Kingdom Keys Bookmarking Blog

Are we going through a replay of BETA versus VHS tussle? Have you been annoyed by conflicting video standards? Furthermore have you ever wondered how to save a video to your hard disk? You may need to watch it later on a tablet and save on bandwidth charges if you wish to play it again in the company of some interested party.

The broader picture is that some internet publishers are concerned about their precious content reappearing somewhere else. You wonder why because You Tube encourages people to embed their video clips in as many places as they could (they carry advertising, remember...) I thought plagiarism was a mark of success.

The web browsers are where the battle is being fought. In order to play the video or audio clip it has to be buffered on your computer first in some temporary file on your hard disk.

All it takes is a clever application to rescue this hidden file from oblivion and saving it with a descriptive name in a folder of your knowing.

Scrapbooking material from the internet is always a gymnastic. For text you would think that a simple copy and paste would do the trick but formatting can get in the way. The saving grace is to store the data in a plain vanilla editor - store the plain text and quote it as needed.

For images a right mouse click on the picture should open a floating menu giving you the option to save the photo on your file directory.

For audio some podcast sites will let you copy the raw mp3 file where you want it to be. Unfortunately others choose you use some flash contraption which is obnoxious at best as to what to do with the stuff you have already downloaded and paid for out of your bandwidth allocation.

Do a search for "video capture" to find some useful tools to regain control. There is no such thing as a free lunch and so even the so-called free tools come with a payload bonus - forcing you to see unsolicited advertising or baiting you to pay for advanced features. But the net being what it is it pays to shop around and use the stuff that will do the trick for you.

Apple made a name for themselves with their insane iTunes platform which mangles the mp3 file names. I like a plain mp3 player that looks like a USB memory stick. Sync tools are a real pain in the neck. I know how to move files around, delete those I have finished with and group related ones in a folder of my choosing.

In 2011 we still need to reclaim control of our desktop. History has a habit of repeating itself.

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