MARTIN'S FREEWARE CORNER (new blog theme)

I have started several updates on this site going all the way back to August of 2007, but something always came up preventing me from completing each one. I have never been so busy then I have been in these past two years. What was so simple to do each month (updating the site) has become a struggle to do anything within a 24 hour day. I am sure many of you can relate to that. With that said, here is another attempt at updating this site. This time with a major change.

I started this site to help people discover what is free out there for their web sites. From HTML programs, hosting, web master programs, videos, graphics, logos, blah blah blah. The list is near endless. However, I began to also offer a few free programs that had nothing to do with HTML, or web site features. I began to be asked more about FREE programs for any body. Meaning those who are not interested in web sites. Those who just would love to find a free program for their son, or daughter to help with school work, or for someone who wanted to make their own MP3s from their CDs, Photo editors, and more. Or even where to watch free movies and TV shows. The requests for free programs, and free online services, have become more requested then anything concerning HTML, or web sites. All throughout this long drought of no update on this site, I still received emails requesting if I knew of a FREE program that could do what they needed. I would of course reply with one (or several to choose from).

Therefore, I have decided to alter this site. The content will shift from HTML, and Web site free features, to FREE programs and free online services - FOR ANYONE, ANY SUBJECT, ANY PROGRAM. In truth, I find it more fun. I will be supplying links to the best FREEWARE sites, as well as highlighting a free programs each update. Make no mistake though, I will continue to offer web site free features, but the focus will be on FREE software programs, and free fun online services.

Also allow me to make it clear what I mean by FREEWARE. As if that need be explained, but it does. Shareware is different. Shareware will either work for 30 days, then stop, or the program is not fully functional. I am talking about FREEWARE. Free, fully functional, no spyware, no adware, no viruses, no Trojans, no malware, just the program you want, or may be seeking.

I will be changing this web site template as time goes on. For now, it will stay the same, or near the same, but this update will be FREE programs, and FREE online services, NOT focusing on web sites. Just fun FREE stuff for you and your family.

I should also explain why anyone, or any company would want to offer their programs for free. Is there a catch? No. If there is a catch, I will not be offering it. There are many reasons why there are literally thousands of FREE programs in all subjects. Some companies may offer you their program for personal home use, hoping you will be impressed enough, and in the position to offer it to your company, where they would have to buy the commercial license. Some will offer a fully functional last years model, hoping you will want the new one. Some will ...well. just want you to have it. For instance. The best free Anti Virus program? FREE. It is AVG Anti Virus. Mcafee, and Nortons want you to purchase EACH YEAR! their product just so you can update them each year. AVG updates daily forever...FREE. The best media player? Winamp! BY FAR THE BEST! Play your CDs, MP3s, Watch TV, Listen to Internet radio. It does so much! And sounds GREAT! Photoshop costs over 700 bucks! But the best photo editor? THE GIMP! Does everything Photoshop can do... and yes... FREE! The list is endless, and I will be making many highlighted FREE programs known to you, and I will also tell you the best FREEWARE sites to get anything you need, or want.

Having said all this... It is time to get started. I hope you enjoy this new format. I feel if you just use one free program that you need instead of buying it at a store, you have saved money, and I feel rewarded you did. Oh, and by the way, I should make a statement that sounds legal lol... "I, Martin O'Sullivan, in no way am paid by any company that offers free software to sway you into using one. (Oh how I wish I was haaaaaa)". Hmmmmmmmm, I should also continue with this line of legal sounding stuff... "If you choose to use any FREEWARE program that you found on this site, I, Martin O'Sullivan, am not responsible if your spouse leaves you, your pets hate you, your car died, and if your computer was negatively affected". I have used over 600 freeware programs to date (testing them over the course of 9 years), and I have never had my computer compromised by one, but I just thought I would throw that in there.

OK! Let's start this update with the newest FREEWARE, and FREE online services available!

The FREEWARE programs and services of the month is (DRUM ROLL)...

Free Youtube (or any flash .FLV video) to IPOD converter by DvdVideoSoft

Click here to go to their site and check it out!

