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Steve Leader's Picks :(just click on the links to go to the Web Sites)  If you have a site you think others might find interesting, please send me the web address by clicking here .

Important News and Information Links:

 Email address, snail address, fax and telephone numbers of every member in Congress
 
 The Declaration of Independence     The Constitution of the United States of America    The Bill of Rights
The Drudge Report (here you will find links to hundreds of news sources)

Click here to find out what our State Legislature is up to and to email your representatives your input (they sure need it)

Big Government says we have a tax surplus. If that is true then why is the National Debt going up? To see exactly what the national debt is moment by moment just click herehttp://www.babylontoday.com/national_debt_clock.htm

July 24:

April 12: 

Michael Desmond

I'm old enough to remember the bad old days of Windows. I struggled with crashing programs and merciless 640K DOS memory limits that made running game software almost impossible. To keep your PC working in those days, you needed a host of utilities: memory managers, disk defragmenters, and system boot tuners that became crucial to your day-to-day work.

Times change, and yet they remain the same. Windows XP has helped sweep away the old frustrations, but it leaves new ones in its wake. Fortunately, there is a quiet army of programmers, developers, and software makers churning out utilities to fix what ails you and your current PC. Here, in alphabetical order, is a look at some of my favorite utilities--the ones I rely on every day.

Firefox Extensions: Over the years, Internet Explorer has inspired a raft of utilities, from pop-up blockers to cookie-management tools. The popular Firefox browser is getting similar treatment, but these utilities are packaged as Firefox Extensions--applets that plug into the browser. My two favorites are the Tab Mix extension for managing tabbed page behaviors, and the All-in-One Gestures extension for navigating with simple swipes of the mouse.

Feb 23:Cheapo Vegas
Plan your next trip to the Big Sleazy (okay, that’s a stretch these days, but why fight the pun?) with this highly enjoyable collection of reviews of hotels on and off the Strip. The site rates all the important amenities, from restaurants to the free toiletries, and goes into a surprising amount of detail. Toss your Zagat and stick with these guys.

Jan 18: Do You Speak American?
Real goodly-like! (OK, stop that.) This great site – a companion to the PBS series – will have you blurting out random words just for the fun of it as you sift through the lists, quizzes, articles and other fun stuff available here. We enjoyed the sections on slang and endured getting our butts kicked by the regional-terms quizzes, but we were beyond psyched to see an entire mini-essay on the linguistic contributions of Joss Whedon and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. About time someone recognized.

Jan 7:Sweepstakes Today
Feel lucky? In that case, you're definitely due for a visit to this helpful site, which keeps track of all sweepstakes in progress here, there and everywhere. Site proprietor Craig McDaniel genuinely loves keeping up with what's happening (and has the good luck, too – check out the Mr. Sweepy link for a history of the things he's won over the years), and his enthusiasm and good common sense shine through.

Jan 5, 2005 NOVA: Welcome To Mars
It wasn’t supposed to go this well: A year and a day ago, after a year for the space program that can only be described as depressing in the in the extreme, the good people of NASA managed to land the first of two astonishing rovers on the Red Planet. (Our headline that day: “We’ve got Spirit, yes we do.” We had an alternate hed in case the landing had failed. We’re pleased to say we can’t remember what it was.) The breadth of the discoveries they’ve made has been matched only by their unbelievable durability: A 90-day lifespan has stretched to 367 and counting. Catch up and celebrate at the PBS companion site to tonight’s edition of the flagship science show.

Dec 27: The Haggis-On-Whey World Of Unbelievable Brilliance
(And profound disturbance.) We wouldn’t spoil the joy of discovering this site for yourself, but we must insist that you visit the area called “The Books” and just … savor some of the lines in there. Not to take a single thing away from the blog entries, which should be scrutinized with great interest, but the list of Things Your Tongue Is Actually Saying is funnier than anything we’ve read in The Onion in months, simply months. And who knew about the giraffes and the mirrors?

Dec 22: The Kitchen Table Gang Trust
This self-described “rag-tag bunch of military types” is doing wonderful things for our hospitalized and homeless veterans, and it all started with a poker game. (They donated a portion of the pot to veterans and active-duty troops – are you doing anything that cool with your Texas Hold ‘Em obsession, hmm?) These great guys will tell you all about it on their site, and they’ve got lots of suggestions on how you can express your gratitude to our brave men and women during the holidays.

Dec 21:Winter Romance Ideas
Winter means cuddling by the fire with your beau (as opposed to a day on the beach or a nice stroll). Alas, ideas for keeping the flame alive seem to dwindle along with the temperature.; couples get cabin feverish from lounging inside and ordering out. This site gives some ideas for neat things to do with your partner to entertain yourselves. If you aren't too fond of their suggestions they may inspire you to add your own twist or think outside the box.

Dec 20: Get Wrapped
And we thought driving in Boston was tough enough with an actual car. This charming mini-game from the good folks at the Boston Globe lets you pilot a snowplow around the distressingly slippery streets of downtown Boston, attempting to shovel a pack and gather candies and presents without… well, we lost track of our travails right after we got hit by the M and slammed into the Globe building. Repeatedly. Silly fun.

Sept 20:RadioLovers
Most decent NPR stations have at least one evening each week of old-time radio comedies and dramas, but aficionados crave more. This site collects hundreds of copyright-expired recordings of radio broadcasts and offers them for your MP3 listening pleasure. It warms our heart and fills our digital-music player with goodness. — HSS

Sept. 8: The Software Patch If the past month hasn't convinced Windows users that keeping up to date on software patches is an important computer-maintenance priority for security reasons, we can't imagine what would. This site merits regular visits to be sure that your PC is in the best possible condition; security updates are covered, as are performance patches for mice, keyboards, and more.

Aug 26: How to copy a DVD: 

Jim Louderback - ExtremeTech

I'm not in the habit of turning mild-mannered law-abiding citizens into criminals. I don't gamble, buy cigarettes for teenagers or employ illegal aliens to watch my kid. I don't even like gangsta rap. But I do like movies, and my passion for technology means I may have doomed my four-year-old to a life of crime. I might be about to do the same to you.

We're about to explore how to copy DVDs, a topic of murky legality, where shadowy bootleggers co-exist with upright citizens who wouldn't dream of exceeding the speed limit. School age children, and those with weak hearts are advised to stop reading now, click back to the main Yahoo page, and find a tamer article to read – perhaps one featuring JLo and Ben. For the rest of you, let's get started.

Just remember, I warned you.DVD movies, like music CDs, are stored digitally on that plastic disc, in a stream of zeroes and ones almost as long as War and Peace and Remembrance of Things Past combined. VCR and cassette recorders, by contrast, transcribe in an analog format –closer to what your eye and ear perceive.

Each time a cassette or VHS tape is copied, the music or video degrades. That's because the recording can't match the original source. That's why the "master" was so important in the pre-digital days, because only it could generate the best copies for sale or share.

But when you make a copy of a digital file – whether it's a Rolling Stones song, Harry Potter (news - web sites) movie or Excel spreadsheet – the copy is identical to the original. It's hard to mess up ones and zeros.

When Hollywood decided on a digital movie format – called DVDs – it decided to protect it with something called CSS, or the Content Scrambling System. Like Pig Latin – ere-whay vree- ay erd-way is-ay anslated-tray to-inay nother-ay (where every word is translated into another) – the ones and zeroes stored on a DVD are unintelligible garbage unless you have the key.

That key was jealously guarded, but like most secrets, it got out. Now anyone with a computer and DVD drive can easily strip off CSS in a process called "decrypting", and create a perfect copy of a DVD's video and audio content on a hard drive. And from there it's easy to create a DVD copy that's identical to the original.

Recordable DVDs are expensive though, and only hold about half the information of a store-bought movie. It takes hours and some real hassle to decrypt a movie, and then copy it over to two separate recordable DVDs.

In the end, you get a perfect copy, but at a cost of around $10, plus a few hours of labor. Compared to between $15 and $25 for a brand new one, or $5 to rent a movie, the economics just don't work out, at least not today.

You can also copy a DVD movie over to one or more recordable CDs. But you'll have to squeeze that video way down, because a CD holds but a tenth of a store-bought DVD's data. You'll end up with a movie you can watch only on a small TV or notebook computer. It'll look flawed on a larger TV or home theater – and it'll take much longer to make.

So why bother copying DVDs?

Like CDs, DVDs are not indestructible. Sam, my four-year old, has managed to kill our copies of Monsters Inc, and Toy Story 2. I had to buy them all over again, which doesn't make any sense to me at all. I really would have liked a back-up copy, even if it was imperfect.

