[donspatch] 2004-12-01

Don's Patch Issue #2004-12-01 from http://www.don-guitar.com

Brrr, it finally got cold in Texas this year.  It's around 53 degrees
(Fahrenheit, about 12 on the Celsius scale) outside right now and
doesn't feel much warmer than that indoors but maybe I'm just
showing my age and feeling grumpy.  *grin*

  Every job offers it's own unique challenges and I've just finished
learning about two challenges connected with my job.  The first
day of deer hunting season at the only supermarket in Llano,
Texas (the so-called "deer hunting capital of Texas") was
interesting (how many supermarkets in your vicinity sell ammo
and "doe estrus lure"?) and quite a challenge for a stocker but it
didn't do nearly enough to prepare me for the just-completed
Thanksgiving holiday.  Now that was a challenge.  With any sort
of luck the soon-to-be-experienced Christmas holiday will be
slightly less intense.

Enough babbling though, on with the show:

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

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I try very hard to avoid provincial thinking.   For example, when I
mentioned the temperature here, being aware that some of my
readers aren't familiar with the Fahrenheit scale, I wanted to give
the Celsius numbers but I've never installed a conversion utility
on this computer, like Versaverter,
http://www.pawprint.net/vv/
or Johannes Walroth's tiny and excellent little Unit Converter,
http://www.programming.de/
(click on "Download" and scroll down on the resulting page)
and I didn't want to stop writing and download software so I
went looking for a website to help me make the conversion.
Since the computer I'm currently (pronounce that "temporarily")
using is a little short on RAM I've been using OffByOne
http://www.offbyone.com which is a simple and fast little browser
that doesn't support javascripts and that's required for most
online conversion tools.  I found one site that worked:
http://snipurl.com/axvh
and several other interesting sites.
http://www.chemie.fu-berlin.de/chemistry/general/units_en.html
http://www.onlineconversion.com/
http://www.convert-me.com/en/
http://www.allmeasures.com/.
http://www.csgnetwork.com/converters.html

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This self-publishing site looked interesting.
http://www.unitel.cc/

Woodworking tips.  http://www.woodshoptips.com/tips/index.htm

The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI)
is one of America's largest and most respected "think tanks".
http://www.aei.org/

This site is the online companion of a history book.
http://snipurl.com/aymt
Here's the publisher's main page.  http://www.wadsworth.com/

The American Public Health Association.  http://www.apha.org/

The British Library.  http://www.bl.uk/index.shtml

CDC emergency preparedness & response.  http://www.bt.cdc.gov/

A very nice portal to educational site which come from the UK.
http://www.byteachers.org.uk/

CadStd is a general purpose, easy to learn CAD/drafting program for
creating professional quality mechanical designs, house plans,
blueprints, schematics and charts utilizing ANSI drawing standards.
The Lite version is costless.  http://www.cadstd.com/

CDStarter presents the user with a list of buttons to run software or
open files on your CD.  http://snipurl.com/ayng

Center for Science in the Public Interest.  http://www.cspinet.org/

The world's largest particle physics laboratory, where the web was
born!  http://www.cern.ch/

There are some good recipes on this site from the makers of Clabber
Girl baking powder.  http://www.clabbergirl.com/
As I typed in the Clabber Girl site it occurred to me to wonder if
Calumet (the other leading US brand of baking powder) had a web
site so I did a quick google search.  Calumet is made by Kraft
Foods and while they don't have a site for the baking powder, they
do have an extensive website.  http://www.kraftfoods.com/

Ever wonder how baking powder works?
http://home.howstuffworks.com/question57.htm

You can make your own baking powder.
http://www.recipegoldmine.com/scratch/scratch11.html
More recipes from the same source.  http://www.recipegoldmine.com/

Arm & Hammer, makers of baking soda, has an extensive web
site.  http://www.armandhammer.com/

A nice site for gluten free recipes.  http://www.glutenfreeda.com

An extensive recipe resource from ConAgra Foods.
http://www.conagrafoods.com/recipes/index.jsp

