[donspatch] 2004-07-15

Don's Patch Issue #2004-07-15   from http://www.don-guitar.com

This publication is only mailed to verified double opt-in subscribers,
and is brought to you by me, Don Crowder, and http://www.freelists.org

At the time this issue was posted, the current subscriber count for
this publication was 225.

If you'd like to help promote this non-commercial publication, please
forward this ezine to anyone you know who might appreciate it.
To spare them the forwarding carets (>>>>these things) I suggest
you copy/paste the ezine to a new email window, or save the
ezine as a text file to be inserted, or copy/pasted to a new
email.

Welcome new subscribers!

If you've received this publication as a forward and wish to subscribe
you may easily do so from online forms in these two locations:
http://www.don-guitar.com/subsmanager.html
http://www.freelists.org/cgi-bin/list.fcgi?list_id=4343


I welcome all questions, comments, suggestions, or criticism.

My feedback form: http://www.don-guitar.com/contactme.html

Archives for this ezine are available online here:
http://www.freelists.org/archives/donspatch/

=================================
Websites Everyone Should Know About
These aren't sponsors, they're the best of
Internet publications and I highly recommend
them all.
http://askTCL.com
http://www.langa.com
http://www.tourbus.com
http://www.lockergnome.com
http://www.neatnettricks.com
http://www.scotsnewsletter.com
http://www.tricksandtrinkets.com
http://marylaine.com/neatnew.html
=================================

Howdy y'all.  Here's the second issue of my new ezine. Many of
you have written to tell me how much you enjoyed the first issue.
Thank you all for that.

Remember, your input is always welcome.  I value your suggestions
and comments, and I'm always willing to help you find answers to
your computer and Internet questions.

My feedback form: http://www.don-guitar.com/contactme.html

If you wish to remain anonymous then use a false email address on
the form (like fake@xxxxxxxx) and/or a false name.  The form doesn't
access your email client (it's a CGI form), so your privacy is
assured.  Your comments, on the form, are delivered to me
(Don Crowder).

If you know of a website that would be a good candidate for this
ezine, please pass it on via our online feedback form (link above).

============= Humor ==============

http://www.myhumor.org/cleanjoke.asp
http://www.graceweb.org/Laugh-A-Lot!/

============== Tips ===============

Here are some useful sites for computer help or tips.
http://www.cyberwalker.net/index.html
http://www.tinhat.com/index.html
http://www.pcanswers.co.uk/

========== The Goodies =============

A dated but possibly timeless discussion of web statistics.
http://www.goldmark.org/netrants/webstats/

While their major objective is to sell you software, nevertheless
this company offers three word puzzles you can play online.
http://www.crossdown.com/interactive/onlinepuzzles.htm

An ad supported portal site for music lovers.
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/

A web site that's about the Euro.
http://www.econ.yale.edu/~corsetti/euro/

This site makes a business of creativity, but there's interesting
reading here too.  http://www.ewritelife.com/

HTML learning resources (portal).
http://examware.com/tutor11.html

The museum of science, art, and human perception.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/

An interesting site for fonts that requires registration.
http://www.extremefonts.com/

Extremetech would also like you to register, but there a lot
of interesting things to see and read whether you do or not.
http://www.extremetech.com/

"Games in a Flash" wants to sell you flash games for your
web site but you needn't buy them to play them.
http://www.gamesinaflash.com/

The freebies from Virdi contain ads but aren't malicious apps.
http://virdi-software.com/eyeonsite/desc.shtml
http://virdi-software.com/txt2web/desc.shtml  (I like this one)
http://virdi-software.com/txt2web/desc.shtml
http://virdi-software.com/vmailer/desc.shtml
http://virdi-software.com/vcamshow/desc.shtml

=================================
My feedback form:
http://www.don-guitar.com/contactme.html
=================================

