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HEATLH: 2 Easy Guides to Check Your Illness Symptoms Online

Mahendra Palsule — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:01:11 +0000

There are times when we want to check certain illness symptoms we or our loved ones are experiencing. We may not be sure if the symptoms warrant further investigation or we might just want to satisfy our curiosity about health and fitness in general.

In this article, let us look at two online guides to check your illness symptoms online, which are extremely easy to use and provide information about probable causes.

Before we proceed, it is necessary to stress that these guides should not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice. It is better that you use these tools as a supplementary resource to get more information, while you may be waiting for your doctor’s appointment, or to learn more about certain illnesses.

Check Symptoms Online With WebMD Symptom Checker

Web MD Symptom Checker is an easy to use interactive tool, where you select specific symptoms and it identifies possible causes.

You start by selecting your gender and age, after which you can specify the symptoms in three ways in the left panel:

You can identify the symptom by zooming in on the affected body part in the interactive map of the human body on the left.
You can select from a list of 76 possible symptoms organized in an alphabetical list and a common symptoms list.
You can search for symptoms using the search box.

If applicable, you can select and add more symptoms. Once you identify the symptoms, the Symptom Checker shows you a list of possible conditions that may be the cause of them. You can check more about any possible condition right within the Symptom Checker.

For each condition, Symptom Checker provides you with an overview, a list of all symptoms associated with that condition, and related articles and videos on the WebMD website.

Mayo Clinic Symptom Checker

Use this guide to discover the most common causes of the most common symptoms. The Mayo Clinic Symptom Checker takes a different approach to isolating possible conditions than the WebMD version.

You first select between Adult and Child symptoms on the first page. For Adults, there are 28 common symptoms listed. After you choose one kind of symptom, the next page lets you select related factors depending upon the selected symptom:

Details such as persistent/intermittent, started suddenly/gradually, etc.
Whether it affects both pairs of hands/legs/etc.
Details of the pain – duration, pattern, severity, location
Trigger factors such as injury, repetitive use, stress, change in sleeping pattern, etc.
Relieving factors such as medication, rest
Accompanying symptoms associated with the selected symptom

Note that this page is specific and different for each of the 28 symptoms listed in the first page. The questions on this page are similar to what a doctor would ask you after you tell him about a symptom. So the process actually feels similar to an actual diagnosis!

After you make the appropriate selections on this page, the next one gives you possible causes of the symptoms. Here, you can see all associated factors or symptoms related to this condition.

Clicking on the condition takes you to the main page for it on the Mayo Clinic website. Here, you will find a wealth of information and resources such as description, causes, risk factors, tests and diagnosis, treatment and drugs, home and alternative remedies, prevention, etc.

For more health-related articles, check out our health category.

Did you find these tools useful? Any other online illness guide that you prefer? Tell us in the comments!

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3 Sites To Help You Identify Unknown Drugs

Guy McDowell — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:01:32 +0000

Really, I’m not sure how this topic came to mind. Perhaps it was listening to a story on talk radio about the scourge known as MDMA, also known as Ecstasy. Nasty stuff. Most of it is also filled with meth, in case you were wondering.

I guess that got me to thinking, “If I found a pill in my kid’s bedroom, how would I go about figuring out what it is?” I suppose the easiest answer is to just ask them. But easy doesn’t make for a good article. My quest began.

I found three really interesting free sites to identify prescription drugs, and one that is free…but only to medical professionals and students. Let’s take a look at them, shall we?

Drugs.com

The layout of this site is very nice. I can figure out exactly how to do what I want. I can identify unknown drugs, find out more about them and see what they might not interact with very well.

First I hit the Pill Identifier. Ha! The first line in the text reads, “Worried about those capsules you found in your teenager’s room?” Apparently I’m not the only paranoid and invasive parent out there. Let’s see what turns up.

I’m just going to give it some random information to work with and see what happens. I gave it the parameters of maroon and round. Hmmm….3 results. Docusate sodium-senna, Marinol, and Phenazopyridine hydrochloride. 2 of the 3 came with pictures which would help me to further verify what the pill is. Let’s look at Marinol.

You can go further to find out what the drug does. Aha! Check this out. “Dronabinol is a man-made form of cannabis (marijuana is an herbal form of cannabis).” I knew the little punk was up to no good. Wait ’til he gets home from school. Oh, yes, this is a hypothetical story. Sorry about that. Got a little carried away.

There are other fine features on this site to help you answer your questions about drugs. You can go through a list of drugs from A to Z, search for drugs based on the condition they treat, and of course, there is a community which you can join to interact with other people interested in how drugs interact with their health.

RxList

RxList does pretty much the same thing as Drugs.com, but in a bit different way. In addition to the ability to identify unknown drugs and identify prescription drugs based on the condition they treat, RxList also adds informational slideshows and a pharmaceutical dictionary to help you understand some of those fifty-cent words.

Lets take a look at RxList’s pill identifier and see what more trouble I can get my hypothetical teenage son into. Odd, maroon is not a listed colour. Well, let’s try red and round. Phreaky pharmacy Batman! There are 50 results ranging from over-the-counter medicines like Acetominophen to the anti-depressant Wellbutrin. Yet, Marinol isn’t listed. Hmm. Well, we can conclude that using both of these sites is going to give us a better chance of identifying that mysterious pill.

The RxList search results don’t show pictures for each pill either. That could make narrowing it down a little more difficult as well. In order to see a picture of the drug, you have to click on it’s name, then when the drug information page comes up, you need to click on another link to see the images – if there are any.

Overall, it’s still a very good resource.

PDRHealth

The real-world book, the Physicians Desk Reference (PDR), is now online. Unfortunately, the service costs a fair bit of money to access. Fortunately, it is free to access for medical professionals and students within the United States of America.

The PDR is the defacto standard for helping doctor’s and nurses find out all they need to know about almost any drug in existence. Yes, it uses a lot of medical jargon, so it may take a while to understand if you are not so inclined. Nonetheless, if you can break the code of medicalese, there is so much to be learned from this online tome.

However, Thomson Publishing has put together a bit of a layman’s site for those that want to find out more about what they are putting in their gullets everday. It isn’t quite as extensive as RxLink or Drugs.com, but, like all good research, it is another resource to help you confirm or deny what you are learning.

It is kind of nice that they breakdown medicines into three categories though: prescription, over-the-counter, and herbal medicines. Herbals aren’t specifically identified on the previous two sites.

PDRHealth does go beyond just medicines and looks at surgery and clinical trials as well. All are apart of a well-managed health care plan, in my opinion.

Hopefully, this breakdown will help you to be more involved in managing your health care and starting conversations about drugs, both good and bad, with your family. After all, it’s just like that six-inch philosopher GIJoe said, “Knowing is half the battle!”

What medical websites do you look at? Here’s ones that Jackson recommends.