A few more food/cooking resources.
http://topchefs.chef2chef.net/
http://www.cooking911.com/index.html
http://www.cooks.com/   (I hate their ads but site content is good)
http://food.oregonstate.edu/
http://www.titanic.kn-bremen.de/indexusa.html
http://www.milwaukeedonauschwaben.com/recipes.html
http://www.vegan-food.net/index.cgi
http://www.texmex.net/default.htm
http://www.emerils.com/
http://www.jonashton.com/
http://yancancook.asianconnections.com/

A few goodies from Code-it.
http://www.code-it.com/Free_sw.htm

Goodies from Contact Plus.
http://members.aol.com/contplus4/allprod.htm

Several interesting things to read.  http://www.cockeyed.com/

Creative Commons is an alternative to conventional copyright.
http://creativecommons.org/
I like the concept.  Here's how it's stated.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/

Who wants an online diary?  http://www.diaryland.com/

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This publication is only mailed to verified double opt-in subscribers,
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DirectGov is a sort of directory/portal to government services in the UK.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/

Space Telescope Science Institute (seems to be a specialized portal).
http://oposite.stsci.edu/

A source code editor.  http://www.crimsoneditor.com/

Me, I like the default cursors on my system just fine but if you don't,
there are alternatives.  http://www.paware.com/pastcp/

Cybergenius is a costless PIM.
http://www.simtel.net/product.php?id=57413

Mauricio David Ferman offers a few goodies on his site.
http://mferman.50megs.com/

A useful HTML learning resource that I haven't mentioned for a
couple of years now.  http://www.htmlgoodies.com

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A google search on the word "enlist" returned the U.S. military sites
I expected along with a number of other sites I didn't expect.  Here
are some of the more interesting results.
http://www.afsc.org/
http://www.aafha.org/
http://www.army.com
http://www.armyranger.com/
http://www.guardiansoflight.net/
http://www.geocities.com/mountedarty/index.html
http://www.pbem-war-gamer.com
http://www.morewords.com/
http://www.objector.org/
http://snipurl.com/ayw2
http://www.spring1942.com/default.asp
http://www.the-scientist.com
http://home.earthlink.net/~turnerbrigade/turner.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3697428.stm
http://www.sjolander.com/viking/
http://www.vusn.org/main.php

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subscriber count for this publication was 271
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Ecology related.  http://www.ecologia.org/index.html

A conservative news forum.  http://www.freerepublic.com/

A costless web host.  http://www.freewebs.com/

A relatively interesting blog.  http://www.froststreet.net/

What's the correct iTime?  Skynergy can help you find out.
http://www.skynergy.com/itime.html
[Consult the navigation bar at left for some other useful apps.]

The SIBMAS International Directory of Performing Arts Collections
and Institutions lists over 7000 international institutions with material
relating to the performing arts (theatre, opera, music, ballet, film,
circus, radio, television, cabaret, pantomime).
http://www.theatrelibrary.org/sibmas/idpac/

Some games from SigmaTech.
http://www.sigma-tech.com/gameinfo.html

Here's an interesting site I haven't mentioned since April
of 2002.    http://www.signslanguage.com/

Whether it's a case of autograph collecting that's gone horribly bad
or the logical extension of a concept, the signature museum is
worth a visit.  http://huizen.dds.nl/~mwpieter/sigs/frameset.html

SIL is about reading and writing.  http://www.sil.org/

With enough patience and persistence you can find the answer to
just about any question on the web but if you hate the search you
can just pay google for an answer.
http://answers.google.com/answers/

This application, from google, for Windows XP (and some versions
of Win2k) is creating some controversy.  Some folks like it, some
hate it.  Business as usual for google.
http://desktop.google.com

Naval history and photography.  http://www.hazegray.org/

I've mentioned this one before (in the maxpatch ezine) but it's a
great site.  You can pick up some fabulous wallpaper for your
computer and easily spend hours in fascinating exploration.
http://hubblesite.org

