Don's Patch #61 from http://www.don-guitar.com January 1, 2007 First word, from Don: It's funny, I felt very lukewarm about downloading IE7 but when I found it wasn't available for my Windows 2000 Pro (which is about two years old) I was furious. So, I bought a used computer with a legal copy of Windows XP on it for $41. It's not a leading-edge sort of computer; it's a 500 MHz P3 with 256 MHz of RAM and a 10 GB hard drive but it runs ok and when Microsoft ceases to support my Win2K I'll install Linux on that computer and set up this XP box as my windows computer. I don't want to be totally unfamiliar with the operating system that most of our readers are using so I will eventually, when MS cuts off support for XP, buy myself a used machine with a legal copy of Vista on it but, by that time, I hope to be as comfortable with Linux as I now am with Windows. Nothing empowers consumers like simply being offered a choice. My very first four-function hand-held electronic calculator, which I bought at a Montgomery Wards store in 1973, cost over $100. Less than a year later, when it failed to function while still under warranty, I was able to trade up to a multi- function, scientific calculator without paying any extra. Today, with dozens of competing brands available a decent scientific calculator can be had for less than ten U.S. dollars. Right now, the projected price of Vista could be as much as $500. Less than a year from now, when you see Vista being sold for considerably less than a hundred U.S. dollars per copy I hope it occurs to you how much we all owe the many volunteer programmers who're spending a portion of their evenings and weekends as Linux developers. It doesn't really matter so much what operating system you use. What matters is that you really do have choices and that the companies who wish to sell you their product are acutely aware that they have competitors. I like it. Incidentally, since I can't use IE7 on my Win2K machine and IE6 represents an ongoing security risk I'm mostly using Firefox and it's just been updated again, to 2.0.0.1. http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/ I remember reading somewhere that ebay was making changes that would force people to use Internet Explorer on their site and you do get a warning if you log into ebay with any version of Firefox older than 2.0 but I spent some time exploring ebay with Konqueror, Epiphany and Mozilla Navigator on my Debian Linux box and found that all of those browsers worked just fine on ebay. I don't know if the stories I heard were hyperbole or if ebay has quietly wised-up. Firefox, from Mozilla, gets all the attention but the original Mozilla Suite, which comes by default with Debian Sarge, is still available for Windows and Mac OS X. Nor is the Mozilla Suite "obsolete". It's still under development, and, like virtually all Open Source applications, it gets better all the time. http://www.mozilla.org/products/mozilla1.x/ Happy New Year everyone. See you next time, Don Don's feedback form: http://www.don-guitar.com/contactme.html Lisa's feedback form: http://www.don-guitar.com/lfefo.html Our personal news page. http://www.don-guitar.com/babbleon.html Don at myspace.com http://www.myspace.com/donguitar Don's blog. http://blog.myspace.com/donguitar Lisa at myspace.com. http://www.myspace.com/81825549 Lisa's blog. http://blog.myspace.com/81825549 ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª Just the facts. http://www.fact-index.com/index.html Are any of you web-dev geeks looking for an email server for Windows? http://www.ezmts.org/ Knitting Fun. http://snipurl.com/15y0c Bathroom Innovation Award finalists for 2006. http://snipurl.com/15y0k A nifty and costless font viewer http://home.pacbell.net/michal_k/ttviewer.html and a pretty cool image viewer too (scroll down for the Exif Image Viewer). http://home.pacbell.net/michal_k/exif_v.html Mark Dornblaser's awesome photography. http://www.fireandicephoto.com/ A resource for writers. http://www.forwriters.com/ fractal-making apps. http://www.fractovia.org/uberto/download.html http://personal.inet.fi/koti/fractalus/ http://whorld.sourceforge.net/ Educational software by Travis East. http://homepage.mac.com/teast/index.html Grandma Smith's old-fashioned recipes. http://www.home.earthlink.net/%7Etaeast/grandma.html Franklin's