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The Best Free Algebra Homework Help Websites

Ryan Dube — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:00:28 +0000

The grade level where children make the transition from math to algebra can be very easy for some students, but difficult and confusing for others. Math concepts that are centered on clearly defined numbers and with all “factors” within the problem typically defined, are usually fairly easy for most students to follow and understand.

However, algebra concepts insert “unknowns” into equations and formulas that can really throw many students for a loop. Solving an equation for a factor that appears to be on the “wrong side” of the equal sign can feel like a very strange and impossible premise for those students.

As usual, help is available on the Internet, and the following list are some of the best free algebra homework help websites that can make the process of learning algebra a whole lot easier.

MyAlgebra – A Free Algebra Problem Solver

A very simple and useful resource is the MyAlgebra online problem solver application. While this isn’t the first place a student should go for help, because it simply provides the answer to the equation, it is an excellent website for students to check their work.

Students can work through their algebra problems, and when they’ve come up with a solution that they feel is correct, they can simply enter in the equation and click “Answer.” Of course, solving for equations isn’t the only thing the application can do – there is a long list of funcions in the drop-down list to choose from.

Obviously, the most common choice will be to “solve the equation,” and the nice thing about this online application is that it converts both the problem and the solution into the same sort of format that it would appear in the textbook.

Unfortunately, “show steps” isn’t really a legitimate option, as it takes you to a website for Bagatrix, where you can purchase Algebra solving software that provides step-by-step solutions. Regardless, as an answer-checker the free online app proves very useful.

Illuminations – Cool Algebra Activities and Lessons

Nothing is quite as frustrating for many students as trying to understand abstract concepts, and learning to do so by reading drab and boring textbooks that make you want to go to sleep. Luckily, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in the U.S. understands this problem and created a website called Illuminations that brings the subject (including algebra) to life for students.

The site includes high quality activities and lessons that cover all aspects of both math and algebra. Of all available free algebra homework help websites, this is definitely the one that’s the most fun and interesting. For lessons, you select grade levels and topics (one area is devoted to just algebra), and you get access to dozens of valuable lessons that teach important algebra concepts. However, my favorite part of the site is the “activities” area that offers some really high quality and valuable online applications that graphically show algebraic principles, such as this “pan balance” app that graphically displays what happens when you change different elements of equations.

Tutorvista – Free Lessons

While Tutorvista isn’t technically a free site, because the primary aim is to get parents to sign up their children for an online tutor, the website does offer an entire algebra help section with well formatted lessons that teach students about the many elements of algebra, from foundation principles all the way to the more advanced topics.

Of course, if you do need tutoring for your child, you can actually submit an assignment and for an average fee of $5, a tutor will actually send back the answer in a fully worked-out step-by-step solution. However, before you start dishing out your cash for any paid tutoring, make sure to check out the next free Algebra homework help website that actually does offer many tutoring services for free.

Algebra.com – Math Tutors Who Just Can’t Get Enough

Of course, the best place to get some free algebra tutoring is Algebra.com, an online community of mathematicians who are obsessed with the topic. You can turn their obsession into your child’s advantage by posting problems for the tutor community to answer. The website itself offers more lessons and information than probably any other algebra help website out there.

Just the algebra section includes pre-algebra, algebra I and algebra II – and of course there’s a quick and easy “Universal Simplifier and Solver” at the top that will either simplify or solve your algebra equations. At the top of the site, there’s a “Free Tutors” menu option that’ll take you to a section where you can either sign up to be a free tutor (a public service which gives you exposure for your tutoring business), or you can submit your own algebra questions to the tutors. There are almost a thousand active tutors – and the question/answer area is a huge community of fantastic tutors who are eager to help kids with their algebra problems.

Math.com – Interactive Algebra Help

Another valuable site filled with step-by-step instructions and lessons for students to learn the most important algebra concepts is Math.com. This site covers both the basics as well as advanced concepts under categories like “The Language of Algebra”, “Equations and Inequalities” and “Graphing Equations and Inequalities.”

The lessons at Math.com take students through an easy step-by-step “wizard,” and on each step there’s often a “show me” option students can click where the application offers examples or additional information that better explains a specific topic. It’s just like having a teacher available with instant answers to the typical questions that students often ask.

Drexel University – The Math Forum

The Math Forum is a valuable public service offered by Drexel University that offers both students and teachers dozens of resources. Many of the resources are buried within internal links, but the Algebra Section alone offers classroom materials for teachers, Internet projects, public forums and even links to algebra software throughout the net.

The Math Forum is one of the largest math & algebra resources on the net, and if you can afford to donate it would be a valuable and worthy cause to contribute. Mathematics, and algebra in particular are critical skills for students to learn early on that can tremendously simplify their lives later on. Any free algebra homework help websites that exist on the Internet are very positive resources that should be promoted and applauded by everyone.

Do you know of any additional algebra resources for teachers, parents or students on the Internet? Share them in the comments section below.

Image credit: aussiegall

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Best Online Resources For New and Experienced Dog Owners

Brad Owens — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:00:08 +0000

I’ve recently had the pleasure of bringing home my first dog, a seven week old Golden Retriever named Bruce Wayne who I call B-Dubs for short. My girlfriend and I took 6 months doing our research on breeders, making sure we picked out the right one, visiting various people, asking questions and bordering on annoying to make sure we got the perfect pup.

The day finally came where we got to take home our new baby. We loaded the car with B-Dubs and his blanket ready to make our drive back home, then it hit us. Uh oh… WHAT NOW?!

I’m sure I’m not alone in this panicked, first-time puppy parent feeling. So, I’ve put together my own personal choices of the best online resources for dog owners to help you avoid this same feeling I had.

American Kennel Club (AKC)

From picking out the right type of dog breed for your family, to training your new addition, the American Kennel Club website is full of valuable information. Their organization is most well known for their registration process for purebred dogs but the website is devoted to so much more than that.

The section I like best about this site is their extensive info on every breed imaginable. Select a breed you’re curious about and you’re presented with a brief history of why the breed came to be how it is and a short excerpt to decide if this is the breed of dog for you. I see many people who get their dog then say months later that “If I had know this dog would be like this, I would have never gotten it’

Don’t fall into this category. Do your research. Find the perfect dog for you and/or your family.

Dog Owner’s Guide – CanisMajor.com

The online dog owner’s guide is just that, a guide, from start to end, on owning a dog. Here, you’ll find the best collection of articles online that will make sure you’re informed through every stage of your puppy’s life.

My favorite section, that ultimately saved me from panicking once I got my pup home, is titled “He’s here! Now what?“. My thoughts exactly. This section helped me know what to expect when my new guy entered my home from the first minutes of exploration, to first potty time and first training.

I can tell this is a critical resource that I will be coming back to as B-Dubs starts to grow and mature.

PetMD

It is inevitable as a first time puppy parent that the first time the dog starts to throw up, you’re going to flip out. I did. I immediately thought “Oh no! My dog has Parvo!”

I started rushing around trying to find numbers for my vet, calling the breeder and asking my friends if their dogs had ever done this. Looking back, it was just an upset stomach but I didn’t know the difference.

