW site is excellent, and will guide you through setting up your first Wizard.

5. PING (Partition Image is Not Ghost). Now that you’ve got a nice, clean install, create an image so you don’t have to go through that garbage again. Imaging saves all kinds of hassles and massive external hard drives are dirt cheap. Pick one up and reimage instead of reformatting again next time.

6. DriverForge. DriverForge is a program that will automatically install all drivers from a specified location. These drivers can be compressed or uncompressed.

7. DriverPacks. Currently there are 10 DriverPacks available, all for the wnt5_x86-32 OS platform.

8. AutoPatcher. AutoPatcher is based on the functionality of the special updates, automating their installation process. This way, with only a few mouse clicks and two minutes of your time, AutoPatcher is able to continue with the installation of the items you selected. In short, AutoPatcher combines the advantage of both Windows Update (presentation and description of updates and automated installation), and the special administrative updates (portability and installation without the need of an Internet connection).

What about you? What apps help you get from a crapped up install back to a nice, clean OS?

Get redecorating ideas with MyDeco

If you enjoy the concept of redecorating rather than the actual process of shoving furniture around the room, then you’ll have a ball with MyDeco. Using real furniture in a 3D room, you can rearrange, repaint, and readjust without moving — or spending — a thing.

With this Flash-based tool, you can adjust the size of your room by simply dragging the walls into place, then select from thousands of furniture items neatly categorized by type. If you’re designing a living room, start with the birds-eye view to figure out where to put the couch and coffee table, then switch to the side view to paint the walls and hang some art. It’s unlikely you’ll find an exact match of your sofa in the furniture catalog, but there’s sure to be a reasonable representation.

If you’re not sure just what to put in that goofy little niche in the corner of your bedroom, use the tool’s search feature to find accessories of specific dimension. A secretary’s desk might look silly, but you may find that a quilt rack is just the ticket.

MyDeco keeps a running list of the furniture you’ve tried and discarded, and also sports an adjustable “camera” that you can drag around the room to see it from every conceivable angle. When you’ve got everything the way you want it, save the layout so you can come back later.

MyDeco is a pretty cool way to have fun redecorating your house without emptying your wallet in the process.

Rapid-Pi 2.01

Publisher’s description of Rapid-Pi

view screenshots

From Trident Software:

Rapid-Pi is an equation editor for Microsoft Word that provides a faster way to edit math in documents. Rapid-Pi allows you to enter mathematical expressions as easy-to-understand text. For example, you can type (y+2)/x^2 to create a fraction with y + 2 in the numerator and x-squared in the denominator. Rapid-Pi was designed with a single purpose in mind – to save you time when editing mathematical formulas, equations, and expressions in documents. Rapid-Pi is an add-on for your existing word processor application (like Microsoft Word), not a stand-alone program. This means that you will continue to use your favorite word processor, inserting Rapid-Pi equations into your document whenever you need to enter math. Inserting a Rapid-Pi equation is easy – just click on the Rapid-Pi button on Microsoft Word’s toolbar.

Version 2.01 features integration with Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher along with Compatibility Mode rendering.

35 Places To Download Free, Legal MP3s – Sorry, RIAA!

I love the RIAA. They make sure the hard working bands that record the music we love can still squeak out a living in the face of an ever-growing number of freeloading downloaders. Without them, how many talentless, lip-synching, manufactured performers would be able to afford homes in Orange County and multiple Bentleys?

In the interest of helping our readers stay out of jail and avoid massive fines, here are a bunch of places you can get tunes without fear of finding a summons in your mailbox. There’s plenty of good, free, and legal music on the net for you to download.

1. iLike is a social music site which allows you to discover new music with a little help from your friends. Free downloads and the buddy system, what could be better?
2. Altsounds has a lot of streaming content, but there are quite a few quality mp3 downloads mixed in, including bands like Anberlin, Panic at the Disco, 10 Years, and Underoath.
3. bt.etree.org tracks live recording torrents of “bootleg friendly” bands. You’ll be able to find all kinds of FLAC downloads from performers like Ben Harper, Jerry Garcia, Blues Traveler, Trey Anastasio (I smell a trend here, or at least some patchouli), Radiohead, Primus, and even Tenacious D.

