October 23, 2012

Free College On The Web

Free Education on the Web: Five Sources for Free College Classes Online

By Wendy Boswell, About.com Guide

Most people know the value of a college degree. Studies have traditionally shown that college-educated people tend to earn more money over the entire arc of their career. However, a college education can be prohibitively expensive. Does this mean that college is an unattainable dream for people who can't afford it? With the advent of free classes and programs on the Web, absolutely not. In this article, we're going to take a look at five fantastic (free!) sources for taking all sorts of great college classes on the Web, anything from computer statistics to Web development and much, much more. Note: While many colleges and universities offer a wide variety of free courses online in the form of podcasts, lectures, tutorials and online classes, most of these courses are not accredited or part of an actual accredited degree. However, that does not mean they are not valuable or will not add value to your overall education and/or resume.

MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was one of the first in the realm of venerated institutions to offer free courses online to anyone who wants to take them. These are all real courses that have been offered at MIT, and there are over 2100 different classes from which to choose from. Classes are available on anything from Architecture to Science, and include free lecture notes, exams, and videos from MIT. No registration is required.

edX
edX is a collaboration between MIT and Harvard that offers classes from MIT, Harvard, and Berkeley online for free. In addition to a whole host of classes offered to students all over the world, edX also tracks how students learn online, keeping on top of research that could impact further class offering. This particular institution does award "certificates of mastery" to students who complete certain courses on a higher level; these certificates are free at the time of this writing, but plans are in place to charge for them in the future.

Khan Academy
Khan Academy is a collection of videos on subjects ranging from computer science to test preparation. More than 3400 videos for K-12 and up students are available. In addition to this vast library of videos, free assessments and exams are available so students can make sure they are retaining what they are learning about. Everything here is self-paced, meaning you can go as fast or as slow as you need to, with customized badges and a proprietary points system to show off your progress. Parents and teachers can also participate, since Khan Academy offers the ability to see what their students are doing via real-time report cards. This website has grown into one of the most popular learning destinations on the Web and is well worth a visit for anyone who is looking to learn something new.

Berkeley
Berkeley Webcasts is Berkeley's online hub for audio and video classes streamed all over the globe. Search for a specific class or topic, or, use the search menu to look at information by semester or department. You can also look at the list of recently added classes, or view all classes at once. In addition to online classes, Berkeley also offers students the ability to virtually take part in events (such as guest lectures) on their YouTube page.

Johns Hopkins
Johns Hopkins, one of the world's premier medical learning institutions, offers a wide variety of public health courses and materials. Students can look up classes by course offering title, topics, collections, or images. There are several different ways that courses are presented: with audio, with case studies, core courses for the Hopkins Master of Public Health, and several more. For anyone looking to advance their healthcare career without sacrificing quality, this is the first place to look.

A world-class education online
As you can see, the quality of these different institutions is top-notch. There's no need to sacrifice financially for a college education when you've got Ivy League schools offering all sorts of great courses online for free! For even more on Web-based education, I invite you to read Free Courses, a great collection of even more free classes from all over the Web.

More about online learning

Wendy Boswell
Web Search Guide

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September 23, 2012

Best Free BitTorrent Clients

August 2012 - From Gizmo's Freeware - Introduction - http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-bittorrent-client.htm

Since its inauspicious public appearance 8 years ago bittorrent has become one of the major download formats. With good reason too: it's fast, equitable and efficient. If you haven't yet installed a Bittorrent client on your PC, you should as there are some great freeware clients available. In Bittorrent the best clients are free. (In fact, if a client costs money, it is most likely a scam).
If you are unaware of the bittorrent protocol, you may take a look at my article, What is Bittorrent, as well as the listings within Searching for Torrents (Best Free Torrent Search Sites) to see the massive amount of content available through bittorrent.

Testing
Anyone with knowledge of bittorrent knows that it is nearly impossible to have a testing procedure that is foolproof in measuring small differentials in speed among bittorrent clients. This is due to the fact that your download speed depends on the upload of other active users and there is no control over their actions while testing. However, I have been testing clients for this category for several years and am convinced that the better clients can be separated from the others.
For this round of testing, I used 3 torrents and 2 magnet links. One of the torrents was extremely healthy, over 700 seeds and few peers, and was used just as a raw speed test for the clients. Another torrent was a healthy swarm, 60 seeds and 20 peers, and the last torrent was a weaker one with 20 seeds and 15 peers. One of the magnet links was for the same torrent that was healthy and the other was a very weak swarm with only 9 seeds and 5 peers.
The differences between the Superior clients and the good clients was not as marked as last time, but there still was a difference.
Testing was performed on both Windows 7 64bit and Windows XP SP3 running all of the 5 test torrents and magnet links above.

