Internet Safari

Column for week of March 28, 2004:

Occasionally, I receive e-mails from readers
recommending that I check out a particular Web
site. Clovis resident (and fellow geek) Daren
Estrada, stumbled across an interesting experiment
being conducted by the folks at Google, and – in
Daren’s words it looks like a “cool tool”. Just
jump over to
local.google.com/lochp
and you’ll see, that somehow Google has tapped
into local information for just about everywhere
in the U.S. (including Clovis, believe it or not)
– is there anything that they (the Google geeks)
cannot do? I suggest that you visit the site,
experiment a little bit – and have fun. Pay close
attention to what is going on during your search.
Not only will you be presented with (in most
cases) the local information that you are seeking,
but – will also be presented with related
information. The site/service is no way near
perfect – that’s why it’s called “beta”, purely
experimental. My prediction is though, that the
Google people will eventually get all of the kinks
worked out, the site will become very useful, and
lots of other companies will strive to do exactly
the same thing. Actually, it doesn’t take a rocket
scientist to make a prediction like that – just
looks cool in writing.
“Watch one of nature’s greatest bird migrations
from your desktop.” – that is the claim of
National Geographic Magazine. The magazine
publishers have set-up a “web-cam”, which they’ve
assigned the moniker of “CraneCam”, at Rowe
Sanctuary, on the Platte River – in Nebraska.
Anyone, who logs into the “CraneCam”, between now
and mid-April will be able to watch the migration
of over a half a million Sand Hill cranes. The
cranes, make an annual “pit-stop” at the sanctuary
on their way to their Artic breeding grounds. Just
fly on over to
magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/cranecam/
where you will learn all about the migration, and
that’s for the birds.
Anyone seen the new “Starsky and Hutch” movie yet?
I’ve mentioned it to Ms. Susie Q. a couple of
times, but the look on her face always tells me
“Ok, I’ll go – I’ll let you enjoy your macho-man,
70’s nostalgia movie, but I don’t have to enjoy
it.” – I just hate that look. Anyway, I found a
Web site that provides a lot of details about the
original television show – yes, I was a very big
fan. The site is not considered classy, nor real
professional grade – but, it does have a lot of
good information on it. Just speed on over to
www.pretzelproductions.com/green.html
and - you’ll enjoy the ride.
Speaking of old television shows, I know there are
a lot of “Munsters” fans out there – some of you
are just afraid to come out of the casket – I mean
closet. Well anyway, I found a site that provides
interesting little details about the show and its
stars. Click on over to
www.freehomepages.com/munsters/didyaknow.html
and, you’ll learn valuable information that will
maybe some day win you a lot of money – well, it
could happen.
In past columns I’ve mentioned a few classic
vehicles that I and friends have owned in previous
times. It seems, now that I’ve hit “middle-age”, I
think back on those cars even more. I’m willing to
bet that I’m not the only male around with that
driving dilemma. One place I like to hang out is
www.classiccar.com –
it contains photo galleries, classified ads, chat
rooms, and “swap meet” information; just to name a
few of the great features on the site.
Happy cruising.

Tom DiFrancesca III is a freelance columnist and a
resident of Clovis. He can be reached at www.trackertom.com

Column for week of March 21, 2004:

