Chris Pirillo » free

How to Enter Community Contests, Giveaways, and Sweepstakes

Chris — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:17:04 +0000

How to Enter Community Contests, Giveaways, and Sweepstakes is a post from Chris Pirillo

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If you like contests, giveaways and free stuff… I have the site for you! Everyone loves these things – you know you do! You’re going to want to keep an eye on our new contest site every week!

I’ve been wanting to do more giveaways, and get people more involved. This was the perfect answer! We can do Twitter contests through here. We can even do video contests through here! We launched the first contest here at the beginning of the weekend, so it’s about over now. However, by the time you check the site out there may be a lot more things going on!

My plan is to try and do something at least once a week. I get hardware and software to review a lot – so why not give it away!? Just keep an eye out – keep it bookmarked! You can enter each contest you’re eligible for. Who knows what you might win?!

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What Other Free Software do I Need?

Chris — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 00:54:57 +0000

What Other Free Software do I Need? is a post from Chris Pirillo

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I find great software pretty much every day. I tend to let all of you know as soon as I can. I want to start doing a video each week that has a roundup of cool software that I find. So let’s get to it with our first roundup!

HTML Tidy When editing HTML it’s easy to make mistakes. HTML TIDY is a free utility for cleaning up your code. Tidy is able to fix up a wide range of problems and to bring to your attention things that you need to work on yourself.
PSPad This is the universal freeware text editor for developers for Microsoft Windows systems.
Balthisar Tidy Balthisar Tidy is the beautiful Macintosh OS X implementation of HTML Tidy.
Precipitate Precipitate lets you search for and launch your cloud data from within Spotlight or Google Desktop for Mac. It supports Google Bookmarks and Google Docs both at this time.
Garage Buy Now you can use a slick, full-featured client application for all of your search and purchasing on eBay. Search eBay and even place bids or buy right from Garage Buy.

So there you go, just a few freeware picks this week. If you have any good freeware that people may not have heard of, I’d love to hear about it.

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Are Those “Free iPod” Websites Legit or a Scam?

Chris — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:47:25 +0000

Are Those “Free iPod” Websites Legit or a Scam? is a post from Chris Pirillo

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You know the sites. You see them everywhere. “Sign up and get five of your friends to sign up… and you’ll win!” It’s not as easy as they make it sound. With so many sites who do the same thing, you’ll have a hard time trying to find even five who want to sign up under you.

I received an email earlier in the week from Tom, asking me if these “freebie” sites are legitimate or not. I personally tiptoe very cautiously around things like these. The odds are not in your favor that you’ll really get something for free. It’s quite difficult to get enough people to buy in to whatever it is the site in question is selling or advertising. Most people will fail in getting the ‘free’ product. Yes… there are legitimate sites giving away real products. Just read the fine print. Make sure you fully understand the requirements that are laid out prior to getting involved. Heck… why not ask your friends BEFORE you sign up if they’re even willing to follow your lead and try to get something for nothing?

Don’t throw away your money. Be smart. Stay away from all those scams out there.

Anti-Scam Manual For Online Dating.

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$50.00 ThinkGeek Gift Certificate

Chris — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 12:21:06 +0000

$50.00 ThinkGeek Gift Certificate is a post from Chris Pirillo

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Our friends over at ThinkGeek gave me a $50.00 gift certificate to use in a giveaway! I’ve done many videos in the past, demonstrating different products they offer. They have a lot of fun gadgets and gizmos, and I can never get enough! The requirements for this giveaway was the same as for all the others:

The requirements to be eligible for our weekly giveaways are simple. Here is what you need to do:

You must be present in the chat room at the time of the giveaway. We don’t announce it much ahead of time, so you pretty much need to be a regular visitor!
You need to be subscribed to my YouTube channel.
You had to have left a recent comment on any post in my blog.

That’s it! That’s the sum total of the requirements to be eligible. When a giveaway starts, all chatters in the channel lose chat ability. This is to help us be able to see only the winner talking, so we don’t miss out on their pertinent links. Then, our new automatic bot picker will choose a random name. That person has to give us their YouTube link, as well as the name they used to comment on the blog. We then verify the information… and have a winner!

