[donspatch] 2007-06-03

Don's Patch #71 from http://www.don-guitar.com  April 3, 2007

First word, from Don:

It's funny, when you're really busy there aren't enough hours in the day
but when you're "all caught up" you start wishing you had something to
do.  Of course I don't know what that's like because I've had five things
to do, at any given moment, for the past few years and all of them
should have been finished months ago *sigh*.

So I don't feel too terribly bad about this issue being a couple of days
late, especially considering that's never happened before, but feeling
"not too terribly bad" isn't the same as "not feeling bad" and there's
no getting around that so I'll try to prevent any recurrences of this
event as best I can.

Enjoy, Don

Don's feedback form:  http://www.don-guitar.com/contactme.html
Lisa's feedback form:  http://www.don-guitar.com/lfefo.html

Attention (Hey Y'all!):  Our feedback forms, above, are working
again (all better now) so don't be a stranger, hear?

Our personal news page (should be updated by the 5th).
http://www.don-guitar.com/babbleon.html

Don at myspace.com http://www.myspace.com/donguitar
Don's blog.  http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/eldergeek/

Lisa at myspace.com.  http://www.myspace.com/81825549
Lisa's blog.  http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/dirtgoddess


Section One by Don.

Chris Pirillo http://www.pirillo.com/ of Lockergnome
http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/lockergnome/
has a fairly new links publication which Lisa says bears a "striking
resemblance" to our ezine, but it's waaaay smaller.  It is good though
and you can subscribe by sending an email to this address:
picks@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  or you can check out his archives here:
http://chris.pirillo.com/category/picks/

A few days ago I saw a video about a rainwater collection system
which is being built for a school in Rwanda, this isn't where I found
it.  I've forgotten exactly where I did find it but I think it may have been
on YouTube.  At any rate, it's video number 4 on this page
http://www.80percentangel.com/video/
I tracked the video down to the web site
http://www.80percentangel.com/support/
and made a modest donation which got me an awfully nice
thank you letter from a young American fellow named Parker
Snyder who's moved to Rwanda along with his fiance.   Parker,
may you and all of the 80 percent angels enjoy continued success.

If you're anywhere near my age (I'm 58) you should remember Ravi
Shankar.  If you like Ravi, you're bound to love Anoushka.
http://www.anoushkashankar.com/

David Beard is an archeologist.   http://www.archaeology.eu.com/

On this site, Archaeology in Wales, every other paragraph, or sentence
in some cases, is in English.  http://www.cambria.org.uk/main.htm

Virtual tours require a fast connection and lots of RAM but they're cool
if you have those things.  http://www.arounder.com/

Metafilter is a weblog that anyone can contribute a link
or a comment to.   http://www.metafilter.com/

A friend sent me to this cool Canstruction website
http://www.canstruction.com/indexn.html
and a bit of research showed that Canstruction isn't limited to
any particular place in the world, it's all over the place as is clearly
shown by this google search page.   http://snipurl.com/1mstb

None of these gimme's looked interesting to me, how about you?
http://www.capesoft.com/free.htm

Chetham's Library was founded in 1655 and while there's not a great
deal to see on the website, the history, which is illustrated was very
interesting.   http://www.chethams.org.uk/index.htm

If writing a book is just too intimidating to you, why not try to write
a single chapter?   http://wikinovel.box-fire.com/wiki/Main_Page

ConsumerAffairs dot com, knowledge is power.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/

Croatian Heritage.   http://www.croatians.com/

U. S. Department of Education toll-free numbers and hotlines.
http://www.ed.gov/about/contacts/tollfree/index.html

Electronic text center from the University of Virginia.
http://etext.virginia.edu/

If you're willing to scroll down past the ads and hotels there's a
lot of info on Rome here.   http://www.romaviva.com/home_eng.htm

Eye witness to history.   http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/

This is a slide show of images from around the world.  I found it oddly
disconcerting.   http://flickrvision.com/

This could be a useful site for English speaking persons who're
planning to travel in France.   http://www.beyond.fr/index.html

End of Section One.


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


Section Two by Lisa

Masanobu Fukuoka, author of "The One-Straw Revolution",
stated that ""The ultimate goal of farming is not the
growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of
human beings."  It's a start.
http://fukuokafarmingol.info/index.html

There are lots of interesting things to explore on
Stephen Ostermiller's website.   http://ostermiller.org/

For legal professionals and lay persons alike, help
in researching the law.  http://www.katsuey.com/

The Internet Legal Research group.  http://www.ilrg.com/

New York Times Learning Network crossword puzzles.
http://snipurl.com/1n1rq

Learn the Tarot online.  http://www.learntarot.com/

A step-by-step tutorial for kids who would like to
learn HTML.  http://www.goodellgroup.com/tutorial/

