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Written by Lee Mathews I love the RIAA. They make sure the hard working bands that record the music we love can still squeak out a living in the face of an ever-growing number of freeloading downloaders. Without them, how many talentless, lip-synching, manufactured performers would be able to afford homes in Orange County and multiple Bentleys? In the interest of helping our readers stay out of jail and avoid massive fines, here are a bunch of places you can get tunes without fear of finding a summons in your mailbox. There s plenty of good, free, and legal music on the net for you to download. iLike is a social music site which allows you to discover new music with a little help from your friends. Free downloads and the buddy system, what could be better? Altsounds has a lot of streaming content, but there are quite a few quality mp3 downloads mixed in, including bands like Anberlin, Panic at the Disco, 10 Years, and Underoath. bt.etree.org tracks live recording torrents of bootleg friendly bands. You ll be able to find all kinds of FLAC downloads from performers like Ben Harper, Jerry Garcia, Blues Traveler, Trey Anastasio (I smell a trend here, or at least some patchouli), Radiohead, Primus, and even Tenacious D. Legaltorrents is still in its early stages, but there are still a number of music and audio books available from their site. Stereogum has been offering free, legal mp3s since 2006. They re all still available, along with zip and torrent file archives of previous months. The Gum Mix streams music to you while you browse, and all the tracks it plays can be downloaded. SXSW is a good news/bad news situation. The bad news is, they only have one torrent file for download. The good news? It contains over 700 mp3s of bands that performed in 2007 for a whopping total of 3.1 gigs of audio. Change the year in the subdomain to get the 2006 and 2005 downloads. Unsigned Band Web is a palce for, well, unsigned bands to share their music and get noticed. Just about every genre you can imagine is offered here, and they maintain charts to show you what s hot. Apparently electronica is hot. Maybe I ll stick to genre browsing. Bottom line: tons of free mp3s to download. Soundclick s music page will hook you up with a ton of downloads, including more unsigned acts - like my favorite new addiction: German hip hop. I blame my scarf-wearing co-worker. Honc if you love music. The site isn t much to look at, but there s still more undiscovered goodness to be found here. Garage Band is also worth checking out for more diamonds in the rough. Rub it in your friends faces that you heard them first. Indie Rock Cafe offers more up-ad-coming music, blog style. There s no centralized download page, so you ll find the tracks sprinkled around the blog post. DMusic has been offering indie musicians a chance to be heard since 1998. Top 20 charts are maintained for each of the 20+ main genres (which are broken down into several sub-genres as well). Fuzz offers - oh crap - a mixtape feature. The interface is cool as hell, and there s a ton of great, free music to discover on the site. iCompositions is dedicated to music created with Mac s Garage Band software. You ll need to register in order to download songs. The Internet Archive has a massive audio section, including audio books as well as music. Be sure to check out the open source section, with over 150,000 Creative Commons licensed items. Jamendo rocks for one big reason: they offer both direct downloads and a torrent tracker. 555 pages multiplied by 20 items per page equals a veritable crapload of music. You ll find lots of international music too, from exotic places like Brazil and er Canada. Peoplesound is similar to Jamendo, but you ll find some major label artist offerings. Registration is required to download, and you ll have to browse the genres/artists to find the mp3 files, but they have plenty up for grabs. Epitonic is your source for cutting edge music. You ll find tracks by artists like The Strokes, Carl Cox, Pavement, Peaches, Guided by Voices, and Yo La Tengo. I love me some punk music, and fortunately punk labels love to share their music. Fat Wreck Chords, Hellcat Records, Subpop, and Epitaph all have tons, and usually offer two or three fulls songs from a CD. Oi! Stereokiller has even more punk/hardcore/metal goodness for you. According to the guy that runs the site, it s better than damn MySpace. Well, no argument there. Anti s slogan is real artists creating great recordings on their own terms. Downloads galore from guys like Michael Franti and Spearhead, Greg Graffin, Nick Cave, and Billy Bragg. 3hive s bloggers pass on links to some excellent free mp3s on their site. It s got a nice, personal feel to it, though there s not the tidal wave of music you ll find at some other on this list. itsfreedownloads is worth a bookmark for iTunes users. It s a site that keeps tabs on the weekly freebies in the iTunes store. You may get sick of looking at all the ads, but the free music will help soften the annoyance. mp3.com has a pretty huge collection of free tunes as well, with offerings from almost 1,400 artists. Most can be both streamed and downloaded. Purevolume.com is loaded with streaming music, but there are plenty of downloads as well. Click the search link, then search or browse to discover new music. It s the quickest way to the freebies. Music.download.com. What can I say, they ve got a ton of MP3s. I m not much of a CNET fan, but free is free. Last.FM has free downloads, too. It s not just for streaming. Stage.FM used to be Audiri, and still offers streaming and downloads for independent artists. iSound offers another large catalog. Head to the mp3 page for free downloads, as some artists only offer streaming - including Our Lady Peace frontman Rayne Maida, who I was disappointed to see had no downloads. we7 is offering all kinds of free tunes - if you re ok with a brief advertisement being appended to the track. They re legal, they re free, and you ll find bands that you d normally have to pay for to get full mp3s. SpiralFrog is doing the ad-supported thing, too (if you can get to it). Blentwell is an ongoing document of the evolution of blended music. Tons and tons of DJ mixes, categorized by genre. MTV offers a new group of about a dozen downloads on a somewhat regular basis. A drop in the bucket, but still free. Anyone with a toddler or three at home will apprciate Free Children s Music. You ll find tons of great, kid friendly tunes there. Classic Cat maintains a massive listing of free, classical mp3s available on the internet. Files aren t hosted there, but it s an easier way to find works by Bach and Beethoven than searching yourself. Will more major artists give free music a shot? Radiohead s In Rainbows is no longer available as a free download, but Trent Reznor is still in a giving mood. NIN fans can still grab The Slip for free from his web site. Got another legal mp3 site to share? Comment it, so that we can all get in on the free goodness!

Written by Alex [The Internet] is not a truck. It s a series of tubes. - U.S. Senator Ted Stevens Ah, the Internet: you use it every day for school, work or fun. In such a short period of time, the Net has grown into an essential every day thing that it s hard to imagine life without it. But how much do you know about the Internet? Did you know that you have the Soviets to thank for this wonderful invention? Or that despite the flack that he got for inventing the Internet, Al Gore actually did play a major role in the creation of the Net? Here are the 10 Things You Should Know About the Internet: 1. Sputnik: Kick in the Pants that Launched the Net In 1957, the Soviet launched Sputnik (Russian for traveling companion or satellite ), the first man-made object to orbit the Earth. It was a big surprise to the United States, who feared that it was falling behind technologically against its Cold War enemy. In direct response to Sputnik, President Dwight D. Eisenhower directed the Department of Defense to create the Advanced Research Projects Agency or ARPA in 1958. One of its research programs was headed by Dr. J.C. R. Licklider (or simply Lick ), who convinced the U.S. Government to create a computer network, which would later evolve into the Internet. Licklider, in his epic 1963 memo to Members and Affiliates of the Intergalactic Computer Network (Yes, that s right - Intergalactic ) explored the challenges in creating ARPANET, the precursor to today s Internet. So, who says war isn t good for anything? The Internet is arguably one of the most important technologies that came out of the Cold War. 2. Before The Internet, There Was ARPANET The logical map of the first 4 nodes of the ARPANET in December 1969, as sketched by Larry Roberts. (Image: The Computer History Museum) In 1969, after Licklider left ARPA, his successors Ivan Sutherland, Bob Taylor, Larry Roberts and colleagues created the network that would later become the Internet. The initial ARPANET consisted of four nodes (or computers called Interface Message Processors, which would later evolve into routers) located in UCLA, Stanford Research Institute, UC Santa Barbara, and University of Utah: First ARPANET IMP Log - CSK refers to Charles S. Kline, the very first person ever to login to a remote host via the ARPANET (Image: The Computer History Museum) The programmers in Westwood (UCLA - Ed.) were to type log into their computer, with the SRI computer in Palo Alto filling out the rest of the command, adding in. We set up a telephone connection between us and the guys at SRI, Kleinrock recalled. We typed the L, and we asked on the phone, Do you see the L? Yes, we see the L, came the response. We typed the O, and we asked, Do you see the O? Yes, we see the O. Then we typed the G, and the system crashed! They immediately rebooted and this time, ARPANET sprung to life. (Source) It would take a couple more years until ARPANET became popular. Indeed, in 1973, Bob Bell of Digital Equipment Corporation noted that the NET was a really busy place on Friday nights (well, geeks will be geeks!): I remember hearing that there was an ARPANET conference on the Star Trek game every Friday night. Star Trek was a text based game where you used photon torpedos and phasers to blast Klingons. (Source) 3. Packet Switching: The Way the Internet Works We won t get too technical here, but the way information travels through the Internet is pretty neat. Take for instance, how data gets from point A to point B (say, the text and images from this webpage from the Neatorama servers to your browser). One way to do it is to open a channel from point A to B: data is transmitted in a dedicated circuit until all the data is transfered along the same path. It s a pretty fast way to send information, but it comes at a high cost: a dedicated circuit has to remain open until the last bit of data is sent. This method is called circuit switching and it s the system used by telephone companies. In the early 1960s, Paul Baran, Donald Davies and Leonard Kleinrock, working independently, came up with a different way to send data. First, large chunks of data are divided into several small packets that are sent through the network. Each packet may take a different route to reach its destination. Once every packet has arrived, then they are re-assembled into the original data. Packet switching may sound counterintuitive (it is slower than circuit switching and packets may get lost, thus requiring a re-send), but it has its advantages. For one, because there is no single path of communication, the packets can route themselves to avoid damaged or congested networks. At the time, U.S. authorities were worried how a computer network would survive a nuclear attack, so when Baran proposed the packet switching method (he called it the hot-potato routing or distributed communications - it was Davies that named it packet switching ), the military threw its support for the method. 4. TCP/IP: The Language of the Internet In 1973, Vint Cerf (who is often called the father of the Internet ) and Bob Kahn created the TCP/IP suite of communication protocols - basically a language used by computers to talk to each other in a network. The TCP/IP protocol is so simple that, as an 1990 April Fool s joke, D. Waitzman of the Internet Engineering Task Force proposed that pigeons be used to carry IP traffic! A decade later, IP over Avian Carriers was actually implemented by the Bergen Linux user group. They released 9 packets over a distance of 3 miles and actually got 4 responses (that s a packet loss ratio of 55% and a response time between 3,000 to 6,000 seconds). 