Springdoo talking emails

Springdoo is a free service that lets you talk your emails. Anyone can now easily send talking emails in their own voice, without typing. You can Springdoo using your computer and a microphone, or any telephone.
Springdoo allows you to easily record audio message onto our secure servers, so you and / or other people can replay the message over the Internet.

Springdoo is a free solution designed for everyone. You do not need any special software or services to record and / or play a Springdoo. Springdoo uses streaming file technology, so there are no file attachments to send in emails and / or download.

Springdoo is primarily a talking email solution, allowing you to quickly and easily create and send talking email. You can create a Springdoo (a talking email) using your computer and a microphone, or any telephone such as your land line, mobile / cell or even a pay phone.

Because Springdoo is an easy way to record, store and serve audio over the Internet, some people are even using Springdoo to record audio messages that are then placed on websites, chat rooms, dating sites and blogs for anyone to listen to.


Download Springdoo Toolkit

Click on the link below (or copy the link and paste it into your Internet browser address), to listen to my message:
http://enus.springdoo.com/public/play/?id=FF9C5177FC6AB9DE

Create Your Online Space with MSN

MSN Spaces gets New Features

Microsoft's blog service, MSN Spaces, is being updated to include new features such as integration with Xbox 360 and a "live contacts" feature that will let you automatically notify subscribers of new posts to your blog. Also added is an option that lets you make money off your blog through revenue-sharing advertising. MSN is partnering with Amazon. If you've been thinking about starting a blog, or are looking for a new home for yours, check it out

Mousebreaker FREE online games site

Have tried this site and it seems GOOD.
Siteadvisor Gives it a clean bill of health

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. - Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

SiteAdvisor v18 (For Firefox)

SiteAdvisor is a security add-on for your Firefox browser that helps you identify sites that are linked to spyware, adware, spam, viruses, browser-based attacks, phishing, or online fraud. The SiteAdvisor service is based on a huge database with detailed test results for more than 100,000 pieces of software and covers more than 90% of the world’s Web traffic.
The program integrates with search engine results from popular search engines and also adds an icon to the browser toolbar that indicates whether a site is safe to use, or should be used with caution. If SiteAdvisor has negative information for a site, you can review a very detailed report that shows any spam received from that site, harmful downloads, and association with other sites.

SiteAdvisor is an excellent browser add-on that provides an in-depth site analysis that is based on actual test results, rather than assumptions.
Go to main site here

BBC Jam

BBC launches learning site
The BBC is launching a new learning service for five to 16-year-olds this weekend.

BBC Jam aims primarily to put children in charge of what, when, where and how they want to learn, although it also hopes to encourage parents to be more involved in their children's education. The service will combine curriculum-based activities, video games, audio and animation. It works best with a broadband connection but will still function with dial-up services as it detects what speed a user has the first time they log on and remembers the settings for subsequent visits.

There will be 20 topics throughout the year. The first six are maths and English for five to seven-year-olds, science for seven to nine-year-olds, geography for seven to 11-year-olds, French for 11 to 14-year-olds and business studies for 14 to 16-year-olds.

It will continue to add content and topics covering all areas of the national curriculum until the autumn of 2008, making it the BBC's most comprehensive education service. It is available free of charge at any time.

Mark Thompson, BBC director-general, said in a statement: "Learning has been one of the three pillars of the BBC since the 1920s and it remains so today.

"I'm extremely proud that we have been able to design a service in discussion with the young people who will use it, to bridge the gap between home and the classroom by creating something innovative and distinctive which really works for them."

Cute Overload

At Cute Overload®, we scour the Web for only the finest in Cute Imagery™. Imagery that is Worth Your Internet Browsing Time. We offer an overwhelming amount of cuteness to fill your daily visual allowance. Drink it in!

AJAX & Web2.0 Online Applications Coming Next

In the very near future in fact NOW more and more of the tools you will need to edit, write, collect, and publish online are going to be sitting and running on a remote server, and not on your local computer hard disk. The majority of users is still strongly anchored to their desktop programs generally made up of Outlook or equivalent email program, Word and a set of more dedicated apps like Excel, PowerPoint, Photoshop, or a database tool.Lack of true alternatives have made the use of these tools become more necessary than any open market and smart consumer would ever want.But now, that even Microsoft itself is awakening to the launch of an increasing number of Web-based office applications, there can be no more doubt about where the future is going to take us.
Web-based applications are always up-to-date, require no physical purchase, no download, no installation and no setup. They run right away on any computer you may have: PC, Mac, Linux, or others. Web-based applications can be made more secure and reliable than many downloadable software tools available today.
Further web-based software is born with built-in collaboration abilities and with the potential to do many things more that are just not possible on the desktop.
With that in mind I give you a list of Web Based online programs (tools) that are targeted at providing a true effective alternative to your typical Microsoft Office suite. Have a look at
and try out the future NOW

