15 Online Stream Video Downloaders and Converters

I am sure, everybody knows what YouTube is. For those, who have heard the name for the first time, YouTube is a popular video hosting and sharing service, letting users view and upload video files. There are many competing video hosting sites, growing fast in term of amount and popularity. YouTube uses Adobe Flash to play backvideos. This is a standard format supported by most browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Opera. It still haslimited abilities to be played on the standard video players on the computer, on mobile devices, and portable video players, like iPOD. Uploading videos to the site is quite easy. You can upload most popular video formats: WMV, AVI, MOV, and MPG files. YouTube automatically converts these files to Flash as they're uploaded. However, downloading and converting the files in the more usable formats, like AVI, is more complicated. YouTube does not allow users to download videos easily. There are third party tools that allow doing so, but they are not encouraged or supported by YouTube. The downloadingmay even violate YouTube's user agreement:

"You agree not to circumvent, disable or otherwise interfere with security related features of the YouTube Website or features that prevent or restrict use or copying of any Content or enforce limitations on use of the YouTube Website or the Content therein".

But, if you are confident that your downloading do not violate YouTubes (or, the matter of fact, other video hosting sites) user agreement, you have a huge choice of the paid and free computer programs that can do the job easily and fast.

In this publication, I will not review the related software, just refer to the publication, presenting one of the freeware programs Easy Video Downloader (http://freeware4review.blogspot.com/2008/01/download-and-convert-video-from-youtube.html)

My intention today is present a different way to deal with the program, which might be helpful in many user cases. I am talking about free online converting and downloading services, that will bring the online streaming media in FLV format to device of your choice. In fact, in most cases, it is as simple as drag and drop. You copy the address of the web page showing the video you want into online form, and video is downloaded from the Web to your PC and converted for playback on the device you have selected - PC (AVI), MAC (MOV), iPOD/PSP (MP4), mobile (3GP), and audio only (MP3). To my surprise, there are already many competing Web Sites, appealing to the visitors to apply for their services. For your convenience, I have compiled the Web Rating List of 15 free online converters from FLV on RateItAll with brief description, rating, and access links.

Access the list:
http://www.rateitall.com/t-24833-free-online-flv-downloaders-and-converters.aspx

Feel free to leave your own feedback on the presented services and vote for your favorites.

Chickipedia - encyclopedia dedicated to women

Break is launching a new site called Chickipedia.com, the worlds first user generated encyclopedia dedicated to famous women. With biographies, lists of hookups and full measurements for each girl featured, the female race is well-represented on Chickipedia.

How the site is describing itself? From "About Us" section:
“Chickipedia is the world’s largest web-based, women-based, wiki-based database of hot chicks on the planet. It is entirely user generated, making it the first female-only encyclopedia of the people, by the people, and for the people. All you have to do is have access to the internet, log on, go to our “Add New Chick” link, and voila—you can create a new article, or revise an existing one. Just be sure to do so within our guidelines or risk being spanked. Hard.”

Check out this video featuring a smoking hot blonde named Amber Hay:

Chickipedia Vs Wikipedia - Watch more free videos

Xomba as Additional Income Source

There are so many revenue sharing sites these days, that in most cases, I just pass them by after brief review. But, with this company, it was different. I decided to join it after thorough investigation, and so far, I do not regret a bit.

Xomba.com is an online community that pays for your posted content. It splits AdSense revenue, generated by your every post, 50/50 between the community and the writer. To get your share, you, definitely, need to create AdSense account first to be able to utilize your new online income source. I was quite positive that all my readers have already AdSense accounts as part of their moneymaking routine. But, it is not true. I got couple of emails, asking on how to open AdSense account. Technically, it is easy, but you need to own website or blog to qualify for one. You can easily set your new Blog through Blogger platform. For that, no need of special programming knowledge, as Blogger gives you straightforward intuitive tools to create a Web Home. As Blogger Web Site belongs to Google, usually, approval of the AdSense accounts from this host arrives fast.

