Free lectures from top-notch universities

Have you ever wished you could attend lectures at famous universities at no charge? Now you can, thanks to the Internet. More and more schools are posting lectures on Youtube, iTunesU and other multimedia distribution lines.

We're talking big schools here - MIT, Stanford, Berkely, Duke, Yale, Tufts and more. Most are in the USA, but there are some in the UK and Australia.

To find a lecture that suits your interests you can do a simple Google search. Include the words: free lecture video in your search.

Or, you can browse lists of universities and topics at

• Education Portal
  
• World Lecture Hall
• Fathom
  
• LectureFox (The main site was down when I wrote this, but here's the cached version, which shows links to the various schools.)
  

A recent article on Wired.com discusses the implications of this trend. For the intellectually curious, the selection is a goldmine. But the free lectures are also helpful to people in remote areas of the world that would not otherwise have access to quality education. Also, for high-school students exploring college options, it's a great way to sample the courses and the professors.

More educational video sources are listed in my blog post of June 24.

Pauline
teachmeinternet.com

Store photos online - in case of disaster

The recent fires in California are grim reminders that our possessions can be gone in a flash. If you had 5 minutes to leave your house, what would you grab first?

Many people would grab family photos, heirlooms and other keepsakes. These just can't be replaced by any insurance settlement.

This is as good a time as any to be thinking about storing photos online. Then, even if your computer and all your storage media are destroyed, you can still retrieve copies from the Web.

Here are a few free storage sources online:

MyPhotoAlbum: Unlimited storage space for photos and videos. Your photos retain the original resolution; they are not reduced in size.

Snapfish: Stores photos in both hi-res and lo-res. Lo-res is find for viewing online, and takes less time to load.

Flickr.com: One of the first photo-sharing sites, it is still highly popular.

Photobucket: 1 gig of storage space. Includes options for albums and layouts - e.g., for MySpace. Also a handy place to store images for your blog or website.

MediaMax: 25 gigs of free storage, for whatever you like, not just photos and videos. Convenient and free online backup for documents and other files.

If you're a professional and want to reach new audiences, I'm starting a distance-learning class in January, to help you ethically market your expertise with authority. Click here to learn more and to sign up for a free preview call.

Pauline
teachmeinternet.com

Panoramic views

Want to visit faraway places, but don't have the time or money? The next best thing is a "virtual" visit through the lenses of panoramic photography.

Here's a view of Puerto Cabello, Venezuala. Use your mouse to drag the image. You'll see it rotate 360 degrees - almost like being there!

More panoramic photos are at ViewAt.org, Panoshow, and Don Bain's Virtual Guidebooks

This technology is used in interiors as well as in scenery. Some realtors are using it to show houses. Many tourist attractions have added virtual tours to their websites.

Add the phrase "virtual tour" to any search, and see what you can come up with. For example, search for:"luxury homes" virtual tour" or graceland "virtual tour" or "carlsbad caverns" virtual tour.

Have fun - and remember, if you get dizzy, just close your eyes for a few seconds. ;-)

Pauline
teachmeinternet.com