XstreamRadio

XstreamRadio is one of the most extensive radio players of this moment. Besides listening to your favorite radio stations it also allows you to record music.
This player contains more than 1.000 international pre-programmed radio stations, to which you can leisurely listen while working on your PC. With the integrated MP3 recorder you can easily record music or your favorite program from the station of your choice.
Besides being a radio player, XstreamRadio contains useful facilities for browsing the net. Did we already mention all this comes in a small 3 MB package and is totally for FREE?

Static Text-Only Is Over - Video And Audio Are Next

This article taken from Robin Good's Site and I found it so interesting that I just HAD to include it on here. Please read it HERE and check out ALL the different formats that he has used to bring the article to life. There is NO reason why anyone could not do the same thing using the sites provided on the links in his article.

Create Online Photo Albums Free

New Version! January 22, 2006

Web Album Generator is a free software application for Windows that helps you easily create photo albums for the World Wide Web. Publishing your photographs to the Internet has never been easier! Simply drag-and-drop your digital photos onto Web Album Generator, give them optional titles and captions, select your favourite colour scheme and generate! Web Album Generator takes care of the dirty work, creating the necessary JPG thumbnails, HTML and CSS files with strict standards compliance.

5 great freebie games

From action to classics, RPG to shooter, they're all free

Skylook 1.5

Skylook 1.0 provided the ability to make Skype voice calls and start Skype text chats from Outlook contacts, as well as providing the ability to keep a complete archive of all communications (including recorded calls) in Outlook folders.

"The vision behind Skylook 1.5 is simplicity," Jeremy Hague of Netralia commented today. "I don't want to be looking in multiple different places to see who has been trying to contact me and to review what they are trying to tell me. I want to have all of that stuff in one place, and the Outlook inbox is what I am used to. I think a lot of Skype users will feel the same way". "With Skylook 1.5, I only ever need look in one place for my incoming messages, whether they are missed calls, automatically answered calls, voice mails, text messages, or, of course, emails. That place is the Outlook inbox"

Phone Cheats UK only

Ever wanted to know how to get around those endless automatic phone responses? Well, follow these guidelines and we might be able to help.

MozillaZine Forums

I love Firefox. Regular visitors may be painfully aware of that ;-). so I give you MozillaZine Forums
The site is LOADED with tricks, tweaks, hacks, and fixes for various issues you may be having with any Mozilla products.

The forum is well-organized and well-moderated. There have been lots of memory usage questions posted about Firefox's using excessive memory under certain circumstances. The hard-working moderator gathered them all together in one spot, and condensed the most frequently helpful solutions in a single area. Man, I was impressed with what you could accomplish using the about:config feature.

If you use Thunderbird and have a Gmail account, there is a detailed setup procedure for taking advantage of the free POP service that Google is offering so that you can download your email to your desktop. Bookmark this one, friends. You'll be using it a lot.

Free Recipes with Step-by-Step Pictures

This site is built around a community of cooking enthusiasts who are eager to share their concoctions with you in both text and visual form. The recipe categories include the type of meal, cuisine, and occasion. Each step of the recipe is accompanied by a photo and a caption to help you make sure that you're doing things right. You can also participate in the fun by submitting your own creation for the world to taste and enjoy. Bon appetit!

Tilapia and Mango Salsa with Sauteed Mushrooms

101 Clips

Clips
101 is the simplest of all multi-clipboard programs. Just have it running minimized and it captures everything you cut or copy from other programs. It keeps the last 30 clips. When you want to paste one back, all you have to do is restore it and click on the clip you want. If you prefer to work entirely from the keyboard, you can choose a function key to restore and then paste any clip by typing the letter shown next to it. When you move the mouse over the clips, you can see them in the viewer. If the clip is text, you see several lines and if it is a graphic, you see a thumbnail.

Blue Ball Machine just for laughs

Take a quick look at the Blue Ball Machine--and just imagine someone compulsive enough to design it.