Ranking
Previously, I separated the bittorrent clients that had toolbars etc., to a listing below those that bittorrent clients that had a clean install. I decided to rank the clients based upon their results on the testing, their features and their help resources, giving the greatest weight to the test results.
I will make note of those that have installs or other changes to your system that are not necessary for the proper function of the bittorrent client. I will strongly suggest that if you choose a bittorrent client that has these unnecessary add ons, to not accept those changes or add ons.

Discussion

Superior Bittorrent Clients
Although these superior bittorrent clients are listed in order according to the ranking criteria above, I will point out that the differences as far as speed are so slight that in real life there would be no real difference. Any one of these bittorrent clients will perform as good as can be and the choice usually comes down to which GUI suits your personal preference.

qBittorrent is once again my top pick in this review. I was unaware of the existence of this client until it was suggested by IronPlatypus in the comments here a couple of years ago. Once again qBittorrent quickly got going on the torrents and on the magnet links. qBittorrent was also stable and efficient in both operating systems tested. Its RAM use was low and stable as was its CPU use. It has all the features that an ordinary user would want and is unlikely to cause issues on any Windows system. Their built in search runs quick and has a good number of sites included at default. I am usually not a big fan of built in searches, but since this allows you to visit the web page for the torrent and see comments/ratings there, I find this search useful. Plugins for additional sites are available. A downside to this client is that it basically is a one person operation, which might affect growth and support. The updates seem to be coming regularly, so the growth is not an issue as of yet (in fact they seem to do more updates than the other clients). The Wiki and Documentation have improved, but still parts are out of date. The situation at the forums is good. Response at their bugs page is excellent and the responses are from the developer. qBittorrent is a clean install, no addons etc.
Pros: Low and stable RAM and CPU with all the necessary features. Excellent performance on torrents. Development still seems to be very active and responsive to users. Clean install, no addons etc. Cross platform client.
Cons: Basically a one person operation, which could affect progress (though it has not as of now). Support has improved, but could be better. Not that well known and not accepted at many private torrent sites (though the situation is improving).

Deluge had some issues with the version I tested one year ago, but I received an email from one of the developers indicating the issues for Windows users had been resolved and he was correct. Like qBittorrent, and unlike the rest of the bittorrent clients tested, Deluge was very quick to get going on all the test torrents and magnet links. Deluge does have a good reputation and is accepted at most private sites. Its forums, user guide and FAQ provide a good level of support.    Deluge has a clean install, no addons etc. Deluge's performance was just a hair behind qBittorrent. Deluge is a very basic bittorrent client, it does not have the search feature of qBittorrent and others, but many users prefer that and will find Deluge to be a superior client in its speed performance. Its RAM and CPU use are low and stable, but not quite as low as qBittorrent. Deluge did have an issue with the Add Torrent screen on magnet links as it did not show the files, so one can not deselect before adding (but may deselect after adding)
Pros: Cross platform client that is stable for the most part and efficient. Well accepted at private trackers. Excellent performance on torrents. Good help resources. Clean install, no addons etc.
Cons: Issue with Add Torrent screen not showing files for magnet links so they can not be deselected before adding to download (they may be deselected after adding).

µTorrent has been top pick here in the past and is still a superior bittorrent client, and it falls just behind the above two clients in the testing.   With the excellent results on the test torrents, the fact that it is a stable and low resource using client (matching top pick qBittorrent) and the vast amount of features packed into this tiny program, this is a top flight bittorrent program. The support provided by µTorrent's FAQs, guides and forums is excellent, though it has diminished a bit from past years. µTorrent does try to foist a toolbar, home page change, search engine change and a software download during install. Once you get past the install addon and change issues, this is an excellent client for all Windows users. µTorrent is by far and away the most popular bittorrent client. µTorrent does have an issue on the Add Torrent screen when adding magnet links where it does not show the files, so files may not be deselected before adding (they may be deselected after adding). NOTE: Magnet link issue fixed in version 3.2. They also added streaming capability in recent version. However, I am unable to test this as I have nothing to stream to. Recent versions of µTorrent have been in disfavor at many private sites, supposedly for reporting to the tracker issues.
Pros: Excellent speeds on torrents, efficient and stable client with a large amount of features packed into a tiny package. Excellent help resources. Streaming capability.
Cons: Has had critical security alerts at Secunia. (though none on this version). Toolbar install (not necessary for program) and search/home page change enabled at default on install. OpenCandy installer offers software not necessary for the program.   Recent versions of µTorrent have been in disfavor at many private sites, supposedly for reporting to the tracker issues.

BitTorrent. Everything I said about µTorrent, above applies to BitTorrent as the two are identical in their options and engine. Both are owned by BitTorrent, Inc., and are developed by the same development team. If you prefer the name BitTorrent and its purple color over the µTorrent name and its green color, then that would be the only reason to choose this client over µTorrent.
Even though the two clients are the same, BitTorrent is still banned at most private torrent sites (even though they accept µTorrent ). BitTorrent releases tend to come out a bit after the µTorrent releases ffor some reason.

