Helping familes to get Cozi...

I'm sure by now you've experienced first hand or read about the "MySpace" phenomenon. Well, the folks behind "Cozi Central" have created a new social networking tool for families. I'm talking here about families that are still together under one roof. The service provides great features such as a shared family calendar, shopping lists, quick messages, and photo collages.

If you'd like to coordinate family activities and little easier and keep in touch a little better, then "Cozi Central" just might be the place to start.

"Find and Share Automotive Knowledge"

That's the slogan for the new CarGurus.com Web site launched this past January. The site includes user reveiws, rants, raves, and forums. Also, if you are interested in a particular type of vehicle, you will be presented with links to related Internet videos.

The site is still a little rough around the edges but all in all it delivers what is promises.

"City folks just don't get it!"

Now first of all let me make it perfectly clear, I don't lurk around online dating sites okay? I'm a very happily married man and have no intentions whatsoever in finding a new wife.

Now that that is clear, let me tell you about a fairly new dating site that is quickly growing in popularity. It started out as a way of connecting single people who are in the farming business with each other but it has grown way beyond that now. Here is a quote from the Web site creator himself:

"I'm Jerry Miller, founder of FarmersOnly.com. There are basically two groups in America. Group one: their lives revolve around four dollar cups of coffee, taxi cabs, blue suits, high heels, conference rooms and getting ahead at all costs in the corporate world. If you fall into this group you're probably on the wrong online dating site. Group two: they enjoy blue skies, wide open spaces, raising animals, appreciating nature and truly understand the meaning of Southern hospitality, even if they don't live in the South. This group makes up America's Heartland. This is not a geographic area, this is a slice of America with good old fashioned traditional values, values that were never lost by the farmer."

I believe that I've now provided enough information about this service that you should be able to quickly decide if it just might be something for you.

Good luck!

Something called "Internet"...

Click here to watch a video posted on the YouTube Web site.

The 1993 video is a short documentary on a new "thing" called "Internet" and of its growing popularity.

How familiar with the Internet were you in 1993?

Me? I was just starting to read about it in some computer magazines that I subscribed to back then. For me, dial-up access didn't arrive till mid-1994 or so.

A Biblio-What?

If you are a student or a writer, knowing how to type up a bibliography is an important thing. If you find yourself typing up lots of bibliographies then click here and let the World Wide Web do some of that work for you.

All that is required is the book ISBN number and then the user just selects which style (MLA, APA, etc.) to have the citation created.

It's all very simple.

Something new at Weather.com

I don't know about you but I usually visit Weather.com a couple of times a day. The site is very informative and well designed. A new feature has just been added and I'm pretty darn impressed with it. Click here to see a new interactive map that is now available. While viewing the map you can grab it and move it around to a specific region of the country, you can also zoom in and out and then select various features to overlay on top of the map.

It won't do you any good for me to go on and on about the Weather.com map, you'll just have to go check it out for yourself!

Amazing Earth Facts...

101 of them to be exact.

The folks at Space.com have gone all out to provide a very entertaining and very informative article about the planet that we all call "home".

Well, most of us do that is....

For those who love to write....

Click here to read 12 writing tips from George Orwell. In case you didn't know, Orwell was the author of 1984 and some other significant works.

Take "TypoHound" for a walk...

If you are like me, occasionally you'll drop by e-Bay and search for a few items that you might be interested in. I just recently learned that a great number of e-bay listings get totally overlooked for one simple reason - there are misspellings in the item title listing.

So, if you are searching for a particular brand of item and unfortunately if a fella' (or lady) has posted exactly what you wanted for a fantastic price YET misspelled the brand name - you are outta' luck my friend.

Well, you used to be out of luck.

Now we've all got "TypoHound" to the rescue!

Visit the site, type in the brand name (correctly) and this awesome service will search e-Bay for every possible way of misspelling the name, then it will provide a link to the search results at e-Bay for all of the misspelled listings. You just might find a really spectacular deal!

Pretty cool don't ya' think?

Unless it's gonna' make you spend more money at e-Bay than you should and your spouse is gonna' get even madder at you and....

Well, I'm off to Zamzar....

No, it's not some exotic locale - it's a Web site. A Web site that offers a really awesome free service. Now for you who are not very Internet or computer savvy, I may be going just a little too deep, but please bear with me if you will.

