To Bloggers

Powerset is a San Francisco-based company, founded in 2005. Powerset’s goal is to change the way people interact with technology by enabling computers to understand our language. Powerset is first applying its natural language processing to search, aiming to improve the way we find information by unlocking the meaning encoded in ordinary human language.

Powerset’s first product is a search and discovery experience for Wikipedia, launched in May 2008. Instead of being limited to keywords, Powerset allows you to enter keywords, phrases, or questions. Instead of just showing you a list of blue links, Powerset gives you more accurate search results, often answering questions directly, and aggregates information from across multiple articles. Finally, instead of leaving you at the search page, Powerset’s technology follows you into enhanced Wikipedia articles, giving you a better way to digest and navigate content quickly.

If you’re all about immediate satisfaction, go straight to Powerset.com and start searching. If you aren’t sure where to start, use the query examples at the bottom of the homepage. Powerset is packing a lot of features into this release. To get the most out of your Powerset experience, you can watch our video that highlights some of the key features in Powerset. You might also want to read through some of help text.

News and information via Powerset blog.

Searchicon.net is a simple search engine for free icons, images. Just type name in search box and you will get a list of available icons, images which you can use in your project. The website has both English and Chinese version. I am very glad to see such cool useful website from China. Enjoy it.

Type “file”, you will get some ‘file’ icons:

Type “feed”, you will get some RSS icons:

PetPop.com, an online pet community, is designed by pet lovers, for pet lovers. You can create your pets’ own custom website and share your pets’ home videos and photos. Whether you are looking for other pets just to make friends, or to show off your pet’s best pics, you can find it all here.

PetPop.com has a “PetStar” section, where you can show off your pet’s talents, intelligence, looks and more. In the adoption center, you can find a adoptable pet and give it a new home. In the “PETPOP Heathy” section, pet expert will help you with any health related questions you have for your pet, and will gladly answer them in a timely manner.

Need more information about Petpop? Click here to Petpop.

WebKut is an AIR application that allows you to capture web pages, or parts of them in a very simple way. It provides you 3 capture options: the entire page, the current view, or only a selection. After download and installation, open WebKut, you will the page like the following image.

Enter the website URL you want to cut, select all page, current view, or only a selection, you will get the image you want. The image will be saved to your desktop automatically.

Create your own free online photo album. It’s really easy when you use an online photo hosting service that specializes in free online photo albums. Today I will show a list of free online photo sharing and album service providers and some photo album generater tools. With these websites and tools, you can easily create your album online and share photos with friends.

Free online photo sharing and album service:

