Cybertown | Site Of The Week

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"SITE OF THE WEEK" ARCHIVE

SITE OF THE WEEK:

*Molecular Expressions*

(August 3, 2001)

Talk about an awesome science site! I don't understand and can't even pronounce some of the stuff they are exploring here, but it sure looks cool! And some of this stuff is fun in a nerdy kinda way. So what am I talking about? Itz the

Molecular Expressions Virtual Microscopy Website , of course. The link is gonna start you off at the Java Tutorial on the Power of 10 where you can view the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth and zoom into the subatomic universe of electrons and protons on an Oak Tree here on good old Terra Firma. And don't miss the Galleria with their collection of photographs taken through a microscope of things like DNA, vitamins, birthstones, beer (yes, I said beer) and Win or Mac wallpaper (do they get government funding for doing this?). Enjoy!

The site of the week column is brought to you by red5. If you would like to comment on this article or suggest a site of the week for publication in the Daily News, just send an email to [email protected] with your CT alias, the URL you are suggesting and the reason why you think it should be a site of the week.

SITE OF THE WEEK:

*CAUCE*

(July 22, 2001)

Do you have to contend with a ton of junk e-mail every time you grab your mail? I just know I never "opted in" for this crap and how did I get on a list for quack health care products anyway? What I never thought about before was that the recipients of SPAM (you and me) are the ones paying for it! Most of us have a limit on server space at the ISP and SPAM is using it up at OUR expense. It's like getting a collect call from a telemarker!

What can you do about this onslaught of massive refuse that seems to be increasing every day? Check out your options at CAUCE . CAUCE , (www.cauce.org) a nonprofit organization, was founded by Netizens and provides information about the problems of SPAM, proposed solutions, and provides resources for issues surrounding junk e-mail. They have organizations in Europe, Canada, Australia and India. On their resources page you can find links to SPAM filters and information on how to put your voice behind legislation to halt this outrageous abuse of your personal time, money and property.

SITE OF THE WEEK:

*The Dialectizer*

(July 15, 2001)

After a few months away, the Site Of The Week is back!

Having trouble communicating with your employer? Or perhaps you turned in a school paper and your teacher didn't understand it. And how about that fine looking member of the opposite sex from another planet in a galaxy far away that you don't know how to talk to? Well have no fear, the Dialectizer is here!

Use this hilarious tool to "dialectized" a parody of any text into the highly sophisticated languages of Redneck, Jive, Cockney, Elmer Fudd, Swedish Chef, Moron, Pig Latin, or Hacker. Test it out on some of the great works of literature you can find at the bartleby.com site.

Zee Seete-a ooff zee Veek culoomn is bruooght tu yuoo by red5. Iff yuoo vuoold leeke-a tu cumment oon thees erteecle-a oor sooggest a seete-a ooff zee veek fur poobleeceshun in zee Deeely Noos, joost send un imeeel tu [email protected] veet yuoor CT eleees, zee URL yuoo ere-a sooggesteeng und zee reesun vhy yuoo theenk it shuoold be-a a seete-a ooff zee veek.

SITE OF THE WEEK:

*Dictionary of Science and Technology*

(March 25, 2001)

Man oh man! Is this a dictionary or what? The Academic Press Dictionary of Science and Technology is the largest scientific dictionary ever compiled in the English language on the Web. You can search from over 130,000 terms defined in 130 fields of science.

Like, have you ever watched the re-runs of Quantum Leap and heard Sam talk about quark-gluon plasma? Well now I know itz similar to when my family getz together on holidays (quarks and gluons merge to form an unstructured group).

I read that this dictionary cost $100 in the bookstore, but you can search the online dictionary for FREE!

Another way cool dictionary site is The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language . Here you can search not only the dictionary, but many other important references like The Columbia Encyclopedia (6th edition. 2001), The World Factbook, Roget's Thesauri, The Cambridge History of English and American Literature and many, many others.

The site of the week column is brought to you by Red 5. If you would like to comment on this article or suggest a site of the week for publication in the Daily News, just send an email to [email protected] with your CT alias, the URL you are suggesting and the reason why you think it should be a site of the week.

SITE OF THE WEEK:

*The T.W.I.N.K.I.E.S. Project*

(March 18, 2001)

Twinkies (Spongius Cremius), is thought of by many citizens as the official food of Cytonians. T.W.I.N.K.I.E.S. stands for Tests With Inorganic Noxious Kakes In Extreme Situations. Sound crazy? Well itz all that and funny too. Check out The T.W.I.N.K.I.E.S. Project .

