June 2002

No, I'm not about to impersonate Adam Sandler's OperaMan. Opera is the web browser I use almost exclusively – I only need to resort to Internet Explorer for a few sites (like my bank). Opera Fun is a resource site for Opera users. It includes a newsletter, hints and tips, custom skins and buttons, and a wide range of other useful information for the Opera aficionado.

Not everything online is available through general-purpose search tools such as Google and Yahoo. The "invisible web" consists of data that is not indexed by such tools, but can be searched through specialized search engines. Direct Search is a massive list of such on-line resources, including government and legal databases, full-text books, news sources, social science databases, and more.

Cubic Five… Pixel Six… Square Dance. CIA code names? Potential titles for the next Tom Clancy novel? Nope… they're free fonts by Cal Henderson. The fonts are small but very readable, just the thing for space-saving web site menus. They're available for Windows, and supposedly also for the Mac, though I couldn't find the Mac versions on the site.

The latest news from the virus front is that a new virus called W32.Perrun can infect and be spread via the ubiquitous JPEG image file format, widely used on web sites. The PC World article "First JPEG Virus Identified" provides some details. All may not be as bad as it seems, though – the Slashdot article "McAfee Manufactures Virus Threat" points out a few more details that may be lost in the (synthetic?) hysteria.

I've needed a Dammit Doll for years…

Before you forward that email (you know, the one that tells you that Bill Gates will send you $1000 if you forward it to everyone you know), check it out via the fine resources collected at Purportal.com. Use the handy search form, or browse the index of "Handy and Edifying Links".

All Windows files have a three-letter "extension" after the file name; for instance, <CODE>My Diary.DOC. The extension tells Windows which program "owns" the file. When you don't recognize the extension, turn to FILExt to help you figure out where that file came from.

I've never played it, but my boys are big fans of The Sims. Seven Deadly Sims is an online repository of objects, walls, floors, and skins – all freely downloadable. Some is going to have to explain to me why a burning trash barrel is in the "Electronics" category, though…

PC World Magazine runs a regular column called Step-by-Step, showing the adventurous PC owner how to add memory, install a larger hard drive, build a web site, and more. The Step-by-Step Archive collects all of the Step-by-Step columns in one handy index.

Okay… I'll admit to being a dyed-in-the-tribble-fur Trekkie, but even I could never have imagined this: an entire town full of Trekkies. The Town of Vulcan, in Alberta, Canada, is apparently packed to the nacelles with Trekkies – there's a space-station-shaped visitor's center, a 30-foot replica of the USS Enterprise, a "Spock Days Rodeo" (?!), and much more.

The spell checking built into most modern word processors is a godsend for many writers, but sometimes you need just a little bit of text checked – maybe even just a single word. If so, don't wait for your word processor to fire up; just turn to Spellcheck.net, where you can paste in up to 5000 characters of text and see all the possible spelling errors at once.

What does it mean? Meaning is at the core of almost everything that humans do, and we collect meanings in glossaries. Glossarist serves as a guide to online glossaries of all kinds, from music to symbols to cartoons. browse by category, or use the search function to find specific glossaries.

Seems like hardly a week goes by that one or more security flaws is discovered in Microsofts' Internet Explorer. It's a good idea to keep tabs on such problems. Scott Schnoll's Internet Explorer Security Center and Georgi Guninski's Internet Explorer security page are two good sources of IE security information.

The recent Spider-Man movie is bound to lead to renewed interest in comic books. Re-acquaint yourself with some old friends, or make new ones, at Marvel dotComics.

Any complex project is bound to have a few mistakes in it, and the Star Wars films are no exception. The Star Wars Blooper Guide lists over two hundred bloopers and "in-jokes" in the first four movies (Attack of the Clones is not covered). For instance, look closely in Watto's junkyard in A Phantom Menace, and you'll find a space pod from the classic 2001: A Space Odyssey.