YouTube Downloader

YouTube Downloader is a popular, free program that enables you to download and convert online videos (legal content, to which you have the rights) for later viewing on your desktop or mobile device. It can convert files to MOV, MP4, 3GP, WMV, AVI, or MP3.

The program downloads a lot more than just YouTube videos. On the developer's site, you can find an extensive list of additional supported sites including Facebook and Vimeo.

When you find a video you'd like to download, copy the URL of the video page and open YouTube Downloader. Choose your desired quality and your destination folder, then hit Download. Once your download is finished, hit the Play tab to watch. The Convert tab lets you export to a different file format for playing elsewhere, and gives you a mini editor for making minor alterations before your export. You can change video volume (or remove audio altogether) and splice footage by setting specific start and end times.

For online video enthusiasts looking to download non-copyrighted or personally owned videos, YouTube Downloader appears to be a near-perfect tool.  Download fron CNet

CieAura Products

CieAura products are NOT free, but are worth looking into.

From their website:
These are Transparent Holographic Chips that use a proprietary combination of homeopathic formulas consisting of intrinsic energies that affect positive health responses. CieAura Chips have the look of simple decals on the body or clothing and are totally non-invasive, without any chemical component. When placed along sensitive acupuncture meridian points, results such as increased energy, improved stamina, deeper, more restful nights, and other assorted reactions occur, depending on the program formula of the Holographic Chip and the related placement.

They supposedly restore balance, allowing the body's defenses to perform at their peak abilities and give the body renewed energy and stamina. In doing so, the best medicine for the body, the body’s own natural immune system, is working at capacity.

Sound like a lot of worthless hype? Sure does.  BUT… I can recommend the CieAura products.  I have tried two items: the patch for back pain and it worked at least as good as over-the-counter pain medicine.  The other item is the energy bracelet.  I am a hard sell and was quite skeptical but they seem to work.  Psychological?  Perhaps.  It doesn’t matter though if it’s a placebo effect or if it really works. The two items I tried did the job.

The placebo effect is the measurable, observable, or felt improvement in health or behavior not attributable to a medication or invasive treatment that has been administered.

A placebo (Latin for "I shall please") is a pharmacologically inert substance (such as saline solution or a starch tablet) that produces an effect similar to what would be expected of a pharmacologically active substance (such as an antibiotic).

The idea of the placebo in modern times originated with H. K. Beecher. He evaluated 15 clinical trials concerned with different diseases and found that 35% of 1,082 patients were satisfactorily relieved by a placebo alone ("The Powerful Placebo," 1955). Other studies have since calculated the placebo effect as being even greater than Beecher claimed. For example, studies have shown that placebos are effective in 50 or 60 percent of subjects with certain conditions, e.g., "pain, depression, some heart ailments, gastric ulcers and other stomach complaints."  And, as effective as the new psychotropic drugs seem to be in the treatment of various brain disorders, some researchers maintain that there is not adequate evidence from studies to prove that the new drugs are more effective than placebos.

4-Shared File Sharing

DO NOT USE

I withdraw my recommendation of this site

See post dated 7-21-12

4-Shareddotcom is a great free site that acts like a hard drive on your computer.  Registration is free, simple, and takes only seconds and there is no need to enter your credit card details. Your Free account and all your files will be removed from 4shared only if you do not log in the account for 180 days.

You can store just about any file on the site that you store on your computer and you can make the files either public or private.  This is good if you want to share a file with a friend for example.  Just upload it to 4-Shared then send them the link and they can download the file.

The space limit is a whopping 15 GB per account. Currently 4shared sets a 2048 MB size limitation per file. Your files must not exceed the limit, otherwise they will be rejected but if the size of the file is more than 2048 MB, you can split the file into smaller parts and upload them separately using the multi-upload feature.  How big is 15 GB?  I currently have about 50 books in pdf format stored in my account and have used only 1% of my free space!

Another nice feature is you can do a search on the site for books, videos, music, games or photos and see if what you are looking for has been made available to the public by others.  That’s not to say all downloads are legal, that is another question I am not qualified to answer, but if you are looking for file storage of file sharing, then this is probably the best site available.

AVG Anti-virus Freeware

Anti-virus software is absolutely essential for your computer and while I use Norton, you can get freeware that will protect you under certain circumstances.  AVG Anti-Virus FREE 2012 is perfect if you use your PC only for surfing, searching or social networking because it will protect you while surfing.

However, and this is important, if you are sharing and downloading files, watching YouTube, sending e-mails of shopping and banking, it will not offer the necessary protection.

If you also use your PC for banking or shopping you need the protection of AVG Firewall offered in AVG Internet Security 2012 to keep hackers out which will cost you about $55.  Personally, for that price I would rather buy Norton which offers a wider variety of packages ranging from $40 to $80.  But if you want free then AVG is an excellent choice.  DOWNLOAD AVG Free

OpenOffice

If you have purchased a new computer you are aware that it does not come with the ubiquitous Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint and Publisher.  For them, you will have to pay a few hundred dollars extra.  You don’t need to!

You can download, for free of course, an alternative to Microsoft Word, Excel, etc.  This software can open and save documents in Word and Excel formats and is totally free.

OpenOffice is an open-source office productivity software suite whose main components are for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases.  OpenOffice is available for a number of different computer operating systems, is distributed as free software and is written using its own GUI toolkit. It supports the ISO/IEC standard Open Document Format (ODF) for data interchange as its default file format, as well as Microsoft Office formats among others. As of June 2011^[update], OpenOffice.org supports over 120 languages.

It takes 15-20 minutes to download and about 5-10 minutes to install and you’re ready to go.

Download HERE