Don's Patch Issue #2006-05-01 from http://www.don-guitar.com First word, from Don: Irving Stein sent me a link to Pandora where I've discovered some really good music. So far I've set up five stations that I really like. Station "Tito Puente". http://www.pandora.com/?sc=sh24858487 Station "Spyro Gyra". http://www.pandora.com/?sc=sh24859511 Station "Dave Brubeck". http://www.pandora.com/?sc=sh24858630 Station "Lalo Schifrin". http://www.pandora.com/?sc=sh24857841 Station "B. B. King". http://www.pandora.com/?sc=sh24951290 Of course we're not about to give up Shoutcast either. Our shoutcast choices: Latin Salsa: http://66.28.200.122:7100 or http://snipurl.com/pu1c Flamenco: http://207.200.96.227:8000 or http://snipurl.com/pu1f BluesOnAir: http://211.113.235.72:8422 or http://snipurl.com/pu1g AtlantaBlues: http://66.0.192.157:8000 or http://snipurl.com/pu1j Hey, hey, hey here we are again. When we're working together Lisa tells people "there's no extra charge for the Don and Lisa show". I guess that's true here too. No extra charge, so enjoy the show. Hang on, here we go. Don's feedback form: http://www.don-guitar.com/contactme.html Don at MySpace.com: http://www.myspace.com/donguitar Lisa's feedback form: http://www.don-guitar.com/lfefo.html Our personal news page. http://www.don-guitar.com/babbleon.html ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª A Linux live CD for the devoutly paranoid. http://sourceforge.net/projects/anonym-os I've kept up the search for the ideal Linux distribution to use in older Windows 95 and 98 machines. Here are some good candidates I've found recently (these are not live CDs). http://stibs.cc/stx/ http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/dsl-n/ http://caos.caosity.org/index.html http://www.delilinux.de/ This live CD represents one of the more exotic Linux distros. http://www.elivecd.org/ Linspire, a very popular Linux distro, has released an Open Source version. http://www.freespire.org/ Additional Linux resources. From IBM. http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/ International site for Linux beginners. http://www.reallylinux.com/ List of Linux distributions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_distributions A Linux magazine from the U.K. http://www.linuxformat.co.uk/ A friendly and active Linux Community. http://www.linuxquestions.org/ Fedora resource. http://titaniclinux.net/cms/FC?link=linux Dave's desktop. http://www.virtualsky.net/daves/index.htm Kids online. http://www.kids-online.net/ August 5th is Left-Handers Day. http://www.lefthandersday.com/ Texas Information Literacy Tutorial. http://tilt.lib.utsystem.edu/ The Internet describes the Internet. http://www.livinginternet.com/ You may prefer to skip this one if you have a dial-up connection but I think it's worth the wait. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4668196322523357460 Over 5,700 US Department of Defense terms and over 100,000 military and government acronyms and abbreviations. http://www.militarywords.com/ A brief study of artist Joan Miró (1893 - 1983). http://www.mcs.csuhayward.edu/~malek/Miro.html http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/miro_joan.html http://www.artchive.com/artchive/M/miro.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Mir%C3%B3 http://www.artelino.com/articles/joan_miro.asp Find dictionary words for crossword puzzles, code words and word games like Scrabble, Upwords and Jamble. http://www.morewords.com/ Keyboard shortcuts for leading Microsoft products. http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/keyboard.aspx ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª This publication is only mailed to verified double opt-in subscribers, and is brought to you by me, Don Crowder, my wife, Lisa Miller, and http://www.freelists.org ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª CPU frequency control for notebooks running Windows XP. http://www.diefer.de/speedswitchxp/index.html How about a set of gauges for the computer? Nifty app to keep an eye on your system's systems. http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/active.htm Find files and information on your hard drive. http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/ Artwork looks like real painting. http://www.ambientdesign.com/artrage.html Find and remove duplicate files. http://www.bigbangenterprises.de/en/doublekiller/ Color picker with additional useful features. http://www.colorschemer.com/colorpix_info.php OK, I'm only going to list this one more time, to remind those of you who haven't seen and heard it. It will take some time to load on dial-up, but it's worth it. The National Song of India. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7399792002477900458 Here's a bit of weirdness for your reading pleasure. http://www.rviewer.com/index.html Play one of our favorite games online. Very addictive! http://glenn.sanson.free.fr/fb/play.html Is this cute or what? A Google video. http://snipurl.com/prqz If you're an atheist, you're in good company. http://www.wonderfulatheistsofcfl.org/Quotes.htm http://snipurl.com/prr5 If you're not, you're in good company. http://www.thewonderoftheworld.com/newsrelease-flew.php The Dutts family of India, has some wonderful photos. http://www.thedutts.com/gallery/index.php A correspondence gaming site. http://gamesbyemail.com/ Mondo geek programming site. http://www.geekpedia.com/ Keep track of your computer's functions. http://www.areallysmallapp.com/ Patrick Fitzgerald, web content developer, woodworker, family guy. http://www.barelyfitz.com/ ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª At the time this issue was posted, the current subscriber count for this publication was 295. ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª This issue's collection of news/magazine/informational sites (these are chosen for maximum diversity regardless of "spin" ). http://www.adtmag.com/ http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/ http://www.bermudasun.bm/ http://www.vogue.co.uk/ http://www.marketwatch.com/news/ http://www.canoe.ca/CanoeClassic/home.html http://chronicle.com/news/ http://www.c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage http://www.cybernoon.com/default2.asp http://www.dailyfreepress.com/ http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/ http://www.fairfieldweekly.com/gbase/Cover/index http://www.hindustantimes.com/ http://www.informit.com/ http://www.investmentnews.com/ http://home.iol.ie/ http://www.itwire.com.au/ http://news.nationalgeographic.com/ ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª One more link shortening service. http://www.myturl.com/ An interesting utility I haven't mentioned in a while. I don't use it. I've no use for it really, but it remains interesting. http://www.mycorkboard.com/ A photo-sharing site. http://www.myphotoalbum.com/ Artist Nam June Paik (1932-2006). http://www.paikstudios.com/ Useful? I don't know, but interesting. http://www.acad.bg/beginner/gnrt/ Ed Fink's panoramas. http://www.bigeyeinthesky.com/ I emailed this company to ask them "Yes, but what can it do?". They never answered me. http://www.picotux.com/ Fred Voetsch's photo journal. http://picturesof.net/ The Museum of Broadcast Communications. http://www.museum.tv/home.php I've waffled over trying to learn computer programming (at my age) for years but if I ever work up the nerve, here's where I plan to start. http://www.realbasic.com/ Robert Altman's celebrity photos. http://www.altmanphoto.com/Catalog.1.html Back in grade school my best friend and I used to write one another notes that we'd laboriously encrypted with a substitution code. This appears to be a more formal implementation of such a code. http://www.rot13.org/ Lisa and I really enjoy the "SameGame" that's on our Linux computer (PCLinuxOS) and because we've only one Linux computer I went looking for a Windows version. I found one too. http://www.tjerngren.net/samegame/ It's a little "geeky" to install since it defaults to the "program" folder and there's not normally a folder by that name in Windows computers so you have to let it create one or direct it to another folder of your choosing. Once the file is unzipped, you'll also have to create your own shortcut to it as well and I hated the sounds that came with it but deleting the wav files killed the program so I created some empty wav files to replace them. http://www.don-guitar.com/software/sgsounds.zip What would you like to know about RSS? http://allrss.com/ Some online games. http://www.rubytooth.com/ http://www.teagames.com/games/tuneups/play.php http://www.trackwars.com/ http://upchucky.com/Home.html http://games.yahoo.com/games/front Safe play for kids. http://www.safetrider.org/ More for kids. http://www.show.me.uk/ Here's a very nice applications package from the folks at Mozilla. http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/ The Snow Goose Gallery. http://www.thesnowgoosegallery.com/ I haven't mentioned this one since October of 2004 but it's a very interesting site. http://www.sodaplay.com/ SpeedFan is a (costless) program that monitors voltages, fan speeds and temperatures in computers with hardware monitor chips. http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php Smalltalk doesn't seem to be very complicated, but it is a computer language. http://www.smalltalk.org/main/ ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª 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. 