Quick Media Converter converts media... quickly

Quick Media Converter is a Windows utility that will let you convert practically any audio or video file from one format to another. MPEG to H.264? No problem. WAV to OGG? Sure, why not.

Now let's get something out of the way here. Quick Media Converter is basically just a fancy front end for the open source, command line FFmpeg media encoder. But it's a really useful front end. The utility offers you two interfaces: an easy mode and an expert mode. In easy mode, you can choose from a number of predefiined formats. So just select the media files you want to convert, and click the Audio, Quicktime, WMV, DiVX, Xbox, PS3, or Wii button to create a file optimized for your system of choice.

In Expert mode, you have much more control over the code choices and settings. For example, in easy mode, there's no way to convert a FLAC file to OGG. But you can do that in expert mode.

The program also includes a bundled copy of CamStudio for making screencapturs which you can then convert to other formats using Quick Media Converter. In a nutshell, Quick Media Converter doesn't do anything that MediaCoder doesn't. But if you're looking for an even easier to use alternative, this program might be worth a look.

Drive a robot in Australia over the web

BP Australia has commissioned an online game where you get to drive robots around an obstacle course. Make no mistake, these are real robots. Actually they are modified versions of the Surveyor SRV-1 vehicles that are popular with research labs, and schools everywhere.

Go to the website, get in queue and pray for no clouds. These babies are solar powered, so you'll have to try to get in while its day time in Australia. The entire set is built in miniature, so you feel like you're driving a tank around a city.

Replace your taskbar with tabs (and lose screen real estate)

Tabs are the greatest thing since sliced bread. Firefox, Opera, and even Internet Explorer allow you to open multiple browser windows without seeing thousands of icons in your taskbar. But have you ever wished you could use tabs for everything?

That's what WinTabber is for -- kind of. It doesn't let you add tabs to tab-free programs like your favorite photo editor or multimedia program. Instead, it lets you load applications into the WinTabber environment and navigate between applications as tabs.

In one way, this make sense. Most programs have toolbars located at the top of the screen. So that's where you spend the most time scrolling your mouse around. Why move to the bottom of the page to switch between applications? The problem is that WinTabber has a fairly hefty toolbar of its own. When you install it, you'll notice it eats up a sizeable chunk of space on your screen.

Of course, you could always just move your taskbar to the top of your screen to get a similar effect. Or you could use the default Gnome environment in Linux. WinTabber is Windows only.

Vyew My PC easy online desktop sharing for anyone

Vyew My PC is a flash-based instant desktop sharing product with a lot of fun features.

Basically, go to the Vyew My PC web page and click start sharing my desktop. You will be given a unique, unguessable URL. You can then share that URL with anyone you'd like to share your desktop with. There are some features you need an account to use, but the basics are usable by anyone.

You can upload files to be shown on the Vyew My PC desktop, use the whiteboard features, chat and with registration, use audio/video features. You cannot however, view anything outside the Vyew My PC desktop area. So, if you want to switch to a new window and show a web page you are viewing, it's not going to show up unless you take screenshots and present those.

It moves smoothly and all the features seem to work. Now, I didn't go in and have a full-fledged sales presentation to a CEO or anything but I did show a powerpoint to two of my friends who logged in from two seperate locations.

My main concern was about security. Showing a powerpoint to my friends is quite a bit different than important company information. So, this is what I found out; the packet data for your session is not encrypted but the URLs seem to be unique enough that someone wouldn't just stumble into your meeting without being invited. SSL encryption is not offered publicly but could be a possibility for some clients.


The privacy policy is similar to one you would find on Google Docs as far as information shared during meetings.

The application is not open source but it can be used for free and enterprises can can license the technology and run it on their own infrastructure.

The only negative? Other users could manipulate the information I was presenting by using some of the whiteboard tools. I suppose if you were sharing with more mature people that could be a positive because they could add information if needed.

Adeona: An open source laptop tracker

Adeona is the first Open Source system for tracking the location of your lost or stolen laptop that does not rely on a proprietary, central service. This means that you can install Adeona on your laptop and go — there's no need to rely on a single third party. What's more, Adeona addresses a critical privacy goal different from existing commercial offerings. It is privacy-preserving. This means that no one besides the owner (or an agent of the owner's choosing) can use Adeona to track a laptop. Unlike other systems, users of Adeona can rest assured that no one can abuse the system in order to track where they use their laptop.

Adeona is designed to use the Open Source OpenDHT distributed storage service to store location updates sent by a small software client installed on an owner's laptop. The client continually monitors the current location of the laptop, gathering information (such as IP addresses and local network topology) that can be used to identify its current location. The client then uses strong cryptographic mechanisms to not only encrypt the location data, but also ensure that the ciphertexts stored within OpenDHT are anonymous and unlinkable. At the same time, it is easy for an owner to retrieve location information.

Free file format conversion tool

Formats, formats, formats…. We're awash in multimedia content: images, audio, video. Do you have the right tools to deal with all of the different file formats? In other words, if you download "X", can you look at it, listen to it, or play it? How about putting it on your iPod, iPhone, or PSP? Not necessarily—you may need to convert that file to a different format.

Format Factory is a free media converter that can convert just about anything into just about anything else. Along with file conversions, the authors say that you can use this tool to repair broken audio and video files, as well as reducing their sizes. You can also tweak picture files, flipping and rotating images. Ripping DVDs for backup or archival purposes is supported too.

The authors are working to make this tool available to as many folks as possible. It is currently available in over a dozen languages, but if you're fluent in one that they haven't localized for yet, they're eager for you to give them a hand with that as well.

Format Factory is a Windows application.

Download Format Factory

Pismo File Mount turns any ZIP or ISO file into a virtual drive

There are plenty of utilities that will let you mount a disc image as a virtual drive, allowing you to browse the contents without actually burning the image to a disc. But Pismo File Mount is one of the easiest to use that we've seen -- and it has the added benefit of also being able to mount ZIP archives.

To install the free Windows utility you just need to download and run the PFM Audit Package found on the Pismo web site. Once the program is installed, you can mount a ZIP or ISO file by right-clicking on the file and selecting Mount or Quick Mount from the context menu. You can also launch Pismo File Mount first and then browse for the files you want to mount.

Once you map the archive to a virtual drive, you can should be able to view the contents in Windows Explorer. You can also decide whether or not you want read/write or read only access to the archived files.

EFF launches tool to monitor ISPs for bad behavior

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is protecting your rights online again, this time with a tool called Switzerland. Switzerland lets you check your ISPs compliance with net neutrality, making sure they're not trying to shut down specific kinds of traffic, like BitTorrent and VOIP. Naturally, Switzerland is Open Source.

It's also a command-line tool, and still in alpha, so it's not necessarily for everyone. If you're comfortable with this kind of app, and you're concerned about your ISP's behavior, definitely give it a go. How exactly does it know whether your ISP is fiddling around with your bandwidth? The EFF says, "It will spot IP packets which are forged or modified between clients, inform you, and give you copies of the modified packets." It recognizes packets injected or modified by some of the most popular tools ISPs have been using to mess with p2p traffic, including SandVine and AudibleMagic.

Fun With Physics? Fantastic Contraption FTW! - Time Waster

I suffered through two years of physics in high school, and it's not really a subject that most people would consider an exciting way to waste time on a Friday afternoon. Well, slap me silly, Fantastic Contraption proves that physics can indeed be fun!

The goal is simple: assemble your contraption in the work area (the light blue box) and propel the pink wheel into the pink box. You're provided only a handful of simplistic components with which to build - wheels, a water-drive rod, and sticks. Assemble them like a caveman MacGuyver to reach the goal, and move on to the next level! The physics is surprisingly realistic, and the game can get quite challenging.

Registering allows you to create and save levels, and you're given given a url that links directly to your creation so you can frustrate your friends. Unfortunately, playing other user's saved games requires a $10 registration fee, but you'll have plenty of fun playing the free levels.

Download Squad Upload, Share, and Mirror in One Step With Rapidspread

There are plenty of great places to upload and share files, so why not use a bunch of them all at once?

Rapidspread is a a simple file upload site that automatically forwards your files to as many as 10 filesharing sites. From the upload page, simply browse for your file(s), agree to the terms of service, and click share. Once the upload is complete, RapidSpread displays a URL to send to your friends as well as direct links to your file on the supported hosts it's been transferred to.

My test rar file successfully uploaded to eight of the ten possible hosts - not too shabby. When I chose to upload several images, RapidSpread was even smart enough to limit mirroring to the media-sharing services (ImageShack, Badongo, ZShare, and ZippyShare).

Anyone that uploads files on a regular basis will appreciate the simplicity and power of RapidSpread. If the developers would just intergrate a short URL service like bit.ly, this would be a truly killer service. Give it a shot, and see how it stacks up against your favorite service.