As some of you probably know already, iTunes has a special section for university lectures and classes.  Different universities, including some of the best in the United States, provide free lectures and demonstrations on a variety of topics from some of their best professors.  You can find the free courses by clicking on iTunes U in the menu of the iTunes Store.

These videos audio lectures are especially good for those of you studying for the TOEFL or IELTS exams, since you will get a lot of native speaker speech on topics similar to those found on the tests.  Of course, you want to start with a subject you know something about, and (with luck) a professor who speaks clearly.

For some useful advice on how to use iTunes U, take a look at Warren Ediger’s Successful English website where he has a special section on the TOEFL.

~Jeff

As many of you know, California has many immigrants who speak English as a second language. The State of California has developed a special website to help adults learn English online. It is full of short, interesting news stories with additional materials to help you improve your English. These stories are good for both intermediate and advanced students. The site is called the California Distance Learning Project (CDLP).

How to use this site: Warren Ediger, one of the best ESL classroom teachers and online tutors I know, has detailed suggestions on how you can use this site to help improve your English. Warren gives you specific steps on how to make the best use of the articles and stories you will find on the CDLP website.

Warren’s website, SuccessfulEnglish.com, also has other good ideas on learning English through reading, on preparing for the TOEFL, and on some common questions related to English learning and teaching.

Take a look at both the CDLP and SuccessfulEnglish.com today for some good resources.

~Jeff

If you’re like me, you have friends, family, and co-workers who forward (send to other people messages that were sent to them) email jokes, chain letters, and other messages that you probably don’t want. Chain letters are letters that tell you to forward that message to other people or something bad will happen. I never forward chain letters so I’m expecting to be killed or maimed (permanently injured), or have many years of bad luck.

For me, it’s difficult to email that person to tell them to take me off his or her list. I don’t want to hurt their feelings (make them feel badly) or to make them think that I don’t appreciate them thinking of me (having me in their mind). The flip side (the other side of the issue; on the other hand) is that I have far too many email messages in my inbox when I check for new messages.

Some people suggest writing an email to the person who has you on their distribution list (list of people who receive a message or something else) to ask them to remove you. This is one example:
. . .
Cate,

Thank you for thinking of me with the jokes and quotations of the day (words said in the past by someone else that are funny, interesting, or inspirational). I’ve appreciated you sending them to me. Right now, though, I am trying to get a handle on (to manage; to keep in good order even though it is difficult) my email, and I am asking people to remove me from their distribution lists for the time being (for a short time).

Would you please remove me from your distribution list?

Thank you very much.
. . .
This note is polite enough and I might send something like this to someone, but I haven’t done it yet. Right now, my strategy (plan) is to continue deleting (erasing; putting in the trash) those messages from my inbox.

What do you do with unwanted email from people you know, people you don’t want to offend (upset)? Would you write someone directly to ask them to remove you from their distribution list?

~ Lucy

Last October, Lucy posted a note about the concept of a “Googleganger,” who is a person who has your name and whom you discover while searching on Google. For example, I would search for “Jeff McQuillan” and find other people with that same name around the world.

The New York Times has an article this morning on this idea of finding people with your name, and actually contacting them to meet! The article is entitled “Names that Match Forge a Bond on the Internet.” To forge a bond means to make a connection, to get to know someone better.

So if you haven’t looked for your Googleganger yet, then read this article and you may decide to make friends with your namesakes (people who have the same name as you).

~Jeff

In a recent poll (questionnaire of people’s opinions) done by a major technology company, 35% of adult computer users in the U.S. and the U.K. don’t back up their data (stored or saved information). That means that they don’t make an extra copy of their data in case the original is lost or damaged. What may be even more surprising is that 50% of the people who lost data in the past still don’t perform backups.

I admit that for many, many years, I never backed up my data, even after more than one of my computers crashed (stopped working completely). I don’t know if I liked living dangerously, believed it would never happen again, or was too lazy to back up. I think it was probably all three reasons. Now that I work on the podcast, I have to do back ups or else all of our work is in jeopardy (danger). But some days, even though my computer is set to automatically back up, I forget to turn on the extra hard drive where the files are stored. I guess I’m still as lazy as I’ve always been!

~ Lucy

When I was a child, there was a television program called “My Mother, the Car,” which had the following premise (idea or concept for a story): A man’s mother dies, and her soul or mind takes possession of (owns) her son’s car! The show was a bizarre (very odd or strange) comedy, where the son would talk to his “mother” who was now part of the car by using the car radio. We often imagine that our machines are like people, so this show made that idea the basis for (the principal idea for) the show.

Nowadays (currently, now), we have computers in our cars which can talk to us and tell us where to go, almost like a real human being. The Learning Guide for ESL Podcast 309 has a Cultural Note about these types of computers, GPS navigation systems, which help drivers know exactly where they are, usually on a screen map in their car. But will we in the future have even more “intelligent” cars? I just saw this article about a new center (place of research) at the University of Michigan called the Center for Intelligent Vehicles. They are studying the possibility of connecting cars to a larger network or system which could help control traffic and even prevent traffic accidents.

Soon, you may not need your mother in your car, just a computer.

~Jeff