ICT Beginners: Exactly what was needed - a brilliant new set of online lessons from U3A Online Australia for those relatives and colleagues that are just getting to grips with their new computer.

http://www.necseniors.net.au/tutor/bfs-intro.html

Language Groups: There are 119 languages listed at http://www.word2word.com/course.html - from Abenaki to Xhosa. Word2Word provides these FREE links in the hope of all people developing a better understanding of others through the use of language.

They have attempted to place as many online courses at your disposal as possible. These sites contain lessons to help learn one language from another. The courses vary in quality and the quantity of material presented.

Are you a UK member and over 70? Free light bulbs and water saving devices are available to those over 70. Gas central heating grants are available for those on qualifying benefits, tax credits or allowances. Grants for home insulation are available for ALL owner/occupiers and private tenants, whatever your level of income.

These grants will NOT be available forever, once the funding is exhausted, they will cease. Be sure to apply early.

Science and Technology: In general, we don't value science as much as we should. It lives beneath the surface of everything we touch and taste. So let's look again at science: what is it doing for us already? How is it going to drive us to a better future? So click-on http://sciencesowhat.direct.gov.uk/SSWFindOutMoreFavourites.aspx and see how science is touching you.

Added 2nd August 2009

The UK Money Comparison website at http://www.money.co.uk/savings-accounts.htm compares 1587 accounts from 236 companies and halfway down the page is a useful guide.

Gapminder is a wonderful site; not primarily about statistics, much more about how technology can be used to understand the numbers that we are given by the media. As just one example watch Hans Rosling talking about AIDS statistics at http://www.gapminder.org/videos/ted-talk-2009-hans-rosling-hiv-facts/

If your keyboard is faulty, Microsoft provides an alternative way to type-in using the mouse. Go to: Start menu Select: Run Type in: OSK Press: OK and a keyboard will be displayed on your monitor which you can use with your mouse. Try it now.....

The Google UK Schools Site offers free resources to help use Google tools in the classroom. Working with teachers, they have developed ideas for how Google Search, Maps, Earth, Images and News can be used to bring subjects such as geography and history to life. They are equally useful for U3A groups.

Added 13th July 2009.

The Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation is a leading source of funding, serving Alzheimer’s patients and their families to help them understand the causes of, find a cure for, and improve the quality of life for people with Alzheimer’s disease. It also has a section which may be helpful to carers.

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is one of the UK's leading science and research facilities. It is a world-leading centre of excellence in developing and applying the most accurate standards, science and technology available. Find out more about the interesting things we do; from measuring time to building water rockets - including information on our educational resources.

U3A History Groups: The ancient Indus script, as yet undeciphered, continues to intrigue scholars with the lure of new insights into humanity's history. Some 5,000 examples have been found, but a definitive translation is still elusive. The Indus Valley civilization covered an area of Pakistan and northwest India about a quarter the size of Europe. At its peak, between 2500 and 1900 bce, its major cities were among the world's biggest. This article in a recent issue of New Scientist is worth downloading, distributing and discussing at a future group meeting.

The GreenSpaces website demonstrates that technology, lifestyle changes, and design can economically reduce the energy consumed by buildings from 40% to 10%. This broadcast - "How to grow your own fresh air" is something that we can all of us do in our own homes. (Thank you I.V.L.N.Chary - Andhra U3A Hyderabad).

Researchers: Oxford Journals are part of Oxford University Press. They are a major international publisher of academic and research journals, and they publish and develop titles in partnership with the world's most prestigious learned societies. Many of the journals are completely free to use.

Added 1st June 2009

All members: A mass migration of millions of Painted Ladies from North Africa is underway -- not difficult to spot with their 3-inch wingspan.