5. Al Gore Actually Did Create the Internet. Sort Of. Remember America, I gave you the Internet and I can take it away, joked Al Gore on the Late Show with David Letterman. Okay, I was being cheeky with that heading. But here s the story: During the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election, Al Gore took quite a drubbing for the claim that he invented the Internet. Problem was, Gore made no such claim. During an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN, Gore was asked how he would distinguish himself from others, and he replied: During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country s economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system. Though the term initiative in creating the Internet is vague, Gore did quite a bit of legislative work in creating a high-capacity national data network that is a significant part of the Internet. And don t forget: though Gore didn t coin it, he did popularize the term information superhighway. For more, read Al Gore and the Creation of the Internet by Richard Wiggins. 6. Father of Spam: Gary Thuerk Sent the First Email Spam Spamming is an old marketing technique - the very first spam was a dentist advertising his services via telegram in 1864. Then, as in now, people who got the unsolicited telegrams got really mad - some even wrote the local newspaper complaining of the advertising tactic. But when the paper reprinted the telegram, the dentist just got free publicity! The first email spam was sent by Digital Equipment Corporation s marketing manager Gary Thuerk in 1978 to 393 recipients on ARPANET. He was advertising the availability of a new model of DEC computers. The Wall Street Journal has an interview with Thuerk (along with a reprint of the original email): From a marketing standpoint, the email was a success: About 20 people came to each of Thuerk s open houses, and he estimates it led to more than $12 million in sales. But the email also earned Thuerk instant notoriety. People started complaining immediately, he tells the Business Technology Blog. Someone from the Rand Corporation sent him a letter telling him he broke the rules of the ARPANET, the Internet s predecessor. (There was an unwritten rule that people wouldn t use the ARPANET to sell things; Thuerk tells us he only promoted a product.) A major from the defense communications agency called Thuerk s boss and made him promise that Thuerk would never send an email like that again. Thuerk has embraced his place in history as the father of spam. It s landed him in the Guinness Book of World Records, and he does promotional work for anti-spam companies from time to time. He says people have one of three reactions when they meet him: Some are excited to meet someone with an unusual claim to fame; some want to beat him up on the spot; and others just avoid him like the plague. (Source) 7. The Sexy Web: 12% of Websites = Porn! Grandma s reaction to 2 girls 1 cup. If you don t know what this is all about, consider yourself lucky. Very lucky. [YouTube Link] We can t talk about the web without talking about porn. The amount of smut available on the Net and our appetite for it are astonishing. Here are some statistics on porn from Jerry Ropelato of Top Ten Reviews (who claimed that all of them come from reputable sources) Pornographic websites: 4.2 million (12% of total websites) Pornographic pages: 420 million Daily pornographic search engine requests: 68 million (25% of total search engine requests) Daily pornographic emails: 2.5 billion (8% of total emails) Internet users who view porn: 42.7% Worldwide visitors to pornographic web sites: 72 million visitors (monthly) Internet pornography sales: $4.9 billion Every second, 28,258 Internet users are viewing pornography Every second, 372 Internet users are typing adult search terms into search engines Statistics from GOOD Magazine: 35% of all Internet downloads are pornographic in nature Every day 266 new porn sites appear on the Internet Sex is the most searched word on the Internet 70% of Internet porn traffic occurs during the 9-5 workday US produced 89% of all online porn For more, check out Internet Pornography Statistics | GOOD Magazine video [a bit NSFW] on porn statistics 8. The Rise of the Blogosphere Blogs (short for web logs) are regularly updated journal published on the Web. According to Technorati, there are about 112.8 million blogs on the Web right now, with 175,000 new blogs added every day. That s about 122 new blogs a minute or 2 blogs a second! The term weblog was coined by John Barger on December 17, 1997 to describe his website Robot Wisdom that logged the links he collected while surfing the Net - as such, his website got the distinction of being the world s first blog*. (The contraction blog, which arguably became a more popular word, was coined in 1999 by Peter Merholz of Peterme.com who playfully broke up the word into we blog). [*Note: yes, technically there are blogs that preceded Robot Wisdom, though they were never called "blogs." For example, Justin Hall of Justin's Links from the Underground (now defunct) started his website in 1994.] Blogging became more popular in 1999, with the creation of hosted blog tools that made writing for and managing a blog easier (like Pitas.com, LiveJournal, and Blogger.com) Today, blogs have become mainstream - newspapers have em, corporations have em - and heck, even politicians have em. So whatever happened to Jorn Barger, the world s first blogger? Paul Boutin of Wired Magazine wrote about his encounter with Jorn, homeless and broke, on the streets of San Francisco: Homeless and broke at age 53, [Barger] allowed the domain registration for robotwisdom.com to lapse and can t afford to re-up it. He has abandoned his Chicago apartment and is staying on Andrew s floor while he tries to get back on his feet. He s looking for work - sort of. After a few hands-in-pockets attempts at small talk, we give up. I continue up the hill. A few weeks later, I find out that Barger has recovered his domain - and Robot Wisdom pops back up online. I hunt him down for a pint at a local pub and he tells me he s moving on, this time to Memphis. He says he avoids the need for a job by living on less than a dollar a day. I was carrying a cardboard sign when we met that day, he tells me. I wasn t sure if I should show it to you. I figured if things didn t work out with Andrew I could pick up some change. On his panhandler sign, Barger had written: Coined the term weblog, never made a dime. (Source) 9. Surprise! There s a Third YouTube Co-Founder Before there was YouTube, there was a dating site called Tune In Hook Up?! Yes, that was the first version of YouTube that completely failed (Source: article by Jim Hopkins at USA Today, from where I shamelessly, um, co-opted the heading). The YouTube we all know and love got started when former Paypal employees Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim wanted to share some videos from a dinner party only to realize that the video clip was too huge for email. Posting the video online wasn t easy either - since video websites back then accept some but not all video clip formats. So the trio went to create YouTube in 2005 - and a little over a year later, the website streamed 100 million videos per day and got 70,000 videos uploaded per day (roughly 1 per second). It was the fastest growing website in the history of the Internet. It was estimated that in 2007, YouTube consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet in 2000! Hurley and Chen sold the company to Google for a cool $1.65 billion so what happened to Jawed? He left active role at the company to be a graduate student in computer science before it was sold (but he didn t leave empty handed - Jawed got about $64 million in stocks when YouTube was acquired by Google). Oh, and of course: the first video clip on YouTube was uploaded at 8:27 pm on Saturday April 23rd, 2005. It was of Jawed himself (shot by Yakov Lapitsky) at the San Diego Zoo: 10. The Rise of Social Networking and Social Media In a way, the Web is a big social network. Even before there was the Web, BBSes served as online communities where people chatted and collaborated. But the term social networking became a buzzword when it was reported in 2005 that MySpace had more pageviews than Google (Source). But before MySpace, there was Classmates.com (launched in 1995) and SixDegrees.com (launched in 1997, dead by 2001). Afterwards, more successful websites followed: Friendster, MySpace, Orkut, LinkedIn and Facebook. And how successful were they? MySpace was sold to Rupert Murdoch s News Corp. for $580 million and Facebook is now valued in the billions of dollars). There s a social networking website for everybody under the sun: Like movies? There s Flixster. Online games? Avatars United. Anime? Gaia Online. Books? LibraryThing and so on. (Wikipedia has a huge list of social networking sites here) On the other side of the new Internet are social media websites. The term social media is kind of a hodgepodge (Wikipedia, blogs like Neatorama, and videosharing websites like YouTube can all be classified as social media). But all of them have one thing in common: they encourage active interaction and participation of their users. An interesting subset of the social media websites are social news sites like Digg, reddit and Mixx. These user-driven websites let people discover and share content on the Internet in a social way: users submit and vote on others submissions to determine which links get featured prominently on the websites front pages. But there is a darker-side to social media website. The Digg Revolt on May 1, 2007 (remember that?), over the AACS encryption key controversy illustrates how the social in social media can be a double-edged sword: Photo: rtomayko [Flickr] Digg.com has become one of the Web s top news portals by putting the power to choose the news in the hands of its users. Just how much power they wield, however, only became clear Tuesday night, when Digg turned into what one user called a digital Boston Tea Party. When the site s administrators attempted to prevent users from posting links to pages revealing the copyright encryption key for HD-DVD discs, Digg s users rebelled. Hundreds of references to the code flooded the site s submissions, filling its main pages and overwhelming the administrators attempts to control the site s content. (Source) Ultimately, Digg admins capitulated to its users demands and stopped deleting stories with the forbidden codes. Bonus: Internet ? World Wide Web Most people use Internet (or Net) and World Wide Web (or Web) interchangeably - but in reality, they re quite different: • The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks - these computers exchange data (hypertext documents like the one you re reading now, emails, file transfers, and so on). • The Web is a system of documents linked via hypertext that is accessed via the Internet - so the Web is just a part of the Internet. The Web was created in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee (now Sir Tim Berners-Lee, as he was knighted in 2004 for his contributions to the Web) while he was working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. Sir Berners-Lee was just 34 years old at the time. (Photo credit: captsolo [Flickr]) Berners-Lee s very first Web was a project called ENQUIRE (named after his favorite book: Enquire Within Upon Everything, a 1856 how-to book for domestic life). In 1989, Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau wrote a proposal to CERN management about a global information management system to keep track of accelerators and equipments and for scientists to share data. Berners-Lee originally considered calling it Information Mesh, The Information Mine (which was turned down because the acronym TIM is his first name), and Mine of Information. He later chose World Wide Web when he was writing the code in 1990. A client/server model for a distributed hypertext system, as proposed by Sir Tim Berners-Lee By Christmas of 1990, Berners-Lee had put together the world s first Web: a web browser (written in Objective-C, by the way), a web server (his NeXT cube computer) and a web page (yes, that would make it the world s first web page - archived here on w3: Link). The first practical use of the Web was a CERN telephone directory, to encourage its employees to it! World s first web server: Tim Berners-Lee s NeXT cube, on which he scribbled: This machine is a server. DO NOT POWER IT DOWN! Photo: Robert Scoble [Flickr] The Web is now huge: according DomainTools, there are currently over 103.6 million active domains (and over 348 million dead ones) on the World Wide Web. Last week, Google announced that it has indexed 1 trillion (as in 1,000,000,000,000) web pages (about 903,000 of which mentioned Neatorama :) ): We ve known it for a long time: the web is big. The first Google index in 1998 already had 26 million pages, and by 2000 the Google index reached the one billion mark. Over the last eight years, we ve seen a lot of big numbers about how much content is really out there. Recently, even our search engineers stopped in awe about just how big the web is these days when our systems that process links on the web to find new content hit a milestone: 1 trillion (as in 1,000,000,000,000) unique URLs on the web at once!