I am biased with selecting this as my first great FREEWARE program. I have an IPOD. I use it everyday at "MY REAL JOB". Music? Sure, but I also use it for more then that: Podcasts, Photos, and videos. I get free movies, and sports downloaded to my computer. For example the Giants amazing Superbowl is (or was if it was removed) on Youtube!. By playing it on Youtube, and when the whole video buffers to the Temp folder, I then copy and paste the .FLV file (video file) to a folder MY VIDEOS. I have the whole thing now! However, when you do this it won't play on an IPOD because the video is in a different video format. This program takes care of that, and fast. Just select the video you want converted, and select a folder to place the newly converted video, click CONVERT, and wait a few short minutes. When done, it is available to sync to your IPOD.Ahhhhhhhh, but you ask... What if I have a video that is not a Youtube or .flv (flash) video. How can I convert AVI, MPEG, RM, DIVX, ASF, VOB video files to IPOD? Here is a freebie that can do that too...

Jodix

Click here to go to their site and check it out!

Jodix will convert almost any type of video into a format that will play on an IPOD (MPG4). Now my favorite movies I take with me for those moments when I am stuck somewhere (Doctor's waiting room, or what have you). This program is so simple to use even a caveman can do it (Ooops, I think I just stole that line). Just pick the video on your computer to convert, and pick a folder for the newly converted version to be placed into, and click CONVERT. In a few minutes you are done. TIP: Turn off video monitor so you don't see the movie as it is converting. This way the program converts the video much faster. This program can also convert Youtube flv videos to IPOD, but I like the results better in the first program.

Xdrive

Click here to go to their site and check it out!

Over recent months I have been asked for such a free online service as Xdrive. Imagine the situation: You have hundreds of photos on your computer, as well as many MP3s, important documents, emails, important files, and folders. One day you are working and your computer dies! No, not just locked up, but died! A hard drive failure! All those items are lost! right? Well, not if you had Xdrive. Xdrive is a FREE online hard drive to back up such important data. They give you 5 gigabytes free. It is also easy to use. If you have an AOL messenger (AIM) ID, then you can use that (AOL owns Xdrive), but if you don't, you can join Xdrive anyway. You could even upload a huge file, let's say 100 megabytes, and go visit your Aunt Nelly. On her computer you can access your Xdrive account and your file is there, or wherever you are. Store your MP3s on Xdrive freeing up valuable disk space on your computer, and you can even use the Xdrive player to play them without downloading them back! Have files you want to share? Make a folder public so others can download or listen from it. You can even run scheduled backups! A true hard drive, but online... and FREE!

VisDir: Free disk space finder

Click here to go to their site and check it out!

There are people who have huge hard drives, but fear installing anything on them. They think that putting on a few programs will take up so much room, their computer will slow down. There are other people, people like me, who put hundreds of programs, photos, MP3s, etc., on their hard drive and in time panic they don't have much room left. This program is for both types of people. This handy visual tool will show you what folders, and/or files are taking up the most room, and all the folders and files that don't. I just used this two weeks ago to help me find what is taking up so much room on my 80 gig hard drive. Having only 9 gigs left! This program showed me that my MP3s and videos are hogging so much room. It also showed me a bunch of programs I installed that I rarely use that takes up way too much room. Hence, I uninstalled those programs, and transferred my MP3s to other sources, such as Jump drives, online, and burn in data form onto a CD (actually a bunch of CDs). Now my computer has so much room again! YAY! This programs is great just so you can see what is where, and how much room everything takes up. The downside? It needs to scan your computer before it can give you a graphical representation. This takes about twenty minutes (or at least it did on mine). Once done, you can view your information in a pie chart. Click on the section to see the sub folders, and even go right to the folder in EXPLORER by clicking the Explorer button. You can also view the information in a bar chart. A great program to keep around for seeking useless programs, or files, and a great way to see your hard drive.

ThreatFire: Anti Virus and malware addition to any Anti Virus program you have

Click here to go to their site and check it out!