A message board for your web site.  http://www.ezboard.com/

Files are identified, on all Windows computer systems, by their file
extension.  If you don't know much about file extensions you should.
Here are a number of helpful resources.
http://filext.com/faq/article.php?id=019
http://snipurl.com/7p67
http://www.computerhope.com/dosext.htm
http://www.tinhat.com/computer_virus/view_file_extensions.html
http://www.cyberwalker.net/columns/dec98/122497.html
http://www.seniormag.com/compcorner/definitions/ext/
http://filext.com/index.php
http://camtech2000.net/Pages/Extensions.html

a system utility, mainly developed for power users who want to know
what's going on in their Personal Computer.  http://www.faberbox.com/

A journalism resource.  http://www.facsnet.org/

A family fun site.  http://familyfun.go.com/

A basic guide to using CGI scripts on your website.
http://www.ezscripting.co.uk/cgibasicguide/

Educational/instructional resources.  http://www.reusability.org/

What's the highest rated search engine on the web?
http://searchenginewatch.com/reports/article.php/2156451

There's ton of resources for kids on the Nickelodeon site.
http://www.nick.com/

This site is slow loading and all about television.  I don't even
watch television, but I admit that makes me something of an
exception.  http://www.tvland.com/tvl.jhtml

Nikon's Small World, celebrating 29 years of excellence in
photography through the microscope.
http://www.microscopyu.com/smallworld/

New Zealand's National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research.
Some interesting things to explore.  http://www.niwa.cri.nz/

I don't know who Nicolas Papaconstantinou is but I had fun exploring
his website.  http://www.nixsight.pair.com/contents.html

Science Hobbyist.  http://www.amasci.com/

Nonags may be the safest place on the Internet to download
"costless apps".  http://www.nonags.com/

Check out the costless apps here:
http://www.no-nonsense-software.com/freeware/
get 'em here:  http://www.no-nonsense-software.com/download.shtml

Costless apps from Southbay.
http://www.southbaypc.com/free_utilities.asp

The website of photographer Noah Grey.  http://noahgrey.com/

A simple financial calculator.
http://www.norfolkgraphics.com/finance_calc.php3

The U.S. National Safety Council.  http://www.nsc.org/

Astronomical photos.  http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/

The Ocean Biogeographic Information System.
http://www.iobis.org/

A site dedicated to the obsessive gardener in all of us.
http://www.obsessivegardener.com/prod/

Have you ever wanted to superimpose one image over
another?  http://2pic.moor-software.com/

U.S. government urges computer users to avoid Internet Explorer
(article).  http://snipurl.com/7q3o

I've you've used ASCII codes to protect the email addresses on your
website, that may not be enough protection.  Find out here:
http://www.dreamweaverfever.com/experiments/spam/default.asp
If you're vulnerable, you can use this online form to fix it:
http://automaticlabs.com/products/enkoderform/
An article you should read if you have a website.
http://alistapart.com/articles/spam/

Some of these are silly, stupid, and may even be offensive but you
might just find one that's perfect for your office space.
http://www.seoconsultants.com/just-say-no/
Here's a collection of Windows tips from the same site.
http://www.seoconsultants.com/windows/tips/

I don't watch TV unless I'm staying in a motel room and then there's
only a few channels I'll watch.  http://www.scifi.com/
http://www.discovery.com/
http://www.pbs.org/
similarly, when driving in my vehicle, there's only one radio station
I listen to.  http://www.npr.org/
If you have a high speed connection, the Austin station is really
awesome.  http://www.kut.org/

Virtualology is a virtual education project.  http://virtualology.com/

Some TV shows just never grow old for me, like the Twilight Zone.
http://www.twilightzone.org/
http://www.rodserling.com/default.htm

A CGI learning resource.
http://www.abiglime.com/webmaster/articles/cgi/021798.htm

The Oxford University Museum of Natural History.
http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/collson.htm

Lorrie 'Eoduin' Guetre's Science Fiction and Fantasy art.
http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/loth/l/o/lorrie/lorrie.html
and so much more to see at Elfwood.
http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/elfwood.pike?770

Fantasy and science fiction backgrounds for web pages.
http://www.fantasy-graphics.net/

Famous monkeys through history.
http://www.ape-o-naut.org/famous/

Costless MP3-player with real-time DSP effects control.
http://www.fantomizer.com/

