KSFO's Web Wanderer

The Links for April 24, 2004

Dr. Rom says: "A good friend of mine, Emil Flock, has worked tirelessly on a website devoted to the old Pier #70 in San Francisco. Emil does great panoramic and regular digital photos and his firiend Ralph Wilson does the coding. Their site is very impressive and was just honored by Yahoo as one of its picks of the day. It's a great site and deserves even more publicity, so if the Web Wanderer has an open slot one Saturday morning......"

I always make slots for very cool web pages, and this is a great one. It's designed to "ncrease public awareness of the historical importance and tremendous potential of the Pier 70 area."

The first main area of the site describes the history of the location. The site has photographs and discusses the history back to the 1860's. Shipbuilding was very important to the area, and there's a great slide show of vintage photos showing how large ships are built. Very interesting stuff. Plus - there's a page of photographs of ships built locally. Big ships.

Information on the present shows modern photos of the buildings and area, with a description of how the buildings are presenty utilized. The more interesting buildings are examined in depth via a photographic tour (slide show).

The site wraps up with a look toward the future, and the challenges the pier faces. Links for related information are provided.

It's a very nice site - worth a browse, then a visit to the pier. Check it out.

Thanks, Dr. Rom!

Snopes: Urban Legends Reference Pages - Scam Report - Dudley

Dudley says: "Snopes.com, famous for its Urban Legend Info, now has a scam section."

Snopes is, without question, the best site for debunking urban legends on the net. Hear about something which doesn't sound completely true? Odds are, a search of Snopes will list the item, and whether or not it is true.

Snopes now has an area dedicated to scams. There are many you've heard of, but probably some will be new to you:

a bunch of "verify your credit card information" scams
the "international drivers license" you can get to avoid paying traffic tickets
the nigerian scam
office supply scams
"you've won a foreign lottery!"

Like the rest of the Snopes site, it's well written and makes fun reading. Check it out.

Thanks, Dudley!

The Most Powerful Diesel Engine in the World - Thom from Orangevale

Thom from Orangevale says: "Just found this. It's very interesting if you like mechanical things like I do."

From the site: "The Wartsila-Sulzer RTA96-C turbocharged two-stroke diesel engine is the most powerful and most efficient prime-mover in the world today. The Aioi Works of Japan's Diesel United, Ltd built the first engines and is where some of these pictures were taken. It is available in 6 through 14 cylinder versions, all are inline engines. These engines were designed primarily for very large container ships. Ship owners like a single engine/single propeller design and the new generation of larger container ships needed a bigger engine to propel them."

Some quick specs:

Total engine weight: 2300 tons (The crankshaft alone weighs 300 tons.)
Length: 89 feet
Height: 44 feet
Maximum power: 108,920 hp at 102 rpm
Maximum torque: 5,608,312 lb/ft at 102rpm

Tim Allen from "Home Improvement" would love this bad boy!

The photos are really impressive. If you like machines, you have to check this out.

Thanks, Thom!

Pollen.com - Thom from Orangevale

Thom from Orangevale says: "Wonder why your sinuses are giving you trouble? Check it out. Type in your zip code and see."

I typed in my zip code, and got an Allergy Alert Four Day Forecast, with a list of the predominant pollen for my area.

Also on the site:

free email alerts
allergy information
pollen library - search for "Casual User: if you are an allergy sufferer or just looking for general information about pollen in your area. Expert User: if you are a medical, health or research professional who needs all information available about a specific pollen."
for professionals - technical stuff about pollen counting

If you use this site, you'll never be surprised by a "bad pollen day." Check it out.

Thanks, Thom!

One Look - Charles in San Francisco

Charles in San Francisco says: "Have you used this one before? OneLook Dictionary Search."

This is an advanced dictionary site with some neat capabilities. You can:

browse dictionaries
find definitions, find translations, or search all dictionaries
enter a word, or a word with wildcards
do a reverse dictionary search

The reverse dictionary search is killer. With it, you can do stuff like:

find a word if you know its definition (barrel maker, etc)
explore related concepts (baseball, etc)
generate a list of words in some category (large birds, etc)
Answer basic identification questions (What is the capital of Vietnam?, etc)
Solve crossword puzzle clues with the wildcard search.

I searched for "file transfer protocol", and found hits like "anonymous FTP", "audiogalaxy", "morpheus", etc. Hundreds of hits to wade through, though.

This is a must-bookmark site.

Thanks, Charles!

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.

AllChars - Santa Rosa Steve

Santa Rosa Steve says: "How do you put the "en-yay" or tilde over the "n" in mañana? I use AllChars, a wonderful freeware program for Windows. AllChars provides a quick, easy-to-remember way of creating accents like é Ü ç î æ and special characters like ƒ ² ‰ © £ ± ß ° 1/2 ¿ « » ™ „ in most Windows programs."

*There are versions of AllChars suitable for Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4, 2000 and XP (and there is even an old 16-bit version).

Here's how it works - you hit the control key (and release - don't hold it down), then AllChars will take the next 2 characters you type, and substiture a character, or characters, for it.

Here's a great use. Writing an article or paper on "wireless transmission"? Make your control-w-t type in the phrase "wireless transmission".

Or - use it for quick logins to programs.

Slick little program. Check it out.

Thanks, Steve!

MereSurfer - Santa Rosa Steve

Santa Rosa Steve says: "MereSurfer 2003 Release v8.011 Free Edition is mentioned in today's Scout Report. I have not had a chance to use it yet, but it appears to be worth trying."

From the Scout Report: "This latest edition of the MereSurfer application adds a pop-up ad stopper, a tracks-eraser and an ad-remover to webbrowsers, which will definitely assist those users who feel more than a bit beleaguered as they are moving about the web. Fortunately, there is also a feature that prevents trusted domains from being affected by the application, and users may also import domain names as well. MereSurfer 2003 Free 8.009 is compatible with all systems running Windows 95 and above."

I need to play with this one myself.

Thanks, Steve!