Enter PetMD. Had I known about this site beforehand, I could have simply typed his symptoms into their large database of everything related to your pet’s health. I was presented with a large list of issues that my dog could have, all of which had way worse symptoms than my dog currently had.

I realized very quickly that I was overreacting and now I know where to go if I have any questions related to its health.

Eukanuba Puppy World

I am a very visual learner. There are only a few things that I can pick up from reading article after article about puppy training and becoming a puppy parent. That’s why I love Eukanuba’s web site.

They present you with the standard articles for picking out your puppy, preparing your home for your new addition and other important information but where they shine is in their EukTV Puppy Training Videos.

I was able to sit back and watch a video on what I’m supposed to do with my puppy which my fellow visual learners will appreciate. They also make a handy reference to go back to because there’s no way you will remember this info the first time through.

A few other places to check out videos like this would be YouTube and ExpertVillage. When I searched ExpertVillage for dog training, I was presented with over 8,000 videos.

Purina Complete Puppy Care

After I brought B-Dubs home, I found out very quickly that my free time has been quickly depleted. All of the extra duties of owning a dog, although fun, are time consuming. Going out to each of these sites and searching for articles and then taking the time to read them may just be more time than you find yourself with after having a puppy.

Purina has recognized this and created their Complete Puppy Care Program. Entering this program is as simple as entering in your email and some simple info about your new puppy.

They take the guess work out of finding the right information by sending you an email each month with links to helpful videos and articles that are specific to your puppies age. You will also get access to their entire library of videos to help address most questions you’d have about your puppy.

They also provide a handy iPhone application to take with you on the road in case you aren’t around your computer, like say, out at a dog park. (maybe meeting up with your friends you met on ZooToo)

I don’t know where I’d be without these five resources. I have already ran to them multiple times each to answer all of my first time puppy parenting questions because trust me, there are a ton! Good luck with your new addition! Don’t have a new addition? You can still see plenty of cute animals on the net at any of these six sites Simon mentioned.

Have you found a great resource for dog owners? Let us know about it in the comments.

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How To Make Your Own Books From Wikipedia

Saikat Basu — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 21:01:24 +0000

The Wikimedia Foundation home page says – Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.

With nearly 3 million articles in the English version alone Wikipedia along with its sister wikis is an Alibaba’s treasure trove of information. Now, Wikipedia gives us a chance to take this information and use it as one of the oldest forms we have known – the humble book.

It is just the Wikimedia Foundation’s attempt to make ‘human knowledge’ accessible to everyone…online and now also offline. It started off with the German Wikipedia last year and now since February 26th it has moved onto the English version too.

To capsulize the process, users can collate the article pages of their choice and create a book from this existing material through a simple link available in Wikipedia. The compilation of articles can be arranged into chapters, given a title and finally exported as a PDF or as an Open Document and even sent to be professionally printed (at a cost).

One essential caveat is that a user has to create an account and log-on to access the book features.

The Wikipedia Help page goes through a step by step process of the nitty gritty…but I will give it a spin here too.

Logging In / Create Account

On the extreme top-right of a Wikipedia page is the link to Log-in or Create Account. Creating a new account is a simple process of giving a user name and a password. No email verification is required.

The Create A Book Menu

Search, browse and navigate to the Wikipedia article of your choice. On the left hand side, near the bottom is the create a book menu. It includes two items – Add wiki page and Books help.

Start adding the pages to your book by clicking the Add wiki page link on the relevant Wikipedia pages you want to include. The number of pages in the book gets automatically updated in the menu on the left. Two additional menu items – Show book (with a page counter) and Clear book appear in the menu.

You can also add an entire category within which the relevant page falls with just a single click. You can find the category hierarchy at the end of the article page.

Add The Title Of Your Book

With all pages added, click the Show book button to review your book. Here it is possible to add a book title (and a subtitle) and change the ordering of the wiki pages of the book through drag and drop. Unwanted pages can be dumped by a simple click of the ‘dustbin’ icon. New chapters can be included using the Create chapter link.

Many advanced functions like adding a particular revision or saving a book and improving the layout can be achieved through a combination of advanced functions. The Help page details those steps.

Download Or Order A Printed Copy

Voila! You have just ‘written’ your first book with the help of Wikipedia. Now, the finished book can be downloaded in PDF or OpenDocument format or ordered as a bound book. To download in the format of your choice, select the format from the dropdown and click the Download button. To order the book as a bound book, click the Order book from PediaPress button.

Wikipedia’s built-in rendering engine assembles the pages, grabs the images and parses them before they are passed on to the user in the final downloadable format. In its final avatar, my seven page Wikipedia selection transformed into a 4.4MB file downloaded as a 64 page PDF book. The end result was good…with neat alignments of photos and text.

If you take the PediaPress option, be prepared to dole out a few dollars as the starting price is US$ 8.90. Of course, the typesetting and publishing is of better quality and it comes bound too. A sample of a finished book can be seen on their site here.

Not many of us would even begin to create a home grown version of shelf lined Encyclopedia Wikipedia. But for smaller data needs, this feature comes as a welcome addition. Instead of individually downloading article pages as PDF’s we can now systematically arrange it into a PDF book for offline perusal.

Have you taken to this feature yet? Give us a glimpse into your thoughts in the comments section.

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Juice – An Excellent Quick Reference Sidebar for Firefox

Stefan Neagu — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 21:01:30 +0000

Juice is a lightweight addon for Firefox which brings you a wealth of relevant info for anything you need with a single click. Simply highlight the word and drag it to the side and Juice will quickly get for you the related Wikipedia entry, videos, pics and lots of other relevant information – all neatly organized in the sidebar.

This sidebar makes research a breeze. Juice is currently in open-beta and available for free from Linkool Labs.

Juice has proven to be very useful, and has saved me extra open tabs and a lot of time. The Juice algorithm gathers information from multiple sources and aggregates it in a very simple, easy to use interface. For instance, you can just drag and drop “Google” (or any other company’s name) from an article to read the company description on CrunchBase, the latest stock quotations, news articles from major media outlets as well as blogs, images and video.

Plus the amazing thing about this addon is its speed and accuracy. It takes a second at the most for all this information to display – and it is contextually sensitive – which means a search for something like “apple” won’t relay you news about fruits if you’re visiting a tech-related website.

The Juice website explains the ‘magic’ feature:

This engine, comprised of a natural language processing system and a dictionary management system, helps to evolve the semantic web by connecting keywords with the most relevant, rich content from third-party web services.

It’s engine fails gracefully when it can’t find information using its algorithm – to an improved Google search - with tabs for Images, News, Videos and Blogs. There are no obtrusive ads – a big plus when it comes to these personalized searches.

Here’s Juice’s demo video from YouTube :

When it comes to beta applications, especially these days, with tight release schedules and even more demanding investors, you come to expect crashes and hangs. Not with Juice which took 2,3MB extra memory and didn’t cause any problems at all. The download itself is small, the download bar stopping at about 500KB.

