Video site is kind of like a YouTube lite
Totlol is a moderated, family-friendly video site aimed at kids and parents. One’s first reaction to the idea of a YouTube lite for kids is: Why encourage young people to spend even more time online.
We felt that way until we checked out Totlol and found it well done and a storehouse of imaginative and useful video.
Clearly, parental involvement is necessary before letting your children hang out at Totlol. Properly monitored, kids will have a roaring good time checking out the choices here.
Totlol does a decent job of organizing and cataloging all the video options out there, from music sing-alongs to very interesting animation. Nearly everything on display at Totlol derives from safe and G-rated YouTube channels.
We thoroughly enjoyed one video we found, “Elephant on a Trampoline.” A free user account is needed to build a list of favorites. Just viewing video doesn’t require an account.
•Youvebeenleftbehind.com is a fringe site so odd we had to call it out. The site lets believers in the Rapture – the coming day when good Christians go to heaven and the doubters stay behind – send last-minute e-mail messages to non-believers, urging them to repent and get on board or face perdition.
For $40 a year, believers can arrange for up to 62 e-mail messages to be sent exactly six days after the Rapture. That’s supposed to be the deadline for the fence-sitters, the people who have not yet been yanked into heaven but have one last chance.
The way the service works is ingenious. The site has a system that will send out e-mail to designated addresses when three of its five team members scattered around the U.S fail to log in over a three-day period.
Doubters, or those whose spam filters blocked the final messages, are doomed to spend seven years of tribulation under the thumb of the Antichrist. If the Antichrist does take over, I bet that will mark the end of e-mail spam.
•Chinesepod.com – There are scads of places to learn conversational Chinese. Chinesepod is one of the easiest to navigate. The first month is free. It’s full of simple-to-follow lessons and a pair of instructors who explain conversational Mandarin very well.
TOOLBOX
Fontstruct.com – When the load of type fonts you’ve got on your computer just aren’t enough, turn to the very cool Fontstruct.com site and browse about for something that fits your special typographic needs.
Fontstruct is a project operated by Fontshop, a for-profit site that features high-end Web fonts and graphics. The Fontstruct open-source site allows people to create and share their own creative font styles. The choices range from elaborate looking designs (some of them are merely sets of small images) to highly stylized, attractive fonts. Some of the better designs cost money to download; many are free, however.
The site’s gallery group is where you can browse and find fonts to download. Another section, called My FontStruct, is where you start to follow a wizard that guides you through creating your own custom font.