There are times in every one's Internet/computer related life that they will probably need to have a computer file converted. Be it one music format into another, or maybe a Microsoft Publisher file converted into an Adobe PDF file, etc. - it's bound to happen eventually, I can guarantee it.

That's where "Zamzar" comes in handy. You simply go to the Web site, upload the file that you want to convert (very easily may I say so myself), select which type of file you want it converted into, and then provide your email address.

After the conversion is complete, you will receive an email providing you with a link to download the new file from.

It's that easy.

No strings attached, no charges, and the folks at Zamzar promise to never give away or sell your email address to a third-party, nor do they keep a copy of your uploaded files (they simply wouldn't have enough space to store everything!).

So go ahead, get converted!

Do you doodle?

I've found a Web site that lets you doodle online and then remarkably your creation instantly becomes three-dimensional. By utilizing the arrow keys on your keyboard, you can rotate the object plus tilt it up and down at different angles. You can thank the folks at "Squid Soup" for offering such a service.

Sure, it's a time-killer but it is lots of fun!

If you don't have the latest version of Shockwave installed, you'll be prompted to download it - that's okay, it's perfectly safe to do so.

Go see Lulu...

You've heard of "YouTube" - probably hundreds of times by now. You've probably heard of several other online video sites as well.

Here is another one, it's called "Lulu TV".

The service is hosted by a great publishing company, you can learn about all of their services by clicking here.

One of the unique aspects about Lulu TV is that folks who upload content to the Web site can actually earn money. The more popular a video is, that is the more times it is watched - the more money that is paid to the person who posted the work.

Online calendars...

Although there are several good Web sites that offer online calendars/planners, "30Boxes" is one of the newest. Having played around with some of the calendars, those offered by Google and Yahoo - I think the folks @ 30Boxes are on to something. It is about the most easiest and straight forward approach I've seen to Web based calendars.

Give it a try, you just might like it.

And since it is President's Day...

I just learned about "The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza" and was very impressed with both the offerings of the facility itself and of the Web site.

The museum is located in the same building and on the same floor that President John F. Kennedy's assassin fired his weapon from and killed the President.

And just today, the Web site offers access to a home video taken of the motorcade as it made its way through downtown Dallas just seconds before the assassination.

This footage has never been made available before.

A walk down memory lane...

Have you ever visited the Library of Congress Web site?

If not, you oughta'!

Actually, the LOC Web site is gargantuan in size. One could easily be intimidated by the vast amount of information and media that is available there.

It's a good thing that the site is divided up into various projects.

I'd like to tell you about the "American Memory" section of the Library of Congress today. It is a repository of pictures, maps, illustrations, old television commercials, you name it - that all deal with America of the past. A really nice link on the homepage is entitled "Today in History", make sure that you click on it.

I'm wondering if a site like this would be handy for folks who home school their children? Seems to me that it could be used in the curriculum and what's nice about that is - it is absolutely free to use!

My opinion about email....

I get asked about my email preferences a lot. Like which email program do I use or recommend mostly to others. When I tell folks that I don't use ANY email programs they just stare at me in disbelief - but it is true.

I quit using "POP" mail years ago. "POP" mail is the type of email that your Internet Service Provider provides to you. You have to configure Outlook Express or some other "POP" based email program in order to access your email.

How old school is that?

There are two great reasons for not using "POP" email and instead utilizing only Web based email accounts (like Hotmail, Yahoo, MSN, etc.):

1. Accessibility. If you use a Web based email account you can access that account from any computer or device that is connected to the Internet and it doesn't have to be your own personal equipment.

2. Better protection from SPAM and Viruses. The Web email providers use very good SPAM and virus filtering software and you are never required to update it since it is their service. With "POP" email, one can "catch" a virus these days just from having sitting on your computer without downloading any attachments. That won't happen with Web based email.

I've got several different Web based email addresses, each one used for different endeavors. One provider that does not receive much press yet provides outstanding service is "My Way". It truly has some of the best SPAM filtering available.

The service is totally free; no strings attached.

Cool Tools for School....

If you are a college student, click here to learn about some of the best Internet tools available to help you make the best of the "School of Higher Learnin' ".

The Secret Life of Sammy Davis Jr.

