A Cool, Free Video-Sharing Utility (CAD Manager's Toolbox)

Use audio/video recording software to assist with technical support tasks.

One thing I'm a big advocate of is using audio/video recording utilities to make your own training videos. But another neat way to use audio/video recording is to assist with technical support tasks. And if you've ever tried to fixing a computer problem without being able to work on the computer, you know how valuable being able to actually see the problem can be.

Unfortunately, audio/video recording software can cost several hundred dollars (not expensive, but not cheap either) and learning to use the wide palette of features can be less than simple.

To solve this problem you can use a really slick video capture and share utility called Jing, which allows basic audio/video capture that can be easily shared via the Jing publishing server or attached as email. In addition to video, you can also record still screen captures and annotate it using a basic palette of tools that are somewhat like Photoshop.

Jing is built by Techsmith from the same technology components as the company's full-featured Camtasia software, and you can't beat the pricing: free. You can upgrade to a professional version for $14.95 per year if you want to have more bandwidth or create longer videos.

Jing will never do everything that Camtasia or Photoshop can do, but it can do a lot for little to no cost.