Educate Yourself For Free

Lifehacker made a recent post about their "Top 10 Tools for a Free Online Education" and it looks to be full of good suggestions. Two on their list that stand out to me are Google's Code University and Academic Earth.

I've browsed Academic Earth a little bit previously and it looked like it had a huge amount of quality content. Ironically it's level of quality is what has kept me away from it thus far, I know that once I start to sink my teeth into it I won't be able to stop. One more source of procrastination heading into the end of the semester is the last thing I need.

Google Code University I didn't know existed until seeing the Lifehacker posting today. I've used Google Code to a small degree, but just didn't know the University portion existed. I haven't really looked at what's there yet, but I'm interested in finding out. This also falls under the category of potential source of procrastination so, like Academic Earth, I probably won't really get into it for a while yet.

Lifehacker doesn't usually steer me wrong so I definitely plan on giving their eight other suggestions a look at some point as well. Any other suggestions or tips for receiving free education?

[Top 10 Tools via Lifehacker]

Post Script: I do have this in addition to their suggestions. W3Schools is a reference and tutorial covering web development topics. I don't do much html work so when I do I generally like to have a reference handy, and they have delivered.

"You don't need fancy highbrow traditions or money to really learn. You just need people with the desire to better themselves." -Adam Cooper and Bill Collage

Password Check

Lifehacker recently posted a link to this website that tests the strength of your password against a brute force attack. You simply have to enter the number of letters, numbers, symbols, etc. and the website calculates the amount of time it would take a brute force attack generated by a typical PC.

Fitness Tools

Lifehacker did a post recently about some (tech) fitness tools anyone can use to get in shape. They had some tips / tools that I was already aware of or seemed obvious to me (such as listening to music, finding proper running shoes, and the nike+ system), but there were a couple of items I found particularly interesting.

First was an everyman's workout routine known as "shovelgloving". It only requires one piece of equipment, a sledgehammer wrapped in a sweatshirt. What's more manly than that?

The other is a tool called MapMyRun. It's powered by Google Maps and used for what else but mapping your runs. Other features include a calories burned calculator and even gps support if you upgrade to the pro version.

Other honorable mentions include a couch to 5k to marathon plan as well as a plan to go from 0 to 100 pushups in 6 weeks. Well with that I'm off to go find a sledgehammer, have fun with the tools.

Ever noticed how it's always runners who find dead bodies? -Pearl Izumi ad