I find this site really helpful for students who want to improve their English.

MySasas means Smart and Adaptive Student Assessment System.

It has over 10,000 no ordinary English objective questions for you to answer.

You have to register in order to access the site. Don’t worry, registration is a quick process and you’ll have access to the awesome quizzes.

To register, click here.

The Quizzes

The quizzes are, as the site says, no ordinary!

To access the quizzes, click the quizzes tab. Then, you’ll see three levels, standard 4, 5, and 6. The easiest is standard 4 while the hardest is standard 6.

Click the standard, and then you’ll see a list of topics to test you on. Click on one of them. To answer the questions, choose the best answer (A, B, C, or D) and click next.

Each question has its difficulty level. In the image above, the difficulty level is easy. As you keep on answering the questions, the difficulty will get harder, from easy to difficult.

And watch out, for the difficult ones are really quite difficult!

Corrective Lessons

The best part I like about these quizzes is that it comes with corrective lessons.

If you got a question wrong, you will learn why it is wrong, and if you got a question correct, you will learn why the other answers are wrong.

Here’s an example of a corrective lesson.

I really, really like the corrective lessons because they tell you how the other answers can be used correctly (See the example image above), even if you got the question right.

You don’t just test yourself by doing the quizzes, but also learn something new. I have learned a lot from the corrective lessons.

Adaptive Quizzes

And did I mention, the questions also adapt to your past performances. MySasas has a technology based on artificial intelligence that adapts to your current skills.

If you are weak in a certain topic, the technology will go down to your level and give you questions that are fair to your current competencies.

The adaptive technology, working together with the corrective lessons, then tries to progressively make you an expert in that topic.

Discussions

Besides quizzes, there is also a discussion section in the site, where you can discuss stuff with other members.

To explain it better, it is just like an online discussion forum.

There, you’ll find topics ranging from general English questions to science and more! So, if you have a question, don’t forget to post it there!

Final Thoughts

I think MySasas is a really great and fun educational site for students (The best one I’ve seen so far), especially for those who want to improve their skill in English.

So, what are you waiting for?

Jump into this fun site, register, and get ready to answer the fantastic quizzes!

To get started, click here!

Pictures of screenshots taken from MySasas website.

______ This is a blog post from Gloson Blog. I hope you've enjoyed it! To leave a comment on it, please visit Improve Your English Using MySasas Quizzes. Or, head to Gloson Blog for more posts! :) ______

This is when a wordpress plugin, called ‘Redirection’, comes handy.

Redirection let you redirect any URL in your blog to another site, or to any other page in your blog.

With redirection, you can redirect the visitors who visits the original permalink to the new one, so that your visitors won’t end up in a 404 page.

How to use it

To get to where you can set up redirections, for wordpress 2.6 users, go to Manage >> Redirection. For wordpress 2.7 users, go to Tools >> Redirection.

It is very simple to set up a redirection.

First, you type in the source URL, the URL that needs redirection (/twitter). Simply type a slash, and then the URL.

Then, type in the target URL, the URL that your visitors would be redirected to (http://twitter.com/Gloson).

People who visit ‘http://www.glosonblog.com/twitter’ will be redirected to ‘http://twitter.com/Gloson’.

If you want ‘/twitter’ to redirect to one of your blog posts, type in the target URL, ‘/your-blog-post’.

To finish creating the redirection, click ‘Add Redirection’.

The plugin will also show you how many times the URL has been accessed. Cool eh?

Important:
It is best if you create two versions of the source URL (one with a slash ‘/’ and one without) because

although http://www.glosonblog.com/twitter redirects to http://twitter.com/Gloson,
http://www.glosonblog.com/twitter/ (with a slash) won’t. So, you need to create another redirection (type ‘/twitter/’ in the source URL) so that the people who visits the URL with a slash would be redirected, too.

How it is useful

404 pages
Like the story I told above, if many blogs are linking to one of your posts and you have changed the permalink, you can set up a redirection so that the people who visits that link will be redirected to the right page and not a 404 page.

Affiliate links
For Internet marketers who would like to hide affiliate links, this plugin comes in handy. Simply redirect your visitors to your affiliate link from a source URL like this, ‘/go/product-1’ or something like that.

