[donspatch] 2011-10-01
- From: "Don (& Lisa)" <dondashguitar@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: Donspatch <Donspatch@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 1 Oct 2011 00:15:25 -0500
#165 October 1, 2011 from http://www.don-guitar.com
Online version: http://www.don-guitar.com/currentissue.html
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First word, from Don:
It rained three times this week. About a tenth of an inch
on Monday, perhaps twice that on Tuesday and somewhere in
between last night (Thursday). I'm not prepared to say
our drought has been broken but at least we now remember
what rain looks like. Nature is teasing us. :(
Lisa's been having fun with google hangouts (basically it's
video-conferencing) but the increased demand for bandwidth,
required to send and receive video, was causing her to get
booted frequently over the past couple of days (harking
back to the days when we had dial up internet). I don't
mean she was being booted off-line, she was just being
booted out of google's system every few minutes and she was
getting to be a little short tempered about it until I
bypassed our router, plugging her directly into the DSL
modem, ending the problem. This could mean that the
connection is marginal enough that it can't support two
computers if one of them is on google hangouts but I'm
hoping it just means the router has become intermittent.
At any rate, I just ordered a new one from newegg.com so
we'll know, one way or the other, in a few days. There
is no faster service available to us here so this is a
potentially major problem. Don't I remember a former
president going on about how there was going to be a fiber
optic connection in every American home? Wonder whatever
happened to that plan? Guess that was during an election
year. :)
I wish there was more interesting stuff I could talk about
but it seems like lately we're just treading water for one
reason or another. I'm going to make a concerted effort to
change that situation starting next week. Come on Monday,
I'm ready for you.
See you next time,
Don
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Section One by Don.
To edit or create a web page I use a text editor. The most
powerful text editor available for Windows is, in my
opinion, NoteTab. I've bought both the Standard and Pro
versions but always went back to the free one. NoteTab
Light. http://www.notetab.com/
Here's another pair of editors I've tried and liked.
http://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html
http://www.arachnoid.com/arachnophilia/
Of course some people just gotta have a WYSIWYG (What You
See Is What You Get) editor and I can't fault them because
these days there are several good choices.
http://kompozer.net/
http://www.pagebreeze.com/
http://netobjects.com/html/essentials.html
http://www.w3.org/Amaya/
http://www.virtualmechanics.com/products/dwarf/
http://www.seamonkey-project.org/
http://www.trellian.com/webpage/index.html
Every copy of Windows comes with a basic Word Processor
called WordPad and for a lot of folks it's enough. If
you like it ok but want something slightly nicer, try
Jarte. http://www.jarte.com/
If you want something nicer than Jarte but still lighter
than an enormous office app, try Abiword (my favorite).
http://abisource.com/
If you want a full featured office suite with all the bells
and whistles AND a full featured word app go with
LibreOffice. http://www.libreoffice.org/
Why not Open Office? Well, mainly because most of its
developers have all switched to LibreOffice. Right now
they're virtually identical but in time LibreOffice will
take a clear lead in development.
Why not MS Office? Because it's expensive where
LibreOffice is free.
PBSKids may well be the best kids site on the web.
http://pbskids.org/
Health info. http://www.sharecare.com/
Some of these are lame and a few may be offensive but some
are hilarious. http://www.epicfail.com/
June Ahn, Assistant Professor, University of Maryland talks
about Google+ (which Lisa and I are using and, so far, we
like it). http://ahnjune.com/?p=59
Lisa and I were touched by the story of Jenny Lawson and her
traveling red dress.
http://thebloggess.com/2010/05/the-traveling-red-dress/
And touched again by the Sisterhood of the Traveling Red
Dress. http://goo.gl/Y6fND [betterinbulk dot net]
How come so many banks don't have a time and temperature
ticker thing out front anymore? Had to find a virtual one.
http://www.timetemperature.com/
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.
These are images of normal, non-sexualized
breasts, quite different from the commercial
images you see.
http://www.007b.com/breast_gallery.php
And these are pictures of women
after mastectomy. Powerful images.
http://www.thescarproject.org/gallery/
The story of the real 'Private Ryan'.
http://www.sproe.com/n/fritz-niland.html
You don't have to go to the store for graph paper.
http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/
Beautiful, healthful 24 Form Tai Chi.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBvF6r6DOvc
Latinos in US popular music culture.
http://americansabor.org
The 12-most lots of things.
http://12most.com/
What happen to your web stuff when you die?
http://goo.gl/8A58k
Things you should already have
experienced on the Internet.
http://youshouldhaveseenthis.com/
Stanford University is offering 2
online courses free of charge.
http://www.ai-class.com/
http://www.db-class.org/course/auth/welcome
Get the most from Google Docs.
http://goo.gl/mHNad
The face of homelessness.
http://invisiblepeople.tv/blog/
Ten things everyone should know about time.
http://goo.gl/WgfoO
How one man saved Bulgaria's jews.
http://goo.gl/tVGZ4
End of Section Two.
