While I still prefer real books to read, I admit e-books are a great format for technical topics. They’re easier to search and faster to look up. It’s also an excellent way to save trees: imagine delivering user manuals for each software app in the world as an e-book – and not real paper leaflets.

If you too are curious about e-books, there are a few things you have to know. First of all, you’ll need an e-book reader. yBook is a great choice, a reader with support for several e-book formats, an embedded search tool, support for different text sizes and direct connection to the Gutenberg Project.

What? You don’t know what the Gutenberg Project is? Well, here’s something else you need to learn about e-books then. The Gutenberg Project is one of the largest e-book databases in the world, and it’s al open source. It features over 25,000 titles, specializing in classic authors like Dickens, Twain, Verne, Poe and others. Project Gutenberg though is not the only resource for free books online. You can also use FreeTechBooks to download e-books about computer, maths and other sciences, or the e-book search engine PDF Geni to look for specific titles.

One more thing: once you have downloaded your favorite e-books to your PC, you don’t have to leave them there. Use eBook to Images and you’ll be able to convert any e-book to images and therefore transfer it to any photo-enabled mobile device.

Thinking about launching your own blog? Here’s some friendly advice: Don’t. And if you’ve already got one, pull the plug.

So, Boutin starts with two pieces of silly advice: don’t start blogging and if you already did, quit now. It’s worth noting that as of this moment, Valleywag is still up and running, and more confusingly includes posts published the day after Boutin offered those handy tips. We trust his resignation will be announced soon.

The blogosphere… has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge. Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths… Scroll down Technorati’s list of the top 100 blogs and you’ll find personal sites have been shoved aside by professional ones.

This is Boutin’s main recurring point, known to formal logicians as the “It ain’t like it was in the old days” argument. Closely related to the “You kids don’t know lucky you are” argument, it’s based on a fictitious, rose-tinted view of the olden days along with a paean to some lost hero (in this case “amateur wordsmiths”)

If you look at Technorati’s top 100 from 2005, you’ll see a hell of a lot of names you recognise. A lot of them are still in the top 100, like HuffPo, DailyKos, Gizmodo, Michelle Malkin. Some are new, like Wired and ValleyWag. And some have disappeared because they’ve either been retired (Scobleizer, Baghdad Burning), don’t get updated very often (Maddox) or are just less relevant now (Instapundit). Of course there are some others in there that have gone… but most of them were boring or rubbish anyway. And anyway: Technorati top 100? What is this, the nineties?!

I’ve recently joined the Beta testing program for Football Superstars, a new massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) which includes both an online soccer simulation and a Second Life-style social networking aspect. You start by creating your own character, join a team, then hone your skills playing matches online. Once you get good enough you’ll start earning virtual cash for new clothes, cars, houses, etc. You’ll also be able to hang out and compare bling with the rest of the Football Superstars community in one of the game’s many bars and clubs.

Football Superstars isn’t the first game to allow players to live out their sporting dreams in this way.  For instance, in Fantasy Tennis, players must defend the mythical FantasyLand by playing tennis against the gods. Likewise, Project Powder appeals to extreme sports fans, who will get the chance to snowboard on unspoiled mountains across the whole of Space; while Shot Online offers budding golfers the chance to pitch and putt their way to the very top. There’s even an X-Factor-style MMOG called Super Dancer Online, which allows players to bust moves against each other using their dance mats.

Clearly today’s MMOG developers are turning to sport as a way to attract new communities into the market, and if the formula’s right there’s every chance virtual worlds will move into the mainstream. After all, a teenage girl is much more likely to get excited by the prospect of becoming a dancing queen than she is of being the goblin princess.

Don’t get me wrong, these people mean well, but most of the posts I read were along the lines of: “yes, let’s all stop for a minute and think about how lucky we are”,  “let’s pray for the starving Africans”, or teeing up facts like “did you know that only 6% of the World’s population own 56% of the money?”. While noble in their aims, few of the posts I read even began to make suggestions as to how we can stop global poverty, which is a shame because surely the one thing a Blog Action Day really needs is some “action”. Surfing around some of the sites I did manage to unearth a handful of constructive tips for easing poverty in a practical way. Here are my top five, all of which can be done right now:

