With the powerful, yet easy to use video editing software on the market today, it’s easy to just shoot, drop it in the editor, and burn it to a disk. What’s even easier is ending up with mediocre results. With just a little more attention you can turn average into spectacular. Most standard video editors, such as the one that comes bundled into Windows, Microsoft’s Movie Maker, have many features that, if used with some restraint, can help polish the finished product. With a little planning and some time spent in planning before compiling, you can make some memorable videos, and enhance your memories and your video records.

Here are some general rules that I like to follow:

* Keep it simple; a well-thought out five minute video is far more effective than a thirty-minute, no cuts, no-breaks-taken video. It’s OK to think in terms of chapters and to make each one a separate file. You can always combine them into longer works.

* Keep everything simple; pick just a few transitions and reuse them sparingly; avoid the temptation to apply all those radical filters. If you choose to use a special effect, use it once and make it count. If you are using still images, a simple fade transition works best.

* Choose a reasonable scene length. If you shoot ten minutes of video without pause, experiment with breaking it up into much shorter clips. Avoid the 3-second rule currently in vogue in commercials, where each scene only lasts 3 seconds. Some software will allow the program itself to break up any video file into several scenes, either by a detection algorithm, or by a set time span. Most can do this automatically.

* Edit edit edit. Good film making results in a fairly cluttered cutting room floor. Don’t be afraid to edit out uncle Henry’s silly dance. Consider editing out any really noticeable camera shakes. The idea is communicate the overall event or experience, not to record every single detail.

* Visual presentations must sound right. If you underestimate the power of sound, try watching a movie without the sound. You probably won’t last five minutes. Most of us live in a world filled with sound, and your videos should pay as much attention to the sound as any other feature. You should consider an audio editor program that will allow you to do several things; you should be able to strip out the original sound; you should be able to overdub, or add your voice to the recorded video sound track; you should be able to enhance your voiceovers or the original sound. Video recorders are not the best sound recorders.

* Titles, not family genealogies. Titles are a very effective tool; they can set the mood, position the presentation, and focus attention. They should be brief and this is one place where it’s OK to get a little crazy/creative. Slide in, fly out, different colors, interesting typefaces, go for it. Just don’t overdo it.

A final word; you don’t have to spend a fortune to have a full-featured video editing studio. I got ShowBiz, an ArcSoft product bundled into some burner software; it is a fully capable video editor. Avnex makes audio and video editors and morphers that you can download and try for free at www.audio4fun.com. Their Voice Changer Software Diamond 4.0 is one of my favorites, as it does for audio what the video editors do for visuals. Microsoft’s Movie Maker and Movie Maker II are also very capable video editors. And finally, don’t be afraid to experiment and to try altering the combinations of elements as you develop your video. Most programs will let you save elements as ‘projects’, which allows you access to the individual elements over and over. By following these simple steps and thinking creatively you can raise your home videos to a new level.

Joomla - An Open Source CMS worth looking at.

Joomla is an open source CMS system (CMS stands for Content Management System). I’m currently using Joomla to develop a number of themed web sites. There is a Christmas site, a recipe site and a travel site. Joomla has adapted nicely to each of these themes.

Generally CMS systems are extremely pricey and somewhat complex to use. I’ve found Joomla to be quite easy to use and now a month into using it I am really starting to appreciate it. If you don’t feel like using a simple page development tool and binding pages together by hand, then you should look at a CMS system. From what I’ve found, Joomla seems to be moving forward the quickest. I am currently using version 1.0.11 which is the latest of the 1.0 line.

Never use 1.0 software, that’s what people will tell you and for the most part, that’s true. However in the case of Joomla we must remember (or perhaps it’s my job to educate you) that Joomla’s roots (at least the 1.0 version) are in another CMS system Mambo. In fact, if you are familiar with Mambo, Joomla will be second nature (and the other way around).

Joomla is organized in menus, sections, catagories and items. It fits together kind of like this (general, remember this isn’t a book, it’s an article). A menu can link to a section, category or item in a number of ways (table, list, etc). A section can link to a category. A category can link to a number of items. So, if you need to organize your website by menu’s or tabs, this is ideal. Of course there is much more to joomla than that, but that is the first thing you’ll end up doing…just like I did.

