Windows only: Freeware application Debut records video from any source—like your computer’s webcam or your desktop—to a number of popular file formats. Once you’ve recorded a video, Debut makes it easy to automatically share the results over the internet via email or by uploading them to an FTP server. I’m still a big fan of previously mentioned Jing for quickly recording and sharing screencasts, but Debut’s added webcam abilities add a useful new element, and it’s got an impressive toolbox of features to boot. Debut is lightweight freeware, Windows only. Capture [NCH Software via Digital Inspiration]
Whether you’re adding notes inside a book or sticking a request to your co-worker’s monitor, you can automatically keep a copy for yourself with Rediform 2-Part Self-Stick Message Pads. These wallet-sized notepads keep one copy of your notes in the book, and let you tear off a sticky version for placement elsewhere—in short, they’re Post-It’s with carbon copies built in for easy follow up. Office Depot’s got a pack of six of these pads for $8. Rediform 2-Part Self-Stick Message Pad [Cool Tool]
US-centric: Web site FreeShipping.org rounds up free shipping coupons to over 600 stores, helping you save cash on your next online purchase. Similar to previously mentioned Free Shipping On, FreeShipping.org appears to have a slightly broader reach and better navigation. The two sites also appear to showcase slightly different coupons for some sites, so both might be worth a look before you check out and pay for shipping. Alternately, if Amazon is your online retailer of choice, the Amazon Filler Item Finder is a must-bookmark site for getting to free shipping on your Amazon purchases. FreeShipping.org [via Gomestic]
A new version of our favourite text replacement utility for Mac, TextExpander 2.1, is now available for download. The upgrade includes performance and reliability improvements for fast typists, and now allows for single character replacements. [via]
Windows only: Remember everything you’ve learned using spaced repetition with SuperMemo. From the Wired article on its creator, Piotr Wozniak: SuperMemo is based on the insight that there is an ideal moment to practice what you’ve learned. Practice too soon and you waste your time. Practice too late and you’ve forgotten the material and have to relearn it. The right time to practice is just at the moment you’re about to forget…. Twenty years ago, Wozniak realised that computers could easily calculate the moment of forgetting if he could discover the right algorithm. SuperMemo is the result of his research.
Not everyone can afford to install solar panels or get a new Prius this Earth Day, but there is one place you can go green without spending an arm and a leg or radically changing your lifestyle: your computer. Chances are you spend the majority of your day sitting in front of the keyboard, and a few small changes can go a long way toward reducing its negative impact on the environment. As an added bonus, doing your part for the environment will save you money, too. This Earth Day, we’ve rounded up a few simple ways you can go green with your computer.
Mac OS X only: If Spotlight metadata just doesn’t cut it and you want to organise your files by tag, free utility Punakea might be for you. Entering file tags is easy with Punakea: Just drag and drop any files you want to tag either to a pop-up Punakea sidebar, the icon on the Dock, or the app itself. Enter your tags. Then, within Punakea, choose any tag to list its files and also see related tags. In Finder, Punakea actually creates aliases to your files within folders with your tag’s name. (You can set Punakea to actually move the files to those folders as well instead of using an alias.) If you’re interested in doing more with tags but don’t want to get a third party utility involved, check out how guest editor Nick Santilli organizes his files with Spotlight tags. Punakea is a free download with donations requested for Mac Tiger or Leopard only.
In honour of Earth Day, Yahoo put together a “Free Is Good” web site promoting previously mentioned Freecycle, local mailing lists of folks who give away stuff they don’t need. Pop your city and state into the search engine and get a map back of nearby groups. The Freecycle groups themselves are Yahoo Groups, so you have to join the group using your Yahoo ID to see messages (and often a moderator has to approve the membership request.) From there you can offer stuff you’d throw away anyway to give to your neighbours for free, and take them up on their offers, too.
Windows only: Free transparency utility Blend isn’t like a lot of other see-through window hacks for Windows, and that’s a good thing. The system tray utility takes up very little memory (3 MB or less, by some estimates), and has simple but highly-configurable options. Setting Blend to only make certain desktop apps transparent is easy, as you can enter either the executable path or drag an icon onto the window you want to tweak. You can quickly kill or suspend the transparency effects from Blend’s systray icon, and that’s all there is to it—other than the fact that it just works. Blend is a free download, works with Windows XP, 2000, and Vista
Photo hosting/sharing site Photobucket has joined the likes of Flickr in allowing users to edit their posted photos directly on the site via Picnik. [via]