ImageToAVI

>Converting a series of images to a video file is one of the best ways to put together a digital slideshow. My favorite app for this process remains Microsoft's free Photo Story app, with pan and zoom effects and a few quick photo fixes. If you don't need a ton of special effects, using ImageToAVI is a great alternative. The app converts a collection of JPG, BMP or GIF images to AVI in a number of preset profiles ready for importing in your favorite DVD authoring suite to save on disk. Configurable options include a border around photos, length of time to display each still, aspect ratio and background music. There's also a zoom feature, but I'd avoid it since the options for zoom control are very limited. Used in combination with the free Video DVD Maker, you can quickly crank out simple photo DVDs with minimal effort. [Windows 9x/2k/XP $0.00]

Belong To Any Yahoo! Groups? Be Aware Of Web Beacons

Victoria from the osxtiger Yahoo! Group writes:

If you belong to ANY Yahoo! Groups - be aware that Yahoo! is now using “Web Beacons” to track every Yahoo! Group user. They’re similar to cookies, but allow Yahoo! to record every Web site and every group you visit, even when you’re not connected to Yahoo!.


Look at its updated privacy statement here.

About halfway down the page, in the section on cookies, you will see a link that says WEB BEACONS.
Click on the phrase "Web Beacons." On the page that opens, find a paragraph entitled "Outside the Yahoo! Network."

In that section find a little "Click Here to Opt Out" link that will let you "opt-out" of its snooping. Be careful NOT to click on the next button shown. It is an "Opt Back In" button that, if clicked, will UNDO the opt-out.

Note that Yahoo!'s invasion of your privacy - and your ability to opt-out of it - is not user-specific. It is MACHINE specific. That means you will have to opt-out on every computer (and browser) you use.

HowStuffWorks,

On HowStuffWorks, you can learn about everything from engines to lock picking to bigfoot. We also have a huge shopping site that can help you research features and prices on electronics, computers or just about anything else.

Skin your WindowsMediaPlayer

You can dress up Windows Media Player (WMP) by downloading the Windows Media Bonus Pack, which is a free collection of skins, sound effects and visualizations, along with tools to convert MP3 to WMA, export playlists to Microsoft Excel, a Media Library Update Wizard, and more. Also included is the Movie Maker Creativity Kit, which helps you to enhance your home videos with titles, clips, images and sound. Best of all, it's all free.

Remember the Milk

You can set Microsoft Outlook to send you reminders of events and tasks, but what if you don't use Outlook? Or what if you need reminding sometimes when you're at a different computer, such as a computer at a public library? Well, now you can still get your reminders via the free Web-based service Remember The Milk. It lets you make multiple task lists, use color coding to prioritize your tasks, keep time estimates and store notes pertaining to your tasks. The interface is friendly and easy to use and you can get your reminders via email, instant messages or SMS.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order. - John Adams, second president of the United States (1735-1826)

windows live mail BETA

I just wanted to let everyone out there in e-mail land know that HOTMAIL are still working hard on the Windows Live Mail beta, adding cool new features and, of course, adding cool new customers to the beta (if you've signed up, you're cool... it's a given).



For those of you waiting patiently (or otherwise) to get in on the beta, let me assure you;Its GREAT. I got my invite today and the transition went without a hitch. Please keep in mind, the beta is only available in English (for the US, UK and Australia) and Japanese (for, you guessed it, Japan) right now, so if your account isn't in that group, you'll have to sit tight a little longer.



Yeah, that only covers a fraction of the world, . But don’t despair, waiting in the wings is Windows Live Mail in Italian, French, Chinese, Portuguese, German and Spanish. So if you live in Italy, France, China, Brazil, Germany, Canada or Spain HOTMAIL should be able to get to your account very, very soon


For those of you not already on the waiting list, head on over to http://ideas.live.com/ to get your account registered to be moved.

Creative Zen Vision: M 30 GB MP3 and Video Player Green

Creative Zen Vision: M 30GB Video

Move over iPod Video, you have competition with Creative's new Zen Vision M30GB Portable Video player.

Just after Apple announced its iPod Video, Creative Japan today announced the Zen Vision: M30 GB (CZM30G) portable media player. The new portable device supports MPEG 1,2,4 WMV9, MotionJPEG, ZVid, and DivX 4,5! For audio playback: MP3, WMA, and WAV. The Zen Vision features a 3.7-inch LCD (320 x 240 pixels) with 2,62,144 colors.



