Internet Safari

Column for week of June 27, 2004:

I travel quite often – have done so for years. In
the past, I would maintain a Web page that would
contain all of my favorite Internet bookmarks, but
alas – I’d forget to keep it updated and then
would find myself on the road, trying to track
down a previously visited, yet unexplored Web
site.
Then, I discovered
www.mybookmarks.com
and - my problem was solved. The service is
absolutely free and very easy to use. Once you’ve
signed up (it’s quick), you can upload your
Internet browser bookmarks. Since I use multiple
computers – I have some bookmarks on some of the
computers, that aren’t on the others and
vice-versa. So, I created separate folders within
my account and then just uploaded the bookmarks
from each computer that I use. Now, every once in
awhile I just upload my bookmarks to keep my
account up-to-date and that just makes life a
little easier and a little simpler.
No more redesigning of Web pages.
If you’ll fire up your Web browser and navigate
over to
a9.com/-/company/whatsCool.jsp
you will discover the 7 reasons that you should be
using the new “A9” search engine. I’ve used it,
I’ve taken it to its digital limits – I’ve been
impressed. Although, I still favor Google – A9 has
its good qualities that make it yet another useful
Internet tool for anyone’s toolbox.
Speaking of new search engines – there is another
one being beta tested right now. Just hop on over
to
www.dispsie.com
and sign-up to be a tester. Who knows, maybe
someday if the search engine begins to outperform
Google, you can start impressing folks by telling
them that you were an original beta tester for the
service.
It could happen.
MozDex is another search engine currently being
tested. According to the Web site, there is no
commercial influence involved in the search
results. You can try out the search engine and
learn more about it by going to
www.mozdex.com/
Now, I have to tell you about one of the funniest
and weirdest Web sites that I have ever been to or
written about. I don’t watch much network
television much, but I guess there is a series of
Burger King commercials that promote something
along the lines of “having chicken your way”.
Well, according to news stories that I found on
the Web, Burger King sponsors the “Subservient
Chicken” Web site. Once the site was designed,
there was no media promotion – only word of mouth.
Well, the site is so strange and whacky, that
within 10 days – over a million people had visited
the Web site. Now, it’s your turn to check the
site out and see what it is all about. Jump over
to
subservientchicken.com/
and you’ll see what I mean.
The Internet continues to make my world smaller
and smaller. It continues to connect me with
people from my past that in any other way, we’d
probably never ever re-connect. Case in point, a
reference librarian in south Alabama is doing
research on the Internet a few days ago – she
comes across a link to my “Internet Safari” Web
site – and discovers that we knew each other in
1978.
Although we never “hung out” much, we did
have mutual friends and she knew my younger
brothers quite well. So, a few days ago – Sheila
Snow-Croft from Tuscaloosa, Alabama dropped me an
e-mail and we’ve caught each other up on over 25
years worth of living – in just a few minutes.
Digital living at the speed of light.

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

Column for week of June 20, 2004:

Let the e-mail service wars begin. That seems to
be the battle cry of late. If you remember, I
wrote about Google’s pending launch of a new
e-mail service, one that would allow for 100
megabytes of free storage space, and how the
service was currently in beta testing. Well, the
folks at Yahoo have jumped into the battle with
both guns blazing and – they’ve beat Google to the
punch. As of the first part of this week, all
basic (free) Yahoo e-mail accounts now allow for
100 megabytes of storage. If you’ve already paid
Yahoo for additional storage space, you’ll find
that you now have 200 megabytes of storage
available to you. Just navigate on over to
www.yahoo.com
for additional information about the changes to
their e-mail account offerings.
I wonder what company will jump into the fray
next? I love these kinds of battles, the consumer
almost always benefits from this kind of
competition.
As more and more folks migrate to broadband
Internet access, the demand for high quality
content increases. The latest trend is to be able
to legally download and watch full-length movies.
A new partnership has been formed between Real
Networks Inc. and Starz Encore Group LLC. For a
monthly fee of $12.95, subscribers can download
and watch an unlimited number of movies. According
to the Washington Post, the inventory of movies is
constantly growing so there should be no fear of
running out of features to watch. You can check
out this newest service by going to
www.starz.com -
you just may find yourself visiting the local
video store a whole lot less.
The Texas Department of Transportation is doing
something remarkable, they are about to initiate a
project that will provide free wireless Internet
access to all 84 rest areas in the state, and to
all 12 travel information centers. All a weary
traveler will need, to check their e-mail and to
surf the Web – will be a laptop computer with a
wireless adaptor either built-in or installed. The
department is even considering the installation of
kiosks that would provide access to the Internet –
probably maintained by a private vendor, and a
usage fee would be involved. Maybe, just maybe –
the State of New Mexico would consider providing
wireless Internet at its facilities sometime in
the future.
I had an opportunity to speak to the members of a
wonderful organization this past week. Altrusa
International is a volunteer service organization.
Its members are business professionals who work
together to improve their community. I was asked
to speak about the Internet and about my
forthcoming book. Miss Susie Q. and I were fed a
nice meal and got to visit with a whole lot of
very nice people. The local chapter of Altrusa has
a Web page, just hop on over to
www.3lefties.com/altrusa/ -
there you will find more information about the
organization and you can even view the meeting
schedule. If you’d like to learn even more about
Altrusa International, you can visit the main Web
site at
www.altrusa.com/ -
you just might find yourself getting involved with
this great bunch of folks.

