[donspatch] 2008-04-15

Don's Patch #92,  April 15, 2008  from http://www.don-guitar.com

Online version:  http://www.don-guitar.com/currentissue.html

Archives:  http://www.freelists.org/archives/donspatch/ 
 
First word, from Don: 
 
Do you ever feel like events are conspiring to give you a hard time?   We
have a friend here in the village who asked me how to take the files from
his little RCA voice recorder and transfer them to a CD which a regular
home CD player can play back.  Sounds simple, right?  Well the little RCA
device creates files which have a .voc file exension.  There's supposed to
be a proprietary software on the player which will open the files but it's
a Windows app and he's got a Debian Etch computer system.  My
XP machine couldn't see the software on the player so I had to go
download it from the RCA website.  Once it was installed on my XP
machine it was able to open the recorded files and save them as .wav
files but nothing I have, on either computer (Debian Etch or Windows XP),
can burn those .wav files to a regular, playable CD.  Some research told
me that Audacity (an Open Source app available for Windows or Linux)
can open the .wav files and export them as mp3 files.  GnomeBaker, the
CD burning app on my Debian Etch machine, or the latest WiMP (excuse
me, that's Windows Media Player) can create ordinary, playable CDs from
mp3 files; done deal.   Convoluted isn't it?  Yes, it is, and the 
proprietary
software, needed to create a .wav file, in order to get started, is a 
Windows
app.... but  (and this is a big but *grin*) I may be able to get it to run 
on
his Linux machine under Wine.  What's Wine?   http://www.winehq.org/
[basically it's a simulated Windows environment which runs inside
Linux.  It doesn't work with everything yet but it's worth a try.] 

The thing is, circumstances keep forcing me to learn things I never
wanted to know in the first place and I know how these things turn out.
Pretty soon your neighbor tells another neighbor that you "know your
stuff" and the next thing you know that neighbor wants to know if you
can fix his computer.  Still, it can be a lot of fun as long as you never
assume you actually know anything because, as soon as you do that,
you are really going to be in for it.  So walk softly grasshopper.

Dan, Ted, Tony, thanks for writing fellows, I really appreciate it.

Don 
 
Our feedback form (goes to both of us):
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Lisa's blogs.
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http://thedirtgoddess.blogspot.com/ 
 
 
Section One by Don. 
 
Glorifying the good old days.   http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/

Life Without Engineering (a flash presentation).
http://www.engr.utexas.edu/wep/COOL/lifewoengr/

Monster gaming site.  http://www.gamasutra.com/

A nice math-related site (why don't any of these places have a
button for grandparents?).   http://www.coolmath.com/

A map junkie's blog.  http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/

Johnny Chung Lee's very cool projects.
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/projects/

Eclectic art from Jeff de Boer.
http://jeffdeboer.com/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx

What's faster than a speeding trap-jaw ant mandible?
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2006/08/21_ant.shtml

Proceedings of the Athanasius Kircher Society.
http://www.kirchersociety.org/

I've read about these in Science Fiction books for years but seeing it
become real is disquieting.   http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/211.html

Tilted Twister is a Lego Mindstorms robot that solves Rubik’s cube.
http://tiltedtwister.com/

Some companies buy the domains you're likely to wind up on if you
make a typo and put up redirect pages...   http://www.yaboo.com/
...while some disreputable companies buy up similar domains and
fill them with advertising and malware...   http://www.yaqoo.com/
...but sometimes there are real sites which have similar URLs.
http://www.yazoo.org/

When I was a teenager this fellow was a mysterious and eclectic
artist.  These days he's just another darn good jazz artist.
http://www.zappa.com/flash/jazzfromhell/00.html

When I was a kid, this fellows legend and lore, the good, the bad, and,
of course, the hilarious, were a part of my life.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bozo_the_Clown
http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/bozo.asp
http://bozo-history.notlong.com
http://www.tvparty.com/lostbozo.html
http://www.bozo.com/

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 
 
John Walker's "The Hacker's Diet" is now online and he's 
developed an exercise program as an accompaniment. 
http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/online/hdo.html 
http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/exercise.html 
 
