Don's Patch #74 from http://www.don-guitar.com July 15, 2007 First word, from Don: Last year MS Update said they had a new sound card driver for my computer so I let them install it and for months I had no sound. I eventually fixed it but I can't remember what it took. Last week MS Update said they had a new sound card driver for me and I figured "what the heck, they'll have debugged the silly thing my now". *sigh* Wrong. Now I have no sound again. It's not always a good idea to trust microsoft. Heck, google the words trust microsoft and see for yourself. It's scary. So, what do I do now? I don't know, I'll think about it for a few days and then decide. It may just be time for me to switch to Linux full time. Or else I'll wus-out and reinstall Windows. *shrug* 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://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/eldergeek/ Lisa at myspace.com. http://www.myspace.com/81825549 Lisa's blog. http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/dirtgoddess Section One by Don. We do live in interesting times don't we? http://www.xdude.com/paradox.htm One of these is a spoof (look for the disclaimer). http://city-mankato.us/ http://www.ci.mankato.mn.us/ HTML and web development (WebDev) learning resources. http://www.htmlite.com/ http://www.echoecho.com/school.htm http://www.projectseven.com/tutorials/index.htm http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/ http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/ http://www.javascriptmall.com/jsc/ Helping gardeners in Southern California learn how to attract and nurture wildlife in their own yards. http://www.wildscaping.com/ I guess this site, featuring news about space and man's explorations thereof, should have gone in the media section but then you might have missed it. http://spacespin.org/ Eerie (paranormal) Investigations. http://www.eerieinvestigations.com/ A social networking site for intelligent young people. http://www.wapda.com/ A large network of literary sites dedicated to exploring twentieth century writers. http://www.themodernword.com/themodword.cfm It's been a long time since I last mentioned the CIA World Factbook (in issue #30) so it's past time I mentioned it again. Very cool. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html This site, which looks to me like a private-sector version of the Peace Corps, http://www.interaction.org/ got me started on a search for other alternatives to the peace corps. I was knocked out by the sheer number of these organizations. The "real thing": http://www.peacecorps.gov/ Alternatives: http://www.crossculturalsolutions.org http://www.spw.org/ http://www.globeaware.org/ http://www.villagevolunteers.org/ http://www.globalvolunteers.org/ http://www.idealist.org/ http://www.cityyear.org/ http://www.worldteach.org/ http://www.kiva.org/about/aboutfellowsprogram/ http://uniteforsight.org/intl_volunteer/ http://www.unitedplanet.org/quest.html http://www.mercycorps.org/ http://www.dosomething.org/ http://www.volunteersolutions.org/ http://us.oneworld.net/ http://www.bbbs.org/ http://www.bethecause.org/ http://www.standupforkids.org/ http://www.experiencecorps.org/ http://www.worldvolunteerweb.org/ http://www.universalgiving.org/volunteer/ http://www.worldendeavors.com/Volunteer.cfm http://www.usgs.gov/volunteer/ http://www.goabroad.com/ Related sites (in one way or another) worthy of mention. http://www.rpcv.org/ http://pointsoflight.org/ http://cosmoseducation.org/ http://www.energizeinc.com/index.html http://www.iave.org/ http://www.interaction.org/ The Peace Corps also has a kid's site. http://www.peacecorps.gov/kids/ 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 //www.freelists.org Section Two by Lisa Have a great beard? Why not compete for a world title and show your patriotism, too? http://www.worldbeardchampionships.com/ A full-featured editor for HTML, XHTML, XML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and other text file types. http://www.chami.com/html-kit/ Americanisms: words uniquely American in origin. http://www.epodunk.com/americanisms.html Google accessible web search for the visually impaired. http://labs.google.com/accessible/ Tips, tools and tutorials on Java. http://javaboutique.internet.com/ Another "scientist of conscience"; Leo Szilard. http://www.dannen.com/szilard.html Too cute to resist, click on one frog at a time. http://www.enature.com/sitenav/boyzindapond.asp The study of theories of decision. http://www.sjdm.org/ Explore the Tree of Life, an awesome site. http://www.tolweb.org/tree/ Trees are good, we know this. http://www.treesaregood.com/Home.aspx It looks like everything about food is here. http://www.foodsubs.com/ The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)'s mission is "To lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing