KSFO's Web Wanderer

The Links for August 17, 2002

Dudley says: "Here's a site that says it is: "the most comprehensive radio station search engine on the internet. We have links to over 10,000 radio station web pages and over 2500 audio streams from radio stations in the U.S. and around the world. "

There's a number of search tools:

Find by type (City/State or zip, AM/FM, format)
Search by callsign
Find Internet Streaming Radio
Find World Radio

This is a MUST BOOKMARK site for radio fans. Check it out.

Thanks, Dudley!

Hip Pocket Change - Charles in San Francisco

Charles in San Francisco found a US Government Mint web site for kids.

The "History In Your Pocket" Pocket Change site "showcases the connection between this country's coins and its people. Through games, stories, and other engaging activities, the site brings to life both the extraordinary individuals who appear on U.S. coinage and the generations of citizens who've used this pocket change."

It's a nice little site, well done, with engaging cartoon characters for kids. After all the games, animations, and storybooks, you might want to download the screensaver.

Nicely done. If you have kids - check it out.

Thanks, Charles.

Did You Ever Wonder - Santa Rosa Steve

Santa Rosa Steve says: "The Did You Ever Wonder Web site is offered by the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Each month a dozen questions are posed and answered by lab scientists on various topics. A few topics currently included are how a portable water purifier saves children's lives, about the best bugs for cleaning up toxic waste, how to carve with light, and a discussion of dark energy and how it accelerates the expansion of the universe. The links describe the work each scientist is involved in and by clicking the "more" link at the bottom of each page brings up additional facts, photos, etc. This site is also reviewed in the June 28, 2002 NSDL Scout Report for Physical Sciences."

The site is an interesting mix of topics. I found I had to do a lot of poking around - the titles didn't match my expectations of the content. They DID match the articles, so it wasn't a problem with the site. It's just that these topics can be broad, and the articles focus on small sections of broader topics.

Still - it's an interesting site, well worth a tour. Thanks, Steve!

Usability and Web Design - Anthony

Anthony is the webmaster at my day job. We have a team put together to do a corporate web site redesign effort. If you've seen my site, you know I know pretty much nothing about site design (heh). To educate the team, Anthony has sent out several excellent articles - all from Jakob Nielsen's Website.

Every two weeks, Jakob publishes an "Alertbox" on usability. He's done it since June, 1995, and they're all archived here.

There is a ton of great information for webmasters here. Bookmark the site, check it out, and subscribe to the Alertbox newsletter.

Thanks, Anthony!

Windows Shutdown & Restart Center - Richard in Richmond

Richard in Richmond says: "Great help site for windows problems especiall shutdown problems with all Windows versions - detail easy steps to follow to diagnose and repair."

Whether you use Win 98, ME, XP, or an older version of Windows, you may experience shutdown problems. My desktop system is OK, but my Sony Vaio Picturebook fails to shut down properly roughly half the time. I'll debug it on this site.

The site has a section that gives you 15 things to try, in sequence, to eliminate the shutdown problem. It's very detailed, and looks at things I've overlooked before - like a corrupted "exit sound file."

Excellent information, well presented. Give this site a bookmark.

Thanks, Richard!

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.

IEradicator - Santa Rosa Steve

Santa Rosa Steve says: "IEradicator for Windows 9x/Me Fed up with Internet Explorer? Do you wish you could kill it completely? You can! IEradicator removes all versions of Internet Explorer from all versions of Windows 9x in 8 different languages."

"Internet Explorer seems to find its way into every nook and cranny of Windows and if you don't use it, or need it, then you are carrying a lot of excess baggage. It also adds lots of Web-orientated bells and whistles to your desktop which aren't always appreciated."

"IEradicator is a tiny (50K) ASCII script that uses the Windows Setup engine to surgically remove Internet Explorer versions 3.0 through 5.5 from Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition and Windows Millennium. The removal of Internet Explorer is safe and recovers 30+MB of disk space. IEradicator is also great for clearing the dross away before upgrading to a newer version of Internet Explorer."

"Be sure to read the accompanying text files* - IEradicator means business and you should know what it is doing to your system."

As always, you should completely backup your system before doing radical stuff like this.

Thanks, Steve!

Opera - Solinas

OK, say you've used IEradicator to remove every last chunk of Internet Explorer. What do you use to browse the web? I'd suggest Opera.

Opera runs VERY well for me. I use it at work for sites which IE struggles with.

Opera has always been the leader with respect to browsing efficiency - opening new windows and general browsing always seems much faster with Opera. It's always been lean, and the least bloated of the major browser products.

Give this a try - it's free but ad supported. I like it so much I registered a copy.