GroupieGuide: Free Website-In-a-Box for Groups [Invites]

Chances are you either organize your own group or consider yourself a member of one. There’s a variety of existing options available for setting up an online presence for your group, but one new service aims to give groupies a free way to rally around each other with an instant website.

GroupieGuide, which has launched in private alpha, offers a neatly organized home for your group, complete with compartments for news, pictures, discussions, and events.

The site pretty much takes all of the hassle out of creating a fully-functional website to connect group members, promote events, facilitate discussions, and share photos. Essentially, it’s a website-in-a-box tailored just for groups. Administrative users just need to add a few group details, tweak the appearance, schedule an event, and they’ll have a nice looking group site they can call their own.

Right now you’ve got some limitations when it comes to modifying the group’s appearance, though you can add a logo and banner picture, customize the color, or upload a background picture, and theme options are planned for the near future. Domain customization will also be offered in the future as a paid feature.

With GroupieGuide adding events is super simple, but if you’re looking for event management, the site might disappoint. GroupieGuide does support event additions, and even adds them to the home page, but there’s no clear way for group members to RSVP for events, so you’ll need to rely on other sites like Eventbrite to coordinate and manage your events.

Since groups tend to be social and have at least one aspiring photog among their ranks, GroupieGuide would also be wise to beef up their pictures page. The site currently supports photo uploads, but an easy way to import group photos across popular social sites would definitely encourage more group members to add their photos to the fray.

All in all, GroupieGuide offers group a fantastic package deal and online home, and it’s completely free – for now – though premium options will be made available for a fee. If your group needs a home, we can take you behind the curtains of the private alpha site. The first 50 people to sign up here will get full access to GroupieGuide.

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More Group Tools From Mashable

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- Voice Messaging for Groups: Top Services Compared

- Work Together: 60+ Collaborative Tools for Groups

- HOW TO: Create Groups for Twitter

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Speaker Shelves and Storage Units Provide More Than Just Surround Sound [Speakers]

The concept of integrating speakers into shelving units is nothing new, but this Soundshelf design is easily the most elegant application of the idea to date.

In fact, Soundshelf goes beyond bookshelves into other areas—like DVD storage towers. Again, its still a concept, but there is no reason why it can’t become a reality. In the meantime, we have ceiling fans with built-in speakers to look forward to. Maybe someday we could even achieve the holy grail of simple surround sound solutions—the speaker light bulb. [Designboom via GearCrave via Freshome]

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AppleScript: Exploring the power of Folder Actions, part I

Filed under: Features, AppleScript

Welcome to Part I of this mini AppleScript feature on creating useful folder actions. We’ll have more posts on this topic coming up, but for now, let’s introduce what a folder action is. Have you ever wanted to just drop a file into a folder and have something magically happen? Say, have a file printed, whisked to a remote site via FTP, or perhaps have an image be automatically flipped from horizontal to vertical? With Mac OS X’s built-in folder actions, you can easily do this with a simple drag and drop.

digg_url = ‘http://www.tuaw.com/2009/02/16/applescript-exploring-the-power-of-folder-actions-part-i/’;

Creating the folder
First, let’s talk about how we can enable these “magical folders” that perform actions on files dropped within them. For this example, I’ll show you how to make a folder on your desktop that, when a file gets dropped into it, will display a dialog letting your know that the file was placed there.

Continue reading AppleScript: Exploring the power of Folder Actions, part I

TUAWAppleScript: Exploring the power of Folder Actions, part I originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 16 Feb 2009 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Facette Adds Real Organization to Delicious Bookmarks [Delicious]

Facette, an MIT data organizing project, knows more about your Delicious bookmarks than you do. The free webapp and Firefox plug-in groups your links by what they’re about, media types, and more.