This free security program is not to replace the antivirus program you have, but to work as an added layer of protection. Why? A traditional antivirus program such as Norton's, or Mcafee will detect something wrong after it installs, then warns you about it, or finds it when you run a scan. Still bad things fall through the cracks. When a virus, malware, rootkit, Trojan, spyware gets through, and tries to do something, ThreatFire kicks in and stops it. Stops it cold! Then tells you about it, and that you are safe. Running two anti virus programs can, and will slow your computer down to a crawl, but Threatfire is not a traditional anti virus program. It was made to aid what you already have, and take up little RAM memory doing so. Sure, in the past I have touted free anti virus programs, and free anti spyware programs, and I will revisit those programs in later updates to this site. For now, those of you who pay for their programs, or even use the ones I have suggested in the past for free, all would benefit from ThreatFire. You see, an anti virus program will not tell you if suspicious computer behavior is happening. It won't tell you a program is replicating itself, or trying to access the internet without you knowing it. ThreatFire will. You can even run a scan with ThreatFire as you would with your traditional anti virus program adding another level of checking for trouble. Threatfire comes in a FREE and a Paid version, but the Free version is fully functional. It updates daily, and the only real difference is you don't get phone support. There are other minor differences too (two actually), but they are too insignificant to mention. The FREE version does it all.

Photofiltre: Photo editing software

Click here to go to their site and check it out!

A blast from a past update. Free programs are fun! To see what you can have for free, when others spend money? I love it! This is one of my favorite freebies, so I figured since I am kicking off a new theme for my web site, why not re-visit one of my favorite freebies. Photofiltre is for everyone! We all have pictures, digital photos, and scanned photos. This program I have used to take the red eye out of pictures, resize the photos, enhance the focus, or color, repair old photos from cracks and scratches to perfect. This is a great free program. I can't say enough about it. Just taking a picture and playing around with it is fun. and the help and support is amazing. It is a whole community of users to turn to if you need to know how to do something! What program does that for you!? You can even download (free) more add-ons to make it do even more! The special effects and filters are incredible, and the drawing tools are easy to use. This program is top quality.

Movies-On-Demand: Watch movies online for free

Click here to go to their site and check it out!

In all my updates I will be highlighting a site that is pure entertainment. With all these sites I recommend viewing them in the Mozilla Firefox free browser. Also, update your Flash (which all computers usually have, if not you should), and also download the free DIVX web player. Not all sites use the DIVX web player, but many do. As well as not all sites use a flash player, but many do as well too. Many play better in Firefox. I will provide the links to these 3 items below. As for the movies (and many with TV shows too), all you do is find the movie, click on it, and you will be taken to the site that hosts it. I don't offer the direct movies here. They are hosted on other sites (too many), but it goes like this...Let's say you wish to watch National Treasure. Find the National treasure link from the movie from the site I highlight and click on it. You will see another site load. Depending on the site, this will determine what type of player it will use for you to view. The movie itself may be all in one link, or divided up into several parts. After watching Part 1, you would obviously simply click on part 2 to continue the movie. Most movies load uninterrupted. However, few load slow. If this happens, click on pause and wait a few minutes, then click play again. This will allow the site to buffer the video to your temp files where it actually is playing from. Again, this doesn't happen often. Most movies out for a few weeks, or 6 months are DVD quality (You can make your movie full screen too). However, some newer movies are nothing more then a digital video cam in a theater complete with lower quality, peoples heads in the way, and sometimes even hearing the audience laughing when appropriate. It is up to you if you want to watch such movies. I recall Spiderman 3 was like this the first week it was in the theaters. At week two it was replaced by a DVD quality link. TV shows are normally always DVD quality (I like Scrubs haaaaaaaa). Watch an entire season in an afternoon of your favorite show if you wish. If you select a movie, or TV show, and it doesn't play? Usually it means the link was removed for obvious reasons. Just go to another site such as nabolister.com and you may find several alternative links for the same movie. Another frustrating warning is the damn ads! Many of these sites have a full page ad that pops up stopping you from viewing the movie before it starts. When this happens, wait for this intrusive ad to stop loading, then on the upper right of your monitor you will see a button that says SKIP AD. Click that and you will be returned to your movie page.

NOW THAT'S AN UPDATE!!!!!!

I hope you enjoy this new theme I will be providing. I hope my life gets to be less complicated and I can do this as often as I want to. For now, enjoy. Let me know if you have a request for a particular FREE program and I will find it for you (as always).

Martin O'Sullivan's Freebies Of The Month (three month issue) June, July, August 2007

Welcome to my Freebie Of The Month selections of free web site services, free web related software programs, and free non-web related programs for personal use in a wide variety of subjects. Check here each month, or every few months for what is new. This update is huge! It is basically for the next three months, and being Summer is a time for fun I thought I would include more fun stuff, freeware, then ever before! Oh yes, and even something for your web site creation. Let's get to it shall we?

