KSFO's Web Wanderer

The Links for February 12, 2005

Google Maps - Santa Rosa Steve

Santa Rosa Steve spotted the newest item in Google Labs - Google Maps.

Move over Mapquest and Yahoo Maps - Google has entered the competition!

I'll switch to Google Maps, at least for a while.

Thanks, Steve!

Atom Smasher's Error Message Generator - Santa Rosa Steve

Santa Rosa Steve says: "Don't miss this if you can!"

I played with the site, and had a lot of fun! You know the popup warning boxes that occur in Windows, with buttons how to proceed ("delete" "cancel", etc.)? You can make our own funny or personalized ones here. The site generates a graphic that looks like a popup - perfect for "decorating" your web site.

You get to choose You can even "gray" a button to make it look like it is NOT an option to select.

Not easy to describe, so check out the Gallery of Errors to see examples of what people have done.

I'll be playing around with this one.

Also follow the link to the Pack Place Sign Generator. That's fun, too!

Fun stuff. Thanks, Steve!

Google Translated to Gangsta - Solinas

Gizoogle is a very funny site. Remember those pages which translate text, or web pages, to "valley speak", "jive", "Swedish Chef"(Muppets), etc? Cross one of those designed to translate to "gangsta" with Google, and you have Gizoogle.

Your search results look like Snoop Dog sounds.

I like this one. Have fun!

Gala 25th Annual RAZZIES - Dudley

Dudley says: "We all know the Academy Awards are coming up, but the Golden Raspberry Awards are also out. They are the Worst Movies, Actors, etc. for this past year. Also they have their choices for the Worst the Past 25 years in numerous categories."

It's fun just to read the nominations for the categories"

Check it out.

Thanks, Dudley!

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.

SpoofStick - Santa Rosa Steve

Santa Rosa Steve alerted me that the new version of SpoofStick now supports Firefox. SpoofStick was my favorite plugin for IE, when I used IE. Now I've got it on FireFox

Publisher's Description: SpoofStick is a simple browser extension that helps users detect spoofed (fake) websites. A spoofed website is typically made to look like a well known, branded site (like ebay.com or citibank.com) with a slightly different or confusing URL. The attacker then tries to trick people into going to the spoofed site by sending out fake email messages or posting links in public places - hoping that some percentage of users won't notice the incorrect URL and give away important information. This practice is sometimes known as “phishing". Addresses the recently discovered Mozilla "IDN" vulnerability. Latest change: addresses the recently discovered Mozilla "IDN" vulnerability. Also available: SpoofStick for Internet Explorer.

"SpoofStick makes it easier to spot a spoofed website by prominently displaying only the most relevant domain information. It's not a comprehensive solution, but it's a good start."--CoreStreet Ltd. (publisher) "

Thanks, Steve!

Free Tax Filing Software - Dudley

Dudley says: "The Wall Street Journal had an article today about free tax-filing software. It includes the two most popular ones - Intuit's TurboTax and H&R Block's TaxCuts. There are a total of 19 Web-based versions of tax-prep and electronic-filing programs."

?Nearly all of the programs are only for federal returns, not state. The TurboTax is essentially their basic program, except it doesn't allow transferring last year's data into this year's program.. These programs are probably not suitable for high-income investors with complex returns."

Free Filing is a great deal. Thanks, Dudley!

16 Best-Ever Freeware Utilities - Solinas

I like the Tech Support Alert web site. They've compiled a list of the best freeware utilities for:

and others as well.

I don't agree 100% that their picks are the best - but I agree on a surprising number of them. Their pick in many cases where we disagree would be my second pick, however.

Check it out.

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This page, and all contents, are Copyright (C) 2005 by Michael A. Solinas.