Cool Web Sites
by Don Singleton
Tulsa Computer Society
From the April 2001 issue of the I/O Port Newsletter
Including links previously reviewed at
http://www.educationindex.com/index.html,
http://www.komando.com/,
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/arch.htm,
and http://marylaine.com/neatnew.html
All the information you need to observe:
- satellites
- Mir and the International Space Station
- the Space Shuttle
- the dazzlingly bright flares from Iridium satellites
as well as a wealth of other spaceflight and astronomical information. Many
people don't even realize that satellites can easily be seen with the naked
eye. We not only provide the times of visibility, but also detailed star charts
showing the satellite's track through the heavens.
Come learn the history of daylight saving, from Benjamin Franklin to the
present...
Although this site is tailored more for business interactions,
it's suitable for personal use as well. As the name suggests,
you can schedule just about anything from chat sessions to
varied tasks. Access up to five e-mail accounts from the site
or from a computer with your own contacts list. Use the file
manager to make trading business reports just a mouse click
away. Try it, you may like it!
Indexes the daily news from the federal government.
Using The Library, Thomas, Copyright Office, American Memory, Exhibitions,
The Library Today, Bicentennial, Help & Faqs, America's Story From
America's Library
General Resources, National Libraries, State Libraries, School Library Resources, Library
Home Pages, Online Catalogs, Research & Reference, Technical Services, Special Collections,
Digital Libraries, Professional Organizations, Library and Information Science Schools, Professional
Journals, Library Vendors, Library Conferences
National Serials Data Program Library of Congress
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
Serials are print or non-print publications issued in parts, usually bearing issue numbers and/or dates.
A serial is expected to continue indefinitely. Serials include magazines, newspapers, annuals (such as
reports, yearbooks, and directories), journals, memoirs, proceedings, transactions of societies, and
monographic series. ISSN numbers are similar to ISBN numbers for books.
GIMP is a freely distributed piece of software suitable for such tasks as
photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.
It is an extremely capable piece of software with many
capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, a expert
quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing
system, a mass production image renderer, a image format
converter, etc.
GIMP is extremely expandedable and extensible. It is designed
to be augmented with plugins and extensions to do just about
anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from
the simplest task to the most complex image manipulation
procedures to be easily scripted.
Orginally written and developed under X11 on UNIX platforms,
there is a Windows download available at
http://www.gimp.org/~tml/gimp/win32/
Some of us are just a little more forgetful then others. Now
you can stop searching for more red ribbon to tie around
your finger so you won't forget something! If you have an
important event coming up or just need to remember to
walk the dog, then try Remind U Mail. Simply type yourself
a little message, and when you check your e-mail, you'll
have a personal reminder in your inbox. Use the free online
calendar system to schedule reminders, too! You will never
foregt your mom's birthday again!
"The online new books reading service for scholars and students" allows readers
to sample chapters from its new publications. Separate reading rooms for each
academic discipline.
Things are not always what they seem. Familiar objects can sometimes look distorted or bend out of alignment
before our eyes. Check out this site for examples of cool optical illusions, distorted images, do-it-yourself optical
illusion projects, camouflaged images and much more.
Are you sick of always forgetting where you put your
organizer, only to remember that it's on the coffee table at
home? Well, with this handy site, you can make sure you're
never left without an auxiliary system again! Now, you can
backup your data and access it from any computer that has
Internet access!
Re-live the events of the past hundred years and witness them at first hand as they occurred. Newsplayer brings
you video footage of music, fashion, art, lifestyle, sport, crime, royalty, weather, showbiz, wildlife, transport,
science and war, all live and uncut. Search the Newsplayer vaults and stream a selection of clips. At the click of
your mouse you can summon up Stalin to Stallone, Hitler to Hitchcock, Eden to Elvis, Churchill to Chaplin.
The Dirty Money Tracker is devoted to tracking the attempts of big polluting interests to get their way by
contributing money to federal elections. The site allows you to search federal election records for the 1996, 1998,
and 2000 election cycles. If you are tired of big corporate interests running the country through lobbying and
campaign contributions to politicians, you can find the information you need to be an educated voter.
Yahoo!, one of the Internet's more popular search engines,
also offers you the ability to keep track activities and make
sure you complete miscellaneous tasks on time. This nifty
calendar offers you ways to schedule events from hour to
hour, day to day, or even by month! There's also a to-do list
that helps you guarantee all of your tasks are complete.
This working document for system administrators, which details what the hacks
are, what systems are affected, and how to fix them, with updates as needed, is
a product of the SANS Institute (System Administration, Networking, and
Security), "a cooperative research and education organization through which
more than 96,000 system administrators, security professionals, and network
administrators share the lessons they are learning and find solutions for
challenges they face."
Madison Clips? Valance Lighting? Jalousie Window? Now you can talk with your home contractor without
having to scratch your head wondering the definition of construction-speak. Homeglossary.com has a
comprehensive listing of construction and real estate jargon with more than 10,000 definitions for basic to
technical words and phrases.
