A Big List of Sites That Teach You How To Do Stuff
The truth is, the XO laptop, now in final testing, is absolutely amazing, and in limited tests by the NY Times, a total kid magnet. Both the hardware and the software exhibit breakthrough after breakthrough — some of them not available on any other laptop, for $400 or $4,000.Designed as a low cost, scalable option for children in Third World countries, it's a breakthrough in education, computing, and hopefully, economic development. In November, you'll be able to purchase your own XO for $400, which includes 1 XO for you and 1 XO for a child in a developing country.
http://laptop.org/
http://www.xogiving.org/
read more digg story
NYT - Please Cast Ryan Gosling as Me
New York Times opinion piece by a teacher that struggled to be like the inspirational miracle workers that teachers are in the movies, but failed. Will Okun describes what it's like to be a real teacher in a real school in Chicago with real students.
Real life isn't like the movies? Hmmm... It's still inspiring to know that most teachers are still trying to make a difference.
The Profit Calculator - New York Magazine
What does it take to make a profit in New York City?
It's tough to run a business in the world's most competitive city, New York. New York Magazine has 21 mini case studies on a wide range of successful businesses in NYC, where success is often measured by just having the resources to pay the rent. Some of the businesses are legit, some are illegal, but this information is intriguing.
Direct links to the case studies are posted here:
A Yellow-Cab Driver: Samuel Pekoh
A Four-Star Restaurant: Nobu
A Drug Dealer: 'Nick'
A Private School: Horace Mann School
A Private Investigator: Michael McKeever
A Department Store: Macy's Herald Square
A Diner: Silver Star
A Drug Company: Pfizer
A Soup Kitchen: Yorkville Common Pantry
A Financial Firm: Goldman Sachs
A Yoga Studio: Joschi Body Bodega
A Midtown Building: 666 Fifth Avenue
A Sex Shop: Babeland
A Baseball Team: New York Yankees
A Discount Store: Jack’s 99¢ Stores
A Museum: Museum of Modern Art
A Pizza Place: Nina’s Argentinian Pizzeria
A Clothing Store: H&M Flagship
A Copy Shop: Copyland
A Publishing Company: Random House
City Government: The City of New York
If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere!
Today's Link source: MetaFilter
Placemaking for Communities Project for Public Spaces (PPS)
Too much of urban planning revolves exclusively around homes, malls and streets, and not enough thought goes into public spaces. The Project for Public Spaces (PPS) wants to change that.
You might ask, what are public spaces? PPS lists:Parks, Transportation, Civic Centers , Public Markets, Downtowns, Mixed-use Developments, Campuses, and Squares. Put another way, these public spaces are what make a community vibrant, interesting and livable. They are the soul of a city that fills out the skeleton of infrastructure.
Some of the highlights include their list of the 60 of the World's Great Places (all public spaces), training resources, and tons of examples of great public spaces.
If you're into Urban Design, Land Use Planning, or Community Development, you should be all over this site.
Let's give a big hand to EvenMe for the tip!
Self-Made Scholar
Self-Made Scholar has combed the web for audio, video, email, and text-based courses – all of which are available for free. If there's a field you'd like to study, they probably have it: languages, business, the arts, social sciences, cooking, world religions, etc. Sure you can search for information on the net, but there's a lot to be gained by going through a structured course with a learning plan.
Maybe you don't need to spend all that money on a university education after all.
Forbes.com Best of the Web
Forbes magazine, eh? Isn't that for wealthy, money managers and greedy businessmen? Yeah, maybe. But their collection of links is excellent!
There is a vast difference between having lots and lots of links, and having a collection of well organized links to the best sites in every category. The folks at Forbes have really done their homework. This site links to the best of the best.
Their categories are:
Blogs
Collecting
Education
Health
Investing
Look It Up
Luxe Shopping
Management
Personal Finance and Careers
The Good Life
Travel
Ok, so maybe I could live without the Luxe Shopping category, but the rest seem to be really good collections of links. Each category, breaks down further into subcategories. Even though the categories seem so simple, they claim to have included over 3,000 sites, which qualify because of Content, Design, Speed, Navigation and Customization. Wow!!!
Aggregators like this are great for link scavengers like me. I might be able to get a whole week’s worth of really good links off of this one website. Now, if Christopher Walks only had the time to check them all out, Christopher Walks might be able to put more links up on the Linkjockey website.
If you have suggestions for the Linkjockey, please email them to me.
Energy Alternatives - Alternative Energy sources, alternate energy, solar panel, photovoltaics
This Canadian company's website is a great resource for those wanting to learn more about environmentally-friendly energy solutions to global warming.
From the first steps of learning about different kinds of alternative energy, to instructions, to supplies for building your own project; there is a lot of easy-to-understand, practical information at this site! Among other things, they cover microhydro projects, solar water heaters, solar panels or wind generation projects.
One day, you might even be able to sell energy back to the Power Company!
Bible.com
Looking for a specific Bible verse? Wondering about the differences between different translations? Want to read the Bible online for free? Looking for a translation of the Bible in another language?
What if you don't have any interest in the Bible? As Kevin Kelly writes about the Bible in one of his Cool Tools reviews, "You should read the Bible, at least once, maybe all the way through, because it does not say what you expect it to say, no matter what you expect it to say."
Bringing the Bible gracefully into the networked, searchable, Google age is Bible.com. It's the best online resource for searching, browsing, learning about and studying the Bible that I've come across online.