Forecast. http://www.fi.edu/weather/ Some goodies from a fellow named "Frank". http://programs.fbrower.com/ Fighting censorship. http://irrepressible.info/ Much to explore. http://www.freebyte.com/ The U.S. National Zoo's animal index. http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/AnimalIndex/ A good resource for DIY automobile maintenance. http://www.econofix.com/ A lot of people feel that they're lacking in education and there's no longer any reason to feel that way. Do it. http://www.free-ed.net/free-ed/ I listed ublip without having any idea what it was but I assume my instincts were good because reader Patrick Barden got "all into it". http://ublip.com/users/RomanRoadwalker So, here's another one I don't have any idea about. http://bubbl.us/ Be sure and let me know if you figure it out. A good resource for teachers. http://www.chalksite.com/ For puzzle enthusiasts. http://freejigsawpuzzles.com/ 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 Another good way to learn HTML. http://snipurl.com/165zn 1st Page 2000, a costless website builder. http://www.evrsoft.com/1stpage2.shtml Cross-platform space simulator. http://www.shatters.net/celestia/ Online 3D text banner creation tool. http://www.3dtextmaker.com/ Assorted Third World subjects; http://www.twnso.org/ http://www.item.org.uy/eng/index.php http://friendsofthethirdworld.org/ http://www.phlog.net/user/hlvictorya http://www.upd.edu.ph/~twsc/ http://www.twows.org/ http://haneydaw.myweb.uga.edu/twwh/ http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/ An oldie but a goodie. http://www.1001freefonts.com/ Lots of useful costless apps and services. http://www.a1b2c3.com/free/index.htm Art resources. http://www.sanford-artedventures.com/ Stuff, samples and sweepstakes. http://aplusfreestuff.com/ AbiWord users, have you updated recently? http://www.abisource.com/ Ask an expert just about anything. http://www.able2know.com/ ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª At the time this issue was posted, the current subscriber count for this publication was 340. ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª This issue's collection of news/magazine/informational sites (these are chosen for maximum diversity regardless of "spin" ). http://www.dfn.org/ http://www.eye.net/ http://www.feminist.org/ http://www.infoworld.com/ http://mistupid.com/ http://parlpapers.sl.nsw.gov.au/ http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/ http://www.time.com/time/archive/ http://www.zanesvilletimesrecorder.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage http://www.timespressrecorder.com/ http://www.topix.net/ http://www.topplebush.com/index.shtml http://www.prweb.com/ ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª A personal information manager to store contact information. http://www.vani.be/contactkeeper/ The letters after the final DOT in a URL can, in some cases, identify the site's country of origin. http://www.thepeaches.com/CountryCodes.htm Anyone up for a game of Cricket? http://www.coverdrivecricket.com/ Some excellent HTML and/or CSS learning resources. http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/ http://www.utoronto.ca/webdocs/HTMLdocs/NewHTML/ http://www.sbrady.com/hotsource/toc.html http://www.webmasterfree.com/teach.html http://www.webstyleguide.com/index.html?/ http://www.pagetutor.com/index.html http://css.maxdesign.com.au/ http://glish.com/css/ The Resource Center for (costless) Operating Systems. http://www.freeos.com/ An alternative to MS Paint. http://www.cursorarts.com/ca_imffw.html A good Debian Linux resource. http://www.debianhelp.co.uk/ A potentially useful graphics app. http://www.dmagic.dk/freeshadow/ Goodies from Dirk Paehl (menu on the left). http://www.dpaehl.de/ Useful stuff? You be the Judge. http://www.judge-software.co.uk/ Utilities from Funduc. http://www.funduc.com/otsoft.htm Personalized freeway signs. http://www.dewa.com/street/ A good resource for Mac users. http://www.everythingmac.com/ Assorted costless things. http://www.eolsoft.com/freeware/ http://www.filtermeister.com/ http://www.ppsoft.dk/Paradox_Dbase.htm http://www.groan-zone.net/ http://www.flashbuttons.com/ http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA014830/english/FlexRena/ http://www.flos-freeware.ch/index.html http://www.whispertech.com/surfer/index.htm