Watch Movies and T.V. Shows Online for Free

If you have a broadband connection (no dial up), there are a number of sites where you can stream movies and TV shows legally and for free.  Again, you do not download the shows, you watch them as they stream to your computer. But, if you use Firefox and have added the plug-in 'Sothink Web Video Downloader', you can probably download them as well. (To add this or other plug-ins, go to 'Tools', Add-Ons, and Browse All Add-Ons)  The sites I have selected here offer brand new releases also. Not just the old stuff.  Here they are:

Watchmovies-Tonight

Watchmovies-tonight.com is one of the largest and easiest to use free movies websites on the internet today and its huge archive of movies is available to all visitors 100% free of charge. Search for your favorite movie or TV shows or sort them to make your search simple. It allows users to watch movies online with simplicity, ease and most importantly for free.

  Movie25

On Movies25.com, all the movies are categorized into Latest, New Releases, Most Viewed etc.  It also categorizeds into genres like Action, Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Crime, Mystery, Thriller, Romance and more. You can search for movies using search bar and watch them online in high quality.

Movski

Movski is a bit different in that it offers a link to download movies. I have never tried it so I cannot say whether it works or not. Lots of new titles, and others.

Movs.eu

Movs.eu is a website that offers you the links of all the new release movies and TV shows so that you can watch them whenever you have time and whenever you feel like. Lots of new releases also.

This website is free to use and there are more than 2000 TV shows and 22000 movies which keep on growing day by day. So if you are in a mood to watch a new released movie or a TV show that you have missed or an old season you can definitely go to this website and watch it.

 There's a few sites to get you started.  Remember, there is always to much to do to ever get bored. Enjoy the time off.

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Learn a New Skill this Summer for Free!!

According to the countdown clock on the right, you have about 70 days and none hours of summer left. Why not spend some of that time learning a new skill, something you enjoy, could use, and will help you as you get older.  I have a few suggestions for you with some websites to learn your skill. It's all free, and you really have no excuse to ever say you're bored.  There's tons of things to do and learn; here's a few:

Learn A New Language  

You probably won't be speaking fluently after this summer, but here's a few sites that will get you on your way.  You can learn in the privacy of your own home without the embarrassment of saying a word completely wrong. Go at your own pace, hear the word, then say it. Buona fortuna!

BBC Languages 

Great beginner's courses for French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese and others. Many users say they love the site.

LiveMocha

Log in with your Facebook account and dive right in.  Lots of different languages to choose from and real people from around the world trying to learn the same language as your choice. Practice with them if you like!

Babbel

Another popular site. Has a greater number of languages to choose from, but pretty much the same concept as the others.

Skritter

Finally, there's Skritter. This site is a bit different in that it will help you learn to write Chinese or Japanese characters. You might not remember what they mean, but you'll be able to impress your friends!

There are many more sites to learn a foreign language, but these are free and easy to set up and get started.

Learn How to Tie Knots

Knowing how to tie a few basic knots won't make you a lot of money, but the skill will come in handy whether you're on a boat, preparing for a typhoon, towing a car, and many other times.  Watch and learn!

I Will Knot!

Videos for every type of knot...and there's a lot! All you need is a piece of rope or string. Worth a few minutes of your time.

Animated Knots

Wow!! Plenty Knots!!  Step by step video instruction.  Get your Knot on!

 

20-20 Site

This site has many how-to categories, knots is one of them.  They do a good job explaining, and they also have some knots the others do not.

Tie a Tie

You know, the kind that goes on a shirt.  Learn how to do it, and you're ready for that special occasion.

Learn to Touch Type

Nothing, I mean nothing, will save you more time in school than learning how to touch type. I'm talking about keeping your hands still, looking straight ahead, memorize the keys, touch typing.  By the way, this is a major part of your 8th grade computer class. Here's some free sites to make it happen:

Peter's Online Typing Course

Simple, but I like this one. Starts at the beginning and takes you through all the keys and all the fingers.

