Don's Patch Issue #2004-12-15 from http://www.don-guitar.com Finding time to work on this issue looked like it was going to be a little tough for a few days. It all worked out finally but eventually there will come a time when I can't complete an issue on time. Just for the record, when that happens, I may publish a day or two late but I'll notify you if I'm going to skip an issue. I've always loved to cook and since my job in the supermarket brings me into constant contact with all sorts of interesting groceries I've been doing a lot of cooking lately. Good cooking requires lots of fresh spices and herbs which, for me at least, presents a problem. Spices and herbs are expensive in supermarkets (and aren't necessarily fresh). Just under an ounce of celery seed, for example, is over three dollars in the average supermarket and that's only one of my "essential" ingredients. That's why I was so pleased to discover San Francisco Herb Company. This ezine doesn't have a sponsor so there's nothing in this for me, but do check them out. http://www.sfherb.com Remember, your input is always welcome. I value your suggestions and comments, and I'm always willing to help you find answers to your computer and Internet questions. My feedback form: http://www.don-guitar.com/contactme.html ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª A few costless games. http://www.skullbyte.de/eng/ Information on airlines. http://www.airlinequality.com/ A guide to camping in the midst of nature without the use of commercial campgrounds and hookups. http://www.telusplanet.net/public/waters/ Slashdot is a very popular tech news website. http://slashdot.org/ Slashnot is a lesser satirical clone. http://www.slashnot.com/ The Archery Library. http://www.xs4all.nl/~marcelo/archery/library/ An online archive of several Irish newspapers. http://archives.tcm.ie/ The Law Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/law/ Australian online metaphysical magazine. http://www.livingnow.com.au/ The Avengers was a television program which has many fans. http://theavengers.tv/ Small Stuff is a website dedicated to dollhouse scale miniatures. Check out the Gallery contents. http://smallstuff-digest.com/ My taste in reading is dictated my what's available on the shelves of flea markets, garage sales and used paperback book stores but some folks like to consult book reviews. http://www.curledup.com/ Are you a boxing enthusiast? http://www.boxingtimes.com/ Small World by Tom Briscoe. http://www.briscoe.org Here's an interesting article on nanotechnology http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/MITtecRvwSmlWrld/article.html written by Ralph C. Merkle. http://www.merkle.com ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª This publication is only mailed to verified double opt-in subscribers, and is brought to you by me, Don Crowder, and //www.freelists.org ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª A nice recipe archive from Brookshires (a grocery chain). http://www.brookshires.com/tasty/recipes.asp Small World Foundation is dedicated to providing reconstructive surgery and medical aid throughout the developing world for children and adults who have no access to proper health care or resources for treatment. http://www.smallworld.org/ A graphics viewer http://www.smartcode.com/products/view/view.htm and a talking calculator. http://www.smartcode.com/smartsum/index.htm Everything you ever wanted to know about cellphones. http://www.cellphoneinfo.com/ A nonprofit, nonpartisan, nonsectarian character education framework that teaches the Six Pillars of Character: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship. http://www.charactercounts.org/ Two Chinese news sites. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/ http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/home/ The Collings Foundation West has some very nice images of vintage aircraft on their site. http://www.cfwest.net/ A Columbia law student blog. http://www.threeyearsofhell.com/ The Center For Steinbeck Studies. http://www2.sjsu.edu/steinbeck/ A news site for convenience store operators/owners. http://conveniencestores.productfinder.com/section_7734_0.html A portal for those who's preferred transportation is powered by pedals. http://www.cyclery.com/ Gregory Braun is a superlative author of Windows applications and several of his works are offered without cost. Application Paths 2000. http://www.gregorybraun.com/AppPaths.html Calendar. http://www.gregorybraun.com/Calendar.html Error Messages. http://www.gregorybraun.com/MSWinErr.html Kart Data. http://www.gregorybraun.com/KartData.html LapTimer 2000. http://www.gregorybraun.com/LapTimer.html