A cool site for kids of all ages.
http://www.learningplanet.com/

Costless tutorials and courses.  http://www.learnthat.com/

Search for your favorite wildflower by color or
name on this helpful site.  http://snipurl.com/1n1sn

Thousands of how-to videos make this site a great
find.  http://www.expertvillage.com/

When you're ready for something different.
http://www.phenomenon.org/

Website development resources.
http://www.adeveloper.com/resource.html

JPEG Wizard online image optimizer.
http://www.jpegwizard.com/

Many Jews did fight back; men, women and children.
http://www.jewishpartisans.org/

Jigsaw puzzle paradise.  http://www.jigzone.com/

Ink, an important part of our history and everyday life.
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/whatstuff/stuff/7646scit2.html

Remember, all classical music was once pop.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Fiedler

End of Section Two.


At the time this issue was posted,
the current subscriber count for
this publication was 394.


This issue's collection of news,
magazine, and/or informational
sites (chosen for maximum
diversity regardless of "spin" ).
http://discovermagazine.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzinGbg2vBw
http://dos-centavos.blogspot.com/
http://www.britannica.com/
http://www.sr.se/euroarctic/
http://www.fortbendnow.com/
http://www.i-newswire.com/
http://projects.ltc.arizona.edu/finding/
http://www.liveleak.com/
http://www.newadvent.org/
http://ninjasockmonkey.com/
http://www.offthekuff.com/mt/
http://www.oxfordjournals.org/

Section Three by Don.

Robert Alan Soloway, who's responsible for some of the
unwanted email we receive, has been busted (news article
from theglobeandmail.com).   http://snipurl.com/1mu2g

My uncle Clay Sisk sent me these links to sites offering information
on one of the most historically significant battles of World War One.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gallipoli
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/gallipoli.htm
http://www.iit.edu/~agunsal/canakkale/canwar.html

Gadgets, gizmos and geekerie.   http://www.geekologie.com/

A UK/Ireland genealogy resource.   http://www.genuki.org.uk/

Do you have problems with arthritis?  Do you take Glucosamine
Sulfate?  If not, maybe you should give it a try.
http://www.glucosamine-arthritis.org/  (pop-up)
http://snipurl.com/1mzz6  (quackwatch.org)

Google's book search looks interesting.   http://books.google.com/

Hilary Burrage appears to be something of a polymath.
http://www.hilaryburrage.com/index.php

An interesting collection of real estate data.
http://www.housingtracker.net/

A cute musical video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvlCu1_noTc

Get some web savvy.   http://www.isafe.org/

If you are out of pocket for prescriptions this site might
be a good one for you.   http://www.i-saverx.net/

A non-anonymous website for North Africa and the Middle
East.   http://lexicorient.com/

After watching this video it occurred to me that the officer would
have created far fewer problems for himself if he'd just ordered a
pizza.   http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1f4_1179038976

Llanddewi Skirrid is a small parish on the Abergavenny to Ross road 3
miles northeast of Abergavenny.   http://www.llanddewiskirrid.co.uk/

Call me an old fuddy-duddy but I strongly disapprove of this site.
http://www.megaessays.com/

Open source, hi-tech automation for your home.
http://misterhouse.sourceforge.net/

The Modern Antiquarian website, based on Julian Cope's epic
guidebook of the same name.   http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/

Museums in Russia.   http://www.russianmuseums.info/

End of Section Three.


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Section Four by Lisa.

Art-deco architecture.  Once again, everything old
is new again.   http://www.decopix.com/

HTML tutor, good for beginners or better.
http://www.pagetutor.com/

A very different musician, Andrew Bird.
http://snipr.com/1n464  (npr.org)

The Scientist, magazine of the life sciences.
http://www.the-scientist.com/

Like a virtual Lego set, LeoCad is a cool thing.
http://www.leocad.org/

Artist David Lanham has an enjoyable and
entertaining site.  http://www.dlanham.com/

Decode and send infra-red signals of many commonly
used remote controls.   http://www.lirc.org/

Medical information and help.  http://www.medhelp.org/

Open Source cross-platform mail and news client.
http://mahogany.sourceforge.net/

Save memory and time; run up to 10 sets of programs with
shortcut icons in this nifty little Multi-Runner.
http://www.personal.u-net.com/~williaj/multirunner.html

Online educational treasure hunts.
http://www.museummania.com/

Links to online learning sites.
http://librarysupportstaff.com/ed4you.html

Calendars, organizers, reminder apps.
http://www.mnsi.net/~jhlavac/freeware/organizers.htm

Dance bands originated in America, and are part of
our rich musical history.  http://nfo.net/usa/dance.html

Kill pop-ups in Internet Explorer.
http://home.rochester.rr.com/artcfox/Pop-Down/

Loads of costless apps and goodies.
http://www.onlythebestfreeware.com/default.asp

FAX servers you may use to send a fax to many locations
around the world.   http://www.tpc.int/tpc_home.html

Home page of the Panama Canal Authority.  Lots of good
reading here.  http://www.pancanal.com/eng/index.html

End of Section Four.