The simplest way to check out what a “faceted” Delicious list looks like is to add your username to the end of Facette’s URL browser: facette.csail.mit.edu/user/your user name here. You’ll see a host of left-hand boxes that show different data types—general subject headings, blog post types, video and audio containers, and lots more. If that’s something you want to see more of, head to Facette’s main page and grab their Firefox plugin, which gives you the ability to add far more serious tags (pictured at right) when you’re bookmarking, and automatically takes you to the Facette view of Delicious pages.

Facette is free to use (though a user study sign-up is request), requires a Delicious account to scan private bookmarks.

Facette Delicious Browser [MIT Haystack]

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Facette Adds Real Organization to Delicious Bookmarks [Delicious]

Facette, an MIT data organizing project, knows more about your Delicious bookmarks than you do. The free webapp and Firefox plug-in groups your links by what they’re about, media types, and more.

The simplest way to check out what a “faceted” Delicious list looks like is to add your username to the end of Facette’s URL browser: facette.csail.mit.edu/user/your user name here. You’ll see a host of left-hand boxes that show different data types—general subject headings, blog post types, video and audio containers, and lots more. If that’s something you want to see more of, head to Facette’s main page and grab their Firefox plugin, which gives you the ability to add far more serious tags (pictured at right) when you’re bookmarking, and automatically takes you to the Facette view of Delicious pages.

Facette is free to use (though a user study sign-up is request), requires a Delicious account to scan private bookmarks.

Facette Delicious Browser [MIT Haystack]

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JSCocoa and Acorn Plugins in JavaScript

I gave a presentation last night at Xcoders about JSCocoa, which is a bridge between JavaScript and Cocoa (using Apple’s JavaScriptCore, which is the same JavaScript engine in WebKit).

ThatsALotOfInterCaps.

Anyway, I thought I would briefly summarize the talk and share some code. The short version is “I really like JSCocoa”. Here’s the long version:

The Bad:
JSCocoa has got some amazing KVC hacks in it which I think would drive me insane if I ever actually saw them used. Here’s how you would get the current application name in Cocoa:

NSString* appName = [[[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] activeApplication] objectForKey:@”NSApplicationName”];

And this will work in JSCocoa:

var appName = NSWorkspace.sharedWorkspace.activeApplication.NSApplicationName

No strings, no obvious method calls, just … well, what exactly is going on here? If you hadn’t seen the Cocoa code above you’d probably be thinking… wtf?

Here’s what I’d call the sane way to do it in JSCocoa:

myDictionary = NSWorkspace.sharedWorkspace().activeApplication()
var appName = myDictionary.objectForKey_(“NSApplicationName”)

It is a bit more obvious what’s going on in this code. We’re actually naming a variable that tells us what type it is, and we’re using a string to get a value out of the dictionary. While KVC hacks can be awesomely cool and amazing and generally useful… it is possible to go a bit too far. So don’t use that sample code, or I’ll come looking for you and slam your toe in a door or something equally painful for you and very satisfying for me.

The Meh:

Holy crap you can write whole apps in almost 100% JavaScript! This is amazingly useful, and I bet the Konfabulator folks wish they had this years ago. I say almost 100% because you do need a tiny bit of objc code to start off your JS app:

 int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
  [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
  id c = [JSCocoaController sharedController];
  id mainJSFile = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@/Contents/Resources/main.js",
    [[NSBundle mainBundle] bundlePath]];
  [c evalJSFile:mainJSFile];
  return NSApplicationMain(argc,  (const char **) argv);
}

That’s not too bad. You can even hook up your JS objects (and objc subclasses!) in Interface Builder. Neato.

So why is this “Meh”? I think I’d shoot myself if I had to code in JavaScript all day long. I like my brackets and my debugger. However, if someone paired up JSCocoa with Cappuccino’s preprocessor and we had “ObjCScript”, I’d probably wet myself.

