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• USGS Geographic Names Information System: This interesting form will let you look up the location and a map of any named geographic feature in the US. Have you forgotten where Hawksbill Mtn or Sliding Rock is? This is the service for you. • Bembo's Zoo: Here's a fascinating and creative page for kids of all ages. With Flash animation and sounds, clicking on letters of the alphabet magically transform them into animals. Click "Z" and the letters from the word "Zebra" swirl and mix to finally form the shape of a Zebra. Very cleverly done and it's fun to watch it all come together. You'll need to have the free Macromedia Flash Player browser plug-in to see this one. • An Atlas of Cyberspace: This is an atlas of maps and graphic representations of the geographies of the new electronic territories of the Internet, the World-Wide Web and other emerging Cyberspaces. Check out the Artistic pages for some mind blowing images created by artists in literature, art, computer games, films and television. These cybermaps help us visualize and comprehend the new digital landscapes beyond our computer screen, in the wires of the global communications networks and vast online information resources. The cybermaps, like maps of the real-world, help us navigate the new information landscapes, as well being objects of aesthetic interest. They have been created by 'cyber-explorers' of many different disciplines, and from all corners of the world. Fascinating! • IDEA CLUB ONLINE: The Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness (IDEA) Club Online site is a student-run club at UC San Diego whose primary purpose is to "promote the idea that life was designed by an Intelligence, and to bring people together, regardless of their beliefs, to have open, friendly discussion over issues related to creation & evolution". Briefly, proponents of this theory, led by a group of academics and intellectuals and including some biblical creationists, accept that the earth is billions of years old, not the thousands of years suggested by a literal reading of the Bible. However, they dispute the idea that natural selection, the force Darwin suggested drove evolution, is enough to explain the complexity of the earth's plants and animals. That complexity, they say, must be the work of an intelligent designer. This is an intriguing new theroy of the origins of life and a fascinating site as well. • Fred Langa's home page: Web home of computer author, editor, analyst, and consultant Fred Langa. You may know him from his previous work as VP/Editorial Director at WINDOWS Magazine (now defunct — thanks to step-parent, CMP), or as Editor in Chief of Byte Magazine, or from various appearances at trade shows and on TV and radio. This site is a treasure trove of information on every aspect of computers and the industry itself. Subscribe to the Langa List newsletter for the help you need to make the most of your hardware, your software and your time online. • Pinoy7: For those of you who use the image editor, Paint Shop Pro, or anyone who would like to see what can be accomplished with it, check out Richie Dumlao's Pinoy7 Web site. It's awesome and a testament to the power of PSP. Tutorials, free downloads, tips and a forum for your questions round out one of the best sites for PSP users or those who want to see what can be done with it. Photo Shop look out! • OpenLetters: Open Letters is a new magazine of first-person writing in the form of personal correspondence. These are actual personal letters written between people. They aren't meant to be stories, but they are. This random insight into people's lives can be poignant, witty and always interesting. • Google: It's becoming increasingly uncommon these days to find a search engine that does nothing but search; and search well. Google's award-winning, common sense approach nearly always seems to come up with exactly what you're looking for — and it's fast. Try it right now by entering your query in the search box below. Note:To return to this page, just hit the 'Back' button on your browser.