The Butterfly Conservation organisation are keen to map the sightings and ask everyone to let them know where you saw them. A map is provided to make it easy at http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/sightings/1097/painted_lady.html Imagining the Future: The 21st Century School fosters innovative thinking, deep scholarship and collaborative activity to address the most pressing risks of the 21st Century. Ageing, Armed conflict, Emerging infections, Energy, Migration, Nanoscience and many others -- each Institute has its own separate research programme but encourages inter-disciplinary and collaborative working. Click-on or go to http://www.21school.ox.ac.uk/

Natural History Groups and wildlife enthusiasts can take advantage of the many webcams installed in England during this nesting season. A fascinating insite into bird and animal behaviour and an interesting use of web technology. To learn more simply click on or go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/springwatch/webcams/

Local History Groups: Do you have video or film clips of your town from the past? MACE is the Media Archive for Central England and they would like to hear from you. You can also see and download and show the material they already have in their archive at http://www.macearchive.org/About/whatismace.html

Sci/Tech Groups: Massachusetts Institute of Technology announce 'Ask an Engineer' a compendium of information that could easily form the basis of a quiz for group members. See http://engineering.mit.edu/ask/ (Thank you V. Ragavendrarao of Society for Service to Seniors, Chennai, India).

For Women in Science is an international programme run by New Scientist to promote and highlight the importance of ensuring greater participation of women in science. Results will be announced on July 1st. Please take part by sending your vote, click on or go to http://www.newscientist.com/special/women-in-science-2009-intro (Thank you Christina Lay - U3A UK).

History/Archaeology Groups: Now that summer has arrived, why not arrange a visit to one of the many museums that encourage weekday groups of visitors? A fairly full list can be found at http://www.ilovethepast.com/museums

TECHNICAL TOPICS

The Australian Flexible Learning Network announce their forthcoming June program of webconferences at http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/flx/go/home/pid/510/ The site includes a very useful archive of previous sessions.

Brian Spilsbury of U3A UK, writing about installing UBUNTU on the U3ASupport Bulletin Board recommends http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ubuntu-linux-guide,2293.html

Also the UK Linux User Groups website can be found at http://lug.org.uk/ and there may be one that meets near you. (Thank you Andy Pepperdine of U3A Bath).

Added 2nd April 2009.

ALL GROUPS: This is the education part of YOUTUBE - http://www.youtube.com/edu and there's something here for everyone. You will need broadband connection/laptop and a projector.

HISTORY GROUPS: HistoryNet.com is the world’s largest publisher of history magazines. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 5,000 articles originally published in our various magazines. If you are interested in a specific history subject, try searching their archives.

GARDENING GROUPS: Shrinking pension? Need exercise? Fancy growing your own fruit and vegetables but don't have the land? Cleve West tells us how to go about getting an allotment. If you like the idea, get in touch with your local council, and there's lots of good advice at http://www.saga.co.uk/homeandlifestyle/gardening/ allotments/cleve-west-allotment-guide.asp .

SCI/TECH GROUPS: Strongly recommended; extracts would make a very good series of illustrated talks. http://www.badscience.net/ is run by Dr Ben Goldacre, the award winning writer, broadcaster, and medical doctor who has written the weekly Bad Science column in the Guardian since 2003. (Thank you Miall James - U3A Witham & Braintree).

WRITERS/BOOK Groups: WeBOOK describes itself as "A Decidedly Different Book Publishing Company With an Unconventional Approach to Conventional Publishing". It requires you to join (which could put some people off) but the idea behind it seems really interesting, and especially the 'collaborative writing' aspect. Please go to http://www.webook.com to learn more, and you can also see a video about it if you click on http://pitches.techcrunch.com/pitch/36-webook

TECHNICAL TOPICS:

BEGINNERS: What’s a Byte - www.whatsabyte.com - was recently featured on the BBC as one of the “Best Sites on the World Wide Web”.

Computer Hope - http://www.computerhope.com - has been designed to assist all types of computer users with any of their computer related questions as well as a great location to learn more about your computer and its hardware and software.