Joomla extensions, templates, plug-ins, components One of the things I love about Joomla is the wide assortment of plugins and templates available for it, both commercial and free. I found a site, joomlahacks.com which has a ton of these things (over 200 freely downloadable templates). I found one that was appropriate for each of my sites and with a little modification (you are allowed to modify most templates as they’re part of the GPL) GNU Public License, or LGPL (lesser GNU public license).

Components that I am using are the metataggenerator component (downloaded) and the SEO component (allowing more google readable url’s for my web site. Also, like I said I’m using a differently downloaded (and personally modified) template for each of my sites. My sites are Christmas, Recipes and Travel. There are a couple more, but why go into those details.

If you go to joomla.org, you can actually test drive the software. I did this before setting up the christmas site. I wanted to be sure that joomla was right for me.

They’ve set up a joomla based server and give you a demo account to play with. This is great to get a feel for the software. I think the site gets reset every 30 minutes or something, so don’t expect your content to stay there. Also, please please refrain from spamming on this website! The joomla folks have been good enough to give us a great product and let us try it out live, please don’t take advantage of their good nature by putting spam up there.

Which technologies does Joomla use You could also call this section “what does my webserver/hosting package need to run joomla”?

- PHP, joomla is a PHP based system. If you don’t know what PHP is, you should search around a bit. It’s a language for web development (I believe loosly based on perl) which can have html embedded in it. I personally compare it to Java jsp’s. I needed to do a bit of PHP modification on the travel and recipe sites to make things fit properly, but this is not the fault of the original templates or Joomla, I just wanted a bit of a different look.

- MySQL, joomla needs access to a mysql database. It’s installs will create it’s own tables, but of course you need to have the appropriate permissions to do this.

That’s it…although, if it is running on an apache web server it also makes the SEO stuff work better as you can (possible depending on your hosting) change the .htaccess file to rewrite urls appropriately.

Linux makes a nice joomla platform, but there’s no reason why it can’t run on any platform which has the above capabilities.

On my host (godaddy) it was dead easy. I just downloaded joomla to my pc, uncompressed the zip file, then uploaded the joomla stuff to the appropriate directory on my server. From there, I tried to acess that directory via the web browser and voila! Up comes the installation screen. I simply followed the instructions and there it was. Perhaps I’ll write another article on installing joomla on godaddy (a more current one than the old ones I found which scared me away from doing this at first).

Performance I don’t have much of a frame of reference for this. Also my templates are a little heavy on the glitter. I’d say it’s reasonable for what it’s doing and obviously the faster the cpu and the more bandwidth your provider gives you the better joomla will perform.

Future Joomla 1.5 is now in beta, when it’s considered production ready you can be sure I’ll be installing it (on a test site) and seeing what’s new!

Here are some websites that I’ve done with Joomla, feel free to kick the tires (from an end user perspective).

Try Joomla out for yourself. Keep checking back here for future reviews on the other free products I used to put gocurious travel, gocurious christmas, gocurious recipes and gocurious books on the net.

A conference call involves the communication between a calling party and more than one listener. There are numerous conference call services available, making it difficult to make a quick decision. The service that you choose will ultimately depend on the expectations and uses you wish get out of your conference calls. For some, only a few details matter, such as price, while others are in need of advanced services like on-the-spot technical support. Below are a few factors to consider when choosing the conference call service that is most compatible with your needs.

Business Conference Calls

When it comes time to report quarterly stats, many companies turn to conference calls. This allows them to communicate the ups and downs of their business to interested parties. A higher-level company executive, such as the CEO, often reads the company reports. Once the results are revealed, the call is then accessible for others to join in, namely stock analysts, who come with a slew of questions. Businesses may also use conference calls to promote their products or services. Seminar leaders may open a conference call to the public to share their marketing techniques or business strategies for free or a small price.

Entertainment-Based Conference Calls

Today, people are looking for more and more ways to make new friends or find the companion of their dreams. When bars and clubs get to be too much, the allure of chatting on a “party line” becomes increasingly appealing. Entertainment-based conference calls are used to provide a break from boredom, as well as a way to socialize with others. Participants call a phone number set aside for this purpose and are plugged into a whole new world of mingling and flirting.

