So many video file formats, so many handheld video players, so many online video sites, and so little time. To have your favorite clips how you want them—whether that's on your DVR, iPod, PSP or desktop—you need the right utility to convert 'em into the format that works for you. Commercial video converter software's aplenty, but there are several solid free utilities that can convert your video files on every operating system, or if you've just got a web browser and a quick clip. Put DVDs on your iPod, YouTube videos on DVD, or convert any video file with today's top 10 free video rippers, encoders and converters.
Ok, so VLC is a media player, not converter, but if you're watching digital video, it's a must-have—plus VLC can indeed rip DVD's, as well as play ripped discs in ISO format (no actual optical media required.) VLC can also play FLV files downloaded from YouTube et al, no conversion to AVI required. Since there's aportable version, VLC's a nice choice for getting your DVD rips/saved YouTube video watching on wherever you go.
Make your video files burnable to a DVD with Avi2Dvd, a utility that converts Avi/Ogm/Mkv/Wmv/Dvd files to Dvd/Svcd/Vcd format. Avi2Dvd can also produce DVD menus with chapter, audio, and subtitle buttons.
Videora Converter is a set of programs, each designed to convert regular PC video files into a format tailored to your favorite video-playing handheld device. The Videora program list includes iPod Video Converter (for 5th gen iPods), iPod classic Video Converter(for 6th gen classic iPods), iPod nano Video Converter (for 3rd gen iPod nanos), iPod touch Video Converter, iPhone Video Converter,Videora Apple TV Converter, PSP Video 9, Videora Xbox360 Converter, Videora TiVo Converter, and Videora PMP Converter. Lifehacker alum Rick Broida used Videora in conjunction with DVD Decrypter to copy DVDs to his iPod.Honorable Mention: Ares Tube for Windows converts YouTube and other online videos to iPod format.
Convert almost all video formats including DivX, XviD, MOV, rm, rmvb, MPEG, VOB, DVD, WMV, AVI to MPEG-4 movie format for iPod/PSP or other portable video device, MP4 player or smart phone with Any Video Converter, which also supports user-defined video file formats as the output. Batch process multiple files that AVC saves to a pre-selected directory folder, leaving the original files untouched.
Convert any video file to iPod-sized versions and automatically add the results to your iTunes library. iSquint is free, but Lifehacker readers have praised the pay-for iSquint upgrade, VisualHub, which offers more advanced options for a $23 license fee. Check out the feature comparison chart between iSquint and VisualHub.
Copy a DVD to your hard drive and leave off all the extras like bonus footage, trailers and other extras to save space with DVD Shrink. Download Adam's one-click AutoHotkey/DVD Shrink utility to rip your DVDs to your hard drive for skip-free video play from scratchy optical media.Honorable mention: DVD Decrypter (beware of advertisement interstitial page), which Windows peeps can use to copy DVDs to their iPods.
Back up your DVD's to digital file with this open source DVD to MPEG-4 converter app. See also how to rip DVDs to your iPod with Handbrake.
What's your favorite way to convert video to the right format? Did we miss any good ones in this list? Let us know in the comments.
Source: Lifejacker
Today more or less everyone can put a simple web page together but implementation of professional Web based Application Front Ends is not as simple as some people may think. It is a complex task requiring deep knowledge of several technologies like html, css, javascript, php, etc. In this article you will find essential cheat sheets for the most commen web based technologies that you are likely to use if you’re a Front End Web Developer. First you will find resources covering client side markup and development (html, xhtml, css, javascript, jQuery etc.) and then you will find resoures covering server side development that are to some extent required for Front End Development (php, asp.net, …). Please make sure that you post a comment if you know an important resource that have not been included in the article. I hope you will find this article useful, lets get started!
There’s a lot of cheat sheets available for CSS, html and any other web technology. I have picked a few that I believe stand out because they are able to assist you remebering important elements of key web technologies or because they are really well structured.
Print out your favorite Cheat Sheet and put it on the wall just next to your monitor to get instant access to help and reference.
This cheat sheet is designed to not only be a quick reference for CSS properties but also to give you a good feel for how each property should be used. It contains all of the properties in the CSS2 specification including a description of the syntax of each one. There are also sections that describe selectors, pseudo-elements and pseudo-classes, @ rules, and colors.
Good looking and well structured CSS overview
The CSS cheat sheet is a one-page reference sheet, listing all selectors (as of CSS 2.1) and properties. It includes a visual example of the box model, unit reference for CSS units and the various media types CSS makes allowance for.