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/list/donspatch ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª A smart, literate, interesting young lady, Heidi Bond. http://www.qiken.org/ A short story by Isaac Asimov. http://www.abelard.org/asimov.htm Computer science tutorials and applets. http://www.cs.usask.ca/resources/tutorials/csconcepts/index.html Clinical case computer tutorials in biochemistry. http://snipurl.com/pt6s We mention this site often. The best self-education site. http://www.free-ed.net/free-ed/ IT tutorials. http://www.itarchitect.com/tutorials.jhtml Lots of people want to know more about firewalls. http://www.vicomsoft.com/knowledge/reference/firewalls1.html Words; Commonly confused. http://snipurl.com/pt7l Fun with. http://rinkworks.com/words/ Buzz. http://www.buzzwhack.com/ Comix without. http://www.bugpowder.com/andy/_comix.ohne.worte.html Cool. http://www.altmanphoto.com/Fun.To.Say.Cool.Words.html Literate. http://www.chicklit.com/ Help for new teachers. http://www.brookes.ac.uk/services/ocsd/firstwords/fwconts.html Lots and lots of comics. http://www.bugpowder.com/andy/index.html Coloring, drawing, activities, jokes and riddles. http://www.cartooncritters.com/onlinecoloring.htm Billy Bear's page for kids. http://www.billybear4kids.com/ Games and activities for kids. http://www.c-n.com/courierkids/ ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª Our feedback form: http://www.don-guitar.com/contactme.html We welcome all comments, suggestions, or criticism. The form doesn't access your email client (it's a CGI form), so your privacy is assured. 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). ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª Command line reference for Oracle, Windows, Linux and OS X. http://www.ss64.com/index.html The "Badware" problem. http://www.stopbadware.org/ Write your own story, sort-of. Refresh the page to get a new topic. http://stuff.mit.edu/storyfun Strange Science. http://www.strangescience.net/ Wanna Sudoku puzzle? http://www.sudokupuzzlesonline.com/ The official W3C list of implementations of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/SVG-Implementations SyncBack is an multi-award winning (costless) program that helps you easily backup and synchronize your files. http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/ A nice collection of costless-apps and reading matter. http://www.sysinternals.com/ Tactile Graphics, An Overview and Resource Guide. http://dots.physics.orst.edu/tactile/tactile.html Make lists and get stuff done. http://www.tadalist.com/ Talk radio. http://www.radiotalk.org/ Academy of (American) Television Arts and Sciences. http://www.emmys.tv/ Test your ESP (I totally bombed this test). http://www.mdani.demon.co.uk/para/esp1.htm Ricky Sarile's website. http://www.veranda.com.ph/rps/ Um, well you take two notions like 'online communities' and 'online office apps' and jam them together and you'll get something like this. http://www.thinkfree.com/common/main.tfo The writing of Robert Harris. http://www.virtualsalt.com/ An artsy, architectural, blog-like website. http://www.tropolism.com/artisttecture/ Seek and you may learn. http://www.tutorialfind.com/ ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª Archives for this ezine are available online here: http://www.freelists.org/archives/donspatch/ The current issue is also available on our website. http://www.don-guitar.com/currentissue.html ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª Uncommon amusements for grownups and children. http://www.meddybemps.com/ Baby shower games. http://store.yahoo.com/swack/freegames.html Costless PDF reader. http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php Improbable Research, administers of the Ig Nobel prize. Go ahead, laugh; then think. http://improbable.com/ Spoof of Hammacher Schlemmer. http://www.antonsledgehammer.com/ Lots of famous people died young. Not me, no thanks. http://snipurl.com/pu8d The John Carney show. http://www.carneyshow.com/html/jackcarney.html#lonelyhearts "Remember, remember the 5th of November." http://www.show.me.uk/gunpowderplot/ The rock balancing art of Bill Dan. http://www.rock-on-rock-on.com/ Imagine the Universe, from NASA. http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/ A self-confessed