Essential sites for tips and how-to’s
Mashable lists 10 sites you’ll want to visit for tips and how-tos for just about anything.

Includes instructables  — the world’s biggest show and tell;  About.com  — which covers a wide variety of topics; eHow  “How to do just about everything”; and more.

Best free software programs
Here’s another 10 essentials you’ll want to know about.  The best free software is explored at Tech News World.  [via iLibrarian]
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The list includes:

1. Paint.net 3.08 (graphics editor)
2. EssentialPIM 2.5 (organizer)
3. IrfanView (image viewer)
4. OpenOffice.org 2.4.1 (office program)
5. PDFCreator 8.1
6. CDBurnerXP 4.0
7. 7-Zip 4.57 (compression program)
8. Stickies 6.5 (sticky notes)
9. WordWeb 5.1 (dictionary)
10. ooVoo 1.6.1 (Internet-based telephony)

Firefox 3.0 to be released June 17
Mozilla developer center says that after more than 34 months of active development, and with the contributions of thousands, the much anticipated next version of Firefox will be ready for download on June 17.  This new version is purported to be faster and include a number of useful new features.

They are hoping for a Guinness world record-breaking download day.

Learn basic web design skills with video tutorials
Is an instructional video worth 10,000 words? 

Mashable highlights some video tutorials that show you right on your computer screen how to do just about anything you want.  Create your first website or your own WordPress theme.

Common Craft’s new video explains social media “in plain English.”  As always, the video is both simple and clever, and completely achieves its goal of explaining the phenomenon of social media.

Free Web conferencing tools useful for librarians
iLibrarian has collected a group of six Web conferencing applications that enable a presenter to host a Webinar or meeting with live video and audio, text chat, whiteboards, shared files, and even desktop sharing.

Web conferencing systems have been expensive and certainly beyond the every day uses that librarians might enjoy such as remote library instruction, hosting Webinars, and online meetings with library or community groups.

The tools include:

• VRooms
• Yugma 
• Wiziq
• Dimdim
• PalBee
• Vyew 

Free Web app tutorial sites
Web Worker Daily recommends four free tutorial sites especially for web developers.  Topics covered include photoshop, DreamWeaver, Adobe Premiere and Illustration, Excel, CSS, and more.

The sites include:

• TechTutor.TV
• FreelanceSwitch
• InPictures
• BMC PhotoArt 

Napster offers 6 million DRM-free MP3s
Napster has started offering its complete catalog of more than 6 million tracks in the MP3 format. 

Napster’s Web-based store, where you can purchase and download the tracks, is compatible with every operating system, and the MP3s can be played on any MP3 player, portable video player, or music cell phone.

The online and To Go subscription services for $12.95 or $14.95 per month, respectively, will continue and the music associated with a subscription will remain in the protected WMA format with the time-out capability.

50 open source resources for online writers
I found an interesting group of open source applications for those of us who write online at iLibrarian.  Compiled by the folks at Job Profiles, the apps are organized by category and include:

• Word Processors
• Reference
• Organization
• Helpful Tools
• Web Tools

A look through the list showed me a few that I use with some regularity.  Notepad++ is an often used favorite, and I find myself regularly keying Launchy which I wrote about recently.  PDFCreator, one of the popular free PDF resources, and the ever useful FileZilla FTP are among those making an appearance.  Check them out.

Learning Webinar from WebJunction 
As someone who has long linked librarianship and education/training in my career, I was happy to see that WebJunction, an online community for library staff, is sponsoring a one hour “webinar” on June 10th, called Cultivating a Culture of Learning in the Library.  The elearning opportunity is free and closed captioned.

“In this webinar you will learn why you need to get your staff out of the classroom and instead focus on creating a culture of learning in your library,” they state.

Some of the points that will be explored…

• The differences between training and learning
• The benefits to libraries for creating a culture of learning
• The key elements of a learning organization
• Tips for creating a culture of learning in any size library

[via Librarian in Black] 

CommonCraft  just keeps pumping them out — great videos in plain English to explain and educate. 

Below you will find one on “Podcasting in Plain English,” and “Twitter in Plain English” is in another post.  Enjoy and learn.