The Awesome:

Holy crap my customers can writing their plugins in JavaScript (If I hadn’t already told them to use Lua and/or Python already)!!!11

Running a JavaScript file from your app is ridiculously easy:

[[JSCocoaController sharedController] evalJSFile:pathToSomeFile];

As an example I decided I wanted the ability to run JavaScript from within Acorn (I did the same thing for Coda a little while back). Here’s some quick requirements for an Acorn JavaScript plugin:

a) The plugin has to live in a plain text file ending with .js or .jscocoa in your ~/Library/Application Support/Acorn/Plug-Ins/ folder.
b) The plugin has to have at least a main() method that takes a single parameter, which is a CIImage.
c) The main() method has to return a CIImage, or nil if it decided to do something else than alter the current image.

I turns out this is pretty easy to do, and I’ve got the source up on a project in my google code svn repository. Or you can just download JSEnabler.acplugin, and put those files in your Acorn Plug-Ins folder if you don’t want to play with a compiler.

(Just a quick note- I’ve moved these files to http://code.google.com/p/flycode/source/browse/trunk/jstalk/extras/acornplugin.)

And finally, here’s the bit of ObjC code that you use to call the main() method, with a single argument, in a particular JS file. Ideally, JSCocoaController would have a [c callMethod:@"main" withArguments:arrayOfArguments] to make all this moot.. but it doesn’t (yet).

First, the JavaScript file, named “Grayscale.py”:

function main(image) {
    color = CIColor.colorWithRed_green_blue_(0.5, 0.5, 0.5)
    filter = CIFilter.filterWithName_('CIColorMonochrome')
    filter.setDefaults()
    filter.setValue_forKey_(image, 'inputImage')
    filter.setValue_forKey_(color, 'inputColor')
    filter.setValue_forKey_(1, 'inputIntensity')
    return filter.valueForKey_('outputImage')
}

Just some simple Core Image filter stuff, but in JavaScript.

And the method in the Acorn plugin that does the real work, which will hopefully make sense to the ObjC folks out there:

- (CIImage*) executeScriptForImage:(CIImage*)image scriptPath:(NSString*)scriptPath {

    NSError *err            = 0x00;
    NSString *theJavaScript = [NSString stringWithContentsOfFile:scriptPath encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding error:&err];

    // JSCocoaController is a singleton object which holds a single JavaScript context which gets used over and over.
    JSCocoaController *jsController     = [JSCocoaController sharedController];
    JSGlobalContextRef ctx              = [jsController ctx];

    // evaluate our script, which has "function main(image) { ... }" in it somewhere.
    // or at least we hope it does.
    [jsController evalJSString:theJavaScript];

    // now we're going to get a reference to our main(image) method, by asking the JS context for it, and stuff it
    // in a var named "jsFunctionObject"
    JSValueRef exception            = 0x00;
    JSStringRef functionName        = JSStringCreateWithUTF8CString("main");
    JSValueRef functionValue        = JSObjectGetProperty(ctx, JSContextGetGlobalObject(ctx), functionName, &exception);

    JSStringRelease(functionName);  

    // Check for errors and bail if there are any.  formatJSException: is a handy way of way of printing out line
    // numbers and such.
    if (exception) {
        NSLog(@"%@", [jsController formatJSException:exception]);
        return nil;
    }

    JSObjectRef jsFunctionObject = JSValueToObject(ctx, functionValue, &exception);

    if (exception) { // Once again, check for errors and bail if there are any
        NSLog(@"%@", [jsController formatJSException:exception]);
        return nil;
    }

    // Now that we've got a handle to the function we want to call, we need to push our cocoa object into a
    // javascript object, which we'll pass to the main() method.

