Top 10 tools for a free online education
These reminders from Lifehacker that the Internet “started out as a place for academics and researchers to trade data  and knowledge,” point to a number of sources for free online learning.

Included are places to teach yourself programming, Ubuntu, a new language,, photography, and of course, recognized college online courses.

Academic Earth — the Hulu for education
One of the free online sites mentioned by Lifehacker (above) is Academic Earth, “a user-friendly platform for educational video that allows anyone to freely access instruction from the scholars and guest lecturers at the leading academic universities,” says TechCrunch.

There are 60 full courses and 2,395 total lectures (almost 1300 hours of video) from Yale, MIT, Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and Princeton available and browseable by subject, university, or instructor.  The site also features famous guest lecturers on entrepreneurship and technology including Larry Page, Carol Bartz, Tim Draper, Elon Musk, and Guy Kawasaki.

TechCrunch notes that this “isn’t a radically new idea.”  Academic Earth isn’t creating original content, it’s just repurposing existing academic content, but Academic Earth has the right plan around providing free course lectures.  You can watch an entire semester’s worth of lectures in a few days if you wish.  At the moment it doesn’t have forums, comments, social networking features, or ads, but all of those features and applications are expected in the future.

A partnership between Oxford University Library and Google over the last 5 years has made available on Google Book Search digitized versions of hundreds of thousands of public domain books from the Bodleian and other Oxford libraries, representing the bulk of their available public domain content.

“Most of the digitized works date from the 19th century and range from classic literature to more scientific volumes in fields including Geography, Philosophy or Anthropology. Among some of the works now available through Book Search, you can find the first English translation of Newton’s Mathematical principles of natural philosophy from 1729, the first edition of Jane Austen’s Emma, and John Cassell’s Illustrated History of England. You can search and read the full text of these works on Google Book Search, and download and print a pdf if you wish to,” posts Inside Google Book Search.

“Library users have always loved browsing books for the serendipitous discoveries they provide. Digital books offer a similar thrill, but on multiple levels– deep entry into the texts or the ability to browse the virtual shelf of books assembled from the world’s great libraries,” says Sarah E. Thomas, Bodley’s Librarian and Director of Oxford University Library Services.

Google will continue to partner with the libraries to digitize more content as it becomes available.  Photo by Duncan.  Creative Commons license.

I was interested in this “absolutely free” app I saw at WebWorker Daily, called CamStudio .

With it you can record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create “industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs).”

According to their website, with CamStudio you can:

• Create demonstration videos for any software program
• Create a set of videos answering your most frequently asked questions
• Create video tutorials for school or college class
• Record a recurring problem with your computer so you can show technical support people
• Create video-based information products you can sell
• Record new tricks and techniques you discover on your favourite software program, before you forget them

CamStudio can also add screen captions to your recordings in seconds and with the “Video Annotation feature you can even personalise your videos by including a webcam movie of yourself “picture-in-picture” over your desktop.”

It has its own Lossless Codec that “produces crystal clear results with a much smaller filesize compared with other more popular codecs, like Microsoft Video 1.”

With CamStudio, you have control over the output of your video: you can choose to use custom cursors, to record the whole screen or just a section of it and can reduce or increase the quality of the recording depending on if you want smaller videos, or you can have “best quality” ones for burning onto CD/DVD.

I haven’t tried CamStudio yet, but its makers also claim it is easy to use and comes with a comprehensive helpfile.  As a user of TechSmith’s Camtasia Studio, which is definitely not free, I’ll be interested to find out — and hear from any of you — how well this free application actually works.

News is spreading quickly that Google Street View has been launched in the Netherlands and a number of sites in the U.K.  Now there is 360º street level imagery for Amsterdam, London, Rotterdam, Manchester, Liverpool and several other cities in these countries — 25 cities in all!  Listed below as of post time:

• England: Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cambridge, Coventry, Derby, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford, Scunthorpe, Sheffield, Southampton, York
• Northern Ireland: Belfast
• Scotland: Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow
• Wales: Cardiff, Swansea.

If you want to view street level imagery for all these new locations – go to Google Maps and drag the Pegman icon to one of the new cities in Europe.

The BBC claims that 22,369 miles of roads have been imaged in the UK alone, which has taken a year to complete.  Interestingly, says Google Sightseeing Blog, Google appears to have begun to run camera cars in more rural locations, as well as countries that still have no coverage at all.

Although they list more than 40+ add-ons for managing Firefox tabs, Mashable suggests that you install only a few to avoid slowing down your browser.

I admit I had no idea there were so many ways to display, manage, navigate and visualize Firefox tabs, but since I always seem to have a number of tabs open, I was happy to see this list.  I immediately installed ColorfulTabs

Once installed, you can right click on a tab, go to ColorfulTabs > tab color to select your desired color from a color palette, hex or RGB number.  Check out the options, too.  The colors that appeared when I first installed the app really didn’t suit me, so I was glad to be able to select others I liked better.

Another add-on you might be interested in is OpenInWindow.  This extension allows you to open links in an existing window.  A new context menu option is added when the mouse is on a link.  You can tell Firefox to use an already existing tab from the right-click context menu, and save yourself opening up yet another new tab.

March 15-21 is Sunshine Week, a nonpartisan celebration of, and request for, transparency in government information.  Most transparency concerns aren’t technical in nature—open meetings and open records law are two of the biggies—but the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s contribution to Sunshine Week looks to be a boon to tech journalists and advocacy groups, says ars technica.

In celebration of Sunshine Week, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has launched a “sophisticated search tool that allows the public to closely examine thousands of pages of documents the organization has pried loose from secretive government agencies.  The documents relate to a wide range of cutting-edge technology issues and government policies that affect civil liberties and personal privacy.”

