Friday, February 25, 2011

State of the Internet Issue #01: Open Source


If Google is good at anything, it's releasing products that are free. They and many others have supported open source for years. Open source stands for a methodology and philosophy that emphasizes sharing free content and distributing it for public use. Which I am all for!

Open source licenses like the GNU General Public License are attached to products released by entities that wish to release content for free. On the other hand, it protects them from plagiarism. A well known user of the GPL License includes Mozilla Firefox a browser given freely to users. In this case, Firefox under the GPL license allows others to modify that product as they see fit as well. This type of free distribution has allowed numerous benefits for people looking for software that doesn't cost a fortune to purchase.

Open source is a term for many things. What people don't know about is that it applies to any product you wish to distribute. Take for instance the OpenCola. It is a freely distributed recipe for a brand of cola made by individuals and companies alike. This was meant as a promotional project to explain the concept of open source to the public. What's ironic is that this brand of cola became more famous than the company that created it.

Open source distributions seems to be THE way people share content across the internet. It has always been a method for cooperation to be fostered. Copyright issues have been a great source of conflict due to people arguing over profits. Open source allows people to genuinely give and contribute to something without anything substantial in return for themselves. If anything it's better than donating money, because the results are seen by the people who contribute. Unlike monetary donations, people who contribute to open source projects know exactly how they are helping.

open source image from: weblogs.us
OpenCola image from: Wikipedia

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Money making Internet Websites, reality

Internet users at one time or another wonder whether they can make money off of the Internet. They might consider blogging or selling things on eBay. Then there is the less creative intensive tier of people who visit sites like swagbucks. These are commonly known as "paid to click" PTC sites and "get paid to" GPT sites.

These sites are meant to generate enormous amount of hits from users attempting to get points in order to redeem prizes. In other sites, you can get miniscule amounts of money to complete services, for example 0.05 cents for completing a survey.

Swagbucks specifically attracts users to do search using their own search engine. For those registered users, if they search enough, a random point system awards them points for using that engine. A gift directory is provided for the users to redeem the points for prizes. Prizes range from a $5 gift card from Amazon.com to an Xbox 360. Prizes like the Xbox 360 require an enormous amount of points to redeem.

This need for a lot of points also brings people to use the referral system. Referrals on these sites are another hook for user. You can email the link to register to your friends, along with your name attached to the url which gives you credit for the referral. The referral then allows you to get points that your friend gets, similar to a pyramid scheme.

This system of "paid for clicks" require the attention of users willing to give up their time in exchange for a few dollars. Many people have tried to abuse it and many others have used the sites to scam users. Take for instance the videos flooding Youtube that offer cheats and hacks to circumvent sites like swagbucks. On the other hand, many sites have stopped paying out to their users or have never paid their users for the points and money they owe.


There is a directory of these sites provided by ptc-investigations. It seems there are a few good men and women who care about right and wrong. They take the initiative to investigate sites suggested by users in order test for themselves the legitimacy of the sites.

They determine the validity of the sites by looking at the pros and cons of the site. Some of the factors include whether the site is available in your country. Another factor is whether the investigator was able to successfully cash out when they tried to. Ultimately ptc-investigations acts as an third-party reviewer that can help keep scammers from taking the money and running.

When you take a high-level look of the way swagbucks and other sites make their profits, and the prizes they offer to people, there is a lot of risk involved. In comparison to other shady sites, swagbucks is considered a good site. It has consistently paid out to users who redeemed prizes. Other sites have not been so honorable. What you have to take into account is that there is no Internet police. Fraud at this level is usually not given any attention at all and those that spend a lot of hours trying to garner points will feel cheated.

So I suggest taking a look at the ptc-investigations site and trying out only sites that have been verified to be reliable.

Images from
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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

State of the Internet Issue #00

In an ongoing effort to get a sense of what is happening in our world and specifically the computer world I will begin a segment that reports on the current state of affairs concerning the Internet. I want to assess one day to show what is happening on the Internet.
I'd like to give others a feel of what the Internet environment was like and maybe show people in the present and future what is going on. One objective of this new segment is to just show people things that they might or might not know about. The Internet is vast and I just want to explore it all I can and share the gems with everyone.

After all, the Internet is known as the information superhighway, a term popularized by former vice president Al Gore. Good information and bad can last forever. The world as we know it has become increasingly dependent on the Internet. Modern teens have not known a known a world without it. Just a decade ago, the majority of the modern world knew about the Internet as a growing phenomenon, but now it's part of daily life. Back in the 90's even the NBC morning show had a difficulty grasping it. Now it's in there regular vernacular and understanding.