URL Shortening
This is useful for long URL’s that are hard to remember. For example, you can’t remember that long URL to your facebook profile. You could use your blog for redirection. For example, http://www.glosonblog.com/facebook redirects to my facebook profile.

I find this plugin handy and useful. Oh, and to download the plugin and read more about it, click here.

______ This is a blog post from Gloson Blog. I hope you've enjoyed it! To leave a comment on it, please visit How To Redirect URL in Your Blog. Or, head to Gloson Blog for more posts! :) ______

TeamViewer made it possible to do that. (In fact, you could control any other computer in the world, as if you are sitting in front of it.)

Why it is useful

Team Collaboration
Your friend wants to redesign his blog. But he doesn’t know how to. This is where TeamViewer comes in handy. In case you do not know, TeamViewer also lets you chat with your friend (You could also use an instant messenger).

After you have gained access to your friend’s computer, you help your friend redesign his blog. At the same time, teaching him. You can also discuss if you have a suggestion for your friend.

It would be like virtually sitting next to each other.

Training
If your friend does not know how to use Photoshop to edit a picture, you could use TeamViewer to teach him how. When you are editing the picture, your friend could see what you are doing, and learn.

File Transferring
With TeamViewer, you can transfer a file from your computer, to your friend’s. You can transfer it to exactly where you want it to be, too.

How

After you install TeamViewer, you would get an ID number. Each time you open TeamViewer, it automatically generates a password. You can also create your own password.

So, how does it work?
Firstly, ask your friend for his ID and password. Your friend must leave TeamViewer on in order for you to gain access to his computer. Then, select ‘Remote support’ and type your friend’s ID. After connecting, TeamViewer will request your friend’s password. After you’ve entered the password, a window showing the screen of your friend’s computer will open. Then, you can control your friend’s computer.

Of course, your friend would have the highest priority. Once your friend controls, you wouldn’t be able to control.

To disable you from controlling his computer anymore, your friend would have to click the small window near the taskbar, and then the X button.

Presentation
If you want to ‘show off’ your presentation to your friend, this feature is for you. To use this feature, select ‘Presentation’ before clicking ‘Connect to Partner’.

But this is different. Instead of seeing your friend’s screen, your friend would see your screen. Your friend can not control your computer. Instead, a big blue mouse would appear in your screen. When your friend clicks on your screen, the the big blue mouse would move there.

In this feature, the quality of the partner’s screen is enhanced, to make the presentation clearer.

File transfer
You can also transfer files from your computer to your friend’s using TeamViewer. To use this feature, click ‘File transfer’ before clicking ‘Connect to Partner’.

Your friend would then receive a message, asking him whether to let you transfer files to his computer, or not. He has 10 seconds to approve. When the time runs out, the request would be denied.

If your friend accepts the request, you will see the directory of files and folders in you and your friend’s computer. You can transfer your file to wherever you want in your friend’s computer.

How I Use Teamviewer

I use TeamViewer for team collaboration.

Sometimes, my friend from overseas need help with his blog. But I am not the administrator of the blog, so I couldn’t help him. Fortunately, he has TeamViewer, too. I then gained access to his computer. He is already logged in to his blog as the administrator. I then helped him with his blog.

One day, I wanted to show to my friend a powerpoint presentation. So, we logged in to Teamviewer and he could see the presentation.

Download

If you want to download TeamViewer for free, go to its website, Teamviewer.com.

If you already use TeamViewer, how and why do you use it?

______ This is a blog post from Gloson Blog. I hope you've enjoyed it! To leave a comment on it, please visit View and Control Your Friend’s Computer With TeamViewer. Or, head to Gloson Blog for more posts! :) ______

KickYouTube

KickYouTube is one way to download YouTube videos.Simply type ‘kick’ before ‘youtube.com’. For example, http://youtube.com/watch/?v=dMH0bHeiRNg becomes http://kickyoutube.com/watch/?v=dMH0bHeiRNg.

After you hit enter, you will be taken to a page, exactly the same as the original page, except there are download options at the top of it.

Simply click the video format you want, and then click ‘Go’, which is near the top right of th page. Your download would begin in a moment.