We're also becoming used to consuming our media wherever and however we want. I listen to my favorite tunes at home on my CD player but also on my PC at work, and on my tiny Creative Labs MuVo MP3 player while traveling.

These days, I do the same things with movies. I've got the latest Harry Potter movie on my notebook's hard drive, stripped off of a store-bought DVD, ready for my next coast-to-coast flight. And you can bet I've got copies of Sam's favorite movies burned to backup DVDs, just in case.

How did I do it? I'll tell you in a minute. But first, a note on those legal questions I raised earlier. Hollywood and software makers are currently battling in court over whether you can make archival copies of your movies. Copyright laws include a provision called "fair use", which theoretically lets you make archival copies of media you've purchased, but several courts have ruled that it's illegal to circumvent copy protections to do so.

Are you at risk? According to intellectual property lawyer Lee Bromberg, "whether it's legal or illegal is unclear." But should you worry about going to jail for putting the Terminator on your Toshiba? "Though there is a small theoretical risk of criminal prosecution… the movie and recording industries typically pursue commercial users rather than consumers." In other words, if you' don't sell your copies, you're probably OK. But note that the music industry watchdog, the RIAA (news - web sites), is now going after consumers sharing music via KaZaA and other Napster (news - web sites)-like peer-to-peer sites.

So, now that we're clear about the murky legality of DVD copying, here's how it's done (last chance to click back to Yahoo's home page, and read more about JLo and Ben).

System Requirements: If you want to make copies of your DVDs, either to a recordable DVD or CD, you'll want a pretty brawny system. Although you can do it with an older processor, the faster the CPU, the quicker your DVD will be made. This is because in most cases you'll be compressing or otherwise processing the movie files. I recommend at least a 1.5 Gigahertz Pentium 4 or Athlon processor, and faster processors are even better.

You'll also need a lot of hard drive space. Most movies take up 7 or 8 gigabytes of storage or more – the latest Harry Potter movie needed 7.5 gigabytes of storage for the main movie alone. Since you'll need working room, too, plan on at least 15 gigabytes of free space.

You'll need at least one drive capable of reading DVDs – and either a CDR or DVD burner if you want to drop your movies onto disc. You can leave the movie on your PC's hard drive and watch it that way, but again, those movies take up a lot of space, When it comes to software, there are three different types of programs out there to help you along.

All-in-One: The first provides everything in one package. It rips, decrypts and burns. Simply stick a pre-recorded DVD into your DVD burner, press a button, and come back in a few hours to swap in a recordable DVD (if you have two separate drives -- a DVD reader and burner -- no swap is needed). If necessary, you'll have to come back and either flip the recordable DVD, or put another one in, to finish the copy. Despite testing a wide range of products, I've only found one that works consistently, – called DVD X Copy. I've uncovered another free package that'll help you make CD-based copies, but it's harder to use. You can read a more in-depth review of DVD X Copy, along with other tools in the companion article on software choices.

DVD Copiers Without Decrypters: There are three commercial software packages that I've found which will do a decent job copying DVDs. They won't rip, or decrypt CSS-encoded movies, but do a good job making DVDs and CD-based movies from your DVDs. They'll work with unencrypted movies, or those movies that you've decrypted with a separate ripping package (more on those in a minute).

These programs offer an interesting alternative, because they will also compress your movies down onto a single DVD-R or CD, which means no swapping. In addition, they'll also take a ripped DVD and turn it into a PC-playable file that's about 15% of the original size. This is great if you want to carry a bunch of movies around on your notebook when you travel.

I'm a big fan of this approach – my 20 gigabyte notebook hard drive typically holds 3-4 movies, which I watch while traveling or waiting for a meeting to start. But you better carry extra batteries – movies can really drain your notebook's power.

DVD Rippers (or Decrypters): These programs form the heart of lawsuits and legal actions. Because the courts are currently exploring the legality of stripping encryption off of a movie, most of these are open source and available for free. These tools typically copy over all content on a DVD, including foreign language tracks, subtitles, previews, the whole menuing system and more. The movies are stored on your PC's hard drive in a format that will probably need to be massaged by another program (like one of the DVD copiers discussed above) to be understood by most computer video players. After ripping, you'll then need one of the previously mentioned DVD copying programs to create a DVD, or CD version of the movie.

For more details about which tools I like best, check out our companion article on DVD Copying Tools. And for a round-up of free tools – which work well but require more expertise, read our sidebar on Recording DVDs For Free.

Want more information on making your own DVDs? Check out our DVD Creation Guide.

And whatever you do, remember that copying DVDs that you don't own is illegal, as is giving or selling copies to friends. If you like a movie enough to copy it, you should just buy it in the first place. I'd hate to think that I was responsible for leading you into a life of crime.

July 14: Snag a job Everyone knows the most popular Web sites for scouting out full-time jobs. (And we're willing to bet their traffic has skyrocketed in this economy.) But what if you're one of the throng searching for part-time and hourly employment? Good news: There's a site out there especially for you. Snagajob.com has an array of openings in retail and banking, as well as various positions perfect for teens or recent college grads looking for a part-time gig. Enter your zip code for local openings, or register your profile so employers can contact you.

June 30: You Must Choose We've all faced those tough decisions in life. You know, the really deep, really tough ones: Would you rather stub your baby toe or jam your pinky? Now you can make those decisions online with hours of mind-numbing pleasure on youmustchoose.com — and, even better, see how your choices stack up against others. (When last we checked, 64% of folks who answered the question were willing to sacrifice the baby toe to save the finger.) We must warn you that a number of the choices are downright crude, and a few are anatomically impossible, but where else can you weigh in on the virtual decision of listening to country music or having a lobotomy?

June 27: Paint Game We've all been there: You're ordering some hip new summer outfit online when you lurch into the color-select options, which are full of zany hues like Mosaic Scroll, Bongo Jazz or Party Surprise. (Whatever happened to red, white and blue?) Before you click the submit-your-order button and end up with a getup that would shame a colorblind circus clown, test your ability to interpret those inscrutable color names with this online paint game. Think Martian Skies would be a type of red? Guess again.

May 29: Mount Everest It's been exactly 50 years since the first successful ascent of the crown of the Himalayas. Celebrate the anniversary with one climber's panoramic view. Let moutaineer Roderick Mackenzie and your mouse take you to the brink of this literally breathtaking view. Just click and hold to spin around the mountain with his interactive 1989 photograph.

May 26: NASCAR race cars Original stock cars were raced on dirt tracks but were rarely tough enough to handle the abuse. They've come along, baby. Discover how the cars work — from frame to safety. HowStuffWorks walks you through the inner workings of the body, the tires and the engines. Even shop and compare prices.

May 12: MyExcercisePlan Get online support to reach your weight and fitness goals. Manage stress, improve your sports performance, and build your own workout plan — all online. Most importantly, learn how to stick with it.

May 6: Acronym Finder Forget being confused by alphabet soup. Find out what other meanings those letters have. Did you know that SARS stands for South African Revenue Service? Find other fun initialisms and submit your own.

May 5: Mother of All Inventions Do you have a bright idea? It could be a household gadget or an outdoor gizmo. BBC's Innovation Nation wants to know about it. Find out how to enter a contest that will see your idea from paper to patent to product.

April 10: Photo Journalism Not even the giants of the news reporting world can compete with the power and poignancy of one good photograph. Designed as a resource for professional photo journalists, this site features hundreds of pictures from around the world, ranging from the tear-jerkingly dramatic to the hauntingly human.

April 4: Tabloid Column Phil Spector and Robert Blake investigated for murder. The strange kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart. The Dixie Chicks' one-step-too-far war protest. There's no shortage of tabloid-headline fodder, and the Tabloid Column offers a handy means for keeping track of the latest news on these and other odd news stories.

April 1: Satellite Views Space.com brings you recent satellite-eye views of key locations in Iraq, including downtown Baghdad, Tikrit, and several Iraqi oil fields, too. The site's "Zoom Your View" feature also brings you close-up satellite images of North Korean nuclear reactor sites, and other newsworthy areas of the world.

March 28: 

Ways to Support the Troops

Operation USO Care Package accepts individual donations of $25 that go toward a package of personal items and snacks for a soldier. Those wishing to participate can go to the Web site or call 1-866-USO-GIVE. Operation Uplink  allows people to donate calling cards so servicemembers can stay in touch with family and friends. Operation Dear Abby offers the option of e-mailing greetings to troops. Defend America allows people to sign a virtual thank-you card to soldiers. The Army and Air Force Exchange allows people to give money for gift certificates which troops can redeem for merchandise. Visit the Web site or call 1-877-770-GIFT (4438). The Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation provides higher education financial assistance to the sons and daughters of Marines and former Marines. Operation Independence organizes and sends care packages to deployed troops. Dear American Soldier offers a forum to compose and send letters to soldiers overseas. Donations are also being accepted by the Army Emergency Relief, the Navy/Marine Relief Society; the Air Force Aid Society; the Coast Guard Mutual Assistance; the American Red Cross Armed Forces Emergency Services; and the Fisher House Foundation, which provides "comfort houses" for family members who have lost servicemembers.

