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HOME TOPICS SEARCH ABOUT ME I downloaded three detailed pictures of the Syracuse area from space. (Is that my neighbor Tom I see scraping the ice off his roof?) |
technofile Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983 Delightful side trips on the Web's bywaysNov. 7, 2001 By Al Fasoldt Copyright © 2001, Al Fasoldt Copyright © 2001, The Post Standard The Web is many things, but sometimes what it's like more than anything else is a giant candy store. You can find just about all the goodies you want if you look hard enough. I had a day and a half after a recent vacation journey to prowl around for interesting items. I'll share some of the best this week. Before I do, however, I'll quickly pass along what reader Maurice Lampell told me in a note. He was searching for the old AltaVista Search program. I'd raved about it a few years ago (www.twcny.rr.com/technofile/texts/bit092897.html), but AltaVista stopped supporting the program and it disappeared from the company's download sites. Lampell found it on a server in Russia, and I downloaded it a few days ago to make sure it is still there. Here's the complete address of the file: ftp.kharkov.ua/pub/win95/internet/search/altavista/AVP_253a_32i.exe. Read my review of AltaVista Search (formerly called AltaVista Personal Extension) before considering it. (The site was not cooperating when I checked it again. If you can't get to it, try it a day or two later.) And now some for my discoveries: A gallery of paintings you can look at and even buy: www.paintingsdirect.com. Some of them are OK, some are good and some I wish I could hang on my wall. (Santa, are you listening?) It costs nothing to look at them, however. I love this site. A great site to find out what's really in all those legal (and maybe illegal) drugs: www.erowid.org. I liked the caffeine section best. (I'm a coffee fanatic.) Photography and art, in a beautiful mix: www.polaroid.com/studio/. Polaroid Corp. seems to be about to disappear into the dustbin of history, so go visit this site before it succumbs to cost cutting at the company that invented instant photography. This site has class written all over it. Views from overhead (WAY overhead): www.visibleearth.nasa.gov. I typed "syracuse" (without quotes) into the search form and downloaded three detailed pictures of the Syracuse area from space. They were taken on Feb. 13, 2000. (Is that my neighbor Tom I see scraping the ice off his roof?) The Internet, in no uncertain terms: www.icehouse.net/jim_d. (The address ends with "jim" followed by an underscore and a "d"). Jim Dettwiler knows how to explain things, and he's got a great site full of help for practically everything related to the Internet. Notice the bike he's riding on the main page? That's a recumbent. Watch carefully and you'll see me on my recumbent riding around town any weekend, as long as it's not snowing very hard. Your browser x-rayed: www.gemal.dk/browserspy/. This site is scary. It tells you more than you ever wanted anybody else to know about your own browser and computer system. Ouch! |