On many download sites, you may see an MD5 checksum (or hash) included on the page next to the file download link. If you have ever wondered what this is and how it is useful, then hopefully this tip will help.

An MD5 checksum (you can read the full info on Wikipedia here) is basically a string of letters and numbers determined by the characteristics of a particular file. By making a small change to the file, a completely new MD5 hash string would be generated.

This becomes useful when you download a file because you can compare the MD5 checksum of the file you downloaded against what the download site says it should be in order to ensure the file is the same. If the MD5 result between the two files are different, then the file you have has been tampered with. For a good demo of MD5 and how you can use it, check out this YouTube video.

While MD5 is not 100% foolproof (nothing is), it is a very good way to make sure you are getting what you think without and “surprises”.

The default Windows XP theme is called Luna. This is the rather disgusting blue taskbar, program title bars/borders and the big green Start button. It looks awful.

Luna can be changed to either Olive Green (equally disgusting) or Silver (the only which looks good out of the set for Luna).

Many people can’t stand Luna and switch to the “Windows Classic” theme. But wouldn’t it be great if there was a theme in between Luna and Windows Classic that feels “just right”? HmmXP is it. It’s got the perfect blend of form and function as far as an XP theme goes.

HmmXP works for Windows 2000 (will not work in 2000), Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. I guarantee you will like it.

The video below shows exactly how to get it installed and running. It only takes a few minutes and it’s easy.

Said honestly, Windows Live Movie Maker Beta, in a word, sucks. It lost so many features compared to the old Windows Movie Maker that it’s just not worth using.

Are you stuck without a free video editor in Windows 7 at this point? No. You can install the old – and far superior – Windows Movie Maker in Windows 7.

All you have to do is download and install it.

What you want is Windows Movie Maker 2.6. You can download this here.

The installation went thru without a hitch and everything worked fine.

Above: Old but still great.

Above: This is what you want to see from Help/About.

Will this software work for Windows Vista?

Yes. It was designed for Vista originally so it will work in both Vista and 7.

You have probably seen many articles and tips on this site about downloading videos from YouTube, however if you want to download from other sites a tool you need to check out is xVideoServiceThief.

This open source tool allows you to download from (at the time of writing) 55 popular websites which use embedded videos. Additionally, xVideoServiceThief boasts the following features:

• Convert the downloaded videos to Mpeg, DivX, etc.
• Simultaneous downloads!: Download more than one video at same time
• Automatic Updates! keep the xVideoServiceThief updated automatically (to add/update support for new sites)

If you like to keep videos on your hard drive, this tool is ideal because you don’t have to worry about going into your browser cache and renaming files, etc, etc. It is straightforward and completely free.

Firefox, while a great browser, is a bit behind the times at the moment because it’s the only major player that doesn’t have a private-browsing mode. I personally think this is an important feature to have because of the enhanced security. Some jokingly call this feature "porn mode", but where I would use it most is for online banking.

So, you’re a big Firefox fan and want to see what’s in store? Firefox 3.5 beta 4 is available now for download right here.

What’s new in 3.5?

Gecko 1.9.1 rendering platform. It supports new web technologies and has improved performance.

Private browsing mode. This is what the browser needed most to keep up with the competition.

A new JavaScript engine called TraceMonkey. This adds in better performance. Webmail users (Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) in particular should notice a notable speed improvement from this.

And lots of other stuff too.

However..

Be sure to read the Known Issues portion of the link above. It’s important to know things like:

Occasionally Google Mail will fail to respond when creating a new filter, showing advanced search options, or clearing the spam folder. Reloading Google Mail fixes the issue (see bug 477101 and bug 478778)

If you’re a Gmail user, this is a deal-breaker until that’s fixed. Take the time to read over the other known issues as well. If there’s nothing listed that sounds too bad, give FF 3.5 a shot, you might like it.

The best advice I can give for those who want to try out the bleeding-edge version of Firefox is to backup your add-ons first. Either copy the add-on XPIs directly from your associated folder, or alternatively re-download them to a backup folder in case you need to uninstall and go back to FF 3.0.10.

