Don's Patch Issue #2006-01-01 from http://www.don-guitar.com Hola and happy holidays gentle readers Lisa and I wish you a very happy new year. May you enjoy the best of health and happiness for all the days of your life. I'm playing an out-of-town New Years party so we're going finish as much as we can of this issue and post it early. Our feedback form: http://www.don-guitar.com/contactme.html ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª You want your website visitors to find it easy to contact you. You don't want a load of junkmail. Not to worry. You have options. http://alistapart.com/articles/spam/ http://www.dreamweaverfever.com/experiments/spam/default.asp http://automaticlabs.com/products/enkoderform/ Are you ready to try another browser yet? You have options there too. If you want no part of Internet Explorer Firefox and Opera are both excellent choices. http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/ http://www.opera.com/download/ If you just want more features than Internet Explorer offers Maxthon, Slimbrowser or Avant (which use components of IE) are good choices. http://www.maxthon.com/ http://www.flashpeak.com/sbrowser/ http://www.avantbrowser.com/ OffByOne is a small, stand-alone browser that's HTML 3.2 compliant, meaning it won't "do" style sheets but it's great for reading ebooks in HTML format. http://www.offbyone.com/ Where do you get ebooks in HTML format? Lot's of places, but I get mine at the Baen Free Library. http://www.baen.com/library/ Have you seen the elephant? http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/1998-01/elephant.html http://www.cacdenver.org/Pastors/PWM/2004/SeenTheElephant.html http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/100yrsflight/ http://www.chuckstraub.com/Letterboxing/haveseenelephant.htm http://www.bway.net/~hchang/framecon.html http://www.abarnett.demon.co.uk/jokes.html http://www.museumca.org/goldrush/fever11.html http://www.military.com/NewContent/0,13190,Galloway_062304,00.html http://www.elephants.com/species.htm http://wesclark.com/jw/elephant.html http://www.sfcall.com/issues%202000/8.7.00/seeing_the_elephant.htm http://www.goldrush.com/~joann/elephant.htm http://historytogo.utah.gov/salt_lake_tribune/in_another_time/022695.html http://www.crystalinks.com/whitelephants.html Checked the weather lately? http://home.accuweather.com/index.asp http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?links= http://www.intellicast.com/LocalWeather/World/ http://www.weather.gov/ http://www.wunderground.com/ http://asp.usatoday.com/weather/weatherfront.aspx http://www.weather.com/ http://www.findlocalweather.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 //www.freelists.org ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª Phase of the moon on any date from 1800-2199 A.D. http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/vphase.html This website does almost nothing. http://www.pleasetouchme.com/ Beautiful images, suitable for personal wallpapers. http://www.shiftedreality.com/ If your response to religion is "Get Real!" this might be for you. http://www.churchofreality.org/wisdom/welcome_home/ The personality disorder test; you do not want to know... http://www.4degreez.com/misc/personality_disorder_test.mv Hear a different drummer? Me, too. http://www.keirsey.com/ The personality page. http://www.personalitypage.com/ Housing for everyone; that's the dream, and the goal. http://www.habitat.org/default2.aspx The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. http://www.eliewieselfoundation.org/ Wheelchairs for those who need them. http://www.wheelsforhumanity.org/ Do bugs need drugs? Using antibiotics wisely. http://www.dobugsneeddrugs.org/ Do law-abiding citizens have any need to encrypt their E-mail? Maybe, if they wanna. http://www.pgpi.org/ Astounding video of a shark in the Seattle Aquarium. http://snipurl.com/gtlf Do your dogs have middle names? http://www.bowwow.com.au/ An opinion from a veterinarian. http://www.declawing.com/ Do we need to keep stuff in print? It's on the web... http://www.libr.org/PL/19-20_Warner.html How just about everything in Nature works. http://www.livescience.com/ I'm not scatterbrained, I'm just very intelligent. http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/051123_thought_bouncer.html All you need to know about barbecue. http://www.thesmokering.com/ Iditarod XXXIV starts on Saturday, March 4th, 