Shankar Ganesh

You’ve watched those stunning videos on YouTube. And that’s not enough for you. You need to edit ‘em.

A typical process involves these steps: you have to download the video file in .flv format, convert it to a typical video format (.avi, etc), and then use a software like Windows Movie Maker to edit it and add your stuff. That’s a bit hectic.

Well, all that may sound geeky to a novice. Don’t worry, you can still edit such videos with ease using an online tool called Mojiti. Here’s how: Read the rest of this entry »

Some noise from inside your PC’s cabinet. Probably your computer’s fan is not performing well.

SpeedFan is a very useful tool that might come in handy when you need to know your computer’s fan speed and temperatures of your motherboard or hard disk. In addition to this, this software will also be able to analyze your hard drive’s status and provide you with details on its performance using SMART or even SCSI. Fool proof your hard disk from a crash.

Read the rest of this entry »

DeskLoops, a very cool software from Xilokit, helps you manage scuffled windows.

Every so often, your screen gets messed up with a lot of Windows. Pain.

A lot of tools are available that let you organize your windows, saving you time. One such tools is DeskLoops, and it’s a bit different from other conventional ones.

Let me show you how it works:

Read the rest of this entry »

Quite a number of software programs let you resize your pictures easily. But you may not need such programs always since you don’t resize pictures often. In case you don’t want to / can’t install a software to do the job, there are quite a number of tools available on the internet that may come in handy. Here are some of them:
Read the rest of this entry »

Netvibes, an AJAX based start page, now has a twitter module included.

You can add it by using this link. Or else, you can select the Twitter module from the left panel on your Netvibes page.

Video clips that you watch over the internet on many sites like Youtube and others are encoded and delivered in a compressed .FLV format, which might be unplayable directly on your computer or on your movie players.

There are many tools available on the internet that let you convert .FLV files in .MPEG and other such video formats, but let me mention two most useful converters that will let you convert .FLV into other video formats:

Riva FLV Encoder

This is one of the best softwares that lets you convert .FLV files to .MPEG, .AVI, .WMV, and Quicktime formats. Select the file, and get it converted. It’s as easy as that. Here’s a feature list:

• Riva FLV Encoder supports conversion of .FLV files into four formats: .MPEG, .AVI, Quicktime, .WMV
• Image capture possible
• Drag and drop interface that lets you drop files into the encoder and convert them easily
• Cropping feature
• Multi-language support – English, French, and German
• Inbuilt FLV Player

Vixy – Online FLV Converter

If you have no worries about your bandwidth, this is the best option. Just type in the URL where the .FLV file is located, for example, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abcd, select the format from the drop down list, and click Start. You’re done. Instantly download the converted file after a few moments.

Currently Vixy supports .AVI, .MOV (MPEG), 3GP (for mobile phones), .MP4 for your iPod, PSP etc. You can also get only the audio in MP3 format.

That’s it. Those were just the two most widely used tools that’ll help you convert .FLV compressed video files. There are many more, but these are the most widely used, if I’m right. Hope you’ll find them useful

Well, another little mashup based on the Digg API has made it to the Digg front page. It’s known by the name Digg Expose and it also uses Snap Preview Shots.

This mashup is accessible via the YourMinis site. Upcoming and popular stories can be sorted according to diggs, dates and comments.

So, what’s new? Stories are depicted on the site using Snap Preview Shots, so you get a thumbnail of the website. Here’s a screenshot of Digg Expose in action, listing some upcoming stories on Digg:

Digg Expose = Digg + Snap Preview Shots

Twitter is getting more slow by the day, a lot of downtimes and slow responses, along with third party tools failing. Here are some Twitter alternatives to enjoy with than frown at its bad performance

Jaiku

Jaiku is a similar service like Twitter that lets you post what you’re doing on the internet. But it has some lovely additional features unlike Twitter.

• In addition to posting Jaikus (status messages) you can also customize them with icons
• You can use your smart phone to access Jaiku
• Commenting on your friend’s Jaikus is possible
• If they’re on their mobile, you could have details regarding their location, calendar and availability
• You can live stream your favourite RSS Feed entries as Jaikus on your account
• Badges are available to put up on your website

Get a Jaiku account now here.