 

  

Typing Test

Best for figuring out your true WPM (Words per Minute).  After a few lessons at Peter's, head over to typing test to check your speed.  Keep your hands still, do not move them around!!!

Keyboarding Games and Exercises

Have some fun while you learn.  Head over to this site and save the Universe as you shoot down letters and numbers from the keyboard.  Good Luck, our lives depend on you!!




Learn How to Bake Bread

Do you know how easy, how much cheaper, and how much better home made bread tastes??

Flour, Salt, Yeast, and Water, that's all folks! Try it, you'll love eating the bread you made yourself.  Here's some sites with basic bread recipes:

Click here, or here,  or here,  or here.  Actually, check out all the links, then decide.

 

These are just a few things you can do to learn a new helpful skill and have some fun along the way.  It's impossible to be bored!!

Enjoy the summer.

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Starting Your Own Free Blog or Website

Some of you may be interested in creating your own blog or website. There are many reasons to create your own 'space' on the internet.  You may want to share your photos or thoughts, update friends and family around the world, or let others know about some of the great websites or software you have discovered.

Blog or Website?  What's the difference?  When blogs were first created, they were simply an online writing journal or diary. Now that blogs can include sound, video, pictures and hyperlinks, the difference between a blog and a website is very little.  Basically, a website is for a company selling or advertising, and a blog is for individuals.

There are many, many different templates, or styles you can select from depending on the purpose of your blog or site.  The following are all free sites to get set up and to claim your piece of the 'net.

Blogs

Blogger:

     The host of this site and a great choice if you have a Google account, as Blogger is owned by Google. You can store documents, videos, and pictures in Google docs and link them to your blog very easily.  Still the easiest way to get started, I believe, even if you do not have a Google account.  But, why don't you have a Google account?

 

WordPress: 

   
   Similar to Blogger, you can add audio, video, pictures, links and the rest.  Lots of free templates to choose from.  Coke or Pepsi?  Blogger or WordPress? It just depends on your personal choice.

 

Websites

Weebly:

Weebly is the easiest way to create a free website. From personal to professional sites, Weebly is both easy to set up and to add text, video or other content.  You can create free website and free blogs.

 Moonfruit:

With a nice selection of templates and a design that looks like your browser, Moonfruit is becoming more popular with people creating websites for the first time.

350pages

350 pages is easy to use free website builder that can help you create a website and edit your pages from anywhere in the world at any time. Since 350pages is hosted on the safe, fast, and reliable web servers, you don’t need to download, install or configure anything. All you need is a web browser (IE 6/7, Firefox, or Safari) and an internet connection.

Wix:

Wix is a bit different type of site builder. Wix focuses on flash templates.  Click here  for an example of a flash website. Very nice looking templates, possibly a bit more time to get set up.

Google Sites:

But of course, having a Google account allows you to set up a free web site, too.  Not as many templates to select from, but the ones they have are nice.  Worth a try.

These are just a few of the many sites available to create your own blog or website.  Summer is a perfect time to practice developing a blog or site.  Even if you don't use it right now, you will have experience creating one.  Remember, technology is not going away. The more you practice, the easier it gets.

P.S. Get out of the house, it's summertime!!

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What's the Difference?

Guys, do you often find yourself wondering, 'what's the difference between a blouse and a shirt?'  Girls, do you ask yourself over and over that all important baseball question, "What's the difference between a sinker and a slider?"  Of course you do, and it's o.k. to admit it.

At DifferenceBetween.com all of your "What's the difference between" questions can be answered. It's not a site you're going to use everyday, but when you want to know, it comes in very handy.  It has been known to settle quite a few bets as well.

I still don't know the difference between a hacker and a cracker, but thanks to DifferenceBetween.com,  I can always tell a cream from a lotion.

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Free Online Photo Editors: Part I

Digital Cameras, Cell Phones, Web Cams; There are lots of ways to take a picture. After you've snapped all those photos, there are many sites that can help you dress them up or fix them up. We'll look first at a few ' sites where you can have some fun with your pics.