Written by racketboy Note from racketboy: Special thanks goes to andymol21 for putting the majority of this guide together! It s pretty easy to find a list of The Top Nintendo 64 Games or some similar ranking, but most of them were written back when the system was cutting edge and almost all of them only compare the games against other N64 games. This is all fine if the N64 is the only console you own and ever plan to own. Because of this, I thought it would be a good idea to develop a list of games that are still relevant in today s market because of their unique gameplay that has not been improved upon on other systems. Our basic rule of thumb for this list is to determine which games are still worth playing today, even if you have a Gamecube and/or a Wii with its more modern game library at your fingertips. (But other consoles are considered as well) I thought this was an especially good metric to use as Nintendo has a habit of upgrading their biggest games each generation. Even if you don t plan on getting an actual N64, this could also serve as a list of ones to look out for on the Virtual Console (although not all of them are available for the service) Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time It should come as no surprise that the highest-ranked games of all time is the number one reason that the N64 is still relevant. The Ocarina of Time tells the story of a young boy, Link, whose destiny leads him on an adventure that crosses two time periods and the entire land of Hyrule, in order to become the Hero of Time. The defining game of the N64, OOT was Shigeru Miyamoto s masterpiece, and is praised by many as being the best game ever made. Whether you enjoy western RPGs, action packed combat, fiendish puzzle solving, or just a damn good story, this game has it all, and would still be regarded as one of greatest games of all time even if it was released tomorrow for the PS3. As the story develops, and the game progresses, you are drawn into the world of Hyrule and care about its inhabitants and future, you form a strong sentimental attachments to you horse Epona, and you dive deep into a world full of secrets and treasures to be discovered. Never is the games direction linear; If you ever feel like you ve had enough dungeon crawling then you can come out and search for Gold Skultula s, or play some of the games in Hyrule Town Market, or just watch the sun set across Hyrule Lake as you ride Epona to the fishing gallery for a go at catching the Hylian Loach. On the other hand you always know what is expected of you, and what needs to be done next. Never in my life have I played a game that is so utterly engrossing, that offers so many diversions and distractions to the main quest, and that tells a story so brilliant, that I would happily pay money to go and see it at the cinema. If there is just one N64 game that you must own today, it is The Ocarina of Time. Full Review of Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time Find Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: ( eBay / Amazon) Super Mario 64 Even after 12 years (yes, it s been that long!) Shigeru Miyamoto s portly plumber is still used as the yardstick by which all 3D platformers are measured against. The reason for that is simple; it is still one of the best, if not the best, examples of its genre in gaming. On Nintendo s first strike, they hit the ball out of the park! Every level in the game is a masterpiece, from the simple opening stage of Bob-omb Battlefield, to the magical cloud journey of Rainbow Ride, all 15 levels are distinct, challenging and interesting, and are a joy to play on. The simple graphical style means that the graphics have not aged much over the years, the music and sound effects are spot on for the actions on screen, and the mechanics are nigh on perfect. Every jump of Mario can be judged to pinpoint precision, every shot from the cannon angled perfectly to get you to the place you want to be. This, I feel, is the main reason it is still relevant. The physics engine used in Mario 64 is so predictable that you never feel out of control, and that is something that a lot of platformers, even to this day, lack. Full Review of Super Mario 64 Find Legend of Super Mario 64: (eBay / Amazon) Conker s Bad Fur Day Ah Rare…. I remember when I was a lad, reading N64 Magazine, being so excited about the new Conker game that was to come out. With gameplay that would rival their own great Banjo Kazooie, it was going to be the pinnacle of N64 platformers. How things changed! Conker s Bad Fur Day is an adult oriented game involving a hung-over squirrel, a good looking bunny, and a giant poo. The brilliance of Conker comes from its writing and voice acting. The wit and charm that can be put into such despicable creatures is amazing, and a testament to Rare during their glory years. You have to sympathize with Conker, who, after a heavy night of drinking, wakes up the next morning in a field, just wanting to go home. The game is hilarious the whole way through, though it does sink quite low with its toilet humor (see giant poo). The reason that it is worth playing today is the same reason that it was a good buy when it was new, it s a one of a kind game, and the humor, unlike the graphics (which are still some of the best on the N64), have not succumbed to age. On a side note, in 2005, after Rare was acquired by Microsoft, an XBox remake was made of this game featuring update graphics and sound, and an improved multiplayer. In my opinion, do not bother with this remake. Microsoft brutally censored the game, removing many of the jokes (The Great Mighty Poo Song being a notable absence) and leaving just the core Conker platforming mechanics. The N64 version is getting harder to find, and sells for high prices on eBay, but don t go for the semi-skimmed version. Full Review of Conker s Bad Fur Day Find Conker s Bad Fur Day: ( eBay / Amazon) Sin s well-known shooters (such as Gunstar Heroes and Alien Soldier) Sin and Punishment is filled frenetic, high-energy action that keeps pulling you further into the game. Armed with a gun and a sword, you character continues along a path while you jump, double jump and roll to avoid obstacles and enemy attacks. Much like other on-rails shooters like Rez or Panzer Dragoon, you can manually shoot your weapon in different places or set it to lock on to enemies. The sword is primarily to be used for defense and deflection for those pesky missiles that can be bounced back with a well-timed melee strike. Sin and Punishment is one of Treasure s few 3D games, but as usual, the skilled development house pushed the N64 hardware to the max with some impressive visuals, massively detailed levels, intricate character and enemy models and, of course, action that will make you dizzy with excitement. Full Review of Sin and Punishment Find Sin t too bad for the N64 and complement the game quite nicely. Of course it doesn t have quite the polish that the Gamecube installments have, but it is a definate step up from the original StarFox on the SNES. So when it comes down to it, if you want the best pure-on rails shooting in the StarFox universe, StarFox 64 is still your best bet. Full Review of Star Fox 64 Find Star Fox 64: (eBay / Amazon) Blast Corps Who doesn t love blowing stuff up and causing massive damage to the world around them? While open-ended destructive abilities may show up in a number of more modern games, very few, if any have destruction as such a large percentage of their focus as Blast Corps. In Blast Corps you control around ten different vehicles and machines in order to clear out buildings and landscapes to make way for an out-of-control truck carrying nuclear missiles. The equipment you use to take care of business range from a speedy bulldozer to a robot with a jet-pack and ground-pound capabilities to take out large buildings. Since you don t always know exactly what you need to do at the beginning of each level, there is a bit of puzzle solving and experimentation involved. Even for experienced players, it will test your efficiency in accomplishing your goals. Even if you take care of the required damage, you can always cause extra destruction to rack up extra points. You might think that a game like this would get boring after a while, but Rareware did an excellent job of increasing the difficulty as you go along and the diversity of the equipment you use (each of which takes some learning) keep things interesting. If you want a fast and furious game that is unique enough to keep your attention, Blast Corps should definitely be in your library. Full Review of Blast Corps Find Legend of Blast Corps: ( eBay / Amazon) The Legend of Zelda: Majora s Mask Initially, I had Majora s Mask on the Honorable Mentions list, but after reconsidering, I ve added it to the main list. While it isn t on my list of favorites in the series, there are quite a few Zelda fans that adore it due to its originality and involving storyline. The main turn-off with Majora s Mask with most gamers is the three-day cycle that the game revolves around. Many people found it annoying and hard to get used to. However, as reddit commenter, satertek mentioned I guess it comes down to whether or not you liked the 3-day aspect. That was the game. Having all these people that would go about their schedules whether you were there or not made the game feel alive, and then getting to relive those 3 days over and over so that you get to meet and help every one of them. In the end, there are many other Zelda games I enjoy playing more than Majora s Mask, but considering you can find it affordably, there isn t a a good reason you should skip it if you are a Zelda fan. Full Review of Legend of Zelda Majora s Mask Find Legend of Zelda: Majora Mask: ( eBay / Amazon) Mario Kart 64 Due to popular demand, I ve also included Mario Kart 64 on the main list. Personally, I have more fun with Mario Kart DS, but there are many die-hard Mario Kart fans that swear by the first 3D installment. While Mario Kart Double Dash and Mario Kart Wii have more refined graphics, Nintendo added new gimmicks that focused on teamwork instead of the flat-out competition and multiplayer moded. I think a comment on Reddit from ickingfudiot was what convinced me most to include it in the main list, Sadly, he (and Nintendo in releasing Mario Kart Wii) completely missed out on the utter glory of FFA Balloon Battle on Block Fort or Skyscraper. We still bust that out on Virtual Console. Sadly, MK Wii turned it into a team-based snorefest, particularly because of the removal of permadeath. RIP Balloon Battle Also just recently, racketboy member, Ack shared his fond memories of Mario Kart 64 s Battle Mode, I used to go to all-night parties where all we played were Mario Kart 64 s Battle Mode. Some of the most fun I ve ever had at parties, to be honest. It was a feature that I don t think ever got enough attention, and to this day I still say Mario Kart 64 was one of the two best in the series, if not the best(I can t in good faith say that something was better than the original…I love them both). Even though some of the graphics might be a little rough around the edges, Mario Kart 64 still puts up a mean fight against its newer siblings and it a cornerstone of N64-based gaming parties. Full Review of Mario Kart 64 Find Mario Kart 64: (eBay / Amazon) Ogre Battle 64 Ever since Squaresoft transitioned the bulk of their development from the Super Nintendo to Sony s Playstation, Nintendo has never had a very strong RPG lineup. However, the Japanese development house, Quest, took it upon themselves to create a wonderful RPG that makes the most of its cartridge-based limitations. As you could expect from the Ogre Battle series, the N64 sequel is a wonderful blend of both RPG and Tactical elements. And of course, instead of only focusing on the strategy, experience points, and item management, Ogre Battle also is blessed with an engaging story and plot that will keep you coming back for more. Ogre Battle 64 also bucks the trend of many of the games on the N64 in that it doesn t use 3D just because it can. Instead, this sequel actually stays true to the original game with sprite-based graphics being the focus and using 3D elements in places that they are suitable such as the overworld map and as subtle accents. It s actually quite refreshing to see such beautiful 2D graphics on a console that had such a focus on 3D. Strategy RPG fans seem to fall in love with just about any installment in the series (on both the SNES and Playstation), but the N64 version still falls right in line with the level of quality and enjoyment. And when you look at the Gamecube and Wii lineup, the only other games that really match up would be the Fire Emblem series. The Fire Emblem series gets very high marks, but I don t think it should disqualify Ogre Battle 64 from this list. Full Review of Ogre Battle 64 Find Legend of Ogre Battle 64: (eBay / Amazon) Wetrix The best way to describe Wetrix is by imaging a 3D Tetris that has been drowned underwater… with rubber ducks thrown in. The objective of the game is to build lakes on a flat playing board step by step, raising the ground level with uppers to form lakes, lowering it with downers and filling these lakes with water. As more pieces fall, you have to constantly adapt your lakes to accommodate the extra water, or divert the water away from a hole in your land created by a bomb. As water leaks off the side, it is collected into a tank on the right hand side of the screen, and once this tank is full, it s game over. You can lower the amount of water in the tank by dropping a fireball into one of your lakes, evaporating it and allowing you to fill it again. Wetrix is a novel twist on the simple block-based puzzle genre established by Tetris and is one of the few games of this type that works in 3D. It s an addictive, but challenging game