Free For Your Site

Using videos is a great way to convey messages across the ‘Net. In fact, web designers and even bloggers have been exploiting the media for quite some time now. However, commercial video editing software doesn’t come cheap. The solution? Go free with VirtualDub.

VirtualDub is a video capture and processing utility for Windows. Downloaded as a stand-alone program, there is no need to install the software. Just extract, run the software, and you are ready to edit. It must be noted however that not all video formats are supported. Currently, the program only supports AVI and MPEG-1 files. No video yet? You can use the software to capture your video using your web camera. Once you have the supported video, you can start editing. Though it evidently lacks the power of commercial editing software, it is capable of simple editing chores. You can move around frames by cutting and pasting them along the timeline. Also available are different filters to further enhance your videos. And if the included filters aren’t enough for you, third-party filters are also available for use with VirtualDub though getting them to work with VirtualDub can be quite a chore due to the lack of documentation. But if it’s cheap and easy to use editing software you are looking for, VirtualDub is just a download away.

VirtualDub is compatible with Win9x/ME/2000/XP.

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A tutorial is an integral part of any new application, as it familiarizes your users on how to use them. However, tutorial-making software usually costs money, forcing developers to create bland tutorials instead. If you want a powerful, easy to use tutorial maker that will cost you nothing, then Wink might just be the thing for you.

Wink is a freeware application developed to create highly effective tutorials. It provides an easy to understand system to capture screenshots, create textboxes, and even log in mouse movements and keyboard inputs to let users really see how to use a certain application. Want to provide a clip of you keying in characters? With Wink, all it takes are two keys pressed together and you can record whatever you key in. After capturing the screenshots and the needed clips for your tutorial, editing them is just a drag-and-drop affair. Wink also offers audio recording to add voice narrations to your tutorials. Once done with the tutorial, Wink can export your file to popular formats such as SWF and EXE. This guarantees that your tutorial can be viewed in virtually any environment. With Wink, making tutorials for your applications has never been easier.

Wink is a cross-platform application that runs on Windows and some Linux systems.

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Tired of having to upload your pictures on third party sites? Ever wished you could host it on your own? Then wish no more, for Coppermine Photo Gallery is just a download away.

Coppermine Photo Gallery is a free web picture gallery written in PHP. To manage your own gallery, just download either the tarball or the zip file and extract the contents in your web server directory. Configuration to start the gallery is very minimal, asking only for the admin username and password of your choice and the MySQL database details as well. Once done with the install script, your gallery is now good to go. Adding pictures and creating albums are just a point and click affair. Need help? Documentation is available online and quite exhaustive, giving detailed instructions from basic installation to advanced configurations for your gallery. If going online for help isn’t your cup of tea, most configuration options have a help button to give you a quick pop-up overview what the option does. As for the site design, you can easily choose from the themes available or create your own. All these options offer flexibility over the presentation of your images. With Coppermine Photo Gallery, you are in control.

Coppermine Photo Gallery requires a web server with PHP and MySQL enabled. Knowledge of basic database manipulation also required.

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Today’s internet scene is being dominated by video content. Many sites use videos to drive their stories home. Users create their own video clips for almost any topic available. There is a lot of available content on the Internet yet very few choices on how to let surfers see these movies. There are available sites where you can upload these movies but don’t offer much in the tweaking department. If you are looking for control as well as ease of use, then phpYouTube might just be the thing for you.

phpYouTube is a free PHP client for the YouTube web service that lets you play and control videos in your own site. This script uses MySQL to manage uploaded clips. By logging into the admin panel, you can change settings on how your clips will be presented, giving you full control over the layout of your page where the videos will play. Gone are the size and video length limits imposed by upload sites. The only limit is the size of your hard drive. Got an uploaded video somewhere? The Video File Grabber of phpYouTube lets you grab video files by just providing the URL. With phpYouTube, managing your files and showing them off in the world just became a lot easier.

Installing the program requires knowledge with MySQL database manipulation as well as HTML and PHP scripting.

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Visual impact is a very important element, whether you are a blogger or a web designer. To satisfy the need for such an impact, you turn to images. Abundant in the Internet are stock photography sites that offer images for a fee. If you have the resources, purchasing these wouldn’t be a problem. But not everyone has a gold mine in their backyard. For those who don’t have money to blow on one photo, there is Stock.XCHNG.

Stock.XCHNG is a stock photography exchange site that lets you download images for free. While some sites require an arm and a leg just to get an abstract photo you need, Stock.XCHNG only requires that you just sign-up. Signing up is virtually painless and almost instantaneous. Once signed in, you now have access to thousands of free photographs you can download and use.

The ever changing need for fresh images emphasizes the importance of a free stock photo site. The cost in the creation of a web site or blog is lowered as the images needed are now obtained free of charge. And with the growing number of images available in Stock.XCHNG, your well of ideas won’t easily run dry.

The Stock.XCHNG site runs on most web browsers. Permissions vary per artist and are displayed on the photo’s download page.

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Nothing’s worse than having a day out when suddenly the weather turns really bad. Sounds familiar? Then you might want to check out Weather Console by SuperPages.com. The Weather Console provides you with the day’s weather forecast including the high-low temperatures as well as what the cloud conditions are. Now you know you won’t miss that beautiful sunset due to cloudy skies.

