Best Web Freebies

101 Best Web Freebies - BusinessWeek Page 1 of 1
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BEST AND WORST IN TECH
ENTERTAINMENT
Worth 1,000 Words
GIMP (www.gimp.org)
Adobe Photoshop is a powerful graphics program, but with a $999 price
tag, few can afford it. Open-source download GNU Image Manipulation
Program (GIMP) performs many of the same image editing and
retouching tasks for free.
Hugin (www.hugin.sourceforge.net)
Can't quite capture that majestic panoramic view with a tiny 3.5" by 5"
photo? Take several photos and stitch them together with a free
downloadable software program called Hugin.
Flickr—photo sharing (www.flickr.com)

It's the most popular place to share photos on the Web, and new
features make it easier to stay current with friends and family. Make a
list of contacts, and you'll be notified each time they upload new
pictures.
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FREE BUT NOT EASY

Shopping Spree
BestRewardsAround.com
(bestrewardsaround.com/
?config=1460&src=WC-
00087aaa:89426:)
It's possible to win a $500 gift card for
Old Navy. But the fine print details the
complications you will endure to get
there, which includes signing up yourself
and one friend for a six different trial
memberships to
BestRewardsAround.com's sponsors.
FreeClassicClothes.com
(www.freeclassicclothes.com/?
config=1299&src=WC-00087aaa:81558:)
Want a $500 gift card for the Gap?
Again, sign up yourself and one friend for
six trial memberships to
FreeClassicClothes.com's sponsors. Getty Images
GreatOnlineRewards.com (greatonlinerewards.com/?config=2798&src=WC-00087aaa:127759:)
Most parents won't have the time, but for $500 worth of Huggies diapers, you can sign up yourself and a friend for eight trial
memberships to GreatOnlineRewards.com's sponsors.
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FREE BUT NOT EASY

Cash for Your Opinion
American Consumer Opinion
(www.acop.com)
Businesses pay American Consumer
Opinion and other online survey
companies for the opinions of potential
customers. If you have some extra time
and enjoy filling out surveys, they will
pass the buck on to you.
E-Poll (www.epoll.com)
Like American Consumer Opinion, E-
Poll gives you the option of taking
longer surveys for cold hard cash, or
filling out short questionnaires for a
chance to win money in a drawing.
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FREE BUT NOT EASY

iPods for All
Freepay (ipods.freepay.com)
You've minimized hundreds of pop-up ads
proclaiming free iPods for all—but did you ever
stop to think they could be real? Freepay does
give away free iPods (even the new Touch), with
one big, headache-inducing catch: You have to
sign up for a trial membership to one of their
sponsors, and get five of your friends to sign up
as well.
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SELF-IMPROVEMENT
Hone Your Skills
iPlayMusic (www.iplaymusic.com)
iPlayMusic sells instructional DVDs and software for
learning how to play guitar, but its Web site also provides
basic video tutorials for things like stringing and tuning a
guitar, and constructing chords.
Drawspace (www.drawspace.com)
Drawspace has step-by-step instructions for learning how
to draw everything from cartoon animals to something
more realistic.
Golf.com Lesson Finder

(www.golf.com/golf/instruction/lessonfinder)
Got a few minutes for your swing? Golf.com's ad-
supported Lesson Finder has dozens of videos for fixing
your slice, reading the green, and dealing with nasty
trouble shots.
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SELF-IMPROVEMENT
Learn a New Language
BBC Languages
(www.bbc.co.uk/languages)
Want to brush up on your French?
Interested in learning a more exotic
language, like Urdu? The BBC offers
audio lessons in 13 different languages,
downloadable in MP3 format.
American Sign Language Browser
Getty Images
(commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/browser.htm)
A print dictionary is unhelpful for learning sign language, so Michigan State University created an online video dictionary of
hundreds of standard signs.
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SELF-IMPROVEMENT
Back to School
MIT OpenCourseWare
Getty Images
(ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm)
If you want a degree from an Ivy League school, it's going to cost you. But if you want the next best thing—for free—go online.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology offers access to 1,700 courses spanning sciences, humanities, and management.
Stanford CS Education Library (cslibrary.stanford.edu)

Stanford offers computer science tutorials, starting with C++ and working towards programming a complete game of Tetris.
UC Berkeley on Google Video (www.video.google.com/ucberkeley.html)

The search site hosts UC Berkeley lecture videos on science, humanities, and public policy.
OpenUW (www.extension.washington.edu/openuw)
University of Washington course materials in selected areas. Current courses include Heroic Fantasy: Tolkien and History of Jazz
New Orleans.
Open Learning Initiative (www.cmu.edu/oli)

