Ninite makes installing a plethora of new applications really simple. With Windows 7 coming out, or those who feeling the urge to clean out Vista or Windows XP, we are all looking at simpler ways to install a lot of great programs out there.  That is what Ninite is all about. 

All you have to do is visit their web site, click the check marks for the programs you want to bundle together, start the customized installer, and presto – you are done.  They only install the programs you want (no hidden toolbars or spyware).  Heck, they don’t even install their own program – they only install the programs you want and need. 

Ninite definitely offers a cool way to grab your own bundle of software solutions to install.  For more assistance on how to get up and running with your own customized install, check out these articles from Simple Help and the How-to Geek. (also big thanks to Todd for showing my this great free service!)

Installing this script should be no problem with any shared Linux-based hosting.  They only require 1 MB of free web space, PHP 4.3 or higher and MySQL 4 or higher.  After installing, you can upload your content via the web site or FTP and then you can add and edit lots of meta information for that media. 

You can also install templates and plugins to customize your experience even more.

You can check out the demo on OpenSourceCMS if you want to give it a try.  If you are looking for a sleek and easy to use content management system for publishing a podcast, Loudblog is definitely worth checking into.

A few months back I did a round up of some of my favorite flash podcast players that are out there, but then I got people asking about the video podcasters out there.  What type of tools could they use other than going with a YouTube, Revver or another Online service?  Thanks to these downloads, you can get your own flash video player going for a relatively cheap price.

Flowplayer might be my favorite of the free flash video players out there.  It has multiple color schemes and skins you can use, as well as being lightweight and not overly obnoxious with the basic design.  If you want to upgrade you could also pick up the commercial license which would allow you to remove the Flowplayer logo when maximized, bug fixes and one month of support via e-mail. 

JW FLV Media Player is another one you should check out if your looking for your own emendable flash video player.   It supports flv, mp3, h264, swf and more.  Also included is streaming support, RSS, play lists and accessibility features too.  Released under Creative Commons, it too is totally free to use too.

Wimpy Wasp is not a free download to try, but it is worth checking out.  This product too allows you to play flash video on your site by plugging and playing with the flash video player.  Makes the process of putting your own flash player out there a lot easier.  While you are on their site, you might also check out the Wimpy AV Player too.

Willing to pay for your player?  You can also get a lot of other flash video player projects over at FlashDen.  You may have to pay a little but they have a slew of downloads to browse through to see if they will fit into your current project or web site.  Have another favorite, let me know and leave a comment.

The downside is that it will take a little ‘bit of tweaking before you get things just right – and that might frustrate some people. The good side is, this program was once thought to be forgotten about but was just updated recently.

It also supports more than just picture formats. Here is the full list of file types supported.

Supported file-types:
Images: JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP
Videos: MPEG, AVI, QuickTime, Real Video, WMV
Audio: MP3, WAV, Real Audio, MIDI
Documents: DOC, XLS, PPT, PDF, TXT
Other: Flash, EXE, TORRENT, ZIP

The hidden gem of this program is the search function that will allow you to scrap the Web for images tht meet your keyword and size requirements.

Now there are perfectly good reasons to use this tool. Lets say you wanted to save a long list of photos your sweetie sent you of your Christmas vacation together? Saving each one, one by one would be a pain – but using this to take them from the Web makes the job much easier.

I have just started playing with the new beta release of Serph. The whole thing is closed off to being a private beta test right now, but I am sure they will be ready to go public sometime in the near future.

Thus far with the beta the first thing they allow you to do is search all the big social Web 2.0 places out there for your company, name, or product.

You can “explore the social media” and find lots of good content covering the subjects that you search for.

I first noticed this Web site when I was coming through my referrals for the Web Hosting Show. Seems I turned up a lot with the search for “hosting” or “web hosting”. One thing I would really like to see them do is give me the ability to customize my results some and let me take myself out of the equation.

Going back to the idea of a Mitch aggregator, I don’t want to see my own results for me – I want to see other’s results for me. Hopefully they will get this ignored feature (ignored with most other searches out there) covered.

Right now it it a little hard to say much more because there is still a lot to be done. I wish the folks at Serph the best of luck though because thus far I like what I see.

I have gone from 5 listeners to over 500 in that time frame and I for one am more than happy to be the voice of the Web hosting industry for one and all to listen to and learn from each week.

Thanks goes to you as well for putting up with me for that amount of time as well. The Web Hosting Show – Two Year Anniversary is now on the air.

Tune in now! Here are some of this week’s covered topics:

• I Get a Not So Friendly Visit from IHOP!
• The Web Hosting Show Hits a Web Hosting Milestone – 2 Years!
• How Can You Create a Private Folder on Your Hosting Account?
• Karate Thrust and Punch Action!
• The Best Hosting Sites of the Week From the Past Two Years!
• Domain Name High and Low of the Week

+ Download and Listen to the Web Hosting Show – Two Year Special Edition!