[donspatch] 2009-07-17

#121  July 17, 2009  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:



If you use a CPAP machine, don't forget to clean the hoses
regularly or bacteria will grow in them and give you
bronchitis or even pneumonia.  Go ahead, ask me now I
know that why don't cha?  I survived Bronchitis in April
and now I'm surviving Pneumonia; that's how I know and
from now one I'll be cleaning my CPAP machine no less
frequently than once a week and I may well choose to clean
it a bit more frequently.  Pneumonia isn't much fun but
boy, doesn't Moxifloxacin work nicely?  I love my drug
dealer (the U.S. Veterans Administration just in case
you had any doubts about who my drug dealer is).

It's still a Windows world.  Sure, I love my Linux but
my kids, grandkids and neighbors keep bringing me their
Windows machines.  The 'bad stuff' is also about an order
of magnitude more vicious and malignant than I recall
ever having seen it.  Some things I can fix but more
often than not my only hope is to completely reinstall
Windows.  For the last few years I've recommended the
personal editions of AVG or Avast anti-virus used in
conjunction with Zone Alarm or Comodo firewall but
Comodo has recently 'hotted' up the Internet Security
wars by introducing a single package with integrated
anti-virus and firewall incorporated (stick with the
link on the left of this page).
http://personalfirewall.comodo.com/

In a world where every imaginable thing seems to be
getting more complicated each day, it's great to see
anything at all being simplified.  Werks for me.

Sorry we're late with this issue.  We'd like to
extend our heartfelt thanks to: Vinette DePhillippe,
James Corologos, Dar (Robbie) Dobson, Paul Tessmer,
Conrad Mackle, Lee Parmeter, Thomas Radford,
Herbert Cadenhead, John Lepse and Chip Befort
who, among them, donated one hundred twenty five
dollars to this publication.  Thanks y'all, this year
it was a more than welcome treat.

Don





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



Don at myspace.com http://www.myspace.com/donguitar

Don's blog.
http://don-guitar.blogspot.com/

Lisa at myspace.com.  http://www.myspace.com/81825549

Lisa's blog.
http://thedirtgoddess.blogspot.com/





Section One by Don.



For some folks the way to gamble is to go to Las Vegas
and blow a bundle.  Other folks are more conservative.
:)   http://www.sharespost.com/

Here's an ad supported online rhyming dictionary.
http://www.rhymer.com/

Lexicus is an online web dictionary and thesaurus.
http://www.lexic.us/

The U.S. DOE's online higher education center for
alcohol/drug abuse and violence prevention.
http://www.higheredcenter.org/

Far more to explore on the home page of the U.S. DOE.
http://www.ed.gov/index.jhtml

I recently did some research on controlling fire ants.
Every site I found offered essentially the same
solution but this one presented it best.
http://fireant.tamu.edu/management/twostep.cfm

Ok, I admit it, I'm a big dumb romantic but this
moved me.   http://perfectonlinegifts.com/?p=247

The University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archeology
and Anthropology.   http://www.museum.upenn.edu/

Americans want more fuel-efficient cars now.
http://www.40mpg.org/

Eddie Ciletti knows a lot about electronics and pro
recording gear which he happily shares with the web.
http://www.tangible-technology.com/index.html

Lots of ISP info and/or another web-based email
account.  http://www.addlebrain.com/index.html

I guess it had to happen sooner or later; police
auctions, online.   http://www.propertyroom.com/

Dave says his website is a favorite of gardeners
around the world.    http://davesgarden.com/

My son-in-law, the pastry Samuri.
http://snipurl.com/n8zar  [www_brickfish_com]

The U.S. National Arboretums virtual Bonsai tour
might be pretty cool but it doesn't work in Linux.
:(   http://snipurl.com/n8ze5  [www_usna_usda_gov]

A papal virtual archive.
http://asv.vatican.va/en/visit/p_nob/p_nob.htm

Commemoration of the 65th Anniversary of the
Liquidation of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto in Lodz.
http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/lodz/index.htm

