Razvi Blog Space

This is a new site I have come across and which I wish to share with you and students following courses at University of Mauritius. You will find a huge number of academic resources, video lectures, free books and materials I have tried to download some of the video lectures (average size over 100 MB / lecture session), it’s of good quality and although the download time will depend on your internet connection speed.

Many of undergrad students struggle with mastering programming skills at university, and this website offers lots of good programming videos and free e-books in C++, JAVA and advanced Java, ASP.NET, AJAX, Python, Ruby , SQL, Linux and others.

Besides computing stuffs, you also have biotechnology, physics, maths, medicine, philosophy, electronics, economics…. Etc. I believe the content of the web site is updated regularly, hence you could bookmark it for future access. Below are the main courses available in 2008:

Software Engineering for Web Applications

Instructor: Philip Greenspun   submitted on 18 April, 2008

Teaches basics of designing a dynamic web site with a database back end, including scripting languages, cookies, SQL, and HTML with the goal of building such a site as the main (group) project Emphasizes computer-human interface and the graphical display of information.

Introduction to Web Security

by Neil Daswani at google.com Summer 2007  submitted on 16 April, 2008

Topics: How to Break Web Software, What Every Engineer Needs to Know About Security and Where to Learn It.

40 Java Video Tutorials on youtube

YouTube  submitted on 2 April, 2008

Some of these teach basics with getting starting programming using Java, and some are more advanced, showing you how to code loops, arrays, exceptions, Netbeans, Web services, Event handing, JDBC, and Inheritance.

Web 2.0 AJAX Programming

google.com  submitted on 27 March, 2008

Web 2.0 - AJAX - Creating a Rich User Experience, WebGuild, Creating Tools for AJAX Development etc…

Operating Systems

New Jersey Institute of Technology   submitted on 26 March, 2008

Computer Engineering

McGill University, Winter 2008  submitted on 15 March, 2008

Data structures (arrays, lists, stacks, queues, dequeues and trees) and their machine representation and simple algorithms. Peripheral devices: printers, keyboards, magnetic type drives, magnetic disc drives. Peripheral interfacing and busses. Introduction to operating systems. System integration. Computer systems and networks.

Advanced Javascript

Douglas Crockford   submitted on 14 March, 2008, 7:57 am

Comprehensive introduction to the JavaScript Programming Language; Theory of the DOM;

Naval Postgraduate School

Naval Postgraduate School  submitted on 11 March, 2008, 11:41 am

The Lecture Series injects commercial and military relevance into the CISR activities. Lectures are from leading experts in the field of computer science and Information Systems Security.

Graduate Computer Architecture

UC Berkeley Spring 2006

Overview of computer architecture, caches, memory systems, Instruction level parallelism, simultaneous multithreading, vector computers, Processors, Introduction to Multiprocessors, Advanced Memory Hierarchy, storage, Queuing theory etc…

Freshman Computer Science Seminar

Prof. Jason Cong, University of California, Fall Quarter 2006 webcast podcast

Intermediate Software Design

Vanderbilt University 2006

Introduction, C++ overview, Inheritance: Specialization, Extension, Access Specifier and Multiple Inheritance. Dynamic Binding: virtual methods, Methods calling Mechanism. Standard Template Library: Iterator, Generic Algorithm and Function Object. Design Pattern: Bridge, Adapter, strategy, Composite, Decorator, Command, Iterator, visitor, Observer, Proxy and Factory method. Builder, Fa�ade, Flyweight and Sort etc…

Introduction to Copyright Law

MIT OCW, Jan 2006

Introduction; Basics of Legal Research; Legal Citations; 1976 Copyright Act; Copyright applied to Music, Computers; Napster®; Peer-to-Peer File Sharing; Software Licensing; DVDs and Encryption etc…