2006. http://www.iditarod.com/ Susan Butcher, 4-time champion of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, has been diagnosed with leukemia. http://www.susanbutcher.com/ Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation. http://www.lewisandclark.org/ Pride and Prejudice. Everything old is new again. http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/pridprej.html The Seven Deadly Sins and Seven Heavenly Virtues. http://deadlysins.com/ Graphic-intense site, really cool. The Electric Samurai. http://www.kiku.com/electric_samurai/index.html Make a simple electric motor and lots of other neat stuff. http://fly.hiwaay.net/~palmer/motor.html Electric power around the world. http://kropla.com/electric2.htm Stuff you never needed to know but your life would be incomplete without. http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/ Sometimes it pays to play with your toys. http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/lionel/index.html ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª At the time this issue was posted, the current subscriber count for this publication was 297. ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª This issue's collection of news/magazine/informational sites (these are chosen for maximum diversity regardless of "spin" ). http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page.html http://www.www.billoreilly.com/ http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/default.stm http://citybeat.com/current/index.shtml http://www.homemakers.com/ http://www.london-se1.co.uk/ http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/ http://www.makezine.com/ http://www.observer.com/ http://www.oberlin.edu/stupub/ocreview/ http://www.politicalaffairs.net/ http://www.thetartan.com/ http://www.magazine.tcu.edu/default.asp http://www.uwnyc.org/technews/index.html http://techreport.com/ http://www.mikesejournal.com/ http://www.infoworld.com/ http://news.techwhack.com/ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ http://tvnz.co.nz/ http://www.theacorn.com/ http://www.theage.com.au/ http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/ http://www.bulletinarchive.org/ http://www.theepochtimes.com/ http://www.hinduonnet.com/ http://www.indianexpress.com/ http://www.tnr.com/ ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª Who's feeling hyperparanoid? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinfoil_hat http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/ http://zapatopi.net/afdb/ What makes the fruit of my favorite plant (whom we've named Carmen Habanero) so darn hot? http://www.3dchem.com/molecules.asp?ID=105 More chemical coolness. http://www.3dchem.com/ Brain teasers, puzzles, riddles and games. http://www.braingle.com Brian Tung's Astronomy Corner. http://astro.isi.edu/notes/ Fun with coke. http://www2.coca-cola.com/heritage/ourheritage.html Artists' Guild of Columbus, Georgia. http://www.columbusartistsguild.org/ Cross-referenced definitions, spelling correction, and word searches from WordNet, Webster's, FOLDOC, and a variety of specialized sources. http://dict.die.net/ DIY sites. http://www.diyfixit.co.uk/nflash/index.htm http://www.diynetwork.com/ http://www.doityourself.com/ I've a new favorite artist. Her name is Dianne Dengel. http://www.diannedengel.com/ My favorite piece by her is entitled "Side by Side" http://www.diannedengel.com/printpages/Side_By_Side.htm CloudEight has some email stationery which features Dianne's work. http://snipurl.com/l1b5 Dianne also makes an interesting google topic. Some interesting Linux sites. http://tiny.seul.org/en/ http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/ http://www.toms.net/rb/ http://www.coyotelinux.com/products.php?Product=coyote http://www.freesco.org/ http://lrp.steinkuehler.net/ Plenty of folks hate the song "Don't Worry, Be Happy" but there are nevertheless a couple of interesting facts about it. 1. It was written by Bob Marley 2. Bobby McFerrin's recorded version contains no musical instruments. All the sounds are made by his voice. This mp3 file will load slowly on a dial-up connection. http://www.stinalisa.com/DontWorry.html The encyclopedia of spices. http://www.theepicentre.com/Spices/spiceref.html Media intense and perhaps a little silly but a fun way to kill some time. http://tbshumorstudy.com/main.html I'm not recommending you buy one but some of these T-shirts are very cool. Have a