March 17: Fresh Food You can't beat locally grown fruits and vegetables for freshness, and FoodRoutes.org wants to help you find the freshest meats and produce available in your area. Just enter your ZIP code, select the type of establishment you're looking for — farm, farm stand, etc. — and you'll be well on your way to good eating.

March 11: Vehicle Safety That new car in the showroom looks pretty, but how nice will it look after a crash? More to the point, what kind of shape will you be in? HwySafety.org shows you the latest crash test results for the vehicle of your choice, complete with post-smash-up photos of the crash test dummies involved

Feb 28: Organ Donation Last week's tragic loss of teen transplant recipient Jesica Santillan has inspired new interest in organ donation, along with questions concerning the position of one's religion on the practice of donation. The interfaith group Transplant for Life offers brief guidelines on the positions individual faiths take on the matter.

Feb 22: Al Hirschfeld Known throughout the world for his witty, whimsical caricatures of Hollywood's best and brightest, Al Hirschfeld died Monday at the age of 99. In this online exhibit, The Library of Congress features the master's artistic takes on Charlie Chaplin, Billy Graham, and Liza Minnelli, among others.

Feb 20: Windows Annoyances Taking one of the least controversial positions going, Annoyances.org highlights those Windows idiosyncrasies that have made Microsoft the beloved company it is worldwide. What's more, it offers advice for circumventing the worst of them, and links to third-party applications that ease the pain of the rest.

Feb 10: Security Alerts Planning a weekend outing? After consulting the latest weather reports, it might not hurt to check our nation's current terrorism threat level as well, conveniently provided in the upper-right-hand corner of the Department of Homeland Security's Web site. There, too, you'll find the appropriate level of panic you should be experiencing.

Feb 4: Parliament Live You've seen the U.S. government in action. Now sit back and watch the time-honored cabaret that is the British parliamentary system — live. See Prime Minister Tony Blair face tough questions in the House of Commons; see ministers of parliament heckle him; see the Speaker of the House call for order; see order remain elusive

Feb 3: Salary Comparison In the time it takes you to earn a lousy 7 cents, Friends star Lisa Kudrow's pocketed a cool $36.12; Michael Jordan's slam dunked $87.36; and Stephen King, $103.88. These are just some of the maddening insights you'll find courtesy of Monster.com's "Salary Timer."

Jan 31: Freedom Contest Dig freedom? Why not use your artistic skills to express what living in a free society means to you? The Institute for Humane Studies challenges you to create an advertisement for freedom in the Internet-friendly medium of your choice. You could win up to $3,000. (Contest deadline: March 15.)

Jan 30: Space Scene Simulator If you're of a certain age, you've realized that your chances of taking that package tour to Saturn are growing pretty slim. Fortunately, this NASA site lets you picture any celestial body — from any other celestial body — anytime.

Jan 27: Travel Itineraries Discover our shared past the next time you travel. These online itineraries, courtesy of the National Register of Historic Places, offer guided tours of some of the most historically significant sites in the country. Choose an individual location or explore itinerary collections that deal with the civil rights movement and women's history.

Jan 24: Nature Guide The National Wildlife Federation unleashes an astonishing amount of information via eNature.com. Includes several field guides to flora and fauna around the country, information on identifying animals by their tracks, and handy "ZIP Guides" that let you see what's living in your area based on your ZIP code.

Jan 14: Tax Calculator All this talk about changes to the tax law may leave you wondering how you yourself will fare under the president's plan. To that end, the slide-rule set at TurboTax have come up with an online calculator that will let you know if you should be rooting for or against this tax code revision.

Jan 13: Classic TV Those who've never seen Dragnet may want to catch an episode or two at LikeTelevision.com before viewing ABC's remake next month. Jack Webb's gutsy cop drama is just one of the classic TV shows available on this amazing site. Other offerings include The Jack Benny Program, One Step Beyond, and many more.

Jan 10: Pearl Harbor  In the days following Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor, 'man on the street' interviews were conducted in different parts of the USA to capture for posterity the thoughts and feelings of the American people. This Library of Congress presentation allows you to review these historic audio recordings online.

Jan 7: Free Money Essentially, that's what NaughtyCodes.com boils down to if you're in the habit of buying things online. This clever site helps you track down the special digital coupons offered by e-commerce sites such as Amazon.com. Organized alphabetically by e-tailer.

Jan 6: Pentagon Memorial Peruse six designs under consideration for the Pentagon memorial, a work envisioned to commemorate the 184 lives lost at the Washington area site during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. View artists' conceptions, read comments from the designers, and vote for the one you feel will best serve as a reminder of the fallen.

Jan 2, 2003: Julia Child's Kitchen After turning out culinary masterpieces for more than 40 years, the kitchen of Epicurean luminary Julia Child has found its way into the Smithsonian. Tour this custom made kitchen and listen to audio clips from Child herself.

Dec 19: Space Scene Simulator If you're of a certain age, you've realized that your chances of taking that package tour to Saturn are growing pretty slim. Fortunately, this NASA site lets you picture any celestial body — from any other celestial body — anytime.

Dec 17: Hydro Car Could GM's new hydrogen-powered concept vehicle be the beginning of the end of the oil-based economy? HowStuffWorks.com takes you under the hood of this groundbreaking automobile to not only illustrate how power can be wrung from hydrogen, but explain what exactly the car company means when it says 'fly by wire.'

Dec 16: Tree Sitter Perched 150 feet above Freshwater, Calif., eco-activist 'Remedy' has spent the past 8 months in a Redwood tree protesting the destruction of forests. And now, thanks to a wireless Net connection and a Linux-powered laptop (of course), you can read about her treetop battle against The Man first hand.

Dec 10: Star TV Schedules TVNow.com's searchable 'Stars on TV' database lets you know when and where your favorite movie and television actors and actresses will be popping up on network TV and cable. Includes schedules and episode summaries.

Dec 3: Celestial Phenomena Aiming to be no less than a complete map of the entire universe, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey lets you scroll through views of the northern sky, as well as (relatively) famous portions of outer space. On tap: spectacular views of meteors, galaxy clusters, and more.

Dec 2: Virtual Mars NASA's budget being what it is, chances are we won't be establishing a presence on Mars anytime soon. Yet that hasn't stopped the Mars Society from creating a fully-interactive environment portraying what life might be like on the Red Planet. A veritable Flash fun house of imaginary base stations, rovers, and more.

Nov 26: Geography Quiz In its semi-regular 'Our Children, Our Shame' feature, the media last week played up young people's misguided answers to a recent National Geographic quiz. Here you can take a shot at answering the very same geographical questions yourself, and see how you stack up against quiz-takers in other lands

Nov 18:The Bomb And with the rattling of sabers on the rise, talk of nuclear weapons is bound to increase as well. The Bomb Project site is a simple-but-effective guide to nuclear-related info on the Web. If you've ever suggested we 'nuke' our enemies, you owe it to yourself to peruse these informative and yes, (at times) disturbing sites.

Nov 12: Edgy Experiments Sure, your skin crawls when you accidentally microwave a metal-edged plate. Fortunately, there are folks who have no problem recklessly experimenting with this and other high-voltage devices, and are only too happy to post their results online. Read up on creating your own ball lightning, nuking CDs, and making your very own Quake railgun.

Nov 8:TV Tunes If a few bars of a TV theme get your nostalgic juices flowing, you'll be spending a lot of time at TV Tunes Online, a digital treasure trove of familiar tunes. From The Jack Benny Program to Xena (and one of the last sites to feature all the songs from Schoolhouse Rock).

Nov 5: London Churches Take a twilight stroll into the past with a site dedicated to the history and grandeur of London's places of worship. From St Bartholomew the Great, where Ben Franklin practiced the printing trade, to St Dunstan, where poet John Donne served as deacon, you're bound to find something of interest on this photo-packed tour.

Nov 4: Baby Boomer Awards MyGeneration.com introduces the 'Genny Awards,' the first in what it hopes to be an annual tribute to those people and things that shaped the Boomer generation. From Mad magazine to Muhammad Ali to denim. You also can submit your own nomination.

Oct 26: Nursing Home Alert Leaving a loved one in the care of a nursing home is never easy. However, this site can make the process a little less scary. Includes concise tips on assessing homes, paying for care, knowing your rights under the law and recognizing signs of abuse.

