KSFO's Web Wanderer

The Links for June 14, 1997

Whatis: Caller Harvey mentioned this one last week.; Whatis tells you about computers, the internet, html - whatever. It's a quick to use glossary.; I fired up the search engine, and tried "baud rate" and "null modem cable" and obtained good, clear definitions. This site will be GREAT for new computer users - bookmark it! Learning HTML? Need to know what the <DT> and </DT> tags do? You'll find them, and all other tags, here.; This is a great resource. Thanks, Harvey!
Online IQ Test: O'Donnell on Computer's own Lone Ranger, Nerdley, sent in this one.; It's an online IQ test. It's "the Internet's most popular and entertaining IQ Test" (so they tell us.); I like it. It's fun, and if you like solving puzzles while trying to "beat the clock," you'll love it as well. Do check it out.; A "Hi-Yo Silver", and tip of the hat, to the Masked Man for this one.
Drug Interactions Database: Taxi Mike submitted this life saver.; If you are taking more than one medication, you may have an interaction between drugs. Or - if you are taking one medication, you can list all others that interact with it. Very nice!; Thanks, Taxi Mike, for this one!
Hummingbirds: This is another Taxi Mike find.; If you've ever taken a peek at my personal (non-web-wanderer) home page, you'd know I'm a "bird person." You won't be surprised I love this site.; This is THE SITE for information on attracting, watching, feeding, and studying humming birds. The picture gallery is incredible.; This is a site for kids and kids at heart. Check it out!

Web Ferret - a very cool app!: We need to thank Derek for this one. This is a KILLER app.; Web Ferret is a free Win 95 search tool. Now, regular listeners know I use a ton of engines, multiple search engines, etc - all on the web. Why would I waste precious hard disk space on a search application? Because it's THAT GOOD. Get this one.; Web Ferret searches the usual big search engines - plus VERONICA. If you were netting before the web, you're well acquainted with Veronica. In short - we used to get files via gopher. Veronica made it easy to search for files. Bottom line - there is a TON of information out there on the internet that your typical search engine can't access. Web Ferret gets it, plus all the new WWW stuff.; I like to test search engines by throwing in the name "solinas" and seeing what they find. It gives me an idea of the relative completeness of the searches. Web Ferret pulled down a TON of hits - more than I've seen before.; And Web Ferret has some very, very nice features. You get a choice of views. I prefer the "details" view, which has the name, address, and source (which search engine found it). Place your mouse cursor over the name, and you see a brief quote from the page, which saves you lots of time loading pages you are not interested in - the brief quote is usually enough to let you know if you have the right hit or now. You can save big searches, open them later, and continue looking through them. Very nice. Best of all - using the Win 95 taskbar, you can toggle between Web Ferret and your browser, which mean NO MORE HITTING THE DANG "BACK" BUTTON, AND WAITING FOR RELOADS. Very, very nice.; Get this one. It's free, and small - just about 1 meg. You'll use it often.