Share Home Movies On TiVo For Free

Upload five of your favorite home movie video clips to TiVo between now and 30 April '07, and you'll be able to share them with any other TiVo subscribers for free. After the free offer ends, you can upload video clips to TiVo to share with family and friends for as little as $3.99 per month.

TiVo subscribers receive the shared movies for free, so Grandma doesn't have to pay to see your delightful vacation you and the kids videotaped just for her. TiVo's service allows you to edit the video after it's uploaded, so you can remove any embarassing parts or rearrange the clips. And only those family and friends you give the channel code to that you create for each uploaded video will be able to see the video on their TiVos. The channel will appear on their TiVos as "Home Movies from One True Media" in their "Now Playing Section."

So if you don't want cousin Ralph or the neighbors to see your video, you don't have to give them the channel code, and they'll never know you uploaded any videos to TiVo, even if they have TiVo subscriptions.

Free Unlimited Yahoo! Mail

Imagine never having to delete E-mails to make room for more. Yahoo! just announced that it's going to allow unlimited E-mail storage for Yahoo! Mail starting in May 2007. Yahoo! Mail already offers Norton Antivirus and SpamGuard to protect your inbox, E-mails up to 10 MB, access to your inbox from any computer connected to the Internet, Messenger alerts for incoming messages (even on your mobile phone), an address book, Address AutoComplete, 15 filters and 500 blocked E-mail addresses, and more. If you don't have a free Yahoo! Mail account, sign up here.

Happy 10th anniversary, Yahoo! Mail!

Know When To Say No, Even If It's Free

They say the best things in life are free, but there comes a time when someone offers free goods or services, and one would be much better off by refusing them. Take, for example, one young Memphis Belle who was out on the town recently in Memphis, Tennessee, enjoying her 25th birthday. Someone offered her free drinks to help her celebrate. She should have said, "No, thanks. I'm driving home tonight."

Memphis cops later caught her weaving across the highway and threw her in the pokie for drunk driving after her Breathalyzer test showed a 0.10% blood alcohol content. Having her mug shot taken is embarassing enough, but her profile shows another gift she accepted on her birthday. You know someone paid good money for that roadkill.

Free Linux CD - Ubuntu 6.06 LTS

The beta version of Ubuntu Linux 7.04 was just released, which means their production version can be expected to be released within a month (if history is any guide). The award-winning Ubuntu is an increasingly popular flavor of Linux, and not only is it available for free download over the Internet (requires broadband Internet Access for the 700 MB file), but Ubuntu will ship a CD to you for free if you request it (Ubuntu v6.06 LTS only). Expect six weeks for delivery to your mailbox.

If you want the latest version of the CD (Ubuntu 6.10), you can order it, but that one isn't free (but it will be much faster than six weeks for delivery). At least some of the CD images available on the download page allow one to boot directly from the CD (called "LiveCD") to run Ubuntu Linux without having to install it on the computer first. Check Ubuntu's download and shipping options to see which one of these options meets your needs.

Ubuntu offers two versions of Linux (desktop and server) and two versions of support, Long-Term Support (LTS) and regular support. The LTS version provides security update support for three years after release of the desktop version and five years of security update support after release of the server version. Regular support is for at least 18 months of security updates after release of the product. Community technical support and documentation are both free, while professional technical support is available for a fee.

In case you're wondering, Ubuntu is an ancient African word meaning "humanity to others," or "I am what I am because of who we all are."

Free Online Dating

(This is a sponsored post.)

Markus Frind, CEO of PlentyOfFish.com, the largest free online dating Web site has recently decided to change the direction of his Web site in order to grow it to the next level, possibly embracing the social network's tactics of creating a full-fledged online community for users, since he sees the social networks as glorified dating sites that are responsible for the 20% decline in online dating sites' traffic in 2006. In case you don't recognize Markus Frind's name, he's the Internet millionaire who showed off his nearly CAN$1 million monthly check from Google AdSense ads on his Web site last year. He runs his Web site from his apartment and he has only one employee, so he doesn't have to distribute his profits to a large staff's salaries.

