I generally begin a Net Nerds column talking about newsgroups. After checking out many of the college football groups I concluded that the signal-to-noise ratio is abysmal. If the rest of the rec.sports hierarchy is this puerile, don't bother. If this is just my prejudice talking, please let me know and I'll be glad to print a retraction and a list of your favorite sports-related newsgroups.
If you're a cybersports fan you are probably already haunting the Web's mega sports sites. I like NandO Net, at http://www.nando.net for news, and their sports coverage is as good as the rest of the paper. NandO is the online edition of the Raleigh, North Carolina News and Observer, and they set the standard for every online paper that followed in their big footsteps. You can also get up-to-the-minute sports headlines from Yahoo! at http://www.yahoo.com; click on sports XTRA for the Reuters news wire.
The ESPN Sports Zone, at http://epsnet.sportszone.com, and SportsLine USA, at http://www.sportsline.com are also good all-in-one sites. Both offer substantial free resources, but dish up awesome stuff for their subscribers. Both charge $4.95 a month, or $39.95 if you pay for the whole year. If you're a diehard fan of pro and college sports, the extras, which include video, chat and real-time reportage are worth the money. They both offer brief free trials so you don't have to buy a pig in a poke.
USA Today is on the Web at http://www.usatoday.com. In addition to comprehensive sports coverage, they feature a free software package called FanTrack. Once you download and configure the FanTrack program, every time you grab USA Today's weekly statistics the viewer is launched. FanTrack allows you to sort the stats any way you want them: they suggest you can rank NFL running backs by yards gained, or display two quarterback's stats side-by-side. The offer a separate, free graphics viewer that lets you create charts as well. The installation instructions are excellent, and all of the sifting and sorting can be done offline. They've had the NFL version on line all season, and the baseball version debuts in the spring.
I love interactive stuff on the 'Net, so I got a kick out of Interactive Internet Sports, at http://www.iis-sports.com. This site gives you plenty of opportunities to mouth off about your favorite teams and players, has lots of straw polls and a trivia contest that I tried once and will never attempt again. You'll probably do better, but I embarrassed myself publicly by guessing that Troy Aikman was a baseball player for the Boston Celtics. I warned you that I wasn't a fan!
I moseyed around
looking for stuff in San Antonio and found the 47th San Antonio Stock
Show and Rodeo, at http://numedia.tddc.net/sarodeo.
I admit that this cowgirl poked around the music section more than the
rodeo stuff, but it's a well-constructed site that everyone in town ought
to visit. I think I'll even show this one to my mother-in-law; she's the
lady in the clown suit who gently cracks eggs for the Rodeo's cowboy breakfast
and later turns them into cascarones for NIOSA.
Another San Antonio institution on the Web is the Hash House Harriers, at http://www.lm.com/~floppy/hhh/sahhh.html. This is an international organization that claims to be "a drinking club with a running problem." Hashing is a twist on the children's game hares and hounds. Someone lays a trail with flour or some other biodegradable substance and the pack of "hounds" follows the trail. There might be beer along the way and there might be beer at the end. The San Antonio Pack, usually 20-25 hounds, runs on Sundays. If you want to find them, you'll have to visit their web page.
I'd be tempted to become a Harrier if the Army hadn't turned me into a jogaphobic. Volksmarching is more my speed; my husband and I enjoyed a few rambles when we lived in Germany. I was delighted to discover that the American Volksmarching Association is based in Universal City. For those not familiar with the sport, it's organized walking; you enter your mileage in a logbook and earn medals and other tokens by completing walks. John and I participated in group walks, but there are also trails that you can follow on your own time, including ones on the River Walk, through the missions and around Fiesta Texas. Visit the AVA web page at http://www.teleport.com:80/~walking. I think our belated joint new year's resolution will be to take up Volksmarching again, so it will be happy trails for the Ives family. Who says the Internet turns you into a couch potato?
Loyal Net Nerd
Charley Rogers (mandrake@texas.net)
pointed me to the San Antonio Texan's home page, at http://www.cfl.ca/clubs/san.antonio.html.
This got me looking for the rest of the city's pro teams. To find the Spurs,
you can go to the NBA home page, at http://www.nba.com/spurs.
There's lots of good stuff, including video and audio clips.
The best Iguana site is hosted by the Reptile Ramblers, the Iggy's booster club. Lizard fans can visit them at http://www.netexpress.com/users/baert/. I spent a half hour looking for a Missions site and came up with zilch. There's a hole that needs filling out there, Missions fans! Anyone up to the challenge?
Charley also sent me a source of college fight songs, http://acm.msu/~barnest2/fightsongs.html. I went to a laid-back college: I think the Drew University song was kum-ba-yah, or something equally gentle. I could have used this site before I went to the Alamo Bowl. I unfortunately recognized the A&M fight song from Girl Scout camp, except the words I learned were Go Tell Aunt Rhody the Old Grey Goose is Dead. I was shushed several times. If UT had won a berth in the Bowl I would have been singing I've been Working on the Rail Road....
Parents might want to check out the Kids Sports Network, an educational non-profit program here in San Antonio. They have articles about kids and sports, and up to date info on programs such as the Spurs youth basketball day at the Alamodome. Look for them at http://www.texas.net/user/kidsport/.
I know you've already found the Super Bowl page at http://superbowl.com, but that was last month's news. Just remember that the first bowl game carried live on the Internet was our very own Builders Square Alamo Bowl, at http://www.geminet.com/alamobowl. It's time to start gearing up for the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, and you can do that at http://www.olympic.org. They have explanations of all of the sports that you'll be following, plus some great fun stuff like a trivia quiz.