1. Flickr
   Flickr is almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world. It is a way to get your photos and videos to the people who matter to you.
2. MyPhotoAlbum
   I firstly recommend this free online photo album. Easily upload, store and share your photos and share videos, create quality photo books, photo calendars, all the latest photo gifts and receive high quality digital photo printing. You can get your personal address: http://yourname.myphotoalbum.com.
3. BallOfDirt
   BoD lets anyone share their travel photos, stories and experiences on the web – for FREE! Friends can see where you are with maps, photos, blurbs and receive emails as you move around automatically – no need to write long boring group emails… You can also explore the world, read about new places and get the inside story from real travellers!
4. Photobucket
   It is a free image hosting, photo sharing sevice that many people used. Upload all your photos, videos, and images for free. Make photo slide shows to share pics with friends on MySpace, Facebook, Blogger, etc.
5. Snapfish
   Snapfish provide the service of digital photo printing, free online photo ablums and digital photo sharing. You can get 20 free prints when you get started.
6. Picturetrail
   Picturetrail is an online photo sharing, image hosting, online photo albums and photo sideshows service provider. I am very glad to see that it has Chinese version.
7. Albumtown
   It is a free online photo album sharing service for to share photos with friends and family right from your browser. It’s fast, easy, simple, and reliable.
8. Hoorray
   Hoorray is a great new photo sharing website that helps you connect with family and friends in a whole new way. You can tell the story behind each photo with your voice and written words. Then, when you share your story with family and friends, they can add their thoughts and feelings as well.
9. Photobox
   PhotoBox is the UK’s number one destination for online photo sharing, storing and printing – with over two million members! The company was launched in 2000 by Graham Hobson. It was his idea to create a website offering great value photographs and an end to home computer storage problems.
10. Web-a-photo
    You can create online albums, organize and edit your photos, and send albums to friends.
11. RitzPix
    It’s fun and easy to organize and edit your photos online at RitzPix.com
12. Myotherdrive
    There is no image size limits. Store up to 5GB of any digital media for free. Create your online photo and video album, and link back to your photos from auctions and blogs. You can share your videos and pictures with anyone.
13. Photozig
    Photozig Albums software is the ultimate digital photo album and photo organizer software for consumers, consisting of digital camera/scanner transfer, album organizer, picture viewer, image editor, slideshow software, generator of free animated screensavers, and much more. You can also send free online photo albums to the internet and email your digital photos to your family and friends easily.
14. Photoape
    You can upload unlimited photos and share with your friends here. You can see many others’ album on the homepage. Some are really funny.
15. Pixagogo
    You can upload photos with free upload tool, then create your personal photo album online, share photos with friends and order prints. It seems that it is a service from Indian. Great!
16. Sharedink
    Sharedink helps you turn your free online photo album into books. You can invite friends and family to contribute, and turn your pages to a beautiful handcover book in minutes.
17. Diino
    Diino provides you with an online photo album. Store, share, manage and access your photos easily with Diino. Diino makes sharing digital photos with friends and family easy, fast and secure. Users can create online photo collections quickly without installing any additional software. Since photos are accessed over a virtual private network, family photos are protected in storage and during transfer over the Internet.
18. Bytephoto
    This is a forum for digital photography enthusiasts. As a registered member you may upload and share digital photos using their free online photo albums, participate in their weekly photo contest, monthly photo challenge, and also get feedback in the photo critiques gallery with photo albums for nature photography, black & white photography, still-life, portraits, landscape photography, etc.
19. Bravenet
    Bravenet Photo Album helps you store, view and share your digital photo album online! Recommended.
20. Myalbum
    Upload your photos in an online album and share them with your family and friends. You decide who will be able to see your photos. You get 500 MB of storage space for free.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today I’ll show you 20+ free firewall software.

Firewall software allow you to protect your computer from intrusions from the Internet as well as warn you when programs try to connect to Internet from your computer. It has become increasingly popular with numerous programs installing spyware that try to call home without your knowing. Some of these free firewalls are free only for personal use.

