NCCE 2010 Session 6 - A Random Walk Through Cyberspace: patrick Crispen's Completely Updated Collection of Websites

A Random Walk Through Cyberspace: Patrick Crispen's Completely Updated Collection of Websites

Presentation is available at http://netsquirrel.com/

• Speedtest.net (http://speedtest.net/) - Name is self evident of what the site does, I utilize it on a regular basis and find it very simple to use and gives us a quick snapshot of the current connection. Now also has a free app for the iPhone
• webkit (engine that runs chrome and safari) SunSpider Javascript Benchmark (http://www2.webkit.org/perf/sunspider-0.9/sunspider.html) allows you to see how your browser is actually able to render the web 2.0 pages. A good tool to see the difference (convince people to not run IE) in speed between machines.
• tinyurl.com (http://tinyurl.com/) (and other address shorteners) will truncate a url to a more usable address. (tinyurl.com/jstest gives results from above benchmark.
• xtranormal.com (http://www.xtranormal.com/) - website that allows you to create animated movies. He utilized a humorous example by importing an email exchange in as a dialog and animating it, makes it kinda like a segment on Nick at Nite Adult Swim, I can't wait to try it with my daughters. It can do multiple languages - what can the foreign language classes create with this one I wonder?
• WolframAlpha (http://www.wolframalpha.com/) - not a search engine, but an answer engine. I run it as a plug in for google.com on my install of Firefox. It's a great tool for statistics and mathematics (it even shows the work!!!), also I like to enter a name into the search and it'll give you statistics of frequency etc.
• Duarte Blog (http://blog.duarte.com/) - helpful site for creating effective presentations (creators of Al Gore's PowerPoint presentation)
• prezi.com (http://prezi.com/) - (highlighted in a session yesterday too) Flash based interface to create online presentations, live and platform independent (oh yeah - it's FREE also). One disadvantage is a lack of templates, however in my opinion this leads to more individualism and more creativity anyhow.
• dropbox (https://www.dropbox.com/)_ - a software that will automatically back up and sync your files (2.5gb of FREE storage) between computers, I've not yet used it but I have read a lot of interesting ways to "hack" it to customize the experience for the end user. Here's a tinyurl of the google search for drop box hacks http://tinyurl.com/y98m3ms
• instant chan (http://instantchan.com/) - is that your final answer . . . just check it out, useless, quick and fun!
• Know your meme (http://knowyourmeme.com/) - a way to track what the current Internet memes are . . . next time you're trying to figure out what the kids are talking about or why Randy Rice has cats all over his door.
• Cheeseburger Network (http://icanhascheezburger.com/) more lolcats than you ever need (which in my opinion is 0, but we're all entitled to our own entertainment).
• Moodstream (http://moodstream.gettyimages.com/) - from Getty images, just gives a background image and audio stream based on your mood inputs, looks kinda cute and creative, not sure what ed applications but I'm sure we can come up with something.