It’s my job to test different things and write about them, but I don’t often continue using the product regularly. Like John C. Dvorak said: “99% of everything is crap”. Juice definitely deserves its space on my computer.

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The Best Reference Sites For Medical Students

Jackson Chung — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 17:01:44 +0000

When I’m not writing Mac articles for MakeUseOf, I’m a full-time medical student and I have to say that life as a medical student is insufferably horrible. We commute to hospitals to attend tutorials; and in our spare time, we study. It’s not because we’re extremely hardworking, I wish I was – no, it’s rather because Medicine is a life-long learning process. Even after we graduate, we still have to hit the books.

Besides being a persevering medical student, I’m also addicted to the Web. And so, whenever I can get myself away from my books, I’ll be online to find more sources of study material. Here are some of the better sites for medical students I’ve managed to come up with so far:

MedicalStudent

You will find a huge repository of free online medical textbooks along with links to other helpful and informative websites regarding Continuing Medical Eduction (CME) & Board Exams, free medical journals, programs for handheld computers (Palm, Windows), professional medical organizations/societies and patient simulations. This is the “all-in-one” site for every medical student.

MedicalMatrix

Similar to MedicalStudent, this medical site is a source of links to all free (and paid) online textbooks, medical journals, CME and lots more. MedicalMatrix is more thorough and offers specific links based on specialty i.e. clicking on Gastroenterology will return links to textbooks, journals, news, practice guidelines, cases, image repositories, CME, forums and patient education regarding Gastroenterology only.

FreeBookCentre – Medical Books

This site doesn’t only provide free e-books for Medicine, it also includes books for Computer Sciences, Web Technology, Languages and Networking among many others. Their medical database is divided by specialty and comprises of textbooks, handbooks, guidelines, manuals, and journals.

Student Book World

Student Book World is actually a project which aims to catalogue and compare the prices of every book available, in order to allow their readers to find the books at the cheapest prices online. Fortunately, they also have a sizable collection of free e-books related to Medicine.

NCBI Bookshelf

The National Center for Biotechnology Information was established as a resource for molecular biology information, so this is a great source for Biomedical books related to topics like Viral Molecular Biology, Bacterial Nomenclature and Biochemistry. However, their library is slowly expanding to include books about General Medicine and Surgery such as Immunobiology, Human Molecular Genetics, Neuroscience, Parkinson’s Disease and many others. The NCBI also provides a few books in handheld (MobiPocket) format.

The Merck Manuals

The Merck Manuals for Healthcare Professionals is completely available online for free. The Manuals are basically a series of healthcare books for doctors on Diagnosis and Therapy based on disorders. There is also a version targeted at consumers for home medical reference.

eMedicine

eMedicine is undoubtedly one of the most concise, free medical references available online. Its website has been upgraded recently to feature printer-friendly pages and quicker navigation. All of their articles cover every aspect of both Internal Medicine and Surgery and are extensively peer-reviewed before publication.

The New England Journal of Medicine

The NEJM is a collection of every one of their publications since 1996 and covers almost every known disorder.

RCGP Medical Abbreviations

The Royal College of General Practitioners published an online listing of some of the main standardized abbreviations that may be used when writing patient medical records. These abbreviations come in very handy because most doctors will use them when speaking.

Online Medical Dictionaries

The two most popular medical dictionaries which are Dorlands and Stedmans can be found and referred to online so that you won’t have to clumsily flip through those pages or worse, carry them with you wherever you go.

Medical Mnemonics

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, Medicine is extremely taxing and difficult to study. There are hundreds of classifications to memorize and terms to familiarize ourselves with. Mnemonics make it just a little bit easier to remember these little details. MedicalMnemonics is a database just for this. It has online, printable and handheld versions (Palm only) of the database ready at your disposal.

Medical students, I hope you find this listing helpful in your studies. It certainly has helped me along the way. I don’t think I could have survived without eMedicine and a printout of MedicalMnemonics by my side.

If there are any more medical sites for students out there that you know about, please share it with all of us in the comments!

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Flock – The Ultimate Student Browser

Laurence John — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 21:01:37 +0000

I’m using Flock as my main browser. However for most of you, Firefox will be your choice. The reason I would recommend using Flock over Firefox to create the ultimate student research browser is the number of built in functionalities which really is quite useful for a student.

By using Flock you get stacks of features built right into the browser while retaining speed, performance and security which could potentially be compromised when installing so many extensions in Firefox. So jump in for my Flock review.

Cross-Platform

Like Firefox, Flock is compatible across all three major platforms, Mac, Windows and Linux, which is great considering the number of students who use other platforms instead of Windows.

Social Networking

I’m going to assume just about every student is on either Facebook, MySpace or both, so the inclusion of them into the browser certainly makes life easier.

As well as these two, there are 20 other supported services which you can see these in the image below:

One glaring omission is Windows Live which has around 300 million users worldwide compared to Gmail’s 20 – 30 million. Considering the huge Windows Live update happening right now I would assume the Flock team is working on including all of this new functionality.

Blogging

Plenty of students have blogs and Flock is perhaps the best browser for making blogging easier – it includes a decent blogging editor and support for several blogging services such as Blogger, Wordpress.com, Blogsome, Xanga and LiveJournal as well as self-hosted Wordpress blogs.

Research

Now most students are required to do a fair amount of research and study and Flock is the perfect browser to do this.

Flock has a built in feature called the Web Clipboard which really is Flock’s most understated tool. This clipboard takes the form of a sidebar onto which you can drag just about anything, links, text and images for later.

What’s so great about it is that unlike favourites which require sorting and organizing, using the Clipboard just requires the dumping of a whole stack of information while you research a topic.

There is one additional extension which I would recommend most of all and that is Zotero, the research extension for Firefox. All Firefox extensions usually work fine in Flock so you’ll have no problems there.

Zotero is fantastic for collecting a huge stack of online resources together for more careful reading and analysis later. I barely scrape the surface of its functionality in my own usage, but basically you can save webpages quickly for later (offline if you need it) reading. You can tag keywords, take notes and use various other ways of organization.

Also coming soon is Zotero sync for transferring notes between computers, a great addition to the tool.

Search Easier

Tell me, just how often do you Google something just to go straight to the Wikipedia entry? This extension modifies the Google search page so the most relevant Wikipedia result is shown along with search results.

WorldCat is a web service which can be used to locate books and journals in the nearest library to you. Add it to your browser from here.

Flock also includes instant results searching for many search engines like Yahoo, Google and Technorati. As you type in your search query the results are brought up instantly below the search box. I find it one of Flock’s handiest features.

This is what I use as my student browser, do any of you know of any other great research extensions?

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Codeflux’s Fast and Easy Internet Diagnostic Tools

Jorge Sierra — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 21:01:38 +0000

Many webmasters, network administrators, hackers, and other geek types use diagnostic tools to perform certain tasks. They often use a command line to run programs such as ping, traceroute, nslookup, whois, etc. Codeflux has an Internet tools gateway that allows you to run such programs from the convenience of your web browser.

