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Waisting time with Toondoo.com
I just spent the last few hours relaxing and reading the great user created cartoons at toondoo.com. This site lets you create very simple or complex comic strip type cartoons and publish them online.
The interface is based on Flash and using the comic creator is very easy. In just a few minutes you can have your own comic strip created and published. Just make a selection from the list of a characters, pictures, or backgrounds, and add your text and you have your comic strip.
I created a few comics for your enjoyment. Just search for Seniorgeek and take a look.
http://www.toondoo.com/View.toon?param=3863
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Newsletter – 3-25-07
How Products Are Made explains and details the manufacturing process of a wide variety of products, from daily household items to complicated electronic equipment and heavy machinery. The site provides step by step descriptions of the assembly and the manufacturing process (complemented with illustrations and diagrams) Each product also has related information such as the background, how the item works, who invented the product, raw materials that were used, product applications, by-products that are generated, possible future developments, quality control procedures, etc.
http://www.madehow.com/
A lot has changed in the last few years. Watch the Consumer Reports Complete Video Buying Guide: Big-Screen TVs. Then, use their step-by-step guide to find the TV that best suits your preferences and your budget.
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/electronics-computers/tvs/index.htm
Spring is officially here so thoughts tend to be on upcoming outside activities. If one of your outside activities is gardening, this site is for you. Billed as the largest gardening site on the web, it has many links and articles about gardening. There are reference to blogs, hot to articles, photo galleries, forums, tools and directories, and the usual links to business sites selling everything you need to build that award winning garden.
http://www.gardenweb.com/
How energy efficient is your house? Don’t know? Check out this site and you will find out how well you do as compared to the people in your area. Just enter in your zip code and fill out a questionnaire and the results will be in front of your eyes. If you didn’t fair so well, this site will help you with all the changes necessary to make your house energy efficient.
http://hes.lbl.gov/
Ok, some of you have asked how I find all this stuff I put in this newsletter. When you search you go to Google and usually stop there. This site has a list of 100 alternative search engines that specialize in custom searches for specific items or categories. I use a lot of the custom search engine when I am looking for non common items or specific types of items. The author explains his reasoning for each site and why it is worth while to use. Charles Knight is the resident guru on search engines and I have followed his recommendations in the past.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top_100_alternative_search_engines.php
Now, the following site my make some people feel very uncomfortable but, this is a national problem and it need to be fixed. Yea, I know we are all are little bit overweight but are we doing something about it? This site form the Center for Disease Control has many resources to help and shows the effects of obesity on people.
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/index.htm
“Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honor.”
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Newsletter – 3-18-07
During WW2, that’s world war 2 for you younger readers, many of the bombers had some great nose and tail art on the airplanes. This site has a good selection of the pictures from those planes plus some history on how the practice of painting names on the planes got started. A piece of US history that I am glad some one preserved.
http://www.savethegirls.org/
Curious about a web site’s technical info? How about what it might be worth on the open market?
At this site there are many domain tools wrapped into one convenient package. A domain traffic tool, a domain whois tool, a domain history, a domain popularity, domain appraisal (site value report), a link value appraisal (link value report), page rank check, an inbound links count, an indexed pages check and more.
http://www.dnscoop.com/
Would like to try some type of programming? Well Microsoft wants to help. They actually have a very good beginners programming site with a lot of help files, tutorials, plus free downloads. You’ll find a rich array of learning content that starts with the very basics, and guides you through step-by-step to becoming a fully-fledged developer! No experience or programming knowledge required – so dive right in!
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/beginner/default.aspx
The US Mint has a new $1 coin with Washington on it with the words “In God we trust” missing. Many email have been sent to the US Mint, congressmen, senators, etc asking to remove these from circulation. Please do you part and contact any government official you know and request that these be removed from circulation. A good place to start is:
https://www.usa.gov
Right now is the time for student to be looking for summer jobs.
If you know of high school or college/university students looking for summer jobs, point them to the link below. Share this information with your family, friends, neighbors. Contacts are listed for each program.
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/wallops/education/internship-coopprograms.html
I don’t like to pass on what might be considered junk mail, but identity theft happens too often and makes life really miserable if it ever happens to you. All suggestions listed below are very worth while. Cut and save this for your records.
A corporate attorney sent the following out to the employees in his company.
1. The next time you order checks have only your initials (instead of first name) and last name put on them. If someone takes your checkbook, they will not know if you sign your checks with just your initials or your first name, but your bank will know how you sign your checks.
2. Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead, put “PHOTO ID REQUIRED”.
3. When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the “For” line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the numbers, and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check processing channels won’t have access to it
4. Put your work phone # on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a P.O Box, use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a P.O. Box, use your work address. Never have your SS# printed on your checks. (DUH!) You can add it if it is necessary. But if you have it printed, anyone can get it.
5. Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel Keep the photocopy in a safe place. I also carry a photocopy of my passport when travel either here or abroad. We’ve all heard horror stories about fraud that’s committed on us in stealing a name, address, Social Security number, credit cards.
6. We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately. But the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them.
7. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one).
8. Call the 3 national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and Social Security number. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit.
Now, here are the numbers you always need to contact about your wallet, etc., has been stolen:
1.) Equifax: 1-800-525-6285
2.) Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742
3.) Trans Union : 1-800-680-7289
4.) Social Security Administration (fraud line): 1-800-269-0271
“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed.”
