DRIVEWAYS OF THE RICH AND FAMOUS
Want to go trick or treating at Jimmy Stewart's house? Or cook up the late
George Burns's former gardener's tacos? Or talk to Linda Ronstadt's
mailman? The opportunity is here. Meet the people who meet the beautiful
people at his site, which interviews employees, neighbors, and deliverers.
The site takes its title from a related LA public access TV show that takes
you to the driveways of Marlo Thomas, Johnny Depp, and Geena Davis, among
others, to discover the tight-security worlds of the rich and famous. At
these pages you can read a terse retort from Madonna and learn from hired
help the domestic routines of their employers. We spent much time here and
found that Liz Taylor is liberal with her Halloween candy. See you at her
place in October! <http://www.cris.com/~Driveway/>
HAVE YOU EVER TOUCHED A CELEBRITY'S BUTT?
It isn't just employees and neighbors who have brushes with celebrity -
maybe you've bumped into a star athlete in a night club or bagged a star's
groceries. Minor Celebrities celebrates such memorable personal milestones.
A few titles of the all-too-brief firsthand accounts will give you an idea
of the fare here: "Driving Robert Redford's Old Wheels!"; "Tucked John
Elway Into Bed!"; "Touched A Celebrity's Butt!" You get the picture. One
wishes some of these tantalizing snippets were fleshed out. Minor
Celebrities invites you to submit your own tale of greatness. We've spotted
Weird Al Yankovic throwing gourds through a basketball hoop at a
renaissance fair. <http://www.netcom.com/~zymrgist/celebrities.html>
The Cynic's Sanctuary has a self-test to see if you qualify. We passed.
They also feature an interesting Cynic's Hall of Fame with details and
quotes from cynics past, a message board, selections from the Cynic's
Dictionary (Morrow, 1994) and more. This is truly classic disgruntled humor
which can be enjoyable to browse. The sitemaster, Rick Bayan, writes a
monthly article and the one we read was engaging for those who think, or do
not think. A must see site. <http://www.amz.com/cynic/>
Pittsburgh-based Ann Devlin has brought her television and radio talk show
hostess talents to the Internet. Once dubbed "the voice of Pittsburgh",
Devlin's Ann On-line site silkily packages recent and archived editions of
radio interviews with a guest list that runs the gamut from shlockmeister
George Romero to rockmeister/snail maven/historian of science Stephen Jay
Gould. The interviews run about 30 minutes, and appear to be reasonably
intelligent, though they won't make a lick of sense without the RealAudio
Player. <http://www.annonline.com/>
There's a bit of something for everyone, media-wise, at Pseudo Programs.
The company creates, produces, and promotes live programming for the Net,
which means there's plenty of RealAudio content here. You'll also find Net
movies, 3-D worlds and animation, chat rooms, games, and Automat, a decent
e-zine. The site is polished and Java-heavy, and can be a bit poky
depending on what you're running. Fortunately, what's offered is worth
waiting for. <http://www.pseudo.com/>
"Douglass" is the title of an electronic archive of some of American
history's most famous texts and speeches. Established and maintained at
Northwestern University, the site targets scholars and students but is a
fine spot for anyone who believes in the power of rhetoric. You can search
for or browse texts by speaker, title, year, or political movement. While
not tremendously extensive, the site sure is inclusive, spanning everything
from John Winthrop's 1625 text, "On Liberty", to Hillary Rodham Clinton's
"Women's Rights are Human Rights" speech 370 years later. Douglass also
features a great set of links that any surfer will find invaluable.
<http://douglass.speech.nwu.edu/>
The first book burned by this gang of literary critics was, of course,
"Farenheit 451". They don't burn to censor but "as an expression of our
love and support for free speech and freedom of expression." They burn the
boring, the wicked, the tastelessly puerile, the tacky and commercial, CDs,
advertisements, and articles at annual celebrations for good writing. See
the pictures and marvel over the claim that the First Amendment allows the
burning of books to supercede all laws including fire codes.
<http://w3.gwis.com/~west/burning.htm>
What's so fascinating about death, destruction, and bizarre human behavior?
That's what we wondered, as we toured this trivia-based site somewhat
spellbound by the mystery of it all. From natural disasters to necrophilia,
from mayhem to murder, the Morbid Fact du Jour has it all - including a
blood-dripping animated GIF - and, we admit, we enjoyed the ride. That's
just sick, isn't it? Stop by and see if you agree.
<http://www.shocking.com/~despair/morbid.htm>
Internet broadcast behemoth AudioNet has added a broadcast channel that
truly brings into focus the definition of narrowcasting. Its
PoliceScanner.com site presents real-time audio feeds of police scanners in
Los Angeles and Dallas plus a Dallas fire scanner. Depending on where you
sit, you can struggle to make sense of a tinny voice directing emergency
response to an event that's thousands of miles away. Definitely a must for
Net vegetables, the concept is so off-the-wall as to approach performance
art. RealAudio again, by the way. <http://www.policescanner.com/index.html>
The Reluctant Gourmet is a former bond broker by day, dedicated amateur
chef by night who wants to help everyone become something more than a
decent cook. The Gourmet's Web site includes featured meals (including a
Valentine's dinner featuring foods that are "orgasmic" - we'll go for
that), archived recipes, a guide to essential kitchen gadgets, and a short
A-to-Z of culinary terms (though it's not alphabetical, go figure).