Carnegie Mellon University offers online courses in 10 areas, including statistics and causal reasoning.
Tufts Open Courseware (ocw.tufts.edu)

The school offers a variety of online courses. The Tufts School of Medicine, for one, has 12 online classes ranging from Genetics
to Pathophysiology of Infectious Diseases.
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HEALTH
Lose a Few
A Calorie Counter (www.acaloriecounter.com)
Want to learn how many calories are in your food from a trusted
source? A Calorie Counter searches the USDA database for
detailed nutritional information on almost any food.
Fatsecret (www.fatsecret.com)
To lose weight, some people just need the support of friends.
Fatsecret is a social network for dieters and exercisers, with weight
loss journals, tips, recipes, and advice.
myfitnesspal (www.myfitnesspal.com)
Myfitnesspal has an exercise journal, a searchable food database,
a calorie counter, body mass calculators, and message boards in
one place.
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HEALTH
Good Health and Hygiene
Airborne Power Pixies
Getty Images
(www.airbornehealth.com/promotions_pixies.php)
If your kids' allergies are acting up, a simple fix could be Airborne, an immunity boosting formula. The company is offering a free
sample of its Power Pixies product, designed especially for kids. Supplies may be limited.
Lactaid (www.lactaid.com/vcrc/offers/nmcampaign.jhtml?id=vcrc/offers/la_freesample2.inc&oid=5018&bid=21&formType=C)
Even if you're lactose intolerant, you might be able to enjoy dairy foods again with the aid of a product like Lactaid. A free sample
of the dietary supplement is available. Supplies may be limited.
Aquafresh Extreme Clean (www.aquafresh.com/freesample.promo)

Sign up for mail promotions from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), and get a free sample of Aquafresh Extreme Clean toothpaste. Supplie
may be limited.
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HEALTH
Get a Second Opinion
WebMD (www.webmd.com)
Can't tell if that bump is a bug bite or an allergic
reaction? Before you make a doctor's
appointment or run to the emergency room,
check out your symptoms on WebMD (WBMD).
Merck Manuals Online (www.merck.com/mmpe)

The world's best-selling medical textbook is now
available free online, with photographs, audio,
and video content, and other updates to the
original.
Learn CPR (depts.washington.edu/learncpr)

The University of Washington produces Learn
CPR, an online source of illustrated guides and
tutorial videos for performing CPR, helping a
choking victim, and other first-aid education.
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ON THE MENU
Drinks on the House
Pravda Vodka (www.pravdavodka.com/registration.aspx)
Pravda doesn't ship free samples of its vodka directly, but sign up to
receive a promotional brochure and get a coupon for a free miniature
bottle. Offer may be for a limited time.
Dunkin Donuts Coffee (dunkinathome.offerprocessingcenter.com/?source=

[homepage])
Dunkin' Donuts has started offering take-home bags of its wildly popular
coffee blend. It's offering free samples to spread the word. Supplies may be
limited.
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ON THE MENU
Taste Tests
Hamburger Helper
Getty Images
(www.startsampling.com/sm/24966/captureAddress.iphtml?item=24966&source=&p=)
Try out Hamburger Helper's new microwaveable packs. Supplies may be limited.
Habaneros of Texas H.O.T. Sauce (www.hotexas.com/freesamples.htm)

Some like it hot, some even hotter. If you're in the later camp, you'll want Habaneros of Texas' famous hot sauce. Supplies may b
limited.
Baskin Robbins Birthday Club (www.baskinrobbins.com/BDayClub/)

Join the Baskin Robbins Birthday Club and you'll receive promotions in the mail. You'll also get a free scoop of the ice cream of
your choice every year on your birthday.
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AROUND THE HOME

Swap Your Stuff
TitleTrader (www.titletrader.com)
At TitleTrader.com, you receive a
certain number of credits for each used
book, DVD, or video game you send to
the site. Then, use those points to order
used media, paying only shipping.
Freecycle.org (www.freecycle.org)
Right now, someone in your
neighborhood is throwing away
something you could put to use.
Freecycle.org—a site with links to local
swap groups all over the country—was
Getty Images
started to reduce unnecessary waste.
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AROUND THE HOME

Change Your Look
SilverJewelryClub.com (www.silverjewelryclub.com)
Pick one item from four pieces of sterling jewelry on
SilverJewelryClub.com—rings, earrings, and
necklaces—and have them shipped for only about
$6. There's no restriction on going back for seconds
or thirds.
National Guard T-shirt
Getty Images
(www.highroadsolutions.net/clients/lmo/forms/form_tshirt.php?email=&source_code=tshirt_cart)
You don't have to join the National Guard to get your very own T-shirt that reads: "Army National Guard, 100% American Soldier.
Supplies may be limited.
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AROUND THE HOME