EFF’s document collection which was obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) — “casts light on several controversial government initiatives, including the FBI’s Investigative Data Warehouse and DCS 3000 surveillance program, and the Department of Homeland Security’s Automated Targeting System and ADVISE data-mining project.  The documents also provide details on Justice Department collection of communications routing data, Pentagon monitoring of soldiers’ blogs, mismatches in the Terrorist Screening Center’s watchlist, and FBI misuse of its national security letter subpoena authority.”

The new search capability enables visitors to EFF’s website to conduct keyword searches across the universe of government documents obtained by EFF, maximizing the value of the material.

At the Sunshine Week website, you’ll find results of a recent survey of state government information online.

Among the major findings:

• The information least likely to be found online were death certificates, found on the Web sites of only five states, and gas pump overcharge records, available online in eight. Also infrequently posted online were schools’ building inspections and/or safety ratings, which are posted by only nine states, and school bus inspection reports, which only 13 states posted online.
• Information most frequently found online were statewide school test scores and DOT projects/contracts, online in 50 and 48 states, respectively. Close behind was campaign data, reported in 47 of the 50 states; disciplinary actions against medical physicians, 47 states; and financial audits, 44 states.
• Death certificates are apparently a revenue source for many states, as they charge relatives and “legitimately” interested parties for copies of the records, or farm out the work to a third-party service such as VitalChek. Some states provide historical access online to older death certificates, mostly prior to 1960, although there generally is a fee for hard copies.The only state found to provide information online in all the categories surveyed was Texas. New Jersey was a close second with 18.
• The state with the least information online was Mississippi. It posted only DOT contracts and projects, fictitious business name registrations, statewide school test scores, and political campaign contributions and expenses. Though it did have some information about hospitals and nursing homes, these were perfunctory lists, not inspection reports, or links to other sites.

On the federal side, government is still viewed as secretive and President Obama’s recent orders about the FOI are viewed with approval.  Eight in ten think that the directive calling or a presumption of disclosure is the right thing to do.

“Trust in government has been on the decline for some time in the United States. The previous administration’s disclosure policies certainly contributed to public skepticism,” said Jerry Miller, director of the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University. “People now appear more optimistic, but still guarded, about President Obama and the current administration’s disclosure practices under the Freedom of Information Act.”

I read about this Meta search engine in the March 10, 2009 askSam Surf Report.  They were impressed and so was I.

When you run a MelZoo search, you get a split screen — the left column shows your search results.  Mouse over a given result and see a thumbnail of the corresponding website in the right hand column — you get a good preview without leaving the search site.  OK!

MelZoo says that the “preview feature has an enormous impact on the ‘quality of traffic’ delivered to advertisers: the traditional search engines are offering typically only text as a teaser.  Chances are that users who enjoy the luxury of a detailed thumbnail preview, will be a lot more selective in visiting the sites they are interested in.  This results in a higher effectiveness of use.  The chances of “conversion” (i.e. from hit to buy) is currently estimated 5 times higher than with traditional search engines.”

Further, they point out that MelZoo is a unique place where top skilled Software Programmers, Managers, e-marketers, etc… can contribute to the growth of the product as volunteers.  Their motivation to do this voluntary work for the MelZoo project: adding a high-value reference to their list, getting to know new high-profile individuals, gathering experience, know-how and expertise and of course the thrill and fun of joining and being part of this “huge” project.

Guide to most useful Bookmarklets
Amit at Digital Inspiration posts a guide to bookmarklets, those handy tools you can add instantly that don’t require installation as an add-on to your browser.

He suggests that since bookmarklets are not browser-specific, they are useful for those who change or move between browsers.  They don’t require installation and restarting of your browser, and they are not likely to break — unlike some browser add-ons.

His post includes a very brief video showing how to add a bookmarklet, and his list of the most useful ones includes “Show Password,” “Short URL,” and “Twitter Reactions.”

T-Mobile Google handset getting on-screen keyboard
For you T-Mobile G1 phone users, and others involved with development, sales, or purchases of the Android handsets, the news from Pocket-lint  will be of interest.

They have learned that T-Mobile has confirmed that it will be bringing the “cupcake” software update to the G1 mobile phone in April, which means users of the Android handset will get an onscreen keyboard as well as a host of other features to improve the performance of the handset launched last November.

Other new features promised in the update include video recording, a voice recorder, the ability to save MMS attachments and stereo Bluetooth, all features that reviewers were looking for when the G1 first launched.

If you are one of the many who have used Google Maps to create your own map, you’ll appreciate a newly launched feature on Google Map Maker.

You can now add driving directions in regions where it was not previously possible.

Google Lat Long Blog says that, “For example, you can get directions from Ho Chi Minh City to Thien Hau Pagoda in Vietnam or Pune City to Khandala in India.

In the spirit of Map Maker, you can correct the directions as appropriate.”  For every turn, you can edit the intersection details.

They have created a guide to help you use the new feature.  “Our hope is that with this deep editing ability, we will be able to ensure the most up-to-date and reliable maps ever.”

A critical vulnerability has been identified in Adobe Reader 9, Acrobat 9 and earlier versions, which could cause the application to crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system.  There are reports that the vulnerability is being exploited.

Adobe recommends that users of Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9 update to Adobe Reader 9.1 and Acrobat 9.1.  The company is planning to make updates available for Adobe Reader 7 and 8, and Acrobat 7 and 8, by March 18.  In addition, Adobe plans to make available Adobe Reader 9.1 for Unix by March 25.

Firefox users, be sure to look for the bar at the top asking if the download should be allowed and allow it in order to proceed.