Transmission-QT (Windows) is not an "official" release of the Transmission team, but has been touted in their forums for years and recently moved to its own site. Even so, it has become one of the best bittorrent clients for Windows. Its performance on the test torrents and magnet links puts it on a par with all of the above in real world application, though it did fall slightly behind. Basically, Transmission-QT tested equal to µTorrent and BitTorrent, but was put below them on my list due to being unofficial and due to its lack of comparable help resources. This version ran stable and efficient as well on both of my Windows operating systems (though it used a bit more RAM than the above clients. Many users will find its simple interface appealing. The help resources are limited, but for more savvy users this is an excellent choice. Even for newer users, the setup guide that I have prepared will be all you need to get up and running well. This version is not accepted at private trackers, even though the main Transmission is well accepted at almost all private trackers. This client has a clean install, no addons etc.
Pros: Efficient and stable with excellent speeds. Simple interface. Clean install, no addons etc.
Cons: Not an "official" release of the Transmission team and is lacking help resources.

Excellent Clients
These clients ran a notch below the superior clients above. They still have a loyal following and will appeal to some users, though I feel the differences in performance deserve a lower ranking here.

Vuze was at one time the top pick here and was for a long time my favorite client. I was a big supporter when they moved from the Azureus to Vuze model, but the Vuze model has really disappointed. Although the client has improved its RAM use greatly since the Azureus model, it still is one of the big RAM users, though this is really not an issue in this day and age. It also looks like this has been put on the back burner as the Vuze team seems to be working on another project. Their install includes a toolbar, deceptively named Vuze Remote, and home and search page changes enabled at default. There is also a software install offered and it also has advertisements in the Vuze portion of the client. Vuze is still an excellent client with a wide variety of plugins (though many are no longer supported) and options and information. Their help resources (Vuze-Wiki and Vuze forums) have taken a step back, but the Wiki is still an excellent source of information, Its performance on the tests put it a notch below the above superior clients, but was better than it fared last year. Note that the Mainline DHT plugin should be used, particularly to get good results on magnet links. Many users like the intricate details this program provides and its streaming capabilities.
Pros: There is a wide variety of options and information within the program and an impressive array of plugins (many work, but many are also no longer supported) to satisfy any need. Cross platform. Streaming capability.
Cons: Though the client has improved its RAM use in the past few years, development has not moved much recently. The Vuze interface is useless for all but a few who like the streaming capability. Bing Toolbar install and home page change enabled at default on install. Advertisements within free version of Vuze interface. Performance on large swarm torrents was not at the level of the superior clients above.

Tixati is a re

latively new bittorrent client that entered this review for the first time three years ago. It is also an appealing client, with its varied GUIs and layout. Tixati was very stable in both RAM and CPU on both of my systems. Its use of those is higher than the top 5 clients here, but it is still very easy on system resources. Tixati always seems to be in active development and the developers are receptive to users input. Compared to µTorrent/BitTorrent, Tixati is a Mom and Pop operation, which many users will prefer, but some may be wary. This is reflected in their promise never to include addons/changes such as seen in µTorrent/BitTorrent/Vuze Their help facilities have grown and are kept up to date. Their forums are responsive, but not at the level of µTorrent's, which has the best support forum. It s performance on the test torrents was disappointing this time as it had quite a delay in getting going on a couple of the test torrents/magnets. their interface options will appeal to many users. Their clean install will appeal to all.
Pros: Generally stable and efficient with a good variety of options. Developers are active and responsive to user requests. Attractive interface. Good help resources. No addons etc. during install.
Cons: Help resource, though very good, could use some more. Smaller operation, which you may or may not like. Performance on test torrents was not up to the Superior clients.

BitComet has always suffered, unnecessarily in my opinion, from an image of a cheating, or poorly built client. The language issues of having a development team that is Chinese speaking only has hurt them over the years. Its performance on the tests was very disappointing this time, particularly with their 64bit version. Their 32bit version ran equal to Vuze and Tixati. They have removed the home page change et al, from their install. They do have a good deal of self promoting ads, including links to pay services and I find their interface cluttered with items that should be cleared up. But, BitComet does have a wide variety of options and for the most part runs stable. They also have an excellent support structure through their two forums (ToComet and UniteTheCows) and their blog and wiki .(there is a nice FAQ at the Wiki).
Pros: A stable client that was just behind the superior clients in efficiency and features. They offer a wide variety of features and excellent help resources. Their torrent exchange and other community features may interest some users.
Cons: Apparently still has issues as initial seed on torrents. Still not accepted at a few private trackers (although this issue is rightfully being resolved) . Self-promotional advertising banners and popups within client. Performance on tests were very disappointing with the 64bit version, but decent with the 32bit version.