Protect yourself from the Conficker computer worm. On April 1st the Conficker worm will simply start taking more steps to protect itself. Beginning on April 1st the worm will use a communications system that is more difficult for security researchers to interrupt. Just in case, for a few sites for removal tools that will help you rid your computer of it see http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/ viruses/worms/conficker.mspx or you can try http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/viruses/worms/conficker.mspx

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Added 3rd March 2009

o ALL SUBJECTS: Laptop-PLUS-projector-PLUS-http://academicearth.org/ gives any serious subject group an incredibly rich resource, namely 'Thousands of video lectures from the world's top scholars" entirely free of charge. (Another reason for a U3A Group to find the money for a projector).

o JOURNEYS: http://www.transportdirect.info/ have greatly improved their search facilities and now include all forms of public transport within the UK.

o This is Money - http://www.thisismoney.co.uk - aims to help its 1.6m-plus monthly readers to save and make money in all aspects of their lives. They do this by delivering news plus advice-packed features, analysis and predictions.

o OpenStreetMap is a free map of the whole world. Like a 'wiki' it allows users to view and to edit geographical data in a collaborative way from anywhere on Earth. Click on or go to http://openstreetmap.org/

TECHNICAL MATTERS o PROJECTS: File sharing and backup. Groups needing to share documents will find http://www.filephile.net/about.html useful. Files of any size or format easily shared by any size of group; confidential, secure and also free to use.

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Added 1st February 2009

o SCI/TECH: NASA is well known, but equally, if not more important, is its sister organisation NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). Their website at http://www.education.noaa.gov/ has some excellent education resources entirely free of charge.

o AUTHORS: The Ezine website is a place where Expert Authors share their best articles on a very wide range of subjects. Newsletter editors with some space to spare will find plenty to interest them at http://ezinearticles.com/

o http://www.howstuffworks.com/ is a compendium of articles about How Stuff Works. Supported by advertising, it is written in a popular "gee whiz" style, but has plenty of well-written articles on a wide range of subjects.

TECHNICAL TOPICS

o Seriously thinking of trying Linux? The UBUNTU version is easy to get and install in parallel to windows. See http://tinyurl.com/bj9z29 - which in an online screencast about the dual-boot version just 13 minutes long.

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Added 1st January 2009

o The Virtual U3A of the United Kingdom is now available at http://vu3a.org It is intended to serve the needs of those who, by reason of location, health or other commitments, are unable to attend a local U3A. Participants must have a computer and some basic skills. Contact wariner@waitrose.com

o U3A Online of Australia announce their programme for 2009, click-on http://www.u3aonline.org.au -- 42 short online courses and many other useful resources for older people, especially those who are geographically, physically or socially isolated. They are mostly of 8 weeks duration.

o Collectors of porcelain and those interested in the subject will find www.porcelainmarksandmore.com/0pages/list-a.php to be a useful resource.

o ibiblio is Not Your Average Library. Home to one of the largest "collections of collections" on the Internet, www.ibiblio.org is a source of freely available information, including software, art, music, literature, history, science, politics, and cultural studies.

o Walking isn't just the perfect form of physical exercise for the over-60s it could also "Save your sanity" according to Italian studies in dementia. See http://www.nhs.uk/news/2007/December/Pages/Exerciseanddementia.aspx

TECHNICAL TOPICS

o WinAudit is easy to use, no special knowledge is required to use the programme. It is a self-contained single file that needs no installation or configuration. It can be run from a floppy disk or USB stick -- see http://www.pxserver.com/WinAudit.htm PC audit and inventory of software, licenses, security configuration, hardware, network settings... <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Added December 2008

o Oxford University are now making hundreds of lectures by top- flight experts available as PODCASTS. You will need to install iTunes to see/hear them. Go to http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/

o Language classes will appreciate these free online translation dictionaries. The site also contains excellent forums where you can ask questions about finer definitions, colloquial usage, etc., and native speakers from around the world give you their advice. http://www.wordreference.com/ Similarly, logophiles will be gobsmacked by http://www.worldwidewords.org (Thank you Claire Eglinton- Lower North U3A, South Australia).

TECHNICAL TOPIC

o Tucows continues to provide free software for many major computer platforms including Windows, Linux and Macintosh, and even older versions of Windows. There is an interesting review of shareware sites at Gismo's Best Windows Download Sites: www.techsupportalert.com/best_shareware_sites.htm (Thank you Max Potter - U3A Witney, UK).