    JSValueRef imageArgRef;
    [JSCocoaFFIArgument boxObject:image toJSValueRef:&imageArgRef inContext:ctx];

    // This is the array that holds the args we pass to our main() method.  We've just got one argument, which
    // is our ciiimage
    JSValueRef mainFunctionArgs[1] = { imageArgRef };

    // finally, call the function with our arguments.
    JSValueRef returnValue = JSObjectCallAsFunction(ctx, jsFunctionObject, nil, 1, mainFunctionArgs, &exception);

    if (exception) { // Bad things?  If yes, bail.
        NSLog(@"%@", [jsController formatJSException:exception]);
        return nil;
    }

    // Hurray?
    // The main() method should be returning a value at this point, so we're going to
    // put it back into a cocoa object.  If it's not there, then it'll be nil and that's
    // ok for our purposes.
    CIImage *acornReturnValue = 0x00;

    if (![JSCocoaFFIArgument unboxJSValueRef:returnValue toObject:&acornReturnValue inContext:ctx]) {
        return nil;
    }

    // fin.
    return acornReturnValue;
}

Update:

Patrick Geiller (the author of JSCocoa) wrote me and pointed some things out to me, which should be noted.

There are functions for calling javascript methods. doh!

- (JSValueRef)callJSFunctionNamed:(NSString*)name withArguments:(id)firstArg, ...

// By function reference :
- (JSValueRef)callJSFunction:(JSValueRef)function withArguments:(NSArray*)arguments

JSCocoa also has a Google Group http://groups.google.com/group/, and is hosted on Github now: http://github.com/parmanoir/jscocoa/tree/master

And Patrick also adds this:

The a.b.c dot syntax is by default the only way to call objects, therefore
myDictionary = NSWorkspace.sharedWorkspace().activeApplication()
will fail unless you first call
[[JSCocoaController sharedController] setUseAutoCall:NO];

This changed because if (a.b.c) needed to be written with extra parentheses : if (a.b.c())
Setting autocall makes things consistent as a.b.c and a().b().c() can no longer be mixed in the same file.

Thanks Patrick!

More…

Lego Star Wars Spaceship Carries More Than 100 Minifigs

A guy by the nickname of roholbro has spent a kajillion hours and bricks completing this huge reproduction of an Star Wars’ Separatist Landing Craft, which can hold a whooping one hundred minifigs. One. Hundred.

More…

YouTube Toolbox: 100+ Tools and Resources to Enhance Your Video Experience

digg_url = ‘http://mashable.com/2009/02/13/youtube-toolbox/’;
digg_title = ‘YouTube Toolbox: 100+ Tools and Resources to Enhance Your Video Experience’;
digg_bodytext = ‘YouTube is still the undisputed king of video sharing on the web, so it only makes sense that there would be a slew of tricks and tools for it. From Adobe AIR applications that let you download videos to Firefox extensions that protect you from RickRolls, and much more, here are over 100 tools and resources to help you enhance your video experience’;

YouTube is still the undisputed king of video sharing on the web, so it only makes sense that there would be a slew of tricks and tools for it. From Adobe AIR applications that let you download videos to Firefox extensions that protect you from RickRolls, and much more, here are over 100 tools and resources to help you enhance your video experience.

Have a favorite? Tell us about it in the comments.

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Adobe AIR Applications

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Sometimes you just want to get out of the browser environment, and Adobe AIR apps offer a viable solution with many of the same features you enjoy in the browser. Apps such as the YouTube Video Widget even work online and off, allowing you to watch your downloaded videos any time you’d like from an app you already enjoy.

DeskTube – A social YouTube viewer that allows you to send links to friends to open their DeskTube, tweet what you are watching along with a link, and more.

MyYouTube – Play or download videos from YouTube, create playlists, manage your collection and more.

YouTube Video Widget works Online and Offline – An application designed with mobile devices in mind.  It downloads the videos to the local drive and then detects when the device is offline and switches to playing the locally stored copies.

YouTube Widget – Browse through the top rated videos or search YouTube just as you would from the web interface.

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Alternative Viewing Methods

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It can get boring watching YouTube videos in the exact same way day after day. Why not change it up a bit and look into some alternative methods of viewing? You can even create your own comedy by running videos through things like The Benny Hillifier, which oddly turns out funnier than you might think it would.