In 1995, a couple of students at Rice University decided it was time to determine the answers to important questions that many people have wondered about. Just what are the properties of that incredible food, the Twinkie? This site hosts their results of the Rapid Oxidation Test, Solubility Test, Maximum Density Test, Resistivity Test, Gravitational Response Test, Radiation Test and the Turing (Intelligence) Test.

A big thanx goes out to Seina for suggesting this week's cool site.

SITE OF THE WEEK:

*MIR Space Station*

(March 11, 2001)

When Moscow sends the 15 year old space station Mir on a suicidal plunge into the atmosphere later this month, it should break up and send tons of debris into the southwest Pacific Ocean. More than 1,000 fragments are expected to splash down into the watery target between Chile and Australia. Australia, Japan and Germany, have expressed concern that Mir could stray during its descent and place their populations at risk. An interior ministry document stated that if space authorities tracking Mir become aware of any potential danger, emergency radio announcements would advise citizens to stay indoors. Authorities say that most of the 130-ton station should burn up in the atmosphere. But one- third of it could survive, including pieces as large as a small car, and smack into the Earth as fast as 0.6 mile (1 km) a second. If something like that is coming at you, I don't think any building's roof will help your odds at all.

The Russian space agency reported that the spacecraft would probably meet its fiery end between March 18 and March 20. Russian and U.S. authorities maintain the risks are rather remote. They place the odds at somewhere between one in 1,000 to one in 5,000 that a mishap could occur.

NASA's Office of Space Flight has all the latest information on Russia's Mir Space Station . You can also track the MIR and other satellites at the J-Track Satellite Tracking website: http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/RealTime/JTrack/ .

SITE OF THE WEEK:

*HTML Goodies*

(March 4, 2001)

Does your message board suck? If you want to create something different then the cookie-cutter webpages that many people end up using, then you have to learn at least the basics of HTML. While you can find many excellent sources for help, here is one that has been recommended by a fellow citizen: HTML Goodies .

A big thanx goes out to ForceUser107 for suggesting this week's cool site.

SITE OF THE WEEK:

*TechnoMutts*

(Feb 25, 2001)

Just how much is that doggie in the web window? The second generation entertainment robot AIBO(tm)* can be financed with a Sony Card and will only set you back $1,590.00.

At http://www.aibo.com , you'll read that, "AIBO in Japanese means "companion". It is also an acronym for Artificial Intelligence RoBOt. But AIBO is not a toy! AIBO's a true companion with real emotions and instincts. With loving attention from its master, it can even develop into a more mature and fun-loving friend as time passes."

If thatz too pricey for your budget, then check out Tekno the Robot Puppy(tm)* at http://www.tekno-robot.com which you can pick up for $39.83. This pup is never a bad dog, unless you program him to make rude noises. And then you have Tiger's Robo-Chi pets(tm)* at http://www.tigertoys.com . You can get yourself a Poo-Chi(tm), a Super Poo-Chi(tm), 102 Dalmation-Chi(tm), or a Meow-Chi(tm) for around $25.00.

* AIBO is a trademark of Sony Corporation; Tekno the Robot Puppy is a trademark of Manley Toy Quest; Robo-Chi, Poo-Chi, Super Poo-Chi, 102 Dalmation-Chi, and Meow-Chi are trademarks of Tiger Electronics, Ltd.

SITE OF THE WEEK:

*HOAXBUSTERS*

(Feb. 18, 2001)

Were you one of the victims of the The VBS.AnnaKournikova Worm? Or perhaps you got an email about a Ericsson/Nokia Phone Giveaway? The AnnaKournikova Worm was real and hurt millions of people, but the Ericsson/Nokia Phone Giveaway is a hoax . It not only wastes your time, but now Ericsson has to waste the time of both their legal and IT departments tracing the person who initiated the illegal chain letter. And it IS illegal too! Then there are the virus hoaxes that reappear every few years like the "Good Times" virus warning hoax, only to be re-circulated by a viligent army of new and caring Internet users.