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Added November 2008

o Gardens: Free Advice at http://www.gardenadvice.co.uk/index.html You can request advice on any gardening project or problem you have in your garden, by either sending them an email at advisor@gardenadvice.co.uk or through their website.

o Languages: A website where you can find a lot of activities for beginners to learn French and Spanish for free can be found at http://www.frenchspanishonline.com/beginnersfrench/freefrench.html

o Reference: Bartleby claims to be "The preeminent Internet publisher of literature, verse and reference with unlimited access free of charge". The reference section at http://bartelby.org/reference/ is certainly comprehensive.

o Bridge players: www.bridgebase.com is a site enabling players of all levels to play live with people from all over the world whenever they like. It¹s a site well worth looking at and even learning from. (Thank you Val Clowes - U3A in Kennet, UK)

o Current Affairs: We are now at the halfway point of the UN's Millenium Development Goals - see http://www.undp.org/mdg/ - and U3A Online Australia are creating an Online Course to explain these. For further information email Kathleen Rossini at kathleen@rossini.id.au

TECHNICAL TOPIC

o Need to send occasional faxes? Here's a genuine free service allowing up to 2 free faxes to over 30 countries per day. Compose fax online similar to an email or upload a file. http://www.freefaxbutton.com/

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o Got a spare room and also internationally-minded? What not join HOST UK and give a foreign student a few days of your hospitality? See http://www.hostuk.org.uk/ (Thank you Debbie Reardon – U3A Burscough, UK).

o Wellness Made Easy: 365 Tips for Better Health. A booklet from the University of California, Berkeley Wellness Letter can be found at www.WellnessLetter.com

o The ‘About Seniors’ website has a wide range of articles at http://www.aboutseniors.com.au/index.php/articles/category including an excellent Technical section.

o An alternative search program to Google (simpler to use when researching a single word) can be downloaded from http://www.answers.com/main/download_answers_win.jsp (Thank you Omer Roucoux – U3A Luton, UK).

o Ramblers: The 60-mile Wat’s Dyke Heritage Trail on the Welsh Border is open after nine years of planning. To learn more see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/mid_/7608768.stm

TECHNICAL TOPICS o Preserve your sanity. Easily create a logon password protection disk for your computer in case you forget your password. The alternative is an entire system reinstall. Learn how at http://sites.google.com/site/u3asitedemo/

o REALLY useful tip: Hold down Ctrl and rotate the wheel on the top of your mouse to increase or decrease the document size on the screen. Works with IExplore, Firefox, Opera.

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o Social/local History Groups: The Mitchell and Kenyon collection is an amazing visual record of everyday life in Britain at the beginning of the twentieth century. For a 1901 example see http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=duspZzvrIKo and "Unwanted Guests" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeBn60WWTDU&NR=1 is very educational!

o Health: WisdomCards make it easy for you to find the most useful health resources for any health topic. Click on http://organizedwisdom.com/Home

o Tutorials and Demonstrations: See http://www.jingproject.com/ The video explains it nicely and you can see a very good demo of it at http://screencast.com/t/VnIGxR07

o Songza http://www.songza.com/ is a search engine that gives you easy access to streamable MP3s across the Web. Enter a song, artist, or both and Songza serves it up free of charge.

TECHNICAL TOPICS o Thinking of running classes in website design? For site design tips and web design tutorials see http://www.boogiejack.com/

o Drop.io - http://drop.io/ - is the simplest way to share files online. Simply set up a private space to drop any files by phone, email, web, widget or fax and then share them with whoever you want via a variety of outputs.

o Martin Lewis' free (and advert-free) money advice website has proved useful on many occasions. It now has a page devoted to reviews of free office software and utilities. Click on http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/free-office-software (Thank you Peter Ridgway - U3A Spelthorne, UK).

o Music Groups: WorldU3A are very pleased to announce their new interactive website for classical music lovers. Click on http://u3amusicgroups.pbwiki.com and to join the DISCUSSION you will need the password "bach".