Oct 25: Bulfinch's Mythology Never again will you be at a loss telling the difference between your Minervas and your Myrmidons. Bulfinch's Mythology, that tried and true tome of myth and fable, awaits you online in all its hyperlinked glory.

Oct 24: Space Sounds It's not exactly Beethoven, but the Earth's magnetosphere does produce a music all its own. Listen to so-called 'natural radio,' preferably when you're in one of those 'I'm going to chuck it all in and buy a cabin in the woods' types of moods.

Oct 22: Photo JournalistasWith all the graphics one can whip-up online these days, nothing seems to catch the eye or captivate the mind quite like a simple photograph. With a pleasing blend of rich photography and you-are-there commentary, this site celebrates the little things in life with a wide-eyed idealism found few places outside of cyberspace

Oct 11: Seat Finder Sick of relying on dumb luck when booking a flight? SeatGuru.com deftly tackles the problem by supplying interactive seating charts that show you which seats will best suit your needs. Does your seat recline? Will you have access to Internet ports? The SeatGuru seems to know all, and is only too happy to tell you.

Oct 10: World's Fair Ah yes, New York's 1964-1965 World's Fair. The last moment in our nation's history when technology held the promise of a better life, a cleaner future — the space age. This online tribute to the fair includes aerial photos of the fairgrounds, as well as maps, exhibit descriptions, e-cards and more.

Oct 8: World Radio Curious as to how the rest of the outside world views our 'War on Terrorism' or a thousand other international topics? Click on to OneWorld Radio, an online collection of radio program MP3s originating from Alaska to Zimbabwe, and many points in between.

Oct 7: Sherlock Holmes Relive the clever — and at times macabre — adventures of legendary sleuth Sherlock Holmes (and the rather lackluster Dr. Watson) online courtesy of 221BakerStreet.org. Here you'll find 48 of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original canon of 60 tales of mystery and detection. Also includes several of the original illustrations.

Oct 1: Word Origins It's a funny old language, English. Whether someone kicks the bucket or goes on and on about tech nerds, few know where these words and phrases originated. While not always conclusive, WordOrigins.org offers keen etymological insight into our language and how it got that way.

Sept 24: Web Stats Get a better idea of who your fellow Netizens are and just what it is they're surfing the Web for with Google's expanded 'Zeitgeist' site, which breaks down Web searches others have done recently by country, sub-categories such as sports, and more.

Sept 20: Blast Mapper The way the term 'weapons of mass destruction' has been thrown around lately, it's easy to lose sight of just how destructive a nuclear weapon can be. This PBS site lets you type in a hypothetical blast location (even a street address) to see how far the devastation would spread, and what forms it might take. Eerie but informative.

Sept 19: Name That Tune When the history of the Web is written, great minds may well agree that MelodyHound.com put the technology to humanity's greatest benefit. Have a particular tune wafting through your mind? Just sit down and whistle it into your PC's microphone and you just might find out what it is. Or add to the site's growing database.

Sept: 17: Genealogy Help Having trouble negotiating some of the trickier branches of your family tree? CousinConnect.com helps you appeal to the public directly with queries about specific relatives or family names. Search its extensive database or browse by state and country.

Sept. 13:007 Art James Bond's cinematic adventures may be the secret agent's claim to fame, but the stylish art from the 007 paperbacks, comic strips and other media are equally impressive. The Art of James Bond Web site is rich with sensual imagery celebrating fiction's most famous intelligence gatherer and, of course, the women he's known.

Sept 12: Online Literature You'd be amazed at the number of books awaiting your attention online, all free of charge. Page By Page Books features hundreds of titles, yours for the reading. From L. Frank Baum's Oz series to Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu yarns of politically-incorrect adventure.

Sept 10:Idiom Site "I was gung ho about working the graveyard shift until I got a Charley horse.' Trying to understand some of our language's more colorful phrases can be a headache-inducing affair. Fortunately, IdiomSite.com offers concise explanations concerning the origins of our weirder words and expressions.

Sept 6:TV's Inventor Though he created television 75 years ago this month, Philo T. Farnsworth remains largely unknown today. This online archive features photos of the so-called 'invisible inventor,' as well as details on his patents, invention sketches, and accounts of how one man's idea changed the course of history.

Sept 3: Map Collections For those with a cartographic bent, the Library of Congress invites you to dive into a treasure trove of historical maps. This extensive online exhibit covers the European age of discovery, the evolution of U.S. cities, military battles, and a great deal more. A browser's delight.

Aug 30: Missing Kids CodeAmber.org brings the 'Amber Alert' — the growing system for alerting Americans to children missing in their area — to the online community. As soon as authorities issue an Amber Alert for a child, Code Amber tickers placed on participating Web sites flash that information around the world. Intriguing.

Aug 26: Psychic Test The International Society for Paranormal Research has a couple of job openings for clairvoyants. Just study the 20 photos that make up this online test and use your budding psychic abilities to determine a) if the subjects are haunted, b) by what, and — well, if you don't know the rest, you're probably not getting the job, are you?

Aug 23: Grand Illusions Our senses are cheats, it has been observed, and none more so than our eyes. Grand Illusions assembles an impress-your-friends collection of tricks and online optical illusions for your utter bewilderment, as well as an assortment of articles on some of history's grandest peeper-puzzlers.

Aug 12: Paper Trail There may be a lot of information on the Web, but some of the more controversial bits can be hard to find online. The Memory Hole is helping to change that by posting government reports, legal documents, articles and other material on its site. Its mission: To expose things 'we're not supposed to know (or that we're supposed to forget).'

Aug 6: Lyric Search Few things are as likely to drive you around the bend as a song stubbornly lodged in your head, the lyrics of which remain even more stubbornly elusive. Thank heaven for Get Lyrical, a search engine that allows you to find the song, artist and complete words to many songs, based solely on those lyrics you can remember.

Aug 1: Food Central If you're a food site with a name like Epicurious, you're already off to a winning start. Billing itself as 'the world's greatest recipe collection,' it doesn't disappoint, serving up a searchable recipe database, expert advice, online cooking classes, and a slideshow of mouthwatering masterpieces for those not to be trusted near the stove.

July 30: Truth or Fiction?  Well shoot. My shampoo's poisonous, Congress is set to tax my e-mail, and my Clorox bleach is doing unspeakable things to my lifespan. Thankfully, these worrisome bits have been labeled 'fiction' by the rumor verifying/debunking site TruthorFiction.com, but you might be surprised by those items that turned out to be the real deal.

July 29: First Superman In the what's-yours-is-mine world of the Web, we are frequently treated to glimpses of treasures we might never have seen in the real world. What better example than this scanned copy of what may be the most valuable 20th century publication on the planet: Action Comics No. 1, featuring the first appearance of Superman?

July 26: Public Records More and more state and local governments are making once-hard-to-find data available online. Hunt down public records — including tax data and real estate info— with this easy-to-use guide to government sites.

July 25: Early Journals Read, in their entirety, some of the most influential magazines of the 18th and 19th century by paying a visit to the Internet Library of Early Journals. Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, The Builder, and Gentleman's Magazine are just a few of the titles awaiting you.

July 18: WTC Site Review six different building concepts for the future of the World Trade Center site. Includes descriptions, site plans, 3-D renderings, and animations of what each design would look like set against the bustling metropolis of New York City.

July 16: Extreme Survival Not to be outdone by the Worst Case Scenarios craze, The Learning Channel takes you to the edge of life and death with an interactive look at your chances of surviving disaster, and profiles of those who have cheated death. The site also provides a quiz that measures your ability to beat the reaper.

July 15: Interactive Universe Explore the fun side of space with this collection of fully interactive activities. Build your own comet, go on a cosmic photo safari, dive into a black hole, shuffle through solar system trading cards, and more.

July 11; Web Stats -Get a better idea of who your fellow Netizens are and just what it is they're surfing the Web for with Google's expanded 'Zeitgeist' site, which breaks down Web searches others have done recently by country, sub-categories such as sports, and more.

July 9: Big Dig Tour Though Boston's 'Big Dig' tunnel, hailed as the largest public works project in history, is still closed to the public, you can take a virtual tour thanks to the Web. Explore different sections of the tunnel in full iPix 360-degree views, or take a Flash tour.

July 8: View the Wall For those who've been unable to visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., the Web offers an innovative (and profoundly moving) solution. Simply type in the name of the fallen military person you're searching for and this site brings up a photograph of their name as it appears on this legendary monument.

July 1:Cool Grandma Doing its best to dispel the stereotype of the technologically-clueless senior citizen, the Cool Grandma online community helps those in their twilight years find Internet destinations of interest to their demographic. From tutorials on building a root cellar to locating information on antiques and collectibles.

