PDF’s, convert them so they’re editable… (did I mention, its free!)

 

For Windows: If you work with PDFs regularly, particularly if you use Openoffice, you’ll want this little program. PDFZilla is a batch PDF converter that converts single PDFs to editable formats like Word documents.

For PDFs being so popular these days, they come with the annoying caveat that you can’t edit them with an expensive program like Adobe Acrobat… until now.

PDFZilla can batch convert any number of PDF files into Word documents, RTF, TXT, Images, HTML and more in just a few simple clicks.

This program is free until February 5th and is definitely worth having at that price.

If you are having issues downloading using this code. 8061822TWDV6YUK. And any issues you may face running the installer will require you to right click the program and click “run as administrator”.

PDFZilla Time-Limited Giveaway

Get Ge.tt for Real Time File Sharing…

 

Ge.tt is a clever, instant file-sharing web-app that makes sharing files simple and fast. You can share a link to your file(s) immediately, without waiting for the upload to complete, and it doesn't use Flash, Java applets, or any other plug-ins.

Ge.tt is simple to use and doesn’t even require you to have an account (but theres extra benefits if you do sign up). Go to Ge.tt, select the files button, choose the files you want to share (or drag and drop in supported browsers) and there you go. Ge.tt will begin uploading your files instantly and then generate a unique URL for you to share so others might download your file.

You can share the link before the upload is finished—files will update on the download page in real-time, as they're uploaded, and the user on the other end can start downloading a file while you're still uploading it.

You can also add files after you’ve shared the link and any files you upload will show up automatically without without anyone having to reload the page.

For quick file sharing Ge.tt is fantastic and although the terms page doesn’t give you a lot of information regarding file size limits, they look to be pretty light on the limitations for the moment.

Get over to Ge.tt

Frequently Remove “Friends” for Clutter-Free Social Networking…

 

For most of us, Facebook and Twitter are an unmanageable mess of status updates, random questionnaires, and all round pointless posts, but what if you actually wanted to use social networking without getting information overload, here are a few tips.

Jimmy Kimmel suggested a National Unfriend Day that was to take place on November 17th, but just because that's come and gone, doesn’t mean your social media doesn’t need some winter cleaning.

Less is a hell of a lot more when it comes to social networking, particularly when you’re trying to find the right mixture of personal and open communication between friends, family, followers and just plain old strangers. By cutting down the number of people you’re following through Facebook and Twitter along with many other sites you can help distil the information you’re getting, making everything easier to read.

To make it easier on you, Facebook has simplified the process of quickly removing friends. Under for the Friends tab, clicking "Edit" will show you a small list of recently updated friends. Using the drop down you can filter out friends by "All Friends", "Recent", etc. Having a broad look across your social graph, you can quickly setup filters to defriend people you've lost contact with.

Here are a few simple mental filters to help you figure out who you should be unfriending.

• Do you wish this person a Happy Birthday?
• Have you seen this person in the last year?
• Does this person update constantly?
• Does this person post an original thought or is everything recycled form somewhere or something else, e.g. links, quotes, lyrics?

Facebook may limit its third party apps for getting stats on the people you follow but Twitter is open to everyone from ManageFlitter, Nest Unclutterer to SocialToo.

Just a few methods for filtering out a lot of the unwarranted, unwanted information from your social networking sites. But if you want something to help you organise them all, check out Digsby as mentioned in a previous post.

Simple Desktops…

Simple desktops springs from a simple idea, easy on the eye designs that are distraction free but still appealing to look at.



Do you want less, but not boring? Then you want Simple Desktops.



Simple Desktops: a collection of bling, drop shadow, and gradient free desktops to help keep you stay focused but also provide just enough eye candy to not be bored. It's here because finding these around the web is just too hard.