Download Programs That Have Bittorrent Support
I receive comments suggesting download managers that support bittorrent and tested a couple this time around. Free Download Manager did perform equal to the excellent clients on torrents (it does not support magnet links), but was below the superior clients. I would not suggest this for a bittorrent client, but if you already have it installed, want to use only torrents and not magnet links, only occa sionally download torrents and do not want to install an additional program then it is acceptable. Though I would still suggest, even to those users, to try one of the superior clients listed here.

August 25, 2012

CDBurnerXP - Free Audio CD Burn Program

This is a great free little program to burn audio CDs or CD/DVD ISOs for free. Watch the check box to install a toolbar and not select this. Overall a great little free program.

CDBurnerXP is an easy to use CD/DVD burning software, that can write CD-R and CD-RW discs. The program can also write disks directly from an ISO image file, and save image as an ISO image file (*.iso). You can create data and audio CDs, and it supports Burn-Proof technology, multi-session disks, import of ISO images and more. In addition to CD burning, you can also rip audio CDs, normalize WAV files, encode MP3 files, erase disks, and more. The program can also convert .bin and .nrg (Nero) images to .ISO format.

You can download it here: http://www.snapfiles.com/get/cdburnerxp.html

August 10, 2012

5 Video Sites Other Than uTube

August 8, 2012, by David Parrack, from Makeuseof.com, By Dave Parrack

Believe it or not there was a time when YouTube wasn’t the daddy of all online video sites. It was instead merely just one of a number that was offering ordinary people the chance to share their videos on the Internet. Now it’s difficult to see past YouTube, at least in terms of user-generated content.

There are of course the big media sites such as Hulu and Netflix, but YouTube is such a strong contender, it’s even going after those guys with channels curated by celebrities and content created by professionals. In the same way we now ‘Google’ something, we also ‘YouTube’ it, and that’s disheartening for the other sites that were once contenders. Perhaps it’s time to take a fresh look at a few of the YouTube alternatives that are still with us.

Dailymotion

Dailymotion is very popular, being the second largest video-sharing website in the world. It’s based on France and was started by a guy in his Paris apartment in 2005, the same year YouTube burst on to the scene.
The site feels very similar to YouTube, with a homepage featuring trending videos, a set of different categories, and a visible search bar. Clicking on a video brings up a clean and simple player, though it lacks some of the finesse YouTube’s player possesses.
The selection of videos available to watch is good, although it’s nowhere near as varied or numerous as what YouTube has to offer. I’d suggest the vast majority of clips you can find on Dailymotion can also be found on YouTube.k

It’s these similarities to YouTube that are both Dailymotion’s biggest strength and biggest weakness. If you’re looking for a direct alternative it’s the most likely to fill the void, but it also means it struggles to find its true identity.
One Word Review: Clone.

Metacafe

Metacafe began life in 2003, with two Israeli entrepreneurs starting the site in Tel Aviv. It’s now based in San Francisco, and early on switched from the YouTube/Dailymotion model to a more-curated platform for original shortform videos.

The site has a very different feel to YouTube, and is immediately weighed down by a busy homepage dominated (at the time of writing) by a banner ad. Beyond that there are dropdown menus for ‘Movies’, ‘Games’, and ‘Music’, as well as a selection of other channels.

Like YouTube it’s pretty hard to stop clicking around the site once you set off doing so. One video inevitably links to another that you’ll be interested in watching. There are original shows to be seen but YouTube has since muscled in on that market.
I like Metacafe but again it’s pretty hard to distinguish it from YouTube. To get the most from the site seek out the originals, exclusives, and partner channels. Otherwise it’s a definite case of YouTube Lite.
One Word Review: Original?

Vimeo

Vimeo, which is literally the word ‘video’ with ‘me’ stuffed in the middle, is a U.S.-based website launched in late 2004. It’s not really a direct competitor to YouTube, having taken a more subtle approach that puts the onus on quality rather than quantity.
The Vimeo homepage is a strange beast, being more about selling the site to casual passers-by than promoting the content hidden within. However, by hovering over ‘Explore’ you can see the categories and channels that are where the visual goodness resides.
Vimeo isn’t the place to go if you want to see cats acting crazy or dogs running on treadmills. They may be there if you look hard enough but Vimeo is more about classy short films, experimental music videos, or snapshots of interesting people’s interesting lives.
The best thing about Vimeo is the player, which places the video front and center, keeping all the extraneous crap to a minimum. There are enough options to keep you clicking, but this is the one site that shows the videos to their full potentials.
One Word Review: Classy.

Veoh

Veoh is a San Diego-based website that launched in beta in 2006. It has changed much since its debut, now being a subsidiary of Qlipso. Its content is a strange mix of movies, music, and user-generated content.
The Veoh homepage is, if anything, a little too simplistic. There are a few selected videos presented in thumbnail form but beyond that it’s difficult to know where to begin. Clicking on one of the dropdown menus is the only way to proceed but even that isn’t guaranteed to get you far.
There are ‘Channels’ and ‘Movies’, but they’ll invariably lead to clips rather than full-length episodes of television shows or films. The ‘Music’ and ‘Videos’ tabs are more worthy of exploring, but only just.
One Word Review: Confused.

