KSFO's Web Wanderer

The Links for July 6, 2002

Nova: Fireworks - Dudley

Dudley recommended this site for those interested in fireworks. Every year, Nova has a special on fireworks, and this is the companion site.

The site contains:

• "Name that shell" - Watch video clips of fireworks bursting in air and find out how well you know your chrysanthemums from your peonies, your roman candles from your palm trees.
• "Anatomy of a firework" - Where you see brilliant light and vivid color, a pyrotechnician sees a successful lift charge, black powder mix, time-delay fuse, bursting charge, and other essential ingredients.
• "Pyrotechnically speaking" - Dr. John Conkling, adjunct professor of chemistry at Washington College and former executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Association, describes what it is about fireworks that gets him, well, all fired up.
• "On Fire" - This virtual laboratory lets you explore the basics of combustion, including how a fire ignites, what a flame is made of, and how burning molecules rearrange themselves.
• Resources
• A Teacher's guide

This site has really grown over they years. If you're interested in fireworks, check this out.

Thanks, Dudley!

Montreal Fireworks Competition - Dudley

Dudley says: "I didn't know there was a fireworks competition in Montreal that started last month and goes through this month. On the site now are still pictures of the first two, Japan and Portugal. The USA one is on July 17th."

This site has a lot of cool information. Under "Information", there's a section on setting up a display. It shows you everything that goes into a big fireworks show.

The Reports provide written description of the music selected, and the fireworks used.

The Photographs section has some of the most amazing fireworks pictures I've seen. Absolutely stunning stuff. Be sure to check this out.

Thanks again, Dudley!

Mac Fix It - Charles in San Francisco

Charles in San Francisco says: "This may help with Macintosh user questions. MacFixIt.com: Troubleshooting for Mac OS X"

The site has a number of forums, including:
• Troubleshooting Mac OS X
• Office X
• Mac OS X Tips & Hints
• Mac OS X Applications
• Mac OS X Hardware
• Mac OS X Talk

The main page also has "late breaking" news items and additions to the site, covering bug fixes, new software and hardware, and additions to the knowledge base.

Thanks, Charles!

Windows XP Tips - Charles in San Francisco

Charles in San Francisco found this Windows XP tips site. Plus - it las a lot more.

The site has bunches of tips:
• General tips
• Networking
• Firewalls
• Drivers
• Hardware
• Software

Other operating systems covered on other pages of this site:

• Windows 2000
• Windows 98
• Windows ME
• Windows 95
• MAC OS

There's bunches of stuff here. Check it out.

Thanks, Charles!

I Love Bacon - Santa Rosa Steve

Santa Rosa Steve says: "Here are a couple of fun sites—ideal for wasting some time! Ilovebacon features quick clicks to humorous items (mostly pictures) on the Web. Ilovebacon is updated every weekday. "

I had fun browsing the site. There were lots of photos that people had submitted of funny signs they'd come across.

Worth a look. Thanks, Steve!

Dribble Glass - Santa Rosa Steve

Santa Rosa Steve also send this funny site.

There's items like

• Billboards we'd like to see
• Rejected movie posters
• jokes
• fallacies
• articles

Most of the stuff is original contributions, and not the stuff you see on many other humor web sites.

Worth a browse. Thanks, Steve!

Free For All!

"Free For All" picks are hot, FREE items or services. It can be software, online services, you name it - but it's got to be free, with no strings attached.

SpamNet - Dudley

Dudley says: "Here's an interesting spam stopper that so far is in beta and only for Microsoft Outlook. They are developing one for Outlook Express. You can leave your e-mail address to be notified when the new downloads are available. "

SpamNet supports Outlook 2000 and Outlook XP.

"Just like Napster allowed us to share our favorite music, Cloudmark SpamNet allows us to share the spam we receive. Individually this reported spam isn't very powerful, but the collective reports of millions of email users networked together blocks virtually all spam on the Internet."

From the site: "Cloudmark SpamNet Outlook add-in saves you time and frustration by stopping spam automatically. The service is free and easy to use. Spend time reading email not deleting unwanted spam messages. When you become SpamNet spamfighter you help to block spam for you and the entire community. The program is easy to use and runs invisibly in the background of your email program. It only takes minutes to download and install."

Cool idea! Thanks, Dudley!

Rainlendar - Santa Rosa Steve

Santa Rosa Steve says: "Once in while a program I install puts a big smile on my face, Rainlendar is such a program. I saw it listed at File Flash , but passed it by several times. The name meant nothing to me and the description seemed a bit vague. Finally, curiosity got the better of me. I visited the author's page. The name finally made sense, Rainy (the author's name) plus Calendar! My desktop now displays a tidy monthly calendar with today's date highlighted. And it does so without gobbling up a lot of resources. Thanks Rainy!

The manual (in HTML) included in the download thoroughly explains all the options available with Rainlendar. I've added simple instructions for installing Rainlendar in standard Windows (without Litestep) to the description below. When you run Rainlendar a calendar will appear on your desktop. Right-click it to set your configuration preferences, and to choose a skin.

Rainlendar v0.11 for Windows 95/98/NT/2000: Rainlendar is a skinnable, customizable calendar that resides on your desktop and shows the days of the current month. The application is a Litestep plugin, but it can be used without Litestep. You can use it with the standard Windows Explorer shell.

The calendar can be customized to fit your taste (and theme). You can use different fonts and colors, select the background image or just use the current wallpaper.

Installing for Windows Explorer: Unzip all the files in rainlendar-0.11.zip to a folder of your choice (e.g. C:\Program files\Rainlendar\) and run Rainlendar.exe. If you want Rainlendar to start every time Windows starts, place a shortcut to Rainlendar.exe in your StartUp folder.

Uninstalling: To uninstall, just delete all the files you uncompressed from the zip-file (make sure that Rainlendar isn't running when you do it). If you placed a shortcut in your StartUp folder, delete it too."

I always need to check dates, and this is a nice little program. Thanks, Steve!

This page, and all contents, are Copyright (C) 2002 by Michael A. Solinas.