Simple Desktops is a collection of minimal distraction desktop wallpapers curated by Tom Watson.
http://simpledesktops.com

Digsby (for Social Networking)…

 

“Full Description

A multiprotocol Im Client that lets you manage all your IM, email, and social network accounts from one easy-to-use application. For IM, it brings all your buddies into one merged contact list with support for AIM, MSN, Facebook Chat, Yahoo, ICQ, GTalk, and Jabber. For email, it offers notifications of new emails with message previews, as well as, the ability to perform actions such as "Mark as Read" and "Delete" right from the notification with support for Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL/AIM Mail, POP, and IMAP. For social networks, it provides a newsfeed of events on the network and the ability to set status with support for Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace.”

That's Digsby, technically speaking.

 

The Pro’s

You can access your msn, your Facebook, your twitter, all your email accounts and you can even use it for Facebook chat and all you have to do is sign in once for access to everything.

You can set up notifications for anything, if Facebook is updated you’ll know, same goes for twitter and any other site you’ve got it connected to, including your email.

You can post right to your Facebook or twitter without having to open up your browser.

It updates often, usually feeding off suggestions from its users via twitter.

 

The Con’s

Few and far between, the only negative thing’s I can say about Digsby is that when you’re installing it, it tries to push a lot of add-ons your way. This may be how they keep it free but be sure you cancel installing these when installing Digsby.

Apart from that it can sometimes get a little sluggish, but that is more when you’re running too many other programs.

Apart from this, Digsby is one the greatest pieces of free software if you like everything you use bundled into one neat little package, we’re just waiting for a Mac and Linux release.

Get Digsby Here

Download Your Favourite TV Shows Automatically…

 

Want to find your favourite TV shows, download them and have them available to watch all without without the hassle of hunting down each individual torrent? A particularly daunting task if its high season and you have a lot of viewing to do. Here you can learn how to automate BitTorrent downloads so this search for torrents can end.

The method I’m suggesting is free, open source torrent episode downloader, Ted. Ted is the most user-friendly, simplest solution I've seen for downloading television on a schedule, and since it finds the torrents and downloads it for you followed by opening it in your favourite BitTorrent client, there could not be less hassle.

Note: FullofContent does NOT condone piracy. Downloading and distributing copyrighted material is illegal, so proceed at your own risk. Of course, if you decide to go on, you could check out a few top Vuze plug-ins, my favourite being SafePeer, or you could try setting up anonymous Azeueus/Vuze. No guarantees either of these methods will keep the RIAA or Eircom from knocking in  your doors and taking your routers away.

Subscribing to pre-loaded shows

• Download and install Ted (torrent episode downloader).

 

• Before you start adding shows to track, you need to configure Ted, which it will prompt you to do when you first run it. Configure to your liking, but be sure to keep "Try to open it in your default BitTorrent client" checked.

 

• Once Ted is running, it's time to add your shows, which you can do by clicking the "Add Show" button. Setting up popular shows is simple, just choose one of the many shows already listed and TED will do the rest.

 

• If you're current with the show, you don't want to download every episode that pops up - you just want Ted to download the latest and greatest. You can easily do this by clicking the "Get Latest" button, which automatically loads the show's current season and episode. If you want everything you see in that feed, click the "Download all from feed" checkbox.

 

• Finally, click save and you're good to go. Whenever Ted detects a new episode, it will automatically fire up your default BitTorrent client and download away.

Again I can’t condone Piracy as it is illegal and any actions you do in the privacy of your own home are your responsibility so remember, Downloading Copyrighted material is illegal and can lead to serious trouble.

BitTorrent for Beginners…

Ok lets put it straight out there, there are a lot of people who download, if not everyone that frequently uses a computer. A lot of people are already using torrents, others used LimeWire which is no longer available or maybe you have no idea what a Torrent is, well this is where you learn. But before we get down to the file sharing lets make one thing clear…

What is BitTorrent…

BitTorrent is an internet peer-to-peer file sharing protocol that works in a sort of decentralized fashion. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that as you download portions of your files from the the person who originally shared the file, you are also getting portions from fellow downloaders to maximize data exchange. It’s much more efficient than everybody downloading from a single server.