Civil War site photos, maps and official records
reports.   http://www.civilwaralbum.com/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



We've always been rather careful to try to accommodate
all our readers, with special consideration to those
of you still on dial-up connections and the
vision-restricted.  It occurred to me that I've been
including more YouTube videos lately and wondered
how many of you have dial-up or are unable to access
the videos for any reason.  Your comments or
suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Lisa

Asthma, allergy and intolerance information.
http://www.allallergy.net/

Edmunds.com provides a starting place
when buying a vehicle.
http://www.edmunds.com/

Stephen Bucharo helps you with tech stuff.
http://bucarotechelp.com/

Your daily dose of pop culture.
http://popdose.com/

Supporting our troops and helping their families.
http://www.operationhomefront.net/

A global choral community.
http://choralnet.org/

It was difficult to stop checking out every
page on this website and get back to work!
http://www.oddee.com/

More than a panorama, Photosynth stitches your
photos together into a 3D experience.
http://photosynth.net/

I was fascinated by the videos of Kevin
Richardson, the Lion Whisperer.  My first
thought was 'What if they kill him?'.  My
second thought was *shrug* 'He's happy.
What if they do?'
http://lionwhisperer.notlong.com

Multiplayer online role playing game
for learning Mandarin Chinese.
http://enterzon.com/

The world's largest artificial island.
http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/dubai-palm.htm

What is nanotechnology?
http://www.nanofolio.org/win/index.php

Accomplishing big things in small pieces.
http://bigthings.notlong.com

What to do when there's more month than money.
http://moremonth.notlong.com



End of Section Two.





At the time this issue was posted,

the current subscriber count for

this publication was 374.





This issue's collection of online news, blogs,

magazines, videos  and/or other informational
sites.  These are chosen for maximum diversity
regardless of 'spin' and in some cases may
have offensive or questionable content.





Section Three by Don.



View 7 wonders of the world in 360 degree interactive
panoramas.   http://www.panoramas.dk/7-wonders/

Moonscape panoramas.  http://moon.arounder.com/

The Frissiras significant artists museum in Athens, Greece.
http://www.frissirasmuseum.com/en/collection-artists.php

HHMI's virtual exhibit,
Vital Signs: Understanding Cardiovascular Diseases.
http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/museum/exhibit98/

A virtual tour of the Louvre.
http://snipurl.com/n911f  [www_louvre_fr]

Virtual tours of Mt. St. Helens.
http://www.fullscreen360.com/mt-st-helens-compare.htm

I enjoyed exploring the illustrations and other artwork of
Donna Berger.   http://snipurl.com/n91ck  [donnaberger_com]

Who's up for a little inspiration?
http://theinspirationroom.com/

An online etymology dictionary.   http://www.etymonline.com/

Voices of a grateful nation (supporting American troops and
veterans).   http://www.voicesofagratefulnation.org/

Nokola Tesla, madman, yes but also a genius (video).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSBEYs0rjac

Tiny Sepuku comics began life as a Hello Kitty spoof in
1997 but took on a life of it's own.  Click on 'Comics'
and explore a few of them.   http://www.tinysepuku.com/

Halls of Fame (continued).
Self publishing.   http://www.selfpublishinghalloffame.com/
Famous Alabamians.
http://www.archives.state.al.us/famous/famebama.html
Skin rash.   http://www.poison-ivy.org/rash/
Cooperative.   http://www.coopheroes.org/
Poker.   http://www.pokerpages.com/pokerinfo/hallofame/
Rick Jackson's Country.
http://www.rickjacksoncountry.com/
Cascading style sheets (CSS).
http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS10/hall-of-fame.html
International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA).
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/arch/www/iscabibhall
(to be continued)


A few interesting videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9LxM4WS9j0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeGI__MK4y4
http://www.youtube.com/user/ambergambler
http://www.youtube.com/user/cameronmizell


