Internet Resources New Sites/Articles (Updated - 9/2/2007)
BreakTheChain.org "BreakTheChain.org tries to educate the world that e-mail is an unreliable medium for sharing information and that the first step to reducing the amount of junk out there is to stop sending it yourself."
Interactive Weather Map Weather.com's real-time street-level weather maps. Cool and useful! Still in beta testing, so is sometimes unavailable.
Washington Post Puzzles Crosswords, sudoku
USAToday Many puzzles, including crosswords, sudoku
Casual Printable Crossword Seven American-style crosswords are available each day (rotated at midnight eastern time). Solutions available the next day.
Newsday Crosswords Many daily crosswords, with easy to use interface, that can be saved or printed.
Retirement Planning Websites From the NC Treasurer's website
Internet Speed Test Test you connection speed. Requires Flash.
PhilosophyTalk.org "A weekly, one-hour radio series. The hosts' down-to-earth and no-nonsense approach brings the richness of philosophic thought to everyday subjects."
LiveScience.com Very large resource of science related articles.
Snipshot "This website allows you to upload images from your computer and edit them. Or you can enter the Web address of any photo stored online and get a copy with which to work. Snipshot uses nondestructive editing - the original image that is taken from your computer or the Web remains untouched. The site also keeps a copy of the uploaded image for 24 hours before discarding it."
XP Tweaking Companion "A complete system optimization guide for Windows XP users. It contains an enormous amount of detailed descriptions and resources together in one free 175 page downloadable PDF file. Everything from the correct installation of Windows and critical software and drivers, through to recommendations for every significant setting in XP, all the major performance, visual and convenience tweaks, and descriptions of XP's functionality."
Princeton University: WebMedia - Lectures Many streaming videos of lectures by eminent intellectuals in many fields. Great stuff!
Google Docs & Spreadsheets With Google Docs & Spreadsheets, you can: Use our online editor to format documents, spell-check and more. Upload Word documents, OpenOffice, RTF, HTML or text. Download documents to your desktop as Word, PDF and more. View your documents' revision history and roll back to any version. Plus, since its online, you can: Invite others to share your documents by e-mail address. Edit documents online with whomever you choose. Publish documents online to the world, or to just who you choose.
Conversations with History RealVideo interviews - very enlightening. "In these lively and unedited interviews, distinguished men and women from all over the world talk about their lives and their work. Interviews span the globe and include discussion of political, economic, military, legal, cultural, and social issues shaping our world." Also you can find these interviews on Google Video
DSLreports Speedtest Test the speed of your Internet connection.
Tour the Cosmos A multimedia foray into the mysteries of the universe - WONDERFULLY DONE.
Roger McGuinn Incredibly beautiful folk music on 12-string in RealAudio/MP3 - former leader of the Byrds of "Mr. Tamborine Man" and "Turn, Turn, Turn" fame. Here is a video of Roger singing/playing "Turn, Turn, Turn."
BBC Radio 4 Great audio content - streaming audio programs - Arts and Drama, Comedy, Religion/Ethics, History
BBC4 Science Great science content - including streaming audio programs - wonderful stuff
The Connection.org "The Connection with Dick Gordon website" - interesting interviews/call-in programs on many topics
Science Friday "An online companion to Science Friday, a weekly science, technology, and environment news radio program." - including many archived programs
Classical KING-FM "Broadcasting classical music LIVE from Seattle Washington on the radio and on the NET! The widest variety of live and recorded classical performances. Excellent for at work or homework!"
WCPE.org WCPE (Classical) streams audio over the Internet 24 hours a day in MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Real Audio, Windows Media & QuickTime!
Cliff-Notes Literature Notes Useful even if you don't have to write a term paper.
Improbable Research "Genuine, improbable research culled from more than 10,000 science, medical, and technical, and academic journals, with some deadpan concoctions stirred into the mix.." Home of the Ig Nobel Prizes.
Writely.com: The Web Word Processor Very useful! Well executed! Free, easy signup. Why didn't Google think of this! Share documents instantly & collaborate real-time. Pick exactly who can access your documents. Edit your documents from anywhere. Nothing to download -- your browser is all you need. Store your documents securely online. Offsite storage plus data backup every 10 seconds. Easy to use. Clean, uncluttered screens with a familiar, desktop feel.
What Don't We Know? Articles concerning "the most compelling puzzles and questions facing scientists today."
Cold War International History Project "Disseminates new information and perspectives on the history of the Cold War, in particular new findings from previously inaccessible sources on "the other side" -- the former Communist world."
Turning the Pages "Leaf through 15 great books and magnifiy the detail - uses the Shockwave plug-in, which can be downloaded from the Macromedia website, to simulate the action of turning the pages of a real book." Fantastic!
