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- Cool Websites and Tools [June 29]
- Roblox - A Cool Lego-Based Free Virtual World for Kids
- The Best Sites to Understand and Share Your Strange Dreams
- 5 Cool Free Internet Games for Kids That’ll Make them Love Math
- How To Write A Movie Review Online and Earn Money Doing It
- Portable, Multiple-Layered Image Editor — Fotographix
| Cool Websites and Tools [June 29] Posted: 29 Jun 2009 04:00 PM PDT
(1) LinkUp - Job aggregator that lets you find hidden jobs listed on company websites. These jobs listings are generally unadvertised to the outside world and can be difficult to find if you don't know where to look. The site currently lists data from over 21,000 company websites. You can search by keyword, job title or location. Advanced and more refined search options are also supported. Read more: LinkUp: Find Hidden Jobs (2) Corkboard -This site lets you easily save things you want to remember and organize them in one place online. It can be a recipe from some website, an upcoming event in your city, an upcoming movie, a phone number, a newly discovered food joint, a website, a new bestseller that you saw in the bookstore, basically anything that you might want to refer to some time later. Read more: Corkboard: Quickly Save Things You Want to Remember and Setup Reminders (3) HotelWorldOnline - Hotel search and price comparison site that lets you quickly and easily compare hotel prices from top hotel reservation sites such as ActiveHotels.com, AsiaRooms.com, Booking.com, Cheaptickets.com, Gtahotels.com, HotelClub.com, Hotwire.com and more. Enter the name of the city and it will display a list of hotels available along with the prices offered. Read more: HotelWorldOnline: Compare Hotel Prices From Top Hotel Reservation Sites (4) ToneMatrix - Free music synthesizer and an entertaining time waster that lets you create your own audio sequences online by selecting steps on a 16×16 matrix. Simply select steps with your mouse across the whole matrix. The sound plays from left to right, based on your selected sequence of steps. Read more: ToneMatrix: Free Music Synthesizer (5) WebElements - Online copy of the periodic table of elements, useful tool to anyone majoring in Chemistry or almost every high school student. It allows users to get more information about any element on the table, view its pictures, crystal structure, atom sizes, isotopes and other properties. Read more: WebElements: Online Copy Of The Periodic Table Of Elements
These are just half of the websites that we discovered in the last couple of days. If you want us to send you daily round-ups of all cool websites we come across, leave your email here. Or follow us via RSS feed. Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section! New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too. Related posts
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| Roblox - A Cool Lego-Based Free Virtual World for Kids Posted: 29 Jun 2009 02:00 PM PDT
In this one, the characters are blocky, and reminiscent of those little yellow Lego fellows. It’s kind of like Sims, where you get to build your own buildings and towns. Sort of like Webkinz in that you can earn points (known as tickets or Robux in Robloxian) so that you can do different things like buy user-created online goods for your Roblox character. What really sets it apart is that kids playing on Roblox can create their own games and put them out there for the world to use.
As a Dad, I’m very pleased to see this. But as a grown-up kid, I want the games! There are a lot of games on this site, many of them user-built. As a result, some of them are not so good and some are way cool. Area 51 was pretty cool but I’m not sure exactly what the objective of it was. I found a flying saucer and got in it, but I couldn’t go anywhere. Then,I got infected with some sort of alien virus and that’s how you die, I guess. You don’t really die, you just regenerate.
The Roblox-created game, Crossroads, was really fun, too! It’s a good starting ground to learn how to use your tools (which are really weapons) with a bunch of other players. Some of them hang out there regularly and talk to each other and team up. That was so much fun, my wonderful one had to tell me to get back to writing. I wish she wouldn’t use the cattle prod, though.
Sure, the game play seems juvenile, but guess what? It’s supposed to be. The point is that this is an online gaming community that the kids themselves can create. They can do that through the Roblox Studio. It strongly resembles the Visual Basic Studio and allows you to design your own spaces and games. Unfortunately, it’s not terribly intuitive to me, but they do have great documentation over at the Roblox Wiki.