June 27: Hybrid Cars Something of a silent revolution is currently rumbling through the auto industry as an increasing number of combination gas/electric cars hit the road. Keep up on the latest news and information about this evolving technology with HybridCars.com.

June 25: Through the Years Though mankind has tried to predict future innovations since the very beginning, those predictions rarely seem to pan out. Exhibit A: More than 100 years of Popular Mechanics covers bound to spark your nostalgia, even as they baffle with such predictions as 'Moon power for the lights of Paris.'

June 24: Court Rulings The Supreme Court has issued a number of landmark opinions in the last few weeks, most of which can be read in their entirety online. Bring along an Adobe Acrobat PDF reader to explore recent rulings on student privacy, the death penalty as it applies to the mentally retarded, and other issues.

June21: Webby Awards Representing 'the very best that the Internet has to offer,' the winners of this year's Webby Awards run the gamut from the satirical tour de force The Onion to online mainstays such as Evite, Amazon and Google.

June 20 Network For Good Whether you're looking to make a charitable donation or volunteer a helping hand in your neighborhood, Network For Good will hook you up with just a few mouse clicks. Also you can search for volunteer opportunities by cause, city and state, or within a set distance from your home or office.

June 18: Teen Jobs Looking to make a few extra bucks during summer break? LocalTeenJobs.com offers an easy-to-use searchable database of employment opportunities, grouped by the high school closest to featured prospective employers.

June 14: Living Will Registry With the specter of mind-robbing mishaps and medical disorders ever present, many fear finishing out their lives in the limbo of a vegetative state. The U.S. Living Will Registry allows every American to make directions for their care in such situations available to health care workers online, all without charge.

June 13: Spaceship Watch According to NASA, this is a good week for skywatchers in North America to catch a glimpse of the International Space Station. Consult the space agency's Skywatch site for optimum times to spot this and other spacecraft and satellites.

June 11: Crash Test Data Before you spring for a new car or truck, take a moment to see how well it holds up in collisions at CrashTest.com. The site compares hundreds of vehicles categorized by make. Also includes info on recalls, rollover ratings and more.

June 10: Comics Online If the Spider-Man film's rekindled your interest in comics, web-swing on by Marvel's dotComics site, which features full online versions of Ultimate Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk and other titles, all in beautiful — sometimes even breathtaking — Flash presentations. (Registration required.)

June 6: Scholarship Search Scrambling to pay for higher-education costs? Broke Scholar lets you search its database of more than 900,000 scholarships, and even provides a 'deadline calendar' of your most promising prospects sorted by their application due dates.

June 4: Religion Statistics The American Religion Data Archive helps researchers and novices alike draw a detailed picture of the faithful in the USA, providing information on churches and church membership, religious professionals and religious groups

June 2 : Heart Surgery Chances are you or someone you love will slip under the knife for open-heart surgery at some point. Shake some of that pre-scalpel apprehension by conducting the procedure yourself in this virtual operating theater.

May 31: Shrimpy Site Billed as one of the tiniest sites on the Web, Guimp.com lets you indulge in a relaxing game of Pong in an area smaller than your average Word document icon.

May 30: Missile Defense System It won't work; it will work but it'll cost a bundle — For all that's been said about the USA's proposed missile defense system, this BBC presentation is one of the first to actually give us a clear demonstration of how it might work. (Flash required.)

May 28: Ugliest Buildings 'The world is full of ugly buildings,' Forbes.com observes, and loses no time in showing you some ugggglly buildings. Britain's Millennium Dome and — ironically enough — the Yale School of Art and Architecture are just some of those hailed as intimates of the ugly stick.

May 23: Pinhole Cameras Build your own pinhole spy camera with the help of PinholeSpy.com. Blueprints, instructions and other information await you, all presented in an exciting, Mission: Impossible style. Cost of admission is a Flash plug-in.

May 22: Antigravity Research Gravity's proven to be a pretty stubborn force up 'til now, but have the folks at American Antigravity finally succeeded in getting something off the ground? This site provides video clips of recent antigravity tests, but we'll be darned if we can tell what they mean

May 17: Pen Spinning High school kids can do it, but somehow you never managed to spin a pen around your thumb, did you? Pentix feels your pain and offers video clips, diagrams and other instructions for mastering this intricate display of youthful nonchalance.

May 14: CD Covers You've just burned a new audio CD but it looks so tacky — so homemade — just sitting there in that jewel case. CDCovers.com lets you download and print out the cover art for more than 90,000 albums, and video game covers, too.

May 13: History Test Can't understand why the nation's school children had such a poor showing in the American history test results out this week? Thanks to the Web, you can at least review the questions yourself. The answers, however, aren't so readily available for some reason.

May 10: Visible Embryo Journey through the week-to-week development of a human fetus, from zygote to full-term baby, with Visembryo.com. Includes images, measurements, as well as a blow-by-blow report on the changes that take place during each stage.

May 9: Old Time Radio Nothing on TV tonight? Why not fire up the 'theater of the mind' with OTRNow, featuring Webcasts of old radio comedies, dramas and mysteries such as Inner Sanctum, The Jack Benny Show, and The Shadow.

March 26: Space Scene Simulator If you're of a certain age, you've realized that your chances of taking that package tour to Saturn are growing pretty slim. Fortunately, this NASA site lets you picture any celestial body — from any other celestial body — anytime.

March 22: E-books for Palm Swing on by the University of Virginia's online e-book library for (literally) millions of electronic texts ready to download to your Palm or MS Reader handheld device. Classic fiction, historical documents, and more.

March 21: Prehistoric Petting Zoo Frolic with the strange and wonderful beasts that roamed the Earth following the fall of the dinosaurs. The Discovery Channel introduces you to 18 fantastic beasts with stunning graphics, games and more.

March 19:Sky Chart You went to work, made dinner, and — forgot to look at the stars tonight ... again! For those who just don't have time for stargazing, Sky & Telescope offers a simulated view of the nighttime sky from any spot on Earth.

March 18: Old Computer Museum Does your heart leap up at the thought of a Sanyo PHC-33, palpitate when your fingers glide across the keys of a Kaypro? Well you're in for a treat/coronary when you enter this virtual museum of vintage PCs.

March 15: Nuclear Strategies Reports that the U.S. is reconsidering its nuclear war strategy makes the info at NuclearFiles.org a must read. Includes examinations of nuclear proliferation, disarmament, and various strategies employed in the past.

March 14: Picturing The Century The National Archives invites you on a photographic journey spanning 100 years and more than 60 images. From immigrants' first steps on Ellis Island to a gathering of the nation's First Ladies.

March 12 : Desktop Adventures On busy days when just grabbing a moment by the window seems a luxurious excursion, fire up AdventureTV.com, which stands ready to take you on streaming-video trips to jungles, deserts and other exotic spots worldwide.

March 11: Camp X-Ray The State Department offers a brief photo tour of Camp X-Ray, the area of the Guantanamo Bay naval base where Taliban and Al-Qaeda prisoners are being held. (Photos appear to predate recent detainee hunger strikes.)

March 8 :Movie Archives Cold War-era 'duck-and-cover' lessons intermingle with classic TV commercials and other oddities at this expansive Net movie archive. In all, nearly 1,000 movies are yours for the downloading in a variety of formats.

March 7: Lincoln's Papers Delve into the mind of our 16th president with the Library of Congress, which completes its online release of Lincoln's papers. Features thousands of documents, including drafts of the Emancipation Proclamation and more.

March 5: Kid Chef On occasion, even kids like to whip up something in the kitchen, and KidChef.com gives them the info to do it. Includes cooking tips, recipes, online expert advice, and even its own (relatively) rockin' theme song.

March 4: Ground Zero Cam For those still seeking any closure that might come from viewing the World Trade Center site, Earthcam provides live Webcam footage from the disaster area. Archives cover recovery efforts dating back to Sept. 26.

March 1: Brain Explorer The Web continues to prove the optimum medium for conveying the complexities of the brain and its workings. BrainExplorer.org displays each component of our '3-pound universe,' as well as illustrating areas affected by specific diseases.

Feb 28: Top Biography India's Top-Biography.com serves up a compelling smorgasbord of life stories, offering extensive studies on everyone from Napoleon to Bill Gates, all with eye-catching art, chronologies, quotations, screensavers and more.

Feb 26: What Happens Now? It's a question that plagues those who've lost their spouses prematurely, and one this site aims to answer in a simple, straightforward manner. Perhaps most importantly, it emphasizes that young widows/widowers are not alone.

Feb 25:Jigsaw Land It's lunchtime, you're bored, and one more hand of Windows solitaire may push you over the edge. Time to calm yourself with the online jigsaw puzzles at JigsawLand.com. From animals to cartoons, and three levels of difficulty.