FREE WEB SITE RELATED SOFTWARE...

I love Web site editors! and free ones at that! In the past I have offered several great free web editors. One that I have used, and has always been one of my favorites is First page 2000. Well, they have released a while back a great new one! First Page 2006. I was hesitant to try it. After all I loved the 2000 version. So I downloaded it, and I am using it now I am so pleased with it, and frankly amazed by the power of it's features that I am upset with myself that I didn't get it sooner. If I recall correctly though, when I saw it in 2006 I could have sworn it was not free, but it is now. I am still evaluating it, but so far I believe it is the best editor I have used so far. It is a beautifully designed program. Just take a look at some of the features:

Tag Insight with SmartHistory™
CSS Insight with SmartHistory™
CSS Class Support & Auto Detection
Advanced Syntax Highlighting
Tag Document Selection Tool
Dual Preview Engine
Online Webmaster Tools
Tag Property Sheet Inspector with SmartHistory™
Tag Auto Completion
Design View Engine, Powered by Microsoft®
Anti-Intrusive Real-Time Visual Source Rendering Engine™
Dual Edit System
One Click Html Reference Guides
Asset Management
Extensive Web Language Support
Tidy HTML Power Tools (updated)
Document Checking Tools
iScripts™
Page color themes
Popupmaker Deluxe
Image Mapper
CSS Style Sheet Designer
Scrollbar Designer
Powerful Server Side Includes Support
Sitetree/ Link Checking Tool
Analyze Document/Page Estimation Tool
Extendable Toolbars and Interface
Interface Designed for All
File Management Tools
Image Thumbnails
Rollover Images
Internet explorer preview integration
Netscape® Mozilla preview integration
Powerful, Enhanced IDE Interface
Powerful FTP client
Extended Find & Replace In Files
Photo Album Gallery Generator

NOW THAT'S AN EDITOR! You can read more about it, and download it from: Evrsoft First Page 2006 Home page

FREE NON WEB SITE RELATED SOFTWARE...

Now it is time to throw in something that will save you loads of money, and time from going to a store to buy a program... any program! What do you need or want? A program for your web site? Perhaps a program to make your computer run faster? Security programs? Entertainment programs? Graphic programs? Word processors? Browsers? Well, how about a site that offers hundreds of free programs in all types of subjects? Download one program and think of the money you saved by not going to the store. Download a dozen? and WOW! Now that is savings! The site is called Snapfiles. Just go to this link: Snapfiles Freeware page and check out the vast menu of free programs. Even if you find just one, it is worth it, but when you see all that are available I am sure you will get loads of 'em!

FREE NON WEB SITE RELATED SOFTWAREPart Two!...

I told you this was gonig to be a huge update! It has to be if it is for a three month term. So after giving you a way to get hundreds of free programs, how about a way to get you hundreds of free game demos, plus free full games, all from the same site! The site is Gamershell, and the amount of downloadable free demos of new and old games are amazing! When you are on the site you will find the main menu on the left. Select either: Demo Versions, or Full Games and enjoy. I strongly suggest you have DSL or a Cable modem. A dial up would take years to download some of these. Go to: Gamershell Make sure you are downloading for PC, and not Playstation, or XBox, etc.

FREE ONLINE SERVICES...

This issue of free online services is not web site related, but just plain fun for the summer. Downloading music without paying for it is illegal right? Uhm... I said RIGHT? OK! But listening to it is not illegal. How about a way to listen to any song you want right when you want to hear it? Rembmer Napster? They really started this whole thing about illegal downloading. Well they are back, but they added a twist. A legal twist. Now you can go to Napster and enter an artist or band (such as ohhhhhhhhhhh let's say Pink Floyd) You will see several choices, but the fist is usually the one you want. Click on that, and just about every Pink Floyd song you ever heard of will be listed. Click on the left next to one you want to hear, and a player will pop up on it's own, not yours, but theirs, and begin playing the song. If you want to get into really getting music legally for free, it is not illegal to record what you select using a program like Audacity (also free) that can save it as an MP3. Just like popping in a cassette to record the radio on your own home stereo for personal use... legal, and free. Or just listen to all your favorite songs without making your own MP3s. What a great service. The link to get their that I will list in a moment is actually for Pink Floyd, just so you can see what I am talking about. When there simply just type in the search box who you want to listen to, then as I said, select the first choice that is listed to populate all the songs by that artist or band. Don't go to napster.com though. Instead go to this link: napster free listening

FREE ONLINE SERVICES Part two...

