KSFO's Web Wanderer

The Links for August 14, 1999

Ten Ways To Make Windows 98 Run Better - Dudley

Dudley found this great tip page. He says "Here's one from the July Win Mag that could be useful to a lot of people."

On the Windows Magazine web site. there was a discussion answering the question "What is your favorite Windows tweak?" The results of this discussions, the top 10, is on this site.

In some cases, the tweaks require free utilities. This site describes what needs to be done, what the software does, and has links to the software.

It's a good site for fine-tuning your windows system. Check it out.

Thanks, Dudley!

Review Finder - Nerdly

Nerdly Nullman found this handy site for shoppers.

When you've decided on a purchase, you really should check out a few reviews of the product to see if there's problems with it. The bigger the purchase, the more research is warranted.

From the site:"ReviewFinder is an easy-to-use, searchable database of thousands of product reviews on the Web, including computer hardware and software. This is a great place to start when planing your computer-related and other electronics purchases. Popular categories include Camcorders, CD-R/CD-RW Drives, Digital Cameras, Game Controllers, Games, Graphics Cards, Monitors, Motherboards, Printers, Scanners, Sound Cards, and Stereo Components."

Not knowing about this site cost me money. I bought a Sharp Mobilon HC-4600 with pathetically short battery life. It's almost useless. The reviews on this site noted the battery life problem. If I'd checked this site, I'd have been warned, and not bought the thing.

Bookmark this baby.

Thanks, Nerdly!

Lighthouse Gateway - Dyno Don

Dyno Don found this site.

He says: "In planning a vacation to Wash. State going up 101 I thought I'd visit a lighthouse or two. In looking for lighthouses on the 'net I found this site."

He continues: "What grabbed my interest was the fabulous photography. After that the descriptions make me want to just go visit lighthouses! Anyway it's a very nice site that is well put together with great photo's and thought you'd like it."

This site has some really beautiful photos. It's well worth a trip and a long browse - you'll find some very nice background pictures for your desktop.

Great find, Don. Enjoy the vacation, and enjoy the lighthouses.

"Frozen TV Commercials" - how! - Solinas

Recently, more and more TV commercials seem to do the impossible - during the commercial, the picture seems to "freeze frame" as the camera moves, then it starts up again.

This really looks impossible, and I've wondered how it is done.

Well, I found out how. TimeTrack makes the cameras, and this site has a bunch of information about how they work. It's interesting stuff.

There's also a nice gallery of samples - with QuickTime files and production notes.

It's a fun site. If you're the "need to know how things work" type, you'll love this site.

Check it out.

A Taxi Mike Tip - Quick Google searches in Internet Explorer - Taxi Mike

Taxi Mike isn't just a frequent contributor of good web sites - he's also a master at finding or figuring out useful tips. This week, he explained how to set up very quick searches using Google in Internet Explorer.

Taxi Mike says: "Google is my favorite search engine so I wanted to make a Quick Search shortcut for Internet Explorer. Here's how."

"First, you will need the Internet Explorer Web Accessories from Microsoft which you can get from the Product Update page. I believe the Accessories used to be called Internet Explorer Power Toys. You ll know if you have them or not after the first step below". (Solinas' note - the Web Accessories for IE 5.0 are HERE.)

"Start/Run C:\WINDOWS\Favorites\Links\Quick Search.exe (if this doesn't work you need the accessories)"

"Select New , then in the dialog box type gg for the Shortcut (or whatever you like, goo e.g.) then,"

"In the Search field click the pulldown arrow and select Custom URL and finally,"

"In the URL field type http://www.google.com/keyword/%s (The real trick)"

"Now you can do a Google search from the address field in Internet Explorer by typing gg followed by a space and your search words."

Thanks, Taxi Mike!!

Free For All!

"Free For All" picks are freeware picks. They have to be useful, cool, or interesting. Most of all - they have to be free. This week we're spotlighting graphics applications.

Free Backgrounds - Bob the Old Fogey

When doing a site design, you can spend a lot of time getting the graphics together. Backgrounds are extremely important.

In many cases, you can save some time by using pre-made graphics. There's lots of clipart and texture CDs out, but they all cost money.

This site has a nice amount of pretty good backgrounds for webpages. There's lots of styles and colors - and they're all free for the download.

This is a "must bookmark" for web masters.

Thanks, Bob!

Capture Streaming MP3 files! - Bob the Old Fogey

This one is killer. I'll let Bob describe it:

Bob says:"Nowadays, everybody is broadcasting something over the Internet. MP3 is arguably the world's most popular audio format, and Shoutcast is setting the scene ablaze. Streaming media servers are popping up left and right. It's a lot like radio, only you're not restricted by geographical boundaries. When you want to record something from your radio, you pop in a cassette and press the REC and PLAY buttons; if you want to record something from a Shoutcast stream, you use this utility."

This is especially useful for folks with Rio-type portable MP3 players.

Great find, Bob. Thanks!

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