Now that spring has finally sprung, I reckon’ it’s
about time to start making plans for summer
vacation. Hopefully, your plans for spring break
have already been made – mine, well – I’ll be
gallivanting on over to Gloreitta, for my church’s
annual Men’s Advance. We call it an “advance”,
‘cause real men don’t retreat – get it? This
annual event is really awesome and has grown in
attendance and quality over the past 10 years or
so that I have been going. I was so excited about
going, back in 2000 – I had forgotten that I’d
moved to Florida. Didn’t stop me though, I drove
to Clovis, picked up my father – and we headed on
up to the mountains. It was worth the drive. It’s
not too late to sign up to go to this great
meeting of men from all over New Mexico and Texas,
just hop on over to
www.fcfconline.com
and you can read all about it. Then just give the
church a call and tell them that you want to go.
Maybe I’ll see you there.
Immediately after the advance (in less than 24
hours), I’ll be heading for Austin, and will be
there for a week, at a Geographic Information
Systems conference. That sounds real exciting
doesn’t it? I’ll be mingling with those fella’s
(and gals) that like to wear the pocket protectors
in their shirts, and wear hats that say “I’m a GIS
Geek” on them – as if, nobody would be able to
tell anyway.
Now, I’ll get back to summer vacation planning. I
think a really great site to start off with, is
the one that claims to be the “Online guide to
offbeat tourist attractions”. Just jump over to
www.roadsideamerica.com/
and - you will see that it pretty much lives up to
the claim. Now, I’m not saying that any of these
wacky destinations should be your final
destination for a vacation. But, they might make a
great little pit stop while on the road. Sorta’
break up the monotony of the trip - maybe. Depends
on how many kids you’ve got traveling with you.
Did I ever tell you about the time that I took
Miss Susie Q., and three teenage girls to Florida
in a Bronco II? Guess I better save that one for
some other time; it’s not a very pleasant story.
Speaking of Florida though, did you know that
there was a Burt Reynolds museum? Sure enough,
it’s right outside Jupiter (that’s in Florida
folks). If you will go to
www.burtreynoldsmuseum.org/
you will find a very nicely done Web site. Nice
enough, to convince me to make a stop there on our
next trip to south Florida. I’m anxious to see one
of the original Smokey and the Bandit Trans Ams
from the movies. I used to own one just like it –
I’m sure sorry that I ever sold it.
Speaking of museums, if you are a Jimmy Stewart
fan, there is a museum that pays tribute to that
great actor also. The museum is located in
Pennsylvania, but the Web site is at
www.jimmy.org/
I also just had thought; many of the folks who
live in this area – who might be new, or who might
be in the military; my not know that Buddy Holly’s
grave is located in Lubbock. And. Of course – just
about everyone knows that Billy the Kid’s grave
(disputed though) is located in Fort Sumner.
Day trips, mixing in fresh air, sunshine and a
little history.

Tom DiFrancesca III is a freelance columnist and a
resident of Clovis New Mexico. He can be reached at www.trackertom.com

Column for week of March 14, 2004:

With the surprise popularity of the new movie “The
Passion of the Christ”, which – by the way, has
now earned well over 200 million dollars; there
has been an increase in the interest in Jesus
himself, and in Christianity overall. The Church
of England has even launched a “cyber-church”, now
it is looking for a minister to tend to the flock
of Internet parishioners. You can find out more
about this endeavor by going to
www.i-church.com
The Church of England isn’t the only virtual
church on the World Wide Web though.
Cyber-churches have been popping up all over the
Internet for a couple of years now. Just a quick
search at Google.com, on the term “cyber-church” -
brought up over 5000 references and links.
Microsoft – people are either totally ambivalent
about the company, or they absolutely hate it. I
haven’t been able to find very many folks out
there, who - actually claim to be a big fan of the
company. When most folks hear the name Microsoft,
they immediately think of software. Software as in
operating systems (some which seem to crash a
lot), and, productivity programs – such as the
Office suite. Did you know that Microsoft also
spends a great amount of money and resources on
developing ideas for future products? I’m not
talking about just software either. Pay a visit to
the following Web site:
research.microsoft.com/research/projects/
- you will be amazed at some of the “stuff” that
Microsoft is working on.
I quite often, in this column – recommend to my
readers that they maintain an anti-virus program
on their computer, and – in most cases I recommend
AVG, simply because it’s free. I’ve now found
another free anti-virus program (well, at least it
is free for a year), and it’s called “EZ Armor
Security Suite”. If you are in need of anti-virus
protection and you want to try out something new
and free – just jump over to:
www.my-etrust.com/microsoft/
and give the program a shot. Let me know how it
works out for you.
Speaking of anti-virus software, and of “spyware”
detection software – there is something crucial
that everyone needs to do – but oftentimes
doesn’t. You have to update the program’s data
files frequently. There is no sense in running an
anti-virus scan on your computer, if you haven’t
updated its library of known viruses in a couple
of weeks. The program is almost guaranteed to miss
a newly created virus. The same goes for
“anti-spyware” software.
I’ve mentioned in past columns, about coming
across old friends and ex-shipmates on the
Internet, well – I’ve got another story to tell.
Steve – who was my “bestest” friend all through
high school - in northwest Florida, has lived on
the upper East Coast for about 20 years now. We’ve
had very little contact, that is - until a few
years ago, when out of the blue, I received an
e-mail from him. Now we correspond pretty
frequently. Steve is an engineer for Boeing, he’s
been working on the V-22 Osprey program since its
inception – you can learn more about this radical
aircraft by going to:
pma275.navair.navy.mil/
Steve is the guy who took time away from trick
water-skiing, to teach me how to just get up on my
own two feet in the skis – and to not wipe out. He
was an extra in the movie “Jaws 2”. He even taught
me how to fish for sharks. Steve is the kinda’
friend, who – right after purchasing an awesome
Mustang Mach I automobile, let me drive it – and
then quickly forgave me for almost wrecking it,
the same day he got it. Steve skydives, snorkels,
and scuba-dives, and now – he’s into running 26
mile marathons and preparing for an Iron Man
event.
He’s only a year younger than me for crying out
loud.
Now I’m worried though, he says he may be moving
to Amarillo soon – and is going to initiate a new
fitness program for me.
Good news with a scary twist.