Last update I mentioned a site to play free movies. Well, I have found a better one! Simply called TV LINKS, but it also has movies and cartoons. I just watched well, maybe I shouldn't say in case it is illegal haaaaaaaa, but what I will say is there is no downloading, it just plays when you click on the title. This is called streaming video. This is a very good movie site, and TV shows too. Here is what you do, you select TV shows, movies, cartoons or one of the other choices. Select from the list what you want to watch. When you click on it, another page will open. On this page you will see if the Movie is one link for the full movie, or divided up into parts (Part 1, part 2, part 3, etc.). When you select the link to start playing you will see in the middle of the black screen a white arrow. It may start on it's own, if it doesn't then click the white arrow. Just go to:TV LINKS Home page

If you have any questions or comments concerning any of my Freebies Of The Month, or any freebies on my site, please feel free to contact me, I answer all e-mails. Thanks for visiting my website and I hope you find it to be a valuable resource.

Freebies of the Month April/May 2007

FREE WEB SITE RELATED SOFTWARE...




The free program of the month is a program you won't use often, but when if you ever need it, it will save you a good hour of code writing, and even save you hours if you wanted to find a program that does this. The program is HTML FONT COLORIZER, and it does just that, but not what you may think. What I mean is you may already know how to make a word, or a sentence, or even all your text a particular color. However, there may be a time you wish to write a bunch of words or a paragraph where every single letter is a different color. To write that code, you would have to tag every single letter it's own color. That is a tast so time consuming, you may just say "Oh heck with it", and leave the color black, or asign it just one color, but feel like you gave up on a idea that you thought you wanted to do. Enter HTML FONT COLORIZER. So simple to use, no directions is needed. Simply type in what you wish, select the colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, etc. and grab the generated code and inser it into your web site. DONE! and you saved enough time to get some well needed rest, or at the very least, time to watch TV! lol. Just go to: HTM FONT COLORIZER and get this handy program free for when you ever need it.

FREE NON WEB SITE RELATED SOFTWARE...


To help keep a computer running like new, and fast, it is important to do many things, not just one. A few you may know of is to defrag your hard drive after you add, and delete many files, and programs after time goes by. You may also know to clean your temp files, and empty your recycling bin. Why they call it recycling bin is beyond me, you don't recycle anthing, you delete it! Regardless, over time your computer may get slow from other causes. Sometimes Windows gets slow because of the registry not being correct or it could be defragmented itself. Or other Windows problems. This program, Advanced Windows Care it great! It will scan Windows for errors, and fix them for you! Nothing for you to get a headache over, just check off what to scan, then click the scan button, wait a bit until it is done scanning, then click the invdividual result and fix, or just click the Care button to fix them all in one shot. For a free program it works great, and a fixed Windows runs faster then a broken one. Or at least a Windows that is laced with errors. Go to: ADVANCED WINDOWS CARE free version and run it about once a month. Here is a list of what it can do...• 100% Freeware • Removing Spyware and Adware • Preventing Security Threats • Privacy Protection • Fixing Registry Errors • Temporary Files Cleanup • Startup Cleanup • Repairing Windows • Speeding up System

FREE ONLINE SERVICES...

I must confess that even though I love providing free web thingys, I love the free online services, because most are just plain fun. I enjoy them so much that in this installment I am including two totally different free online services. One isn't really a service in the true sense of the word, but the other is, well maybe not that one either haaaaaaaaa, but both are fun!