Eat In
Epicurious Recipes and Menus
(www.epicurious.com/recipesmenus)
Running out of new ideas in the kitchen?
You could pick up Joy of Cooking for $23
on Amazon.com (AMZN), or you could
check out Epicurious.com's database of
thousands of recipes, organized by season,
cuisine, and difficulty.
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AROUND THE HOME

Remodel
Google Sketchup (www.sketchup.com)
One of the lesser-known products in
Google's stable of free online tools is
Sketchup, a 3D modeling program. It's
powerful enough to be used by
professionals in architecture, film, and
gaming—but it's simple enough for you
to use while planning your next home
renovation.
Interior Paint Calculator
Getty Images
(www.easy2diy.com/cm/easy/diy_ht_calc_index.asp?page_id=35720769&parent1=Location&child1=Office%
2FDen&parent2=Category)
Having trouble figuring out how much paint to buy? Go to Easy2DIY.com's paint calculator and enter the room measurements an
number of doors and windows—and it will tell you how many cans you need for the job.
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RESEARCH
Chart a Course
Google Earth (www.earth.google.com)
Google Earth combines satellite imagery, aerial
photography and the geographic information
system to create a complex, interactive model of
our planet. Recent additions include a star
viewer and a flight simulator.
David Rumsey's Historical Map Collection

(www.davidrumsey.com)
Former real estate developer David Rumsey has
collected more than 15,000 historical maps,
largely from the 18th and 19th centuries. They're
all available for viewing and printing on his Web
site.
HopStop.com (www.hopstop.com)
Sites like Google Maps and MapQuest are
frequently used for driving directions, but they
aren't as helpful if you live in a city and rely on
public transportation. HopStop has bus and
subway directions for New York, Boston,
Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.
Getty Images
MapMyRun (www.mapmyrun.com)
Plan smarter jogging routes with MapMyRun, where you can see elevation, topography, and street-level views before heading ou
the door. Afterward, track your mileage, speed, and calories burned.
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RESEARCH
Comb the Archives
Internet Archive (www.archive.org)
Where can you download the film Night
of the Living Dead, the MP3 of a recent
Ryan Adams concert, and an e-book on
medieval feudalism? At the Web's
largest collection of public domain
media, the Internet Archive.
Government Printing Office Access

(www.gpoaccess.gov)
In 1860, the legislative branch of the
government formed the Government
Printing Office to give all citizens access
to government publications. The GPO
has begun moving its collection online, Getty Images
and a wealth of material already is
available.
National Archives (www.archives.gov)

Read the Declaration of Independence, scan U.S. census data, military service records, and much more at the National Archives
Web site, where only 3% of the most important historical documents are preserved.
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PRINT MEDIA
Get Published
Lulu (www.lulu.com)
Aspiring novelists and scrapbook hobbyists go to Lulu for free book
layouts, including text sizing, cover art, and binding style. Then, they set
the price and take 80% profit from each book that's printed and shipped.
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PRINT MEDIA
Read a Comic Book
Marvel Digital Comics
(www.marvel.com/digitalcomics)
Marvel (MVL) saw its core audience of
youngsters moving online, so it brought
comic books online. It makes available
its entire collection of thousands of
Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk, Silver
Surfer, and more comics for $10 per
month. But it also offers 250 free comics
at a time.
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PRINT MEDIA
Read a Book
Project Gutenberg
(www.gutenberg.org/wiki/main_page)
When the copyright expires on a popular book, it
frequently goes into Project Gutenberg—an
online collection of more than 20,000 free e-
books. Recent additions include works by
Charles Dickens and Joseph Conrad.
UPenn Online Books Page

(onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu)
The University of Pennsylvania also hosts a
large database of public domain e-books. Its
page of New Listings is available as an RSS
feed.
LibriVox (www.librivox.org)
LibriVox solicits volunteers to record readings of
books in the public domain, then offers the
recordings for free on their site. It currently has
over 1,000 titles available for download as MP3
files.
Getty Images
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ENTERTAINMENT
Go Out
myopenbar.com (www.myopenbar.com)
If you live in a big city, chances are there is free booze to be had on
any given night. Originally limited to New York, myopenbar.com is
now a daily guide to free or discount drinking in New York, San
Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Washington, D.C., and Seattle
are coming soon.
Audiences Unlimited (www.tvtickets.com)