which rewards solid playing hours with the sight of rainbows and the aforementioned rubber ducks sprouting up across your lovingly crafted lakes. The multiplayer in Wetrix is one of the best of its kind, with a game between two good players being a highly enjoyable frantic dash to get ducks and evaporate water, while throwing earthquakes and ice at the other player to hamper them. A sequel, Aqua Aqua, was released for the PS2 but failed to capture the magic of the original. All in all, a very good original puzzle game, and by far the best on the N64. Full Review of Wetrix Find Wetrix: (eBay / Amazon) Pilotwings 64 Pilotwings 64 is the sequel to the popular SNES game, Pilotwings. In it, you take to the skies in an assortment of flying contraptions, ranging from Gyrocopters to Rocket Belts, in order to complete a series of predefined tasks, such as flying through floating rings or taking pictures of the pretty scenery. You are judged after each event on several factors and given an overall score. The goal of the game is to achieve as high as possible score in each event, unlocking new challenges and vehicles. What separates Pilotwings from most other flight sims is the sense of freedom, of exploration, of flying! Like most of Nintendo s greatest games, a lot of the fun of Pilotwings comes from jumping into the assortment of vehicles and taking to the skies with no aims in mind, just to see what you can do. Personally, the joy of Pilotwings didn t really display itself to me until I unlocked the Birdman stage. There are no objectives in this stage, no stress of fuel supplies or ground rushing towards you. Just you, the sky, and a pair of feathery wings attached to your arms. This stage really captures the freedom of flight. Flying through the well constructed islands, exploring each crevice, then soaring high above the skyline of a city, makes for a relaxed gaming experience and one that just can t be found on modern games consoles (well, until Pilotwings Wii comes out) Full Review of Pilotwings 64 Find Pilotwings 64: (eBay / Amazon) Body Harvest Around the time of the N64 launch, a small company by the name of DMA Designs Limited started work on two projects: A top down racer codenamed Race n'Chase for the PC, and a free roaming shooter for the then under development N64. The PC game morphed several times and eventually became the original Grand Theft Auto, which, of course, propelled DMA (now known as Rockstar North) into the limelight and made them a lot of money in the process. However, their other game, Body Harvest, came out to a muted fan fare. It was given very positive reviews at the time of its launch, but was generally forgotten as the N64 progressed. Body Harvest is a 3rd person shooter in which your character is a genetically enhanced soldier sent back in time to defeat a human devouring race of aliens that landed on Earth, killing most of the population. You travel through 5 different areas at 5 different times of the invasion: Greece 1916, Java 1941, America 1966, Siberia 1991 and finally the Alien Homeworld 2046. You might say that Body Harvest is a pretty standard 3rd person shooter, but the thing that makes Body Harvest stand out from other shooters of its time is the interactivity of the world and the ability to hop into any vehicle on the map. Essentially, Body Harvest was the foundation blocks for GTA3, where the developers were first trying out the designs and techniques that would later go into their prime franchise. Although the graphics have dated a bit, the manic gameplay and free roaming elements make this an enjoyable and overlooked game. If you are interested in the heritage of GTA, or are just looking for a fun way to kill a few bugs, Body Harvest is well worth your time. Full Review of Body Harvest Find Body Harvest: ( eBay / Amazon) Space Station Silicon Valley Space Station Silicon Valley is gem by DMA Designs, and is still a classic to this day. To be honest, I can t quite put my finger on what makes this 3D action platformer so good. The level design is superb, ranging from pathetically easy in the opening stages to joypad-crushingly-difficult as you reach the games climax. The animal switching mechanism (another nod to future GTA projects) works wonderfully, meaning that each new level usually has you playing as an entirely new character, with different abilities and stats. This also means that any enemy that you kill within the game can be possessed and you can use all of their own abilities against other animals, leading to a leap frog effect as you climb the food chain up to the top. The game plays for the most part like a puzzle game, with challenges being presented to you through the environment and the tools to solve them given by the animals you can inhabit, but has some hardcore platforming stages too, which rival some of the best in the business. The most striking thing about the game though, is its style. Diesel-powered foxes chase electric mice with sharp tails and turbo boost, while buoyant penguins throw snowballs at steam powered polar bears, who are laying mines in order to kill the wolves on skies, as they fire missiles launched from their back. The wackiness and brilliance of the character design meant that there is always something to come back to, always some new and inventive way of killing that damn Rocket Dog! Needless to say, Space Station Silicon Valley absolutely floored me when it came out, and has continued to impress me every time I plug the cartridge in. Full Review of Space Station Silicon Valley Find Space Station Silicon Valley: ( eBay / Amazon) Honorable Mentions: You may be wondering why one of your all-time favorites are not included on the list above. There are many games that were ground-breaking in their day and are still very fun, but have either been much improved upon or are in a genre that has experienced a great leap in quality since the N64 era. Here are a few of the most popular N64 games that aren t quite as good as their newer counterparts. Goldeneye 007/Perfect Dark - When these games came out, they were the best console shooters ever made. I cannot recommend them highly enough, they are easily two of the best games for the N64, BUT (and it s a big but!), the console FPS market has moved on leaps and bounds in the past 10 years. These days, brilliant FPSs are 10 a penny on home consoles. Halo, Team Fortress 2, Bioshock, Half Life 2, Timesplitters Future Perfect or even Metroid Prime! All of these games are just better than the Rare duo, and they cannot stand up against the quality of games with nostalgia alone. Super Smash Bros - An absolute classic, but really very outdated now, especially with the two sequels out. Good fun when it came out, but just has dated extremely badly with time. Try it on an emulator; you ll see what I mean. However, some experienced Smash Bros players claim that each installment has its own unique flair to it. So it would be understandable if some prefer the original. To each his own. The Mario Party Series - I m not a huge fan of the games, but they can be fun if you are in the mood. Many fans of the series claim that the earlier N64 version are actually the best in the series. (Personally, I m been more of a fan of the minigames on New Super Mario Bros on the DS.) Rayman 2 - Still an excellent 3D platformer, but you could find better one a newer console or you could even play the higher-quality Dreamcast or PS2 versions as well. Banjo Kazooie/Tooie - Another duo of Rare games, and another honorable mention. The Banjo Kazooie games are so much fun to play, but pale in comparison to Super Mario 64. That s not to say that I wouldn t highly recommend them to anyone who is looking for quality N64 titles, it s just that they didn t do anything that Mario hadn t done before, and do not have quite as much sparkle to them now. They are old games, and I think you can see that when you play them. Bakuretsu Muteki Bangaioh - This insane import shooter from Treasure is definitely worth trying out, but the Dreamcast version (known simply as Bangai-O) is has enhancements and will be much more affordable. Paper Mario - The original Paper Mario is still and excellent RPG adventure, but I would probably still recommend the newer installments first and then maybe come back to this one if you still want more of the same. Jet Force Gemini - One of the later N64 games, I remember it being hyped for months leading up to its release. Like every game in this list, it was very good new, but just like the Perfect Dark/Goldeneye duo, 3rd person shooters are very common on consoles now, and Jet Force Gemini doesn t have any unusual or different features to make it stand out from the prettier games of today. Wave Race 64 - Yes it was quite groundbreaking at the time with its amazing water effects, but Wave Race Blue Storm on the Cube nailed that as well. Star Wars Episode I Racer - Great fun, but there were superior ports on the Dreamcast, PC, and Mac ShareThis

Written by R J Evans How Do They Do That? Flash animation still represents the cutting edge of internet animation. Here are 9 of the best on the net at the moment. Whether you are new to flash or a seasoned professional, these sites will make you sit back in wonder: 1. Bird on a Journey A little bird flies on his way home to his lady, avoiding some pitfalls on the way. This brilliant animation combines drawing and photography to stunning effect, together with a weird and wonderful soundtrack. 2. Drum Machine If you love oriental music - and drums - then you will love this animation. Seven Japanese drummers deliver the goods in this beautifully constructed piece of Flash. The skill and time that went in to this beggars belief! 3. Online Shopping Be patient with this one. At first glance it looks like just another website that offers you household goods to buy. But hold on a second - didn t that mug on special offer just fall over! That s just the beginning of the fun - a joy to watch! 4. Icon War These desktop icons decide that they don t like each other any more. War breaks out! Who will be the ultimate winner as icon fights icon! Oh, the humanity! Extremely entertaining flash animation. 5. Kaleidoscope This is an amazing pattern generating piece of flash animation. You can choose from lots of different varieties and the patterning effect follows your mouse around in a myriad of colors and shapes. Inspirational! 6. Silhouette Sounds A single silhouette becomes several then becomes many, with each producing a different sound to produce a tune. Fantastic black and white animation that is eye catching and very, very different! 7. Doorway All the guy wants to do is get through the door! Unfortunately, there are lots of things that do not wish to grant him passage. Superb European style flash animation you will want to watch again and again. 8. Falling Dude Superbly irritating but extremely watchable, this animation has a roughly drawn boy falling, and falling - oh, and then falling some more! You will love it! 9. Jackson Pollock Ever seen a Jackson Pollock painting and thought I can do that! Well, here is your chance! Let your mouse do the walking as you produce works of art that the Saatchis will be after in no time at all! ShareThis

Written by Kyle Roderick This article is come from Popular Mechanics Before long, RFID tags in the kitchen will be reminding you when it s time to buy more milk and eggs. Hitting the market now, however, are brilliant everyday home appliances that can perform next-gen tasks with everything from anti-snoring tech to remote-control flushing. The Brainiac Dishwasher (pictured above) /// $799-$899 Using its SmartDispense technology, GE s Profile suds machine spits out detergent on the fly, crunching the numbers so you don t have to squeeze a blob yourself-or waste any Cascade for a smaller load. With a 45-fluid-ounce bottle of liquid or gel in tow, the dishwasher calibrates for soil level, size of load, water temperature and water hardness (which you can also test against your home pressure thanks to an included test kit). The Robo Toilet /// $2000 Toto s Neorest 600 is a toilet/bidet combo that makes the Jetsons look like the Flintstones. After you re done with the heated seat, activate the quiet Cyclone Flushing engine, then let the Washlet air deodorizer and SanaGloss bowl cleaner finish the job for you. And since it s rigged with sensors, you can regulate pressure and temperature with front-and-back aerated water spray, step back for an auto flush on your way out the door and close the lid-all by wireless remote. Just make sure you wash your hands first. The Modded Mattress /// $20,000-$50,000 While you may need to be making seven figures to justify owning a bed with an integrated 1080p LCD projector, four pop-up subwoofers and 1.5-terabyte solid-state hard drive, there is a breakthrough amidst all the technophile gluttony: Leggett s Starry Night Sleep Technology bed will come loaded with military-grade anti-snoring capabilities when it goes on sale next year. Using a vibration-detection system, Starry Night adjusts the angle of your position in bed to open nasal passages-then leaves you where your sinuses are as comfy as you are on a coil-rigged, preheated mattress. The Zen Clock /// $49.95 Sure, you ve been reading about luxury alarm clocks in seat-back SkyMall catalogs for more than a decade. But how many clocks offer a slow buildup of ambient light, four different scents and six packets of nature sounds instead of a snooze button? Thirty minutes before your set time, Hammacher Schlemmer s Peaceful Progression Wake-up Clock s lights start glowing, with its warmth triggering the preloaded aroma beads. Just when you get used to that Ocean Surf soundtrack, the buzzer finally sounds. The Intelligent Toothbrush /// $21.47 (Three-Pack) The dop-kit-on-a-brush hasn t quite arrived, but Radius s Intelligent toothbrush at least annoys you enough to make sure you give a good scrub before bed. Two architects developed a new ergonomic design for the 3080 onboard bristles, but it s the 2-minute timer that ensures thorough cleaning, beeping once before flashing every 30 seconds, up to two minutes. And so much for your old dentist s three-month rule: After 180 uses, the Intelligent s light changes to red-time to swap in a new brush head. ShareThis