o Fernando Gómez-Pinilla, a fish-loving professor of neurosurgery at the University of California believes that appropriate changes to a person's diet can enhance his cognitive abilities, protect his brain from damage and counteract the effects of ageing. http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11745528 (Thank you Shafeeq Siddiqui U3A London).

o Better than GOOGLE? Certainly a lot easier to use, and VERY attractive. Type 'searchme' in your browser address bar and hit 'Control-ENTER' and that should bring up www.searchme.com

o Openwriting Web magazine - http://openwriting.com/archives/ - features a feast of words from regular columnists, U3A writers and other authors. Every day there is something new. (Thank you Peter Hinchliffe - U3A UK).

o http://www.bonzer.org.au/ is The Australian Online Monthly Magazine by, for and about Wise Elders. Regular features, plus an area for submitted articles on a theme.

o http://books.google.co.uk/ and http://booksearch.blogspot.com/ Browse books online Book Search works just like web search. Try a search on Google Book Search and if the book is out of copyright, or the publisher has given us permission, you'll be able to see a preview of the book, and in some cases the entire text. If it's in the public domain, you're free to download a PDF copy.

TECHNICAL TOPICS

o Adeona - http://adeona.cs.washington.edu/index.html - is the first Open Source system for tracking the location of your lost or stolen laptop that does not rely on a proprietary, central service. This means that you can install Adeona on your laptop and go - there's no need to rely on a single third party. (Thank you Juli Davis - U3A Maidenhead UK.)

o Please clickon http://worldu3a.org to see (and join?) our project MY U3A and also clickon the 'Cooperation' button for our new project 'International Links'. o Gardening Groups: Lots of free advice (on slideshows) on designs http://www.applegategardens.co.uk/acatalog/online_garden_design.html o An American teachers resource website - 3,000 Lesson Plans can be found and downloaded at HOTCHALK. Lots of good ideas to be found at http://www.lessonplanspage.com/ o Photographic Groups: The Ordnance Survey want a pictorial record of England, and you can help them. Please have a look at http://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php (Thank you RWG7NDT) o Leave the car at home and investigate the world of free or very cheap bus travel - it may be lots cheaper than you think; see http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/PublicTransport/BusAndCoachTravel/ o Free Audiobooks! LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files back onto the net. The goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books. Clickon http://librivox.org/ to learn more. TECHNICAL SUPPORT o Hard Drive Failure? - maybe you can recover those files. See the advice at http://askbobrankin.com/hard_drive_recovery.html o Checking each non-Microsoft program on a Windows machine to see if you have the latest version is time-consuming and annoying. There's a solution at http://filehippo.com/ (Thanks Mike Godfrey)

o A new website from Third Age Press with some excellent links to organisations of particular interest to older women -- click on www.wwwow.info

o Full information about all U3A Online Courses can be found at www.courses.u3a-info.co.uk/

o The Massachusetts Intitute of Technology is a long way away but their "OpenCourseWare" is so good it merits a mention. FREE downloadable courses and course materials on an astonishing range of subjects can be found at www.ocw.mit.edu/ocwweb

o Bibliophiles may find that the author of their current or recently- read book has recorded a short video-clip about it. There are many hundreds, possibly thousands, of entries. 'Curiously addictive' said the Sunday Times, www.meettheauthor.co.uk

o If you are travelling abroad later this year, you will find the Geographia website useful for cultural and historical back- grounds to many countries. See www.geographia.com

o http://www.heavens-above.com/ aims to provide you with all the information you need to observe satellites such as the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle, spectacular events and other spaceflight and astronomical information.

o For both men and women, the bigger the belly in relation to the hips - otherwise called the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) - the greater the likelihood of arterial calcium in the heart. See http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20070814/hl_hsn/potbelliespointtoheartrisk

o Art and Art History: An excellent resource, fully indexed, can be found at http://www.artdaily.com - the first Art newspaper on the Internet. One interesting area is "Art In Motion", where 22 buildings, statues, or famous places are described, with a 3-D animated view of each section. Or check out "This Day in History."

o http://www.educationindex.com/education_resources.html seems

to have everything for any subject group.