The Web is filled with great learning resources, ranging from YouTube clips to forum posts to helpful sites, but having to endlessly hunt through Google results doesn’t always lead to a very structured educational experience. Australian start-up site Clivir aims to fill the gap by providing a system for creating structured lessons referencing existing content and your own expertise, and incorporating a social-network-style feedback and comments system. The content is a little sparse right now, but there’s some useful suggestions for new iPhone owners and working with your camera flash, for instance. It would also be a useful way of creating a study group around a particular topic. Clivir is free to use, requires registration.
[Clivir]Windows/Mac OS X: Free Skype plug-in Yugma Team Collaboration adds a screen sharing feature to Skype. The plug-in is an offshoot of previously mentioned Yugma, a standalone web conferencing and screen-sharing tool that you can use independently if you’re not already a Skype user. The benefit to the Skype plug-in is that you have easy integration with your already populated Skype contact list, so starting up a meeting with Yugma through Skype (once it’s set up) is a breeze. In addition to screen sharing, Yugma also offers remote control and annotation, among other features that could make it a worthwhile meeting tool. The biggest drawback is Skype’s plug-in system, which is cumbersome, confusing, and makes getting started sharing with Yugma more of a pain than it should be.
Yugma Team Collaboration (Windows) Yugma Team Collaboration (Mac)The popular open-source media centre application Xbox Media Centre (XBMC) has rolled out the first beta release of XMBC Atlantis, which brings XBMC to all platforms. That means XBMC now runs on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, the original Xbox, and even your thumb drive or live CD. Despite its beta status, this release brings XBMC even closer to cross-platform bliss—including iTunes and iPhoto integration for XBMC on your Mac. The new release also boasts a killer new HD skin, so keep reading for a closer look.
According to Wired, hacking VP-hopeful Sarah Palin’s email account was easy: all the hacker needed was Palin’s birthdate, ZIP code, and the name of her high school—all of which are no more than a Google search away. In fact, password security questions may have always been the weakest link in email security, since anyone with an acquaintance’s knowledge or access to the internet can divine answers to most of your security questions within minutes. So how can you make sure your email account is secure?
What do you do when you’re locked out of your Gmail account for no apparent reason? Google says that since it asks for so little personal information when you sign up, verifying ownership is difficult when they’ve locked down an account because it may have been compromised. But there’s one interesting tidbit they offer for quick account restoration you may not have known: Always keep the verification number you get when you sign up for Gmail. When you sign up for Gmail, we’ll ask you for a secondary email address and then email a verification number to that account. This number is the best way to prove ownership of your account, so be sure to hang on to it.
Most users probably toss that initial verification email, but this seems like a good reason to save it just in case. What to do if you can’t access your webmail [Official Google Blog]
The Stanford Engineering Everywhere program offers online access to full courses in the school’s engineering program—including classes in computer science and artificial intelligence. Courses include lecture videos, reading lists, handouts, quizzes, tests, and even a social network for fellow online students.
The days of peer-to-peer file sharing tools ushered into popularity by the original Napster are over and done, and today, BitTorrent reigns supreme. It took some time for BitTorrent to gain mainstream popularity, but now that it has, there are a surplus of BitTorrent clients available vying for your downloads. Keep reading for a breakdown of the top five. Photo by djxspike.
Joost, the web-based provider of on-demand and live television, launched a browser-based version of its offerings this morning. While users of the service’s Mac and Windows software can still get at their channels, Joost’s new model allows anyone with Flash capabilities, and a temporarily-required browser IE or Firefox plug-in, to get at the good stuff. Joost is expected to go no-plugin-required next month—nice for those on Linux or non-standard browsers—but for now, it’s a bit more hassle-free to watch live or canned television at work, or show a friend that old sitcom episode you were referring to. Joost is a free service; requires a sign-up and (for the moment) browser plug-in. Joost [via TechCrunch]
It’s a great big world out there for a tiny thing like a lost iPod or mobile phone. SendMeHome is a free web based application that generates unique ID tags for your items, so that should a good Samaritan find your lost item, a short trip to SendMeHome.com is all it takes to send you a message indicating that your item has been found and how you can get it back. The site has packets of labels you can purchase or print, or you can write the SendMeHome ID number on the object with a permanent marker. If you have a different method of tagging your items to help them return home, share it below in the comments.
SendMeHome [via WebWare ]