Unix nerd. http://involution.com/ Remember or hear about the Mercury Theater? Listen to the original shows. http://www.mercurytheatre.info/ The Gemini Observatory. http://www.gemini.edu/ European Architects. http://193.74.228.82/ The gadgets weblog. http://gizmodo.com/ Costless wallpapers. http://www.wallpaperbase.com/ Articles and essays on history, science, religion and philosophy. http://www.bede.org.uk/contents.htm Can't get enough of the Garbage Pail Kids? http://www.garbagepailkids.com/ ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª 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 ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª Customize and simplify your Windows installation. http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/view/web/1/ Unusual Research. http://www.unusualresearch.com/ Resources for Visual Basic programmers. http://www.vbaccelerator.com/home/index.asp The notion is pretty cool but it seems like it might have security issues. http://www.virtualsky.net/eyeos-article.html Scenario: A small group of friends and/or coworkers who wish to communicate in a highly secure environment. One potential solution: http://waste.sourceforge.net/ English literature and language come alive on the internet. http://www.channel4.com/learning/microsites/W/waywithwords/ Susan Love's Website for Women. http://www.susanlovemd.org/ A gardening and lawn-care resource. http://www.weedalert.com/ Bodleian Library's Department of Special Collections and Western Manuscripts. http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/wmss.htm WGBH is a major producer of content for public television, radio, and the web. http://www.wgbh.org/ Dr Hoiby's collection of goodies. http://www.dr-hoiby.com/tools.php The continuing seafaring adventures of Carolyn and Rick. http://www.wind-borne.com/index.htm An interactive presentation of the 86,800 most frequently used English words. http://www.wordcount.org/index2.html Fin with words. http://www.fun-with-words.com/ wordplays. http://www.wordplays.com/p/index Word search. http://www.wordsearchfun.com/ Words from wordsmith. http://wordsmith.org/ Writing help. http://www.writinghelp-central.com/ http://www.writinghelptools.com/ XORP is an open source software router platform. How safe is your home? http://www.loris.net/zombie/ ============== Humor ============= Things said by kids. Part II The Greeks were a highly sculptured people, and without them we wouldn't have history. The Greeks also had myths. A myth is a female moth. Socrates was a famous Greek teacher who went around giving people advice. They killed him. Socrates died from an overdose of wedlock. After his death, his career suffered a dramatic decline. In the Olympic games, Greeks ran races, jumped, hurled biscuits, and threw the java. ============== Tips =============== Computer tutorials, forums and more. http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/ Elizabeth Boston's tips, tutorials and more. http://asktcl.com/index.htm computer Articles, Presentations and Tutorials. http://vlaurie.com/index.html ======== Reader Contributions ========= A few links sent in by reader and friend, Irving Stein. http://www.irvings-info-page.cityslide.com ================================= World's Smallest Political Quiz. http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html Strange. http://www.strangecosmos.com/ Gizmo Richards' support alert. http://www.techsupportalert.com/issues/al_current.htm TeMerc Internet Countermeasures. http://temerc.com/ Terry's Computer Tips. http://www.terryscomputertips.com/ The Shadow (what does he know? Check for yourself.). http://theshadow.members.atlantic.net/ ================================= Jo-Ann Burton is a wonderful friend. We didn't grow up together, and we've never met in person but she's my sister. I harvest links that she posts to her Yahoo group (to which I belong). http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sharinglinks2/ Here's a few, from Jo-Ann: ================================= Planning a road trip? http://www.etravelogue.com/ Lambiek Comiclopedia (this is cool). http://lambiek.net/artists/index.htm Librarians' Internet Index. http://www.lii.org/ Lists of bests. http://www.listsofbests.com/ Literature map. http://literature-map.com/ New stuff in the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate. http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/new_words.htm Julius "Nipsey" Russell (September 15, 1918 - October 2, 2005). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nipsey_Russell New office slang. http://bigpicture.typepad.com/writing/2005/03/new_office_slan.html 40 Things That Only Happen In Movies. http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/features/20moviethings.htm More of interest on the main site. http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/ Scott Cummins does some amazing things with pumpkins. http://www.pumpkingutter.com/ ================================= Reader and friend John Lepse is a workaholic in the health care industry. You know, the sort of person who really does care? That's John. He usually manages to send me one or two links for every issue. I'm guessing he's had some time off lately. Here's a few from John. ================================= 101 Fabulous (costless)bies from PCWorld. http://snipurl.com/psov Purveyors of Useless Knowledge. http://failedsuccess.com/ Home-made commercial for Firefox. Some of these are very funny. http://www.firefoxflicks.com/ It doesn't matter how you quit smoking, as long as you quit. For me all it took was learning that Lisa didn't smoke. http://www.geocities.com/cupace/ Explore, search and discover earth. http://earth.google.com/ America's Oldest University. http://www.podunk.com/ Information and resources on maintaining, optimizing, and securing Windows XP. http://www.jstechs.com/ The Webby awards. http://www.webbyawards.com/ ================================= Jon Reed offered this interesting way to look at gas prices. http://www.gasbuddy.com/gb_gastemperaturemap.aspx ================================= This issue's contributions from reader and friend Patrick Barden ================================= A search engine for folks who like large print. http://www.big.com/home.php A Windows utility. http://www.stevengould.org/software/cleanup/ Very interesting (but stupid) *grin*. http://digicc.com/fido/ It all started with one red paperclip. http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/ Robert Sabuda's DIY cards. http://robertsabuda.com/popmakesimple.asp The religious affiliation of comic book characters. http://www.adherents.com/lit/comics/comic_book_religion.html ================================= Here's a few from my long-time friend, reader and web sibling Vinette DePhillipe. ================================= Funny crochet definitions. http://snipurl.com/psqq Yet another way to track gas prices. http://autos.msn.com/everyday/gasstations.aspx A knitting resource. http://www.dailyknitter.com/ Yarn guide. http://www.bigyarnguide.com/ Knitting patterns. http://snipurl.com/psqv Devoted to people who consider themselves maniacs when it comes to knitting socks. http://www.sockamaniac.com/ The Socknitters Home Page. http://www.socknitters.com/ Thank you Irv, Jo, John, John, Patrick and Vi. ================================= Last word, from Lisa: As you have probably guessed, I'm a bit of a Dirt Goddess. The neighbor across the street has threatened to turn his lawn chair around because watching me makes him tired. But it's probably an old joke for him, his wife, a *very* normal person, works even harder in the yard than I do. This year, since we have more time at home, I'm improving the yard a bit. Have to do it now, soon temps will be in the triple digits here in Central Texas. Learned to repair a rock wall yesterday. This morning I got two dozen Siberian Irises in the planting bed out front, I'm shooting for a couple dozen white irises in the morning. 'Til next time.... Live, love, plant. Lisa's feedback form: http://www.don-guitar.com/lfefo.html Don's feedback form: http://www.don-guitar.com/contactme.html Our personal news page. http://www.don-guitar.com/babbleon.html Don Crowder and Lisa Miller Monday, May 1, 2006 12:20 AM CST - Buchanan Lake Village, Texas, USA Served by the U.S. Post Office in Tow (rhymes-with-cow), Texas ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª Privacy: We will never share, sell, or otherwise compromise your email address. Privacy Policy on our website. http://www.don-guitar.com/privacy.html Freelists.org Privacy Policy. http://www.freelists.org/privacy.html ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª 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. ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª This is a reader-supported publication. You can show your support by making a contribution in any amount you choose. No contribution is too small. http://www.don-guitar.com/donations.html ___________________________________________________________ Subscription management for this publication is available online here: http://www.don-guitar.com/subsmanager.html or here: http://www.freelists.org/list/donspatch