Feb 22: Walk The Wall  President Bush this week tours China's Great Wall, and with a little help from the Web, you can follow in his footsteps. WalkTheWall.com takes you atop the famous fortification, offering a full 360-degree perspective.

Feb 21: Online Pet Cemetery Touching in its simplicity, the Virtual Pet Cemetery lets you share memories and photos of animal companions that have passed on. Chickens, geckos and bunnies are just some of those you'll find in this celestial menagerie.

Feb 19: Northern Lights  Few sites capture one of the world's mysteries as effectively as this study of the aurora borealis, the eerie northern lights that fill the skies in the northern hemisphere. Includes breathtaking images, video, and screensaver.

Feb 15: Secret Encouragement Could someone you know benefit from a kind word? Fire up the Karma Machine to send an anonymous message of cheer (with an appropriate picture) electronically, boosting someone's spirits (and your own karma).

Feb 14: Space Walk While nations continue to rattle their sabers down here, the International Space Station remains a model of cooperation above. Take an amazing 360-degree tour inside man's next step into the final frontier. (Ipix plug-in required.)

Feb 11: Pet-Friendly Places Can't bear to leave your pets behind over your next vacation? Cruise by this online listing of more than 25,000 hotels, resorts, and other travel destinations that have no problem treating Fido or Polly like one of the family.

Feb 8: Idea Bank Finally, a worldwide captive audience for all your brilliant (non-technological) ideas. Submit your own, or rate those posted by others. An annual cash award is given for the best ideas posted. Our vote goes to "speed dating." (Not for the easily offended.)

Feb 7: TV Tunes  If a few bars of a TV theme get your nostalgic juices flowing, you'll be spending a lot of time at TV Tunes Online, a digital treasure trove of familiar tunes. From The Jack Benny Program to Xena (and one of the last sites to feature all the songs from Schoolhouse Rock).

Feb 5: Living Internet A smart, concise look at what the Internet is, how it works, and who's responsible for online life as we know it. Hyperlinks are liberally used without being distracting. Includes detailed examination of e-mail, Usenet, and more. Proving the Internet is not only living, but self-aware.

Feb 4: Fido & Friends Refuse to inflict another ho-hum name on your latest pet? Head on over to Bow Wow Meow for names, a database of name meanings, and a perspective on what others are labeling their animals. (Hint: Lord of the Rings has much to answer for.)

Jan 31: Nursing Home Alert Leaving a loved one in the care of a nursing home is never easy. However, this site can make the process a little less scary. Includes concise tips on assessing homes, paying for care, knowing your rights under the law and recognizing signs of abuse.

Jan 29: Kids' Health It's a scary world when you're young and in pain. This site explains every ache and pain with a gentle touch. Bonus points for articles such as the one reassuring kids that one with a 'bleeding heart' isn't suffering a medical emergency, but is just 'generous.'

Jan 28: Faces of Rock Britain's Q music magazine offers a sampling from its "100 greatest rock n' roll photographs." From old-fashioned guitar smashing (courtesy of The Clash ) to one of Britney Spears' first envelope-pushing pouts.

Jan 25: Wild Kingdom They might not wrestle crocodiles like their competition, but Jim Fowler and Peter Gros return with the online edition of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. Fun facts, games, and a fond look back at the classic nature series.

Jan 24: Top secret recipes:   Creating Kitchen Clones of America's Favorite Brand-Name Foods

Jan 22: Got ESP? Convinced you're psychic? Put your "psi" abilities through their paces with a variety of experiments. Score exceptionally well and you could wind up in the daily "hall of fame." (Requires registration.)

Jan 21: Crime Doesn't Pay As lawmakers continue to maintain that violent video games make for violent children, it's sobering to sample the ultra-violent (yet strangely appealing) crime comic books many of them grew up with. An impressive collection.

Jan 18: Cold Comfort Feeling a little under the weather? It may not ease your suffering any, but CommonCold.org should answer all your questions about the illness. From the latest cold remedies to recipes for chicken soup. (Gesundheit.)

Jan 15: Hands On HandSpeak.com provides a searchable dictionary of American Sign Language illustrated by freeze-frame video demonstrations of the proper techniques. Includes stories told in sign (with print subtitles).

Jan 14 Pop-Up Stopper Tired of those Web browser windows that seem to pop up from nowhere? This free Pop-Up Stopper software promises to help you control them. A virtual godsend.

Jan 11: Jupiter's Moon NASA's Galileo spacecraft adds Jupiter's moon Callisto to its gallery of breathtaking images. Described as a spiky landscape of bright ice and dark dust.

Jan 10: New 'Star Trek' The first captain. The first crew. The first mission. The Enterprise has returned, and you can get briefed on Star Trek's latest series at this galactic portal.

Jan 8: Presidential Tapes You're invited to explore a companion site to C-SPAN's broadcast of tapes of President Nixon from the years 1971 to 1973. You'll find a variety of illuminating audio excerpts on such things as the Vietnam war, relations with the Soviet Union and Supreme Court matters

Jan 7: Online Newsstand Turn your desktop into a newsstand, courtesy of the aptly named AllYouCanRead. A portal to magazines and newspapers from around the world. With featured links and lists of top publications.

Jan 4: Pearl Harbor History No need to see the movie if you want to delve into Pearl Harbor's dramatic history: This National Geographic multimedia retrospective presents photos, footage, firsthand accounts and online resources.

Dec 31: PandaCam You don't have to visit Washington's National Zoo to watch Mei Xiang and Tian Tian act vaguely existential. Motion-sensitive Web cameras track the pandas as they move about.

Dec: 28: Online Encyclopedia The sixth edition of the Columbia Encyclopedia contains 51,000 entries and more than 80,000 hypertext cross-references. A quick keyword search.

Dec 24: Nutrition Facts Consumers spend billions of dollars annually attempting to lose weight through various diet regimes. Nutrition.gov aims to help Americans better evaluate appropriate weight-loss strategies.

Dec 21: Drive Rescue For anyone who has deleted a file and then regretted it: Drive Rescue, a popular program that promises to resurrect lost and deleted data on your hard disk. And perhaps best of all, it's free.

Dec 20: Presidential Homes Add a presidential dimension to your holiday appreciation with a visit to this Presidential Home site. Brought to us by the White House, it includes replicas of presidents' homes, along with online tours and photo essays.

Dec 14: "Elf Bowling" easily lets people like me take out their frustration on elves. Just download the program, launch it, and play.

You play the role of Santa. Just press the space bar to release the bowling ball in the direction of the elvin bowling pins.

Dec 11: Census Finder Learn the statistical facts about our great country with the help of the American FactFinder from the U. S. Census Bureau. Packed with population, housing, economic and geographic data.

Dec 10: Online Climber Take a journey into the world of mountain climbing, courtesy of Climbing Online. You can browse through a selection of feature stories, tech tips and photo gallery.

Dec 7: Cyber Protection Identity theft can have some horrible consequences. But a victim of stolen identity, acting as an online Good Samaritan, offers some advice on how to prevent it and what to do if you become a victim.

Dec 6: Photography Tips Get better results from your camera with some help from PhotographyTips, which bills itself as the Net's number one guide to better photos. Find out such things as the best uses of light and flash, along with a section about "whacky tips that work."

Dec 4: Elephant Cam The world's largest living land mammal comes to a computer screen near you, thanks to the National Zoo's Elephant Cam. The featured performer is a way-cute 325-pound male Asian elephant born at the zoo on Nov. 25.

Dec 3: Free Info Info-maniac Matthew Lesko (aka "The Guru Of Government Giveaways") has been cataloging government programs for more than 25 years. Now he shares his knowledge about services with Sept. 11 attack victims, or anyone else facing an emergency. A huge collection of links.

Nov 30: Change IE's Spinning Globe 
Add your custom icon to Microsoft's Web browser.

Nov 29: Artist Finder Speaking of music, find out where your favorite recording artist is appearing with a visit to Pollstar. Now showing: More than 26,000 events and nearly 5,000 artists. Search by name, city or venue — or check out the updated Top 50 listings.

Nov 26: College Tours Prospective college students can take campus tours without leaving their homes. CollegeSurfing includes school overviews, maps and, in many cases, videos.

Nov 20: Tip: Stop hunting and pecking. Teach yourself typing for
free with KP Typing Tutor:
http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-1635591-100-4564854.html?tag=st.dl.10001-103-1.lst-7-5.4564854

Nov 14: Reference Tools Almost like having a library on your desktop: The Best Free Reference Web Sites 2001 listings — online resources that are recognized as outstanding by the nation's librarians. A definite bookmark.

