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Site Seeing

By JULES ALLEN
© St. Petersburg Times
published July 8, 2002


Feel free to browse

Surrounded by lunatics

www.BusinessPlanArchive.org/

Apparently, "1996 to 2002 was the most important business phenomenon of the past several decades." Yes, it was. We were surrounded by unhinged morons who were funded by venture capitalists greedy enough to make Gordon Gecko blush. This lying and greed ruined the lives of many decent folks who worked for Enron and crippled the careers of equally decent and undeserving souls at Andersen, a company I used to work for. And this site wants to profit from preserving the business plans of the era? Pretty cheeky, don't you think?

A wireless map

www.WiFinder.com/

I dislike the acronym WiFi, which stands for Wireless Fidelity. What the heck does that mean? Hi-fi I get; WiFi is silly. So, it's a dumb name, but a highly addictive technology that will allow you to dispense with Ethernet cables and move your laptop hither and yon, yet stay connected to the Net. If you have one of these wireless-enabled laptops, getting connectivity when out of town can be problematic and maybe illegal in some cases. If you see a wireless access point in your AirPort menu, don't just click on it to see if you can get in (hint: That's probably illegal). So cruise this site before you travel. If you're heading for somewhere civilized, there's a good chance you'll find an access point in this database. St. Petersburg, it seems, is not civilized, because there are no access points to be found.

Cartoon with character

www.CatAndGirl.com/

Imagine a giant, mutant cat and a sardonic, cute-as-a-button girl sprinkling everyday situations with wry social commentary and you've got what Calvin and Hobbes could have been. Bill Waters, Calvin's creator, is a comic genius, but surely he was hamstrung by an easily alienated audience and maybe a fat mortgage. Web-based cartoons don't have those limitations for all the obvious reasons. It's been a while since a cartoon strip has made me bookmark it, but this one's moved to the top of the pile. It's chock full of reasons to come back time after time, unlike a lot of other strips out there. Brilliant.

Game freebies

Fools-Errand.com/06-downloads/index.htm

Off to the closet with you and don't come back until you're wearing your parachute pants and Wayfarer knock-off shades, and you've rolled the sleeves of your jacket up to your elbows. And while you're in there, see if you can find a 1987 vintage Mac or PC to fully experience the monochrome goodness of these games from the late '80s. Fool's Errand was hugely popular in my circle of friends, but we also didn't get out much, so your enjoyment may vary. Ah, sweet nostalgia.

Mac OS X aid

www.Pollet.net/GLterm/

Mac OS X appeals to my nerdy nature. It appeases my inner geek by giving me access to a Unix-like operating system while presenting a business-like facade by letting me run Microsoft Word. Except the way to get at the Unix-like bits, the terminal program, isn't very good. Thankfully Michel Pollet has put together a $10 shareware, try-before-you-buy program to save you from insanity. It's worth every dime.

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