Savvy Windows users have to watch their virus checkers as closely as the head nurse in the ICU keeps an eye on patient monitors. Often, the buzz in the Windows security world is about which protection-for-profit firm was the first to discover and offer protection for the malware du jour -- or should I say malware de l'heure? The only thing better than having backed the winning Super Bowl team come Monday morning at the office coffeepot is having the virus checker you use be the one winning the malware sweepstakes that weekend.

Before starting the conversion you need to download the videos to your computer. Youtube-dl is the perfect tool for the job; check Joe Barr's article for more information. If you use Firefox you can also try the VideoDownloader extension. You will need a recent version of MPlayer with Mencoder built with support for Flash Video; if you can play the .flv videos with MPlayer you're good to go.

Packages for both programs are available for most Linux distributions and BSDs, so you can install them on your favorite OS easily. Compiling the programs from source isn't difficult, as long as you get their dependencies right. Both programs provide adequate documentation about the installation. You can burn the final files to a DVD disc with the help of the growisofs utility from the dvd+rw-tools suite.

Before evaluating the Linux audio players, I considered what I wanted from them. I listen to MP3 and Ogg Vorbis music files, CDs, MP3 streaming Internet radio stations, and podcasts. Someday I may also want access to FLAC music files, RealMedia and Windows Media streaming radio, iPod compatibility, and Windows audio file formats (WAV, WMA, and ASF).