Read Books Online

Image via Wikipedia

I recently found a site called OnRead.com.  There are all kinds of books available - best sellers, new releases, etc.  Each book is available in several versions: .rtf, .txt, .pdf, .epub, .PalmDOC, .FB2, .lrf, downloadable and  playable on various media devices.  From what I can tell, you can download books for 99¢, but you have to load your account with a minimum of $10 to get started.  It's a little confusing because I haven't actually added any money to my account, so I'm really just guessing about that.  That's a pretty good deal for books, but that's not what interested me.

What interested me was the option to read the book online for FREE.  I don't have any devices to read books on, except my computer, so I really have no need to download the books.  How much online reading will I actually do?  I don't know, but it's kind of fun to play with.  You can choose book or document format, choose your font and font size, and even add bookmarks to the books you're reading, so you can find  your place later.  It even keeps a list of the books you've looked at recently.  It might just be a good way to check out a book I'm thinking about reading, before I request it from the library.

I also want to check out Read Print. It doesn't have the new books, but there are a lot of books available - a lot of  classics, which I almost hate to admit that I've never read.  I guess I have no excuse now, except for the usual 'So many books, so little time' that I always use.

Screen Capture Tools

Giveaway of the Day offered a Screen Capture program today that was not very popular.  I didn't bother to download it, because I've been using PicPick for a while, and I really like it - and because everyone who looked at or tried this one had nothing but bad things to say about it.  The good thing about that is that there were a whole lot of suggestions for free screen capture programs and tools.  I went through all the comments and tried to list them all here:

• MWSnap
• FastStone Capture V5.3
• Screenpresso
• Gadwin PrintScreen
• Jing by Techsmith
• ScreenHunter
• greenshot (I like the little frog on this one, but that's beside the point)
• jetScreenshot
• Screenshot Captor
• Snippy
• and Windows Vista or Windows 7 include a program called “SNIPPING TOOL” to capture items from your screen and store in a folder of your choice.

I haven't tried any of these, except Jing, which I liked but never re-installed after I re-formatted my computer.  I really should, I liked it.  But if you need a screen capture tool, I thought it would be nice to have a list to choose from.  Hopefully something here will work for you.

Keep Your Widgets

I'm thinking about changing the layout on my other blog, eventually. I've found a layout I really like, and I've even messed with personalizing the header. But what about all my widgets? You know how you start to upload a new template and blogger asks you to confirm widget deletion? I don't want to have to delete my widgets and then have to build them all up again. The HTML/Javascript ones would be OK, because I could just copy the code to notepad and add it back, but things like blog lists take a lot longer to put together.

So, I started searching for ways to change my layout without losing all my widgets and ran across a really good tutorial on keeping your widgets when changing your template. I tried it out on my test blog, and even though I didn't have many widgets there, Blogger wanted to delete them. So, I followed the tutorial and saved them all! I've got a few tweaks to make on the template and some code I need to grab from my blog, and I think I can change my layout relatively painlessly. So maybe eventually will come sooner rather than later?

Free Web Conferencing

I did a quick search for free web conferencing solutions - because someone we know wants to spend $500 for another year of Go To Meeting - and we really don't use it enough to justify that. If we hosted larger meetings and more often, maybe, but for what we do one of these free options will work just fine.

• DimDim - So simple anyone can use it. Unlike other web conference products, Dimdim does not require users to install software on their computers to attend web meetings. Users can start or join meetings with just a few clicks. Dimdim is available for free so everyone - not just big companies with big budgets - can use it.
• Yugma - Yugma free web conferencing allows anyone, anywhere to instantly share their desktop and ideas online with others - up to 20 attendees. I'm thinking the Skype Edition looks really promising.
• Vyew - free for up to 10 attendees, has ads. Browser based with no download required.

All of these are upgradeable if you need additional features - and for less than $500/year.

For phone conferencing there's:

• FreeConferencing.com - up to 1000 callers with NO reservations, free recording and downloads.
• Free Conference Calling - up to 500 callers - on demand conference calling, free recording and MP3 playback, and conference call security.

Zemanta for Better Blogging

Image via CrunchBase

I think I've mentioned this before, but it just upgraded when I started my browser this morning, so I was reminded. I've been using Zemanta for a while now, and I really love it.

Zemanta is a free Firefox extension that helps enhance your blog posts. It's also available for other browsers and supports all popular blogging platforms.

As you type your post, Zemanta automatically suggests images, tags, links, and related articles. You can include any of the suggested items with a simple click of your mouse. Zemanta also gives you the option to open images and related articles in a new window or tab so you can get a closer look before inserting them. I've found some very interesting images and articles this way - even if I haven't inserted all of them.

Here's a short video on how Zemanta works:

Zemanta in 60 Seconds from zemanta on Vimeo.

It's not required, but if you create an account with Zemanta, you can add your social networks so Zemanta knows who your friends are and can suggest them and their content for your posts. And Zemanta can suggest your own images if you set your Flickr username.

There's more - here's a whole list of advantages of using Zemanta. If you're not quite ready to download and install the browser extension, you can try the demo on the site to get an idea of how Zemanta works.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Zemanta - Faster, better & uncut (zemanta.com)
• Just discovered Zemanta (ozwebhub.com)

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.

Related articles by Zemanta

• How to Download Videos on Youtube (computer-realm.net)
• Clipfinder HD Finds Plays & Converts Internet Video Files (makeuseof.com)

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