Congratulations to the winner of the $50.00 ThinkGeek Gift Certificate Dr_HOBO (aka emc2serv) .

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Remember: the PC Giveaway is Coming Soon

Chris — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 12:03:34 +0000

Remember: the PC Giveaway is Coming Soon is a post from Chris Pirillo

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As we do every week, we gave away another web cam on Friday night. Don’t forget… if we hit 20,000 Podcast subscribers by March 15th, we’ll be giving away another computer!

The requirements to be eligible for our weekly giveaways are simple. Here is what you need to do:

You must be present in the chat room at the time of the giveaway. We don’t announce it much ahead of time, so you pretty much need to be a regular visitor!
You need to be subscribed to my YouTube channel.
You had to have left a recent comment on any post in my blog.

Congratulations to this week’s winner, Mitchell.

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Subscribe and Possibly get a Web Cam

Chris — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 07:01:56 +0000

Subscribe and Possibly get a Web Cam is a post from Chris Pirillo

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Every week we give away a web cam, courtesy of our friends at Ustream. The requirements to be eligible for our weekly giveaways are simple. Here is what you need to do:

You must be present in the chat room at the time of the giveaway. We don’t announce it much ahead of time, so you pretty much need to be a regular visitor!
You need to be subscribed to my YouTube channel.
You had to have left a recent comment on any post in my blog.

After a couple of names were chosen of people who weren’t active, we finally found our winner for this week! Congratulations to warefly!!

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Eventually, Someone Wins the Web cam

Chris — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 05:46:41 +0000

Eventually, Someone Wins the Web cam is a post from Chris Pirillo

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Just like every week, we gave away a web cam on Friday. This one started out a bit rocky, since all the people who were being chosen were away from their computers. But, of course… we found our winner in the end.

The requirements to be eligible for our weekly giveaways are simple. Here is what you need to do:

You must be present in the chat room at the time of the giveaway. We don’t announce it much ahead of time, so you pretty much need to be a regular visitor!
You need to be subscribed to my YouTube channel.
You had to have left a recent comment on any post in my blog.

Congratulations to this week’s winner MyNameIsMatt2!!

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Free Live Tech Support Calls on Friday Night

Chris — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 07:46:40 +0000

Free Live Tech Support Calls on Friday Night is a post from Chris Pirillo

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I had several interesting tech calls tonight. We start off with Rick calling to ask about his Panasonic cordless phone like mine. He’s having trouble recording with his, and wanted to know how I was able to do this with mine. All I did was plug in a cheap headset. I then went into the phone itself, and told it to set a custom ring tone. After that, I simply recorded myself singing the fun “Put the lime in the coconut” song and set it as the ring tone!

The next caller had a question about his new Mac Mini. He’s looking at the display settings, and wonders what the difference is with the Htz. That is his refresh rate. He’s having problems with it being on 60 Htz and having it blurry. But when he puts it on 75 Htz… it’s clear and crisp. However, it has a line going through it. He has a Gateway 20″ LCD monitor, with a line running through it. The native resolution of the LCD is probably 60 Htz, and doesn’t really have a refresh rate. He needs to stick with 60 Htz, and find out the native resolution of the monitor, and use it. It sounds to me like the monitor is having issues. Ahhhh wait. When using Windows on this monitor, it works fine. But on Leopard, the text is kind of blurry or faded out. So, he needs to go into System Preferences on OS X. Then go to the Appearance panel, and choose a “font smoothing style” of medium or strong. This basically changes the way the fonts are rendered on OS X. This should clear things up and make them crisper.

Our next caller had an Xbox 360 question. They wanted to set up the wireless controller to a computer. It’s simple. Just use a little gadget made by Microsoft that has a USB plug. It’s a gaming receiver.

Wow the calls are just rolling in! The next call came in from Pyroza. He won a webcam awhile back, and he still hasn’t received it. I told him he needs to get ahold of Tim from Ustream. Unfortunately, I have no control over the sending of the webcams. All I do is pick a winner. The rest is up to Ustream themselves.