Stuff you can do.  http://www.52projects.com/ 
 
Make Windows lean and mean-and fast. 
http://diecah.notlong.com 
 
The history of the original 13 colonies is a tangled 
tale, and it could have ended up very different. 
http://www.timepage.org/spl/13colony.html 
 
Joseph Wu's Origami.  http://www.origami.as/home.html 
 
I recently became interested in using fewer plastic 
shopping bags.  Here are the more interesting and simple 
ideas found in all parts of the world. 
http://baggubag.com/index.html 
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=177482.0 
http://www.myrecycledbags.com/category/plastic-bag-crafts/ 
 
The Rosarian is devoted to the Rose and its fans, 
and has some great Rose prints. 
http://www.rosarian.com/ 
 
Making your own laundry and dishwashing detergents. 
http://laundrydet.notlong.com 
http://dishwashing.notlong.com 
 
Gendercide; a new word, an ancient concept. 
http://www.gendercide.org/ 
 
How long should you keep documents? 
http://retaindoc.notlong.com 
 
I've been hesitant to tell Don about this product, for 
fear of recieving it by the truckload. 
http://shapelock.com/index.html 
 
End of Section Two. 
 
 
At the time this issue was posted, 
the current subscriber count for 
this publication was 391. 
 
 
This issue's collection of news, 
magazine, and/or informational 
sites (chosen for maximum 
diversity regardless of "spin" ). 
 
 
Section Three by Don. 

In the mid 1970s Citizens Band radio became a very
big deal.  Not so big any more but still kicking.
http://www.ac6v.com/cb.htm
http://www.cbtricks.com/
http://www.cbgazette.com/gaz2.html

A serious sort of kids site from the U.S. government.
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/

Canberra bicycle museum and resource centre.
http://canberrabicyclemuseum.com.au/default.htm

Rollins College Digital Collections.
http://archives.rollins.edu/index.php

Up from down under.   http://www.upfromaustralia.com/

Automobiles.
http://www.autolife.umd.umich.edu/
http://www.cruisinthedrag.com/
http://www.swedecar.com/visit_the_past.htm
http://mystery-car.notlong.com

Ok, so you were rummaging in a trunk in the basement
and found some ancient stock certificates.  What now?
Start here.   http://www.scripophily.net/index.html

Grownups who like to play choo-choo.
http://cee.uiuc.edu/railroad/

Excitement on three wheels.   http://www.tricyclefetish.com/

Don Edrington's stuff.   http://www.pcdon.com/index.html

Center For Pacific Northwest Studies.
http://www.acadweb.wwu.edu/cpnws/

This looks to me like an Australian analog to the Smithsonian.
Very cool.   http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/

Books, articles, podcast and other cool stuff.
http://www.nap.edu/

The Lemelson Center.   http://invention.smithsonian.org/home/

The Open Courseware concept is catching on in lots of places but
this is where it started.   http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/

Online conversions.   http://www.digitaldutch.com/unitconverter/

Google TV?   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9SK_M_nVWA

In the future you'll need to wash your hands before computing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcKqyn-gUbY

Nicole Lee’s geeky blog.  http://neekole.com/

End of Section Three. 
 
 
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Section Four by Jo Ann Burton.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sharinglinks2/

Jo-Ann is a wonderful friend.  We didn't grow
up together and we've never met in person but
she's my sister.  Perhaps because I've been
nagging her for years, she's written a section of
this issue.  What follows was written entirely
by her with minimal editing by me. 

I like games.  But I'm not very good at them.  Part of the reason is I have
lousy eye-hand co-ordination.  The rest of the reason is you have to have
quick hands or quick click sometimes.  But I still like to try them and
sometimes I find ones I am good at.  So this collection of links are
games.  Some I liked very much and others I simply sucked at but
perhaps you won't.
   