1994



2010



Not only is it part of our daily lives, it's essential for utilities across the United States and other countries. Many films like Die Hard 4 incorporated the realities of cyber warfare and dependence into their story. In the movie Bruce Willis' character John McClane has to fight and rescue his daughter and the country from a cyber terrorist who threatens the countries utilities by breaking into the computer systems of all the utilities in America, which are networked. Because it is networked, the utility has become more efficient and yet more vulnerable to sabotage. One act of sabotage could theoretically affect the country's water, electrical and sewage systems.

With so much change all around us, is the Internet good or bad? The Internet has been seen as a great revolutionary tool to humanity. In the coming weeks, I'll be discussing the ramifications of its effect on our lives as we effect our change on it.
More to come when I get more ideas..

Monday, February 21, 2011

Video tutorial for saving Images

As promised, I've created a video to describe the process of saving images from IMDb and other websites. IMDB in particularly makes it difficult for user to save their images, so I've provided methods to do that in four different web browsers, Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Opera.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Tricks for saving images from IMDB and other sites.

Sometimes it's not so easy to save an image to your computer when the website is working against you. After cataloging images from the internet for years, I've come to learn somethings that I think everyone faces at one time or another. Whether you wanted to keep something interesting or beautiful from a website, the pictures can be downloaded from a website.

The usual "right-click"->"save image as" or "save picture as" options are very easy to do and that is why most people don't have to worry much about downloading pictures. However there are some obstacles on that when the the website owners specifically make it an obstacle for you. Some sites do not want you to download them.

Take for instance IMDB. They have a block that prevents users from right-clicking on images so you can't save the image. Here's a trick to get past that. I will offer solutions for the browsers Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome and Opera.
  • FIREFOX: A method I discovered years ago on forums is that you have to look at the page info page. Go to the Tools, Page Info, and then the Media tab. There, you'll find all the images that are saved for this particular web page. Scroll through them and you will see the pictures on the bottom of the page displayed. Click the save as button to save the picture you selected.

  • INTERNET EXPLORER: For Internet Explorer this is what you'll need to do. The key to getting the right-click to work is to disable the Javascript on Internet Explorer. First go to tools and click on internet options. Select the security tab, and then the custom level button. Under "scripting" you will need to choose the disable radial button for active scripting and click ok. Restart Internet Explorer and you will be able to right-click on the images on imdb. I do not recommend leaving the settings that way for long. You can reset the Javascript by following the same instructions I provided above, but click enable instead of disable for active scripting. Now that you can right-click, you will also be able to use the "save picture as" option. Thanks to mozillazine forums for providing the info.

  • CHROME: This is what I discovered for Google Chrome. When you go to an imdb page with an image you want to download, right-click and select "inspect element." A new box will appear on the bottom of the page. Select the "Resource" tab and you will see all the images from the webpage listed for you. Find the image you wanted to download and right-click the image and save it. While the imdb website does not allow you to download the image on their page, the resources box on Google Chrome will.

  • OPERA: The case for the Opera browser seems to be the same as Internet Explorer. You will have to disable Javascript in order to right-click on the image and save it. To locate that option, click on the menu, then settings, then preferences and then the content tab. There will be an check box for enabling Javascript, leave it unchecked to disable it. Restart the browser and you should be able to right-click. Again I suggest re-enabling Javascript afterwards.

Here is a video tutorial for all four cases






Others have different methods..

This article provided an amazing method for downloading the all the images in a website. The only downside is that the program is a free trial so you can't keep it for long. But it's pretty cool.

I can't stress enough how important it is to remember that these are not your images. I never use the images for gains nor in my own projects. I suggest saving them for your viewing pleasure, no more. They belong to the original owners from the sites you appropriated them from.

With these methods, you can save images from any website, not just imdb.com.

The one exception is if the image is published under a creative commons license. These photos below were obtained through http://www.bestpicturegallery.com/. While I am showing them on my blog, they will have to site the original creator and source.

Hope you like this article. Comment please.

by Elfreda, Eden Project




























by owenbooth

























by Christopher Chan


Thursday, February 17, 2011

Don't let low bandwidth waste your time



Some of you out there may have the worst bandwidth, and have a bad time when it comes to watching streaming videos. Here's something to try. Orbit Downloader is free software that allows users to download any content from a website. The most obvious application would be to download videos.