AlarmTube – Set a time you want to wake up, choose a video you want to hear as you rise, and you’re done.

ILoveMusicVideo.net -  A YouTube viewer focused on music lists generated by Last.fm such as top songs and artists.

InfiniTube.net – Enter some keywords, and you’ll get a constant stream of uninterrupted YouTube videos related to them.

Splicd.com – Select a point in a YouTube video, say starting at 53 seconds, and this site will build a link to that point so you can share it with others.

The Benny Hillifier – Enables you to add The Benny Hill Show theme song to any video.

VirtualVideoMap.com – Take a virtual tour of the Earth by clicking on the tags on the Google Maps globe, and seeing a video related to that location.

WiiToob.com – A customized YouTube browsing site built with the Nintendo Wii in mind.

You3b.com – Why watch only one YouTube video, or even two, when you can watch three at once?  Make a triptych of YouTube videos you can watch singly or all at the same time.

YouTube Doubler – Once in a while you run into a video on YouTube where the uploader says it will make more sense if you watch another video with it; Well, with YouTube Doubler, you can do just that.  Enter the URLs of both videos, and you’re ready to go.

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Firefox Extensions

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Is there anything Firefox can’t do? Thanks to its extension development community there are a number of great Firefox extensions for YouTube. For example, by collecting some of the most popular Greasemonkey scripts for YouTube, Better YouTube allows for greater user control and a cleaner interface.

Download YouTube Videos

Ant Toolbar – The official toolbar for Ant.com includes a YouTube video downloader as well as a built in FLV player so you can play the videos you’ve snagged right from there.

Embedded Objects – This add-on will download pretty much any type of embedded file, including your favorite YouTube videos.

Fast Video Download – Fast Video Download works with numerous video sites and will also add a download link under embedded YouTube videos you find on other sites.

Flash Video Downloader – Besides allowing you to download your favorite videos from YouTube, this add-on will download flash videos from other sites and even games.

Flash Video Resources Downloader – Will let you download videos from most flash-based video sharing sites. Also, enter a YouTube URL and be presented with the download information without needing to go to the page.

Magic’s Video Downloader – Assists you with downloading FLV videos from around two dozen video sharing sites, including the market leader, YouTube.

Media Converter – This extension will allow you to not only download your desired videos, but it will also convert them right in the browser to the format you desire.

Sothink Web Video Downloader – Besides downloading videos from YouTube, Sothink will also let you capture videos in swf, wmv, asf, avi, mov, rm and rmvb formats.

Video DownloadHelper – Once installed, Video DownloadHelper’s icon will animate when you come to a page that has a video you can download. Once you start the download process, you can also choose which format you want to save the file as.

Tools

Better YouTube – Collects some of the most popular Greasemonkey scripts for YouTube that do things like give you an alternate player, a cleaner theater interface and more.

GoogleTube – This extension adds a YouTube icon next to Google search results that have videos associated with them. Click on the button and you can watch the videos directly on the search results page.

Groowe Firefox Toolbar – Gives you a toolbar that lets you search YouTube, Digg, Delicious and more.

Now Playing X – Allows you to feed videos you are watching to the Now Playing feature on messengers like Live, Yahoo, AIM, Skype and GTalk.

RickRadar – If you really fear being RickRolled, install this and it will evaluate pages. If it feels there is a high probability of Rick Astley being there, it redirects you.

TubeStop – Only has one job and that is to stop YouTube videos from autoplaying.

VodPod – Allows you to grab the embed code for a video and store it at VodPod.com and then publish it to your blog with just a click.

You Old Enough? – Tired of signing in to verify your age? This add-on will let you bypass the whole process.

YouPlayer – YouPlayer allows you to drag videos to your playlist and form your own list from around the Web. If you find anything you like, right click on it and you can choose to download it.