At the time this issue was posted,
the current subscriber count for
this publication was 363.
This issue's collection of online news, blogs,
magazines, videos and/or other media related
sites. These are chosen for maximum diversity
regardless of 'spin' and in some cases may
have offensive or questionable content.
http://www.shrinkgeek.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g05OlRa0vzE
http://9gag.com/
http://nachoblog311.wordpress.com/
http://crappypictures.typepad.com/crappy-pictures/
http://www.happyplace.com/
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/
http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/
http://theultralinx.com/2011/07/bokeh-photography-5.html
http://www.designzzz.com/
http://www.starkravingmadmommy.com/
http://www.curvygirlguide.com/
http://www.scarymommy.com/
http://www.imjustthatway.com/p/all-about-me.html
http://uppingtheanti.org/
http://zenhabits.net/
http://alovelybeing.com/
http://www.noisebetweenstations.com/
http://thenextweb.com/
http://dadunmasked.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ashumittal/
http://loveisntenough.com/
http://sluiternation.com/
http://www.thehummingbirdhollow.com/
Section Three by Don.
Giant cows made from wrecked cars.
http://goo.gl/Mh5cD [thisiscolossal dot com]
The Future of Music Coalition. http://futureofmusic.org/
Bad net etiquette: Sending emails with huge files
(PowerPoint presentations, videos or images) attached.
Good net etiquette:
Uploading the PowerPoint presentation to a sharing site
and sending everyone a link. http://www.slideshare.net/
Uploading the videos to youtube (or other video sharing
site) and sending everyone a link.
http://www.youtube.com
Uploading large image files to flickr or picasa and send
everyone a link.
http://www.flickr.com/
http://picasaweb.google.com
While I'm talking about bad net etiquette, forwarding
media intensive email isn't a gray area, it's rude
unless you're 100% certain that the person you're
forwarding to is ok with it. Even then, it would be
better to find the forward on a site like this one
and send a link instead forwarding the email.
http://bl.net/forwards/
Need a little help remembering stuff?
http://www.evernote.com/
Nerdy good videos.
http://www.youtube.com/user/vlogbrothers
Keeping up with the latest and greatest in computer
hardware. http://www.tomshardware.com/
Online comparisons of different display screens.
http://www.displaywars.com/
Do you know a mom who's changing the world?
http://mom.babble.com/mom/mominations/
A twitter contact asked me how to read ePub files.
http://goo.gl/ghNDi [wordpress dot com]
She got back to me with the Open Source solution she found.
http://calibre-ebook.com/
If you're a Steely Dan fan this is a nice instrumental.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I2jUdNGqIo
If, like me, you'd rather hear the lyrics too...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkENeuzVtUM
Is this a trashy lifestyle or just thinking small?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvSZL4eppTQ
I saw a brief shot of one of these in a video and had to
track it down to find out what it was. The U-Bass.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNPx6RS8PiM
They even make a solid body, five-string model!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJNtuFv4iPg
Ok, I can see where this might be useful but it's also a
security risk. http://goo.gl/gNvMi [logmein dot com]
Online conversion of media file from one format to another.
http://www.clipconverter.cc/
Also available as a browser plugin.
http://www.clipconverter.cc/addon/
How good is your typing? Mine is 40 words a minute,
same as it was when I took typing in the eighth grade.
http://www.keybr.com/
End of Section Three.
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Section Four by Lisa.
Find your local Chamber of Commmerce.
http://www.chamberofcommerce.com/chambers/
Swap your cellphone's contract for a short-term one.
http://www.cellswapper.com/
Social networking the old-fashioned way.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14859116
Encyclopedia of American Foreign Relations.
http://www.americanforeignrelations.com/
Reverse telephone look-up.
http://www.freephonetracer.com/
How to file a complaint with OSHA about
a safety violation in the workplace.
http://www.ehso.com/ehshome/oshahow2file.htm
The Economic Development Directory.
http://www.ecodevdirectory.com/
Get your legal questions answered.
http://www.civilanswers.com/
The principles of Friesian philosophy.
http://www.friesian.com/friesian.htm
So, you want to be a retronaut?
http://www.howtobearetronaut.com/
How to marginalize almost anyone.
http://www.derailingfordummies.com/#theinternet
India is trying to identify it's 1.2 billion people.