Even more feature rich, it has a built-in FM tuner with support for recording via FM. In terms of form factor, it measures 62 x 19 x 104mm and weighs 166 grams. It will be available in Japan in December for 39,800 Yen ($330 USD). No word on a North America release but its obvious that Japan is their test market.

Via Laptop Logic

dBpowerAMP Music Converter v11.5 FREE

nicknamed the Swiss knife of audio Music Converter is a must in the world of audio, transforming your PC in to a true multimedia tool:
* Digitally rip audio CDs (fastest & AccurateRip included),
* Convert between audio formats & preserve ID tags,
* Explorer Integration: audio info tips & columns,
* Record from LPs or anything,
* Volume normalize & DSP Effects,
* ID tag editing [Power Pack Option],
* Free from nags**, popups, hidden spyware or bundleware.
and whilst your at it why not download their Fantastic Audio Player. I use it on my system and it takes up hardly any memory

Please Note
If you obtained an MP3 Player over the holidays and find that its difficult to load with your music why not try
Sveta Portable Audio™ liberates your portable player from the manufacturer supplied bloated 'Manager' program
*

Rip Audio CDs straight to your player no need to store them on your PC,
*

On the Fly conversions have WMA files but your player only plays mp3? Sveta can convert whilst sending,
*

Smart Conversions, tell Sveta which audio types should be recompressed or sent 'as is' (files below a certain bitrate),
*

Simplicity sending Audio files, from within Windows Explorer right click on an Audio File >> Convert To >> [your portable]
*

Sveta Explorer simple to use full screen device explorer, sort tracks by Artist, Album or Year **
*

Edit ID Tags, Star rate tracks & Playlist Support **
*

Copy Audio back to PC and arrange (order into folders) as required **
*

Two way Audio Synchronize, with dBpowerAMP Audio Player synchronize newly ripped audio files,
*

Integration with dBpowerAMP family, dBpowerAMP the must have audio program - Sveta integrates seamlessly,

** subject to portable device capabilities Windows 95 does not support USB devices.

Cool falling sand game:

This is so simple but it takes up more of my spare time than it should. Don't forget to scroll down to the bottom of the screen for ALL the controls and click on the links at the top to get more instructions. Good Luck

Celestia... The free space simulation

Welcome to Celestia

The free space simulation that lets you explore our universe in three dimensions. Celestia runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

Unlike most planetarium software, Celestia doesn't confine you to the surface of the Earth. You can travel throughout the solar system, to any of over 100,000 stars, or even beyond the galaxy.
Add-Ons

Release the Sound Cap Limit in Your iPod with goPod

iPods sold in Europe cap the sound level by law, so this one is definitely for you if you own one purchased outside the US. For US iPod owners, the main reason I like this software is for Podcasts that are recorded so low you can’t hear them. There is always some audio that needs a boost. But please act responsibly.

Google Pack

Google is getting serious about their suite of Windows software applications. We're all familiar with the Google Toolbar and Google Earth certainly has a certain cool factor to it, although the usefulness is certainly questionable. Picasa is by far their best app, with a slick set of image management tools. Now Google is bundling all these apps with the Google Pack Screensaver and Google Desktop in one combined download. Third party apps Firefox, Ad-Aware SE Personal, Adobe Reader and Norton Antivirus 2005 Special Edition are also available in one massive collection of apps. Probably the best reason to use Google Pack over downloading the files individually is the Google Updater, which notifies you of updates for all the apps included in Google Pack. I personally avoid any system product with Norton's name on it because my own experiences haven't been that great, but the rest of the apps do work as described. Using Microsoft Antispyware in combination with Ad-Aware SE also keeps you better protected than relying on Ad-Aware alone. [Windows XP $0.00]

Song Tapper

Song Search and Retrieval by Tapping

This site lets you search for a song, by tapping the rhythm of its words (lyrics).

APO USB Autorun v1.0

APO USB Autorun enables you to add autorun functionality to your USB drive. It automatically searches for the standard autorun.inf (as used with CDs) and executes it. This simple, but very handy functionality allows you to create an autorun menus in the same way you would for a CD and use it with your USB drive, or launch playlists, html pages and any other type of file as soon as the USB drive is inserted. In addition to the autorun functionality, the program also allows you to quickly access the files on the USB drive(s) from the tray icon menu.

Kodak Photo Voice

Kodak and Skype have launched Kodak Photo Voice, a service that combines live voice and online photo sharing.