Farm*A*Syst is a partnership between government agencies and private
business that enables you to prevent pollution on farms, ranches, and
in homes using confidential environmental assessments.
http://www.uwex.edu/farmasyst/

A site for "upwardly mobile" types.
http://www.fastcompany.com/homepage/index.html

James A. Eshelman's Windows support center.
http://aumha.org/index.htm

Kids site run by the FBI.  http://www.fbi.gov/kids/6th12th/6th12th.htm

U.S. federal resources for educational excellence.
http://www.ed.gov/free/index.html

U.S. federal emergency management agency.
http://www.fema.gov/

DZSoft offers a few useful apps.  Two of them are costless.
http://www.dzsoft.com/favseek.htm
http://www.dzsoft.com/paste.htm

GE's center for financial learning.  http://www.financiallearning.com/

A Blog on Macs, valid and accessible web design, and occasional other
topics.   http://mactips.info/blog/index.php

I'm a google fan and don't care for metasearch tools but if you like
them, here's one you'll find interesting.
http://www.firststopwebsearch.com/standard.html

Some costless desktop patterns, icons, and PSP/Photoshop plug-ins
from Flaming Pear.  http://www.flamingpear.com/goodies.html

Genealogy links (portal).  http://www.genealogylinks.net/

If you've never explored the dmoz open directory you might enjoy it
but it might also take several days.  http://dmoz.org/

The Open Door web site is a reference source for both students and
teachers.  http://www.saburchill.com/intro.html

Costless online courses from the University of Washington.
http://www.outreach.washington.edu/openuw/

I'm major fan of several nifty little tools offered by mediachance.com
and if you're into digital photography I expect you will be too after
you check them out. To begin with, here's a nice, automatic
image resizer.  http://www.mediachance.com/free/thumber.htm
This one's my absolute favorite.  Again and again digital images
that I though were pretty good were even better after being
run through this simple little tool.
http://www.mediachance.com/digicam/enhancer.htm
This one's similar and really good with outdoor images.
http://www.mediachance.com/digicam/castfx.htm
What this one does for close-ups is amazing.
http://www.mediachance.com/digicam/cleanskin.htm
This one's just fun to play with and may give new life to some
of the digital images in your "reject" pile.
http://www.mediachance.com/digicam/bworks.htm
These, and some other pretty cool tools are listed on these
two pages of the mediachance site.
http://www.mediachance.com/digicam/index.html
http://www.mediachance.com/free/index.html

If you're into creating mp3 files from your music CDs you may
find this to be an interesting page.
http://web.oreilly.com/news/high_bit_rate_0300.html

=================================
My feedback form:
http://www.don-guitar.com/contactme.html
=================================

Photos from the Orient Express.
http://www.wagons-lits-paris.com/an/default.htm

If you enjoy astronomy or getting "lost in space" you should
very much enjoy exploring this site.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/origins/hubble/

Toys and tools from Orionsoft.  http://snipurl.com/7qtr

A resource for teachers and they offer a "Quote of the Day" or
"Word of the Day" script that you can use on your personal
website that's cool and easy to use.
http://www.out2teach.com/index.php

If you know a lot about computers and are constantly called upon by
friends to help them get rid of the evils they've picked up online
then these two pages will be useful to you.  If you're not a genuinely
knowledgeable computer user, please skip these next two links
or simply pass them on to the friend who helps you keep your PC
running smoothly.
http://www.overclockers.com/tips1162/
http://www.overclockers.com/tips1166/

A list of oxymorons.  http://www.oxymoronlist.com/

Some Photoshop/PSP and site authoring/editing/management
tips and resources.  http://www.elated.com/tutorials/

A Basic HTML tutorial.
http://www.pagetutor.com/pagetutor/makapage/index.html

The Paleolithic diet:  What the hunter/gatherers ate (portal).
http://www.panix.com/~paleodiet/
The Paleolithic eating support list's recipe collection (these recipes
are grain-free, bean-free, potato-free, dairy-free, and sugar-free).
http://www.paleofood.com/
Foraging and Ethnobotany portal.  http://www.foraging.com/