Wolfgang Puck he may not be, but the Reluctant Gourmet delivers a
contagious enthusiasm for cooking that should have you away from the
computer and into the kitchen sooner than you'd think.
<http://www.pcfastnet.com/~reluctg/>
The purpose of Reel is to help you choose movies to watch. In the "Reel
Genius" section, you rate movies you've seen to get recommendations of
other movies. This selection by inference worked well for us in the
"Action" category - Reel recommended movies we'd enjoyed but hadn't rated,
so the logic worked. One shortcoming: Reel doesn't recommend movies
currently in theaters; this is supposed to change soon. The Reel server
seems slow, and our version of Netscape 3.0 crashed twice here. You may
need persistence to use it as intended. <http://www.reel.com/>
ALL THE NEWS BABES WHO ARE FIT TO TRANSMIT
The News Babe Page describes itself as "the central hub of unreasonable
female newscaster obsession on the World Wide Web", and a "weird little art
project." It's really an extensive collection of links to Web sites of
North American TV stations that maintain profiles of local female
newscasters. The bios are serious - the photos at all the sites we visited
are conservative press portraits. Icons have special meanings - for
example, they tell you whether each woman has won a beauty pageant, is
married, or has an advanced degree. There are many bright and fabulous
women here, including one or two you probably see regularly before bedtime.
A corporate sponsor or two willing to invest in multimedia might make this
site even more interesting. <http://www.well.com/user/jeffreyp/newsbabe1.html>
Better Homes and Gardens magazine has put up a nice site to showcase
information from their Home Improvement Encyclopedia series. Although it
suffers from the usual slow downloading image bloat of many commercial
sites, it has do-it-yourself, fix-it, and build-it articles on plumbing,
electrical and phone wiring, yard structures, and landscaping. It even
offers a tool dictionary and a project calculator to help figure how much
material you will need. Who needs Al? <http://www.bhglive.com/homeimp/>
INVENTORS AND PATENT RESEARCHERS DELIGHT
All United States Patents since 1971 are online, courtesy of IBM (no slouch
in the patent securing field, by the way). Using a familiar search engine
interface, you can search by a number of fields including: inventor,
assignee, title, abstract, claims, and agent. You can access over 26 years
of US Patent and Trademark Office patent descriptions as well as the last
17 years of patent images. In all, it amounts to over two million patents.
You might also want to visit the What's New? and FAQ pages, as well as
information on the interesting history and background of this site.
<http://patent.womplex.ibm.com/>
TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY AS IT SHOULD BE
Wendy Chan, a professional photographer from Singapore, specializes in
people and travel images. Most of her work is for magazines and other
editorial publications. Here you'll see some samples, great photos in
brilliant color with interesting subjects and composition. Another part of
her site is the food and kitchen section where she presents cooking, chefs,
and anything else connected with food. Simple, elegant, sublime.
<http://www.wendychan.com/>
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORES MAP TERRITORY
From the people who bring you exciting new views of the world in print and
on TV comes a map resource so nationally geographic, you can practically
hear the theme music in the background. Go ahead, hum a few bars. Anyway,
if you're looking for maps of the world, this is the place to go. Click on
the continent, country, or region of your choice, and you'll get a good
dose of visual and textual information. A nifty Shockwave-operable
political map is also available.
<http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngs/maps/cartographic.html>
Mobile, Ala., probably isn't on your top 20 wish list of places to see
before you die. Heck, it probably isn't even in the top 25, but don't let
that keep you away from this superb Web resource. These pages have
everything you could ask for: history and culture; weather; places to see
and stay; convention and tour planning resources; nice graphics; short load
time; etc. The only things we couldn't find were maps. Mobile is named for
the Mauvilla natives (mauvilla is the native word for paddler) who lived
along the banks of Mobile Bay. We highly recommend you go paddle around its
Web site. <http://www.mobile.org/>
TOUR EGYPT IN ALL ITS SPLENDOR
The Ministry of Tourism in Egypt brings you the land of pyramids in a truly
elegant and comprehensive travel guide/planner. Be sure to check out the
travel tips and tourism resources, not to mention the very impressive Red
Sea Virtual Diving Center. Way cool fish! <http://interoz.com/egypt/>
No one says traveling in Europe is inexpensive these days. But here's a
site that helps you find the best bang for your franc, pound, mark, lira,
krone, euro, and so on. Whether you choose to backpack, travel by rail, or
hang out in hostels, stop by the Eurotrip Guide and get some tips before
you go. There's also a chat room so you can talk to fellow travelers and a
monthly newsletter. <<http://www.eurotrip.com/>
If you're debating which movies to rent, the Cinemachine: Movie Review
Search Engine can help. Enter the title of a movie, and you get links to
relevant reviews. If the Cinemachine can't find any links, you can try to
get help from the movie database link that comes up instead.