 

The Legality of BitTorrent (and file sharing in general)…

BitTorrent itself is a protocol, so it falls to individual trackers as to what’s legal and what’s not.  If a copyright violation occurs, it is the tracker that is primarily held responsible, and subsequently its users. You probably should avoid blindly downloading copyrighted works on public trackers, since your IP address can be easily tracked.

There are many legal uses for BitTorrent, however—for instance, most community-driven Linux distributions offer torrents for their ISOs. Phish fans often record live shows (so long as they comply with Phish’s policy on music trading) and share them online, as do many artists themselves.

There are plenty of legal trackers out there, as well as torrent aggregators that compile links to legal downloads hosted on other trackers. Here’s a couple of examples:

• Jamendo is a free music tracker that distributes Creative Commons-licensed albums, and artists can contribute their own album if it’s licensed in the same way. 
• Linux Tracker provides downloads to Linux distributions, both popular and low-key, and serves as a great alternative for downloading ISO files. 
• Clear Bits offers “open licensed digital media” downloads for free, charging content providers instead.  And, as always, Google can be a powerful ally in finding legal torrents.

NB: Piracy is an illegal action and can lead to serious consequences for those who partake in it. What you do with BitTorrent in your own times is your own responsibility. Sharing Copyrighted material is against the law.

I could go into all the nitty gritty points of BitTorrent and how everything works from Trackers, to seeders to leechers and the public/private torrent debate. But instead I’ll just shorten it all down.

• Trackers – trackers are servers which assist in directing file-sharers in the direction of the specific downloads they want. Trackers route little pieces of data, or packets, to downloaders and assist them in connecting to their fellow peers.

 

• Seeders – Once you’ve finished downloading you become known as a “seeder” as you continue to upload the date you just downloaded to other users. In the file-sharing community this is considered a positive thing as you are in turn helping those who helped you and others.

 

• Leechers – If you disable uploading and only download, you are considered to be a leecher, this is a negative term coined for those who do not share – apart from the questionable ethical points of such people, you may find yourself blocked form certain trackers. Good practice is seeding as much as you leech.

 

• Public or Private? – there are both public and private trackers, private trackers require in my opinion are better as they have a stronger community and certain perks, but public can be just as good if you find what you’re looking for.

 

• BitTorrent Clients – Now there are many ways to go about downloading and many different clients in which you may download with but I recommend uTorrent (for Windows) and Transmission (for Mac OS and Linux).They are both novice and resource-friendly but don’t skip out on some of the more useful options for advanced users. – also press T whilst in Utorrent and you can play a game of Tetris whilst you wait.

 

Step by Step Downloading…

1. Firstly, download your selected Bittorrent client.

2. Go to your Tracker (examples include Demonoid, Isohunt, V0rtex etc.…)

3. Pick your files and click on download…

4. You’ll see your torrent client (downloader) open and you’ll get a choice of which files you wish to download. Here you can choose where the torrent will download to, whether or not you want to add it to the top of your queue of torrents, and you can unmark individual files from being downloaded. When ready, click OK.

In the main uTorrent window you’ll see your queue.  From here you can manage your torrents:

• The Pause button will pause downloading, but keep its connections open.
• The Stop button will stop downloading and close its connections.
• The Play button will start downloads once they’ve been paused or stopped.
• The red X button will give you a prompt to delete your torrent (and files, if you choose).
• The Up arrow will raise your torrent’s priority amongst all of the currently active torrents.
• The Down arrow will lower its priority in the queue.

Getting started is easy, the world of torrentz is huge but its definitely something to try out. Just remember, Piracy is illegal, and should you partake in it the consequences of your actions can be more than you expect…

For more information on torrents, legal battles, the best in Torrenting news, and more go to http://torrentfreak.com/

Disclaimer: I do not condone piracy in any form. This article is simply for informational purposes only.