Sammy was a great entertainer. I didn't think his acting was all that great but he did know how to entertain folks. I loved his energy.

I just learned that during his showbiz career, Sammy was very big into photography. Apparently, he had one of the biggest celebrity photo archives in history and just now people are finding out about it. Click here to learn more and to view some of the images that he captured.

88 Job Interview Tips...

Are you currently in search of a new job?

Would you like to shine and attract the most attention?

If you answered "Yes" then you need to click here to read an excellent article on how be totally prepared for a job interview and to prove to the interviewer that you are by far the best candidate.

They should teach this stuff in high school and college!

Protect your PC...

One of the top questions that I am asked by people is "What can I do to make sure my PC is safe from all of the viruses and 'stuff' on the Internet?" The problem is, whenever I do try to explain to them what to do, they look at me like a deer in the headlights.

I find that most of the people seeking an answer to that question don't really want to stretch themselves just a little bit to learn enough to protect their own computer; or they are afraid that they might have to spend a few buck to make it happen.

I have found a very well written article about how to secure a PC. It is written in a very easy to understand style. In most cases, the EXACT procedures to follow are outlined in the piece. Click here to access a most excellent guide to PC enlightenment!

The Wayback Machine...

The other day, I was telling someone about some of my earliest Web site creation projects. And if we could see them now, how amusing we would find them to be.

But then I remembered the Wayback Machine - it's a part of the official Internet Archive. One can simply type in the URL (Web address) of the site in question and if they are lucky enough, that site was downloaded and archived at least once if not several times over a span of a couple of years.

I've been able to find some of my oldest (and funniest looking) sites. I was also shocked to find out that some of the very crudley built software I designed back in the mid-90's, is still available for download through the links on the old Web sites.

Talk about a blast from the past!

I once heard a story where a fella' was hired to redo a Web site for a company. He started right in and somehow got things so messed up that he wanted to repost the original site. Unfortunately for him, he had forgotten to make a backup of the site. Fortunately for him though, he knew about the Wayback Machine. The lucky fella' was able to go that site, type in the URL, and then download an original version of the entire site.

Reposting was easy after that!

Hot off the press...

Everyone is always asking me when I'm going to publish my next book, well - here it is!

This book is Volume One of my new "Devos to Go" series. It is entitled "The Mountains Declare His Majesty". If you click here you will be able to read more about this new series of devotions, preview part of the book for free, and best of all - order yourself a copy!

I appreciate your support.

P.S. By clicking here, you'll be able to read a little bit about all of the books that I've published so far.

Retro-Television for the masses...

Click here to read a breaking news story about the "YouTube" Web site. It has just worked out an agreement to host old television shows from the 60's and 70's. That means that I'll be able to watch Gumby for free anytime I want to and that is a very cool thing.

I don't really watch Gumby, well - not as much as I used to. I can quit anytime I want to you know.

Do the Tango...

Are you into books? Do you like to read some good book reviews before making your next purchase?

If so, the "BookTango" site is for you. I recently took advantage of Google's offer to allow me to customize my very own search engine. I think the darn thing turned out pretty good. When you type in the title of the book or the author's name, you will not be inundated with a bunch of useless links that lead you down one rabbit trail after another.

Have fun!

I've had a busy weekend. Besides having a very annoying and excruciatingly painful wisdom tooth extracted - I built a couple of customized search engines.

If you are like me, you watch quite a few movies every month; either at the theatre or by renting videos. I often use Google to look up movie reviews and I also have some of my favorite sites that post reviews pretty often. The problem I have is that I get tired of trying to remember all of the good and useful sites that are out there in Cyberspace.

So, what I did was combine the power of the Google search engine and the massive databases of all the top movie review sites on the Internet. Sure, my new search engine will need "tweaking" once in a while - but it's off to a real good start already.

Click here to visit - MovieTango.com!

If you've got any "geekiness" in you at all and if you'd really like to learn about the true history of the Internet without a bunch of hype, then this book is for you.

Google - 1997

Click here to view what the Google homepage looked like in 1997. The service was just getting off the ground and no one at the time had any idea just how far and how big it would get.

Opening Pandora's Box...