look. http://www.ikodidit.com Botany with attitude? http://www.killerplants.com/ This is a program I listen to on kut.org (our local public radio station). http://www.latinousa.org/ Their most recent program can be downloaded as an mp3 file or subscribed to as a podcast. There are a few eclectic things to explore on Lawrence (Larry) Leinweber's site. http://www.leinweb.com/index.htm MathPages. http://www.mathpages.com/ Fun with hair goop. http://www.brylcreem.co.uk/ James and Morris Carey, known as the Carey Bros., are nationally-recognized experts on home building and renovation. http://www.onthehouse.com/ Hedwig is fond of Penguins. http://www.pinguins.info/ Women who have a website should find this interesting. Ladies, even if you don't have a website, you can add a quilt square. http://www.phenomenalwomen.com/ 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 Photo/video information site with tutorials. http://www.photoi.org/home/ A portrait art tutorial site, lots of info. http://www.portrait-artist.org/ Resource for costless products and web development. http://www.proxy318.com/?pid=1 Dedicated digital media hosting service. http://www.putfile.com/ Quick, Easy-N-Fast Recipes. http://www.razzledazzlerecipes.com/quickneasy/index.htm Dinosaur Comics and some fun T-Shirts. http://www.qwantz.com/ Gallery of Regrettable Food. This one's a gas, folks. Really. http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/spec.html Richard Hawkins' synergetic geometry images. http://www.newciv.org/Synergetic_Geometry/ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum. http://www.rockhall.com/ Memphis Rock and Soul Museum. http://www.memphisrocknsoul.org/home.htm Information on over 95,000 schools in the U.S., Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. http://www.schoolbug.org/ Information about science, technology and the developing world. http://www.scidev.net/index.cfm The ESO/ST-ECF Science Archive. http://archive.eso.org/ Who invented Velcro? http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mvelcro.html News from NASA. http://science.nasa.gov/default.htm The Semaphore flag-signaling system. http://www.anbg.gov.au/flags/semaphore.html Senior home care options and resources. http://www.seniormag.com/index.html In our own way, many of us are Diggers. http://www.diggers.org/top_entry.htm Lots of interesting content available on their website. Requires Shockwave to view. Games and much more. http://shockrave.macromedia.com/ Alternative art, music, jazz, more. http://www.sinewaves.it/ The Sony Pictures website. http://www.sonypictures.com/ Use Spell Checker in Outlook Express without the need to purchase other software. http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=2952 The site for lovers of mystery books. http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/ Record Internet Radio broadcasts. http://www.stationripper.com/ Record streaming mp3 to your hard drive. http://streamripper.sourceforge.net/ Invaluable source for building, repairing or just understanding stringed instruments. http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/ Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. http://www.msri.org/ You probably know if you're under stress. Here's a test anyway. http://www.weblab.org/workingstiff/stressometer/index.html How to tell if someone is having a stroke. http://info.stroke.org/site/PageServer?pagename=SYMP Original and independent articles, discussions, and courses. http://www.suite101.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 More and more, the web is about access. http://www.eprints.org/ Institutionalized sustainability (*grin*). http://www.sustainer.org/ Ok, this is sorta cool http://www.igorshpak.net/ but I already do most of this stuff with ToniArts EasyCleaner. http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm Not long ago my PC experienced an operator-induced catastrophic crash (yes, it was my fault doggone it) and I was able to recover most everything using a copy of BartPE that I'd picked up at a Highland Lakes Computer Club meeting (thanks a million Dale) http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ But I might just as easily have been able to rescue my data with this tool. http://www.sysresccd.org/ Great sites for educators http://www.teachersnetwork.org/ http://www.ilovethatteachingidea.com/index.htm and one for teachers, parents, and students. http://www.tekmom.com/ The Jean-Paul Agnard's cylinder phonographs collection. http://www3.sympatico.ca/jean-paul.agnard/phonograph/collection.htm Early Recorded Sounds and Wax Cylinders. http://www.tinfoil.com/default.htm Science online, from the Australian Broadcasting Company. http://www.abc.net.au/science/ A goodly number of other subjects from ABC. http://www.abc.net.au/subjects.htm A media intense site that looks to be aimed at the high school set. http://www.the-n.com/ You can learn a lot about Tubas from Dan Schultz, The Village Tinker, from Newburgh, Indiana. http://thevillagetinker.com/ Games, puzzles, pastimes & family leisure. http://thinks.com/ The Tico Ethnobotanical Dictionary. http://www.ars-grin.gov/duke/dictionary/tico/ I love Latin music and one of the true giants of Latin music is Tito Puente. http://www.musicofpuertorico.com/en/tito_puente.html http://www.onlinetalent.com/Tito_Puente_homepage.html http://www.gale.com/free_resources/chh/bio/puente_t.htm http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005328/ http://www.lpmusic.com/Pros_That_Play_LP/Players_Roster/puente.html http://www.justsalsa.com/music/titopuente/ http://www.east-harlem.com/mt/archives/000027.html http://www.mickeyhart.net/Pages/Artists/tito.HTML Tito's son may be carrying on the tradition. http://www.titopuentejr.net/ Whether you have Winamp http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3514.html or Media Player Classic. http://snipurl.com/fcda if you've a fast enough connection, shoutcast is awesome. http://www.shoutcast.com/ ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª Archives for this ezine are available online here: //www.freelists.org/archives/donspatch/ The current issue is also available on my website. http://www.don-guitar.com/currentissue.html ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª Old news but worth remembering. http://snipurl.com/jx43 A vast repository of toonological knowledge. http://toonopedia.com/ Topo maps. http://www.topozone.com/default.asp View a given website in 3D cyberspace. http://www.touchgraph.com/TGGoogleBrowser.html Difficult to pronounce (trinp) and seekers of truth & relevance may or may not find clues to enlightenment here. http://www.trinp.org/ Some disquieting before/after images. http://homepage.mac.com/demark/tsunami/ The vast wasteland moves online. http://www.tv.com/ Understanding the U.S. Federal Courts http://snipurl.com/l1sj Care to learn a simple computer language? http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/unicorn/index.htm Fill out this form to receive free information about UN Stamps and other products. http://www.un.org/Depts/UNPA/freeinfo.htm The history of the universe in 200 words or less. http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3fs8i/hist/hist.html Cities in the U.S. of A. http://officialcitysites.org/ http://www.usacitylink.com/ A collection of articles on usability, web design, and information architecture. http://www.uie.com/articles/ The Landsat website. http://landsat.usgs.gov/index.php Vine's expository dictionary of new testament words. http://www.menfak.no/bibel/vines.html The vintage computer festival. http://www.vintage.org/ Virtual geography department project. http://www.colorado.edu/geography/virtdept/contents.html Visual satellite observer. http://www.satobs.org/ The astrophysics visualization archive. http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/hp/vo/ava/index.html In the world of animation, the voices are as important as the artists. http://www.voicechasers.com/index.php Some interesting computer wallpapers from CloudEight. http://thundercloud.net/wallpaper/ International war veterans' poetry archives. http://iwvpa.net/ Water structure and behavior. http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/water/index.html 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 ============== Humor ============= Musician's Humor, Part VIII Vibrato: Used by singers to hide the fact that they are on the wrong pitch. Did you hear about the Tenor who was so arrogant the other Tenors noticed? Q: How can you tell when a singer is at your door? A: The can't find the key, and they never know when to come in. Q: How do you get two bass players to play in unison? A: Hand them charts a half-step apart. Q: What's the difference between a dead chicken in the road, and a dead trombonist in the road? A: There's a remote chance the chicken was on its way to