Author: TYH

A Singaporean Chinese Language Teacher
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Stellarium Astronomy Software

If you like stargazing like us but often find the “m zeros” obstructing your view, here’s a software that will solve that problem 🙂

Stellarium is free GPL software which renders realistic skies in real time with openGL. It is available for Linux/Unix, Windows and MacOSX. With Stellarium, you really see what you can see with your eyes, binoculars or a small telescope. Stellarium is also used in planetariums.

oh btw, this might come in handy to you when configuring the location: Singapore, Singapore 1’14” N, 103’55” E. For more location, click here 🙂

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Windows Marketplace – Free Download Hub

The word FREE is always attractive, and it’s quite a pleasant surprise to see the word associated with microsoft. In any case, chanced upon this site that claims to have “more than 5,000 downloads from over 2,000 companies � all free.” Check it out and see if you find anything useful, might want to share your findings here *lol*

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mp3, mp4, m4a, m4b, m4v – codec explained

This article gives an overview of the emergent codecs. People are now utilising the mp4 layer for their file encodings. Read this article to gain this know-how.

.m4a for podcast using the AAC format (may also contain either chapters or images or a mixture)
.m4b for podcasts with chapters and images (as in audiobooks; aka enhanced podcasts)
.m4v for vodcasts using the codec for movie files compatible with video iPods
.mp4 for vodcasts using this general video format
.mov for vodcasts using this traditional video format

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On videoblogging

Well, videoblogging (or vlog) is slowly taking its place in the family of blogs. Until we solve the problem of bandwidth and video equipments, using vlog in our classroom would not be as pervasive as we would like to. In the meantime, some links/resources for those who would like to explore vlog:
If you would like to start viewing/subscribing to some vlogs, Mefeedia is where you can find thousands of videobloggers (video podcasts), and subscribe to their feeds to watch independent videos in the browser, or even on your video iPod or on your PSP.
Besides Mefeedia, if you are monitoring updates in some vlogs, get FireANT. It is a RSS reader for vlogs, featuring automatic downloads and many other features.
If you want to start your own videoblog today (for free), check out Freevlog, a step-by-step guide to setting up a videoblog for free.
Last but not least, if you would like to just READ more about vlog, download this article entitled “7 Things You Should Know About Videoblogging” by EDUCAUSE. It’s only a 73KB PDF! 🙂

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Podcast Projections

Based on a sample of 4400 radio listeners in ten national markets, Bridge Ratings … estimates that 5 million people will have downloaded podcasts in 2005, compared with just 820,000 in 2004 …the podcast audience would reach critical mass in 2010 with 62.8 million users.

The figure in 2005 is 609% that of 2004 and it will be 7658% by the year 2010. Are we harnessing podcasting for our teaching and learning yet?
Click here for the full article.

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