Dress them Up

Kizoa

is a Free service to create slide shows and edit photos with fun effects, animations, music and more. Share your creations on the Internet or burn them to DVD.

Loonapix

Make funny photos by embedding your face from the photo to the various templates.

PhotoFunia

One of the more popular sites with tons of creative backgrounds to play around with.

Fun Photo Box

If you don’t get what you want from PhotoFunia,  check out Fun Photo Box.

MyTradingCards.com

Create Baseball, Basketball, and other custom cards with your own photo.  Very Realistic looking cards.

Avatara

Create your own 3D avatar for use on the internet and animate it if you like.

 

There are other photo editing sites which have different options than the ones listed here. They will be covered in Part II.  But for now, let's move on to the fix your photo sites.

Want to remove the red 'vampire' eyes of someone in your photo? Want to remove someone completely from your photo? Maybe you have blurry pics, or ones that are too dark or too light.  These next sites are for more 'serious' photo editing. 

Fix Them Up

Photoshop

The Godfather of photo editing programs (used for all the graphics work in this blog) is Photoshop.  It's an expensive program to buy--around $200, but at Photoshop.com you can learn the program by doing real work on your own photos. If your photo's broken, Photoshop can fix it.  They also have tutorials where you can practice creating certain effects like the ones shown below. Registration required, but of course, it is free.

SplashUp

SplashUp is a easy to use photo editing software allowing everybody to create professional and experienced photo designs.

Sumo Paint

One of the finest online painting and photo editing programs. Create and share your art work with the world.

This is just a small sampling of the many sites on the net where you can be silly or serious with your photos.

Remember: If you find a site you like, bookmark it!!

Coming Next: Part II of photo editing and free places to create your own web site or blog. 

Hope you're enjoying your summer!

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New Computers on the Market

When you're ready to retire your Dell Laptop and move on to something else, you might want to think about two of the latest computers being sold.

Oh wait, that's a picture of some pens.....Or is it?

 

Actually, those 'pens' are pocket sized computers that unfold (you can buy the stand separately), and display both a wireless laser keyboard and monitor on any flat surface.  Lots of hard drive space, wireless and Bluetooth, a web cam, and it fits in your pocket. And if you don't have a wall nearby (maybe you're camping), any cardboard box, piece of plywood, or shirt hung over a branch becomes an instant monitor.  

Right now, they are around $800, but like all technology, the price will come down as more companies figure out how to make them.

Another new computer looks like it can also be used as a pillow or yoga mat.  Introducing the Roll Me:

 

Made of rubber-like material, the Roll Me does just that. You can even swat flies with it. As you can see from the icons on the left of the picture, it also has all the goodies of today's computers, without the weight and with extra portability.  Uses both a battery and plug, the Roll Me protects all of its circuits, so even a bit of rain isn't going to ruin it.

 Finally, I wrote a short post a while back about Samsung's new cell phone with a laser projected keyboard.  You can read the post here.

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Congratulations!!

It's over. We're done.  Thanks to all of you who made this a successful year. If you are going to summer school, be there everyday, and work hard, it's worth it.

I'll be posting almost everyday during the summer, so check back often.  Lots of different tips, videos, tutorials, web sites and more to keep you busy this summer.

Remember, if you have any questions, or want to know how to do something on your computer, let me know.

Finally, stay busy this summer.  Exercise your body and your mind everyday.

Enjoy

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You Probably Have Already Heard.....

...All next week is half day.  No transition, out at 1:00 (Thanks, Matt)

8th grade graduation is Tuesday @ 9:00 am.

Report Cards distributed Friday.

Th th th that's all folks.

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Chrome's New Mega Button

 For all the Google Chrome users: 

The Chrome layout is built to give more space for viewing web pages and it’s a pretty good concept but sometimes using the little spanner to access everything from the bookmarks manager, extensions, history, to the download manager can take too long for your most often used functions. Mega Button is an extension for Chrome that gives you access to Downloads, History, Extensions, Bookmarks, Plugin, DNS details, Memory usage info, and more all in one button.