I've been using the free services of a fantastic Web site - it's called "Pandora Internet Radio". Here's how it works, let's say that you are like me and you like Norah Jones, and let's say that you wanted to know what other artists performed similar music and had similar vocal styles as the richly talented Miss Jones. All you'd have to do is go to the Web site and type in the name of Norah Jones - within just a few seconds your very own customized radio station will be created.

Not only will the work of Norah Jones be played (in high-quality stereo) but so will the music of other similar performers. If a song is played by an artist that you don't care to hear in the future, you simply click on the little "Thumbs Down" icon that is available for each piece.

It is a very simple concept and yet it is amazingly useful!

Another side of Microsoft...

Microsoft doesn't just produce software. Did you know that?

The behemoth of a company also does a lot of research and development for future cutting edge products. Click here to visit the side of Microsoft that you probably aren't familiar with but just might find fascinating.

Revenge of the PC

I'm sure by now, just about everyone reading this blog has viewed a couple of those MAC commercials on television, you know the ones where they slam the PC?

Well lately, several videos have popped up on the "YouTube" Web site, videos that seek to exact revenge on the MAC commercials. Some of the videos are pretty funny.

Click here to view a small collection of them.

Something to sound off about....

Oh, the power of the Internet and the awesome ability for anyone with access to it to harness that power.

Why am I so excited? It's because I just learned that Cornell Lab of Ornithology has made available over 80,000 sounds of birds and animals. Plus, there are thousands of video clips available on the site also.

So, what is the big deal about that you might wonder? Just think of the all of the uses for those sounds. Parents who are homeschooling their children can use the sounds in their curriculum; the sounds could be used in home and professional video recordings; and not to mention the amount of use the site will probably receive by bird watchers.

I invite you to explore the site, listen to a few of the sounds, it will be an educational experience.

Searching beyond Google...

I've love Google, it's been my favorite search engine for a very long time. There are other great search engines out there yet I find myself using Google more than any of the others.

Click here to view a list of 25 top search engines that you may have never heard about. Each site is unique in how it searches, categorizes and displays data. Along with each listing is a very good description of that site.

I've already found a few interesting ones that I'm going to try out over the next few days.

What to do when you've got the offline blues...

I don't know about you, but occasionally I lose my Internet connection.

How it gets misplaced I just don't know.

Where I live is so rural that cable and DSL are not available - yet. Dial-up access could be used, but who wants to go back to dial-up after using broadband for the past 5 years?

So, for now, I subscribe to a wireless Internet provider. At first, the service was down right horrible. Internet connectivity would be down for at least half a day almost every day and then for some reason, there would be no access over the weekend.

I spent a lot of time on the telephone with the provider, they don't like me now. Their customer support is absolutely pathetic.

Want to hear something funny? I had a competing wireless provider come out to the house and do a site survey to see if they could provide our Internet access. They couldn't, their tower was too far away. But you know what? The competitor's technician climbed up and inspected my provider's wireless antenna. He found the antenna was loose on the post. He also found that the antenna was actually angled to high and therefore overshooting the tower.

Ten minutes of "tweaking" and my Internet signal was better than it had ever been. The adjustment was made about a month ago and since then, I've only been without an Internet connection twice - for around 15 minutes each.

As soon as cable or DSL becomes available, I will be switching to one of them, even if it costs more each month. At that time, I will also divulge the name of the company that provides such poor customer service (I don't want them to pull the plug on my access as retribution if I name them now).

The competitor's name is Indiana Data Center, I was extremely impressed with the professionalism of the technician. Professionalism is one thing that is totally absent from my current wireless Internet Provider.

Click here to read a list of things to do with your computer when it is offline. You might want to print the list out and then tuck it away somewhere for use later down the road if you ever find yourself without an Internet connection.

Who puts their tools in a crib?

If you are into tools - you know, the home improvement kind, then you'll like the "Tool Crib" Web site. Now me on the other hand, I pretty much get a hammer and a screwdriver confused for each other.

I think I'll just stick to computers and software - the world will probably be a lot safer place if I do!

Virtual Vacations...

Are you ready for some virtual traveling?

In the past, I’ve written a few times about 360-degree photographic images called “panoramas”, that are viewable using the Apple Quicktime plug-in for your Web browser.

One of my most popular Web destinations is the British Tours Ltd. Web site at www.britishtours.com - you will love the site. I have been visiting the British Tours site for several years now.

