LAURA'S INTERESTING NEW YORK CITY TALES
Laura's life is certainly worth a Web site, even if it's just to post her
hot tips on washing cashmere sweaters (we're still saving) and whitening
bathroom grout. She's no Heloise, though. Her boyfriend disasters reflect
an attractively flippant approach to relationships, from the pastrami
burger that ended one (she's a vegetarian) to the one with a guy who
had no fridge or oven (he sounded sweet nevertheless). With her advice
on good thrift stores, fun stuff in NYC, and meeting men through the
classifieds, Laura appeals to the lovelorn and bargain-hunting fanatics
alike. <http://www.laurasnyctales.com/>
MORNING SICKNESS, THE FATHER, AND OTHER DISCOMFORTS
It's Just Another Baby is not just another pretty Web site. Sure, it's
got a minimalist grace to it, but the real star of the site is the wry,
bright, and often hilarious journal kept by Chris Rywalt during his
wife's pregnancy. If you've had kids, you'll have a chance to revisit
some of the strangeness that becomes conventional during those odd nine
months, and, if you're expecting, you might learn why Chris counsels
parents-to-be to expect nothing. Chris's last gift to the Web was the
Virtual Mr. Spud Head page. He's got two new ones now: a son and a tale
well told. <http://www.westnet.com/~crywalt/pregnancy/contents.html>
Before Pathfinder's exciting sojourn on Mars this summer is replaced in
our focus by new Martian events, there's one last site we want to bring
you. The LittleGreenMartians site lampoons the Pathfinder mission with
a variety of wildly inaccurate news and information on Martians and the
lands they inhabit. The light and pleasant, fluffy humour takes mild jabs
at a wide variety of institutions, including the Pathfinder scientists
and the cute names they've assigned to Martian rocks: "The large,
distinct Martian rock known as "the couch" has been determined yesterday
to be an actual couch." Beware, Earthlings. Mars needs bandwidth, right
now. <http://www.outofservice.com/mars/>
PERFECTLY NICE PLACES WITH NOT SO NICE NAMES
With a home that looks like the cover of a B-grade horror movie,
the gallery has a huge selection of weird stuff such as the S and
M Variety Shop in North Carolina - no it's not a smut house, it's a
G-rated general store. Likewise, the Morphine Boutique in Taiwan and
the Ronald McDonald Funeral Home are perfectly harmless. If you know of
one, you can contribute your own absurdity to this collection. We're
thinking of adding a photo of "Family Planning, use rear entry" found
at an Australian clinic. <http://www.nlci.com/users/royal/absurd.htm>
THE CRAZIEST SITES ON THE PLANET
The designers of this site want to entertain you with a tour of
wacky places on the Web. You can wend through the designated sites
with special Crazy navigation buttons. There's plenty of funny stuff
on this launch site with a simple premise: don't be serious. You'll
want to check out "The 100 Most Classic Guestbook Entries Ever", which
provides offbeat comments about offbeat comments; pretty soon you'll
want to start adding your own. Others stops include "The White Trash
Cafe," "Lee's (Useless) Super-Hero Generator," "WWW Burp-a-thon!",
"Psychic Chicken Network".... You get the idea. The photo gallery is
thin but has potential. This is one of those sites you love to show
co-workers but through which you wouldn't want your boss to catch you
surfing. <http://www.verycrazy.com/crazysites/>
Jim Rosenberg believes he's a funny guy and fortunately for the Net
community, he is. With his columns, he's redefined a man's role by being
able to laugh at himself and his whole family without (apparently)
offending anyone. From comments obout his mother who gave him a Norm
Sloan jacket resembling his "dazzle" screensaver to debunking awkward
social interactions by imagining sexual relations - it's a "devastating
leveller" - his insights are dry and unflagging. With essays on everything
from Play-doh masochism to how to create your own daytime talkshow,
Jim's got the answer to most dilemmas, with some gags that just ache
for a rimshot. <http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/7901/>
HyperHistory Online is a free complement to the static World History Chart
praised by celebrity intellectuals such as Isaac Asimov, James Michener,
and Carl Sagan for its 3,000-year history-at-a-glance view of human
endeavor. Its maps, graphics, and other visuals let you see what was
happening simultaneously in different parts of the world. For example,
"Special Lifelines" charts the history of science and visual arts with
name buttons (Francis Bacon, Bernoulli, Descartes, and so forth) arrayed
on a timeline. The buttons aren't clickable yet - this is a work in
progress. Other "Special Lifelines" will include culture, literature,
philosophy, music, religion, and politics. "Connections" are summaries
about interconnected events, like those in encyclopedias. This is a site
to be watched. <http://www.hyperhistory.com/>
WORLD WAR II AIR COMBAT TRAINING FILMS
Visitors to Zeno's Warbird Video Drive-In will find a treasure trove
of vintage World War II aviation training film footage. Armed with
the RealPlayer player (is that redundant?), netsurfers touching
down on this page will benefit from training films from the 1940s,
