Free: University Courses Online, CNET UK Internet TV, Uninstallers

Offtopic: Working on a new Blogger hack soon. ;)

Free university courses online

Fancy taking a course at MIT, Berkeley or Johns Hopkins but don't want to fork out any cash? Now you can browse through any of their open courseware offerings available online for free! With a wide range of courses available and a huge list of participating universities, it's your chance to get a tertiary education without actually attending classes. Although universities won't officially recognize your Physics knowledge gained through their online courses, keep in mind that Einstein started out as a patent clerk (with a Physics degree).

[via How to take a course at MIT free -- at home @ Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

(If you remember seeing something like this, Berkeley's lectures were featured here a few months back.)

CNET UK Internet TV

The UK version of CNET TV just launched and is getting pretty good feedback so far. Other than its slick and smooth interface, videos are of better quality and resolution than most Flash videos you see. Besides quality, there's also quantity. Despite its recent launch, it has already been populated with a decent selection of videos to watch, ranging from technology to music. And if you happen to have a widescreen monitor, you're in luck as all the videos are in widescreen format (I think :) ).

Just a tip: I've updated tk Video Search to include CNET's new site. :)

Uninstallers

Installing programs to uninstall programs. Kinda ironic, don't ya think? I, for one, have always relied on Windows Add/Remove to do the dirty work, but if that isn't powerful enough for you, Download Squad's got a few alternatives that might be what you're looking for. Read each of them carefully since some of them do not require installation or provide a standalone version. Personally, I'd go for the ones that need no installation since I'd like to avoid the situation of installing programs to uninstall the uninstaller. :)

Free: Clever Hippo App Search, LocateTV

Offtopic: Nothing to see here. Please continue reading below. :P

Clever Hippo App Search

There are a zillion different cool widgets around and looking for a particular one on Google can be, well, frustrating. Enter Clever Hippo Application Search. Clever Hippo is an app/widget oriented search that allows tagging and voting. You can filter results by the various platforms, sort by date/popularity/relevance or just take a peek at what everyone is looking for. Clever Hippo database includes Windows/Mac widgets, social networking widgets, blog widgets as well as iPhone apps.

LocateTV

Where can you find your favorite TV series/movies/actors? Just ask LocateTV and it'll tell you where you can obtain them (shows not the actors!) online or when to catch it/them on TV/DVD. For TV shows, there's even a handy episode list with a short synopsis of each episode. (I never can remember what happened a few seasons back.)



If you're the forgetful type or just want to remind everyone when to catch a particular show, just embed it on your blog. In fact, you can embed practically anything - series, movies, people and so on. Unfortunately, LocateTV only supports the US, UK and Ireland at the moment, so I guess it's back to torrents for the rest of the world. :P


You've reached the end. Send me a Heroes DVD and I'll consider writing more. :P

Free: Unicode Code Converter, EZTV, Bundle-Fu, EasySponsorship, Hulu

Offtopic: Had to comment out the Romlet widget for the time being. It (and the Romlet site) is currently dead. :(

And I'm late again. Better late than never as they say. :)

Unicode Code Converter

Convert between 12 different formats, including UTF-8, UTF-16, HTML and Javascript with Unicode Code Converter. It's coded in Javascript so no page reload is needed for each conversion, unlike some of the other converters I've seen. Very useful and handy for web developers.

EZTV

Do I need to introduce EZTV to you? Ok... here's the explanation for those of you surfing for the first time. :) EZTV is a directory of TV torrents listings. They recently moved to their new home as you can see from the different URL. That was easy. You don't know what a torrent is? Here we go again...

Bundle-Fu

Bundle-Fu packages all your javascripts and css files into 2 files so your Web 2.0 site doesn't take ages to load. The sweet part is that it's terribly easy to install (2 simple steps!). The sad part is it looks like Bundle-Fu is for Ruby on Rails (I'm not too familiar with Ruby) and it is definitely server-side code, which means I can't use it here.

EasySponsorship

EasySponsorship

is the easiest way there is for you to collect sponsorship money from anyone from anywhere in the world.

Just to be clear, I didn't say that, they did. :) But yeah, it looks like it's dead simple to setup. At least, the registration form is very short, though the captcha isn't too user friendly. Anyone want to sponsor me (I know where to go to now!) so that I can get an iPhone? :)

Hulu

I remember talking about hulu way back when it hadn't even launched yet. Now hulu is still not out yet, but you can enjoy its videos already at AOL video or MSN TV. If you're in the US, you get to watch many TV shows for free online. (Not very high quality or HD, but hey, free is free!) Oh and also remember to register for the private beta at its website.

[via No Need to Wait: Hulu Videos Already Available on AOL @ TechCrunch]


That sums it up for now. You may be interested to know I updated tk Video Search to include the AOL and MSN sites I mentioned so you can search for Hulu videos with tk Video Search. :) Stay tuned tomorrow for more freebies!

Testcard TV - Watch Free TV, Movies And More!

What is testcard.tv?

With testcard.tv you can discover, watch and share your favourite movies, tv shows, cartoons, music videos and live tv - all on your PC, all for free

From what I can gather, testcard.tv is a new watch-TV-on-your-PC type of site that launched recently.

Thoughts
Testcard.tv is similar to other sites of its genre - it indexes links from other sites. That being said, testcard.tv has a number of things going for it.

It features fullscreen viewing and frequent updates of new and popular media (eg. Heroes episode 2, Lizards, can be found there).

The site design is also easy on the eye and the integrated search returns relevant results. Other than TV shows and movies, it also has cartoons, documentaries, anime and music videos.