1. Legaltorrents is still in its early stages, but there are still a number of music and audio books available from their site.
2. Stereogum has been offering free, legal mp3s since 2006. They’re all still available, along with zip and torrent file archives of previous months. The Gum Mix streams music to you while you browse, and all the tracks it plays can be downloaded.
3. SXSW is a good news/bad news situation. The bad news is, they only have one torrent file for download. The good news? It contains over 700 mp3s of bands that performed in 2007 for a whopping total of 3.1 gigs of audio. Change the year in the subdomain to get the 2006 and 2005 downloads.
4. Unsigned Band Web is a palce for, well, unsigned bands to share their music and get noticed. Just about every genre you can imagine is offered here, and they maintain charts to show you what’s hot. Apparently electronica is hot. Maybe I’ll stick to genre browsing. Bottom line: tons of free mp3s to download.
5. Soundclick’s music page will hook you up with a ton of downloads, including more unsigned acts – like my favorite new addiction: German hip hop. I blame my scarf-wearing co-worker.
6. Honc “if you love music. The site isn’t much to look at, but there’s still more undiscovered goodness to be found here.
7. Garage Band is also worth checking out for more diamonds in the rough. Rub it in your friends’ faces that you “heard them first.”
8. Indie Rock Cafe offers more up-ad-coming music, blog style. There’s no centralized download page, so you’ll find the tracks sprinkled around the blog post.
9. DMusic has been offering indie musicians a chance to be heard since 1998. Top 20 charts are maintained for each of the 20+ main genres (which are broken down into several sub-genres as well).
10. Fuzz offers – oh crap – a mixtape feature. The interface is cool as hell, and there’s a ton of great, free music to discover on the site.
11. iCompositions is dedicated to music created with Mac’s Garage Band software. You’ll need to register in order to download songs.
12. The Internet Archive has a massive audio section, including audio books as well as music. Be sure to check out the open source section, with over 150,000 Creative Commons licensed items.
13. Jamendo rocks for one big reason: they offer both direct downloads and a torrent tracker. 555 pages multiplied by 20 items per page equals a veritable crapload of music. You’ll find lots of international music too, from exotic places like Brazil and er…Canada.
14. Peoplesound is similar to Jamendo, but you’ll find some major label artist offerings. Registration is required to download, and you’ll have to browse the genres/artists to find the mp3 files, but they have plenty up for grabs.
15. Epitonic is “your source for cutting edge music.” You’ll find tracks by artists like The Strokes, Carl Cox, Pavement, Peaches, Guided by Voices, and Yo La Tengo.
16. I love me some punk music, and fortunately punk labels love to share their music. Fat Wreck Chords, Hellcat Records, Subpop, and Epitaph all have tons, and usually offer two or three fulls songs from a CD. Oi!
17. Stereokiller has even more punk/hardcore/metal goodness for you. According to the guy that runs the site, it’s “better than damn MySpace.” Well, no argument there.
18. Anti’s slogan is “real artists creating great recordings on their own terms.” Downloads galore from guys like Michael Franti and Spearhead, Greg Graffin, Nick Cave, and Billy Bragg.
19. 3hive‘s bloggers pass on links to some excellent free mp3s on their site. It’s got a nice, personal feel to it, though there’s not the tidal wave of music you’ll find at some other on this list.
20. itsfreedownloads is worth a bookmark for iTunes users. It’s a site that keeps tabs on the weekly freebies in the iTunes store. You may get sick of looking at all the ads, but the free music will help soften the annoyance.
21. mp3.com has a pretty huge collection of free tunes as well, with offerings from almost 1,400 artists. Most can be both streamed and downloaded.
22. Purevolume.com is loaded with streaming music, but there are plenty of downloads as well. Click the search link, then search or browse to “discover new music.” It’s the quickest way to the freebies.
23. Music.download.com. What can I say, they’ve got a ton of MP3s. I’m not much of a CNET fan, but free is free.
24. Last.FM has free downloads, too. It’s not just for streaming.
25. Stage.FM used to be Audiri, and still offers streaming and downloads for independent artists.
26. iSound offers another large catalog. Head to the mp3 page for free downloads, as some artists only offer streaming – including Our Lady Peace frontman Rayne Maida, who I was disappointed to see had no downloads.
27. we7 is offering all kinds of free tunes – if you’re ok with a brief advertisement being appended to the track. They’re legal, they’re free, and you’ll find bands that you’d normally have to pay for to get full mp3s.
28. SpiralFrog is doing the ad-supported thing, too (if you can get to it).
29. Blentwell is “an ongoing document of the evolution of blended music.” Tons and tons of DJ mixes, categorized by genre.
30. MTV offers a new group of about a dozen downloads on a somewhat regular basis. A drop in the bucket, but still free.
31. Anyone with a toddler or three at home will apprciate Free Children’s Music. You’ll find tons of great, kid friendly tunes there.
32. Classic Cat maintains a massive listing of free, classical mp3s available on the internet. Files aren’t hosted there, but it’s an easier way to find works by Bach and Beethoven than searching yourself.

Will more major artists give free music a shot? Radiohead’s In Rainbows is no longer available as a free download, but Trent Reznor is still in a giving mood. NIN fans can still grab The Slip for free from his web site.

Got another legal mp3 site to share? Comment it, so that we can all get in on the free goodness!

SlowMousion: For when mouse precision is more important than speed

Sometimes you want your mouse to be zippy as possible, allowing you to scroll back and forth across a screen for a quick game of Pong or Arkanoid. But when you’re trying to make precise movements in an image editing application, precision might be more important than speed. If your mouse is too fast, you might have a hard time drawing straight lines, for example.

That’s where SlowMousion comes in. This free Windows utility allows you to select a hotkey on your keyboard or your mouse to hit when you want your mouse cursor to move very slowly. When you try dragging your mouse with the hotkey depressed, no matter how quickly you drag, the cursor will move veeerrrry slooowwwly.

There does not appear to be a way to make the slow movement the default and hit a hotkey for faster motion, so it doesn’t look like SlowMousion will do you much good in the practical jokes department. But if you need all the help you can get trying to draw straight lines, this little app could come in handy.

Want to Know Everything About a Website? Try Quarkbase.

New web apps often make a lot of claims that just don’t hold up under testing. When I decided to put Quarkbase.com through the paces, I fully expected to be underwhelmed. After all, their motto is “Everything About A Website.”

Holy information overload Batman, this one really surprised me.

Pick a domain and hit search, then give Quarkbase a chance to dig up its research. They say to wait about 30 seconds, though my successful searches worked more quickly. I did get a few failure notices because of high traffic, but I understand why. Quarkbase finds so much information about your website that it’s mindblowing.

What does it find? The domain owner, registrar, creation date, primary language, similar sites (*yawn* so far), traffic rank, blog rank, countries in which it’s popular, description and “official” contact info, people involved, incoming links, and more. Unlike the “similar pages” Google search returns, the Quarkbase suggestions were pretty much right on the money.

But wait, there’s more. It’ll track down numbers on Digg, Stumbleupon, Twitter, Technorati, Reddit, Delicious, and Yahoo Answers. Quarkbase even knows how many times the site have made Digg’s front page. It also generates a list of the most popular recent page and five popular pages of all time based on these stats.

Quarkbase is an incredibly informative tool and undeniably useful for anyone working the web.