Frind's change of direction will leave a gap for smaller fish, such as JustSayHi.com, who will quickly fill it. JustSayHi.com is a no-frills, free Web site for online dating, just like PlentyOfFish.com, where members join together in a forum to get to know one another. Members of Just Say Hi want to keep the community as a high quality site that is fun to be a member of. They police themselves and don't allow any disrespectful or crude posts from any member. After all, there are PlentyOfFish in the sea, so it's best to make the site attractive to them, not repulsive. Certainly the free price at JustSayHi.com is much more attractive than the $30 per month Match.com charges or the $25 per month Yahoo! Personals charges.

U.S. Loses An Hour, Gains 2 Days For Taxes

If you're located in the U.S. in one of the states that observes Daylight Savings, you lost an hour on Sunday a few weeks earlier than normal, thanks to new legislation by Congress. And if you're a U.S. taxpayer, you have two extra days to file your Federal tax return, thanks to recent legislation in the District of Columbia.

When Tax Day, April 15th, falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, the next business day is the deadline for filing one's taxes. Normally, this would be Monday, 16 April '07, but this year that's a legal holiday in Washington, D.C. It's Emancipation Day, a holiday that the IRS wasn't aware of when their IRS forms for 2007 went to print. Even though your tax forms state that the tax filing deadline is April 16th, you have until April 17th to file your Federal return.

Use the extra 47 hours wisely.

And don't forget that some of the tax software suites offer free tax preparation and free E-filing of your Federal tax returns, including TurboTax and TaxAct, and several others. And all taxpayers who earned less than $52,000 (adjusted gross income) in 2006 may E-file their Federal tax returns for free.

Free Starbucks Coffee 15 March 2007

Starbucks is celebrating their Second Annual Coffee Break. Stop by any Starbucks between 10 AM and 12 noon on Thursday, 15 March '07 and get a free 12-ounce (Tall) cup of coffee:

"All company-operated and licensed Starbucks stores in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Greater China will be giving away free Tall (12-ounce) cups of coffee to anyone who drops by."

Free And Legal BitTorrents

Now that BitTorrent.com is renting its wares at $1.99 for TV episodes and $2.99 to $3.99 for movies that expire 24 hours after you start watching them or within 30 days of the download, it seems that there's no such thing as a free lunch when it comes to our favorite movies downloaded from the Internet.

Or is there? Free and legal Web sites that use BitTorrent technology can be found if one knows where to look. NewTeeVee.com published a list of 10 Web sites that offer free and legal BitTorrent downloads, so you can hold off on getting that Windows PC and installing Microsoft's Windows Media Player 11, which is the only operating system and video playing technology the DRM videos BitTorrent.com downloads can use.

Free Samsung i607 BlackJack Smartphone

Shopping for a Smartphone? Purchase the Samsung i607 BlackJack Smartphone at Amazon.com by 31 Mar. '07 and activate the service with Cingular, and with the rebates, you'll get it for free plus either a penny or $25.01 in your pocket, depending upon when you purchase the phone and whether or not you activate a service plan of $39.99 or higher. The rebates are $50 from Cingular and $25 from Amazon.com. The $25 rebate from Amazon.com expires 7 Mar. '07, but each week for the past month a new rebate has been issued. That doesn't guarantee that another $25 rebate will be issued starting 8 Mar. '07, so you'd probably better not wait too long to make your purchase.

As always, restrictions apply.

1 GB USB Flash Drive

Do you need a new 1 GB USB flash drive to carry your data around? It's not free, but at nine bucks after the rebate, this deal is hard to beat. The drive is pre-loaded with Computer Associates Anti-Virus 2007 Home Protection Pack, which includes one year of free virus definition updates. Rebate offer is good through 18 Jan. '07 only, so if you need one, get it now.

Update: Use Google Checkout and get $10 off your purchase. So, buy the flash drive with Google Checkout and receive the purchase price and $1.01 back with the rebate. Sweet.