First up is The Never Ending Level Game.  There are at the moment
160 levels with new ones added all the time and the levels are very
short, usually just one task to get to the next one.  Some are very
easy...others....are tough
http://www.moregames24.com/2008/01/never-ending-level-game.html
   
If you're a fan of the CSI shows you'll love CSI Experience.  It's
billed as a web adventure and it gives you a little taste about what
Callie, and Grissom and Horatio do.  Navigating the virtual CSI
world can take many different forms, including interacting with
lab paraphernalia, talking with the characters, and making
choices as to how you will proceed.
http://forensics.rice.edu/index.html
   
Circlo2 is one I was pretty good at.
Zap the like colored circles as fast as you can.
http://www.kongregate.com/games/matt_j/circlo-2
   
The Whitney Music Box isn't a game.  It's another
web adventure and it  combines music and mathematics
and it's like a spirograph. It's loads of fun, too!
http://www.coverpop.com/whitney/index.php?var=v7
   
  Burn the Rope will remind you of the old arcade games.  There's
a boss at the end of the tunnel. You can't hurt him with your
weapons. The only way you can get him is to........ Burn The Rope!
http://www.mazapan.se/games/BurnTheRope.php
   
Another arcade game...Remember Sonic the Hedgehog?
http://games.allmyfaves.com/sonic/
   
When you were a kid did you ever wish you were a Viking?
In this game simply answer the multiple choice and true or
false questions to move your ship forward. A wrong response
slowly sinks your ship. If you get stuck on a question, you
have the option to choose 50/50, poll the audience, or call
a friend.     http://ybbored.com/learning/viking/viking.swf
   
Here’s a fun little Flash game by Yoshio Ishii, titled Hoshi
Saga (Find the Star). The object of the game is simple: find
the star. You’ve got 36 levels. Some are fairly easy and some
are very tough. You can click  on I give up to get to another
level and come back later to see if you can solve the tougher
ones. I really like this game.
http://www.nekogames.jp/mt/2007/05/post_16.html
    
Star 1 (walkthough/cheat sheet)
http://jayisgames.com/archives/2007/05/hoshi_saga.php

Just shoot the bubbles
http://games.allmyfaves.com/bubbleshooter/
   
Find the four leaf clovers by moving your mouse around the
game grid filled with a gazillion clovers, the one your mouse
hovers over is highlighted in white, oh and they move around
too.. See if you can find the four leaf clovers.
http://creep. ru/games/ klever.swf
   
This game requires the eyes of a hawk. It's about spotting
people who are really small and all look alike. There's an
arrow that parts the crowd so you can get a better view.
Once you find who you're looking for you click the arrow
on them and you advance up a level and get another person
to find. I had to find George three times before I got another
person to look for. Kinda fun but I warn you, your eyes may
get a bit bleery.   http://www.ttr2. com/?page= page&view= 160

end of Section Four (thank you Jo).


 
Section Five by Lisa. 
 
Hitler and Stalin were important influences on modern 
history.  How were they similar?  How did they differ? 
http://library.thinkquest.org/19092/ 
 
Due to gaping loopholes in federal law, companies can 
put virtually any ingredient into personal care products. 
Is that cosmetic safe to put on your skin?  Find out. 
http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/ 
 
Clear answers for common questions. 
http://www.wisegeek.com/ 
 
Celine's Original Graphics.  Costless and in the 
Public Domain.  Thanks, Celine. 
http://www.specialweb.com/original/ 
 
Words as Art, or vice-versa? 
http://www.mickeysmithart.com/volume.htm 
 
Math lessons that are fun. 
http://math.rice.edu/~lanius/Lessons/index.html 
 
Resources for teaching and learning math. 
http://illuminations.nctm.org/ 
 
Scholarships, graduate fellowships & postdoctoral awards. 
http://scholarships.fatomei.com/index.html 
 
Good art doesn't always cost too much. 
http://www.20x200.com/ 
 
Connector pinouts and cable descriptions. 
http://www.hardwarebook.info/ 
 
Watching him is cool, standing next to him might 
be a mistake.   http://www.thelightningguy.com/ 
 
Lots of pancake recipes. 
http://www.bbonline.com/recipe/pancakes.html 
 
Volume rendering the cerebral cortex. 
http://www.sph.sc.edu/comd/rorden/render.html#Index 
 
Navigation is a bit of a chore, but this site has 
lots of good info on engineering fundamentals. 
http://www.efunda.com/home.cfm 
 
Classic literature in the public domain. 
http://www.classic-literature.co.uk/ 
 
End of Section Five.