Few web portals are more extensive, equitable, or interesting
than the Librarians' Index to the Internet.    http://lii.org/

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The Institute for Public Accuracy.    http://www.accuracy.org/

KidSpace, from the Internet Public Library.
http://www.ipl.org/div/kidspace/
and if you haven't checked out the Internet Public Library
yet, you should.    http://www.ipl.org

Jeff Langley's columns aren't always family friendly but some
of them are interesting.
http://www.texasonline.net/langley/mainuns.htm

The U.S. Government Printing Office.  http://www.gpoaccess.gov/

A terrific site for history buffs.  http://www.thehistorynet.com

It can be argued that the web is taking the notion of an online
museum to ridiculous extremes but I disagree.  Bring on the
diversity.  Gotta love it.  Here's the museum of potted meat.
http://www.pottedmeatmuseum.com/

Public Agenda, founded by Daniel Yankelovich and Cyrus Vance,
purports to be a nonpartisan opinion research organization.
http://www.publicagenda.org/

Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization
founded in 1971 to represent consumer interests in Congress, the
executive branch and the courts.    http://www.citizen.org/

The Center for Public Integrity, founded in 1989 by Charles Lewis, is a
nonprofit, nonpartisan, tax-exempt organization that conducts
investigative research and reporting on public policy issues in the
United States and around the world.  http://www.publicintegrity.org

Public Knowledge is a Washington DC based advocacy group which
claims to be working to defend your rights in the emerging digital
culture.    http://www.publicknowledge.org/

Here's the place to research that national debt U.S. politicians are
always going on about.    http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/

Search Systems claims to have the largest directory of links to free
public record databases on the web.    http://www.searchsystems.net/

Public Education Network (PEN) is a national association of local
education funds (LEFs) and individuals working to advance public
school reform in low-income communities across our country.
http://www.publiceducation.org/

 The Trust for Public Land is a national nonprofit working to protect
land for human enjoyment and well-being.    http://www.tpl.org

More than just about anything, I love a good library.
Boston:              http://www.bpl.org/
Chicago:             http://www.chipublib.org/
Denver:               http://www.denver.lib.co.us/
Los Angeles:       http://www.lapl.org/
New York:           http://www.nypl.org/
San Francisco:    http://sfpl.lib.ca.us/
Toronto:              http://www.tpl.toronto.on.ca/

When do works become "public domain".
http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm

Savetz's portal to public domain works.
http://www.savetz.com/pd/

The Choral Public Domain Library.
http://www.cpdl.org/

A reference site to help identify public domain songs and public
domain music.    http://www.pdinfo.com/

The Union for the Public Domain (UPD) is a non-profit citizens
membership organization intended to protect and enhance the
public domain in matters concerning intellectual property.
http://www.public-domain.org/

Public domain Images.
http://mciunix.mciu.k12.pa.us/~spjvweb/cfimages.html
http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/


Project Gutenberg, which I mentioned a couple of issues back,
is a great source for literary works which have passed into the
public domain.    http://www.gutenberg.org/

HTI Public Domain Modern English Collection.
http://www.hti.umich.edu/english/pd-modeng/

Center for the Study of the Public Domain.
http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/

Open source apps and tuts from eXtropia.
http://www.extropia.com/

The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is a non-profit organization of
scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific
and medical literature a freely available public resource.
http://www.plos.org/

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I welcome all comments, suggestions, or criticism.   The form
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If you know of a website that would be a good candidate for this
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Silk Road Seattle is an ongoing public education project using the
"Silk Road" theme to explore cultural interaction across Eurasia
from the beginning of the Common Era (A. D.) to the Seventeenth
Century.    http://depts.washington.edu/uwch/silkroad/

Fun stuff for folks to do at the Blimpie subs & salads site.
http://www.blimpie.com/fun/fun.php

Not something I'd use, but an interesting toy nonetheless.
http://www.sitepopper.com

Some online tools for checking various website parameters.
http://valet.htmlhelp.com/