Written by Inside CRM These quick tweaks will help you keep visitors engaged. A webmaster s work is never done. What may have worked a few years ago when could be outdated today, so it s important to constantly improve your Web site. However, a massive overhaul is just too much work to undertake at one time. Instead, tackle these quick fixes over time, and you ll be able to improve your Web site with minimal pain. Copywriting Content, specifically text, is perhaps your site s most important asset. Make sure that it s up to snuff by following these improvements. Tell readers why they should perform a task. If your site is full of passive suggestions, toughen it up. People are trained to follow a request, as long as you give them a good reason to do it. Make the most highly trafficked pages easier to scan. If your current site consists of large blocks of text, break it up so that it s easier for the average Internet user to read. Convey a sense of trust. If you re experiencing skepticism, offer social proof like testimonials or risk-mitigating offers like a free trial. Stress benefits. Ensure that your copy always shows users exactly how your site will benefit them. Make headlines meaningful. Be sure to change any vague or cutesy headlines to something more up-front and meaningful. Repeat yourself. Check over your copy to make sure that you re really driving the point home by making it in a number of ways. Tell visitors what to do. Revise your site to ensure that people know exactly what the next step is. If you want a visitor to click a link, tell them Keep the reader engaged. Make sure that your current content gives visitors a reason to keep reading throughout the entire piece; otherwise, you need to spice things up a bit. Stay consistent. Check your copy for consistency, or else your site may be seen as unstable or flighty. Stay simple. Simplify your message simply to avoid confusing visitors, while at the same time improving conversion rates. Structure content persuasively. Restructure your content so that it s more focused, specific and credible. Offer social proof. Seek out testimonials and case studies to show just how effective your services are. Keep offers simple. If you re offering lots of different options, pare them down. Make an offer that visitors can t refuse. Check out your site to make sure that you re giving your visitors a reason to pick your company out of an overcrowded field. Avoid making hollow promises. Check out your guarantee, and ensure that you re backing it up with something of substance, like a money-back guarantee. Keep each block of text to a single topic. Make sure that your text isn t too overwhelming with many different thoughts in one place. Offer comparisons. Make it easier for your reader to understand and relate to your business by offering metaphors, similes and analogies. Be concise. Make sure that your copy is only as long as it needs to be to get your point across reasonably. Go with what works. Study other copywriters to adopt the words and methods that have worked for them. Customize these words and phrases until they become your own. Usability If your site isn t usable, visitors will not stick around. Take these small steps, and you ll have a more user-friendly site that s ripe for conversions. Add a short about page. Put a real person behind your site by allowing your visitors to learn a bit about you. Make navigation consistent. Make sure that your site s navigation is on the same place on each page so that visitors don t get confused. Make text links clear. Be sure that your links are descriptive enough so that visitors know exactly where they re going. Use underlined link text. Get rid of your fancy link navigation. Visitors expect to click underlined links. If you dislike underlines, use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to employ a different method of highlighting, like a different text color or font. Never ask for more information than you need. If you re currently asking for excessive information, rethink your data-mining tendencies. When you get greedy for data, you ll turn off some visitors. Always have text links. Although your JavaScript menu might look great, some browsers and users have JavaScript disabled. Have a text-based site map. With a text-based site map, lost visitors can find their way, and you ll make it easy for search engine spiders to find your pages. Link the site logo to the home page. Visitors will expect your logo to link to the home page, so make it easy for them to find it. Add a search box. Are your current visitors lost? Make it easy for them to find exactly what they re looking for with an internal search box. Use plenty of contrast. If text seems to melt into the background, change things up and make your text easy to read by using colors that highly contrast one another. Customize the error page. If you have a standard set of error pages, you need to step things up. The error page should not only reflect your site s design but also provide useful links that will get your visitor back on track. Ask for feedback. Create a contact form that makes it easy for customers to speak with you about your site. Test the site on real users. Ask regular people to navigate your site to find usability problems. Create specific landing pages. If you want to sell, make sure that you have landing pages for specific campaigns and that each of those pages has a purpose. Add more internal links. If you d like to get more traffic to your income-producing pages, add some internal links to your most highly trafficked pages. Search Engine Optimization Follow these tips if you d like to see an improvement on your search-engine rankings. Replace underscores with hyphens. In search-engine results, words separated by underscores will run together, while hypens will create a space between each word. Implement 301s to consolidate page rank. If your site lives on both non- www and www domains, redirect one to the other in order to consolidate. Add a dynamic meta description. Make sure that your meta description makes sense so that your excerpt in search-engine results is more appealing. Use heading tags. Let search engines know what s important by highlighting titles and more in header tags. Update content often. Give search engines a reason to keep coming back with fresh content. Ensure that your host is up to snuff. Make sure that your host is providing maximum uptime so that your site is visible at all times. Create a robots text file. Make life easy for crawlers by creating a file just for them. Make sure that your domain is brandable. If your name isn t easy to say or remember, you need to find something that is. Build link popularity. Actively seek out relevant, inbound links to your site to build trust and profile with search engines. Turn off music. No one wants music to greet them every time they click a link, so turn off the music - or at least offer an easy option for disabling it. Give pages real names. For example, if your page is about red widgets, its filename should be, or at least include, the words red and widgets. Take off the black hat. If you ve used tactics like keyword stuffing, remove them from your site. They may be working now, but in the long run, they ll only hurt. Open up the drop-down menus. Let your user see all of the navigation options available, or you ll confuse them. Ditch registration. Don t turn off users by forcing them to register to access content. Ditch frames. Frames are horrible for search-engine optimization and design in general. Just stay away from them. Fix broken links. Don t send search engines and users down dead ends. Clean up links for better search-engine optimization and usability. Avoid resizing the user s window. Let the user be in control of their browser, or your site will lose credibility. Accessibility If your site isn t accessible, you could be making things frustrating or even impossible for visitors with disabilities. Take these steps to make your site more inclusive. Create accessible forms. Make sure that your forms can be filled out by all visitors. Specify spacer images as empty. Make sure that nonvisual browsers know to ignore your spacer images by noting them as empty. Set captions on tables. This will ensure that your captions render correctly even in visual browsers. Modify color. Ensure that pages are readable by using appropriate colors. Summarize tables. Add a summary of tables so that visitors with screen readers will understand what they re all about. Provide real lists. Use list tags to ensure that lists render correctly for disabled browsers. Remove text from images. Using image text will make it difficult for those using screen readers to read text. Offer an alternative to JavaScript links. Many browsers for the disabled don t support JavaScript, so make it easy for them to have access to real links. Identify the language. Screen readers need to know how to pronounce words, so let them know what language your site s content is in. Add titles to links. Ensure that links are descriptive enough for visitors by adding link titles. Create accessible tables. Make sure that tables are accessible to all by using scope, header and ID attributes. Allow text resizing. Make it easy for readers to resize text if necessary. Supplement navigational aids. Offer additional navigational aids to help visitors who use text-only browsers. Define keyboard shortcuts. Set up keyboard shortcuts so that disabled users can navigate your site with ease. Provide alternate text for images. Alternate text will let disabled visitors know what images represent. Set a document type. Let readers know what sort of programming language your site uses so that content can be displayed correctly. Present content first. Make sure that text-only browswers aren t being presented with your navigation before main content. Set horizontal rules. Instead of just using an image to break up your pages, use horizontal-rule tags and CSS to display them properly for disabled users. Accessible pop-up windows. If your site uses pop-up windows, make sure that they re accessible. Create meaningful page titles. Make sure that your site s page names make sense for their content. Design Spruce up your site s appearance using these design fixes. Place important information above the fold. Move your most important content high on the page so you can be sure that visitors will see it. Keep background colors and images at a minimum. Backgrounds are often less than visually appealing and can make your site load slowly. Reduce choices. Avoid overwhelming your visitor with lots of different options. Design small. Cut your Web pages down to 50KB or less so that they load quickly for anyone. Nix banners. Abandon banners for a more effective design element, or they ll be ignored. Stay consistent. Check to make sure that colors and design are in the same general scheme so that visitors know they re still on your site. Validate design in alternative browsers. See how your design renders in browsers like Safari, Opera and Firefox to make sure that it looks right no matter who is viewing it. Minimize columns. Reduce columns to avoid distracting the reader with excessive visual choices. Lose the splash page. No one wants to sit through a fancy Flash introduction. Replace it with a helpful home page instead. Create a tagline. Stand out with a striking tagline that will draw visitors in. Ditch frames. If your site uses frames, you need to move on to another method, like CSS or SSI (Server-Side Includes). Make sure that text outnumbers HTML. Provide good content with text rather than HTML. Slow down the technology. Although you may have state-of-the-art computers, many of your visitors don t. Get rid of memory-hogging technologies like JavaScript. Remove link cloaks. Make sure that your visitor knows exactly where they re going, or you ll lose credibility. Limit each page to one topic. Give each page a singular purpose to avoid confusing visitors. Ditch crazy fonts. If you re using a ransom-note font, it s time to switch to something simpler. Chances are, your visitors browsers are rendering it as Times New Roman anyway. Reduce your graphics. Graphics not only slow pages down, but they also steal attention away from what s important: content. Add functional links to the footer. Make it easy for visitors to find contact information or your privacy policy just by scrolling down. Standardize link colors. Make sure that users know which links they ve visited and which they haven t. Update information. Put on a fresh coat of paint with a new header, logo or other design element. Convert PDF files to HTML. Make browsing flow a little smoother by converting PDF files to a format that s more easily readable in a browser. Legal Keep your site safe and protect your content using these improvements. Update the privacy policy. Ensure that your site s privacy policy fully discloses everything it should. Revise deep links. Update links so that they point to the home page of a site rather than a specific page, or make sure that you re attributing them correctly. Legitimize images. If you re using images that you don t legally own, it s time to update them with your own images or those that you ve purchased. Pay taxes. If you re making money from your site, it s a business and is taxed as such. Take care of your taxes or you could end up in hot water with Uncle Sam. Protect content. Keep your content safe from thieves by copyrighting it and taking steps to shield it from unscrupulous eyes. Form a legal entity. Get liability protection by forming an LLC (limited liability company) or other formal legal entity. Register a trademark. If you own your domain name but not a related trademark, a trademarked entity with the same name could take it from you, so be sure to register it before someone else does. Store a Web site cache. Keep a copy of your site handy in case of copyright disputes or loss. Revise the email campaign. Make sure that your email campaign complies with the CAN-SPAM Act. ShareThis