Blip

Blip is another site that launched around the same time as YouTube but that has since walked a different path. Founded in 2005 and based in New York City, Blip focuses on offering a platform for producers of original Web series.
The Blip homepage sets the site’s stall out from the start, highlighting the latest episodes of various of the Web series that makes up the bulk of Blip’s content. This is a good strategy as clicking on one episode could get you hooked and needing to watch more of the same series.
Like Vimeo, Blip lets the videos breathe with a player that automatically dims the lights. All of the various shows are organized by category, which means it’s easy to find original programming that is likely to appeal to your interests or sensibilities.
One Word Review: Episodic.

Conclusions

All of these sites will have been mentioned – whether highlighted or just in passing – on MakeUseOf already, but I suspect many people will have forgotten they even exist. Let’s be frank and admit none of them can compete with YouTube in terms of popularity, brand-awareness, and the sheer number of videos, but they’re also not ready to be condemned to the dustbin of history.
Do you ever head for an online video site other than YouTube? If so, is it one of the above or one that hasn’t been featured? If you do head away from YouTube, what are your reasons for doing so? After all, as long as it doesn’t infringe on copyrights any video you care to mention makes it onto the Google-owned site. Whatever your thoughts on the subject please let us know in the comments section below.
Image Credit: Maurits Knook

Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-video-sites-alternatives-to-youtube/

August 3, 2012

Top 20 Sites for Free Textbooks

Another great article from about.com

Free Books: The Top 20 Websites

Create your own free library!

By Wendy Boswell, About.com Guide

Ever thought of creating a library with thousands of books, and never spending a dime? Sounds impossible, but it's not! Freely available books in nearly any subject you can think of abound on the Web, ready to be read, downloaded, and shared. Here are the top twenty sites where you can find a wide variety of completely free books, anything from romance novels to computer technology manuals.

ReadPrint.com: ReadPrint offers thousands of free books, including novels, poems, fiction, nonfiction, essays, and plays. They were voted one of Time magazine’s best 50 websites in 2010, and for good reason: the site is easy to navigate, and there are over 8000 books here to download for free. The front page offers several different ways to find books, but my personal favorite is browsing through the list of Top Authors; notable picks include Louisa May Alcott, Rudyard Kipling, and Jack London.
ManyBooks.net: Check out the most popular titles, special collections, or browse through some covers to see what interests you. ManyBooks offers over 29,000 free ebooks in a wide range of categories, from Adventure to Young Readers. Browse through the most popular downloads, recommendations, and special collections.
The Literature Network: This site is organized alphabetically by author. Click on any author's name, and you'll see a biography, related links and articles, quizzes, and forums. Most of the literature here is free; some downloads require a small fee.
Free Computer Books: Every computer subject and programming language you can think of is represented here. Free books and textbooks, as well as extensive lecture notes, are available.
Librivox.org: Librivox is a dream come true for audiobook lovers. All the books here are absolutely free, which is good news for those of us who have had to pony up ridiculously high fees for substandard audiobooks. Librivox has many volunteers that work to release quality recordings of classic books, all free for anyone to download. If you've been looking for a great place to find free audio books, Librivox is a good place to start.
Authorama.com: Authorama features a nice selection of books written in HTML and XHTML, which basically means that they are in easily readable format. Most books here are featured in English, but there are quite a few German language texts as well. Books are organized alphabetically by the author’s last name. Authorama offers a good selection of free books from a variety of authors, both current and classic.
Project Gutenberg: Project Gutenberg is one of the largest sources for free books on the Web, with over 30,000 free downloadable ebooks available in a wide variety of formats. Project Gutenberg is the oldest (and quite possibly the largest) library on the Web, with literally hundreds of thousands books available for free download. The vast majority of books at Project Gutenberg are released in English, but there are other languages available. If you already know what you are looking for, search the database by author name, title, language, or subjects. You can also check out the top 100 list to see what other people have been downloading.
Scribd offers a fascination collection of all kinds of reading materials: presentations, textbooks, popular reading, and much more, all organized by topic. Scribd is one of the Web’s largest sources of published content, with literally millions of documents published every month.
International Digital Children's Library: Browse through a wide selection of high quality children's literature here. Check out Simple Search to get a big picture of how this library is organized: by age, reading level, length of book, genres, and more.
Ebooks and Text Archives: From the Internet Archive; a library of fiction, popular books, children's books, historical texts and academic books.
World Public Library: Technically, the World Public Library is NOT free. But for a measly 8.95 a year, you can gain access to hundreds of thousands of books in over one hundred different languages. They also have over one hundred different special collections ranging from American Lit to Western Philosophy. Worth a look. They also have what they call a Give Away Page, which is over two hundred of their most popular titles, audio books, technical books,a and books made into movies. Give the freebies a try, and if you really like their service, then you can choose to become a member and get the whole collection.
Questia Public Library: Questia has long been a favorite choice of librarians and scholars for research help. They also offer a world-class library of free books filled with classics, rarities, and textbooks. More than 5000 books are available for download here, alphabetized both by title and by author.
Wikisource: Online library of user-submitted and maintained content. At the time of this writing, over 200,000 pieces of content are available to read.
Wikibooks: Wikibooks is an open collection of (mostly) textbooks. Subjects range from Computing to Languages to Science; you can see all that Wikibooks has to offer in Books by Subject. Be sure to check out the Featured Books section, which highlights books that the Wikibooks community at large believes to be “the best of what Wikibooks has to offer, and should inspire people to improve the quality of other books”.
Bibliomania: Bibliomania gives readers over 2000 free classics, including literature book notes, author bios, book summaries, and study guides. Books are presented in chapter format.
The Open Library: There are over one million books here, all free, all available in PDF, ePub, Daisy, DjVu and ASCII text. You can search for ebooks specifically by checking the "show only ebooks" box under the main search box. Once you've found an ebook, you will see that it will be available in a variety of formats.
Sacred Texts: Sacred Texts contains the Web’s largest collection of free books about religion, mythology, folklore and the esoteric in general.
Free eBooks: Free eBooks offers a wonderfully diverse variety of books, ranging from Advertising to Health to Web Design. Standard memberships (yes, you do have to register in order to download anything, but it only takes a minute) are free and allow members to access unlimited eBooks in HTML, but only five books every month in the PDF and TXT formats. A VIP membership here gives you unlimited access to any book you want, in any format.
Slideshare: Slideshare is an online forum where anyone can upload a digital presentation on any subject. Millions of people utilize SlideShare for research, sharing ideas, and learning about new technologies. SlideShare supports documents and PDF files, and all these are available for free download (after free registration).
The Online Books Page: Maintained by the University of Pennsylvania, this page lists over one MILLION free books free available for download in dozens of different formats.

