| Faithful readers
of Net Nerds know that I usually devote an entire column to one topic.
This month is a hodge-podge of sites on topics that don't merit a full-page
treatment but are deserving of notice just the same.
Tell me why
Thanks to Bill Strout for referring me to How
Stuff Works, and starting my search more answers to puzzling questions.
This is one of the most popular sites on the Internet but until Bill e-mailed
me I had never heard of it. Its name says it all. How does a refrigerator
work? The stock market? What do the numbers on your Social Security card
mean? (If you got your card in Texas, the first three numbers will range
from 449-467.) How do those singing fish plaques work? What’s inside a
combination lock? All of the explanations – and there are hundreds
of them – are easy to understand, even for a scientific nitwit like me.
Better yet, they are illustrated! There is a question of the day, too,
which contains a shorter, but still thorough, explanation. I love it.
If you have a trivia-obsessed brain, other sites that may appeal to
you are:
Ask
Yahoo has answers to 358 questions and seem to be adding them at
the rate of four or five a day. The questions are of the order of
“what is the difference between…” How do I…” What is a. . .” “Why
does. . .” The questions and answers themselves are interesting but the
beauty of the site is that the answer guys explain how they find their
answers on the Internet. By modeling their techniques, you can become a
proficient researcher in a relatively short time. Questions range from
getting mustard out of a pair of Levis to the origin of the term “blue
chip stock.” And yes, you can ask your own questions!
News
As if we need more news! I’m already suffering from information overload.
There are times, however, that I need to consult a local newspaper. Finding
one can be a challenge. Onlinenewspapers.com
claims to index more than 10,000 online newspapers from around the world.
Maintained in Australia, it uses a simple pull-down interface organized
by geographic area. Any newspaper is, at most, three clicks away.
Another good source for U.S. media is The
American Journalism Review. Their list has an interesting spin
– you can get a list of the most linked to media. As they carefully explain,
many online media probably have a loyal cadre of faithful users who routinely
go directly to that site without having to follow a news link from somewhere
else. I have both the Express-News and the New York Times on my browser’s
navigation bar, as I visit them daily. The top five linked-to traditional
newspapers are
-
Los Angeles Times
-
Washington Post
-
New York Times
-
Miami Herald
-
USA Today
The list is updated every Friday, so the LA Times #1 position may
be influenced by the Democratic Convention, taking place as I write. The
also carry a decent list of college and alternative newspapers.
Computers
My hard drive is lettered with files that I didn’t put there. I don’t
know what they are. Sometimes they scare me. No more. Whatis.com
has a list of every file format in the world. (Go to the bottom of
the page, to the Resource Center.) There is lots of other good information
on this site, including a comprehensive dictionary of computer terms, a
chart showing the 216 web-safe colors for web designers and even a list
of acronyms used in Internet chat. This is probably FMTYEWTK (Far
More
Than
You
Ever
Wanted
To
Know,
in chatspeak.)
My favorite reference site
I am in love with Bartleby.
Named after the title character in Melville’s classic, Bartleby the Scrivener,
Bartleby.com publishes the classics of literature, nonfiction and reference
free of charge. They select works that are out of copyright, such as Gray’s
Anatomy, Roget’s Thesaurus, Bartlett’s Quotations and
Robert’s
Rules of Order. Poetry starts with the Oxford Book of English Verse,
and in fiction you can range from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Agatha Christie.
If the rest of the Internet disappeared tomorrow, I would be content to
peruse Bartleby for the rest of my days.
How do I find all this stuff?
People have accused me of spending all day (and all night) on the Internet
looking for interesting sites to write about. Not so! I’m not going to
give away all of my secrets, but one of my best resources is The
Scout Report. This is a weekly publication offering a selection
of new and newly discovered Internet resources of interest to researchers
and educators. I get in via e-mail and each week a find a site or two to
visit and at least one to pass onto a friend. The web site archives the
site summaries more than 9,000 of them, so far – in a searchable index.
They also sponsor the NetHappenings daily e-mail and archives which
lists new or updated resources of special interest to educators. These
two resources could keep you busy forever.
Susan
Ives graduated from the same university as the winner of this year's
College Jeopardy and knows a little about everything but not much about
anything. |