protocols and guidelines that ensure long-term growth for the Web." Although some feel that the term "standards" equates to "restrictions", the reverse is true. Making one set of standards applicable to all means accessibility for all, and a truly free web. http://www.w3.org/Consortium/ Regulate the volume on your MP3s. http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/ Clear answers for common questions. http://www.wisegeek.com/home.htm Do it yourself with this how-to library. http://www.acmehowto.com/ Articles on many subjects. http://www.suite101.com/ Until the widespread use of antibiotics in the 1940s, TB was a feared and mysterious malady. Once germ theory was accepted, victims were sent to a sanatorium to recover their health. Here's a very good site that tells about it, with an excellent section called "TB History". http://www.lung.ca/tb/index.html The classic (1918) Gray's Anatomy online. http://www.bartleby.com/107/ End of Section Two. At the time this issue was posted, the current subscriber count for this publication was 393. This issue's collection of news, magazine, and/or informational sites (chosen for maximum diversity regardless of "spin" ). http://www.buzzle.com/ http://www.freeinfosociety.com/ http://www.tampabay.com/ http://www.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk/ http://www.anti.com/home.php http://antiwar.com/ http://www.nobeliefs.com/index.htm http://vos.ucsb.edu/index.asp http://www.wfmu.org/ http://www.nowpublic.com/ http://www.wn.com/ http://today.msnbc.msn.com/ http://www.techamok.com/ Section Three by Don. Whether you love her or hate her, you've got to admit Rachael Ray is quite a celebrity. http://www.rachaelray.com/ http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachael_Ray http://www.rachaelraymag.com/ http://www.rachael-ray.org/ http://naomileibowitz.com/projects/rray/index.html http://community.livejournal.com/rachael_ray_sux/ Captains Class Frigates were unique to the British Navy in WWII but where manufactures in the United States. http://www.captainclassfrigates.co.uk/index_1.html Back in the 1990's, when the web was a new thing, there were all sorts of places on the web where you could get a costless pop3 email account. What's pop3? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop3 In essence, it's an email account you can check with an "email client". What's an email client? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email_client It's a software application, like Outlook Express. A lot of folks don't quite get the distinction between pop3 email and web based email but it's really very simple. When you use web based email you go to the provider's website and login to handle your email on their computer. With pop3 access the email is downloaded from the provider's computer to your computer whenever you check your email. It's normally deleted from the provider's computer when it's downloaded to your computer. That means you don't have to be online to read the email once you've picked it up and you can also write new email without being online. When you don't use a browser to login to the provider's account that means you don't see the advertising which is their principal source of income. So there's not a lot of financial incentive for companies to offer costless pop3 accounts. By the turn of the century any new pop3 account had a fee attached. Then Google threw a wrench in the works by offering costless pop3 accounts. Initially, they were only available by invitation which, I believe, was simply a way of regulating the growth of their email system while they built sufficient infrastructure to handle the demand. By now, anyone can get a pop3 account from gmail just by filling out the application. http://mail.google.com/mail/signup I don't know whether or not it was because gmail set a precedent but there are once again many companies offering costless pop3 accounts (some of them append ads to the mail you send but they are without cost to you). http://www.bluebottle.com/ http://lavabit.com/ http://www.safe-mail.net/ http://www.vfemail.net/ http://pop3.clowt.com/ http://www1.inmail24.com/ http://www.icmail.net/ IMAP is a relatively new sort of email handling that I believe will ultimately be "the way to go". http://www.imap.org/ Fastmail offer costless IMAP service. http://fastmail.fm/ Here's another good one you might have missed if I'd listed it in the media section. http://media.arcus.org/index.php What's cooler than recycling? Freecycling. http://www.freecycle.org/ What would you like to learn today? http://www.learnthat.com/ http://www.functionx.com/ http://www.baycongroup.com/index.htm http://www.helpwithpcs.com/index.html http://www.horstmann.com/bigj/help/ http://www.relisoft.com/win32/index.htm http://www.winprog.org/tutorial/ http://www.vividmachines.com/shellcode/shellcode.html End of Section Three. 