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The new My.Yahoo vs Netvibes vs Yourminis vs Pagef...
Now there is a new player in my search for the best home page/news page. My Yahoo has been updated with new visual, customization, interface, and it looks very “web 2.0″.
I don’t really see why all the new AJAX pages are called Web 2.0. It is just the evolution of the technology used to produce web pages, nothing more. I could go into this more but that is not the subject of this post.
I like the changes Yahoo have done to bring my.yahoo.com pages up to the current AJAX style that Netvibes and the rest of the players are now doing.
Now on to the new stuff at my.yahoo.com
1. I do like the theme colors. Right now I am using the Sand color with the Steel structure. These are OK but I would like to be able to pick any color from the color chart like Netvibes and Yourminis allows.
2. MyYahoo now allows up to 4 columns to pick from but still does not allow total control of page likes its arch rivals.
3. The new menu of Yahoo services is nice but still not as complete as the others in this contest of home pages.
A lot of the things I had on my old my.yahoo pages are not there, but in there place is a note saying they are being modified and updated. I realize that Yahoo says this new version is still in beta so we will not pass judgment until all is finished.
So now you have my initial observation of the my.yahoo.
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Newsletter 3-11-07
This site is a free, secure and anonymous web-based location where you can. pick up your email from almost any POP3 or IMAP4 email server. Retrieving and sending email with mail2web.com is as simple as entering your email address and password. Now you can easily read, reply, forward and even delete messages all while you’re away from your regular email program.
http://services.mail2web.com/FreeServices/EmailRetrieval/
Do any of you use yahoo as your home page? Have you configured a “my.yahoo.com” page. If you haven’t or have not heard. Yahoo has made a very nice upgrade their my.yahoo.com service. Configuration has been enhanced. Layout is much easier to navigate, plus I really like the new interface. Give it a try to see what you think. More information on the new cm.my.yahoo.com will be on my the blog pages very soon.
http://cm.my.yahoo.com/
Of all documents and materials created in the course of business conducted by the United States Federal government, only 1%-3% are so important for legal or historical reasons that they are kept by us forever.
Those valuable records are preserved and are available to you, whether you want to see if they contain clues about your family’s history, need to prove a veteran’s military service, or are researching an historical topic that interests you. This site may have the answer.
http://www.archives.gov/about/
The US Supreme Court has some interesting videos and archives of very important court cases available for your review. They have a searchable database of all the videos and audio recordings. There is also a virtual tour of the Supreme Court Building. The calendar on the front page show the upcoming cases the court will review.
http://www.oyez.org/
Do you enjoy Astronomy? If so on this site each day is a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. Naturally there are links to past pictures and an archive of all the pictures that have been presented.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
The Newseum is something new to me and I didn’t know something like this existed or was being built. Well it is under construction in DC with a lot of cool things planned. When it opens some time this year, the Newseum — a 250,000-square-foot museum of news — will offer visitors an experience that blends five centuries of news history with up-to-the-second technology and hands-on exhibits. The Newseum will feature seven levels of galleries, theaters, retail spaces and visitor services. It will offer a unique environment that takes museum goers behind the scenes to experience how and why news is made.
http://www.newseum.org/
“When there is moral rot within a nation, its government topples easily. But wise and knowledgeable leaders bring stability.”
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Newsletter – 03-05-07
A little different this week. A few sites relating to crime, legal and other boring but sometimes necessary sites to know about.
Not a day does go by that we don’t hear of crimes taking place in our city or state. When a crime is committed, public safety becomes endangered and specific individuals or groups may feel violated. While we would like to avoid such events, they take place all too often.
http://www.crime.org/do/Home
Using this Web site, interested members of the public have access to and may search participating state Web site public information regarding the presence or location of offenders, who, in most cases, have been convicted of sexually-violent offenses against adults and children and certain sexual contact and other crimes against victims who are minors. The public can use this Web site to educate themselves about the possible presence of such offenders in their local communities.
http://www.nsopr.gov/
The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program was conceived in 1929 by the International Association of Chiefs of Police to meet a need for reliable, uniform crime statistics for the nation. In 1930, the FBI was tasked with collecting, publishing, and archiving those statistics.
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm
The Internet Legal Research Group has a categorized index of more than 4000 select web sites in 238 nations, islands, and territories, as well as thousands of locally stored web pages, legal forms, and downloadable files, this site was established in 1995 to serve as a comprehensive resource of the information available on the Internet concerning law and the legal profession, with an emphasis on the United States of America. Designed for everyone, lay persons and legal scholars alike, it is quality controlled to include only the most substantive legal resources online.
http://www.ilrg.com/
National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is the Nation’s primary source of information on criminal victimization. Each year, data are obtained from a nationally representative sample of 77,200 households comprising nearly 134,000 persons on the frequency, characteristics and consequences of criminal victimization in the United States. The survey enables BJS to estimate the likelihood of victimization by rape, sexual assault, robbery, assault, theft, household burglary, and motor vehicle theft for the population as a whole as well as for segments of the population such as women, the elderly, members of various racial groups, city dwellers, or other groups. The NCVS provides the largest national forum for victims to describe the impact of crime and characteristics of violent offenders.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cvict.htm
The Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics brings together data from more than 100 sources about many aspects of criminal justice in the United States. These data are displayed in over 600 tables.
http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/