But, let’s get back to Xomba. It is a combination of the articles submission site and social bookmarking site. But, does not matter, what you exactly submit, your revenue share is the same.

There are no restrictions on the topic - you can write about anything you want, and Xomba provides some useful tips and guidelines on how to structure your post in order to maximize earnings. My personal experience was quite favorable. I started getting the first traffic, observed through AdSense monitor, next day after submitting my first post. And extent of the recorded exposure grows daily. Yes, I would recommend this site for everyone, looking for passive online income. If you do not have original content, you can mostly work with the bookmarking part of this community. You can have “winning” references, without writing long articles.

Website: http://www.xomba.com/

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Update: Sharing revenues is not available anymore, while the articles sharing platform is functional.

Koma-Mail - Portable Freeware Mail Client

Koma-Mail is a freeware portable email client which is comfortable, easy to use, and has very nice set of the features. As it does not need an installation, you can run Koma-Mail from your USB drive, getting advantage of using the POP3 email agent on multiple computers. It is useful, if you want to check your home email account in your office, but you prefer not installing an additional account at your office email client.

For safety reasons, Koma-Mail can be configured to block scripts and ActiveX in incoming emails, and account can be encrypted to allow access just to the account owner or other authorized person. To prevent mailbox flooding with SPAM, agent is equipped with two different spam filters: a word based and Bayesian. You can send and receive mail, encrypted via SSL, through POP3, IMAP (including synchronization), SMTP and WebDav. To stay informed you can use the integrated RSS viewer.

Additional Features:

1. Integrated RSS viewer
2. Calendar
3. Contact management
4. Displays HTML Mails and equipped with built-in HTML-Editor
5. Sends and receives mail with inline images
6. Zips attachments automatically
7. Mails can be marked with colors
8. Free folder structure with option to clean them automatically
9. Multiple user accounts and multiple mail accounts per user
10. Unicode support and software availability in 17 languages: Czech, English, Finnish, French, Galego, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Netherlands, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Ukrainian.

Website: http://www.koma-code.de/

Downloading page: http://www.koma-code.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5&Itemid=39

Signing Referrals without Bugging Friends

I was tipped about GetRef a long time ago. I did not like the site design than and was reluctant to join. And, by the way, I still do not like it. However, after my third visit, I decided that I have nothing to loose and signed in as a member. What is all about?

If you are familiar with quite popular Pay-to-Click or Pay-to-Read Web Sites and the related method of money making, you understand that by reading and clicking you will not make the fortune, even you spend on the task all day long. The only possibility to boost the earnings is building the referral downline. Collecting your own referrals, and not just referrals, but active referrals, is the only way to make the programs work and justify the spent time by the appropriate return on its investment. Bugging your friends and relatives might upset them and damage your relationship, online promotion on your Web Site or Blog, or posting on the Message Boards and Forums might bring you some people, even thou the competition is very severe and the promotion campaign might take more time than reading and clicking. Getting active referrals, that will actually bring you passive income, - even more challenging task. GetRef is giving you ability to sign referrals for any of your program. Site offers a choice of 2200 programs that can be used.

To get referrals, you need credits. Credits can be purchased, or can be earned. Earning might be performed by visiting the Web Sites or signing for other offers. Visitations accumulate credit slowly but steadily without any additional obligations. If you see the offer you like to join, that is under promotion by other member, why not joining through GetRef? In some cases, for one sign-up you can get up to five referrals for your own program. You can also spend your credit for 15 seconds GetRef impressions, delivered to the members, looking to get credits. Joining is free, and you can get to know the system really fast. As needed, you can get help in the built-in forums. Overall members’ feedback is quite positive.

SCARABAY - freeware advanced passwords manager

New release 3.04 Beta is available for SCARABAY freeware password manager. The program runs head-to-head with famous Roboform, saving and protecting Web Sites logins, passwords, and any other information to be kept secret. As Roboform, software automatically fills login fields on the registered Web Sites. Login, password, and email fields on any online forms can be filled with drag-and-drop feature.