 Jalfrezi's HTML learning site.    http://www.jalfrezi.com/

Pollen reports for allergy sufferers.  http://pollen.com/

A potential source of cheap entertainment.
http://www.skullbyte.de/eng/index.html

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EurekAlert! is an online science news service, sponsored by the
American Association for the Advancement of Science.  It features
health, science and technology news from leading research
institutes.    http://www.eurekalert.org/

Talk Root is one of a large collection of forum sites from Bernhardt
Media on a diverse range of topics.  The page contains links
to many other subject areas.  http://www.talkroot.com
Bernhardt Media also has an online encyclopedia.
http://www.informationgenius.com

The British National Archives.  http://www.pro.gov.uk/

The Wall Street Journal online.   http://online.wsj.com/home

Antique tractors are a popular hobby.  Most of these sites are
somewhat commercial in nature but they still contain interesting
things to see and read.
 http://www.ytmag.com/
http://www.retiredtractors.com/
http://www.atis.net/
http://www.co.lawrence.tn.us/tourism/tractors/tractors.htm
http://www.chem.utoronto.ca/~jford/
http://web2.airmail.net/bealke/tractors.htm
Portals.
http://www.antiquetractorsonline.com/
http://www.tractorlinks.com

Here's an interesting site I found while looking for tractor sites.
http://www.agriculture.com/

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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
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The ThinkQuest Library is a free educational resource featuring
thousands of websites created by students around the world.
http://www.thinkquest.org/library/index.html

Abandonware and DOS games.  http://www.abandonia.com/

 Wikinews demo.     http://demo.wikinews.org/wiki/Main_Page

Do you think you have what it takes to be the next great Comic
Book Hero?  http://www.whowantstobeasuperhero.tv/

Neuroscience for Kids - Laughter and the Brain.
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/laugh.html

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

Two men crashed in their private plane on a South Pacific Island.
Both survived. One of the men brushed himself off and then
proceeded to run all over the island to see if they had any
chance of survival.  When he returned, he rushed up to the
other man and screamed, "This island is uninhabited, there
is no food, there is no water. We are going to die!"
The other man leaned back against the fuselage of the wrecked
plane, folded his arms and responded, "No we're not. I make over
$100,000 a week."   The first man grabbed his friend and shook
him. "Listen, we are on an uninhabited island. There is no food,
no water. We are going to die!" The other man, unruffled, again
responded. "No, I make over $100,000 a week."   Mystified, the
first man, taken aback with such an answer again repeated,
"For the last time, I'm telling you we are doomed. There is no
one else on this island. There is no food. There is no water.
We are, I repeat, we are going to die."   Still unfazed, the first
man looked the other in the eyes and said, "Don't make me
say this again. I make over $100,000 per week. I tithe 10%.
My pastor will find us."

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

Here's the computer tips section of a website owned by the
Channel Islands PC Users Group of Camarillo, California.
http://cipcug.org/tpstrks.cfm

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

Here you are at the end of another issue.  I hope you enjoyed it.
I keep telling myself I'll start promoting this publication, the way
I did the maxpatch ezine, but somehow I never find the time.

For several weeks now I've been trying to decide whether or not
to tell you, my readers, that I'm getting a divorce.  Divorce is
passe these days and while it wasn't easy, I've already told
my family and friends.  Why then should it have been so
difficult to tell my readers?  I can't say, but it truly has been
difficult.  My wife, Dana, and I have been separated since
April of 2003.  The relationship didn't end when she moved
out but it did begin to deteriorate and, in the end, it failed.
I filed for divorce on October 13th of this year.  The divorce
will be final in December.

How do I feel about it?  The most difficult lesson I've ever
learned is simply this:

"Life is change, change is good."

Don Crowder - Wednesday, December 1, 2004
2:14 PM CST - Tow, TX, USA

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

Privacy Policy on my website.
http://www.don-guitar.com/privacy.html

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http://www.freelists.org/privacy.html

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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.
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