Tumblr

Tumblr is another such service, but it’s still unique in some way or the other

• Tumblr lets you create the so-called Tumblelogs
• Tumblelogs have an URL in this form: thenameyouselect.tumblr.com
• Tumblelogs are short, little blog entries that you could use to update your status
• Tumblelogs are faster and easier to post to than ordinary blogs
• You have a variety of themes to choose from for your log
• Photos and videos can be easily added to your Tumblelog
• Your followers are listed out in your Dashboard

In short, Tumblr is a whole new way of posting what you’re doing. Get a Tumblr account here.

Plazes

Plazes is another unique one, but still it can serve in someway the same purpose as Twitter does.

• You have to pin-point your location in a Google maps mashup at first (this facility is still to come, but for now, you have to download a software to join Plazes)
• You can then know who’s nearby you
• Update your status then, a mobile version too is available
• People can subscribe to receive updates about their friends or favourite plazes
• Badges are available to put up on your site, blog or any other profile pages like MySpace, etc.

Go to Plazes

Which among these is your favourite? Or do you still prefer to use Twitter? Share your views in the comments

Bubbl is a very impressive Web 2.0 tool that allows you to create mind maps online. It’s interface is based on Flash, and has developed a lot since it was launched.

Lovely features it has:

• Each bubble unit can be created by pressing the Enter or Tab button
• Zoom in/out using your mouse wheel
• Click and drag empty space to move around the sheet
• Undo-ing is possible
• Bubble arranged automatically, and you can click and drag the arrow in the top left of the bubble to manually position them
• Control panel to manage multiple mind map sheets
• Each unit can be customized to change its colours
• Printing feature to print your sheets
• Collaboration is possible, and you could give your friends read-only or full access to you sheets
• Your mindmaps can be embedded into your site, just copy paste the code provided
• Export sheets as XML, HTML or image files

Here’s a sample sheet as an image:

Bubbl.us – Brainstorming made simple

I’ve been using Twitter for the past few days and I’m hooked. I searched for some Greasemonkey scripts for twitter and found these. If you don’t have Greasemonkey, download it here.

Twitter Add, Follow and Leave links
This script puts ‘add’, ‘follow’ or ‘leave’ links in a twitter user’s page for you to utilise.

Twitter Last Twitter Preview
This script will display your friend’s last twitter when you hover your mouse pointer over his or her image in the twitter sidebar.

Post2Sbm
This script has an UI to help you post your bookmarks to twitter

Twitter Profile Pop up script
This script displays your friend’s profile details when you hover over his/her picture in the Twitter sidebar

Twitter Lite Client
This is a little twitter client that functions inside your Firefox browser. Hit Shift + T to bring it up in the bottom corner. Another such Greasemonkey client is here. If this didn’t work for you after installation, go to Tools >> Greasemonkey >> Manage User Scripts >> Twitter_Lite >> Click ‘Add’ under included pages and Type http://* and click ‘OK’ and then use Shift + T to check whether this works.

Know what? This client has many useful and hidden features? Check this comment

Twitter Friend Name Helper
This script will show a list of your friends’ names when you key in ‘@’ or ‘D’

Browse with Twitter
Updates your twitter status to ‘Browsing: Document’ whenever you load a webpage :S

Twitter Mod

This script improves the User Interface of Twitter’s Webpages. It’s got a lot of features which beautify and add some functionality. There’s a search feature available when you install this script, which allows you to search for a particular string in twits. Another notable feature is the TinyURL handler, which brings up the original URL when you click on a TinyURL, so that you can decide whether to move to that page or not. In real terms, it’s actually many scripts blended into one.

Twitter with Meebo
If you use both Meebo and Twitter quite often, then this one is for you. This script shows up a twit box on your Meebo page where you could type in your messages. You can also set your Meebo status message and your twit at once, in a single click.

Note: I found some of these scripts not working, but still, you could try them and check whether they work for you. And this post will be updated constantly. Make sure that you’ve bookmarked it!