1. Agnitum
   The FREE version of Outpost Firewall offers a basic protection solution for casual web surfers and low budget systems.
2. Atelier Web Firewall Tester
   It probes the protection provided by your Personal Firewall software using six different tests. Each test uses a different technique for gaining access to the outside World. Techniques are differently rated, according to their sophistication, and your Personal Firewall is doing.
3. Comodo Personal Firewall
   Comodo Personal Firewall is a Windows 2000/XP firewall, that filters both inbound as well as outbound traffic. Among its features are the ability to detect application hijacking attempts via its application and component behaviour monitor, self protection against termination attempts by malware, protection of your PC during startup, etc. Note: they require you to activate the firewall and supply your email address.
4. EchoLink
   It requires that your router or firewall allow inbound and outbound UDP to destination ports 5198 and 5199, and outbound TCP to port 5200. Source ports are dynamically assigned.
5. EULAlyzer
   It can analyze license agreements in seconds, and provide a detailed listing of potentially interesting words and phrases. Discover if the software you’re about to install displays pop-up ads, transmits personally identifiable information, uses unique identifiers to track you. Free for personal and educational use.
6. Filseclab Personal Firewall Professional Edition
   This Windows firewall filters inbound and outbound traffic. You can configure which applications on your system is allowed to access the Internet, although by default, it automatically allows certain applications (such as those from the company itself, or those signed by Microsoft) outbound access without question.
7. Firestarter – Free Linux Firewall Tool
   Firestarter is an easy-to-use free firewall tool for Linux that has a wizard that allows you to customize your firewall, a real-time firewall monitor that allows you to view intrusion attempts, a graphical interface that works under GNOME and KDE, and support for Linux kernels 2.4 and 2.6. For those who aren’t brave enough to muck around with netfilter / iptables, Firestarter is one way to set up your system so that it is protected from intrusions.
8. GhostWall
   GhostWall is a packet filtering firewall with low resource usage and latency. It works on both 32 bit and 64 bit Windows.
9. Guarddog
   Guarddog is a firewall configuration utility for Linux iptables. It also lets you maintain and modify the firewall in place. It uses a “what is not explicitly allowed, is denied” philosophy. The software is released under the GNU GPL.
10. Jetico Personal Firewall
    Jetico Personal Firewall is a Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP firewall that has network packet filters, network events filters (that allows you to block application level events) and process activity filters (that hopefully blocks application hijacking attempts where a trojan uses your browser to send information to the internet).
11. Kiwi Syslog Daemon
    This is a freeware Syslog Daemon for Windows. It receives, filters, logs, displays and forwards Syslog messages and SNMP traps from hosts such as routers, switches, Unix hosts and any other syslog enabled device.
12. Online Armor Free Edition New
    Online Armor Free is a Windows NT/2000/XP firewall with a built-in host instrusion prevention (HIPS) system. It also has a limited form of keylogger detection and includes protection against script/worm attacks. In addition, it features self-protection against tampering and termination attempts by malware. The current version of the firewall, at the time I write this, performed well in independent leak tests.
13. Omniquad Personal Firewall
    Omniquad Personal Firewall is freely available and contains the ability to monitor inbound and outbound traffic. It allows you to set up different levels of trusted zones and will ask for your authorization before allowing local software to initiate connections to the Internet.
14. PeerGuardian 2
    This is an IP blocker for Windows. PeerGuardian 2 integrates support for multiple lists, list editing, automatic updates, and blocking all of IPv4 (TCP, UDP, ICMP, etc), making it the safest and easiest way to protect your privacy.
15. PC Tools Firewall Plus
    This is a free personal firewall for Windows that provides inbound and outbound filtering. The firewall allows you to create rudimentary application rules (only to allow or disallow an application) and rules for the packet filter (where you can configure the ports allowed, etc). You will need to supply your email address to get a free registration code to run the software after the trial period. (Scroll down to the bottom of the linked page to find the free firewall.)
16. R-Firewall – Personal Firewall
    This is a free program comparable with commercial firewalls! R-Firewall is an effective and easy-to-use solution to secure your on-line activity. It protects a computer connected to a local network and/or to the Internet against any intrusions, attacks, trojans, spyware, and other external and internal threats.
17. SmoothWall Express
    This is an open source firewall distribution based on the GNU/Linux operating system. Linux is the ideal choice for security systems; it is well proven, secure, highly configurable and freely††† available as open source code.
18. SoftPerfect Personal Firewall
    SoftPerfect Personal Firewall is a rule-based Windows network firewall that filters IP and non-IP traffic, supports configurations for multiple network adaptors, has a learning mode and comes with a set of predefined rules.
19. Sunbelt Personal Firewall (formerly Kerio Personal Firewall)
    Sunbelt Personal Firewall is free for home use. It controls traffic from your computer to the Internet (thus useful for blocking spyware, adware, and other software that call home to the Internet behind your back) as well as traffic from the Internet to your computer. The program works as a trial for 30 days and then reverts to the free version after that. This is a Windows firewall.
20. Sygate Personal Firewall
    This firewall allows you to set policies regarding applications that may be allowed to access the Internet, trusted IP addresses, ports, protocols, etc. This is a Windows firewall. Warning: this firewall is no longer maintained. The link above points to a third party download site (Simtel) that loads pop-up windows.
21. WIPFW
    WIPFW is a packet filtering and accounting system for Windows. It is based on FreeBSD’s IPFW.
22. ZoneAlarm
    ZoneAlarm is an easy to use and free personal firewall that is used by many people on the Internet. The free version allows you to decide which applications you can allow to access the Internet, but does not allow you to block specific IP addresses. (Look carefully before you click – the “basic PC protection” link is the one that is free.) This is a Windows firewall. If you want comprehensive protection for your computer, you might want to consider their commercial offering, ZoneAlarm Security Suitewhich includes a firewall as well as antivirus, antispyware, antitrojan , identity theft protection, phishing and spam blocker, etc.