How to Read Books Online

More on Free Online Books

Source: http://websearch.about.com/od/dailywebsearchtips/qt/dnt0607.htm?nl=1

July 30, 2012

Best Internet Radio Websites

From the howtogeek.com
The Best Websites for Listening to Internet Radio and Downloading and Streaming Free Music

When was the last time you listened to over-the-air FM radio? There are so many options on the internet for listening to thousands of different radio stations in many different genres and for downloading a lot of music for free.
We’ve collected some of the best websites for listening to internet radio and for downloading and streaming free music.

Internet Radio

There are many sites that offer many radio stations from which you can pick, in all kinds of different genres. Some are completely free and some have both free and paid options.

Pandora

Pandora allows you to enter the name of a song, artist, or genre you like and the Music Genome Project scans its entire database of music that has been analyzed using up to 450 distinct musical characteristics by a trained music analyst. Songs with interesting musical similarities to the song, artist, or genre you entered are presented to you, allowing you to discover new music that fits in with your musical preferences and moods. Pandora also offers comedy and allows you to create up to 100 unique “stations” that you can refine over time.
The free version of Pandora is ad-supported. If you would prefer to listen to radio without audio or visual ads, you can sign up for Pandora One ($36 per year or $3.99 for one month) to enjoy your music without ads. Pandora One also allows you to listen for up to five hours in a row without having to interact with Pandora at all. When you do interact with Pandora, the timer is reset.

Last.fm

Last.fm is a music recommendation service. Sign up and download their software, The Scrobbler, which helps you discover other music based on the type of music you choose to play. The Scrobbler updates your library with music you’ve been listening to on your computer, phone, or music player and tells Last.fm what songs you like most, which ones you play most, how often you play a specific artist, as well as other information that helps them personalized recommendations just for you.
You can also download free MP3 files from Last.fm and get involved in the Last.fm community where you discuss music you love with other Last.fm listeners, tag tracks, and learn what’s new and hot. Last.fm is also available for iPhone and Android devices.

Screamer Radio

Screamer Radio is a freeware program that allows you to download and listen to any of over 4000 regional and internet radio stations. The software contains a large database of radio stations and you can record what you’re listening to. It’s ad-free and they claim it has no spyware. You can keep the program out of the way by hiding it in the system tray. Screamer Radio is also available in a portable version. See our review about playing and recording internet radio with Screamer Radio.

Playlist.com

Playlist.com offers millions of songs from which you can create millions of different playlists. Discover new music and connect with like-minded listeners and friends to see what they listen to and share your playlists with them.