Installing the console in your own web page is a breeze. You can provide either the ZIP code or the City and State that you want to display a forecast for. Then, you choose what style of console you want to be displayed in your web page. With 6 different styles, you can choose which will complement your web page. Not interested in weather? They have 3 special consoles that display other information: AQI (Air Quality Index), a Moon Console that displays today’s moon phase, and a Sun Console, which displays the day’s sunrise and sunset time. After choosing the console, you’d be provided with a code that you simply paste in your web page.

Whether you own a tourist-themed site or you simply want to let your site visitors know more about the weather, the Weather Console provides important information for everyone’s outdoor plans.

Weather forecasts are for US states only. Users need to have minimal knowledge of HTML of how to paste and where to paste the JavaScript code on their site.

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Earlier we featured a site full of free Flash games. If you read this blog faithfully, by now you should know that free games embedded on your web site can drive traffic, and lots of it. Looking for more addicting games? Here’s another site to enhance your menu, and it specializes in a widely popular word puzzle: crosswords.

JustCrosswords.com is a database of 15×15 black-and-white square puzzles. The design is simple and efficient – reminiscent of the old newspaper crosswords. The crossword list is organized by categories, among which are anagrams, astronomy, football, movies, music, and history. Pick a puzzle in any category and you’ll be greeted by a very intuitive Flash game. All crosswords have a timer so you can monitor your pace. Each also has a progress meter that tells you the puzzle’s percentage of completion (i.e. words you’ve solved divided by the total number of words). If you’re having a hard time or just in a hurry, you can ask it to reveal a clue, a letter, or even the whole word. This classic is still an enjoyable game to play, making it a great way to let visitors stay on your site for longer periods of time.

You can generate your own crosswords by adding your selection of words into the puzzles. The site has a generator which will automatically find of the optimal position of the words inside the square. Publish your game and embed it in your web site, or brag about your creation with an email to your friends.

Just like any other Flash game, it requires the latest Flash Player plugin.

Go to Just Crosswords

Let’s take a break from all the productivity and SEO tools. As they say, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. So how about playing a game? Better yet, how about playing Free Games for Your Site?

FreeGamesForYourSite.com by CleverMedia Studios is a depository of fun Flash games you can add to your web site to give it more life. It’s a good way to attract visitors and keep them hooked. Forget the teenage boy online gamer stereotype. A study made recently by Forrester Research shows that half of the online gaming population lies between 30 and 59. Leading the trend in online games is Yahoo, which draws over 20 million unique visitors per month to its gaming channel. This is serious business. Don’t you want to get a piece of the pie?

Shoot down nasty aliens, solve puzzles, negotiate mazes, or play the classic Solitaire. Web masters familiar with HTML will have no problem using FreeGamesForYourSite. Select a game from their list and you’ll get a line of JavaScript code you can paste anywhere on your site or blog. Be sure the area where you’ll put it can handle 500×330 pixels, which is the size of the Flash games. You also have the option to purchase a license to use the games without the CleverMedia branding. They can even customize the games to suit your needs or develop your own unique game, which is how several high profile sites like Cosmopolitan, E! Online and CBS Sportsline have done it.

Visitors need the Flash Player plug-in to play the games, but it’s freely available for download so that shouldn’t be much of a problem.

Go to FreeGamesForYourSite

Have you ever wanted to stream video to your site using your webcam? There’s lots of software available right now, but why pay for one when there’s a free program that can satisfy your needs and more?

Yawcam is a tongue-in-cheek acronym that stands for Yet Another Webcam. However, don’t be deceived by its developer’s sense of humor, as this program actually packs a punch in terms of features. Aside from streaming, Yawcam supports taking snapshots, FTP upload, text and image overlays, and multiple languages. It also has a built-in web server with password protection. But the most impressive thing about Yawcam is that it can do motion detection. When this feature is enabled, the program can alert you when the area to which the camera is focused detects movement, like in the case of an intruder. For the security conscious, this is quite useful.

Project development on Yawcam started in 2003, and it has been constantly updated until today. This means it’s compatible with most of the latest technologies, which is very important for any software. The newest version, 0.3.0, works with all DirectX compatible webcams and video capture devices. This includes almost all modern USB webcams and TV tuners. It is also possible to use a DV-camera together with Yawcam if you use additional software like DVdriver or webcamDV.

To run Yawcam, the minimum requirements are Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 6, DirectX 9, Windows Media Player 9, and Windows 2000/XP/Vista.

Go to Yawcam

It’s true – FAQ Genie grants your wishes. That is, if you wish for a simple way to create and maintain an FAQ page on your web site. First of all, the program interface is intuitive and easy to understand. Even users with the most basic HTML knowledge can fully customize FAQ pages through FAQ Genie.

You can customize properties for your FAQ page such as the title, text format, and filename. There’s an available field for the header code so more advanced users can add META tags and links to external style sheets. A separate Q&A tab lets users write the questions and their corresponding answers. This feature will allow you to easily arrange the questions and change the font style according to your needs – you no longer need to mess with HTML to get your FAQ page up and running.

Users can save their final FAQ pages as a single web page or as framed pages. The Frames option can layout the frames vertically or horizontally, and it even gives the user control of how much space the Questions Frame will take up. As for the answers, they can be displayed either in the same page as the FAQ itself or in separate pages. This feature creates faster loading time for your FAQ page, since there will be separate answer pages for those tricky questions that have lengthy answers.

The downloadable application itself is 800KB, making it very light for even the slowest modems. The FAQ Genie homepage also lists several awards that declare the software free of spy ware, ad ware, and viruses.

FAQ Genie runs on Windows 95 and higher platforms.

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