The Smiling Pirate

Are you a graphic designer that needs a little stimulus in this rough economy? Here’s a free vector graphics editor that will help you make some killer designs while not spending a ton of money on high priced alternatives like Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw.

Inkscape uses the SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) file format and includes many advanced SVG features like markers or alpha blending.

Download Inkscape here

Most people looking for mp3’s on the Internet encounter misleading pages or links that don’t work. Follow these instructions and you will be able to search for mp3’s right from Google.

There are a few ways to search for mp3’s using a Google search. The first way is a simple search.

Type the following into a Google search box:
?intitle:index.of? mp3 [artist] [title]

Replace [artist] with the artist/singer/band you’re looking for and [title] with the song title or simply enter one or the other. In return you will see link after link to pages of mp3’s with the artist or song that you are looking for. Once you see the song that you are looking for, just right click and choose Save As to download the file to your computer.

An other search method you type into Google search is:
“parent directory ” MP3 -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums [artist] [title]

The same thing applies to this search. You can specify the artist and title.

Another search method is:
?inurl:multiply.com/music? [artist] [title]

And finally, the last search method is:
-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(.mp3|.wma) [artist] [title]

Remember, the only thing you need to change in the search string is the [artist] or [title].

Here’s another hint I forgot to mention. If you want to search for other things besides music, simply change the mp3 in the search string to jpg or pdf and you will get the same results. Pages and pages of links. Enjoy!

Make Internet parenting easy with K9 Web Protection by Blue Coat Systems. It’s the perfect solution to manage Internet filtering in your home where a child is using a computer. K9 Web protection puts you in control of the Internet so you can feel safe when your child is using the computer to access the Internet. You can feel confident that K9 Web protection will scan the content of the sites visited for inappropriate material and only allow through Web sites that are safe. Best of all, you can customize K9 Web protection around your needs.

Blue Coat Systems decided to start offering this software completely free after selling a version of this software to Fortune 500 companies and other large corporations. They believe this is the best way to give back to the community while at the same time helping home users protect their little ones.

Download K9 Web Protection here

ZScreen is an open-source screen capture program that quietly resides in your system tray until needed. It can take screen shots of a selected region, the active window, or the entire screen.  ZScreen can also interface with image editing software, such as Photoshop or Paint.net.

Download ZScreen here

This one time commercial DVD ripper turned free application is a great application for making a backup of a DVD and saving it as an AVI file on your hard drive. bitRipper can convert video on-the-fly so you don’t need space on your hard drive for the DVD content before the conversion to AVI.

Don’t be fooled by its simple interface. This application is packed with some of the most advanced features only found in commercial applcations.

Download bitRipper here

ImgBurn is a 100% Free application that supports a wide range of image file formats – including BIN, CUE, DI, DVD, GI, IMG, ISO, MDS, NRG and PDI.

It can burn Audio CD’s from any file type supported via DirectShow / ACM – including AAC, APE, FLAC, M4A, MP3, MP4, MPC, OGG, PCM, WAV, WMA and WV.

Looking to create image CD’s? This is the only application that I use for burning iso’s. It’s quick, simple and it works.

Download IMGBurn here

Did you ever create a document in Office 2007 that you’ve saved to your flash drive so you can take it to work or another location and open it only to find that they are using Office 2003?

This conversion utility available from Microsoft gives you the ability to open, edit, and save documents, workbooks, and presentations Created in Office 2007 in Office 2003.

Download Microsoft’s File Format Conversion Utility here

Completely free PDF creator – Create PDF files from 300+ file types.

Download PrimoPDF here

If you looking to save space, check out this Web-based paint application that requires no installation.

Check out Sumo Paint here