Don's Patch #48 from http://www.don-guitar.com June, 15, 2006 First word, from Don: The first issue of this ezine was published on July first of 2004 and this issue marks the completion of two years of continuous publication without a missed issue. About all that's changed is that my wife Lisa helps me with the ezine. Freelists.org charges nothing for their excellent and professional quality hosting and my good friend Bill Chambers charges us little, or nothing, depending on our financial condition, for hosting the website. We, in turn, charge you nothing for the considerable time and energy we invest in putting this ezine together twice a month. For about a year now there's been a little message at the end of each issue that looks like this: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ That message won't be there from now on. I'm going back to bugging you once a year and letting it go at that. Of course I'm kicking that policy off by bugging you right now but I'm not going to get too rowdy about it. As of right now this publication has 296 subscribers. If each of you gave us a penny an issue, twenty four cents a year, that would cover our website expenses. Bill Chambers will be thrilled and pleased to be paid in full for a change and Lisa can say "See? See how much better you've done since you married me?" The donations page has a paypal link where you can also use an ordinary credit card, or you can tape whatever change is in your pocket to a piece of cardboard and mail it to us. I'll tell you the results of my appeal for donations in the next issue, assuming there are any results, but after that you'll hear nothing about it until next year. http://www.don-guitar.com/donations.html That's the name of that tune, now, moving right along, let's get started. 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 The web hosting business has become a fiercely competitive buyers market. One way to get folks to try your service is to offer them a basic, costless, hosting plan to get them started. There are many such plans available. http://www.doteasy.com/Services/WebHosting/ http://www.gigahive.com/ http://www.mondaysdhosting.com/ http://www.domaindlx.com/ http://www.propercomfy.co.uk/ http://www.awardspace.com/free_web_hosting.html http://www.50megs.com/ http://www.tetrahost.net/ Mind mapping sounds interesting, but don't ask me exactly what it is, or what it does. I've always been map challenged. http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page A potential resource for serious garage-salers. http://www.mostmassmedia.net/garagesalecom/classifieds/XcClassified.asp Genie Robinson suffers from Lyme disease and has spent a lot of time seeking alternatives in an uncertain world. These are her blogs. http://genie-lorene.livejournal.com/ http://mezmera.livejournal.com/ Grave matters. http://www.gravematter.com/default.asp "The Great Mirror is a monster photo album, much tidier than any old-fashioned one." http://www.greatmirror.com/ A sort of search engine thingy. http://live.grokker.com/grokker.html Captivating reading for persons who're intense about internet security. http://www.hackfix.org/ It's a Disney thing. http://www.hiddenmickeys.org/HiddenMickey.html The Inland Empire Blues Society. http://www.ieblues.org/ Jewish Virtual Library. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/index.html Jewish genealogy. http://www.jewishgen.org/ As a young teenager I loved this guy (a media intense site with embedded video and sound files) http://www.jimstafford.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 Lawrence and Susan's site. http://www.mcabee.org/ Shaping the future of the free desktop. http://conference2006.kde.org/ Visual material for teaching and learning Art History. http://rubens.anu.edu.au/sitedescription.html 553rd Recon Wing, 1967 to 1971. http://personalpages.tdstelme.net/%7Ewestin/batcat0.htm Source for BIOS upgrades. http://www.unicore.com/ All things Canadian. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/ Read free classic books online. http://www.classicreader.com/ Classical music. http://www.andante.com/index.cfm A very different gallery of artists. http://cloudking.com/ An American Exile in Scotland. http://hometown.aol.co.uk/lismore1/myhomepage.html Janeen in ClubMom, an interesting lady. http://diaryofasinglemom.clubmom.com/ A couple of geeky Windows utilities. http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/index.htm Live flight tracking for any private or commercial flight. http://flightaware.com/ Museum of Antiquities. http://museums.ncl.ac.uk/ Watch NASA TV. http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/nasa_gen/ Science and medicine info and news. http://www.nature.com/index.html National Criminal Justice Reference Service. http://www.ncjrs.gov/ What's a Virtual Pet? http://www.neopets.com/ ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª At the time this issue was posted, the current subscriber count for this publication was 296. ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª This issue's collection of news/magazine/informational sites (these are chosen for maximum diversity regardless of "spin" ). http://www.counterpunch.org/ http://www.thedailyaztec.com/ http://www.eweek.com/ http://www.headlinespot.com/ http://www.instapundit.com/ http://www.internetweekly.org/ http://www.kstp.com/ http://www.themorningnews.org/ http://www.nydailynews.com/ http://www.observer.com/ http://www.nysun.com/ http://www.newyorker.com/ (popups) ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª Antique electronics in the U.K. http://www.thevalvepage.com/index.shtml A picture library specializing in the fantastic and the supernatural. http://www.marsdenarchive.com/intro.html Converting to and from metric values. http://www.metric-conversions.org/ Michelle Malkin. author, journalist, blogger. http://michellemalkin.com/index.htm What do you want to know about Microsoft Office? http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx Don't want any part of Microsoft Office? http://www.openoffice.org/ Missing adults. http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/index.php Too cool not to mention once in a while. Molecular Expressions. http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/index.html Monty Python's completely useless web site. http://www.intriguing.com/mp/ A tool for Movable Type users. http://www.movalog.com/ The Museum of Unnatural Mystery. http://www.unmuseum.org/unmain.htm The U.S. Post Office, online. http://www.usps.com/mydesktoppostoffice/ A resource for gadgeteers. http://www.gadgeteer.us/ Is "criminal intelligence" and oxymoron? http://www.ncis.co.uk/ Recipes. http://www.angelfire.com/ab/NeedARecipeCallMom/ An interesting utility. http://www.netjaxer.com/ Neuroscience for Kids. http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/introb.html The list of Nobel laureates. http://nobelprize.org/search/all_laureates_c.html Cute noodle commercials. http://www.darkstrider.net/Theater/Noodle5.html Far more to explore from darkstrider. http://darkstrider.net/index.html An anarchist, situationist-inspired, low-budget, irregularly published, photocopied journal. http://www.notbored.org/index1.html 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 United States Department of Agriculture. http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usdahome Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge. http://www.battleofthebulge.org/ Rights and services for victims of crime and crisis. http://www.trynova.org/ National center for victims of crime. http://www.ncvc.org/ncvc/Main.aspx National White Collar Crime Center. http://www.iir.com/nwccc.htm The Vietnam Project at Texas Tech. http://vietnam.ttu.edu/ Interesting reading on vintage electronic equipment. http://www.vintageampdoctor.co.uk/index.htm Bella Online; for and about women. http://www.bellaonline.com/Channel/c1.asp World Heritage Tour; some excellent examples of 360-degree imaging. http://www.world-heritage-tour.org/ Search and browse web pages when you're not connected. http://www.webaroo.com/ Brian Caine; photographer, outdoor enthusiast and conservationist who lives his philosophy. Must-see. http://www.caine.com/ The world of Wilf Lunn is an unusual one. http://www.wilflunn.com/index.html This looks like how to do everything in Windows. http://www.williamaford.com/ Wimbledon's official site. http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/index.html In case anyone asks you what you want, you can list it here. http://www.wishlistr.com/ Trading card and roleplaying game site. http://www.wizards.com/ Travel magazine written by writers & photographers. http://www.worldsurface.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 Promoting community and creativity through technology. http://www.obscure.org/ Delphion's gallery of obscure patents. http://www.delphion.com/gallery The Official U.S. time. http://www.time.gov/ Online Burma/Myanmar library. http://www.burmalibrary.org/ It's possible to operate a business office with no more than a live CD Operating System and an internet cafe and, given the internet cafe, you may not even need the live CD. Start by reading this article on the latest web functionality. http://itredux.com/blog/office-20/ Then, if you like, you can explore some of the office-related things available online, via the internet. http://www.officetoolkit.net/ http://www.javascriptkit.com/script/script2/countwords.shtml http://www.ajaxlaunch.com/ajaxwrite/ http://www.ajaxxls.com/ http://www.expresspdf.com/ http://www.eyeos.org/?section=UserManual http://www.fckeditor.net/ http://www.savetz.com/fax/ http://www.gliffy.com/ http://mail.google.com/mail/help/chat.html http://www.goffice.com/ http://www.kiko.com/ http://www2.meebo.com/ http://numsum.com/ http://www.openomy.com/ http://www.zip2.com/ http://www.thinkfree.com/common/main.tfo http://www.aypwip.org/webnote/ http://www.writeboard.com/ http://www.yousendit.com/ http://www.zohowriter.com/login.sas Seeking people. http://www.bt.com/index.jsp http://www.411.com/ http://www.anywho.com/ http://www.dexonline.com/ http://www.europages.com/ http://www.numberway.com/ http://www.free411.com/ http://www.superpages.com/ http://www.whitepages.com/ http://www.switchboard.com/ http://www.yellowpages.com/ Online dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia and/or related. http://www.alphadictionary.com/index.shtml http://www.bartleby.com/61/ http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ http://www.dict.org/bin/Dict http://dictionary.reference.com/ http://nhd.heinle.com/Home.aspx http://www.m-w.com/ http://www.netlingo.com/ http://www.onelook.com/ http://www.voycabulary.com/ http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/ http://www.yourdictionary.com/ http://www.answers.com/ http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ http://www.infoplease.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 RSS feed is available via this link. http://www.freelists.org/archives/donspatch/feed.rss ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª Be a part of the solution to insurance crime. http://www.nicb.org/ Peace Corps for kids. http://www.peacecorps.gov/kids/world/ Bulk file renaming program for Windows. http://www3.telus.net/pfrank/ Pictoons and slideshows. http://www.pictoons.net/ Photo interpretations of peace. http://www.picturingpeace.org/peace2/ Scott and Odette's website. http://www.pixietwin.com/ All kinds of mental games and challenges. http://playwithyourmind.com/ An on-line poetry magazine. http://www.poetrybay.com/ Polls for your website or blog. http://www.pollhost.com/ Take control of how you use Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP. http://powerpro.webeddie.com/ Living with art. http://www.theprivategallery.com/ Explore the Pyramids with Nova. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/pyramid/ Art photography of Hawaii by Randy Jay Braun. http://www.randyjaybraun.com/ Exquisite photography from Romania. http://users.tkk.fi/~jsreunan/Romania_pics/ Top 100 April Fool's Day hoaxes of all time. http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/ You have two cows... http://snipurl.com/rqjy We have all your comix. http://www.gocomics.com/ I found this quite interesting. http://www.qi.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 A slide show. http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/tools/s5/ The latest in VOIP. http://www.skype.com/ Open Source news. http://searchopensource.techtarget.com/ For every website that offers to help strengthen your security there's one that wants to increase your freedom. http://www.peacefire.org/ The blog of a homeless woman. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4923488.stm Explore Parliament. http://www.explore.parliament.uk/ The 20th century's most important people. http://www.time.com/time/time100/index_2000_time100.html Peter Bengtsson is a talented young man. http://www.peterbe.com/ A distributed crystallography network for researchers, students and the general public. http://www.reciprocalnet.org/ Company and company director information for the UK, and ten European countries. http://www.researcha.com/ Media intense straight talk for young people. http://www.rizer.co.uk/ Movie reviews from that Ebert guy. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage Roman stuff. http://www.pyrrha.demon.co.uk/indexp.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/romans/ Hoaxes, rumors and misinformation. http://www.rumormill.info/ Rising to fame in the twenties and early thirties, Ruth Etting was renowned for her great beauty, her gorgeous voice and her tragic life. http://www.ruthetting.com/ Social awareness. http://www.salvationinc.org/ Samurai puter geek. http://www.samurize.com/modules/news/ Speaking of Samurai's. http://www.bbring.com/snl.html ============== Humor ============= Things said by kids. Part V Writing at the same time as Shakespeare was Miguel Cervantes. He wrote Donkey Hote. The next great author was John Milton. Milton wrote paradise Lost. Then his wife died and he wrote Paradise Regained. Delegates from the original 13 states formed the Contented Congress. Thomas Jefferson, a Virgin, and Benjamin Franklin were two singers of the Declaration of Independence. Franklin discovered electricity by rubbing two cats backward and declared, "A horse divided against itself cannot stand." Franklin died in 1790 and is still dead. Abraham Lincoln became America's greatest Precedent. Lincoln's mother died in infancy, and he was born in a log cabin which he built with his own hands. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves by signing the Emasculation Proclamation. On the night of April 14, 1865, Lincoln went to the theater and got shot in his seat by one of the actors in a moving picture show. They believe the assinator was John Wilkes Booth, a supposingly insane actor. This ruined Booth's career. ============== Tips =============== Learn the Net (in English, Spanish and French). http://www.learnthenet.com/english/index.html An illustrated guide to PC hardware. http://www.karbosguide.com/ Richard's PC Tips. http://www.pctips.org.uk/index.html ======== 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 reader, and web sibling Jo-Ann Burton. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sharinglinks2/ ================================= Paper doll heaven. http://www.stardoll.com/ Indigenous peoples literature. http://www.indigenouspeople.net/ The virtual fossil museum. http://www.fossilmuseum.net/ Child research. http://www.childresearch.net/ Have you ever encountered a web page that keeps cropping up in different places while you keep hoping it'll please go away? The frog dissection page, old and new. http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/frog/ USDA science for kids. http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/kids/ Agriculture in the classroom. http://www.agclassroom.org/ City bugs. http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/citybugs/index.html The heart. http://sln.fi.edu/biosci/heart.html Animals have problems too. http://www.animalshaveproblemstoo.com/ A gaming site. http://www.gametap.com/home/Home A bunch of medical blogs. http://www.medrants.com/index.php http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/ http://www.rangelmd.com/ http://shrinkette.blogspot.com/ http://blogborygmi.blogspot.com/ http://www.gruntdoc.com/ http://www.codeblog.com/ http://cut-to-cure.blogspot.com/ http://bioethicsdiscussion.blogspot.com/ http://internalmedicinedoctor.blogspot.com/ http://scienceblogs.com/thecheerfuloncologist/ ================================= From reader and friend, Irving Stein. http://www.irvings-info-page.cityslide.com ================================= The internet clipboard. http://cl1p.net/ Remote backup. https://mozy.com/ Senses challenge. http://snipurl.com/1spn Tidy start menu. http://www.tidystartmenu.com/ A wallpaper changer for XP. http://snipurl.com/a0el A how-to manual you can read, or write. http://www.wikihow.com/Main-Page ================================= From reader and friend John Lepse. ================================= A buying guide for electronics, internet tips for parents, free software, message boards, and more on Kim Komando's redesigned site. http://komando.com/ Robert Fuller defines rankism as the tendency of those in power to abuse those they consider beneath them. http://breakingranks.net/ The National Forum On People's Differences has no agenda or cause, other than to get people to talk across their differences. http://www.yforum.com/ ================================= From reader and friend Patrick Barden ================================= Common Sense Media is dedicated to improving the media and entertainment lives of kids and families. http://www.commonsensemedia.org/ Thank you Jo, Irving, John and Patrick. ================================= Last word, from Lisa: Just recently, I've gone beyond the basics of taking photos and having the local megastore develop them. Optimizing the picture, cropping and setting the dimensions to a standard print size with PaintShop Pro, and ordering them online is a new experience and I'm very happy with the results. If you're hesitant about taking this step, I can recommend Winkflash, which I found by researching reviews of photo processing services (just Google "photo processing" to do your own). The service was easy to use for a beginner, the prices are very good, and I received my pictures in four days. The quality was excellent and I was particularly pleased with an 8x10 of a restored 50-year-old photo. If you have a dial-up connection and uploading would take too long, they will send you a blank CD and postage-paid mailer. Burn your pictures to the CD and send it back to them for processing. http://www.winkflash.com/ Take more pictures! If you don't know how to play with them today, someday you will have the time to learn and you'll have those priceless bits of your past to treasure. You'll always be glad you did, and so will your family. 'Til next time. 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 Wednesday, June 14, 2006 9:55 PM 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