The following tools are available on codeflux’s Internet tools gateway:

finger – displays information about the system users
nslookup – query Internet domain name servers
whois – looks up records in the Network Information Center (NIC) database
ssl – extract SSL (secure socket layer) information from a secure host
traceroute – print the route packets take to network host
ping – send query packets to network hosts
dig – domain information groper – used to gather information from the DNS server

In addition to the Internet tools gateway, codeflux provides some other great tools online as well:

document validation

tidy – prettify web page code for your web pages with HTML Tidy

apachebench – measure web server performance with ApacheBench

unix man pages – UNIX manual pages online with keyword search as well.

foldoc/jargon – look up technology terminology from two sources: FOLDOC (the Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing) and the Jargon File (AKA the New Hacker’s Dictionary)

encoder – encode text from any of these formats into another: text, binary, octal, decimal, hexadecimal, and web-style.

and more such as atomic time, universal unit converter and resistor reference.

You may find it faster and more convenient to use codeflux when you already have a browser window open. You will definitely find it easier to use codeflux if you don’t regularly use a command line. All of the tools use very simple interfaces. The web design is also relatively simplistic which results in very fast load times.

Let us know in the comments what you think.

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6 Apps That Will Turn Your iPhone into the Ultimate Reference Book

Jimmy Rogers — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:01:45 +0000

iPhone users have quickly learned that one of the perks of constant internet access is “perfect” reference capability. Searching around on the browser is one way to do it, but you run into unnecessary stuff like ads and intermediary pages.

Specific iPhone Apps are the way to go when you want a quick reference with limited load time. Check out these 6 Apps and give your iPhone a serious academic upgrade without spending a dime.

Know Your Rights

Declaration [iTunes Link] – If you’re a US citizen, one of the most stirring legal documents out there is the Declaration of Independence. It doesn’t state our literal rights so far as it states the guiding principles behind the founding of our country. If you’re ever in need of these sacred words (or simply need to memorize them for an English assignment, the Declaration App is here to help.

You can view the original image (or clearer engraved image) of the famous document or get a direct transcript of every component, along with the signers and their positions in the colonial government. As an added bonus, there are “liner notes” that will guide you through the key steps in the Declaration’s history. An excellent App for any patriot.

Constitution [iTunes Link] – A quick study will guess that this App is similar to the first one. Where the Declaration App was fairly easy to construct, there is a great deal more detail in the Constitution App. It lacks the original images (simply because there are many more pages), but includes every section of the fundamental laws of our country, Preamble all the way through Amendment XXVII. The notes to each section are annotated directly at points in the text and explain the finer points of the Constitution. Furthermore, both Apps can be rotated horizontally for easier reading.

Engage Your Language

Dictionaire [iTunes Link] – This is a very simple App for defining words. Type in a word, and Dictionaire will search the preloaded database as you type. While that seems to be the App’s only feature, it has a hidden talent. If you misspell a word or put in a word that has a lot of homonyms (words that sound the same), you will get suggestions with the “sound” icon next to them. If you can phonetically spell a word, you can generally fake your way not only to the correct spelling, but also its complete definition. Pretty handy when you’re typing up that article late at night (not that anyone ever does that).

Wikiamo [iTunes Link] – When you need data, not a simple definition, a better resource is Wikipedia. Wikiamo is a pretty nifty App that lets you rapidly search Wikipedia articles in a format friendly to your mobile device. One thing I like about Wikiamo is how it creates a history for you and even caches pages you have visited for offline reading. Also, there are some simple preference options in there too.

Wikipanion [iTunes Link] – We actually covered Wikipanion back in September, but I figured it was perfect for this list. Also, the user interface has got a refresh, so it’s worth another look.

Know Thyself

WebMD Mobile [iTunes Link] – No matter how bookish you are, you still don’t have anything if you don’t have your health. For that reason, we’re wrapping up this list with WebMD’s custom iPhone App. This thing has EVERYTHING. You can enter specific queries about symptoms by pointing to places on a human model. You can learn about medications (their effects, side-effects). You can even pick up some valuable first aid (located conveniently as its own sub-section for quick access). While the other Apps are replacing some lengthy, but ultimately navigatable books, WebMD condenses tens of thousands of medical knowledge terms into a convenient package on your iPhone. Unfortunately, holding the title of WebMD doesn’t mean you can put a “Dr.” in front of your name. Sorry!

Did we miss any good iPhone reference apps? If so, leave a note in the comments!

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4 Free Tools to Download and Take Wikipedia Offline

Saikat Basu — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 20:01:10 +0000

Wikipedia, for most of us, needs no introduction. We use it perhaps almost as frequently as we use Google for our information needs. All of us might then wonder about the need to download and use a free information resource which is available only a click away online.

But imagine that you are marooned on an island with just your rusty laptop….OK, strike out the ‘Gilligan’s Island’ scenario and look at a more realistic setting of being away from a net connection. Get the picture? Here’s where some of the offline tools for Wikipedia browsing come in handy.

The Wikimedia Foundation has set up an offline Wikipedia version themselves understanding this need. The English version with a collection of about 2000 pages can be had in the form of a CD (an ISO file). But it comes at a cost of $13.99.

The penny pinchers among us have to put in a bit more effort and megabytes. But despair not. Here are four free tools for taking the Wikipedia knowledge off the net and into an anytime, anywhere experience.

I. WikiTaxi (OS: Windows)

All downloaded pages are stored in a WikiTaxi database. WikiTaxi uses compression to make sure that the database remains compact enough. For instance, the huge English Wikipedia easily fits on an 8 GB memory stick. WikiTaxi itself does not require an installation as it runs from an executable. The process to download the information is a bit long drawn out as you have to essentially download a XML database dump from the Wikipedia site containing the wiki content (The largest English Wiki is 3.5 GB).

An included WinTaxi importer contains this database into a WinTaxi database for you to browse offline. The database dumps are updated every few weeks. So you need to go online to get the most recent version of the information.

II. Zipedia (OS:Windows)

Zipedia is a Mozilla Add-on for Firefox enabling offline browsing. The Zipedia page describes it as the ‘poor man’s choice’. But when we don’t have access to the real thing, then it’s a worthy choice isn’t it? You will still need to download the Wikipedia database dump. Zipedia does not need any external database as this is done by the browser itself. The add-on works with Firefox v2.0-3.0+. To access the offline resource you need to just type in – wikipedia://wiki/

III. Wikislice (OS: Windows)

Wikislice is an application that allows the user to collate Wikipedia entries based on a particular topic or subtopic. Wikislice as the name suggests gives you a ’slice’ of the information in a downloadable format for easy reading offline. Wikislice comes as a web based tool as well as a desktop interface. To use Wikislice, just type the topic of your interest in the search bar provided and Wikislice will display all the applicable information for you to browse or download.