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 Section Four by Lisa. In many places in the west, many homes were made of sod. http://sodhouse.notlong.com This is a commercial site, but I've included it because it's a great idea. A sod house, built and maintained as a historical exhibit and run as a bed and breakfast. It's an attractive design as well. http://www.sodhouse.org/ Where are these stars now? http://www.celebritynooz.com/watn.html Who was your Backyard Bodhisattva? http://www.beliefnet.com/story/219/story_21926_1.html The WWW Virtual Library. http://vlib.org/ A video library that lets you view and show what you know. http://www.knowitallvideo.com/index.html A cool old song is a cool new video. http://istanbulnot.notlong.com A collection of Joan (Zen parables) on a spare, clean and restful site. The ability to select CSS styles is worthwhile, too. http://www.nozen.com/index.htm The term "alternative lifestyle" has gained certain implications lately. Fact is, there are many unusual lifestyles, and some of them are fascinating. Sailing the seas. http://www.ravencruise.com/index.htm Nomads. http://www.nomadlife.com/ In the Ice. http://www.io.com/~pml/welcome.html Chef's life. http://chefslife.notlong.com Rig Life. http://riglife.notlong.com Lighthouse. http://lighthouse.cc/bullocks/history.html Longer life. http://www.calorierestriction.org/ The Amish. http://www.amish-heartland.com/ Graveyard shift. http://thirdshift.notlong.com For those who can't get enough of Woody Allen. http://www.woodyallenmovies.com/ End of Section Four. 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). Section Five by Don. Old software on new computers. http://www.emulators.com/ The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement. http://www.zefhemel.com/ Now that we're each using two computers, sooner or later I'll have to spend some time on this site. http://www.homenethelp.com/ or maybe this one, the computer technology documentation project. http://www.comptechdoc.org/ The literature & culture of the American 1950s. http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/home.html Digital drawing toys. http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/java/Kali/program.html http://www.math.lsu.edu/~verrill/wallpaper/ http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/Hgb/12844 You can use the MSN Messenger, AIM, Yahoo IM and ICQ IM or you can get any of several apps which work on all of them. http://pidgin.im/pidgin/home/ http://www.miranda-im.org/ http://www.interactiveni.com/imsite/imfreeware.htm http://sim-im.org/wiki/Main_Page http://planeta.sourceforge.net/ Or you can get away from proprietary services altogether and use a jabber client. http://www.jabber.org/software/clients.shtml http://exodus.jabberstudio.org/ (several of the multi-protocol clients above are also jabber compatible) Interesting photo galleries http://photos.ivory.org/ and a small, eclectic collection of costless apps. http://www.ivory.org/oldwebsite/Default.htm A good U.S. History site. http://www.ushistory.org/ Fonts anyone? http://www.fontgarden.com/ A new take on bricks. http://www.boontwerpt.nl/products/brick.htm New takes on all sorts of things. http://www.designspotter.com/ ArtMoco. http://mocoloco.com/ I like the one labeled "Spirit Level". http://mocoloco.com/art/archives/001574.php Strange and sometimes tacky things. http://www.popgadget.net/ Pedro, of Seville, Spain is quite the wizard with a scroll saw. http://www.finescrollsaw.com/index.htm Combination website and photoblog of a self professed mad scientist. http://www.mabuse.de/ End of Section Five. Archives for this ezine are available online here: //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. //www.freelists.org/archives/donspatch/feed.rss Section Six by Lisa. Tips on web page design, HTML and graphics. http://www.webdevelopersjournal.com/ I need this song like a drug. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjnvSQuv-H4 Coral is necessary, and it's going away. Can anything be done? http://coralconserve.notlong.com Chewbacca. Haven't you always wondered about the man behind the mask? http://www.petermayhew.com/main1.html The cure for the common mom. http://www.totalmom.com/index.html Mike Stanfill, creator of the "Infinite Cat Project" is an infinitely talented artist and web presence. http://www.privatehand.com/index.html Have a hankering for Lipton Onion Soup Dip and fishnet stockings? Me, too! http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/index.htm Feel smart again, with Mental Floss. http://www.mentalfloss.com/trivia/facts/ I wish I could be a real Parrothead, but as Don says, "I quit school 'cause they had recess. I don't play." Ah, well, one can dream. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parrotheads OK, Rollerderby is one of those "alternative" sports, but check out this awesome logo. http://www.azrollerderby.com/ Lost something? Found something? Go here for help. http://www.thefoundbin.com/ The USDA. http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usdahome Accessible website design tips. http://www.accessibility101.org.uk/index.htm The museum of science, art and human perception. http://www.exploratorium.edu/default.html I especially loved the Chocolate page. http://chocdreams.notlong.com Featuring the forgotten. http://www.urbanatrophy.com/index.php Now the true story of Beans-Around-The-World. http://www.beans-around-the-world.com/beans3.html You do know beans. http://www.beanbible.com/ End of Section Six. Websites everyone should know about. These aren't sponsors, they're the best of Internet publications and we highly recommend them all. http://askTCL.com http://www.lockergnome.com http://www.scotsnewsletter.com http://www.tricksandtrinkets.com http://marylaine.com/neatnew.html The Linux Corner. On our homemade, eight-foot computer desk Lisa and I each have a Windows computer and a Linux computer. We each have a KVM switch that permits our two computers to use the same monitor, mouse and keyboard. Our Linux computers were used. Her's, a lucky find, cost us nothing and mine was less than $50. The two KVM switches were about $40 (which includes shipping charges) and our Operating System of choice, Debian Etch, was totally free. Our Linux adventure began in February of 2006. We've had fun, learned some new things, made lots of new friends and when Microsoft "pulls the plug" on our Windows Operating systems we won't be forced to buy Vista; We'll just install Linux and keep right on computing. Here's a few links to useful and/or interesting Linux resources. Here's a very interesting two-minute Vista installation from someone who's clearly less than happy with the folks at Microsoft. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVbf9tOGwno A Linux help site from a young man named Winfield. http://www.geocities.com/linuxnewbiesite/ A Linux resource for advanced users. http://www.freeos.com/ A beginners guide to the Unix and Linux operating system. Eight simple tutorials which cover the basics of UNIX / Linux commands. http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Teaching/Unix/ A very nice Linux news and information site. http://madpenguin.org/cms/index.php/ James Crawford's blog contains a lot of Linux information. http://www.triedit.org/ NimbleX looks like an interesting live CD in its own right but they offer something else which I think is very exciting. How about a "roll your own" Linux live CD? No kidding, check it out! http://nimblex.net/ Zim, a desktop wiki and outliner, could be a useful addition to your desktop Linux machine. http://pardus-larus.student.utwente.nl/~pardus/projects/zim/ Here are top ten Linux distros, for this week, from http://www.distrowatch.com (based on public interest). 1. http://www.pclinuxos.com/ 2. http://www.ubuntu.com/ 3. http://www.opensuse.org/ 4. http://fedoraproject.org/ 5. http://www.mepis.org/ 6. http://www.slackware.com/ 7. http://linuxmint.com/ 8. http://www.debian.org/ 9. http://www.elivecd.org/ 10. http://www.zenwalk.org/ A carefully selected set of Linux live CDs can show you what's available and go a long way towards helping you decide which version of Linux you like best. I tried to find such a collection and couldn't so I contacted OSDisk.com and, at my request, they put together what I think is the perfect collection of Linux live CDs. I named it the "Serious Sampler Pack". http://SeriousSampler.notlong.com Editor's Note: Yes, it does cost something but the price is very reasonable and no, I'm not getting a commission. I just persuaded them to offer something I couldn't find anywhere else. A Little Humor. http://www.funny-poems.co.uk/kids/ Telling your co-workers goodbye with style. http://www.chriskula.com/2005/08/farewell-email.html Tips for This Issue. Have you ever wanted to customize the "Send to" menu on your Windows machine? Well you can. Here's how: By default, the Send To menu contains floppy disk drives, mail and fax recipients, and your Briefcase. To add a destination to the Send To menu, add a shortcut to the Windows\SendTo folder. To do so, follow these steps: Click the Start button, and then click Run. Type "sendto" (without quotation marks) in the Open box, and then click OK. Add a shortcut using either of the following methods: 1. Use the right mouse button to drag a destination to the SendTo folder, and then click Create Shortcut Here on the menu that appears. 2. On the File menu, point to New, and then click Shortcut. Follow the instructions in the Create Shortcut Wizard. To remove a shortcut, use the right mouse button to click the shortcut in the SendTo folder, and then click Delete on the menu that appears. For additional information about the Send To command, click the Start button, click Help, type "send to" on the Index tab, and then view a topic. 