Ever since Napster, the words “Download MP3″ have almost always been associated with piracy. Although MP3 files are still very popular in many P2P services (and will probably continue to be so), there are plenty of sites and services that allow you to download MP3 files – in a legal manner and absolutely free.

10 Sites with Free & Legal MP3 Downloads

1. ClearBits – This site provides hosting and distribution for open licensed media. ClearBits distributes high quality, open-licensed (Creative Commons) digital media, datasets, and artwork for Content Creators. You can find many interesting MP3 files here. Check out the music section.
2. Stereogum – An online community for independent and alternative music news, legal MP3s, and videos.
3. GarageBand – A great site for discovering fresh, independent music and download MP3s for free.
4. Jamendo – Another wonderful community of free, legal and unlimited music published under Creative Commons licenses. You can also share your own original music here.
5. The Internet Archive - Open Source Section – A huge deposit of audio files and music from all over – free and legal to download.
6. SoundClick – A free music community featuring signed and unsigned bands plus state of the art social media tools. SoundClick offers free member profile pages, mp3 downloads, streaming audio and video, music charts, custom radio stations, a proprietary music store, message boards, lyrics and music e-cards.
7. PureVolume – This site offers discovery and promotion of new music and emerging artists. Each artist has a profile that typically contains basic info, updates, photos, shows and music for streaming. Artists have the option of making each of their songs available for free download.
8. MP3.co.au – Thousands of MP3 in dozens of genres, all free and legal to download.
9. EZ-Tracks – Ez-Tracks is a legal music download site. The free mp3 downloads found on EZ-Tracks are brought to you through partnerships with the record labels that own the rights to their tracks.
10. Musicishare – A networking platform for artists and anyone in the music business with music to share. Artists can upload MP3 songs and share MP3 downloads from their profile.

Here are 5 top quality FREE WordPress Themes:

iCandy

Gorgeous Theme packed with tons of features and options. Custom header image, changeable background color, flexible sidebar width and location, paged navigation, widget ready. Nice and elegant WordPress Theme.

Preview iCandy

Download iCandy

Bueno

Another great WordPress theme by WooThemes. Some features: A clear & concise grid-based design, very easy to customize; Integrated banner ad management Widgetized sidebar, with some Bueno-specific custom widgets; 7 different colour schemes to choose from
and more.

Preview Bueno

Download Bueno

MonkeyPR

A very impressive WordPress theme, which looks premium. Has a bold design, big header and a prominent look.

Preview MonkeyPR

Download MonkeyPR

GoodTheme Lead

Very clean, professional-looking WordPress theme. Among the features: -five color schemes; two-column layout but with two-column content section and triple sidebar; six widget areas; automatic post thumbnails; dropdown pages and categories menu and much more.

Preview GoodTheme Lead

Preview GoodTheme Lead

Blue Diamond

A two column theme with a nice featured post feature in grey-blues and blue coloured backgrounds and foregrounds, with web2.0 style using lots of gradients and 3 dimensional effects.

Preview Blue Diamond

Download Blue Diamond

Free Software to Install on a New Computer

Firefox

It’s not just a browser, it’s a work station. I don’t use IE (because it’s a horrible browser) and Firefox definitely qualifies as my most used software. In fact, it’s open on my PC all day long. I use it to read mail, surf the net, develop websites and WordPress themes and manage my sites. Of course, Firefox by itself isn’t enough – you need some good add-ons. Some good Firefox add-ons include: Firebug, Measure-it, Colorzilla, Twitter Bar, TinyURL creator, Better Gmail, ScribeFire and more.

Comodo Internet Security

A free anti-virus and a firewall in one. Comodo can be a bit of a nag sometimes, and has some false positives, but it gives your computer an overhaul great security, and the fact that it’s a firewall, an anti-virus and malware protector combined makes it very useful.

Chrome

It’s a very fast browser, and if you are web developer, you’re gonna need one in order to check that your sites look OK.

Pidgin

I’m not much of a fan when it comes to IM, but Pidgin is a very lean and useful tool. It combines most known instant message apps, it’s free and it’s fun to use. Use it to connect easily to MSN, Google Talk, Yahoo, AIM and other chat networks all at once.

Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware

Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware is a high performance anti-malware application that thoroughly removes even the most advanced malware and spyware. It’s very efficient and once saved my butt from a very annoying malware.

Ccleaner

Ccleaner, which stands for Crap Cleaner, does exactly that – it cleans your computer and erases unnecessary files, internet cache and history, and can even fix some registry errors.

Notepad ++

A great advanced text editor, with tabbed interface, configurable syntax highlighting, syntax folding, line numbering, multi-view, bookmarks and much more.

FileZilla

Amazingly enough, FTP is still one of the most useful protocols on the net. FileZilla is a free, fast and easy to use FTP client.

Foxit Reader

A wonderful, light-weight alternative to Adobe Acrobat. Use it to read PDF documents and throw away the bulky has-been Acrobat.

7-Zip

Remember WinZip? Well, forget about it. Although window has a built-in archive support, 7-zip easily surpasses it – and it’s free!

Media Player Classic Home Cinema

This project is based on the original “Media Player Classic” and was created after Gabest, the original author, stopped working on it. Many new player features have been integrated in this player, which is a great alternative to Microsoft’s media player.

AxCrypt

AxCrypt is a freeware file encryption utility that locks down file and folders. It is a very lightweight program, that takes up little space on your hard drive, and is not that memory hungry, compared to other tools. AxCrypt encrypts files that are safely and easily sent to other users via e-mail or any other means. Self-decrypting files are also supported, removing the need to install AxCrypt to decrypt.

Google Pack added the free version of the Avast anti-virus, but only for the following languages: French, German, Italian, Czech, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese and Polish. Avast is ranked as one of the best free anti-virus software and its scanning speed is one of the fastest. Other great free anti-virus software includes AVG, Avira and BitDefender.

The English version of Google Pack ,however, gives the option to install Spyware Doctor with Anti-Virus, which replaced Norton Security Scan – both not recommended and extremely limited.

Google Pack is a selection of free software, picked by Google, and available for quick and easy installation.

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Read an Anti-Virus Comparison (PDF)

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]]> http://thesharklady.com/tech/software-and-apps/avast-anti-virus-added-to-google-pack/feed 0 http://thesharklady.com/tech/business/bigmac-and-free-internet-mcdonalds-offers-free-wifi-at-its-u-s-restaurants http://thesharklady.com/tech/business/bigmac-and-free-internet-mcdonalds-offers-free-wifi-at-its-u-s-restaurants#comments Sat, 16 Jan 2010 18:50:43 +0000 The Shark Lady http://thesharklady.com/tech/?p=43

McDonald’s has declared that they will offer free Wi-Fi service at most of its U.S. restaurants, starting on January 15th.

Free Wi-Fi will be available at about 11,500 out of the 14,000 restaurants of McDonald’s in the USA.

At the moment, you can get Wi-Fi for a rate of $2.95 for two hours in McDonald’s.