<http://www.cinemachine.com/>
Friendly, fun Rosie O'Donnell takes her show online with a scrapbook,
program notes, and an e-mail form. Okay, so some of the graphics are a
little slow to load. What do you want, a really fast-loading,
content-driven site about a day-time talk show? Even Rosie would probably
tell you to get real. <http://www.rosieo.com/>
MAMMA MIA! ENOUGH SEARCHING, ALREADY!
Calling itself the "Mother of all Search Engines", the Mamma search engine
consists of links to many major search engines and indices (Alta Vista,
Lycos, Yahoo, etc.), a search field, and some general subject links
(business, entertainment, sports, etc.). <http://www.mamma.com/>
Visit Microsoft CarPoint if you're buying a car, whether or not you're keen
on Bill. The online auto market will be huge, and judging by the resources
here, Microsoft intends to be a major player. Navigation is a breeze. Of
course, the site points out that you'll get the best experience with
Internet Explorer. <http://www.carpoint.com/>
If cars aren't your style, try Bikesite. It covers just about every aspect
of biking you can imagine, from helmets to lifestyle to shaving. If you
bike, pedal on over. <http://www.bikesite.com/>
The 1990s' version of a birth announcement has arrived. Blessed Events will
scan a snap of your newborn and post it gratis for six weeks. Instead of
handing out cigars, you'll be handing out URLs. <http://blessedevent.com/>
Here are two sites with whose primary appeal is excellent Shockwave
implementation. If you get your jollies watching creativity in action,
check out BMG Australia and Club 18-30.
BMG: <http://www.bmg.com.au/interactive/>
Club: <http://www.club18-30.co.uk/>
Need a job? Need an employee? This site features jobs throughout the US.
You can search databases such as Job, Internship, Part Time, and Volunteer.
There are also several work-related articles on the site. If you have a
position to fill, 4Work.com wants you, too. <http://www.4work.com/>
MORE CHANCES TO TOIL AND SLAVE
The USjob.network Web site lets you search for a job, post your resume,
and, if you're an employer, hunt through those resumes and post your
listings. The jobs are all high tech, so if you're seeking employment as an
underpaid writer, call us instead. <http://www.usjob.net/>
Sports, sports sports sports. Sports, sports sports sports. Wonderful
sports, wonderful sports. <http://www.sportquest.com/>
This page of troubleshooting tips for Macintosh owners suffering the slings
and arrows of outrageous outages due to Mac misbehavior could ease your
pain. The troubleshooting guide to freezes and crashes is detailed,
readable, and walks you through the troubleshooting process. The site
includes a huge number of links to further tips, software, and wisdom that
may help you diagnose your Mac's ills. A must for diehard Mac owners with
occasionally cantankerous Macs. <http://www.zplace.com/crashtips/>
WALK YOUR DOG FOR CANCER RESEARCH
Whether you are in person at the promenade along New York City's Riverside
Park on May 4 - with dog or not - or you choose to walk your dog elsewhere
and send in a picture, the American Cancer Society wants you to register
for Dog's Walk '97. Backed by pledges, you and your dog will raise money
for cancer research and have a doggone good time in the process. You can
bet the pooches don't exactly want any funds to go to feline leukemia
research.... Oh, yeah - watch where you step.
<http://www.dogswalk.com/index.htm>
The beta of RealPlayer, which plays both RealAudio and RealVideo files, is
only available for Windows 95/NT and Mac Power PC. Sorry to falsely raise
your hopes, Unix folk. The RealAudio only software can indeed be used on
several Unix platforms. <http://www.real.com/>
Netsurfer Digest Home Page: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/index.html
Netsurfer Digest FTP Site: ftp://ftp.netsurf.com/pub/nsd/
Subscribe WWW form: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/subscribe.html
Subscribe E-mail: nsdigest-request@netsurf.com
Include one of the following commands in the BODY of the
message:
HTML Format version: subscribe nsdigest-html
Plain ASCII version: subscribe nsdigest-text
Unsubscribe and other FAQ info: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/ndfaq.html
Submission of Newsworthy Items: pressrm@netsurf.com
Letters to the Editor: editor@netsurf.com
Advertiser and Sponsor inquiries to: sales@netsurf.com
Netsurfer Communications: http://www.netsurf.com/
General Information: info@netsurf.com
Letters to the editor may be printed unless you explicitly tell us not to.
Writers and Netsurfers
NETSURFER DIGEST © 1997 Netsurfer Communications, Inc.
All rights reserved.
NETSURFER DIGEST is a trademark of Netsurfer Communications, Inc.