Looking up at the night sky, the vastness of the Universe can be both marvelous and frightening. NASA created
the Origins Program to answer two enduring human questions that we once considered around ancient campfires,
yet still keep alive in today's classrooms: Where do we come from? Are we alone?
Whether you're trying to locate a long lost relative, former classmate, or perhaps you
are interested in checking out a criminal record on a shady character that has been
bugging you, this is the site for you. Search this site with over 2,000 free searchable
public record databases.
If you want help in choosing a name for your baby, this is the site for you. Browse through resources by gender,
first or last letter, name origin or number of syllables. Choose from Asian names, European names, ethnic or
popular, cool, classic and unique names.
Travel with Kids
Your personal guide, Teresa Plowright, has chosen nifty sites and organized
them by categories such as travel games, vacations with teens, camping/RV
Travel, budget/freebies, etc. Like all about.com guides, she also writes regular
articles, on topics such as car-sick kids, family travel deals, strategies for saving
money, a state by state guide to destinations and facilities.
From adding machines to PDAs, toy trains to video games, this site documents technology of the 20th century
using photos and text. All the gadgets, toys and tools are organized by time period and use, with a
decade-specific diorama serving as an index. The Time Warp Project is a work in progress, too, and invites you
help them preserve technology of the past.
In Her Prime is devoted to the interests and needs of women 40 years of age and older, featuring news and links
on topics such as health, relationships, lifestyle and travel. Also offered is a discussion forum and an E-magazine
with stories, advice and book reviews.
Learning Planet has fun and educational learning games for kids from pre-school to the
sixth grade. Kids can choose a level and find a game. Preschoolers will have a blast
playing the online games, including Count Your Chickens. Grades 1-3 can test their
memory while playing Mr. E’s Memory Game, or solve a challenging online crossword
puzzle. There are also lots of fun activities for kids in grades four through six. Put your
math skills to the ultimate challenge with Math Maham.
Most everybody can use a little help understanding wine and the variety of grapes used to create it. Here’s a site
that explains all the different types of grapes, and how each is used in making specific kinds of wine
Here’s a place to help you pick the right dog, from beagle to boxer. Pooch Picker features a quiz-based selection
process and also has a variety of links to breed and training sites.
Plus Magazine
Articles explaining the diverse applications of mathematics within physics,
chemistry, biology, engineering, and economics, plus stories about new
developments in mathematics and interviews with mathematicians.
The Poker Forum is a place to learn and chat about poker, with information on tournaments, strategy, theory,
books and rules for all types of games.
Guide to all things map-related -- driving directions, railroad and subway maps,
city plans, route planer, earthquake Maps, satellite pictures, historical maps,
atlases, you name it.
A non-commercial website whose objective is to collect and process all information on hearing impairment and
the consequences of hearing loss.
Not just a tracing of changing political boundaries, but a thematic atlas as well, tracking specific places and events,
such as the cold war, and general trends such as living conditions, population, religion, etc. The author, a librarian,
says, "I would hope that you come away from this site with fascinating questions rather than smug answers. It's the
only way to learn."
So you want to learn how to juggle, or just want to know how it’s done? Juggling With Balls serves up animated
gif lessons from simple to the sublime, and also includes a history of juggling as well as links on what to do once
you’ve mastered the craft.
The most complete index I've seen to online columnists (over 600 of them) and
editorial cartoonists. Also a nice set of links to "political sites with attitude."
Wondering what your true speed is on the Internet? Click the link above and you'll find
out. To calculate your connect speed, the site sends a packet of data to your computer.
When it's done with the calculations, the results will be displayed on-screen and within
a Speed Test Thermometer, along with an explanation of what it all means.
Search engine for book recommendations. Search by broad category or author, or by any combination of plot,
theme, characters, or setting.
Now you can get a variety of legal forms for free, while
others range in price from $3.50 for a simple product to $27.95 for an entire Estate
Plan including a Living Trust, Will, Powers of Attorney, Etc.
Selective subject guides to many disciplines, reference, electronic texts and tutorials. Selections are credible and
annotated. Too many critical resources are left out for this to be a stand-alone tool, but I'd recommend it as a
supplement to Internet Public Library or
Academic Info
or Infomine
Top 500 search terms minus sexual terms (which otherwise constitute about 25% of requests). If you don't have
your own resident teenager to keep you informed on what's cool and what kids are going to be wanting
information on, check this out
The days of door-to-door encyclopedia salesmen are gone. With so much information
available on the Internet, it's hard to justify paying for a thick stack of books that may
be out of date the day they arrive. Now you can get all that information on-line at
Encyclopedia Britannica, where you can search and receive unabridged encyclopedia
entries and current articles from more than 75 periodicals. Pretty cool!
Nothing like reading instructions on digging a well, baking bread in a wood-burning oven, potting meat, building a
root cellar, making soap, etc., to make you appreciate having gas, water and electricity flow into your home even
if the bills have gotten stiffer.
Keep up with fast changing area codes
This page has been accessed
times.
Tulsa Computer Society 3/09/2001
Don Singleton, President
djs@ionet.net