To really get the full effect of building your own games and items in Roblox, you would need a Builder’s Club account, which does cost. Maybe give your kids a couple months of using the site in general, before commiting to that. With the ability to build games, sell items that they make and interact with other games, kids are learning priciples of programming, design, marketing, business and Math skills. I fail to see the downside to Roblox. Are you a Robloxian? Or maybe your kids are? What do you like best or least about Roblox? Is this your first time hearing of Roblox and you want to thank me with gratuitous praise? Well, my fellow Robloxians, that’s what the comments below are for. Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section! New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too. Related posts
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| The Best Sites to Understand and Share Your Strange Dreams Posted: 29 Jun 2009 12:00 PM PDT
Many people perceive dreams to be important because:
A lot of information about understanding why people dream, and analyzing your own dreams, is now easily available on the web. A simple search reveals dozens of sites that claim to help you interpret your dreams. Unfortunately, many of them are outdated or are marketing gimmicks for selling books or premium services. Let us see some of the best free sites and how you can make use of them. Remember Your DreamsThe first step is to sleep well. Perhaps these sounds to help you relax and sleep can help? Typically, five minutes after we wake up, half the content of dreams is forgotten. After ten minutes, 90% is lost. Here are some guides to help you remember dreams:
This should get you started, but remember to be patient and persistent. Find out what works best for you. Search Online Dream DictionariesIf you don't want to sign-up anywhere but simply want some quick clues to interpret a dream, use online dream dictionaries. No single dictionary or site can provide a completely correct interpretation of your dream. This is because every dream symbol, object, and theme can mean different things to different people, depending upon our culture, personality, upbringing, and experiences. These dream dictionaries are still useful however, because many symbols do have universal meanings, and some dictionaries offer multiple interpretation of symbols. Remember to apply the meaning in the context of your life and the recent past.
Ultimately, only you can interpret your dreams, using these different resources, and tailoring them to your unique situation. Some people think that the dictionary approach is outdated and irrelevant. DreamWiki is an interesting site for learning the art and technique of dream interpretation, but is relatively new with minimal content. It deviates from the dictionary-based approach and focuses on interpreting dream behaviors in the context of the dreamer's life. Best All Round Dream SitesThe following sites provide several resources related to dreams. They are useful for those who are really interested in learning more about their dreams. Dreammoods
Dream Central
Dreamsleep.net
Join Online Dream CommunitiesYou can use an Online Sleep Tracker to keep track of your sleeping patterns, but it doesn't help with dreams. The best way to keep in touch with the world of your dreams is to record them in a journal and join a community. While you can indeed record your dreams in a blogging platform like LiveJournal and join the Community of Dreams', there are unique advantages to joining focused sites that have built a community to share, rate, and interpret each others dreams. They offer automated keyword tagging to dream symbols, classification of dreams, detection of trends, and so on.
Dream Journal lets you record your dreams privately or publicly. The site has over 9000 active users with over 120,000 dreams.
Dream Crowd has built an active social community where you can keep a dream log, share your dreams with others, and comment on other's dreams. The site automatically tags keywords and phrases in your dreams that are hooked up to its dream dictionary for quick interpretation. Unleash the Power of Lucid DreamsLucid dreams are dreams where you know that you are dreaming and can control your dream. This lets you dream your fantasies, have superhero powers, psychic powers, travel in space, or whatever you wish. There are a few sites devoted to the unique world of lucid dreams:
Lucid Dreaming is a popular social-networking community exploring and documenting lucid dreams.
Lucipedia is another good site for learning, recording, sharing, and discussing lucid dreams.
Dream Views has a good guide to developing the art of lucid dreaming, and also an active lucid dreamers forum. So these are some of the sites to help you understand and enjoy your dreams meaningfully. Was your favorite dream site missed? Do let us know in the comments! And oh yes, sweet dreams! Image credit: Chris Gin Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section! New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too. Related posts
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| 5 Cool Free Internet Games for Kids That’ll Make them Love Math Posted: 29 Jun 2009 10:00 AM PDT
Here are five cool free Internet games for kids that will get your own kid interested and motivated in Mathematics. 1. AttractorsLet’s start unsuspiciously. This doesn’t even seem like a math game. Well, to be exact, it’s physics, but understanding physics naturally requires a ton of maths.
To get the game started, the player moves the dots about — which attract the atoms and make them swirl around. Also, the platforms can be tilted and adjusted to let the atoms bounce back. 2. Mend The Number SquareThis is a game for kids who are learning to count and recognize numbers. The aim is to fill the square with the little creature in it with the number that is missing.
The site has several more games for kids who are just getting started with numbers and calculus. 3. Math Lines xFactor 12This game had me playing for almost an hour. The goal is to shoot the balls in the queue with the bullet ball in the center and create a specific multiplication product. In this example, the product needs to be 12, so I scored 10 points by shooting the 12 bullet ball at a ball with the value 1 in the queue. The level is completed when all the balls in the queue are removed; and the game is over and lost when the queue reaches the black hole.