Fast video download

Alternately, you can use Applian’s Fast Video Download, a add-on for firefox. After you install it on firefox, it will be displayed at the bottom right. When you are on a YouTube video, just click on the icon, and the video will be downloaded, as an .flv format.

But… there’s more to this add-on – not only it downloads videos from YouTube, but also from DailyMotion, Google Video, and some more other video sites! It can save videos from Google Video in the .avi format, though.

It also can be used to download embedded flash games (.swf), like the ones from www.pog.com and www.miniclip.com.

When it detects multiple downloadable stuff on the page, out will come a window that shows the downloadable stuff, and lets you pick which ones you want to download. Pick the one that you think is the most probable one that you want to download.
 
(I was on www.miniclip.com, at a game called ‘Deep Freeze’. The most probable file that might be the game would be ‘deepfreeze.swf’.)

To play the game, simply right click the file in your folder, and click ‘Open With’. Pick any internet browser, and your game will be displayed there.

Click here to download Applian’s Fast Video Download

If you don’t have an flv player, you can download it here for free.

______ This is a blog post from Gloson Blog. I hope you've enjoyed it! To leave a comment on it, please visit How to Download Videos and Online Games from the Internet. Or, head to Gloson Blog for more posts! :) ______

If you’ve a post you want to read, just copy the words, and paste it into ReadPlease. Press the play button, and ReadPlease will read aloud every word in that article. You can also save the text in ReadPlease in its format.

Actually, ReadPlease can read all kinds of text, even ‘sdaisjdijiaojsoid’ or ‘mumumumuunununun’. It will just read them out. If you type ‘dddddddddddddddddd’, it would just speak, “Dee dee dee dee dee dee dee..”. This is also a great tool for children to experiment with.

And did I mention? It is free! Except for the more advanced version (called ReadPlease Plus) for which you have to purchase ($49.95). The advanced version has more features. But the free version is probably enough for you. ReadPlease Plus has a free trial period of 30 days, but the free version never expires.

You can download ReadPlease here. For the direct download, click here.

Tips

ReadPlease also can read aloud in other languages, such as German or French. It also can read in British-English. You just have to download the languages from the site.

ReadPlease, by default has four voices – two males’, and two females’. They are all in American English. The text would be read differently, according to whose voice you pick.

You can also choose the speed of reading. If you choose fast, the article would be read finished quickly.

You can choose how large you want the text to be, so it suits your eyes.

To modify the appearance and the font, click ‘Tools’ then ‘Options’, where you also can modify other stuff.

When you first open it, the window may seem too narrow. To widen it, simply stretch the window by dragging its corner.

Now you don’t have to spend a hard time squinting at an article, but paste it in ReadPlease and relax .

______ This is a blog post from Gloson Blog. I hope you've enjoyed it! To leave a comment on it, please visit A Free Tool to Read Text Aloud. Or, head to Gloson Blog for more posts! :) ______

This is also useful for sites which have a limited selection of colors and support color codes. Here’s a preview:

See? The color code is located near the top-right. What you have to do is to add a number (#) sign before it.

Why not try it? It’s easy, simple, and nice. You can even add it to iGoogle.

______ This is a blog post from Gloson Blog. I hope you've enjoyed it! To leave a comment on it, please visit A Very Useful Color Tool. Or, head to Gloson Blog for more posts! :) ______

Hi, just telling you how I love the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky‘ option of Picasa by Google. It simply brightens up your photo and makes it nicer.

Before

After

Well, doesn’t the edited photo seem much brighter?
Look at another one:

Before

After

Doesn’t the second one look much better than the first?
That’s the magic of ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’, make photos better!

But sometimes, the photo may not be what you think it should. Take this for instance.

Before

After

You see, the lighting is a little bit blue, which doesn’t look so real.
The solve this, click on the ‘Auto Contrast‘ option instead (After you undo the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ option).

Before

After

Well, doesn’t the auto contrast option fix the picture? The auto contrast option changes the contrast, not the color, while the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ option changes both the color and the contrast.

Do you want your photos to look better? Why not install Picasa now, and try it?

______ This is a blog post from Gloson Blog. I hope you've enjoyed it! To leave a comment on it, please visit I’m Feeling Lucky (Picasa). Or, head to Gloson Blog for more posts! :) ______