If you know more useful free firewall software, you can tell us in comments. Thank you.

There are many tools you can use to download youtube and other videos. I’ll show you 24 useful websites and software. I hope there is your favorite tool below.

Web based

1. DOWNLOAD YOUTUBE VIDEOS
   Simply enter the youtube link to download your favorite youtube videos… Even get around those pesky mature content blocks!
2. YouTube Video Download Tool
   This is a tool from TechCrunch. Just enter the Youtube video link, then download. It will be downloaded in flv format
3. Video Downloader
   You can download videos from many video websites, such as YouTube, Google Video, iFilm, etc. There is a VideoDownloader Firefox Extension. It will be more simple to download videos with it. On this site, you can also convert FLV Files to WMV, AVI and other formats, and get a free FLV player.
4. Online FLV Converter
   Download online videos direct to PC / iPod / PSP. It’s free!
5. Downloader9
   Enter the YouTube video URL, then download. You can also download videos from Google Video, Myspace, iFilm, Bolt, Daily Motion, Blip.tv and Break.com
6. Download From Youtube
   Just enter the video URL and download.
7. Videodl
   VideoDL is a quick AJAX application which allows you to download online video into your computer. It supports top 3 video sites – YouTube, Google Video, and Break.com. Simply copy the link of the page with video and paste it into the textbox.
8. Kissyoutube
   You can watch the YouTube video tutorial for how to download YouTube video.
9. Techtracker
   Just enter the video URL. You can watch the YouTube video tutorial for how to download YouTube video.
10. Pimq & I like Youtube & YoutubeDownload
    Just enter the youtube video link and download.
11. CatchVideo
    Download online youtube videos, and convert to MP3, DVD, WAV, MPG and other formats.

Free Software

1. Free YouTube Download
   Download video from YouTube and Google Video to your computer hard drive with one mouse click. Video from YouTube will be saved as AVI, MP4, 3GP or FLV files. You’ll be able to play AVI with any video player on your computer.
2. YouTube Downloader
   It’s software that allows you to download videos from YouTube and many others and convert them to other video formats.
3. Orbit Downloader
   Orbit YouTube downloader is free and can download youtube video easily with great speed. You can watch the YouTube video tutorial for how to download YouTube video.
4. Youtube Grabber
   Downloads FLV files from Youtube. Simply copy and paste the URL of a video from Youtube into the program, press grab OR enter, and the file will be downloaded into the same directory as the program. Version 3.1 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes.
5. YoutubeRobot
   Pick YouTube videos –> Download videos –> Convert to different formats –> Transfer to Mobile Device, all this work can be done automatically with YouTube Robot, with it you can even schedule the tedious downloading as you wish, All-In-One, not other software, codecs needed!
6. ZillaTube
   Download your favorite YouTube videos easily, and store them in your computer permanently. Easily convert YouTube to high-quality Audio/Video formats such as VCD/DVD, MPG, AVI, MP3, 3G, MP4 & more.
7. YoutubePick
   Download video from youtube and convert them to iPod, Mobile, MP4, AVI and more.
8. PQ FLV Downloader
   PQ FLV Downloader can help you detect and download online videos on any web page. It works for any flash video site (Youtube, Google Video, Metacafe, Dailymotion, Myspace, blog, news site, or whatever) – Guaranteed!
9. YouTube Downloader
   Wondershare YouTube downloader is a very easy to use Youtube video download tool and YouTube Converter. It has the complete functions to download YouTube video, archive Youtube video, and convert YouTube video to iPod, iPhone, PSP, Apple TV, Zune, Pocket PC and a lot of other mobile devices.
10. Xilisoft Download YouTube Video
    Xilisoft Download YouTube Video is free YouTube video downloader to download video from YouTube and play YouTube videos with the FLV player within the software.
11. VidDownloader
    VidDownloader is a simple tool that lets you save streaming videos from YouTube and other sites.