Why watch TV when you can be a part of it? At sites like Audiences
Unlimited, you can sign up to be a member of the studio audience for
major network shows.
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ENTERTAINMENT
Worth 1,000 Words
GIMP (www.gimp.org)
Adobe Photoshop is a powerful graphics program, but with a $999 price
tag, few can afford it. Open-source download GNU Image Manipulation
Program (GIMP) performs many of the same image editing and
retouching tasks for free.
Hugin (www.hugin.sourceforge.net)
Can't quite capture that majestic panoramic view with a tiny 3.5" by 5"
photo? Take several photos and stitch them together with a free
downloadable software program called Hugin.
Flickr—photo sharing (www.flickr.com)

It's the most popular place to share photos on the Web, and new
features make it easier to stay current with friends and family. Make a
list of contacts, and you'll be notified each time they upload new
pictures.
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ENTERTAINMENT
Lights, Camera, Action!
DVD Flick (www.dvdflick.net)
If you have a number of video files of various
formats clogging up your hard drive, use DVD
Flick to turn them into a fun home movie. With
the open-source software, any video you can
view on your PC can be burned onto disc, and
personalized audio and subtitles can be added.
Motionbox (www.motionbox.com)
Motionbox might be the simplest-to-use video
editing tool on the Web—and most of its features
are free. After you upload videos, you get a
frame-by-frame view that makes cutting and
reordering scenes a breeze.
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ENTERTAINMENT
Rock Out
Pandora (www.pandora.com)
Select an artist or a song you like, and
Pandora creates a playlist of similar
songs based on deep data about
melody, harmony, rhythm, and
instrumentation. As of this year, the site
is ad-supported.
Critical Metrics
(www.criticalmetrics.com)
If you sift through stacks of magazines,
newspapers, and blogs looking for a
consensus on the best new albums and
singles, cancel your subscriptions and
head over to Critical Metrics. The site
sifts through reviews from Rolling
Stone, The New York Times, Pitchfork
and more to create a list of the top
Getty Images
recommended songs at any given
time—and links to streaming audio and video for most of them.
Free iTunes Downloads Blog (freeitunessongs.blogspot.com)

Every week, Apple's iTunes store makes a selection of songs and videos available for free downloading—but they can be tricky to
find. The Free iTunes Downloads blog keeps you in the loop.
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CAREER
Get Your Name Out
VistaPrint (www.vistaprint.com)
Having a business card is a must, but if they
aren't provided by an employer they can put a
dent in your wallet before you land a job. At
Vistaprint, you can order 250 customized color
business cards with graphics, for free. The only
catches: a small ad on the back, and a $6
charge for shipping.
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CAREER
Land a Job
Emurse (www.emurse.com)
Most online job hunters have different
versions of their résumés scattered
across job boards like Monster (MNST)
and Yahoo! (YHOO) Hotjobs, as well as
networks liked LinkedIn and MySpace.
At Emurse, build a simple online
résumé with a short domain name
where you can direct potential
employers to an updated CV.
Indeed (www.indeed.com)
How do you choose between national
online job boards like Monster, regional
job boards and industry-specific job
boards? You don't have to with Indeed,
a site that searches these databases
and others for jobs that match your
Getty Images
skills.
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PERSONAL FINANCE
Play the Housing Market
Zillow.com (www.zillow.com)
Real estate agents are no longer the first stop
for information on local markets. Zillow.com
uses public records of recent home sales to
create "Zestimates"—estimated values of more
than 70 million homes in the country.
Trulia (www.trulia.com)
Trulia aggregates for-sale listings across the
country into one searchable database. The site
also has local real estate guides, which bring
trends and statistics on schools, crime,
household income, and home sales into one
place.
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Getty Images
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PERSONAL FINANCE
File Your Taxes
TaxACT (www.taxact.com)
This Web-based tax software is part of
the Internal Revenue Service's Free File
program. But unlike other IRS partners
who limit free filing services to those
with incomes of $54,000 or less,
TaxACT is open to all.
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Getty Images
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PERSONAL FINANCE
Manage Your Money
Mint: Personal accounting software
(www.mint.com)
Register anonymously for online
accounting software Mint, and keep
multiple credit and bank accounts
organized in one place, with alerts for
upcoming bills and low balances. Mint
also analyzes your spending patterns
and suggests ways to save.
Freerealtime.com
(quotes.freerealtime.com)
Stock tickers on most Web sites,
including BusinessWeek.com, are
delayed by at least 20 minutes.
Freerealtime.com is one of the few to Getty Images
offer a real-time ticker.
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TECH TOOLS
Phone Home
Skype (www.skype.com)
With more than 200 million users,
Skype is still the most popular VoIP
service. Calls from one Skype user to
another are free, anywhere in the world.
Gizmo Project (www.gizmoproject.com)

