Screencasts are very popular now a days and to be honest I'm not a big fan of installing software that I'm going to be using a few times and then forget about them. So the best solution for this is using a web based application to record your screencasts. Now don't get me wrong, if its a very extensive screencast you will need some sort of software, but if its only a few minutes long the best option is a web based. Lets start by pointing out the pros and cons of web based services.

Pros

• You don’t have install any software for recording the screen, just an active internet connection would do.
• Web based screen recorders are generally written in Java and hence support all major platforms and browsers.
• The recorded video gets uploaded to the web automatically so you don’t have to worry about web hosting or what format to choose when saving the video.

Cons

• The recording length is very limited
• The quality of the video and sound is very poor
• Can't control the format of the videos
• Can't edit the videos to erase mistakes, got to do the whole thing over again

Currently there are only 5 websites that offer this service (that I know of). Lets go over them.

1. ScreenCastle

This website offers a very simple and easy way to record the screen. All you have to do is, click the "record" button and start recording your screen. After you are done with the recording, you can preview the video directly and save it to your computer. The video is saved to screencastle servers so that you can share the created video with others with ease.

2. Screencast-o-Matic

This is also a one click screencasting web service. No prior registration is required to use this service. Just click on the "create" button and accept the Java template and proceed to next screen. Here you can select the "Capture size", and select the "microphone" option to record voice. Click "go!" to start capturing the video, you can also pause the recording in between and continue. You can record videos up to 15 minutes long using this web application and export it directly to YouTube or download to your computer.

3. Screen Jelly

Screenjelly is another web application that allows you to capture the screen and create screencasts easily. Registration is not required to record screencasts. Just push the "record" button and select the audio option. After you have done with the recording, you can tweet the same with your Twitter account directly or email the link to a friend or simply share it on social bookmarking sites.

4. ScreenToaster

This one is another online screencasting tool that allows you to record your screen easily and get a flash file to share with others. You can register on the site to save all your work at one place and use them anytime from anywhere..

5. Screenr

Screenr has to be the best one available currently. It allows you to record up to 5 minutes. To use this Screenr you need to login with your twitter account. With this service you can choose to send a tweet about your newly recorded screencast or just file it under your account where all your videos are saved.

Like i said, these were the only ones I could find. If you know of any other sites that offer this services I would gladly add it to the list. Also would be nice to hear your experience with any of them. I personally like Screenr and doubt I would change it for any of the other 4.

Twitter has become a big part of blogging and sharing information. And because of this, new icon sets appear daily and well most don't really look that good but in this occasion i bring you a set of birds from SixCrayons that look really awesome and are completely original. This set consists of 11 icons from our beloved tux to a gangster bird, and there's even startrek bird.

This are just 6 of them, you can see the rest by either clicking on the image or here , did I mention you can request your own? Just drop them a comment and wait for the reply on it.

SixCrayons doesn't only offer this awesome icon set but they have there own comic strip that's pretty funny.

So far there's only 2 strips of "No Soup Allowed" but both are really good. It updates weekly, I'm not sure exactly what day but it's worth subscribing.

A week or so ago my old (and favorite) RSS Feader started to brake constantly and well that was a bit of a problem. I decided to go on a search for a new one, but it wouldn't be the first time. The diference was that this time alot more readers apeared. Some might say why not just use a web reader like Google Reader. And a response to that is i'm to used to having an aplication and just dont trust websites with this kind of thing.

While looking for a reader i had the following considerations to my needs:

• Must be nice to look at whether web-based or desktop – it’s an app I’m going to use a lot
• Must give me an at-a-glance summary of all my feeds as well as a feature to look into each one
• Must have OPML import/export so I can import my feeds not re-enter them all manually
• I must feel comfortable using it
• Must be able to configure into 3 columns (being the columns Feed list, Feed items and the actual feed)

So after hours of looking and testing i finally settled for RSSOwl. RSSOwl is a free, open source, Java-based desktop feed aggregator. It’s cross-platform as it’s Java-based, or so it says on the website. Only tried it on Windows Vista.

After downloading and installing, the first thing i did was take a look at there Preference panel.

RSSOwl Preference Panel

As you can see from the screenshot the configuration options are quiet extensive. Lets go over some of them realy quick.

• Browser - In this tab you set the default browser you want to use, you can either use the embedded browser wich is most likely to be IE on windows, set to the default one you use or give the direccion to another browser. By the way, Javascript is disabled by default and if you wish you can enable it from this tab.
• Feeds - I consider this tab as the most important one, after all it is a feed reader. From here you can set options like, how often to update feeds, check for updates on startup, Mark feeds as read with timers, or after certain actions. And you cant even clean up the database of the old pesky feeds.
• Notifier - You can disable the notifier but if you decide to use it, you can set the maximum of items to be shown, either to show the title only or a short piece of the feed. The amount of seconds before the notifier closes, you can even filter wich feeds you wish to get notifications from.
• Sharing - Here you set the social networks or bookmark sites you wish to be shown in each feed item for easy sharing. It really does have an extended list. Wish you could actually add your own sites to this list, maybe in the future.
• View - This is the tab where you set the visual interface of the reader, from options like setting the maximum amount of tabs to open or disable tabbing on the feeds. Minimize to try. Wish layout to use Classic View (Example: The first Screenshot) Vertical View (My screenshot at the end of the post) or Newspaper View

RSSOwl Filters

Now that we know a bit more about the setting and options of the reader lets move on to the things that really matter. Unlike most of the feed readers i have tried this one has a pretty good filter, you can filter the unread, sticky, new, never seen or the ones that are outdated or couldn't be updated. The aggregation of new feeds is pretty standard from other readers, you have the option to import a OPML file or just add them manually by a short cut CTRL+D. You can also organize them by folders or make filters feeds. Oh I almost forgot as you remember the preference panel has a "Feeds" item and well each single feed has its own options so you can make different settings for each feeds or group them up and use the same setting for some.

As you can tell from the mini review this is a very complete and easy to customize reader. I've been using it for a week or so and really haven't had any problems with it so far. Heres a screenshot of how my RSSOwl has been configured using the Vertical View setting.

My Setting of RSSOwl