SHOUTcast Radio Directory

SHOUTcast Radio is a directory listing over 45,000 music, talk, sports, and community radio stations from the U.S. and around the world. You can listen to a station while still exploring other stations. The stations are organized into categories to make it easy to find the style of music you like, and you can also search for your favorite songs and artists playing across the network of stations.

Slacker Personal Radio

Slacker Personal Radio allows you to listen to personalized, custom music, news, sports, and comedy stations for free and listen everywhere. The stations are programmed by DJs that are experts in their specific genres. Their knowledge and your own personal taste are used to create radio stations that are perfectly customized for you.
You can also subscribe to Slacker at two different levels: Slacker Radio Plus ($3.99/month) and Slacker Premium Radio ($9.99/month). They offer extra features such as no ads, the ability to cache stations on your mobile phone’s memory card, and unlimited song skips. The Premium service allows you to plays songs and albums on demand, cache albums and playlists as well as stations, and create your own playlists.

Live365

Live365 offers a wide-reaching radio network of high-quality, streaming music, talk, and audio in more than 260 genres. The Live365 radio network streams music from artists like Pat Metheny, Johnny Cash, and Carlos Santana. They also offer access to public radio stations and stations programmed in many different styles by individual DJs. Live365 allows individual artists and organizations an easy platform for promoting their music and creating their own internet radio stations.
You can become a VIP listener to have access to additional features, such as commercial-free music and the ability to listen to Live365 from compatible mobile devices. You have a choice of a 3-month subscription ($7.95/month paid every 3 months), a 6-month subscription ($6.95/month paid every 6 months), or a 1-year subscription ($5.95/month paid yearly). Part of the subscription fee you pay gets paid out as royalties to the artists whose music is played on Live365.

SKY.fm

SKY.fm is a multi-channel internet radio service that offers streaming music in over 50 different genres. You can listen for free or upgrade to SKY.fm Premium for high-quality audio streams, completely commercial-free music, and the ability to listen in multiple software programs on your PC, in your browser, and on your mobile device.

Streema

Streema offers a radio directory of over 20,000 stations in every music genre from around the world. The directory is ranked by popularity, so you can easily see what stations are the most popular among the Streema listeners. Use a web interface to find your favorite radio stations and the top new songs and playlists. Once you sign up for free, you can create a list of your favorite radio stations, invite some friends, and discover new music. As of the writing of this article, Streema claims that mobile apps are coming soon so you’ll be able to stream music from their site on your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android, BlackBerry, among other mobile phones.

Spotify

Spotify offers legal, free access to a large library of music you can listen to on your computer, iPhone, and iPad using their downloadable streaming music player. Sign up for a free account, login, listen to millions of tracks, and save the songs you love to your Spotify playlists.
Even with access to millions of tracks, you may get tired of listening to your favorite bands over and over again. Spotify’s recommendation engine can help you find other artists similar to what you’ve been listening to or to suit a specific mood. Their Related artist feature is another way to discover artists you just might love. When listening to one of the top artists on Spotify, you’ll see a list of artists that other fans of the current artist listen to on the Related artists tab. You might just find your new favorite band.
Spotify is free, but there are also paid subscriptions options: Unlimited ($4.99/month) and Premium ($9.99/month). Both subscriptions options offer ad-free listening and the Premium option also offers an offline mode for your desktop and mobile phone, the ability to stream millions of tracks from the Spotify library as well as radio, and enhanced sound quality.

Jango

Jango is an internet radio site that allows you to create and share custom radio stations based on artists or genres. Search for an artist or select a genre and your station begins to play right away. You not only get the music you like but also similar favorites of other Jango listeners who share your taste. Customize your stations by adding more artists and rate the songs, indicating which ones you want to play more often than others.
Share your stations with other Jango listeners and tune in to other people’s stations.

Radio Tuna

Radio Tuna is a real-time search engine for online radio that profiles stations based on the music they actually play and not only say they play. The data from thousands of streaming stations is processed in real time. Two databases, created by thousands of individuals contributing for free through Musicbrainz and Discogs, contain data used to work out what is being played on every stream found. Use Radio Tuna to spend more time listening to your favorite music and less time searching for it.

Grooveshark

Grooveshark is a large, on-demand music streaming and discover service used by 30 million people. Listen to your favorite music, create your own playlists, discover new music. Share your music and discoveries with your friends through Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites. You can also upgrade to Grooveshark Plus ($6.00/month) so you can listen ad-free or to Grooveshark Anywhere ($9.00/month) so you can take Grooveshark with you on your phone and other mobile devices.

SomaFM

SomaFM is a listener-supported, commercial-free internet-only radio station that gets over 5.8 million “listener hours” a month. Their goal is to expose their listeners to great new music not found on commercial radio.

Artist Radio Online

Artist Radio Online allows you to listen to free internet radio stations designed and DJ’d by your favorite artists. The stations play directly in your browser; you do not need to download any software. Listen to free streaming music for as long as you want.