back when the universe was in black and white and everyone moved
just a little too quickly. The streaming videos, complete with
audio, instruct pilots on flying such old American workhorses as
the P-40, the P-38, and the F4U. As a special treat, Zeno offers us
"Target for Today", a WWII documentary about a bombing raid over
Germany. <http://members.aol.com/zeno303/Pages/ZenosDrive-In.html>
VOLUNTEER-BASED FREE TECH SUPPORT
No Wonder provides free computer support for MacOS, Windows, Be, Solaris,
and OS/2 users. The service, using volunteers from all over the world,
promises to deliver help within 24 hours, but of course there's no money
back guarantee. We asked some baffling techy questions and got a reply
within five minutes. Top marks to the whole team. <http://www.nowonder.com/>
This typically weird site from Nickelodeon, the kid TV juggernaut that
has something for all ages, still has a few kinks to work out, but even
in its present state is worth a visit. Juicy, by kids for kids, features
a diary by Veronica, who pours out her heart over her best buddy Betty,
boys, friends, and enemies (no, this isn't an Archie comic). Community
volunteering through the Big Help program lifts up the site from a
colorful kids' place into something more vital and intelligent, while
the Games section's Turbo Trivia entranced us while we notched a few
hours on the ISP bill. <http://www.nick.com/>
TAKING THE MYSTERY OUT OF MYSTERY TV
Everyone loves a mystery, but with the abundance of
police/detective/mystery shows currently playing on the tube, the mystery
is often figuring out the air dates and times of these episodes. Armchair
sleuths now have a reason to rejoice, with the introduction of the
Mysteries on TV web site, a compendium of the many television series
that have formed the TV mystery genre. The site has listings both by air
date and by show, be it first-run, a repeat, or in syndication; a trivia
section; and an interesting profile area that provides a decade-by-decade
summary of the great mystery television shows starting back in 1949 with
"Martin Kane, Private Eye". <http://www.MysteryNet.com/TV/>
BASEHIT.COM'S SEARCH ENGINE STARTING POINT
Are your bookmarks threatening to turn into a ten-volume edition? A neat
solution to "I knew where it was but now I've lost it" syndrome is to
use Basehit.com. This fast loading site links to 24 major search engines
plus specialized searches for shareware, the Bible, e-mail addresses, and
travel. A further selection of drop-down menus features lists of sites
roughly grouped under headings like health, news, and downloads. Other
drop-down menus include a direct link to Win95.com and an electronic
Internet auction service. The news is American oriented as are the
financial and business sections, however Basehit.com is a useful place
for anyone to initiate a search for information, and a great place to
start a random surf. <http://www.basehit.com/>
QUICK, GIMME 100 SHARES OF JOSE CRUZ
Wall Street Sports (WSS) recently launched a simulated sports stock
market in which athletes are transformed into virtual securities. So
far, Ken Griffey, Jr. (WSS: GRIF) and Michael Jordan (WSS: JORD) have
been among the most actively traded stocks. Members of WSS have access
to scouting reports for all listed athletes, an online trading desk with
real-time confirmation, and free trading for a limited time. By managing
a successful portfolio, you can win money, prizes and, of course, the
admiration of your peers. <http://www.wallstreetsports.com/>
QUEBEC, SPAIN, AND SUNDRY OTHER MAIL
A marathon session at the old keyboard has finally produced a Letters
to the Editor to deal with the great volume of mail criticizing our
article on the Quebec government's Net policy. Other complaints argue
against our Basque article. We're not expecting a grant from the UN
anytime soon. For another point of view on Quebec language laws,
pay attention to "60 Minutes". Though no date has been set for
the broadcast, the CBS newsjournal is working on a segment on the
issue. <http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/letters/letter.03.29.html>
GETTING DOWN IN HIP MANHATTAN TOWN
It's hard to ignore a site with come-on introductory links such as
"Picking Up Chicks: 10 tips for meeting downtown babes" and "Up All
Night: 24 Hour Shopping", so stay a while at GoldenNYC: New York City's
Downtown Authority, and find out how to thrive in downtown Manhattan. Its
nightlife guide, After Dark, lets you search for clubs, restaurants, and
downtown happenings. Click on an image map to pull up photographs and
thumbnail reviews of restaurants. In FabAdvice, which teaches you how
to be young and fabulous on an entry-level salary, you can "Ask Ann",
find an apartment, and find out what to wear. Eight Million Stories is
a collection of offbeat first-person pieces such as a young writer's
account of his interview for a porn mag editorial position. The intended
audience of GoldenNYC is 20-somethings. If you take away anything, it
might be this reminder in "Picking Up Chicks": Babe Ruth led the league
in strikeouts as well as in home runs. <http://www.goldennyc.com/>
AN APPRECIATION OF ISRAELI CULTURE
To assist in exposing netizenry at large to the contemporary culture of
Israel, the Mining Company, that cornucopia of specialty sites that often
