Category: free

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People Talk About Free Resources on the Internet That We Should All Know

Even though it might feel like we live in a reality where things are overpriced and we’re getting charged for pretty much everything, there are still a lot of good FREE things online that we should be taking advantage of.

And today we’re gonna get a little bit smarter!

What are some free online resources we should all know about?

AskReddit users shared their thoughts.

1. A whole treasure trove.

“I found this out myself, Wikimedia, the non-profit that runs Wikipedia, has many more things than just articles!

Wikimedia Commons has various pictures and media, all of which is free use

MediaWiki is free source wiki software, and it has guides and a help desk to help you

Wikibooks has free textbooks on a variety of subjects, including computing, engineering, languages, math, science, social sciences, and a few others.

Wikiversity is the specific one for textbooks and learning materials, including videos.

Wikinews offers free news.

Wikisource has poetry, laws of numerous countries, general literature, and original content.

Wikivoyage is a travel guide, which is helpful especially if you’re planning on traveling during COVID-19.

Other things that are not Wikimedia related:

Coursera, which has free classes for computer skills, different languages, certificates, etc;

Open Library, which has free books online for you to read, in various languages, although they don’t have everything;

HubSpot, which has free marketing and other business tools (you can get a premium account, but you can also get a free account)

Ambient Mixer, which has free ambient sounds from horror to Harry Potter.”

2. Math stuff.

“Wolfram Alpha.

Wolfram Alpha was a lifesaver for checking answers when taking Calc 1-3 in college.

Definitely useful for all sorts of answers, but answers for science and math questions, it’s great.”

3. Good to know!

“Google Scholar.

All scholarly work.

If you type in “volcanoes”you will get a ton of scientific documents about volcanoes, research that is being done on them, and papers that have been written about them.

Next time you write a paper for a science class check out Google Scholar!”

4. Try it out!

“Creddle.io – a free resume builder site.

You fill it out like an online application and it generates your resume in different styles for you.

Landed me a couple of jobs after I started using it.”

5. Very useful.

“10minutemail.com

If a website is asking for your E-mail, and you don’t want your original E-mail to be spammed, you can use the E-mail found on this website that self-destructs after 10 minutes.”

6. Wow.

“Alternative To.

It is a site that shows you alternatives to any software you are looking for. If there is a paid application you would like to use? You can find a free or open source version.

Do you like a program but it slows down your computer? You can find a lightweight alternative.”

7. Great stuff.

“Archive.org

Tons of free music, audio books, news reports, newspaper scans, video games, software and movies.

If you haven’t already, please look for anything important you have saved on a USB stick or on your hard drive and archive it here if you find it important or interesting enough.

This site is awesome.”

8. So cool.

“If you’re ever feeling stressed, or feeling the itch to travel when you can’t, you should try Window Swap.

Just click the button and it will randomly take you to a recorded video of the view out random folks’ windows all over the world. You can even upload your own window footage for others to enjoy.

It’s so calming.”

9. Interesting.

“Library genesis.

Almost every science text book you could ever want for free. However, you’re not compensating authors/publishers for their work, so the morality is debated.

But if you want access to knowledge for free, there it is. I haven’t ever encountered any issues like viruses either.”

10. Just reach out.

“If you ever want to read a journal article behind a paywall, email the authors!

I do this and I’ve never not had one send me the paper. A lot of the time they’ll even send you supplemental data etc if you want, too.

Even if it’s something for your job.”

11. Time to binge-watch.

“FilmRise channels on YouTube.

Untold hours of free documentary tv series, including old school Unsolved Mysteries.”

12. Tons of stuff.

“Audacity – A powerful audio editor, ideal for music and podcasts.

Autodesk Fusion 360 – CAD/CAM software.

Bit Warden – Open-source password management service.

Blender – Free and open source 3D creation suite.

Cake Walk – music production software

Dark Table – Open-source photography workflow application and raw developer.

Dashlane – Cross-platform subscription-based password manager and digital wallet application.

DaVinci Resolve – Color correction and non-linear video editing application.

FreeCAD – Open-source general-purpose parametric 3D computer-aided design modeler.

GIMP – A powerful open source photo and image editing tool.

Godot Engine – A 2D and 3D, cross-platform, free and open-source game engine released under the MIT license.