Let me take the FREE movies, and TV shows first. No, not illegal, no downloading, no joining, just click, and it starts! I know on this very page in the upper left I discuss watching free movies on Winamp, and I still do, but this is different. These are web sites that offer hundreds of movies or TV shows as links. Just click on the link and the movie will begin in seconds. It buffers a copy of the movie to your temp files (usually), and it plays from there. This is called streaming video. Although not all streams leave a copy in your temp files. Sometimes the movies are in parts. A link may say FULL MOVIE so you just click once. Other times a link may say Part 1, part 2, part 3, etc. You can view the movie in full screen or resize it to a smaller box. I enjoyed the movie 300 this way, as well as Employee of the Month, Rocky 6, and dozens more. Even my favorite TV shows. There are dozens of sites that offer this, but I am only going to mention one here, because it is the best I have found so far. However, before I do I want to issue a warning. The site, while offering great titles for free does have ads on it not for children. Even though you may want to watch A NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM, ICE AGE 2, or a number of family orientated films, I suggest you go to the site, find the movie to watch, click on the link, and when the movie begins in seconds then have younger eyes watch the movie, and not before.

Another thing worth mentioning is some links do not play. If this happens just find a movie that does. These sites try very hard to have 100% of the movies play, but sometimes the movies are removed before the site is aware of it. This is because these are just links to other sites that have the streams, and the movies are not stored on the main sites themselves. Some movies are great quality, and clear, some are not, but all are free. Enjoy.

The one site I am going to mention is Nabolister When there, there are 18 pages of movies (click on the bottom of the short movie list to see ALL MOVIES), or choose TV Shows instead of movies. When you click on a movie link you wish to watch you will see another page. On this page is the link FULL MOVIE or the movie in parts. If it is in parts, when each part finishes, just X out, and click the next part. If a trailer is playing on this page, click the pause twice or watch it, and then click the movie links. You will now what I mean when you see it, tough to explain, but easy when there.


FREE ONLINE SERVICES Part two...

This next FREE online service you can incorporate into your web site if you wish. If not? It is still fun to do for anyone for any fun reason. They are free sign generators. One being on my home page. Just click on the sign you want to generate, type in some fun stuff, then click the create button or whatever it is called, and the picture is created for you looking like a real sign. Below are a bunch of fun ones so you can get an idea, but there are many, many more. Go browse to see if there are any you wish to make for other people or yourself for fun.

Just go to these two sites, and you will have lots of fun making signs up for yourself, your kids, and your friends:
Redkid sign generators

Custom Sign Generator

Here are just a few examples, I have resized them smaller to not take up so much room on this site, but each is much larger in reality...










































































































If you have any questions or comments concerning any of my Freebies Of The Month, or any freebies on my site, please feel free to contact me, I answer all e-mails. Thanks for visiting my website and I hope you

Freebies of the month March 2007

Welcome to the March 2007 edition of Martin O'Sullivan's Free Web Site Services, and Programs. I couldn't wait for March to come to enter more Freebies, so here it. Enjoy! If you missed any, be sure to check out the archives. I am pleased to highlight a great free service Free Find, a wonderful free program ColorMania, and an amazing free firewall Zone Alarm.

Visit the Freebie of the Month page to see these highlighted freebies along with detailed descriptions, and sample graphics. The links will be there for you too. Actually just click on the graphic and you will be taken to the products company to read even more about them, and download them for your needs.

Taking Free Find first, I want to draw your attention to the top of this page. You will see the Free Find search box. This is not your typical Yahoo, or Google Internet search box, although Free Find can do that if it is checked to do so. The reason why you may wish to have Free Find is because it can be used as a search engine just to search your pages of your web site. If you have several pages a visitor may wish to see if your site includes something they have in mind. Perhaps you sell widgets on your site, and they want to search all your pages that mention a certain type of widgets. So, they type in widgets, click enter as with any search engine, and Free Find displays all the results were widgets are included on your site. The result page is much like a Google, or a Yahoo search result page. You can even design it to look like your site so the visitor has no idea they left your site when on the result page. Click a result, and that page of yours pops right up for them.

Free Find has a few more features you may find valuable to you. First of all, when you sign up for Free Find, you will want Free Find to crawl (spider) your site. If you change your site a minute later? No big deal, just have them crawl it again. Unlike other site search engines that only allow you one crawl a month, Free Find allows all you need. And talk about statistics? Free Find will email you each month information of how many times your visitors used the site search engine, and what were the words they were searching for.

Give it a try up top in my search box to see Free Find in action. Type in something like Freebies, or free, or whatever you wish, and you will see the result page. This is one of the best free add-ons you can do for your site.