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/08/ff_indiaid/all/1
End of Section Four.
We welcome all comments, suggestions, or
criticism. The form doesn't access your
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Section Five by Don.
An interesting site to explore.
http://www.backspace.com/is/in/the/house/index.html
Build your own virtual city. http://www.myminicity.com/
Earth and moon viewer from Fourmilab.
http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/vplanet.html
Take your household budget into the cloud (manage it
online). https://www.mint.com/
Does your phone number spell anything?
http://www.phonespell.org/
Buy or sell used electronic gadgetry.
http://www.gazelle.com/
Before you buy from amazon.com, check for coupon codes.
http://www.dollsoup.co.uk/
How to send files to your mobile, cellphone, iPhone, PDA
or Smartphone. http://beam-it-up-scotty.com/
Stuck in a waiting room? Got your phone with you? Why not
read a book. http://www.booksinmyphone.com/
A 'goodie' for Mac users. http://droplr.com/hello
A screenshot gizmo for Windows or Mac social media users.
http://www.tinygrab.com/
Another for Mac users. http://grabbox.devsoft.no/
All my life I've known that there was something, for lack of
a better word, wrong with me. As a kid in school, things
that others learned easily were totally opaque to me. After
I grew up I decided that I probably had some sort of
undiagnosed learning disability. One of my twitter contacts
made mention of her AQ score. I'd never heard of an AQ
score so I went looking for it and was shocked by what I
found. After some research I'm not sure it's right to say
I have a 'problem' but I believe I've finally, at age 62,
learned what makes me different from most everyone I know.
I'm a high-functioning autistic. My AQ score is 36.
http://aq.server8.org/ What's yours? (Lisa's was 15)
Photos taken with digital cameras also contain a lot of
information which is called 'exif data'. What is it?
http://www.digicamhelp.com/glossary/exif-data/
You can read exif data with a small application.
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/exifreader.html
http://www.exifdataviewer.com/
http://www.opanda.com/en/iexif/
Or you can check out your exif data with online tools.
http://exifdata.com/
http://camerasummary.com/
http://regex.info/exif.cgi
A cloud resource for collectors. http://erly.com/
Ok, this is strange. This site lets you convert any image
into a poloroid image. Weird. http://www.polaroin.com/
End of Section Five.
Archives for this ezine are available online here:
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The current issue is also available on our website.
http://www.don-guitar.com/currentissue.html
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Section Six by Lisa.
The Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Project, a cooperative
effort of The Israel Museum and Google, makes five
of the original Scrolls available online.
http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/
The movie character Shrek was based upon
a real person, Maurice Tillet.
http://goo.gl/OhcRL
Grain-free and gluten-free foods.
http://www.grain-free-gluten-free.com/index.html
A site dedicated to the horseshoe crab.
http://horseshoecrab.org/
Windows users should make a special effort to keep
Java and Flash updated, as Windows Updates doesn't
do it for you. Here's the easiest way;
http://java.com/en/download/installed.jsp
http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/
Joey takes a nap.
http://m.9gag.com/gag/202688/
Schedule free text messages.
http://ohdontforget.com/
A simple paint program for Macs.
http://paintbrush.sourceforge.net/
Calculator for PayPal fees.
http://ppcalc.com/
Convert a video from YouTube to MP3.
http://tunetune.net/
Track and pay your medical bills.
http://simplee.com/
The only people-finder we've seen that's free.
http://www.123people.com/
A simple wake-up or reminder service.
http://wakerupper.com/
This site helps history surfers to use
the web more effectively.
http://www.casahistoria.net/
End of Section Six.
The Linux Corner.
Why I like Linux.
http://goo.gl/DNgYs [pcworld dot com]
http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm
http://goo.gl/TSbca [marksanborn dot net]
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/55888/index.html
Even on Windows I strongly recommend that people use
Firefox or Chrome instead of Internet Explorer but once
in a while it's nice to be able to check a website in IE
and that's not difficult to do even in Linux.
http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page
Simplicity has become an important feature of some Linux
distributions because more and more users are interested
in a free OS that just works. Bodhi Linux is perhaps
the newest contender for most popular distro in the
'It Just Works' category. http://bodhilinux.com/
A Little Humor.
An old man was on his death bed. He wanted badly to take some
of his money with him. He called his priest, his doctor and
his lawyer to his bedside. 'Here’s $30,000 cash to be held by
each of you. I trust you to put this in my coffin when I die
so I can take all my money with me.'
At the funeral, each man put an envelope in the coffin.
Riding away in a limousine, the priest suddenly broke into
tears and confessed, 'I had only put $20,000 into the
envelope because I needed $10,000 for a new baptistery.'