Golfers should hop
on their little carts and zoom on over to the Golf Web, at http://www.golfweb.com/cgi-bin/disp3.cgi?Alamo_PC_Organization+Susan.Ives.
Before you bogie on over, let me explain that bizarre URL. I've registered
Alamo PC as a friend of Golf Web. This not only gives us a link on their
page, but also makes us eligible for cool prizes, like a tube of balls,
a t-shirt or (dare I mention it?) a set of clubs. If enough of you visit
their site using this URL, I feel it in my bones that we'll win. When we
do, I will design an exciting and fair contest to award the prize to a
deserving Alamo PC member. (Those screams you hear in the background are
my husband's....) Golf Web just won a prize for being the best sports site
on the Web, and it deserves it. Everything you could ever want to know
about Golf is on this elegant site. They have a searchable database of
virtually every golf course, and you can search it using a variety of parameters.
Want to play La Cantera? All the details are here. Golfers can post remarks
about courses they've played and even advertise for golf partners.
A close second to the Golf Web was the Tennis Server, at http://www.tennisserver.com, which encourages "tennis players everywhere to go to the 'Net for tennis information and equipment." They have monthly columns on the pro circuit, sports psychology and player tips. They carry daily tennis news and lots of links to other tennis sites. They offer a free monthly newsletter via e-mail that has more than 8,000 subscribers.
Skiers should shush on down to the Slope Scope at http://www.netcasters.com/ski to get up-to-the-minute information on skiing conditions at resorts throughout the United States. Before you drive to Colorado with your skis strapped to the roof, check this one out.
Virtually every sport in the world, from archery to bungee jumping,
is covered on the Internet. If you have a favorite page for a favorite
sport, let me know and I'll stick it in next month's cool sites. There
are two that I want to cover before I move on, though. The first is Sumo
wrestling because I don't want the big guys mad at me. I found SumoWeb,
at http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~tmccarth/sumo.htm,
fascinating. It contains the latest statistics, an explanation of the rules
and techniques of Sumo and a glossary of Japanese Sumo terms. They have
a "guru" on hand to answer all of your Sumo questions, and a place for
fans from all over the world to publish Sumo essays. This is an entire
culture that was new to me and I found my visit fascinating. The other
is the Boomerang Plans Server, at http://boomplans.montesquieu.u-bordeaux.fr:81/.
You can look at drawings for dozens of boomerangs, read about what they
do and actually download plans to make one of your own. Plans are in PostScript,
so you will need a viewer such as GhostWriter to look at them. This was
yet another eye-opener for me; you can't help but admire the passion of
the people who put together sites like the SumoWeb and the Boomerang Plans
Server.
Everyone wants to know how to find a friend's e-mail address. The simple solution is to call them up and ask them, but that's too low-tech for a real Net Nerd. Matt Bynum (bynumm@icsi.net) found the Internet Address Finder, at http://www.iaf.net. It works: he found himself, he found me and a bunch of friends. Here's a hint: this site gets most of its addresses by trolling Usenet newsgroups. If you want to make sure that your name is included , find a simpatico newsgroup and post a message there.
Both Joe Finn (jofcon@texas.net) and I tried the beta version of Netscape Smartmarks, a program that logically organizes large bookmark files. We loved the concept but it kept crashing on us. Joe found a program he likes better. It's called Sextant, and it's $15 shareware. You can download the program at http://mind.net/wsirota/sextant/sextant.html.
Alamo PC member Don Mopsick (mophandl@legend.txdirect.com) has put sites up for the Landing Jazz Club and the Live from the Landing public radio series. He has great jazz links on the page, too, and some neat stuff about Jim Cullum's Jazz Band. Visit http://www.riverwalk.org and then sail on over to http://www.landing.com.
Performance Technology is a San Antonio company that has changed the face of the Internet. Their Instant Internet box will connect an existing local area network (LAN) into the Internet at a surprisingly low cost. I've wanted to learn more about this product, and I learned all I need to know at http://www.perftech.com.
It's great to see Alamo PC members getting their businesses up on the Internet. Steve Shepard (sbauto@texas.net) let me know about the SBT Automation Virtual Catalog, at http://www.tristero.com/sbtauto. This is cool stuff, literally: they have products that will let you automate your air conditioning system! Although I loved the intelligent house products, I drooled over the solar powered exterior lighting. Hi-tech homeowners and managers of light commercial structures will want to check this one out. He's even taking orders online.
Another member who's doing business on the Web is Susanna Stiles (susanna@connecti.com.) Her product is Fiberzorb, which is a recyclable cotton blanket that absorbs oil and repels water. I've seen it work, and it's magic! She tells me that she's been getting inquiries from all over the world. If you ever encounter oil spills, or just want to check out an especially elegant and well thought out web page, go to http://www.tristero.com/fiberzorb.
If you've got a web page on line, personal or business, let me
know and we'll give you a plug.
I'm getting great volunteers to be assistant webmasters. Richard Weers (weers@texas.net) has been doing the next month's meeting for a while now, and Jerry Barker (mtvista@texas.net) is now maintaining the hot links section. Steve Lew (slew@connecti.com) has taken over the monthly calendar. Richard Kilmer and his handy scanner are taking care of the graphics. I love it!
We've added a few more mailing lists to the home page. VP of Member Services David Savage now has a list where he will announce software that is available for review. Dvora Mathews, the Alamo PC Executive Director, started a list for SIG leaders so that she can inform them of changes and problems in our resource center. If anyone has an idea for a list, let me know. A complete list of lists and instructions on how to subscribe is on the home page.
On the 15th of December, the Alamo PC web page welcomed its 1,000th
visitor in less than a month of counting hits. Are we popular, or what?