Jelli

Jelli is an online streaming radio service that allows its community of listeners to determine what gets played. Interact with the live radio broadcast to decide what plays. Check out the Jelli stations, choose one, and tune in. Listen to what’s playing and voice your opinion real-time about the current song by hitting Rock if you like it or Sucks if you don’t. If enough people say a song Sucks, it gets pulled off the air.

Radio? Sure!

Radio? Sure! is an application that allows you to listen to any of over 17,000 online radio stations and easily record multiple stations simultaneously (up to two at a time in the free version) and package them into separate song files. The software automatically checks for updates to the software itself and to the radio stations and supports most of the internet radio formats.
A Pro version of the software is available for $9.99 ($7.99 until the end of July 2012) that provides additional features such as the ability to record up to 10 stations simultaneously, automatic updating of the stations database daily (rather than every seven days), the ability to block the recording of ads, and record full songs from the very beginning.

Downloadable and Streaming Music

If you prefer to select specific tracks to stream or to download separate music tracks and listen to them offline, here are some websites offering free music files.

Free Music Archive

The Free Music Archive (FMA) is an interactive library of high-quality, free, legal audio downloads. The FMA library is freely available to the public. You do not have to register to download music, but, if you do, you can create your own playlists to keep track of music you discover and participate in discussions.
You can also use the music on FMA in podcasts, videos, or other forms of digital publishing.

Amazon Free MP3 Songs and Extras

You may not have realized, but you can even find free MP3 files for download on Amazon. They have over 1,000 tracks available for free in such genres as Rock, Alternative Rock, Classical, and Pop.
NOTE: The free MP3 files available on Amazon are only for U.S. residents with a U.S. Amazon account.

Google Play Free Music

Google Play also offers free MP3 songs, featuring new free tracks every day. Add them to your Google Play library so you can instantly access them from any web browser or your mobile device.

Music Oasis

Music Oasis is a software program that provides access to a library of high-quality, non-DRM, MP3 files for you to stream or download for use with any music player. Music Oasis is completely free and there are no restrictions when downloading or streaming music from their library.
However, Music Oasis is ad-supported. During the installation of Music Oasis, you are offered additional software from their partners. These offers are free to download and are 100% optional.

BearShare

BearShare is a website that allows you to download over 15 million songs and videos, legally and for free. Use their software to download music and video from other peers for free or to buy songs not available for free. BearShare offers some premium content only available if you subscribe to BearShare Premium. In addition, the BearShare ToGo subscription allows you to transfer BearShare music to your compatible MP3 player on an unlimited basis.
You must register to use BearShare, but it’s free and allows you to access to millions of songs to download, use state of the art search tools and other features such as the ability to browse the enormous library by different genres, artists, moods and more so you can discover new music. Each artist’s page provides details about the artist and a discography you can download.

iMesh

iMesh is a file sharing software program that gives you free and legal access to over 15 million songs and videos. Sync your music with your iPod, listen to a personalized DJ station of your favorite artists, or discover playlists and albums for new artists.

SoundClick

SoundClick is a free music community featuring signed and unsigned bands and state of the art social media tools. They offer free member profile pages, mp3 downloads, streaming audio and video, music charts, custom radio stations, a proprietary music store, message boards, and more.
More than 60,000 new songs and more than 6,000 new bands are approved every month. That makes it easy to find tons of great full-length songs and bands. All songs on SoundClick are available in streaming audio in up to near CD quality and most of the songs are also available as free, legal MP3 downloads.

Mufin Player

If you have so much music that you store it on an external drive and don’t get around to listening to it much, Mufin Player may be what you need. “Mufin” stands for music finder. Mufin Player contains a music discovery engine that analyzes your music collection and allows you to sort and explore your music by sound. You may rediscover music you forgot you had and you can enjoy it all over again.
You can also sign up for Mufin Player Pro, which provides space in the cloud (mufin.drive) to store your music, in addition to other features. Mufin Player for Android is included in Mufin Player Pro, allowing you to manage the music on your phone as well as download your music stored on your mufin.drive to your phone.

We can’t mention every site on the music site web, but here are some additional sites for listening to internet radio, streaming music, and discovering new music:

ListenMusic.fm– Search for favorite artists or for playlists based on your mood.
StereoMood– Listen to playlists based on your mood.
Shuffler.fm– Listen to a dynamic free internet radio service that streams the content from music blogs around the web.
Mugasha– Use Mugasha at your party to play cool electronic music sets from DJs around the world.
TheRadio– Select from a large collection of radio stations from around the world.
Musopen – Listen to an online music library of copyright-free (public domain) classical music.

If you’ve found a great source of internet radio or downloadable music we’ve not listed here, let us know.

Source: http://www.howtogeek.com/120163/the-best-websites-for-listening-to-internet-radio-and-downloading-and-streaming-free-music/