Tools: Being Things Which May Be Illegal to Download In Your Country

DVD Srink
Many new computers come with DVD-R's, and promise the capability to burn movies...then you open the box, and you discover what the company means--in two words: home movies. Not that this is not a nice feature, but when I think DVD-R I think, "Gee, now I can go to Blockbuster's burn a movie, and then watch it at my own connivance and not have to worry about late fees." This is not an impossible feat thanks in part to programs like DVD Shrink....This program works best for DVDs that are only 1.5 hours. Here's a very basic and quick how to guide.

DIVX Movies for the Palm and/or Play Station Portable (PSP)
I laugh when I'm on a plane and see someone using a portable DVD player to watch movies, because my Dell Axim can kick their sweet behind any day! Semi new technology let's you convert a 2 hour movie into a 120 MB movie on your Pocket PC. Granted the quality isn't to par to a portable DVD player, but it's still good, and it can fit in your pocket and takes less batteries. You even can play movies on your Smartphone, if you have a good one. PocketPC Studio claims to make this process easier; I've never tried them myself so I can't say either way. I prefer the free approach. There are many ways to this, but I have created a how to page here to show how I do it. These instructions should also work on a PSP, but I don't have one to try it out. Good luck!

Roms
You remember the times of 8 bit video graphics? Sega Genesis? Super Nintendo? Now the nostalgia of the 80s and 90s is back. Roms are small, downloadable games that can be played on your PC or Mac. The first thing you'll need is a Emulator to run the game. You can get this here (as well as hundreds of other places). The Roms themselves can be trickery to find, but if you do a Google search for "Roms"+"System Name"+"Game Name" I'm sure you'll come up satisfied with the results. If you can't find what you're looking for DC-Backups.com will sell you a CD with pretty much every game ever made for Sega and SNES, and it's pretty cheap too.