The product remains the same throughout the game and all levels, but at the beginning you can select between several possible products to practice multiplication. And if your kid is tired of multiplication, the site features many more Math games, and also Math practice and Math lessons to prepare the player for the games. 4. What’s the Point?This games trains the basics of geometry, namely orentation on the X-Y axis. All the player need to do is to name the coordinates where the red dot is.
At Funbrain you’ll find many more games, for example calculating areas and perimeters. 5. Math Flash cardsThis one requires self-motivation and ambition as it’s not packed into a slightly deceiving game context. It’s plain and simple a tool to practice addition, subtraction, multiplication or division in four different difficulty levels. The reward is a high accuracy when the player makes few mistakes.
On Math Goodies students will find more tools and games like this to practice algebra, integers, percent, geometry, probability and more. Need more online resources for your kids? Ryan wrote about Top Educational Websites For Children That Are Fun, Dave covered Sporcle - Cool Games That Make Learning Fun Again and I wrote about Websites For Students: 10 Online Learning Tools. How did you get through Math? Do you have good advice for kids struggling with Math today? Please share and comment! Picture credits: hisks Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section! New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/ Related posts
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| How To Write A Movie Review Online and Earn Money Doing It Posted: 29 Jun 2009 08:00 AM PDT
This concept of users contributing free content for website owners made those owners somewhat spoiled. However, as the Internet evolves and matures, it’ll those websites that can produce the highest quality content the most often that wins - and the rest fall by the wayside. This survival-of-the-fittest environment is forcing many website owners to finally reach out and start paying Internet users for their high quality content rather than depending on free, mediocre posts. Learning How to Write a Movie Review OnlineWhen it comes to writing and publishing online, movie reviews couldn’t be simpler. There’s certainly a general format that you’ll want to develop and follow when writing movie reviews. Overall, as long as your approach is one of a friend offering good movie advice to another friend - your reviews will do very well. What it really comes down to is not so much how to write a high-quality review (if you’re reading this article, then you’re probably already beyond that point), instead it’s about where you can go to sell your movie reviews and actually earn cold, hard cash for your efforts. Not very long ago, I reviewed a list of websites where teens could earn some extra money simply by writing articles on the Internet. However, the focus in this case is going to be strictly about the movie guru who’s looking to convert some of those movie-watching skills into financial rewards. Write Movie Reviews For RoyaltiesOne of the most common methods to earn money on the Internet is by writing pieces and then collecting royalty on the traffic every month. A little while ago, I wrote an article about 4 web tools to create free websites instantly. One of those was Squidoo, and the reason I like it is because when you create a “lens” on Squidoo (apparently what Squidites call a web page), you get to collect a portion of the royalty from the advertising on that site. When it comes to reviewing movies, Squidoo created a really cool tool called SquidFlix that offers users a simple form where you can fill in your movie review and the Squidoo system automatically creates a Lens page for your particular review.
The system is not only fun to use, but it includes an entire community of folks who also share your interest in movies. Once your review page is created, other folks can comment on your review and every month, you’ll receive royalty for the traffic that your review attracts. It won’t be a fortune, and it certainly isn’t anything even close to getting paid a flat rate per review - but it’s still better than free! Another decent website for earning some pocket change for your reviews is SharedReviews.com. While the site is primarily intended for reviewing products, you can also review movies that are out on DVD.
Again, the ad revenue on a site like this won’t make you rich, but as you accumulate a larger number of reviews, those small amounts will add up - and you collect them every month for eternity. Earn Affiliate Commissions With Your ReviewsOne of the most common approaches to creating revenue from a website is by converting your visitors into sales. This is the most common approach that’s used for book reviews, where the vast majority of review articles link to an Amazon affiliate link so that the author can earn a commission on book sales, as Jimmy described in his article on Amazon affiliate links. You could always use the same approach with your movie reviews. That is, create a website or blog and write your movie reviews, and then link your reviews to your Amazon affiliate link for your reader to purchase the movie on DVD, and you earn a commission on the sale. Another of my favorite affiliate organizations is Commission Junction which Ted touched on briefly in his article on the best alternatives to Adsense advertising.
