Free Everything But the Material: Posterous

Maybe you don't fancy yourself as a designer, or one who can do layout, even though you'd kind of like to have a blog. With Posterous, you can email your copy, attach Mp3's, photos, files, even YouTube clips and they'll turn it into a blog for you. Swift, huh? No technical jargon to get in your way. We're going to do a little test tonight and paste my copy in the email and attach the image from Posterous. then include an Mp3 (which I can't put on Blogger) and a link. I'll send them the HTML so the link is included, and see what we get.

Posterous is a start-up company and I think they offer a special tool for the beginning wannabe Blogger. Later on they'll add premium services, but for now, they're just trying to get known about.

I'm sending them the 2 paragraphs from above. Their reply, within 3 minutes, showed my HTML but had layed out the images. I opened an account and you can see the results by going to swishy.posterous.com/free-everything-but-the-materi

I think sending a link in regular text will work - anyway, I will try to do that soon. Why don't you create a post for posterous.com and send me the link so I can visit your site?

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Test it While it's Freeware - Jing

If you spend much time on StumbleUpon, you may have already had the opportunity to try freeware called "Jing", a video screen capture tool by TechSmith. Grab it while it's freeware, this software is being tested and if they decide to release it (for the Mac OS X and Windows), it's going to cost a pretty penny.

Jing is based on the idea that you can communicate your computer ideas more fully if you have this tool. With screen captures and videos up to 5 minutes in length, one can cover a great deal of territory. Also with the program is a starter account at Screencast.com, so you can upload your videos and pictures to share. I saw a Foxfire intro to version 3, and it was done with Jing. Very professional.

I think the whole concept around Jing brings goodwill to TechSmith. I have both SnagIt and Camtasia by this company, Jing falls somewhere in the middle. Maybe they'll decide to release it as a commercial version, maybe they'll decide there's not enough interest. I'd recommend you give it a try and see what you can produce with it. Some7666 have bookmarked it on del.icio.us.

So why not hustle over to http://www.jingproject.com and check it out? You'll have a new interesting tool to try and a golden globe at the top of your screen.

Miro: Freeware Worth Big Bucks

When I found Miro I thought I'd hit gold. This is Freeware??? I still think that. I downloaded it because it would play almost every video format and had already run into my share of non- Freeware answers for non-compatible video extensions. I refuse to put QuickTime on my computer, although Miro plays it.

I soon learned that Miro was much more than a video player - as of today, it has 4583 Channels, all free. And a discriminating search. For example, "tech tips" and "technology tips" will bring up very different listings. I found segments on "Gimp", a freeware Adobe photoshop; ZDNet segments and CNET shows. I don't watch TV at all but I try to get to my technology programs on Miro once a week. You can watch UTube on Miro, too.

Miro has many advanced features: email to a friend, automatic download, automatic removal ( you choose when) - you can see programs in HD, and you can give Channels star ratings, they'll give you recommendations. But watch out for this: Miro can use all your available disk space if you have too many shows or don't tend to housekeeping.

This open video platform is from the non-profit Participatory Culture Foundation (it used to be called the Democracy Player). They have downloads for Mac OS X, Windows and Wountu. Besides a well-rounded player, we have protection of free speech in Miro.

For other articles, see:

Rob Safuto - a video on Miro

Bill Mullins - an article about Miro

Slacker: Freeware Radio

Slacker is many things that we'll barely touch on in this post, but its' freeware radio deserves PCWorld's #1 choice as best freeware product in their recent edition spotlighting the best for free. I had never heard of it, although I was an avid fan of MusicMatch before it was sold to Yahoo! by Dennis Mudd, founder of Slacker.

Slacker sports nearly 100 genre stations, and somewhere around 10,000 artist stations that play the best of the chosen artist mixed with related musicians. Best of all, you can define your own custom station. If this isn't enough for free, then look into these options: choose whether you like new or older material, or if you want new music and artists introduced - a little bit to a lot. If you hear something you don't like, ban it from your station forever...you can do this six times an hour. Pick whether you want a DJ or not. and you may hear 2 commercials an hour, but I haven't so far.



I had a favorite radio station that never talked or played a promo over a song. This radio station didn't play the same song in a 24 hour period. Best of all, it played a wide variety of songs by my favorites, but all that is gone now. My favorites have one token song played.

Slacker has 50 artists in my custom list and it sounds remarkably like my old favorite station except for the lack of commercials - I say my ears don't get a rest because 12 minutes of commercials are not coming on per hour. It's music, Music, MUSIC!

I'll fault them one, though, and that is this: Slacker starves you for your favorite artist. You hardly ever hear them. I say it's because they want you to buy their premium service. At $7.50/month get ad free radio, skip as many tunes as you want, and save tracks to your personal library, where you can listen to them as often as you like. There's also the Slacker Portable Radio from $199 to $299.

To read more about Slacker:

http://archive.laptopmag.com/Features/Interview-with-Slacker-CEO-Dennis-Mudd.htm?page=3

New Format, New Freeware

Having just absconded from WordPress last night, I've been getting set up here at Blogger and hope I have better luck now. What a great evening, setting up FTP and watching training videos. I hope this works out well for you and for me.

We have some topics on their way:

• Think Free
• CCleaner
• Ace Money
• Indoor/Collectible Wind Chimes

and lots more I've been thinking of.

I'm dying to see a picture in here, so I'll post one now. 'THERE WERE ERRORS PUBLISHING TO YOUR FTP SERVER, CONNECTION TIMED OUT". Oh dear. Back to work for me.

Best,
Beth