Download Youtube Videos

Many of us really want to have some of those YouTube videos for keeps. I have been showed how to do this a while ago and find it a very useful ability. This can be done in Safari very easily if you know what you are doing. Simply follow the instructions HERE. As well you should download the free program called VLC which enables you to view many video types including flash.

Free Web Space

Web space for a student to test out websites and web applications comes at a pretty high price. Most students are not willing to fork over $15 a month for a personal site that may not get anything accomplished. There are alternatives though. Two free hosting sites that i have found to be very good are freehoxt and 100mb. These both offer a slightly different plan each with its advantages.
Freehoxt places an banner ad at the top of your page but offers PHP, mySQL, 7gb webspace, and 7tb of monthly traffic.
110mb offers a very clean service with no ads and a very simple set up. This service only needs to be upgraded for use of mySQL and such services which is only $9 for ever. Which is a very nice feature.
I prefer 110mb since there are no ads and the upgrades come at a very reasonable cost. But for a bit faster service use freehoxt.

Google Programs

Free and Good

Google has started the move to more mac friendly applications. This is a very nice change to see and there are some apps that are very fun to use and as well very useful. Every Gmail account comes with about 7 GB of memory allocation. This is very nice for photos and Google also has their online Office tools set. A new addition to Google apps is the web up loader. This program integrates right into your iPhoto and allows you to upload to your picassa web album which had to be done picture by picture before. As well there is Google Earth, Sketch Up (very cool 3D design), and a YouTube up loader. All these programs can be accessed and downloaded from the Google Updater. To get the Updater simply download one of the programs mentioned in this post.

Handbrake. Build your DVD Library

Here we are with an application that fit my needs perfectly when I was converting DVDs into an iPod format. This program does exactly that and it is also free. Download Handbrake Here and start building your collection.

The Best of Bit Torrent

Here is one Bit Torrent downloader for all. Transmission presents itself in a sleek and minimalist interface and blazing fast speeds. For myself I have also found that btjunkie is the best resource for finding my torrents and a perfect pair for Transmission. 

Enhance Your Quick Look

There are some very large drawbacks with the new Quick Look that was introduced in leopard. These are the fact that when you Quick Look a folder all you get is a nice enlargement of the folder icon. Likewise when you do the same to a zip file it just shows a enlarged icon. There are two plug-ins that will solve this problem and they both benefit Quicklook immensely. You can find these at Folder Quick Look Plug-in and Zip Quick Look Plug-in.

Adium (MSN)

Adium. The solution to any instant messaging available to mac. This freeware is configurable for a wide variety of Instant Messaging services including MSN, Yahoo, and AOL. It may not be to your liking right off the start but configure it and you can make it look very nice.

Last "fm"

The "Music Revolution". Here is a program and also just a service that is very cool and can introduce you to new music. Either download the player for mac or just use the online player by typing in a band you like. Check it out and sign up at last "fm"

JDarkRoom

Here is a program that will make all the distractions disappear. This Full screen text editor is very nice to use for essays and any coding do to the fact that it eliminates all distractions that are present with TextEdit. Download it HERE.

MacHeist

Here we are with another very worthwhile mac "thing" this isn't a program but just by signing up at MacHeist.com you receive TWO very useful programs. These two programs are WireTap by Ambrosia Software, a program that allows you to record any sound that you can hear your computer play, from the inside NO MIC! And also a program called BitClamp by Crimson Sky Software which helps to make incripted files with a interface similar to AppZapper.

You may notice that nothing is really happening on this site. This is because the last software package that they put forward was in Jan and the next may well be next year so subscribe to their feed and you will be rewarded in the future.

A Noteworthy Application (NetNewsWire)

A mac app that will keep you up to date NetNewsWire is a free RSS feed reader offered by NewsGator. This full featured reader previously cost but now the full version is offered for free. Some interesting feeds that are worthwhile to keep an eye on are Gizmodo, MacWorld,This Blog, and Life Hacker offering some fun and creativity. For some extra reading on what exactly RSS feeds are check out NewsGator.