This months web-related free program is ColorMania. There are many freeware color pickers out in Internet land, but this one is the best, and most simple to use. The need arises for a color picker when you are trying to match a color in your web site when you are creating something else and want it to match identically. Sure, you could eye it over, guess the color, lord knows I have many times, but never did it right. It would always be a little off in shade, or color. Enter ColorMania. Simply click and drag the eye dropper icon and move it to the color you wish to match. Then copy the color code into your HTML document and there you have it, and exact match. What could be easier?

As for this month's freebie for the month for the category of Non-web related program? I have chosen Zone Alarm. Zone Alarm is the best FREE firewall there is. Not only is the program free, but you never have to pay yearly 30 bucks or so, just to update it like you do Norton's, or Macafee. It is free forever. Nothing gets through Zone Alarm, and nothing leaves unless you give it the OK.

I must install Zone Alarm on peoples computers for them, about (thinking) ohhhhhh, 6 times a year. The scenario is always the same. They buy a computer, but the firewall, and anti virus only has a 3 month trial on it. After the 3 months are over, they are expected to buy the program, and each year buy it again, and again, and again, endlessly. I then uninstall them, and put on Zone Alarm (and AVG anti virus, lasts months freebie).

Here is what you will happen if you download, and install Zone Alarm. After the installation, Zone Alarm will give you two choices. The choices are a 30 day trial, that when over you buy it, or the free version which is the same firewall less a built in anti virus program. Check the free version and that is what you get.





When Running Zone Alarm, the first week or so it goes through a learning process. For example, the first time you go online Zone Alarm will pop up a small box on the bottom right telling you that Microsoft Internet Explorer wants access to the Internet. Your choices will be DENY, or ALLOW. There is another added choice to whichever way you answer. When you answer you can check off Don't ask me again, or leave it blank to be asked each time. If your anti virus wishes to check for an update automatically, the window will pop up again asking you for permission. With each program as you start them this box will pop up awaiting for your answers. Once this is all done with in several days, you won't even know Zone Alarm is working for you behind the scenes, unless it blocks an intrusion. A similar box will pop up telling you an attempt was made, but you are safe. My Zone Alarm on the OVERVIEW page tells me I have had 185 intrusion attempts, and 183 of them were high rated! Oh, and did I mention all the updates are free too? Zone Alarm is a great firewall.


I also want to inform everyone reading this, that you may notice something strange all across the web. When you are on a site that has a flash button, menu, or any flash content, when you go to use it, it now says CLICK TO ACTIVATE. You never had to do that before. This is not your computer acting strange. Microsoft was in a law suit for illegally using a flash plug in to their browser. They lost. So that had to make it like that. It is annoying, but Microsoft is appealing the case. So if you go to use my flash menu, or any sites flash content you will see the annoying addition.

I still believe flash content is great, and this extra step, while annoying, is do-able for now. Let us hope Microsoft wins their appeal.


In addition to the new blogs on MySpace, and eBlogger (links at right, and below), I will soon have a new blog, which may be the last, uhm, or maybe even one more lol.

Http://www.xanga.freewebsiteservices.com. Blogs are a great way to get people to come and visit your site. Try one. They're FREE! This new blog is not yet active, but look for it soon.


I hope you enjoy the free web site service of the month, and also the free program of the month. It is so much fun for me to be back doing this after a long departure. Enjoy.



Sincerely,

P.S. Visit my other blogs, and groups below.

Free Web Site Services blog a blog that archives all Freebies of the month. Leave comments or just browse.

MySpace freewebservices profile and blog...My Space profile for me and Free Web Site Services

My Space blog for Free Web Site Services

Click to join my Web_Site_Design for Newbies group, for those who are new to making web sites.

Site feed to my Web Site Newbie Yahoo groupWeb Site Newbies Group to get, and exchange freebies you need or find. Meet others and exhange your links, Post comments to each other, etc.

Click here For the feed to this site.

I want to pass along a bit of a discovery I made today. As I have praised Freewebs.comfor free web hosting. It is the very same service that I use, and that you are reading this very moment. However, in the weeks to come I will be creating a new web site (still keeping this one) from none other then Microsoft! FREE! They give you the hosting free, the domain name free (a real domain name), 25 email accounts with your business name, and many tools to create your web site with them. I am looking forward to making this new site so I can review it, and report on it. If you would like to get a jump on learning about this new free hosting service from Microsoft, you can visit them at: Microsoft Office Live Basics