To re-download add-ons manually: Launch Firefox, click Tools then Add-ons, a small window will pop open listing them all. Right-click the add-on you want to re-download and from the small menu that appears click Visit Home Page. This will take you directly to the web site for that add-on where you can download it.

The browser install/uninstall isn’t the bad part, it’s always the add-ons. Having them backed up is mandatory. After all, who uses FF without add-ons anyway?

Need your Linux fix? Ubuntu’s new version 9.04 is available today and with it some genuinely significant updates, such as:

GNOME 2.26

The biggest improvement (for me) is that GNOME does better multi-monitor setup now with this version. Multi-monitor troubles with a Linux GUI have been a longstanding complaint of mine, and while Ubuntu 8 was a huge improvement over 7 for dual-or-more monitor setups, Ubuntu 9 with GNOME 2.26 should (hopefully) finally nail this so it’s done right the first time.

Linux kernel 2.6.28

This is obviously important because the OS runs on top of this. The Linux kernel has come a long, long way since 1991. You thought the Linux kernel was older? Not really. UNIX is (very) old, yes, but not Linux.

And yes I know the latest kernel is technically 2.6.29.1 at the time of this writing, but 2.6.28 is still a step up for Ubuntu.

Optional ext4 filesystem

This is not required to use as ext3 will still work fine, but this is what Linux distros are heading towards.

Ext4 will support volumes up to 1 exabyte and individual files up to 16 terabytes.

For those that say, "There’s no way I’ll ever have volumes or files that big", remember when we all thought 1GB was huge? Consumer grade exabyte drives will happen; it’s only a matter of time and probably not that far away.

Linux is ready for (what is currently considered to be) disgustingly huge volume and file sizes now with ext4. Best to get familiar with it now if you have the chance.

You can check out more of what’s available in 9.04 here. Lots of good stuff.

I’ll be checking it out personally once the official release is available later today.

You’ve probably heard of web sites like KeepVid where you can direct-download the FLV file of any YouTube video you watch by entering its video URL. You don’t have to do this. You can use Firefox’s local file cache to do it also. Yes, it takes a little longer, but the plus is you don’t have to rely on another site just to download videos. Afterwards you can watch the video using the FLV player of your choice (I personally use WinAMP).

Note before continuing: Yes, I understand there are applications available that will do the same thing as what is instructed below, however it is better to do this manually rather than rely on an app which at some point will not work any longer.

Step 1. Locate your Firefox browser cache URL.

Type in about:cache in your address bar and press enter.

Three listings will be displayed, that being Memory cache device, Disk cache device and Offline cache device.

You want to pay attention to Disk cache device. The cache directory will be listed there. It will be something like this and be very long:

C:\Documents and Settings\[your windows  account]\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[your firefox profile].default\Cache

Step 2. Open up a Windows Explorer and load the cache directory

Note: Windows Explorer is not the same as Internet Explorer.

While still in Firefox, highlight the entire cache directory and copy.

Click Start then Run, type explorer and click OK.

A Windows Explorer appears, usually landing in My Documents first.

In the Explorer address bar, paste in the cache directory.

When loaded it will look similar to this:

When you see this, click View then Details.

Then click View, then Arrange Icons By, then Modified so the most recent file is listed at the bottom of the file list first. (If you want it listed at the top, just click View/Arrange Icons By/Modified again.)

Looks like this:

Before continuing, if you’re asking, “Why not just click List Cache Entries from about:cache?”, the reason is because there’s no way to sort cache files in Firefox, but with Explorer you can.

Leave this Explorer window open as-is and go back to Firefox.

Step 3. Go to YouTube and load up a video.

I will use this video as an example.

When you load the video there is a red bar at the bottom of the YouTube player as seen above. Wait until this bar is completely filled from left to right. When it is, this indicates the video is completely downloaded locally.

Step 4. Get the FLV and store it wherever you want.

Go back to your Windows Explorer and press F5 to refresh.