Among additional features are:

• Data file encryption and password protection.
• Multiple user accounts are allowed. Switching between user accounts is easy and fast.
• Program is portable and can be used from the USB Drive. No installation is needed.
• Master password is entered via online keyboard, so no keylogger program will be able to recover it for security reasons.
• SCARABAY supports fills in the following browsers: Internet Explorer, Maxthon Browser, Avant Browser, NetCaptor, Netscape.
• One click will remember URL webpage with a login and password.
• Automatic backup the password database.

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Update 05-01-2012:

The software is not free any more.
SCARABAY (1 license) cost - 24.95 $


The License key is valid at carrying over on flash drive, for other disk, through flash drive on other computer    

Business Week Predictions for 2008

Mostly, I try to write the content for this Blog personally, not using the “borrowed” articles. But, sometimes, there are publications that I simply need to share with you, my readers. And this is the case.
For your attention, there are 10 likely events of the coming 2008, presented by Business Week Staff.

Some of the points are quite questionable to me, but, next year will come soon and we will clearly see, what was right, and what was wrong.

Ten Likely Events in 2008

Move over, Nostradamus. When it comes to prognostications, we here at BusinessWeek take a backseat to no one -- especially when there's zero money on the line.

BusinessWeek writers and editors put our eggnog-addled minds together and envisaged 10 events we're pretty sure will come to pass in the next 12 months. Maybe it's our natural tendency to see the cloud around every silver lining, but we can't help but think some of the notable "movements" of 2007 -- full- blare touting of corporate green credentials and social networks, to name two -- will run their course in 2008. Oil bulls will have their way. Airlines will lie down together in green meadows. You get the picture.
Of course, if we really knew what was going to happen, we would start one of those fancy hedge funds. And yes, we knew they were going to run into trouble last year. But we can't tip everything, can we? Then there would be nothing to write about.

Green Crisis

There will be a backlash in the green movement after it becomes clear that many of the companies claiming to be green are in fact nothing of the sort. Businesses that proclaim they are "carbon neutral" will find that such proclamations no longer carry much weight among far more skeptical media and consumers.

Airline Consolidation Begins

At least one major U.S. airline will buy another in 2008. The most likely scenario is that Delta Air Lines will go after Northwest Airlines, United Airlines, or JetBlue Airways. When that happens, others will scramble to cut their own deals. Certainly, no airline wants to be left stranded as a solo operator if Clinton or Obama ends up in the White House and taps the brakes on industry consolidation. The main drivers for such combinations will be the shabby finances many companies will see in 2008 and the argument that the U.S. economy and business require a healthier industry. What's more, airlines that restructured in bankruptcy have some new private equity and hedge fund owners that will demand returns.

Bloomberg's Historic Run

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will enter the Presidential race in February, after it becomes clear which nominees will get the nod from the major parties. His multiple billions and organization will impress voters -- and stun rivals. He'll look like the most viable third-party candidate since Teddy Roosevelt. But Bloomberg will come up short, as he comes in for withering attacks from both Democrats and Republicans. He and Clinton will split more than 50% of the votes, but Arizona's maverick senator, John McCain, will end up the country's next President.

Bye-bye, CDs

The music industry is in crisis. The key reason is that CD sales are plummeting. Now, it's going to get worse. This year, the most important retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores and Best Buy, will look to radically downsize their CD sections. Perhaps there will be no more than one aisle, chock-full of mainstream pop titles. Digital music will continue to grow in influence, from iTunes and Amazon.com to ad-supported site such as Imeem and fast-growing upstarts like Pitchfork.

Facebook Fatigue

Social network fatigue will set in as people tire of getting yet another invitation from so-called friends to join yet another social network. And, in the wake of Facebook's fumbled social ads initiative, it will become even more apparent there's no obvious way to pitch products on these sites without turning off members. Social features will wend their way into all kinds of Web services, from search to news, but the gold rush in social networks themselves will begin to wane.