Glitch – Build fast, full-stack web apps in your browser.

Glimpse Image Editor – A photo editor for everyone.

Greenshot – A free screenshot tool optimized for productivity.

Handbrake – The open source video transcoder

Honey – A browser extension that aggregates and automatically applies online coupons on eCommerce websites.

Hitfilm-Express – Video editing software with professional-grade VFX tools.

Inkscape – Free and open-source vector graphics editor.

KDEnLive – Open-source video editing software based on the MLT Framework, KDE and Qt.

Keepass – Free and open-source password manager primarily for Windows.

Krita – Free and open-source raster graphics editor designed primarily for digital painting and 2D animation.

Open Broadcaster Software(OBS) – Open-source software for video recording and live streaming.

LibreOffice – Open-source office suite.

LMMS – A digital audio workstation application program.

MagicaVoxel – A free lightweight GPU-based voxel art editor and interactive path tracing renderer.

MediBang Paint Pro – FREE digital painting and comic creation software.

Musescore – Create, play and print beautiful sheet music

Ocenaudio – Easy, fast, and powerful audio editor.

Opentoonz – Animation production software.

Paint.NET – A freeware raster graphics editor program for Microsoft Windows developed on the .NET Framework

Photopea – Web-based raster and vector graphics editor.

Pixlr – Feature-packed online photo editor.

QGIS – Open-source cross-platform desktop geographic information system application

Radio Garden – Explore live radio by rotating the globe.

RawTherapee – Free, cross-platform raw image processing program

Reaper -Digital audio workstation and MIDI sequencer software

ShareX – Screen capture, file sharing and productivity tool.

Shotcut – A slick open source program for advanced video editing.

SlidesGo – Free Google Slides and PowerPoint templates.

Switch – Convert and encode sound files quickly.

The Noun Project – Icons for everything.

TurboTax Sucks A** – Website that makes it easy to file your taxes.

Unity – Cross-platform game engine.

Unreal Engine – The most open and advanced real-time 3D creation tool.

Unsplash – Beautiful free images and pictures.

VLC media player – Open-source portable cross-platform media player software and streaming media server

VS Code – Free source-code editor.

Waveform – Fully featured, completely unlimited free DAW for all music creators.

Wavepad – Audio and music editor for Windows and Mac.

Wcostream – Anime and animated Tv-show/movie site with dubs and subs.

7-Zip – File archiver with a high compression ratio.”

Do you know of some more free resources people should take advantage of?

If so, talk to us in the comments.

Please and thank you!

The post People Talk About Free Resources on the Internet That We Should All Know appeared first on UberFacts.

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People Share Free Resources Available to Everyone That We Should Take Advantage Of

Who doesn’t love free things?

I’m pretty sure 99.9999% of the population does…but that’s just off the top of my head…

And today we’re gonna get all kinds of great info that you might not know about.

What are some good free resources people should be taking advantage of?

Here’s what people said on AskReddit.

1. That’s awesome.

“I was stunned to find out our local library has telescopes you can check out, musical instruments, even a 3-D printer where you only pay for the printing material.”

2. Take a look.

“The Internet Arcade where you can play a lot of classic games along with the Console Living Room which is similar.

They have access to tons of old PC games too and you can even play the original Oregon Trail online. There’s a lot more in their software section too.”

3. Good to know.

“If you’re concerned about your kid’s development (speech, physical, emotional, etc) you don’t have to wait until they are school aged to get services.

Ask at you school district office to have someone come and see if you kid qualifies to have a specialist come to your house (or their daycare if you work) to help out your kiddo.

It’s through the school district, so it’s completely free.”

4. Booyah!

“FilmRise channels on YouTube.

Full length episodes of really cool documentary-style tv shows (including old-school Unsolved Mysteries).”

5. Nice!

“If you live in the United States, you can access a system of volunteer master gardeners who have been trained and certified. They are often an adjunct of the states education and agricultural systems.

They have online classes (due to COVID) and (later) in person classes. You can call help desks, send email, and visit web pages for advice on growing pretty much anything in your residential garden.

Farmers already know about the parent organizations. The master gardener groups were set up to offload residential questions from the ag experts.