Screen Saver. http://www.gregorybraun.com/Phantom.html RRTrains 2000. http://www.gregorybraun.com/RRTrains.html Slot Cars 2000. http://www.gregorybraun.com/SlotCars.html Stay Live 2000. http://www.gregorybraun.com/StayLive.html Touch. http://www.gregorybraun.com/FMXTouch.html Tray Tools 2000. http://www.gregorybraun.com/TrayTool.html Unit Conversions 2000. http://www.gregorybraun.com/uConvert.html wAPI Monitor 2000. http://www.gregorybraun.com/wMonitor.html WebTime 2000. http://www.gregorybraun.com/WebTime.html Stories of people and their jobs. http://www.aboutmyjob.com/ Some potentially interesting reading from David Nicholas Harley. http://www.nd.edu/~dharley/ Defrag_to_shutdown launches the Windows Defrag program with three options and with the function to shutdown or reboot the computer after Defrag has finished. http://medlem.spray.se/mokkelmannen/ An epidemiologist, a lawyer, a copyright guru, a statistics prof, another lawyer, a journalist, and an actuary form the Dead Parrots Society. http://www.deadparrots.net Things to explore from iamcal software. http://software.iamcal.com/ A game. http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ashwobla/games/index.htm The Duplex Planet is an ongoing work designed to portray a wide variety of real characters who are old or in decline. http://www.duplexplanet.com/ Library of Economics and Liberty. http://www.econlib.org/index.html A UK education news site. http://education.guardian.co.uk/ Digital Objects Software offers some costless apps. http://www.mrdo.com/1.html An interesting, if disquieting, collection of images. http://www.eilatgordinlevitan.com The Other E-Mail Threat: File Corruption in Outlook Express. http://snipurl.com/axfc The Chuckie Egg game. http://www.gershwin.force9.co.uk/chuckie/ Creation versus Evolution. http://www.evcforum.net/ Cool apps from Marek Jedlinski. http://www.tranglos.com/free/index.html ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª At the time this issue was posted, the current subscriber count for this publication was ??? ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª A site that's about poetry. http://www.everypoet.com Disk Cleaner was inspired by one of the system tools that can be found in Windows 98. http://www.xs4all.nl/~mp2004 Costless apps from Kevin Solway. http://www.theabsolute.net/sware/ The world's largest message board network. http://p197.ezboard.com/ An online business magazine. http://www.fastcompany.com/ WorldStart offers a few goodies. http://www.worldstart.com/software.htm DocMemory Diagnostic, an advanced self-bootable PC Memory Diagnostic Software is a user friendly software designed to capture all possible memory failures in PC. http://www.simmtester.com/PAGE/products/doc/docinfo.asp This site will come in handy the next time anyone instructs you to "tell someone who cares". http://www.forumplanet.com/ Dos Navigator is a comprehensive shell for MS-DOS. http://www.ritlabs.com/dn/ I list a lot of news sites simply because I find a lot of news sites. There are an incredible number of them out there and each of them seems to have it's own unique spin. They run the gamut. Devious, insidious, humorous, obscure, twisted, satirical, satanical, pick an adjective you like and there's likely to be a matching news site. In all honesty I don't care for any of them and I'm a true cynic; I believe nothing I hear or read and only half of what I see. I list such sites for your entertainment and/or amusement. That being said, here's yet another news site. http://www.freerepublic.com/ Take a trip back through the sands of time to witness the history of Europe. Arcade style game provides entertainment and education. http://www.torpedosoftware.com/eurohist.htm Take a trip to Europe. Package of arcade style European geography games including countries, capitals, major exports and geographical features. http://www.torpedosoftware.com/europe.htm George Boeree (pronounced boo-ray') is a professor in the Psychology Department at Shippensburg University, where he teaches personality theories and the history of psychology (among other things), specializing in the philosophical side of psychology with particular interests in phenomenology, existential psychology, Buddhism, and moral development. http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/ MetaProducts Download Express is a Windows program that allows you to download individual files from the Web and FTP sites at the maximum possible speed. http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/mpProducts_Detail.asp?id=18 An eclectic, commercial music site. http://www.greatbigisland.com/ A couple of costless apps from Lincoln Beach. http://www.lincolnbeach.com/blinky.asp