Tom DiFrancesca III is a freelance columnist and a
resident of Clovis, New Mexico. He can be reached at www.trackertom.com

Column for week of March 7, 2004:

I’ll start this column off with yet another virus hoax alert. If you receive an e-mail, supposedly generated by your Internet service provider – and it states something like “Your e-mail account will be disabled because of improper use, in the next three days - if you don’t re-register your account information.” Totally, absolutely, ignore that e-mail – and, whatever you do – do not open the attached file if there is one.
The perpetrators of this hoax are trying to obtain your Internet access information, that way – they can log on with your account, hack into other computers – and, direct the authorities back to you.
Another computer “expert” with way too much time on his/her hands. But, there is a positive side to all of this, it’s a gentle reminder that we should all go review the current e-mail hoax’s floating around on the Web. The best place to go is: www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html
In last week’s column, I mentioned the Mel Gibson’s movie “The Passion of the Christ” – what I didn’t mention was my own wonderment of whether or not the movie would probably make its way onto the Internet, and – if so, how quickly. My sources tell me, that the movie became available for download over peer-to-peer networks the same day the movie was officially released.
The movie is now being downloaded for viewing thousands of times a day. Hollywood would be complaining and causing a major commotion if it were one of their films.
I’m waiting to see what Mel Gibson’s reaction will be. My opinion, for what it’s worth – is, that many a folks who would never ever go to a theater to see a movie about Jesus, or – even rent a DVD, just might be willing to watch it in the privacy of their own homes.
Maybe, the movie will reach far more people than originally counted on. We’ll see how it all comes out in the wash a little later down the road.
I do have some good news to share with you - my faithful readers, some of you – whom, have asked me a number of times “When are you going to write a book?”, well – alas, that time has come.
I’ve had a book manuscript accepted for publication.
The book should be on the shelves of local and national bookstores, and available on the Web at sites like Amazon.com and such. The subject of the book you ask? It’s all about getting maximum use out of Internet Explorer, with a little bit of information on the history of Web browsers and such thrown in.
It’s light reading, not real hard technical terms or anything like that – actually, it’s written pretty much like this column. Just check out my Web site occasionally for publication updates.
I’ll close this column with a little bit of information about passwords. I’ve learned these things over the past few years – and, in fact – need to put them to use myself. First of all, never use a word that is in the dictionary. Sound strange doesn’t it? But, a lot of password cracking software, simply utilizes the dictionary to just keep trying words that may be used as passwords.
The simplest thing to do, is to take a word that you like as a password, and put a couple of numbers in the middle of it. You could go a little further than that, and intentionally misspell a word - and then, stick a number or two in the middle of it.