So how do you figure out what is a real threat to you and your machine and what is a hoax? Help is out there! Here are a few places you can go online to check out if the latest alarm is a real and active compter viruses or a hoax:

HOAXBUSTERS: http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/HoaxBustersHome.html

A public service of the CIAC (Computer Incident Advisory Capability) Team and the US Dept. of Engergy. This site also has an excellent list of other sites with hoax and virus information as well as a list of where to report scams and fraud.

Symantec Security Updates: http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html

McAfee Virus and Hoax Listings: http://vil.mcafee.com/hoax.asp

Lastly, always follow the #1 rule to protect yourself from computer virus infection: NEVER open an email attachment unless you know what it is--even if it's from someone you know and trust.

SITE OF THE WEEK:

*Image Crunchers*

(Feb. 11, 2001)

Spinwave at http://www.spinwave.com/ is a website that offers an online GIF and JPG cruncher. You can either use an image already on the Web, or locate and crunch an image on your hard drive. You are then offered several versions of your image with different color depth and dithering levels, providing you with size information on download time and crunched percentages. You don't have as much control as you would with higher-end programs, but for free utilities, these are hot stuff!

Adobe also has a similar image optimizer. You can check it out here: http://webservices.adobe.com/optimize/main.html . You can compare JPG and GIF, and choose and choose the best overall format for your image. They also provide an estimated upload time.

So how do you know what format is right for your image? Here's a simple explanation of JPG (also JPEG) and GIF.

JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. JPEGs are best for photographic or fine art subjects as it allows for millions of colors. It doesn't, however, support transparency or animation. If your file has or needs either of those, you should save it as a GIF. GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format. It's restricted to 256 colors or less and is usually used for illustrations with solid colors ( Close inspection of a GIF image will reveal a bunch of dots).

Rules of thumb for working with images and keeping file size down:

Always work with a copy so that you can go back to your raw image if you want to make more changes. It is not a good idea to save an image in one format and then again in another. Keep originals of your images so that you can go back to make changes Make sure your image is no larger than 72 dpi. The resolution of your monitor is 72 dpi and higher resolutions are not visible to viewers on the web and will only add their download time. Don't make your image any larger than it has to be. Larger image size adds greatly to the file size. Use fewer colors. If you are creating the image from scratch, use a set palette of colors. The fewer colors, the smaller the size. Check your programs instructions on how to do this.

The site of the week column is brought to you by Red 5. If you would like to suggest a site of the week for publication in the Daily News, just send an email to [email protected] with your CT alias, the URL you are suggesting and the reason why you think it should be a site of the week.

SITE OF THE WEEK:

*Password Issues*

(Feb. 4, 2001)

This week I've listed links to many sites which can help you with creating passwords and managing them. But before you run off to check those out, let's talk about some common sense concerning your passwords.

You wouldn't leave your driver's license or school ID on the front steps to your home and you wouldn't give the keys to your home to a complete stranger or even to a potential employer. So, why would you give out your passwords to someone you don't know and give them full access to everything you own in Cybertown? Don't give your password to anyone, no matter who asks for it. No job in Cybertown requires that you give out your password. Legitimate staff, employers and security personnel will never ask you for your password. No matter how many times Cybertown has warned its members not to give out their passwords, scammers still manage to trick people.

Still other password thieves have written JavaScript programs devised to make a bogus error message appear on your screen: "You have been disconnected from the computer you dialed. Please reenter sign-on information to reconnect." Once you fill in the information, the program could e-mail it to someone else.

Another situation that people run into is that they make their password too easy to guess. You should never make it the same as your nickname, your real or last name or anything that may seem related to your nickname or identity (example: if your nickname is "tree" don't make your password "leaf" or "root"). In addition, you should use a combination of letters and non-alpha characters (numbers and characters like "*","^", "#") and longer is better! Hackers have tools that can crack a six-character password in less than 15 minutes. The most secure passwords are 13 characters or longer.

All this password stuff can be very confusing and passwords can be hard to create and hard to remember. So I've put together a short list of online password generators and you can use one of the free password managers to help you keep track of them all or use some of the tips I've listed to help you with remembering them.

As for future developments in the field of computer security, I've listed some of the most awesome developments in the field, like the fingerprint scanning mouse, iris scanning and voice recognition. Looks like the rest of the world is trying to catch up with the coolness of Cybertown.

Take me to the Lists !

SITE OF THE WEEK:

*TechnoSphere*

(Jan. 28, 2001)

Only the strong or lucky survive in the TechnoSphere (TS) environment. TechnoSphere is a 3D model world inhabited by artificial lifeforms created by users. They eat, fight, mate and create offspring which evolve and adapt to their environment. Though you can't control your creation, the fun is in creating your very own herbivore or carnivore and then tracking their progress and the progress of their offspring (your grand kids!) through their lifespan of approximately 3 months (depending on their survival skills).

A big thanx goes out to Paden for suggesting this week's cool site.

SITE OF THE WEEK:

*Zone Alarm™-Personal Firewall*

(Jan. 21, 2001)

ZoneAlarm is free "firewall" security for users of DSL, cable modems or two-way satellite service. Itz the easiest way to detect stealth background activity, even if you're just on a modem. ZoneAlarm will not only tell when someone from the outside is attempting to invade your system, but will alert you to programs on your computer that are trying to connect to the Net (think infected email). As a default, ZoneAlarm prohibits all traffic. It recognizes no applications as trusted, verifying them one by one as they first run.

ZoneAlarm is free for personal and nonprofit use. You can download it from their website: www.zonealarm.com/ where, if you're in the market for a business product, you can read about their other firewall product, ZoneAlarm™ Pro. Both products are compatible with Windows 95 / 98 / Me / NT / 2000.

For testing your firewall, we suggest you visit a security evaluation site like Steve Gibson's Shields UP! Leak Test -- Firewall Leakage Tester . Surf safely!

The site of the week is brought to you by Red 5. If you would like to suggest a site of the week for publication in the Daily News, just send an email to [email protected] with your CT alias, the URL you are suggesting and the reason why you think it should be a site of the week.

SITE OF THE WEEK:

*Clean Up Your Hard Drive*

(Jan. 14, 2001)

If you are like a lot of people, you download free software off the Internet. You might not realize how many extra files getz dumped in your Temp folder. Or perhaps you've upgraded your operating system? Did you get rid of that old operating system first? Do you know how to clear your registry? Probably not. How about all those window templates for faxes and resumes that you probably will never use? Talk about space hogs! Who needs it?

Freeing up space can increase your hard drive's performance in a BIG way! I found a lot of information on how to clean up your hard drive on the PCWorld site. This information is dated July 16, 1999 but this common sense approach to clearing out the junk is just as valid today as it was when this series was written.

You can also buy software to help you uninstall software, like Uninstall Manager 3.0 , which is downloadable shareware. This will let you search for old .tmp files you don't need and help get rid of things you might not want.

SITE OF THE WEEK:

*PowerLeap*

(Jan. 7, 2001)

Got an aging Pentium 133? A couple of the best ways to add new life to your old PC is to add RAM and to upgrade your CPU. This weeks site of the week, PowerLeap is a great site to check out if your biggest complaint with your PC is its CPU speed. Just be aware that this is the kind of upgrade for someone who isn't afraid to open the system box and deal with delicate equipment.

Don't know what CPU you have? Just download Power Leap's exclusive CPU Control Panel Utility and that will help you figure out where you are and if it's worth doing an upgrade.

The general rule for upgrades is: If you have to pay more than ~$400 to get another year's use out of your PC, or you have to add more than three internal components (CPU, RAM Hard Drive), then you're probably better off making the plunge for a brand-new system sporting new technologies.

Another product site I found was Kingston's TurboChip® 566/S1 which is a high-performance processor upgrade solution designed to work with Intel Celeron & Pentium® II based motherboards featuring the slot 1 architecture. Check them out: Kingston Technologies .

This new site of the week article is brought to you by Red 5. If you would like to suggest a site of the week for publication in the Daily News, just send an email to [email protected] with your CT alias, the URL you are suggesting and the reason why you think it should be a site of the week.

SITE OF THE WEEK:

*I FOUND IT IN MY NUGGETS*

(Dec. 31, 2000)

Talk about crazy and funny and gross all at the same time! The discovery of a fried chicken head in a pack of nuggets by a woman in Newport News, Va., led to the creation of this crazy website: I Found It In My Nuggets .

Ever wonder what the head of Eric Estrada would look like on a nugget? You can find it here. You'll also find a list of the Top 10 Nugget sightings which include the likes of Bon Jovi, Mr. T (so thatz where he ended up!) and Boy George. And don't miss clicking the dancing chicken head to get a gander at the Chicken Dance page.