KSFO's Web Wanderer

The Links for April 3, 2004

DoctorWho (Nathan) says: "This is the most disturbing optical illusion I've ever seen. Says a lot about the workings of the mind though."

The words "disturbing" and "shocking" rarely apply to optical illusions, but they are right on the mark for this one. It's a strange, but very interesting thing. OK for kids, by the way.

You'll want to email the link around to show your friends.

Creepy stuff! Thanks, Nathan!

FTP Search - Santa Rosa Steve

Santa Rosa Steve says: "My 'Old Faithful' FTP file search resource 'dried up' today. I found a new FTP search engine that may well become my favorite. You might like to add it to your favorites too."

FileWatcher is an excellent FTP file search engine.

FTP is "FIle Transfer Protocol" - used to move files over the net. Many folks have never used FTP, but here are a few uses (off the top of my head):

You try to run a program, and find your "twain.dll" file is corrupted. How do you get another one? It can be difficult searching websites, and an FTP search will do just fine.
Search for "adaptec" if you're looking for something related to Adaptec products - you'll find patches, drivers, etc.

After you've found your file, simply right click on it and save it to your hard disk.

The site also features a Package Search (searching inside archive files), an eDonkey Search (file sharing), and Content Search (files having to do with "chess game", etc).

This is a great tool - thanks Steve!

Gallery of Regrettable Food - Solinas

I found this site by taking a step up from the "Knudsen's Very Best" area. The Gallery of Regrettable Food features pictures of food taken from cookbooks of the 40's, 50's and 60's. Cheap cookbooks - the booklets given away by food companies, filled with recipes that use their products. Most of the pictures look like the food is extremely unhealthy, and often unappetizing. what makes the site is the commentary for each picture.

It's a very entertaining site. Main areas of the Gallery of Regrettable Food are:

Recipe Books
Potpourri
Bad Ads

All are very funny.

This is a great site, for fans of humor, Americana, history, and cooking. Check it out.

The Institute of Occasional Fear - Solinas

Some of my best finds are when I find a site I like, notice from the address bar that it's a piece of a bigger site, and I start getting busy editing the URL to go up a level. From the Gallery of Regrettable Food, I found The Institute of Occasional Fear. This is a site where: "where old pop culture is subjected to our patented Re-Ironization Process, and converted into chipper, spiffy, feather-light postmodern commentary on commercial culture. Or, to put it another way: there’s enough here to kill two, maybe three lunch hours."

In addition to the Gallery of Regrettable Food, you'll find, among other things:

Stagworld - "a salute to everything creepy about 50s and 60s "men's" magazines
The Story of Bread (commentary on a 1949 freebie comic from a bread company
Big Little Books (WORST COMICS EVER)
The grooviest motel in Wisconsin
The Orphanage of Cast-Off Mascots

Like the Gallery of Regrettable Food - great images and commentary. Check this out also.

Lileks.com - Solinas

Top level for the site - even more stuff in the same genre. More cool stuff like:

Matchbook-O-Rama: Dozens of vintage matchbooks, artfully arranged and overanalyzed.
The Engraveyard. Odd money from around the world.
Postcards from the Open Road . Dozens of motel postcards from around the country, all from the 50s and 60s.

There is a branch of antique collecting which deals in paper objects only. It's fun to browse through the stores and stalls looking for interesting old stuff. Well - it's here online, with funny commentary.

Check this out as well!

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.

Hard Disk Utilities - Santa Rosa Steve

Santa Rosa Steve found a page containing "free hard disk utilities: recover deleted files and lost data."

The tools are:

Ranish Partition Manager v2.44 Beta: Partition your hard drive and control bootup sequences.
PC Inspector File Recovery v3.x: Recover lost data - even if your older system's FAT or boot sector is damaged.
Restoration v2.514: Recover deleted files - or delete them for good - with this small program.
IZArc v3.4: Back up scads of precious data in a variety of formats with this archiving tool.
VirtualLab Data Recovery Software v3.3.5: Recover data lost from almost anything short of a sledgehammer accident.

All extremely useful - and free. Grab 'em!

Thanks, Steve!