Now, I’ve got another great site to add to my“Favorites”. This one even offers (if you have broadband access) full-screen panoramas that are so clear and crisp that they will blow your mind.

Can you tell that I’m impressed?

You will be also if you go to www.panoramas.dk and start exploring. One of my favorite virtual destinations is the view from the summit of Mt.Everest. Crazy thing about the Internet isn’t it? We don’t have to exert any energy, take any chances, take any time off from work, or spend lots of money, and yet we can practically stand on top of the world, and get the same view as all of those die-hard adventurers have had when they reached the summit.

A Homework Conundrum...

Currently I am attending college full-time - that means lots and lots of homework. With so many projects to complete and so many due dates, my mind gets frazzled trying to figure out when to do what sometimes.

Relief is now at hand though because I've discovered "GradeFix" - a really awesome Web site that allows a person to type in all of thier homework assignments, the date that they need to be completed, and the amount of time each project will need allocated to be completed.


GradeFix will determine a schedule for the user and basically break down how much time per day will need to be used toward each project until it is completed. Use of the service is free if you maintain 10 or less assignments - if you want more, the cost is a measly $5 per month. There are no sign-up fees nor is anyone locked into a contract for a specific length of time. Although the site was developed by a fella' in college at the time and designed for use by other college students, there are now a great deal of elementary through high school students using it.

PayPal Scams Abound...

I've had a PayPal account for a great number of years now. I use it to pay for purchases over the Internet and I also use to to allow folks to pay me for products and services. The service works very, very well and I've never encountered any difficulties with it.

There are a lot of people in the world though that want to access your PayPal account if you have one. Their intentions are not good. The folks at PayPal have to work hard to try and keep their data safe and we must do our part also.

The PayPal "scammers" started out by sending emails to millions upon millions of people alerting them to suspicious activity detected on their accounts. Conveniently, there was a link embedded in the email that would take the worried consumer to the PayPal Web site where they would type in their username and password to "confirm" that thier account information was correct. Unfortunately, what was taking place was that the unsuspecting individual was simply providing their account information to an evil person or organization.

Of course, the link provided DID NOT take the reader to the REAL PayPal Web site - just one that looked identical to it. At first, the emails didn't look very "official", they often had misspellings and some serious grammar issues. Lately though, the emails have been looking pretty real. Not much as changed over the years, as far as the emails go - except now, instead of warning the reader that someone unauthorized "may" be trying to attempt to access your PayPal account, the email now warns that someone has just added an additional email account to your PayPal account information.

I mean, who wouldn't be concerned?

The bottom line though is though - PayPal will never send an email to its subscribers with an embedded link back to their Web site. They've stated that numerous times. What the folks at PayPal would like you to do, is to occasionally go to their Web site, log in, and check for any messages from them concerning issues with your account and then to address them.

Keep sharp, stay alert, be smarter than the bad guys!

Who's searching for what?

I write about Internet search engines all of the time and that’s because they are worth writing about. They are also very much worth learning about. The closest that you’ll ever get to finding a needle in a haystack, you will get with a search engine. They are that important.

There are times that I have been curious as to what my fellow Web surfers are trying to find on the Internet at any given time. My strange nosiness can now be satisfied at a number of different locations in Cyberspace.

First off, if you are similarly inclined - you might try the “Metaspy” feature of the Metacrawler search engine by going to www.metaspy.com –you’ll have two options at that Web site; “Metaspygreen” which utilizes a filter to keep the subjects searched “family safe”, and then you’ve got “Metaspy red” which comes unfiltered – you are on your own with that one bubba’.

The very popular “Ask” search engine also allows access to its most popular searches, simply click here to visit that part of the site. Speaking of Internet searches, if you haven’t visited the “Dog Pile” in a while, you might checkout www.dogpile.com –although most folks consider the site to be a search engine, it really isn’t. What the site is really designed to do is to take your search keywords, and then to apply those words to a simultaneous search of about a half-dozen major search engines on the Web. Just make sure you wipe your feet off real good when you’re all done searching OK? You'll find a link on the site entitled "SearchSpy", click on it and like the "MetaSpy" site, you'll be able to select between filtered and unfiltered searches that are taking place on the site.