YouTube – An improved search for YouTube that uses Google’s auto suggest system to help you fill out what you are looking for.

YouTube Cinema – Allows you to play all YouTube videos in a default that shows them in cinema view.

YouTube Comment Snob – This add-on allows you to hide comments from people with numerous misspellings, excessive punctuation, all capital letters, no capital letters and so on.

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Greasemonkey Scripts

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Gresemonkey scripts give you greater flexibility on a number of sites, enhancing your visual enjoyment, which is important on YouTube. For example, YouTube Cleaner clears away the rubbish and allows you to enjoy what the site was built around: videos.

BetterTube – With support for over 50 sites, this script will allow you to see embed-disabled videos, download to various services, and more.

Coralized-YouTube – Uses the Coral Content Distribution Network to cache videos and speed up their loading on your system.

Download ANY Video from YouTube – This will add a link to any YouTube page allowing you to download the video as an MP4 file.

Loopy for YouTube – Adds a button below a video that lets you loop the video as many times as you like, so it’s perfect for that infectious song you can’t get out of your head.

Play YouTube videos in full screen auto – This script will automatically open YouTube videos into full screen mode, completely bypassing the stand alone page.

Thumbs2Links – Allows you to click on “Get direct links!” from any video index page and begin downloading all of those videos without having to go to individual pages.

VidzBigger – Automatically takes the video to its largest size, and places the comments to the side so you don’t have to scroll down, along with a few other features.

Video Focus – Allows you to watch videos without the distraction of chats, comments, ads and so on, while also giving you the ability to resize videos, customize the background color, center the video on the page and more. Works with dozens of different video sites.

Videoembed – Videoembed works with over 40 video sharing sites so that if you are on a page with a link to their videos, it will automatically bring up the video on the page you are viewing as if it was embedded. Saves you the time and bother of going to YouTube just to get RickRolled.

Years Watching YouTube – Ever wondered how much time is lost to a given YouTube video?  This script multiplies the length of the video times the number of views to tell you in years how much time the video has consumed from the world.

YousableTubeFix – A good all-in-one script that blocks ads from the sections you want, lets you download videos into several formats, automatically expands the “More” section, lets you see all comments at once and more.

YouKing – Adds the ability to download the video in various formats by adding links beneath the embed code area.

YouTube Alternate Video Player – Replaces the standard YouTube flash player with the FlowPlayer player.

YouTube Animated Thumbnails – Force the thumbnails to cycle through the three preview images.

YouTube better embed – Cleans up the embed code for YouTube videos to be used on other sites.

YouTube Cleaner – Helps you clean up the appearance of the YouTube video pages by removing the comments, related videos, promoted videos, sharing information and footer. Also allows you to restore them instantly if you should choose to do so.

YouTube Double the Vid – Opens the video you are currently viewing in YouTube Doubler (mentioned earlier in this list).

YouTube Enhancer – Assists with downloading videos you wish to keep, giving you the ability to buffer with autoplay turned off, rollover previews and several media controller options.

YouTube Googler – YouTube Googler allows you to have more control over how a YouTube page is presented to you. You can resize the video, prevent autoplay, and reorder items in the sidebar.

YouTube HD Suite – Adds icons to your YouTube searches to show you which videos are available as HD and MP4, and then provides you with links inside each for downloading in the quality you want.

YouTube HQ + 720p – This script will seek out the highest quality version of a video and load it via Ajax so that there is no need for the whole page to reload. Also adds in the ability to turn autoplay on and off, change the video player color and so on.

YouTube “Lights Out” – Gives you a light bulb icon so you can turn off the “lights” and darken the background for easier enjoyment of your video.

YouTube Lyrics – This handy little script can search up to 11 sites for the lyrics to the song you are watching a video of. Words are added in a box in the YouTube sidebar under the video information.

YouTube Playlist Search Remover – Remove playlists from the search results you see on YouTube so you can stick to just the individual videos.