a gig. ============== Tips =============== http://www.library.cornell.edu/preservation/tutorial/contents.html http://www.internic.net/faqs/authoritative-dns.html http://www.duxcw.com/index.html http://www.educationonlineforcomputers.com/ http://www.emunix.emich.edu/~krause/Tips/ ======== Reader Contributions ========= Jo-Ann Burton is a wonderful friend. We didn't grow up together, and we've never met in person but she's my sister. I sometimes harvest links that she posts to her Yahoo group (to which I belong). http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sharinglinks2/ Here's a few, from Jo-Ann: Check your credit. https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp Mike's classic cartoon themes & images. http://melaman2.com/cartoons/toons-B.html 'Frivolous' lawsuits news. http://www.atla.org/pressroom/facts/frivolous/index.aspx Fun stuff from Netscape. http://channels.netscape.com/atplay/funfacts.jsp The Google print controversy. http://snipurl.com/jb5e Common heraldic devices. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/your_history/family/heraldry_1.shtml Civil justice statistics. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/civil.htm A "G" rated study resource for junior high, high school, college students, teachers and home schoolers. http://www.pinkmonkey.com/index2.asp The awesome artwork of my friend Patrick. http://snipurl.com/l1tm Rocky and Bullwinkle. http://www.everwonder.com/david/bullwinkle/ Directory of search engines. http://www.searchenginecolossus.com/ How to host a Nancy Drew party. http://www.nancydrewsleuth.com/sleuthparties.html Here's a few sites I got from my Australian friend Tim Skyrme. http://www.artzend.com/ The museum of computer art. http://moca.virtual.museum/ (Costless apps) from Moor computer productions. http://www.moor-software.com/ I read enough to learn that I'm doing my ezine all wrong! *grin* I guess it's a geek thing. http://www.myownezine.com/ Graphics plugins are little utilities that Photoshop, PSP, The Gimp Irfanview, XnView and many other programs can use to create various special effects. (Costless) plugins are fairly easy to find and fun to use. http://thepluginsite.com/ http://www.plugsnpixels.com/index.html A tech/media resource. http://www.digifreq.com/ Some PSP tuts. http://www.screaming-art.com/tutorials.php http://www.artdept.com.au/psp_robrow/ Irving Stein is a subscriber and regular contributor to our ezine. He's also one of the online computer experts at http://www.allexperts.com where his identity is "Irving S". You might also enjoy his thought provoking website: http://www.irvings-info-page.cityslide.com Here are some sites that Irving sent me for this issue: A webcam portal. http://www.abcwebcam.com/ A computer help forum. http://forums.askmaggymae.com/index.php Irv likes the A-ToolBar. http://www.metaeureka.com/download.shtml I think Irv sent this one in an email. I had a hard time finding it on a website. http://shyguy2002.blogdrive.com/comments?id=66 Advice columns, alerts, and tips. http://www.datadoctors.com/help/ A useful guide for XP users. http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/DiagnoseXP.html Today's front pages. http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/ Here's another one I had trouble finding on a web page. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4754996 Windows FAQs, plus tips n' tricks. http://www.infopackets.com/ Men's health (reader discretion advised). http://www.menshealth.com/cda/homepage.do Here's a good one from Patrick Barden. First, "what's an IVR?" http://paulenglish.com/ivr/info.html Once you know what it is, the IVR cheat sheet is a cool thing. http://paulenglish.com/ivr/ Thanks Jo, Tim, Irv and Patrick. ================================= Alright, this one's a wrap. I didn't expect to get it done this quickly but Lisa's getting real good at helping me. As of this moment we haven't updated our personal news page but there's a fair chance we'll get to it before next year (get it?). If your'e at all interested, you might check it in a couple of days. http://www.don-guitar.com/babbleon.html See you next time. Don Crowder and Lisa Miller Saturday, December 24, 2005 11:59 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 This is a reader-supported publication. You can show your support 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.com/subsmanager.html or here: //www.freelists.org/list/donspatch