bing cashback

If you do any shopping online, you'll want to check out bing. All you have to do is create a FREE account, and then whenever you do any online shopping, start with bing. You can search for what you're looking for right on the bing site, and bing will list prices at various stores and also show you the amount of cashback you can get, so you can pick the best price. Then just click through to go to the store and make your purchase.

You can also just choose a store from the list of cashback stores, click through and do your shopping on that site. Once you make a purchase, bing will send you an email to confirm your savings. There is a waiting period of about 60 days before you can claim your cashback, but then you can request it to be sent to your PayPal account or have it deposited into your bank account, as long as you have at least $5 in your account.

So far we've earned almost $75 in cashback, shopping at stores like Newegg.com, Buy.com, and Walmart.com. The savings really add up when you order big-ticket items like a laptop computer, but the little things add up, too.

And, through December 2, bing is offering extra cashback, so the savings are even better - 15% cashback at Walmart.com, 14% cashback at Barnes & Noble, and 25% cashback at Footlocker.com, just to name a few. I ordered a bunch of DVDs at Walmart.com this morning at really good prices, free shipping to my home, and that 15% cashback. Gotta love it!

So, if you're going to be doing any shopping, and who isn't? - you might as well get some money back for doing it, right? Claim your cashback from bing.

Free Video Downloaders

Cory likes to download videos once in a while and put them on his Zune. He had a couple programs he liked, but then suddenly they weren't free any more. Don't you hate when that happens? So, when I saw that today's Giveaway of the Day was a YouTube Music Downloader, I thought I'd check it out.

The reviews don't look too promising, but there were several suggestions for FREE video downloaders that he might be able to use:

1. Video Download Helper Firefox add-on - an easy way to download and convert Web videos from hundreds of YouTube-like sites. Also for audio and picture galleries.
2. MP4 YouTube Downloader - another Firefox add-on
3. YouTube Downloader from Biennesoft - allows you to download videos from YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo Video, and many others and convert them to other video formats. Just specify the URL of the video you want to download and click OK.
4. Orbit Downloader - download videos, Flash games, and large batches of files.
5. ClipNabber online downloader - allows you to download video from a bunch of different sites, and if you just want the audio, try TuneNabber.
6. KeepVid - another online downloader - enter the URL of a video you want or add the bookmarklet to easily 'Keep It'

I'm not completely sure if all of these convert the downloaded videos to the format you want or not. If you need something else, you can use the Free Video Converter to convert to the format you need.

Hopefully there will be something here that Cory can use to get those videos onto his Zune. Let me know if you've tried any of these and what you think or if there are some others that should be mentioned. Thanks.

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Be sure to check out that second Zemanta-suggested article, because Clipfinder HD sounds like it just might be the best of them all.

The Yak for Java

I found this today (Actually, I found a magazine page I had ripped out of a magazine ages ago that mentioned this, so I looked it up.

The Yak Java applet - free kit that allows you to create buttons and animations. It supports sound and up to 100 images per animation. It's supposed to be pretty simple, fast and light-weight. I haven't tried it out, but it sounds like it might just come in handy. (And I'm linking to it here so I can find it again - and I tossed the magazine page out)

Have any of you used the Yak? What do you think?

TV on Your Computer

A lot of people watch TV on their computers nowadays. It's really handy. If you miss a show and forgot to set the DVR, you can usually go online and watch it the next day. My son does it a lot. Today I found a site that looks like it will make it easy to keep up with all kinds of shows. You can find them all in one place instead of searching all over the Internet for them - viewing some shows on the network websites, some on Hulu, etc. This site pulls them all together.

It's called First on Mars. Why is it called that? I don't know, but it calls itself 'Your personal guide to network tv on the web' and there are a lot of shows available here. From the About Us page:

First on Mars' mission is to help you find, organize and share network TV shows available for free streaming across the web. You tell us what you feel like watching by selecting networks, shows or TV moods (dark, sexy, intense). We use that info to build you a personalized guide to your favorites which you can filter and change to make your own. You can always add networks, shows and moods using the drop down menus, heart icons or browse feature. We also offer a choice of six looks for the site which you can select using the skins button. Enjoy and let us know what you think!

You can browse through shows alphabetically or search by mood or by network. When you find shows you like, you can add them to your favorites so they're easy to find in the future. It looks like there are only a certain number of episodes available, probably whatever the network makes available, so you can't wait months to watch them, and it's not a good place to get caught up on a series you've never watched before, but to keep current with shows you like it looks great. First on Mars also lets you share shows with your friends and comment on the shows you watch.

I keep telling my husband that we don't need the satellite TV anymore - we could cancel that, watch everything online, and save a lot of money. So far he hasn't taken me up on that, but sites like this make it entirely feasible. And did I mention that First on Mars is FREE?

Free Fonts

Image via Wikipedia

My son Cory and his friend Travis had a great idea for a t-shirt, so Cory has been working on designing it. This afternoon he mentioned that he needed a fun font for it because he didn't like any of the fonts on his computer. (for the shirt, that is) Just yesterday I found a site full of fun free fonts, but then I closed my browser last night without saving it or sharing it. I hate when that happens! I really should know better.

Anyway, since I lost the site from yesterday, I just did a search for 'fun free fonts' and found this one - Font Freak. There are over 5000 free fonts, and you can either download them all at once or browse through and download the ones you like individually. I haven't actually gotten past the first page of the A's, but I've already found some I really like. A lot of them are available in both PC and Mac versions, which is really nice. Also, when you find a font you like, you can click on the author's name to see all the fonts by that author.

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Dress Up Your Browser

Image via CrunchBase

I just installed Personas for Firefox last night. How long has this been around? I'm not sure, but I'm really loving it. Personas lets you dress up your browser with easy to install and easy to change 'skins' for Firefox.

watch a quick video demonstration:

Getting Started with Personas from Mozilla Labs on Vimeo.

Not only can you choose from the many 'skins' available on the site, you can even create your own. The instructions are right on the page. Here are some my brother, who found this first, has created - Personas by krayeg.

I had a little trouble getting this to work at first, I think because I had a theme installed. When I went back to the default firefox theme and restarted my browser, it worked just fine. The fun with Personas is that you can very easily change the look of your browser, and you don't have to restart your browser for the changes to take effect. You can even preview the look before you intall simply by mousing over the designs in the gallery. I'm having a lot of fun doing that, but you don't have to visit the Personas gallery. You can choose and change your selected Persona any time simply by clicking on the little fox mask in the lower left-hand corner of your browser window.

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Free Blog Designs from Shabby Blogs

I came across another site for free Blogger templates tonight. It's called Shabby Blogs, and there are plenty of blog backgrounds and accessories to choose from. All of them are 100% free, and it looks like a lot of them are customizable, such as being able to add your own photos to the headers.

I haven't had time to browse through all of them, but there are some really cute backgrounds here, with headers and extras to complement them and help you put together your own custom blog. Did I mention it's free? Yes, yes I did! Free, cute blog backgrounds - and once again I'm tempted to change my blog design.