*Different things* of the day.
Quotes.   http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes_of_the_day.html
Blog.   http://www.shrednow.com/botd/
Saint.   http://www.usccb.org/nab/saints/todaysaint.shtml
Math starter.
http://www.transum.org/software/sw/starter_of_the_day/
Kodak picture.   http://snipurl.com/ndk7k  [www_kodak_com]
Geek.   http://www.geekoftheday.com/
Quote.   http://www.qotd.org/
Laugh.   http://www.laugh-of-the-day.com/
Word.   http://www.reference.com/wordoftheday/
Joke.   http://www.ajokeaday.com/
Animal.   http://www.thewebsiteofeverything.com/weblog/
Pulp.   http://www.pulpoftheday.com/

End of Section Three.




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Section Four by Lisa.



I made a terrible mistake.  I said 'Don, look
at this cute little thing!'  He's been a huge
fan of tiny, funny-looking, high-mileage vehicles
all his life.  This is just one more to add to
his lust-for list.  Plus, an owner-fan site.
http://www.trifun.com/
http://trifunowners.com/
That got us started looking at microcars
in general and there's a lot to be said for them.
A fabulous microcar museum and more sites.
http://microcarmuseum.com/
http://www.rumcars.org/
http://www.microcar.org/
http://smcars.notlong.com
http://smalcars.notlong.com
http://www.petersen.org/default.cfm?docid=1057

Plantains are so cool.
http://demrecipe.com/Plantain.html

Painters Ed Waters;
http://ed-watson.notlong.com
and Debra Hurd;
http://debra-hurd.notlong.com

The story of Hannah Dustin, hold on
to your hats!
http://www.hannahdustin.com/index2.html#story

Paint.NET is an image and photo editing
app for Windows.
http://www.getpaint.net/

Box is an online file sharing collaboration.
Click on 'pricing' for the costless lite version.
http://www.box.net/

Your daily dose of Star Wars.
http://www.theforce.net/

A moving performance by a talented
artist, Terri Gibbs, well-known composer
of "Somebody's Knockin'".
http://terrigibb.notlong.com

KompoZer is a complete web authoring system.
http://kompozer.net/

Dictionary of anything to do with
science and medicine.
http://www.mondofacto.com/index.html

Gallery of abstract digital art.
http://certainage.notlong.com



End of Section Four.





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.
http://www.don-guitar.com/contactme.html




Section Five by Don.



For years I tried to keep current copies of enough Windows
software to fill three CDs but software development has
been on an exponential curve for the last few years and
it became increasingly more difficult to keep all that
software up to date.  Then too, I had to audit each of
those applications to see if they still met my standards
and that required even more time.  I never exactly gave
up on it but I've accepted the fact that me in my sneakers
can't keep up with a galloping horse.  There were a couple
of organizations which offered ISO files for CDs full of
Windows applications which gave up on trying to keep their
collections current...
http://www.theopencd.org/
http://gnuwin.epfl.ch/en/index.html
...gnuwin claims that their next version is in the works
but the copyright on their webpage is dated 2004 so it may
be taking them a while to get their act together.  There
is, however, one bunch of geeks who's still keeping an
up-to-date collection of Open Source apps for Windows.
The Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society's TTCS OSSWIN CD.
http://www.ttcsweb.org/osswin-cd/ (is this cool or what?)

Ok, now that I've typed the 'evil' word (software) a
couple of times, thereby insuring that a few of you
won't receive this issue due to its having been
filtered by your ISP I'll just go for broke and list
a few other websites that, in one way or another,
revolve around the aforementioned 'evil' word.
http://softwarefreedomday.org/
http://www.freewaremission.com/
http://www.freesmug.org/fscd   (for Mac users!)
http://infrarecorder.org/
http://portableapps.com/
http://www.openclipart.org/

The open source concept is, increasingly, starting to
bleed over into other fields.  Music, for example.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_music
http://www.openmusicarchive.org/
http://www.thisisopenmusic.com/
http://www.openmusicsource.net/
http://www.magnatune.com/
http://www.freedb.org/

There's an elementary school Spanish teacher who uses
the internet as an optional extension of his classroom.
His students had an idea for a Spanish language youtube
and he used his discretionary budget to create it.  The
kids aren't exactly great actors but no parent or
grandparent could possibly fail to be utterly enchanted.
The Spanish Dating Service isn't 'for real', it's a
student's project and the site creator got a little too
carried away with his spiffy site navigation tools but
the site is well worth exploring.  The worst, and
simultaneously most charming, young student/actor is
a girl who calls herself 'Eugene'.  Lisa and I are
totally ready to adopt Eugene and her entire family
if need be. We love her.   http://www.spantube.org/


End of Section Five.





Archives for this ezine are available online here:

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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





Section Six by Lisa.



A beautiful photo blog.
http://eitherthedrapes.blogspot.com/

An item of clothing whose time has come?
http://www.no-contact.com/

Dang, where's my weight bench?
http://86body.notlong.com

An interesting blog, but a great cartoon.
http://www.horsepigcow.com/2009/04/more-on-throwing-sheep/

The Global Coalition Against Corruption.
http://www.transparency.org/

Fitness product reviews and information.
http://www.firstpagefitness.com/

I enjoyed these selections by The English Beat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTNpaaPHENE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IarQsEd0mLg
Something about them seemed familiar, though.
They were formerly Fine Young Cannibals, a
group which mainstreamed punk rock.
Some good listening here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7jG8EWr63k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrOek4z32Vg

Imagining the Internet, a history and forecast.
http://www.elon.edu/e-web/predictions/about.xhtml

We received a packet of information about the
receivership and liquidation of a company with
which we had some dealings in the past.  I did
some research and found that scammers had used
this event to try to gather personal banking
information.  Once again, be vigilant about
protecting your personal info.  We received the
packet in the mail and were never asked for any
personal details, nor were we required to do
anything but read the document and go to their
web site to learn more.
http://NPSb.notlong.com



End of Section Six.





The Linux Corner.



Now that I'm a fully ensconced Linux user who's found
a distro that suits me (and been using it daily for
close to three years) I've become lazy about checking
out new distros but those sneaky Debian people have
moved Lenny from Testing to Stable and my Etch has been
moved into the archives.  Oh it still works ok but I'm
no longer getting complete updates and it will become
gradually more obsolete until I overcome my lethargy and
move up to the next version but hey, don't they know
I'm a sixty year old man?  Us old doods hate it when you
change things too quickly.  Oh well, my secondary
computer, which was once Windows XP is now PCLinuxOS
and finally tweaked out to suit me so I'm going to use
it as my 'main' machine while I'm updating this one
from Etch to Lenny.

I think I figured out why I hate it when my distro gets
upgraded.  It's like when I went into the 7th grade, just
a few weeks ago I was in the 6th grade and there were
little kids everywhere but now, suddenly, I was a little
kid and everybody was bigger than me.  I'm very comfortable
with Debian Etch.  I'm a big kid and can figure stuff out
but I've tried Debian Lenny on two other machines now
and, all of a sudden, I'm a little kid who can't figure
anything out...  again.  Yeah, I'll learn it but couldn't
they make it better a little slower?

Incidentally, it's been weeks since I checked the
Distrowatch Top Ten list so I was surprised to see
it's changing, like the entire Linux world, quicker
than I expected.
http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major




A Little Humor from our web-sibling Lesley:

A man went to see his doctor because he was suffering from
a miserable cold. His doctor prescribed some pills, but
they didn't help.On his next visit the doctor gave him
a shot, but that didn't do any good.On his third visit
the doctor told the man to go home and take a hot bath.
As soon as he was finished bathing he was to throw open
all the windows and stand in the draft.'But doc,'
protested the patient, 'if I do that, I'll get pneumonia'.
'I know,' said his physician, 'I can cure pneumonia'.



Tips for This Issue.