PapaInk, the Children's Art Archive, is dedicated to the art of youth.
http://www.papaink.org/gallery/home/index.html

An archive of historical newspapers.  http://www.paperofrecord.com/

Paper airplanes.  http://www.paperairplanes.co.uk/
http://www.onenorthpole.com/ToyShop/Paperairplanes.html

Paper toys.  http://papertoys.com/
More paper toy from reader Foggy.  http://www.freepapertoys.com/

Parenting Adolescents is a self explanatory resource.
http://www.parentingadolescents.com/

Parent Soup is another parenting resource.
http://www.parentsoup.com/

An educational Internet village.  http://teacherpathfinder.org/

One pretty cool thing about the Web is that if someone makes
you really, really angry you can tell the whole world about it.
http://www.jasonsego.com/fraud/

Texture Processor is a program for creating various textures.
http://www.paurex.com/?products&prod=tp12

A media intense, slow loading kids site.
http://www.pawisland.com/

This site has a somewhat commercial perspective but there are
still some costless resources here.  http://www.pcflank.com/

PBS doesn't have a single site for kids.  They've got about
three dozen.  http://pbskids.org/

You can do a number of automated tests of your computer
on this site and learn a great deal if you're willing to explore.
http://pcpitstop.com/default.asp

Costless apps for Windows.
http://www.pc-tools.net/win32/freeware/
For UNIX/Linux.  http://www.pc-tools.net/unix/
For DOS.  http://www.pc-tools.net/dos/freeware/

Whether you're planning to purchase a digital camera or
just want to learn more about them here's a helpful site.
http://www.pcphotoreview.com/

If you're just "into" computers you might find yourself spending
an awfully lot of time here.  http://www.pcworld.com/

Considering the cost of purchasing Adobes apps to create PDF files,
this costless, adware, alternative might be worth considering.
http://www.pdf995.com/

I don't know what they're good for but the images created by this
costless app are pretty cool.
http://users.chariot.net.au/~peabody/cag/curve_a_graph.html

Skwyrul PRO v4.0a is a powerful information manager that allows you
to store and manipulate data in many different ways. It is based upon
a tree storage idea, but goes much further.
http://www.pebble-software.com/skwyrul.htm

=================================
Jo-Ann Burton is one of my oldest and best web friends.  I call her
my "adopted baby sister" half in jest but in truth we're as close as
siblings in the "real world" and I really do think of her as my
sister.
She has a Yahoo group of her own where folks share interesting
web links.  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sharinglinks2/
I'm a member of that group and I gather a few of the links she posts
to the group for every issue of this ezine.  Here's my pick of
Jo-Ann's recent postings for this issue.

Fifty problem solving strategies explained.
http://www.une.edu.au/psychology/staff/malouff/problem.htm

Did you know there were 173 candidates for U.S. President?
Click on a name to find out about them.  http://snipurl.com/7rav

A not altogether unbiased look at U.S. Presidential campaign
financing.  http://www.whitehouseforsale.org/

Amazing Animals.
http://www.greenapple.com/%7Ejorp/amzanim/menua.htm

The best cities for singles.
http://www.forbes.com/2004/06/23/04singleland.html

Everything from the richest NFL Teams to the most overpriced places.
http://www.forbes.com/lists/

Joystiq is a news destination for video game junkies.
http://www.joystiq.com/

The Elf King in Germanic and Danish mythology.
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art22006.asp/zzz

Troy,  rabbit's foot for luck, folkloric Trivia Quiz.
http://www.keep-left.org/folknews.html

Through a series of questions, RealAge assesses your lifestyle and
genetics to determine what your "real age" is, compared to your
chronological age.  http://www.realage.com/

A great resource for casual travelers with no idea where to go.
http://www.fieldtrip.com/

A celebration of women writers.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/

Would you have survived the Salem Witch Hunt?
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/97/salem/

Online lookups.  Who's up for some data diving?
http://www.melissadata.com/lookups/

