Abbreviating URL's

Did you know that you can abbreviate URL's? Well, not actually abbreviate them, but you can shorten them.

 

Have you ever run across a URL filled with percent signs and underscores and equal signs? Something that looks like this:

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=0D1ceB_DfBIC&dq=krugman+wells&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=QB-DZ-Yp5z&sig=9i-ysw8CWcJl8UkRF3T-iTIpXQ4&hl=en&ei=sbOdSZPwNJzgM9e3xI0F&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result

 

This could be copied and pasted in a browser, but what if it had to be typed? Here's a solution that is (say it with me) FREE! Go to TinyURL.com and paste in this long URL and it will be converted to something much more manageable, in this case it would be: http://tinyurl.com/aaqu4s Either URL will take you to the same place but isn't http://tinyurl.com/aaqa4s a lot easier to use?

 

So join the movement to stamp out the use of &'s and %'s in URL's and make them tiny.

Old Technology--The Chalkboard

Did you know that there are "thousands of video lectures from the world's top scholars" available on the Internet?

That's right, on Academic Earth there are educators from places like Stanford, Yale, Harvard and MIT that have placed full lectures online and, in some cases, full courses. Do you need to refresh your teaching topics? Want to assign a special lecture on Milton? Need help falling asleep?

 

The lectures are referenced by Subject, University, and Instructor. And each lecture is graded! That's right--grades are assigned. There is also a list of Top Rated Courses, Lectures, and Playlists.

 

Not only are they available, but they are FREE! We not only look for exciting and helpful applications to share with you, we try to find free things. There is a place to register, but even the registration is free.

 

So click on Academic Earth, or go to http://www.academicearth.org/, and see if Alan Binder can help you understand the "Origins of the Financial Mess," or if Gilbert Strang can help you with "Linear Algebra," or if Amy Hungerford can explain "The American Novel Since 1945."