Here’s how it works -

Type in your topic and click ‘Go’.
You get the information and related subtopics (for more narrow searches).
The Top 50 topics are displayed over 5 pages.
Download the Wikislice (part of Wikipedia) offline if the number of pages is less than 2000.
The downloaded pages can be used with the Webaroo software. The app will check if you have the software installed on first use. In case you don’t, it will prompt you for the download.

Here’s a simple slideshow from the main site.

IV. Pocket Wikipedia (OS:Windows/ Linux and PocketPC)

Pocket Wikipedia is a carefully compiled handpicked selection of Wikipedia information and comprises of nearly 24,000 images and 14 million words. That’s a stack of fifteen volume encyclopedias (Encyclopedia Britannica has 40 million words and 24,000 images!). All within a 180MB free download in a single zip archive. This software differs from the others in one aspect – you get pictures within the text as in the original version. But remember that it does not contain the entire gamut of Wikipedia; just the more important ones for ready reference.

(Bonus V) How To Get Wikipedia on Your iPod

If you have an iPod and couple of GBs of spare space you can also install Wikipedia right onto it. For more details check out Mark’s excellent guide on How To Install Wikipedia on Your iPod.

Have you used any of these four software apps? If so, which do you prefer? Do you have another that you prefer instead? Or do you prefer accessing Wikipedia via the web?

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MakeUseOf Your iPhone: Wikipanion (Wikipedia App)

Jimmy Rogers — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:01:27 +0000

One of my least favorite kinds of iPhone App is the “web clone.” Typically these are little more than a mobile version of a web page kept within the skin of a downloadable App. The premise of a web clone is that encapsulating the website in the App will make it more convenient to the user. In reality, most of them exist because the owner of the web service (whether it be a site, a bank, or a social network) is too lazy to code up a “real” App but wants to benefit from the publicity of the App Store. On the other hand, there are a few exceptions to the rule. This week’s App appears to be a web clone of Wikipedia, but as it turns out, the developers did a great job and found new ways to navigate the site.

Wikipanion (iTunes Link) is an impressive App for browsing Wikipedia. To illustrate its many features, let’s pretend we need to look up what a “blog” is. First, the search function:

It’s a fairly unsurprising search bar, but I was impressed with the suggestions that popped up as I typed. The auto-populated results are so good that you’ll usually get out of typing your whole query. After selecting a search topic you’ll get an article pane:

One of the things that’s nice about the article pane is that as long as you stay within the Wikipedia domain, you won’t leave the App (and consequently have to juggle Safari as well). Instead, internal links stay in the pane you’re viewing. If you want multiple articles open, you’ll probably need to switch to Safari, but for general reference it’s quite sufficient.

Also, notice that the App supports horizontal viewing. This is kind of a no-brainer, but many Apps leave it out.

The buttons along the bottom are very handy in Wikipanion. They appear to be the same ones found in Safari, but their functions are quite different. The “bookmark” button actually opens up the table of contents. Longer articles (like this one on blogs) have significantly lengthy subsections and manually scrolling to the one you want can be a chore. I suggest definitely looking at the table of contents [seen below to the left] whenever you get to a new article.

External links have been grouped together in a similar way. Clicking the “send to” button (usually used to copy a link to email) will open up the external links [seen above at the right] that are normally found at the bottom of a Wikipedia article.

I’m guessing that the developer used these icons because they are already part of the iPhone SDK. They’re logical enough, but I fear someone who didn’t have the benefit of a wonderful article like this one (I joke) might not discover them immediately. Hopefully the next version of Wikipanion will use icons distinct from those of Safari.

Wikipanion really gives the entire experience of using Wikipedia on a mobile platform. Right now there is no editing function, but I think most users will find this acceptable. Editing a wiki page with all of the necessary syntax should really be done carefully. A tiny keyboard where mistakes are easily made might be the wrong environment for a Wikipedia contributor. Feel free to debate this in the comments.

Despite the fact that this is, in some sense, a “walled garden” because you can’t do more than view anything, this is a solid App and it’ll be sitting on my Home screen for quite a while to come.

[rating=4]

As always, let us know what YOU think. There must be other Wikipedia Apps out there. Any you like better? What do you use to get your reference fix on the iPhone?

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4 Search Engines to Search Wikipedia The Pro Way

Will Mueller — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:53:57 +0000

Wikipedia is definitely one of the world’s most valuable resources. It is used by millions around the world and is a great educational resource for nearly anything. Many sites have been launched due to Wikipedia, and some of them even assist in helping you get a better experience with Wikipedia.

With over 2,461,000+ English articles as I write this, it would be tough finding the most accurate information and find what you are looking for all the time. I thus have found some of the best and most accurate Wikipedia search engines to help you get the most accurate information whenever you need it.

Here are just some of them (in no particular order):

Powerset

Powerset is a neat Web 2.0-looking Wikipedia search engine. Not only does Powerset search for Wikipedia articles, it also searches for “Factz,” or collections of facts across Wikipedia through your query, which are further integrated into all Wikipedia pages. You may even enter a question, which is accurately searched throughout databases around the web and on different websites to find the answer to your question, as well as related information and related media. Each article that you search for is integrated into Powerset, thus many of the awesome features, as well as continually added others, are able to be accessed through each article. You may see the demo video here.

Similpedia

Similipedia is one of the best Wikipedia search engines available. Not only is it extremely accurate and effective, it has a completely different approach to search. Instead of typing in a query, e.g. computers, you are asked to copy and paste a URL or a paragraph containing at least 100 words. Just press “enter” and let it go to work.

I decided to try copying and pasting the first two paragraphs of Tina’s article on Adobe Reader. The result were articles on Wikipedia ranging from Adobe Acrobat, PDF, to a comparison of e-book formats – all of which were relevant. Similpedia just added a new widget to their website that allows you to add code to your website and Similpedia will automatically add relevant Wikipedia articles. They have other widgets that include: a Firefox add-on, bookmarklet, contextual RSS as well as a Wordpress widget for similar content. I highly recommend trying them all out.

Wapedia

Wapedia is an interesting mobile Wikipedia search engine. It allows users to search for any article on one of the world’s largest encyclopedias through their cell phone. You are allowed to type in a keyword that of course is your search query, with two further options. You may “Go,” or click “Search.” The “Go” option automatically redirects you to the article it believes you are looking for, while the “Search” option searches for all the articles related to the keyword you provided, all of which are saved in the Wapedia website so that it does not redirect you to Wikipedia with a messed up mobile view.

Another cool option of Wapedia is the integrated news. The newest news is automatically configured for mobile phones and you are allowed to find it all right there in Wapedia. Other options include the ability to search for images on Wikipedia as well as other types of search. To make Wapedia even greater, they give you preferences for your mobile phone that include: picture sizes, external link options, page length, etc.

