So you’re complaining about the speed of your computer? Ha. Well your computer is awesome compared to any of these old clunkers. obsoletecomputermuseum.org was built on the nostalgia that comes to some people when they look at an old Commadore or an Apple IIe. This website has tons of pictures and information about all kinds of old computers. Maybe you used an Apple in school and want to take a look at the old clunker. I know I remember using an Apple; the big thing was to get the ones with the color screens. I never really thought much about the speed of the computers, they were like really expensive toys. I didn’t think about cost when I was a kid, either, I just used them. As I got older, I became more judgemental of the speed of a computer. Imagine snubbing a piece of plastic because it is too old; well some people take the quality and speed of their computer very seriously. Others don’t mind obsolescence, though. I’ve seen people who use computers that are twenty years old for their businesses, these are the selcet few who prefer simplicity and reliablity over the speed of newer computers. If you have any interest at all in these pieces of the electronic revolution; take a look.
At the phrase “United States Mint” we tend to think of the average quarter, dime, nickel, etc. But a golden dollar? Thats right, find out more at their website. Now this sounds like a collector’s item; this isn’t what the U.S. Mint says. They seem to encourage everyday use of this coin. The bill signed into law states that the new dollar shall be:
Gold in color.
The same diameter as the current dollar coin: 26.5 millimeters (Susan B. Anthony Dollar coin).
The edge of the coin shall have “tactile and visual features … that make the coin discernible, and distinctive so as not to be confused with the quarter - which has reeds (grooves) all the way around its edge - and is easy to find among other coins.”
Uh, sure. Anways, it seems like this is going to be a dollar that the Mint wants the majority of people to use.
The state of Minnesota is stereotypically known for getting a lot of snow. But, in the past five years, that has changed. We just don’t get the amount of snow we used to. The last real blizzard we had was about 6 years ago.
Some say it is just a weather cycle, which could be the case, others cite El Niño and its sister La Niña which are out of season increases in ocean temperature. Of course there is also the possiblity of our sun being the factor that is causing the average snow to diminish. The sun goes in 11 year cycles where the surface activities ebb and flow. These cycles effect the amount of energy that reaches Earth. This, in turn, can change the average seasonal temperature and determine if there is rain, snow, or no precipitation. There is a possiblity of one of these concepts being the reason for less snow, but another very convincing possiblity is global warming.
Global warming is caused by the large amounts of CO2 released by humans into the atmosphere. These “greenhouse gases” trap heat and raise the Earth temperature. Because of the gradual and steady increase in Minnesota winter temperatures, global warming seems to be a possible cause of the resulting lack of snow. This may sound far fetched, but some cities in Europe got regular snow 20 years ago; now they get no snow. Sounds scary, huh? Well there is no real proof that global warming is occuring in Minnesota, it is only a theory. Lets hope global warming isn’t for real and we can start to get snow again!
The Best Roller Coaster Site out there is at rollercoaster.com
Some people think the web has everything you would want to know. I would disagree; but the web does have a site about roller coasters; rollercoaster.com. This is probably the premier resource about roller coasters on the internet. The site lists the Top 10 Coasters and the Top Ten Parks; statistics determined by this site’s many visitors. Some of the many sections include Park Reviews, a Photo Gallery, Roller Coaster History, Upcoming Events, Record Holders, Designer’s Corner, Clubs and Organizations, Games and Quizes, Forums, and I can honestly say there is much more in addition to that! The coverage is all encompasing with pop up definitions for roller coaster jargon and even a getting started page. According to this site, Cedar Point in Ohio is the best coaster park with 14 rides! There are even multiple pictures of each coaster. In addition to all of this the forum allows you to interact with other coaster enthusiasts. There are a bumch of comment boards where you can learn everything you ever wanted to know about the subject of roller coasters. My personal experience with forum like this has been great. The user can post a question and get an answer from a well informed person within days. Anybody interested in roller coasters would find this site an excellent resource.
I checked out a cool site today; I was really suprised at the amount of awards it had won. Omnivision Winner, EDUnet Choice Award, Editors Choice from Bonus.com, Cool site from Exploratorium, and the Parent Soup Souper site award. After a little investigation, I can see how this site got so many awards. The amount of information is amazing! Just listen how the authors describe it:
This award-winning collection consists of innumerable interactive demonstrations, up-to-date and reliable scientific explanations, school projects, illusion artwork, interactive puzzles, 3D graphics, suggested reading lists, bibliographies, perception links, and much more. There is literally hours and hours of fun and cool material here! Most of the effects, demonstrations, and artwork appear here for the first time. We hope that you will agree that this site is what the web was best suited for!
This site works for science projects, scientists, or just the casual surfer. Some of the illusions are really cool and these people are really busy adding content. The only downside of the site is the design; it works fine but they made some mistakes with the HTML because it doesn’t show up correctly on my browser. Thanks to Fuzz 9 for the site tip.
Ask a Windows user if they like Macs, chances are they will say “No way!”; ask a Mac user if they like Windows and you will get the exact same reply. Why are people so narrow minded? It doesn’t make so much sense to be so attached to software. The situation is, essentially, one group is attached to one arrangement of 0s and 1s, the other group is attached to a different, but similar, group of 0s and 1s. Of course there is the third group who is loyal to Linux, but that is a completely different story. How can you be loyal to bits and bytes? Lets take a look at where the rift began.
