Cool Web Sites
by Don Singleton
Tulsa Computer Society
From the July 1998 issue of the I/O Port Newsletter
FREE Learning Resources
Hundreds of teaching and learning resources from more than 35 federal agencies are now available at one Web site. The Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE) site offers "one-stop shopping for a treasure trove of historical documents, scientific experiments, mathematical challenges, famous paintings, and other tools for teachers & students."
Packing Graphics With JPEG Wizard
The JPEG Wizard Online Optimizer is a free service of Pegasus Imaging to provide the Internet community access to the company's true JPEG compression optimization. Just visit the page, enter your details and supply a file. A few seconds after you submit your JPEG image, you will see a temporary web page with several optimized and/or "transformed" images. The settings may be adjusted by the user.
Your Roots Online
The USGenWeb Project. Represents the work of a group of volunteers working together to provide Internet Web sites for genealogical research in every county and every state of the United States. The non-commercial site allows users to navigate on via a map, table or text-only format and also highlights special resources.
Shopping New York Online
It probably replace an actual visit to a shop but the New York First site hopes to offer a "New York shopping experience" to users around the world. Everything featured at this online department store is produced in New York, although some of the virtual floors are a little low on goods right now. The company behind it supports Project Return, improving the lives of disadvantaged New Yorkers.
Internet Broadcasters Index
This is one of the most comprehensive listings we have come across of radio stations broadcasting on the Internet. The site lists more than 880 stations in 79 countries. A new section also lists all TV stations broadcasting live over the Internet.
Amex Joins The E-mail Game
As if the Internet needed another free e-mail address service, American Express has decided to offer Internet users a usa.net e-mail address. Notable features of this service include the ability to access mail online via a Web browser, and special services for cardholders. There's also an optional news and information service and message blocking, plus more!
Protecting Your PC From Attacks
It's a wild network out there and, while network attacks on your system may be unlikely, there are a number of ways people can bring your computer down. This page summarizes some of the most common attacks used against Windows 95 operating system users and includes information on how to stop them.
Health News For Better Living
Bodywise has had a make-over, aimed at making it easier for users to get their daily dose of worldwide health news. Features include weekly updates, a newsletter, new features, and quick downloads.
Yahoo! Finance Launches Insurance Center
Yahoo! has added insurance into the mix of services at its growing Web site. With content from InsWeb, a large Internet insurance marketplace, the center allows visitors to save time by offering convenient comparison shopping among multiple brand-name insurance carriers and to easily research insurance options.
Ever Wanted Your Own Mailing List?
If so, ONElist can help. ONElist is a free mailing list service where you can start and manage new mailing lists, subscribe to existing mailing lists and view archives of old list messages. Currently in beta testing, the service is able to offer its services free thanks to small ads that it places at the head of each message.
Arabic English Dictionary Debuts
Need help with translations between English and Arabic, or vice versa? Sakhr's comprehensive Arabic and English dictionary is now available online, enabling Internet users to search for Arabic-English meanings, synonyms, and antonyms.
Taking A Different Look At Your Site
Web Site Garage has launched a new tool, Browser Snapshot, which allows Web masters to take snapshots of their site in 18 different browsers and platforms. Priced at $9.99 for a one-time use or $99.99 for a year of unlimited use, the service allows Web masters to check exactly how their page looks in different browsers and even the same browser on different operating systems.
Bizarre Stuff You Can Make in Your Kitchen
Semi-scientific cookbook of tricks, gimmicks, pointless experimentation, concoctions, and devices, using, for the most part, things found around the house.
Kiss This Guy
1,783 bungled lyrics, as reported by the people who misunderstood them along with their explanation of how they felt when they learned of their error. For example
Song: I Saw Her Standing There
Artist: Beatles
The real lyrics were: We danced through the night And we held each other tight
But I misheard them as: We danced through the night And we held heach other's kite
The embarrasing moment of revelation: This song came out when I was five; it made sense until the whole boy-girl thing sank in...
Age when I realized how wrong I had been: 9
Misheard by: Susan Laura
The Flummery Digest
A large, indexed collection of news items drawing attention to the pervasive influence of political correctness, among other things.
Owl Cam
Share in the adventures of a pair of Northern Barred Owls (strix varia varia) as they raise their family in a nest box in Eastern Massachusetts. The color photos are being taken with a supertelephoto lens at a range of 110 feet, while the black and white shots are products of a miniature low-light video camera.