• • The Louvre Museum: From it origins as a fortress built in the late 12th century, through a succession of French Kings, to its present day status as one of the earliest European museums housing one of the finest collections of art in the world, the Louvre Museum is now online and much of its art viewable by virtual tour. For more art-related links, check out this PBS "Art on the Net" site. • The Darwin Awards: Tales of human stupidity — don't you just love 'em? The Darwin Awards celebrate Charles Darwin's theory of evolution in action by commemorating the remains of individuals who contributed to the improve- ment of our gene pool by removing themselves from it. Whenever I think I just have to be the dumbest guy on the planet, I visit this site and begin to feel a little better about myself! Warning: These stories end in the demise of human beings. • The Miami Herald: This is the online version of one of my favorite newspapers and the one where Dave Barry's column makes me laugh everyday. • SYMBOLS.com: The world's largest online encyclopedia of graphic symbols! SYMBOLS.com contains more than 2,500 Western signs, arranged into 54 groups according to their graphic characteristics. In 1,600 articles, their histories, uses, and meanings are thoroughly discussed. The signs range from ideograms carved in mammoth teeth by Cro-Magnon men, to hobo signs and subway graffiti. This is a rather arcane, but extrememly interesting site — anybody need a subject for a research paper that will impress your teacher? This is it! • MapTech: MapTech has been producing CD-based mapware for quite a while, and it's good stuff that lets you plan a hike, boat trip or other or outing,and then print a customized topo map that has just the sections and information you need. Now they've gone online with a free topo map server; it also serves up nautical charts: Enter the name of your city or town, select the state and click 'Go'. For coastal areas, you can also turn on the split screen option and view the topo and chart side-by-side. It's that easy. Print what you see for free! • Paint Shop Pro: Download the latest shareware version of this image editing program and take the time to learn it. From professional graphics to photo retouching and Web graphics creation — Paint Shop Pro has it all ( It even includes an animation creation program, Animation Shop). I created most of the buttons, links and graphics for this Web site using PSP 5. The new version (PSP 7) is even better. There is even a version for Windows 3.1! • Web Graphics on a Budget: If you've ever wanted to create your own graphics for your Web site, edit your digital photos, or any image at all — download a trial copy of Paint Shop Pro and let Mardi Wetmore show you how. She has basic tutorials on PSP, but the fun is in creating the buttons, special text, masks, and loads of other tips and techniques. Plus, her links page will take you to some of the best graphics and font sites on the Web. • Neat Net Tricks:This site offers a more lighthearted approach to the computing experience. NNT has something for every level of computer user and presents it in a way everyone can understand. A free newsletter is available. Highly recommended! • Join the Naked horde: Relax — I'm refering to the tens of thousands of sub- scribers who receive The Naked PC newsletter. TNPC covers a broad spectrum of computing topics and in an easy-to-digest way. TNPC's homepage can tell you more about becoming a Naked subscriber! • The Ziff-Davis Web site(ZDNet): Includes a baker's dozen of the Ziff-Davis computer- related magazines to search for information as well as free software downloads, product reviews and forums where you can get any question answered about your computing problems. A huge site — the best place to start for information about computers and computing. Highly recommended! • Astronomy Picture of the Day: The 'APOD' archive contains the largest collection of annotated astronomical images on the Internet. This site features some of the most awesomely beautiful images and photos of the universe you'll ever see — many taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. A new image is featured every day and there is a complete calendar where you can select monthly photos going back to June of 1995! • Battle.net: This is where Cameron plays Starcraft with kids from all over the world. . .Sweet! • PowWow: This instant-messaging client isn't famous (yet) like the ones from AOL, MSN.com, or Yahoo!, but the new version is compatible with messages from AOL, MSN Messenger, and PowWow users. Everyone you know who uses instant messaging can show up in one PowWow window. • SurfMonkey Kids Channel: This Web directory is kid-safe with links guaran- teed to be great for kids. You can add the Surf Monkey Bar for safer surfing. The Bar uses SurfMonkey.com's proprietary in-page filtering for on-the-fly blocking of inappropriate language, both words and phrases, on Web sites, in email and during chat sessions. Click here to learn more. • Discovery Kids: Got curious kids like we do? Send them to this spin-off of the Discovery Channel for projects, adventures, and articles about the world around us. Kids can personalize the site by using the Automatic Adventure Personality Profile. • Pearls of URL's: Billed as "Links to the Best Sites on the Web", this site is more than just a list of lists. It's got catagories (Desk Top, Computers, Games, Multimedia, Variety Shows, Childrens) that let you get right to the area you would like to explore. Frequently updated, this is a place you should visit every month to find new information, or just to sample the incredible variety of the Web. Good for you "aimless wanderers". Highly recommended! • Jimmy Buffet: Even non-"Parrot Heads" will enjoy this site. Buffett isn't just a singer / refugee from the seventies with a small cult following, but an ongoing lifestyle into the year 2000 — still going strong. His Margaritaville Web site is a nice place to visit. •
Library of Congress: The same four words keep
coming up when describing the many parts of this oldest
of federal cultural institutions in the USA — "
the largest collection of...". Each of the myriad
collections, whether it be rare books, photos, historical
manuscripts, audio, visual, and performing arts
collections — seems to be the largest collection of
its kind in the world. The collections include some 17
million books, 2 million recordings, 12 million
photographs, 4 million maps, and 50 million
manuscripts. Even though only a fraction of this immense
compendium is digitized online, you could still be
overwhelmed by the sheer mass of information if it
weren't for the excellent organization of the site. You
owe it to yourself to visit at least once a month just to
browse. Highly recommended! [ Front Page • Home • Photos • Quotes • Vette • Wx
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last updated 09/12/01 |
