YouTube Offers Online Video Editor

The post "Edit Video in the Cloud with the YouTube Video Editor" on Broadcasting Ourselves recently announced YouTube's launch of its online video editor, which lets users

• Combine multiple uploaded video.
• Trim the beginning and/or ending of videos.
• Add soundtracks using YouTube's AudioSwap song library.
• Create videos and easily publish them to YouTube.

Available in TestTube, the YouTube ideas incubator, the video editor is ready to use. No software downloads required. Yea!

The post also offers videos with tips for using the editor, examples of others' videos and feedback, and links to help center support, as well as asking for feedback. Check it out!

Free Social Media Icon Sets

Want to liven up your web presence? Need icons?

Ellyssa Kroski at iLibrarian has compiled an extensive list of sites offering free, downloadable icons for social websites like

• Design Float,
• Facebook,
• Flickr,
• Gamespot,
• LinkedIn,
• Smashing Magazine,
• Trip Advisor,
• Twitter,
• YouTube, and
• many, many more.

The icon designers use a wide array of design styles. Choose what fits your style and personalize to your heart's content. Check 'em out!

30 Fabulous Freebies

Money's tight for everyone -- especially for college students. So discovering sources for free entertainment and services can sometimes be a real blessing. The Kiplinger's Pesonal Finance Magazine article "30 Fabulous Freebies" offers tips and sources to help us conserve dwindling funds.

The links in the article include sites that offer

• FREE
• video games
• birthday goodies
• software
• TV shows and movies
• money for grad school
• mobile apps
• books, sheet music, e-books, music
• kids' meals
• digital storage space
• tech recycling
• workouts
• plus other items of possible interest

As always, be sure to read all the fine print and choose only what's useful for you.

15 Essential Web Tools for Students

A recent Mashable post by Josh Catone offers a guide to 15 Essential Web Tools for Students, plus links to the tools and tips for using them. With all the tasks everyone manages every day, these tools are very handy.

• Stay Organized: web applications to help you get and stay organized.
• Evernote -- note taking tool that lets you sync notes between the web, your phone, and any computer
• Notely -- solution for taking notes and staying organized
• GradeMate -- organizer for creating to-do lists, managing due dates, and collaborating
• Backpack -- tool for keeping research organized
  
  
• Study Better: web tools to help you get the most out of your study time.
• StudyRails -- for people who have trouble blocking out distractions when it comes time to study
• Diggo -- web-based highlighter and sticky note system for annotating your web research and sharing work with classmates
• Delicious -- tool for collecting web resources for a class, project, or paper under a single tag
• Mindmeister -- organize your thoughts and research through mind maps
  
  
• Work and Collaborate: web-based and social tools that help you get your work done and collaborate with others on group projects.
• Google Docs -- online word processing and spreadsheets applications that let you work together on group assignments
• EtherPad --collaboration tool that lets a group of people edit a document at the same time and see what everyone is writing as they write it
• Sliderocket -- online presentation building tool for creating multimedia presentations that are accessible from anywhere
• Wikidot -- a simple, wiki hosting solution for creating an unlimited number of wiki pages to organize projects and group research
  
  
• Cite Right: tools to help you keep track of your sources and cite them properly.
• CiteMe -- search the world’s largest library catalog by title, author, subject, or ISBN and get formatted citations in APA, Chicago, Harvard, MLA, or Turabian style
• EasyBib -- automatically create citations in APA, Chicago/Turabian, and MLA styles
• Zotero -- automatically collects your research sources and lets you create citations in any of one of over a thousand different styles

Check 'em out!

Tax Day!

You've got until midnight tonight to e-file or postmark your 2008 federal tax return (or to request an extension)! Many students will be eligible to use the online fast and easy Free File program, if your adjusted gross income is $56,000 or less in 2008.

The Free File program provides free federal (but not state) income tax preparation and electronic filing for eligible taxpayers through a partnership between the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Free File Alliance LLC, a group of private sector tax software companies, including such well-known tax software as TaxACT, TaxCut, and TurboTax.

The "Traditional" Free File is tax software with step-by-step help. Go to the link above and click the button to "Help Me Choose a Company" to find out which software packages you are eligible to use. (Note for question 5 on this page: if you can be claimed as a dependent on your parents' or another person's tax return, you won't be eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit.)

If you don't qualify to use Traditional Free File, you can use Free File Fillable Forms, and fill in the tax forms and file them online without tax software.

All Free File options are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but it's important to remember that you must access Free File through the IRS website, IRS.gov at the Free File link.

Cool Websites and Tools (edition #199)

If you're interested in learning about online tools, makeuseof.com offers lists, links, descriptions, reviews and user comments to help you choose tools that fit your needs. In addition, posts like "Cool Websites and Tools" bring the information together in useful lists like the ones posted in edition #199 below.

All listed websites are FREE (or come with a decent free account option).

1. AwayFind - Make sure you receive urgent emails when you are offline or on vacation. AwayFind gives you a custom form that people can use to reach you via SMS when you’re not accessible via regular emails. Read more: AwayFind - Receive Urgent Emails While Offline Or On Vacation.
2. Cornell Notes Generator - Generate printable note taking sheets. You can customize and make sheets ruled, graph style or have them blank. Moreover there are options to add name, subject, date, etc. Read more: PDF Notes Generator - Print Sheets for Note Taking.
3. DeadlineApp - Simple reminder tool. Set up reminders from the site or schedule reminders via email, instant messenger or mobile phone. Read more: Deadline - The Simplest Tool To Set Up Reminders.
4. DukaUs - Free group calling service for US and Canada. You can invite up to 5 participants and talk a maximum of 30 minutes per day. Read more: DukaUS - Free Group Calling for US and Canada.
5. HideLinks - Offers a simple way to mask your private bookmark under a different URL and then password protect it. Read more: HideLinks - Password Protect Your Bookmarks.
6. NumberZoom - Get info on telemarketers, collection agencies, and other unknown numbers left on your caller ID machine. Read more: NumberZoom - Lookup Unknown Caller IDs.
7. PiccDrop - Upload, host and even hotlink your images online for free. There are no ads either. Read more: PiccDrop - Host and Hotlink Images Online.
8. Project Draw - Easy to use online diagram and plan drawing tool. Draw diagrams, floor layouts, network plans, and lots of other stuff. Read more: Project Draw - Draw Plans and Diagrams Online.
9. Protonotes - This tool comes as a big help for those teams who are working on web development projects. It helps the team members to easily add notes and collaborate on prototypes, no matter where they are in the world. Read more: Protonotes - Collaborate When Working With HTML Prototypes.
10. Wordpress Theme Generator - Create your own WordPress themes. Easily customize different aspects of your theme such us layout, background color, body size and column dimensions, text style and color etc. Read more: Wordpress Theme Generator.

Free Software -- Yea!

10 Free Alternatives to Popular, Pricey Programs http://usatoday.com/tech/columnist/kimkomando/2008-06-26-free-software_N.htm

This article provides an interesting overview of free programs that have been created to perform a variety of desired tasks:

• create documents and spreadsheets
• download email
• manage appointments with a calendar
• desktop publishing
• edit photos
• illustrate
• create graphics
• edit digital videos
• design web page
• create PDF files
• money management