So I found myself wanting to rip the audio of a SWF file and of course there’s twenty billion SWF-to-MP3 converters out there. I installed a bunch. 99% of them can’t do what they claim. Most can’t rip from a protected SWF file. Few are completely free.

Thank me. I found SWFrip and it’s completely free and completely able to rip an image or audio from your SWF file whether it’s protected or not.  Thanks to this program, I was able to turn a SWF file into a YouTube video.

Here’s the link and good luck: http://sourceforge.net/projects/swfrip/

So from time to time, I need myself some stock images and since I’m so cheap I sound like a bird, I’m always looking for free sources of royalty-free, stock images and photographs. Here’s a list I compiled today from my latest google search.

http://www.photogen.com/free-photos
http://www.freerangestock.com
http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
http://www.openphoto.net
http://www.stockvault.net
http://www.123rf.com/browsefreeimages.php
http://www.dreamstime.com/free-photos
http://www.sxc.hu
http://www.fotolia.com/FreeContents

Dig in!

 I don’t have fancy lights or an HD camera but I do have Magic Bullet effects and Sony Vegas. For a vlogger like me, white balance and skin tone isn’t my biggest concern; I just want my videos to be watchable. Here’s a small sample of the difference some nice effects make. This is the original shot:

 And here is the Magic Bullet “Basic” effect, with some increased brightness:

 The finished video looks alot better thanks to nifty effects. (And yes, rendering the video takes 3x as long due to the Magic Bullet effect.)

Okay, so you’ve heard some of the hype about widgets and now you want to try your hand at it. Point is, most widget services either create web-only widgets (SproutBuilder) or involve deep coding (Yahoo widgets). Major blegh. I feel your pain. Here’s a quick and simple solution to building your first desktop widget:

1. Create the Widget using a free account at SproutBuilder

2. Publish your SproutBuilder widget and you’ll notice at the bottom of the “Your widget has been published” screen, there’s a link to the SWF file. Copy that link.

3. Head over to ClearSpring.com and create a free account there.

4. Click “Add a Widget,” then “In Widget,” and choose the AC3 format and paste your SWF link into the Flash url link.

5. Complete and Presto! ClearSpring enables any widget to also work on the desktop, depending on if you have the right framework installed. For Vista users, it is even more simple…you add it directly to Vista without installing a third-party framework.

Done. Wish granted. Game over.

I have 500 facebook friends. But I interact closely with less then 15 of them. 

 Which means that Facebook’s new “stream of updates”  can get rather confusing. Imagine Facebook trying to keep me up todate about 500 status messages. Yeah. Here’s how to quickly make a friend filter that will show you updates from your closets friends:

1. Follow this link to view all your friends. http://www.facebook.com/friends/?everyone&ref=tn

2. On the left column, there is a big button that says, “Make a New List”. Click it. (duh)

3. Give a name to your list, like “Relatives” or “Close friends” or “People I would rather see dead”. Press enter.

4. Now, start adding specific friends by typing in their names.

5. See it in action: Go to your facebook home page where it lists all the status messages (link), and you’ll notice there is a small, left column. This column contains the name of your friend list. Click it and instantly view the updates posted by the friends you preselected. 

6. BONUS: notice at the bottom of each List is a link that says “Message this list” - this allows you to quickly message your list of close friends, or message that list of people you’d rather see dead. (”Hi. My name is Daniel Gardner. You’re on my black list. Prepare to die.”)

See how easy that was? You owe me one comment.

So my scenario is pretty stupid: I’m using the FlipShare program, sorting through my Flip videos and I select the coolest video and press “Delete” and confirm the deletion.

 Moments later, I’m like, “Waaa…? Did I just….?” 

Yeah, and it’s then you notice there’s no “Undo Delete video” option in the Flip program. And if you check your Recyle Bin, the deleted video doesn’t show up there either. You begin to cold sweat.

My desperate Google search found this article and it points to a program called “UndeleteMyFiles”. I download the program and as it installs I continue to call myself an idiot, a loser, a failure at life and other such derogatory terms meant to instill self confidence.

 I run the program. It lists my C drive as well as my Flip Video camera (listed as G: drive). I select my Flip Video camera and press the button, “Search”. It lists 10 or so videos, all of which had been previously deleted at some time or another. I select one video and click the button, “Recover”. It asks me to specify a folder on my computer to recover the video to. I do that and begin to cry. It’s recovering my video.

The recovered file is called “_ID00018″. I go to my Flip Video camera folder (the G: drive) and navigate to the folder of videos. I copy my “_ID00018.avi” file into the camera’s folder and rename the file, “VID00018“.  

Then  I restarted my FlipShare program. It opens and displays my lost-now-recovered file as being available to edit, send, and share as normal.

 I become profusely grateful. I write this post for all other FlipVideo owners who run into the same stupid scenario. And yes, it is stupid. Been there, done that. 

A lot of cameras will film clips in Quicktime’s MOV format and it’s an annoying format when you want to edit those clips. Here’s a small outline that will allow you to convert your Quicktime MOV files to AVI files, which can then be edited, or further converted into an MP3 file.  Read the rest of this entry »

Many live shows, like our Tropical Punch, Rhett and Link’s live show, and tech king Chris Pirillo, use the wyldryde.org free chatroom. Using the wyldryde chatroom allows for viewers to quickly choose a username and begin chatting, without having to go through the hassle of registering an account at BlogTV or Ustream.

However, as the admin of your wyldryde chatroom channel, you may find yourself a bit limited in moderating your chatroom. This tutorial shows you how to connect to your chatroom using an IRC program.

“IRC” is the format of chat that is being used by wyldryde. An IRC program facilitates modding in a couple of ways:  i. they allow admins to save entire chatroom chats and they facilitate kicking/banning. You may also view the chatroom in full screen, instead of being restricted to the small chatroom that is embeded in a webpage.

Here are the steps: Read the rest of this entry »