Assuming your file list has newest files listed at the bottom first, the newest file there will in fact be the video. It will be a somewhat large file compared to other cache entries. The video linked above should have a size of 4,606 KB and look similar to this:

Important note: The name of your file will most likely be different from what’s shown here.

Right-click the file and select Rename. Rename the file whatever you want and add the extension .FLV at the end. (If this does not work, click Tools then Folder Options, click the View tab and uncheck “Hide extensions for known file types”.)

Right-click the file again after renaming, Cut, minimize everything until you see your desktop, then paste the file direct on the desktop.

If all goes well, you’ve got your FLV downloaded locally to the Desktop.

For any other YouTube video you load in your browser, follow suit. Load the video, go to the cache directory in Explorer, F5 to refresh, look for the newest larger file, rename, cut and paste on the Desktop or anywhere else you want the file to go.

Does this work for other video sites as well?

Yes. Any site that uses the FLV format (which the vast majority of them do) will have the video file itself downloaded locally to your cache to view it in your browser. When that happens you just go to the directory as outlined above and grab your FLV there.

Whenever you are watching YouTube videos you probably come across some that you would like to save to your hard drive. While there are software titles and browser plugins which will do this for you, the abosolute easiest way I have found is by using KickYouTube.

KickYouTube requires no software installation or registration of any kind and the usage could not be easier. There is a walkthrough on their main page, but basically all you do is this:

1. Go to the video you want to download on YouTube’s site.
2. Change the URL at the top by adding “kick” in front of youtube.com. For example http://www.youtube.com/watch/?v=12345 becomes http://www.kickyoutube.com/watch/?v=12345
3. You will be taken to KickYouTube’s site.
4. Select your download format from the top bar and click download.
5. That’s it.

Again, there is no software required or account to create so enjoy!

When it comes to buying most software, you typically have the option of either going to a brick and mortal store and purchasing it or ordering it online. Obviously, going to the store gives you immediate gratification over ordering online, however more and more popular software titles are being offered online with the buy and download option.

When you buy and download, you get even more immediate gratification as you don’t have to go to the store, you just start a download. Not only does this save you time and gas, but often times the price is lower. This makes sense for software vendors because there is virtually no cost for distributing software via download when compared to producing packaging and shipping boxed software. If you need the manuals, these are usually either included with the download or are readily available on the vendor’s site. Additionally, you can burn the download to a CD or DVD to have a backup.

So the next time you purchase software see if immediate download is an option. Not only might it save you some money, but it is environmentally friendly as well.

Firefox users: You will be prompted soon to update your software to v3.0.2. If you don’t feel like waiting, just click Help and then Check for Updates… and you can upgrade right now.

So what’s new in 3.0.2 (hey, that rhymes)?

Quite a bit, actually.

There’s been some security fixes, "several stability issue" fixed (which hopefully means it doesn’t chomp up as much memory as before) and some Mac fixes as well.

You can read up on all the new/fixed stuff with FF here.

One would think since the USA created internet (yes we did) we’d be top dog as far as adoption of broadband is concerned.

We’re not. In fact, we’re in 15th place. On average, the fastest download last-mile speed is 2.3mbps.

Just to give you an indication of how slow our connectivity speed is, Japan (who always kicks everyone’s ass in tech) has an average download speed of 63mbps. To us that’s nothing but a pipe dream. We think 20mbps is a godsend. Bear in mind the 63 is an average download rate in Japan – not the fastest speed.

Can you imagine the stuff you could download at an average 63mbps rate?

A very sobering thought.

In the US, the state with the best median download speed in Rhode Island at 6.8mbps. The worst is Alaska at 0.8mbps.

At the present time there is a an Act on the books the government is looking to pass called the Broadband Data Improvement Act so we can at least get enough capacity to have nationwide 10mbps download and 1mbps upload by 2010.

Unfortunately that’s the best we can look forward to – but at least it’s an improvement should the Act be put into effect (which it should).

[Source: ChannelWeb]