Recreational Ideas
Looking for a one-stop resource to look up what kinds of recreational stuff you can do on federal lands? The new Recreation.gov lets you search for recreation sites by state, by agency or by recreational activity. From now on you may get lost in the woods, but not when you're searching the Web for recreational opportunities on federal lands.
Mental Graffiti
Dreams, nightmares, illusions and insanity -- the out-of-this-cyberspace categories you can browse at Mental Graffiti. This two-man digital art studio in Denver advises visitors to "seatbelt your eyes."
Spencer Abraham
Michigan's Spencer Abraham's web site is proof that members of the U.S. Senate are not necessarily brain dead when it comes to technology: the site is not only packed with info that constituents can use but the packaging even makes it easy to use. An "Issue poll" adds a nice interactive touch.
Netly News Network Article from April 27 on new search engines
nothinbutnet.net
The radio show about the Internet and nothin' else! Visit the "this week's show" page for the most recent show, plus visit the archives page to hear 25 other shows encoded with real audio.
Kim Komando's Komputer Klinic
Including Kim's Tip of the Day (Can I make Office recognize something other than My Documents as the default folder, or can I delete the default folder?), This week's Kool Sites, and much more.
Frogfrau Free Graphics
The Internet's First Online Pregnancy Test
Yes, right now, regardless of your gender, you can find out if you are with child, expecting, carrying a bun in the oven, knocked up, in a family way, or preggers. Who knows -- you might even get the right answer! I tried it, and found out the Masai woman I saw in Africa must have been right when she patted my belly and said "two babies".
Got A Question? Ask The Experts!
These two sites both offer links to hundreds of "ask an expert" pages on the Internet. From them, you can visit Web sites that are intended to answer frequently asked questions about everything from birds and the weather to VCRs and medicine. If you don't find what you're looking for, you can often e-mail an expert and get a personal response to your query.
This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics
This page, written by a mathematician, describes papers and books on mathematics that the author found interesting. Links are included to any documents that can be found online and the newsletter should be of interest to those with a strong interest in mathematics.
DOD Military Dictionary
This service will be useful for the civilian and services member alike, probably both as confused with the massive amount of acronyms in use by the modern military. This Web interface to the "DOD Dictionary and the Joint Acronyms and Abbreviations" master database will provide a quick, and concise, definition for any abbreviation entered.
Official City Sites
This service has tracked down the home pages of city governments in the US and all over the world
Documents in the News
Whether you're interested in air bags, Iraqi
weapons inspection, hate crimes, the Communications Decency Act, or
just about any current issue the government is concerned with, you will find
the relevant source documents linked here.
Captioned Films and Videos
A catalog of over 4,000 free-loan items. The majority of items from the CFV Program's Free Materials and Information may be viewed online. However, due to their length, some items may only be shipped to you in hard-copy format. Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons, Teachers, Parents, and Others May Borrow Materials
World Holiday and Time Guide
Type in a country, and it will tell you what
its holidays are; type in a date and it will tell you what is being celebrated
where.
Jewish Heritage Online Magazine
This online magazine, updated weekly, includes many articles about Jewish culture and heritage. Visitors can currently discover how the Jewish calendar was calculated, information about Jewish first names, a weekly lesson, tales and legends from the past and more.
Nutrition and Food - Finding the Right Stuff
This site will help you locate useful resources
regarding nutrition. From the fat intake scale to the nutritional aspects of disease, there's lots
here for anyone interested in the subject.
Official Althorp Web Site
The official Web site for Althorp, the family home and last resting place of Diana, Princess of Wales, has been launched by EMAP, a major London based publisher. The site contains full details of opening dates and facilities at the Spencer family seat near Northampton.
Language Dictionary Resource
This is a great resource for anyone learning or using a second language. The first interface users see is a quick look-up English language dictionary, which is useful in itself, but scroll down and you'll find much more. There are links to more than 400 dictionaries of over 130 different languages and the companion Web of online grammar offers additional resources for the language learner, lover or user.
Visit Russia Online
Three servers in Russia provide lots to read about and might even help you make a decision on your summer vacation destination this year! The first is the official site of the Russian National Tourist Office and will help you explore Moscow. The St. Petersburg site offers all you need to know about Russia's "northern capital" and one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Finally, take a trip through the Russian wilderness and back country on the last site, complete with images and information.
What's it like to be a kid who has an illness?
Find out when you check out My Journal, a collection of
interactive stories written by kids who have different
conditions or illnesses. Get to know Matt, Andrea,
and Kev in as they take you through their stories.