Written by Valene If you think that iPods are used just for listening to music, you obviously haven t been keeping up with the latest technology The Apple-developed music player now features all kinds of accessories to help you study better, and now other companies are in a rush to get their designs in sync with the iPod. Pre-teens, college kids and even adults are taking advantage of the educational benefits an iPod affords them. From downloadable podcasts to just-for-iPod study guides and applications, learning on the go has never been easier. To find out about the many different ways you can transform your iPod into a learning device, check out our list below. Study Guides Stop trying to keep track of all your Spark Notes and endless study guides. Use these programs to upload study materials onto your iPod. Spark Notes: Long considered a busy high school or college student s best friend, the online study guide database now offers users an iPod-friendly version. Get summaries and analyses of books like A Tale of Two Cities, Beowulf, Hamlet and more. iPREPpress: This website provides study guides, travel guides and foreign language training, all compatible with iPods. Raybook: This company has turned popular study guides and flash cards like Cliff s Notes and Netter s into iPod-compatible study sessions. Programs use video, audio and interactive media to help you learn more effectively. VangoNotes: College students can browse this website for audio downloads in subjects like Sociology, Nursing, Business, Computer Science and other disciplines to access textbook study guides. NotePods: Currently offered for just $1.99 each, these iPod-compatible study guides give summaries on Jane Austen novels, Shakespeare plays, works by Tolstoy and more. WorldNomads Language Guides: Prepare for your next vacation by learning Spanish, Thai, French, Hindi, Arabic, Italian, Japanese, Chinese or any of the other languages offered here. CramSession: Computer and IT students studying for professional exams can find audio study guides here, ready to download. SparkCharts: This designed-for-iPod study charts help students prep for tests in biology, anatomy, chemistry, algebra, calculus, Spanish and other subjects. SAT Vocabulary Builder: Get test taking strategies and access to a flocabulary hip hop audio session that will help you remember tricky SAT vocab words. Cisco Study Guides: Students and professionals studying for Cisco exams can access iPod-compatible study guides here. Podcasts and More From podcasts to audio books and other downloadable learning devices, check out these tools that give new meaning to the phrase continuing education. GoogleGet: Get your Google News and iPod in sync by installing this software program. You ll stay current on all the top news stories, making you better prepared for class or work. Smithsonian Global Sound: Listen to and learn about music styles from all over the world by checking out the downloads available at the Smithsonian s Global Sound site. Soundwalk: This site currently only sells CDs and MP3s, but you can use an MP3-iPod converter to check out unique self-guided audio tours like The Bronx Graffiti Walk or The Paris St. Germain Walk. ESL Podcasts: Learn English by taking these ESL classes on your iPod. Pod CityGuides: This site has hundreds of city guides that are compatible with iPods, so no one has to know you re really a tourist. iPod Spanish to Go: Learn Spanish on your iPod with this program that teaches pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and culture. Mogopop: Use this online program to enhance iPod learning by adding notes, video and illustrations to audiobooks and study notes. BiblePLayer for iPod 1.1: Add the King James Bible to your iPod for free with this download. Brain Quest: This popular educational game is available at different levels for grades 1-7. Stedman s Medical Terminology Flash Cards: This set of iPod-friendly flash cards will help any healthcare, nursing, pre-med or medical student prepare for an exam. Teach Kids Valuable Lessons with Free Sesame Street iPod Videos: Lifehacker writes about the six free Sesame Street videos offered on iTunes, perfect for introducing your child to technology and other educational basics. The Education Podcast Network: Find this podcast at the iTunes store to access information, tutorials and other materials about teaching students at all levels and in a variety of disciplines. NPR Science Friday: Listen to clever, engaging discussions about science from National Public Radio s popular program. The Philosophy Talk: This is the program that questions everything except your intelligence. Find it on iTunes to save podcasts on your iPod. Tutorials These tutorials will help you make the most of your iPod by showing you how to learn new skills and create your own podcasts. iTunes Store - Audiobooks: Find audiobooks on any subject at the iTunes Store, including news, sports, technology, travel, languages, drama and poetry and more. Kaplan SAT Prep: Supplement your SAT prep with this iPod-friendly download from Kaplan. iPod Manuals, User Guides and Tutorials: Troubleshoot any problems you have with your iPod and new educational downloads using this collection of iPod manuals. Video iPod Tutorial: Learn how to add podcasts, videos and more to your iPod by checking out this easy how-to guide. Learning Podcasting: If you want to create your own podcast to share your skills or expertise on a particular subject, read this in-depth introduction to podcasting from Wise-Women.org. Podtender 3.0: This software program will teach you how to make all kinds of tasty cocktails for your next party. PodGourmet 2.0: Teach yourself to become a master chef when you get recipes for traditional and vegan meals with this iPod program. iPod Lesson Plans: Use your iPod in clever new ways to engage students in the classroom. Lesson plan ideas include learning math with music and creating an audio tour. Librivox: Access podcasts and recordings of book chapters from nearly all genres of literature. LearnOutLoud.com: This popular website offers free audio books, lectures and other educational material that can be put on an iPod. Browse categories like technology, religion and spirituality, languages, science, politics and business, among others. Applications Check out these applications and software programs that will make learning with your iPod even easier. iPodSync: Sync up your work or school Outlook accounts with your iPod by installing iPodSync. You can get automatic updates and transfers for notes, calendar appointments, e-mail, news feeds and more. MP3 to iPod Converter: Use this software to convert MP3s to iPod-compatible audio books. iGadget: Make your class notes, presentations, study guides and other materials iPod-friendly by using iGadget. You ll be able to move documents and files back and forth between your iPod and your computer easily and securely. Plato Video to iPod Converter: Use this app to transform all kinds of video formats into MP4 formats so that you can upload video clips and footage onto your iPod. Anapod: If you re a Windows user but love your iPod, use the Anapod to transfer files back and forth, including class notes, Web clips and more. CopyTrans: If you ve loaded up your iPod with tons of finals week study guides, formulas and translators, use the CopyTrans to back it all up and get in sync with your computer just in case. iSquint: Convert DVDs, TiVo, AVI, WMV and other video formats to iPod-friendly videos with iSquint. iPodifier: Sync up your iPod with TiVo, Windows Media Player or SageTV to view video streams of the news, educational programming or other TV shows on your iPod. iWriter: Talking Panda s iWriter gives you the tools to create your own iPod study tools with this application and quick tutorial. YouTube to iPod Converter 2.6: This free converter lets you watch educational videos, TV clips and more on your iPod so that you can review for tests, contribute to class discussions or add them to a presentation. WiPod v1.0: If you re looking for a place to study, do some research or prepare for a business meeting, use this application to help you identify the nearest public WiFi hotspot. More Downloads Find even more classes and audio books online here. Then, download them to your iPod and keep learning on your way to class, on the plane to your next vacation or anywhere else you have a few minutes to zone out. Telltale Weekly: This audio book store allows students and literature enthusiasts purchase AAC-formatted audio books and stories for just 25 cents each. Browse categories like Drama, Nonfiction, Humor and Popular Authors. Free Classic AudioBooks: Find books like Herman Melville s Typee, Huckleberry Finn and Swiss Family Robinson in iPod-friendly formats here. Made for Success: This popular personal and professional coaching program is now offered in an audio book format. Sound Book Emporium: Browse categories like Foreign Language Study, Self Help and Business to find a class that meets your personal, professional or academic needs. Talking Books Network: Students can quickly listen to key chapters of books they need to finish for class or hear critiques of literary works to help them contribute to in-class discussions. Project Gutenberg: This large online library of audio books and e-books contains stories and books in languages from English to Greek to Danish to Korean. iJourneys: Take walking tours in cities like Salzburg, Vienna, Amsterdam, Paris and Ancient Rome by downloading iPod-compatible guides from this site. Audio Bibles for iPod: AllBibles.com offers iPod-compatible Bibles for theology and seminary students, or for those who just want a more portable version to take along with them. iLingo: This easy-to-use foreign language program is designed for the iPod and includes tutorials in Italian, German, Portuguese, Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, Russian and more. PodGuides.net: Create your own podguide to give visitors an insider s look at your community, or browse through other guides to enhance your next vacation to Melbourne, Brussels, France s Opal Coast and more. Classroom Help Supplement your class discussions with iPod tools like StudyGuideGuru and Portable Notes, which will keep your assignments fresh in your head all day. The Teaching Company: Supplement your class assignments and syllabi with courses and study guides from The Teaching Company. You can search topics like Ancient and Modern History, Religion, Philosophy, Science and Mathematics and more. Portable Notes: Use this guide to help you install Portable Notes on your iPod, making it easy to review class notes and study guides even if you re away from your computer. Merriam-Webster Reference Dictionary: Download the popular dictionary onto your iPod to look up words and definitions in class, on your way to class or anywhere else. StudyGuideGuru: This collection of literature study guides will help you prep for your next exam, paper or in-class discussion. iPod Learning Support New iPod users will appreciate these crash courses in iTunes, podcasting and downloading, while seasoned iPod veterans can find new tricks to maximize their iPod s portability. Get Tips for Podcasts: The iTunes Store publishes this tutorial with tips for searching for, purchasing and playing podcasts on your iPod. Download and Install iTunes: If you ve just bought an iPod, check out this quick training guide to get tips on searching for and downloading iTunes. PDA iPod Guide: This website features MP4 converters, iPod converters, software and tutorials that will help you turn your iPod into a learning device with all the bells and whistles. Podcasting Plus: This in-depth guide has everything you need to know about creating your own podcast. Podcasting Legal Guide: Understand the legal issues and limitations that affect podcasting with this guide. iPod in the Classroom: Take a look at Apple s collection of lesson plans for teachers who want to use their iPod for classroom work. iLounge: Get together with other iPod users to find out about new things you can do with your iPod. Rock Your iPod with an Open-Source Upgrade: Consider turning your iPod into an open-source device, allowing you to access even more videos, tutorials, online classes and more. 5 Tricks You can Teach iTunes: Maximize your iPod s potential by learning how to work these tricks, including sharing files, reversing sync and setting up smart playlists. Tools and Sites Turn to these websites for access to even more audio books and iPod learning devices. AudioBook-Megashop: Categories here include Arts and Drama, Fiction, History and Self Help. There are no monthly subscription fees; just pay once each time you purchase an audio book. ShowFootage: Browse through this site s library of video clips to make your presentations and projects more attractive. Audible.com: Find a large variety of books, newspapers and magazines ready to download to your iPod on this site. Categories include Romance, Classics, Business, History and more. iPod Tours: Apple s iPod Tour Guide store lets you search for and download audio tours like Chateau de Versailles, Jewish Museum Berlin and Disney Cruise Line. AudioLearn: This site offers all kinds of test prep guides for the SAT, MCAT, DAT, TOEFL and other exams, all ready to be uploaded onto your iPod. Homeschool