All you need to know about CSS in 3 parts. These documents go through all important aspects of CSS on a minimum number of pages.
Get help with some of the CSS elements that are so easy to forget.
This cheat sheet is designed to be a quick reference to all of the elements and attributes available in the XHTML 1.1 specification. And because XHTML 1.1 is designed to be modular, it is organized into sections to mirror the XHTML abstract modules and the elements and attributes contained within each.
Good looking and well structured html overview
The HTML cheat sheet is a one-page A4 printable document, designed to provide a quick reference for HTML. PDF PNG
The information is pretty much just a copy of what is found in the WHATWG specs, just condensed and hopefully a bit easier to read. There are virtually no explanations, however, and no examples other than some graphics for compositing values and a few other things (the appearance of which is very much inspired by those found in Mozilla’s examples). So, it’s basically just a listing of the attributes and methods of the canvas element and the 2d drawing context.
The HTML Character Entities cheat sheet is designed to act as a reference sheet, listing the various character codes in HTML. PDF PNG
This cheat sheet contains a list of all of the HTML 4 character entities including ISO 8859-1 (Latin-1) entities. The characters are organized into 8 groups: Latin characters, Greek characters, numbers, puncutation and miscellaneous symbols, mathematical symbols, currency symbols, arrows and shapes, and spacing symbols.
Each character contains a unicode entity reference (e.g.  ) as well as a named entity reference (e.g. ) where available.
This cheat sheet contains a chart of 1050 colors grouped by hue and varied into 25 different saturations and brightnesses for each. Each color has the HTML color code reprsented as a Hex triplet (e.g. #808080). Also, it contains a chart of the 216 Web-safe colors and each is represented as a single-digit Hex triplet (e.g. #999).
The RGB Hex colour chart is a very large (183kB) PNG file, and is sized to fit on a standard A4 piece of paper. It shows the 216 so-called “web safe” or “non-dithering” colours (there are actually only 22 web safe colours, but those are revolting).
The JavaScript cheat sheet is designed to act as a reminder and reference sheet, listing methods and functions of JavaScript. It includes reference material for regular expressions in JavaScript, as well as a short guide to the XMLHttpRequest object. A description of what is on the cheat sheet follows, or if you are impatient, you can go straight to the full size JavaScript cheat sheet.
Working with XML in Javascript is
Quick reference to all jQuery 1.3 functions and properties. Note that it doesn’t cover any of the UI functionality as this could easily be a whole cheat sheet in and of itself.
This sheet cover Core, Native, Class, Element, Utilities and Request
stripScripts() method from “String (String.prototype)” can be called as 'foo'.stripScripts()new Hash()
Javascript: A scripting language designed to be integrated into HTML code to produce enhanced, dynamic, interactive web pages.
Very comprehensive overview of jQuery selectors. This is a must have for every jQuery developer!
The PHP cheat sheet is a one-page reference sheet, listing date format arguments, regular expression syntax and common functions.
This website contains a 2-page light and lean PHP cheatsheet and an 8-page comprehensive PHP cheat sheet for committed PHP developers
3 cheat sheets covering comparison using different operators etc.
The ASP cheat sheet is designed to act as a reminder and reference sheet, listing various of the oft-forgotten parts of ASP / VBScript.
Creating good content that is presented in the right way is important but only haft the way to get visitors. Understanding and mastering Search Engine Optimization, SEO is quite essential and here you get some really good overviews
This cheat sheet cover most of what you need, Important SEO Html Tags, Search Engine Indexing Limits, Recommended Title Tag Syntax, Common Canonical Issues, Important Search Engine Robot User-Agents etc.
According to Chris Holmes, build 7048 of
Windows 7 includes Internet Explorer as one of many Windows components
that can be turned on or off via a Windows Features dialog box. In the
public beta version, IE8 is not on that list.
Microsoft has included in recent Windows 7 test versions an option to turn off the
Internet Explorer 8 Web browser, according to testers who have used the recent builds.
According to Chris Holmes, build 7048 of Windows 7 includes Internet Explorer as one of many Windows components that can be turned on or off
via a "Windows Features" dialog box. The control panel exists in the
public beta version of Windows 7, but IE8 is not listed among the
features that can be turned on and off.
Microsoft declined to comment on the feature's inclusion as
well as the reasons behind the move. Others are speculating it might
have something to do with the European Union's objection to the inclusion of a browser within Windows.