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Section Six by Don. 
 
A guitar teacher's blog.   http://blog.littlerockjams.com/

A blogger who ghost writes for his cat.
http://alexthecat.wordpress.com/

Could you use a personal research assistant who lives
inside your browser?   http://www.zotero.org/

emdot is an amateur photographer.  http://www.emdot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/emdot/

A site for programmers and web dev persons.
http://www.devarticles.com/

A cool specialized news source.   http://afrigator.com/

The Institute of Historical Research.   http://www.history.ac.uk/

a must-have in every geek's toolbox.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duct_tape

"A pioneering open-source research engine and digital archive
for contemporary visual culture."   http://www.adatabase.org/

Alternate Reality Games for Orientation, Socialization and
Induction.   http://www.playthinklearn.net/argosi.htm

Ask a philosopher!
http://www.philosophypathways.com/questions/

Yeesh, what would you like to calculate?
http://www.calculatoredge.com/


Capital Collections, Edinburgh City Libraries and Information
Services.   http://www.capitalcollections.org.uk/

Seeking employment?   http://www.careerjet.com/

Want to use ans share copyrighted data.   http://www.copyright.com/
 
Some Canadian scholars who have a timely idea.
http://www.createchangecanada.ca/

End of Section Six. 
 
 
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. 
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Section Seven by Lisa. 
 
Dental procedures, products and treatments. 
http://www.animated-teeth.com/ 
 
Welding Magazine.  http://www.weldingmag.com/ 
 
The Croatian World Network.   http://www.croatia.org/ 
 
There are many aspects to the simple subject of stairs. 
http://www.plankman.com/projects/tuned_stairs/ 
http://bookstairs.notlong.com 
http://pages.areaguides.com/ubuild/MakingStairs.htm 
 
Beautiful furniture from recycled bicycle parts. 
http://www.bikefurniture.com/ 
 
So bad it's good.   http://www.thriftstoreart.com/ 
 
Unknown animals found off Antarctica. 
http://unknownanimals.notlong.com 
 
How to do most things yourself. 
http://www.doityourself.com/ 
 
Cabinets of Curiosity were often precursors of museum 
collections.  Personally, I see packrats here. 
http://microcosms.ihc.ucsb.edu/essays/002.html 
 
"A Nice Cup of Tea" by George Orwell. 
http://www.booksatoz.com/witsend/tea/orwell.htm 
 
I recently purchased dried culinary lavender online. 
Here are some recipes for using it. 
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Lavender.htm 
 
The Mathematical Association of America. 
http://www.maa.org/ 
 
21st Century Decluttering. 
http://www.creatrope.com/blog/ 
 
End of Section Seven. 
 
 
The Linux Corner. 
 
A lot of knowledgeable Linux users are annoyed with nVidia.
http://www.opentheblob.com/nvidia/

Open Source Symposium, San Angelo, Texas, April 26, 2008.
(sure wish I was able to attend this).   http://www.texasoss.org/

All the "pretty" stuff you can get for your computer desktop is
collectively referred to as "eye candy".  None of is essential
but much of it is quite nice to look at.
http://kde-look.org/
http://www.gnome-look.org/
http://art.gnome.org/
http://www.xfce-look.org/

Here are some nice toys for Linux or BSD systems.
http://adesklets.sourceforge.net/desklets.html

Usable on about any platform, the creator refers to his programs
output as visual music.   http://draves.org/bomb/

Information on gaming in Linux.   http://happypenguin.org/

Lots of interesting reading from XCSSA (eXotic Computer Systems
of San Antonio, TX).   http://xcssa.org/files/

Linux laptop users often have a terrible time getting their wireless
connections configured and functioning.  Here's so help.
http://linux-wless.passys.nl/


Paul ( http://remsset.com/ ) is an Emu rancher and
member of our local HLLUG http://www.hllug.org/
Here's a link he posted to the HLLUG email
list ( http://www.freelists.org/list/hllug ).