First, you have to make the distinction between Apple computers and PCs. For our purposes, there will be two groups; Apple computers running Apple Software and PCs running Windows by Microsoft. Microsoft was the first company with a point and click operating system that included windows. Technically they weren’t the first, Xerox had devised an operating system with a mouse about 10 years prior with gasp a mouse. But since Xerox thought their idea would not succeed, they didn’t release their product and Microsoft is generally considered the first, if not the first people to market, a user friendly operating system. So, here is a quickly rising company with a ruthless president to lead it. In this free market economy, there had to be a challenger. Enter Apple computer, for a long time, the computer. Once they got there point and click operating system working, they were in a position to challenge Microsoft and all of the companies committed to using Windows software to run these new “personal computers”.
I believe the rift began to grow as each company fought to gain a user base and released version after version of their software, updating and improving with each new release. It seems that some people just can’t resist a rivalry, so one began between the Mac-Heads and the Windows users. The Internet helped strengthen this rivalry by giving loyal users the opportunity to set up homepages reflecting their strong views about their operating system.
I use a Windows PC. When I have used Macs, I haven’t minded them at all, they just take some getting used to. I think what happens is a person who is used to one operating system is forced to use the other once and a while and finds the features hard to find or hard to understand. So most people immediately deem the operating system a piece of junk and tell everyone they meet how much better and easier to use their operating system is. Perhaps it isn’t that Microsoft is inferior to Apple or Apple to Micrsoft, but the two programs are just different. Nevertheless, opinions are very strong on this topic; I think that the slight desire for a rivalry has been fueled by narrow minded people who don’t wish to adjust to changes. A little rivalry can’t hurt, though, and the only thing it can do is improve the software.
hotbar.com is a great idea. The program on this site puts a “skin” on your browser. “Skins” are pictures that fit onto the window of a program. The navigation bar of your browser has things like “Stop” “Home”, etc. This program will put a skin of your choice behind these buttons and make your browser look pretty! Installation on the site is easy and fast. In addition to this, if you don’t like the program, it can be easily uninstalled using the “Add-Remove Programs” option in the Control Panel in Windows. I tried out the program and the skin browser offered on the site and both worked flawlessly. The program installed online and I was then directed to an area of the site where I could browse the skin’s themselves. The program is very professional and product support on the website is excellent. The skins are cool, too. There are many skins to choose from: everything from nature to sports to user contributions. The user is shown previews of the skins, and you simply click on the skin and it is downloaded and installed to your browser. If you are tired of skins, one click will restore your browser to its original appearance. hotbar.com doesn’t only have the skin option, it installs some useful features right into your browser. These features take up space and I didn’t examine them to see what they did because they were so annoying. Some surfers may find these features conveinent, though, so I would recommend going to the site and finding our for yourself today!
An article in the newspaper gave the address to a nifty site about snow fall around the world. The Discovery Online Extreme Snow Page has tons of information on snow. Find out about the 90 some feet of snow that fell in Washington state in the 1998 to 1999 winter year. This site is chock full of information. It has history about the amount of snow that fell in ancient times, a snow quiz, and also has information about the snowiest place on earth. Go to the site to find out what it is. The Extreme Snow page also has a link to “Earth Alert” where surfers can view tons of weather information from around the globe. In addition to the cool facts, the pictures are awesome, too. The photo gallery contains many interesting snow pictures. This site isn’t just about snow, you can learn about any kind of Extreme Weather from the link off of the Extreme Snow page. Because this site is part of the Discovery Channel’s website, it has a vast amount of references. Overall, I am very impressed with the design, information, and especially the cool little quiz!
The Source for everything related to this book is at theonering.com
While reading in a magazine, I found the URL to this wonderful Lord of the Rings site. The Lord of the Rings is a very famous fantasy trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien. When a recent fantasy book is very well written, it is sometimes compared to the quality of The Lord of the Rings. Usually whenever a website is listed in a printed source, that website is very well done; theonering.com is definitely not the exception to that rule. This site is very professional and well kept up; it almost looks like an official site. There will be a feature film coming out in about a year and a half from now that will cover the whole book; this website already has information about that movie. Insider informaion like where shooting is taking place, who is in what role, what producer is upset, problems the filming crew has been having, even some hints as to the script! New information updates occur anywhere from daily to weekly depending on the amount of news. There are many opinion articles about different parts of the book and there are even sections that cover specifically the dates that certain events in the book occurred. All this is enough to keep ven the most rabid fan busy for hours. For those of us who haven’t read the book, there is art inspired by the book that will give anyone a good idea of some of the secenes. If you are the kind of person who likes to chat about this topic, that option is also available on this website. So, if you are looking for the definitive LOTR source, look no more!
There has been a recent explosion in T.V. game shows
Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, Greed, and 21 are some of the new titles of television game shows. The successful [and fairly original] ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’ started the craze. Everybody is cashing in and most networks have their own give-away-large-amounts-of-money-game shows. Even the cable channel called ‘Old Game Shows’ has seen increased ratings due to the current game show frenzy. The question is will it die down or keep going strong? Right now, the future outlook looks promising for the bigger shows, but I think the smaller imitations will die in about 6 months. However, I have found most of these shows to be fairly interesting and not at all boring. Because of this, many shows could keep going for quite a while if they play their cards right. Just look at Wheel of Fortune; that show has been on for a very long time and shows no signs of slowing down. The same could happen for these game shows. But, I believe they need sponsers. For example, most everything on Wheel of Fortune is a certain brand and the companies give Wheel of Fortune some items to give away in exchange for advertising. On these big money shows, there could be a million dollar prize sponsered by, say, Visa Credit Cards. We will see how it all turns out but I am hoping some of these shows stick around.