hijacks your browser, is hosting an Israeli culture page. Netsurfers
looking for insight into modern Hebrew culture will find articles of
interest on more than just current events, taking place both in Israel and
elsewhere. Updated on a weekly basis, the Israeli Culture pages endeavor
to cover stories varying from a meeting between Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
and Israel's top Rabbi to belly dancing to the plight of conservative
Masorti Jews inside Israel. <http://israeliculture.miningco.com/>
CyberPath provides access to a virtual hiking experience, for both famous
and lesser-known California hiking trails. Photos and maps take you
through the landscape step-by-step. <http://www.cyberhikes.com/cyberpth/>
COLLEGE RANKINGS PULL NO PUNCHES
Skip those glossy brochures the colleges send out. Critical Comparisons
of American Colleges and Universities dishes out the real dirt on
whether that expensive education is really that much better than
your state college. Details on everything from crime rates to college
ratings. <http://www.memex-press.com/cc/>
For all dedicated fans of Herge's Tintin cartoon series, here is a site
with pictures of original drawings by Herge, erudite analysis of the
left-handedness of the hero, a discussion forum, and a quiz section. Blue
Blistering Barnacles! <http://www.daimi.aau.dk/~jjuhne/COT/cot_home.html>
Catch the latest news about computer viruses transmitted by e-mail and other nefarious means. <http://www.why-not.com/virus/>
This brightly colored site is packed with cat facts, complete with
site search facility. The site gives a comprehensive selection of short
articles, competitions, and trivia. If you like mammals called Tiddles,
you'll love this site. <http://www.petcat.com/>
The Gameboard Home Page offers such gems as Cracked Crosswords
and Spuzzles for those who like a sense of humor with their gaming
pleasure. They're easy fun for family entertainment. Does this sound
like a commercial or what? <http://www.primenet.com/~omnibus/>
If you're cursed (blessed?) with a Web page whose counter is still
in double digits after 12 months, why not get honest and grace your
page with a Bottom 95% of the Web award? This and more bogus awards,
ludicrous software buttons, and other silly gew-gaws can be picked up
here. <http://www.jwp.bc.ca/saulm/html/award.htm>
HOW TO GET YOUR BOOKMARKS FROM FAR AWAY
Browsers store your bookmarks on your hard disk, so you can't access
them from another computer unless you copy them to a floppy disk or
access your computer through a networked peer. This can be a problem when
you're surfing in a library or other place far from your computer. What
to do? Register at the Online Bookmark Manager. You'll be able to access
bookmarks of your choice on the Web. Submit URLs by e-mail to your free
account, and they'll be added automatically to your centralized hotlist
which by default is a list open to the public, though you can make it
so that you're the only one who can view it. Creator Jason Frankovitz
is refining management tools that will let you copy the hotlist on your
hard disk to this site. Why didn't Yahoo, Netscape, or other companies
with lots of traffic and advertisers think of this innovation years ago,
when one particular Netsurfer was in Paris and his bookmarks were in
the Midwest? <http://www.itlist.com/>
You probably have a list of regular Web watering-holes, such as law sites,
download sites, and commercial analysis reports. Javelink offers lawyers,
netsurfers, and executives (and anyone else) a new service which will
make monitoring Web updates a one-stop shop. Javelink creates a page
with your sites. It then monitors each selected page for any change,
however minuscule. The site has an intuitive graphic interface that's
easy to use and full of detailed information, and runs clean and fast
without the aid of ActiveX, Java, plug-ins, or a safety net. Up to 20
sites will be monitored free of charge, and a commercial version can be
purchased to watch more sites. Javelink is a well designed and valuable
time-saver for anyone who needs to keep in touch with what's happening
in their industry. <http://www.javelink.com/>
In last issue's "Twenty-Something E-Zine for Women", we wrote that if
you didn't understand the phrase "if you hork chocolate milk in your
cush mobile while wallowing in bummage" you should check the glossary
in Diane Patterson's "Paperwork" for clarification. We neglected -
not because we're spiteful, but because we're senile - to include a URL
for said oeuvre. Far be it for us to suffer from Silicon Valley Disease
(we had shots). Here 'tis. <http://www.spies.com/~diane/Diary/>
Also in the last issue, "Next Year's Invasion of Mars: Mars Surveyor '98" stated that the probes would slam into Mars at 200 mi/s. We were wrong - the actual speed is a mere 200 m/s. Sorry about that.
RON REIL TREKS TO A NEW SERVER
Once upon a time, we featured the home page of intrepid earth
science teacher and geologist Ron Reil (The Interesting Adventures of
Mr. Reil, NSD 2.22). He's added more of his adventure-filled life to
the Web, as well as changed servers. His page is now at the following
URL. <http://www.webpak.net/~rreil/>
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