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!

Draggable maps – you can click and drag Google maps to view adjacent sections; no more long waits while new areas download.
Integrated Local search results – Google Maps integrates local search results from Google Local. So to find a pizza place, simply type in "pizza in San Jose", and pizza places appear at various locations on your map, with phone numbers for each location on the right side of the page.
Turn-by-turn directions – Type in an address and Google Maps plots the route for you, displaying it visually on the map itself, together with step-by-step directions for getting there (or back from there). When you click on one of these steps (say, "turn left"), you see a floating bubble with a magnified view of the area mentioned in the directions.
Keyboard shortcuts – You can use arrow keys to pan left, right, up and down. The Page Up, Page Down, Home and End keys let you pan out even wider. And you can zoom in with the plus (+) key and zoom out with the minus (-) key.

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

95/98 or XP style
Select a standard graphic (some real looking, some funny)
Title bar text
Error Message Text
text for left button, center button, and right button.

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"

Worst Picture
Worst Actor
Worst Actress
Worst Screen Couple
Worst Supporting Actress
Worst Supporting Actor
Worst Director
Worst Remake or Sequel
Worst Screenplay

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:

Anti-virus
Anti-Malware/Adware
Browser Acceleration
Anonymous Surfing Service
Office Suite
Notepad replacement
Registry Cleaner

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.