YouTube Prevent Autoplay – While several other scripts have the ability to turn off the autoplay feature, if that is the only feature you want, this is the script for you.

YouTube Remove Video Ads – Remove all of those video ads from your selected videos.

YouTube Static Video Size – With all the different YouTube video sizes these days, this script will keep them a constant size for you.

YouTube Without Flash – Adds links below the videos to either download the videos or play them in an external player.

YouTube – Previews, click-to-play, download, no flash, 16:9 – Gives you previews for three different sections of the video, uses alternate video player for higher quality clips, adds a download button and more.

YouTubr – Allows you to watch a YouTube video associated with a Flickr image right on the Flickr page.

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Search & Browsing Tools

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YouTube’s search is not the most powerful thing around, it’s doubtful anyone would argue that. Luckily kindhearted souls out there have built numerous alternative methods such as 7ags.com to help you muddle your way through the millions of video clips.

7ags.com – Browse YouTube keywords in a tag cloud format.

iDesktop.tv – Allows you to search YouTube, see the most popular, featured, or recent in a large display on the front and download anything you like.

Loom.tv – Search multiple video sites including YouTube with this one easy to use interface.

Mappeo.net – A Google Maps and YouTube mashup that lets you browse by geographical location and narrow things down with keywords.

MetaTuber.com – Search by various analytics, browse the tag cloud, see the newest videos and download whichever ones you enjoy.

oSkope.com – A visual search engine for several sources, including YouTube that presents the results as thumbnails on a desktop and allows you to hover over them for information, and move them around to your satisfaction.

TimeTube – Enter a few keywords and this site will build a timeline of videos related to them.

Utrecht.cc – Restrict your searches only to music videos on the popular video sharing site.

VizBand.co.uk – Search either for just music videos or all of YouTube and get the results as a screen full of thumbnail images you merely have to hover over to get information about.

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YouTube Download Sites

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For a site that doesn’t offer you the ability to download videos, there sure are plenty of alternatives out there. Some are very easy, like KissYouTube.com, which just requires a simple URL change, making it a breeze for you to grab any video you want for your own collection.

Anjo.to – Download videos from YouTube and save them in formats such as MP4, AVI, MOV and others.

Catch-Video.com – A straightforward YouTube downloading service that allows you to convert videos directly to another format of your choice.

CatchYouTube.com – Simply enter the URL of the video, select the format you want to save it in, and click the “Convert & Download” button.

ClipNabber.com – Enter the URL of videos from a multitude of different sites and then save them in the .flv format.

ConvertTube.com – Enter the URL and convert the videos to formats such as MP3, MP4, MPG and more.

DownThisVideo.com – Either paste in the URL of the video you wish to download, or use their bookmarklet to grab the ones you desire.

ExtractVideo.com – Enter the URL of the video you wish to download, see recent downloads from other users, most popular & random videos and more.

ExtractYouTube.com – Have your choice of entering the URL you wish to download, or use their search to find videos you want to save.

FLVTo.com – Enter the URL of the video you wish to save as a FLV, or upload a video if you wish to convert it to this format.

KeepVid.com – Enter the URL of the video you wish to save, or add their bookmarklet to your toolbar and simply click it as you watch the video.

KissYouTube.com – You can either enter the URL of the YouTube video on their site, or simply add “kiss” in front of “youtube.com” while on the site, and it will start downloading the video.

StreamYard.com – Enter URLs from various video streaming sites to download and save the videos.

TubeZoid.com – Download videos from just about any video sharing site out there.

vconvert.net – Allows you to download your videos and convert them. Will also allow you to use a one-click tool to do it even quicker.

Video Downloader – Allows you to enter the URL from more video sites than just YouTube, download them, and convert them to another format.

Vidconverter.com – Enter the URL of a video from YouTube or any other of the numerous video streaming sites they support, and then convert them to other formats.