Finally, Internet TV

For years, gearheads have dreamed of getting all that video from the Internet onto the big 52-inch screen in the den. But it's a pain. Look for that to change in 2008. While Apple TV has been a dud, Steve Jobs & Co. will make an aggressive play this year for the most important screen in the house. Perhaps Apple will even make a gorgeous TV itself, with all the necessary Net capabilities inside. And if Apple can't do it, someone else will.

The Biggest Bribe Penalty Ever

German electronics giant Siemens will agree to pay more than $1 billion in fines to avoid prosecution by the Securities & Exchange Commission and the U.S. Justice Dept. on charges it paid hundreds of millions in bribes to win foreign contracts. The fine will shatter the previous record fine under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Siemens will also agree to allow compliance monitors to set up shop in its Munich headquarters to ensure the company has cleaned up its act.

Web Crash 2.0

If a recession finally hits, Web 2.0 companies will find there are neither enough ad dollars out there for all of them to survive on, nor enough big corporate buyers such as Google, Microsoft, and traditional media companies to buy them all out. What's more, venture capitalists may decide that momentum looks better for clean-tech investments than for Web startups that depend on a cyclical business like advertising. So more will join the "DeadPool," as the Web startup blog TechCrunch calls its list of failed companies.

Crude Oil Will Top $100*

When will the world see $100-per-barrel oil? Paul Horsnell, head of commodities research at London-based Barclays Capital, is betting that 2008 will be the year. Horsnell thinks the prediction is a slam dunk, though he doesn't believe $100-per-barrel oil itself has any great significance. Horsnell bases his prediction on broad fundamentals in the industry, which he says are reflected in the behavior of the futures curve for oil prices. Despite six years of rising prices, demand continues to grow -- especially in China and the oil-rich Middle East -- while new supplies have been disappointing. These are key reasons that futures prices for oil five to seven years out have been moving steadily up in recent years to the $85-per-barrel range at present.

Horsnell believes that such prices, which attract relatively little press coverage, are a proxy for long-term, sustainable oil prices. At the same time, the near-term prices, which do get people's attention, have been very volatile, ranging all the way from $50 per barrel to almost $100 per barrel in 2007.
*Update: Oil reached $100 per barrel on Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2008.

Big Brother Fears Return

For a decade, a Net-happy world has cheerfully shared personal information online, with relatively little mainstream concern over privacy. Now, the issue may come to the fore, as carriers and cable companies deploy click-tracking software and publicity about China's Olympian Internet oversight leaks into the news.

PollDaddy - Free Surveys and Polls for your Blog

Last year I was helping my wife to create on-line survey as a part of her academic research on psychology. Tell you truth, it was not easy to find a good site that will give the sufficient flexibility, will allow significant survey length, and will be free. I do not remember, which site we have finally selected, but the chosen site was just the best from the available, and was far away from the “service of our dreams”.

It seams, that I just missed in my search an interesting online tool PollDaddy, which gives trouble-free opportunities of creating free polls and surveys, and placing them on any website, blog, or social networking site, like MySpace, hi5, Friendster and Xanga. PollDaddy application is simple and flexible, allowing high degree of styles and appearances customization to match the interface of website or blog. Poll can be delivered to the reader and potential responder through JavaScript, flash, direct link, widget or RSS.

Basic services PollDaddy are free, without adding sponsored advertising or redirecting users out from the site, hosting the poll, however, there is the link to their Web Site on the form. In November 2007, PollDaddy introduced the second version, improving reporting, tracking, fraud detection, and voter location features. While the current services remain free, some of new features will be available exclusively with the PRO account for the moderate fee. Current limitations for a free account holder are 10 responses per month and 10 questions per survey.

Additional Reading:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/polldaddy_gets_serious.php
http://www.widgetslab.com/2007/11/20/polldaddy-better-and-pro/
http://cybernetnews.com/2007/11/20/polldaddy-gets-revamped-ads-surveys-pro-accounts/