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Completing a Coursera Specialization for Free

Coursera provides continuing education just like Udacity and offer the full learning experience that I am accustomed to, including lesson videos, reading materials, projects, discussion forums, and graded projects which are peer-reviewed. I recently completed the Full-stack Web Development in React specialization from Coursera, all for free. It’s called a specialization because it is made up of three courses below each with their own certifications and which takes 4-6 weeks each to complete: 1. Front-End Web UI Frameworks and Tools: Bootstrap 4 2. Front-End Web Development with React 3. Server-side Development with NodeJS, Express and MongoDB I started the program in December 2021 and finished it in June 2023 however. The intent of this post is to explain how I was able to fund the entire specialization for free. In December 2021, I read on social media that Coursera allowed for one free course per year if you were a student and had an email address from a partner school. I gave my stu

Six iPhone Apps That Could Save You On Your Voice Plan

My friend recently told me about how he had to pay for overage fees on his iPhone 3G data plan in the past two months. He mentioned that because of this, he was going to try and save on both voice and 3G data plan by going offline whenever there is WIFI coverage. I thought it made perfect sense because in the normal course of a business week, he would have WIFI connectivity when he is in the office and when he gets home. Doing this would allow him to reduce his monthly limit from 1GB to 500MB.

In addition to the 3G data plan savings, he also said he can further save on long distance voice plan charges. He downloaded a few iPhone apps that he could use without using up any airtime. As long as he has WIFI or is connected to 3G, these apps will allow him to avoid using precious phone airtime:

MagicJack
This app lets you call to any phone, as long as you already have the MagicJack hardware plugged in at home. Free calls in Canada and in the US.

netTalk
Can call anyone, including non-netTalk users and it’s free in Canada and in the US. My friend says this is his favorite so far.

UWewe
Registration is based on a real phone number. Allows you to call other UWewe users for free or any phone all over the world at a discount. The best thing about this is that you have 20 minutes of free calls per day, my friend says.

Viber
Lets you make free phone calls anywhere in the world and send text messages to anyone who also has the application installed. The username is your telephone number so it makes it easy to call anyone who also has the app installed. http://helpme.viber.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/18

Weixin
Allows users to send and receive instant text and voice messages for free, to other Weixin users. http://chineseculture.about.com/b/2012/02/04/wei-xin-app-gaining-popularity-in-china.htm

Skype 
Use this to talk to other Skype users for free but discounted to any phone. Very popular because it’s so cheap. I haven’t used any of these iPhone apps.

What’s your take on any of the 6 listed here?

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