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

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Section Five by Don.

MySpace "accessories".   http://www.coolmyspacecomments.com/

Geeky stuff for Mac users.   http://netatalk.sourceforge.net/

The home page for the book No Time For Karma by Paxton Robey
with Lone Jensen.   http://www.paxtonrobey.com/

I didn't explore deeply enough to know whether or not they live up
to their name but I really liked the name.  The church of the open
mind.   http://www.theopenmind.org.uk/

Ancient history, folklore and traditions of Orkney (a group of islands
lying off the northern tip of Scotland.   http://www.orkneyjar.com/

The Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.
http://www.vatican.va/various/sm_maggiore/index_en.html

Particletree is the beginning of something.   http://particletree.com/

Fans of public radio should enjoy exploring this site.
http://www.prx.org/

The fast food that raised my kids.   http://www.mattfischer.com/ramen/

Once you scroll past the commercial stuff there's a lot of interesting
things to see on this site.   http://www.romaviva.com/home_eng.htm

Rosslyn Chapel, in Roslin, Midlothian, Scotland, was founded in
1446 by Sir William St Clair.   http://www.rosslynchapel.org.uk/

News and events along historic Route 66.
http://rwarn17588.wordpress.com/

A potentially easy way to create a share-able slide show from your
images.   http://www.slideshare.net/

A graphic intensive but very cool way to check your internet speed.
http://www.speedtest.net/

Spiritual holidays and retreats.   http://www.spiritualholidays.com/

The people and island of Stronsay.   http://www.stronsay.co.uk/

A challenging puzzle.   http://www.supuzzle.com/

End of Section Five.


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

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Section Six by Lisa.

Costless apps from Papercut.biz.
http://www.papercut.biz/products/free_software/

Games, tutorials, software and more.
http://www.programmingart.com/free/

Quirks and Quarks is a science radio show on
the CBC, and has been popular for years.
http://radio.cbc.ca/programs/quirks/index.html

There are many ways to express ones' self, from
the sublime to the...well, you know.  I like FDGB.
http://www.pseudodictionary.com/index.php

Store and recall different sets of mixer settings
quickly and easily.  Not recommended for MS Vista.
http://www.ptpart.co.uk/quickmix/

Daniel Baxtrom's site has goodies and more.
http://biphome.spray.se/baxtrom/

English thesaurus and dictionary for Windows.
http://wordweb.info/free/

A tiny island of great geographical importance,
Diego Garcia has a long, dark history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_Garcia
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/dg.html

The Encyclopedia of Psychology.
http://www.psychology.org/

Xearth for Windows renders a shaded image of the earth
on your desktop, as seen from your favorite vantage
point in space.  http://hewgill.com/xearth/

Graffiti; art or crime?  http://www.graffiti.org/

Quicktopic instant discussion space, even better
than email for some group discussions.
http://www.quicktopic.com/

Online community that provides costless technical
support to computer users.  http://www.protonic.com/

Emory University's English Department, a treasure.
http://www.english.emory.edu/

Rachel Carson, author of "Silent Spring" had a huge
impact on the way we think and live today.
http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/cars-rac.htm

Resources for journalists.  http://poynteronline.org/

Would you like to Supersize that?  Ten foods you should
never eat.   http://www.cspinet.org/nah/10foods_bad.html

End of Section Six.


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.lockergnome.com
http://www.scotsnewsletter.com
http://www.tricksandtrinkets.com
http://marylaine.com/neatnew.html


The Linux Corner.

Reviews of the top ten Linux distros.
http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major

Need help with Debian Linux?   http://www.debianhelp.org/

Ian Murdock is the "father" of Debian Linux.  This is his blog.
http://ianmurdock.com/

These little commercial spoofs (videos) are hilarious.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDc9I3z7ab4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LAXg_UmzTY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkFQVcl62qo

The "Linux Administration Made Easy" (LAME) guide attempts to
describe day-to-day administration and maintenance issues
commonly faced by Linux system administrators. Part of the
Linux Documentation Project (fairly geeky stuff here).
http://linuxadmin.notlong.com

Linux with laptops, notebooks, PDAs and mobile cell phones
(information on).   http://tuxmobil.org/

If you're the type of person who simply cannot appreciate an
operating system unless you've bought and paid for it, this
Linux distro may by "your cup of tea" (the rest of us will try
not to snicker or point).   http://www.linux-xp.com/