Audio vs. Visual

Audio conference calls are less expensive and require less equipment than visual conferencing. Web conference calls also open up a host of potential problems, such as malfunctioning chat, instant message, and web cam services. Streaming video may also pose concerns. Although the capabilities of visual conference calls are vast and have a better way of getting the point across, depending on your intended audience, the concept might be too advanced.

To use visual conferencing as a business tool, you will also have to familiarize yourself with an assortment of software selections and other online options. Learning visual conferencing techniques is a process. For example, include too many large files and you may end up with a communication problem.

Conference Call Limitations

What kind of conference call do you want? Some services allow the called party to speak during a call, while other selections only allow called parties to listen to what is being said.

Conference Call Set-Up

Do you want to control how conference calls are received and made? Calling parties can place calls to desired participants or entrance to a call is gained by calling a special phone number.

Reservation vs Non-Reservation

When you choose a service offering reservation-less conference calls, you will enjoy more freedom. Calls can be placed at any time without speaking to an operator or setting up an appointment. Reservation services require you to schedule your call ahead of time.

Conference Call Commands

What sort of capabilities do calling parties have when choosing a service? Things to consider include the ability to get operator assistance, mute and unmute participants, alter ringing tones and record conversations.

Call Planning is Essential

Knowing how long your conference call will be allows you to shuffle along participants to meet time expectations. As a rule of thumb, a conference call centers on an hour or more. Larger groups demand longer time frames, but without the use of video, it is difficult to keep the interest of all participants.

Usually, about 1-3 minutes are given to each participant to voice his or her opinions. Often, an hour-long conversation handles about 1-2 topics. Another important factor pertaining to conference calls is to prepare for last-minute technical issues. Be aware of applicable time zones and schedule a conference call that will accommodate all of your desired participants. When choosing a service, make sure all customer and technical support will be handled in a timely manner.

Billing Plans

Accepting a variety of credit cards, some services offer per minute pricing plans. Once the conference call is completed, a call summary is emailed to you with all of the details. Applicable charges are then placed on your credit card. Additional plans include flat rate unlimited and monthly plans. Some companies offer a flat monthly rate of $60 for a maximum of five people that allows unlimited usage for the month.

Special Services

Will the conference call service you choose provide you with extra services? Depending on your needs, you may desire to have a taped recording of your conference call. Some services offer this luxury for a flat fee (around $25). Some charge an hourly rate if you wish to have a transcript of your call. Rebroadcasts are also offered through some services for a fee. For an extra charge, operator assistance might be available, which helps with the moderation of conference calls.

Several Conference Call Service Companies Reviewed

Accu Conference : This on-demand, fully automated toll-free service offers reservation-less service, free call recordings and live in-call web control for 9.9 cents per line. Operator service costs 13.9 cents. Unlimited use, flat-rate conferencing is offered, starting at $99 per month.

No Cost Conference : Offers free, reservation-less conference call capabilities, available 24 hours a day. You will receive a pin and dial-in phone number once a quick registration is completed. Free and cheap conference call services are good for short notice calls and limited budgets. With this option, reliability of service does become a concern.

WebEx : Offers conference call services, as well as helpful products, such as Meeting Center, Training Center, Support Center and Sales Center. They offer different solutions to better serve small, medium and large companies. They also offer decent live technical support and pay-per-use services.

OnConference : This service offers no set-up fee and has a listed price of 19 cents per minute per person with or without toll-free access.

Contact Call : Highly recommended for their operator-assisted services.

When you conduct careful comparisons and research on the many conference call services, you will be able to take advantage of a wealth of savings that regular phone services cannot provide.

To make easy money online you have to get high targeted traffic to your website. This is acheived by your knowledge of how to be ranking high in the search engines. The basic step is to know how search engines work.

Most searh engines have three parts: a crawler, an index, and a search interface.Let’s look at each part individually to get a better understanding of them. Each part has its own role to play in the process, with all parts working together to make searches possiple.

1. The Crawler:

Also known as a “spider” or “bot”, this part of the search engine wanders the web, following links and picking up information for its database. Crawlers do most of their work at times of the day when searh engines are less busy, but they typically visit frequently updated pages more often. This is something to keep in mind when you are working on your pages.

Your site’s title and text(your content) are the most important thing to a crawler. The fastest way to raise your site’s search engine ranking for specific key words is to implementthem into your title and your content.