http://www.familygames.com/freelane.html http://www.gabrieleponti.com/software/ http://www.gamehippo.com/ http://www.gamequarium.com/ http://funschool.kaboose.com/ http://www.gena01.com/ http://home.rochester.rr.com/artcfox/index.html http://www.freewarehits.de/ http://mysite.mweb.co.za/residents/wduminy/checkers.htm 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 We've found a fascinating person on the National Geographic Channel. His name is Cesar Millan and he is "The Dog Whisperer". See for yourself. http://snipurl.com/1667e http://snipurl.com/1667f http://snipurl.com/1667i Resources for writers. http://www.absolutewrite.com/ Most of these useful apps are costless. http://www.konradp.com/products/ This app keeps all your passwords in one list. http://www.accessmanager.co.uk/ Keep track of the weather. http://snipurl.com/169rl There are some very good reasons to understand and use XHTML and CSS in webpage design. Understand and apply that knowledge, starting here. http://adactio.com/articles/1109//2 Online, animated banner ads. Use with discretion. http://www.addesigner.com/ Advanced find-and-replace app has advanced features. http://www.vknoware.com/afr/index.htm Resources for students and teachers. http://www.adventuresineducation.org/ Different, unusual forms and facets of music. http://wlt4.home.mindspring.com/adventures.htm C'mon, do you really know what Beowolf is? http://www.lone-star.net/literature/beowulf/ Facts and fun with worms. http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/worms/ Plenty of cool, costless apps. http://www.aezay.dk/ Get ready to become an agronaut. http://www.ncsu.edu/project/agronauts/intro2.htm Assorted software from Marc Rochkind. http://basepath.com/index-real.php Just as good as ever, the Old Farmer's Almanac. http://www.almanac.com/ 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 Kid stuff. http://funschool.kaboose.com/ http://www.gamequarium.com/ http://web.ukonline.co.uk/james.masters/TraditionalGames/ http://www.pbm.com/ It's the "dead of Winter" but plant-junkies like Lisa are already planning and plotting their garden strategy for the Spring. http://www.gardenweb.com/ http://www.thegardenhelper.com/ http://communitygarden.org/ This site, from Peter Dunn, is all about WW2 and Australia. http://www.ozatwar.com/ Genealogy resources. http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/ http://www.gengateway.com/ http://www.genealogy.org/ http://www.genealogytoday.com/ http://genforum.genealogy.com/ For armchair racing enthusiasts. http://generally.cjb.net/ Georgia Wildlife. http://museum.nhm.uga.edu/gawildlife/gaww.html Self defense for the web. http://www.getnetwise.org/ The Gibson Research Corporation offers many useful things for Windows users. http://www.grc.com/default.htm A few fonts & things. http://www.fontsnthings.com/ Sites for hungry browsers. http://www.foodfirst.org/ http://www.foodnetwork.com/ http://www.angelfire.com/bc/incredible/foodservicelist.html The Gimp for Mac OS X. http://www.gimp.org/macintosh/ Golf tips. http://www.golf-tipsonline.com/ Google's patent search. http://www.google.com/patents/ The fact that I have granddaughters whom I love very much makes Cynthia Lanius one of my heroes. http://math.rice.edu/~lanius/club/girls.html http://math.rice.edu/~lanius/Lessons/ http://mathforum.org/brap/wrap/lanius.html http://snipurl.com/16a5q http://www.sintonisd.net/training/msmath/Frogs_Geckos2.htm http://whyfiles.org/046sci_project/fractal.html You hear a lot of versions of Murphy's Laws but here's the straight skinny. http://membres.lycos.fr/TheWalrus/murphy.html 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 RSS feed is available via this link. http://www.freelists.org/archives/donspatch/feed.rss ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª Lots of costless games. http://www.jumpgames.com/ Looking for an old schoolmate or work-friend? http://www.alumni.net/ Amaya is an Open-Source web editor, hosted by W3C. http://www.alumni.net/ The adventures of Amelia the Pigeon, from NASA. http://imagers.gsfc.nasa.gov/amelia/index.html An interesting-looking costless animation app. http://snipurl.com/16a6y Info, galleries, and costless software for beautiful fractal art. http://fractals.drque.net/index.html Andy Noble, artist and games