The software maker has cautioned that the EU may seek
to have Microsoft allow PC buyers to choose their browser and then
require Microsoft to disable certain IE code if a user chooses a
non-Microsoft browser.
Enthusiast site AeroXperience has more detail on how IE can be toggled on and off and what exactly that might mean.
As we've already noted, Microsoft is making a number of changes to Windows 7 as it moves from the beta to "release candidate" stage. However, the IE change was not one that was called out in a recent Microsoft blog posting on the topic.
Ever wished that someone would overlay some data that fascinates you on a Google Map? Ever have an idea for a new desktop widget to take the computing world by storm? Well, no matter what your skill level is, there are tools out there in the world that will help you realize your dreams just by dragging-and-dropping what you need and in the order you want it.
Take a look through these ten solutions — which range from common, everyday type of Google Maps mashups to heavy-hitting, enterprise-level applications — and be amazed at how very little work can bring big results.
DevHub: A point-and-click solution for developing a site, with monetization in place from the day you open it up. The themes are customizable, so your site needn’t be immediately recognizable as being from DevHub; there is some branding indicating that your site is a DevHub site, but it is pretty unobtrusive. DevHub is the perfect solution for people who have an idea for a site, but have no clue how to even begin coding (read Craig’s coverage on SitePoint).
Iceberg: Iceberg is a business development application tool that operates completely within a visual editor, allowing anyone to build and launch an application for their employees. You can build just about anything with it, and the service is available for free to non-profit groups and companies with less than five employees.
IBM Mashup Center: The IBM Mashup Center comes packed with features, but is not too overwhelming for non-technical users wanting to create new tools. It allows you to create widgets for various mashups and to build pipes to bend information into a way that is more usable to you. The Rapid Assembly tool allows you take widgets from just about anywhere on the Web and drag-and-drop them to form an entirely new creation of your own.
JackBe: JackBe is a mashup builder with a enterprise slant to it. Using their Presto Mashup Composer — a web browser-based visual mashup composition tool — both business-oriented users and IT-savvy developers can produce a whole bevy of mashups to serve both the company and its customers. The tool works as an Eclipse plug-in for Java development that will allow you to design, test, debug and deploy mashups.
Ning: Although there are hundreds, if not thousands, of stand-alone social networks in the world already, someone has to build one dedicated to people who collect matchbooks. This is exactly the problem Ning attempts to solve as it is dedicated to letting you set up a social network in moments that is dedicated to the subject of your choice. When a person first sets up their network, which only requires you to answer questions, it will be supported by advertisements controlled by Ning. This can be turned off by paying a monthly fee, and there are other levels of monthly subscription if you need more features, like additional storage, more bandwidth or a unique URL.
OpenKapow: OpenKapow will allow you to remix just about any web service you can think of and bundle them into a widget to be shared with others. Want to know where a phone call came from geographically? Enter the number and YellowPages.com will display the location on a Google Map. While this is a simple example, the possibilities here are pretty much endless, and the path to creating to a finished product couldn’t be simpler.
Pipes.deri.org: Deri.org admits they were inspired by Yahoo Pipes, but it certainly looks like they learned from the big Y and changed things up enough to keep it interesting. You can pull in information using RDF, XML, Microformats, JSON or a binary stream and then output it in XML, RDF or JSON. You can choose to use the finished product as a stand-alone site, or it can be embedded it into an existing application.
Tarpipe: Tarpipe is another pipes-style solution for remixing various content into one application or destination, but there are a few points of difference from competing solutions. While at its core, the Tarpipe solution is all about making mashups of various online services, you can also trigger processes by e-mail messages, instant messaging updates and third-party applications. You can also easily share your completed projects on sites such as Evernote, FriendFeed, Flickr and Twitter.
WaveMaker: WaveMaker offers both a desktop application and a cloud-hosted version that provides the ability to drag-and-drop items to create complex applications without coding. Wavemaker is also available in an enterprise version for those who are ready to take their next big thing to the next big level.
Yahoo Pipes: Yahoo Pipes is a product from Yahoo that is dedicated to nothing but helping you build mashups from just about any source that has some sort of feed. Suppose you wanted to view a visual representation of the population of the United States — all you have to do is drag and drop some modules into the pipe, enter the data from the feeds to be filtered the way you want to see it, and you’re done. There’s no hard coding — just filling in feed information and checking some boxes. The finished products are all hosted on Yahoo and can be shared with anyone.
Don’t let your lack of coding skills prevent you from building the next big thing!
Source: http://www.sitepoint.com