Ergonomic computer tips for senior citizens.
http://snipurl.com/ne9z6  [www_spineuniverse_com]

Computer tips which claim to be for 'non-geeks'.
http://www.htstechtips.com/

Hyper-geeky stuff.
http://snipurl.com/nea6f  [technology_inc_com]

Somewhere in between and highly diversified.
http://www.computeruser.com/




Contributions From Our Readers.
Links from readers are always
welcome and you can even write
your own link descriptions if you
like (just tell me when you send
them if that's what you intended).
Guidelines are available here:

http://www.don-guitar.com/descriptivetext.html



From our web-sibling Jo-Ann (Jo) Burton:

( Jo's site: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sharinglinks2/ )


Geeks who love to draw.   http://www.drawergeeks.com/

David Friedman's blog.   http://www.ironicsans.com/

A nicely done flash video.   http://yeli.us/Flash/Fire.html

A surprisingly good mid-60s video prediction of things to
come.   http://www.snopes.com/photos/technology/year1999.asp

Heroes and killers of the 20th century.
http://www.moreorless.au.com/

Seems to be about booze.   http://www.whattodrink.com/

A nicely done Katzenjammer Kids fansite.
http://www.yodaslair.com/dumboozle/katzies/katzdex.html


From our good friend Dee Jordan.

The top 100 songs from the golden years of
popular music.   http://tropicalglen.com/index.html

This flash video has been around for quite a while but
is still worth watching.  Let the whole thing load up
and the 'action' will start all by itself.
http://producten.hema.nl/


In our last issue I asked what websites are most important
to you.  Our web-sibling John Lepse obliged with this list.
I'd save his descriptions but they're all written sort of
stream-of-consciousness, sent from numerous different
email identities (making it tough to sort them) and, after
clicking on all the links and saving the sites, I normally
delete them before it occurs to me that, with a little
effort, I might actually be able to salvage something
from them (sorry John).  At any rate, John is a self-
described knowledge-junkie, lifelong learner and his
list of must-visit websites is wonderfully diversified.

WordCrafters, editing, writing, and quotation.
http://www.wordcrafters.info/

Tehran Bureau (independent news from Iran).
http://tehranbureau.com/

The New York Times (online).   http://www.nytimes.com/

MSNBC.   http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

The Kim Komando Show.   http://www.komando.com/

GoComics.   http://www.gocomics.com/

MyCatHatesYou dot com.   http://www.mycathatesyou.com/

TED (a favorite of our too).   http://www.ted.com/talks

Improv Everywhere.   http://improveverywhere.com/

YouTube.   http://www.youtube.com/

Keith Ryan Publishing.   http://www.keithryan.com/

Lastly, for a personalized home page, John likes iGoogle...
http://www.google.com/ig
...or the page provided by his ISP.   http://my.att.net/


Thanks, Jo, Dee and John.



Last word, from Lisa:



I'm a believer in the effectiveness and safety
of Homeopathic remedies.  This week when Don had
Bacterial Pneumonia I was becoming convinced I
was getting sick too; it's contagious.  On the
way to the hospital I picked up the homeopathic
remedy Oscillococcinum at the HEB pharmacy, it's
an FDA-approved over-the-counter medication.
Guess what, folks?  I'm fine.  It's best to have
it at home, ready to take before you're absolutely
sure you're sick, but will work to reduce the
severity of cold and flu symptoms even when you're
already sick.  Check out the site, print out
your $2 coupon and give it a try.  Any questions?
Drop me a line.   http://www.oscillo.com/

'Til next time,

Lisa



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



Lisa at myspace.com.  http://www.myspace.com/81825549

Lisa's blog.
http://thedirtgoddess.blogspot.com/

Don at myspace.com http://www.myspace.com/donguitar

Don's blog.
http://don-guitar.blogspot.com/




Don Crowder and Lisa Miller

Thursday, July 17, 2009

12:15 AM CST - Buchanan Lake Village, Texas, USA

Served by the U.S. Post Office in Tow (rhymes-with-cow), Texas





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