2. The index.

Once the crawler has collected all that text, it is then stored and indexed. This allows people searching for key words and phrases to get results relating to what they were searching for - their search results. Most sites will incorporate rating systems such as Google Page Rank or Alexa Rankings in positioning your site. These ratings are used attempt to ensure that sites that are important receive more traffic than unimportant sites.

To see this in action, go to a search engine and type in a word. You’ll see some text on the page saying something like “results 1-10 of 1,234,000″. This means that the search engine’s index contains 1,234,000 pages it believes are related to the word you typed. If you wanted to, you could look through all these pages to find the information you’re looking for.

In order to understand rating systems more thoroughly consider your own site. When you place links on your site you generally do so to increase your users understanding of the content of your site.

If every site in a particular field links to a particular site, this site is probably very important to that field and should, therefore, be listed highly in the lists of search engine results. This is the basic ideology of Google Page Ranks.

Consider again , a site that receives a great deal of traffic, it probably has some information or service that is very important to its users. Alexa ratings attempt to estimate the amount of traffic that a particular site gets and compare it to the amount of traffic that other sites get. The closer that a site is to the most trafficed site on the internet, the more likely it is to have important content if it is relevant to search query.

3. The Interface.

Search engines provide a public intrface for users who want to find information on the web. They can type the word or phrase they’re searching for, and the interface will run an algorithm to find the pages relevant to their search and display them.

These algorithms are an important part of the SEO(Search Engine Optimization) business. You’ll notice when the algorithms change, the rankings of your website will change with them. No two search engines have the same algorithms. They all work differently, with their unique features, and they will all respond to your website in their own way.

The most popular search engines today include Google, Yahoo, MSN, Alltheweb, and AskJeeves.

Watching how the traditional media covers the latest virus or scam would make one think we are all innocent victims and it is the “evil Internet” at work once again. News flash! Innocent? More like uninformed. Victim? In many cases add the word “willing.” The media’s point of view and how they choose to portray these occurrences always makes me chuckle.

In the past decade, there has been very little progress when it comes to onliners wanting to acquire just enough information and knowledge to know how to protect themselves. They throw their hands up claiming “I’m not a techie!” while they proceed to want to participate in “technienology.” The truth is these issues are part and parcel of participation.

Many do not update their virus programs (that is if they even have one in the first place) and they believe some of the most gratuitously ridiculous offers. That is as long as those “offers” insinuate easy riches with little effort or expense. To that end; there is your weakest link. The propensity to believe misinformation that caters to one’s inner desires.

When did plain old common sense go out the window? Why do the natural rules of trust, common sense and due diligence for some reason not seem to apply online? Off-line if these tactics were used, most would probably laugh the salesperson right out of the building! But online, we enter the surreal world of possibilities combined with the perception that some of the most important issues of all are ours to ignore or disregard if we so please.

When it comes to impeding scams and viruses there are three simple solutions:

1. For Scams: Simply don’t believe it; none of it! If it comes in an e-mail you didn’t request-just hit delete! If it’s on a Web site, do your due diligence to confirm claims and to ask for recommendations and proof. Investigate how long the site has been online. Read their terms and conditions. E-mail them with every single question you may have before you give them one red cent of your hard earned dollars. Only proceed if you receive timely and concise answers. Not willing to make these efforts? Then plan on getting ripped off and you deserve it! Buyer beware? More like buyer be informed!

2. For Viruses: Update your virus software every time you log on. Simple. Don’t click on any links within e-mails that you are not expecting. Most virus software has an automatic scheduler so that the software can update daily at specified times. Once this is setup you will no longer have to manually update. Then, keep your update subscription current. Remember, you computer doesn’t know what to protect you from without these updates!

3. Make an effort in both these areas to understand the tools and resources available to you to help you participate in a smart and informed manner. You can literally check anything out online by searching Google to find reviews, warnings or even accolades and recommendations. Take the time to use and absorb the information available to you if you want to participate in information technology!

By following the above three steps, those who create viruses wouldn’t have a leg to stand on and the scammers would not be in business by taking advantage of what folks don’t want to take the time to understand or verify.

As long as Netizens do not make a concerned effort to be informed there will be someone out there willing to take advantage of them. Don’t blame technology; don’t blame the scammers and hackers. The blame should be placed with those who can easily avoid these situations, but choose to not be informed enough to do so.