The Smiling Pirate

Shortened URL’s date back to 2001  but have become extremely popular since the inception of Twitter. A URL that is 60 characters long can be shortened to about 15 characters by simply using a URL shortening service. Once of the most popular services to date is TinyURL which was used by Twitter up until 2009. Now Twitter uses bit.ly to shorten URL’s.

Now, we can all agree that URL shortening is essential for applications such as Twitter and can be very helpful when you have to share a URL with someone since they are easier to remember. But how safe are the short URL’s that these services are providing? Do you really know where the short URL is going to take you? We’re putting our confidence in these shortening services and hoping that they aren’t directing these short URL’s to a malicious page with malware or a virus or a page with pornographic content.

Knowing that your next short URL could possibly be compromised, why not take the extra step to ensure that it isn’t before sending it out to the world? Longurl.org is a site that provides a standard API for multiple URL shortening services that will show you a preview of your short URL. You can see exactly where the link will take you if you were to click on it. You can now browse the Web comfortably knowing where that short URL is going to take you.

Grab a short URL and visit Longurl.org to try it for yourself.

DVD Flick is an open-source DVD authoring software that is so simple to use it scares me a bit. It took some time for me to locate a DVD authoring application that was a) Free b) Free and c) simple to use with great results. Thanks to my boy Chris F. for hooking me up with this great, FREE find.

Believe me, if you were ever intimidated about creating a DVD that would be playable on your home system, or thought you’d have to spend at least 50 bucks to get a software application to do this because some Best Buy sales guy told you that you needed it, your wrong.

Here are some of the feature that you will find in DVD Flick:

• Burn near any video file to DVD
• Support for over 45 file formats
• Support for over 60 video codecs
• Support for over 40 audio codecs
• Easily add a menu
• Add your own subtitles
• Easy to use interface
• Burn your project to disc after encoding
• Completely free without any adware, spyware or limitations

DVD Flick is now the  only thing I use to burn DVD’s that I need to work just like a store-bought movie. Download you FREE (open-source) copy from the guys over at SourceForge and starting burning so you can free up all of that space on your computer where your movies are.

Download DVD Flick here

Although it is a far cry from setting any Internet records, we are happy to have reached 2000 page visits. The premise behind The Smiling Pirate is so that we can share with you all of the free applications that we find that we feel are worth your time. It’s easy to compile all of the free software and put it on a Web page and have you sort through it. We’d rather weed out the stuff that is simply not even worth looking at and post only the good stuff. We don’t make any money doing this. We do it to help inform those people who may not know this software even exists. Hell, in this economy, who doesn’t need to save a couple of bucks especially on software that will help you achieve something you need to do. So for all of you who have visited The Smiling Pirate and have found it useful, we hope you come back and tell someone else about it. Remember, your questions and comments are always welcome.

- The Smiling Pirate

Okay. I know that there are dozens of CD/DVD burning applications out there but I really like CDBurnerXP. The interface is nothing elaborate, but it is simple and direct. Download it and give it a try (of course it’s free). I guarantee you will keep it.

Here are some of the key features:

Burn a variety of file types
Audio-CD’s with or without gaps between tracks
Burn and create ISO files
Data verification after burning process
Create bootable discs
Multi-language interface
bin/nrg ? ISO converter, simple cover printing and much more!
Operating Systems: Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista/Windows 7

Download CDBurner here

Are you looking to edit audio files on your own? You may think that you are going to need some expensive audio editing suite but that isn’t the case. Wavosaur is a free sound editor, audio editor and wav editor software for editing, processing and recording sounds, wav and mp3 files. Wavosaur has all the features you would find in the high-priced audio editing software to edit audio (cut, copy, paste, etc.) produce music loops, analyze, record and batch convert.

Wavosaur supports VST plugins, ASIO drivers, multichannel wav files and real time effect processing. The program has no installer and doesn’t write anything to the registry. You can also use it as a free mp3 editor, for mastering and sound design.

The Wavosaur freeware audio editor works on Windows 98, Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Download Wavosaur here

The reason for the * after iTunes in the title of this post is because there are a few tricks to get this going. But don’t let that scare you away. Once you get the hang of it you’ll be making ringtones for all the (non-DRM) songs in your library.

Follow these steps to start creating ringtones:

1. Open iTunes

2. Find the song that you’d like to make into a ringtone.

3. Listen to the song and find the part of it you want to use. (The chorus may be a good place to start).

4. Write down the start and stop times of the clip.

5. Right-click the song in iTunes and select “Get Info.”

6. Click the “Options” tab.

7. Type in the start time of your ringtone in the text box next to “Start Time” in the minutes:seconds (i.e. 1:30) format.

8. Type in the end time of your ringtone in the text box next to “Stop Time.” Make sure the ringtone is no more than 40 seconds long.

9. Click “OK.”

10. (Older versions of iTunes) Right-click your song again and select “Convert Selection to AAC” (or “Create AAC Version”).
(Newer versions of iTunes) You will find this option under the “Advanced” menu in the toolbar.

Wait for iTunes to convert your song. It will create a duplicate version.

11. Right-click the ringtone and select “Delete.”

12. When asked if you want to keep the file select “Keep File”.

13. Now locate the file. It’s usually in your My Music folder under iTunes > iTunes Music and under the band’s name (or Unknown Artist). It will have an extension of “m4a.”

14. Replace the “m4a” extension of your ringtone with “m4r”. You can either double-click slowly to rename your file, or right-click and select “Rename” on a Windows PC.

15. Double-click the ringtone file. iTunes will automatically add it to your ringtones folder in your iTunes music library.

16. Connect your iPhone and sync your ringtones.

That’s it! Enjoy!

Opera Software has developed a new high-quality, multi-platform Web browser that will change your Web browsing experience. Opera 10’s exclusive built in feature Opera Turbo compression will boost slow connection speeds resulting in pages loading faster. I myself have not yet given Opera 10 the attention it deserves since I am a dedicated Firefox user. However, I plan to give Opera a try to see if it can live up to all the hype and take some of the spotlight away from Firefox and that other browser.

Here’s a few of the features available in Opera 10.

* Exclusive Opera Turbo compression boosts slow connection speeds
* Innovative visual tabs displays Web sites in thumbnails
* Intuitive, sleek design
* Easy-to-personalize Speed Dial visual bookmarks
* Everything built-in, no need for extensions
* It’s free!

Download Opera 10 here

Burnaware Technologies has a FREE burning software as part of there product line. It is ideal for users with basic disc burning needs such as backup, creating data, audio, MP3 music, DVD-Video discs and burning disc images (not bootable though). It is easy to set up and it enables you to save your files to disc quickly and provides a clean, flexible interface to help you complete your burning tasks much faster.

It can burn CD’s, DVD’s, as well as Blu-ray Discs. Check out the feature comparison chart on their Web site. If you find some features that you wish were in the FREE version, you can upgrade easily.

Download BurnAware Free here