7 Free Online Services, Programs, and Apps That Make My Life Better

DISCLAIMER: Your life is not my life, and I don’t claim to know enough about this stuff to be able to vouch for its safety 100%. All I know is, I haven’t had a problem with it yet.

1. Free online post-secondary courses (specifically, Coursera)

I’ve spent most of my life in academia. I really like school. So it should be no surprise that I love the opportunity to learn new things from free online courses that are taught by accredited experts with years of classroom experience. I like that there are deadlines — otherwise I would never get anything done — but that I can watch videos and do projects whenever I want. I like that I can try things without any negative repercussions if I fail or decide it’s not for me: no last date to drop classes or discussions with your academic advisor about what fits in your schedule. And I like that the part of school that works least well for me, lectures, is customizable; I can watch videos at 1.25 or 1.5x speed.

True, so far, many courses aren’t as difficult or extensive as real in-class counterparts, and the coursework, especially in humanities courses where peer marking is a necessity, isn’t held to the usual high standards.  On the other hand, they do serve their purpose: they educate large numbers of people. And, honestly? Speaking as someone who was blown away to see the class standard the first time she marked papers, peer marking is an awesome thing. Students should get the marking experience to help them understand how the TA or professor perceives their work. Besides… the price is right.

I’ve taken Cryptography I, Learning to Program: the Fundamentals, and Game Theory, and I’m finishing up Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society. Next year, I hope to take a bunch of other courses too.

2. Google Calendar

Google is going to take/has already taken over the world, but at least when it does, we’ll all be able to use this handy calendar that can automatically sync with that on your Android phone. It took me a little while to figure out how to change the defaults, but now that I have, it’s such a useful feature. I especially like that I can share my calendar (or one of my calendars — if I wanted, I could have a private calendar for “10am meeting — SPECTRE executive board discussion on the Bond problem” and “3pm — summon reincarnated Lord of the Dead via sacrifice of white goat” separate from my dentist appointments and office hours) with friends and see their calendars. No more boring conversations about who’s doing what when!

3. Cloud-syncing services (specifically, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Box)

As a writer and researcher, I live in fear of losing my documents and data. They’re my livelihood, and the loss of a single file can means days, hours, or weeks of work. Of course I back my stuff up, but having my work on my USB key or external hard drive won’t matter if, God forbid, my apartment burns down.

As an instructor, I also worry that I might accidentally find myself in front of the class without the slideshow I hoped to present for the next 120 minutes. Or I might be sitting in my office unable to mark assignments because I left the spreadsheet of grades at home. Or — you get the idea.

I’ve been using them for only a short time, but I already love these cloud services that sync automatically with the files on my computer, backing them up without me having to worry about them, allowing me to share large videos or images with others without clogging their inboxes, and ensuring that I can access my data on any computer or smartphone that can connect to the Internet. I don’t have to manually make sure each of my devices has the latest version of a file; the service will take care of it for me.

I have to use all three in tandem to get what I need — a sufficient amount of space with Box, the ability to store large files with Google Drive, and the ability to back up certain of my online accounts automatically with Dropbox — but that’s a small price to pay for knowing my work is safe, secure, and accessible. I mean, I could pay to upgrade to the premium services with more storage space and features, but this suits me fine for now.

4. Mint.com

Speaking of cloud-based storage, I’m glad I’m giving this app a second chance. The first time, I balked at the idea of entering my financial data into a third-party application, but I’ve since been reassured of its security. Up until now, I’ve kept a budget in Excel form, but it’s a pain to remember to enter each new transaction when I get home afterwards. Contrariwise, once I enter my logins in Mint, the program automatically updates my budget with any purchases I’ve made using credit or debit, and I can add new items using my phone (or anything connected to the Internet) wherever I happen to be.

I’m not 100% happy with it; I wish my credit card provider updated its statements more quickly so the record would appear on the day I buy something, not several days later. And I wish it connected to the bank I use for my business account. But all in all, it’s a pretty handy service, and I look forward to seeing how it works for me over the next year.

5.  Groupon

Groupon makes my life both better and worse. I’m unable to resist some of the deals they offer, but that’s a good thing when cinemas, restaurants, and shops I use regularly offer 50% off their normal prices. It’s also a good thing when I learn about activities or opportunities in Toronto that I never knew about. For instance, it was through Groupon that I got to go down a hill in a giant hamster ball full of water with my friends in the middle of September, and it was through Groupon that I learned about Whirlyball (basketball-lacrosse played in bumper cars). And I’ve tried several new restaurants because of Groupon, though most of them were a treat rather than a new place to go regularly.

Basically, Groupon is an easy way to get my friends to do fun things. Although I wish the site made it easier to buy multiple Groupons as a group (maybe some kind of social media interface where you can “friend” other users and subscribe to buy X Groupons between you, with the purchase being cancelled if not everyone picks up their share?), it’s still a fun place to browse.

Finally, I appreciate that I can use most Groupons on my smartphone. Why do I want to waste printer paper when I can use pixels?

6. OverDrive

You guys, I can get books for free on my phone. From the Toronto Public Library, among others. I will never be bored waiting for public transit again.

7. LastPass

As another recent addition, this one’s still on probation. However, so far, I like what I see.

LastPass is a password and information manager for your browser. Mainly, it “remembers” your password and your logins for a variety of websites, but it also allows you to fill in stored sensitive information without ever typing it out (to circumvent keystroke loggers), generates secure random passwords, and stores all your information in a secure cloud so you can just log into your LastPass account.

I’m not an expert on computer security, and I’m pretty sure that a determined hacker can always get into your stuff through social engineering. But in tandem with two-factor authentication and practices like not using publicly available information for my security questions, I think LastPass will help me minimize the probability of situations like this.