• Wheelie Catholic: Dig out old clothes and food cans and take them down to your local food bank
• kelpenhagen: Use a micro-lending service like Kiva, which help businesses in poor areas
• Dell Your Blog: Donate your old cellphones to people in poverty-stricken villages
• The Warning Knock: Sponsor a child or a family living in poverty
• writer’s flow: Stop throwing your old stuff away
• Actually, I will add one action point of my own after all: Download and use AidMaker, a piece of software that donates money to poverty charities whenever you shop online

But hang on a minute: how can you be so negative about wonderful applications such as Gmail and hosting services to store their data. It’s almost an inevitable part of going online nowadays and can’t be avoided and unless you’ve really got something to hide, who cares? If you’re foolish enough to store something really sensitive online, then you should be prepared for potential breaches of privacy. In addition, Google’s servers are probably so reliable, I have more faith in them retaining my data than my own external hard drive backups.

As regards fears that Google may charge for some of its services, well it already does. Google Apps Premium is a prime example indicating that Google’s business plan is to only charge for high level services. Besides, if Google were to charge for any of it’s services, it would surely give users plenty of notice so they could save their data. At least in the case of Google Docs, it’s easy to import and export to desktop versions of Microsoft Office and that surely says a lot about their wish to ensure that the user is in control.

It’s more likely that Google would use advertising within its applications if it wanted to make serious money out of them. And even if they did charge a flat fee, whatever a company like Google would charge would be a minimal amount and for the convenience of something like Gmail, I for one would be happy to pay it. For now at least, I’m quite happy to keep my head firmly in the clouds.

You start off by riding with a cute robot on a shabby bike, but as you progress through the game (and you have quite a handful of levels to beat) you can obtain new drivers, better bikes and hidden tracks. Each race charges you with a series of challenges – such as finishing in the top five places or gathering a minimum number of items – and if you complete them you’ll be rewarded with new unlockable stuff. Jumping is also important, because it’ll give you points to boost up your bike’s speed and overtake any other competitors.

CycloManiacs is controlled with the usual WASD or cursor keys combinations (plus the spacebar or X key to jump). The game is complemented by a nice background soundtrack.

Incoming search terms:

• cyclomaniacs 3

This post aims at list all those different versions of YouTube, including of course the ones you share with us in comments.

YouTube for kids
You may already know some of the many adult versions of YouTube, but you won’t probably be so familiar with this YouTube for kids. Totlol.com features standalone videos, and also collections: groups of similar videos categorized by topic.

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Totlol.com is actually powered by YouTube and can adapt the interface and contents according to the age range we select. Parental control options let you block settings to prevent children from messing with them.

YouTube for books
If you had enough videos for today and fancy reading something instead, check out Scribd.com. This website features books and documents published by anyone, anywhere.

You can find almost anything on Scribd, from short papers about the French Revolution to an Excel Function Dictionary or a 500-page long work about Analytical Psychology.

All books and documents in Scribd are conveniently organized in categories and can be sorted by language, licence, length and file format.GoEar, which features a powerful search engine, lets you listen to any MP3 files for free and supports a list of Favorite songs.

Another good option is soundzit, with more than 300 million songs in its database and no registration required. Simply enter, search and enjoy your favorite music!

Grooveshark features a search engine as the main access to its music database. You can also manage your music, recently played tracks, popular hits, and a list of favorite songs.

Last but not least, we have Last.fm – the most social-oriented candidate of all three. You can discover new bands based on recommendations according to your musical taste, keep a list of friends and also manage concerts and other events.

YouTube for videogames
The most YouTube-like website is undoubtedly GameTrailers, which features an amazingly large collection of videos about all sorts of games, both in standard and high quality.

But this doesn’t mean GameTrailers is the only one. You also have WiiTube (mostly for Nintendo Wii videos), SimTube (specializing in flight simulators) and WeGame, which also hosts videos recorded by players with the WeGame app.

YouTube for scientists
Video sharing sites are not only about fun. You can also find more serious versions, like SciVee, which offers videos about scientific experiments.

Other similar websites are MIT Tech TV – a video community aimed at the distribution of science, engineering, technology and other MIT-related video material on the web – and JoVE, which features biological research.

They all provide you with a valuable tool to aggregate, share and spread scientific knowledge in a more entertaining way.

Want more?
If these YouTube versions weren’t enough, here’s a list of other similar sharing communities we found on the Web.