Skype launches new unlimited plan
Internet telephony service Skype has announced a $9.95 per month plan that allows callers from the U.S to dial landlines in 34 countries including most of Europe, Canada, and Asian countries. 

The only caveat, Web Worker Daily points out is that the calls must be to landlines.   Mobile phone calling under this plan is available to Canada, China, and Hong Kong.

Additionally, unlimited domestic calls to the U.S. are included in this new $9.95/month plan.

TeachStreet opens in Seattle
New TeachStreet advertises itself as a place for students to find great local teachers (Seattle area only to start with).  With more than 25,000 classes and teachers, TeachStreet offers many learning opportunities.  The focus is on face-to-face rather than online teaching.

Teachers can use the service to build an online reputation by creating a TeachStreet profile, complete with students’ reviews.  TeachStreet tools help teachers manage their business.

“TeachStreet is free and easy. We’re so excited to build a community of local learners that we’ve made all our services 100 percent free for students and teachers.”   [via TechCrunch]

Ten tools to help you enjoy Earth Day
April 22nd is Earth Day and Mashable has 10 tools to help you figure out how to spend it this year.

“Whether you plan to educate your friends and families about environmental issues (everyone loves that), or going out and volunteering, make sure you do something “green” this year.” 

Included is a U.S. government website, a Canadian one, and a special one for kids. 

Get a quick start with Launchy
Launchy is a free windows utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager. 

It’s a free download that indexes the programs in your start menu and launches your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes.  After installation, press ALT+SPACE BAR to bring up the Launchy window, type in an item and it opens.   Click on the asterisk to select set-up options.

AskSam points out that you can do more than just open programs.  For instance:

• Search the internet: enter “Google*TAB*Search”
• Use the calculator: enter “(400+400)*2″ (I love this!)
• Check the weather: enter “Weather*TAB*Zip Code”

PrimoPDF
There are a number of free PDF creators, but today I am calling attention to one recommended (in her classes and workshops) by my colleague Jean Kent. 

 PrimoPDF features include:

• Completely free PDF creator - Create PDF files from 300+ file types.
• Make 100% industry-standard PDF from any files that print.
• Create PDF files optimized for print, screen, ebook, or prepress. 

PrimoPDF has a sibling called Nitro Professional with many additonal features.  It is not free, but has a 14-day free trial.

Free ebooks, whitepapers for better web design
Take a deeper look at web design with comprehensive resources such as these free ebooks listed by Mashable.    

You’ll find a nice mix of resources ranging from developing ecommerce sites to user-friendly flash content.

New YouTube developer tools turn any website into a video sharing hub
There’s lots of buzz about YouTube’s effort to change the site from a video destination to an all-encompassing web video platform with new developer tools. 

Wired Blog Network says “the new extended API allows developers to essentially build their own private YouTube, using YouTube to handle video transcoding, but keeping the uploading interface local and branded for their own site.”
 
Firefox 3 beta 4 released
The need for speed — Firefox 3 beta 4 brings an impressive speed boost and more refinements to Firefox’s sleek new user interface, says Wired Blog Network.  The new beta shows “blazing speed improvements, particularly with JavaScript-heavy pages like Gmail which load in about half the time of previous releases.”

The fourth beta release of Firefox 3 (there will be a fifth beta later) also features new improvements to the user interface, particularly in Windows Vista where the UI now matches the look of other platforms.

You can download Firefox 3 beta 4 here. 

Free tools for visual communication and publishing
Here’s a interesting group of eight free, mostly online, tools from Robin Good to help you edit images, do a screencast, generate buttons, and upload videos to a number of services with one click.
 
Developing an improved online environment for educating computer users 
People who want to learn more about computer technology and solve problems they encounter on their systems currently have a wealth of forums to turn to such as mailing lists and newsgroups, official and unofficial documentation and more collaborative media, says Andy Oram at O’Reilly Radar.

He suggests that a community education environment should include:

• Easy access for adding questions and editing both questions and answers
• A suitable division of material into different types
• Extensive linking that not only helps people find information, but shows them a variety of pathways through related documents
• Support for combining questions, dividing questions into subquestions, and extracting material to make stand-alone pages
• Recognition of authorship
• An API that can be incorporated into tools of the users’ choice
• Push technology for people who want it
• Source control
• Integration with bug reports and feature requests
• Print-on-demand