WORLDLY WISE

Here8217;s a new tool to up your knowledge quotient. It8217;s called VideoJug

Have you wondered where I find the answers to all the tech related issues? No, I don8217;t live in a library. I8217;m just a self-confessed learner with a need to know about everything. But is it possible? As children we had to fall back on encyclopaedias, books on 8220;how things work8221; or science fiction and fiction that dealt with futuristic gadgets and demystified the world for us.

Then came the Internet to simplify things. In 1998, when it was still new and not much information was available online, a good alternative was provided by a North Carolina University professor, who launched a site howstuffworks.com as a hobby. Gradually, many similar sites came about and when Wikipedia wikipedia.org hit the headlines, every student, geek, researcher and lover of information was heading for it.

Of course, the TV has been there, with the Discovery Channel, Discovery Travel 038; Living, History Channel and others, but it8217;s not possible to watch TV all day.

Things changed again with YouTube, which taught the world about video streaming online. It finally had a format that worked, where you could create and upload videos, and the technology worked, but finding a video, especially one that answered a question, was not its prerogative.

The void has finally been filled, especially for people like you and me, who need more than pictures and text to provide information. It8217;s a site called VideoJug still in beta at videojug.com, which has about 15,000 videos from various experts, and as the punchline says: life explained. on film.

The short factual films demonstrate how to do everything, from learning three-ball juggling and cooking Mexican food to knowing about your spouse8217;s sun sign. Some videos are plain silly, others are sublime. It8217;s a good destination even if you have nothing to do; you can browse or select the most viewed section.

The good bit doesn8217;t end here. While VideoJug produces some videos itself with a transcript, it also offers the users the facility to upload their 8220;how to8221; videos. You can download these, save them to your phone, iPod or a PSP, and use them even when you are not online.

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The videos are split into multiple categories and the whole index is search enabled, though the site is in beta. By the time it comes out with a full version, Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers will need to have videos as well.