This is a good site for reviews of specific Linux distributions.
http://www.distro-review.com/
 
 
A Little Humor. 
 
A grasshopper goes into a bar.  The bartender says, "hey,
do you know we have a drink named after you?"  The
grasshopper replies, "why in the world would you
name a drink 'Pete'?"

Q:    How many surrealists does it take to change a lightbulb?
A:    Two; one to hold the giraffe, the other to put the clocks
in the bathtub.

Q:    If  Mr. and Mrs. Bigger had a baby, who would be the
biggest of the three?  A:    The baby, because he'd be a little Bigger!

A priest, a minister, and a rabbi go into a bar. The bartender
looks up and says, suspiciously, "is this some kind of joke?"

Q:    What's the difference between ignorance and apathy?
A:    I don't know and frankly, I don't care.

An optimist sees a glass as half full.  A pessimist sees a glass
that's half empty.  An engineer sees a glass that's twice as
big as it needs to be.

 
Tips for This Issue. 
 
Computer and technology help.   http://malektips.com/

Geek tips.   http://www.geektips.net/tips/viewAll

7 computer security tips for students.
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/family/guidelines/students.mspx

 
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/ ) 
Wallpaper from Patrick. 
http://www.don-guitar.com/romanrw.html

Patrick has mentioned this gospel band before but wanted to
mention that their latest album is now available online (and
costless of course).   http://www.takenoglory.com/


From our "other brother" Bill (Beeyil) Lanoue. 
( Bill's blog http://ncvietvet.blogspot.com/ )

How secure is your browser?  Find out here.
http://bcheck.scanit.be/bcheck/index.php


Here's a couple of links from our good friend, neighbor
and favorite  web-geek-in-training, Stevie Scott.

Stevie says this a pretty cool concept and the flash movie
demonstration is almost scary.
http://www.bomgar.com/linux/

Stevie's been running Ubuntu on his new Vista-powered HP laptop
 with VMWare, because the live CD can't recognize its wireless
connection but I "upset his applecart" by giving him a Linux Mint
live CD to play with.  It didn't recognize his wireless either but he
really liLeSabreked it so he went and found hLeSabreimself a potential 
solution.LeSabreLeSabreLeSabre
http://linuxmint.com/software/?sec=item&id=59&release=1


From our web sibling Dan Urban, here's an interesting way
to manage the living arrangements for your retirement.
http://www.snopes.com/travel/trap/retire.asp


Thank you Patrick, Beeyil, Stevie and Dan.
 
 
Last word, from Lisa: 
 
Recently my old car, a 1996 Dodge Intrepid, died.  The oil 
gauge gave me no warning that I had no oil, period.  Three 
or four squeaky knocks and she passed on.  My "new" old 
car is a 1990 Buick LeSabre that I purchased for a very 
good price, considering.  After getting a new headliner, 
hub caps, radio, motor for the left front window and a few 
additional parts and pieces from the salvage yard, it's on to 
the mechanic to install air conditioning and get a state
inspection sticker.  Needless to say, it's been an 
exciting couple of weeks, and I'm not eager to do this 
again soon. 
 
Still, it's an interesting life.  Hope yours has been 
reasonably uneventful. 
 
'Til next time, 
 
Lisa 
 
Our feedback form (goes to both of us):
http://www.don-guitar.com/contactme.html 
 
Lisa at myspace.com.  http://www.myspace.com/81825549
Lisa's blogs.
http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/dirtgoddess
http://thedirtgoddess.blogspot.com/

Don at myspace.com http://www.myspace.com/donguitar
Don's blogs.
http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/eldergeek/
http://don-guitar.blogspot.com/ 
 
Our personal news page. 
http://www.don-guitar.com/babbleon.html 
 
Don Crowder and Lisa Miller 
Monday, April 14, 2008 
010:45 PM CST - Buchanan Lake Village, Texas, USA 
Served by the U.S. Post Office in Tow (rhymes-with-cow), Texas 
 
 
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