Site Seeing
Feel free to browse
By JULES ALLEN
Published May 30, 2005
Just your type?
Perhaps you too spend umpteen hours per week in front of a computer and share my almost perverse delight in trying out new keyboards. If that's the case, your digits might be dazzled by Das Keyboard, an input device devoid of markings on the keys. The theory is that the less you look at the keyboard, the more efficient you'll become. Maybe. It also has different pressure weights for keys to match up with the strength of the finger that will hit it. There's almost certainly a learning curve ahead for nontouch typists. It's yours for a hair under $80.
A how-to for kidsKids almost always love cartoons. If you can mix in some education with this visual entertainment, surely you're on to a winner. This site previews what it calls How Toons, a visual learning guide to subjects such as counting in binary, building a soda rocket and how to make ice cream. The graphics are highly professional and the material available for download in the PDF format.
For art's sakeCould you be a road warrior and spend an inordinate amount of time in business hotels? There's only so much TV you can take in a week and you have to do something to relieve the monotony of boring bars. Why not start peeking behind pictures, beds, iron hangers and so forth to see if hidden art lurks below? This site is a compendium of such delicious images.
Mapping gas pricesI recently mentioned the programatic marriage of the Craig's List's Real Estate section and Google maps. Here's a similar bonding of Google maps and Gas Buddy, a site devoted to finding the best gas prices in your area. A recent check of the Tampa Bay area ranged from $1.98 in Zephyrhills to $2.06 in New Port Richey for a gallon of regular unleaded. Just be thankful you don't live in California (for all kinds of reasons including expensive gas).
Special deliveryIf you're not familiar with Flickr, you're missing out on a lot. The genius behind the site isn't just in the images it hosts. It's that it freely opens its content up to programmers. From that generosity springs forth services such as this one. At first blush it's a free card mailing service. But the groovy bit is that you've got a choice of more than 600,000 images to grace your message.