VideoDL.org – A downloader and nothing else.  Enter the URL, right click to save target as, make the extension .flv and you’re done.

VideoRonk.com – Search multiple video sites, download the resulting videos, recommend them, embed them and more.

Vixy.net – Convert downloaded YouTube videos into formats such as AVI, 3GP, MP3 and others.

YouTubeCatcher.com – Enter the URL of the video you wish to download, see the latest videos people are grabbing, and check out the videos that have been downloaded the most.

YouTubia.com – A site just offering simple downloads of YouTube videos in their native .flv format.

YouTubeMovieSaver.com – Simply enter the URL of the YouTube video you wish to download, choose to download, name the file as .flv and you’re done.

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Miscellaneous YouTube Tools

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There are numerous one-of-a-kind apps out there for YouTube that will help you do things like share and explore playlists (MixMasterTube.com), track videos that have been removed for copyright violations (YouTomb), and much more.

Graffiti.VIDAVEE.com – Enter the URL of a YouTube video, click the load button and you will see a copy of the video that you can add effects & text to. Once you’re done adding you will get a fresh embed code so that you can show off your creation anywhere you like.

MixMasterTube.com – Allows you to share your YouTube playlists with others, explore other lists, use it for music at parties and more.

Review Tube – Allows users to create time-based subtitles for various YouTube videos, and then they are made publicly available.

SiteVolume.com – Enter words in their YouTube tab to see how often they appear on the site. A good way to get suggestions for what keywords to use in your video description.

Subyo.com – Locate existing subtitles or add your own for any video on YouTube.

TubePopper.com – Add word balloons, comments, or subtitles to a video and then embed it in your site with the new additions.

TubeSurf.com – Search multiple video sites with one interface and see the results from all of them.

TubeSpy – Take a look at a constantly updating view of what YouTube videos people are watching at that very moment. See one that catches your interest and you can click on it to stop it and watch it.

ViralVideoChart.com – Get a sense of what videos are going viral and how they are trending.

VTubeTools.com – Add the video ID number and build a new player to use on your site with features like loop, custom skin, play in HQ and more.

YouTomb – A project from MIT that follows what videos are removed from YouTube for copyright violations. Tells you how many days ago the video was removed and how long it had been on the site prior to removal.

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More video resources from Mashable:

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- Social Media Break: 5 Online Shows to Escape the Daily Grind
- HOW TO: Create Online Video That Works
- Video Toolbox: 150+ Online Video Tools and Resources
- Beyond YouTube: 10 Top iPhone Video Apps
- ONLINE MEDIA GOD: 400+ Tools for Photographers, Videographers, Podcasters & Musicians

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A Python-based DVR for FireWire cable boxes

I wrote a nifty little Python module (for OS X only) that allows you to control and record FireWire-connected cable boxes such as the new ones from Comcast! It’s simple code, and this post contains a ton of information about how it works and how to use it.

[robg adds: I don't have cable, so I can't test this one ... in glancing at the page, though, it's clearly a CLI-only tool at present, though Ken states he has a close-to-ready GUI to use with it. This older hint provides another option for recording from FireWire cable boxes.]

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BeFunky Transforms Your Photos into Impressive Digital Artwork [Digital Photos]

Digital image effects web application BeFunky adds seriously impressive effects to any photograph—turning boring pictures into digital art in a couple of mouse clicks.

Using BeFunky to add digital effects couldn’t be easier—simply upload your files (or grab them from flickr, MySpace or Facebook), select your preferred effect from the list, and tweak the options to your liking. Once completed you can download your transformed photos without an account—a watermark is added, but it’s below the image and could be easily removed with a quick crop. This application is similar to previously mentioned Dumpr, but the effects are impressive enough to make this worth a look for anybody interested in DIY photography tools.

BeFunky is a free web application, no signup required. For more full featured image editing in your browser, check out previously mentioned Sumo Paint.

BeFunky [via Of Zen and Computing]

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