Here's an interesting looking live CD.
http://www.linuxconsole.org/

Linux help.
http://www.linuxhelp.net/
http://www.linuxquestions.org/

I've mentioned on numerous occasions that, whether you're an
experienced Linux user or a total newbie, a Linux Users Group (LUG)
can be a valuable resource.  Here's a site that may help you find a
LUG near you...   http://www.linuxusersgroups.org/search.html
...but, if there's not a LUG in your area, you're cordially invited to join
the email group operated by the Highland Lakes Linux Users Group
located here in Central Texas.   Sure, making it to our twice monthly
meetings would be difficult if you don't happen to live in Central Texas
but we have a couple of very savvy members who'll be happy to
answer questions and/or help you solve problems.  At the same time,
it's a small group so you won't be inundated with dozens of email
postings every day (as is true of many such groups).
http://www.freelists.org/list/hllug

Our friend Lee Parmeter is the driving force behind our local
Highland Lakes Linux User's Group   http://www.hllug.org/
and here are some links he's posted to its email list.

A nice site for new Linux users.   http://beginlinux.com/

If a Librarian can install Ubuntu...
http://www.librarian.net/stax/2042/do-you-ubuntu/


A Little Humor.

Once upon a time there was a little snake who loved to hiss.
http://www.skepticfiles.org/aj/hisspit.htm
More interesting things from the same source.
http://www.skepticfiles.org/


Tips for This Issue.

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Tips_Page.htm
http://www.winxptutor.com/
http://www.worldstart.com/tips/index.php
http://www.wugnet.com/default.asp
http://weblogs.asp.net/expertzone/default.aspx
http://www.xp-tips.com/


Contributions From Our Readers.
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 Patrick Barden.
( http://rrwbushangel.blogspot.com/ )
Gifts for you from Patrick.
http://www.don-guitar.com/romanrw.html

Sculpted crayons.   http://www.petegoldlust.com/carvedcrayons.html

Write your own programs.   http://scratch.mit.edu/

an image search engine for ASCII art.   http://c6.org/toogle/


From our web sibling Jo-Ann (Jo) Burton:
( Jo's site: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sharinglinks2/ )

A very cool map of Europe.
http://www.rtl.de/news/games/europa_dart/

The book of numbers.  http://www.book-of-numbers.com/

A nice art portal.   http://www.artinsight.com/galleries3.html

The Building Blog (full of architecture, history and more).
http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/

The Mathematical Photography of Justin Mullins.
http://www.justinmullins.com/

The Sports Myth Quiz (discovery.com).
http://sportmythquiz.notlong.com


From our web sibling Jerry Fox.

Internet scams, identity theft, and urban legends.
http://www.scambusters.org/


From our web sibling Bill Lanoue.
( Bill's blog http://ncvietvet.blogspot.com/ )

From the Other Side of the Wall.
http://bellsouthpwp.net/p/d/pdavison/wall.html

The VietNam Veterans' Memorial Wall.
http://thewall-usa.com/index.asp


From our web sibling John Lepse.
( John's blog: http://hucknjim.blogspot.com/ )

English 101 for Bonobos (USA Today).   http://bonobos.notlong.com

Many useful things from GRC.   http://www.grc.com/default.htm

(The) Great Ape Trust, Des Moines, Iowa.
http://www.greatapetrust.org/

 The happiness formula.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/happiness_formula/
 The science of happiness.

Seabiscuit: An American Legend.
http://www.seabiscuitonline.com/index1.htm

Social wallpapering.   http://www.socwall.com/


From our friend Terri Martin-Goin.

The Jello Museum.   http://www.jellomuseum.com/


From our friend Jon Reed.

All My Faves.   http://www.allmyfaves.com/

Express yourself.   http://artpad.art.com/artpad/painter/

The art of Billy Chasen.   http://billychasen.com/
Billy's cool clock.   http://billychasen.com/clock/

Geek Culture.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/32500/Pictures-of-Geek-Culture

A visual Internet search engine.   http://www.pagebull.com/


Last word, from Lisa:

As you have heard from Don, this was the week to end all
weeks, in many ways.  If anything went right, you can bet
it was late.  That goes for the ezine, too.  Sorry, folks.
It's quite true that nothing is as bad as it seems, unless
you look real close. That's why I keep losing my glasses.

One of the high points was finishing my Master Gardener
classes and beginning the project that will fulfill the
requirement to get my certification.  With 50 hours of
community service, I'll become a Texas Master Gardener.
Other high points include good friends, good food, and a
good life.

'Til next time,

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://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/dirtgoddess

Don at myspace.com http://www.myspace.com/donguitar
Don's blog.  http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/eldergeek/

Our personal news page.
http://www.don-guitar.com/babbleon.html

Don Crowder and Lisa Miller
Sunday, June 3, 2007
6:15 PM CST - Buchanan Lake Village, Texas, USA
Served by the U.S. Post Office in Tow (rhymes-with-cow), Texas



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