Computer Language Engineering

MIT Fall 2006 video and audio

Introduction to Computers

Berkeley, Spring 2007 video and audio

Introduction. Interview of Jean-Pierre Protzen, John Coate, Steve Peterson. Phenomenology and virtual reality. Social Search. Plato’s Cave & Nature of Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom. Discussion of Holding on to Reality. Interview of Andrew Keen. Ivan Tam on Disruptive Technologies and Open Source Development etc…

Computer Systems Engineering

MIT Spring’05 Streaming and Downloadable

Introduction to Computers; Naming; Virtualization. Virtual memory, Virtual Processors, Networks: Link layer, Network Layer: Congestion Control; Distributed Naming; Reliability; Atomicity Concepts; Recoverability, Isolation, Security : Authenticity, Advanced Authentication etc….

Introduction to Algorithms

MIT Spring’05 Streaming and Downloadable

Analysis of Algorithms; All Sorting techniques; Recurrences; Divide and Conquer: Strassen, Fibonacci, Polynomial Multiplication; Heaps and Hashing; Dynamic Programming; Graph Algorithms; number theoretic algorithms; amortized analysis;Shortest paths; Catching and parallel computing etc….

Data Structures

Berkeley Fall’06 Streaming

Objects and classes; Iteration and Arrays; Linked Lists; Stack frames; Inheritance; Abstract Classes; Java Packages; Exceptions; Encapsulation; Hash Tables; Stacks, Queues, trees and Traversals, Graphs and Sorting etc….

Data Structures, Algorithms, and Applications in Java

University of Florida

Machine Structures

Berkeley Fall’06 Streaming

Number Representation; Intro to C; C pointers, Arrays,Strings and Structures; Memory Management; MIPS; Floating point; Compilation, Assembly and Linking; Combinational logic Blocks; CPU Design etc…

Operating Systems and Systems Programming

Berkeley Fall’06 Streaming

Introduction to OS; Concurrency: Processes and Treads; Synchronization; Mutual exclusion; Semaphores, Monitors; Readers and Writers; Deadlock; Address Translation; Caching; Page Allocation and Replacement; File System and Disk Managenment, Naming, Directories, Distributed Systems etc….

Open Source Development and Distribution of Digital Information: Technical, Economic, Social, and Legal Perspectives

Berkeley Fall 2006

Introduction to Open Source. Production Processes. Economics and Business Models of Open Source, Open Source and Competition in the market Software Industry. Government Policy. Open Access Journals and Publications. Open Source biology. Wikipedia as open source project etc…

Introduction to Theory of Computation

Professor Neil Rhodes, UC San Diego Spring 2007 Audio Podcast

Introductory Progamming

University of Washington, Autumn 2000

Overview, Problems, Algorithms, Variables, Arithmetic Expressions, I/O, Conditionals, Functions, Iteration, Loops, Complex Conditionals, Arrays, Linear & Binary Search, Sorting, Structures, Strings, Nested data structures, File Input/Output, Style, Recursion, Recursive binary search etc….

Understanding Computers and the Internet

Harvard Extension School       Lectures Available on YouTube

An Excellent course for a beginner. It has videos on Software, Hardware, Multimedia, Programming, The Internet, Security, Web Developement etc….

How Computers Work

ADUni.org 2000

Algorithms

ADUni.org 2001

Algorithms: Sorting, Searching & data Structures, Red-Black Trees. Graph Algorithms: Topological Sorting, Prim’s algorithm, DFS, BFS, Kruskal’s algorithms, and shortest path. Geometric algorithms: Graham & Jarvis; Dynamic Programming. Parsing. Greedy algorithms, NP Completeness etc…

Practical Aspects of Modern Cryptography

University of Washington, Winter’06

The number of video-sharing sites has shot through the roof recently, as dozens of companies try to become the Flickr of the online video world.  To this end, many video services have started offering new features like editing and remixability in an attempt to snatch a piece of the ever-expanding online video pie.  But for the average user–who just wants to post a video on the ‘net and share it with some friends–there are already too many options out there.  All one really wants to know is, which site is going to work, with the least amount of hassle?