There are a long list of advertisers in Commission Junction that offer some excellent commission rates and deals that you can offer your readers. Just a few examples include Blockbuster, Disney, CinemaNow and many others. If you draw significant traffic with your reviews, you stand to earn quite a bit on these sort of commission sales. Become a Freelance Movie Review WriterMany writers still aren’t aware that there’s an entire world of opportunity for paid writing gigs when you decide to be a “freelance writer.” All that means is that you are interested in projects that get posted by businesses and individuals at the many freelance project sites across the net. While these writing jobs usually run the entire gamut of subject matter, there are certainly projects out there where folk are looking for movie review writers.
The clients who publish these jobs are typically website or blog owners who either can’t write very well, or they don’t have the time to write content and would like to “farm out” the actual writing work. iFreelance is one of my favorites, but there are plenty of other freelance posting boards across the Internet with similar opportunities. Go Directly To The SourceOf course, another approach is simply to visit the websites and blogs that are devoted to movie reviews and content and check if they are hiring writers. You’d be surprised how many of these sites are interested in hiring you for your movie “expertise.” Just one example I found is the job posting below from Animation Arena for a movie review writer.
This particular site offers a writing job for 10 reviews per month at a rate of $20 per review. Within the blogosphere, that pay rate may be on the low-average end of the writing pay grade, but it isn’t that shabby when you consider that a skilled, fast writer could potentially write a review in an hour. To find more paid blogging opportunities, a good approach is to do a Google search for “looking for writers” or “paid to write” followed by the content you want to write about, like “movies.” You’ll find that there are lots of website and blog owners out there who understand that the only way to survive is to pay for high-quality content. That means that if you’re a skilled writer - the Internet now offers countless opportunities that are yours for the taking. The biggest problem you’ll have is finding the time to take advantage of all of them. Also, if you are interested to read about some tips for finding freelance blogging jobs, check out Jimmy’s article parts one and two. Do you have any favorite movie review sites that pay for reviews? Share your feedback in the comments section below. Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section! New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too. Related posts
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| Portable, Multiple-Layered Image Editor — Fotographix Posted: 29 Jun 2009 06:00 AM PDT
This 348KB download is a ZIP file that extracts to 685KB. It is a totally portable application and is very powerful and familiar to users of Photoshop. After downloading the ZIP file from the developer’s website, simply run the EXE file and you will see something similar to a Photoshop start-up screen. When it has loaded, you will be presented with a blank template, toolbars on the left and layers on the right.
People who have used graphics editors before will feel right at home.
Let's try her out and see what she can do! I instantly opened a file by hitting File – Open
You can see that the image I have just opened is a layer, that makes this a layered graphics program just like Photoshop or Gimp. This means you can modify one layer without touching another. Next, I closed this plain, ordinary GIF file and tried to open a PSD file which is Photoshop’s native file format.
Let's select the fill bucket, like you see in the above picture. Then, point at any blank space and fill like so…
We can undo it by pressing Control+Z. The hot keys are the same as well! Next, let’s try to add some text to a new layer. Select the Text tool from the left toolbar, it’s the button with a capital T. You can select your font and size by hitting the Choose button next to ‘Font’
Hit OK and you will see your text in a new layer:
You can turn layers on and off by checking or unchecking the box next to the layers name on the right. And also just like Photoshop, you can automate actions. In Photoshop, you can record and play back actions to make repetitive task a lot easier. Here, you can create script files with commands available in the Help section. You can then play these scripts back on an image — automating common actions like re-sizing or crazy off-the-wall things like distorting images. Do you use Photographix or another lightweight graphics editor? If so, we would love to hear your take on it and any tips or tricks you care to share! Click here to read more on all the articles MakeUseOf has published on portable apps. Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section! New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/ Related posts
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My darling wife was volunteering at the world-famous 
In any event, I did check out Roblox. Not only is it fun, it has some great features. It’s a cool, free virtual world for kids where you get to create your own character, much as you would for 
Do you like to find hidden meanings in your dreams? Do you ever wonder why do people dream? Would you like to control your dreams? We spend one-third of our lives sleeping and most of it dreaming.
For most of us, math is a red rag and kids are no different. Packed into a game however, 
Anyone who knows me very well knows that I’m not one who’s willing to put too much time into anything unless there’s some kind of financial incentive associated with it. That also holds true when you’re trying to figure out how to write a movie review online. For years, I spent hours every day traveling through online forums and writing up long-winded posts on whatever topic was at hand. Much of the addition of online writing certainly comes from the sense of community and lively debate - where a single post can trigger a long series of responses, both good and bad, from a long list of fellow web travelers.
When Charnita wrote this piece on 
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