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Gimme Gimme Gimme

Chris — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 05:13:16 +0000

Gimme Gimme Gimme is a post from Chris Pirillo

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We like doing weekly giveaways. I’ve been trying to do them randomly. However, everyone asked so nicely, I decided to do a giveaway tonight!

There are only a few requirements to win the giveaway. They’re really simple, as well!

You must be subscribed to my YouTube Channel.
You have to have left a good comment somewhere on my blog.
You must be present in my chat room at the time of the giveaway.
Since the giveaway is sponsored by Ustream.tv, we have to follow their rules. They want the winner to live either in the US or Canada, as shipping and legalities could be an issue elsewhere in the world.

That’s all there is to it! So tonight we are using a GoToMeeting to choose a winner. The new PickerBot has chosen ChrisH first. He has to be here! He’s like always here! Seriously… he’s not around?! I can’t believe that.

Well, back we go to my fake music and the PickerBot. This time, RichardC was chosen, but he’s idle for nine hours. Now we move on, and see that SugarSpicehas been chosen! Yes, SugarSpice is subscribed to the YouTube blog. And great! There’s a comment on the blog, as well! That’s a win!

Congratulations, SugarSpice for being this week’s Web Cam winner!

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The Giveaway That Almost Didn’t Happen – Rigged?

Chris — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:31:50 +0000

The Giveaway That Almost Didn’t Happen – Rigged? is a post from Chris Pirillo

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This past week, it seemed nothing was going right for our giveaway. However, we do have a winner. I was saying “GO!!” and Allan took that to mean that the bot was supposed to choose a winner. Since the person had their links ready…

modhacker had their links ready. He is indeed subscribed to the YouTube channel, and has left a few good comments on my blog. Therefore… shortest giveaway yet to date! What a crazy video, and night this was.

Congratulations, Modhacker on your win! Join us next week for YOUR chance!

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Zonbu Computer Giveaway on New Year’s Day!

Chris — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:43:17 +0000

Zonbu Computer Giveaway on New Year’s Day! is a post from Chris Pirillo

There are currently no coupons for this store, but we are adding new ones throughout the day. Please check back later or try a new search at http://coupons.lockergnome.com -

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Awhile back, I did a video review of the new Zonbu computer. I decided to start 2008 out right, by giving it away on the spur of the moment to a lucky viewer!

The requirements to be eligible for this giveaway were the same as always:

You must be present in the chat room to win.
You have to be subscribed to my YouTube Channel.
You must have left a comment at some time in my blog. The comment can be at any time, on any post. However, it needs to be a GOOD comment, that relates to the discussion. Saying things like “good tips!”, “you’re great!” or “I want to win!” do NOT count, and will be deleted.

That’s all there is to it! So without further ado, let’s reveal the winner!

Congratulations to xalent1 for winning the Zonbu! And, since you left such insightful comments on the blog, I’ll be sure to send you a little something extra, as well!

Be sure to join us every day. From now on, the weekly giveaways will NOT be announced in advanced. You have to be a regular member and show up for more than just the giveaways to win! Happy 2008, everyone!

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Open Source Questions and Answers

Chris — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 02:09:31 +0000

Open Source Questions and Answers is a post from Chris Pirillo

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John Perez is a college Freshman who is doing an argumentative paper on Open-Source applications. He sent me a list of questions that I am going to answer in simple terms. Also, we’re using our GoToMeeting to allow you to follow along with everyone as they use Open-Source applications.

What do you think Open-Source stands for and signifies? It’s a fundamental shift in how we think about software, its use and development. Unfortunately, I’m not a Developer. The mainstream still believes that you must walk into a store to buy software. That simply isn’t the case. There are tremendous alternatives to major applications that are available legally for free, via Open-Source.

What would be the advantages or disadvantages of adopting standards? Imagine you had 1000 people in the same room, all with different great ideas. How impossible would it be to get them all to agree on ONE idea? I look at things differently than most standards committees. There are politics inside the Open-Source community. But, for the common good, coming together to agree on a set of standards would be amazing, and make the community stronger.

For businesses, what do you think would be the effects of adopting standards? It depends on the business model. I am able to exist as a business online largely due to Open-Source programs and applications. Much of this is accomplished using Apache.