eStore: Find SparkNotes in iPod-friendly formats here. English Tutor TeleCampus: Download test preps for your iPod to study for the TOEFL, GRE, GMAT and other tests. Rocketbook Video Study Guides: These unique video study guides can be downloaded as MP3s, but use a converter to make them iPod friendly. Humorous videos include guides for The Great Gatsby, Romeo and Juliet and The Odyssey. Books on Board: Search for ebooks and audio books on this site, in categories ranging from Women s Reading to Textbooks to Classics to Business. iPlay Music: This set of music lessons is designed for a variety of multimedia devices, including the iPod. MyTrainingCenter.com: Access hundreds of video tutorials and how-to guides that provide computer and business training. Downloads are compatible with the iPod. Unerase Tool: Recover lost study guides, class notes and other materials with this handy tool made for iPods. Budget Travel Podcasts: The famed Budget Travel site now offers downloadable podcasts for vacations to Las Vegas, Miami and Quebec City. iTunes U These top schools offer classes on iTunes U. Start downloading now to listen to Ivy League professors lecture, brush up on your foreign language skills or just broaden your horizons. Stanford on iTunes: Take a class from Stanford by downloading one onto your iPod. Or, you can find interviews with faculty and lectures to help you better understand the course material at your own school. University of California Berkeley: Classes from this well-respected school are available in chemistry, the social sciences, journalism and much more. Duke University: Listen to the Duke Featured Speakers Podcast or check out notes from the Theatre department or listen to the lecture series sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Center for Interdisciplinary and International Studies. New York Law School: New York Law School has lectures on iTunes on environmental law, family law, adoption policy, legal education and other hot topics. MIT: This elite school shares lecture notes, project discussions and more on subjects ranging from engineering to philosophy to urban studies. Michigan Tech : Classes like Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering are all available in podcast form at iTunesU. Yale Books and Authors: Check out this collection of podcasts from Yale authors and faculty, on topics like education, slavery and more. Harvard Extension School: Take classes from Harvard from the comfort of wherever you bring your iPod. This program features podcasts of a variety of lectures and courses from the Ivy school. Wellesley on iTunesU: Wellesley College courses and lectures like Not Such a Small World: The Challenges of Globalization and Academic Frauds, Fictions and Fantasies on iTunes. Texas A s University: Canada s famous Queen s University provides lectures, sports events, news and more to people all over the world wanting to advance their education. Miscellaneous Read below for fun tutorials and podcasts that will enhance your educational experience no matter where you are. iPod in Education: Visit this site for advice, tutorials and downloads for using the iPod in educational settings. Research at Chicago: The University of Chicago sponsors this podcast, full of interviews and reports fro the latest research projects in psychology, physics, law and more. Business English: Learn how to communicate better and improve your professional English skills by tuning into the podcast on your iPod. History According to Bob: Professor Bob takes his listeners through history, from Ancient Greece to World War I to the Aztecs. Education Podcast with John Merrow: This PBS-sponsored podcast features correspondent John Merrow and his interviews and reports on the social, political, economic and cultural issues that affect our world. Openculture: Free Educational Podcasts: Check out this extensive list of free podcasts from colleges and universities like Columbia, Dartmouth, Notre Dame, Stanford Law and the London School of Economics. ShareThis

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Written by Teddy I thought that for the first entry in my blog I would post something that is usefull to other people rather than a boring intro about myself (maybe I ll do that later hah!). As we all know the nazi s have grabbed the TV-Links owner on Thursday and have/are probably threatening him with all sorts of nasty things if he doesn t admit he s a terrorist. Really, shouldn t the police be out stopping murderers and armed robbers rather than raiding some kid s home for a website? Anyway, I ve decided to give a list of what i consider to be the best TV link sites around, that is, sites where you can go find your favorite episode of Lost, Buffy or 24. I simply don t have the time to trawl through YouTube, DailyMotion or Guba for shows or movies so it s a godsend that the sites below exist. The list below is just my personal favorites, I m sure you have your own and if so let me know, the more sites the better! Anyway without further ado SurfTheChannel These guys are without a doubt my favorite and that s saying something when I only found it a week ago. It s basically a clone of tv-links but with a few nice additions. I love the way I can subscribe to any channel or show via RSS which makes it easier to keep track of my fav shows. At time of writing they have *14,712* tv episodes. The site is in beta right now but personally I haven t come across 1 bug yet. The only drawback of this site is that the community is non-existent but I suppose that will change as the site becomes better known. Alluc Alluc used to be so sloooowwwwwww but they seem to have upgraded their server and now theyre nippy as hell. They have a nice crowd there and you rarely get dead links as they re on top. **The rest below I won t comment on because if I m honest STC and Alluc gives me what I need so I don t go need much else. If anyone would like to comment about the ones below though I would be happy to edit to show people s thoughts. http://tvunderground.org.ru/ http://www.freetvsearch.com http://www.craftytv.com http://www.tvlinkvault.com http://www.freetvsearch.com/ http://www.surfthechannel.com/ http://www.ssupload.com/ http://www.videolemon.com http://movies.nabolister.com http://flickpeek.com http://www.findtvlinks.com/ http://www.shoutwire.com/viewstory/90965/Watch_Any http://www.joost.com/ http://www.ovguide.com/ http://www.watchtvsitcoms.com/simpsons.php http://www15.alluc.org/alluc/ http://www.live-online-tv.com/ http://www.findago.com/series/ http://online-television.tv/ http://www.craftytv.com/ http://beeline.tv/ http://www.movies-on-demand.tv/ http://www.peekvid.com/ http://aknof.blogspot.com/2007/01/free-goodies-for http://quicksilverscreen.com/ http://Alloftv.net http://joox.net http://quicksilverscreen.com/ipb/ http://www.videolemon.com http://movies.nabolister.com http://flickpeek.com http://showstash.com http://teevee4me.com http://wheeya.com http://emuduel.com http://www.findago.com/series/ Hope this helps some people, happy viewing! If you liked this post, buy me a beer

Written by Scott H Young I believe that a sign of good information is that it makes you think. If reading a book, listening to a lecture or watching a video doesn t change how you think, it probably isn t that important. But if you encounter something that forces you to change your views, even if you don t completely agree with it, you ve found something valuable. The problem is where do you find these ideas? Better yet, where do you find the time to consume this information? Recently I found a great place to get started. TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a huge conference held each year. The best thinkers come together and share their ideas. Their website, www.ted.com, has hundreds of free speeches. Here s ten that might just change how you view the world: 1) The Myth of Violence - Steven Pinker In this video, Steven Pinker tackles the myth that today is a more violent era than in the past. Using historical data and information from pre-industrialized tribes, Pinker shows that violence has dramatically declined in our history. Pinker believes that a more sensitive reporting system has led us to believe violence has increased, when it has actually dropped. Not only will it make you feel a bit better about the present times, but it gives hope that the future might be a more peaceful place. 2) 10 Ways the World Could End - Stephen Petranek Particle accelerators producing black holes that could destroy the world? While some of Petranek s top ten doomsday problems might seem a bit farfetched, many are definitely worth a look. The future has a tendency to sneak up on us from behind, so preparing in advance might be a good idea. Plus, who doesn t want to terraform Mars? 3) New Insights on Poverty and Life Around the World - Hans Rosling Statistics generally aren t described as beautiful, but Hans Rosling comes close in showing the information about our changing world. The world has changed a lot in the last few decades, as Rosling will update you on how poverty in Asia has dramatically declined. 4) Toys That Make Worlds - Will Wright Are games becoming a serious medium? (or are the already?) With all the debate around violence in games, it seems hard to believe that they could actually compete with film and literature for artistic merit. But as technology increases and games compete with movies for market share, this might start becoming the case. Will Wright s talk around Spore might just persuade a few more people. 5) Technology s Long Tail - Chris Anderson WIRED editor, Chris Anderson talks about the four key shifts that occur with most new technologies. First, Anderson points out, technology approaches a critical price where it becomes viable for consumers. Next it approaches a critical mass and then displaces a pre-existing technology (VCR to DVD). Finally it becomes close to free. Using various examples, Anderson shows how technologies are at different stages along this four-part continuum. This is a must see for anyone who works, invests or benefits from high-tech. 6) Why Are We Happy? Or Not? - Daniel Gilbert Bestselling author of, Stumbling on Happiness, Daniel Gilbert describes some surprising information about your happiness. Gilbert describes a study where patients suffering from amnesia were asked to rank several paintings in the order they like them. They were then told they could keep a painting from the middle of their rankings. After the researchers left the room the patients quickly forgot about the whole encounter. When asked to rank the paintings again, however, they ranked the one they owned as being the best. This means that our tastes are often sculpted by what we have available. As Gilbert points out, our psychological immune system can keep us happy even through depressing circumstances. 7) Universe is Queerer Than We Can Suppose - Richard Dawkins In this talk notable evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins points out just how weird reality might be. He talks about how we have evolved to fit into a so-called Middle World where we can t observe the very large or very small. The universe might just be a whole lot queerer than we suppose. Or, as Dawkins points out, than we even can suppose. 8 ) Sliced Bread - Seth Godin Here, influential blogger, writer and speaker Seth Godin shares some of his ideas on marketing. 9) Redefining the Dictionary - Erin McKean Never had the chance to use synecdochical in a sentence before? Here Erin McKean speaks with passion about how the dictionary and the English language is changing. She believes the web, and more importantly, you, will help in changing how the English language is recorded. 10) What s So Funny About the Web? - Ze Frank Okay, perhaps this one isn t as life-transforming, but Ze Frank is a funny guy with great ideas. Between riffing on spam, Google rankings and web toys Ze will make you laugh as he makes you think. The talks vary in length from ten to twenty minutes. You might want to bookmark this page so you can watch some of them later. Ted has many other fascinating speakers who talk about a huge range of subjects. You might just learn something. Better yet, you might just think. If you liked this post, buy me a beer

