Wednesday, December 15, 2010

The Internet as Gift Economy: Exemplar 2








OpenOffice with full MS Office compatibility for free




OR











MS Office Suite 2010 for $279





The following is an article on why you might want to consider using OpenOffice 3.3.0 for free instead of paying $279 for MS Office:





http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/5-myths-about-openofficeorg-libreoffice



Pass it on.









The Internet as Gift Economy: Exemplar 1


Rosetta Stone Language Study – one language for $599

The Gift of Language Study

Choose either:

Rosetta Stone Language Study – one language for $599


http://www.rosettastone.com/holqb3?pc=sehol10&cid=se-gg&gclid=CM6JnNf_6aUCFcQH3wod7FG00g


versus


BBC Languages for free


http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/


or



LiveMocha Languages for free


http://www.livemocha.com/


Here is an article on why the free LiveMocha is better than the $600 Rosetta Stone:


http://www.livemocha.com/better-than-rosetta-stone



Pass it on.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Where to Acquire a Library of over 3,000,000 University-Level Books on the Internet:

The University of California at Berkeley Doe Library


University of California's copies of mass-digitized books and serials have been loaded into the HathiTrust, and are discoverable there. In addition, our digitization partners (Google and Internet Archive) also host copies of the UC books they have digitized. In all cases, copyright status determines whether books can be viewed in full. There are many access points where Google and Internet Archive books are surfaced. The following are details of access points for UC items in particular. Over 3,000,000 books have been digitized and are eligible for free downloading. Click on the hyperlinks below to search for and acquire them..



HathiTrust

University of California Libraries books and serials in the public domain in HathiTrust are open to all researchers whoever and wherever they may be. Content in HathiTrust is discoverable through both bibliographic and full-text search with no authentication, login, or password required. As it becomes possible to expand access to the materials through permissions or other agreements, other materials will be made available.


Google Book Search

UC Libraries books and serials in the public domain are generally fully viewable and downloadable. UC Libraries volumes made available through Google Book Search that are in copyright are subject to limited views. Google indexes the full text, but does not serve or display the full-sized digital image or make available for printing and/or download unless Google has permission or a license from the copyright owner to do so


Internet Archive

UC Libraries books and serials in the public domain are generally fully viewable and downloadable. Internet Archive offers a variety of viewing options, including the Flip Book reader which recreates the experience of reading a printed book.








Thursday, December 2, 2010

Another Holiday Present -- Mark Twain's Autobiography vol. 1


One of the biggest events in academic publishing this year is the release of volume 1 of Mark Twain's Autobiography by the University of California Press. The hardcover edition is currently out of stock at Amazon.com and discounted at $19.22. The Kindle ebook version is available for wireless downloading at $9.95.

But the best news is that the entire electronic book, along with scholarly editions of "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and "Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer Among the Indians" is available free of charge at the following University of California Library website:


This is my additional holiday present for my blog followers.

Have a Happy Christmas!

John Freed