• YouTube for photos: flickr
• YouTube for videoclips: musicnation
• YouTube for teachers: Teachertube
• YouTube for animations: 4mations.tv
• YouTube for tutorials: helpfulvideo
• YouTube for howtos: Howcast
• YouTube for presentations: SlideShare
• YouTube for computer security: Securitytube
• YouTube for Islam: Islamictube
• YouTube for Christians: tangle
• YouTube for paranormal stuff: disclose.tv
• YouTube for audio files: audioBoo.fm
• YouTube for streaming videos: Ustream.tv
• YouTube for funny videos: heywtf
• YouTube for jokes: JokeyPhone
• YouTube for magazines: Issuu
• YouTube for people with disabilities: Webbytalents
• YouTube for travel videos: GeoBeats
• YouTube for animated GIFs: Giftube
• YouTube for pets: PetTube
• YouTube for dogs: Dogtube

[Adapted from: OnSoftware Spain]

If you’ve ever been to Finland then you’ll know how cold it can get – especially if you’re walking around naked. Sweaty Boy finds himself in this predicament every day and in order to keep him from turning into an icicle he needs regular visits to the sauna. The trouble is, he’s too cold to even walk. This is where you come in. You need to get Sweaty Boy to the sauna by rolling him along the floor using a elaborate system of seesaws, ramps and falling blocks. Tap the white objects to remove them and watch what happens.

The presentation of Sweaty Boy has a decidedly menacing feel with bizarre graphics, dirty sound loops and some warped sound effects that combine to make you feel decidedly uneasy. Riveting logic problem-solving fun.

• Instantizer – Fill in a simple form with a photo from your hard drive, a custom message and an optional rotation degree, and you’ll get an instant Polaroid with a link that’s valid for 24 hours. Simple, yet effective.
• Photo Notes -  Select a photo from your PC or a website and transform it into a Polaroid with a few extra options: custom text message, image position, rotation, text font, etc. You can also share it by email or publish it on a web gallery.
• Rollip – A popular website that lets you create Polaroids with color effects, decorations and a custom message in three easy steps. The image is immediately available for download or sharing online in an email, IM or blog.
• Poladroid – If you prefer using software, this is the tool you need. Drag and drop any image on Poladroid’s interface and the program will transform it into a Polaroid right away. You can even shake the file to make it appear faster, like the real Polaroids!

Last but not least, here are a couple of Photoshop tutorials I wrote a while ago that also let you apply the beauty of Polaroids to your photos: one tutorial to create a nice Polaroid collage with different images, and another one to transform a single photo into a bunch of Polaroids scattered all over the screen.

The rules of English spelling are so varied that learning them off by heart is a difficult task. Rather than sitting down with the Softonic” >dictionary and a very strong cup of coffee, it might be a good idea to learn while doing something else and there’s no better way than reading. If you’re looking for an occasional alternative to the books, however, you’re in luck, because spelling games are some of the most widely available, both on and off the computer. Watch out for crosswords, word searches and hangman games and play them whenever possible. Even if you find them hard at first, keep trying; they get easier with repetition, especially if you concentrate on just one, such as doing the crossword in a particular newspaper every day.

When you’re surfing the web, make sure you have a spell-check/dictionary add-on so that you can learn as you browse. DictionarySearch is one that you can customize with whatever online dictionaries you like best, while Firefox Add-Ons have a selection of spellcheckers that will check text while you write. Don’t get too dependent on spellcheckers though, because although they will catch any incorrect spellings, they won’t realize when you have used the wrong word in a sentence or accidentally crossed paths with a homophone (words that sound the same but are spelled differently, like here and hear).

There area also plenty of games that will make the task more fun. It has to be said that as a category, spelling programs are not the slickest in cyberspace, but that doesn’t mean they won’t keep you entertained. If you think that that traditional is best, there are plenty of crosswords and word searches out there. There are also lots of games that manage to combine spelling with a variety of other methods to keep you busy. One of my favorites is Find A Word, while Speak N Spell is also a bit of fun. If you’re looking for something more flashy, you could take a look at WordGrid, Letter Rack 3D or Word Up, but bear in mind that some of the more colorful games are clearly aimed at children. This doesn’t really matter for practice, but after a while you might find yourself wishing uncharitable thoughts towards the singing worms and dancing books they usually contain!

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: Math

Part 3: Reading