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Catch the Winter Olympics Online

February 16th, 2010 by Ken

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It’s 2010 and the Winter Olympics have arrived, giving spectators an opportunity to watch countries compete in a wide range of winter-based events, from cross country skiing to bobsledding.

Not all of us are able to catch the events from the comfort of our couches, leaving some of us to make do with the streaming services available on the internet. For those of you looking to catch specific events on the internet, there are a number of options giving you the opportunity to stay on top of the festivities.

Before deciding which service you’ll use to track the events, you’ll want to settle on those competitions you’re looking to watch. A variety of events are occurring concurrently throughout each day of the Olympics.   For a schedule listing the start times of those events you’re looking to follow, visit the official website, where you’ll also find the results as they filter in.

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After determining those events you want to watch, your next order of business is deciding on the service that’ll stream it to you. Most of the events are streamed right on the same site on which you reviewed the schedule. From there, you’re directed to televised broadcasts streaming from a number of countries.

If your sole interest is participation in these games by American athletes, NBC has a great resource that provides not only live streaming but a listing of all local stations that deliver coverage of the events. Entering your zipcode and the name of your cable/satellite provider will result in a list of local stations televising the games. Looking at the list of television stations, you can also check on those that are offering live streams on the internet.

While those are the official sites from which to get your Winter Olympics fix, you can also take a look at the two options below, both of which compiling an assortment of sites that are covering the events.

There are other resources available, which a quick Google inquiry will point you towards, but these are the best ones I’ve been able to unearth.  No matter who you’re rooting for, enjoy the games and celebrate the spirit of friendly competition!

If you’ve ever wanted to capture a session of your web browsing, whether it’s for an instructional package you’re compiling or just something to toy around with in your spare time, there’s a neat Firefox extension that lets you do just that without having to install any additional capturing software.

As you might know, Firefox extensions add to your browsing experiencing, sprucing it up with greater functionality and convenience that has contributed to the growing popularity of Mozilla’s browser. This latest extension allows users to record their screen while they browse.

Called CaptureFox, this extension does just that, capturing everything you do while it’s in a state of recording.

After its installation, you’ll notice a new icon sitting on the right-hand side of your status bar (it can also be accessed by hitting CTRL-SHIFT-U or selecting it from the tools menu), the use of which will bring up this extension’s menu.

As you see, there are a fair number of options available, offering users a chance to determine just how high they’d like the quality of recording to be.

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You can decide if you’d like to restrict it to just what’s available in your Firefox window, or you can record your entire screen. Along with frame rate, video quality is also adjustable, both of which being options that may affect performance on older machines.

This is a very helpful tool for those who’re making instructional videos, but it’s also a reliable – and, for some, fun — means of keeping an actual history of the time spent on your computer.

Here’s a video that demonstrates just how CaptureFox  works:

If you’re interested in this extension, you can read about and download CaptureFox here.

Quicktime just became lighter.

October 19th, 2009 by Ken

Long considered the most popular alternative to Microsoft Windows Media Player, Apple’s Quicktime is a platform that supports multiple forms of media – music, text, video, etc.

For users who wish to use it without the bloat, there is a decidedly slimmer version available, offering the fundamental utility of Quicktime in a smaller and more efficient package.  The most welcome omission is Apple’s Software Utility Update, which runs background processes that can impact performance.

Absolutely free, QT Lite is available for Windows only.

Download it here.

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