Orbit Downloader can pretty much go to almost any site and download the .flv file, a standard in streaming videos. What this means is that if you have a slow internet connection, you don't have to wait on the video player to load. Just download the video and watch it at your own convenience. At a time when the internet seems to be extremely convenient, a limiting factor still seems to be bandwidth. Orbit Downloader could be a solution for that.

I do have a problem with this program however. I suppose through no fault of Orbit Downloader, Youtube has worked very hard for users to not download their content. So one main flaw in the program is that they cannot download Youtube videos.

Using the Downloader might take some getting used to. One of the easiest ways to download would be to enable the Orbit plugin for your browser. Whenever you load a page, an icon will appear for you to click on.

The icon will then give you options for the content page, particularly video files. If you choose one of those files, the downloading process should be pretty straight forward from there.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Converting FLV to AVI



It's no secret that people want to save Youtube videos onto their hard drive when they see a video they really like. But the .flv file extension isn't exactly the friendliest type of file for computer users. If you had the VLC media player with the right codec, it wouldn't be a problem. However a lot of people have been searching for answers on how to convert the .flv file to a .avi file. Here is a answer to that query.

The simplest answer is to use this program from www.pazerasoftware.com.

1. Download and install the program.

2. Load the file you wish to convert.

3. Then click on the convert button on top to start the process.

4. You get an .avi video outputted to the directory you specified.

*Note however that this program does not allow you to download the Youtube file.

I suggest you use this website for that. keepvid.com. Simply copy and paste the Youtube url onto the box and hit enter. The site will automate both the download and conversion of the file into either an .flv or .mp4 file based what you choose.

I really enjoy keeping some special videos around for my viewing pleasure. But remember that these are the creative property of the creators. So I highly advise against using them for your own projects without the expressed permission of the owners.

Top 5 free programs all computer users need

While googling my own questions about how to do this and that, it came to me that other people might be looking for the same things. Have you ever deleted a file and then emptied the trash bin, or needed to play a movie file but it said the computer does not have the required 'codec?' Look no further, I'll share some essential programs that can take care of the most important things internet and computer users face as they consume media and operate the Windows computer.

People routinely ask questions like:
What is a 'codec' and how do I get it to play a movie file?
How do I get back files that I deleted from the recycle bin?
What are some free image editors?
What are some free word editors?
Free Powerpoint editor?
Free stuff?

1. VLC player
This video player is the ultimate media player. Remember what I said about the 'codec' not found problem? This player has almost every codec that has been released, it will play files with extensions like .avi, .mkv, .mov, and .mp3 to name a few. It's interface is very simple and easy to use.

2. Restoration
Restoration is a program that can save the day. Created by Brian Kato, it can restore files from your hard drive if it's been removed from your trash bin. Remember having deleted a file and then clicking 'Empty the Recycle Bin?' Well if you do both steps and delete the file, don't panic. The file might still exist. This program looks inside of your hard drive and sifts through all the trash files that have been deleted for your program. All you need to do is either search for the file, or sift through the things you have deleted. Timing is of the essence! Everytime you use your hard drive to store new files, you'll be risking the deletion of your old file forever! Don't wait too long before using this program after you've hit the 'Empty the Recycle Bin' button.

3. Paint.NET
This free image editor is easy to use and resembles the regular paint in your accessories on windows, but it has a lot more tools to play with. Don't spend money on software that is extremely large just to edit your art. This free program can be the midrange program to get if you don't spend all day creating art, but just need it to do simple things. The regular paint is just not adequate for that.

4. Google
Have you looked at all the applications that Google offers in it's directories? It can offer FREE online programs for writing, presentations, and even email. And to boot, all of these are programs that you would normally have to pay for in a store. For instance, Google docs is a utility that pretty much does all of what Microsoft Office does. Take a look at the list of programs Google offers here.

Or just a quick glance.
a. Gmail
b. Youtube
c. Google docs
d. Google books
e. Google Earth
f. Google Labs

5. Mozilla Firefox
This web browser is exceptional for all users. It was the first to use the multiple tabs approach to browsing and remains one of the fastest browsers. I highly recommend this browser because simply of it's ease of use and uncomplicated interface.

All of these programs are free to be downloaded from their respective sites. They offer what everbody should have in their computer, the essentials. I wanna stress this because, I've also searched around for answers how to handle a movie file and what a 'codec' is. VLC can handle all that.
And these programs will eventually become necessary over the course of using a windows computer.

Hope you guys liked my blog. I'm planning to write more basically from my experience as a user.
Computer User Essentials - Blogged