At my place of employment, it has happened on several occasions where I get the infamous “Can I convert a PDF file into a Word Document.” I most often come back with a “No” answer, just due to the sheer cost of some of the converting applications AND the typical lack of proper conversion. This was until last week when I came across Zamzar.com.

Zamzar is the first and by the far the best online multi-file conversion utility I’ve ever seen. All that you have to do, is visit www.zamzar.com, upload any of the dozens of image, document, audio or video formats(up to 100MB), enter your e-mail address, wait 60 seconds…and finally, check your Inbox. The ease and speedy outcome of everything, is absolutely amazing.

I still didn’t have my hopes up for the PDF to DOC conversion, but was pleasantly surprised to see just how affective it really was. The vast majority of the PDF I was able to modify after converting to DOC format. Typically the PDF files, containing tables, graphs or other odd layouts, would display as unrecognizable, which in turn would lead to unhappy end user…that was until this amazing Web 2.0 site was found. I hope Zamzar maintains it’s free use as it works its way out of Beta and I wouldn’t expect it to, but with what appears to be amazing automated power, I wouldn’t be surprised either.

Click here for a list of their conversion to and from types.

I first came along when I was combing Google looking for a Wordpress Plugin to display my most popular posts in my sidebar. I definitely discovered that with Popularity Contest.It gives one the ability to display your most popular blog posts via amount of views, comments, category views, amongst several other factors, definitely a handy dandy tool. He’s also got a few other incredibly handy plugins that do some incredibly cool things, but the newest and most useful is the idea to merge all those ugly social networking icons sitting at the bottom of your post.

Many of you don’t have all of these icons, but then again many of you do and it can get quite ugly at times. And for those who don’t, you probably don’t because it is so tacky and ugly. Now Alex is trying to standardize how we look at utilizing all of these sites by combing them all into one by using a simple term “ShareThis” to display all of the more popular sites, along with an e-mail option into an Ajax like pop-up diplay. Although you can see this same thing by clicking on the “Sharethis” link at the bottom of this post, here’s a screenshot for you:

As you can see, this gives anyone the ability to quickly add or e-mail any of your blog posts to one of the many of the significant social networking sites. Time to check it out, he just released a new version, Sharethis 1.3.1

Quick note to my readers, you’ll notice the theme change. The theme is called TypoXP. I decided to make the change due to much faster load times and the fact I was running out of Real Estate on my single sidebar. Now I’ve got much more area to have both blog info and sponsor information.

IF THE VIDEO IS NOT PLAYING PROPERLY, CLICK HERE TO SEE IT ON METACAFE

Over the past few weeks, I’ve begun falling in love with the other video website, Metacafe. They are fast becoming a superior alternative to YouTube and in my personal opinion they’ve done this with a couple of factors, but specifically with their Producer Rewards program.

Producer Rewards offers anyone(with approval) the ability to make money from the videos they submit. You must of course have rights to the video and it must fall within their terms of content. Some people have taken off with this and are making tens of thousands of dollars. Many are legitimant home videos of people doing stunts, card tricks and god knows whatever else.

These videos however have included hundreds of easy windows tips and tricks as well. One individual, named “Maverick” has made thousands just off of showing an individual how to “Create a Windows Icon” or “Create a Shortcut to Shutdown Your System”. Very readily available things on the web, but each easier to see through video. So, I thought, I can do better then this guy, I know tons of Windows secrets, one problem…no video camera, as this is how a majority of these videos have been shot.

That’s where Camstudio comes in. Camstudio is not the only freely available on-screen recording utility, but it is most definitely the best. Here is a quick excerpt from their website about what it can do and what you may want to do with it:

CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs)

Here are just a few ways you can use this software:

* You can use it to create demonstration videos for any software program
* Or how about creating a set of videos answering your most frequently asked questions?
* You can create video tutorials for school or college class
* You can use it to record a recurring problem with your computer so you can show technical support people
* You can use it to create video-based information products you can sell
* You can even use it to record new tricks and techniques you discover on your favourite software program, before you forget them

You also have the ability to record the entire screen, a particular region or a fixed region of your size choice.

So, have a hidden Windows, IE, Firefox, Internet tutorial you’d like to show to the world, while making a little money on the side…Well, this is your chance. Sign-up for a Metacafe account, download Camstudio, and record away.

Received an e-mail tonight from Microsoft regarding the upcoming release of Windows Vista in February 2007. Mainly talked about their express upgrade options and how easy it was, etc, etc, etc. Here an excerpt from the e-mail:

Don’t wait to buy a new PC–that was our advice in the last issue. Buy a Windows XP-based PC that qualifies for an Express Upgrade to Windows Vista, and you can enjoy your new PC now, then easily upgrade to Windows Vista when it becomes available January 30.

Not sure that a new PC is in your future? Know the different options for upgrading to Windows Vista. And while you’re at it, discover some of the cool new features in Windows Vista that will change how you use your PC:

Essentially they want our money and want to build upon what still is a thriving multi-billion dollar corporation. Fortunately, superb vendors such as Newegg.com and others are offering promotional deals for cheap and easy upgrade. One simple example of this is “If you buy Windows XP Media Center right now, we’ll offer you a free upgrade to Windows Vista Premium, when it is released”. As you can see, this doesn’t go for previous purchases, this goes for any purchases you plan on making NOW and in the future of Windows XP.

I’m still trying to figure out the exact date you would have needed to make the purchase. Below is a graphic provided by Newegg of their promotion. (And click here for more information)