The extension adds a simple green button next to the URL bar; when you click the button a small toolbar appears just under the address bar with icons for downloads, history, extensions, bookmarks etc. Clicking any of the icons opens the setting in a new pinned tab. The button is similar to using the spanner button to access your setting only you don’t need to scroll through menu options to get to them.

I've tried it and Mega Button is definitely a time saver.

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It's Almost Here....Are You Ready??

Six days and counting.  Like a runaway train, or an avalanche in the Alps, it's coming and you can't stop it. Your only defense is to buckle your seat belt and get ready.   What is it?

That's right, the summer edition of V6 Math.  Lot's of everything to get you through the summer (but no math). Six days and counting, Are You Prepared???

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Password Protect Folders

Let's say you've got some really important information stored in a folder on your computer such as the truth about alien life, the location of Noah's Ark, or who likes whom in the 7th grade. With information like this, you must secure your folder from family, friends, terrorists, and double-agents.

To the Rescue: Secure Folder.  Secure Folder password protects any and all folders you want. No one, not even aliens or Noah's Ark survivors can open a file locked with Secure Folder.

Caution: If you do password protect any folder, WRITE THE PASSWORD DOWN SOMEWHERE, BUT DON'T SAVE IT ON YOUR COMPUTER IN A FILE NAMED 'SECURE FOLDER PASSWORDS'

Remember the Holiday on Friday, June 10th.

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Creating Invisible Files & Folders

There may be times when you don't want certain eyes to see certain files on your computer. This is pretty easy to accomplish actually.  The following 4 steps should take care of it:

1.  Create a folder and name it something people won't care about. Something like 'Science Homework', or 'Spelling Words', should do the trick. Do not name it 'Hidden Movies and Music' for obvious reasons.

2.  Put everything you want hidden inside that folder. You can have folders inside the folder also.  All folders inside of a hidden folder will be hidden as well.

3.  Right Click on the folder and select the last item, 'Properties'.

4.  In the dialog box that opens, simply click the hidden button.

Note: Before hiding the folder, you should open your hard drive and bury the folder deep...Inside a folder, inside a folder,etc. You will probably want to write down how to get to this folder (the path). You may forget where you put the folder a week from now, or a day, or an hour from now.

Next:  Password Protect your most Important/Private folders.

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...Grades Posted

Your 3rd and 4th Quarter grades as well as your semester average  can be found here.

 Make-up work is available for those students who received a semester grade between 58 and 62 percent.

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More Speed, Better Performance

A number of recent posts have focused on improving the performance of your netbooks.  These small changes are especially important for computers like yours that were built for size, not speed.

Folders, Folders, Folders

No one likes waiting for their computer to start up. There are two things you can do to dramatically decrease your computer's start up time:

1.  Remove the password protection: If it's only you using your computer, and your hard drive doesn't have a treasure map showing where all the gold is buried, then there's really no reason to add the many seconds of start up time.  This one is up to you; if you have reasons to leave the password, then you  should leave it.

2.  Create folders for your desktop: This one is for everybody, no excuses.  Look at the picture of the desktop:

It is full of individual files. Each file you have on your desktop adds extra time to the start-up time. It doesn't matter what kind of file it is, program, shortcut, song, video, word processing. The desktop above will take an extra 30-40 seconds to load because of the files.

The solution, of course, is to create folders. Whether you have one or 1,000 items in a folder, it is processed as one item. 

A Better, Faster Desktop

 

 What to do with all those Desktop Files?

1. Shortcuts: Delete them. If you use a program a lot, put it in the quick launch area.

2. Pictures, Video, Music:  Place them in the correct folder inside your 'My Documents' folder.

3. Programs: Create a folder named 'Installers' inside your My Documents folder. Put them there.

Remember, Your Hard Drive is Your File Cabinet

What do you see when you open a file cabinet drawer?  A bunch of individual papers or files stuffed inside? No. What you see are folders, folders, folders.

When you open the C: drive, or even your 'My Documents' folder, that's what you should see..Folders.

For speed, performance, and organization, folders are the answer.

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