You can read their journal entries, look at their
doodles, see animations, and hear sounds! You'll get
to learn what they think - and more importantly, how
they feel.
Web Developer's Power Grid
Power Grid is a new categorized and commented listing of resources important to Web site owners and designers. Categories covered run the full gamut, from links to basic HTML tutorials to server software, discussion groups, shopping carts, marketing, affiliate programs, general and platform-specific utilities, dealing with search engines, and multi-cultural connections. Visitors may submit their own favorite resources and can even register to receive notifications when the PowerGrid is updated or enhanced.
New Web Browser For Kids
Surfin' Annette is a new browser for the World Wide Web, designed to be used by kids. It can be customized by adults and educators to block access to sites containing a variety of content including atrocity photos, hate language, pornography, and violence. You can use the supplied list of black-listed sites or edit it to form a custom list. The software is shareware.
Check Your Mail, Anywhere!
The second service that will be of interest to travellers, Net Cafe Guide offers a complete index of over 1,550 cybercafes in 89 nations around the world, so local Internet access is always nearby. Better still, the service allows you to access your regular POP e-mail account from the Web, so you can get your e-mail anywhere without having to switch to a less functional Web-based e-mail service.
Education World's Web Report Card 1997
Visit Education World now and you can find the site's report card for educational sites on the Web. Twenty sites were awarded A+ grades and represent the best and most educational Web sites on the Internet, as judged by Education World.
Shareware Junkies Award The Best Of The Year
The Shareware Junkies Web site has announced its 1998 awards for shareware software. Download Butler, a utility for collecting and categorizing downloaded Internet files, won Best Program of the Year honors. Voted by a global user group, the awards cover five categories: Windows 95/NT, Windows 3.x, Macintosh, OS/2 and DOS. Full results and links to the winning software is included on the Shareware Junkies site.
The Best Of Online News
American Journalism Review's Newslink, which is a great index of online news - both newspapers, magazines, radio, television and resources - has a ranking of the year's top 50 Web sites for online news. They were voted on by 32,803 NewsLink readers and the top five features CNN Interactive, Washington Post, USA Today, New York Times and NandO Times.
King Features Web Site
King Features, the world's largest distributor of comics and features, officially goes online this week with a colorful collection of comic strips and panels, syndicated columns and puzzles. The site features more than 75 of the world's most popular newspaper comics, including "Blondie," "Beetle Bailey," "Hagar the Horrible," "The Family Circus," "Hi and Lois," "Dennis the Menace," "The Amazing Spider-Man," "Mutts," "Zippy the Pinhead," and "Zits," the syndicate's newest comic offering.
TV Listings By E-mail
InfoBeat has expanded its e-mail information services with the launch of "TV Tonight," a comprehensive television listings and show summary source available via e-mail for viewers in every area of the country. You can sign up for the service at the Web base and get the latest TV schedules and news, all personalized for your city.
NetInLib-Announce
The NetInLib-Announce email list is a free current awareness service whose purpose is to alert librarians and other information professionals to new, innovative, or useful Internet resources.
The list is general in scope: announcements of any Internet application, site, or service related to information retrieval, organization, or dissemination are welcome, as are announcements of relevant print publications, and public events. Advertisements for products and services that are directly related to use of the Internet in libraries are also welcome. Questions about relevant resources are also permitted, but the list is not intended as a general "reference question" forum; questions should be phrased along the lines of "Anyone know of any new sites on...?"
GovBot
The CIIR GovBot has gathered 628001 web pages from U.S. Government and Military sites around the country. You can search the GovBot database by using a form at this web site.
POP E-mail From Interport
Interport, a New York ISP, has launched a new service offering POP-e-mail only accounts, for $10 per month. The accounts don't feature dial-up access and are designed to be used as a permanent e-mail account, allowing the user the ability to change dial-up ISPs at will. It's similar to the Web based e-mail services, but because it's a POP account, you can use any standard e-mail application to access it and are not tied to Web browser based messaging.
Law Guru Keeps Legal Information Free!
The goal of the Law Guru BBS is try to help people find free answers to some of their legal questions. There are two ways you can try to find answers to legal questions. You can run a search through the BBS database of thousands of previously asked questions or, if you can't find what you are looking for, submit a question to the site and have it posted to our Lawguru.com BBS, so that some of the attorneys on the network may attempt to answer it.
For more information on the Tulsa Computer Society click here
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Tulsa Computer Society 10/1/98
Don Singleton, President
djs@ionet.net