Note: They cannot advise about growing cannabis, but -cough cough- whatever helps your tomatoes grow works for pot.”

6. Use it or lose it.

“The Butterball hotline on Thanksgiving for turkey-day tips and tricks.

The West Wing taught me that one.”

7. Very useful.

“PDF24 is a free, simple PDF reader and editor that is a great alternative to paid software- for most people’s needs.

Would especially recommend for students.”

8. Great!

“Free classes online!!!!

It’s so cool dude, EdX, through Harvard, MIT, I know I’m missing some other’s.

They offer online courses for free.

If you want the certificate at the end of the course, you pay $50.

I learned about John Snow, and the Cholera epidemic of 1854, a psych corse, and currently thinking about starting another.

You get to watch lectures from their professors, you have assignments due at certain times, quizzes, and then the final.”

9. A great resource.

“The Library of Congress, specifically the searchable newspaper archives

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

The amount of info in there is staggering.”

10. Academia.

“Outline.com to read articles that are behind a paywall.

And if you read scholarly journals and want to read someone’s paper that’s behind a paywall, you may be able to get it from the author by contacting them directly.”

11. Helpful.

“If you receive SNAP or EBT benefits, many states have programs to pay for you to take one certification course/trade at a local community College.

Just look up the program for your state.”

12. Get ‘er done!

“The Los Angeles Public Library has a free high school diploma program for anyone who is looking to receive their high school diploma.”

13. Serving the community.

“Food banks besides the “official” ones or the Salvation Army.

CHURCHES. Serious, a ton of churches of all denominations have food banks where you can go.

At some, you not only get frozen meats and canned goods but donated local produce like fruits and veggies or chain/small business donations of bread/sweets.

Since COVID, a lot of places might be running dry but just open the phone book and call around and ask.

Also “Mission” services, they don’t always just help the homeless – if you’re down your luck you can score free meals and other essentials like diapers, formula, etc.”

14. FYI.

“Dial 2-1-1 for essential community services anywhere in America.

Basic Human Needs Resources – including food and clothing banks, shelters, rent assistance, and utility assistance.

Physical and Mental Health Resources – including health insurance programs, Medicaid and Medicare, maternal health resources, health insurance programs for children, medical information lines, crisis intervention services, support groups, counseling, and drug and alcohol intervention and rehabilitation.

Work Support – including financial assistance, job training, transportation assistance and education programs.

Access to Services in Non-English Languages – including language translation and interpretation services to help non-English-speaking people find public resources (Foreign language services vary by location.)

Support for Older Americans and Persons with Disabilities – including adult day care, community meals, respite care, home health care, transportation and homemaker services.

Children, Youth and Family Support – including child care, after-school programs, educational programs for low-income families, family resource centers, summer camps and recreation programs, mentoring, tutoring and protective services.

Do you know of any great free resources that we should all be using?

Please tell us about them in the comments.

We’d really appreciate it!

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What Should Be Free? Here’s How People Responded.

I know my answer!

How about HEALTH CARE in the United States? Wouldn’t that be nice?

I know some Americans like to say that we have the best health care in the world and that might be true…if you have a good job and good benefits. But a whole lot of folks out there in this country can’t even go see a doctor because they simply can’t afford it.

Okay, that’s my speech for the day.

What do you think should be free?

AskReddit users shared their thoughts.

1. Why am I paying for this?

“IDs.

I find it ridiculous that we have to pay so much for something we are required to have on us at all times.”

2. That’s lame.

“Beaches and public parks.

I’m from California where all of the beaches are free for everybody to use.

It baffles me when I travel and find other beaches aren’t free.

WHAT?!”

3. A great idea.

“School lunch for all kids.

A city near me tested free breakfast for all elementary students and test scores went up.”

4. When you gotta go…

“Using the toilet.

I’m looking at you and your stupid pay toilets, Europe!

As well as any convenience store/fast food joint that tries to refuse the restroom to non-customers, especially if there isn’t a nearby public option.”

5. I agree!

“Hospital parking.

Where I live, parking garages at public hospitals all seem to be run by private companies and the fees are nuts.

It’s a huge amount of pressure to put on people who are already under stress.”

6. Ridiculous.

“If you ask me, a single ambulance ride shouldn’t cost as much as a Lamborghini.”