In the US, many Universities have made a switch to Open-Source. What do you think caused them to make the switch, and what will it take to get others to follow? I think it boils down to cost. Universities have lost large amounts of money from the government. One way to help keep tuition costs down, is to obtain good software alternatives for free. You also have to look at the education factor, by being able to turn the Open-Source applications into learning tools.

What would be the effects of using Open-Source in homes? We’re seeing a lot of lower-cost computers. Instead of having to pay a licensing fee, you can get an Open-Source Linux Distro. You can also obtain software for almost any type of program you need, from image editing to web browsing and email applications. This will save household consumers quite a lot of money.

Are there there sufficient Open-Source alternatives to proprietary software suites? Absolutely!! Open Office can replace your existing office suite for free. The Gimp can replace your image editing software. FireFox can replace your web browser. For 99% of the population, Open-Source is a GREAT alternative.

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Free Computer! (Giveaway video)

Chris — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 03:57:07 +0000

Free Computer! (Giveaway video) is a post from Chris Pirillo

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As promised, I gave away another computer, when we reached 20,000 subscribers on our YouTube channel! Thank you to everyone who has subscribed, and to all of you who visit regularly. Don’t worry, we’ll be giving away more things in the coming weeks and months, including another computer.

The requirements were simple for this giveaway. Once we reached the 20,000 subscribers, you simply had to comply with four rules to be eligible to win:

Be subscribed to the YouTube Channel
Leave a good comment on my blog, showing you have read a post and contributed to discussion. Insipid, meaningless comments don’t count.
Be present in the chat room to win!
Must live in the US or Canada for this particular giveaway

So as usual, I began scrolling up and down the list of people present as quickly as I could. I cannot see the names list as I scroll. I always have someone on the Ventrilo server say the word “STOP”, to tell me when to stop scrolling. The people on Ventrilo cannot see the list of names either. Also, there is a second or two lag from the time they say “stop” until I HEAR them say it. Putting all these elements together, shows you that there is no “rigging” of the contests. It’s completely random.

The first name chosen this week was mats. Mats is from Norway, so is not eligible to win. The cost of shipping would be more than the computer is worth. Also, Mats would have to pay a LOT of money on import taxes, or whatever it’s called in his country. I felt so bad, so I asked him to email me, and I’m going to send him a little something else, instead.

The next name chosen was zigyzigyzat. He is subscribed to the YouTube channel, but he unfortunately did not leave a comment on the blog. Sadly, we had to pass on him and begin scrolling again.

Moving on and scrolling, the next person chosen was CashMcMogulson. He is in the US according to his IP address. However, he forgot to leave a comment on the blog. So… let’s go again!

Ianimate3D was chosen next, but was not present at the time of the drawing.

Now when I stopped again, I knew immediately that there could be a problem. My scroll stopped near the top of the list, and I immediately said that people would think it’s rigged. I asked everyone in chat and on Ventrilo what I should do. Unanimously, everyone said to show the name. When I showed the name… Kat yelled out “OH MY GOD”, because the scroll had stopped on her. Not only does Kat do some work for me on the videos I record, she also is in charge of moderating our chat room. This is why I knew some people may say it was rigged.

In order to keep things even moreon the up and up, I threw a poll up on the live feed, courtesy of Ustream.tv. Over 500 people were present, and I think pretty much everyone voted. In an overwhelming majority, around 60% of you said to give her the computer!! Kat is subscribed to the YouTube channel, has left more than one comment on the blog, and was obviously present. So Kat… congratulations!!

MESSAGE FROM KAT HERSELF

First, I would like to thank everyone who voted in favor of my getting to have the computer. It means a lot to me that you all support me, and are my friends. I am very fortunate to have such amazing friends. This computer is very badly needed, as mine is quite old and unstable. Now, it will be much easier for me to work, and chat!
I know there are some who are claiming that the contest was “rigged”. This is just plain silly. In all the time I have known Chris, I have come to know him as a man of honor and integrity. You all saw him, the same as I did, when he hesitated to even show the name he had stopped on. All of us in chat and on Ventrilo encouraged him to show the name. He even made it MORE fair by doing a poll. I completely understand why some would think that. However, I give you MY word of honor that everything was completely legitimate. I was so excited and freaked out when I saw my name on the screen that I was shaking, and had tears in my eyes. My old computer will be going to my daughters to use for school.
Again, thank you to all of you from the bottom of my heart, and to Chris for the generosity he has in giving things away every week.