National beef cook-off winning recipes (some yummy stuff here).
http://www.beefcookoff.org/wr.asp

Celebrity recipes.  http://www.scrumptious.com/menu.htm

Try your hand at some Greek cooking.
http://www.greecefoods.com/

Two more recipe sites.
http://www.bigwads.com/2recipes.html
http://www.txbeef.org/recipes.php3?Tex-Mex+%26+Southwest

Computer games can help raise your self-esteem.  Play one
or these.  http://www.selfesteemgames.mcgill.ca/index.htm

A couple of cool links that will only be of interest to Mac users.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/
http://www.appleinsider.com/

Yahoo probably rules the roost for email groups but MSN has
them too, and now there's a new player, Google.
http://groups-beta.google.com/

News from the war on "evil web minion".
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/07/mou.htm

You think you've had computer problems?  This page, on
the slashdot site, has some interesting reading on it.
http://ask.slashdot.org/askslashdot/04/07/04/1846251.shtml

 Very cool objects (look for the Swiss bathroom enclosure).
http://www.sensoryimpact.com/

British broadsides were the equivalent of the supermarket check-out
magazines until their demise in the mid-19th century.
http://www.nls.uk/broadsides/index.html

Here's an interesting concept, a reverse dictionary.
http://www.onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml

Flower Power.  http://www.plantexplorers.com/

Elvis Week at Graceland (editor's comment: whoop-de-do *grin*).
http://www.elvis.com/graceland/calendar/elvis_week.asp

A directory of amusement and theme parks, zoos, and waterparks
in the U.S. and Canada.  http://www.themeparkcity.com/

George Witham paints rocks, and they are very cool.  This is a
commercial site, but the images are cool.
http://www.surfwiz.com/paintedrocks.htm

Punch in the contents of your dreams, discover the meaning of those
images and situations you saw last night.
http://www.swoon.com/dream/

Thanks Jo.

=================================
              Contributions From Readers
=================================

John sent this one.  Dignity is not negotiable.
http://breakingranks.net/index.html

Ron Churchward sent this link to Russian mp3 files.  There's one
midi file of the Russian National Anthem that Ron says is good.
http://www.ludd.luth.se/~silver_p/rus.html

Vinette DePhillipe sent this link the Incredible Edible Egg site.
http://www.aeb.org/

Thanks John, Ron, and Vi.

=================================
                   Contributions from
              reader and friend Lisa Miller
       http://www.don-guitar.com/lisasart.html
=================================

Blues After Hours.
http://drbillbluesafterhours.com/BluesAfterHours.htm

Petroglyphs (rock art).
http://www.crystalinks.com/petroglyphs.html

Paint Shop Pro (PSP) tutorials.
http://www.jasc.com/support/learn/tarchive.asp?

Thanks Lisa.

=================================

And that wraps it up for this one.  Thanks to all of you
who've subscribed.  I hope you won't hesitate to send
me links, questions, suggestions, comments or
criticism.   See you next time.


Don Crowder - Wednesday, July 14, 2004

5:10 PM CST - Tow, TX, USA

My feedback form:
http://www.don-guitar.com/contactme.html

=================================

Privacy:  I will never share, sell, or
otherwise compromise your email address.

Online:  http://www.don-guitar.com/privacy.html

Freelists.org Privacy Policy.
http://www.freelists.org/privacy.html

=================================

The most important people on the Internet, for you and I as computer
users, are software developers.  The world's coolest computer, without
software, is like a car without fuel.  It might look great, but what
can it do?  It doesn't matter who produces the software you love and
use regularly, the developers of that software need your support.

A bit of advice from Internet veteran Bayard J. Fox:

New computer users are often in awe of the things you can get without
cost on the Internet.  There can be hidden costs for the unwary. Use a
"throw away" email address to register, and be constantly on guard
against giving away personal information.  Use a firewall, and provide
only the barest minimum of information on questionnaires.

___________________________________________________________
Subscription management for this publication is available
online here:  http://www.don-guitar/subsmanager.html

Other related posts: