[donspatch] 2007-08-01
- From: "Don Crowder" <don@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Don's Patch" <donspatch@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 01 Aug 2007 01:00:08 -0500
Don's Patch #75 from http://www.don-guitar.com August 1, 2007
First word, from Don:
Lisa's watching Tom T. Hall videos on YouTube and I just
downloaded a Brad Paisley song that I "won" with a code
that was on a coupon in a bag of Hershey's Nuggets. Of
course I had to register so I expect I'll be getting junk mail
(real and virtual) from that and I'm not even a Brad Paisley
fan but I was curious so I did it anyway. Earlier today,
because I was curious, I downloaded the zipped ISO file
of an Operating System called ReactOS. I won't have a
chance to play with it until later in the week but ReactOS
is designed to be Windows compatible. It's not Linux,
Mac or Windows, it's a stand-alone OS which is nevertheless
designed to be compatible with any Windows app that runs
on XP and it's Open Source. It's still in Alpha (preliminary
testing release) but is expected to go into Beta later this
year. This just boggles my mind and I've got an extra
computer it can install it on. Who's to say, ReactOS may
"crash and burn" like so many new Operating Systems
which have come and gone before it but if I can keep all
my favorite programs without being forced to continue
using Windows I'm going to go for it. You bet!
http://www.reactos.org/en/index.html
Don
Don's feedback form: http://www.don-guitar.com/contactme.html
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Lisa's blog. http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/dirtgoddess
Section One by Don.
A reader asked me a technical question about Visual Basic
(which is a programming language). I wasn't really able to give
him much of an answer (because I know nothing about VB)
but I did find some interesting websites while I was googling.
http://www.gnavi.org/
http://www.vbdotnetheaven.com/
http://www.startvbdotnet.com/
http://www.programmersheaven.com/
http://www.oflameron.com/
http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/
http://www.freevbcode.com/
http://www.freeprogrammingresources.com/
http://www.codeproject.com/
I've used Matt Whitlock's little Unfreez application to make
animated gif images a couple of times and found it to be
very user friendly. Nor is Unfreez the only spiffy little app
Matt offers. http://www.whitsoftdev.com/
A few nice graphics tutorials. http://www.unleash.com/
What would you like to know about toons?
http://www.toonopedia.com/
Every time we find a game we like on our Debian Linux machines we
check to see if there's a Windows version. This Windows version isn't
quite identical to the two versions available on our Linux machines but
I actually like it a little better. http://www.tjerngren.net/samegame/
Stuff to explore from Toby Thain. http://www.telegraphics.com.au/
Does your printer have "finger prints"?
http://printerfingerprints.notlong.com (arstechnica.com)
10 things about many things.
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/
A good multimedia resource for Mac users.
http://creativemac.digitalmedianet.com/
Lisa and I are still very happy with the free version of AVG
Anti-Virus. http://free.grisoft.com/
and, while I haven't tried them, I notice that AVG offers
similarly priced versions of their AntiSpyware app.
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/download-free-anti-spyware/us/frt/0
and their AntiRootkit app.
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/download-free-anti-rootkit/us/frt/0
Like AVG, the free version of Avira Antivir works with Win2K, XP
and newer versions of Windows. http://www.free-av.com/
ClamWin also works with Win98 and WinME as well as Win2K
and XP. http://www.clamwin.com/
Have you checked out Jan's goodies lately?
http://jansfreeware.com/
Goodies from Kana Solution. http://www.kana.homeip.net/
End of Section One.
This publication is only mailed to verified
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Lisa Miller, and //www.freelists.org
Section Two by Lisa
History and recipe for CFS, the state dish
of Texas. http://CFS.notlong.com
Foundations you may not have heard of.
http://www.payitforwardfoundation.org/home.html
http://www.whofoundation.org/
http://www.wtgrantfoundation.org/
http://www.barnesfoundation.org/h_main.html
http://www.nokomisfoundation.org/home.htm
http://www.ocfoundation.org/
http://www.laurabushfoundation.org/
http://www.epilepsyfoundation.org/
http://www.susanpolgarfoundation.org/
http://www.alexfoundation.org/index2.htm
http://www.theworkfoundation.com/index.aspx
A look at the lives of Chinese people in Britain.
http://britchinese.notlong.com
Resources for expatriates worldwide.
http://www.expatexchange.com/
Overland expedition from East Asia to South Africa,
changing lives along the way.
http://journeytoforever.org/index.html
Ideas and activities for very young children.
http://www.silkysteps.com/
The voice of triumph, James Earl Jones.
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/jon2bio-1
A fully-featured Notepad-type application.
http://exdor.notlong.com
End of Section Two.
At the time this issue was posted,
the current subscriber count for
this publication was 395.
This issue's collection of news,
magazine, and/or informational
sites (chosen for maximum
diversity regardless of "spin" ).
http://www.newsmax.com/
http://www.topix.net/city/eclectic-al
http://eclecticnews.blogspot.com/
http://citizenreporter.com/
http://thewetumpkaherald.com/eclectic_observer/
http://eclecticesoterica.com/
http://www.eclectics.org.uk/
http://www.tickertape.org/news_feeds.html
http://blog.netscape.com/
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/
http://www.dailykos.com/
http://www.goodmagazine.com/
http://www.themonitor.com/
Section Three by Don.
The explorable personal website of Kevin O'Donnell. http://kevino.net/
CED is a disk video format which has gone the way of the
wild goose. http://www.cedmagic.com/
Weather savvy. http://weathersavvy.com/
Flock is a "Social Web Browser" (whatever that is).
http://www.flock.com/
Ok, since when are cities portable? (an interesting, if unfinished,
site) http://www.jonathanriley.net/lch.html
Pro: http://www.gotmilk.com/ Con: http://www.milksucks.com/
Photography by Ruth Emily Hanson.
http://www.pbase.com/ruthemily
GeekClaw; tools, components and libraries for C++ developers
and general users of Windows. http://www.geekclaw.com/
The Internet Debacle - An Alternative View by Janis Ian.
http://www.janisian.com/article-internet_debacle.html
More to explore on her site. http://www.janisian.com/
Who wants fonts?
http://www.haroldsfonts.com/freefonts.html
http://www.fontbros.com/free_fonts.php
A malware tool. http://siri.geekstogo.com/SmitfraudFix.php
Stinger is a stand-alone utility used to detect and remove specific
viruses. http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/
Some thoughts on the subject of reducing your electric bill.
Devices like these...
http://www.saving-electrics.com/
...have been around for a number of years now; do they actually work?
http://probablynot.notlong.com (advancedenergy.org)
Many power companies offer useful suggestions...
http://www.penlight.org/pages/conservation/consrvtn_enrgytips.html
...but if all else fails, ask the government.
http://www.energysavers.gov/
http://www.energy.gov/energysavingtips.htm
A few cool applications which all have my favorite
numbers on their stickers (i.e. $.0.00).
http://www.harmware.net/
http://park18.wakwak.com/~pixia/
http://www.goosee.com/
End of Section Three.
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Section Four by Lisa.
Linda Knaus's poetry will keep you entertained for a good long
time. http://www.cpinternet.com/~snorrig/lindag/index2.htm
How to be totally cool.
http://newspapercool.notlong.com
Streaming video about life in Japan.
http://www.brovision.com/
Costless apps and tools from emm.
http://www.emm.ie/freeware/index.html
How the aged are treated in Singapore.
http://seniorsingapore.notlong.com
Useful files and links.
http://www.zisman.ca/files/fonts.html
State job banks, a good place to start.
http://www.jobbankinfo.org/
A comprehensive site about food allergies, the people
who have them and the resources available to them.
http://www.foodallergyinitiative.org/
What did you get from your mama's kitchen? Here's a
chance to experiences other peoples', too.
http://www.inmamaskitchen.com/index.html
The One Laptop Per Child Project is approaching reality.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6679431.stm
Heritage Guitars.
http://www.heritageguitar.com/
Heritage Amplifiers.
http://www.heritageamplifiers.com/index.html
How to pick a book title. http://booktitle.notlong.com
The ICRA is part of the Family Online Safety Institute.
http://www.fosi.org/icra/
International English from a British viewpoint.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/index.htm
The Heinlein Society. http://www.heinleinsociety.org/
A cool little add-on for IE.
http://www.edensoft.com/mylogo/
How to work within a Microsoft office environment,
without going postal. http://office-watch.com/
End of Section Four.
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Section Five by Don.
An impressive educational resource for anyone/everyone.
http://www.proprofs.com/
I'm not sure, I think it's part blog and part virtual playground.
http://www.spiffle.com/
(and) Now for something completely different.
http://monty.python.videowall.sytes.org/
A resource for budget-minded Mac fans.
http://www.lowendmac.com/
Karoly Kiralyfalvi's semi-commercial site offers many interesting
pages to see and explore. http://www.extraverage.net/
The corset is an infamous icon in the history of feminine apparel.
http://www.corsetiere.net/
A technical educational resource. http://www.mcmcse.com/
Online games. http://www.online4games.co.uk/
I regularly use the Merriam-Webster site to find word definitions
http://www.m-w.com/ and I was aware that they also offer a
Thesaurus, Spanish-English translation and a medical dictionary
but only recently discovered the Crossword puzzles...
http://www.m-w.com/game/crossword.htm
word games... http://www.m-w.com/game/index.htm
the daily buzzword (for kids)...
http://www.wordcentral.com/dailybuzzword.html
the Word of the Day for folks who're learning English...
http://www.learnersdictionary.com/
and the podcasts. http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/mwwod.pl
Lots of interesting art to see. http://www.foundmyself.com/
Web-dev resources. http://www.sitepoint.com/
http://www.netmechanic.com/
http://webteacher.com/
This site may well be the web's definitive resource on
flatbed scanners. http://www.scantips.com/
Anand Iyer's Gimp tutorials. http://www.geocities.com/akiyer63/
Do you use Firefox? Is your copy up-to-date?
http://firefoxcheck.notlong.com (heise-security.co.uk)
A nice collection of tools for DIY home improvement.
http://www.improvenet.com/HomeOwner/ProjectTools/
How to succeed in animation. http://genedeitch.awn.com/index.php3
End of Section Five.
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Section Six by Lisa.
Get your movies organized. http://www.movieorganizer.com/
Alaska native culture, language and traditions.
http://www.alaskanative.net/
A random name generator for role-playing games.
http://www.mapmage.com/namemage.htm
Simple image cataloger and slideshow.
http://pmeindre.free.fr/MyAlbum.html
Like to point fingers? This goober was responsible
for the Reign of Terror. What a peach.
http://www.robespierre.net/
Games and applets for Java. http://javagames.org.uk/
I really enjoyed this interview with B.B.King.
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/kin2int-1
If you're a fan of Jack Daniels Whiskey, this image-
intensive site is very attractive.
http://www.jackdaniels.com/
Popup killer designed for OE.
http://home.rochester.rr.com/artcfox/Pop-Down/
The Italian Government Tourist Board.
http://www.italiantourism.com/
Fascinating Fractal Art. http://www.fractalus.com/
The Library of Congress's Soviet Archives exhibit.
http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/soviet.exhibit/entrance.html
PP Kopimaster backs up your files.
http://www.ppsoft.dk/hol_Copy_eng.htm
Costless goodies from PrimaSoft.
http://www.primasoft.com/index1.htm
Our favorite weather channel.
http://www.wunderground.com/
The Education Virtual Library.
http://www.csu.edu.au/education/library.html
Resources for parents and teachers of early school-age
children. http://www.firstschoolyears.com/index.htm
How to work within a Microsoft office environment,
without going postal. http://office-watch.com/
End of Section Six.
The Linux Corner.
MozillaQuest Magazine. http://mozillaquest.com/index.html
Matt Hartley writes Linux Fanatics for Lockergnome
and is a pretty cool guy. This is his blog.
http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/it/author/matt-hartley/
What's a (Linux) newbie to do? By Ken Leyba (article).
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/blogs/what_is_a_newbie_to_do
There's no "right" way to pronounce anything in Linux, including the
word "Linux". However you want to say it is fine. That being said,
one Linux distro that gets pronounced a lot of different ways is
Xubuntu. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=387144
The OpenSUSE blog. http://www.suseblog.com/
Gareth Watts' collection of Linux articles. http://linux.omnipotent.net/
Want to know more about Open Source? http://www.opensource.org/
Dell is trying a "new thing", they're listening to customers!
http://www.dellideastorm.com/
How about a webserver that runs from a Live CD?
http://lamppix.tinowagner.com/
Linux tutorials and info. http://www.yolinux.com/
User Friendly is a sort-of Linux-centric comic strip.
http://www.userfriendly.org/
Linux tutorials from HowtoForge. http://www.howtoforge.com/
A Linux news and information site and portal.
http://www.linuxhotbox.com/
The Linux knowledge base and tutorial. http://www.linux-tutorial.info/
Our friend Lee Parmeter is the driving force behind our local
Highland Lakes Linux User's Group http://www.hllug.org/
and here are a few links he's posted to that list.