Nov 12: City Guides Before you take advantage of today's low-cost travel fares, visit the world's top destinations online with the help of this multi-faceted Cities Guide. Use an interactive map or a drop-down menu.

Nov 8: Thanksgiving Prep Get ready for a festive Thanksgiving with a visit to HGTV (Home & Garden Television), which serves up long lists of decorating guides, entertainment ideas, recipes and food tips.

Nov 6: Prairie Jokes When you need a good laugh, look no further than the Fifth Annual Joke Show, sponsored by the above-average Prairie Home Companion site. Hundreds of 'em, "painfully and painstakingly categorized."

Nov 5: America's Voice The Voice of America is definitely in its element these days, reporting on developments in the war on terror. But you don't have to live in a foreign country to catch the multilingual service's stories — as long as you have a Web connection.

Nov 2: Attack On America The respected defense consultant GlobalSecurity.org serves up an online compendium of info about the war on terrorism. The special report Attack on America includes satellite images, maps and military backgrounders.

Nov 1: Online Genealogy Although it boasts that it's already the largest and oldest free genealogy Web site, RootsWeb keeps adding more data — including social security, birth and census reports.

Oct 30: Internet Recipes RecipeSource is the new home of SOAR: The Searchable Online Archive of Recipes. You can search through tens of thousands of recipes by keyword, region and type.

Oct 26: Patriotic Photos Check out a digital collage of uplifting photos and stories spurred by the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The Tribute to American Spirit PhotoQuilt also invites you to share your own pictures and experiences.

Oct 25: Afghan Reports News junkies can get a daily fix of all things Afghan with this News Trove section focusing on Afghanistan News. Basically, the site scours online news sources and then summarizes and links to relevant stories.

Oct 19: Biothreat Protection Consumer Reports Online presents a free, user-friendly, non-hyped special report on how to help protect yourself from biothreats — a "consumer-oriented rather than a public-health perspective on the decisions we need to make today."

Oct 16: Comedy College Comedycollege.net is the online home of — you guessed it! — Comedy College. A radio program that's the brainchild of public radio's Garrison Keillor.

Oct 15: Nobel Prizes Explore the rich history of the Nobel Prizes at this e-Museum. User-friendly tabs let you browse through the five prize areas and learn about laureates, read articles they've written and take advantage of educational resources.

Oct 12: Spring Fashion Style.com, the online home of Vogue and W, serves up a virtual ringside seat to the Spring '02 fashion season. Chronicles the catwalks in New York, London, Milan and Paris with runway reviews, slideshows and trend reports.

Oct 11: Afghanistan Studies More than you may have ever thought you would one day want to know about Afghanistan: This Academic Info site presents a comprehensive hyperlinked index about the wild, remote nation that the whole world now intensely watches.

Oct 8: Compare Your Pay The Bureau of Labor Statistics serves up a new National Compensation Survey featuring a neat search function for Java-enabled Web browsers. You just pick a region, an occupation and an experience level — the app does the rest.

Oct 5: Military Facts The aptly named Defense Almanac helps citizens understand the breadth, mission and complexity of the U.S. military machine. Focuses on the people, organization, equipment and funding of the Department of Defense.

Oct 4: MaxMem   Have you ever noticed how your computer always seems to run better after rebooting? Do you wish it could be that peppy all day? Well, now it can be with a little help from AnalogX MaxMem! AnalogX MaxMem is a realtime physical memory management program that automatically ensures that you always have as much physical memory available as possible. It does this by allowing you to set minimum amounts of memory to be made available under certain circumstance, and then passively monitoring how much system resources are being used. It runs in the system tray, and also shows you exactly how much memory you have available, plus graphs how you've been using memory over the last 60 seconds!

Oct 2: New 'Star Trek' The first captain. The first crew. The first mission. The Enterprise has returned, and you can get briefed on Star Trek's latest series at this galactic portal.

Sept 21: 

World Map of Live Webcams - New York

The World Map of Live Webcams uses an excellent World Map interface. Go there live! http://dove.net.au/~punky/Newyork.html

Sept 18: Homeschooling Some masochistic parents are trying to teach their children at home instead of sending them off to school. The Web is here to help.

Sept 17: Useful Sites

Whether it's to keep current on what the government is doing about Tuesday's terrorist attacks, find help in coping with grief or connect with community support, millions are turning to the Web for vital information. Following are some top online resources:

Terrorism

•The State Department's Response to Terrorism site is regularly updated with government briefings and statements, along with links to global terrorism studies and national security reports.

•Find out anything you may ever want to know about terrorists at the Terrorism Research Center, which maintains a network of terrorism and information-warfare specialists drawn from industry, government and academia in the USA and around the world.

•The FBI has set up an online resource for citizens to report any terrorism-related information. You'll find a toll-free telephone number and an online form to electronically submit your tips.

•You have virtually as much attack-related information at your fingertips as journalists do, thanks to this list of Web links from the trade organization Investigative Reporters & Editors. Subjects include everything from law enforcement and military intelligence to World Trade Center maps and aviation safety.

Relief Efforts

•The American Red Cross site helps you find out what you can do to assist attack victims. News updates report on relief efforts around the nation. Just type in a ZIP Code to locate a local Red Cross office.

•Helping.org, a one-stop online resource to help people find volunteer and giving opportunities, spotlights an "American Tragedy." Includes links to numerous relief organizations and survivor reports.

•The Interactive Relief & Rescue Map offers a high-tech glimpse of the Manhattan disaster scene. Just click on a scalable map to find such things as blood-donation centers, grief-counseling services and shelters.

Coping and Healing

•Get the facts on how to recover from traumatic events. The American Psychological Association presents some authoritative advice on what emotional reactions to expect and how to help yourself and your family. A link box helps you find a psychologist.

•GriefNet is a highly visited site that aids people working through loss and grief issues of all kinds. You'll find 37 email support groups and an area where kids can help each other deal with their emotions.

•The Trauma Information Pages is a huge portal to all things online having to do with emotional trauma and traumatic stress, whether following individual experiences or a large-scale disaster. Browse through a directory or search with keywords.

•The National Mental Health Association presents Time for Reassurance, advising that the unfolding tragedies can naturally cause children and adults to feel confused, afraid, angry or powerless. And the site lists nationwide resources that can provide help.

Community Support

•The Web site of New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton provides a long list of resources for attack victims and their families. It also includes Web links and phone numbers for charitable organizations, transportation agencies and elected officials.

•The idea behind Gift From Within is that people suffering the effects of traumatic stress deserve the same charitable support that sustains individuals and families suffering the impact of such things as cancer and heart disease. With links to inspirational stories, poetry and art works.

•When the initial shock of an air disaster subsides and the natural grieving process intensifies, ACCESS — the AirCraft Casualty Emotional Support Services — stands ready to help. Volunteers who have survived or lost a loved one in an air crash provide guidance and peer support.

Child-related Aid

•The American Academy of Pediatrics explains how to communicate with children about disasters. You find straightforward bulleted tips, along with a variety of background documents.

•Traumatic stress experts at ParentsTalk offer advice on helping children cope with emotionally difficult situations. A user-friendly bulleted list on how to recognize signs of stress in kids and what steps to take.

•The Compassionate Friends site aims to help families resolve their grief following the death of a child of any age, offering friendship and understanding to bereaved parents, grandparents and siblings. No religious affiliation and no membership fees.

Spiritual Guidance

•Add your prayers to a multi-faith prayer circle at Beliefnet, an e-community whose hallmark is a deep respect for a wide variety of faiths and traditions. You can also join discussions about the terrorist attacks and the ethics of retaliation.

•Crosswalk.com issues a National Call to Prayer in the aftermath of Tuesday's terrorist attack. You'll find prayer tracts, a prayer request form and online discussions.

•The Gospel Communications Network invites you to visit if you're looking for some spiritual answers to the question of why tragedies happen. Includes biblical references and links to religious resources.

Military Programs

•DefenseLink, an online production of the U.S. Department of Defense, serves as a portal to the latest military reports and activities dealing with the terrorist attacks.

•Founded in 1971, No Greater Love is dedicated to providing annual programs of remembrance, friendship and care for families who have lost a loved one in the service of our country or by an act of terrorism. Includes a list of tributes and memorials.

•TAPS, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, addresses the needs of those who have lost a loved one while serving in the armed forces. Includes a military survivor peer support network, grief counseling referral and crisis information.

Safety

•Before you travel overseas, pay a visit to the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs site, which presents travel warnings, tips and a variety of helpful publications.

•The Federal Aviation Administration site features a Fly Smart Guide on a wide range of security issues — including everything from flight delay postings to dealing with aircraft evacuations.

