technifinds.com » Free Services

JingProject.com – Capture & Record Your Screen

Luke Dyer — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:33:52 +0000

Jing lets you capture your screen then edit the images. You can add text,arrows,etc. directly to the image. You can also record your screen and save as an flash file. This application has come in very handy for me when creating short tutorials on how do use different computer programs. I mainly use the screen capture feature, but have also tested out the recording software.

I came across Jing while attending the SXSW 2009 Tradeshow in Austin, Tx and have loved using it ever since!

JingProject is brought to you by TechSmith. TechSmith has created other well know applications, and services. Such as Snagit,Camtasia, Screencast.com, and much more. I recommend that you try out Jing. It is a great product. You can download it from the official Jing Website. Use their free service and if you need to you can go pro for only 14.95 per year. A great price! The pro version lets you record in premium video format (MPEG-4 AVC), upload to more video sharing sites and removes the Jing logo from your screen captures.

http://jingproject.com

Remotely Access Your Computers for Free

Luke Dyer — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:59:23 +0000

I wanted to take the time to talk about a service that I have been using for the past year or two that lets you remotely access several computers via a secure tunnel using logmein.com. It works by installing a small software package on the client’s computer that you are wanting to remotely access. Then you can login to that computer from the web interface at logmein.com. This is a secure service, and you are not hacking anything because the computer owner would need to install the software before the connection can be authenticated. Even after the software is installed the person connecting would need to know the user name and password for the local machine that is being remotely accessed.

Click Here To Check out the Official Logmein.com

I have used this free remote connection service to troubleshoot problems for friends and family. It has also come in handy to check on my desktop computer activities while at the office. As long as the computer that you are trying to login to is powered on and the logmein software is running in the background then you can access it remotely.

You do have the option of upgrading your service if you need more abilities, however I can tell you that for remote access in general this service has been great for me.

Free WiFi at Every Barnes & Nobles

Luke Dyer — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:54:13 +0000

It was just just brought to my attention by a good friend of mine that Barnes & Nobles Stores are now offering free Wifi. Ever Since they have been shacking it up with Starbucks they have charged for internet, and gotten away with it. But it looks like the people will og where the connection is free.

After going to the official Barnes and Nobles Website, I did see that this as for Every Barnes & Nobles location.
So, you can now go read and study both hard copy, and digitally all in the same place. No need for your own frustrating slow connection.

Stream Live Video Using Twitter

Luke Dyer — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 04:50:52 +0000

I have found another service brought to you by Livestream. It is the ability to broadcast a live video feed through your twitter account. This is a great way to get your video out to a large opted in audience. The service is called Twitcam.com.

It was super easy to setup a page just by logging in with my pre-existing twitter login.

It is very simple service to use, if you are interested click on the link below.

Free JW Player 4.5 & Google Analytics Pro

Luke Dyer — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 02:56:38 +0000

World-renowned developer Jeroen “JW” Wijering co-founded LongTail Video to develop and distribute the world’s best media players. We call them the JW Players. Since the launch of the first JW Player in 2005 (which a little company named YouTube used as their first player), individuals and companies have downloaded nearly five million copies.

So whether you’re a webmaster looking for a killer online player that’s compatible with dozens of skins and plugins or a consumer seeking the best desktop player for your PC, LongTail Video has the solution for you.

The Google Analytics plugin for the JW Player is designed to help you understand how well your video content is performing online. It takes advantage of Google’s new Flash API for Analytics so you can track events within the JW Player itself.

The tracking of events (which includes allowing you to access information about not only what videos are watched, but how long users watch each video), aggregates it, and passes along the relevant information for easy and concise tracking within Google Analytics.

It comes with a sweet Setup Wizard that will walk you through creating a custom player that you can place on your website for you or your clients.

One of the things that I like most about this particular player is that there is an active development section on thier website. New plugins are constatly being developed. There is always the potential to upgrade your video player, or add new plugins at a later date. Check out the plugins here.

Broadcast Live on Your Website

Luke Dyer — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:21:56 +0000

I have recently came across a service that lets you broadcast live video feeds from your website with only some simple basic tools. All you need is a computer, a web cam, and an internet connection. The service is called Livestream, and they have developed a powerful software that enables average people to broadcast live, and record for later on demand viewing.

This is a browser based software, however they also have some desktop applications that you can download and use also.

There is a widget that you can embed onto your website that provides the live feed, as well as all videos that were previously recorded. It is a great tool to add both live & recorded video to your website at no cost since the basic
service is free.

I have had the opportunity to use this service in a real time environment, and was able to get some real feedback from an active audience, and I have been very impressed with the results.

I would encourage you to go to www.livestream.com and checkout the service for yourself. It is a low cost way to get some easy professional looking video streaming on your website.

Use Gmail Offline!

Luke Dyer — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:49:38 +0000

You can now use Gmail Account offline in your browser using Google Gears. Check out the official post on Google’s blog as well as the video below:

Start Your Own E-commerce Website!

Luke Dyer — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 21:58:30 +0000

I have found the perfect solution for starting your own online business. It is a new shopping cart software that allows you to create a personal website with a template, and then load products, and sell them online. The service is free to use if you are selling 20 products or less, and then once you grow beyond that you will need to purchase a plan. Click Here to see the Big Commerce Plans & Pricing. It is a very competitive solution that seems to have everything needed to sell online. BigCommerce is integrated to work with alot of the major gateways, like Authorize.net,2checkout,paypal. Here is a complete list of the supported gateways, and credit cards.

This shopping cart is in direct competition with the Volusion E-Commerce Shopping Cart. BigCommerce has a page comparing the two services.

I am mainly impressed with the functionality of the backend of the BigCommerce shopping cart. I created a test storefont of my own in about ten minutes, and had the store live, on my domain name, and connected to my paypal account so fast that is was scary. Check out the sweet free template that I loaded my store with by going to http://www.lukesdyer.com. The simple setup and usability is what I noticed first. I am very interested in seeing what happens in the near future.

I have spoken with a few BigCommerce employees, and feel that it is a promising product with a solid company base that will grow rapidly after they release their software. The cart is currently in beta, and is set to release in the next week or so. If you are wanting to get your store started today then you can participate in the beta with the EARLY INVITE BETA ACCESS CODE: websitemagazine. Enter that code on http://www.bigcommerce.com

The shopping cart has the ability to add categories, products, additional pages, etc. It adds order, customer, products, to the admin area so that you have full control over your customer base, and orders.

I have done alot of research on low cost shopping carts, and this is byfar the cheapest way to start your own online store, with the ability to upgrade to a larger plan when you are ready, so that you are not paying a high overhead before you begin to make enough money to pay for the monthly fees of the cart itself.

You have nothing to lose, Sign up for your own free shopping cart today!

Blellow – Micro blogging for the Workplace

Luke Dyer — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:45:00 +0000

I first saw Blellow at the SXSW Interactive Tradeshow. It is a micro blogging site similiar to twitter. You can create/join groups, and post what you are working on. It also lets you post questions, and allows for feedback from the Blellow community.

The Blellow support team confirmed that they are working on the feature set to include things like social bookmarking, and a mobile iphone application.

I can see a service like this exploding in the workplace, particularly with the web freelancers out there. My expectations are for it to become a self sustaining support community where programers give each other advice on how to acheive solutions to problems.

In conclusion, I am impressed so far with my Beta account, and will wait to see what happnens with this new service.

Check it out at: http://www.blellow.com/