Hi

     (this post was done as a sarcastic response to my wife saying I should just post hi and come back and sit on the couch with her. )

Electronic Filing

     In the efforts of reducing waste, I'm trying to file all of my taxes electronically this year.  But I'm stuck with a problem.  To sign up for a business to electronically file in the state of Washington, you have to have already filed a tax return under the name of the business.  To me, this seems kind of counter-intuitive.
     But for personal taxes, you can just go to Turbo Tax's website and they'll have it done for you in no time.
     So lets recap.  I'm complaining here because a business, which really will only be paying money in, has to take the long route and file by paper and pay the extra money to have it processed by someone else or spend the hours figuring it out, but the individual, who will probably be part of the fifty percent of Americans that will not pay any taxes at all this year, gets to use the easy filing system.  I think theres something wrong with this.

Embedding Video in a Blog Post

     I’m writing this one tonight because I didn’t realize it needed to be written.  I guess I thought this was just one of those things that people knew how to do if they were on the internet.  But apparently there are a lot of people out there that don’t know how to embed a video from something like YouTube or Vimeo on their blog or Facebook page.

     This is actually a simple task once you get the basics down, and can be made even easier if you have a nice service for hosting your blog that makes embedding a two-click process.

     First thing you need to do is find a video you want to insert on you page.  Once you have the desired video, look around the video player, either on its screen or just below it.  There should be a button titled “embed” usually including a </> somewhere near it.

     When you click on this button, a bunch of text usually pops up on screen, hopefully already highlighted. 

     Once you have the text highlighted, then either hit the provided copy button, or use Ctrl + C to copy the text.  Now head on over to your blog or social network.  If its cool like Blogger, their will be a button that you just press and it will walk you through a dialog of how to insert it.  But if your blogging platform is older or just doesn’t provide the functionality, just enter the html editing mode.  Their, just find where in the post you want to add the video, put the cursor there, and press Ctrl + V for the paste function.  When you go to publish you post, it will now display a video from a video service.

     A simpler method can usually be used to upload your own files, too.  So try it out and let me know how you’re doing.

More Software Bits

     And for anyone who can understand the pun above, you're a geek.  So welcome to the club.  I've seen a lot of articles lately about free software on the net, leading me to think that people are still being budget conscious, even with talk of a recovery.  So that lead me to think of a list of my favorite free softwares, and why I like them.  So here it is:

IBM Lotus Symphony:  Okay, so my first pick on this list is a weak one because no one really cares about office software anymore.  Or do they?  I have found IBM's Lotus Symphony one of the nicest free office software suites I've ever had the pleasure of dealing with.  Heck, its the best Office software I've ever dealt with, period.  Nothing else is easier.  (And if you haven't gleamed it from any of my previous posts, I'm all about ease of use.)

The Gimp:  This image manipulation program is the best no money can buy.  Whereas there are still some things Photoshop can manage in the digital art realm that the Gimp hasn't quite mastered, (which I am working to remedy), for photographic manipulation, I've seen it do anything I've seen Photoshop do.

XBMC:  This media browsing application got its start on the XBox, a system I hate, so I am glad that it found a way to migrate onto other platforms.  If you plan on building a media PC, this program is a live saver, and its pretty simple to use.  Definitely check it out if you are a media enthusiast.

Picasa:  This Google program is an amazingly useful photo viewer, and it extends into more as you can edit photos, upload them to web, make instant collages, and even make posters.

Vuze:  If you're into downloading things through bit-torrent, I can't think of a better program to use.  With integration into your media system, and a quick and friendly interface, I've used this one for years to download images of Linux, MMORPG installers, and plenty of other things as well.  Give it a shot and find out for yourself.

Audacity:  If you are into podcasting, or just audio editing in general, this is a program you should add to your library.  I've even seen it packaged with home sound hardware as the default audio editor.  It works wonders for the home enthusiast.  Plus, like all of the rest of these its free.

     So, click the links and check out all of these free software programs.  As an added bonus, all of them are available  on both Windows and Linux systems, and most have Mac versions as well.  I'm sure once you've taken the time to get to know these programs as I have, you'll love them, too.

Another Media Converter

     So, I'm typing tonight about another media converter, but out of the hordes of media conversion utilities out there on the net, this one I think warrants a closer look.  Its called Hamster.  That's right, I said Hamster, and it even comes with a logo to match.
     But just because Hamster has a cute and cuddly mascot(actually, this depends on personal taste), doesn't automatically make it an awesome media converter.  Its awesome because of its ease of use.  With Hamster all you do is pick out your video from whatever folder its in on your computer, decide what device or video type you need it in, then press the convert button.  Each section has their own tab, so you use the add file tab to add your videos, the edit tab to select your device, and the convert tab to convert.  Quick, simple, easy, done.
     And that is the whole of this post, because there is nothing more to really say, it really is that quick and simple.
     (Psst!  Go to http://videoconverter.hamstersoft.com/ to download.)

CenturyTel Buys Out Qwest Communications

     So, I have some potentially saddening news for fellow Qwest customers, they are being bought out.  The buyer is CenturyTel, and this worries me.  I've been a CenturyTel customer in the past, and let me say, I was not impressed.  Lets just hope that their customer service has vastly improved since I was a customer.
     But, on a positive note, I have heard from a local employee that the working conditions at Qwest should improve.  Apparently they were not that best, and the employees are glad of the change.

Web Server Here Soon

     So, hopefully in the next couple of hours I will have the first Digital Fruit Web Server up and running.  Now some of you may be scratching your heads thinking, don't they already have a website?  Yes, we do, but it is hosted by someone else with much more bandwidth, because I can't afford an OC12 connection, they're just too danged expensive.  What we do have enough bandwidth to host, though, is local websites that don't generate as much traffic as bigger sites, but still need a home.  So, that is what we will be hosting.  We really look forward to you coming and checking them out once we have them set up, so stay tuned.