I took 10 of these sites out for a test drive, and picked some winners.  If you want to post, watch, share, or edit video online, this post’s for you.

To test each service, I uploaded my demo reel (a 15MB Sorenson 3-encoded Quicktime file) to each site and compared video quality, site interface, community features, and functionality.  Where applicable I also tried to embed the resulting video in a WordPress page.  Many of these sites are still in beta, and their functionality could change in the coming months, but if you’re looking to post and share video today, this is the current state of things.

Eyespot

Appeal: Easy-to-use video uploading and remixing.
Interface: Bright and colorful.  Tagging, forums, groups.  Not a lot of community features.
Editing: Trim beginning and end, reorder clips on a timeline, add music and photos.
Sharing: Post to a group, invite a friend to the service (but not directly to your clip).
Verdict: Uploading straightforward and painless.  But: 25MB filesize limit too small.  Mashup features fall short of Grouper’s “groovies,” and it’s not even in the same ballpark as Jumpcut when it comes to mixing and editing.  Not a lot of reason to use Eyespot, in its current incarnation.

Google Video

Appeal: It’s Google.
Interface: Typically clean and sparse Google layout.  Uploading requires you download the Google Video Uploader.  Allows you to add plenty of metadata, including a transcript.  You can monetize your content by assigning a sale price to each clip (you can also give users a “day pass,” giving them access to the content for a limited time, but not ownership).
Editing: None.
Sharing: See below.
Verdict: Google Video requires a “video verification” process, where your submission is reviewed to ensure it conforms to Google’s technical standards and legal policies.  This process “may take several days,” so check back for an update.

Grouper

Appeal: YouTube with a file-sharing application built on top.
Interface: For full functionality, requires an application download. Windows Media Player-based (converts other formats).  Ratings, tagging, groups, RSS feeds.
Editing: Create mashups of your videos and photos, set to music (”groovies”).
Sharing: Post direct to myspace, friendster, eBay.  Download to hard drive, iPod.
Verdict: “Groovies” are easy to create and could be very popular.  But: File-sharing application seems half-baked (and is undifferentiated from existing options).  “Groovies” will prove much more popular if they can be built online without having to download the app.  E-mail registration system was a pain; had to do it twice to get confirmed.  After several hours, my file was still unavailable, as the service was still “upload processing.”

Jumpcut

Appeal: Create, edit, and remix video online.
Interface: Slick interface feels more like an application than a web page.  Scales all videos to a larger size than other sites, but videos don’t autoplay and there is no indication of what portion of the video has already been downloaded.
Editing: Bar-none the best editing options of the bunch.  Splice your footage, reorder the shots, add music, photos, transitions, even effects–think iMovie in an online interface.  Very, very slick.
Sharing: Email to a friend, embed in a web page (worked flawlessly in WordPress).
Verdict: Playing with Jumpcut’s features, you immediately understand that the future of online video is here.  No current competitor can touch it.  But: Get too effects crazy and your video slows down.  Jumpcut doesn’t re-render your files with every remix–which leaves the original video quality intact–but playback of edited files is not perfectly smooth. Don’t throw out iMovie just yet.

Ourmedia

Appeal:  “The Global Home for Grassroots Media.”
Interface: Slow, confusing, and messy.  Requires an Internet Archive account, and the integration of the two services is convoluted.  Keeps your content in its native format, which is both good and bad–it doesn’t recompress your video, but it requires its users to have several different players installed correctly.  Creative Commons licenses built-in.
Editing: None.
Sharing: RSS feeds, email to a friend, direct link to files from your own site.
Verdict: Going forward, a good place to upload your media if it is socially-conscious or activist by nature.  Also works as an online repository for video/audio storage.  But: One of the most difficult sites to upload video to.  Current “alpha” version falls far short of potential–wait for the next version.