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

Column for week of June 13, 2004:

The news coverage of President Ronald Reagan’s
death has been extensive and in depth. My first
thought was that an Internet Safari column
dedicated to the man would be overkill.
Then, I had a second thought.
Although the newspapers, television networks, and
radio stations have carried thousands of stories
this past week; I’ll bet very few have actually
mentioned information about the “Gipper” – that’s
available on the Internet. And, since that is what
this column is all about (the Internet that is) –
then by golly, I’ll just write about him anyway.
No matter the party affiliation, no matter the
belief system – just about everyone can find
something really good that came from the legacy of
Ronald Reagan. He truly believed in his fellow
man, he truly believed in divine guidance, he
truly meant to help the downtrodden.
If you visit Google, you will find almost a
million and half references to Ronald Wilson
Reagan – that is a lot of information. If you
make your first Internet stop at the virtual
Whitehouse, you can read Reagan’s biography – just
jump over to
www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/
and click on his picture, which is posted along
with all of the other past presidents – and our
current one.
The Ronald W. Reagan Presidential Library and
Museum Web site can be found at
www.reaganlibrary.net/ -
the site is quite extensive and could possibly
hold your attention for a couple of hours.
If you’d be interested in reading some of the
speeches that the President gave during his time
in public office, visit
www.reagan.utexas.edu/resource.htm
And you’ll have complete access to them.
Currently, the Time Magazine Web site at
www.time.com
is providing a virtual ton of information about
the President, his wife Nancy, and his legacy. If,
by the time you reach the site – the information
on the homepage has changed, just look for the
“Time 100” link at the top of the page. Reagan is
listed within the category of the top 100 most
influential people in the world.
Should that come to a surprise to anyone?
If you visit the Internet Movie Database at
www.imdb.com
And then type in “Ronald Reagan”, you will quickly
learn that the man appeared in almost 60 films.
Interested in reading a good book about the 40th
President? Just jump over to
www.amazon.com
and you’ll have access to hundreds of them.
President Reagan was very well known for his sense
of humor and his quick wit. In fact, on the day
that he was shot in 1981, he told his wife Nancy
“Honey, I forgot to duck”. If you would like to
read some of his more famous quotes, just navigate
over to
www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Ronald_Reagan/
and you’ll be well entertained.
Lastly, this column would not be complete if I did
not mention a Web site affiliated with Alzheimer’s
disease. Check out the Alzheimer’s Association
site at
www.alz.org/Because of Alzheimer’s disease, President Ronald
Reagan spent the last 10 years of his life having
his brain slowly deteriorate. The man, who was so
well spoken – become so silent. The mind that
worked so quickly and efficiently became painfully
still. That generous, outgoing, dedicated human
being – became a mere empty shell.
Not a very graceful exit for someone who
contributed so much to his country - and to the
world.

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

Column for June 6, 2004:

I’ve written about using an Internet based movie
rental service in the past. In fact, I’ve written
about two specific services: Wal-Mart and Netflix.
Netflix was my top choice hands down, that is
until a few months ago. Maybe the company has too
many subscribers to keep up with now, or – maybe
it doesn’t have enough movies in stock; or – maybe
it just doesn’t have enough employees. No matter,
the service began to show signs of deficiency in
two ways: delivery delays and missing returns.
There was a time, when we’d receive a requested
movie within a few days – that began to change to
at least a week, and then slowed down to about 10
days. Then the missing returns also began to start
happening. After viewing, I’d pop a movie back
into its pre-paid mailer and put it into the mail.
Two weeks later, the movie would still be listed
as unreturned on the Netflix Web site. This
happened way too many times. I’d have to fill out
an online form to let the Netflix minions know
that I had in fact, already returned a movie
reported as missing.
Finally, I decided to cancel my account with
Netflix. I waited until I’d mailed the last of the
movies back, emptied my request list, and then
filled out the online cancellation form. Wouldn’t
you know it – out of those three movies mailed
back (at the very same time), one didn’t make it?
Would you believe a month after I cancelled my
account that I found a charge for $21 on my debit
card account?
I was hot.
I got even hotter when I found out that there is
absolutely no telephone listing for Netflix
customer service on the Netflix Web site. I spent
a good 20 minutes scouring that site, but alas –
Netfilx did not want me to personally speak to any
of its employees. So, I did what any normal
Internet geek would do – I visited the Google
search engine Web site. After arriving at
www.google.com
I typed “netflix+telephone” into the search box
(minus the quotation marks though). What I got
back very quickly was a Web page dedicated to
providing the Netflix customer service telephone
number. It appears that the creator of that Web
page had gone through the same “stuff” that I, and
thousands of others had. You can visit the page
at
www.texturedigital.com/netflix.html
and there you will learn all kinds of interesting
things about Netflix.
By the way, just in case you don’t really want to
visit that Web site, but you still want the
telephone number, it is 1-888-638-3549.
Bottom line, I waited on hold for almost 20
minutes, but – I did succeed in having the charge
dropped from my bank account (so, they said at the
time).
Miss Susie Q. and I have decided that making a
quick run to the video store once in awhile -
isn’t all that bad of a thing.
Since I’m writing about things that make me hot in
this column; lets talk about gasoline prices. I
don’t think I had ever paid over 25 bucks to fill
a gas tank in my life – so, I was in sticker shock
the other day when the total was around $35.
Compared to folks who live in California (or
Europe) we’ve still got it made in the shade –
yet, I’m still hot. If you are like my wife and my
father, and you monitor the raising and falling of
gasoline prices like others do the stock market –
you might check out
www.newmexicogasprices.com/
and that should help feed your habit. The Web site
is very participatory – that is, the available
data is dependent upon folks like you and me to
keep it updated.

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