http://www.lincolnbeach.com/mycharmap.asp DriverManager is a tool designed to allow System Administrators, Power Users and Driver Developers an easy means to view, modify or remove drivers and their information on Windows NT 4, Windows 2000 and Windows XP platforms. http://www.l5sg.com/products/downloads/drivermanager/ Idiots write about sports. A few idiots. Many sports. No waiting. http://sports.intertext.com/ The Herald Sun is Australia's biggest-selling daily newspaper. http://www.heraldsun.com.au Eclectic goodies from DRK. http://www.drk.com.ar/index.php An electronic compendium of matters past and present connected with the Isle of Man. http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/ DXLab is a suite of interoperating applications designed to automate amateur radio DXing activities. http://www.qsl.net/dxlab/ Web space devoted to amateur (Ham) radio. http://www.qsl.net/ Photographs, descriptions, travel directions, and GPS coordinates for lighthouses in the U.S. http://www.lighthousefriends.com/ The United States Lighthouse Society. http://www.uslhs.org Vintage kids television in the UK. http://www.kids-tv.co.uk/ WALL32 is a self-contained, real-time wallpaper generator, which simulates the earth's & moon's illumination by the sun. http://geocities.com/bartelyoti/wall/ 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 //www.freelists.org/list/donspatch ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª A viable, if technically complex, AV solution. http://www.softoy.com/ Here's an obscure but interesting looking little news site. http://www.scrappleface.com/ Do you suffer from pain in your neck or back? http://www.spineuniverse.com A resource for those who follow the game of squash. http://www.squashtalk.com The Book of Archery. http://snipurl.com/bd5n Another odd news site. http://www.thedailyfarce.com Hindu news site. http://www.hindu.com/ TimeLab 2000. http://www.smash.com/seg/timelab/ A conservative news site. http://www.townhall.com/ ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª My feedback form: http://www.don-guitar.com/contactme.html I 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 The Mackinac Center for Public Policy. http://www.mackinac.org/ Not long ago my computer suffered a total crash from which it has yet to recover. Fortunately a friend had given me a similar "old clunker" that I've been using to continue working. Unfortunately the WS_FTP application I've been using to maintain my website is no longer available in a costless version. FTP stands for "File Transfer Protocol" and that's pretty scary stuff for me. I was very intimidated about taking on yet another learning curve but I was able to find an open source product called "Filezilla" that served my purpose nicely and wasn't at all difficult to use. http://sourceforge.net/projects/filezilla/ (Thank you sourceforge) If you have a website, a good deal of technical acumen, and wish to publish on the web, Majordomo may offer a solution. http://www.greatcircle.com/majordomo/ The Maritime Heritage program. http://www.cr.nps.gov/maritime/ My father was a career soldier in the U.S. Army. That makes me an "Army brat" but that's ok since I have a few Army brat friends like Randi Simon (who was the love of my life at age 16) with whom I still communicate. Randi sent me this cool link to the Military-Brat Registry. http://www.military-brats.com/ MediaLens is a sort of news site that claims to be "correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media". http://www.medialens.org A site that's all about "icky stuff" that sometimes gets into your computer. http://scumware.com/ The National Organization for Women. http://www.now.org The National Review Online (another news site). http://www.nationalreview.com/ The fantasy art of Stephanie Pui-Mun Law. http://www.shadowscapes.com/ There's something extra cool about a New York newspaper and I find it very annoying that one must register to view the New York Times online. I was, therefore, quite pleased to learn that the New York Post doesn't require registration. http://www.nypost.com/ I can't see what's so bad about Phil Plait's "Bad Astronomy. http://www.badastronomy.com/ A web resource for journalists. http://www.poynter.org/ The National Consumer Coalition's Privacy Group. http://www.nccprivacy.org/ Goodies from Andreas Wulf. http://www.soft4fun.com/ Website of the SciFi channel. http://www.scifi.com Everyone is welcome. http://www.woz.org/ ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª Archives for this ezine are available online here: //www.freelists.org/archives/donspatch/ ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª A good site if you're into hiking. http://www.trailjournals.com UK Parliament on the WWW. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/ One of the web's best compendiums of costless apps. http://www.sover.net/~wysiwygx/ Resources for songwriters. http://www.songwriteruniverse.com/ http://www.writingsongs.com/ http://www.musesmuse.com/ A technical news site. http://www.chipzilla.com/ This news site looks like it may be coming from the fringe but that's only my opinion. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/ The UNEP Risoe Centre on Energy, Climate and Sustainable Development. http://www.uneprisoe.org I'm a little skeptical of folks who insist they want to "change things" without being specific about the "things" in question. http://www.zmag.org/weluser.htm An online ESL magazine from the UK. http://www.soon.org.uk/ A site designed and intended to promote and support the playing of games, especially traditional board and card games. http://www.playgames.org Here's an "unborn" kids site that might be worth watching. http://www.kidgames.org 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 Lisa Miller, my favorite artist, co-worker, and best friend has been after me to do a special feature on Hedy Lamarr so here you go Lisa: http://www.clevernet.on.ca/hedylamarr/ http://www.inventions.org/culture/female/lamarr.html http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001443/ http://www.hedylamarr.at/indexe.html http://silverscreensirens.com/hedy.htm http://www.germanhollywood.com/lamarr.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr ============== Humor ============= Evening classes for men: 1. How to fill ice-cube trays. Step by step with slide presentation. 2. Toilet paper: Do they grow on the holders? Roundtable discussion. 3: Differences between the laundry basket and the floor. Practice with hamper. Pictures and graphics. 4. The after-dinner dishes and silverware: Can they levitate and fly into kitchen sink or dishwasher? Debate among panel of experts. 5. Loss of Virility: Losing the remote control to your significant other. Help line and support groups. 6. Learning how to find things, starting with looking in the right place instead of turning the house upside down while screaming. Open forum. 7. Health watch: Bringing her flowers is not harmful to your health. PowerPoint presentation. 8. Real men ask for directions when lost. Real-life testimonials. 9. Is it genetically impossible to sit quietly as she parallel parks? Driving simulation. 10. Living with Adults: Basic differences between your mother and your wife. Online class and role playing. 11. How to be the ideal shopping companion. Relaxation exercises, meditation and breathing techniques. 12. Remembering birthdays, anniversaries, other important dates and calling when you're going to be late. Bring your calendar or PDA to class. 13. Getting Over It: Learning to live with being wrong all the time. Individual counselors available. From "Richard Harter's World": http://home.tiac.net/~cri/index.html ============== Tips =============== Tech tips from the Computer Club of Green Valley, Arizona. http://gvcc.apcug.org/gvcctechpage.htm Tips and tricks for publishers and webmasters from South Dakota's Northern State University: Backgrounds, buttons and templates. http://nsu-cc.northern.edu/business/temp/ FAQs and web publishing help. http://nsu-cc.northern.edu/FAQ.htm From the Senior Center Computer Club of Charlottesville, Virginia. http://www.seniorcenterinc.org/programs/computerclub/resources.htm ================================= Having this issue completed on time did me very little good because my ISP is having problems with the dial up line that serves my community. I was unable to post this because I couldn't get online yesterday. This issue was difficult to finish because I wanted very much to stop and explore some of the sites I've listed here. *grin* Call it an occupational hazard if you like but I enjoy it. See you next time. Don Crowder - Thursday, December 16, 2004 1:32 PM CST - Tow, TX, USA ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª Privacy: I will never share, sell, or otherwise compromise your email address. Privacy Policy on my website. http://www.don-guitar.com/privacy.html Freelists.org Privacy Policy. //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 You can show your support for this publication by making a contribution in any amount you choose: http://www.don-guitar.com/donations.html ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª ___________________________________________________________ Subscription management for this publication is available online here: http://www.don-guitar/subsmanager.html