Revver

Appeal: YouTube with monetization–if people watch your video (and the embedded ad), you get paid 20% of what the advertiser pays Revver.  If they click on the Revver link at the end, you split the proceeds 50/50.
Interace: Quicktime-based.  Requires you to download a client for uploading content.  Tagging, emailing, rating, playlisting.
Editing: None.
Sharing: See below.
Verdict: Offers a unique revenue-sharing model that may appeal to content owners and producers.  But: Uploading process is convoluted (the promised drag-and-drop functionality was nowhere to be found).  After trying to upload my file using the Revver client twice, my video was still listed as “unavailable.”  I later received an email from Revver stating that my submission may contain unauthorized material that requires clearances–which is true.  Because Revver and Google Video are the only sites in this roundup that let you monetize your content, we’ll be back with an update comparing the two.

Videoegg

Appeal: Lets you painlessly upload video of any format to the web and post it to other sites or share it with friends.
Interface: Requires you download an application in order to upload.  The download seamlessly embeds in your browser to give you drag-and-drop functionality.
Editing: Basic trimming of beginning and end points.
Sharing: Post direct to eBay, Blogger, and Typepad.  Creates a simple URL, lets you email the video, and gives you javascript and html code for embedding in your own pages.
Verdict: Painless experience.  If you only need to post and share video with friends, Videoegg just works.  Flash 8 video quality is pretty decent.  But: Video didn’t embed properly in other pages (WordPress).

Vimeo

Appeal: Flickr for video.
Interface: Nice and clean, uses a flash wrapper to play native formats.  No download required, simple and easy uploads.  Tagging, commenting, voting.  Nice player with a volume control and no burned-in logo.
Editing: None in the current version.
Sharing: Post to Flickr, send to del.icio.us, download original file, embed in your MySpace profile or blog, create an RSS feed.
Verdict: Good video quality. Embedding the video in WordPress worked flawlessly.  But: Light on community features, and weekly storage cap of 20 megs is too limiting.

vSocial

Appeal: “The fastest, easiest way to upload, watch and share your favorite video clips.”
Interface: All Web 2.0′d-out.  Big fonts, AJAX, tagging, rating, reviewing, RSS feeds, creative commons licenses.
Editing: Offers “edit this video” functionality, which I couldn’t test (see below).  Can also create “Video Rolls,” which are customized playlists generated from your selected criteria.
Sharing: Embed in your own page, MySpace, Typepad, Blogger, del.icio.us, Flickr, Blog It! (write a post on your own blog about a video without leaving vSocial).
Verdict: Lots of community features.  But: Didn’t live up to their “fastest” or “easiest” claim–I never successfully got a video uploaded (tried three times).  Quality of existing clips is less than stellar–everything’s resized to 320X240.  Your mileage may vary, but even with a Quicktime file that uploaded to other sites without a problem, I never got vSocial to work.

YouTube

Appeal: The video-sharing site everyone’s already heard of.  Mindshare-winner by a mile.
Interface: Tabbed pages feature ratings, favorites, flagging, tagging, and commenting.  Create playlists, subscribe to other’s uploads, subscribe to tags.  The player only features a mute button (rather than level control), and full-screening the video opens a new window and starts playback over.
Editing: None.
Sharing: Embed in other websites, including Friendster, eBay, Blogger, MySpace.
Verdict: Easy to use, no major issues.  Decent video quality, audio sounds compressed.  Video embedded in WordPress fine (but was off-center).  But: No progress bar for uploading.  Fairly lengthy “processing” delay before you (or anyone else) can watch your video.

AND THE WINNERS ARE…

For posting: If you just want to get a video clip online and share it with friends via email or on your own blog, Vimeo wins for its speed, ease-of-use, and simple playback functions.  It also lets users download the original file, and features some light community features (note that a new version is launching very soon).  One of the few sites I used that I never had a problem with.  Alternate choice: Videoegg.

For viewership: If you want to step up to more community features and get widespread viewership of your viral clip, YouTube gets the job done with a lot less hassle than vSocial or Grouper.

