The New Orleans Personal Computer Club Newsletter MotherBoard Volume 28, Issue 2 February, 2010 This Month Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and other Social Media -- What They Are All About and How you Can Use Them for Business and Pleasure Facebook, Twitter, With social media making the news as an essential new Linked In and communication tool, the club will present author and social media consultant Michelle Cullison to cover the use of the other Social new media tools like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress Media (blogging) YouTube and more in business and pleasure. by Michelle is co-author of Facebook Best Practices (July Michelle 2009), Twitter Best Practices (Sept 2009) and Author of Lost Cullison in MySpace Parenting Guide (Nov 2009). For further information Inside this issue: http://www.linkedin.com/in/michellecullison . Downloading and The public is invited to attend the Converting YouTube 2—3 The New Orleans Personal Computer Club’s Videos monthly meeting on Wednesday, Cryptography - a big February 3, 2010 at the Harahan Senior Center, word that helps keep 4—5 100 Elodie Street in Harahan, from 6:30pm-8:30pm. the internet secure. The New Orleans Personal Computer Club has been feeding the in- terest of computer users since 1981. Informative, consumer related Advertisements 6 meetings are held the first Wednesday of each month at the Harahan Senior Center. Organization president, Walt Christensen, invites the public to join the organization at a monthly meeting. Christensen Calendar of Events 7 noted, “NOPCC is a wonderful opportunity to meet others who share NOPCC Directory an interest in computers, the internet and the intricacies that make both tick”. Guests are invited to participate in a meeting free of charge. Annual membership is $40.00. Visit our web site at http://www.nopc.org/ For more information about the New Orleans Computer Club, contact Walt Christensen at [email protected] or 504-982-3705 PAGE 2 MOTHERBOARD VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2 Downloading and Converting YouTube times! DownloadHelper places a small icon on Videos the bottom edge of the browser window con- By Ira Wilsker sisting of three colored balls; when the balls become animated, the DownloadHelper menu WEBSITES: becomes available by clicking on the icon. Left http://www.forinside.com – Online download clicking on the icon shows the title of the video, and conversion and clicking the title downloads the video in http://www.downloadhelper.net – FireFox Add- YouTube’s native FLV format to your computer. on and converter Right clicking on the icon opens the menu http://www.orbitdownloader.com – Automated which allows the user to convert the video into downloader any of many popular formats. Alternatively, http://www.download-youtube.com – Online clicking on the three-ball icon that appears to download the left of the video title at the top of the screen http://www.videolan.org – Free universal video opens a one-click menu that offers all of the player options. The one that I use most often is the http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/ “Download and Convert” which can download for_video_free/ and convert the video in a single action. For http://www.dvdvideosoft.com/free-dvd-video- compatibility purposes, especially when em- software.htm bedding the video in PowerPoint, I mostly se- lect the WMV (Windows media format), but I frequently get emails from readers of sometimes choose the QuickTime MOV, or AVI this column and listeners of my radio show re- formats. For those who do not have FireFox garding problems they are having. While I can- installed, it is available free at getfirefox.com , not guarantee an effective answer, I can at and does not interfere with any other browser least try to help them out, or tell them where on the computer. they can find a solution. Some of the more in- For those using any browser, there are teresting, or more common questions I will oc- several free online services that will download casionally post here under the premise that if a YouTube (and other) videos to your computer, few of you are having a similar problem, then and some will also convert them to popular for- many others are having a similar problem. mats for you. Even though its server is fre- Last Friday I was forwarded an email quently busy and located in Brazil, I like Forin- that had been bouncing around one of the de- side , at www.forinside.com . Forinside is ex- partments at Lamar University about how to tremely easy to use; all the user needs to do is download YouTube videos and convert them to copy the URL (web address) of the video and a format that can be used in PowerPoint. paste it into the textbox, and use the pull down Some of the faculty have rightly found that menu to select a format. Clicking the download there is some useful content on YouTube that button will start the process. Forinside can is applicable to academic lectures, and they convert online videos into any of the 10 most would like to use this information in class. For- widely used formats, and can download videos tunately, there are several good solutions. and audio from YouTube, MySpace, Google Video, and Mp3Tube. For those who already My personal first choice in downloading have videos on their computers that they would YouTube videos and converting them into a for- like to convert into other formats, Forinside of- mat that can play in PowerPoint, or on most fers that service for free. Simply click on the video players, is a free add-on for the FireFox orange “File” tab, then “Browse” your hard drive browser called DownloadHelper for the file you want converted. Use the pull (www.downloadhelper.net ). DownloadHelper is down menu to select any of the 10 formats extremely popular with FireFox users, having been downloaded and installed about 54 million (Continued on page 3) PAGE 3 MOTHERBOARD VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2 (Continued from page 2) and audio CDs; upload and download videos available, click on “Convert” and Forinside will and music to your computer, iPod, PSP, iPhone upload the original video to its server, convert it and BlackBerry; perform basic editing of audio to the chosen format, and then download it to and video files.” This bundle, reviewed and top your computer in the new format. Your original rated by several of the major download sites, video remains intact on your computer. As may be a worthwhile bundle to download and stated above, the Forinside server is often very install. busy. If there is a need to convert the YouTube Another service that can download You- FLV videos, or any other video formats, into a Tube videos directly to your computer is more useful format, such as WMV or MOV, a Download-YouTube.com . This site is very easy utility called “Any Video Converter Freeware” to use from any browser. Simply open the de- may be useful, as it supports dozens of video sired YouTube page, and in the address bar of and audio formats, and can easily convert files your browser insert the phrase “download- between these formats. This software is avail- “ (download hyphen) before the word “YouTube able for download from “ in the URL, and the user will be directed to the www.any-video-converter.com/products/ Download-YouTube web page. On the for_video_free , and according to its publisher, Download-YouTube page either click on the has been downloaded over 25 million times. “Click here to download” link, or right click and The online service CNet gave Any Video Con- “Save Link As” or “Save target as” and the file verter Freeware its highest 5-star editors’ rat- will be downloaded in the native YouTube FLV ing. format. If your only need is to play downloaded One of the easiest free YouTube YouTube videos, there is an easy and free so- downloaders is Orbit Downloader , available at lution that does not require any conversion utili- www.orbitdownloader.com . This download tool ties. YouTube’s FLV format can be played on has some of the highest editor and user ratings the universal video player (free) VideoLAN - on the popular download sites, and can accel- VLC Media Player ( www.videolan.org ). The erate downloading of not just YouTube videos, VLC media player is one of the most widely but most general downloads as well. Orbit used video players in the world, with over 110 Downloader integrates seamlessly into Internet million downloads, and has earned a very loyal Explorer, FireFox, and Opera, and includes a following. VLC media Player can play almost “Get It” button that appears when connecting to every available video and audio format without YouTube that offers a single click download. the need for any plug-ins or add-ons, and is YouTube videos will be downloaded in their na- available for free, and will run on almost every tive FLV format. operating system. There is a free bundle of video software With these utilities and services, that can download YouTube and other media, downloading YouTube and other videos and convert them to most formats, and even edit converting them into another useful format is video and audio files. The software bundle simple. I routinely use such downloads in class aptly named “Free Studio” contains 23 video both as individual videos, and as videos em- and audio utilities, and is a 30 Meg download bedded in PowerPoint. There is much that can available for free download from be done with online videos, and these utilities www.dvdvideosoft.com/free-dvd-video- and services are worthy of a try. software.htm . According to the publisher of This article is provided by the author for APCUG Free Studio, “With this free software you can members only for use in their newsletters.