A friend of mine wondered if she could watch the videos I had published to YouTube without being connected to the Internet. Of course I could have burned her a DVD and sent it to her but the chances of me getting that done any time soon was pretty slim. So, I decided to Google an answer and found a few sites worth bookmarking.

• KeepVid~ This is the one I used because it didn’t serve me a bunch of pop-ups and offered me several file format options for downloading. I prefer the MP4 file format, which happens to be the format I save my own work in before uploading it. All you have to do at KeepVid is enter the URL address for the YouTube video you want into the form on KeepVid’s home page. Their application will validate that the YouTube video is downloadable and render URL options to click on for the various file formats. I noticed that there was a minimal amount of pixelation if you chose to download a file in a higher-quality format than it was produced in.  However if you are a techy, you can most likely open the file up in your video editing software and re-save it to remove the pixelation.
  
  
• Other download sites you might try include: VideoSpider, Youtubex, and Videodownloader.

I was really in a crunch this morning when I was trying to automate some database entry routines. I remembered downloading a utility a long time ago so I didn’t have to resort to using the DOS command, knew I didn’t have it on the machine I’m using right now and couldn’t remember the name. So, I decided to Google for an answer and was wowed with the result. I found a blog titled Online Tech Tips – Computer Tips from a Computer Guy. His article on How to print a list of files in a Windows directory provided the solution I needed, Karen’s Directory Printer. Wow! I’ll be visiting his blog often; he even has some cool tips on using Twitter.