designer. http://www.andynoble.co.uk/main.htm Everybody has one; anecdotes, I mean. http://www.anecdotage.com/index.php A couple of programs for graphic artists and web designers. Usable as screen saver too. http://www.anfyteam.com/ Some helpful and fun little apps. http://www.angryziber.com/oldsoft/ Many useful apps, some costless, some shareware. http://fp.futuresights.com/~angstrom/software.html A program to help you solve anagrams. http://www.simtel.net/pub/pd/58418.html Interested in Mac and web-dev? http://developer.apple.com/internet/webcontent/ Could you be a potential Aquarian? http://www.stardoves.com/ HTML for the conceptually-challenged. http://www.arachnoid.com/lutusp/html_tutor.html This personal information manager may be for you. http://www.artplus.hr/adapps/eng/easynote.htm Help and advice for professional freelance writers. http://www.asja.org/ American Society of Newspaper Editors. http://www.asne.org/index.cfm This is a bit tricky, but I like the clock so it was worth it. The package of 25 "previous amazing designs" downloaded and installed just fine but when I tried to save additional scheme files to the same location, by right clicking, selecting "Save target as", and browsing to the Schemes folder, Internet Explorer changed the file extensions from ".csc" to ".htm" and I had to manually change them back after saving them. I tried again with Firefox, by right clicking and selecting "Save Link As..." and it didn't alter the file extensions. http://www.amazingplanet.com/ ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª Websites everyone should know about. These aren't sponsors, they're the best of Internet publications and we 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 ============== Humor ============= How can a stranger tell if two people are married? You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids. ----Derrick, age 8 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What do you think your mom and dad have in common? Both don't want any more kids. ----Lori, age 8 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What do most people do on a date? Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough. -- Lynette, age 8 On the first date, they just tell each other lies, and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date. -- Martin, age 10 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What would you do on a date that was turning sour? I'd run home and play dead. The next day I would call all of the newspapers and make sure they wrote about me in all the dead columns. -- Craig, age 9 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When is it okay to kiss someone? When they're rich. -- Pam, age 7 The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn't want to mess with that. -- Curt, age 7 The rule goes like this: If you kiss someone, then you should marry them and have kids with them. It's the right thing to do. -- Howard, age 8 ============== Tips =============== http://www.helpbytes.co.uk/ http://vlaurie.com/computers2/Articles/idxartcat.htm http://www.pcnineoneone.com/index.html The following site is somewhat dated but nevertheless contains some useful information, especially if you're still using an older version of Windows. http://www.putergeek.com/ ======== Reader Contributions ========= Links from readers are always welcome and you can even write your own link descriptions if you like. Guidelines are available here: http://www.don-guitar.com/descriptivetext.html ================================= From our web sibling Jerry Fox. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A wealth of information about mandolins. http://www.mandolinarchive.com/ including this manual for a 1923 Gibson. http://snipurl.com/16a9z Seven Wonders of various states in the USA. http://7wonders.usa.googlepages.com/ Cool daily videos from google. http://dailyvideo.googlepages.com/ Jerry liked the helicopter aerobatics but, after looking over several, I liked Jerome Murat but Lisa's favorite was the Muppets singing "Mah Na Mah Na" Vaudeville! http://snipurl.com/16aac ================================= From our friend Foggy. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here's a very interesting web concept that the author calls "Dynamic Aninotes". Here's an example. http://Foggy.youaremyfriend.com/ I thought costless ISP's ended with Juno but maybe I was wrong, here's one that Foggy found. http://www.greatdialup.com/index.php I can't say whether the service is good or bad but I need to test several modems with Debian Linux so I've registered an account and I'll let you know later. Irish, Gaelic, English dictionaries. http://www.englishirishdictionary.com/ http://www.nic.funet.fi/~magi/opinnot/gaelic/irish-dic.html http://www.clanmacrae.org/documents/gaelic.htm In support of U.S. troops. http://www.letssaythanks.com/Home1024.html My first thought was "Beware of geeks bearing gifts" but you'll have to decide for yourself. http://www.ideawins.com/ Need a bookmark? http://www.nestlesignatures.com/bookmark.asp Dr Stephen O'Hanlon's Origami page. http://www.fishgoth.com/origami/menu.html Paper toys. http://papertoys.com/ Printables from Woman's Day. http://www.womansday.com/printable/ ================================= From our friend Frank Brown. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Do-Wop horses. Click on each of them in turn. http://svt.se/hogafflahage/hogafflaHage_site/Kor/hestekor.swf ================================= From our friend, Irving Stein. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Need a quick, disposable email address? http://mailinator.com/mailinator/index.jsp A "goodies" list from PC World. http://snipurl.com/16abv The PC Improvement News. http://pcin.net/ An NT/Win2K/XP utility. http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4313.html What do you think is the Best Stuff in the world? http://www.thebeststuffintheworld.com/ ================================= From our web sibling Jo-Ann Burton. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sharinglinks2/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Society for the Protection and Preservation of Fruitcake. http://mbgoodman.tripod.com/fruitcake.html Recipe resources. http://cookingwithamy.blogspot.com/ http://www.recipesbymom.net/ http://www.lanierbb.com/recipes/bait.html http://www.trufflepig.co.za/glossary.asp http://www.tienda.com/recipes/mains.html http://www.ghana.co.uk/food/ http://www.motai.net/recipe.htm http://www.hometownfavorites.com/recipes.html This online aquarium is super cool. http://www.onlineaquarium.net/aquarium/ Draw yourself a car. http://www.doodleride.com/ Online flash games. http://www.dmsgames.com/ January 16th is Religious Freedom day. http://www.religiousfreedomday.com/index.html ================================= From our friend Lou Demyan. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lou says that HDD Health is a nifty and useful little app. Scroll down this page to get to it. http://www.panterasoft.com/ ================================= From our web sibling Patrick Barden. http://rrwbushangel.blogspot.com/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Music to suit your mood. http://www.musicovery.com/ ================================= Last word, from Lisa: As we finish the ezine, the clock ticked down to the moment 2006 became 2007 and makes the 3rd New Year's Eve we've spent together. Writing to and for our readers and toasting the occasion with a Mexican Coca-Cola (no corn syrup--they still use sugar) from wine glasses is the best way we can think of to celebrate. Our lives feel "new and improved" every single day. A good friend of ours just got married and someone made the comment, "They act real goofy." I could tell her from experience, "They're old (*smile*), they don't have time to be serious anymore". My hope for you and your loved ones in the coming year is that you don't have time to be serious anymore. Happy New Year, Lisa Lisa's feedback form: http://www.don-guitar.com/lfefo.html Don's feedback form: http://www.don-guitar.com/contactme.html Lisa at myspace.com. http://www.myspace.com/81825549 Lisa's blog. http://blog.myspace.com/81825549 Don at myspace.com http://www.myspace.com/donguitar Don's blog. http://blog.myspace.com/donguitar Our personal news page. http://www.don-guitar.com/babbleon.html Don Crowder and Lisa Miller Monday, January 1, 2007 2:30 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 ___________________________________________________________ Subscription management for this publication is available online here: http://www.don-guitar.com/subsmanager.html or here: http://www.freelists.org/list/donspatch