Like other sites however, it suffers from the annoying problem of content being pulled from the originating server. Alternative links are available to combat this, but occasionally even these links go down.

Another disadvantage is that testcard.tv depends on the uploads of others, which means that certain content may not get updated.

Lastly, testcard.tv falls into the gray area of the law, so it could just disappear one day. Not something to look forward to if you're a regular user.

If you're interested in similar sites, leave a comment and I'll come up with something. :)

The Simpsons Aftermath Intro

Spotted on digg: The intro of the new Simpsons season premiere continues where the movie left off. "I will not wait 20 years to make another movie". I sure hope they don't.

Smallville: Supergirl Spotted!

It's a bird... It's a plane... It's Superman... Wait a sec... It's Supergirl!

Alicia Silverstone In Peta Commercial

I guess there's no need to introduce who Alicia Silverstone is. Here's her recent PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) ad that is showing or about to be shown on US TV. Like many other PETA ads, they convinced Alicia Silverstone to go without clothes. Perhaps that's the only way PETA can gain any attention. If you can't get enough of her, you could see the print version at Access Hollywood.



If you wonder if I use the search engines I create, this video was found using tk Video Search. Sure, there are other sites that host the video but unlike the rest, this is embeddable.

Bomb Blast Outside Sopranos Star's Theater

Police are investigating an apparent pipe bomb explosion in Midtown. The blast occured outside a small theater, owned by a former star of the 'Sopranos'.

The explosion caused minimal damage to the front of Studio Dante, a 60-seat theater created by actor Michael Imperioli and his wife. However, Eyewitness News is told, it blew out a window of a red van parked near the theater.

The theater, Studio Dante, is run by Michael Imperioli, who won an Emmy Award for his work on television's "The Sopranos," and his wife, Victoria.

Authorities were working on the theory that the blast may have been meant as a message for someone on the block. It was not immediately known if the theater or others in the four-story building were the target.

Now as far as I can tell, The Sopranos is a show about the Mob. And this explosion just happened to occur near the theater of an actor who stars in the Sopranos as a Mob boss (if not the boss, then at least quite high up in the hierarchy). Has the reel life spilled over into real life or is it just a coincidence? You decide.

[Source: 7online]

It's All About TV

TV seems to be getting a lot of attention recently. No, not because you're watching TV instead of surfing (I didn't say your TV). The latest news about the health of TV is bleak according to a Google expert. From that article, he states that

"85 per cent of all video we watch is pre-recorded, so you can set your system to download it all the time," said Mr Cerf, who is now the vice-president of the Google, the world's largest search engine.

And that may very well be true with sites such as Hulu, Watch Tv Sitcoms and VideoHybrid popping up on the internet. There are plenty more where that came from but these are the newest ones to gain fame (possibly, notoriety).


hulu Hulu is the newest one to join the game, as a joint venture between NBC and News Corp. It hasn't even launched yet, but everyone's talking about it anyway, just cause Hulu wants to be a Youtube killer. Not looking too good for it though, since Hulu in Swahili is "cease" and "desist". If you want to get in on the beta, visit it at Hulu.com now to get an invite.


Next up is Watch TV sitcoms. It was quite a popular search earlier today, most likely due to its wrestling and fighting TV shows that it offers. It has a pretty decent collection of shows, including popular ones such as Dexter, 24 and Lost. Other than TV shows, it offers movies and music as well. Legality of the content however is in doubt.


Lastly we have VideoHybrid. This was started by two teenagers in the US. It works on a similar model as digg - user generated content or in this case, user requested content. The flow is simple. (You) Request, (Others) Hunt, (they) Notify (you), Enjoy!

Note that while its content is plentiful and accessible, VideoHybrid may not fare too well in the legal department. It's probably walking the thin line that user submitted content is not the responsibility of the owner.

Of these three, Hulu looks to have the highest chance of survival considering its backing, although it doesn't have very positive reviews. The other two, however, look like they may just "disappear" one day. So don't worry about TV, it's not going to die just yet.

Heroes season 2 promo videos

If you were blown away by Heroes in season 1, here's what you can expect from season 2.

This promo video doesn't really reveal much, but did you notice that this promo was a lot like the beginning or the end of a typical Heroes episode? Like many Heroes episodes, Mohinder narrates in this video about letting go of the past in order to embrace the future.


This trailer is more informative and interesting. We get to see the usual suspects like Nikki and Micah, along with Nathan, Claire, Mohinder and surprise, surprise, the big bad Sylar. If you recall, in last season's finale of Heroes, the fate of Sylar was not revealed explicitly. We did get a hint that he was alive though, as a cockroach ran into the sewers when the police came. Another interesting bit was Officer Parkman talking to Mrs Petrelli about revenge. Lastly, there's a glimpse of a new face. Wonder who he is.

Reminder: Heroes returns on September 24!

Interview with Kristen Bell - the new "Hero" on Heroes

TVGuide interviews Kristen Bell, who recently joined Heroes for season 2. She talks about offers regarding Lost, her social connections with the heroes cast and how she feels about Veronica Mars being canceled. Things to takeaway: Her new character on Heroes may be a baddie, has a "really awesome" power and is currently featured in 13 episodes (first half of the season).

Read the full interview at TVGuide.

Prison Break Season 3 promo

For fans of prison break, it will return on September 17. In this season, Michael Scolfield will try to escape from Sona, a new prison without law. His brother, as always, will try to get him out. FOX just released a new promo with images from the upcoming season starting this fall. Have fun!

[Source: Blog & Cemento]