7. There you go.

“Government identification.

Drug testing

Criminal record checks.”

8. Yes!

“Medication, especially anything required for survival.

No reason I should have to choose between paying for insulin or paying for food/shelter/education.

My body cannot produce it on its own, and I have no choice but to buy it.”

9. Should be free.

“Mental health support.

The fact that you need to pay someone to listen to you really shows how f**ked the world is.”

10. Fill ‘er up.

“The air machines at gas stations.

It’s air for cryin’ out loud.

How you gonna refuse me some air for my tires just because I don’t have any change on me?”

11. Good point.

“I’m a man, but imo feminine hygiene products should be free.

As a cashier full time, it feels wrong to tell a high school girl she’s a dollar short so I can’t let her leave with her hygiene products.

For one, I’m a guy, and can’t fathom that discomfort, and that’s not even to mention the fact that it is probably extremely embarrassing for her, and a messy inconvenience, especially if that was her only option, in public.

For the record, I bought her tampons for her.

It’s f**ked that these aren’t free for women.”

12. That would be nice.

“Glasses or eye contacts.

Why do I need to pay so much just to be able to see?”

13. Let’s hope so. Forever.

“Libraries.

Anyone who thinks ‘Netflix for Books’ is a viable business model that could possibly replace the numerous services your local library provides — especially to those people who by definition couldn’t afford a subscription model — is exactly the kind of person who could probably benefit by spending more time in a library.”

What do YOU think should be free?

Sound off in the comments and make your voice heard!

We can’t wait to hear from you!

The post What Should Be Free? Here’s How People Responded. appeared first on UberFacts.

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What Should Be Free? Here’s How People Responded.

I know my answer!

How about HEALTH CARE in the United States? Wouldn’t that be nice?

I know some Americans like to say that we have the best health care in the world and that might be true…if you have a good job and good benefits. But a whole lot of folks out there in this country can’t even go see a doctor because they simply can’t afford it.

Okay, that’s my speech for the day.

What do you think should be free?

AskReddit users shared their thoughts.

1. Why am I paying for this?

“IDs.

I find it ridiculous that we have to pay so much for something we are required to have on us at all times.”

2. That’s lame.

“Beaches and public parks.

I’m from California where all of the beaches are free for everybody to use.

It baffles me when I travel and find other beaches aren’t free.

WHAT?!”

3. A great idea.

“School lunch for all kids.

A city near me tested free breakfast for all elementary students and test scores went up.”

4. When you gotta go…

“Using the toilet.

I’m looking at you and your stupid pay toilets, Europe!

As well as any convenience store/fast food joint that tries to refuse the restroom to non-customers, especially if there isn’t a nearby public option.”

5. I agree!

“Hospital parking.

Where I live, parking garages at public hospitals all seem to be run by private companies and the fees are nuts.

It’s a huge amount of pressure to put on people who are already under stress.”

6. Ridiculous.

“If you ask me, a single ambulance ride shouldn’t cost as much as a Lamborghini.”

7. There you go.

“Government identification.

Drug testing

Criminal record checks.”

8. Yes!

“Medication, especially anything required for survival.

No reason I should have to choose between paying for insulin or paying for food/shelter/education.

My body cannot produce it on its own, and I have no choice but to buy it.”

9. Should be free.

“Mental health support.

The fact that you need to pay someone to listen to you really shows how f**ked the world is.”

10. Fill ‘er up.

“The air machines at gas stations.

It’s air for cryin’ out loud.

How you gonna refuse me some air for my tires just because I don’t have any change on me?”

11. Good point.

“I’m a man, but imo feminine hygiene products should be free.

As a cashier full time, it feels wrong to tell a high school girl she’s a dollar short so I can’t let her leave with her hygiene products.

For one, I’m a guy, and can’t fathom that discomfort, and that’s not even to mention the fact that it is probably extremely embarrassing for her, and a messy inconvenience, especially if that was her only option, in public.

For the record, I bought her tampons for her.

It’s f**ked that these aren’t free for women.”

12. That would be nice.

“Glasses or eye contacts.

Why do I need to pay so much just to be able to see?”

13. Let’s hope so. Forever.

“Libraries.