Council on Foreign Relations Great resource on international issues.
The Harvard Classics/The Five-Foot Shelf of Fiction "The Harvard Classics provided the general reader with a great storehouse of standard works in all the main departments of intellectual activity. The Five-Foot Shelf, with its introductions, notes, guides to reading, and exhaustive indexes, may thus claim to constitute with these Lectures a reading course unparalleled in comprehensiveness and authority."
PoemHunter 94,413+ poems from 10,619+ poets, 39,210+ songs, 64,870+ quotations - lots to browse - searchable
Project Gutenberg Obviously not a new site, but Project Gutenberg, one should remind oneself, is the home to over 17,000 public domain works in ebook (ASCII and HTML) formats - an immense treasure.
The Republic of Pemberley Huge site celebrating Jane Austin's work.
Help2Go "A community committed to offering free computer technical support, help, and tutorials, in a way that everyone can understand."
Google Print "Search the full text of books (and discover new ones)."
PandemicFlu.gov "The official U.S. government Web site for information on pandemic flu and avian influenza."
Odeo "Explore the world of podcasting: play, download, and create MP3s about interesting things."
SimplyHired.com "SimplyHired indexes more than 4.5 million jobs from thousands of sources and provides filtered searches, ratings and other services for job hunters."
ZDNET podcasts Computer technology podcasts
yahoo's podcasts Search yahoo's comprehensive catalog to find the best podcasts on the Web.
WiFi Hotspot Locator "Wondering where to find the nearest publicly available WiFi Internet access? TechNewsWorld's Free WiFi Hotspot Locator is a global directory of nearly 70,000 locations in 26 countries."
Global Tectonics Fascinating animations illustrating geological processes.
ChangeDetection " Every day ChangeDetection will check to see if the web page you are monitoring has been changed. If so, you will receive an e-mail to let you know."
xpBargains "Find best online deals & coupons on computer hardware & software, consumer electronics and more!" Similar to TechBargains, but might find some additional deals. Seems somewhat better organized than TechBargains.
Google Maps Currently in "beta" testing, but very robust and useful, with integrated satellite views.
Google Guide Extensive and interesting tutorial on how to best use Google.
Windows Password Recovery "How can I gain access to a Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 computer if I forgot the administrator's password? How can I reset the administrator's password if I forgot it?" Another method here.
What to do when a Word document won't open "Try these tips to help make the recovery."
North Carolina Department of Justice ID Theft Site Contains good info for anyone who has been a victim of ID fraud, or wishes to protect themselves from such. "Approximately 286,000 North Carolinians have their identity stolen each year. A typical victim spends on average $800 and 175 hours over 23 months to clean up his or her credit and erase $18,000 in fraudulent charges."
National Weather Service's Graphical Forecasts Very cool. After this page loads, you can mouseover the links on the left to see progressive color-coded maps of precipitation probabilities, among other things - this link is to the Mid Atlantic map
MIT's OpenCourseWare "A free and open educational resource for faculty, students, and self-learners around the world." Incredible content - now if I just had some free time!
HOW THINGS WORK Encourages everyone to learn about the physics and science of the world around them.
Photoxels "Provides news about the best digital cameras in concise fact sheets. Our digital camera reviews are hands-on and free of technical jargon. Photoxels also includes a buyer's guide, a history of cameras, a tutorial and a glossary."
Myproductadvisor.com/ Interesting concept - you interactively make choices that result in recommendations customized for you - helps when shopping for items where there a lot of choices, like digital cameras, PDAs, smartphones, and autos - which incidently this site is cutrntly built to handle. This is a concept that needs to catch on.
Maps of Iraq Many excellent, detailed maps of Iraq.
GetNetWise Public service site with tips and tutorials (some video) on Internet safefy, privacy, spyware, spam, viruses.
Understanding DVD Physical Compatibility Web site of the Optical Storage Technology Association. If you are thinking of buying a DVD recorder to transfer VHS tapes or record TV programs, you need to know some facts about the different DVD formats.
Science Hobbyist Popular science resources, especially for K-12 grades, but also interesting if your are an average science geek.
Hoover Institution Weekly Essays Original essays by Hoover Institution fellows on international affairs and national public policy topics. Also see the Hoover Digest for intersting articles, such as Niall Ferguson's "What is Power?"
Bandwidth Meter speed test "The CNET Bandwidth Meter speed test will check the bandwidth of your Internet connection against top DSL, cable modem, and other broadband services."
UCTV.TV Some great educatiional Real video-on demand content, available in both live and in archives.
9/11 Commission Report Complete 9/11 Commission Report available as a single PDF file, or broken down by chapter.
A Brief History Of The End Of Everything "A series exploring how our ideas about the end of the universe have been shaped by religion, belief, and the contemporary state of scientific thinking and observation." A series of streaming audio programs on contemporary cosmology.
