Mister Nifty

UPDATE – This giveaway is no longer available.

TechSmith is giving away an older version of Camtasia Studio. Camtasia is a screen recording software that they make the cool screencasts with. This is a pretty spendy tool but you can get it free. All you have to do is register for a software key. This is as legit as it comes. It’s directly from the manufacturers website, so no worries mate with pirated software. You can download the software HERE. Thanks to Jen Miller for the great tip!

This tool has been a long time coming for anyone wanting to print from remote locations. Printer Anywhere connects to your printers on another machine and allows you to use your regular print button in your documents to print remotely. In other words, if you are home, you can print at the office by selecting the office printer from your normal printer drop down and clicking print. That simple! You must have a host machine at the office running. The coolest part about this is it’s free!!!

-via Life Hacker-

Don’t spend hundreds of dollars on a fancy audio editing program to record your services. Audacity is a free software that allows you to record directly, edit with massive amounts of features, and even create tracks like expensive brand name software. You can use Audacity for video production, simple audio tasks, or even as a recording studio. This is a great software for radio stations on a budget. Audacity converts your files to mp3, wma, wav and virtually any other audio format available. There are plenty of tutorials for this software, it’s easy to use and it’s FREE!!

If you are the “Computer Guy” for your church, you will understand the value of this tool. There have been many times people have called me to come and fix their computer problems. Being spread so thin as it is, it is hard for me to drive across town to take spyware off a clogged machine. I use Cross Loop on a weekly basis. Basically, each party downloads and installs this free software. One person will host a session and give the invitee their special session code. When you connect, the invitee will see a screen appear with the hosts screen in view. The invitee will be able to nagivate the computer just as if they are sitting in front of the hosts computer. This tool has saved me so much time and gasoline. I recommend every IT department to have this nifty tool.

You can even install it on your office computers if you are really lazy and then login and fix the receptionists problem two doors down. If you want to do a great prank, host a session on your coworker’s computer while while they are at lunch, go to your office and when they return start opening windows and typing things in the word processor. It’s great fun when they think a hacker has taken over their computer.  Just don’t get too carried away.

If you don’t have a PDF converter, you are living in the dark ages. Download this great little software for free! CutePDF writer is more than a cuddly cute software, it’s a workhorse for your document needs. CutePDF installs as a printer on your computer. All you have to do is go to any program, click PRINT, and select CutePDF from the list. You will be prompted select the directory you wish to save your new PDF to, and viola, you have a beautiful new Cute PDF. Don’t let the name fool you, many macho men have this cute program secretly installed on their machine.

Download CutePDF

Download Converter (required to run CutePDF)

Never worry again about finding that great site with that excellent quote you want to use for your sermon or lesson. If you research the internet like I do, you come across portions of webpages you wish you could keep. You’re too lazy to write it down, and your bookmark list looks like your closet when you were a bachelor. Google Notebook is the cure for your research woes. Install Google Notebook browser extension on your computer. Whenever you see something you want on the net, highlight it, right click and clip it to your notebook. The notebook stores the information for you including where and when you found it. And yes, it’s free!