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How to Get a Web Cam for Free

Chris — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 09:25:41 +0000

How to Get a Web Cam for Free is a post from Chris Pirillo

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Thanks to my Peet’s coffee for keeping me awake… and to Ustream.tv for donating the merchandise… we are about to give away yet another Web cam! We do this every week, so be sure and stay tuned!

There are only three requirements to being eligible for our weekly giveaway:

You must have subscribed to our YouTube Channel.
You must have left a good comment on my Blog. By “good” comment, I mean you cannot simply post something like “I love you!” “omg I want to win”, and the like. You must have actually read a blog post, and left a comment that shows that, and adds to the discussion.
You must be present in the chat room to win!

We have a couple of new Half-ops who are helping moderate the chat room for us. One of those is Four_Ones. He is the person on Ventrilo who will be telling me when to stop scrolling.

The first name chosen tonight was Pawndro. Unfortunately, Pawndro hasn’t commented on the blog, and is not eligible. So, we begin scrolling again, and the next name chosen was e2squared, who wasn’t at his computer! The next person chosen IS in the chat room, IS subscribed to the YouTube channel, and HAS commented on the blog!

Congratulations to cornillious… this week’s Web Cam winner! Be sure to join us next week for our next giveaway.

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Giveaway

Chris — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 03:31:37 +0000

Giveaway is a post from Chris Pirillo

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Just like every Friday night, we gave away a web cam, courtesy of Ustream.tv. Don’t forget, if we hit 20,000 subscribers on YouTube by Christmas, I will be giving away another computer! We used GoToMeeting again tonight for our giveaway. GoToMeeting is a great way to have meetings online, and you can get an extended trial period by downloading from our link.

Remember, there are three conditions you must meet in order to be eligible to win our weekly giveaway:

Be subscribed to my YouTube channel.
Leave a comment on my blog. This must be more than just “Hi” or “Great post”. Leave a thoughtful comment to any post, that shows you actually read the post, and are contributing to the discussion.
You must be present in our chatroom at the time of the giveaway.

That’s all there is to it. And now… congratulations go out to this week’s winner procrastinasn!!!

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How to Handle Remote Tech Support

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:30:00 GMT

Using GoToAssist is the easiest way to view and control another person's computer online. Use it to provide instant technical support to family, friends and customers. Start a session with just one click, and instantly connect with the other party.

Network Tools for Windows

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

You need these network tools, no matter which operating systems and networks you have to support. SolarWinds ipMonitor: Affordable Network Monitoring for SMBs. Get turnkey network, server and application availability monitoring with SolarWinds ipMonitor v9.0. This easy-to-use, reliable solution for SMBs delivers out-of-the-box availability monitoring so you always know exactly what's up with Active Directory, DNS, Exchange, FTP, Web, IMAP, MS SQL Server, and SMTP. Download your free trial today. Or, try their totally free tools! And, through 2/29, save 20% when you purchase ipMonitor 9.0.

Get Your Own Web Site

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

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Plus, as a friend of Chris Pirillo, enter code CHRIS7, that's C-H-R-I-S and the number 7, when you check out, and save an additional 10% on any order. Get your piece of the internet at GoDaddy.com.

VMware and Parallels for Virtual Machines

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

It doesn't matter if you're running on Windows or Mac OS X - every power user needs either Parallels or VMware (or both). There's never been an easier way to test software without destroying your primary operating system's stability. Think of how many times you wish you could press a 'reverse' button on your computer. Plus, there's no easier way to try new Linux distributions - see what all the fuss is about. Run Windows in OS X, run Linux in Windows, but the best way to do either is with VMware and/or Parallels.

Coupons for Online Shopping

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:56:13 GMT

This feed is fueled by Lockergnome Online Shopping and Coupon Codes

Before you shop next time, see if we have a coupon first.