The leading competitor to Skype,
SIPphone's Gizmo Project has some
unique features like voicemail and free
calls to the landline or mobile phone of
another Gizmo user.
The Pudding (www.thepudding.com)

While Skype makes money by charging
Getty Images
for added features, like calls to cell
phones, a new VoIP service called the Pudding serves contextual ads to users based on what they are talking about.
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TECH TOOLS
Home on the Web
divShare (www.divshare.com)
It's free to upload videos to YouTube
and photos to Flickr. But on ad-
supported site divShare, you can upload
an unlimited amount to one personal
account, keep them there forever, and
access them without having to
redownload to your hard drive. You
can't do that with those other sites.
T35 Hosting (www.t35.com)

There's no fee to start your own ad-
supported site host like Yahoo! (YHOO)
Geocities, but disk space and
bandwidth are usually limited. Not so
with T35 Hosting. You can use as much Getty Images
space and bandwidth as you want—the
more you use, the more ads you host.
WordPress (wordpress.org)
One of the first free blog hosting sites, WordPress offers features like user registration, spam protection, and a wide variety of
designs.
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TECH TOOLS
Safeguard Your System
AVG Anti-Virus Free (www.free.grisoft.com)
The complete version of Grisoft's popular
antivirus software starts at $53, but the free
version is just as effective if you can do without a
firewall, spam blocker, and technical support.
Spybot (www.safer-networking.org)
If you paid for an antivirus bundle like those
offered by AVG and McAfee (MFE) you probably
have the tools for detecting and removing nasty
spyware. But if you skimped, be sure to pick up
a standalone program like Spybot, which is
available free for all versions of Windows.
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2 of 45
Load Up Your PC
Ubuntu (www.ubuntu.com)
Have a new PC? Now you need an
operating system, and that can run up
to an additional $278 for Microsoft's
(MSFT) Vista operating system or up to
$200 for Apple's (AAPL) Leopard. The
Linux-based Ubuntu operating system is
free and comes with a word processor,
spreadsheet, presentation software,
browser, e-mail, media player, and
photo-editing software.
OpenOffice.org (www.openoffice.org)
The basic version of Microsoft's popular
Office suite runs as high as $400.
There's no charge for OpenOffice.org,
and it's available for Windows, Mac, and
Linux.
Pandora Recovery Getty Images

(www.pandorarecovery.com)
Deleted files aren't permanently erased right away. Use Pandora Recovery to get them back—in some cases, as long as 11 year
later.
Libra (www.getlibra.com)
You get a simple way to organize your collections of books, CDs, DVDs, and console games, and Singapore developer CodeJam
gets affiliate revenue from e-commerce sites like Amazon.
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101 Best Web Freebies - BusinessWeek Page 1 of 1

Flickr—photo sharing (www.flickr.com)

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FREE BUT NOT EASY

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FREE BUT NOT EASY

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FREE BUT NOT EASY

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Golf.com Lesson Finder

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American Sign Language Browser

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Stanford CS Education Library (cslibrary.stanford.edu)

UC Berkeley on Google Video (www.video.google.com/ucberkeley.html)

Open Learning Initiative (www.cmu.edu/oli)

Tufts Open Courseware (ocw.tufts.edu)

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Aquafresh Extreme Clean (www.aquafresh.com/freesample.promo)

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Merck Manuals Online (www.merck.com/mmpe)

Learn CPR (depts.washington.edu/learncpr)

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Dunkin Donuts Coffee (dunkinathome.offerprocessingcenter.com/?source=

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Habaneros of Texas H.O.T. Sauce (www.hotexas.com/freesamples.htm)

Baskin Robbins Birthday Club (www.baskinrobbins.com/BDayClub/)

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AROUND THE HOME

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AROUND THE HOME

National Guard T-shirt

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AROUND THE HOME

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AROUND THE HOME

Interior Paint Calculator

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David Rumsey's Historical Map Collection

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Government Printing Office Access

National Archives (www.archives.gov)

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UPenn Online Books Page

Audiences Unlimited (www.tvtickets.com)

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Flickr—photo sharing (www.flickr.com)

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Free iTunes Downloads Blog (freeitunessongs.blogspot.com)

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Gizmo Project (www.gizmoproject.com)

The Pudding (www.thepudding.com)

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T35 Hosting (www.t35.com)

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