•The National Transportation Safety Board is an online source for information about aviation incidents, safety improvements and descriptions of aviation accidents. Publications of reports and studies are available online.

Sept 10: Capitol Spotlight Help keep our government honest — or at least, somewhat more honest — by monitoring what they do on the job. Capitol Spotlight, a new political resource dedicated to reporting on key votes on Capitol Hill, is a joint production of Congressional Quarterly and C-SPAN.

Sept 7: Mr. Fix-it Thinking of a starting a new project around the house? Ask home-improvement guru Mr. Fix-it, whose interests range from laying tile to installing a tubular skylight.

Sept 6: Pocket PC. 

Got a new Pocket PC and wondering what to do with it? Or maybe you've had one for a while and want to do some new things with it. Dale's Coffing's Pocket PC Passion is the site for you.

The meat of the site is its "General FAQs, Tips, and Tricks" section. This section has everything from how to convert DVD movies to an MPEG-format your Pocket PC can read to how to play your PDA's MP3s through your car stereo to changing your ActiveSync Pocket_PC Name.

The tips are filled with illustrations and tons of useful links to other Pocket PC articles and resources. Another nice feature of this section is how it includes input and tips from visitors to the site. Indeed, on his main page Coffing encourages people to send him Pocket PC info and tips.

If your particular Pocket PC question isn't in that section, there's a good chance you can get it answered on the site's Discussion Board. (There are more than 11,000 posts in the Compaq iPaq forum alone.) The site's front page features frequently updated Pocket PC news and reviews, as well as a survey, quote of the day, and other goodies.

If you're a Pocket PC owner, visit Pocket PC Passion <http://www.pocketpcpassion.com/> today.

Aug 30: Pop-Up Stopper Tired of those Web browser windows that seem to pop up from nowhere? This free Pop-Up Stopper software promises to help you control them. A virtual godsend.

Aug 27: Be Nice! The Netiquette Home Page enhances its presentation of the do's and don'ts of online communication. You'll find a complete online edition that includes sections on Business Netiquette, The Art of Flaming and Love & Sex in Cyberspace.

Aug 24: Better Business The Better Business Bureau has a virtual office to help consumers check out company histories and files. Tips and backgrounders range from autos and computers to scams and travel.

Aug 22: School Aid A wealth of scholastic financial aid information is a mouse click away. FinAid offers everything from financial calculators and advice to applications and scholarship info.

Aug 21: Biography Heaven Search through 25,000 biographies of notable personalities from antiquity to the present. Find out who was born on any particular day. Or check out Biography.com's Top 10 bios.

Aug 20: Medical Info The Merck Manual is the most widely used medical text in the world, written by hundreds of experts and covering even the most obscure disorders. And it's online.

Aug 16: Go to www.musiccity.com and get morpheus - you wont know it isnt napster (almost) it is the best one I have found - ever.

Aug 13: Guide To Stuff Got a lot of plans but don't know where or how to start? SoYouWanna boasts that the "wild goose chase stops here." AKA, how to do all the things nobody taught you in school — from mixing drinks to getting a pet ferret.

Aug 10: Do you have an anti-virus program in your computer.  If not, you can use the one I've been using for years. It automatically updates itself to stay current....and here is the best part...it's free. Grisoft.com

Aug 8: Photo Retrospective Ansel Adams at 100 is an interactive program focusing on seven key works, offering insights into the history and world of ideas behind Adams' photography. Organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Aug 3: Gas Price Comparison While Congress debates whether there is or isn't an energy crisis, you can save some pennies at the pump with a new price comparison tool from fueleconomy.gov. And while you're at it, check out your car's safety and air-pollution score.

July 30: Chemotherapy Booklet The National Cancer Institute takes some of the uncertainty out of chemotherapy with an online booklet describing such things as treatment options, clinical trials and questions to ask a doctor.

July 27: Repair Guru Feeling handy? The Repair Guru offers tips and backgrounders that may help you fix an appliance like a pro. Everything from washing machines and freezers to air conditioners and water filters.

July 24: Summer Learning Use the summer break to engage in some online learning, courtesy of Quia. A wide range of activities and subject categories — from astronomy and biology to science and technology.

July 17:  Easy College Project EASI (Easy Access for Students and Institutions) is a U.S. Dept. of Education effort to help students and their families plan for, choose and pay for college. And the site won't cost you a cent.

July 16: Volunteers Needed Volunteers of America is more than 100 years old — but seems right at home on the Web aiding people in need. They're looking for people with an urge to help.

July 13: Virtual Jamestown Take a tour through the first permanent English settlement in America — or at least, its cyber version. Virtual Jamestown features maps, images, public records and other items that reflect the lives and attitudes of the historic 1607 village.

July 12: Local Eats: This site's drop-down menus help you find tasty local fare on your asphalt adventures — "the most memorable local eateries along the highways..."

July 10: LimeWire.com  It's not Napster but it's the next best thing, and it's free!!!!

July 6: Cancer Update An online news service covering the latest developments in cancer research, Nature CancerUpdate provides features for specialists and non-specialists alike. Many services are free, but registration is required.

July 3: Mojo What? Getting desperate for a date, guys? Now you can "Ask a Babe" what the problem is — at Mojo 10, which describes itself as the men's guide to women. With the obligatory pics of supermodels and starlets in appropriately scanty apparel.

July 2: Insurance Quote Wonder how much life insurance you can afford? This free service lets you compare insurance quotes from leading insurance companies.

C-SPAN Online Help keep the U.S. Congress accountable with a visit to C-SPAN. Brings you blow-by-blow action in the House, along with extensive links to other congressional resources.

June 29:The Arts Community Strengthening the link between the arts and the public is the goal of this site by The National Endowment for the Arts. You'll find backgrounders on the organization's work, as well as that of other organizations around the country.

June 28: Bank Quotes Look here for rates on CDs, mortgages and personal loans. BanxQuote is a virtual banking center on the Web.

June 27: International News The Voice of America produces and broadcasts more than 900 hours of U.S., world and regional news and information programs every week to a worldwide audience of 91 million. Thanks to the Web, you don't even need a radio.

June 26: Fishing Portal Fishing just got easier — or at least, the planning part of it — thanks to the aptly named FishHoo! A search engine and directory that offers a pool of more than 3,567 links for you to, ahem, fish around.

June 25: Save Our Pets Every year more than 7 million healthy, adoptable pets are euthanized, says Pets 911, a public-service initiative that hopes to use the power of the Web to save many of those animals' lives. A real-time lost-and-found network and digital adoption utility. This is a wow.

June 21:News Gluttons Think getting the local paper delivered to your doorstep is a good way to keep informed about the news of the world? The Online Media Directory of Editor & Publisher lets you zoom in on papers, magazines, TV and radio stations around the world.

June 20:Language Translation And if you need some help deciphering what you see in those international reports, turn to BabelFish. Just drop in some text or type in the address of a Web site, and then choose what language you want translated.

June 19: eComplaint.com:   Whether it's an airline that's lost your luggage or a restaurant that gave you food poisoning, eComplaints.com gives you an outlet to vent your frustrations where it could do some good. Submit your consumer horror story to eComplaints.com, and they'll publish it on the Web and send a letter to the offending company.

June 15: American Writers C-SPAN invites you to take a journey through history. This online exhibit chronicles the lives and works of American Writers who have influenced the course of our nation. Handy drop-down menus let you select writers, works and places.

June 14: Grrlstories Acclaimed photojournalist Joanna B. Pinneo trains her lens on the bewildering experience of being a girl these days. Grrlstories is an engrossing continuation of her black-and-white documentary "Rites of Passage: American Girls Entering Adolescence Today."

June 13: Get Fit Speaking of summer, a visit to Fitness Online may help you look and feel your best on the beach or during outdoor activities. With articles, how-to features and tips.

June 12: Campfire Songbook Don't just stare blankly at the fire next time you head out on that family camping trip. Drop by Becky's Campfire Songbook and pick up a variety of things to sing about.

June 8: The Pentagon's Spies Why read spy novels when you can glimpse the real thing? The Pentagon's Spies, a digital briefing book from the non-profit National Security Archive, details the history of once-secret spy units. (PDF format.)

June 6: Human Rights Violations Published in Amnesty International's 40th anniversary year, the International Report 2001 documents human-rights violations in 149 countries and territories. Browse through regional summaries or country-specific indexes.

June 4: Tax Bill Intelligence Confused by the confusing bag of tricks that official Washington calls a tax cut? Stay informed about the federal government's budgetary shenanigans with help from the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

June 1: Women's Health Learn about the Changing Face of Women's Health — risk, prevention, detection and control — at this interactive exhibit from the Women's Health Project. Includes a long list of links to online resources.

May 30: