Today I would like to share a website maintained by a fellow member at the Digital Point forums, thaslayer, at www.thaslayer.com. As the post title suggests, he is a commendable graphics and web designer and I found that his designs are very appealing. The website itself has been designed very well, with subtle shades used to make for easy reading and to direct the reader’s attention to the various sections on the website easily.

At the time of writing there are 4 great themes offered for free download under the Free Themes section, namely Missile, Styleicious, Chameleon and Loveblog. Each theme is accompanied by a full feature list, a live demo site and of course the download link. Among these, Loveblog is my personal favorite, mainly due to the clean lines and easy to read layout.

The Portfolio section is where the author shows off his ability in creating designs for various platforms including Wordpress, PHP Link Directory, Forums and General Websites. Just taking a peek at the cleverly made Wordpress design previews you can tell that thaslayer is indeed capable of churning out an entire range of designs and themes suited to the needs his clients.

So the next time you are in need of a custom designed Wordpress site or other web design, head over to thaslayer’s website and check out what he has to offer. I am sure you will not be disappointed.

Lots of people have asked me if its possible to download videos from YouTube and how to go about doing it. Yes, indeed its possible, in fact there are two ways of doing it. A) The free, but lengthy way; B) The cheap and quick way. Lets look at option A first (Click here to skip to the cheap and quick way)

OPTION A) The free but lengthy way

STEP 1 : Identifying the video

Identify the full address of the video which you want to download including the YouTube address (eg : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P6UU6m3cqk. You can get this from the address bar at the top of your browser window or by clicking on the More Info link at the right hand bar, from the URL box. Copy this address and have it ready to be used in the next step.

STEP 2 : Preparing for download

Open up a new browser window or tab and go to http://keepvid.com/. Here you will need to paste the address of the video you copied in STEP 1 into the box which says “URL”. Next click on the download button on the right hand side of the box DO NOT click on the Download, Convert and Play icons they are just advertisements.

STEP 3 : Downloading the video

Depending on the video you have chosen, you will be shown links which allow you to download the video file directly in a green box at the bottom of the page. Here you can choose to download either the low quality (FLV) format video or high quality (MPEG 4) format video by right clicking on the relevant link and choosing Save As. If you choose the Low Quality (FLV) option, you will have to rename the file from get_video to something else with an FLV extension, for example you may call the video “funny.flv”

STEP 4 : Playing the video

Depending on the video format you saved your file in Step 3, you will either need to have an FLV player to view the lower quality video file you downloaded in the FLV format, or an MPEG 4 player to view the high quality video file. FLV Player is a good player to use to view FLV video files. Apple Quicktime and many other video players are able to handle MPEG 4 videos without problems. Enjoy!

OPTION B) The cheap and quick way

STEP 1 : Download VideoPiggy

If you do not want the hassle of performing the steps above each time you need to download a video from YouTube, and want a quick and easy way to get your YouTube videos, I recommend VideoPiggy, an excellent piece of software which will make it effortless to download videos from YouTube and to convert them into any format you choose for various applications (such as inserting into PowerPoint presentations). Video Piggy will also download videos from other video servers including Google Video, Metacafe and MySpaceTV!

Click here to get VideoPiggy now!

Malaysians are greatly disadvantaged since we do not have free access to foreign media unless it goes through the censor board first. Freeview satellite tv is unheard of, and all we have is Astro which is a restricted commercial satellite tv service.

The Internet has been responsible to liberate a lot of such constraints which have been imposed on Malaysians all this while, most notable is the easier access to uncensored local and foreign news on the the World Wide Web. But what about TV? We are still restricted as to what we can and cannot watch.

iSoftwareTV is the perfect answer to this problem. Essentially, it is a piece of software which gives you access to over 3000 channels featuring Full DVD Quality Movies, International TV Shows, Music Videos and much more! This amazing piece of software has received acclaim from CNN, MSNBC, CNET and America Online. The best part is that since it is software, it will work wherever you are in the world! All you need is access to an Internet connection.

Your Astro subscription easily sets you back RM 80- RM90 a month on average, and you get to watch reruns of the same shows again and again. If you are in the United States, traditional satellite TV and Cable services can cost easily in excess of $90/month. iSoftwareTV costs only $39.95 ONE TIME. There is no monthly recurring fee to be paid at all. Even if you convert that to Ringgit Malaysia, it comes up to about RM 120 which is what you are paying A MONTH if you subscribe to every channel on Astro (not including Box Office shows).

So the next time you switch on your TV and start flipping channels looking for something worthwhile to watch, consider getting . It is simply liberating!

For over a decade now Flash has greatly empowered the content we interact with on the Web. Initially Flash was designed to create animations and eventually evolved to becoming a fully interactive platform. The bulk of video content on the Internet including YouTube and other video servers is all based on Flash, a format known as FLV or Flash Video. Oringinally developed by Macromedia, the Flash platform now belongs to Adobe, after it bought over the former’s business.

The slick animation ability, coupled with object-oriented programmability of the Flash platform has made it very appropriate for developing interactive games on the Internet. There are many commercial and free games available on the Internet, with genres ranging from Puzzles to Arcade and Board games.

Arcade Temple is an excellent site which hosts thousands of quality interactive Flash games across various genres. Users are free to browse and play any game on the site, with the option to download the game to their desktop as well. Users can also opt to register as members of the site for free which comes with several benefits including being able to participate in the monthly $100 prize competitions.

So the next time you have some free time on your hands, head over to Arcade Temple and immerse yourself in a world of online interactivity.