Wikia

Wikia has been previously talked about by Mark here, but since then it seems they have added a few more features. Wikia is somewhat of a Wikipedia search engine mixed with a new approach to search. It integrates users into the search results, yet more of that can be seen in Mark’s article. It seems though that Wikia searches for Wikipedia articles first when searching – a likely feature as the creator of Wikia was one of the first people to work on Wikipedia. Anyway, Wikia now as well has an actual wiki built in that allows you to browse in a similar manner to Wikipedia. I highly recommend trying this out as well.

What do you use? Do you just use the normal Wikipedia search engine or do you have another search engine to find what you’re looking for on Wikipedia? Tell us in the comments!

(By) Will is a computer nerd and geek that is raising money for developing a better internet and runs one of his blogs at FirefoxGeeks.

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KallOut Adds “Search on…” Option to Highlighted Text in Windows

Blake Elias — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:03:26 +0000

KallOut is a very simple, yet very functional, Windows program. For highlighted text in many programs (including Firefox, Adobe Acrobat, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office and Notepad) it puts a small icon next to the highlighted words, which looks like this . When you hover your mouse over that icon, it gives you a menu to look up the selected text in many popular services like Google, YouTube, Wikipedia, eBay and many more.

Also with the BestGuess™ feature, KallOut even analyzes the content you’ve selected and suggests the most relevant places to search for that phrase.

So, if you’ve selected an address, it will suggest Google Maps, Google Street View, and Microsoft Visual Earth. If you selected the name of a famous person, it will suggest their Wikipedia entry. This way, you don’t have to browse through the whole menu of services to find the one you want.

Once you select which site to look up your phrase on, it opens up a floating information palette with your results adjacent to the original content, as shown below.

This floating window stays on top of the original window so you can continue working on your original task while referring to the results that KallOut returned. You can close the pop-up with the X button in the upper right corner, expand the results to a full browser window with the button to the left of the X, and minimize it to the top of the screen with the [-] button (by moving your mouse to the top of the screen, you can access all the KallOut searches you’ve done, or start a new one by clicking the blue KallOut button).

Here is a video demo showing KallOut in action:

To download the Kallout installer (only for Windows XP/Vista) go here.

Do you use KallOut? Tell us what you think of it in the comments.

(By) Blake Elias is a computer addict, constantly learning about new technologies and figuring out ways to do things better. He writes about his thoughts and activities on Linux, Google, useful apps, web development and computers in general on his personal blog, The New Geek. Contact him at blake[at]makeuseof.com

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Whadja say? Online Word Pronunciation Guides

Jason Mayoff — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 02:01:57 +0000

When you talk for a living, it’s usually a good idea to know the proper pronunciation of the words you’re using. As a radio newscaster, I come across the occasional word that baffles me, either because I’ve never seen it before, or because I’ve seen it written, but have never heard it pronounced.

Case in point, recently a Canadian tourist fell off a building and died in the resort city of Cebu, Philippines. I’d never heard of Cebu before. Often a quick Google search for something like “pronounce Cebu” will provide a link or two with a written pronunciation guide, but there’s nothing like actually hearing someone who knows, pronounce the word.

I’m going to take a look at two websites, that let you do just that: HowJSay and Forvo.

Howjsay – English Pronuncing Dictionary

I came across HowJSay a few months ago, and have used it a few times, notably to get the proper pronunciation for Barack Obama (BA-rick or ba-RACK?) Turns out I had been pronouncing it wrong and quickly changed my ways.

HowJSay is a one-way pronunciation tool. You ask it to pronounce something for you and its voice guy pronounces it. His accent isn’t for everybody, but he is very clear and easy to understand. There do not appear to be different pronunciations for, say, American English and British English.

Advantages

Presumed higher rate of accurate pronunciations
Consistent sound quality
Large number of words in the dictionary (97 000+)
Easy to use
Integration with many Windows and Mac programs (Word, Excel etc.)
Toolbars for IE7 and Firefox

Disadvantages

No word request mechanism
Pronunciation for only one region
Only contains English pronunciations

Now let’s look at Forvo

Forvo – Social Pronunciation Guide

Forvo, while also a pronunciation site is quite different. Forvo is more of a Wikipedia for pronunciation. HowJSay has many more words in its dictionary, tens of thousands more, but Forvo has the advantage of being a social site. Anyone can request a word be pronounced and anyone can go ahead and pronounce it. Registered users of the site can then go ahead and vote on the best pronunciations for each word.

When you do a Forvo search and then click onto a word page, all the pronunciations are displayed, but there is only one “standard pronunciation,” the one with the most votes. You can vote down a pronunciation if you think it’s wrong, the sound quality is bad or the pronouncer is not a native English speaker (they ask that you only pronounce words in your native tongue, but that doesn’t seem to stop people.)

The downside, of course, is that for a word that’s new to the dictionary, you won’t be able to tell by votes, whether the pronunciation is accurate. With HowJSay, you kind of assume they did a little research and that the voice guy got it right. Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages of each:

Advantages

Anyone can request a word be pronounced
People with different accents can record a pronunciation (greater diversity)
Contains many languages
Voting mechanism
Tagging. Can search or browse by tag.
Interestingness. Browsable categories. Listen to how other people say things. Contribute
Easy web-based recording. All you need is a microphone.

Disadvantages

Inconsistent sound quality
Accuracy of some words (particularly ones new to the dictionary or with few votes) in doubt
Small number of words in the dictionary (<7000 at time of writing)
Potential for abuse

Both sites are valuable and I will keep using the two of them when needed, but, if Forvo starts to gain in popularity, it will only become more reliable, and therefore more useful, than HowJSay.

(By) Jason Mayoff is a radio newscaster and tech geek. If you’re ever in Montreal, Canada you can catch him on CJAD 800. You can also find Jason at pleasantnights.com, where he talks about keeping an organized and clutter-free home.

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8 Reference Sources that are NOT Wikipedia

Mark O'Neill — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 22:16:07 +0000

As Wikipedia grows more and more in momentum, people will start to use Wikipedia as their one and only source of information (of which I am becoming increasingly guilty of). But the internet doesn’t begin and end with Wikipedia.

Here’s some other reference websites worth a look, sites you can make use of.

1. Dictionary.com – One of my favourites. Also includes Thesaurus.com and Reference.com. Has email subscription services and RSS feeds.

2. About.com – This site has become much more commercialized over the years with more and more advertising. But nevertheless, you can find a wealth of information on numerous subjects, with more subjects being added all the time.

3. How Stuff Works – Have you ever wondered how something works or why something happens the way it does? How Stuff Works will explain. Numerous categories and easy-to-understand information.

4. The Straight Dope – Ask your meaningful questions to Cecil and he might just answer them. Cecil has a huge database and he answers some extremely interesting questions such as “Who has the power to arrest the president?” and “can I declare a no-fly zone over my house?”

5. Dict.cc – Being in Germany and learning the German language, I love this website. It is a Wikipedia style English-German dictionary where people can edit the definitions if they don’t agree with them. Cue lots of online linguistic arguments! I really like Dict.cc because you find lots of obscure terms and slang that you wouldn’t normally find in a regular dictionary.