BBC - Languages "Learn Spanish, German, French and Italian and other languages with the BBC Languages site. From holiday phrases to a complete course."
Fun-with-words.com "Over 500 pages of word puzzles, games, amazing lists, and fun facts."
Jane Goodall Institute " Founded by renowned primatologist Jane Goodall, JGI is a global nonprofit that empowers people to make a difference for all living things." Beautiful site with much info on the wild.
The Elder Geek XP Many tricks and tips for fixing XP
Microsoft ClearType for Win XP "Font display technology that dramatically improves font display resolution and marks a genuine breakthrough in screen readability." Especially true for flat screen displays. This interactive page turns on ClearType, which is turned off by default in Win XP.
TweakXP.com "Almost a thousand tweaks & tips covering almost every aspect of the Microsoft Windows XP operating system."
GlobalSecurity.org "The organization is working to improve the capabilities of the American intelligence community to respond to new and emerging threats, reducing the need to resort to the use of force, while enhancing the effectiveness of military forces when needed. GlobalSecurity.org also supports new initiatives utilizing space technology to enhance international peace and security."
USA Today Financial Calulators Free online calculators for home mortgages, retirement, credit cards, autos, and many more.
Calorie Database Contains a wealth of nutritional information on over 18,000 individual food items, with detailed breakdown of calories, carb, fat, and protein. Searchable.
Nationmaster.com A data source and comparison tool for national statistics...you can generate maps and graphs with ease.
MIT's OpenCourseWare "With the publication of 500 courses, MIT OCW offers [FREE!] educational materials from 33 academic disciplines and all five of MIT's schools."
The Center For Democracy & Technology "CDT seeks practical solutions to enhance free expression and privacy in global communications technologies." Here you will find an online snooper, which let you know how much information you are sharing about yourself when you surf the Internet.
Knowledgerush.com An online book directory: 9500+ free books from 1500+ authors
An Evening with C.S. Lewis A one-man play in realvideo - excellent and funny - from the UCTV network Video-on-Demand archive.
WWW unit converter Online conversion of area, density, energy, force, length, mass, power, pressure, speed, temperature, volume and bytes.
Federal Trade Commission: Identity Theft Information on identity theft
Arborday.org Tree Guide "Detailed information on dozens of commonly planted landscape trees that grow throughout the United States. Here you will find information on height and spread, soil and sun requirements, leaves and fruit, history, wildlife habitat, and more."
Word for the Wise "A popular radio program broadcast on public radio stations ... offers a daily glimpse into the world of words and language. You can read transcripts of past shows and listen to audio recordings of the program."
Urban Legends and Folklore (and Hoaxes) Help combat urban legends & hoaxes! How many email and virus hoax messages do you receive per month? Too many, no doubt. Help stamp out the curse of email time wasters and hysterical virus warnings. This site has a comprehensive list of Internet and virus hoaxes. Read in-depth articles about the sources and evolution of urban legends. Also see The Urban Legend Combat Kit for a free collection of canned responses to help you combat Internet myths and urban legends - like the Free M&Ms hoax.
Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity "The world's first home theater audio/video magazine to be published only in electronic format on the Internet, available since 1994"
Tying Ties How to tie Windsor, half-Windsor, Four-finger. Mirror-image drawings. Indispensable.
Fathom.com Free online seminars
5 Star Support "A free technical support site with thousands of Tips, Tricks, Tutorials and problem solving technical information."
Interest.com "Comparison shop for the lowest mortgage rates on the Internet with Interest.com! Consumers can also learn everything they need to know about financing a home." Also has a large collection of Javascript and Java mortgage and financial calculators.
The Cave of Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Beautifully rendered tour of the Cave of Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc
CD-Recordable FAQ "A Usenet newsgroup FAQ, updated and posted around the middle of each month. The main foci are explaining CD-R technology, describing hardware and software solutions for creating audio CDs and CD-ROMs, and helping people find solutions to common problems."
MysteryGuide.com The "core of our site is an ever-expanding database of original book reviews --- almost 700 at last update."
EHow "Learn how to do anything and get what you need to do it"
HowStuffWorks Have you ever wondered how the engine in your cell phone works or what makes your refrigerator cold?
Index Librorum Liberorum "John Walker, founder of Autodesk, in retreat in Switzerland, posts an eclectic assortment of texts and programs."
The World's Water "A site dedicated to providing up-to-date water information and data"
Junkbusters "Master self-defense against privacy-invading marketing" - Microsoft and the GUID
TheLaw.com "You can conduct research on issues, download legal documents and forms, and get up-to-the-minute news about the law. You can even participate in professionally-led support groups or speak directly with lawyers in our one-on-one chat. All for free!"