Cool Web Sites
by Don Singleton
Tulsa Computer Society
From the April 2002 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
Recent conflict and tension have pulled many people closer to their faiths. Religion is a
source of comfort for people during tough times. Learn more about your faith and those of
others.
DigitalGlobe's QuickBird satellite currently offers the best commercially available images of Earth from space. Even if you're not
looking to buy, you can still tour some kool images and download a free desktop wallpaper photo of the Washington
Monument, McMurdo Station in Antarctica and many more.
How much space would a million pennies occupy? A billion? A trillion? This is one of the best sites I've seen for helping
people understand the meaning of large numbers and powers of ten.
This is the place for people interested in the "strange, unusual, interesting, odd and just plain
weird." Ripley's Believe It or Not has some of the most incredible artifacts in the world. Check
out many of the exhibits at this on-line museum.
This is an on-line resource for people with memory loss. Learn the different types of symptoms and how they are diagnosed and
treated. There's information on both traditional and alternative methods for reducing memory loss.
See the year 2001 reviewed, according to searches made on the popular Google search engine. Here's a month-by-month
description of the most popular terms across the world. It's remarkable how much search engines reflect the world's interests.
CAUTION MUSEUMS AHEAD, and indeed it IS a good idea to STOP before plunging into the ocean. Fun stuff, courtesy of an
observant photographer who recognizes absurdity when he sees it.
Here is a terrific shopping resource for antique collectors. For the serious collector, it has a list of over 40,000 names and
addresses of antique shops around the country. You can also browse through thousands of links to research all kinds of
old-fashioned items, or even shop on-line.
In New York City, the "BQE" is not a sandwich. It's the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. Different regions have their own
terminology and accents, sometimes making communication with travelers awkward. Conquer the regional language barrier by
looking up commonly misheard words and phrases.
Take a stone carver's tour, visit the virtual Abbey, read the Gothic Field Guide and much more at this detailed site that explores
the art and architecture of Middle Age stone carving, modern-style. You can also check out the building progress of an online
virtual cathedral, from the history of medieval stone masons to carpenters, roofers, stained glass workers and other virtual
artisans plying their skills.
History, goals, operations, facts about the first 100 manned space flights, statistics, and images.
The story in the film "A Beautiful Mind" focuses on the life of mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr. Here's his Princeton
University home page.
The Shoah Visual History Foundation was established by Steven Spielberg to preserve the memory of the Holocaust on video.
Since 1994, the foundation has compiled over 50,000 videotaped testimonies from people who witnessed the Holocaust. Learn
more about this project through its official website.
Need a few extra steps to your dance regime? Then let the guy on this site show you some moves that will make you the hit of
your next party. Or at least it will get you a lot of attention
In addition, you can find music awards by year, "best of" lists, chart facts, this week's #1 hit in different countries (Alien Ant
Farm is big in Australia), odd fact lists of all kinds.
Memorial shrines and markers on the roadside remind us how quickly tragedies can happen. This photographer has captured
more than 300 roadside memorials. Many of them have been placed on this Web site to keep the victims' memories alive.
Remember how fun it was to color? Kids can choose a picture on this site and color it on-line. Or they can print the pictures and
use real crayons.
Whether you're a fan of the Xbox, GameCube, PS2 or other gaming console, you probably need help and hints to make it through
some of those toughest games. At this site you can get all that and more, you'd just better be sure to 'fess up to having the cheat
codes!
What religion do Americans consider themself to belong to, how many of them are church, temple, mosque or synagogue
members, and other questions about religious attitudes. Includes comparisons with the same survey from 1990.
Some people believe TV themes hit their pinnacle in the 80s, and here's a site with all the scoop. Check out the tunes and songs
from such memorable shows as The A-Team, Charles in Charge, CHiP's, L.A. Law, The Love Boat, Magnum, P.I. and many more.
As a bonus, there are also news and game show themes, as well as some of the era's favorite commercials.
Midi versions of popular songs can sound comparable to the original. But many midi songs sound like bad synthesizer rip-offs.
Here is a museum of the worst midi songs available. You can even vote for the song most harmful to your ears.
Jakob Neilsen comments on the Poynter Survey of how online users read news stories (with links to the study) and the
implications for web design.
It's been 100 years since Beatrix Potter's "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" was first published, and this charming tale still delights kids
today. At this official site, kids can explore the adventures of Peter Rabbit and his friends Jemima Puddle-Duck, Mrs.
Tittlemouse, Tom Kitten, Jeremy Fisher and all the rest. There's also a playground with games and puzzles, video clips, art and
more.
This service allows people to say goodbye via e-mail. For an annual fee, subscribers can create final messages for delivery when
they pass on.
Here's a Internet search engine with a twist--results are displayed by "cluster," based on similar kinds of information. For
instance, a search on the term "Windows XP" returned 210 results divided into 10 clusters including Microsoft, reviews,
security, FAQ and tweaks.
March 14 (3.14) is Pi Day. Celebrate with pizza (how many slices of the small pizza would be equal to or greater than 3 slices
from the large pizza?), cake (comparing the volumes of slices taken from round and rectangular cakes), music (a translation
of Pi into base 12 with fully orchestrated CD quality music from the resulting sequence) and other projects
There are many sites on the web devoted to personality and romance quizzes. This site has just about everything to figure out
who you are and what you should be doing. Choose from a wide variety of quizzes and learn more about yourself--and plan on
spending lots of time filling out these in-depth tests!
Even superstars reach for the quick buck. This site has commercials and other embarrassing TV endorsements featuring some of
the world's biggest celebrities.
Everybody loves a flashy web site, right? Wrong! In careless hands, Macromedia's Flash
technology can render a site almost unusable for the average
web surfer. This "First aid manual for usable Flash sites" shows
designers how to create sites that are both cool to view and
easy to use. Through detailed tutorials, downloadable source
files, and bad-Flash case studies, they demonstrate how to
marry form with function online. Even if you're not a web
designer, you can appreciate how this advice might apply to
Flash sites you've struggled to navigate. Pass the link along, and
maybe someday Flash sites will be 100% good.
If you're concerned about genetically engineered foods, check this site to find out which foods are and aren't.
For more information on the Tulsa Computer Society click here
Tulsa Computer Society 04/02/2002
Don Singleton, President