6. The New York Public Library – The New York Public Library has built an online picture collection of 30,000 digitised images from books, magazines and newspapers as well as original photographs, prints and postcards. An absolutely amazing collection.

There are also a couple of previously published MakeUseOf posts that you may want to have a look at

Mark O’Neill is a freelance writer, proofreader, editor and blogger. Check out his blog at BetterThanTherapy.net

Posted by makeuseof writer Mark O’Neill

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5 smoking-hot US Government Websites Worth Looking At

Mark O'Neill — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 23:20:16 +0000

OK, you can quit yawning. As soon as you heard the phrase “US Government websites”, you probably thought I was going to take you on a riveting ride through the complexities of the Internal Revenue Service. Au contraire, mon ami. Perhaps you didn’t realise until now that there are actually some really smoking hot websites built and maintained by the US Federal Government with your tax dollars.

1. Federal Bureau of Investigation

Being a true-crime fan, the FBI website is a regular stop for me. Not only does the FBI use their site as a recruitment tool but they also discuss closed cases and they take you “behind the scenes” so to speak to let you see how the Feds cracked the case. Here is a good example.

You can also learn about the various FBI departments, the history of the FBI, and of course view the famous Most Wanted Lists.

But what really makes the FBI website stand out is how much you can download. Scattered throughout the site are PDF downloads of cases, forensic science subjects and much more. All now we need is a FBI badge generator and an alien costume and we can play Mulder and Scully!

2. Central Intelligence Agency

At first glance, you might think there isn’t much to the CIA website but there are some interesting sections.

For example, take a virtual tour through CIA Headquarters, view an encrypted monument at Langley to see if you can break the code, go on a virtual tour around the CIA Museum, but the best feature of all is the annually updated CIA World Factbook. Never be bad at geography ever again. You can even download a copy of the Factbook free of charge.

But if you’re looking for files on who killed JFK, you’ll be disappointed.

3. Library of Congress

One of the most famous libraries in the world and now it’s online. Browse through documents and collections. “American Memory” provides access to documents, maps, audio, video and photos. Search through past and current legislation making its way through Congress. Oh and if you’re planning a personal visit to the LOC, check out what they are currently exhibiting.

4. National Archives

For those with an interest in history, this site is a must-go-to. The amount of information available here to view and to download is just staggering. So it’s impossible to cover it all here. A few highlights though -

View and download a high-resolution scan of the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution.

Make online visits to the Presidential Libraries, view the documents of the White House and subscribe by RSS feed to “Document of the Day”.

5. NASA

As well as a true-crime fan, I am also a Trekkie, so NASA is another of my favourite websites. View the Interactive Features section to see space-related material including photos, slide shows, videos and podcasts. Subscribe by RSS feed to “NASA Image of the Day”, view the NASA World Book and read up on past and current missions. One small step for me, one big download for my PC.

Do you have a favourite government website not included in the list above? Tell us about it in the comments!

Posted by Mark O’Neill

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Massive List of ‘HowTo’ Sites + ‘HowTo’ Search Engine

Kaly — Wed, 30 May 2007 23:49:25 +0000

‘HowTo’s (HowTos, HowTo’s, or whatever you prefer to call them) are excellent problems solvers: they provide quick, easy-to-follow and non-overwhelming solutions to one or another problem that pop-up during daily routines. People love them, especially when they’re free, regardless whether it’s a step-by-step guide or a couple of minutes long video.

Good news, the amount of freely available, user-contributed HowTo’s out there is staggering. There is something for everyone: ranging from fun stuff i.e. how to make invisible book shelf, imitate gunshot wounds and even open up a Coke machine to more practical stuff i.e. how to negotiate a raise or tie a Tie. All categorized, commented and rated by users like you and me. Below you’ll find all ‘HowTo’ services we could find, as always all free, well-categorized and hopefully objectively ranked. Plus a bonus ‘HowTo’ search engine at the end. Enjoy!

*** HOWTO GUIDES ***

eHow (over 35.000 HowTo artciles)

WikiHow (over 20.000 articles)

Instructables (approx. 4.500 articles)

HowToDoThings (~~???~~ 2500 HowTo artciles)

Koonji (??? HowTo artciles )

*** VIDEO HOWTO GUIDES ***

VideoJug (approx. 2.500 video HowTo’s). Lets you downloaded videos directly to your iPod. More iPod Tools

ExpertVillage (approx. 28.000 videos, and growing by 4000 every month)

SuTree (approx. 5.500 videos)

Sclipo (approx. 1000 videos)

TrickLife (approx. 600 videos)

5min (approx. 500 videos)

ViewDo (approx. 350 videos)

HelpfulVideo (approx. 150 videos). Note: some videos require payment

YouTube (category ‘Howto & DIY’)

Metacafe (category ‘Video tips and Guides’)

*** TOPIC SPECIFIC ***

NewBaby [Parenting / Newborn / Breastfeeding / .... and everything related to babies]

TeacherTube [guides for education courses for Math, Literature and etc.]

Helpero [Computers / Networking / Mobile / Games / Internet]

Work [everything related to Entrepreneurs and Small-Business owners]

ShowMeDo [Computing / Internet / Python / java /Linux/ Ruby /Blender / Graphics / Screencasting]

Video-Tabs [Guitar] – over 200 video HowTo’s

*** BONUS ***

Google Coop – ‘HowTo & DIY’ Search: Here is something worth a bookmark, to make things easier I created all-in-one ‘HowTo and DIY (Do It Yourself)’ search engine, using Google Co-op. This custom Google-powered search engine will search on all of the above mentioned ‘HowTo’ sites, simultaneously. Works great,… TESTed.

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HowStuffWorks – Discover How Stuff Works

Aibek — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 09:58:35 +0000

Despite writing about it only now, this is one of the first services I discovered and really liked. It is fun, fast, very useful and free. Eventhough it is fun to use it, reviewing it here seemed little overwhelming, but I am through. Enjoy!

You need to find out how something works? Whether it is as complicated as ‘stem cells‘ or simple as simple as ‘quartz watch‘ HowStuffWorks has it covered. It is comprehensive and number one source for credible and easy to understand explanations on how things work. Service is free and all you need to do is to enter right search term. In addition to how something works you are also provided with a number of tips, guides and reviews related to the subject. In other words, if you serach for banks then apart from ‘how banks work?’ you get banking tips and guides.

At the moment site has following categories; Auto, Computer, Electronics, Entertainment, Health, Home, Money Science, Travel, People and Shop for stuff, which I think includes pretty much everything. I recommend to check out and actually even bookmark Shop for stuff category(yes, save it.) which is a consumer guide with expert product reviewes and prices comparison. It can provide you all of the information you need before making important buying decisions.

Here you can check out some random “How XYZ works?” entries

For site fans there is an RSS option for daily featured articles. So, if you have some time to read something interesting and fun why not to get featured articles right into your Feedreader.

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