Free Download A Day

Mom! Dad! I'm bored! During the long summer days, keeping the kidlets entertained can be a constant struggle. Here's one way: more than 2,100 free coloring pages that you can print out and they can color in. The vast assortment is neatly arranged by categories, which include animals, construction equipment, circus scenes, landscapes, plants, and holidays. The images are in PNG format, so you can print them from just about any graphics application.

Go to Free Printable Coloring Pages

For the advanced TV watcher — here is CBREAK!

It's no longer necessary to be a slave to the TV schedules: at the lowest level of escape there are still VCRs and DVD recorders. There are also megasystems like Tivo and ReplayTV. But if you want to get the same results you can buy a TV tuner card and use its scheduler to record your favorite programs to AVI files on your computer. But along with the shows you record the commercials as well.

Enter CBREAK. It scans the AVI file for certain signature events — such as black frames — which signal a switch from the show to a commercial. These it drops while re-recording the file. Then, at your leisure you can watch the irritation-free results!

There are lots of controls available for this program. Normally, it drops commercials automatically but you can change this to verify each deleted section manually. You can fine-tune the black-frame detection parameters as you wish. There is a setting for the minimum length of segments that will be retained — default is 15 frames, which is about half a second. There is even a "skit mode", so that individual skits in shows like Saturday Night Live and Money Python can be saved as seperate files.

It's a freeware program but the author accepts donations. It's also available for development under the GNU GPL license.

Download Cbreak

If you are the kind with more than a passing interest in creating your own brand of music fusion, consider the Linux MultiMedia Studio (LMMS) mixing software. Install this on your machine and you would have almost converted your room into a mini-recording studio.

Like any good mixing software, LMMS allows you to create cool loops, synthesize and mix sounds and arrange the tracks. LMMS integrates the features of a tracker/sequencer-program (pattern/channel/ sample/song/effect-management) with those of powerful synthesizers and samplers on a sleek yet easy-to-use GUI. Beginners may want to go through the demo projects for some useful tips.

LMMS is still a work in progress and users are likely to find an occasional bug. Moreover, hardcore audiophiles will most likely contend that remixes using real hardware synthesizers will sound better than software-generated ones. Nonetheless, you can definitely impress your friends with your very own home-made electronica, without spending a dime on the hardware.

Get LMMS

Here's a great Friday time-waster: Classic Magic, a new site that shows how to perform hundreds of magic tricks. If you've ever thought it might be fun to liven up a party with a trick or two, this site will show you how to pull off dazzling sleight of hand with coins, eggs, and other everyday objects. There are also dozens of card tricks that will impress your friends on poker night. (Or possibly lose you some friends, if they catch you trying the false shuffles and card-up-the-sleeve tricks explained at the site.) All right, so maybe you don't want to try prestidigitation yourself — still. it's fun to find out how hundreds of classic magic tricks are done.

Visit www.ClassicMagic.net for Free Magic Tricks