Anyone who thinks ‘Netflix for Books’ is a viable business model that could possibly replace the numerous services your local library provides — especially to those people who by definition couldn’t afford a subscription model — is exactly the kind of person who could probably benefit by spending more time in a library.”

What do YOU think should be free?

Sound off in the comments and make your voice heard!

We can’t wait to hear from you!

The post What Should Be Free? Here’s How People Responded. appeared first on UberFacts.

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People Share Free/Low-Cost Resources That College Students Need to Know About

Were your college days filled with scraping by, eating ramen, and drinking Hamm’s because you were always low on money?

Well, you’re not alone, my friends, because that’s the way it goes for countless numbers of young kids out there just trying to get an education.

And that’s why these resources that folks shared are so helpful for students trying to get by.

AskReddit users offered up free and low-cost resources that college students might want to take advantage of.

1. Cheap software.

“A lot of times your university will have stupid cheap software licenses for students/faculty.

At my university we got Adobe Creative-Cloud licenses for $10/year and free Microsoft Office licences (this was before office 365, so it wasn’t a subscription).

Sometimes the cheap software is only for certain departments/majors but at mine they had several deeply discounted software packages any student could buy.”

2. Good one.

“Find the previous editions of your textbooks. Frequently they will be as cheap as $0.05.

If your professor pulls homework questions out of the current edition go to the library and use their reference copy just for the questions.

Although with a lot of the access codes needed these days it might not be possible.”

3. Worth a shot.

“Check with your grocery store to see if they have a student discount day.

15% off can go a long way.”

4. Give it a shot.

“To help organize notes and sources for papers and assignments, I highly recommend Zotero to help keep organized.

It also makes writing citations super easy.”

5. For the smart folks.

“For science/ stem people: Khan Academy videos.

They saved me several times.”

6. This right here.

“Please use your school’s on-campus mental health professionals.

They are easy to access, usually free, certified, and acutely aware of the stresses and issues with college life.”

7. All kinds of discounts.

“Student discounts. I’m sure someone else has already put this but I benefitted from it greatly.

As a music major, I had to buy a lot of different DAWs and equipment along my journey. Big corporations want you to buy their product, but are aware that you’re already digging yourself into a huge hole of debt so they often times will drop the price of a product by half or more to sell it to you.

For example, as a student you can get an Adobe membership for about $20 a month. I got a copy of Studio One 4 for $250 as opposed to $500 because I was a student. This also works if you’re not a student but want to make a large purchase.

Most sites don’t actually check to see if you’re a student so just jump thru some hoops and see where it gets you!”

8. Doing the Lord’s work.

“Church pantries.

Free groceries every week/every other week.

Just being proof you live in the area.”

9. Drink up!

“The grad student bar usually has cheap booze.

Art shows often have free booze.”

10. Very helpful.

“Mendeley.

Its a citation manager geared towards peer reviewed literature. It has a browser extension that downloads the pdf/ citation, and integrates with word. As you’re typing, you can add in text citations by searching for the author.

Then when you’re done, click add bibliography. Boom.. Done. Its made by elsevier. Once you use it, you’ll wonder why you ever added citation by hand/ one at a time.”

11. Might as well try.

“Fafsa, even if you don’t qualify, it’s still worth trying to get financial aid.

I only have to pay about $45 per class as opposed to $250.

Might look confusing and tedious initially, but after the first time the website usually saves your info and it only takes a few clicks to apply for the next year.”

12. Yes!

“LIBRARY CARD. This cannot be overstated enough.

Libraries are one of the only remaining establishments in which you are not compelled to spend money. It is FREE material. Free books, movies, magazines and periodicals, games, sometimes even technology!

Libraries are amazing. Some library cards even provide you access to online only materials.”

13. Get on it!

“Coursera!

Basically college classes of various types taught online for free (you can pay for a certificate if you like, but you can access all the resources for free if you just want the knowledge).

The fun thing is the variety is huge and beyond the usual intro level stuff- for example, if you are past intro programming and like astronomy, there’s an excellent astronomy data science class I recommend to a lot of people.”

How about you?

Do you know of any good free or cheap resources that college students should know about?

If so, please share them with us in the comments. Thanks a lot!

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What Are Free and Low-Cost Resources College Students Should Know About? People Filled Us In!