Written by Aibek If you re long time makeuseof reader at one point or another you may have seen several of these websites before. We have covered lots of lists and round-ups but this one is quite different: it lists undiscovered webservices that are original, rather unique, unusual, useful, free, and must-be bookmarked type. You won t find any collaboration, storage or ToDo service here. Enjoy! 1. BugMeNot - instantly get disposable login details for any popular website that force you to register. 2. DailyLit - read your favorite books by email (on your PC, mobile, etc.). 3. FranceRadio - neat MP3 Search Engine that lets you Find, Play and Download favorite MP3s for FREE. 4. Google SMS - provides mobile users with a quick access (via SMS) to a wide range of practical information and tools (i.e. business listings (pizzerias, shops, etc.), weather, movie listings, driving directions, currency converter and lots more. 5. Podlinez - listen to your favorite podcasts from any phone. Just enter the RSS feed URL for the desired podcast and get a free-toll number to access it from phone. 6. RetailMeNot - locate fresh discount coupons for thousands of web merchants and services right from your browser toolbar. Video demo. 7. SoLow - on a daily basis SoLow auctions 4 different items (iPhones, HD Screens, etc.). Anyone with a mobile/PC can participate in the auctions by placing their bids via text-messaging. The user with the lowest unique bid wins the auction. 8. TeleFlip - auto-forward your emails to your cellphone as text messages. Video demo. 9. UrbanDictionary - hilarious (and practical) 100% user-maintained dictionary where users provide and vote on definitions for urban words (slangs). 10. Yak4Ever - make free international calls from US, UK and Ireland to 50+ countries. === Mobile - related === 11. Bitbom - schedule free text message reminders to your phone. Schedule online or using mobile. (Similar PingMe.) 12. Flurry - follow up on your emails (send, receive) and receive latest articles from favorite blogs/websites on your mobile. 13. Foonz - place group calls and send messages to multiple people for free (from your mobile or any other phone). 14. GameJump - lots of free games for mobile phones. 15. GrandCentral - single phone number for all your phones and a web-based centralized voicemail system. (Similar: YouMail, GotVoice) 16. IQzone - post your classified ad to a number of online and print classifieds networks directly from your mobile. 17. Jott - simple and convenient service for leaving yourself notes and ToDo remainders using your mobile. 18. Mosio - text any question from your mobile phone and shortly receive up-to 4 answers. 19. mShopper - instantly check up on the bargain deals for any product (or even order) right from your mobile phone. Video demo. 20. NoPhoneTrees - simple phone directory that lists direct human access numbers to support employees in hundreds of companies. 21. Nutsie - takes a copy of your iTunes library file and creates an online copy of your library. Access this library from PC or mobile phone. 22. Google SendToPhone - forward anything you find on the web (maps, address, text, etc.) to any mobile phone for free (US only). 23. Qipit - take a quick document pictures and turn them into properly formatted PDFs. Save online, email, or fax documents right from mobile. 24. Soonr - handy application that lets you access your PC remotely using your mobile or any other PC (work, school, etc.). Video demo. 25. TelePixie - quickly schedule and receive daily (or one time) wake up phone calls, reminders, weather forecast calls, jokes, and more. 26. TellMe - free local directory service for business listings (Car Repair Shops, Pizzerias, Restaurants, etc.), maps, and directions. 27. PhoneZoo - convert your MP3s to custom-length ringtones and forward them to your phone. Plus 1000s of free ringtones from other users. === Other === 28. BossBitching - fun and active community where people can bit*h about their bosses anonymously. 29. eSnailer - send free postal mail letters (to anywhere in the US) right from the desktop. From Canada? Check out EasyPost. 30. Yapta - get a refund (or credit) from the airlines on a purchased ticket in case its price drops. 31. ListenToaMovie - lets you listen to a movie , i.e. stream the audio part of various movies and a some TV-shows. 32. OpenDNS - provides a safer, faster, smarter and more reliable way to navigate the Internet. More details + video demo. 33. PodioBooks - search, subscribe and browse through a variety of totally free audio books (100% legal). 34. PriceProtectr - tracks items you bought online drops and notifies in case of price-drops so you can request a refund. 35. RateMyDrawings - excellent place to draw, share your drawing creations, learn to draw, and watch other people drawing. Video demo 36. SwitchPlanet - cool and active marketplace where you can switch (or trade) used DVDs, CDs, Video Games and Books. Video demos. 37. Scribd- search, browse, rate, share various types of documents (jokes, facts, stories etc.). It s like Youtube for text documents. 38. ViaTalk - make up-to 10 minutes long free phone calls to anywhere in the US and Canada. You don t even need to sign-up. 39. VideoSift - popular Digg-like voting community for user-submitted videos. 40. Wordie - make lists of words (words you love, words you hate, or whatever) and share them with others. If you liked this post, buy me a beer

Written by David Morgan The list of ___ Worst Love Songs comes up every so often both on the internet and in actual print, and one would think there s nothing left to say. Well, this time we re going to do things slightly differently. This list will be comprised of love songs (good and bad) that if you tried to designate one of them as our song with your girlfriend, that action would become your last as a couple. You would be dumped on the spot. Obviously, something like United States of Whatever wouldn t be a good our song because it s not even a love song to begin with. The following are all legitimate love songs that for one reason or another are unsuitable for couples. However, right off the bat I should tell you that the perennial favorite by Meat Loaf, I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won t Do That), will not be found on this list. It absolutely is one of the worst love songs, but it is played out and is an easy target. Same goes for, Every Breath You Take, by The Police. Now that the ground rules are set, we can proceed, and with some different contenders for a change. LoveFool by the Cardigans This 90s favorite encourages deceit in relationships and it s the kind of song that gets stuck in your head if you re not careful. That combo could make for an unpleasant afternoon/marriage. If You Wanna Be Happy by Jimmy Soul How on Earth do you explain liking this song to your girlfriend? You certainly can t tell her that she s ugly, but is telling her, don t worry, you re the pretty woman that will ruin my life, that much better? Paradise by the Dashboard Light by Meat Loaf Basically, we re legally obligated to put one Meat Loaf love song on the list, and this is a strong contender. Meat Loaf gets to have sex with a woman by telling her that he ll love her till the end of time. The refrain becomes and I m praying for the end of time. As much as we all love ragging on I Would Do Anything this one s actually pretty fun, and the late Phil Rizzuto provides play-by-play commentary of Meat Loaf trying to score with this girl. Yeah! Oh Yeah! by the Magnetic Fields One might question whether or not this is a love song at all, but it was released on the album 69 Love Songs, which makes it fair game. It s about a man who enjoys mentally torturing his wife and eventually kills her while telling her that her whole life was a lie. Happy Valentine s Day! Only the Good Die Young by Billy Joel It s never explicitly stated that the girl in this song is underage. But there s reference to confirmation which usually takes place in the early teen years, and you can t help feeling a little dirty thinking about Billy Joel trying to convince a young Catholic girl to give it up. Hooked on a Feeling by David Hasselhoff Originally performed by B.J. Thomas and later by Blue Swede, the David Hasselhoff version is maybe the most infamous rendition of this love song. Granted, a lot of what s wrong with this song is its music video, but just knowing it s David Hasselhoff singing is enough to sterilize any inherent romantic content. My Best Friend s Girl by The Cars Being in love with your best friend s girlfriend can only lead to trouble of one sort or another. Admittedly, your friend is a dick for stealing your girlfriend ( she used to be mine ), but move on. Also, if you ve actually stolen your current girlfriend from your best friend, don t play her this song to remind her of your victory. Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley Ah, Rick Astley. The scrawny British fellow with the voice of a much larger black man. We can all admire his pipes if not his song-writing ability. This is an unacceptable song because your woman should have at least a smattering of taste. (Ed. note: However, if you are a gay man, and you enjoy sexing your lover while wearing an ascot, this may be your jam. Also, you do not exist. Sigh!) Tim I Wish You Were Born a Girl by Of Montreal This is sort of a sweet song, for those of you lonely heterosexuals out there who wish your best bud had been born with female anatomy. It s basically a platonic, heterosexual love song between two men. That said, it cannot be brought up in any situation. You can t say to your friend, Hey, listen to this song. I wish we could be like this, because it would make things weird. Even if you and your friend were gay it wouldn t make any sense because if he had been born a girl you d no longer be into him. And you can t tell your girlfriend you wish she was born a girl because that doesn t make any sense either. So, this song is unfortunately very limited in scope. Don t Go Home with Your Hard-On by Leonard Cohen Go ahead. Download it. On a personal note, I asked my girlfriend for a suggestion for a tenth song and she said that if I made this our song, we would not make it. We both really enjoy the song, it s just that the lyrics depicting his mother as a prostitute and about your erection not melting in the rain make it kind of a poor choice to play at a wedding. No doubt there are some notable songs missing from this list, so comment and tell us what you would add. You could turn it into a mix-tape to give to your girlfriend for her birthday if/when things are starting to go downhill and you don t feel like spending money on a real gift. If you liked this post, buy me a beer

Written by the gamer collective blog Have E3 fatigue yet? Me neither, but while you’re cruising around the internets looking for something to watch in between refreshing every other gaming site out there, why not check out a few of the videos on this list? This list is a list of what I consider to be among the best video game commercials. The most recent one on the list is, perhaps unsurprisingly, Halo 3 with the oldest one being a few old Atari commercials. I only chose a few Atari commercials because there’s so many awesomely bad Atari commercials, they almost warrant their own post. If you can think of any other note worthy commercials that I should have included feel free to curse my name and leave a comment about your choice in the comments. Xbox 360 Halo “Arms Race” Now this is arguably the best spot for any video game in recent memory. Not because it’s for what will probably be the biggest title of 2007, but because I’m sure it has more than one sole purpose. I’m sure it’s meant to get people excited about Halo 3, but with the fact that it’s done by Peter Jackon’s WETA crew and Neil Blomkamp, who almost teamed up with Fox to bring us a Halo movie, I’m sure that it’s also meant to drive the point home that a Halo flick done by these chaps would almost be the best movie ever made. I say almost because that UNSC armor looks a little weak. It needs to be tighter to the body or something because it honestly looks a little cheap. Other than that, I’m ready to get in line right now for Halo 3. Water Balloons for everyone! This is one spot that just looks like a good time. A city wide water ballooning would be good for the soul and we’d all get wet. Water Balloons = Good Times = the Xbox 360 apparently. Works for me. Human Cock Fighting (sounds dirty dunnit?) This one, that line, “on has to imitate the posture of a fierce cock”, it’s too much! I can’t even watch this one and keep a straight face the whole time. The ‘Mad World’ Gears of War spot Of course, the Gears of War ‘Mad World’ trailer had to make the list. When this commercial debuted, it caught everyone off guard. First off, there’s no dramatic hard rock music or no grand sweeping composition. Just a quiet tune playing with this kick ass scenery. The fact that this commercial came out slightly before Gears of War was actually released also got everyone hyped for the game. It was the perfect ad at the perfect time. This pinata is not magical Sure the made-for-TV 30 second version of this Viva Pinata spot is pretty good on it’s own, but it’s the extended version that you need to see. I can’t even pick a favorite quote from this, they’re all good. Pretend gun fighting I’m not even sure if this is a genuine Xbox 360 commercial or not but dammit if it’s not entertaining to watch. I just hope that if this was a real audition, those two got whatever part they were going for because I really did think, if only for a second, that the lady was trying to shoot me. Frightening. The banned Xbox spot The projectile baby is what did this one in. For a second there, you’re not sure if what you’re seeing fly out of that woman is either some sort of baby goo (ewww), an actual baby, or some kind of projectile alien. Other than that, it’s an interesting take on how short life really is, and why you must play something on the Xbox. Everyone’s pretend trigger happy Here is another banned Xbox 360 commercial that I’m assuming was banned because everyone is pretending to shoot themselves, which apparently upsets old stuffy types. We don’t this falling into the hands of some crazed individual now do we? With the being said, this is still an awesome commercial. A lot of these early Xbox 360 commercials did a pretty good job of invoking that sense of group fun, with the waterballoons and human cock fighting and all, and this one is more of the same. That shot of the guy with in the car with the cell phone is priceless. Playstation 3 Plastic Baby Dolls love the PS3 This ad is slightly creepy and slightly awesome at same time. With the games flashing through his eyes while he’s crying (tears of joy?) backwards is an image I won’t soon forget…dammit. This is living - “Surreal” This one makes about as much sense as the first one but if you think about it, it kind of does make sense. To me at least. I’m not sure how or why, but I understand it I guess. Not so much with the girl on the can at the end, but for the most part, I kind of “get it”. This is living - the full length spot Here’s the full on, almost 6 minute and somewhat NFSW (girl riding dude, girl getting in the shower and dude pleasuring himself to soccer, yeah, wtf?!?) “This is Living” spot. You see the whole cast and all the crazy scenarios. Seeing this spot as a whole brings a little more context to it, but it still is a bit odd.