Updated: 10/23/2008

Resources

Best Bet to Replace Your TV Set
Social Networking (12 sites)
Post and View Videos On Line
Internet Video Sources
General Information on Everything
The Latest News
Miscellaneous
Computer and Internet Information

Feel free to us about your favorite links.

TV Programs On Line

Although there are many programs for the Internet that will let you watch TV stations from around the world on your computer (with varying degrees of success), one that specializes in U.S. network TV programs is Hulu.

It's ad-based and financed by NBC, Universal, and News Corp. Hulu's content includes high resolution (and even high-definition) posts from Fox, NBC, MGM, Sony, Warner Brothers and others. It also has full-length movies.

One feature lets you clip segments from the site to show to your friends.

Social Networking

Not to be engaged in during class!

1. Flicker browser. A free, fast browser build on the Mazola/Firefox code with many built in social networking links and features. They include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube (see below), Yahoo Mail, Gmail, Flickr, and assorted blogging tools.

2. Facebook. If you are under 25, you have undoubtedly heard of Facebook, the free site that let's you stay in touch with your friends with notes and photos. There are many third-party add-ons available to enhance the experience.

3. Twitter A new phenomena that is a hybrid between blogging and text messaging. Limited to about 150 characters of text, this is a way to give your friends a minute-by-minute account of what you are doing -- which, granted, may be much more than your friends want to know! As with most of these social networking devices, it works with iPhones, Blackberries, Palm pilots, and so-called "intelligent" cell phones.

4. MySpace is billed as, "a popular (one might say, "hugely popular" and at times controversial) social networking web site offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos for teenagers and adults internationally." It's headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California and it's owned by News Corporation.

5. Craigslist. This site has about everything. Information on getting a job, an apartment, finding furniture, or finding a friend. It's especially known for it's Best Of list.

6. Flickr. Photo sharing site with millions of "eyes." The first 200 photos you upload are free; for unlimited storage it's $25 a year. You tag your photos with captions and categories for easy location.The many of specialized user groups give some excellent comments and advice.

7. Instant Messaging. Trillian is a free, all-in-one, streamlined instant messaging program with many features that handles AIM, ICQ. Yahoo, and MSN.

8. Digg, the Internet social news site featuring off-beat news billed as a collection of "must read" news and information largely supplied by readers. The idea is to share information you "dig" with your friends.

9. FriendFeed (friendfeed.com) Crawls more than 40 sites keeping you updated on all the web pages, photos, music, etc., that your friends are sharing or commenting on.

10. Spock (spock.com) Search a person's schol, work, and social affiliations and displays photos, blogs, videos and links.

11. iMedix (imedix.com) A site (still in beta) that specializes in personal mental and physical help issues.

12. WhitePages (whitepages.com) along with PeopleFinders.com will help you track down people, their addresses, phone numbers, etc.

Post and View Videos

1. YouTube (www.youtube.com) -- Maximum video length 10 min. This by far is the most popular video-hosting site around -- but in some ways not the best.

The videos often leave a lot to be desired -- both in terms of quality and often in terms of taste. Thus, your videos may not always be "in the best company." Watch out for the commentary -- it often gets pretty bad -- even a bit psychotic. Even so, the site it easy to use and includes many amenities (and you can turn off the comments).

In mid 2008 YouTube announced they were going to expand into featuring selected short, independent films in "The Screening Room."

2. Revver (www.revver.com) -- Not only a step up from YouTube, but this site will pay you dividends for plays. Forty percent of the ad revenue generated on the page featuring your video is put in your PayPal account.

Unlike YouTube, you can set the size of the window where your video is featured. This is especially important for HDTV productions (and it clearly separates you from the phone camera crowd). No time limit is set, but your video file must be under 100MB. Revver does QuckTime and Flash. The downside is that since Revver isn't nearly as popular as YouTube, you may have to direct people to the site.

3. Metacafe (www.metacafe.com) This site also pays dividends, but on the basis of the number of plays. For example, 1,000 views pays you $5. With 20,000 views you get $100.

The site also has a wide variety of production tips and tutorials. Because the videos have to be approved before being posted, the general quality is better than YouTube's. Unfortunately, videos are limited to the Flash video format, and that's limited to 8-minutes.

4. Spike/iFilm (www.ifilm.com) This site is for the professionals, and not surprisingly, features the highest quality videos on the web.

Hollywood producers often visit the site -- especially to scout for new talent. Productions can be up to 45-minutes long and can be submitted by DV, Beta tape, or most quality formats. This site only uses the Flash format. Be prepared to prove you have music rights or that you produced your own background music.

Internet Video Sources

There are many sources for video on the Internet, of course. Some have strong restrictions on use, others don't.

A good place to start is Truveo.com, which a writer for The Wall Street Journal says is, "...the best Web-wide video-search engine I've seen."

General Information on Everything

Although at times criticized for being "open-sourced" (both a strength and a weakness), Wikipedia has the largest collection of general information on the Internet. If you need to know about something, it'll undoubtedly be there.

More recently, Google's Knol was launched. Although the offerings at this point are limited, unlike Wikipedia, Knol plans to rely on experts in the various fields, making it more in keeping with standard encyclopedias.

This site will probably have more credibility than Wikipedia with teachers and advanced students, but it's too early to see if Knol will establish itself as a comprehensive source of Internet information.

The Latest News

NPR.org is one of the most authoritative sources of news on the Internet. It is well organized with minimized advertising that doesn't interrupt your reading. A great "first stop" for finding out what's going on.

Another well organized news site is WashingtonPost.com

BBC news has been recognized as the most authoritative, and many people around the world feel it is the most objective news source. The British Broadcasting Company's one-minute summary of world news is a popular feature.

The Canadian Broadcasting System also has a comprehensive and authoritative perspective on world news.

Finally, there is our own daily summary of news from various sources that includes the country's top viewed stories, plus special technology information pulled from the New York Times, which, incidentally, also has some first-rate videos.

Miscellaneous

Good Travel site: SideStep.com scans more than 200 other travel sites to get you the best prices on flights, hotels, rental cars, and cruises. Surprisingly efficient in getting you the best deals.

There is evidence that the Internet has significantly changed the reading habits of this "Internet generation." This is both good and bad, as outlined in this article.