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/ ) Gifts for you from Patrick. http://www.don-guitar.com/romanrw.html The first age-relevant search engine. http://www.cranky.com/ A five-pointed star in one snip. http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/flagstar.html Hydrogen atom scale model. http://www.phrenopolis.com/perspective/atom/ Martin Waugh's liquid sculpture. http://www.liquidsculpture.com/ From our web sibling Jo-Ann (Jo) Burton: ( Jo's site: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sharinglinks2/ ) Some kids stuff. http://www.freekidscoloring.com/ http://www.frankasch.com/turtletale.swf http://www.scholastic.com/kids/ http://www.meddybemps.com/riddles/ The 100 most often mispronounced words and phrases in English. http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/mispron.html Potato Hill Poetry. http://www.potatohill.com/ First Ladies. http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/firstladies/ http://www.firstladies.org/index.htm http://firstladies.notlong.com http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/silveira30.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Lady_of_the_United_States Geneva Ice Storm. January, 2005. http://www.markdaviesmedia.com/cold Yep, it's real. http://www.snopes.com/photos/natural/icestorm.asp God's Painting. http://www.snopes.com/photos/natural/flowers.asp Some, but not all, of those "feel good" stories, you know, the one's that seem so incredibly sweet, are true and they have a name. They're called "glurges" http://www.snopes.com/glurge/glurge.asp If you're inclined to celebrate, this site will assist you by letting you know which holiday today is (on any given day in fact). http://www.earthcalendar.net/ From our web sibling Jerry Fox. Jerry really enjoyed viewing the practical artwork of Rick Metz. http://metzfunctionalart.com/page_10762.html If you saw the email you may not have believed it but, according to snopes.com, it's true. http://www.snopes.com/photos/odd/beercans.asp From our friend Kenneth Hale. Civil War Interactive http://www.civilwarinteractive.com/ From our web sibling Bill Lanoue. ( Bill's blog http://ncvietvet.blogspot.com/ ) A YouTube video of an amazing artist. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIJtKxdRQzY From our friend Terri Martin-Goin. Here's a good site if you live in or near the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. http://www.thegreenguide.org/ Win some bucks, read some history, get some tips or have some fun. http://www.ivory.com/index.html This seems to be a search engine with perks. http://www.poodwaddle.com/ Jay Leno's Garage. http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/ A gospel music resource. http://www.gmtn.info/ From our friend Randi Simon-Serey. What are the core values of your life? Can you put them in writing? It could be worth $200 to you but only if you're willing to read your essay aloud and have it recorded (click on "Contribute an Essay" and read the page). http://www.thisibelieve.org/ From our friend Ken Thomson, here's a mini-feature on comparing or checking out lending institutions. Compare credit card offers. http://www.creditcards.com/ Resources and information on credit card and credit card reward. http://www.rewards.com/ Card ratings. http://www.cardratings.com/ Multiple comparisons. http://www.bankrate.com/ Last word, from Lisa: For some reason, I've had more fun with this issue of the ezine. Perhaps it's because we're a bit pushed for time, which is kind of energizing, perhaps it's just the mood we're in, busy but relaxed. Don doesn't have any problem with the concept of living without stress, but I have a tendency to be a worrywart, which is easing with time and abundant joy. What a concept; abundant joy. I wish you that, and more. Lisa 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://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/dirtgoddess Don at myspace.com http://www.myspace.com/donguitar Don's blog. http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/eldergeek/ Our personal news page. http://www.don-guitar.com/babbleon.html Don Crowder and Lisa Miller Sunday, July 15, 2007 12:55 AM CST - Buchanan Lake Village, Texas, USA Served by the U.S. Post Office in Tow (rhymes-with-cow), Texas 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. //www.freelists.org/privacy.html 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. ___________________________________________________________ Subscription management for this publication is available online here: http://www.don-guitar.com/subsmanager.html or here: //www.freelists.org/list/donspatch