No doubt about it, if you go to college, money is always tight…and that’s a huge understatement for a lot of folks out there.

So, every college student should be well aware of everything single thing that they can take advantage of while they’re studying hard and trying to get through school.

People on AskReddit were nice enough to share free and low-cost resources they think college students should know about.

1. You need to relax.

“Spotify Premium, Hulu, and Showtime for $5/month total with a student email address.

Works for grad school students too.

Not helpful with productivity, but very helpful for sanity.”

2. Study up!

“Paul’s Online Math Notes for calculus.

It’s filled with examples and decent, down to earth explanations that don’t confuse the sh*t outta you.”

3. The good ol’ library.

“Use the library for everything you can: textbooks, movies, games, music, printing, quiet study space, tutoring, etc.

Librarians love to help and you might be surprised what they can lend out to you.

I borrowed a telescope last week!”

4. Try it out.

“Google Scholar.

Great free google search engine that gives credible articles to use in research papers and show you how to properly cite them.”

5. Pro tip.

“Pay attention to events calendars.

Most college events have free food.

This may be different for this semester, but don’t underestimate it down the road.”

6. You gotta eat!

“BudgetBytes.com

Cheap meals that are healthier and tastier than ramen and Kraft dinners.”

7. Lots of software.

“You probably get access to a lot of software for no added cost.

This is how I got Windows for my pc.

It’s very worth checking out, a lot of times schools offer a free subscription of Windows, Office365, virus protection that’s not McAfee, and some Adobe products.”

8. I didn’t know about this.

“If you are a starving student, and there’s a Sikh temple in your area, they do something called a Langer.

It’s basically food they serve to the community and it’s legitimately good. They usually will ask you to volunteer or do some kitchen work in exchange. Me and a group of 4 college students would attend regularly, and the food was great.

I was broke and had to pay my way through college with zero support. I had a friend that told me about the Langer, but I was worried they would push the religion on me. Didn’t happen at all. I was nervous just showing up, but they were some of the kindest people I’ve ever met with zero judgement.

I’m not religious, but Sikh people restored my faith in humanity.”

9. You never know.

“Go to the awards office at your school and talk to someone and find out if you qualify for anything.

You’d be surprised how many bursaries and similar go unclaimed each year. As a student every little bit helps, and you never know what you’ll qualify for until you go and ask.

Some are based on grades sure, but many are based on need or your background or circumstances, and the occasional one is just first person to sign up with a pulse.

Seriously it’s worth the hour it takes for you to go visit in person and talk to a real person who can guide you through. Or maybe you can do all that sh*t online now.

But take the time, it could be free money to you and free you up to concentrate on your studies.”

10. Interesting.

“Clep testing.

It’s a program that allows you to take a single test rather than an entire class for credit. It’s only for some general academic courses, and each college has its guidelines on how they apply to credits.

That said, taking advantage of them can reduce the time and money required to earn your degree.”

11. Search high and low.

“Never buy/rent your textbooks from the college bookstore unless you can’t find them anywhere else online.

Seriously, bookstores overprice the sh*t out of your books and you will save a lot of money getting them from Amazon, Chegg, Ebay, etc instead.”

12. The data suggests…

“Data suggests that the number one reason students go to college is for better job prospects once they graduate.

Because of this, remember that to a recruiter or HR department, college is more than just your academics. It is about all of your experiences: class projects, personal projects, getting involved on campus through student orgs, student worker positions, volunteering, internships, etc.

This means you should make use of your school’s Career Center well before spring semester of your senior year so that you can learn how to talk about yourself professionally: through a resume, cover letter, interviews, networking. Learning the basics earlier and working on them each year as you look to secure internships will make you a really successful candidate once it comes time to find a full time job.

As some of the other comments have mentioned, your student fees pay for resources you have access to through the Career Center, so take advantage of them!”

13. Use it or lose it.

“While not technically free, you probably pay a bunch of student fees for access to the gym, pool, free/reduced cost public transportation etc.

Understand what things your student fees cover and take advantage of them.”

Do you know of any good resources that college students should take advantage of?

If so, please tell us about them in the comments.

Thanks in advance!

The post What Are Free and Low-Cost Resources College Students Should Know About? People Filled Us In! appeared first on UberFacts.