'Well, since we’re confiding in each other,' said the doctor,
'I only put $10,000 in the envelope because we needed a new
machine at the hospital which cost $20,000.'
The lawyer was aghast. 'I’m ashamed of both of you,' he
exclaimed. 'I want it known that when I put my envelope in
that coffin, it held my personal check for the full
$30,000.'
Tips for This Issue.
Computer tutorial that teach you in pictures.
http://inpics.net/index.html
Laurel Papworth is a sort of social media guru.
This is her twitter tutorial.
http://laurelpapworth.com/new-on-twitter-tips-and-hints/
More to explore on her site. http://laurelpapworth.com/
Tech tips for teachers. http://goo.gl/Pcteg [mac dot com]
Tips for iPhone users.
http://taptaptap.com/blog/10-useful-iphone-tips-and-tricks/
If you don't want to worry about all the stuff that can
attack your Windows machine you should probably avoid
this site. http://www.computersafetytip.com/
The low-down on wireless system security.
http://goo.gl/YvYnA [sensible-computer-help dot com]
More where that came from.
http://www.sensible-computer-help.com/
Contributions from our readers and/or friends
are always welcome and you can even write
your own link descriptions if you wish (just
tell me when you send them if that's what you
intended). Guidelines are available here:
http://www.don-guitar.com/descriptivetext.html
From our web-sibling Patrick Barden.
( http://romanroadwalker.posterous.com/ )
Tracking down healthy fast food.
http://getfednotfat.com/index.php
Email notes to yourself. http://cctome.com/
From our web-sibling Jo-Ann (Jo) Burton:
(Jo's site: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sharinglinks2/ )
Mad magazine, the blog. http://mad.blog.dccomics.com/
It's about cars.
http://www.cartype.com/
http://www.autoblog.com/
Concept art. http://www.conceptart.org
Building environmental literacy.
http://www.informinc.org/pages/index.php
Answers to questions on Civil law.
http://www.civilanswers.com/
Nerd news. http://www.toplessrobot.com/
This, believe it or not, is a dragonfly.
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6687694
Plenty more from the same photographer.
http://photo.net/photodb/user?user_id=2109438
And plenty more photographers on the same site.
http://photo.net/
Winter's bad hair day, a photo by Michael Dalby.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/medalby/66893755/
More from Michael. http://www.flickr.com/photos/medalby/
International field guides.
http://www.library.illinois.edu/bix/fieldguides/index.html
Save interesting web pages for reading later.
http://www.instapaper.com/
The National Space Society. http://www.nss.org/
Vintage valentines. http://heartsatwirl.com/
Our web-sibling Vinette (Vi) DePhillipe sent me this heart
warming video of a part of the 9-11 story I didn't know.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDOrzF7B2Kg
The same folks made another video that's worth watching.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUmCgQp5iNg
From our 'other brother' Bill (Beeyil) Lanoue.
( Bill's blog http://ncvietvet.blogspot.com/ )
Bill liked the TweakNow PowerPack.
http://www.tweaknow.com/powerPack.php
From our web-sibling John Lepse.
( John's blog: http://hucknjim.blogspot.com/ )
The Butterfly Circus is a powerful short film.
http://thebutterflycircus.com/short-film/
For some reason I had trouble viewing the film on the
website but was able to watch it just fine on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_MCwlY6zzg
After reading about it, Outside In is a film I'd like to
see. http://www.outsideinthemovie.com/
Five facebook 'hacks'.
http://lifehacker.com/5843609/five-best-facebook-customizers
Why some languages sound so fast.
http://goo.gl/9UzvN [time dot com]
From our web-sibling Irving Stein, here's a little Rock &
Roll. http://silverandgoldandthee.net/Mu/50/Rk_3.html
Thank you Patrick, Jo, Vi, Bill, John and Irv.
Last word, from Lisa:
I've been having lots of fun with Google+ the last few
weeks. As of Sept. 27, in 88 days they have 50 million
users. http://goo.gl/VY9M1 It's really not that big
a surprise, the interface is easy to use and it offers
every advantage other social networks have with none of
the drawbacks. My English Language Practice Hangouts
have had 82 visitors so far. Here's a Google Map that
shows who and where they are-click on the names and
you'll see where in the world they are.
http://goo.gl/QS1Le
Take a look at what Google Maps can help you do,
there are some amazing features that can really add
depth, interest and fun to all your projects.
http://maps.google.com/support/
http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/
http://goo.gl/1pcFX
As usual, the adventure continues...
Lisa
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Don Crowder and Lisa Miller
Friday, October 1, 2011
12:15 AM CST - Buchanan Lake Village, Texas, USA
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