For editing: If you want to alter your video online in any way–through editing, remixing, or combining your clips with those from other users–then head on over to Jumpcut and don’t look back.  Jumpcut really offers the first leap forward in online video sharing, and is worth a look even if you have no use for editing features (its full-fledged community is launching “very soon”).  Alternate choice: none, yet, although Motionbox looks to be a potential competitor.

Multimedia University, 09 May - 24 may 2008

Malaysian Technical Corperation Programme (MTCP)

The programme consolidates various forms of technical cooperation in areas where Malaysia has the experience and expertise. The Programme encourages the exchange of relevant experiences, pooling and sharing of resources and the development of complementary capabilities through:

• Provision of scholarship and study awards for studies at various institutions in Malaysia;
• Provision of training where participants are sponsored by third world countries/organizat ions;
• Study visits and practical attachments;
• Export of services and expertise in various fields

The MTCP implemented by The Centre for Foundation Studies and Extension Education (FOSEE), Multimedia University is based on the fact that the development of a country depends on the quality of its human resources. Such human resource quality can best be achieved through training. FOSEE under Multimedia University Melaka Campus is one of the many training institutions in Malaysia involved in this training.

For more information, visit:

http://fosee.mmu.edu.my/

http://www.bitsvn.com/baotran/video.html

http://www.mmu.edu.my/

YouTube is now an important teaching tool at UC Berkeley. The school has begun posting entire course lectures on the Web’s No.1 video-sharing site. The university has over 300 hours of videotaped courses will be available at youtube.com/ucberkeley.

“UC Berkeley on YouTube will provide a public window into university life, academics, events and athletics, which will build on our rich tradition of open educational content for the larger community,” said Christina Maslach, UC Berkeley’s vice provost for undergraduate education in a statement.

I have just done a quick search on youtube, and students/academics will be blessed to see these… for example

Computer Graphics Course on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=338D19C40D6D1732

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=112A527F83F7A5E4

http://youtube.com/ucberkeley

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=computer+science+lecture&page=7

Evolution is like the minute hand of a clock; you can’t see it moving but over an hour it goes clear around the clock - selfAdjoint

http://video.google.com

http://www.mefeedia.com/

http://www.videomaker.com

This website is interestingly becoming more popular these days. You could search through millions of video (most from You Tube) with google video search. Most Shared, most blogged, most hot videos are among the categories that you can browse instantly. It’s incredible to see such an explosive volume of video resources available on the web. In fact, with all users (PCs, laptops, and mobile phones) using or equipped with either video camera, wireless web cam, or embedded camera, people are generating millions of pictures/videos stuffs daily. New web services are now made available for sharing such objects on the web, like flickr, shareapic, youtube, footytube, tumtube, etc…It would be unfortunate if all the massive online video objects are not searchable. Although the quality of all the available videos are not of same level, and this is because of the poor video format chosen. A simple tutorial on the web, learn about good video making, tricks about video editing and you’ll learn and get to be an expert in video production techniques. There is even massive revenue is video advertising, people are now going towards vlog, viral advertising. Why not become an expert in producing good video/clips for online advertising, companies are looking for such services?

Other articles:

http://www.shvoong.com/writers/razvi

http://www.vidilife.com/

VidiLife provides Free video hosting, video streaming, video hosting, video blog hosting.

http://www.livevideo.com/

LiveVideo is a video platform that allows you to host videos for free, broadcast your videos, watch funny and sexy videos.

http://www.video-tutes.com/

The free tutorial video’s cover a wide range of industry standard software such as Photoshop cs2 & 3, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Flash 8 and Flash 8 video, Adobe Premiere pro and more, 22 titles in fact! All presented in a free video tutorial format. Our tutorial video collection is designed to help beginners and those wishing to learn new software to become productive faster & those wanting to advance their skill set.

http://www.shvoong.com/writers/razvi/