The big news in the Linux realm for the past few months has been
Dell's introduction of Ubuntu-preinstalled computers (article).
http://www.thejemreport.com/mambo/content/view/328
SGI and NASA are assembling the most powerful Linux computer ever.
http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS7317694195.html
How Microsoft bought China (article).
http://desktoplinux.com/news/NS9526259887.html
Coming in November: Ubuntu desktop training courses.
http://fridge.ubuntu.com/node/1038
Parted Magic is a Linux LiveCD/USB/PXE with its elemental
purpose being to partition hard drives. http://partedmagic.com/
A Little Humor.
Mother said...
My mother taught me to appreciate a job well done;
"If you're going to kill each other, do it outside,
I just finished cleaning in here!"
My mother taught me religion;
"You better pray that will come out of the carpet."
My mother taught me about time travel;
"If you don't straighten up, I'm going to
knock you into the middle of next week!"
My mother taught me logic;
"Because I said so, that's why."
My mother taught me foresight;
"Make sure you wear clean underwear,
in case you're in an accident."
My mother taught me irony;
"Keep laughing and I'll give you something to cry about."
My mother taught me about the science of osmosis;
"Shut your mouth and eat your supper!"
My mother taught me about contortionism;
"Will you 'look' at the dirt on the back of your neck!"
My mother taught me about stamina;
"You'll sit there 'til all that spinach is finished."
My mother taught me about weather;
"It looks as if a tornado swept through your room."
My mother taught me how to solve physics problems;
"If I yelled because I saw a meteor coming
toward you; would you listen then?"
My mother taught me about hypocrisy;
"If I've told you once, I've told you a
million times, don't exaggerate!"
My mother taught me the circle of life;
"I brought you into this world, and I can take you out."
My mother taught me about behavior modification;
"Stop acting like your father!"
My mother taught me about envy;
"There are millions of less fortunate children in this
world who don't have wonderful parents like you do!"
Tips for This Issue.
http://freepctech.com/pc/xp/xpindex.shtml
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/tips.htm
http://www.it.iitb.ac.in/~sudhir/Hacking/Win_XP_Hack.html
http://www.dougknox.com/
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_tips.asp
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
Our friend April Bapst sent this link to a piece done by Red
Skelton many years ago. http://www.poofcat.com/july.html
Our friend Patrick Barden ( http://rrwbushangel.blogspot.com/ ) sent
this link to: "Running the Numbers" an American Self-Portrait by
Chris Jordan. http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id
From our web sibling Jo-Ann (Jo) Burton:
( Jo's site: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sharinglinks2/ )
Care to simpsonize yourself?
http://www.milkandcookies.com/link/41026/detail/
Strange and unusual buildings.
http://www.ohiobarns.com/othersites/buildings/buildings.html
A girls guide to city life. http://www.girlsguidetocitylife.com/
Crabfu Steamworks (awesome!). http://www.crabfu.com/steamtoys/
Feeding America: The historic American cookbook project.
http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/index.html
Our web sibling Peter Ekkerman sent this link to Paul
Alan Freshney's cool site. http://www.freshney.org/
Our web sibling Jerry Fox sent us this link to Poodwaddle,
where you can set up your own spiffy internet start page.
http://www.poodwaddle.com/index.htm
From our web sibling John Lepse.
( John's blog: http://hucknjim.blogspot.com/ )
Here's an interesting article on America's Founding Fathers by Jeff
Jacoby. http://www.ussyorktown.com/yorktown/foundingfathers.htm
Tweak guide for Firefox. http://www.tweakguides.com/Firefox_1.html
A social networking site for persons aged 50 and older (like Lisa and
me *grin*). http://www.eons.com/
This is a pretty cool interactive site where you can design and fly
your own paper airplane. John Lepse, Patrick Barden and I have
all tried it and, frankly, we didn't have a lot of aeronautical aptitude
but that doesn't mean you don't. Happy flying!
http://solidworkspilot.com/
Our friend Jon Reed sent this link to a YouTube video about the meaning
of American Pie. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ycgegp0KdE4
Our web sibling Randi Simon-Serey sent us this link to 20,000 names
which is a collection of names from around the world.
Thank you April, Patrick, Jo, Peter, Jerry, John, Jon and Randi.
Last word, from Lisa:
Our lives are a series of adventures. Sometimes when our
friends ask us how things are going, they hold their
breaths when we say we've had a new adventure. That's one
reason to try and keep up with my journal. Sometimes
you look back at a day or month or year and wonder how it
got away from you, what did you accomplish? Many times
I've looked at a journal entry and wondered how I did all
that in one day or week. Really helps your perspective.
The adventure continues...
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
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
1:00 AM CST - Buchanan Lake Village, Texas, USA
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