The download allows users to create a slideshow that can be shared during a Skype phone call.

For Sale By owner

In a rather Strange detour from the normal sites that I have on here and because I have so many American visitors (Welcome by the way) I am listing this site as i find the whole concept of it to be just what the internet was made for.
Ms. Miller, 38, a former social worker who favors fuzzy slippers, and her cousin, Mary Clare Murphy, 51, operate what real estate professionals believe to be the largest for-sale-by-owner Web site in the country.
Attention FsboMadison users!! Check out Tues. Jan. 3, 2006 New York Times front page. FsboMadison featured in Real Estate article "Owners' Web Gives Realtors Run For Money"


Or go straight to the web site by clicking the photo

BubbleShare

Since most people are beginning to take more digital pictures, it only makes sense that they’re also looking for a way to store them.Flickr continues to be a great solution for photo storage, management, and distribution. Of course, it’s not the only fish in the sea. For people who just want to create albums and share them quickly, BubbleShare is a fantastic solution.For one thing, this service doesn't require you to create an account or go through any of the minutia that is involved with becoming a new user. From the front page of the Web site, you automatically jump into creating an album. You just title it, upload the photos, and then share it with whomever you wish, including the visitors of your blog. It doesn't cost you any money to create an album, and you can create as many as you want. While creating a basic album is easy enough, there are a couple of extra features that enhance the service. For example, you can add both text and audio comments to your pictures just in case you don't feel that they completely speak for themselves, and visitors can also comment on what they see and hear. In my opinion, the ability to talk to your album viewers about your photos is one of the main things that makes BubbleShare so attractive.

Roboform

Roboform is the top-rated Password Manager and Web Form Filler that completely automates password entering and form filling.
RoboForm was named PC Magazine Editor's Choice, and CNET Download.com's Software of the Year.

If you require the portable version that fits onto an USB key then download Pass2Go RF

Gmail Manager

>
This is a Firefox extension that allows you to manage multiple gmail accounts and receive new mail notifications. Displays account details including unread messages, saved drafts, spam messages, labels with new mail, space used, and new mail snippets. I have this running on my machine and it saves a lot of time and trouble opening your different accnts

Task Orchestrator

Supported Platforms: Windows 2000 or XP

It's five o'clock and your kids are waiting for you to come home from work and take them to the park. Unfortunately, you're stuck waiting for a file to be completed by another team member so that you can e-mail it to your supervisor and upload it to the corporate website. With PC Magazine's latest utility Task Orchestrator, there's no need to stay at work waiting for that file to be completed. Task Orchestrator gives you the ability to schedule and automate tasks so you don't have to do them.

Task Orchestrator - View Slideshow Task Orchestrator (TO) allows you to perform 41 different types of tasks including copying files when they change, uploading files at a specific time, downloading files, and much more.

Torrent Portal

Torrent Portal is an online community for sharing and discussing BitTorrent files. The site is comprehensive, including a giant list of available torrents (games, films, TV, music), a search feature, a directory of Windows BitTorrent programs, a BT tutorial and a glossary of torrent-related terms. Torrent Portal also has a chat room, user forums and allows you to upload torrents as well. Membership is free.

Windows Live Safety Center

Get full service for your PC
Windows Live Safety Center is a new, free service designed to help ensure the health of your PC.

* Check for and remove viruses
* Learn about threats
* Improve your PC's performance
* Get rid of junk on your hard disk

Use the full service scan to check everything, or turn to the scanners and information in the service centers to meet your specific needs.

Trend Sweet Trend

Trend Sweet Trend is a mash-up of LiveMarks and Browsershots. For the less geeky, here is an explanation: LiveMarks lets users see (in real-time) the most common and most recent searches on del.icio.us, while Browsershots creates visual previews of any web page, as it appears on several browsers (also in real-time). Trend Sweet Trend brings these two services together, allowing anyone to instantly view any site from the top del.icio.us searches without actually needing to click to see the actual referenced site. Trend Sweet Trend also maintains running statistics for the top searches. Free to use.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. - Vince Lombardi

SimpleOCR

Convert your scanned images to text files or Word documents with SimpleOCR--the only OCR (Optical Character Recognition) application that is completly free. SimpleOCR is also a royalty-free developer toolkit (aka SDK or API) that you may use to add OCR to your custom software application. A 15-day demo of Charactell's Softwriting handprint recognition engine is also included. Machine print recognition has no limitations or advertisements.